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Life
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What is Life?

Life as an academic topic appears across nearly every discipline because it touches the fundamental conditions of human existence — how individuals develop, make choices, navigate systems, and find meaning. In personal issues courses, sociology, nursing, literature, and ethics, students are asked to examine what shapes lived experience and how institutions, relationships, and culture either support or constrain individual ability. The topic resists easy definition, which is precisely what makes it intellectually rich: it forces writers to clarify terms, interrogate assumptions, and connect abstract concepts to concrete human realities.

The papers archived here reflect a genuinely wide range of approaches. Literary analysis appears in essays on works such as Bernice Morgan's fiction and Bessie Head's "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses," where writers examine how characters construct identity, belonging, and personal freedom. Policy and ethical frameworks drive essays on abortion, DNR legislation, and prison overcrowding, while sociological and cultural analysis informs work on parenting styles, family therapy, and soccer hooliganism. Observational and practice-based writing — such as operating room reflections and evidence-based nursing — grounds the topic in professional experience, showing how the concept of life plays out in direct care and institutional settings.

A strong essay on this topic begins with a focused, arguable thesis rather than a broad statement about life in general. Evidence drawn from specific texts, case studies, policy documents, or observed practice carries far more weight than vague generalization. The most common pitfall is treating "life" as self-evident — a compelling essay defines its scope early, specifying which dimension of individual experience or social process it actually intends to examine.

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Paper Doctorate
Reason and religious belief in Pascal and Giussani
The Roman Catholic church is not generally considered doctrinally "broad," and indeed many of its most fascinating theological voices -- ranging from Pelagius in the fifth century to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., in…
Paper Doctorate
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement
The mid-twentieth century was a time of much reform for many Americans, and even more push for equality amongst African-Americans. Amongst the leaders of the well-known African-American movements toward desegregation…
Paper Doctorate
Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule in murder defense cases
Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures in Contemporary America
Paper Masters
Gender and desire in Shakespeare's sonnets
I usually have to force myself to read poetry, especially sonnets about romance that seem contrived or sentimentalized. Also, I am not very good at understanding and explaining the various metaphors, hidden meanings and so on. Sonnet 18 is so famous that it has long since turned into a cliché ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") and would simply not go over very well is a more cynical, less romantic age. I know that I have never met anyone who made me feel like they were a summer day, not in this world. Reading and rereading all of them, however, I began to wonder if Shakespeare was even writing these about a woman. Some of them I had never read before, such as Sonnet 20 which is far riskier since the writer states openly that he loves a young man who is a beautiful as a woman.
Paper High School
Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent's sustainable sculpture practice
Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent are a husband and wife team working out of Sebastopol, California. Amiot salvages discarded material, mainly metal, for the use and re-use in the assembly of semi-public art.
Research Paper Doctorate
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and independent cinema
Major motion pictures have always been about giving the largest possible audience what they want. However, there have always been a few innovators, who make their movies via low budget production methods, that have been able to shift the reality of the big studios. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a movie that helped change the way people viewed movies. There was an ambiguity of protagonist/antagonist roles, and an edgy situation starkly told. This essay gives a critical look at the film and a personal perspective.
Paper Undergraduate
Regulating minimum weight requirements for runway models
Fashion industry is a type of industry where there are many regulations regarding the looks of the models. One of the most deliberated topics in the fashion business of the United States of America work with the body weight of the models. The critics in this field argue that many of the male and female models are below average weight which is why many of them have developed eating disorders like anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. In the fashion capitals of the world including the New York, London, Paris, and Milan, there is a collection of different approaches that have been executed to compact with this issue (Norgaard).
Paper High School
Yoruba culture and symbolism in Moyo Ogundipe's "Soliloquy"
This paper discusses a work of art from a Nigerian painter. The artist is a part of the Yoruba culture in Africa and utilizes the traditional components of that community's artwork to convey their sense of ethnicity. The artist is able to successfully capture the type of art that the Yoruba would make and to paint a subject that would be likley for the Yoruba.
Thesis Doctorate
Health promotion program components for Alzheimer's disease patients
The objective of this study is to construct a health promotion program for Alzheimer's Patients. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is "a form of dementia that interferes with a person's intellectual and social functioning." (NCPAD, 2012) One of the primary concerns for the individual with Alzheimer's is weight loss "due to eating problems such as poor-fitting dentures, problems in swallowing, and loss of appetite. Weight loss or loss of appetite may be caused by noise, odor, and/or conversation distractions while eating." (NCPAD, 2012) Caregivers are faced with many challenges in providing care for the Alzheimer's Patient. Findings in this study state that the primary components required for the health promotion program for the individual with Alzheimer's disease are those of: (1) nutrition; (2) physical activity; (3) mental activity; and (4) social activity and participation.
Research Paper Undergraduate
Atticus Finch's moral leadership in To Kill a Mockingbird
This paper is on the Harper Lee novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." In the book, Jem and Scout Finch are being raised by their single father Atticus, who is a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus must defend a black man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping and assaulting a white woman named Mayella. He is innocent but found guilty. Atticus tries to teach his children not to judge on race.