Argumentative Research EssayAssignment Description In upper level courses, you will often be asked to demonstrate your ability to converse with other scholars in your field. Your job is to make a claim about a debatable topic and to persuade the reader to accept your claim. Your paper must be written so that it is convincing even for a skeptical audience. In other words, be fair and unbiased when acknowledging what others say about your topic, but then prove why they are wrong using logical reasons and credible evidence. In this essay, you must synthesize various sources while persuading the reader to accept your viewpoint. You do not want to simply report what others are saying, but engage in a dialogue with them. Your research paper MUST include the following: · A clearly stated thesis in the introduction that articulates your position and what you want to argue in your paper · Clear reasons with supporting evidence · A synthesis of sources; do not simply summarize your source material, but show how they are connected and respond to them · A fully-developed counterargument / opposing viewpoint with a fully-developed refutation. A fully-developed counterargument requires more than one sentence. · A minimum of three credible and relevant sources · A minimum of three pages in MLA format, not including the MLA Works Cited · A Works Cited page in MLA format with corresponding in-text citations Purpose and Learning Objectives The purpose of this assignment is to practice persuasive writing and synthesis of sources. You will increase your critical thinking skills by analyzing yours and others’ assumptions, evaluating multiple perspectives, and developing a clear position. Writing, research, and eloquent written expression are vital for a successful future. You will express all of these skills in this assignment. This essay will be used as the English department assessment for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s mandated core curriculum assessment of Student Learning Outcomes (SLO). This essay will address the SLO objectives of critical thinking and written communication. Your research paper should demonstrate the following learning objectives: · Awareness of the audience to whom you are speaking · Awareness of the purpose of your argument · Ability to enter into a scholarly conversation · Ability to write a qualified and narrow argumentative thesis statement · Ability to synthesize information from various sources · Ability to craft an argument with different types of relevant, credible, and detailed support · Ability to research and identify academic sources · Ability to summarize, paraphrase, and quote while citing correctly in MLA to avoid plagiarism · Ability to converse in standard, academic English Minimum Requirements Length: Minimum three (3) pages not including the Works Cited page. Style: Essay needs to conform to MLA standards, including double spacing in Times New Roman font, and must include a Works Cited page .

1. Argumentative Research EssayAssignment Description
In upper level courses, you will often be asked to demonstrate
your ability to converse with other scholars in your field. Your
job is to make a claim about a debatable topic and to persuade
the reader to accept your claim. Your paper must be written so
that it is convincing even for a skeptical audience. In other
words, be fair and unbiased when acknowledging what others
say about your topic, but then prove why they are wrong using
logical reasons and credible evidence. In this essay, you must
synthesize various sources while persuading the reader to accept
your viewpoint. You do not want to simply report what others
are saying, but engage in a dialogue with them.
Your research paper MUST include the following:
· A clearly stated thesis in the introduction that articulates your
position and what you want to argue in your paper
· Clear reasons with supporting evidence
· A synthesis of sources; do not simply summarize your source
material, but show how they are connected and respond to them
· A fully-developed counterargument / opposing viewpoint with
a fully-developed refutation. A fully-developed
counterargument requires more than one sentence.
· A minimum of three credible and relevant sources
· A minimum of three pages in MLA format, not including the
MLA Works Cited
· A Works Cited page in MLA format with corresponding in-
text citations
Purpose and Learning Objectives
The purpose of this assignment is to practice persuasive writing
and synthesis of sources. You will increase your critical
thinking skills by analyzing yours and others’ assumptions,
evaluating multiple perspectives, and developing a clear
position. Writing, research, and eloquent written expression are

2. vital for a successful future. You will express all of these skills
in this assignment. This essay will be used as the English
department assessment for the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board’s mandated core curriculum assessment of
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO). This essay will address the
SLO objectives of critical thinking and written communication.
Your research paper should demonstrate the following learning
objectives:
· Awareness of the audience to whom you are speaking
· Awareness of the purpose of your argument
· Ability to enter into a scholarly conversation
· Ability to write a qualified and narrow argumentative thesis
statement
· Ability to synthesize information from various sources
· Ability to craft an argument with different types of relevant,
credible, and detailed support
· Ability to research and identify academic sources
· Ability to summarize, paraphrase, and quote while citing
correctly in MLA to avoid plagiarism
· Ability to converse in standard, academic English
Minimum Requirements
Length: Minimum three (3) pages not including the Works Cited
page. Style: Essay needs to conform to MLA standards,
including double spacing in Times New Roman font, and must
include a Works Cited page with correct in-text (parenthetical)
citations for all quotes, paraphrases, and/or summaries. Sources:
Three (3) sources minimum. One of your sources must be a
counterargument that you will refute.
Process of Completion
1. Choose a topic (or a specific essay depending on your
instructor’s requirements). Get it approved by your instructor.
2. Write down everything that you know about your topic in
your notebook. What can you verify? What is common

3. knowledge and what needs a source to prove that it is true? Find
credible sources to prove anything that is not common
knowledge.
3. Begin preliminary research to discover more about your
topic. Do a basic Google search and read popular sources to
broaden your knowledge. Remember that dot-com and
Wikipedia are tertiary sources and not credible for citing in an
academic essay. You are just gaining more knowledge right
now.
4. Narrow your topic and formulate a working thesis. Then
come up with research questions to guide your research.
Remember that good research begins with questions, not beliefs.
5. Begin research using the Richland library databases
http://www.richlandcollege.edu/library/. Academic Search
Complete is the best database to begin your research. Do a web
search for credible sources to include in your essay. Use
newspapers, organizations, or government websites. Find a
minimum of three credible sources to use in your essay.
6. Be sure you have at least ONE source that you disagree with
in order to include a counterargument in your essay.
7. In your notebook, annotate the three sources you want to use
in your essay. Take careful notes over the author’s claim and
purpose. Respond in your notebook. Do you agree, disagree, or
have mixed feelings about the ideas in these sources?
8. Put together an outline to help organize your ideas.
9. Choose the sections of your sources that you want to include
in your essay. Be sure to include a variety of paraphrases,
quotes, and summaries.
10. Write your rough draft. Don’t worry about grammar now;
just put your thoughts down on paper.
11. Put your essay away for twenty-four hours before revising it
for grammar and punctuation mistakes. Visit the English Corner
for more help with revision or expanding your ideas.
12. Come to all peer reviews and turn in all drafts. Review
carefully your peers’ comments before submitting the final
essay to me.

4. 13. Review your Safe Assign report for plagiarism BEFORE
turning in your final draft!
14. Reread your essay one last time and make any final edits or
changes before turning in your final!
Helpful Resources
The English Corner has several handouts that can help you draft
your essay. Please see the English Corner website:
http://richlandcollege.edu/worldlanguages/english-
department/english-corner/handouts/
Plagiarism
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism includes failing to
cite a direct quote with quotation marks and an in-text citation,
borrowing someone else's work without a correct citation, bad
paraphrasing (Safe Assign will not identify a good or fair
paraphrase), purchasing a paper, having someone else write
your essay, or turning in the same paper to two different
classes. Any paper with plagiarism, even accidental (I forgot to
cite that!), will receive a zero as a final grade. The best way to
avoid plagiarism is to cite correctly. See both MLA citation
PPTs on eCampus or visit Purdue OWL for more help
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Comcast Business Strategy
Hinges on DevOps
Table of Contents
4 Comcast’s Decision to Embrace DevOps
5 DevOps at Comcast – The Details
7 The Overall Benefits of DevOps at Comcast

5. 8 Conclusion
2
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
They say enterprise IT organizations can’t
be as agile as web startups.
All the legacy applications and systems in place create too
much organizational resistance to change. As one of
the largest providers of media and internet services with a
history going back to 1963, Comcast would beg to
differ.
Comcast has aggressively embraced advanced DevOps processes
to not only dramatically speed the rate new
code is deployed in production environments, but also to
improve how application development and deploy-
ment is managed. There’s no Comcast requirement for shipping
a certain amount of code in a specific amount of
time. On average, Comcast puts new code into its production
environment twice a week, says Sharmila Ravi, vice
president of product development for xFi, CVR and Automation
at Comcast Cable. Developers working within a
line of business (LOB) unit at Comcast ultimately decide when
to add a capability or deploy a new application.
“Releases are not set in stone,” says Ravi.
Development teams also can pick their own tools, as long as
they are able to be productive. At the core of the Comcast
DevOps strategy is a commitment to scripting—everything
within the Comcast IT environment is scripted. There’s no op-
portunity to manually make changes, which too often leads

6. to mistakes caused by something as simple as a typo. When
something does break, Ravi says, the metric is not whether
something didn’t work but rather how quickly the DevOps
team was able to recover. In fact, pushing that responsibility
for attaining specific metrics to individual engineering teams
is one of Comcast’s key differentiators, she notes.
3
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
Comcast’s Decision to Embrace DevOps
DevOps at Comcast is a top-down initiative, starting with a
tenor fomented by the company’s most senior IT exec-
utive leadership including Tony Werner, president of
technology and product for Comcast Cable.
In fact, Ravi notes, the DevOps success Comcast has enjoyed is
directly attributable to culture change within the IT
organization led by the IT management team, not any specific
process implemented or tool adopted.
Comcast’s decision to aggressively embrace DevOps was driven
by the recognition that, as a provider of internet
and media services, the conglomerate now competes with almost
every other technology company in business.
“DevOps is borne out of a need,”
says Ravi. “You tailor it to your needs.”
Comcast’s need was driven in part by its transition to internet
services at a time when traditional broadcast reve-
nue growth was on the decline. In its first quarter of 2018,
Comcast added 379,000 high-speed internet subscrib-
ers, yet lost 96,000 video customers. Comcast’s high-speed

7. internet revenue hit a high of $4.2 billion Q1 2018,
compared to $5.7 billion attributed to video revenue.
In addition to providing internet services in 40 states and the
District of Columbia, Comcast owns television net-
works NBC Universal and Telemundo as well as several theme
parks. Comcast is also bidding against 21st Century
Fox and Disney to acquire UK-based broadcaster Sky for $31
billion.
Overall, Comcast revenues in Q1 2018 reached $22.8 billion, a
10 percent increase driven mainly by the 2018 Win-
ter Olympics and the Super Bowl. Net income was $3.1 billion,
a 21 percent increase.
To help foster innovation, Comcast gives developers three
weeks a year during regular working hours to work on
their own projects, which are then presented to line-of-business
managers at a science fair of sorts. Ravi notes that
not every developer Comcast brings on is schooled in DevOps,
so the company is willing to invest in developer
training as long there is a willingness to learn.
4
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
DevOps at Comcast – The Details
John McCann, vice president of software development and
engineering for Comcast Cable, says one of the most
important things any organization should do in the digital age is
define and optimize an IT architecture that en-
sures high levels of availability for microservices. Once that’s
achieved, it becomes much easier to group microser-

8. vices around specific lines of business.
Most of the code Comcast deploys runs on either a private or
public cloud service provided by Amazon Web Ser-
vices (AWS). But there are instances when code is deployed in
an on-premises environment. And for all that has
been achieved using microservices, there are times when it still
makes sense for Comcast to continue to rely on
monolithic applications.
McCann notes that tools such as Ansible and HashiCorp have
improved substantially over the years, so the amount
of time required to train developers on how to programmatically
manage IT infrastructure has been reduced dra-
matically.
Comcast has aggressively embraced
microservices, most of which are
based on containers running on
everything from virtual machines
to an instance of the open source
Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-
service (PaaS) environment.
Comcast’s best-known instantiation of a microservice is its
addition of voice support to Xfinity Home and the
Xfinity X1 cloud-based entertainment platform, which was
developed with a traditional graphical user interface to
enable customers to navigate programming. By employing a
microservice, Comcast developers were able to add
support for bilingual voice-based search capabilities to more
than 18 million customers. The service has processed
more than 1 billion voice commands per quarter, ranging from
general searches for programs on a specific topic
to searches for all viewing options for a particular program,
including on-demand and DVR.

9. Xfinity X1 also features integrations with Netflix, YouTube,
Pandora and iHeartRadio applications, as well as on-
screen, sports companion application that keeps track of scores,
stats and fantasy leagues. Streaming web video
is also provided via services including Buzzfeed, GoPro,
Machinima and Vox.
5
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
The service last year won an Emmy Award for Technology and
Engineering from The National Academy of Tele-
vision Arts & Sciences. But it wasn’t the first Emmy the Xfinity
team has garnered: In 2014, the X1 team won the
award for “Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Media
Program: User Experience and Visual Design,” and an
award for “Personalized Recommendation Engines for Video
Discovery for MVPDs.” And, in 2016, Werner won a
lifetime achievement Emmy for his distinguished career as a
technologist, innovator and leader. These accolades
have enabled Comcast to improve its overall Net Promoter
scores among end customers by a double-digit per-
centage over the last three years—albeit from an initial low
score, typical of most cable service providers.
Adoption of the X1 Voice Remote is
widespread. Today, there are more
than 20 million of the devices in
customers’ homes.
Comcast’s goal is to turn Xfinity Home, the company’s home
security offering, into a centrally managed internet of
things (IoT) hub for the home using the company’s xFi high-
speed WiFi network as a hub. xFi can be controlled via

10. a mobile app for iOS and Android, website or television
connected to the X1 Voice Remote. As part of that vision,
Comcast recently aligned with Tile, creator of a location dongle
to help users quickly find, for example, their keys,
to integrate Tiles with the X1 Voice Remote. In addition,
Comcast’s machineQ business unit has launched an IoT
service based on LoRaWAN (long-range wide area network) for
enterprise companies in 15 markets including Chi-
cago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. In addition, Comcast’s
machineQ business unit has launched an IoT service
based on LoRaWAN (long-range wide area network) for
enterprise companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The natural language query capability built into X1 Voice
Remote is also being used to provide access to a new
generation of customer service applications, dubbed aiQ, that
are being built using machine learning algorithms.
The initial wave of aiQ applications were designed to reduce the
amount of time customers spend waiting to talk
to an agent. For example, instead of waiting in a queue,
customers can simply say “internet” to inform Comcast
they are having an issue with internet access. That
microservices-based application runs on a distribution of Cloud
Foundry provided by Pivotal Software. Comcast plans to apply
that same set of AI capabilities to the applications
its technicians employ.
Simultaneous to those efforts, Comcast is also signing up
customers for a 4G LTE mobile wireless service, avail-
able via a smartphone. Comcast added 196,000 new subscribers
to its Xfinity Mobile service during the first
quarter of 2018, bringing its total customer base to 577,000.
That number may pale in comparison to rival
mobile service providers, but Comcast is betting its combination
of internet, video, wireless and connected
home/home security will prove irresistible to developers, which

11. in turn will help increase demand for its bun-
dled services. To further that aim, Comcast has formed a
partnership with Charter Communications to create a
mobile operating platform that will be used to provide back-end
services for both Xfinity Mobile and Charter’s
forthcoming Spectrum Mobile service.
6
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
The Overall Benefits of DevOps at Comcast
Comcast allows developers to pick the tools they are most
comfortable with as long as they can be effectively ap-
plied within the architecture defined by the company, Ravi says.
But new hires are assigned a “DevOps Champion”
who schools them in the specific processes Comcast has
developed.
Comcast wants to ensure its developers know how to not only
write code, but also programmatically manage and
secure the overall IT environment. Developers don’t need to
have those skills when they are hired, but the DevOps
teams work to get developers up to speed quickly. Today, all
Comcast developers are certified Six Sigma green
belts, with 35 percent of them having attained a yellow belt
certification.
Comcast is also starting to apply DevOps principles in its
cybersecurity efforts. As part of the rise of DevSecOps,
developers are now accountable for the security of the
applications they manage, says Larry Maccherone, a se-
nior director at Comcast who is leading the DevSecOps
transformation. Otherwise, he says, there’s a tendency to

12. simply check compliance boxes rather than take actual
responsibility for cybersecurity. “They need to be less of a
gatekeeper.”
Specifically, Maccherone says, teams need to ensure they are
addressing cybersecurity issues without slowing
down application release cycles. They also need to understand
what fixes should be prioritized over others.
7
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps
Conclusion
Embracing DevOps and microservices is providing Comcast
with the flexibility and agility needed to compete
globally. Comcast is no longer simply a provider of television
programming and internet bandwidth; it’s a software
company that understands how the quality of the software it
delivers impacts its customer experience.
Much of that customer experience is not driven simply by the
amount of network bandwidth Comcast can access,
but also the quality of the code it develops and how well it is
integrated with third-party applications. Comcast
now competes with almost every technology category there is—
for example, it’s IoT ambition clearly squares it
against Google and Amazon in the home. At the same time,
Comcast is partnering with companies it competes
with in one or more segments of its business—for example,
many Comcast customers access Netflix over their
mobile devices rather than via a television, yet Comcast is
moving to allow customers to pay their monthly Netflix
access on their Comcast bill.

13. At the center of Comcast’s efforts is DevOps, which is enabling
Comcast to dynamically adjust its technology plat-
forms to whatever changing business conditions may warrant
both now and well into the future.
8
Comcast Business Strategy Hinges on DevOps