The Comparative Essay

Selecting from the following topics and readings, create a research essay of 900 to 1,000 words. Note:
While a research essay normally involves conducting your own research, for this assignment, the research sources are provided (i.e., the readings listed are the research sources to be used). Topics:

1. Choose a basis for comparison and write a comparison of the approaches to the relationship between youth employment and the economy presented in “Can Generation Xers Be Trained?” (page 509) and “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is Showing Signs of Age” (page 520). 2. Compare the way in which the authors use detail to explore the importance of one of the following: family, work, cultural practice, or cultural identity in the two essays “Memories of Montreal—and Richness” (page 150) and “Lend Me Your Light” (page 153 ).

Note-taking:
Can Generation Xers Be trained?
Introduction: Shari Caudron exhibits some procedures that work well at training Generation Xers. Paragraph 1 to 8: Generation Xers are different from other generation groups on values, communication styles, and life experiences. Currently, in fact, Generation X is leading the other generations, so adapting to the needs of training Generation Xers is also gearing to the other age groups. Paragraph 9 to 19 (Who Are These People Anyway?):

Generation Xers are independent and techno literate.
They expect immediate satisfaction.
They distrust companies, so they work at companies just in order to gain experience. They spend time learning something because they have reasons to do so. Trainers focus on outcomes and what Xers can do.

Paragraph 20 to 37 (Pushing the Right Buttons): attention-grabbing To make training experiential – use six senses, role playing, and simulation learning Control learning – manage own time by selecting suitable locations and times Providing multiple ways to learn – put training course contents on different media, and in self-paced manuals and workbooks – let Xers decide how to learn by themselves To develop training materials that provide multiple sources of information at once Make materials eye-catching but simple to catch the key points Paragraph 38 to 41 (Prime Targets): Generation Xers are motivated by job training in order to grow and develop because they desire staying marketable. Also, they are willing to accept continuous education just because they are curious.

Paragraph 42 to 48 (What Generation Gap): There are four elements to adapt the training methods that work well on Generation Xers to all ages. Focus – spotlight final results and let learners get used to take appropriate responsibilities on their jobs. Be flexible – nowadays, people overwork and deal with multiple demands simultaneously, so they need flexible training schedules to fit their work schedules and lives. Emphasize visuals – making eye-catching, highly generalized training materials in order to give the key points quickly since the trainees do not have a lot of time to read through pages of materials. Provide continuous education – young workers do not expect to have lifetime jobs, and old employees also prepare for unanticipated issues. Therefore, they look for the companies that provide continuous education to improve themselves.

The Sweet Bird of Youth Is Showing Signs of Age
Introduction: Andrew Beyak disagrees with the definition of “youth” including people from 18 to 30, and points out that the expanded period of youth may cause the disregard on the problem of unemployment. Paragraph 1 to 3: compared the definitions of “youth” from a dictionary and from corporate, political, and media interests, they are totally different today; the relation between youth and unemployment – corporations and governments avoid the problem of youth unemployment by redefining the term youth. Paragraph 4: all the programs that deal with current problem of youth unemployment are expanded by the federal government to 30 years old. Indeed, the Youth Employment Services Centre in Montreal defines “youth” as people from the age of 16 to 35. Paragraph 5: Through the CBC TV program, “Youth Town Hall”, 18- to 25- years-olds are not considered as mature and responsible adults to be able to decide the fate of their own country, even though they are legally treated as adults and officially have a right to elect.

Paragraph 6 to 7: those who do not think they belong to the youth but are actually described as the youth enjoy the term. Indeed, because the youth have already left a very impressive image that is immature, not hard-working and not greedy, those 20s and early 30s have excuses to be lazy. Moreover even though people who are in the bracket of 18 to 35 have put effort to grow up and distribute themselves to the society, the public just think that it is not the time to pass the responsibilities to the youth. Paragraph 8: youth adults’ weakened expectations of life affect the economy negatively and limit their own social relationships. In addition, the signs of proving people being mature and activities in adulthood are gradually disappeared. Paragraph 9: governments, corporations and the media offer a simple explanation for those young adults who do not have the same rights as what normal adults have in order to replace adult with youth. Also, in the meantime, there is always something with a fixed interest in reality distracting people’s attentions.

Summary:
In the article “Can Generation Xers Be Trained?” Shari Caudron indicated training Generation Xers is different from training other age groups in terms of communication styles and life experiences. Because Generation Xers are independent and very good at completing missions by themselves, the characteristics of this group of people are desiring immediate satisfaction by asking answers and feedback, and distrusting the companies by trying working at different places. In order to train Generation Xers, trainers let them know the outcomes if they learn something, keep their attention by using their six senses, and the skills of role playing and simulation, and provide a mix of educations by audio and videos. Generation Xers are good at self-study and multitasking. Also, Generation Xers look for the jobs with training programs.

In the article “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is showing Signs of Age”, Andrew Beyak pointed out that the term “youth” had become a pronoun as unemployed and underemployed young people, but today there were different hints that governments, corporations and the media used “youth” instead of “adult”. In the federal government’s definition, male residences who are under 30 years old can be defined as youths. Also, during the last federal election campaign, people who were from 18 to 25 years old were had a go at the politicians, which represented that they were no longer treated as youth but adult. However, in fact, the youth still need time to grow up and develop more comprehensively, even though most of them has high education.

Draft 1:
Introduction:
Generation Xers have become the majority of the labour force in today’s society. In fact, it goes back to 1990s. When they were 20s and early 30s, they were motivated by company’s trainers in careers and positively affected in their daily lives. However, they also experienced some suspicion about maturity, knowledge, and responsibility. In these two articles, both talk about the status quo of youth employment and the impacts on economy due to youth employment. The authors have distinct approaches to the relationship between youth employment and the economy, but both approaches are shaped by their performances and influenced on youth employment. Body#1: In “Can Generation Xers Be trained?” Shari Caudron positively thinks Generation Xers can be trained as effective and productive employees if companies can understand them. Actually, Generation Xers are different from other generation groups on values, communication styles, and life experiences. Also, Generation Xers are independent.

They prefer solving problems individually and very good at getting their missions done on their own. To some extent, they distrust companies, so they probably work in the companies because they just find a place to gain new experience. Moreover, they are techno literate. They are used to use new technology to get the jobs done. Thus, they get used to be in a fast-speed condition and they expect immediate satisfaction. Because they are usually doing things fast, they want their time to be in a very effective way. They spend time learning something from training programs or trainers because they have sufficient reasons to do so, or because they desire growing and developing themselves in order to be marketable. However, sometimes they are willing to accept continuous education just because they are curious. Indeed, trainers focus on outcomes and what Xers can do.

In order to fit with their characteristics, companies or trainers can provide experiential training by using their six senses, playing roles and doing simulation. Also, because Generation Xers focus on independence and have their own schedules, the companies organize several locations and times to make the best choices for themselves. In addition, because they emphasize their independences, they keep their own learning styles. Thus, putting training contents on different media and in self-manuals and workbooks is necessary. Moreover, Xers are very good at multi-tasking, so a lot of trainers develop training materials that provide multiple sources of information at once. Even though they are willing to spend time learning new knowledge, they do not still expect using so much time. Therefore, making the materials simple and easy to catch the key points is significant.

Body#2: On the other hand, in “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is showing Signs of Age”, Andrew Beyak argues that the 20s and early 30s are included as “youth”, and thinks that a lot of problems are caused by simply replacing the term adult to youth. First, the problem of prejudice to youth is obvious. For example, in the CBC TV program, “Youth Town Hall”, 18- to 25- years-olds were legally treated as adults and officially have a right to elect, but not considered as mature and responsible adults to be able to decide the fate of their own country. Second, the extension of the period of youth causes the problems on abuse and misuse of the term youth.

Those who do not think they belong to the youth but are actually described as the youth enjoy the term. Indeed, because the youth have already left a very impressive image that is immature, not hard-working and not greedy, those 20s and early 30s have excuses to be lazy. Moreover, even though people who are in the bracket of 18 to 35 have put effort to grow up and distribute themselves to the society, the public just think that it is not the time to pass the responsibilities to the youth. Third, due to different misunderstandings and biases on young adults, they weakened their expectations of life, which affected the economy negatively and limited their own social relationships. In the end, the signs of proving people being mature and activities in adulthood are gradually disappeared.

Body#3: both approaches that authors came up with were shaped by their experiences of watching the Generation Xers’ performances. In Shari’s case, independence and curiousness are the key characteristics on their generation and the characteristics are well influenced on their performances in their careers. Generation Xers come up with their own work schedules. In order to make the time effective, almost everything follows the schedules and they get the jobs done just on their planned time. Moreover, curiousness is another specific characteristic on Generation X. Most of time they start taking courses or getting a new job just because they are just curious. Therefore, most of them have abundant work experiences on different fields in the end. In other words, they are good at problem solving and knowledgeable.

Body#4: In Andrew Beyak’s case, through his experience, young adults’ expectations of themselves that have been weakened and the distrust from the public lead to their poor performances in their jobs. A lot of youth adults attenuate their own expectations for their future lives. For example, they do not think they are able to afford the expenses on real estate, buying a car, have a marriage with their lovers and being parents by working hard on their careers. Therefore, some of them decide not to work hard, and they cannot make others feel safe to have a business. Also, their social networks are limited due to the lack of confidence. They do not have guts to start a conversation with strangers, so it is hard to extend their businesses in reality. Furthermore, the public do not trust the young generation. Those who are from 18 to 25 years old have a right to vote in an election. It means they are legally considered as adults who are able to decide the fate of their country. However, most people prejudice that the youths are immature and not thoughtful, so most politicians ignore the voice from the young generation. Finally, young adults feel less and less confident to be self-reliant in their careers.

Conclusion:
Compared the two articles, although the authors observes the similar age group, they observe it from different angles and thus have different perspectives about Generation X. Shari considers Generation Xers can become responsible, and productive employees if companies can understand and use proper methods to train them. In contrast, Andrew believes that those who are 20s and early 30s are not ready to take responsibilities for their careers, and they need time to grow up more in order to distribute positively in economy. The two approaches indicate the significance of the characteristics of Generation X, which will affect one’s career life and the economy continuously.

FINAL Draft:
Generation Xers have become the majority of the labour force in today’s society. In fact, it goes back to 1990s. When they were 20s and early 30s, they were motivated by company’s trainers in careers and positively affected in their daily lives. However, they also experienced some suspicion about maturity, knowledge, and responsibility. In these two articles, “Can Generation Xers Be trained?” and “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is showing Signs of Age”, both talk about the status quo of youth employment and the impacts on economy due to youth employment. The authors have distinct approaches to the relationship between youth employment and the economy, but both approaches are shaped by their performances and influenced on youth employment. In “Can Generation Xers Be trained?” Shari Caudron positively thinks Generation Xers can be trained as effective and productive employees if companies can understand them. Actually, Generation Xers are different from other generation groups on values, communication styles, and life experiences.

Also, Generation Xers are independent. They prefer solving problems individually and very good at getting their missions done on their own. To some extent, they distrust companies, so they probably work in the companies because they just find a place to gain new experience. Moreover, they are techno literate. They are used to use new technology to get the jobs done. Thus, they get used to be in a fast-speed condition and they expect immediate satisfaction. Because they are usually doing things fast, they want their time to be in a very effective way. They spend time learning something from training programs or trainers because they have sufficient reasons to do so, or because they desire growing and developing themselves in order to be marketable. However, sometimes they are willing to accept continuous education just because they are curious. Indeed, trainers focus on outcomes and what Xers can do.

In order to fit with their characteristics, companies or trainers can provide experiential training by using their six senses, playing roles and doing simulation. Also, because Generation Xers focus on independence and have their own schedules, the companies organize several locations and times to make the best choices for themselves. In addition, because they emphasize their independences, they keep their own learning styles. Thus, putting training contents on different media and in self-manuals and workbooks is necessary. Moreover, Xers are very good at multi-tasking, so a lot of trainers develop training materials that provide multiple sources of information at once. Even though they are willing to spend time learning new knowledge, they do not still expect using so much time. Therefore, making the materials simple and easy to catch the key points is significant. On the other hand, in “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is showing Signs of Age”, Andrew Beyak argues that the 20s and early 30s are included as “youth”, and thinks that a lot of problems are caused by simply replacing the term adult to youth. First, the problem of prejudice to youth is obvious.

For example, in the CBC TV program, “Youth Town Hall”, 18- to 25- years-olds were legally treated as adults and officially have a right to elect, but not considered as mature and responsible adults to be able to decide the fate of their own country. Second, the extension of the period of youth causes the problems on abuse and misuse of the term youth. Those who do not think they belong to the youth but are actually described as the youth enjoy the term. Indeed, because the youth have already left a very impressive image that is immature, not hard-working and not greedy, those 20s and early 30s have excuses to be lazy. Moreover, even though people who are in the bracket of 18 to 35 have put effort to grow up and distribute themselves to the society, the public just think that it is not the time to pass the responsibilities to the youth. Third, due to different misunderstandings and biases on young adults, they weakened their expectations of life, which affected the economy negatively and limited their own social relationships.

In the end, the signs of proving people being mature and activities in adulthood are gradually disappeared. Both approaches that authors came up with were shaped by their experiences of watching the Generation Xers’ performances. In Shari’s case, independence and curiousness are the key characteristics on their generation and the characteristics are well influenced on their performances in their careers. Generation Xers come up with their own work schedules. In order to make the time effective, almost everything follows the schedules and they get the jobs done just on their planned time. Moreover, curiousness is another specific characteristic on Generation X. Most of time they start taking courses or getting a new job just because they are just curious.

Therefore, most of them have abundant work experiences on different fields in the end. In other words, they are good at problem solving and knowledgeable. In Andrew Beyak’s case, through his experience, young adults’ expectations of themselves that have been weakened and the distrust from the public lead to their poor performances in their jobs. A lot of youth adults attenuate their own expectations for their future lives. For example, they do not think they are able to afford the expenses on real estate, buying a car, have a marriage with their lovers and being parents by working hard on their careers. Therefore, some of them decide not to work hard, and they cannot make others feel safe to have a business. Also, their social networks are limited due to the lack of confidence. They do not have guts to start a conversation with strangers, so it is hard to extend their businesses in reality.

Furthermore, the public do not trust the young generation. Those who are from 18 to 25 years old have a right to vote in an election. It means they are legally considered as adults who are able to decide the fate of their country. However, most people prejudice that the youths are immature and not thoughtful, so most politicians ignore the voice from the young generation. Finally, young adults feel less and less confident to be self-reliant in their careers. Compared the two articles, although the authors observes the similar age group, they observe it from different angles and thus have different perspectives about Generation X. Shari considers Generation Xers can become responsible, and productive employees if companies can understand and use proper methods to train them. In contrast, Andrew believes that those who are 20s and early 30s are not ready to take responsibilities for their careers, and they need time to grow up more in order to distribute positively in economy. The two approaches indicate the significance of the characteristics of Generation X, which will affect one’s career life and the economy continuously.

Citation

Beyak, Andrew. “The Sweet Bird of Youth Is Showing Signs of Age.” James A. Reinking, Robert von der Osten, Sue Ann Cairns, Robert Fleming. Strategies For Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, Handbook. Toronto: PEARSON, 2007. 520-521. Caudron, Shari. “Can Generation Xers Be Trained?” James A Reinking, Robert von der Osten, Sue Ann Cairns, Robert Fleming. Strategies For Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook. Toronto: PEARSON, 2007. 509 – 513.