5.2: Topic Sentences
Now that you have identified common purposes for writing, learned how to select appropriate content for a particular audience, and written a working thesis (at least) you can think about the structure of a paragraph in greater detail. Composing an effective paragraph requires a method similar to building a house. You may have the finest content, or materials, but if you do not arrange them in the correct order, then the final product will not hold together very well.
A strong paragraph contains three distinct components:
- Topic sentence. The topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph.
- Body. The body is composed of the supporting sentences that develop the main point.
- Conclusion. The conclusion is the final sentence that summarizes the main point.
The foundation of a good paragraph is the topic sentence, which expresses the main idea of the paragraph. The topic sentence relates to the thesis, or main point, of the essay and guides the reader by sign-posting what the paragraph is about. All the sentences in the rest of the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.
Topic Sentences
In academic writing, readers expect each paragraph to have a sentence or two that captures its main point. They’re often called “topic sentences” or "main ideas." Don't be fooled by the phrase “topic sentence” though. It makes it seem like sentence's job is simply to announce the topic of the paragraph. Rather think about the topic sentence for the paragraph in the same way you think about the thesis statement for the essay as a whole (see " Thesis Statements "). Sometimes topic sentence will also include a transition from the previous paragraph, but not always. A topic sentence should never simply be a transition.
Consider these two examples: 2
Version A: Now we turn to the epidemiological evidence.
Version B: The epidemiological evidence provides compelling support for the hypothesis emerging from etiological studies.
Both versions convey a topic; it’s pretty easy to predict that the paragraph will be about epidemiological evidence, but only the second version establishes an argumentative point and puts it in context. The paragraph doesn’t just describe the epidemiological evidence; it shows how epidemiology is telling the same story as etiology. Similarly, while Version A doesn’t relate to anything in particular, Version B immediately suggests that the prior paragraph addresses the biological pathway (i.e. etiology) of a disease and that the new paragraph will bolster the emerging hypothesis with a different kind of evidence. As a reader, it’s easy to keep track of how the paragraph about cells and chemicals and such relates to the paragraph about populations in different places.
By clearly establishing an essential point within its analytic context, a well written topic sentence gives both you and your reader a firm grasp of how each point relates. For example, compare these two sets of topic sentences, each introducing a sequential paragraph 3 :
Set A:
At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the cause of the disease was unclear. …
The cause of AIDS is HIV.
There are skeptics who question whether HIV is the cause.
Set B:
At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the cause of the disease was unclear, leading to a broad range of scientific speculation.
By 1986 HIV had been isolated and found to correlate almost exactly with the incidence of AIDS.
HIV skeptics, on the other hand, sought to discredit claims based on epidemiology by emphasizing that the pathogenesis of HIV was still unknown.
Set A isn’t wrong per se; it just illustrates a lost opportunity to show the important connections among points. Both versions portray a process unfolding over time: initial uncertainty followed by a breakthrough discovery and then controversy. Even with the same substantive points, a person reading Version A would have to work harder to see how the material in the paragraphs connects. Readers experience Version B as clearer and more engaging.
Thinking of topic sentences as sequential points in an argument reminds one that a key sentence doesn’t have to always be a single declarative one. Sometimes you need two sentences together to achieve the work of a topic sentence, and sometimes a question or quotation does a better job than a declarative sentence in clarifying a logical sequence, which brings us to Set C.
Set C:
At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic the cause was unclear. Virologists, bacteriologists, immunologists, and epidemiologists all pursued different leads, reflecting their particular areas of expertise.
If drug use, lifestyle, and “immune overload” didn’t cause AIDS, what did?
“I’ve asked questions they apparently can’t answer,” claimed retrovirologist Peter Duesberg 4 who became an oft-quoted skeptical voice in media accounts of AIDS research in the mid-1980s.
Set C is based on the same three sequential points as Sets A and B: (1) the cause of AIDS was initially unclear (2) HIV was accepted as the cause (3) lone dissenters questioned the claims. However, sets B and C have much more meaning and momentum, and set C, depending on the nature of the argument, features more precise and lively stylistic choices. Opening the second paragraph with a question (that then gets answered) carries forth the sense of befuddlement that researchers initially experienced and helps to convey why the discovery of HIV was a hugely important turning point. Using the self-glorifying Duesberg quote to launch the third paragraph makes the point about lingering skepticism while also introducing a portrait of a leading figure among the skeptics. While Set B is effective as well, Set C illustrates some of the more lively choices available to academic writers.
A last thing to note about topic sentences is that academic readers expect them to be at the beginning of the paragraph. 5 That helps readers comprehend your argument. To see how, try this: find an academic piece (such as a textbook or scholarly article) that strikes you as well written and go through part of it reading just the first sentence of each paragraph. You should be able to easily follow the sequence of logic. When you’re writing for professors, it is especially effective to put your key sentences first because they usually convey your own original thinking, which, as you’ve read here, is exactly what your instructors are looking for in your work. It’s a very good sign when your paragraphs are typically composed of a telling key sentence followed by evidence and explanation.
Writing at Work
In the work world, people can be very busy and may not have time to read all the details of a proposal you might make. For this reason, in business writing, people want to know your point up front and then, if they want to look at your reasoning or support, they will read further. Just as in academic writing, in business writing, the reader should be able to read the first sentence of each paragraph and follow your logical thinking and reasoning.
Knowing this convention of academic writing can help you both read and write more effectively. When you’re reading a complicated academic piece for the first time, you might want to go through reading only the first sentence or two of each paragraph to get the overall outline of the argument. Then you can go back and read all of it with a clearer picture of how each of the details fit in. 6 And when you’re writing, you may also find it useful to write the first sentence of each paragraph (instead of a topic-based outline) to map out a thorough argument before getting immersed in sentence-level wordsmithing. For example, compare these two scaffolds. Which one would launch you into a smoother drafting process?: 7
Version A (Topic Outline):
I. Granovetter’s “Strength of weak ties”
A. Definition
B. Example—getting jobs
II. Creativity in social networks
A. Explanation
B. Richard Florida’s argument
III. Implications
A. For urban planners
B. For institutions of higher education
Version B (Key-Sentence Sketch):
The importance of networking for both career development and social change is well known. Granovetter (1973) explains that weak ties—that is, ties among acquaintances—are often more useful in job hunting because they connect job-seekers to a broader range of people and workplaces. …
Subsequent research in network analysis has shown that weak ties can promote creativity by bringing ideas together from different social realms. …
Richard Florida (2002) argues that cities would do well to facilitate weak ties in order to recruit members of the “creative class” and spur economic development. …
Florida’s argument can inspire a powerful new approach to strategic planning within colleges and universities as well. …
As you can see, emphasizing key sentences in both the process and product of academic writing is one way to ensure that your efforts stay focused on developing your argument and communicating your own original thinking in a clear, logical way.
Topic versus Controlling Idea
Topic sentences contain both a main idea (the subject, or topic that the writer is discussing) and a controlling idea (the writer’s specific stance on that subject). Just as a thesis statement includes an idea that controls a document’s focus, a topic sentence must also contain a controlling idea to direct the paragraph. Different writers may use the same main idea but can steer their paragraph in a number of different directions according to their stance on the subject. Read the following examples.
- Marijuana is a destructive influence on teens and causes long-term brain damage.
- The anti-nausea properties in marijuana are a lifeline for many cancer patients.
- Legalizing marijuana would create a higher demand for Class A and Class B drugs.
Although the topic—marijuana—is the same in all three topic sentences, the controlling idea differs depending on the writer’s viewpoint.
Exercise 1
Circle the topic and underline the controlling idea in each of the following topic sentences.
- Exercising three times a week is the only way to maintain good physical health.
- Sexism and racism are still rampant in today’s workplace.
- Raising the legal driving age to twenty-one would decrease road traffic accidents.
- Owning a business is the only way to achieve financial success.
- Dog owners should be prohibited from taking their pets on public beaches.
Characteristics of a Good Topic Sentence
Five characteristics define a good topic sentence:
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A good topic sentence provides an accurate indication of what will follow in the rest of the paragraph.
Weak example. People rarely give firefighters the credit they deserve for such a physically and emotionally demanding job. (The paragraph is about a specific incident that involved firefighters; therefore, this topic sentence is too general.)
Stronger example. During the October riots, Unit 3B went beyond the call of duty. (This topic sentence is more specific and indicates that the paragraph will contain information about a particular incident involving Unit 3B.)
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A good topic sentence contains both a topic and a controlling idea or opinion.
Weak example. In this paragraph, I am going to discuss the rising suicide rate among young professionals. (This topic sentence provides a main idea, but it does not present a controlling idea.)
Stronger example. The rising suicide rate among young professionals is a cause for immediate concern. (This topic sentence presents the writer’s opinion on the subject of rising suicide rates among young professionals.)
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A good topic sentence is clear and easy to follow.
Weak example. In general, writing an essay, thesis, or other academic or nonacademic document is considerably easier and of much higher quality if you first construct an outline, of which there are many different types. (This topic sentence includes a topic and a controlling idea, but both are buried beneath the confusing sentence structure and unnecessary vocabulary. These obstacles make it difficult for the reader to follow.)
Stronger example. Most forms of writing can be improved by first creating an outline. (This topic sentence cuts out unnecessary verbiage and simplifies the previous statement, making it easier for the reader to follow.)
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A good topic sentence does not include supporting details.
Weak example. Salaries should be capped in baseball for many reasons, most importantly so we don’t allow the same team to win year after year. (This topic sentence includes a supporting detail that should be included later in the paragraph to back up the main point.)
Stronger example. Introducing a salary cap would improve the game of baseball for many reasons. (This topic sentence omits the additional supporting detail so that it can be expanded upon later in the paragraph.)
-
A good topic sentence engages the reader by using interesting vocabulary.
Weak example. The military deserves better equipment. (This topic sentence includes a topic and a controlling idea, but the language is bland and unexciting.)
Stronger example. The appalling lack of resources provided to the military is outrageous and requires our immediate attention. (This topic sentence reiterates the same idea and controlling thesis, but adjectives such as appalling and immediate better engage the reader. These words also indicate the writer’s tone.)
Exercise 2
Choose the most effective topic sentence from the following sentence pairs.
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a. This paper will discuss the likelihood of the Democrats winning the next election.
b. To boost their chances of winning the next election, the Democrats need to listen to public opinion.
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a. The unrealistic demands of multi-national corporations are crippling workers' ability to achieve the American Dream.
b. Multi-national corporations are crippling the economy because their workers are unable to balance work and personal lives.
-
a. Authors are losing money as a result of technological advances.
b. The introduction of new technology will devastate the literary world.
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a. Heavy metal is outdated and radio stations should stop playing it.
b. Here is why radio stations should stop playing heavy metal.
Exercise 3
Using the tips on developing effective topic sentences in this section, create a topic sentence on each of the following subjects. Remember to include a controlling idea as well as a topic. Write your responses on your own sheet of paper.
-
An endangered species
____________________________________________
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The cost of fuel
____________________________________________
-
The legal drinking age
____________________________________________
-
A controversial film or novel
____________________________________________
Writing at Work
When creating a workplace document, use the “top-down” approach—keep the topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph so that readers immediately understand the gist of the message. This method saves busy colleagues precious time and effort trying to figure out the main points and relevant details.
Headings are another helpful tool. In a text-heavy document, break up each section with individual headings. These serve as useful navigation aids, enabling colleagues to skim through the document and locate paragraphs that are relevant to them.
Implied Topic Sentences
Some well-organized paragraphs do not contain a topic sentence at all. Instead of being directly stated, the main idea is implied in the content of the paragraph. Read the following example:
Heaving herself up the stairs, Luella had to pause for breath several times. She let out a wheeze as she sat down heavily in the wooden rocking chair. Tao approached her cautiously, as if she might crumble at the slightest touch. He studied her face, like parchment, stretched across the bones so finely he could almost see right through the skin to the decaying muscle underneath. Luella smiled a toothless grin.
Although no single sentence in this paragraph states the main idea, the entire paragraph focuses on one concept—that Luella is extremely old. The topic sentence is thus implied rather than stated. This technique is often used in descriptive or narrative writing. Implied topic sentences work well if the writer has a firm idea of what he or she intends to say in the paragraph and sticks to it. However, a paragraph loses its effectiveness if an implied topic sentence is too subtle or the writer loses focus.
Tip
Avoid using implied topic sentences in an informational document. Readers often lose patience if they are unable to quickly grasp what the writer is trying to say. The clearest and most efficient way to communicate in an informational document is to position the topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph.
Exercise 4
Identify the topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence in the following paragraph.
The desert provides a harsh environment in which few mammals are able to adapt. Of these hardy creatures, the kangaroo rat is possibly the most fascinating. Able to live in some of the most arid parts of the southwest, the kangaroo rat neither sweats nor pants to keep cool. Its specialized kidneys enable it to survive on a miniscule amount of water. Unlike other desert creatures, the kangaroo rat does not store water in its body but instead is able to convert the dry seeds it eats into moisture. Its ability to adapt to such a hostile environment makes the kangaroo rat a truly amazing creature.
Collaboration
Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.
Contributors and Attributions
- Adapted from Writing for Success . Provided by: The Saylor Foundation. License: CC-NC-SA 3.0 .
- Adapted from Writing in College . Authored by: Amy Guptill. Provided by: Milne Publishing. License: CC-NC-SA 4.0
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT
- " How to Write a Topic Sentence ." Authored by: Scribbr. License: All Rights Reserved . License Terms: Standard YouTube license.
This page most recently updated on June 23, 2020.


11: Race and Minority
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Why Do We Define Race The Way We Do?
Race is socially important yet biologically insignificant in the United States. A Racial Group is a group of people with perceived unique biological and physical characteristics . Race is and has been assumed for centuries as being biologically-based and even biologically distinguishable between various groups (African Americans, Whites, Asians, and Native Americans). Science has proven this to be a myth— racial groups are NOT in fact biologically different in significant ways. Current conceptions of race originated long before genetics as a scientific discipline came to be. Here’s the simple scientifically-based truth about biological differences between the races—there are very few.
An article in Scientific American (December, 2003; pages 78-85) addressed the race-to-Biology question in their cover article, “Does Race Exist?” Two geneticists, Bamshad and Olson have worked on mapping the human genome and their answer was, no. Genetic studies yield more support for geographic ancestral origin than for a claim that our social definitions of race are somehow correlated to our social definitions of being White, Black, Asian, Indian, or other. There has been a great deal of intermarriage and cross-cultural unions so much so that Bamshad and Olson reported that among the billions of genetic markers:
“The outward signs on which most definitions of race are based—such as skin color and hair texture—are dictated by a handful of genes. But the other genes of two people of the same “race” can be very different. Conversely, two people of different “races” can share more genetic similarity than two individuals of the same race (page 80).”
By far the significance of race and biology is social, meaning that we are culturally socialized to define race in biological terms. In fact, throughout the history of the world, most cultures defined race more in cultural rather than biological terms. Egyptian royalty were in the sacred race by birthright (even though some were Mediterranean and others African in origin). Scottish kinships were birth, not biologically based. The Old Testament, Qur’an, and Torah Abrahamic descendants were identified by birth and by religion (this includes descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born son, and descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s second-born son).
In Europe (where most of the early immigrants to the United States originated), various cultures had strong beliefs that Europeans were biologically superior to other peoples of the world. This made it very easy to conquer and colonize various cultures, especially for the British, French, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese societies. These are often called racial supremist ideologies, and they came with the Euro immigrants to the US. Ideological Racism is an ideology that considers a group's physical characteristics to be causally related to inferiority or superiority . Slavery, genocide, and cultural destruction then replacement of the original culture by the British culture was very common between the years 1400-1800.
The US’s version of ideological racism left its mark on mainstream culture which is to this day, strikingly British. British and other European founders created social constructs of non-White groups. Native Americans were either noble savages or barbarians, Blacks were amoral or caustically wild; Asians were either perilous or conniving; and Mexicans were either extremely lazy or intrusive. In the history of the US such ideas lead to extreme mistreatment of non-Whites. Oppression in various forms went unanswered by any legal attempts at justice, which at times even lead to unlawful and immoral massacres of people in these categories.
The first US Census, taken by Federal mandate was in 1790. Data extrapolated from it, indicate the presence of mostly Whites and it ignored slaves, Indians, and others. Historical studies have shown that Whites were the ones believed to be important enough to count at this time. Every 10 years another Census is taken, yielding about 22 US Census collections to date. The last one taken in 2000 was the very first to allow citizens to self-report more than one race. That was about 2.4% of the population (see Table 1 below). Previous Census enumerations (counts) forced US citizens to claim how Black they were, using complicated formulas and unfamiliar terms such as “Mulatto” ½ Black; “Quadroon” or ¼ Black; and “Octoroon” or 1/8 Black. Each was a result of misguided thinking that suggested that having a Black ancestor contaminated a White person’s blood lines. One Drop Theory claims that if there is one drop of another race's blood (mostly targeted toward Black blood) then you are tainted by it.
| Major Racial Groups in the US | % |
|---|---|
| Caucasian | 75.1% |
| African American | 12.3% |
| Asian | 3.6% |
| Native American | 0.9% |
| Native Hawaiian | 0.2% |
| Two or More Races | 2.4% |
| Other | 5.5% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.5% |
Without seeing each individual can you assign a racial category to C, E, & G below? The one drop approach is simply another version of ideological racism. Let me walk you through the Figure 1 below. To help get the point, you answer a few questions as you go. Let’s say a Black male-A marries a White female-B. Eventually they have a son-C. What is the race of this son? When I present that question to my students they say things like, “we need to see him to see which racial traits he has” or “that’s impossible to say because there’s no gene for race”(every so often I hear that “Black always dominates White in an inter-racial union). This gives us the grounds for a healthy discussion about our racial assumptions. I typically force them to vote, count hands, and even though they don’t have what they feel is needed to make the call, most will vote one way or the other and we go with the majority rule (I’m not trying to make a final judgment as much as trying to get them to think out loud about their assumptions and pre-dispositions).
I explain to them that decades ago, marrying across racial groups was considered a tainting and rendered the child non-White by default. This was true even if the child looked White with red hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. I then ask them to consider the outcome of C marrying a White female-D and their eventually having a son E. Again I force them to consider the racial category that E might fit into. Again they struggle. Finally, I ask them to tell me what the racial outcome is when E marries a Japanese female-F and they have a son G (This was in fact one of my 1996 student’s heritage). Children of mixed racial couples confound our ability to perpetuate the myth that race can be biologically discerned. It can’t (Google Image: Keanu Reaves, Tiger Woods, or Mariah Carey and guess their racial heritage by how they appear. Do they look like their heritage?)
The US Census Bureau also runs complex population projection analysis to estimate future population trends in our country. In Figure 2 below you can see a diagram portraying the findings from the March, 2004 report:
“From 2000 to 2050, the non-Hispanic, white population should increase from 195.7 million to 210.3 million, an increase of 14.6 million or 7 percent. This group is projected to actually lose population in the 2040s and would comprise just 50.1 percent of the total population in 2050, compared with 69.4 percent in 2000. Nearly 67 million people of Hispanic origin (who may be of any race) would be added to the nation’s population between 2000 and 2050. Their numbers are projected to grow from 35.6 million to 102.6 million, an increase of 188 percent. Their share of the nation’s population would nearly double, from 12.6 percent to 24.4 percent” (see Press Release* taken from Internet 11 June, 2008 from www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/001720.html ).
Why So Much Racism?
You may have already noticed that even though science has established that race is not biologically based, the US Census Bureau continues to use the racial categories. Why? Most scientists will tell you that if people perceive something as being real then it becomes real in its consequences (Thomas Theorem). Race being based on biology is so intricately connected to all the subtle nuances of everyday life that the average person makes no distinction or effort at understanding. Most people simply believe it to be real. The Constitutional mandate to take a census of the US population so that the people are represented by Congress requires a count of people and their self-reported racial classification. Few argue that we should eliminate the race-biology construct, because it is still very important to the average person.
Coming back to the genetics question, there is no single gene that identifies if one is African American, White, Asian, Native American, or Hispanic. One Genetics company, AncestrybyDNA has created a precise test which can give you between an 80-95 percent accurate estimate of the geographic origins of your ancestors (see www.ancestrybydna.com/welcome/home/index.php ).
Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, and other celebrities have purchased the test (roughly about $400 and is not covered by medical insurance). After reading about Oprah’s test in a magazine, I saved my money, asked my extended family to pitch in, and bought this test for my birthday (I know I’m a real nerd). I had hoped to find out what percentage of my ancestral heritage was Native American since both my mother and father had Cherokee great-grandparents. I discovered that in fact I have no Native American ancestors. Instead I was mostly European (I have brown hair and blue eyes, and somewhat fair skin). I also had Middle-Eastern, Eastern European, and South-east Asian ancestors.
My parents and grand-parents are still confused because I have no Native American and quite a bit if Middle eastern and South east Asian. My children felt disappointed because they defined their Native American heritage (even though it was small) as cool. A few days after I shared the results with my wife and children, my youngest son told me how cool it was to be part Asian. They came to redefine their minority heritage to potentially include Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, and that was now cool. I have since learned that the odds of children who are born to the same parents having identical ancestral genetics is very rare (only the same for identical twins, triplets, etc.). The odds of randomly getting the same genetic heritage is extremely remote. So, siblings in the same families, with the same parents have different genetic markers indicating different racially diverse heritages. In the US, we make the race-biology claim a big deal because it is part of our culture and our socialization to do so. We tend to look at 4 categories of racial traits in order to distinguish ourselves from people of other races: skin color, facial features, hair color and texture, and body shape and size (body morphology). Four simple features have been used as the categorical basis of “Us and Them” thinking patterns throughout US history. Most don’t realize that there is much more variety within a given racial category than between them. For example, look around your classroom and pick a few students who might fall into just one of the five basic racial groupings. Observe their variations in skin tone, hair texture, color, thickness, or curl. In my classes, I’ll ask for volunteers to come down to the front of the class and stand side by side. It becomes very obvious that not all Whites (or any racial grouping of people) look alike when compared to people considered to be of the same race. Why don’t we care about variation in physical features within our own racial groups? It comes back to our culture and socialization…we are socialized to see differences between rather than within racial categories. What’s the difference between a racial and ethnic group? See Figure 3 below which is a continuum of biological versus cultural traits, race is biology-based and ethnicity is culture-based. An Ethnic Group consists of people who share a common orientation toward the world, who develop a sense of peoplehood, and who are perceived by others as having a distinctive culture .
Ethnicity is conceptually different from race (see Max Weber’s 1922 work, reprinted in 1978, Economy and Society in Roth, G. and Wittich, C. U of Cal Press). Ethnicity refers to people, their religion, languages, traditions, and heritage. Much of what we discussed in the Culture chapter applies to one’s ethnicity as well as one’s race. One very important US ethnic classification is Hispanic; a category that was developed by the US Census Bureau to describe people of “Latin” origin and their descendents (see description in U.S. Census Bureau Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data. www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/compraceho.html ). Hispanic, as a categorical classification is at best an ambiguous one because there are 19 countries between Mexico and South America (including a few Spanish-speaking island nations) and 1 country in Europe-Spain that could be a nation of origin for Hispanic persons and their ancestors. By the way, Brazilians are South Americans, but their national language is Portuguese and their most common ancestral heritage is African. Are they or are they not Hispanic? Also French speaking Haitians come from the same island nation as Spanish speaking Dominicans. Aren’t both Hispanic? “Hispanic” as a Census Bureau concept often leads to ambiguous conclusions and you’d do well to remember that the concept was created in an attempt to count US citizens with ethnic sensitivity. To assume homogeneity, or very similar cultural traits, among all US Hispanics is a mistake. The same mistake is made when people classify all US Whites as being homogeneous. But, there is a reason that Hispanic is an important concept. Basically, it identifies a category of sub-cultures within the mainstream US population of Spanish-speaking members (albeit a very diverse collective).
Minorities and Dominant Members of Society
In US history there have been two basic groupings of citizens: Minority and Dominant. A minority group is a group living within a society which is disadvantaged in terms of power, control of their own lives, and wealth . The US minority groups were originally Native Americans and Blacks, but included Irish, Catholics, and many other non-Protestant Non-White groups. Dominant group=is the group within a social system which has more power, control, and wealth. The US dominant group was the British Protestant, also known as White Anglo Saxon Protestants, WASP. The dominant group does not always have to be the most populous group in society.
In South Africa, Blacks were by far the most numerous, yet Whites ruled cruelly with racial supremist ideologies that lead to international outcry and eventual collapse of Apartheid rule there. Apartheid was when South African formalized separateness between Blacks and Whites, mandating White supremacy and privileged treatment between 1948 and 1990 . Apartheid was broken apart by the combined international efforts of other nations who put economic and political pressure on the South Africa Afrikaner National Government.
There are a number of ways the dominant group can treat its minority group members. Legislative controls include: anti-miscegenation laws (no inter-racial marriages); forced or reinforced segregation (keeping dominant and minority group communities separate); legal oppression (slavery, denial of right to vote, no public education, etc.); Expulsion (Cherokee Trail of Tears forced march), unjust incarceration (WWII Japanese internment camps, Native American pre-reservation incarceration, and Guantanamo Bay-GITMO); and finally out right annihilation (conquering Native Americans).
Another slightly more subtle treatment is called Marginalization is the purposeful mistreatment of minority group members that yields them geographically part of the society while simultaneously being functionally left out of most of its opportunities . Marginalization often results in material deprivation and exclusion. Most non-Anglo Saxon groups experienced some level of marginalization in US history.
After years, decades, and generations of living under dominant group oppression, minority group members often reach a point of standing up against the dominant group. This happened among the pro-French minority group members in Quebec, Canada; among the Blacks in South Africa; and among the Blacks in the Southern United States (like Rosa Parks). Many minority group members accept their plight and live with social circumstances regardless of how they really feel inside. Because of their frustration and long-term fatigue they sometimes self-incriminate and accuse self, family, friends, or others in their minority group of negative stereotypes and labels imposed by the dominant group.
Sometimes, minority group members rise up in defiance and become agents of social change. This was the case with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968, see photos below). He has been a personal hero of mine for many decades. You see I, too was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1963. I was privileged to witness the transition years in the South where Blacks were once oppressed by the older generation that included my parents and grandparents and have experienced more and more equality than ever before (there’s still much change to take place and I hope it will happen in my lifetime). As a child my parents forced me to drink from White-only water fountains, my teachers forced me to sit in front of Black students (in classrooms and busses). My coaches forced me to bond to high school teammates, while simultaneously discouraging any after-school interactions with non-Whites. None of that felt right to me and my friends. We felt confused about why our innocent friendships were so tightly regulated by the adults around us.
In my Junior year in high school (about 1980) the KKK distributed flyers announcing a huge rally in downtown Douglassville, Georgia. The best word I could find to describe to you our feelings as students at Lithia Springs High School was confusion. Their anger and hate did not make sense to us. Friendships and associations were laden by an uninvited awkwardness that sat like smog in the classrooms and hallways. The big day of the rally came, the local and national media showed up, but as I remember it only about 12 participants came to the rally and they were already affiliated with the KKK. Day-to-day functioning eventually returned to our school, yet we learned a lesson that adults could be stupid at times and we had to watch and protect ourselves around them. So, perhaps you can better see why Martin Luther King Jr. is my hero?
Martin Luther King’s life and accomplishments were remarkable even before he became the most influential civil rights change agent in the United States. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1948. He earned another Bachelor’s degree in Divinity in 1951, then his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in 1955. He became a pastor in 1954 at the age of 25 (see http://www.thekingcenter.org ). He had a unique ability to ignite a passion for unity among all people, even the White dominant group. He took a Functional approach (as opposed to the more common Conflict approach). In Table 2, you can read how he utilized his principles of Non-violent resistance to evil. These core principles guide civil rights efforts in our day:
Table 2. Martin Luther King Jr’s Principles of Non-Violent Resistance
- We should all be active in using non violent resistance to evil (racism)
- We should not seek to defeat our enemy but to win his friendship and understanding
- We should focus on attacking evil rather than those doing the evil
- We should be willing to accept suffering as part of the social change process and not retaliate for it
- We should refuse to hate our opponents
- We should act with a firm hope that justice will prevail
This photo is of the east wall of my office on campus. My collection of Martin Luther King, Jr. posters, paintings, clocks, and quotes is important to me and often impresses students enough that they ask me why I have such a collection. That opens the door for me to talk about his concepts, speeches, sermons, efforts, and leadership. Students and faculty have contributed some of my collection after they understand my respect for Dr. King. Many signatures are on the backs of these, including the late Yolanda King who signed a postcard for me when she spoke on our campus. On the gold-framed drawing above, you’ll notice a post card stuffed in its lower left side of the frame. That’s an autographed card given to me by Yolonda (she passed away 15, May 2007).
Prejudice and Discrimination
One of the mighty principles taught by Martin Luther King Jr. was hope for a positive and mutually beneficial outcome. He urged those who followed his example to see evil for what it was, yet hope for things to end on the side of good. In this next section of discussion we will talk about how to build bridges between racial, ethnic, life style, cultural and other divers groups of people. To do that, we must define the difference in prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is attitudinal. Discrimination is behavioral. Prejudice may be a feeling, thought, or even a predisposition towards others. Discrimination may be speech, mistreatment, illegal or legal, and behavioral (our actions). A modern-day Psychologist named Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967) wrote a profound piece called The Nature of Prejudice (1979, Perseus Books). You can now buy the 25th edition for less than $20.00 online. Yes, it’s been around that long and has made a tremendous impact on students and faculty for many years. In his book he classifies prejudice into three broad levels: Cognitive Level of Prejudice refers to our perceptions and beliefs and is based on logical and rational thoughts ; Emotional Level of Prejudice refers to prejudiced feelings which are aroused by expression or thoughts ; Action-Orientation Level of Prejudice is a predisposition to act in favor of or against certain groups .
At the cognitive level prejudice, thoughts are the vehicle for carrying the prejudice. Stereotypes go hand in hand with this level. Stereotypes are broad generalizations about a category of people who are assumed to have positive and negative traits common to every single member of that category . I’ve taught race and minority relations for about 20 years at the college level. Many of my students will sincerely ask me if a certain racial or ethnic group is: “more likely to be drunk, more likely to be violent, built with genetically superior muscles and tendons, are good at math, have a gene for dancing, or are built to make babies.” Inevitably, I’ll get around to asking them where they heard such notions and typically it came from someone they trusted (teachers, coaches, family, friends). Thoughts can be painful to those victimized by this type of prejudice.
Shortly after 9-11, our young children were trying to sell our pedigreed toy poodles. The sales were slow in coming because of the economic state of things. The typical client who purchased them was middle class, wealthy and interested in companionship more than making a profit (most had them spaded or neutered). We posted flyers on community billboards and sold all but one (which eventually was donated to an older couple). One day I walked past our flyer only to discover that it had been written on (see photo below). “White Trash Breeder…7 million unwanted animals killed every year shame on you,” it read. This is an example of cognitive prejudice. It is also an act of discrimination because the person wrote (acted) on their prejudiced feelings. I’ll explain more about this below.
Emotional prejudice includes our feelings, fears, hopes, joys, jealousies, and other emotions. The concept of relative deprivation applies and often underlies emotional based prejudices. Relative Deprivation is the perception of not being the rightful beneficiary of something a person feels entitled to receive . I once had a student try to explain to me why his father couldn’t get good work because of immigrants who would be willing to bid jobs at lower cost to the builders and often win the bid. As I discussed it with him I learned that his father’s price per hour was very high by most standards. I also learned that his father typically worked 40-60 hours per week and was off only when he took vacations. I also learned that he had felt fear once at a football game when he was confronted by people who looked and talked like the immigrants that were the cause of his feeling of being deprived. He was very discontent, yet really had no reason to be. His father’s meal-time anti-immigration discussions had left him feeling that perhaps his own food was being taken from their table by the immigrant laborers.
Once a person feels relative deprivation, then choose to become the victim, they make those who are the focus of their deprivation (the perceived cause) into perpetrators. This in turn justifies their prejudice and at times their discrimination against others. In general, emotional prejudice can be very dangerous because when we are emotional, we are typically feeling rather than using our complex rational thinking processes. Sometimes individuals, mobs, and hostile groups act dangerous when emotional prejudice is felt.
Allport’s action-orientation levels simply mean that people are predisposed to prejudice and may not know it until circumstances present themselves in such a way that their prejudices emerge. I had a dear friend who died from cancer a few years ago. She was and to this day has been my best friend on campus. She and her husband had children my age and they considered me as a younger friend like unto their children. When their youngest son met a Japanese-Korean young lady and fell in love, he brought her home to meet them. She explained to me that she and her husband were very troubled and realized that in their generation people just didn’t marry across racial and ethnic lines. After long discussions with one another and their children, they apologized to their daughter-in-law to be and were forgiven by her for their prejudices. Years after the wedding and the arrival of their new grandson, she expressed to me the joy and love she felt for her daughter-in-law and how she felt like she was truly as close to her as she was to her own daughter.
I received a call, later from her husband, informing me that she had died suddenly. He asked me to speak at her funeral alongside her sons. At the viewing, I noticed the daughter-in-law, quietly crying in the corner of the room. It was her individual way to grieve alone. I intruded on the moment and visited with her. Because I had shared an office with her mother-in-law, I was able to communicate some of my friend’s thoughts and feelings toward her. This helped her to grieve and feel peace at her time of loss. I later reflected on how courageous and humble my friend and her husband were to take ownership of their prejudices, admit wrong, and work toward managing it by loving and supporting their son and daughter-in-law. It was a win-win outcome.
How Can We Overcome Prejudice?
You may have already wondered, what’s the differences in prejudice, stereotypes, and my own personal preferences? I had a student ask me, “If I don’t like Chinese food, does that make me prejudiced?” I think this was a sincere question. I explained that it does not make her prejudiced to simply prefer one food over another, one genre of film over another, or one style of car over another. See the Figure 4 below.
The best way to understand prejudiced thinking is to understand the concept of categorical thinking. Categorical Thinking is the human cognitive process of storing and retrieving information in sections of our memory that are highly associated with one another . For example, read this list: awake, dream, snore, bed, eat, slumber, sound, wake, and night.
Now pick the single best word that categorically fits into this list: computer, wheel, or sleep. Most of my students pick sleep because it so highly related to the original list of concepts. The point is, we think in associations and categories. That’s why if you get wheeled into an emergency room with a fever, side ache, perspiration, and nausea that suddenly hit, doctors suspect Appendicitis. Categorical thinking saves lives, helps you to pass tests, and keeps students employed when their bosses see them as good employees. It is true that categorical thinking makes it so we can function, but it also is the thinking process which underlies prejudice and stereotypes in our relationships. The key is to control categorical thinking, prejudices, and stereotypes.
First, you have to do some self-analysis and discover where you might have learned your prejudices. Many people are taught prejudice from: family, friends, teachers, religious leaders, television, internet, and other agents and agencies of socialization. It’s feels strange to think that family might teach other family members to be prejudiced, but this may be one of the more common sources. In the 1949 musical, South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, wrote a gutsy song called “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught…to hate and fear, to be afraid..and to hate all the people your relatives hate.” (retrieved 12 June, 2008 from www.lyrics007.com/print.php?id=TkRRNE1USTM ).
For the year 1949, this was in truth a very gutsy song that proved to be way ahead of its time. Yet, it impacted a great many people who watched the movie. Without knowing that science would someday prove these lyrics to be true as a far as how children do come to be prejudiced, Rodgers and Hammerstein were years in front of the Civil Rights movement in the US. Socialization of Prejudice is learning prejudice from people we look up to (family, relatives, teachers, etc...) .
Another source of our prejudices is the social structural source. Social Structure Origin of Prejudice occurs when prejudice is built into the group, community, and social institutional components of society . This was the case in public education when Blacks and Whites were segregated in their churches, schools, workplaces, and other agency-level social environments. Few questioned it because it appeared to be part of the world-taken-for-granted.
There is also, the Competition Origin of Prejudice occurs when members of one group feel threatened and or deprived by members of another group for limited resources . This ties in well with the concept of relative deprivation. When groups of people feel that they are losing at the expense of other groups’ gains, it breeds and fuels competitive hostility at numerous levels. I often teach my students to remember as managers not to create competitions in the workplace among their employees. Create competition between companies or factories, but if competition is fostered between group members, it can easily lead to prejudice and hostility.
Interdependence is the dependence on others for support in order to be able to succeed . This principle works just the opposite of competition (see the “Jigsaw Method” at olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/coop/page4.html ). One can create a non-prejudiced environment by creating mutual dependence among individuals who are vested in the success of themselves and their group—if the individual’s success depends upon the group’s success. Prejudices can also originate from negative interactions with members of a certain group that are distorted overtime and become applied to the category of all group members.
Once you get an idea of where your own prejudices came from you can employ proven strategies for managing them. First and foremost, you are the only one who can manage your personal prejudices. The same is true for me. I have been frustrated for decades trying to help my own socially significant others to see the wisdom that comes with refusing to be prejudiced. For the most part, I have failed in my attempts with them. Ultimately, it boils down to an old joke (not sure who came up with it):
“How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? It only takes one, but the bulb has to really want to be changed” ☺ (I never claimed it to be a funny joke). But, the point is people change their ways when they are ready to change their ways. I’m glad I tried to help with that change, but have only succeeded thus far in managing my own prejudices. Here are a few principles that may be very useful if you are trying to manage prejudices and stereotypes.
First, interact with others on the personal, not the categorical level. Martin Luther King Jr. said:
"I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day livce in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"
Retrieved 12 June, 2008 from http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html ).
His point toward the end, about his four little children living in a nation where “they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” is speaking to the fact that to really judge character you must interact personally, not categorically (color of their skin). The safest and most proven way to interact with another at the personal level is to share trusted feelings and thoughts with others while simultaneously have similar thoughts and feelings be shared back with you. You might replace “the, they, theirs,” or the labels we use such as Black, Whites, etc. with you, me, I, my, or the name of the individual. The personal level quiets the categorical thinking process. You can’t use stereotypes if you are genuinely getting to know and trust another person. Scarcely does a day go by that I am not proud of the US 2008 national Presidential election. In it we had a woman, Black man, and 2 traditional White men on the Presidential and Vic-Presidential tickets.
Now, regardless of who you wanted to win or may have voted for, to some of us old folks born in the 1960s there is a deep sense of joy that the country finally followed Dr. King’s counsel to judge a candidate on his or her character. President Obama symbolically represents the death of old school US ideological racism and has lifted our nation’s standing among many nations of the world which have traditionally elected qualified people regardless of race, color, sex, creed, lifestyles, etc.
Second, find the common ground shared between you and others. Ask questions, share information and look for the experiences, exact or similar, that connect you both on common shared backgrounds. Third, if you say or do something offensive to another, talk about it and apologize. Learn from your mistakes. One prejudiced thought or feeling does not a bigot make. Fourth, find someone you can relate to who has managed their prejudices successfully, then let them be a role model.
We discussed discrimination above, but it needs to be revisited here. Discrimination includes behaviors which result in the unfair or unequal treatment of others . Discrimination is an action (not just a feeling or thought) that typically has two forms: De Jure Discrimination is legalized discrimination which is typically built into the social structure ; and De Facto Discrimination is the actual experience of members of society with discrimination .
Even though discrimination is illegal, it still occurs in the US. People, at times, still aren’t served in restaurants, allowed to lodge in motels, or are refused employment. Not all discrimination can be detected much less punished. In the US history of race relations tremendous injustices have been meted out against minority group members by dominant group members and organizations. Most of these will never see justice for their losses.
One extreme form of discrimination is the hate crime.  The FBI estimates that fewer than 10,000 Hate Crimes occur each year in the US. But this is highly deceptive because most hate crimes are not reported and are not required to be reported as in the case of all other crimes in the FBI Uniform Crime Report (see Beirich 2007 Taken form Internet 10 June 2008 from www.splcenter.org/blog/2007/11/19/fbi-releases-hate-crime-statistics/ )
Two FBI researchers, John R. Schafer and Joe Navarro discussed the hate process for individuals and groups; they published a ground-breaking report on understanding hate and those who criminally perpetrate it (see from www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2003/mar2003/mar03leb.htm ) .

Many hate crime perpetrators are not members of hate groups. They tend to be young, white, from poorer families, and have very weak self-concepts. Their hate crimes are the result of their compensating for their insecurities by making victims out of others (see “Why Do Young Men Commit Hate Crimes?” NPR News and Notes 23 June 2006 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5506152 ).
Also, many of these perpetrators utilize secondary justification where they try before, during, and after the assault to prove to themselves and others that they were the victims and not the perpetrators. They lie to police, they react to negative coverage in the media as being an act of aggression, and they self-deceive in terms of what an offense is. For example, when they are out about town they feel that they have been violated to have to see in public an interracial or same sex couple or immigrant. They tell the police, “they started it.” In fact nothing was started outside the minds of the perpetrators. Many seek out and cruise for potential victims in places they are likely to hang out. The most common form of hate Crime is the: Anti-Black, Anti-homosexual/Lesbian, Anti-Jewish, then Anti-Ethnic and anti-religious (see table at FBI.gov retrieved from Internet 10 June 2008 from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/table1.html ).


11.3: Goodness-of-Fit (1 of 2)
Learning Objectives
- Conduct a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Interpret the conclusion in context.
In this section, we learn a new hypothesis test called the chi-square goodness-of-fit test . A goodness-of-fit test determines whether or not the distribution of a categorical variable in a sample fits a claimed distribution in the population.
We can answer the following research questions with a chi-square goodness-of-fit test:
- According to the manufacturer of M&M candy, the color distribution for plain chocolate M&Ms is 13% brown, 13% red, 14% yellow, 24% blue, 20% orange, and 16% green. Do the M&Ms in our sample suggest that the color distribution is different?
- During the presidential election of 2008, the Pew Research Center collected survey data that suggested that 24% of registered voters were liberal, 38% were moderate, and 38% were conservative. Is the distribution of political views different this year?
- The distribution of blood types for whites in the United States is 45% type O, 41% type A, 10% type B, and 4% type AB. Is the distribution of blood types different for Asian Americans?
The null hypothesis states a specific distribution of proportions for each category of the variable in the population. The alternative hypothesis says that the distribution is different from that stated in the null hypothesis. To test our hypotheses, we select a random sample from the population and determine the distribution of the categorical variable in the data. Of course, we need a method for comparing the observed distribution in the sample to the expected distribution stated in the null hypothesis.
Example
Distribution of Color in Plain M&M Candies
According to the manufacturer of M&M candy, the color distribution for plain chocolate M&Ms is 13% brown, 13% red, 14% yellow, 24% blue, 20% orange, 16% green. This statement about the distribution of color in plain M&Ms is the null hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis says that this is not the distribution.
- H 0 : The color distribution for plain M&Ms is 13% brown, 13% red, 14% yellow, 24% blue, 20% orange, 16% green.
- H a : The color distribution for plain M&Ms is different from the distribution stated in the null hypothesis.
We select a random sample of 300 plain M&M candies to test these hypotheses. If the sample has the distribution of color stated in the null hypothesis, then we expect 13% of the 300 to be brown, 13% of 300 to be red, 14% of 300 to be yellow, 24% of 300 to be blue, and so on. Here are the expected counts of each color for a sample of 300 candies:
Of course, the distribution of color will vary in different samples, so we need to develop a way to measure how far a sample distribution is from the null distribution, something analogous to a z -score or T-score. Before we discuss this new measure, let’s look at two random samples selected from the null distribution to practice recognizing different amounts of variability. We can compare the distributions visually using ribbon charts.
Which random sample deviates the most from the null distribution? We address this question in the next activity.
Try It
Observed Counts for Two Random Samples
Here are the observed counts for the two random samples shown above. This is the same information shown in the ribbon charts.
Statisticians use the following formula to measure how far the observed data are from the null distribution. It is called the chi-square test statistic . The Greek letter chi is written χ.
Notes about this formula:
- Recall that the symbol ∑ means sum. Each category contributes a term to the sum, so the chi-square test statistic is based on the entire distribution. If the categorical variable has six categories, then the chi-square test statistic has six terms. If the categorical variable has three categories, then the chi-square test statistic has three terms, and so on.
- Notice that the difference “observed minus expected” for each category is part of the formula, but each difference is squared. This is necessary because the differences will add to 0, as we saw in the previous activity.
- Notice also that each squared difference is divided by the expected count for that category. The chi-square test statistic looks at the difference between the observed and expected counts relative to the size of the expected count.
Example
Calculating χ2
For Sample 1, the chi-square test statistic is approximately 12.94. For Sample 2, the chi-square test statistic is approximately 1.53. Usually, we use technology to calculate χ 2 , but here we show two calculations in detail to illustrate how the formula works. Notice that we are adding six terms. Each term represents the deviation for one color category.
Comment: In Sample 1, notice that both blue and green observed counts deviate from the expected counts by 10 candies. But green contributes more to the chi-square test statistic. This makes sense because the chi-square test statistic measures relative difference. Relative to the expected count of 48 green candies, an absolute error of 10 is large. It is almost 20% of the expected count. (10/48 is about 0.20). The squared difference relative to the expected count is 100/48, about 2.08. Relative to the expected count of 72 blue candies, an error of 10 candies is smaller. It is only about 14% of the expected count (10/72 is about 0.14). The squared difference relative to the expected count is 100/72, about 1.39.
Here is the chi-square calculation for Sample 2.
Calculating χ 2
Contributors and Attributions
- Concepts in Statistics. Provided by : Open Learning Initiative. Located at : http://oli.cmu.edu . License : CC BY: Attribution


15.1: Overview
We start this chapter by looking at technologies that led to genetic engineering . The ability of make recombinant DNA is such a seminal technology that just realizing it could be done and then doing it in a test tube for the first time earned Paul berg a half-share in the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the other half was shared by Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger for studies that enabled efficient DNA sequencing ). First we’ll look at cDNA synthesis, the synthesis of DNA copies from RNA, something retroviruses routinely do as part of the pathway of their reproduction. The retrovirus injects its RNA into target cells where it transcribes a reverse transcriptase enzyme. The enzyme reversetranscribes a copy DNA (the cDNA) complementary to the viral RNA. The First steps in retroviral infection is summarized in the illustration below.
The same reverse transcriptase enzyme makes a double stranded cDNA, or (ds)cDNA, which then replicates. These cDNAs are transcribed into new viral RNA genomes and mRNAs for viral proteins. The latter encapsulate the RNA genomes into new viruses. Reverse transcriptase is now a laboratory tool, used to reverse transcribe cDNA from virtually any RNA sequence. It, along with many viral, bacterial and even eukaryotic enzymes and biomolecules, are now part of our recombinant DNA and genetic engineering toolkit.
We will see how a cDNA library is made and screened for a cDNA clone , and how a cloned cDNA can fish an entire gene out of a genomic library . Next we will see how the polymerase chain reaction ( PCR ) can produce (amplify) millions of copies of a single gene (or other DNA sequence) from as little DNA as is found in a single cell. Apart from its well-publicized use in forensics, PCR is another important laboratory tool for fetching, amplifying and studying sequences of interest. These venerable technologies illustrate important principles of cloning and sequence analysis. Of course, the analysis of traditionally cloned and amplified DNA sequences has been used to study the evolution and expression of individual genes. And sometimes we are misled! For example, knowing that a genetic mutation is associated with an illness usually leads to a search for how the mutation might cause the illness. But, as researchers in any discipline keep warning us, correlation is not causation! In fact, we know that many phenotypes, including genetic disease, are not the result of a single mutant gene. Autism is just one example.
The newer fields of genomics and proteomics leverage a growing battery of powerful tools to study many genes and their regulatory networks at the same time. The molecular networking made possible by genomics and proteomics (and other colorful holistic terms we’ll discuss later) promise to get us past naïve and often incorrect notions of causation. We may be soon able to identify many correlations that might sum up to causation or propensity to genetic illness.


3.7: Chromatically Altered Subdominant Chords
The most common chromatically altered subdominant chords (aside from the applied dominant of V) are the Neapolitan chord and the various augmented-sixth chords .
Neapolitan chord
The Neapolitan chord contains lowered scale-degree 2, along with scale-degree 4, and lowered scale-degree 6: ra , fa , and le . It is a major triad, and it usually appears with fa in the bass (first-inversion), which is also doubled in a four-voice texture.
In a Roman numeral analysis, N. (or N. 6 ) substitutes for a Roman numeral (that is, it is not labeled a flat-II chord in classical music). As a chromatically altered subdominant chord, it always expresses subominant function ( S ).
In a functional bass analysis, N. is placed below the functional designation of [S4] .
Several prominent Neapolitan chords occur in “Der Müller und der Bach” from Schubert’s song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (song no. 19). On the score below (mm. 7–10 of the song), the tonic triad (G minor) is followed by a Neapolitan, then a dominant-seventh chord, and then tonic: T – S – D – T.
Augmented-sixth chords
Augmented-sixth chords are so named because of the augmented sixth that occurs between le and fi , two scale-degrees that are present in every augmented-sixth chord. The other pitch(es) in the chord determine which kind of augmented-sixth chord is present.
Italian augmented-sixth chord
The Italian augmented-sixth chord is the simplest augmented-sixth chord, with only three members: le , do , and fi . Le is typically the bass note, and in a four-voice texture, do is typically the pitch that is doubled. (Keep in mind that you do not double the bass in a chord of the sixth, nor a chromatically altered tone such as fi . Thus, do remains as the only tone that can be doubled in strict style, and this doubling typically carries into freer styles, as well.)
In a Roman numeral analysis, It. replaces a Roman numeral. The figured bass is a simple slashed “6.” It expresses subdominant function S ).
When le occurs in the bass, the functional-bass designation is [S6] . Under that functional bass symbol, we also label the chord It.
The following example is from Beethoven’s Bagatelle, Op. 119, No. 1, mm. 1–4. In m. 3, the Italian augmented-sixth chord falls on beat 3, immediately before the dominant chord.
French augmented-sixth chord
The French augmented-sixth chord has four members: le , do , re , and fi . As in the Italian sixth, le is typically the bass note.
In a Roman numeral analysis, Fr. replaces a Roman numeral. The figured bass is a slashed “6” with a “4” and a “3.” It expresses subdominant function S ).
When le occurs in the bass, the functional-bass designation is [S6] . Under that functional bass symbol, we also label the chord Fr.
The following example is from Mozart’s String Quartet, “Dissonance,” K. 465, iv., mm. 10–16. The French augmented-sixth chord occurs on beat 2 of m. 14. In this passage, a “milder” subdominant chord ( IV 6 ) progresses to the more intense French sixth, which progresses into the cadential 6/4 before the final V–I.
German augmented-sixth chord
The German augmented-sixth chord has four members: le , do , me , and fi . As in the other augmented sixth chords, le is typically the bass note.
In a Roman numeral analysis, Ger. replaces a Roman numeral. The figured bass is a slashed “6” with a “5.” It expresses subdominant function S ).
When le occurs in the bass, the functional-bass designation is [S6] . Under that functional bass symbol, we also label the chord Ger.
The German sixth is almost always used in minor and followed by a cadential 6/4 chord, with me and do carrying over into the cadential 6/4.
In Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109, iii., a German augmented-sixth chord occurs on the last beat of m. 7 and carries over into m. 8 before releasing tension into the half cadence at the end of m. 8.
Swiss augmented-sixth chord
The Swiss augmented-sixth chord has four members: le , do , ri , and fi . This chord is named “Swiss” because it sounds German but is spelled like the French. ( ri in place of me ) (Switzerland has a mixture of German-, French-, Italian-, and Romansch-based languages, with German and French being the largest.) Le is typically the bass note.
In a Roman numeral analysis, Sw. replaces a Roman numeral. The figured bass is a slashed “6” with a slashed “4” and a “3.” It expresses subdominant function S ).
When le occurs in the bass, the functional-bass designation is [S6] . Under that functional bass symbol, we also label the chord Sw.
Like the German sixth, the Swiss augmented-sixth is almost always followed by a cadential 6/4 chord. However, the Swiss chord tends to appear in major keys, with ri proceeding to mi and do carrying over into the cadential 6/4.


10.6: BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
Key Concepts
As for the design of a building for sacred purposes, its many features will be determined by the requirements of specific rituals and cult usage. Meeting individual or community needs determines the most defining elements of design and plan. If a space is needed for a large gathering, it might be accomplished either out-of-doors or within a building. If an outdoor arrangement serves the purposes, it may or may not require a building, as well. For instance, as we noted with Greek temples, the cult rituals were performed in the open area outside the structure that housed the deity. Similarly, Buddhist stupas were set into a complex where devotees could approach the stupa itself, as well as visit any of the subsidiary shrines or other buildings around it. Some of them might house cult statues for deities or include libraries for scriptures, treasuries, dining halls, or other features of use or interest. Often the grounds of a sacred complex will emphasize natural features of the settings used for contemplation, such as gardens or wooded pathways, fountains, pools, and lakes. These might include careful and meaningful arrangements of statues, iconic im- agery, or rocks, trees, and plants. Monastery complexes often provide for all the activities needed to sustain the community, providing for their sacred and social activities in community and indi- vidually, while also making accommodation for visitors.
Art and architecture, from the earliest times, have been used to express human beliefs about life and death, as well as to provide for worship, burial, and memorial needs. Basic differences in worship centers are related to ritual purposes and the forms provide for rites that are performed by individuals or congregations. The settings and décor will express the distinctive doctrine and beliefs of the sect that worships there. Burial sites and centers reflect both the customs for treatment of human remains and the beliefs about what will happen to the individuals after death.
Objects created for worship centers and for individual contemplation and devotion are also designed to refer to specific beliefs and to inspire believers in religious practices. Both the religious architecture and the artworks also serve to emphasize and glorify the central beings and concepts of the belief system, often with elaborate or lavish artistic expression.
Test Yourself
- Discuss some of the implications we can draw from the use of grave goods by citing three specific examples and their meanings.
- Name several ways in which customs and practice for burial and commemoration affect the creation of art and architecture.
- Describe the ritual use of tribal masks in different cultures.
- Describe the specific features of artworks in two different cultures that show their belief that gods reside in the heavens.
- Describe the uses and meanings of effigy mounds.
- Discuss specific ways in which religious complexes address astronomical features at two or three different sites.
- Discuss at least three art or architectural works that are specifically related to ritual use and describe the ways that they work in this regard.
- Describe the ways and the reasons that some religious groups use or reject artwork that includes figural imagery for sacred context and its results for the artwork they use.
- Consider the use of precious and luxurious materials for ritual art objects and cite examples, discussing their specific meanings.
KEY TERMS
Altar: a sacrificial or offertory table.
Animist: the belief that spirits are associated with objects in the natural world.
Burial Mounds: early cultural collections of skeletal remains and grave goods.
Cromlech: a circular arrangement of megaliths.
Dolmen: a large upright stone or marker.
Effigy Mounds: earth mounds formed in the shape of animals or symbols.
Egungun: a general term for Yoruba masquerade rituals.
Elevated Platform: a raised area intended to confer status.
Gateway: a structure intended to mark a passage from one state, world, or phase to another.
Grave Goods: artifacts interred with deceased members of family or tribes.
Imam: Islamic prayer leader, the one charged with the duty to issue the call to prayer at appointed times.
Mandala: a ritual diagram with cosmic significance. Used by many different religions, and either circular or containing circular components, often designed for contemplation of specific teachings or tenets related to the particular belief system. varieties are used in diverse sects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American tribal worship, and others.
Mausolea: plural of mausoleum. An above-ground structure designed for entombment of the deceased.
Megalith: literally, “large stone.”
Minaret: a tower, usually tall and slender, associated with a mosque and signifying Islamic presence in a location.
Pagoda: a Buddhist structure in China, Japan, elsewhere that signifies the practice of Buddhism in that place. The form evolved from the burial mound conception of the Stupa that appeared in India as the primary structural symbol of the belief system, as it spread to China and took on the native architectural form of the watchtower.
Portal: an exceptionally grand entrance, most often referring to cathedral or other church architecture.
Ritual Mask: masks designed to be used in religious or secular ceremonial events.
Sacred Interior: interior spaces devoted to ritual or ceremony invoking a highest good.
Sacred:
held as a highest good.
Sarcophagi:
plural of sarcophagus – a burial container, usually of stone or other masonry
material, often embellished with sculptural decoration.
Stonehenge: a famous arrangement of vertical stones from prehistoric Britain.
Stupa: a Buddhist monument signifying the presence of relics of Sakyamuni Buddha or sacred objects associated with the beliefs. Formed of an earthen mound, faced with brick, stone, or stucco. Worshippers circumambulate outside the stupa, rather than enter it.
Temple Mound: earthen mounds formed to elevate a ceremony, ritual, or elite.
Terra Cotta: porous low fired ceramic.
Terracotta Army: famous arrangement of 6,000 clay soldiers meant to guard the grave of the first emperor of China.
Toranas: stone structures placed at the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi and at other stupa sites which form gateways to the circular path around the stupa.


14.4: Reflexes
A reflex is a rapid automatic response to a stimulus.  It happens without you having to think about it. Animals automatically blink when an object approaches the eye and cats twist their bodies in the air when falling so they land on their paws. (Please don’t test this one at home with your pet cat!).
Swallowing, sneezing, and the constriction of the pupil of the eye in bright light are also all reflex actions.
The path taken by the nerve impulses in a reflex is called a reflex arc . Most reflex arcs involve only three neurons (see diagram 14.4). The stimulus (a pin in the paw) stimulates the pain receptors of the skin, which initiate an impulse in a sensory neuron. This travels to the spinal cord where it passes, by means of a synapse, to a connecting neuron called the relay neuron situated in the spinal cord. The relay neuron in turn makes a synapse with one or more motor neurons that transmit the impulse to the muscles of the limb causing them to contract and remove the paw from the sharp object. Reflexes do not require involvement of the brain although you are aware of what is happening and can, in some instances, prevent them happening. Animals are born with their reflexes. You can think of them as being wired in.
Diagram 14.4 - A reflex arc
Conditioned Reflexes
In most reflexes the stimulus and response are related. For example the presence of food in the mouth causes the salivary glands to release saliva. However, it is possible to train animals (and humans) to respond to different and often quite irrelevant stimuli. This is called a conditioned reflex .
A Russian biologist called Pavlov carried out the classic experiment to demonstrate such a reflex when he conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell ringing. Almost every pet owner can identify reflexes they have conditioned in their animals. Perhaps you have trained your cat to associate food with the opening of the fridge door or accustomed your dog to the routines you go through before taking them for a walk.


2.2.3: Using Equations to Solve Problems
Lesson
Let's use equations to solve problems involving proportional relationships.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): Number Talk: Quotients with Decimal Points
Without calculating, order the quotients of these expressions from least to greatest.
\(42.6\div 0.07\)
\(42.6\div 70\)
\(42.6\div 0.7\)
\(426\div 70\)
Place the decimal point in the appropriate location in the quotient: \(42.6\div 7=608571\)
Use this answer to find the quotient of one of the previous expressions.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\): Concert Ticket Sales
A performer expects to sell 5,000 tickets for an upcoming concert. They want to make a total of $311,000 in sales from these tickets.
- Assuming that all tickets have the same price, what is the price for one ticket?
- How much will they make if they sell 7,000 tickets?
- How much will they make if they sell 10,000 tickets? 50,000? 120,000? a million? \(x\) tickets?
- If they make $404,300, how many tickets have they sold?
- How many tickets will they have to sell to make $5,000,000?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\): Recycling
Aluminum cans can be recycled instead of being thrown in the garbage. The weight of 10 aluminum cans is 0.16 kilograms. The aluminum in 10 cans that are recycled has a value of $0.14.
- If a family threw away 2.4 kg of aluminum in a month, how many cans did they throw away? Explain or show your reasoning.
- What would be the recycled value of those same cans? Explain or show your reasoning.
- Write an equation to represent the number of cans \(c\) given their weight \(w\).
- Write an equation to represent the recycled value \(r\) of \(c\) cans.
- Write an equation to represent the recycled value \(r\) of \(w\) kilograms of aluminum.
Are you ready for more?
The EPA estimated that in 2013, the average amount of garbage produced in the United States was 4.4 pounds per person per day. At that rate, how long would it take your family to produce a ton of garbage? (A ton is 2,000 pounds.)
Summary
Remember that if there is a proportional relationship between two quantities, their relationship can be represented by an equation of the form \(y=kx\). Sometimes writing an equation is the easiest way to solve a problem.
For example, we know that Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America, is 20,300 feet above sea level. How many miles is that? There are 5,280 feet in 1 mile. This relationship can be represented by the equation
\(f=5,280m\)
where \(f\) represents a distance measured in feet and \(m\) represents the same distance measured miles. Since we know Denali is 20,310 feet above sea level, we can write
\(20,310=5,280m\)
So \(m=\frac{20,310}{5,280}\), which is approximately 3.85 miles.
Practice
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)
A car is traveling down a highway at a constant speed, described by the equation \(d=65t\), where \(d\) represents the distance, in miles, that the car travels at this speed in \(t\) hours.
- What does the 65 tell us in this situation?
- How many miles does the car travel in 1.5 hours?
- How long does it take the car to travel 26 miles at this speed?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
Elena has some bottles of water that each holds 17 fluid ounces.
- Write an equation that relates the number of bottles of water (\(b\)) to the total volume of water (\(w\)) in fluid ounces.
- How much water is in 51 bottles?
- How many bottles does it take to hold 51 fluid ounces of water?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
There are about 1.61 kilometers in 1 mile. Let \(x\) represent a distance measured in kilometers and \(y\) represent the same distance measured in miles. Write two equations that relate a distance measured in kilometers and the same distance measured in miles.
(From Unit 2.2.2)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
In Canadian coins, 16 quarters is equal in value to 2 toonies.
| number of quarters | number of toonies |
|---|---|
| \(1\) | |
| \(16\) | \(2\) |
| \(20\) | |
| \(24\) |
- Complete the table.
- What does the value next to 1 mean in this situation?
(From Unit 2.1.2)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{8}\)
Each table represents a proportional relationship. For each table:
- Fill in the missing parts of the table.
- Draw a circle around the constant of proportionality.
| \(x\) | \(y\) |
|---|---|
| \(2\) | \(10\) |
| \(15\) | |
| \(7\) | |
| \(1\) |
| \(a\) | \(b\) |
|---|---|
| \(12\) | \(3\) |
| \(20\) | |
| \(10\) | |
| \(1\) |
| \(m\) | \(n\) |
|---|---|
| \(5\) | \(3\) |
| \(10\) | |
| \(18\) | |
| \(1\) |
(From Unit 2.1.2)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{9}\)
Describe some things you could notice in two polygons that would help you decide that they were not scaled copies.
(From Unit 1.1.4)


6.6: Cash Dividends
Cash dividends are corporate earnings that are paid out to stockholders. They are pay payouts of retained earnings, which is accumulated profit. Therefore, cash dividends reduce both the Retained Earnings and Cash account balances.
Cash Dividends is a contra stockholders’ equity account that temporarily substitutes for a debit to the Retained Earnings account. At the end of the accounting period, Cash Dividends is closed to Retained Earnings .
There are three prerequisites to paying a cash dividend: a decision by the Board of Directions, sufficient cash, and sufficient retained earnings.
Cash dividends are only paid on shares outstanding. No dividends are paid on treasury stock, or the corporation would essentially be paying itself.
Three dates are associated with a cash dividend. The
date of declaration
is the date the corporation commits to paying the stockholders. On that date, a liability is incurred and the
Cash Dividends Payable
is used to record the amount owed to the stockholders until the cash is actually paid. The
date of record
is the date on which ownership is determined. Since shares of stock may be traded, the corporation names a specific date, and whoever owns the shares on that date will receive the dividend. There is no journal entry on the date of record. Finally, the
date of payment
is the date the cash is actually paid out to stockholders.
-
Declared a cash dividend of $2 per share on 10,000 shares of preferred stock outstanding (total $20,000) and $.50 per share on 24,000 shares of common stock outstanding (total $12,000). NOTE: The $20,000 for preferred and $12,000 for common dividends can be combined into one journal entry.
Account Debit Credit ▲ Cash Dividends 32,000 (10,000 x $2) + (24,000 x $.50) ▲ Cash Dividends Payable 32,000 ▲ Cash Dividends is a contra stockholders’ equity account that is increasing .
▲ Cash Dividends Payable is a liability account that is increasing .
- Date of Record - no journal entry
-
Paid the amount that had been declared. The Cash Dividends Payable account balance is set to zero.
Account Debit Credit ▼ Cash Dividends Payable 32,000 (10,000 x $2) + (24,000 x $.50) ▼ Cash 32,000 ▼ Cash Dividends Payable is a liability account that is decreasing .
▼ Cash is an asset account that is decreasing .
For example, if a company issued 30,000 shares of common stock, reacquired 10,000 as treasury stock, and then sold 1,000 shares of the Treasury Stock, there would be 21,000 shares outstanding (30,000 - 10,000 + 1,000). If a cash dividend of $2 per share were declared, the total cash dividends would be $42,000 (21,000 x $2).Many times the challenge with dividend declarations is to first determine the number of shares outstanding.


8.16: Glossary
Key Terms:
Administrative orbiting An ineffective strategy for resolving conflict.
Affective conflict Seen in situations where two individuals simply don’t get along with each other.
BATNA An acronym popularised by Roger Fisher and William Ury which stands for ‘Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement’. BATNA answers the question: ‘What would you do if you weren’t able to agree a deal with your negotiation counterparty?’ Your BATNA is the alternative action you’ll take should your proposed agreement fail to materialize.
Behavioral conflict Exists when one person or group does something that is unacceptable to others.
Character assassination An ineffective resolution technique where the person with a conflict attempts to discredit and distance an individual from the others in the group.
Cognitive conflict Can result when one person or group holds ideas or opinions that are inconsistent with those of others.
Conflict The four types of conflict are goal conflict, cognitive conflict, affective conflict, and behavioral conflict.
Constructive confrontation A conflict that leads to a positive result.
Cooperativeness The extent to which someone is interested in helping satisfy the opponent’s concerns.
Distributive bargaining Where the goals of one party are in fundamental and direct conflict with those of the other party. Resources are fixed and limited, and each party wants to maximize its share of these resources.
Due process nonaction The strategy of wearing down a dissatisfied employee while at the same time claiming that resolution procedures are open and available. This technique has been used repeatedly in conflicts involving race and sex discrimination.
Frustration May be caused by a wide variety of factors, including disagreement over performance goals, failure to get a promotion or pay raise, a fight over scarce economic resources, new rules or policies, and so forth.
Goal conflict Can occur when one person or group desires a different outcome than others do. This is simply a clash over whose goals are going to be pursued.
Integrative bargaining Essentially “win-lose” bargaining where the goals of one party are in fundamental and direct conflict with those of the other party. Resources are fixed and limited, and each party wants to maximize its share of these resources.
Intergroup conflict Usually involves disagreements between two opposing forces over goals or the sharing of resources.
Interorganizational conflict Disputes between two companies in the same industry, two companies in different industries or economic sectors, or two or more countries.
Interpersonal conflict Where two individuals disagree on some matter.
Intrapersonal conflict A conflict within one person. Assertiveness - Can range from assertive to unassertive on one continuum.
Jurisdictional ambiguities Situations where it is unclear exactly where responsibility for something lies.
Negotiation The process by which individuals or groups attempt to realize their goals by bargaining with another party who has at least some control over goal attainment.
Resistance price The point beyond which the opponent will not go to reach a settlement.
Status inconsistencies Situations where some individuals have the opportunity to benefit whereas other employees do not. Consider the effects this can have on the nonmanagers’ view of organizational policies and fairness.
Task interdependencies The greater the extent of task interdependence among individuals or groups, the greater the likelihood of conflict if different expectations or goals exist among entities, in part because the interdependence makes avoiding the conflict more difficult.
Third-party consultation An outside consultant that serves as a go-between and can speak more directly to the issues because she is not a member of either group.


21.4.6: Homologous Structures
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Learning Objectives
- Describe the connection between evolution and the appearance of homologous structures
Homologous Structures
Homology is the relationship between structures or DNA derived from the most recent common ancestor. A common example of homologous structures in evolutionary biology are the wings of bats and the arms of primates. Although these two structures do not look similar or have the same function, genetically, they come from the same structure of the last common ancestor. Homologous traits of organisms are therefore explained by descent from a common ancestor.
It’s important to note that defining two structures as homologous depends on what ancestor is being described as the common ancestor. If we go all the way back to the beginning of life, all structures are homologous!
In genetics, homology is measured by comparing protein or DNA sequences. Homologous gene sequences share a high similarity, supporting the hypothesis that they share a common ancestor.
Homology can also be partial: new structures can evolve through the combination of developmental pathways or parts of them. As a result, hybrid or mosaic structures can evolve that exhibit partial homologies. For example, certain compound leaves of flowering plants are partially homologous both to leaves and shoots because they combine some traits of leaves and some of shoots.
Paralogous Structures
Homologous sequences are considered paralogous if they were separated by a gene duplication event; if a gene in an organism is duplicated to occupy two different positions in the same genome, then the two copies are paralogous.
A set of sequences that are paralogous are called paralogs of each other. Paralogs typically have the same or similar function, but sometimes do not. It is considered that due to lack of the original selective pressure upon one copy of the duplicated gene, this copy is free to mutate and acquire new functions.
Paralogous genes often belong to the same species, but not always. For example, the hemoglobin gene of humans and the myoglobin gene of chimpanzees are considered paralogs. This is a common problem in bioinformatics; when genomes of different species have been sequenced and homologous genes have been found, one can not immediately conclude that these genes have the same or similar function, as they could be paralogs whose function has diverged.
Analogous Structures
The opposite of homologous structures are analogous structures, which are physically similar structures between two taxa that evolved separately (rather than being present in the last common ancestor). Bat wings and bird wings evolved independently and are considered analogous structures. Genetically, a bat wing and a bird wing have very little in common; the last common ancestor of bats and birds did not have wings like either bats or birds. Wings evolved independently in each lineage after diverging from ancestors with forelimbs that were not used as wings (terrestrial mammals and theropod dinosaurs, respectively).
It is important to distinguish between different hierarchical levels of homology in order to make informative biological comparisons. In the above example, the bird and bat wings are analogous as wings, but homologous as forelimbs because the organ served as a forearm (not a wing) in the last common ancestor of tetrapods.
Analogy is different than homology. Although analogous characteristics are superficially similar, they are not homologous because they are phylogenetically independent. The wings of a maple seed and the wings of an albatross are analogous but not homologous (they both allow the organism to travel on the wind, but they didn’t both develop from the same structure). Analogy is commonly also referred to as homoplasy.
Key Points
- Homology is a relationship defined between structures or DNA derived from a common ancestor and illustrates descent from a common ancestor.
- Analogous structures are physically (but not genetically) similar structures that were not present the last common ancestor.
- Homology can also be partial; new structures can evolve through the combination or parts of developmental pathways.
- Analogy may also be referred to as homoplasy, which is further divided into parallelism, reversal, and convergence.
Key Terms
- homology : A correspondence of structures in two life forms with a common evolutionary origin, such as flippers and hands.
- analogy : The relationship between characteristics that are apparently similar but did not develop from the same structure
- homoplasy : A correspondence between the parts or organs of different species acquired as the result of parallel evolution or convergence.