Wednesday, October 30, 2019

University of Wisconsin Admissions Essay Personal Statement

University of Wisconsin Admissions Essay - Personal Statement Example All skills that are necessary for one who ambitions to become a leader and not a follower in the future. These are skills and abilities that I did not realize I had until I became a member of the BBYO and found myself being asked to think about the kind of young leader that I could become. They called upon its members to strive towards becoming a national leader through the grassroots training that they offered. I dove into the challenge with excitement. I organized recruitment events in order to show the positive effect that our organization can have in their lives. All my hard work paid off as I was elected to the post of Regional Vice President for Communication (Northbrook chapter) , then programming (Overall, Illinois Chapter). Having been a ranking member of the BBYO for a number of years, I learned that life is not one person or race. It is about helping people reach their full potential in order to insure a steady flow of successful people in the future. We live in the land of opportunity. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to get the best out of the possibilities presented to them. I know how to do that and I willing to share what I know with my fellow students. I plan to do this by working with the student government in mounting student mixers and career introduction seminars whenever it is possible. I am currently the youngest staff employee of Special Gifts, a Chicago based theater group that helps children with disabilities see that their handicap is not a hindrance but a gift that makes them special. I am truly saddened that I will be unable to continue working with them because theirs is a Chicago based group. But, I have plans of further spreading the good works of the group by founding a Madison community chapter. I hope, that once I am in a well placed position within the student population of UW, I will be able to find some students who would want to help further the cause of my theater

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Veldt Essay Example for Free

The Veldt Essay In the short story â€Å"The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, everything starts with the purchase of their new family home. This home was not your average home because where other homes flawed this house seemed to have perfected itself. This house had features that would cater to the family such as feed them, sing to them, and even nurture them nothing was to good for their children said George. The greatest feature was the nursery. What this nursery would do, was catch the telepathic emanations of the children’s minds and create it in the room. This house did everything for the family; the children quickly grew more and more fascinated by the house then there parents. Soon enough, the children realized there was no need for their parents. As time progressed the kids started to adapt to being spoiled and pampered by the house. As the story goes, one day the parents walked into their three dimensional nursery and they discovered Africa; no longer was there nursery a lovely childish room, but it was now a dead desert with feeding animals. At first they were surprised at what their kids had been imagining then George said, â€Å"Nothing over there I can see but cleaned bone and vultures dropping for what’s left. † Than Lydia suggested that they give a call to the psychologist because there was not any reason why kids of so little age can be imagining this. So they did just that, and the psychologist advisor agreed with them to close the nursery down, and go on a family vacation. So George locked up the room and started turning off all there other machines that would cater to them one by one. That same night Peter and Wendy snuck into the nursery and as they were there a scream was herd all the way into their parent’s bedrooms; so George and his wife woke up to see what the commotion was about. George decided it was time to turn off everything all the machines so he did but right before he did Wendy and Peter got two minutes to say good bye. Too much time had passed and Lydia and George began to worry; they went in the nursery and it automatically locked them in and the lions ate Peter and his wife. The following day the psychologist came to visit the family and Pater and Wendy just acted as if nothing was wrong. Wendy even offered the psychologist a cup of tea symbolizing that she had no remorse over what had occurred to her parents.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Insomnia Essay -- essays research papers

Insomnia comes in many forms and worries people of all ages, most commonly for just a night or two, but sometimes for weeks, months, and even years. Insomnia has many causes. Insomnia is a symptom, much like fever or stomachache. There three symptoms commonly shown by people who have insomnia: difficulty falling asleep, no problem falling asleep but difficulty staying asleep with many awakenings, and waking up too early. Difficulty sleeping at night may be related with the following daytime symptoms: sleepiness, anxiety, impaired memory, impaired concentration, and irritability.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are three basic types of insomnia. The first type is called transient insomnia -- lasting for up to several nights and is usually caused by excitement or stress. Adults may sleep poorly before a key meeting at work or after a quarrel with his or her partner. Many people sleep worse than usual for the first night or two away from home, particularly if they have traveled across many time zones. Nighttime strong physical movements, the flu or other brief illnesses may disrupt sleep temporarily.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second one is situational insomnia. That is two or three weeks of poor sleep and is often developed during ongoing stress at work or at home. Situations such as job delay, divorced, serious illness or death are primary in this type of insomnia. Relief from the situation that provoked disturbed sleep or accommodation to it usually returns a pers...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Hutch Vodafone Takeover

After months of pitched battle, British mobile telecom major Vodafone Monday formally said it is buying a 67-percent stake in India's fourth largest mobile firm Hutch-Essar for $11. 1 billion and targeting a 25-percent market share in the country in five years. The London-headquartered company, that submitted a formal bid to the Hutchison Whampoa group midnight Friday, had earlier offered to pay $19 billion for the entire 100 percent-stake in Hutch-Essar. Vodafone has also agreed to take over a debt worth $2 billion. The remaining 33 percent stake in the mobile phone company is with the Ruias of Essar. Vodafone has offered to buy that stake as well. â€Å"Vodafone announces it has agreed to acquire companies that control a 67-percent interest in Hutch Essar from Hutchison Telecom International Ltd. (HTIL) for a cash consideration of $11. 1 billion,† a Vodafone statement said. For Vodafone, the acquisition will make India their third largest mobile phone market after Germany and the US with over 23 million subscribers and a 16. ercent national market share, industry sources said. â€Å"This announcement is clear evidence of how we are executing our strategy of developing our presence in emerging markets,† said the India-born chief executive of Vodafone Arun Sarin. â€Å"We have concluded this transaction within our stated investment criteria and we are confident it will prove to be an excellent investment for our shareholders. Hutch Essar is an impressive, well run company that will fit well into the Vodafone Group. According to industry experts, the mobile telecom giant, which has considerable expertise in third-generation (3G) mobile telephony segment, will have an edge over others once the new policy is rolled out later this in year or early 2008. Vodafone, which also had 10 percent stake in rival Bharti Airtel, said it will share the infrastructure with the company, based on a pact signed with the Sunil Bharti Mittal group. Infrastructure sharing is expected to reduce the total cost of delivering telecom services, especially in rural areas, enabling both parties to expand network coverage more quickly and to offer more affordable services to a broader base of the Indian population,† the statement said. Vodafone has also offered to offload 5. 6 percent of the said 10-percent holding to the Mittal family for $1. 6 billion. The Mittals, meanwhile, congratulated Vodafone on the deal, which is expected to make competition fiercer in the Indian telecom market. Vodafone's remaining 4.4 percent stake will, however, be retained and the group will act as a financial investor and not have any representation on the Bharti Airtel board, nor have any management rights, the statement added. Other players who had participated in the bidding process were Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications and the London-based Hindujas, both of whom have also congratulated Vodafone for making a successful entry into India's booming telecom market. Vodafone has operations in 25 countries with over 200 million proportionate customers at end of January 2007, as well as 36 partner networks, a company statement said.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Gatsby’s Attraction to Daisy Essay

In the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character – Gatsby – is in love with Daisy Buchannan. Moreover, the protagonist’s love for the young woman is the result of the objectifying and romanticizing of the latter. Throughout the novel, Nick shows Gatsby as the epitome of grandeur and the American Dream. Gatsby’s greatness, however, lies in his ability to pursue his dreams and, from them, create realities. This is the very case with Daisy. The main character feels attracted to her because she represents everything he ever wanted: wealth, glory and a high-class status. Without question, Gatsby is driven to desire Daisy because she is â€Å"dressed in white† (pg. 65) and other officers â€Å"demanded the privilege of monopolizing her† (pg. 65). It is important to note how Fitzgerald uses the word monopolizing instead of others that would set a more romantic tone. This is, however, because, in Gatsby’s eyes, Daisy is a trophy or a prize. And, thus, Daisy being such a big reward or achievement for Gatsby, he tries to attract her with exuberant parties. Furthermore, the fact that Daisy is so used to the upper class and ridiculous amounts of money also makes Gatsby find her â€Å"excitingly desirable† (pg. 28). It is not Daisy’s beauty or smile that wakens Gatsby’s heart; it’s the fact that her mansion was a thing â€Å"as casual to her as his tent out at camp to him† (pg. 128). We can see that Fitzgerald is trying to show to the reader why is that all the extravagant qualities Daisy possesses are so attractive to Gatsby; she, like money, represents the American Dream- the illusion of greatness and superiority. It is also important to see the words Fitzgerald uses when Gatsby describes Daisy. The fact that many others also desired the young lady, the main character says, â€Å"increased her value in his eyes† (pg. 128). The word value is, in a way, the summary of how the protagonist sees Mrs. Buchannan. It is not her beauty, her kindness or her personality – which behind Gatsby’s illusion is completely amoral and unethical –that makes Gatsby so interested in her. It’s her value; as if she were an expensive piece of jewelry to buy as a collection or a business to invest in. Nonetheless, it is what attracts Daisy that also attracts Gatsby. Because she’s attracted to â€Å"pomp and circumstance† (pg. 66), it adds to her value. Since he was very young, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and high-class standards, and though he never belonged there, he also desired the supposed ‘greatness’ that came with them. Daisy, in the main character’s eyes, is the representation of these very things. In conclusion, we can see that Gatsby, after creating an unreal version of Daisy, wants her more as an object than as an actual woman. Thus, the protagonist is attracted to her social hierarchy, her wealthy lifestyle and her popularity.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The War in Uganda Essays

The War in Uganda Essays The War in Uganda Essay The War in Uganda Essay The War in Uganda â€Å"We make war that we may live in peace. † This is a quote that the famous Aristotle said but is this always true? The civil war that is currently going on in Uganda is a case that the war being made is not so the people can live in peace, but rather live in a country that is completely divided. The war in Uganda is driving the people of this country to vast extremes and far away from peace. Throughout this war, it has always been the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) against the government which causes more heart breaks and separation. But who is the LRA consisting of? How are the people of Uganda being affected? Can a country like this ever live in a state of peace? Is there anything that we, as Americans, can do? Are you wondering what happen in Uganda that started this ever-lasting war? Well it can be traced back to a woman named Alice Lakwena. (Invisible Children) Lakwena claims that the â€Å"holy spirit† came to her one night and told her to over throw the Ugandan government. After saying such an outrageous thing like this, the Ugandan government exiled her, and this is when things started to take a turn for the worse. A man by the name of Joseph Kony would become Lakwena’s understudy and would now pick up where she had left off, only this time the Ugandan government would not be strong enough to exile him. Kony claims that he was possessed by spirits, the same spirits that had â€Å"talked† to Lakwena soon before this. War would officially be on the horizon. Kony soon became hated by many, even by Lakwena. But if he was Lakwena’s understudy then why would she hate him? This is because the vision that Lakwena had was to over throw the government, not to kill the citizens of Uganda. Kony had officially made his own plan and nothing was going to stop him or get in his way. Imagine one day you and your sister are running around your village, your mom is making dinner in your hut, and your dad has been working all day to support the family. Things seem fine until the LRA come rampaging into your village; they kill your mother and father, rape your sister, and kidnap and force you to be a part of their army. This is what has been going on for almost thirty years, that’s Africa’s longest running war. But who is the LRA and how do they have so much power? The LRA is an army that Kony himself created. Their values were based on those that came from many sources, Christianity, Mysticism, various African faiths, and witchcraft. Kony took it upon himself to do everything in his power to make sure that the Ugandan government would be overruled. (Invisible Children) But wait, a man that was hated by many has an army that has caused a thirty-plus year war? How is this possible? Remember the fact I said about how they â€Å"kidnapped you and made you fight for them† well it turns out the 90% of the LRA are abducted children; this is how Kony supplies his army. This has brought nothing but devastation to Uganda as a whole. What is this doing to the country as a whole? Well the government forced the citizens of Uganda to evacuate their villages and homes and move to displacement camps where they would be safe. (Global Security) Although this was a step in the right direction, the children of Uganda have to walk over 3 miles to shelters just so they do not become yet another number added to the LRA. Another issue that has caused a serious state of depression and desperation is that these camps were, and still are, in horrible conditions where everyone is packed in like sardines. World Vision) How are the people of Uganda being affected? Just imagine your child being abducted and then coming back to your village and being told that he/she will be killed if they don’t kill you. After a while this would take a beating on one’s health and well being. Again one has to ask, can a country that seems to be centralized by war ever have p eace? Peace? Does Uganda even know what this word means anymore? Can and will there ever be peace again? As time goes by, year by year, Uganda is slowly inching closer to total peace. Since 2008, there have been many peace attempts, but full peace has not yet been achieved. The United States is finally taking action and realizing that this war must stop, not just for the sake of humanity but for the sake of the world’s peace. (Global Security) With the help of the United States and support from thousands and thousands of people who are involved in an organization called ‘Invisible Children’ (which does nothing but work with the Ugandan government to advance peace talks and treaties), the peace treaties are becoming more and more realistic. One has to be realistic and think can the LRA and the Ugandan government exist in the same proximity? Considering there have already been so many attempts at peace treaties, I think that sooner or later they will be able to live in harmony together again. Kony is realizing that he is vastly losing support and members of his army. One can clearly see that the war in Uganda can be ended and stopped for good, but it will take time and patients. The citizens of Uganda, excluding those involved in the LRA mean well and want what is best for their country as a whole. We, as Americans, can show our support for this country in need and show them that we will not walk away and act like this is not happening. Just think if you were in their shoes, no family, no clean water, packed in so tightly into a hut, and being forced to live in fear; wouldn’t you want someone to come and help you! This is a picture of a young boy who is in the LRA This is a picture of one of the displacement camps†¦. notice all the small cramped huts! These are members of the LRA planning where they will invade next.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Keep Going - An Interview With Two #1 Amazon Bestsellers

Keep Going - An Interview With Two #1 Amazon Bestsellers "Keep Going" - An Interview with #1 Amazon Bestsellers Mark Edwards and Louise Voss Success doesn’t happen overnight. It is often the result of hard work put in over the years. And Mark Edwards and Louise Voss’ success story tells us as much. They are known for being the first indie authors to ever reach #1 on Amazon.co.uk back in 2011. Now with Amazon Publishing, their latest book is From The Cradle (and the best one, they tell me). Their story begins much sooner, though. They have been through the ups and downs that characterize a writer’s life, but they have been through them together and always determined to keep going.Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing both of them. They share their whole story (not only the success part) and their advice for starting indie authors. They also debunk a metadata-myth, analyze why Amazon Publishing is so powerful and explain how to co-write a book using Dropbox.So sit down with a nice cup of tea/coffee, and hit play. Or alternatively, read through the whole transcript below (courtesy of the Reedsy team). REEDSY: Hi Mark and Louise, I’m really pleased to have you here. You are known for being the first indie authors to have reached the top of the charts on Amazon.co.uk, a few years ago, with two books that you had co-written. But your collaboration started long before that, right Louise?LOUISE: Sure, it’s a good story, though it can make me sound a bit like a stalker. It started years ago, around 1998-99, and Mark was on this TV documentary about â€Å"wannabe writers†. I was in the exact same situation as him: I had an agent but she wasn’t very enthusiastic. We were both getting lots of rejections but they were really positive rejections. So I just sent him a little email via his agent, basically saying â€Å"I really liked your interview†.He wrote back, and we started corresponding via email about books and writing for around 18 months before we finally met in person. And then we thought: rather than just critiquing each other’s stuff, why d on’t we write something together? That’s when we started writing Killing Cupid. We did it all by email, because at that time Mark was in Japan.MARK: Yes, I was in Tokyo, and Louise was in London. We wrote an entire novel without even speaking to each other, literally. This was back in 2001, and Killing Cupid was optioned by the BBC but we didn’t manage to get a publishing deal for it.Then, a few years after, I came back from Japan and we decided to write another one together: Catch Your Death. Back then, however, we didn’t have an agent, we still couldn’t get a publisher, we were really back to square one, so we pretty much gave up at that point, didn’t we?LOUISE: Yes, I think the problem with Killing Cupid was a genre one. When we sent it to publishers, they said â€Å"well, it’s not really enough of a thriller to be a thriller; and it’s a comedy as well, we don’t know what to do with it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And that’s why we decided to write Catch Your Death, because that was unquestionably a thriller.MARK: Yes, so we both more or less gave up. I came back to the UK, got a good job, and thought: it’s really not worth the pain of trying to find a publishing deal.Then, 2010 when was I first heard about KDP. And I got a Kindle for my 40th birthday. So I said to Louise: why don’t we take our two old novels, spruce them up a bit, self-publish them and see what happens? And she was very reluctant.LOUISE: Yes, I thought â€Å"oh, no, it will be humiliating, we’ll sell 4 copies†¦Ã¢â‚¬ MARK: So we spent a few months rewriting and reworking them, because they were really out of date. There were no mobile phones, social media, etc.We put Killing Cupid out in February 2011, and as Louise predicted we sold around 4 copies on our first day, to people that we knew†¦ But then I became completely obsessed about trying to sell it. I had a full-time job, my girlfriend was pregnant, and she still talks about how I neglected her during that time! And Louise did promotion stuff too.LOUISE: Yes, we had a list of all the bloggers that accepted unpublished books - there weren’t that many of them but we put together this list and divided it up. Mark started at A and I started at Z and we worked our way to the middle, contacting all of them. It was a lot of work.REEDSY: And Mark, you did a very good job on the metadata too, right? I read about it on Joanna Penn’s blog, but maybe you can tell us what in your metadata helped make your book successful?MARK: Yes, we used subtitles. On Killing Cupid, I think it was pretty simple: â€Å"Killing Cupid, a psychological thriller†: nothing fancy, really. But we kept rewriting the blurb (book description). Back then, you used to be able to see what percentage of people who viewed your book had bought it, which was fantastic, you could see your conversion rate from browser to reader. So I kept looking at th e books in the top 10, especially the self-published thrillers and the ones that had the highest conversion rates, and tried to figure out what it was about those books that incited more people to buy them after they looked at them.So I was continually tweaking the description and I think that at one point I got it right, because it suddenly doubled our sales in just an hour. I had made the description shorter, more straightforward about the book while also making it sound more intriguing.We did something much more interesting for the second book, Catch Your Death. We called it: â€Å"Catch Your Death (For fans of Dan Brown Stieg Larsson)†. This quickly became a controversial point, with people starting to talk about it in The Bookseller magazine.But I actually believe, to this day, that it didn’t make any difference to the sales, because I think we put off as many people as we attracted. If you searched for Dan Brown at the time (and I did it quite a few times), our book didn’t come up, not even on page 30. It didn’t make any difference to the search results.What really made a difference, and this is a lesson for all indie authors, is that we were patient and hardworking in building a readership. We hand-sold every copy of Killing Cupid in the first 3-4 months: every single sale was hard work. And as we did that, we built a momentum and started climbing up the charts, which made our book more visible. And because it was good, word-of-mouth really worked in our advantage and more people started to buy it.We released Catch Your Death around 3-4 months after Killing Cupid, as Killing Cupid was climbing into the top 100. And Amazon then sent out an email advertising Catch Your Death to all the people who had previously purchased Killing Cupid.And it was the day that this email went out - even though we only realized this quite a long time afterwards - that more and more readers started buying both books and we shot up into the top 1 0. A couple of days later, Amazon removed the Dan Brown subtitle, and it didn’t make any difference at all.So there was a lot of hype about our metadata at that time, but I really don’t think it made any difference in the end. It was all about slowly building that readership.REEDSY: I think that’s a great lesson indeed for indie authors. But if we go back to the writing process, Louise, how does that technically work? What tools do you use: Google Drive, Dropbox, †¦?LOUISE: Dropbox, we have everything in Dropbox. It works really well for us, you can see the last things people have worked on and when. Though sometimes it happened that we were both working on the same document at the same time, so when we saved it created conflicted copies, which are a nightmare to sort out. But we don’t do that so much now, we’ve got better at it.We also email a lot, and text, when it’s particularly urgent, but we don’t actually talk that much, un less there is a problem, or in the beginning and the end, when there are things to figure out.MARK: For Dropbox, we have a â€Å"master document† - we do it all in Word - and we write separate chapters in separate Word documents, save them into Dropbox for the other person to make comments. The original author then goes back to that chapter to amend it and when we’re both happy with it we add it to the master document!We also have other Word documents and spreadsheets for our chapter plans. I think that, ideally, we’d use Scrivener, because that’s what we both write on for our solo novels, but you can’t really use it for collaborative work, as far as I’ve been able to work out.REEDSY: Now, with the success of Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death, you were prompted to partner with an agent, who got you into traditional publishing. How was that experience?LOUISE: It’s quite ironic, because we spent years trying to get a publishing deal for both books. But we didn’t have an agent at all until we were #1 on Amazon. I was talking with an author friend of mine and he suggested me to contact his agent. I said â€Å"well, he turned us down a few years ago so I don’t think he’ll be interested†. He answered â€Å"oh, it’s different now, you’re #1†. So we contacted his agent and he quickly got us a deal with HarperCollins, which was fantastic! I don’t regret it, really, because it was just so lovely to finally have this public validation through a traditional publishing deal, and the idea to have our books in shops, the advance, etc.I often wonder, with the benefit of hindsight, whether we would do it differently if we had to do it again, and I don’t think we would change much, other than to get more involved in the marketing and publicity of these traditionally published books. We were thinking that the publisher would do most of the marketing and promotion, a nd it didn’t happen. So I think our mistake wasn’t taking the deal, it was not pushing the books as much as we had when we were self-publishing.MARK: Louise literally just took the words out of my mouth. I definitely don’t regret it either, it was â€Å"a dream come true†. Louise had already had a traditional publishing deal in the past, but for me it was something I’d wanted for years.LOUISE: Yes, I guess I was a bit more cynical about it, because I already had had an experience with a publisher who dropped me after not promoting the books - and that was back in the day when you could do little yourself. But I still don’t regret it, we had a lovely editor, who did an excellent editorial work, really improving the books. It’s just that not many people got to see them.MARK: Yes, that was the frustrating thing. What happened is that after the first and second books didn’t do as well as they hoped, the third and fourth ones were pretty much dead in the water.LOUISE: It basically took the exact same trajectory as my first publishing deal: sales got smaller and smaller and the publisher’s interest got smaller and smaller. Also, one thing to take into account is that two of the four books had already been self-published before and picked up by a lot of people. So I think that didn’t help us as much as we thought it would.MARK: That was the problem, really. Catch Your Death and Killing Cupid came out a year after we first self-published them, which means the sequel to Catch Your Death came a year and a half after the first book, and by then, everyone had lost interest. And it wasn’t pushed at all, it wasn’t in any shops, it had no visibility.I actually think that we were a little bit like guinea pigs, because we were the first â€Å"indies† to go through that process over here in the UK. The publishers learned from what happened with us for some of the following indie success stories that they picked up.REEDSY: So you were with a publisher that didn’t do as much as you hoped on the marketing side of things. But now you’re with Amazon, right? Which is almost the opposite.MARK: Yes, but there is a stage in between. In January 2013, we were in a dark place. We’d had a very disappointing 2012 with the two paperbacks, and when the third one came out in January it just disappeared without a trace. Literally without trace, it left nothing.I had gambled by quitting my job to be a full-time writer, and I was in a very difficult financial position, with massive tax and credit card bills, plus my wife and I had another baby on the way. So I really was in a state of constant panic, thinking â€Å"what am I going to do?† I can laugh about it now, but it was terrible at that time. Every now and again I think â€Å"I can’t believe I managed to get myself out of that dark pit that I was in†.I remember Louise and I had this meeti ng with our agent in London and he - now, he would probably deny it - but he had lost a bit of interest in us as well. But we were determined to make it work so we decided we would not give up, and start a new series of books instead.Now, I had this book â€Å"The Magpies† that I had had sitting in my bottom drawer for years, and I’d been tinkering with it, on and off. Louise said: â€Å"why don’t you just do it, just self-publish it?† So I went home that day, read through it, and thought â€Å"actually, this is quite good†. So I self-published The Magpies via my agent (it’s called â€Å"agent-assisted self-publishing†) and it basically completely transformed everything, because The Magpies ended up selling (in its self-published version) 170,000 copies. It simply changed my life, and it’s what led to the deal with Amazon.Amazon Publishing bought the rights for it and for another solo novel from me. And when Louise and I fini shed our new co-written one, it did go out in submission to various publishers, but Amazon pre-empted it and our commissioning editor there read it in a few days. They made an offer, and because I’d had such a great experience with them already, Louise thought: â€Å"why not?†Everything so far with Amazon Publishing has been fantastic. I mean, I’d like to sell more books in the US, but in the UK it couldn’t have gone any better I think.REEDSY: Yes, and we actually interviewed another Amazon-published author, Bob Mayer, a few weeks ago who highlighted the â€Å"marketing reach† of Amazon publishing imprints. What does that mean exactly? What do these imprints do in terms of marketing that makes it worth it signing away royalties to them?MARK: Well, they’ve got the most amazing database in the world. They’ve got anyone who has ever bought anything, including anyone who has ever read a psychological thriller! That’s what sets them apart from all the other publishers. Plus, they’ve got the platform of their website, and they also do a lot of on-device marketing. So if you’ve got a Kindle Fire, you’ll see that whenever you turn it on, an advert will appear on the home screen, and they rotate, but they’re often books.That visibility that you get with Amazon publishing is just fantastic. The restriction of being with them is that you’re pretty much only on the Amazon platform, although they do print books and they are making efforts to get them into the shops. But they’re not on any of the other digital stores, so you’re in kind of a walled garden, like a luxury gated development!When somebody from a big publisher said to us: â€Å"well, wouldn’t you rather be with a traditional publisher and have your books in the shops?†, my answer was that that all sounds great, but when we did have that opportunity, our books were barely in the shops anyway†¦REEDSY: So, do you now still produce some marketing effort yourselves or is it all Amazon?LOUISE: We’ve worked very hard on building up our Facebook page. It’s not like we have tens of thousands of followers, but the ones we do have are so loyal that it’s really helping us get the word of mouth thing going, which is the holy grail of marketing anyway. But we still do work very hard, especially when we do online launches.REEDSY: To finish on an encouraging note for other authors out there: you’ve been through everything, both of you, in a writer’s career; the ups, the downs, so what would be your advice for an author who’d be in a â€Å"dark year† like you had in 2012?MARK: I think it’s certainly nurturing your existing fans and readers. That is what goes through in our Facebook group, where we have really loyal readers as Louise pointed out. They were really really helpful and acting as cheerleaders to keep us going. And then when we did start selling well, they were there and helped spread the word.REEDSY: And Louise, what would be your advice?LOUISE: Keep going!We lost the rest of Louise’s advice due to recording problems, but feel free to ask her (or Mark) anything in the comments below!Sharing is caring, so here are our Twitter handles: @ReedsyHQ, @mredwards and @LouiseVoss1

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Hamstrings and Hamstringing

Hamstrings and Hamstringing Hamstrings and Hamstringing Hamstrings and Hamstringing By Maeve Maddox A frequent injury among athletes is that of the hamstring: Dixon suffers hamstring injury Stewart suffers Hamstring injury Brandon Johnson suffers hamstring injury According to the orthopedics article at About.com, The hamstring muscle is a group of large, powerful muscles that span the back of the thigh, from the lower pelvis to the back of the shin bone. The hamstring is the important muscle that functions to extend the hip joint and flex the knee joint. In horses and other large four-footed animals, The hamstrings are a group of three muscles that go from the very top back of [the leg] to the stifle [The joint at the junction of the hind leg and the body that corresponds anatomically to the knee in man]. The hamstrings’ primary action is to extend the hip. They also aid in lateral movement and kicking. Like human athletes, horses can suffer hamstring injuries. If they’re not too severe, the horse can be treated. In severe cases, the animal is destroyed. As a verb to hamstring means to cut the hamstring muscles in order to lame or disable a person or an animal. Hamstringing one’s enemy or captured animals goes way back. Bible heroes Joshua and David practiced hamstringing: Joshua did to them as the LORD had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots. Joshua 11:9 (New International Version) David captured a thousand of his chariots, seven thousand charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers. He hamstrung all but a hundred of the chariot horses. 2Samuel 8:4 (New International Version) About 800 years later, during a battle between Romans and Carthaginians in 216 BCE, fleeing Romans were hamstrung as they ran. The Carthaginians concentrated on the Romans who were still fighting and went back later to kill the crippled soldiers at their leisure. According to this quotation found on many forums, hamstringing is being used as a tactic of war in Zimbabwe: The latest atrocities, as seen on CNN, are mutilations committed by the dissidents to serve as a warning to farmers not to return. Dogs are hung alive from hooks on farm gates, childrens pet ponies are having one of their front hooves chopped off and cows and sheep are being hamstrung. Used figuratively, to hamstring means â€Å"To disable as if by hamstringing; to cripple, destroy the activity or efficiency of.† Fortunately, it’s this figurative use that is seen most frequently: Hamstrung by Bobby Kennedys laws against interstate traffic in gambling, the illegal horse parlor is vanishing The regulators are hamstrung. NZ farmers hamstrung by world economy Citigroup Shares Hamstrung Since Report Hamstrung by stodgy storytelling Hamstrung by a crisis of leadership Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Math or Maths?Round vs. Around30 Words Invented by Shakespeare

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Significant Others and Art Partnerships Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Significant Others and Art Partnerships - Essay Example Apart from this shallow painting he received from his father, Ernest did not get any formal education in painting and instead forged his own methods of statistics painting in a self-taught way. Max Ernst met his wife in the year 1942 and introduced her to the Surrealists who were living in New York City by then (Klingsöhr-Lero & Grosenick, 2006). They got married in 1946 and shifted to Sedona, Arizona, and later moved to France. The partners are said to have strong and well established relationship due to the facts that Tanning introduced Max to her favorites and Tanner accepted, such as the Surrealism (Klingsöhr-Lero & Grosenick, 2006). It was a serious equal relationship since these partners supported each other in their painting works. The legacy of this relationship was when the two married each other and stayed happily (Tanning & Morgan, 1995). My favorite social site is Facebook. Facebook has currently been voted as the world’s leading social site. This site is significant in my life since it helps me to interact with my friends all over the world. It is also easier meeting and socializing with new people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds across this site. Through Facebook, it is also easier to catch up with the trending news and even shop online through the advertisements that are posted on the site. The most significant person in my family is my mother. She is currently forty-five years old and have an average body size. What I admire in her is how she cares about her family. She does everything possible to ensure that her family accesses all the basic needs like clothing, food and water. She has also ensured that we have accessed the best educational facilities, in our country. THE Oregon Cultural trust is a cultural organization, in my study, which is a global funding agency, supported by donations from individual donors, who receive

The movie Thank you for Smoking Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Thank you for Smoking - Movie Review Example On a deeper level, the movie also explores the world of corruption in politics and the government. In one scene, Nick mentions to his son that his â€Å"job calls for a moral flexibility that goes beyond most individuals.† It shows Nick, as a lobbyist, is required to disregard any real concern for the stakeholders as he drifts into the world of propaganda. Though the genre of the movie is satire, viewers may wonder if it is founded on facts. It may be unnerving to imagine that corporate PR depends on the lobbyist’s lack of moral accountability to support their cause and win the case. This could mean that lobbyists are expected to exhaust all means to create successful publicity, with the end justifying the means. The way Nick circumvents the truth to preserve public opinion unfortunately typifies the uncaring way these people do they jobs to achieve their objectives. For example, Nick’s company implements a corporate citizenship project intended to create a facad e of public concern by giving back to society. However, the anti-teen smoking campaign is merely done to avoid bad publicity. Additionally, the company’s monetary gift to the dying Marlboro man is to keep him silent from attacking the tobacco industry.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Understanding Heroines Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Understanding Heroines - Movie Review Example Understanding Heroines Characters who cannot longer be understood the same way today because out reviling attitude toward the women have changed so thoroughly since the movie were made. For each of the heroines or leading characters, the following concerns would be addressed: to describe the attitudes that other characters in the Post 80 viewing assignment: choosing from Queen Latifah in " Bringing Down the House", Jennifer Lopez in " Selena" , Julia Roberts in " Erin Brockovich" or " Quinceanera" . What do these protesting women really want? Why did Woopi Goldberg become the first women of color to become a major movie star? And what in the climate of the 90s and early 2000 allowed the careers of Goldberg, Latifa, Halle Berry, J-Lo to flourish? Three Leading Characters Theda Bara was described by Rosen as â€Å"with her waist-length black hair, her darkly kohled eyes and crude exotic make-up, Theda Bara embodied still primitive notions of depravity and wanton lust. She postured triumphantly as the poor m ale on whom she drew a bead was driven to drink, ruin, slavery ...† Theda Bara catapulted to fame during the era of the silent films and her official website depicted the star as â€Å"the first studio-made sex-symbol superstar and the very first ‘vamp’†. Audrey Hepburn, on the other hand, was illumined by Rosen as â€Å"Hepburn simply out-dazzled by the sheer force of her piquant joie de vivre and the apposite way she was put together. Perhaps it was the unusual combination of a narrow, bony body which she carried like a queen and an elfin face whose doe eyes contradicted by the strength of intelligence in the look, the irregular nose and wide mouth whose smile was at once sensuous, mischievous and absolutely sincere† (285). Her career was more colorful and her achievements include becoming the â€Å"special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993. She was named to People's magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world†¦ She had made a total of 31 high quality movies. Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history as evidenced by her being named in Empire magazine's ‘The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time’† (Jackson, par. 1). Finally, Mary Pickford was described by Rosen as â€Å"with her thick golden curls, her cherubic body and pretty face, she was, from the beginning, the incarnation of angelic sweetness and childlike innocence† (37). A Canadian, Pickford’s career begun in 1909 and ended in 1933. She acquired the name â€Å"America’s Sweetheart† due to the image, fame and fortune amassed during the peak of her career (Canadaka, par. 2). The three female lead characters who became famous through the 1940s were shown to manifest roles of from focusing on the physical traits of beauty and sexism as the main captivating elements to increasing emphasis on enhanced awareness of women to expand their roles from the traditional housewife to intelligent and participative members of society. Comparative Analysis with Post 80 Heroines 1. Protesting Women When compared with famous heroines during the post 80s, such as Queen Latifah in her portraya l as a an ex-convict who met Steve Martin, a tax lawyer, through the internet, Jennifer Lopez in "Selena", and Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich†

Global business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Global business - Essay Example Particularly this discussion will be looking at the issues that American businesses going in Russia need to understand in order to formulate effective entry strategy. These two countries have major cultural difference in language, authority, customs and norms thus conducting businesses in Russia present a communication and management challenge. Communication is essential for any business, Russia unlike America has several official language due to the large number of ethnic communities of about one hundred (Bloshteyn, 2007). This will need the company to have people who understand a variety of these ethnic languages while in US English is their official language. Body language help to convey certain messages like nodding the head to show agreement Russians do not use body language as such like Americans do but are said to be very emotion for instance they can walk out on you during a meeting to show disagreement. Authority in Russia is centralized and chain of commands are from top to bottom and the juniors staff are expected to perform their tasks without any questioning while the Americans top managers give directions and give room for debating. Russians organizational structures are very bureaucratic in nature and this makes it difficult to do business for instance according to an executive director of Russo-British commerce chamber Stephen Danziel, ‘‘you have to fill forms for all most everything and have them signed by the right authorities usually in triplicate’’. According to Trompenaars & Woolliams ( 2003), culture is the core value of any society, businesses have to understand the cultural background of the customer in order to be able to meet their needs. The ideologies and gender views of these two countries are different, Russians are seen as communalism and believe in collectivity while Americans are entrepreneurship and very competitive. Therefore Amer icans businesses need to be aware of these background which will enable the

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Comparison of Mary (from the long poem Half Hanged Mary) and Offred Essay

Comparison of Mary (from the long poem Half Hanged Mary) and Offred (from The Handmaid's Tale) - Essay Example Mary survives a hanging ranged over several hours In addition to that both Mary and Offred experience lack of empathy from the women. Mary expects her supposed friends to help her. She reflects upon the ways she had helped them in different ways, expecting them to help her out now; While Mary’s old friends do not empathize with her while she is hung because they want to be different from her, Serena, the Commander’s wife, assists the Commander in his heinous act of making love to Offred just for the sake of a baby. Both Mary and Offred find that women are only there to maximize their sufferings rather than reducing them. Serena’s distaste for Offred is evident from the way she asks Offred to leave after she has had sex with the Commander; she says, â€Å"You can get up now. Get up and get out† (Atwood 95). Mary and Offred differ in their experiences. While Mary’s punishment is a tale that ranges from 7:00 pm to 8:00 am, Offred suffers for many months. The nature of their punishments is totally different from each other. Mary is hanged whereas Offred is punished in terms of her forced separation from Luke and her daughter, forced sex with the Commander, and indecent proposals from the doctor, and a life of submissiveness and servitude to the Commander. Although both Mary and Offred are women of strong nerves, yet Mary expresses it overtly whereas Offred’s patience and stamina is evident from the multifarious traumatic experiences she narrates in the story and yet retains the courage to give her life a last chance by escaping in the wan. Mary expresses her determination in these words, Mary and Offred are both women and this is their crime. Mary and Offred find other women involved in men’s ways to traumatize them. Mary and Offred have strong nerves. The two women differ in their nature of sufferings, their experiences, and the duration of their

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY AND NUTRITION Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY AND NUTRITION - Case Study Example The human circulatory system can generally be described as an organ system concerned with transfer of amino acids, the lymph and electrolytes on one hand and gases, blood cells and hormones on the other. From one cell to another throughout the body with the sole purpose of stabilizing the body temperature and keeping watch at disease vectors. Through lymph and blood contents, the system ensures balance in the body Ph and maintenance of the homeostatic processes (Neville, 1983 pg 678). The circulatory system comprises basically of two principle mechanisms that is; cardiovascular and lymphatic systems, the former being concerned with blood distribution and the latter being involved in return of excess filtered blood plasma from between cells and refers to as lymph. Humans exhibit a closed cardiovascular system. Two fluids are formed to circulate throughout the human body system and there are blood and lymph. Lymph is filtered blood plasma from blood cells which are returned to lymphatic systems. Cardiovascular systems comprise of the blood, blood vessels and heart while the lymphatic system comprises of the lymph vessels, lymph and lymph nodes. The circulatory system comprises of two systems, pulmonary circulation and systemic circulation. Pulmonary circulation supplies blood to the lungs where blood is purified/ oxygenated whereas the system circulation supplies oxygenated blood to the rest of the body parts. Blood as a tissue constitutes 7% of the total body weight of an average adult. The components of blood include platelets, plasma, red and white blood cells. A point to note is that the circulatory system complements the digestive system in the sense that it provides nutrients the system needs for continued pumping of the heart. Systemic circulation is a system concerned with nourishment of body tissues except the lungs and heart. Blood vessels are responsible for supply of oxygen and nutrients to various body tissues. Re-oxygenated blood enters the

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Comparison of Mary (from the long poem Half Hanged Mary) and Offred Essay

Comparison of Mary (from the long poem Half Hanged Mary) and Offred (from The Handmaid's Tale) - Essay Example Mary survives a hanging ranged over several hours In addition to that both Mary and Offred experience lack of empathy from the women. Mary expects her supposed friends to help her. She reflects upon the ways she had helped them in different ways, expecting them to help her out now; While Mary’s old friends do not empathize with her while she is hung because they want to be different from her, Serena, the Commander’s wife, assists the Commander in his heinous act of making love to Offred just for the sake of a baby. Both Mary and Offred find that women are only there to maximize their sufferings rather than reducing them. Serena’s distaste for Offred is evident from the way she asks Offred to leave after she has had sex with the Commander; she says, â€Å"You can get up now. Get up and get out† (Atwood 95). Mary and Offred differ in their experiences. While Mary’s punishment is a tale that ranges from 7:00 pm to 8:00 am, Offred suffers for many months. The nature of their punishments is totally different from each other. Mary is hanged whereas Offred is punished in terms of her forced separation from Luke and her daughter, forced sex with the Commander, and indecent proposals from the doctor, and a life of submissiveness and servitude to the Commander. Although both Mary and Offred are women of strong nerves, yet Mary expresses it overtly whereas Offred’s patience and stamina is evident from the multifarious traumatic experiences she narrates in the story and yet retains the courage to give her life a last chance by escaping in the wan. Mary expresses her determination in these words, Mary and Offred are both women and this is their crime. Mary and Offred find other women involved in men’s ways to traumatize them. Mary and Offred have strong nerves. The two women differ in their nature of sufferings, their experiences, and the duration of their

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Law - Assignment Example Answer: the Florida State Court would have jurisdiction over the civil case if the complaint filed was for tort and the amount of damage is $5,001/$15,000 and the parties have sufficient contact with the state of Florida. a.) Answer: The Court acquires personal jurisdiction over the plaintiff through the pleadings filed such as complaint and serve the defendants the summons and copy of the complaint. The court has jurisdiction over the person of the plaintiffs since they are residents of the state and they have connection to the geographic area on which the court sits. b.) Answer: State Court acquires jurisdiction over the defendant by serving him the summons and complaint. Ureta 2 c.) Answer: The court acquires personal jurisdiction over Crete Carrier Corp., the Lincoln, Neb., trucking company by serving it the summons and copy of the complaint and by the application of the long arm statute. 5. Answer: The principal, which is the Crete Carrier Corp., the Lincoln, Neb., is primarily liable because under the agency law, the principal is liable for all the acts of the agent which are within the authority usually confided to an agent of that character, notwithstanding limitations, as between the principal and the agent, put upon that authority. The driver was acting within the authority confided to him by the principal when the accident happened. 6. Answer: As an independent contractor, the driver of the truck is primarily liable because the employer has no control how the work is done provided the result was delivered to him. 7. Answer. a. the plaintiffs can collect the entire judgment from either defendant 8. Answer: Punitive damages are in order in this case for this is a tort case of a highhanded nature. 9. Answer: a. The plaintiffs would divide the punitive damages among themselves. 10. a. yes Explanation: In cases of accident, the defendant may be sued criminally and civilly. In the tort case, the defendant is liable for damages while in criminal case, he is liable for the deaths of the 7 children. b. Answer: No Explanation: The trucking company, which is a corporation may only be civilly sued by the plaintiffs in order to recover damages. A corporation cannot be held criminally responsible for any tortuous act of its employee’s for it cannot be put to jail. Ureta 3 PART B Section 1. Article Identification: Title of the Article: State investigates Slope accident that crushed worker (PINNED: Alaska West Express worker, Fay, suffers crushed chest) Name of Publication: Anchorage Daily News retrieved from http://www.adn.com/2009/11/02/997243/state-investigates-slope-accident.html Date of Publication: November 2, 2009 Article Summary Just before midnight of October 27, 2009, a worker of Arctic Slope Regional, Inc., named John Fay was pinned between a tractor truck and a semi-trailer. An employee of Alaska West Express Inc. a trucking subsidiary of the Anchorage-based Lynden Inc drove the truck. Arctic Slope confirmed that Fay who rem ained in critical care at Providence Alaska Medical Center works for the company. Preliminary information gathered was that the truck either backed into John Fay or ran him over. It operates divisions in petroleum refining and marketing, government technical services, energy services and construction. It was not immediately clear what division of the company Fay worked for but Steve Standley, chief of enforcement at Alaska Occupational Safety and Health, said preliminary reports are that he was a laborer. Section 2: Information About the Type of Case State

Monday, October 14, 2019

Compare Gothic Architecture and Troubadour Poetry Essay Example for Free

Compare Gothic Architecture and Troubadour Poetry Essay Europe had alot of cultural diversity. Gothic Architecture and Troubadour poetry can be compared geographically by their first settings; compared artistically by man expressing himself; and culturally contrasted because of associated religion. Both Gothic architecture and Troubador poetry can be compared because of their settings. It can be shown that Gothic Architecture can be compared because gothic cathedrals popped up in France during the Middle Ages. Its further told that Troubadour Poetry can be compared because the Troubadours emerged in southern France, and the poets were in the Middle Ages too. Both Gothic Architecture and Troubadour Poetry can be compared because of man expressing himself. It can be explained that Gothic Architecture can be compared because it was a way to show the power and clarity that the Catholic Church had over its subject with its insane height. This is further argued that troubadour poetry can be compared because it idealized their perception of romantic, courtly love through words. Gothic Architecture was a catholic characteristic. On the other hand, Troubador Poetry was not with the catholic beliefs. The contrast with the Gothic Architecture can be defended because the distinct features of it was on cathedrals . The contrast with Troubadour Poetry is justified because it was from a gnostic christian group, called the Cathars, who rivaled against against and were suppressed by the Catholic Church. The Gothic Architecture and Troubadour Poetry both have the same setting and the need for expression through a medium, but differ in religious association.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

The Use of Helicopters for the Primary Purpose of Air Ambulances in Wor

Introduction In this paper we will discuss the first documented use of helicopters for the primary purpose of Air Ambulances in World War II. During 1943, the United States, British Commonwealth and the Chinese faced the armies of Japan, Thailand and Indian National Army. The Burmese Independent Army started off on the Japanese side, but later switched sides fighting with the allied forces. Under the control of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States made a decision to support the Chinese during the war with aircraft.1 With Japan controlling much of the Chinese territory, the main supply route for the Chinese was thru the Burma Road. This supply route was essential to operations in the area shaped a restructure for the way supplies would be delivered to soldiers fighting and patients being able to get the urgent care they extremely needed. The only logical and expeditious way to do all of this would be through the use of aircraft flying a supply route known as â€Å"the Hump.†2 History Commanders from all units across the world have thought about how to take care of their troops in times of war. Maybe one of the most heavily weighed thoughts is how much risk I am willing to take if I can’t provide my men immediate medical care at the time when they most need it. Dated back as far as 1866, the idea of an â€Å"Air Ambulance† has been on the minds of certain individuals across the world. Paris, France first used the hot air balloons in order to evacuate more than 160 soldiers from the besieged city to medical care facilities.3 In the beginning, using a hot air balloon to rescue shipwrecked sailors seemed logical since the balloons where already delivering mail and supplies across the area of operations. This action dire... ...pter Evacuation, http://olive-drab.com/od_medical_evac_helio_ww2.php Ed Holmes, MEDEVAC Flight in WWII, http://www.helis.com/stories/burma45.php History of Air Ambulance and MEDEVAC, Mercy Flight, http://www.mercyflight.org/content/pages/medevac Map Of Burma, BBC, Animated Map: The Burma Campaign, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/wwtwo_map_burma/index_embed.shtml Mark W. Bielauskas, Imphal, The Hump and Beyond, http://www.comcar.org/Air%20Commando%20Group/1st_air_commando_group_beginings.htm Peter Dorland and James Nanney, DUST OFF: Army Aeromedical Evacuation in Vietnam, CMH Publisher, 90-28-1, page 9 U.S. Army Medical Department, Call Sign – DUSTOFF â€Å"Chapter 1† http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/other_pub/dustoff/Dustoffch1.pdf World War 2 Burma, History Channel, http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/burma.html

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Prevention and Treatment for TB at Arequipa Sanatorium :: Tuberculosis Health Medical Essays

Prevention and Treatment for TB at Arequipa Sanatorium Arequipa Sanatorium and its â€Å"pottery† for tuberculosis treatment was founded in 1911 in the town of Fairfax, Marin County in the Northern Bay Area of California. [1] It was from the outset a private enterprise initiated by Dr. Philip King Brown. On October 22, 1913, a twenty-one year old housewife weighing 111 pounds, was admitted to Arequipa for â€Å"coughing on exertion.† When she was discharged home on February 28, 1914, she had worked at Arequipa Pottery over 105 hours, and had earned four dollars and five cents for it. She never gained more than three pounds and was probably discharged more for her lack of ability to work, than for being â€Å"cured.† A month earlier, the nurse Superintendent at Arequipa had written a letter to the Associated Charities of San Francisco, saying that â€Å"unless (the woman) is able to earn her way in the pottery, I doubt that we will be able to maintain her at the Sanitarium any longer.† [2] This young woman’s experience with sanatorium treatment at Arequipa, underscores a contradiction in the treatment of tuberculosis in the Progressive Era. Arequipa means â€Å"Place of Rest,† and while enforced rest was fundamental to Brown’s regimen, he also considered work to be therapeutic. Requiring work from patients helped â€Å"solve† the problem of how women of â€Å"modest means† could avoid destitution from their illness. It also helped Brown financially support his enterprise. The contradiction of using both rest and work as treatment at Arequipa provides a window into the complexity of health and social reform in the Progressive Era. In The Tuberculosis Movement, Michael Teller notes that in the mid 1800s the notion of the hereditary origin of TB â€Å"darkened every hope of prevention or cure.†[3] In her 1996 cultural history Fevered Lives, Katherine Ott, argues that the acceptance of TB after Koch’s discovery of the tubercule bacillus in 1882, transformed â€Å"consumption† into the specific and more clearly defined diagnosis of â€Å"tuberculosis.† In fact, sufferers and the public experienced these two conditions as two separate but related diseases.[4] Prevention and treatment of tuberculosis in the Progressive Era, included both older ideas of the disease as hereditary and the new understanding that the disease was infectious. Without effective medical treatment and without a modern understanding of the dormant and active phases of the disease, eugenic ideas about pre-disposition to TB coexisted with limited and mechanical ideas about infection control.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Conducting a management project Essay

Introduction The project, as requested by the manager; is to come up with the ways that my team can make more savings in the company for the company and for their own growth. This was because the company has not been making savings as they had targeted in the beginning of their business year and the savings are even less as compared to the other financial years yet the company still appears to be run under the same principals. The project is aimed at coming up with the research and recommendations for actions to be taken to manage and change the situation at the company and write a suitable report on this. The report written at the end of this research is going to benefit the company in generating more profits and the employees in self-development. It is also going to cultivate the culture of team work, innovation and entrepreneurial culture among the employees. Simply put, the benefits derived from project management increase in proportion to how well project management processes are used. A well -executed project will be completed on time, within its approved budget. A well-executed project will deliver higher product quality by managing the time to design and test the new product. It will provide great satisfaction to its team, and it will meet (or exceed) the customers’ expectations. In today’s business environment, it is critical that each project is run in the most efficient manner possible. For a project-oriented business, it is equally imperative that all projects are managed consistently, so that the benefits of well -executed projects extend corporate wide. The data that was used in this research was collected from the employees, customers and other stakeholders in the company. In preparation for the data collection, it is important to note that a diverse sample of the host company’s employees is required in order to address the breadth of the organizational structure and the full range of roles and responsibilities of participants. Input to the list of interview participants should be secured from the company sponsor, but it   is the assessor’s function to challenge the sample to ensure it meets the needs of a balanced assessment. The assessor should recognize a tendency of most sponsors to provide participants who already are highly rated and can demonstrate high performance.   The participant pool needs to include these participants, but not be limited to them. All divisions of the corporate structure should be represented, including functional and supporting departments. In selecting the interview sample, the assessor should consider the population density of the host company’s divisions, revenue generated by the divisions, project count or cost, or several other attributes. The total number of interviews to be conducted must be limited to a number that is appropriate for the size of the host company; it is organizational structure and the time period in which the study is required. These factors also drive the composition and size of the assessment team. The methods used in the collection of data and information include; use of questionnaires, observation, collecting samples, taking pictures, oral interviews, reading on recorded materials. The process was not that easy since it was hard to get some confidential information especially on the accounts records of the company and some of the employees felt like they were being spied on and did not give the precisely correct information. Also collecting information from my seniors proved to be a bit hard, but all in all the information and data required for the research was successfully corrected. In all the methods used face to face conversation proved to be the best way to obtain information. Some of it advantages include; A people -to-people tool within a people – oriented business Project management is ultimately a people -oriented business that requires personal interactions by and between all of the project team members. Face-to-face interviewing extends this principle to maturity assessments. Not only does the interview provide an interpersonal connection between the interviewer and the interview participant, it allows the interviewer to begin to assess the â€Å"people skills† of the personnel assigned to manage projects at the subject company. Interview participants who display grace and condor during the interview are more likely to carry those traits into their project teams, and are more likely to be open to the recommendations for change or improvement that will flow from the assessment study. Conversely, interview subjects who are less cooperative or more belligerent during the interviews are less likely to readily adopt new suggestions. Reveals actual, as well as intended behaviours conducting face-to-face interviews allows the interviewer/assessor to discover how the project team members at the subject company conduct their project business on a day-to-day basis. It is the only tool in the assessor’s toolbox that provides a means to evaluate the validity of several of the other tools, such as a review of policy manuals, or a project document search. Policy statements and procedures manuals provide guidance into how the subject company believes it should or wants to do work. By engaging project team members in open conversations, the interviewer can elicit comments that reveal, â€Å"What we really do† vs. â€Å"what we think we do† or â€Å"what we are supposed to do?† Additionally, by discussing different types of project reports with the people who write them, or use them, the assessor can gain insight into the value placed on each report. A simple document review, while important, can only indicate that a report exists, not that it is a valued tool, used by the project team to help control their projects, or by management to monitor progress. Provides opportunity to observe the corporate culture of the subject company. Corporate culture creates different patterns of behaviour at different companies that can have a significant impact on the outcomes of projects. The degree of openness to hearing and dealing with project issues, demonstrating appreciation for project successes, and the amount of information sharing between functional groups working on a project all contribute to the ultimate success of a project. All companies probably would respond affirmatively to possessing these traits; not all companies truly demonstrate these traits positively. During one-on-one conversations with working- level project team members, the assessor can learn how well the subject company responds to project information, or how often it â€Å"shoots the messenger. Difficulties associated with face-to-face interviews Need to establish credibility of assessors As an outsider, the assessment team will often encounter a â€Å"Who-are -you-and-why-should -I-give-you-any-of- my time?† reluctance to participate amongst the project management community at the subject company. This attitude can stem from two general sources: a general distrust of consultants and management’s motives for hiring them; or insufficient information about the assessors’ credentials. Neither of these difficulties is insurmountable, but neither can be ignored. And both can be addressed initially by a carefully worded introduction from the assessment’s sponsor within the host company. The sponsor for the assessment necessarily must possess sufficient status within his/her own organization to approve, or be able to solicit approval for the funding needed to conduct the assessment study. This status can be leveraged to convey the credentials of the assessment team to the host organization. The assessors must be introduced to the project management community in terms that readily establish the expertise and experience of the assessment team with this type of work. This also implies that the assessment team must be comprised of, or, at the least, be led by experienced, senior project managers, whose personal credentials will inspire confidence in the interview participants. Need to secure cooperation of interview participants. The assessor also needs to recognize that many people within the host company’s project management organization(s) will not view the assessment in an entirely positive light. Although the study is intended to be a continuous-improvement effort, it may still be perceived to stem from something being wrong, or judged to be not good enough. The outside assessor could be viewed as Management’s vigilante enforcer, coming in to identify and punish the under-achievers in project management. The assessor must defuse this impression, a task that can best be done if the assessor knows where the host company’s â€Å"sore spots† exist and why the host company has elected to conduct the assessment. Here again, the status of the assessment sponsor can be of great help in overcoming the reluctance of the interview participants. The sponsor’s introduction of the assessment team can be used to share the rationale for the study and remove much of the apprehension that could surround it. Need to prepare thoroughly. During each interview, it will be beneficial to allow conversation to flow in a freewheeling manner, rather than following a rigid, checklist question and answer. For this to work, the assessor/interviewer must be adequately prepared to conduct the interview. The assessor must know the assessment model in great detail, and be able to detect different levels of maturity for each knowledge area, regard less of whether or not the interview respondent uses catch phrases and key words from the model in his/her comments. It is the assessor’s responsibility to be able to take appropriate notes during the interview without disrupting the flow of the interview by having to shuffle papers or stumble from one topic to the next. The assessment team can help prepare for the interviews by constructing an easy -to-use interview form that guides them through the different areas, and offers reminders of key phrases to listen for. By creating the form, the team members will increase their familiarity with it, and find it more beneficial as a guide. Additionally, by constructing their own form, the assessment team members will afford themselves the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the details of the assessment model. Compiling, synthesizing, and evaluating the information from all interviews. Specific data from individual interviews can be compiled if a set of common questions, with a short range of possible answers, is used for all interviews. In this circumstance, it is recommended that a set of standard analytical measures are identified prior to the interview phase, but it should not be assumed that these standard measures will adequately address the entire information content collected. The synthesis of the information is a process that requires the individual assessors to subjectively analyse the comments they heard and recorded during the interviews and identify common themes and touch-points along the maturity continuum. The assessors must then collaborate to yield consistent interpretation of the interview and confirm that the data gathered is appropriate for further evaluation. The assessors must collectively review the compiled data, interrogate it for trends and errors, and determine whether trends identified warrant further analysis. From the information gathered in data collection, many things can be realised; there is no transparent audit of the books of accounts in the company, the employees are taking bribes from the customers in return for unauthorised favours, the employees are very relaxed in their work and lack motivation, the board members are conduction the staffing process in a questionable manner, the employees were taking unnecessary and expensive trips at the expense of the company, the directors have very high unwarranted allowances, the taxes due to the government are not fully settled and the overall running of the firm is questionable. The things that need to be done urgently to make sure that the company is saved from being bankrupt and that it gives some profits are; there should be an immediate external audit of all the books of accounts in the firm, the recruitment and staffing in the firm should be done on the basis of qualification and therefore there should be a vetting process to eliminate all those who are there illegally, all the directors should be vetted and those found to be corrupt should be retrenched, the company should have a new board of directors, all the employees should sign a performance contract which should be followed strictly. Conclusions; the use of face-to-face interviews in Project Management Maturity Assessments has proven to contribute most and convey the project management actualities within any host organization. If executed correctly, the face-to- face interview will yield most insight into the host organization’s current maturity and point to pockets of excellence as well as areas requiring correction. Although it is not recommended that an assessment be conducted using only face-to-face interviews, it is strongly recommended that a face-to-face interview always be included in an assessment. References Dove, K. E. (2002).  Conducting a successful development services program: A comprehensive guide and resource. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Fernald Environmental Management Project (U.S.), United States., United States., United States., Lippitt, J. M., & Kolthoff, K. (1995).  Successful completion of a RCRA closure for the Fernald Environmental Management Project. Washington, D.C: United States. Dept. of Energy. Thomsett, M. C. (2002).  The little black book of project management. New York: AMACOM. Tjahjana, L., Dwyer, P., & Habib, M. (2009).  The program management office advantage: A powerful and centralized way for organizations to manage projects. New York: American Management Association. Weir, J. R. (2009).  Conducting prescribed fires: A comprehensive manual. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. Wysocki, R. K., Beck, R., & Crane, D. B. (2000).  Effective project management. New York: Wiley.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Business and Management Dictionary

As defined by the dictionary,† Goal is the purpose toward which endeavor is directed. † It is an end of one’s journey through life or the finish line of the race. Like in a project or a business venture, one must have the goal so that he can pick the best and strategic planning tool to be used through it. There’re so many strategies one can use in achieving his objective, however, SWOT Analysis had gone a long way in helping businesses (small or big) be more fulfilled. It’s easy to deal with as long as he can define the terms: STRENGTH, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITY, THREATS, and can reach to a desired end state or objective.As defined in a Business and Management Dictionary: Strengths are the attribute of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective. One’s personal power that is capable of attaining the purpose of his desired outcome while putting his hands on a risk. Weaknesses are the attribute of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective. It makes one’s control of the plan be disabled if it can penetrate the whole idea of the venture. This may go further if he cannot design better-technique from overcoming it.It is an attitude most human possesses as defect, but he can choose not to be too overwhelmed by its attack by controlling all his ideas and perform excellent processes to go with the strength of his venture. Opportunities are the external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective. In this strategy, identifying subsequent steps makes the techniques be planned well. If one can see the opportunity passing by his way, to accommodate it is neither a crime nor a waste of time. It’s a good requirement in making the venture be more visible and successful. It may just be an experience or a total shot for the business.He wouldn’t regret by not taking it because he can actually grab and use it as an asset for his goal. Threats are the external conditions that a re harmful to achieving the objective. This can be an indication of an impending danger of growing project or business. However, he can manage and ensure that this condition would be solved, avoid from failing and won’t affect any of his strong foundation if he can be too determined, willing to do all the necessary steps and risks he has at the start of his journey. Of course, better characteristics in every way his business and life go doubles up the result, to a better and effective performance.Being in a business or any venture is a very risky yet challenging endeavor a man can experience through life. Like life, if we would not, should not, could not give our best shot to it, then we may fail. By this, the hardships, sweats, tears, and blood we just invested in winning the race will just be all gone. It may be re-established, be successful as any other big companies in the world this time only if we can be stronger, more knowledgeable and willing to incorporate more on th e strategic planning model of the SWOT Analysis. Besides, ‘LIFE IS SWEETER THE SECOND TIME AROUND. ’

Psychological Abnormality Essay

There are many ways of defining psychological abnormality; the two I will be discussing is deviation from social norms and failure to function adequately. Deviation form social norms is a person’s thinking or behavior being classified as abnormal if it violates the rules or norms about what is expected or acceptable behavior in a particular social group. An example of this can be anorexia, more common in females where the person sees themselves as overweight even when extremely thin and person is terrified of weight gain. The media create unrealistic, and for most people ‘ideal’ images, especially of women. Most models are well below normal weight for their age and height Sufferers desperately want to be accepted and valued and tend to feel that they are not. However self-starvation is seen as abnormal in terms of social norms. Strength of deviation from social norms is that this definition takes into consideration the effect that behavior has on others in which deviance is defined in terms of breaking social rules which are usually made in order to help people live together. There are many limitations with the definition of deviation from social norms, beliefs about abnormality and social norms or morally acceptplable behavior changes over time for example homosexuality was included in the American classification system for disorders up to the 1960s. Since then attitudes have changed and homosexuality it no longer seen as a disorder. Another limitation is that context is import as we distinguish between normal and abnormal according to social norms of the time. Much of our behavior is context specific and take out of context may seem bizarre for example if you saw a person suddenly jump up from a park bench and start talking to themselves you might think of them as being very strange on the other hand if you saw a camera crew you would have thought of it being bizarre. Also culture relativity can be a limitation as different cultures have different ideas about acceptable behavior fro example some African societies cut themselves as a sign of inner beauty but in Western societies we se it as self harm. Another definition of abnormality is failure to function adequately this is when abnormal behavior interferes with daily life/functioning i. e. people are unable to live a normal life. An example of this can be when people cannot work and lose the motivation to care for themselves properly and agoraphobia or fear of crowds which is defined as an abnormal behavior where a person may have a fear of open space and can’t go shopping, school and do other everyday things because they have a fear of crowds. Strength of this definition is that it is easy to judge who is failing to function adequately because it is easy to . ist behaviors that show people are not functioning properly in their everyday lives e. g. unable to dress themselves, can’t get up in the morning etc. Limitations of this definition can be the context as starving yourself is irrational, unpredictable and maladaptive. However it is understandable when political prisoners go on hunger strike as a political pro test, so context is important. Also some people may not have psychological disorder but still have failure to function adequately e. g. dues to economic conditions it may not be possible to hold down a job and support family. Another limitation is that some people are able to maintain an adequate or high level of functioning even if they have a psychological disorder for example some people with anxiety or depression can still function. Similarity between both definitions is that they both have a limitation of culture relativity as different societies have different rules and norms of what’s normal and abnormal. A problem with both definitions is that context is important as we distinguish what is normal and abnormal behavior according to what is expected in a given situation according to the social norms at the time.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

PACT analysis and prototype design for an interactive system Coursework

PACT analysis and prototype design for an interactive system - Coursework Example PACT - People, Activities, Contexts, and Technologies- is acknowledged as a beneficial framework for thinking about a design scenario in relation to a very interactive system (Lloyd, 2005). Undertaking a PACT analysis would be valuable for both analysis and design operations; understanding the situation at hand, finding where possible improvements can be done and envisioning situations in future. With PCT analysis one is able to gather all the research on target end users and scope out of the variation of various people, contexts, activities, and technologies possible in context. Depending on the analysis, one can develop concrete and clear scenarios of how target users would be interacting with the Shared Student Shopping System. PACT analysis findings are represented below: The people involved currently in this kind of system are basically students who are on session at various institutions and are being accommodated in institution’s hostels or any of the institution accommodation premises. A part from students, institution workers may not be left out because at times they are found with students purchasing groceries at various kiosks. In as much as the employees can as well benefit from this system, major end users who are to benefit are the students. At times controlling pocket money becomes a problem and a student may be left wondering what next after he or she has spent all the money and still needs to survive. Dedicating a grocer to supply groceries at times is challenging due to consistency issues which may leave the customer unsatisfied and very annoyed (Neeraja, 2011). Coming up with a system that can satisfy both parties can be of great relief since every party would benefit accordingly. An institution normally has students with different abilities; it is within this population that one hardly misses a disable student. Whenever building a system that target particular users, all factors should be considered

Monday, October 7, 2019

Gender and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gender and Culture - Essay Example All throughout my college life, I always used to depend on others view and advise to make any decision. Everything changed once I entered the organization. My boss always believed that people should make their own decisions and work on them. He expected the same from us. He made sure that I attended all the meetings with the clients and handled them single handedly. After the meetings, I was asked for opinion on the client. Initially I found it difficult and felt that my Boss was testing my performance. As days went on, I found that I started making my own decisions. This affected me personally as well as professionally. I was given the real freedom to make my choice. I transformed from being a dependent person to an independent person. I did not wait for approval from others and I enjoyed the responsibility which was placed on me. This effort by the people of the organization helped me a lot to make my own decisions and stand by them. It has influenced me in a positive way both in m y professional and personal life. Gaining Confidence During my college days, I feared to express myself, my views and ideas to everyone. The confidence in me was missing. My organization gave me more responsibilities which helped me increase my confidence level. People around me always told me that I was very talented and can do better than what I was doing. I was asked to lead a group of talented individuals for an important proposal. The outcome was that our organization won that proposal and I gained confidence on myself. Now I am willing to be defeated by the world since I have the confidence that I can win in any situation. Their way of teaching and giving me responsibilities is betterment for me and helped me a lot. This was one of the most important phases of my life since confidence and belief in my abilities helped me in my work. Sign of transformation from a Boy to Man. Facing my Fears People in my organization always believed in taking risks to succeed. For a person who a lways used to hide from fears, this thinking was never in synchronization with me. I always had doubts on my ability and was feared whether I could face the people and world around me. My organization conducted the â€Å"Innovative idea† session every three months where everyone had to present a new idea which would help the business grow. Initially I feared and did not perform well. Looking at this, my colleagues spoke to me and made me rehearse the presentation every time before I made the presentation. After few days, I was asked to do a similar presentation ad I fearless like never before. This technique by the people in my organization helped me in a long way. I now have a habit of taking risk to succeed without fearing what the outcome could be. This has changed compared to my college days where I feared my failures and never expressed my ideas. My organization has helped me in a way where I have transformed from a Boy to a Man. Controlling emotions These sequences also helped me to control my emotions. I learnt that no matter what happens, one should keep their emotions in check. Happiness and sorrow are the two faces of life and one should meet both equally without fear. People in my organization played a huge role in developing me. From being a feared, low on confidence and dependent person, my organization’s values have made me a confident and independent person. With the ever increasing competition to succeed, this transformation is important for everybody. They need to be strong if they are

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Drug Patch Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Drug Patch Design - Research Paper Example NASA approached me to design this patch. The design I came up with in my mind was of a patch that could be worn by all astronauts and which would last at least for 60 hours so that less umber of patches would be needed. In my present project I will be studying and analyzing the rates of diffusivity in different skins while altering parametes such as diffusivity (D), thickness of membrane (L) and concentration of Scopolamine drug (Cp). The next layer would be the reservoir layer where a certain diluted concentration of the drug would be present. It must be remembered that the concentration is extremely important since even a slightly higher concentration would have serious deleterious effects (Parrott,p1).The layers beneath this would all be permeable such that they allow the drug to slowly diffuse out of the reservoir layer and travel up to the skin. Once the drug reaches the skin it would diffuse into the skin and enter the blood. Therefore a person wearing this patch would have a constant dose of a diluted form of the drug which would help one in overcoming motion sickness and perform duties efficiently. The patch I designed was tested a few times and recorded the values of skin thickness, diffusion rate, time and range of flux. While running the test simulations I studied 3 different test diffusivities and 3 different membrane thickness along with 7 different concentrations. All the tests run under the different test parameters helped me construct the graphs from where I obtained important conclusions. Looking at the graphs we can see that with time both concentration as well as flux gradually reduce and come to a zero. My patch that I finalized worked with all skins and concentrations. The main scope of the test stimulations was to come up with a patch design that would be beneficial for astronauts. Firstly it must meet the time criteria i.e. it should last for several hours. Secondly the concentration should be just right. If the drug

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Unemployment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Unemployment - Essay Example The premise of a government-imposed minimum wage is that the common good has been served by the law; the government has served its purpose. Some, such as many business owners, disagree. They claim that the extra costs force them to raise prices (inflation) and lay-off workers (unemployment). There is ample evidence that supports both the pro and con positions on the subject. Economists are gradually coming to the conclusion, though, that the minimum wage law does cause inflation or unemployment, the latter of which this paper will further examine. As a result of the minimum wage law, some employers do, in fact pay out more to their employees on the front-end but evidence indicates the increased expenditures to businesses are usually offset by associated benefits. For example, employees who earn a salary which allows their families to make ends meet are less likely to secure other employment. This reduces the employer’s employee turnover rate thus reducing additional recruitment and training costs (Holmes & Zellner, 2004, pp. 76-77). It also results in a reduction of absenteeism while raising morale thus employee productivity. The opponent’s contention that the law puts a financial burden on them causing the lay-off of workers is weak at best. According to Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve vice chairman, â€Å"The evidence appears to be against the simple-minded theory that a modest increase in the minimum wage causes substantial job loss† (Chipman, 2006). A 1998 study conducted by the Economic Policy I nstitute found no loss of employment in connection with the minimum wage increase in 1996-97. Furthermore, subsequent to that increase, the low-end labor market experienced lower poverty rates, an increase in family income and lower levels of unemployment (Bernstein & Schmitt, 1998). Many leading economists support the minimum

Friday, October 4, 2019

International human resources management 'Hilton Hotel' Essay

International human resources management 'Hilton Hotel' - Essay Example They use a number of mixed models in their management, which include: - 1. Harvard model developed by David Guest (1987,1989,1986b, 1991) this model four policies are defined and are applied in this hotel they include; - a) Strategic integration - Hilton hotel integrates human resource management issues into its various strategic plans that are aimed at more developed and improved services. b) High commitment to pursue agreed goals- the hotel demonstrates very high commitment to its effort of achieving set goals this are shown by both the employees and the management itself. c) High quality of goods and services provided which include management of employees and investment in high quality employees. d) Functional flexibility with capacity to manage various innovations. 2. The matching model of Human Resource Management Fiedler (1964) asserted that the human resource systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with organizational Strategy and that the strategic human resource concepts and tools needed are fundamentally different from the stock in the trade of the traditional personnel administrator. This is exactly what Hilton hotel practice; its managers are committed in weighing human resource issues with the same level of attention as they give to other functions, for example, finance marketing and production. The model is highly achieved in this London branch of the Hilton hotels (Fox, 1973) The hotel integrates business and human resource strategies which yield better results, set business targets are thus achieved and the best human resource strategies applied It has adopted a very coherent approach for provision of mutually supporting and integrated human resource policies and... The employees of Conrad hotel undergo training regularly, their own training manager conducts this in their boardroom and at times they attend various seminars and workshops in the neighboring cities, countriesÐ ± and continents. Besides, they invite expatriates to come and train their employees. To meet the daily recruitment needs at Conrad hotel the personnel and Training manager uses Hcareers a site that offers the excellent tool for attracting the right candidates. The website recruitment ensures speed in recruitment. The manager normally uses the external recruitment sources for supervisory and management positions. The approach in customer skills is applied and candidates from reputable sources are recruited. These give a perfect solution to everyday recruitment needs at the Conrad HotelÃ'Ž The mode of recruiting workers at this hotel is purely through merit where applications are invited from any potential applicant in the nay corner of the globe. A panel of officials goes t hrough the application letters who later shortlist the successful candidates for the interview. Selection is based on the interview results where the best candidate is picked. He goes through massive training until he becomes well equipped in laying out duties. The current staffing trend is not geographically well spread because most of the employees of the senior management level i.e. Accountants, Marketing managers, human resource manager, and personnel manager among others are from a given particular region. (Thomas & Walker, 1993)

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Production of a Database of Styles and Guidelines for the Mountain Collegian Essay Example for Free

Production of a Database of Styles and Guidelines for the Mountain Collegian Essay This study was conducted primarily to produce a database of styles and guidelines for Mountain Collegian (MC) that would aid the publication in making its own stylebook. In the realization of this study, first, a survey questionnaire was floated to identify the areas needed by the publication. Based on the data gathered through the said survey questionnaire, the 10 areas identified by the respondents, the current members of the publication, were capitalization, abbreviation, acronyms, bylines and credits, names and titles, italicization, numerals, dimensions, punctuation, and reported speech. After the ten areas of style needed by the publication were identified, issues of MC from 2000 to 2010 were analyzed for the determination of consistent and inconsistent styles practiced by the publication. Two issues for each editor-in-chief were used. Thus, a total of 20 issues and 340 articles were used for the analysis. The analysis showed that many consistent styles are practiced by MC in areas of capitalization, abbreviation, acronyms, and punctuation. The consistent styles identified were automatically included in the database as these are manifestations of the practice and journalism culture that MC has. However, despite the many identified consistencies in styles, many inconsistent styles were also noted. With these inconsistencies, a survey questionnaire was created to determine the preference of MC on styles that are inconsistent. It is recommended that the other areas of journalism styles of Mountain Collegian be looked into and analyzed for consistency. The Mountain Collegian (MC), the official student publication of Benguet State University, believes in the virtues of clear and effective communication. Thus, it constantly strives to uphold accuracy, precision and consistency in writing for it believes that these are stamps of professionalism in the practice of campus journalism. Existing under this principle and guided by the importance of sharpening the meaning of facts and news stories, MC relentlessly reminds its student journalists not to be casual about language usage, English for that matter, and to exercise precision of language. However, there are strong oppositions regarding this matter. Writers and even some academicians themselves claim that the constant stress on proper English is merely a form of snobbery and has no place in the fast-paced world of journalism. Also, adhering to rules of a constantly evolving language in the practice of journalism is deemed irrelevant as many writers- particularly the young blood of journalists- think of these rules and styles as suppressive forces obstructing their creativity. However, Stovall (2002) said that style is not a rigid set of rules established to restrict the creative forces in the writer. Style imposes a discipline in writing that should run through all the activities of a communicator. It implies then that the communicator is precise not only with writing but also with facts and with thought. Paying attention to the details of writing – and getting those right – means that a writer is likely to be paying attentions to facts, context, and meaning. Style, as pointed by the United Press International Stylebook, is the intangible ingredient that distinguishes outstanding writing from mediocrity. In addition, Stovall said that adherence to a constant style is vital to the society. He quoted Thomas W. Lippman in the preface of The Washington Post Deskbook on Style saying, â€Å"A newspaper is part of a society’s record of itself. Each edition lives on in libraries and electronic archives to be consulted again and again by the scholars and journalists of the future. The newspaper is thus the repository of the language, and we have a responsibility to treat the language with respect. The rules of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and usage set down here are our way of trying to meet that responsibility. Thus, clear story-telling and language is at the heart of good journalism. Theodore M. Bernstein said that writing should be treated like a precision instrument; it should be sharpened and it should not be used carelessly. Since consistency and precise word usage are also utterly important in communication, perceived misuse of English, which is the language of international journalism, and inconsistencies in style then shall not cause readers to veer away and be distracted from what is more important – the creative and focused aspects of the message. Furthermore, according to the BBC News Styleguide (2010), the best journalists appreciate that writing well is not a tiresome duty but a necessity. Consistency. Precision. Accuracy. These therefore are the fundamental reasons why it is vital for a publication, for MC for that matter, to have a set of rules, styles, and guidelines. Since its establishment in 1965, MC has not produced its official style book yet although attempts were made to do so. The style book, though, just what it is – is merely a guide. It is not a collection of rules and regulations. It is not a dictionary and it is not a list of what is acceptable and what is not. In a world that’s awash with poor usage, a stylebook sensitizes the writer to the use of language toward achieving the nobility of the practice of journalism. For The Mountain Collegian, a stylebook will serve not only as the brick and lumber of its house but also most importantly as an archive of decades of not only responsible but also language sensitive practice of journalism. This shall serve as a record of MC’s editorial practice handed down by generations of student journalists that have shaped MC to what it is today.