Language A Very Complicated System Education Essay

Language, a really complicated system, is really polar to human existences ( Saffran & A ; Thiessen, 2007 ) . It allows people to show their ideas, communicate with each other, and transmit cognition ( Scanlon, 1977 ) . Its importance stimulates a batch of research workers to research the development of linguistic communication in kids ( Shatz, 2007 ) . There are several sensible theories explicating how kids learn a linguistic communication ( Evans, 2007 ) . Some suggests that societal environment as an of import component in determining kids ‘s lingual development ; while Chomsky, a nativist theoretician, argues that there is a Language Acquisition Device inherently born with us, and human existences can get linguistic communication of course ( Meisel, 1995 ) . Harmonizing to Chomsky ( 1959 ) , there is a poorness of stimulation that the lingual input available in the societal environment is so limited for kids to develop a linguistic communication system, and therefore there must be some biological predisposed mechanism accounting for human lingual development. The undermentioned essay is non trying to reason against Chomsky ‘s thought, but to exemplify how the societal environment interacts with the innate lingual ability and determine the development of linguistic communication in kids. It has long been suggested that societal environment plays a important function in kids ‘s lingual development. Behaviorists, one of the earliest histories of linguistic communication development, see linguistic communication acquisition as a merchandise of operant conditioning ( Evans, 2007 ) . Skinner, the suggester of behaviourist theory, stresses that the acquisition of linguistic communication is besides contingent upon the effects of larning it ( Shatz, 2007 ) . For case, when a kid additions favourable attending from its parents ( a sort of intangible support ) after bring forthing a peculiar sound, it is really likely that the kid will reproduce that sound. The behaviourists have shortly been to a great extent criticized for their oversimplified theoretical account of human linguistic communication acquisition. There so comes the rise of empiricist and socio-pragmatic theoreticians which emphasize the importance of societal and cognitive elements of linguistic communica tion ( Tomasello, 1998 ) . Tomasello ( 2003 ) proposed the usage-based theory and explained linguistic communication acquisition utilizing a functional attack ( Tomasello, 2003 ) . Language develops when kids have the desire to pass on purposes with the others and when they realize the matter-of-fact maps of linguistic communication in the society ( ( Inhelder & A ; Piaget, 1980 ; Mueller Gathercole & A ; Hoff, 2007 ) . They learn the constructions of linguistic communication through observation ( Tomasello, 2003 ) and accrued linguistic communication experiences ( Lieven & A ; Tomasello, 2008 ) . Baldwin and Meyer ( 2007 ) argued that linguistic communication is inherently a societal behaviour. A word itself does non incorporate any significance, it is the members of societal community who use it and give it a significance ( Tomasello, 1999 ) . Therefore, to larn what a word is refer to, societal interaction is indispensable.Language and society is closely linked, and social factors to a great extent influence the linguistic communication to be used ( Evans, 2007 ) . Clearly, the societal environment plays a cardinal portion in determining the development of linguistic communication in kids. We shall concentrate on the societal environment in its broadest sense, non curtailing to peculiar scenes like place and school. The undermentioned essay chiefly explores how the measure and quality of societal interaction and stimulation, cultural norms and outlooks shapes kids ‘s lingual development.Social interaction and stimulationThe functional attack suggests that linguistic communication develops through kids ‘s battle in a societal context ( Robinson & A ; Ellis, 2008 ) and through their active interaction with others ( Inhelder & A ; Piaget, 1980 ) . The deficiency of societal interaction or an appropriate societal environment hinders normal development of linguistic communication in kids ( Rice, 2007 ) . For illustration, Genie, the miss who was kept entirely and locked in a room for 12 old ages, failed to utilize linguistic communication usually ( Pines, 1981 ) . Linguistic environment The most important component of linguistic communication development is the lingual input. Both the measure and quality of lingual input are of import. Measure can be expressed as the frequence of exposure to linguistic communication ; while quality is expressed as the assortment of input ( Hoff, 2006 ) . Surveies show that the more frequent the kids are exposed to peculiar words or sentence constructions, the earlier they can get and reproduce them. And the wider the scope of vocabularies the kids are exposed to, the more picks of word they have when building sentences ( Naigles and Hoff-Ginsberg, 1998 ) . However, lingual input is besides a sort of disciplinary feedback ( Mueller Gathercole & A ; Hoff, 2007 ) , so that kids who engage in more societal interaction have higher opportunities to be corrected when they make errors. Exposing to different types of input can heighten the profusion of the lingual environmen. For illustration, if one wants to larn Cantonese, s/he can actively seek for a Cantonese environment like watching Cantonese films, sing China Town, run intoing Cantonese friends, etc. different types of lingual input may assist linguistic communication development in different facets. The consequence of frequence of exposure in linguistic communication acquisition can besides be shown in survey that involves bilingual linguistic communication scholars. Bilingual linguistic communication scholars, holding to larn two linguistic communications at the same time, have less exposure to both the linguistic communications, comparing to monolingual kids ( Genesee & A ; Nicoladis, 2007 ) . It is found that bilingual kids have a smaller vocabulary size in each linguistic communication, and the sort of words they learn are rather different, as bilingual kids receive different lingual inputs from different communicative spouses. Bruner ( 1981 ) believed that linguistic communication development is a consequence of the interaction between nature and raising. As suggested, societal activities like ‘play ‘ are valuable beginnings of lingual input. During the drama clip, kids can actively prosecute in lingual exchange and interactions with the grownups ( Shatz, 2007 ) . It was found that kids who possessed playthings and engaged in originative drama were more sophisticated in showing themselves verbally and showed promotion in linguistic communication acquisition ( Scanlon, 1977 ) . Other linguistics stimulations and activities like playing with image cards and role-playing a narrative are besides good to the kids ‘s linguistic communication development ( Hoff & A ; Tian, 2005 ) . Research surveies showed that there is a birth-order difference in the development of linguistic communication in kids. First-born kids are relatively more advanced in sentence structure and vocabulary ; while later-born kids have better conversational accomplishment ( Hoff, 1998 ; 1999 ) . The ground history for such difference is closely linked with the differences in the type and measure of lingual input. First-born kids have been the lone kids before the reaching of younger siblings. Fakouri ( 1974 ) suggested that the parents ‘ love, attention, and attending to the individual kid are indivisible by, and they perchance prosecute the kid into a higher- quality interaction, and therefore the exposure of lingual input is greater. Upon the birth of a sibling, the opportunity of acquiring one-to-one communicative interaction with the parents is lessened for both kids ( Hoff, 2006 ) . Yet, the later-born kids have another beginning of lingual input, which is from their senior sib lings. However, the quality of the lingual inputs provided by elder siblings is dissimilar to that by the parents, as they normally are less complex and dwell more grammatical mistake. A antiphonal spouse The functionalists believe that a antiphonal spouse for communicative exchange is needed for linguistic communication acquisition. Just like the other types of development, linguistic communication acquisition besides needs the staging of grownups. A antiphonal spouse should be cognizant of what the kid is go toing to in the here-and-now context and follow into that peculiar object or event ( Karrass et al. , 2002 ) , so that the kid can do usage of this societal cue to larn the linguistic communication associated with that focused topographic point ( Diesendruck, Gelman, & A ; Lebowitz, 1998 ) . The particular type of societal interaction is called joint attending, and it strongly correlates with word acquisition ( Bruner, 1983 ) . Children can larn new words expeditiously when they are socially engaged or pass oning with a antiphonal spouse, and larn best if they jointly attend to execute some day-to-day modus operandis like bathing and dining ( Tomasello, 1999 ) . Research done by Tomasello and Todd ( 1983 ) showed that the continuance of battle in joint attending was positively correlated with vocabulary size. Questioning and giving immediate responses to kids can keep their involvement as good ( Tomasello, 1999 ) . Studies found that kids who have grownups prosecuting them in conversation and utilizing more wh-questions during communicating have relatively better development in aides and verb usage ( Hoff, 1999 ) . Social-interactionist theoreticians believed that a good communicative spouse of a kid should do good usage of kid directed address or motherese ( Snow, 1979 ) . Child-direct address is a particular signifier of talk that normally is rather simple, with the talkers expressing meaning-rich words like the names of aims and verbs one-by-one clearly. Furthermore, the talker normally negotiations with higher pitch to capture the attending of the kid ( Mueller Gathercole & A ; Hoff, 2007 ) . Research surveies on the use of child-direct address show that it is associated with enhanced phonological consciousness and word acknowledgment. However, it should be noted that although child-direct address is correlated with a broad scope of positive results, it is non indispensable for normal development of linguistic communication in kids. This alone type of address is non cosmopolitan, as in some states, speaking to babes with such a high-pitch and simple construction is considered as discourtesy to them ( Hoff, 2006 ) . There is grounds demoing that kids, whose communicative spouses have higher educational degree, possess wider scope of vocabularies and are able to organize comparatively long and complicated sentences. They are besides better in depicting objects or evens that are non instantly present ( Umek, Fekonja, Kranjc & A ; Bajc, 2008 ) . The difference in the caretakers ‘ educational degree may connote the difference in the profusion of kids ‘s lingual environment and rational stimulation. Higher educated health professionals perchance can supply more acquisition chances to their kids than caretakers who are less educated. This shows how of import lingual input is for the favourable development of linguistic communication in kids. Cultural norms and outlooks are another country that can do a immense consequence of kids ‘s linguistic communication acquisition.Cultural norms and outlooksThere are a batch of cultural norms and outlooks invisibly hidden in a kid ‘s socie tal environment ( Inhelder & A ; Piaget, 1980 ; Ochs & A ; Schieffelin, 1995 ) . The impact of cultural norms and outlooks on linguistic communication development are more hard to mensurate ( Herschensohn, 2007 ) , as kids internalize these norms and bit by bit absorb them as 1 ‘s ain values ( Inhelder & A ; Piaget, 1980 ) . The undermentioned portion illustrates how societal category, ethnicity, gender and equals shape the development of linguistic communication in kids. Social category Many research surveies found differences in the ways and forms of linguistic communication development among kids of different societal categories. Health professionals in the upper category speak more to their kids ; and in bend greatly expand the vocabulary size of these kids ( Hoff, 2006 ) . To be more precise, the kids ‘s vocabulary size is found to be positively correlated with the health professionals ‘ or parents ‘ figure of words spoken to them. Besides a quantitative difference, there are besides qualitative differences between the two societal categories. The unwritten linguistic communication of kids from lower socio-economic standing was worse than those from higher socio-economic position ( Hoff, 2006 ) . Upper category parents talk to their kids normally because they want and plan to prosecute in a conversation with them ; while lower category parents normally talk to their kids for some practical grounds like giving them instructions to work [ ( Hoff, 2006 ) . Children of from the upper category are exposed to a wider scope of vocabularies, particularly the productive vocabularies ( Hoff, 2003 ) . Children normally spend most of the clip with the people from the same societal category ; the common influence reinforces the kids to move and speak in the same manner as the other members of the societal category do. And because of the self-fulfilling prognostication, kids might hold acted harmonizing to what the others expect ( Edwards, 1979 ) . Therefore, even the kids of different societal categories go to the same school, their li nguistic communication development might yet be really different. Ethnicity Peoples from different states experience different advancement in linguistic communication development. People ‘s pick of vocabularies can extremely reflect their cultural outlooks and norms. Peoples from an individualist civilization have a different linguistic communication attitudes and vocabulary pick as people from a collectivist-oriented state ( Gudykunst & A ; Schmidt, 1987 ) . As stated by Ayyash-Abdo ( 2001 ) , people believing in individuality concern more about their ain beliefs, demands and rights ; while people with a leftist mentality consider themselves as a portion of the whole community, and topographic point the group ‘s demands on a higher precedence than their ain demands. Collectivist seeks harmoniousness and emphasizes cooperation. Wu and Rubin ( 2000 ) found that, in footings of linguistic communication usage, individualists ‘ manner of showing their thoughts is more direct and self-asserting, and they use â€Å" I † more frequently to give voice their sentences. Conversely, leftists like to utilize â€Å" we † , and there are much more relational nouns in the Chinese linguistic communication that helps to do all right differentiations between different relations. For illustration, in English, â€Å" uncles † can intend one ‘s female parents ‘ senior or younger brothers, and besides one ‘s m ale parent senior or younger brothers. But in Chinese, there are four different nouns for those four different types of â€Å" uncles † . Several surveies attempted to compare the linguistic communication development in American yearlings with Nipponese yearlings. The former, in general, represents individuality ; while the latter represents Bolshevism. it was discovered that the American babes knew a broad scope of productive and receptive vocabularies ; while Nipponese babes were good at symbolic drama ( Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, Cyphers, Toda & A ; Ogino, 1992 ) . To account for the difference, Tamis-LeMonda, et Al. ( 1992 ) found that American female parents tend to label objects and events more on a regular basis, stress the demand of independency ; arouse the kids ‘s involvement in the external word ; and are more information-oriented when they talk to their kids. On the other manus, Nipponese female parents ever engage their kids in group drama and dyadic activities ; advance a sense of dependance ; and are more affect-oriented. Ethnicity does non merely act upon the kids ‘s size of vocabularies, but besides in a batch of ways such as the linguistic communication attitude, pick of words and ways to sentiments. The geographical features of a state besides have an impact on kids ‘s exposure to different types of words. For illustration, in Hong Kong and other metropoliss which are closer to the equator, snowing is non possible. In Cantonese, we merely have one noun to depict â€Å" snow † , without any other vocabularies that could depict the different types and strength of â€Å" snow † . In contrast, there are many words created to separate the assorted sorts of â€Å" snow † , e.g. snowstorms, snow squalls, bustles, graupel, sleet, dendrites, acerate leafs, snow pellets, etc. Gender Quite a batch of research surveies on the gender difference in linguistic communication development of kids show that misss, between one to three old ages old, could treat linguistic communication and reading at a faster rate and bring forth syntactically more complicated sentences than male childs of the same age ( Umek et al. , 2008 ) . Boys, instead, could understand the significance of words better ( Wolf & A ; Gow, 1986 ) . It appears that male childs are less well-developed in linguistic communication acquisition in the early old ages. Karrass et Al. ( 2002 ) suggested that this might good be the influence of gender stereotypes. It is normally taught and believed that male childs are more active and misss are more soft and elegant. It is found that parents of male childs are less sensitive to their linguistic communication accomplishments, but shows greater concern to the boy ‘s motor development ( Eaton & A ; Enns, 1986 ) . For misss, the parents tend to speak to their g irls more frequently, and prosecute them in communicative activities like story-telling. Peers Peers become increasingly of import as the kids grow up ( Fortman, 2003 ) . Childs further develop their linguistic communication and societal accomplishments through interacting with their equals. By that clip, in order to seek group designation and keep association with the group, different group norms and group ‘language ‘ like hip-hop may emerge to stand for group rank ( Giles, 1979 ) . The specific sort of linguistic communication is created for the group to admit each other and except the out-group members. Children at this age may change their linguistic communication attitude and ways of showing thoughts to make a positive self-image obtain a desirable group individuality ( Ryan, 1979 ) .DecisionA batch of facets within the societal environment drama of import functions in determining the development of linguistic communication in kids. Yet, as stated in the debut, Chomsky ‘s nativist theory is besides really sensible and influential. A well-developed lingui stic communication system is in fact a merchandise of rich societal environment and the kid ‘s willingness and accomplishments to react to the societal input.

All about Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Nominations and Campaigns

The American system of election is very expensive, time consuming and tedious to the aspiring presidential candidates. The length of the process determines the prosperity of a candidate from any political party. Although this time range favors some candidates its complexity and cost disqualifies other candidates.Since not all top party leaders are interested in the presidency, the aspiring candidates have to meticulously orchestrate their announcement of candidature to capture the public while at the same time win the approval and loyalty of their leaders. This occurs during the caucuses and primaries in which starts the road to the White House as argued by (Lader, 2006).This system has flaws for states like Iowa that still relies on caucuses. The suitable candidate can easily be locked out of the race early if they lack popularity with the party heads.The numerous questions and hole punching that is involved in these levels can easily elevate or disqualify a candidate depending on t heir eloquence, smartness or simply their political correctness at that particular time.The highly televised primaries on the other hand have rather seen luminaries in larger states like New York and California succeed. Celebrity entertainers have recently been used to rally support for candidates during such primaries. Such trends show modern day success stories for democracy.The future of election currently relies on modern day technology and chat rooms that are famous especially with the youthful population. Showbiz and technology such as Facebook and Twitter are the next level of campaign strategies since they have the most audience of the voting population. Campaign themes also have credited to the success or failure of modern day candidates.2. Political Parties.The growth of democracy in the U.S is credited to the evolution of political parties and their strong affiliations to the public. The political parties have fashioned themselves around the figure of the president for ad ministrative and political influences.Although this is fashioned to enable uniqueness of voice and solidarity in opinions, it has alienated the public from decision making compared to their British counterparts. This brings about personal political ambitions to the parties, where presidents only push their aspirations while sidelining the shared collective responsibility for the entire nation and the political parties.The problem is that the public has no say in decision making since the president does not have to consult the Congress in decision making. The failed link between the people and their presidents thus causes dissatisfaction and polarization.3. The Interest Groups.In light of the common good of the American society, the power of the interest groups can only be sustained to its least degree possible. If not, their extremism of expression tends to only favor the thought of certain groups and alienate other groups. These groups are small; the allegiance to any of these grou ps automatically paralyses the success of a presidential candidate.These interest groups have drawn allies in the mainstream political parties thus dividing the country in lines of opinion and policies. The strong constitutional structure silenced these groups yet the concept of pluralism enhances cooperation while reducing polarization of the country. This maintains freedom, versatility and balance of political power.4. Conclusion.The systems of election and campaign in the primaries and the caucuses are truly beneficial to ensure transparency. Unfortunately, the tedious nature of this journey can be reviewed by the use of technology and inclusion of pluralism that favors the power balance. The American population should therefore be encouraged to embrace chat room groups and pluralism to motivate the growth of their democracy.ReferenceLader, C. (2006). How to prepare for the AP U.S. Government & Politics Barron’s How to prepare for the AP US Government and Politics Advanced   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Placement Examination. Barron's AP Unites States Government & Politics (4th   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ed). New York: Barron's Educational Series.

Harriette Walters - BACKGROUND Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Harriette Walters - BACKGROUND - Essay Example Year Money Position 1989 $31735 Accounting technician in the real property division of department of finance and revenue D.C. 1990 $ 47,017 Accounting technician 1991 $ 160,153 Accounting technician 1992 $ 4,711 Accounting technician 1993 $ 246,301 Accounting technician 1994 $ 1,237,425 Accounting technician 1995 $ 1,423,238 Accounting technician 1996 $ 243,425 Accounting technician 1997 $ 543,423 Accounting technician 1998 $275894 Accounting technician 1999 $ 1,244,52 Accounting technician 2000 $ 2,587,831 Accounting technician 2001 $ 3,970,987 Manager of the Adjustment Unit in the Assessment Services Division 2002 $ 3,661,748 Manager 2003 $ 4,771,787 Manager 2004 $ 8,641,720 Manager 2005 $ 6,727,130 Manager 2006 $ 7,697,097 Manager 2007 $ 5,744,497 Manager Timeline for Harriette Walters’ Fraudulent Schemes (Gray & Evans 2011) Working Background   Ms. Harriette Walters started her carrier in 1981 as an accounting technician in the real property department of the D.C office of Tax and revenue. At that time the office of tax and revenue was department of tax and revenue. In the beginning Walters noticed the system and made fake documents like checks and other such document in collaboration with a coworker. Shortly thereafter, she realized that, she can work in a much safer manner. She made the checks refund to her friends and family members. She made fake residential addresses of her friends and family member and made the property tax refund checks. All this work was done with great care, to ensure that the refund checks and fake residential addresses would look normal. These checks ranged from 800 to 3000 dollars but it is nearly impossible to determine the exact amount of checks by the investigators during 1980’s (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). Why It Last That Long? The fraud cases were prepared with great care and Walters even checked minor errors and tried to make as less mistakes as possible. The document should look genuine. The fake copie s were made as real as possible. Sometimes the documents were copied many times to produce real looking document (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). The official requirements like official letter heads and signatures from different officials were there to go with the refund check requests (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). She then prepared the documents which had the fake name and address and rather than mailed, she checked the option of â€Å"held for pickup†. The refund checks were sent to the revenue department from where Walters picked the checks up and cashed them (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). Starting the Scheme In 1989, Ms. Harriette Walters processed the first fake documented refund check. The checked is payable to Alethia Grooms having worth of $4060. The next three years, Harriette Walters processed 13 more such fraudulent checks which have the worth of over $65000 which were paid to Alethia Grooms and some other person (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). Walter then increa sed the amount of fraudulent refund and focused her attention on the processing of fraudulent refund checks for commercial checks instead of residential property. To achieve her goals, she involved her family members and close friends in her scheme (Jacoby, Lorigo & McCallum 24). She made fraud companies with her family members and other accomplices that never existed and claimed the refund check for the fake companies. She developed a power strategy to

Is It Important To Be Civilized Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Is It Important To Be Civilized - Essay Example Is It Important To Be Civilized? The use of civilization and connected notions are contentious because they may mean inferiority and superiority, and may also mean directionality to social transformations that may or may not be desirable or realistic. A civilized individual is one who has respect for other people, have an open mind, and treat others as he would expect of others. This paper will discuss if it is essential for an individual to be civilized. The paper will agree with Mark Rothko’s statement in relation to civilization. For a person to be successful in any field, he or she should be civilized. The individual should be well conversant with subjects from a number of fields. Nevertheless, civilization does not only mean to be educated. This is because a large number of individuals are not open minded or are not mindful of others. On the other hand, if a person is educated in a number of disciplines, for example, Sociology, Anthropology, Literature, Theology, Philosophy, Mythology, and Archeology, he or she would have a significant prospect on what it entails to be civilized. These subjects concentrate on the understanding that dissimilar cultures have their sole ways of how a person is civilized. Also, every nation and subcultures within nations contain specified techniques of teaching and defining what it entails to be civilized. For instance, the novel technologies introduced in 1994 contained tremendous promise for interdisciplinary subjects and specifically for American studies.

D Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

D - Essay Example "In today's business, the workforce comprises of people who are diverse in their nationality, religion, caste, race, age, education and even socioeconomic status. They are all expected to work together as a team towards the success of the organization. "(How to resolve ethical dilemmas in business). When there is diversity, people are sure to have different mind sets but this does not mean that the business they are involving themselves in shouldn't follow the ethics. Ethics are very important these days and no company can survive without following ethics, profit making is another thing but profit making and abiding by the ethical responsibility is a completely different thing. I am very eager to learn about developing an effective ethical program in order to learn how to do business and how to simultaneously abide by ethics. Doing so ensures the complete progress of the business. Ethics are like moral values and if a business loses morals, profit making would be of very little use. There are several ethical issues like discrimination, racism etc at the workplace.

Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16

Poetry - Essay Example The first of these poems, Wilfred Owens "Dulce et Decorum Est," is a big example of anti-war poetry. The main theme in this dark poem is definitely war, and it definitely does not show it in a good light. From the very first lines, which describe a group of soldiers as "bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / knock-kneed, coughing like hags" ("Dulce" 1-2), it is clear that this poem is determined to destroy idealized visions of soldiers as glorious defenders of their country. The poem is filled with disturbing images of war, some of which are very realistic. An attack of poison gas is described with unflinching detail, telling how the soldiers, after "an ecstacy of fumbling / [fit] the clumsy helmets just in time" ("Dulce" 9-10). Owen also describes how the unlucky man who did not make it in time was "guttering, choking, drowning" ("Dulce" 16) and how blood was "gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs" ("Dulce" 22). The point of all this is not to gross out the reader, but to ar gue that patriots who "tell with such high zest / to children ... / the old Lie" that was is noble ("Dulce" 25-28) should reconsider their viewpoint. On the other hand, Edward Thomass "This is No Petty Case of Right or Wrong" takes a much more patriotic view. Although the poet seems to argue against war at first, with the lines "I hate not Germans, nor grow hot / With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers" (3-4), as the poem continues it grows clear that what he is protesting is not necessarily hatred of the enemy or love of ones countrymen, but what he perceives as shallow patriotism. This is clear by the end of line four, quoted above, that it is not just for newspapers, or for show, that the poets narrator loves his country. Indeed, for Thomas, it appears impossible to believe that anyone might feel otherwise. It is "with the best and meanest Englishmen / I am one in crying, God save England," he says (19-20), implying

Signature assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Signature - Assignment Example Additionally, I have gained the ability to identify, which articles and case studies are appropriate to analyze in relation to the questions asked in the course. By so doing, I have acquired verse knowledge and skills to help me in the future when am entered with a situation, which requires me to carry out research. The work that I did in class was in relation to identifying different research methods and analyzing results. However, in the work that I did, it is clear that it was more of the analysis of what the authors had done in the research rather than the indicating further explanation of the understanding of the topic or the research method itself. Therefore, in order to improve the work I did in class I would critically evaluate the research method itself and identify the areas that the method is used. Secondly, I would give different opinions on the method indicating how different authors have understood each research method. Thirdly, by using the case studies given I would include the discussion part in the essay to indicate how the research was conducted. By so doing, it will give me a better understanding of the concepts that have been provided in the articles. This will further increase the understanding of the relevant issues involved in the research including good ethical consider ations that are required for every research that is conducted. The topic on Meta-analysis as a research method was a challenge to me, as I did not quite understand how two different aspects were combined to produce results of an issue. This aspect of meta-analysis was confusing because in the study, that I researched on the case study was recent and the one that was combined with the first study was done a long time ago. Seeing that there have been changes not only in technology, but also in other sectors, it is may be correct to say that the data would be compromised. Additionally the meta-analysis research method requires a person who understands the complexity

Critical evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critical evaluation - Essay Example t supplementary facts that were expected from the implementation of the smoke-free legislation, as they acknowledge, â€Å"Our study is part of a comprehensive evaluation of Scotland’s smoke-free legislation† (Haw & Gruer, 2007: 549). The researchers successfully deal with the comprehensiveness of the topic of their study. Though previous researches on the air quality of the public places of Scotland refer to the subsequent impact of the smoke-free legislation, their acute limitation was that they do not tell much about the impacts on the private places. Haw and Gruer’s comprehensive approach to the research topic pertinently includes the exposure of the non-smokers in the private places. Such comprehensive approach to the changes in exposure aids the readers to achieve an overall picture of the change in exposure. Another thing is remarkable that the researchers are more concerned to prove the consistency of the findings of their paper with other studies than to clarify the concepts of â€Å"exposure to second-hand smoke† (Haw & Gruer, 2007: 549) and the parameters of â€Å"change† that they are dealing in the paper. Significantly their paper lacks any efficient literature review that could have clarified the outline of their research topic and other related concept. Also it lacks a sufficient literature review to support its methodology and other approaches to the research topic. Haw and Gruer do not tell anything about ethical approval by any ethic committee. Also they do not describe the maintenance of ethical issues for the paper. As to research method, Haw and Gruer chose the cross-sectional approach for their research. But the flaw within their methodological approach is that though in the first place they chose the cross-sectional method, they used longitudinal data also. Though they expressed the aim of the study as â€Å"to measure change in adult non-smokers’ exposure to secondhand smoke in public and private places after smoke-free legislation was

Hiring veterans into organizations Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Hiring veterans into organizations - Term Paper Example The measure to hire these people shows their concern and attempt to recognize their contributions, sacrifice, skills and service towards society. Since 1980, the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) in the United States Department of Labor (DOL) is trying to raise awareness and concern about the need and value of recruiting veterans. ‘VETS’ has also been trying to launch new initiatives for increasing their engagement and association with employers and organizations with special focus on the private sector. The employment of veterans accounts for one of the priorities for the Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. The reason why the above topic has been chosen is to bring out the contributions of veterans in organizations and the significance of hiring them. They have been identified as peak performers and are also proven sources of talent. Moreover their immense importance in the organization is based on the fact that they can yield an immediate bottom line benefit as they are established credentialed and because their skills and abilities have been tested and shaped under various opportunities and challenging circumstances (Burnell, â€Å"A Trained, Ready and Proven Source of Talent†). ... Out of its total employee strength, 50 percent of them are military veterans. A major portion of the veterans work overseas with the US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, which provides insight into the correlation between the skills of the soldiers and the skills required for the attainment of success for the civilian workforce of today. The project highlights on the challenges faced by managers in translating the military skills into the civilian job experiences (Hadley, â€Å"What employers are doing†). The hiring of veterans creates certain hurdles in confronting with the challenges of inducing the internal culture of the organization with that of the new recruits. Moreover it is important that the organization understands the nation’s military services. Veterans are increasingly confronted with the problem of finding jobs in organizations which do not understand their military services. Veterans have to play the crucial role of bridging the gap between the civil recruite rs and their experience through an interview with a single resume. It is important that organizations identify the gaps and make their working environment well suited for the workings of veterans (Hadley, â€Å"What employers are doing†). As presented by the Carlos Echalar, executive Vice President in the human resource department at ManTech International the human resource departments in organizations recruiting veterans feel the need to translate the military skills into civilian service experience as challenging as that of speaking in two different languages. Understanding the responsibilities involved in active duty is ingrained in the organizational culture of ManTech’s. The organization has been associated with numerous defense organizations since

Laid-Back Parenting Essay Example for Free

Laid-Back Parenting Essay Erin Zammett Ruddy wrote the article â€Å"The New Laid-Back Parenting† where she identifies whether a parent can exercise laid-back parenting efficiently in a hover-parenting culture and not take it to the extent of neglect. Practicing laid-back parenting has its challenges where it is tempting for the parent to snap back into an overly involved mode. Some people who do not practice the laid-back parenting method may frown upon it. The author presents an interesting perspective on how the use of a less hovering approach to parenting allows a child to be independent, confident and resourceful individuals in the future. â€Å"The New Laid-Back Parenting† article demonstrates that over-involved parenting can have a negative influence, later on in a child’s life. Hence, the child is not able to handle certain situations on their own without the help of their parents trying to do everything for them. Subsequently, the child is completely dependent on their parents for decision making and other issues. This is in contrast to the laid-back parenting approach where it encourages a child to think and do things independently, to a certain extent. The article explains how a parent can live a balanced lifestyle which involves being a parent, spouse and enjoying leisure at the same time. Also, the article gives an illustration of when the use of laid-back parenting has gone too far by the parent. Given these points, the author seems in favor of laid-back parenting as being the most fit, when raising a child. Early on in the article, the author provides quotes from historian Pamela Haag Ph.D. Haag states, that parenting, Its something you do intensively, rather than a status you have† (Ruddy, 2013). This source is reputable  because it is coming from someone who has their PhD in cultural history, who most likely spends years studying the role of a parent in various cultures. This statement relates to the author’s topic and serves as a support to the argument which makes it relevant and consistent with the article. Another fact that the author mentions is, â€Å"Indeed, a new study at the University of Mary Washington found that over-involved parenting, which can extend well into young adulthood, may even be damaging long-term†(Ruddy,2013). The source that the author uses is credible due to the fact that the study was done at the Washington University. However, if the author had included a few more Universities that have conducted the same study and arrived at a simil ar conclusion that hovering parenting results in negative effects on a child’s life, it would create more proof for the article. Moreover, the author provides the evidence that over-involved parenting is least effective when raising a child. Overall, the author’s use of facts re-enforces and supports the article stance on laid-back parenting. An opinion is clearly stated, when the author explains that â€Å"‘Parent’ is a verb rather than a noun today(Ruddy,2013) This opinion enforces the idea and function of what parenting is by emphasizing and comparing the role of parenting in the author’s point of view. The explanation gives support that parenting is a responsibility. Also, â€Å"Less parenting means more ‘you’ time† is an outlook the author uses to convey a balance life of being a parent. Still, it seems as if the author uses laid-back parenting as a convenient way to do other things, other than being a parent. Thus, the author appears to be somewhat selfish in her thoughts. Nevertheless, the opinion is supported by how less hovering results in more time to do other activities in her life. Also, the points of view provided by parents who practice laid-back parenting functions as an opinion and provide support for the article. However, this seems bias because the author did not include the views of parents who do not practice laid-back parenting. In all, the author expresses her view points and how beneficial it is to promote less over-involved parenting. In conclusion, the author relates her idea of parenting and lean towards laid-back parenting as being the most effective method when raising a child.  The author believes that this type of parenting will have a positive impact on children as they progress into adulthood. A Less hovering parenting style results into sheer benefits for both the parent and child. As a result parents have more time to incorporate other activities in their lives while the child is learning to face life challenges independently and efficiently. Reference RUDDY, E. (2013). THE NEW LAID-BACK PARENTING. Parenting School Years, 27(6), 47-48

Epistemological Assumptions And Issues In Research Psychology Essay

Epistemological Assumptions And Issues In Research Psychology Essay This paper the researcher constructs the epistemological issues which normally arise when any research methodology is applied in practice rather than the conventional approach. Normally the epistemological position deduce from what the researcher already know about the philosophical underpinnings of the situated systems approach, the researcher is taking the path of using an empirical study of the epistemology in use throughout a comparative application of the methodologies. To complete this paper, the researcher also uses one specific research approach from different research paradigms. In this study the researcher will give a brief idea about, how to conduct survey of a research from. This paper will also describe and evaluate the epistemological assumptions. 1.1. Epistemological assumptions The epistemology is the procedure of the theory of knowledge. This issue is concerning the major question that is regarding as obtainable discipline in the field of knowledge. (Bryman, 2001, p. 11). Normally this process is following the two major traditional procedures. One is positivism and another one is interpretivism or hermeneutics. 1.1.1. Positivism The process of the positivism is an epistemological process that is always try to investigate that proper methods of natural science of the study for social reality and the its beyond. (Bryman, 2001, p. 506). The ways of its investigation is extremely difficult. For this it can be summarised in different ways. This assumption is base on the science that should be verifiable and free form subjectivity. The fundamental notation of its object is found out the reality when and where and who is observing it. (Lundahl Skarvad, 1993). 1.1.2. Interpretivism/Hermeneutics The interpretive research is means the assumption process of access to reality all the way through social structures which is including the language, the perceptions and the particular meanings of sharing. There are two base of this process; one is hermeneutics another one is phenomenology. (Boland, 1991). Normally the process of interpretive research tries to find out the actual meanings via the people assign to them. This process is mainly concentrating the full complexity of human better understanding in the context of two situations, such as independent variables and the indeterminate dependent. (Kaplan and Maxwell, 1994). On the other hand the hermeneutics approaches is the process that is original concept where the individual group combining the situation in the written text which is referring the respondents overview to the authors. (Ratcliff, 1999; Bleicher, 1980). This process is mainly featuring the meaning of the text analogue. 1.1.3. Identifying Epistemological Approaches Epistemology refers to the nature of knowledge. There are three questions are mainly used for identifying the epistemological approach (Chua 1986; Hirschheim et al. 1995; Denzin and Lincoln 2000). They are; What can be known? What is the relationship between the knower and the known? And How do we find things out? Though the first question is regarding the ontological question but the third question methodological issues, these are informed by the epistemological position. These three questions of the epistemological positions compare the two approaches. What can be known? There are different ideas are between the conventional analyst and the situated analyst about what can be known. Fundamental to the situated theory of action are the ideas that knowledge is embedded in action and that action is situated in the environment. Implicit in the approach of the conventional analyst was the position that what can be known is that which can be articulated and ultimately represented in the system. (Waller. et al, 2006). What is the relationship between the knower and the known? The situated analyst and the conventional analyst adopted very different relationships with the known, that is, with the system under study. Whereas the conventional analyst would typically be characterised as a detached observer, the situated analyst became a participant observer and actually worked as a dispatcher at the different research approach. (Waller. et al, 2006). How do we find things out? In order to identify opportunities for improvement the situated analyst used the situated systems methodology to evaluate the work practices against stated and tacit goals and constraints. Any identified opportunities for improvement were grounded in the data. In contrast, it appeared that the conventional analyst had an a priori concept of what a system should be like and that he identified problems by reference to this ideal type. 1.1.4. Summary of the epistemological position This paper an investigation of the epistemological commitments of the developing situated methodology and also the conventional approaches. This can be analysed by according to the concept of Waller. et al, (2006), What can be known Relationship between knower and known How we find things out Conventional approach Articulated knowledge Analytical distance Detached observation, comparison to ideal types Present approach Both articulated knowledge and tacit knowledge Influence of the environment Analyst takes subject position of an actor in the system, while also having analytical distance Immersion in the system Adapted from: Waller. V, Johnston. B. Robert and Milton. K. Simon., (2006), An Empirical Investigation of the Epistemological Assumptions Underlying Two ISD Approaches. Pg.7. 2.1. Research method The research procedure for any study is designing based on the research objectives. In this paper the researcher selected one specific research approach and how to construct the survey in the overall research process. The more detailed research field survey procedure for data collection has been described in the following. There is also some description of qualitative analysis will be describe in this paper. 2.1.1. Survey planning The survey planning was designed by gathering both quantitative and qualitative data from primary and secondary sources for every research. In field survey the researcher faces two types of problem in the field. At first the researcher decided how gaining entry into the field and how to getting out from the field. 2.1.1.1. Gaining Entry The most difficult stage of the field based research work was to gain access to the study field site. Due to the distinctive characteristics of the location, structure and surrounding environment, gaining entry into the study field site was not as easy as accessing people. Initially, individuals or representatives of the organization, who were selected as prospective respondents may have thought that the information they gave could be unsafe for them. They thought that data could be used against them to identify their weak points. Therefore, they tried to avoid the researcher as he was a stranger to them. The following discussion describes how this problem was overcome. 2.1.1.2. Getting out The required data for collecting taking a period of time. After evaluating the data and when the researcher is finding it satisfactory, the researcher feel that it is the time to close down data collection and leave the field. 2.1.2. Theoretical Orientation and Research Approach All research is conducted according to a set of ideas and judgements about the nature of the work and how it should be understood. It characterizes a wide view that defines, for its holder, the nature of the research, the individuals place in it, and the range of possible relationships to that research and its parts. In the research approach, one or more data collection techniques could be used (Neuman, 1994). In general, a researcher decides the data collection techniques (one or more) considering appropriateness based on the research and practical factors such as expectations of data quality, costs, assumed non response rates, level of error expectation and data collection period. 2.1.3. Sampling strategy: Principles and approaches Sampling strategy is an essential step in every research project since it is rarely realistic, capable or ethical to study whole populations. The selection and development of an appropriate sample strategy depends upon the aim of the study. In any study, both research questions and methods define the sampling plan, the type of sample used, and the number of the population of the study sample. The factors that may affect determination of the sample sizes and sampling plans are access to the subject population, the number of study variables, the desired level of efficiency, cost and time constraints. The sampling method refers to the determination of the sampling strategy. Quantitative or probability sampling strategy is aiming to draw a representative sample from the main population to eliminate conscious or subconscious biases that may occur when selecting samples and results can be generalised back to the population (Marshall, 1996). However, less rigorous or non-probability sampling strategy also used for the research study which does not ensure a representative sample (Kaplan, 1988; Kaplan and Maxwell, 1994). In non-probability sampling, there is an inherent risk of sampling bias because the populations of interest may not be represented accurately. In qualitative research, no strict criterion is suggested for sampling plan and sample size determination (Patton, 1990). In this paper the researcher describe some probability and non probability strategies. Stratified random sampling: Stratified random sampling is a combination of stratified sampling and random sampling. Stratified sampling can allow subgroups or strata to be studied in greater detail of population (Islam, 2005). The most common approach of representative sampling strategy is to use random or probability samples. In a random sample, the nature of the population is predefined and all populations have an equal chance of selection (Islam, 2005). In a stratified random sample strategy, the sampling population is initially categorised into non-overlapping groups or strata based on research aims (Pedhazur Schmelkin, 1991). Purposive sampling: Purposive sampling is a random selection of the sample of the population with the most information as possible as the study requires on the attribute within the segment (Bernard 2002; Lewis Sheppard, 2006). This sampling approach enables researchers to obtain the best information from a relatively small sample, and provides more freedom to the researcher in accessing the data and information (Bernard, 2002). 2.1.4. Quantitative approach and data collection Quantitative research is thought to be objective, in that in gaining, analysing and interpreting quantitative data, the researcher can remain detached. Quantitative research is a preference to test hypothesis and theory to produce results that could be generalised (Galal and McDonnel, 1997). Moreover, quantitative research uses structured data in the form of number or can be converted into number by using statistical and mathematical analysis according to research design to explore the result. 2.1.5. Qualitative approach and data collection Qualitative approaches to research are the way of studying where reality is based upon perceptions that are different from one person to another and can change over time (Urquhart, 2001). In this approach, different perceptions are put together to make wholes and meaning is produced (Rich and Ginsburg, 1999). Different meanings could come out due to perceptions which vary with the individual. In qualitative research, rigour is associated with openness, reliable adherence to a philosophical angle, thoroughness in collecting data, and consideration of all the data to produce a theory (Melia, 1996). Qualitative investigation is used as a range of philosophical approaches to interpretive research (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Qualitative methods can produce detailed valid data with diverse angles and allow the formulation of innovative theory with ideas for future study (Guba and Lincoln, 1994). 2.1.6. Sample selection There are different types of sample selection in the data collection. In this paper the researcher describe a sample selection process according to a stratified plan following Barnett (2002) and Patwary et al., (2009). 2.1.7. Qualitative modes of analysis Qualitative modes of analysis distinguish the incomparability of the subject under discussion in the research. This paper will show the interpretive modes of analysis of the qualitative data. 2.1.7.1. Interpretive research Interpretive research is based on the assumption of access to reality through social structures including language, perception and sharing of particular meanings. Hermeneutics and phenomenology is the philosophical base of the interpretive research approach (Boland, 1991). The interpretive research approach concentrates on the full complexity of human understanding as the situation appears with indeterminate dependent and independent variables (Kaplan and Maxwell, 1994). Hermeneutics: The hermeneutics approach is the process of original philosophy where the individual respondent makes sense of a written text in a situation which refers to the respondents story not the authors (Ratcliff, 1999; Bleacher, 1980). Phenomenology: Phenomenology describes the experience of consciousness of the theory with assumptions from different phenomena, such as natural science, in a structured way (Denzin, and Lincoln, 1994). It appears as multiple realities because of each individual have his/her own reality and perceptions. . Conclusion This paper work is very important because there has been detailed about epistemological concept and also one research approaches procedure. The research procedure was described in detail and how to conduct it in case of the methodology in an investigation. The overall process was just the conceptual overview of the investigation.

Research Paper: Elections 2008 - Barack Obama -- American Politics

Currently, America is facing various hardships such as struggling economy, poor health care, two wars, pollution, excessive relying on exported oil and illegal immigration. Both Barack Obama and John McCain expressed in the campaigns their points of views and possible solutions for these problems. Obama, the candidate from the Democratic Party, proposed answers on improvements on situation in the United States. One of the major issues nowadays is the health care. There are many reasons why it is so controversial and needs a lot of attention from the future president. In the past eight years, health insurance prices have grown 3.7 times faster than wages. Many insurance plans do not cover a number of doctor’s visits. In addition to that, over forty-five million Americans don’t have any health insurance at all. Most of these people just cannot afford their medical bills. Dramatically rising health care costs are also making it increasingly difficult for small businesses and other employers to provide insurance to their employees. (â€Å"Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan to Lower Health Care Costs and Ensure Affordable, Accessible Health Coverage for All,† par 1) Barack Obama believes that government-run health care or insurances supplied by government are wrong. He proposes a plan that combines the two types of health care system into one. The plan would â€Å"strengthen employer coverage, make insurance companies accountable and ensure patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.† (â€Å"Plan for a Healthy America,† par 1, 2) Under Obama’s plan, everyone can keep his or her current health insurance and all the insurances will cost about $2,500 per year. Those who don’t have insurance would have many affordable options to ... ...9/opinion/19tue1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=in%20search%2 0of%20 a%20real%20urban%20policy&st=cse&oref=slogin.>. Ivanovich, David. â€Å"Obama Likely to Tackle Energy Early on.† Chron.com 8 Nov. 2008. 11 Nov. 2008 . â€Å"New Energy for America.† Obama ‘08 08 11Nov. 2008 . â€Å"Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Palin: Record on Women.† Obama ‘08 11 Nov. 2008 . â€Å"Plan for a Healthy America.† Obama ‘08 11 Nov. 2008 . â€Å"Plan for Ending the War in Iraq.† Obama ‘08 11 Nov. 2008 . â€Å"Plan to Stimulate Urban Prosperity.† Obama ‘08 11 Nov. 2008 .

Grendel :: essays research papers fc

The clash between good and evil has been a prominent theme in literature. The Bible presents the conflict between good and evil in the story of Adam and Eve. Many authors use the scene in the Bible in which the snake taunts and tempts Adam and Eve to take a bite of the apple of knowledge to demonstrate the frailty of humankind. John Gardner provides these same biblical allusions of good and evil in his novel, Grendel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of Grendel’s archenemies is the human. Humans refuse to look beyond Grendel’s unattractive exterior, and spend most of their days trying to kill Grendel. One night when Grendel is watching their mead hall, he sees them â€Å"treating their sword-blades with snake’s venom†(Gardner 29). Another conflict between humans and serpents develops when Grendel is watching the Shaper for the first time. As he listens, he â€Å"snatche[s] up a snake from beside [his] foot†(40), and holds it in his fist as he listens to the Shaper sing. The snake represents the deceptive weaving of history that the Shaper performs in Hrothgar’s mead hall. Grendel interacts with one of the priests, Ork, in the circle of Gods, by pretending to be the Great Destroyer. Ork predicts that the Great Destroyer will eventually fall, foreshadowing Grendel’s battle with Beowulf. Ork tells his fellow priests about his conversation with the Great Destroy er, but they just â€Å"look down at him as they would at a wounded snake†(118). In Grendel’s eyes, all humans are evil, because they refuse to take the time to understand him. Because of this, Grendel battles the humans throughout the novel until one of them finally takes his life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The only human brave and strong enough to defeat Grendel was the powerful Geat, Beowulf. Grendel watches Beowulf and his band of Geats land their ships on the shores of Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel observes Beowulf speaking to the coastguard, and notices that Beowulf’s eyes are â€Å"slanted downward, never blinking, unfeeling as a snake’s†(135). Grendel’s observations about Beowulf’s destructiveness are proven true as he engages in mortal combat with the Geat. When Beowulf takes hold of Grendel’s arm, Grendel feels as if Beowulf’s â€Å"fingers are charged like fangs with poison†(148).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After this battle, Grendel’s arm is pulled off at the socket, and he retreats to his cave to die.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another human that attempted to defeat Grendel was the top man in Hrothgar’s hall, Unferth. During Grendel’s first encounter with Unferth, Grendel notices a â€Å"table piled with glossy apples†¦[and] an evil idea came over [him]† (72).

The Timeless Power of Les Miserables Essay example -- Les Misérables M

The Timeless Power of Les Miserables      Ã‚  Ã‚   The book Les Miserables, written by Victor Hugo in 1862, created a sensation throughout the world (Royston and Schlesinger 2). That impression continued through theatrical productions and most recently the musical, but the book contains greater detail and adds a deeper understanding of Hugo's epic story than the movie or musical portray. Regretfully, few people in World society take the time to relish this masterpiece. Living in a fast paced world, many people today consider reading a time-consuming, senseless activity, and those who still read most likely choose a shorter novel rather than the 1500 page story of Les Miserables. However, the author states, "I don't know if it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone" (Royston and Schlesinger 2). This statement applies to this time period as well. The sincere characters, intriguing sub-plots, and moral theme of Les Miserables relate to people today even 130 years after its publication.    Popular characteristics that today's reader admires coincides with the characteristics of the characters in Les Miserables. Readers look for a hero that they relate with, so the hero who possesses admirable qualities as well as demeaning faults appeals to most people. The heroes of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean and Marius, both portray average men with flaws in their character. Jean Valjean, the main character, steals from a bishop who treated Valjean decently when other people only saw him as a convict. This single act makes Valjean appear ruthless, but later in the novel, his eagerness to help people and his willingness to accept punishment makes Valjean's error seem trivial. Valjean's mistake secures his r... ... and moral theme. Written over 130 years ago, it remains influential even today. Although the book requires an immense amount of time to read, the outcome proves beneficial and invigorating to anyone who chooses to embark on the adventure of Jean Valjean's life in Les Miserables.    Works Cited Hillis, Newell Dwight. Great Books as Life-teachers: Studies of Character, Real and Ideal. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1899. Grossman, Kathryn M. Les Miserables: Conversion, Revolution, Redemption. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996. Lee, Rob. The Barricade on the Rue de la Chanvrerie: Les Miserables - The Novel. Internet. 1997. Available: www.users.cloud9.net/~rlee/lesmis/welcome.htm. Royston, Peter and Sarah Schlesinger. About the Novel Les Miserables. Internet. 1997. Available: www.lesmis.com/inspiration/author/aboutnovel.html.   

China Dolls Essay

Jeffrey Cheong picked up the folder marked â€Å"URGENT†, which his secretary had just placed on his table and looked at its content. The folder contained letters from two of his major clients, KiKi and Houida. Both KiKi and Houida, two European fashion houses, were Haute Couture Fashion Berhad (HCF)’s first customers and have been with HCF since its inception. They were writing to Jeffrey to inform him that they may be looking to China to â€Å"contract manufacture† for them as the prices there were very competitive. Jeffrey stared out of his window in contemplation. He was in a dilemma. Loss of its two major clients would be disastrous to HCF. As it stood, HCF had been experiencing falling margins and profits over the last few years as evidenced in the financial statements enclosed. Loss of Kiki and Houida would mean that HCF would then be incurring losses. As soon as his other clients heard of this new development, they too would be taking similar steps. Jeffrey realised he had to review his strategy quickly if he wanted to retain the present clientele. He knew the inevitable. During the late 1990’s and into the early 21st century, China had made inroads into the textile industry and was forecasted to grow further. Following the relaxation of trade barriers, many of the European and American fashion houses were looking at importing clothes from China at very low prices. This was mainly due to its low operating costs. This had a massive negative impact on many companies operating at higher costs and based elsewhere. The previous adverse perception of â€Å"Made in China† labels had slowly changed as China now manufactured clothes that are higher quality at substantially lower operating costs. If Jeffrey wanted to survive in this industry, he too must consider moving his operations to China. Haute Couture Fashions Bhd (HCF) Houte Couture Fashions Bhd was established in the 1974 by the Tan family. Tan Boon Kheong, the patriarch of the Tan family was a skilled master cutter,  trained by British cutters in 1950s in Penang. He ran a small but successful business tailoring men’s clothing in Argyll Road, Penang until his retirement in 1980. Peter Tan, the oldest son of Tan Boon Kheong, initially under his father as a young 17-year-old but after three years left for Europe as he was interested in creating for both men and women’s fashion, rather than merely tailoring men’s suits and pants. His sojourn in Europe saw him training at Yves St Laurent and Gucci. He had a keen eye on women’s silhouette and soon established himself as a talented designer. Many of the fashion houses were happy to employ him into their team. He returned to Malaysia with a wealth of experience, eager to put his newly acquired knowledge into use. His return to Malaysia coincided with the trend of European clothes’ manufacturers looking at Asia for outsourcing. Peter saw this as an opportunity to kick-start his business venture, especially with his contacts with the European fashion houses. HCF started out as a family owned business with all of its shares being held by the Tan family. Peter prepared to bid for contract manufacturing deals with the European fashion houses. With the help of his contacts and excellent track record with the fashion houses, he soon managed to convince three of them to sign outsourcing deals with him. These fashion houses were keen on doing business with the people known to them as they set-off their new venture. HCF’s Growth HCF started its first fully equipped factory in Penang in November1974. Under Peter’s helm, HCF very quickly established itself as a high quality manufacturer of both men’s and women’s clothes. It had no difficulty meeting the demand of the fashion houses as Peter had recruited several European-trained Malaysian designers to join his team. By late of 1970s, HCF’s turnover had reached RM10 million. Over the ensuing five years since its inception, HCF had managed to add two more European fashion houses into its customer base. HCF’s talented designers were  providing inputs toward the development of the ready-to-wear designs and were well received by the fashion houses. HCF was now faced with a problem. The factory located in Penang was no longer big enough to cope with the production capacity. Peter quickly sourced a large plot of land in mainland Penang – Butterworth and began building a new and much larger state-of-the-art factory to cater for the growing demand. In July 1980, HCF opened its new factory in Butterworth. Peter, then the Managing Director of HCF, decided not to shut down the Penang factory but operated both factories. HCF then employed between 80 to 100, mostly tailors in the Penang factory, while the Butterworth factory employed about 300 employees. HCF continued to experience growth in sales throughout the early 1980s to mid 1990s, charted annual sales of around RM100 million. Its customer base had also increased, drawing in customers from Europe as well as America. Profits were also riding high. HCF opened two more factories. In 1990, it opened its third factory in Jitra, Kedah. The factory had a capacity of producing 1 million garments a year with a strength of 300 employees. In 1995, due to even increasing demand for its clothes, HCF decided to open its fourth factory with a production capacity of 2 million garments a year. This time, it looked to Thailand, as labour was very cheap. HCF set up a wholly owned subsidiary Haute Couture (Thailand) Pte. Ltd to operate the Chieng Mai based factory. It recruited about 500 employees. In 1997, Malaysia was facing financial crisis, with foreign exchange market volatility being the main issue. Manufacturers with foreign customers were unable to honour their contract price as exchange rates fluctuated. HCF was cought unaware. HCF had to tender for a contract six months before the delivery of the consignment. Fluctuation in the exchange rates made it impossible to predict the cost of material that HCF had to purchase form the fashion houses. HCF found itself selling its garments at very low margins for the very first time. 1998 saw HCF suffering its first loss since its inception. Many of its competitors also suffered losses and some even had to cease manufacturing. In a bid to survive the financial tsunami that had hit  Malaysia, Peter Tan consolidated HCF’s position by deciding to cut operating costs. HCF’s major cost apart from the cost of imported material was labour cost. Peter Tan made the decision to shut down the Penang factory, much to the dissent of his father. HCF was still able to meet the demand while still operating the other three factories in Butterworth, Jitra and Chieng Mai. He also decided to shift as much of the production to Chieng Mai, as the labour cost was a quarter of the labour cost incurred in the Malaysian factories. Moreover, HCF was facing labour shortage problems in Malaysia, as many of the labour force were moving to the cities for better prospects. As a result of this consolidation exercise, about 300 of HCF’s employees were made redundant, many of whom had been with HCF since its inception. Over the next few years, its profitability increased gradually and HCF slowly pulled itself out of the loss making situation. HCF managed this difficult feat because of its customer base as well as its reputation for high quality clothes, which commanded premium prices with its customers. The financial crisis had not affected Europe much, and as such, demand for the clothes continued. HCF’s Contract Manufacturing Structure The contract manufacturing deals signed with the European fashion houses were such that the designs were provided by the fashion houses and HCF had to adhere to the designs when producing the respective labels. The fashion houses welcomed suggestions from HCF’s designers but were particular that the designs were not crossed between the various labels that HCF was producing. Cross producing design between labels would be disastrous for HCF as it would immediately loose the contract for the labels involved. Further, the European fashion houses would supply the material for the clothes as they wanted to maintain the quality of the output. HCF purchased the material, sourced for appropriate accessories locally and produced the clothes. The fashion houses would contract for â€Å"a specific quantity of a specific design at a specific quality† to be delivered at a specific time. Any variation outside the contract stipulation would have to be borne by HCF itself. Usually, the contracts were for delivery of clothes one season ahead. This meant that summer’s design clothes would have to be delivered by the beginning of spring. HCF would sell the manufactured clothes at a contracted price. The fashion houses allowed HCF to tender for the contract price based on the design, quantity and price of material supplied. The contract tendering process usually took place about six months before the due date for the delivery of a season’s batch. HCF’s Customers HCF manufactured ready-to-wear clothes for a number of European and American fashion houses. Its clothes were well-sought after for its modern designs and high quality finishing. HCF’s customers have remained loyal over the last three decades, although its major coup was the securing of 2 major American fashion houses as its customers within the last 5 years. All of HCF’s clothing was manufactured under the customer’s own label.

Child Favoritism Essay

Do parents really have a favorite child? According to â€Å"The Science of Favoritism† by Jeffrey Kluger, yes, parents do have a favorite child although they try very hard to hide it. This article is about parents having a favorite child and the science behind it. It also talks about how nature plays a role in child favoritism, how favoritism is influenced by gender, and what it feels like to be the second best. Not only does Jeffrey Kluger bring up great points throughout his article but he has many examples of real life situations from interviewing people. For example, when going and actually watching various siblings and parents, Catherine Conger, found that â€Å"70% of fathers and 65% of mothers actually do have a favorite child† (Kluger 44-50). She says that â€Å"these numbers are probably even higher because parents try very hard to try and hide their favoritism† (Kluger 44-50). The author relates child favoritism to how it works in nature. Parents want their kids to be the best and most successful out of all the other kids. Just like with animals, parents will pick the strongest, healthiest child to be the favorite and this is mainly because of genes and reproduction. Douglas Mock says that â€Å"we are like the black-eagle who has more than one kid for insurance purposes† (Kluger 44-50). The second or third child would be considered insurance in case the first kid is not strong or smart enough, but if the first child is superior then the policy is terminated. With gender roles in favoritism, the author states that the mother may pick the first son as her favorite and the father may pick the youngest daughter as his favorite. Douglas Mock shows many examples of how this is true and writes that girls will follow in their father’s footsteps where as the boys will follow in their mother’s footsteps. When talking about being second best, the article shows how not being the favorite is very hard on a child. Clare Stocker did a study on 136 sibling pairs and found that the child being loved the less will usually develop depression and low self-esteem. This doesn’t mean that that most favored child will always be the most successful. Child favoritism can also damage the favorite child because they may be used to getting everything and may not develop certain skills. I find all this evidence very compelling, and being the second child and youngest of two sons, I believe a lot of what this article says is true. I also think a lot of it depends upon who the parents are and I don’t totally agree with some of the points made. Yes, my brother is bigger and stronger, but I am probably healthier and smarter. We both have our perfections and we both have our flaws but I would say we are both equal. That doesn’t mean our parents don’t have favorites, because I’m sure they do but I would say it changes from time to time. This article can be used by many people but there is a specific audience that can really benefit from reading this article. I would say the author was trying to reach either young couples thinking about starting a family, couples that have recently started a family, or couples that have already gone through parenting. He would try to reach young couples either thinking about a family or young couples that just started a family because it would be helpful for them to know this information and would hopefully lead to better parenting and decision making so their kids, either the second best or even the favorite, don’t end up totally damaged. The author would also be trying to reach couples that have gone through parenting and all their kids are grown up because maybe they need to help the child that wasn’t loved as much. I think that the author effectively addressed the target audience especially with all the stories and research he found and put in the article. Work Cited Kluger, Jeffrey. â€Å"Why Mom Liked You Best: The Science of Favoritism.† Time. 02 10 2011: 44-50. Print.

Marketing Plan: Zara Essay

I. Executive Summary Zara is the largest retail company owned and run by Inditex, largest Spanish corporation and the world’s largest fashion group. The way Zara has runs its company is by following a vertical integrated operation that has the  advantage to shorten the time in making decisions. Inventories in the stores depend on the geographic area in which the store is located; and the way Zara does their marketing is by just displaying posters at stores and by their windows display. This approach to make business has work very well for Zara; they show an economic growth despite the strong crisis suffer in the United States. The problem that Zara faces is whether to update their existing software or to keep the current software but running in the misfortune that the only DOS supplier will cease to maintain the software. Several benefits and economical costs are described to observe either it would be a wise move or not. II. Situational Analysis III. Target Market Zara sells apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children. Product lines were segmented into these three categories, with further segmentation within the women’s line as it was considered the strongest out of the three, with an overwhelming majority of women in the target market (78%). Zara’s consumers are young, value conscious and highly sensitive to the latest fashion trends in the industry. An advantage that the brand has over conventional retailers is that they do not define and segment their target market by ages resulting in designs and styles that can reach a broader market. Zara offers cutting edge fashion at affordable prices by following the most up-to-date fashion trends and identifying consumers’ demand, and quickly getting the latest designs into stores. IV. Swot Analysis V. Marketing Objective and Goals â€Å"The original business idea was very simple. Link customer demand to manufacturing, and link manufacturing to distribution. That is the idea we still live by.† (Jose Maria Castellano Rios, Inditex CEO) Zara’s CEO and founder, Amancio Ortega, saw the great importance of having retailing and manufacturing closely together in the apparel industry and from his view; Zara was able to position itself as a company with vertical integration control system. It covers all phases of the fashion process: design, manufacture, logistics and distribution to its own managed stores. It is also characterized by their strong focus on their customers. Vision â€Å"ZARA is committed to satisfying the desires of our customers. As a result we pledge to continuously innovate our business to improve your experience. We promise to provide new designs made from quality materials that are affordable† Mission Statement​ â€Å"Through Zara’s business model, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society and that of the environment with which we interacts.† VI. Marketing Strategy and Tactics Competitive Advantage: Market-oriented Strategy Most of Zara’s designs are based on the latest trends and they are ever changing according to the immediate feedback from customers. Zara employs its service staff in listening to customers’ preferences and reacts very quickly to them. It is only a matter of weeks before the designs get altered, manufactured and restocked in the stores. If a design is largely unpopular, Zara will not hesitate to withdraw them from the shelves. Its global establishment also provides an extensive network of shopper-feedback which allows them to be ahead of competitors in spotting global fashion trends. Product: Fast Moving Fashion Zara prides itself on fast moving fashion with new designs restocked in limited quantity every two weeks. This encourages consumers to frequent the stores for new designs and to snap up interesting outfits on the spot in order to guarantee themselves a piece. This provides a sense of exclusivity to shoppers. Process: Industry Leader in Lead Time Creative teams consisting of designers, sourcing specialist and product development personnel, develop design collections. The teams work simultaneously on different clothing, building and improving on styles previously available. Zara’s designers are trained to limit the number of changes made by lowering the number of samples required, minimizing cost and turnover time. Its demand based production or Just-in-time (JIT) production reduces the amount of inventory available, lowering Zara’s storage cost. Zara’s outstanding lead time is unbeatable in the industry at the moment. Furthermore, Zara eliminated the traditional design process, where design and development overrides fabric procurement. In Zara, the design teams work with the available fabric, allowing for faster fashion. Price: Low Cost, High Fashion Zara believes in offering high fashion at a low cost. Prices range from $79.90 to $539.00 for both Womenswear and Menswear while the Kids segment has coats starting from $65.00 and these prices can start from $30 during a sale. Taking quality and cost into account, Zara prides itself in providing high fashion at an affordable cost, making its customers’ purchases value-worthy. Place: Prime Retail Locations Zara, like its competitor brands, is located in prime retail areas like Ion Orchard, Orchard Road, 313@Somerset where human traffic is high. As aforementioned, Zara invests in prime locations as they place great emphasis on the presentation of its storefronts. Zara also has an online store, which increases accessibility to its customers, allowing them to make purchases conveniently on the go. However, this function is currently not available to Singaporean customers. Promotion: Minimum Advertising Zara uses 0.3% of sales revenue on advertising, minimal when compared to its competitors (3-4% of sales revenue). Instead of relying on traditional mass-marketing mediums, Zara uses prime retail locations to attract its customers. It also ensures that storefronts and window displays are attractive and fresh to customers by making frequent changes to the items on display. The interior of the store is also clean and bright, with spacious  lanes in between racks. This provides a very comfortable shopping experience. Having a good image projection of the store is vital as this is Zara’s most effective marketing communications tool. When customers walk into a store, Zara wants to portray to customers that the latest fashion is always available. VII. Implementation and Control 1975-1995: Since its inception in 1975 till 1995 Zara has followed the method of inspection in order to keep a check on the quality of its products. Zara’s designing team has worked closely with customers and have spend their time in spotting the latest trends in demand. An instant sketch of the design has been analysed and the accordingly produced. The quality control teams at Zara inspected the designs before placing them in stores. M995 till date: After 1995 Zara has implemented the practice of Total Quality Management. In this practice Zara’s vertically integrated supply chain tries to achieve Continuous Improvement of their processes, which includes spotting of the fashion trends, designing, and procurement of their materials, the CAD technology they use for designing, their improved inventory management and finally their centralised logistics and distribution system. Each of the components of the supply chain process has been explained below. Implementation Effect iveness Zara choose to invest within its own software rather than buying new technology simply because the company’s operations were unique and commercial packages would not fit; also the fact that Zara is a global company, it deals with various currencies that standard accounting packaged would have to be extensively customized and comprehensive. Zara’s operating system, DOS, is obsolete from the market affecting the firm with no reliable system for future forecasting; â€Å"not keeping up any historical date means being unable to predict sells, plan or estimate loses/gains and margin on particular designs (Anonymous, n.d). Unreliable fax machines that were taking too long and costing too much to fax order forms back and forth to stores caused delays and frustration. The use of telephones is greatly affected by miscommunication and mishearing. From the above it can be deducted that Zara’s internally application is not a good match for the firm’s needs because: t heir internally developedapplications are not easy to  upgrade and are not compatible with other applications, POS terminals are outdated and stores need POS terminals that will insure no infrastructure problems and its IT department is relatively small for the size of the firm. Evaluation of IS Implementation In this case, Zara believes less is more and makes minimal use and investment in IT. The competitive advantage Zara has over its competitors is not so much due the use of IT, but because of its quick response to the changing market. Zara does not have a chief information officer or any formal process for setting an IT budget. Castellano estimated Inditex’s IT budget for 2002 was 0.5 % of the revenue, as compared to the 2% of the revenue of other North American retailers (McAfee et al., 2007). As there is no formal justification of IT efforts, there is also not any cost/benefit analysis. However, to maintain business competitiveness is the most important factor to consider when making any decision regarding the upgrade of IS. Zara needs to analyze and compare the Tangible (quantitative) costs and benefits as well as the Intangible (qualitative) costs and benefits of the old system and the new system.

The Impact of genetic fingerprinting and gene profiling in Forensic Science

Gene profiling and genetic fingerprinting was unheard of in Forensic Science 20 years ago. DNA testing was initially introduced in the 1980s and the first court case, which saw a man put behind bars due to the forensic evidence was in 1985. Following the success of the use of physical proof, numerous cases around the world from paternity tests to identification of American soldiers from the Vietnam War have been solved. A person's DNA (de-oxyribonucleic acid) can be found from a single strand of hair, skin under a murder victim's nails or bodily fluids such as sweat, saliva, semen and blood. The chances of a sample of DNA being the same as another person, other than monozygotic twins is 1 in 24 million. This is why recent cases such as that of Sarah Payne rely so much on DNA samples found at the crime scene. In this case a single strand of Sarah's hair was found on Roy Whitting's sweatshirt and matching fibres from his sweatshirt were found on her shoe, although there was slight controversy as to whether the evidence was contaminated. The method for extracting the DNA from a sample is a complex one. The technique was first developed in this country in 1985, the year of the first proven case. Firstly the DNA must be extracted from the sample of body tissue or fluid. This could be a very small amount in a criminal investigation where the offender could've taken every precaution to avoid being caught. A process called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) then multiplies the sample and produces millions of identical strands of DNA. PCR is completed by a â€Å"repetitious, cyclic programme of heating and cooling the substance together with a heat resistant DNA polymerase and two specific DNA primers. The polymerase and primers reproduce a small region of a genome, the whole of the DNA of the organism.† – quoted from DNA in Forensic Science by J. Robertson, A.M. Ross and L.A. Burgoyne. Forensic scientists use PCR to produce plenty of DNA to carry out all the necessary experiments to obtain a conclusive result. The DNA is then broken up, using enzymes, into standard fragments. The enzymes used cut the DNA at precise sequences of A C G and T in the DNA. A few fragments are then chosen and separated by size on a gel. The gel is then exposed to radioactive samples of the DNA. This produces different sized bands and the bands that have the same sequence of DNA are prominent. Generally the DNA evidence found at the scene is tested and the suspect may have a blood test or a saliva sample from the inside of the cheek, which will also be tested. The two samples will be tested and compared several times. If the two samples have 5 bands or more that match the result is considered as decisive. In 1992, after many years of arguments for and against the gene profiling, the National Research Agency accepted the method as a reliable one to help identify criminal suspects and shortly after the procedure entered the mainstream court system. Genetic fingerprinting is now so common it's difficult to avoid in everyday society. The accuracy of gene profiling is very good. The chance of two people sharing one band of DNA is approximately 1 in 30. This may not seem like there is much chance of identifying a person, as there is a fairly high possibility of it being a number of people. However, the National Research Agency has a policy stating that at least 5 bands have to match for the test to be considered as positive. This means that the probability goes from 1 in 30 to 1 in 30 x 30 x 30 x 30 x 30, which is equal to 1 in 24 million providing the two samples aren't from blood relatives. This is why genetic fingerprinting is considered as firm proof in a court of justice. Overall, the chance of getting a DNA test wrong is slim, providing the tests are carried out properly. However, just because someone's DNA is found at a crime scene doesn't prove that the suspect is guilty. There are many other areas of law that need to be investigated before a verdict can be decided. Some offences that are committed rely almost solely on forensic evidence such as that of rape. If semen is discovered and recognized as that of the suspect then that is nearly a conclusive result. The suspect may claim that the other party consented to sexual intercourse, but would find it difficult to deny that intercourse took place. Nevertheless, forensic evidence does have its problems. Firstly the tests have to be carried out in fully sterile conditions to ensure that the DNA isn't distorted in any way. It is crucial that the sample before PCR takes place is not contaminated as PCR will produce several thousands of exact clones and all the forthcoming tests could be inaccurate. Also, over time mutation of a sample takes place, gradually decreasing the likelihood of identifying a suspect perfectly. There have been experiments carried out to test how quickly mutation takes place. Scientists have found that, with blood and semen stains kept at room temperature for more than four years, it was almost impossible to identify any reliable DNA information due to mutation. In some cases, such as rape, the evidence can disappear within a matter of hours. When testing for semen in a rape case, the DNA should be found within 20 hours of the crime. Following the first 20 hours, the probability of obtaining an accurate identification decreases hour by hour. Conclusion With the slim chance of 2 people's DNA making a full match, gene profiling is a definite way of proving whether a person was at a crime scene or not. Whether they actually committed the crime is a different matter. Providing all tests are carried out well and the DNA is extracted properly and without contamination then the results should be extremely accurate. On the whole, gene profiling has taken forensic science that stage further and it has developed to being a crucial part in identifying criminals all over the world. There remain ethical difficulties which have yet to be resolved, for example, the establishment of a DNA database, human rights and civil liberties, the use of DNA information in unrelated legal cases, etc, but these issues will be addressed in due course.

Executive Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Executive Summary - Essay Example Health records are very important in the health sectors. All the people involved be it doctors, nurses, technicians or even the patients require the health records in one way or another. The high numbers of people being attended to have led to there being numerous health records which are in the form of sheets and files. Despite taking up a lot of space for storage, it becomes very difficult to trace the records when they are needed and hence crippling the effectiveness of the health sector (European Working Conference on Electronic Health Records 2002). I would like to propose that the health sector be provided with digital systems of data storage. This summary will discuss the usefulness of the digital systems of information storage in the health sector and how they will benefit the each team player in the sector. Implementation of the project will reduce the cumbersome experience of tracking down health records of an individual patient. The project will entail purchasing of computers and tablets which will be used to store records of patients. The project will also entail the creation of a network whereby all the information on one patient can be accessed by any medical officer in the hospital. The project will eliminate the analogue process of writing down information on hospital cards and passing them from one department to the other as the patient undergoes treatment in the hospital. Retrieval of health information on a patient will be easy and will be a guide to the doctors on the kind treatment to give to the patient when they come to the hospital a second time. Outpatient attendance will be fast since the information required to attend to them will be available on a single click. Doctors, technicians and nurses will not need to move from one department to another to make enquiries sinc e the network system will ease communication. After full

HIRING pROCESS Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HIRING pROCESS - Assignment Example Being a registered member of the nursing board is one of the major qualifications that are needed for one to become a nurse at the healthcare facility. In case the candidate is not yet registered, she/he should be willing to be registered with the body. One of the federal obligations is that an employee has to be able to legally work in the US. This means that children and people of unsound mind are not qualified for this employment (Yoder, 2011). The state also requires that every nurse has to be licensed and so this becomes one of the federal obligations. In order for the hospital to provide the best healthcare facility to the public, they have to ensure that only the best nurses are selected for the job (Yoder, 2011). After the short listing, an interview has to be done during which each candidate is awarded marks that will be used to grade them. The national labor regulation board (NRLB) has no role at all in the interview process and so the interview process is completely thee job of the interviewing panel that is selected by the HR based on

Do we live in a celebrity-dominated consumer culture Essay

Do we live in a celebrity-dominated consumer culture - Essay Example "They should not be treated as fodder." But that's exactly how they are treated. MTV executives deny it, but when their young subjects vie for space with J-Lo and Jolie on the covers of People and Us Magazine, it's hard to say the shows aren't glamorizing teen motherhood. At a time when poorer, less educated teens in the U.S. are statistically more at risk of having children out of wedlock, this drive for market share feels predatory and seedy and feeds right into an American culture beset by narcissistic, self-destructive behavior† Tafaro, E. A., & Zuccarello, F. (2012, July-August). Chopped Chef: Celebrity Chefs Have Become Big Business. Not Having Adequate Disability Insurance for Them Can Be a Recipe for Disaster. Risk Management, 59(6), 16+. "If you are a Baby Boomer, you probably remember the cooking show The French Chef. Filmed live and uncut, you could hear the pots and pans bang, oven doors squeak, and chef Julia Child's singsong patter about life in the kitchen. It wa sn't terribly exciting, but Child became a pop-culture icon and was in many ways the first true celebrity chef. But somewhere along the way that tiny kitchen on Julia Child's low-budget set became "Kitchen Stadium" on Food Network's popular Iron Chef series. It became a place where chefs enter a culinary arena like gourmet gladiators, accompanied by blaring music, blinding lights that could illuminate an airport runway and the almost surreal sight of a man hoisting a $100,000 camera on his back while zooming in on the perfect close-up of a stick of butter melting in a frying pan. Today's celebrity chefs are treated like rock stars because they get paid like rock stars, led by Gordon Ramsay... This "Do we live in a celebrity-dominated consumer culture?" essay outlines how media change our values and our consumer needs. "Blum notes, however, that critical demands for "more realistic" media images are ineffectual: "To imagine that there are people who could change the images if they wanted to is to misunderstand the embeddedness of the image producers in a cultural machinery that they don't run but instead merely service. For them, as well as us, the linage and beauty are coextensive" (p. 65). Feminist calls for resistance to the beauty myth are no better, for there is no way to step outside the cultural frame and distinguish between genuine desires and those that are merely distortions of consumer capitalism. Blum cautions that in fact, "[w]e need to transcend feminist criticisms of body practices that can wind up being as shaming as the physical imperfections that drove us to beautify in the first place" (p. 63). I find little to disagree with in this analysis, as fer as i t goes, but find it strange that there is so little explicit consideration of the role of patriarchal structures in the increasingly high demands for feminine beauty. Although it's true that more men seek cosmetic surgery than ever before, Blum offers little discussion of how the need for male approval may influence women's choices to seek surgery. (And having recently read several devastating feminist critiques of the popularity of "labia reduction" and "vaginal rejuvenation" surgeries, I can't help but wonder what Blum's take on those procedures would be.)"