1 Your paper should include the page number in the upper right hand portion of every page. This can be easily achieved by going to Insert, Page Number, Top of Page, and then selecting Plain Number 3. Animals as Equals in Science Fiction Student Name Columbia Southern University Course Name Instructor Name Date SAMPLE CASE STUDY This case study is modelled after some of the most common case study assignments here at CSU. Keep in mind that while some case study assignments will look like this, not all of them will. In those circumstances, pay particular attention to the questions that your assignment is asking you to answer or the issues it wants you to address: These will become your level headings. This is the assignment that this sample paper is responding to: Use the resource below: Clements, J. (2015). How science fiction helps us reimagine our moral relations with animals. Journal of Animal Ethics, 5(2) 181. Then, write a case study that answers the following questions: -What types of characters are defined as “animal” in literature? -What real-world societal problems do such characters address? APA 7th edition allows for a variety of different font choices for papers. Options include Times New Roman (size 12), Calibri (size 11), Arial (size 11), Lucida Sans Unicode (size 10), and Georgia (size 11). This example paper is written in Times New Roman, size 12. The same font and font size should be used throughout the entire paper. 2 Animals as Equals in Science Fiction In her article “How Science Fiction Helps Us Reimagine Our Moral Relations with Animals,” Jennifer Clements (2015) details several science fiction write rs who bring animals and animalistic characters to the forefront of their works. While it is an oft-ignored genre, science fiction tends to be filled with satires and metaphors that act as calls to action for the more attentive reader. Of these metaphors, one of the most popular is the animalistic character. The trope of the animal appears in such classics as Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and Planet of the Apes (Clements, 2015). These novels all utilize their respective animal characters to cast a new light on some aspect of humanity. Science fiction very rarely focuses on true animals. More often, these animals are some sort of hybrid between the natural creature and man, giving them the higher thinking necessary to comment upon a multitude of societal issues, especially those of discrimination and segregation. The Animal as a Character One of the most legendary stories not only of the genre, but of literature as a whole, is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus. While many of the adaptations of Frankenstein have badly skewed the original store, the central theme of the creature as an innocent and largely peaceful being has, for the most part, endured. This is true for the .

1. 1
Your paper should include the
page number in the upper
right hand portion of every
page. This can be easily
achieved by going to Insert,
Page Number, Top of Page,
and then selecting Plain
Number 3.
Animals as Equals in Science Fiction
Student Name
Columbia Southern University

2. Course Name
Instructor Name
Date
SAMPLE CASE STUDY
This case study is modelled after some of the most common
case study assignments here at CSU.
Keep in mind that while some case study assignments will look
like this, not all of them will.
In those circumstances, pay particular attention to the questions
that your assignment is asking you
to answer or the issues it wants you to address: These will
become your level headings. This is the
assignment that this sample paper is responding to:
Use the resource below:
Clements, J. (2015). How science fiction helps us reimagine our
moral relations with animals.
Journal of Animal Ethics, 5(2) 181.
Then, write a case study that answers the following questions:
-What types of characters are defined as “animal” in literature?

3. -What real-world societal problems do such characters address?
APA 7th edition allows for a variety of different font choices
for papers. Options include
Times New Roman (size 12), Calibri (size 11), Arial (size 11),
Lucida Sans Unicode (size
10), and Georgia (size 11). This example paper is written in
Times New Roman, size 12.
The same font and font size should be used throughout the
entire paper.
2
Animals as Equals in Science Fiction
In her article “How Science Fiction Helps Us Reimagine Our
Moral Relations with
Animals,” Jennifer Clements (2015) details several science
fiction write rs who bring animals and
animalistic characters to the forefront of their works. While it is
an oft-ignored genre, science

4. fiction tends to be filled with satires and metaphors that act as
calls to action for the more
attentive reader. Of these metaphors, one of the most popular is
the animalistic character. The
trope of the animal appears in such classics as Frankenstein,
The Island of Doctor Moreau, and
Planet of the Apes (Clements, 2015). These novels all utilize
their respective animal characters to
cast a new light on some aspect of humanity. Science fiction
very rarely focuses on true animals.
More often, these animals are some sort of hybrid between the
natural creature and man, giving
them the higher thinking necessary to comment upon a
multitude of societal issues, especially
those of discrimination and segregation.
The Animal as a Character
One of the most legendary stories not only of the genre, but of
literature as a whole, is
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus. While
many of the adaptations of
Frankenstein have badly skewed the original store, the central
theme of the creature as an
innocent and largely peaceful being has, for the most part,
endured. This is true for the creature’s

5. many counterparts in the genre; they are feared, physically
abused, or shunned for either their
appearance or origins, and yet, they are kind, thoughtful, and
intelligent. Essentially, the
animalistic character is meant to represent the best of what
humanity could be. This is
particularly ironic since, in an overwhelming majority of such
tales, humans created these
creatures through their own scientific prowess (Clements,
2015). These origin stories cause a
dilemma for readers: Siding with the animal character feels like
a betrayal to mankind, but
The thesis acknowledges both
of the issues prompted in the
assignment, and provides brief
answers to them.
Notice that both of the body paragraphs’ level headings
respond to questions from the prompt. Refer back to the
assignment:
What type of creatures are referred to as “animal” in

6. literature?
Since this passage answers that question, it receives a
heading. These headings can either be a reworded version
of your assignment’s original question, like this one, or
indicate your response to the question or issue.
When paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence
within a paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence in
which it is relevant and do not repeat the citation within
that paragraph as long as the source remains clear and
unchanged.
The full title of
the paper is
repeated here,
bold and
centered.
3

7. challenges the reader to consider the viewpoints of those who
are fundamentally different from
themselves.
The Animal as a Representative of Societal Problems
In Frankenstein, the creature acts as an example of “the moral
wrongs that newly
expanding scientific frontiers made possible” (Clements, 2015,
para. 2); while this topic remains
especially relevant with the advent of artificial intelligence on
the horizon, it is not necessarily at
the forefront of human thought in the twenty-first century. For
much of the lesser known writer
Cordwainer Smith’s body of work, however, the issues at hand
are much more similar to those of
modern America. Smith centers many of his short stories on the
conflicts between the
Underpeople (an animal-derived human) and the True Men,
who, true to genre stereotypes,
created the Underpeople in their own image. The conflicts
between the Underpeople and the
True Men are blatant analogies for racism and religious
persecution, and are especially effective
in their execution. Smith’s stories (and those of similar writers)

8. encourage
“continual… negotiation (not denial) of difference” (Clements,
2015, para.9).
Conclusion
Animal characters serve to represent not what humanity is, but
what it has the potential to
become. The origin of these characters is typically man,
representing the fact that hate and evil
are uniquely human attributes. These problems, originating with
man, must end with man to
create a more enlightened and caring being. The animal is used
as a representative of these
problems because of their relative goodness compared to
humans; they have no wars and no
hatred with which they are born. The lessons illustrated by these
skilled authors, centering upon
these idealistic beings, are critically important in learning to
overcome such major issues as
racism and homophobia, uniquely caused and perpetuated by
humanity alone.
This level heading answers this question:
What real-world societal problems do such characters address?

9. Conclusions are critical in all academic
papers. This is where you will tie
together all of your thoughts and main
points made about your subheadings.
4
References
Clements, J. (2015). How science fiction helps us reimagine our
moral relations with animals.
Journal of Animal Ethics, 5(2) 181.
The word “References” should be
centered at the top of the page in
bold font.
If you have any generalized questions
about your references page, refer to
the APA Citation Guide.

10. http://www.columbiasouthern.edu/downloads/pdf/success/Citati
on-Guide
https://www.columbiasouthern.edu/citationguide7
Written Section #1: Please number your responses to facilitate
grading; this section is worth 30 points (10 points each).
Responses should be AT LEAST 250 words in length.
1)
Compare the budget of the state of Texas and the budget
of the state of Massachusetts. How are the states similar in how
they spend money and how are the states different? How would
you expect life to be different in Massachusetts compared to
Texas based on how the governments spend their money?
Base your arguments on the multiple sources
provided and not your own “guess.” (CT 1 and CT2)
None of the articles in the links provided above showcase any
clearly defined budgetary information for either Texas or
Massachusetts. The only information provided is loosely
defined pseudo-data, such as “First up is education, the
foundation of America’s meritocratic values and the key to
whatever success the country will find in a globalized,
knowledge-based economy. Massachusetts is renowned for its
higher-education institutions. Less well known, though, is that
the home of the original Tea Party also has the best schools in
the country.” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) This is in contrast to
the article written by Greg Abbot, where the only mention of
education is “CEOs who relocate to Texas cite the differences
as night and day when it comes to the improved quality of life
and good schools, along with the job-ready workforce.”
(Abbott, 2017) This gives the impression that the amount spent
on education in Masachusetts would be greater than that spent
in Texas, but the pie graphs provided for this critical thinking

11. assignment show a percentage statistic that indicates otherwise.
Additionally, yet another article from CBS Boston contradicts
the expected results of the data in the pie graphs provided by
saying, “The site wrote that health care and education were
weighted most heavily–two things that helped Massachusetts
reach the top, as they ranked the state first in education and
second in health care.” (Stevens, 2017)
Given all of the information provided, one would naturally be
led to believe that Texas would have a stronger education
system, but each of the articles linked above showcases
otherwise. This same concept extends beyond the education
budget and into the other spending categories; without
additional, clearly defined information it is nigh impossible to
produce a realistic comparison of how life in each state would
be different based upon how they spend their money.
2)
Life in Texas and Massachusetts can be very different,
but that does not one inherently better than the other. Which
one is better might depend on your definition of a “quality” life.
What factors do you believe lead to high quality of life?
How you rate different life factors can be your
opinion, but the factors you use should be based on the sources.
How do you think living in TX influences your perspective on
what makes for a “quality” life? How do you think TX
government spending influences your quality of life in general?
(CT 3 and CT 4)
I uphold a few major paragons in life, and in no particular order
they are as follows:
· Education

12. · Respect
· Care (for one another)
These paragons tend to lead more towards a moderate-to-liberal
line of thinking, which is not generally a belief system upheld
within Texas. Massachusetts consistently ranks highly
regarding education, even when gauged on a worldwide scale.
Per Mark Vanhoenacker’s article on the Slate.com website,
“…on two of the index’s most important measures of results—a
lifetime educational Chance for Success index, and a K-12
Achievement index that bundles metrics such as test results,
year-on-year improvement, and the gap between poor and
wealthier kids (perhaps the truest test of our fabled
meritocracy)—the Bay State again leads the nation. And most
of the world. According to a 2011 Harvard study, while reading
proficiency in Mississippi is comparable to Russia or Bulgaria,
Massachusetts performs more like Singapore, Japan, or South
Korea.” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) This lines Massachusetts
up quite nicely alongside my initial, and foremost, paragon of
Education.
It is almost impossible to quantify or support the second
paragon of Respect. It is a quality that is generally a product of
one’s environment and upbringing rather than a quality that can
be measured on a pie chart. That said – my personal experience
travelling different places within the United States shows that,
generally speaking, the people within Dallas, Texas are some of
the most respectful that I have had the opportunity with which
to interact.
The final paragon of “Care for one another” is also difficult to
gauge, as “care” is also difficult to define. This tends to lean
more towards one’s political beliefs and background, and is
often a product of one’s own perspective rather than another
quantifiable measure. Some people show their care for
humankind by backing the causes they believe in, such as the

13. right for anyone to marry who they please, or the right to bear
arms to protect their family. This is one that, unfortunately, I
can’t accurately elaborate upon or support with a reference
because of how unclear the definition is outside of my own
head.
Overall – Texas has been a fine place to live. I do not generally
agree with the regressive politics of the state, but the
employment opportunities have allowed my family to thrive in
ways that other states would not be able to accurately offer. I
believe that if the education system within Texas was
strengthened substantially, then I would be content to live here
for the years to come.
3)
Looking back at spending by the states of Texas and
Massachusetts, what would happen if each state changed its
spending priorities? In other words, how would you expect
changes in spending would harm or enhance the quality of life
for Texans? How about for people in Massachusetts? Be sure to
mention specific spending changes and base your argument on
how you would define quality of life. (CT 5)
We can identify, infer, and develop conjecture on what the
long- and short-term changes may be when spending is changed
based upon the data provided both by the articles and by the pie
graphs related to this assignment. Additionally, we have to
understand that any upward shift in spending in one category
either causes an equal downward shift in another category or an
increase in taxes – the money has to come from somewhere,
right?
Texans don’t like taxes. Even the governor Greg Abbot says so
in his article, “Restrained government, lower taxes, smarter
regulations, right-to-work laws and litigation reform — these
are the pro-growth economic policies that help free enterprise

14. flourish and that attract major employers to Texas every day.”
(Abbott, 2017) This tells us that suggesting any increase to
taxes in Texas would effectively amount to political suicide,
and as such is not an option for budget changes. We can infer
that a shift of X% from one category implies a shift of X% in
another category. Texas is generally a conservative state, so
that rules out lowering spending in the following categories:
Pensions, General Government, Protection, Defense; Interest
also cannot change for hopefully apparent reasons. That means
that spending more on Education would need to come from
Heath Care, Other Spending, Transportation, or Welfare. If we
were to increase Education and reduce Transportation, then we
would risk creating better schools while reducing the likelihood
that children and adults would be able to get to those schools.
This has gotten a bit long-winded, so we’ll sum this up by
saying that any spending increase towards one budget category
would have a negative impact on another category alongside all
items under the umbrella of that category. I personally believe
that a paradigm shift within the belief system in Texas would
allow for a startling drop in Health Care spending while
increasing the quality of the health care system, and allow for a
shift in the budget to help bolster the state’s education system,
and would substantially increase the quality of life for the
average citizen in the long term.
Massachusetts, on the other hand, already has a high tax rate on
their state income tax. Mark Vanhoenacker’s article even refers
to the state as “Taxachusetts” (VANHOENACKER, 2012) near
the beginning of the narrative. Additional taxes also appear to
be a bad idea in Massachusetts as a result, though they are more
likely to be accepted than in Texas. Based upon the information
on hand, and the size and population of each state,
Massachusetts would have a more immediate, volatile reaction
than Texas as the shift in spending would take a fraction of the
time to propagate within the state and impact the population.
As a result, changes would have a strengthened short-term

15. impact in Massachusetts, and quality-of-life shifts would be
more immediately noticeable. As far as WHAT that would be –
the articles and graphs do not provide a direct insight into that
impact.
Written Section #2: Please number your responses to facilitate
grading; your responses should be AT LEAST 150 words in
length. These are worth 10 points total.
1.
Describe what the graphs look like visually. I mean
REALLY describe the visual aspects of the graphs as if you
were explaining them to a child (shapes, colors, etc.). Pretend
that the reader is not able to see the graphs and provide a lot of
detail. (3 points) (VL1)
There are two graphs; one represents the state spending for
Massachusetts and the other represents the state spending for
Texas. Each graph is a circle, similar to looking at a pie on a
countertop, and these are broken down into smaller slices of
those pies. Each of these slices is a different color and size,
and they represent a part, or percent, of the whole pie. A larger
slice of pie represents a larger amount of spending towards a
specific budget category, such as Education or Health Care. All
of these parameters combine together to offer a visual
comparison of each state’s respective spending amounts based
upon parts of a whole. The graphs do not, however, offer any
clear dollar amounts – simply the size of each slice of the
overall pie.
What does the information in these graphs mean for the
government of Texas versus the government of Massachusetts?
How would the residents of each of the states be affected by the
information presented in the graphs? (4 points) (VL3)

16. It would be easy to compare these items and determine that one
state spends more money when compared to the other for a
given category. One could state (pun intended) that
Massachusetts spends more money on Interest when compared
to Texas, but we would do well to remember that these are a
representation of the overall spending by percentage. This
could be a misleading thought process, and it is possible that
while the percentage may be higher, the actual number of
dollars is not represented and could therefore be fewer or
greater in either state in any given category.
It does, however, give a vague a representation of how the
states spend their money in general, which typically showcases
the ideals of the citizens within that state. Again, this could
easily be misleading, because it shows that Texas spends most
of their money on healthcare, and yet it is not known for
upholding a strong healthcare system. Similarly for education –
it shows that Texas spends 25% of their budget on this value
while Massachusetts only spends 15%, but it is far more likely
that any given individual will know about MIT when compared
to A&M.
Ultimately – these graphs represent a vague idea of the state’s
spending, budgetary allocations, and the values of their citizens
without offering a strong message in any given direction.
Without the actual numbers to show how many dollars were
spent, it is difficult to accurately utilize these graphs as a strong
source of information to gauge how this spending affects the
citizens of the state.
GOVT 2306 – Dr. CrissienCritical Thinking Assignment:
Analyzing Your State Senate District
OBJECTIVE: This assignment has two key purposes: 1) for the
student to identify and analyze their state senate district; 2) for

17. the student to think critically about their state senator
(culturally and ideologically). Translation: you are
demonstrating your capacity to understand your community
(senate district) and assess the quality of representation.
BACKGROUND: One of the most important facets of a
representative democracy is—unsurprisingly—
REPRESENTATION. This assignment builds on a few key
concepts related to the idea of representation—
who represents us and
how are we represented. In particular, we are building
on the ideas of
descriptive representation and
substantive representation. Here’s what these mean:
Descriptive representation is the extent to which a
representative resembles constituents. In other words, the focus
here is on
shared identity traits. A Hispanic person being
represented by a Hispanic representative is one example. The
key idea is that common identities are an important part of
representation (occupation, gender, race, age, educational
attainment, etc.)
Substantive representation is the actual activity of a
representative. This means their view/values and how they
actually behave in office (how they vote on legislation, what
kind of legislation they author/support, etc.). From the
substantive side, it is less important
who they are. What matters is
what they do.
PROCEDURES: You are about to link these concepts with your
state senate district and state senator (i.e. analyzing the

18. demographics of your district and the identity of your
representative). You will conduct this analysis by doing the
following:
Websites/Navigation:
1) Find your state senator by entering your address into this web
page (
https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home). Pay close attention
that you are looking up your STATE SENATOR not your U.S.
senator. It will say “Texas State Senate District ##” under their
name. Click on their name to go to their page.
2) In new windows/tabs, open the links at the bottom of the
page titled “District Profile”, “Population Analysis”, and
“Election Analysis.” Keep these pages handy, you will need the
demographic and electoral information.
3) Next, navigate to
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/16/texas-senate-
left-right/. Keep this page handy also.
4) Now that you have the required sites up, you can start on the
writing portion.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are largely being graded for
how thorough your answers are for each part. This means that
each part should be answered in AT LEAST 150 words
(complete sentences and IN YOUR OWN WORDS). If you
avoid being lazy you should do well.
Writing Section #1 (20 Points):
1) Your first set of questions asks you to compare/contrast your
background with that of your congressional district (your
community). [SR1]
a. Describe
your personal/cultural background (5 pts). Be sure to

19. note any aspects of your identity that are important to political
values (race/ethnicity, parents occupation, parents education,
household income, gender). Has this produced conservative,
liberal, or moderate values? Do you identify more with
Democrats or Republicans? (Note: If this feels too
personal/intrusive, feel free to make up an imaginary person.)
b. Using the info from the “District Profile”, “Population
Analysis”, and “Election Analysis” pages,
describe the demographics and party tendencies of your
district (5 pts). Be sure to discuss race/ethnicity, per capita
income, and education. Also, discuss the party leanings of your
district with your party leanings (yours is what you described in
Q1).
Note: For party tendencies you will use the results of
the 2020 U.S presidential election (Biden vs. Trump). This will
be the first election listed on the election analysis page. The
greater the support for one candidate or other, the more
“partisan” your district.
c.
Compare and contrast yourself with your district (5
pts). Where do you see the greatest differences between you and
your district? How might these differences produce contrasting
political perspectives on issues? (If it’s helpful, feel free to use
example issues like taxation, immigration, abortion, voter ID
laws, etc.)?
2) Your next task is to compare/contrast your
background/values with your state senator’s. [SR1]
a.
Compare and contrast your background with that of
your state senator(5 pts). You can learn about their background
both from looking at them and also reading about them on their
website. Where is your common ground? Where are you

20. different? Would you say that this is a strong
descriptive representative for you?
Writing Section #2 (20 points):
3) Next, explore your state senator’s substantive representation
(i.e. their values and positions on issues) [PR1 and PR2]:
a. Using the ideology information from the TribTalk page,
compare your personal ideology to your state senator’s
(5 pts). According to the ideology score chart, how
conservative/liberal is your representative? (You can measure
this by how far right or left they are from center and by
comparing them to other state senators.) How does this
compare/contrast with your ideology? Are you more
liberal/conservative? Do you lean toward their party?
b. Using either your state senator’s bio page, personal website,
or campaign website,
identify your state senator’s position on a key issue (5
pts). What type of issue is it (social or fiscal) and does your
senator take a liberal or conservative position (be sure to
explain why)? What is your position? In your opinion, what
should be done about this issue? Do you agree or disagree with
your senator (and why)?
4) Now that you have an issue position, you should think about
how to put it into action. [SR2]
a. Who in the government OR community should be involved?
What specific actions can you (and others) take? Why is it
important to get people involved in this cause and what will be
the benefits of this action?
(5 pts.)
5) Let’s assume that you are successful in your efforts, and you
achieve your policy goal. Now it is time to assess the impact of

21. this potential change. [PR3]
a.
What do you believe will be the consequences of
putting this policy into practice?(5 pts.) How would this
improve your community, state, and country? What do you think
will be the short-term effects (within the next year or two)?
How about the long-term impacts (beyond 2 years)? Finally,
what are some negative unintended consequences that might
result from this course of action?