Richard Zhao

AP Stats Summer Assgn. Part 1

Per. 4
1a. The purpose of this article was to attempt to answer why America
accounts for such a high percentage of mass shootings, all the while
possessing a small percentage of the worlds population. It was written in
order to connect and attribute Americas affinity for violence with its culturenamely its disproportionate obsession for fame, good or bad, and the
accessibility of firearms. Despite the fact that violent crime is decreasingmass shootings appear to be increasing in number. The article aimed to
highlight several hypothesis for the reasons behind mass shootings and that
living in lower crime rate and thus safer countries did not necessarily mean
that the rate of mass shootings would be lower as well. As a result, mass
shootings possessed an underlying cause that disconnected from traditional
crime.
1b. The article concludes that the reason for Americas ever increasing
number of mass shootings is a combination between how easy it is to obtain
firearms, as well as a glorification of fame in Americas culture. It also states
that a countrys crime rate does not necessarily correlate with prevalence of
mass shootings.(that arent drug/gang related)
1c. I believe that the article is not convincing in its manner, although I do
agree with the message. I believe that Americas penchant for mass
shootings is a combination of gun availability and its prevalence for fame.
However, the way the article tried to convince readers was weak in that they
only stated facts and didnt really elaborate on what they stated. For
example, they claimed that there also seems to be a copycat effect by mass
shooters, and that each school shooting inspires 0.3 additional shootings.
However, they failed to offer any further explanation and left their claim at
that without any further support. The article consisted mostly of making
claims without really adding any in depth support.
2a. The purpose of this article was to determine the impact of university on
salary and employment rate. The article checks to see if there is a direct
correlation with job employment rate(within the first 4 months of getting a
degree) with choice of university in Australia.
2b. The article concludes that although there is a connection between choice
of university and salary range, strangely enough, there didnt seem to be any
difference in employment rate. However, they said that there was no way to
explain the difference in salary between top 8 universities in Australia and
other colleges. Although students who went to the Group of Eight universities

found a 6% increase of lifetime income, the study could not determine if this
was because of the type of student attending the universities, or if the
universities assisted the student in finding higher paying jobs.
2c. The article is convincing to me and I agree with their results. The article
presents data that directly relates to their topic at hand- yet makes no
attempts to go further than what their data offers. For example, when they
claimed that university choice didnt really affect job employment(within the
first four months) they offered only objective facts in numbers to prove their
point instead of using anecdotes. Additionally, they fully acknowledged that
their data fails to explain the underlying cause between salary differences in
graduates. This showed to me that they knew the limitations of their
research, and didnt seek to make any conclusion that wouldnt be supported
by numbers. They only went as far as their data could support, stating that
there did indeed exist a salary difference, but also warned that their
conclusions were only a general guide and not that comprehensive.
Therefore, because it doesnt make any bold conclusions, I believe what they
wrote.

http://theconversation.com/how-does-your-choice-of-university-affect-yourfuture-45699
http://www.livescience.com/51991-why-america-is-prone-to-massshootings.html