Zach Dougherty

Professor Blandford
UWRT 1103
14 October 2015
Inquiry Project Proposal
The subject of my inquiry project is focused around people that are not from the
southeastern United States. I was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina and have not
traveled around the country to a great extent. There are many differences between people from
the south and people from other regions of the United States. I truly love the south and will live
here for the rest of my life, and that makes me think about the differences between the south and
other places. I chose this topic because I have always had an interest in the different states of the
U.S. I am also interested in United States history, so this project gives me a chance to research
both. History affected why the states are the way they are today. This topic is more appealing to
me because it helps me understand people that I interact with on a daily basis. I am around
people from different parts of the United States every day of my life. This project will help me
understand if and why there are differences between people from the same country, but different
region.
I am somewhat familiar with this topic due to having classmates and friends from other
parts of the country. I have a lot of good friends from New York and other Northeastern states. I
have noticed that there are many key differences between me and my friends, and that brings up
the question of whether this is a coincidence or a cultural difference. There are differences in
speech for example; our accents are different, and we tend to use different dialect. People from

the south tend to use more maam and sir. My parents were really strict about manners and
saying please and thank you. People from all over the country are polite, but it seems like
manners are more strictly taught in the south. I also have noticed that there are cultural and
religious differences. People from the North tend to be more Roman Catholic, while in the south
Baptist is more popular. Christianity is more widespread in the South. There is a different type of
lifestyle in the South. The south tends to move a little slower. People are more laid back in the
south, while people tend to be in a hurry and very busy in the northern part of the United States.
People out west tend to be more progressive. They are often given a hippy label. I did notice a
trend throughout the last few presidential elections that south, southwest, and mid-west tend to
lean conservative, while the Northeast states and Western states lean liberal. This could be
because of cultural, religious, or other reasons.
There are many questions that I have on this subject. What makes people from different
states behave differently than people from other regions? I also wonder how big of an impact
history plays on this. In my opinion, history plays a major role on the people and the type of
literary arts coming out of these regions. I have a lot of questions regarding literary works that
may help me understand these differences and what causes them. Does social media play a role
in this literacy and are there differences in social media from people of different regions? There
are four states that I am debating whether or not to include in my research. These states are
Hawaii, Alaska, Texas and Florida. Alaska and Hawaii are not included in the lower 48 states,
therefore they may not follow certain trends. Texas and Florida are very unique states. The
citizens of Texas are very prideful of their state. They consider it a region of its own. What
causes these people to have so much pride for their state? Florida is unique because it does not
follow the similar pattern that the other southern states have. Their culture is very different. I

wonder what causes this state to be different than the other surrounding southern states. I wonder
if immigration has an impact on this. Florida has a very large Cuban community and a lot of
retired people. This may contribute to the increased diversity and therefore different culture than
the rest of the United States. I really wanted to find two newspaper articles from different regions
covering the same news story. I would like to compare these two stories to see if there were
differences in the writing style and perception of the story. The confederate flag is a current issue
that has been in the news recently. I am going to research this symbol and understand the
different views surrounding this very controversial image.
This has been an interesting topic so far. I am looking forward to doing some research
and uncovering some of the answers to these questions. If my research appears to be too
numerous, then I will focus on one region preferably the North. If my research does not turn up
enough information, then I will broaden it to include Hawaii and Alaska. I will try to use
academic journals, newspapers, and websites to find my information. I will also try to find some
social media sites and conduct some research using these sources as well. I am going to focus on
authors that are from these other areas and hopefully learn about their life and how their
birthplace affected their personality. I will also refer to graphs and maps that show trends in
religion, politics, and common characteristics throughout the different regions in the United
States. The last source I would consider using would be an interview. I could interview someone
from New York or California and see if they believe there are differences in the South. These
would all be sources that may contain key information in this complex question.