You will write a paper of 10-12 pages in length. The syllabus provides a list of potential topics. You must include 6 references, two that must come peer-reviewed journals. Include an Abstract, introduction, and conclusion, as well as the body of content. The paper must follow APA.  Select a topic from the following list on which you would like to conduct an in-depth investigation. The research paper is valued at 100 points: • Information systems infrastructure: evolution and trends • Strategic importance of cloud computing in business organizations • Big data and its business impacts • Managerial issues of a networked organization • Emerging enterprise network applications • Mobile computing and its business implications Research paper basics: • 10-12 pages in length · No Plagiarism • APA formatted • Minimum six (6) sources – at least two (2) from peer reviewed journals • Include an abstract, introduction, and conclusion See rubric for more detailed grading criteria Some good questions to ask yourself before turning in your research paper: • Is the paper of optimal length? • Is the paper well organized? • Is the paper clear and concise? • Is the title appropriate? • Does the abstract summarize well? • Are individual ideas assimilated well? • Are wording, punctuation, etc. correct? • Is the paper well motivated? • Is interesting problem/issue addressed? • Is knowledge of the area demonstrated? • Have all key reference been cited? • Are conclusions valid and appropriate? • Have you included some graphic or table? See the Grading Rubric for this assignment below: [Last Name] 1 [Name] [Professor’s Name] ENGL 1113 Project 2 Sample 1 [Date] Seeing potential in others is hard, but seeing it in ourselves is even more difficult. That’s what makes organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, BBBS, here in Norman so special. They see potential for success where others don’t. Their program matches mentors with six to eighteen-year-old children whose parents have been in prison, are drug abusers, or are struggling financially. In doing so, they break the cycles of incarceration and poverty. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Norman’s common value of potential is enacted in their pairing of disadvantaged children with adult mentors to give them the confidence they need to succeed. It’s a long road to success for many of these kids. Forty percent of children in Norman’s BBBS program have or have had an incarcerated parent. (Crews “interview”) The journal “Children of Incarcerated Parents” shed light on the effects of living in a home with an incarcerated parent. Children respond in various ways, including sadness, withdrawal, low self-esteem, excessive crying, depression, diminished school performance, truancy, disciplinary problems, alcohol and other drug use, running away, and aggressive behavior. (Reed 159) It’s not hard to imagine that sadness, depression, and withdrawal can lead t.

1. You will write a paper of 10-12 pages in length. The syllabus
provides a list of potential topics. You must include 6
references, two that must come peer-reviewed journals. Include
an Abstract, introduction, and conclusion, as well as the body of
content. The paper must follow APA.
Select a topic from the following list on which you would like
to conduct an in-depth investigation. The research paper is
valued at 100 points:
• Information systems infrastructure: evolution and trends
• Strategic importance of cloud computing in business
organizations
• Big data and its business impacts
• Managerial issues of a networked organization
• Emerging enterprise network applications
• Mobile computing and its business implications
Research paper basics:
• 10-12 pages in length
· No Plagiarism
• APA formatted
• Minimum six (6) sources – at least two (2) from peer reviewed
journals
• Include an abstract, introduction, and conclusion
See rubric for more detailed grading criteria
Some good questions to ask yourself before turning in your
research paper:
• Is the paper of optimal length?
• Is the paper well organized?
• Is the paper clear and concise?
• Is the title appropriate?

2. • Does the abstract summarize well?
• Are individual ideas assimilated well?
• Are wording, punctuation, etc. correct?
• Is the paper well motivated?
• Is interesting problem/issue addressed?
• Is knowledge of the area demonstrated?
• Have all key reference been cited?
• Are conclusions valid and appropriate?
• Have you included some graphic or table?
See the Grading Rubric for this assignment below:
[Last Name] 1
[Name]
[Professor’s Name]
ENGL 1113 Project 2 Sample 1
[Date]
Seeing potential in others is hard, but seeing it in ourselves is
even more difficult. That’s
what makes organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, BBBS,
here in Norman so special. They
see potential for success where others don’t. Their program

3. matches mentors with six to
eighteen-year-old children whose parents have been in prison,
are drug abusers, or are struggling
financially. In doing so, they break the cycles of incarceration
and poverty. Big Brothers Big
Sisters of Norman’s common value of potential is enacted in
their pairing of disadvantaged
children with adult mentors to give them the confidence they
need to succeed.
It’s a long road to success for many of these kids. Forty percent
of children in Norman’s
BBBS program have or have had an incarcerated parent. (Crews
“interview”) The journal
“Children of Incarcerated Parents” shed light on the effects of
living in a home with an
incarcerated parent.
Children respond in various ways, including sadness,
withdrawal, low self-esteem,
excessive crying, depression, diminished school performance,
truancy, disciplinary
problems, alcohol and other drug use, running away, and
aggressive behavior. (Reed 159)
It’s not hard to imagine that sadness, depression, and
withdrawal can lead to poor school

4. performance and inhibit development of meaningful
relationships. Disciplinary problems are
also perhaps a foreshadowing of criminal behavior to come from
aggressiveness and substance
abuse. From there it’s only a matter of time before the child of
an imprisoned parent becomes
imprisoned themselves. Reed discusses further a study showing
that of, “56 children identified
[Last Name] 2
by their teachers as having the most severe behavioral and
disciplinary problems at school, 80 to
90% had experienced parental crime, arrest, and incarceration,
and 25% had a parent who was
incarcerated at the time of the study.” (159) It’s a
generationally self-defeating cycle. Seeing the
big picture this cycle paints helps us map out a few red flags.
Substance abuse, poor school
performance, and bullying are social cues that a child needs
guidance they aren’t getting at
home.
BBBS knows this map like the back of their metaphorical hand.

5. Blossom Crews, area
director for BBBS of Norman, explains in our interview that
many of the kids enrolled in their
program are bullied and having trouble with school work.
(Crews) A clear indicator that BBBS
strategically targets children heading down the same path as
their parents. In this way, they wage
a cultural war on debilitating relationships at home. Atypical of
its definition, BBBS’s definition
for potential first manifests with a negative connotation, the
potential to fail. After all, it’s
understandable that these children would be at a disadvantage,
in comparison to other kids.
Sadly, if a child’s parent, their first role model, wasted their
potential, likely these kids will waste
theirs too. Luckily, many of these kids are noticed by educators
and referred to the BBBS
program before it gets that far.
That’s when BBBS gets to work. The child, referred to as a
Little by BBBS, and a
guardian are first interviewed separately. During the interview
the child is asked about their
interests to create a profile that will match them with a mentor,
rather than just pair the child with

6. a random adult. That shows they value maximizing the potential
for a winning mentor-child
combo. Crews emphasizes that the success of these connections
depends heavily on the child’s
willingness to be a part of the program, so, potential Littles
have to volunteer. (Crews
“interview”) Mentors, referred to as Bigs, are also interviewed.
However, during the interview
[Last Name] 3
prospective Bigs are asked not only about their interests, but
also tougher questions about
perspective. Crews points out that they ask questions like:
Would you be okay with a shyer child
that you have to pry conversation out of? Are you okay with
children that have different
religions? Can you mentor a child with different colored skin?
(Crews “interview”) These strong
questions exemplify the seriousness they take in their mission.
In the battle against bad role
models, they represent a no-man’s land between potential for
success and potential for failure

7. where one wrong match can be disastrous for the Little. Once a
match is made it is supported for
a year by a match support specialist to foster a successful
relationship. With resources being so
limited in a nonprofit organization like BBBS having paid
specialists really goes to show how
much they value the connection process and the potential they
see these connections have. It’s
that eye for potential that drives BBBS to make successful
connections.
BBBS is no stranger to success. Through community and school
based mentorship
programs the study “Mentoring in Schools: An Impact Study of
Big Brothers Big Sisters School-
Based Mentoring” has shown that kids with mentors do better in
school, have improved
relationships with other adults, and are less likely to use drugs
or alcohol. (346) Those same red
flags that marked the potential for failure, through mentorship,
become markers of the program’s
success. Success doesn’t end there, though. Crews described
some of the unusual ways children
in the program have achieved success. “By all of those measures
the match was a failure,” she

8. started solemnly. “It took everything we had to get him to
graduated high school, and keeping a
job was next to impossible,” she went on. Years would pass,
though, and the Little had a child of
his own, and the former Big was invited to meet the baby.
That’s where the Little told his Big, “I
learned how to be a father from you.” (Crews “interview”)
Potential for BBBS isn’t limited to
just doing well in school or avoiding drugs. Potential is more
about being capable of being better
[Last Name] 4
than before. In helping this Little and Littles all over Norman to
end cyclical criminality they
help kids for generations to come be better than they would
have been. That drive to make
successful connections during the pairing process comes from
the potential they see in all
children, here now and yet to come. I think their website says it
best with, “Inherent in every
child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life.” (Thrive and
Succeed) That belief is what pushed
the little to graduate high school, and most of all, that belief

9. will be passed on to his child. In a
way, BBBS sees potential in Littles like a doctor sees patients.
They have been given a sickness,
but with the right medications, mentorship, they can be healthy
again.
Success doesn’t just shine through in their matches it also
shows in the way they do
business. During the interview Crews time and time again
returns to the way they are constantly
trying to improve their processes. Whether it’s employing a new
quality assurance position to
keep track of employee training so that the rest of the office can
focus on match making, or it’s
as simple as recognizing who to go to when a unique need
arises. (Crews “interview”) With a
chuckle Crews says she is always making connections, even if
it’s knowing who to go to for
goodies when there is a fundraising bake sale. (Crews
“interview”) Driving all this improvement
is this value of potential. BBBS doesn’t just see children with
potential, but also the way they
operate. It is a mindset that Crews and her team have developed
in their day to day life to
connect disadvantaged kids with mentors, and to make her team

10. more effective and focused.
Really, her job is a life style of seeing potential in connections
and making the connections
happen to fulfill that potential. In our interview, Crews gave
insight into some of the group
activities they do to raise money. There was an interesting
painting hanging all alone on the wall
of the interview room. When I asked why it was there she
described a painting activity the
children do with their Bigs in a large group. Each adds their
own creative touch and the painting
[Last Name] 5
is sold to pay for more matches. That painting was awaiting
auction. (Crews “interview”) In an
incredible way BBBS in Norman turns the potential these
children finally begin to see in
themselves into seeing potential in BBBS to help others. Like
the Little who learned to be a dad
from his Big, Littles all over BBBS are learning to believe that
all children have untapped
potential. These kids just need a doctor.

11. Potential is much more than the statistics like being 52% less
likely to skip school, 27%
less likely to use alcohol, or 46% less likely to use drugs.
(“Thrive and Succeed”) It is about
“giving them something to dream about,” Crews states
eloquently. (Crews “interview”) So many
of these kids don’t believe they can achieve anything. Others
may have never even considered it.
As disheartening as that is, Bigs do have a significant impact.
In one story Crews gives, a child
had no goals, but his Bigs, a husband and wife, frequently
brought him to their place of work.
They were chemical engineers and they fascinated their Little.
They continually reinforced that
he too could be an engineer when he got older. While his
friends at school wanted to be sports
stars he told them he wanted to be a chemical engineer. That
Little would go on to attend The
University of Oklahoma and become a chemical engineer.
(Crews “interview”) That Little was
given a dream. He was shown that someone cared about his
future and believed in his potential
to succeed. In this way, he was made to believe in his own
untapped potential. In a way, caring is

12. the language of potential, translating belief from others into
belief in self. It communicates
potential from mentor to mentee. That same caring can also be
seen as tough love. In another
story Crews talks about a little who’s grades improved because
he was afraid his big would stop
mentoring him if he had bad grades. “It’s just somebody who is
going to hold you to a higher
standard,” she points out. (Crews “interview”) The Big cared
and that was the language needed
[Last Name] 6
to communicate tough love to the Little. It showed the Little he
could and should be doing more,
because he had the potential to do so.
From broad scale beliefs in the inherent potential of all
children, down to the very last
penny spent, BBBS sees potential in everything they do.
Potential, to BBBS, also has unexpected
corollaries. It’s a struggle between success and failure. It’s a
weapon against a culture of
generational blindness leading the innocently blind. In these
ways, it transcends both time and

13. scale bringing success to Norman’s children for years to come.
(Word Count:1763)
Works Cited
“Volunteer to start something.” Big Brothers Big Sisters of
Oklahoma, 2016,
bbbsok.org/volunteer/.
“Thrive and succeed.” Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma,
2016,
bbbsok.org/about-bbbsok/.
Crews, Blossom. Blossom Crews Linkedin Profile.
www.linkedin.com/in/blossom-crews-
64041925.
Crews, Blossom. “interview”. 11 October 2017.
Chaney, Joleen. “Big Brothers Big Sisters Program In Need Of
Mentors.” News 9 On the Scene
On the Story - News9.Com - Oklahoma City, OK - News,
Weather, Video and Sports, 27
Mar. 2016, www.news9.com/story/31576548/big-brothers-big-
sisters-program-in-need-
of-mentors.

14. http://www.linkedin.com/in/blossom-crews-
http://www.linkedin.com/in/blossom-crews-
[Last Name] 7
Writer, Jessica Allison Staff. “Norman Chapter of Big Brothers
Big Sisters of Oklahoma Plans
Tailgate-Themed Fundraiser.” NewsOK.com, NewsOK, 25 Aug.
2014,
newsok.com/article/5335536.
Merenstein, Beth, et al. “Issues Affecting the Efficacy of
Programs for Children with
Incarcerated Parents.” Journal of Correctional Education, vol.
62, no. 3, 2011, pp. 166–
174. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23282710.
Herrera, Carla, et al. “Mentoring in Schools: An Impact Study
of Big Brothers Big Sisters
School-Based Mentoring.” Child Development, vol. 82, no. 1,
2011, pp. 346–361.
JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29782835.
Reed, Diane F., and Edward L. Reed. “Children of Incarcerated
Parents.” Social Justice, vol. 24,
no. 3 (69), 1997, pp. 152–169. JSTOR, JSTOR,

15. www.jstor.org/stable/29767028.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23282710
http://www.jstor.org/stable/29782835