Remixed Definitional Argument

When the word diversity comes to mind, there are usually certain aspects of culture that are immediately mentioned. According [to] the tenth edition of Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, diversity means a variety of something. Most of the time, diversity refers to a medley of people, all stemming from different backgrounds with different beliefs. While this may be one aspect of diversity, I believe it goes way beyond just a variety of people with different backgrounds. Diversity can be defined as anything that causes conflict.

Let us look at some examples of diversity here at Penn State University. [This sentence doesn't accomplish anything in this paper and the next sentence is a much better opening statement for what you want to do] Here at University Park, there are a wide variety of ethnicities. Our undergraduate population includes African Americas, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, International students, and White students. (budget.psu.edu) As a society, it is believed that diversity is the mixing of cultures, and that is exactly what Penn State has done. However, when cultures are mixed, unfortunate as it may be, there are always going to be some unappreciative members of society who do not want to be involved with other cultures. Conflicts are created by mixing backgrounds. Alex Glassman had this to say:
“I don’t like the fact that the University lowers its standards just to get a certain amount of minorities in the school.” This student feels very strongly about this, and as a result, creates a conflict. A conflict has been created by mixing backgrounds;[,] by creating diversity.

There are other aspects of diversity besides ethnicity. A population can be diverse if many people have different feelings towards similar topics. For example, here at Penn State, there are thousands of people from the Pittsburgh area, and thousands of people from the Philadelphia area. Our new national sport, football, is the topic of conversation almost every day. The Philadelphia fans love their Eagles, and the Pittsburgh fans love their Steelers. This can be discovered simply by examining our blogs. Thirteen out of twenty-five students have commented at least once about the NFL while blogging. That is a representation of our campus. More than half of the students in our class have expressed an opinion concerning football, most of whom supported either the Eagles or the Steelers. (singularity.Pilsch.com) Many people tend to become very high-strung when dealing with football, and this creates conflict. Only a very small portion of the season has been played thus far, and there are already several debates going on around campus. While watching the first Eagles game at The Big Onion, a small portion of students showed support for the Eagles’ opponent, the Falcons, and a fight nearly ensued. People were being mooned, vulgarities were being yelled, and others were simply being booed. It was not a pretty site. Following the Eagles game, some fans were outside of my dorm hall trying to start a fight with people on my floor in their rooms. These fans actually came up to my floor and started banging on all of the doors. My RA was forced to call the police. Just one week ago, there was a fight right outside on the sidewalk between an Eagles fan and a Steelers fan. There are a variety of opinions concerning the NFL, and as a result, there is conflict.

There is always the [an]other side of the [any] debate. One might be inclined to say that there are other varieties [of diversity] here at Penn State that do not create conflict, such as the wide variety of majors offered in the University. On the surface, this appears to be a valid point, seeing as how there are no fights between students learning to become teachers and students trying to succeed in the business world. However, the word conflict is a complex one in itself. Conflict does not simply have to be between two people. In literature, there are four kinds of conflict: person versus person, person versus nature, person versus supernatural, and person versus self [nice]. While these are found in literature, they can also be found in life. The person versus self conflict is perhaps the most common form of conflict in our society. Every day, people debate things in their heads. Whether it be something as trivial as “what do I want for dinner?” or something as important as “where should I be going with my life?” people are always having [internal] conflicts in their head. This is where the conflict arises with all of the majors offered at Penn State. A student is forced to decide whether he or she wants business or education, and then once ending that conflict, must decide what type of business or what type of education he or she is interested in. For example, a business student must determine if he or she wants to study accounting, finance, marketing, or one of the five other majors offered in the Smeal College of Business. (smeal.psu.edu) If every student at Penn State was forced to study finance and had no other option, there would be nothing to think about, no conflict. There are a wide variety of majors here at Penn State, and they create a conflict.
If something is diverse, it creates conflict. Here at Penn State, there are several different varieties (as the dictionary likes to call it) ranging from ethnicity to football to majors. Every group of items [classifier] leads to conflict in one way or the other, whether it is two people fighting each other or one person fighting with him/herself [it's okay to say himself. Feminists finally realized that him/herself was silly and decided it was okay (seriously, I had a really long discussion about this with a Gender Studies professo). The preferred way to do this, however, is to figure out a way to word your sentence so that it is "themselves" and "they" instead of "himself" and "he"]. Penn State’s definition of diversity should be “anything that causes conflict.”

[This isn't the most well-written paper I've read (in fact it has some very awkwardly worded moments), but the paragraph in which the definition of "conflict" is discussed is an excellent usage of prolepsis and a very interesting topic. Overall, this is a well-sustained, forceful argument. With some careful attention to detail, this would have been a solid "A" paper.]

Works Cited

Althouse, Richard. “Fact Book”. University Budget Office. 18 September 2005. <http://www.budget.psu.edu/FactBook/StudentDynamic/StudentTableofContents2004.asp>∞.

“Diversity”. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary-10th Ed. Ed. Frederick C. Mish. Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1993. 339.

Glassman, Alex. Personal interview. 18 September 2005.

“Majors and Minors.” Penn State Smeal College of Business, Undergraduate Programs. 18 September 2005. <http://www.smeal.psu.edu/uprog/majors.html∞>