Online video game addiction in children. Social Sciences essay

Engl 378 / MTHEL 300 Assignment 3: “Semi-Specialist” Writing (10%, 500-750 words)
Draft 1 (hard copy) is due in class Oct. 24 for peer editing
Draft 2 (drop box submission) is due Oct. 29 
Here is a brief recap of the three types of audience I have been discussing:
Specialist audiences tend to value knowledge for its own sake or to advance their own research. They are used to a certain conventional structure in research papers and will understand all technical terminology (jargon), formulae, methods, and representations of data and statistics. They expect a high degree of accuracy and ethical practice (such as full disclosure of sources of data). The writing style they are used to is formal, objective, neutral, and precise.
Semi-specialist audiences—decision makers, policy makers, and implementers—tend to value knowledge to the extent that it is practical – that it can help them to make decisions. They may know some of the language associated with the specialization, but they will not understand many of the technical terms, analytical techniques, formulae, and presentations of raw data. They will appreciate statistics explained in terms of their implications and potential practical applications. Semi-specialist readers value expediency, clarity and directness, and look to put their trust in your summaries and recommendations. They expect that you will uphold the same professional standards of practice (ethical and legal) that they do. Your job is to help them to do their job, by providing them with honest documents that are formal, persuasive (supporting practical recommendations) and, above all, usable and brief. Sources of information must be cited and documented.
Non-specialist audiences tend to know very little (or nothing) about specialist fields, but they may be motivated to understand out of interest or because they sense that work done in these fields affects their lives; they may want to know how money is being spent and how work done in specialist fields will impact the future. This audience will have little or no familiarity with technical terms, formulae, presentations of data, and even presentations of statistics; many will find these things to be intimidating, tedious, or impossible to understand, so it will be necessary to use more “common” language, including figurative language, to employ a lighter tone, and to use more rhetorical strategies including narrative, analogy, practical examples, humour, and easy-to-understand visualizations (we will discuss these strategies in a future lecture). What non-specialist readers expect is variable: you can motivate them with blogs, videos, popular science writing, news articles, and many other forms to entice them and to help them to understand.
For this assignment (and the next), you are asked to consider only the needs of the semi-specialist audience. Suggested topics are found on the next page. The document you compose will be concise and practical, and it will involve summarizing information for your reader and making some kind of recommendation based on your findings. You have the choice of writing one of the following types of documents:
a short report
a memo (the Society of Actuaries’ definition of “memo” is similar to that of a short report)
a briefing note – you may use the template found here: http://www(dot)writingforresults(dot)net/classic.pdf
a short white paper
For whatever document you choose to write, you should find at least three legitimate sources of information (using Google Scholar or our Library’s Research guides). Summarize the sources, critique them, compare them, and/or synthesize them in order to come up with a practical recommendation for your target semi-specialist audience.
Here are some suggested topics:
Self-driving cars will very likely soon be a part of our lives (Elon Musk is very optimistic). The prospect of such a radically new technology taking away or reducing human control in operating motor vehicles has people speculating and concerned. Insurance companies are concerned about what the future of driver’s insurance will look like: how do you set premiums for owners of self-driving cars? What will happen to profits? City planners, mayors, police chiefs and lawyers are wondering about what will need to change in infrastructure, the legal system, and enforcement. And what if people start to feel that there is no need to own their own cars anymore? What will that mean for manufacturing, new car sales and used car sales? What will it mean for the service industry? There are executives, politicians, salespeople and other folks in decision-making positions who would like to know at least the short-term ramifications of this new technology. Possible target readers might include an insurance executive, the Manager of Policy and Planning at the Ministry of Transportation, a municipal official, automotive executives (in any area of specialization), or anyone you can think of who will be affected by changes and who fits the description of a semi-specialist.
Breakthroughs in quantum computing will have major ramifications in terms of applications of powerful computer processing of big data, as well as new problems surrounding data and information security. Again, you might think in terms of implications for insurance, but I am sure you can think of other areas that will be effected.
The World Health Organization has classified excessive playing of video games, including online video games, as a disorder – video game addiction or Internet gaming disorder. There are lots of possibilities here for research with the aim of making recommendations to educators, parent groups, and government health and counselling organizations, perhaps regarding regulations or ways of dealing with the problems that arise.
You are welcome to think of other subjects, preferably recent policies and changes that will have long-reaching impacts, such as the decision to allow alcohol sales in stores, the legalization of cannabis, various proposals for reducing carbon emissions, the promotion of alternatives to smoking that may have unforeseen consequences, and so on. If you have an idea but are not sure about its suitability for the assignment, let me know and I can either approve it or suggest something similar.
Make sure that your document is well organized according to conventional structures (not, in this case, PPDAC or IMRaD, but the structure of a report, memo, briefing note, etc.). Also,
organize your information under headings
provide a works cited
always keep the needs of the semi-specialist reader in mind