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NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
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This course focuses on business writing, a specific kind of writing with distinct departures from APA document formatting. Assignments in this course are designed to resemble the writing students complete in the workplace – letters, reports, memos, emails. Often students will be required to conduct research to support their business documents in which case APA will be used to cite those sources both in-text and on the references page. With the exception of the course researched proposal report, no assignments require a cover page or page numbers. ALL documents submitted in this course will follow business writing expectations – single space, double space between paragraphs, do not indent paragraphs, keep paragraphs short and focused.
Letter to Editor
Matthew Bevilacqua
Prepare documents Class
Provide all four email/memo fields – to, from, date, subject
Subject: Mandatory Mask Wearing
Dear Mr. Dean Baquet, New York Times Editor, your assignment is to write to the author, not to the editor
I am writing to support an opinion relayed in a recently published article in the New York Times. The article dated 4th April 2022 by Jill Cowan highlights a recent decision by the Los Angeles Unified School District to lift the mandatory mask-wearing by students. The school district’s administrators and staff agreed to lift the ban, which would allow the students to attend school without masks (Cowan, 2022). However, the article highlights that masks continue to be strongly encouraged as they help alleviate the incidence of this illness. I agree with you that lifting the ban is a strategic step toward normalcy following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Your article effectively highlights how education has been affected, considering that students have been subjected to changes that have redefined schools and learning settings. Learning has been disrupted since the outbreak of the pandemic. Although the integration of the mandatory mask-wearing helped combat the spread of this illness, it is difficult to overlook the fact that learning was interrupted completely. Students have been subjected to many changes, and adapting to them has affected their learning outcomes and processes. Returning to normalcy would help ensure that the learning process is aligned to the well-being of students and prompts positive learning outcomes. Normalcy also entails giving students the freedom to interact within settings that do not dictate the dynamism and mannerism of their well-being (Cowan, 2022).
My position is supported by secondary research, which justifies the need for leaders and other stakeholders to undertake measures to ensure that normalcy is pursued. Keisari et al. (2022) present the notion that the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in enacting restrictions meant to limit the spread of this illness. While these restrictions have proven helpful, they have disrupted normal life. For instance, Keisari et al. (2022) note that economic depression and stress are possible as individuals re-adjust to everyday life. They also note that anxiety is possible as individuals seek to adjust to normal life. The outlook that they present could apply to students. Children have had to learn remotely from home using digital platforms and virtual connections. Also, it has become mandatory that the learning process should be characterized by wearing masks and observing social distance. Thus, adjusting back to normalcy could predispose students to issues such as anxiety. Therefore, I welcome the decision by the Los Angeles Unified School District to lift the mandatory wearing of masks. It is a move that would make it easier for students to retain normalcy. As a result, potential issues such as anxiety and depression that could arise with prolonged disruption of school programs and activities are curtailed. Most importantly, the learning setting is re-designed to embrace aspects of learning and reading that initially defined the education system. Paragraph would benefit from editing to reduce redundancies and focus points.
In addition to the above, the Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the largest school districts in the United States. Other school districts could adopt the move to lift mandatory mask-wearing. Dorsch et al. (2021) highlight that the outbreak of Covid-19 undermined school sporting activities. Youth sports were significantly interrupted and both parents and students failed to engage in play activities. Dorsch et al. (2021) assert that sports are important for students and parents. These parties are engaged in sporting activities that offer them the platform for a joint venture in undertakings that benefit learners. Based on this position, I support and complement the Los Angeles Unified School District for lifting the mandatory wearing of masks. It is a huge step towards returning to normalcy as it encourages learners and the learning process to adhere to the needs of students and even allow sporting activities. Sports have always remained an integral part of the school curriculum. Normalcy would see these sporting activities re-enacted in schools, which would benefit students and parents. Therefore, the Los Angeles Unified School District sets an example for other school districts to follow as the entire nation strives toward returning to normalcy. Although understandably, the enacted restrictions were designed to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is worth noting that the restrictions largely undermine the normal learning process. I welcome and support Cowan’s views on the need for normalcy. Again, work through your document to reduce wordiness. Passages are repetitive
Yours Sincerely,
Matthew Bevilacqua
References bold face
Cowan, Jill. (2022, April 4). Los Angeles students were allowed to attend school without masks. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/23/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine#los-angeles-students-were-allowed-to-attend-school-without-masks
Dorsch, T. E., Blazo, J. A., Arthur-Banning, S. G., Anderson-Butcher, D., Jayanthi, N., Hardiman, A., … & Lerner, J. B. APA calls for listing all 9 of the authors (2021). National Trends in Youth Sports during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding American Parents’ Perceptions and Perspectives. APA presents article titles on the reference page in sentence format with first word capitalized and remaining words in lower case unless the title includes a proper noun or has a colon. If there is a colon, capitalize the first word following the colon. Here is an excellent guide to APA from Purdue’s OWL – APA Reference Journal of Sport Behavior, 44(3), 303-320. https://www.proquest.com/openview/c0f977fd8c9d82b4660a71475c80c52f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=30153
Keisari, S., Palgi, Y., Ring, L., Folkman, A., & Ben-David, B. M. (2022). “Post-lockdown Depression”: Adaptation Difficulties, Depressive Symptoms, and the Role of Positive Solitude When Returning to Routine After the Lifting of Nation-Wide COVID-19 Social Restrictions. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8963186/
Matthew, yu have a good working draft. As you revise, strive for clarity and conciseness. “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”
William Zinsser, On Writing Well
Please let me know if you have any questions about the comments or suggestions I have made in your paper.
Once you have revised your submission, please save it as a clean document with comments, corrections, and inserts removed. It is easier to evaluate the submission without all the documentation in place. If I need to review your previous submission, I can refer to my saved documents. Thanks!
As you work on your revision, remember not all areas needing editing and correction have been marked. I provide feedback on patterns of errors and students are then responsible for locating all occurrences of those errors. If you have misplaced punctuation or wrong in-text citations, only one or two occurrences are highlighted with the task of finding and correcting remaining errors being up to the student.