Saturday, November 30, 2019
Workshop Exercise Week 5 Developing a Thesis Stat Essays - Writing
Workshop Exercise Week 5: Developing a Thesis Statement in Response to An Essay Topic For the mid-term essay, you have been given a list of topics to write about in relation to either Great Expectations or Jane Eyre. In university essays (unlike Leaving Cert essays, which are more like summaries or checklists of everything you know about a text or subject), you are expected to to formulate an argument in response to your chosen topic which is articulated in a thesis statement in your introductory paragraph. Furthermore, you are expected to analyze both the "content" and the "form" of the text and base your argument on evidence (citation and analysis) from the primary text and from secondary sources of scholarly criticism. Complete the exercise on pages 3-5 (section II of this handout) and bring it to your Workshop in Week 5. This exercise is designed to help you develop a thesis statement which expresses the argument you will make about your chosen topic and which includes of analysis of both the "content" and the "form" of the text. Note: you may decide to change your thesis statement, topic, or chosen text after this workshop. The exercise is designed to help start you thinking what you might write about, which might change as you work through it. Be prepared to peer-review your thesis statement in class. After the exercise is a list of peer-review questions (section III), followed by an appendix of materials (section IV) that can give you further guidance in developing a thesis statement. I What is a Thesis Statement? If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. A thesis statement... . Tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. . Is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. . Directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a topic or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be 19th-century gender roles or Alice in Wonderland; a thesis must then offer a way to understand gender roles or the novel. . Makes a claim-an argument- that others might dispute. . Is usually a single sentence near the end of your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation. The conclusion usually reiterates the thesis statement and summarizes how you have demonstrated its truth. Some Caveats and Examples: . An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?) . A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue-that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay. . A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water. . A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay-a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social
Monday, November 25, 2019
Why we created Emphasis 360 - Emphasis
Why we created Emphasis 360 Why we created Emphasis 360 Our courses are transformative. Its the norm for participants to leave the training room full of confidence and buzzing with ideas. This is true even for people who were initially sceptical. (In fact, they often end up as our biggest advocates.) But even the best training can only go so far. New skills stay in the memory only for so long, especially if you dont use them. It takes effort to practise them. And under pressure from deadlines and other work, old habits may re-emerge. What people need is regular, expert help to apply those skills. Weve been discussing this a lot at Emphasis over the last few weeks. But its proved a tough nut to crack. The challenge has been to work out how to provide dedicated help – or regular, ongoing training that embeds new skills and builds new ones – without it costing the earth or requiring you to release entire teams for training every week. Tough, but not impossible. Because I think weve cracked it. As I write this, my team are building a follow-up learning system unlike any other. In fact, it may well be unique not just in business-writing training but in the training world full stop. Were calling it Emphasis 360, and it will make good writing a strong, permanent habit in the people who report to you. It will embed the writing skills that your people learn on our in-company courses – to make them permanent – and it will teach them new ones. It will create confident business writers and develop them into highly skilled communicators. And it will do this without straining your budget or taking up hours of study time that your team simply dont have. Sounds great, you say, but how are you going to do that? Read on to find out. Weekly, interactive learning sessions All members of Emphasis 360 will have access to a website dedicated to developing their writing skills. Every week, well be uploading a fully interactive learning session to that site and emailing members to encourage them to use it. Once each lesson is uploaded it will be available on demand, so your team will be able to access it in their own time. Not that theyll need much time, as were designing each so they can complete it in the space of a coffee break. Thats because we want to make sure they do complete it, and because short, regular practice is the best way to build good habits. The sessions will feature TV-standard videos, produced in our studio by our own film-maker, Jay Bartlett. (If youve seen our Writing better email e-learning course, youll know how good these are.) And your team will learn from doing as well as watching: the sessions will include comprehensive e-learning. As well as video, theyll feature quizzes and interactive exercises – even audio. In other words, well be covering the full range of learning styles, so that everyone can study and learn effectively. Your team will also be able to track their progress – as will you. Global better-writing resource library Week by week, well be adding special support resources to the exclusive members site. The resource library will include best-practice checklists, how-to guides and great-looking templates. Over time, it will become a truly unique resource covering every aspect of written communication in the workplace – from handling complaint letters to pitching for contracts worth millions. Ultimately, we want it to include everything you could ever need to produce excellent business writing, and all in one place. We believe that this alone will be a world first. Dedicated, priority helpdesk Even with the best initial training and resources, your team may still stumble when trying to apply their new skills. So we want to help them with that too. As you may have noticed, weve been trialling a special helpdesk system recently. It works a bit like an IT helpdesk, except that its staffed by our writing experts (and we speak in plain English). It includes a ticketing system so that you (and we) can track your query. With the launch of Emphasis 360, were adding more resource to that helpdesk, so we can give members priority access and give them more detailed help. Their queries will go straight to the front of the queue, where one of our specialist advisers will be ready to help them. Combined with our courses, this will create the most effective training weve ever provided. Emphasis 360 will cost  £150+vat per person for a years subscription. But you can gain access for your entire team at no cost. Thats because, to celebrate the launch, weve decided to offer membership as a free add-on to every course booked in May or June this year. Thats  £1,500 of extra value on a course for ten people. We’ve never made an offer like this before. And we won’t be making this one again. It will be available only for courses booked to run in May and June. And our trainer availability means we can only run another 22 courses in that time. (Forty per cent of dates have already been taken by regular clients.) Once we’ve used up our capacity, that will be it. So youll need to hurry. We’ll be opening up registration for just two days this week, starting at 5pm today, Wednesday 6 May, and ending at 5pm British Summer Time on Friday 8 May. Once it’s open, you’ll be able to register your interest in company courses. We’ll then call you on a first come, first served basis to secure dates for your course and access to Emphasis 360 for your team. (If you only have two or three people to train, or the course is for you, dont worry. You can also book places on one of our courses for individuals and well add Emphasis 360 membership for you.) Remember, we’re designing this to fix your team’s writing problems permanently, so that they can reach their potential – and you can get on with your job. Dont miss your chance to get a years training for your team for the price of a days course. Registration closed on 8 May, but you can still gain access. Image credit: laptop and stethoscope by jfcherry, used under CC BY-SA 2.0
Friday, November 22, 2019
Analyze Macro Environment of Australian
Marketing environment refers to the forces, which impact the ability of an industry towards building and maintaining its success (Broberg, Umans and Gerlofstig 2013). This study will be based on the scenario, where a large company wishes to invest in the retail book industry of Australia. In this context, the study will analyze the macro environment of the industry through PESTLE and Porter’s Five Force Analysis. Apart from that, the study will also analyze the segmenting variables of the industry. The purpose of the study is to explore the opportunity and threats of the industry, which will ultimately impact the new company. The study will also suggest some segmenting variables for the new company. PESTLE Analysis of Australian Retail Book Industry  ·Ã‚        Free trade agreement imposed by Australian Government assists smooth business operation of Australian retail book industry  ·Ã‚        As per Australian copyright act, Australian booksellers are obligated to purchase bulk orders from Australian rights holder. They are restricted to purchase orders from overseas suppliers (Booksandpublishing.com.au 2017). It is ultimately pushing up the price of local book sold in retail shops and increasing the overall revenues of the industry.  ·Ã‚        Reduced tax rate on retail book industry has ultimately increased its profit potential.  ·Ã‚        Strong economic condition of Australia has enhanced the business potential of book retailers  ·Ã‚        Fluctuation in inflation rate sometimes hamper book retailing industry.  ·Ã‚        Currency fluctuation rate also impact on the profit level of the industry  ·Ã‚        Increasing social activity among the people towards sharing interest through book reading has increases the sales potential in the industry  ·Ã‚        Increasing purchasing power of the consumer has enhanced the sales potential of this industry (Parsons and Descatoires 2016)  ·Ã‚        Increasing numbers of retirees in this country has increased the demand for books  ·Ã‚        Advanced technology helps the industry to keep constant relation with the customers  ·Ã‚        Technological advancement can help in building strong relationship with the book suppliers (Efendioglu 2015)  ·Ã‚        The industry comply with all the legal standards of consumer law  ·Ã‚        The industry also comply with all the Australian labor law  ·Ã‚        Book retail industry of Australia is highly concerned about protecting the environment  ·Ã‚        It uses environment friendly packaging technique for all its products Table 1: PESTLE Analysis of Retail Book Industry in Australia The retail book industry of Australia faces low barriers from the localized small entrants. However, it faces significant barriers from the international entrants. Their established competition has created negative growth of the industry (Wehner et al. 2017). Moreover, the percentage of trade book sales was quite low in Australian till 2015 (Referred to Appendix 1). However, the industry has used price cutting strategy for beating the treats of new entrants and started to regain the sales volume. Retail book industry of Australia faces high level of threats from the media and entertainment industry. Recently, consumers spend more time on watching TV and chatting in social media. It has reduced the demand of books, which is ultimately impacting the retail book industry (Pons et al. 2016). The total value of boo sales has been demonstrated in Appendix 2. The retail book industry of Australian faces tough competition from the online retailers like Amazon and The Book Depository. It forced the industry to set cheaper prices for all of their books, which has increased its market share. However, the sales of the industry have been declined by 2.2% by the year 2016 (Ibisworld.com.au 2017). On the other hand, the recent revenue of the industry demonstrated an amount of 4 billion, which is a moderate amount (Ibisworld.com.au 2017). The sales channels of the Australian book have been demonstrated in Appendix 3. In the local market, the industry faces tough competition from Booktopia and Dymocks. Retail book industry faces high bargaining power of buyers. Moreover, the online bookselling companies are more likely to offer discounts on the books, which they sell to the customers through online channels (Barnard 2016). Hence, customers have more power to switch in those online booksellers. It can ultimately reduce the sales potential of the industry. The copyright act of Australian Government has restricted the bookselling companies to buy bulk amount of book only from local book publishers. They are not allowed to get supply of the book from any foreign suppliers. It has ultimately increased the bargaining power of suppliers over the retail bookselling industry (Gray 2013). However, share of trade and educational books have increased the overall market share of the industry (Referred to Appendix 4). Figure 1: Porter’s Five Force Analysis of Australian Retail Book Industry (Source: Stephens and McGowan 2015) Segmenting Variables in Australian Retail Book Industry Age: 6 year to Above: Almost all age groups having reading habits are targeted by this industry. Gender: Both Male and Female: Readings are not restricted to any gender in today’s market. Hence, both male and female customers are selected. Marital Status: Both Single and Married: Single customers will be segmented to offer action and adventure books, science fiction, horror and mystery books. On the other hand, married customers are segmented to offer romance, diaries, religious and history books. Education: Mostly educated person: Books are valued to only educated customers. Students are offered by the book within their syllabus and others by different types of books. Occupation: Can be any type and even the retired persons: All types of professional are segmented by the industry. Income: Moderate income level: Books are kind of luxury goods. Hence, the customers having moderate income are selected. Attitude: Positive attitude towards life: Customers having fantasy and positive attitude towards life are selected by the industry.  ·Ã‚        Customers having strong personality  ·Ã‚        Customers having hobbies of book reading Customers seeking high level of benefits are segmented by the industry  ·Ã‚        Occupation: Business persons, school students, college students, job holders and even unemployed  ·Ã‚        Customers having moderate income  ·Ã‚        Customers having positive attitude over life  ·Ã‚        Wide collection of books in the bookstores  ·Ã‚        Various types of books including education, trade, entertainment and others  ·Ã‚        Moderate price range attracts the readers  ·Ã‚        Convenient stores of the book stores Table 2: Segmenting Variables of Australian Book Retail While concluding the study, it can be said that Australian book retail industry gets huge support from the government. On the other hand, the increasing reading habits of the customers have also enhanced the sales potential of the industry. The recent revenue of the industry is 1 billion, which is quite moderate. However, the industry is facing tough completion from the online book selling companies both from domestic market as well as international market. Hence, the industry has become forced to cut the price range of the books. It has ultimately declined the profit level of the industry. However, with the increasing popularity of trade and educational books, there is still hope in this industry. The new retail book company should target adult groups for selling their books. Recommendation on Segmentation and Target of Book Retail Company Age: 18-Above: All the adults customers will be segmented by this company, as they are mostly associated with the hobbies of reading Income: Moderate Income Group: The company will sell books having high prices like popular novels, Fictions, Non-fictions and many more. Hence, it will segment customers having stable income Occupation: College Students will be segmented, as they needs various types of books included in their syllabus. Business persons will be selected for selling trade books. On the other hand, retired persons will also be a significant segment of this company, as they mostly need book readings for spending their time. Marital Status: Both single and married customers will be segmented for their differing needs of books Education: All educated persons will be selected by the company. Even the educated household will be the customers of the company, as they may need books on getting ideas of cooking and foods. Attitude: Both having positive and negative attitude towards life. People having negative attitude can also buy books for overcoming their pain in life.  ·Ã‚        Customers having both positive personality in life will be selected  ·Ã‚        Customers having hobbies of reading and entertainment will be selected Customers seeking extra benefits over their purchase will be selected  ·Ã‚        Customers between the age of 18-above will be selected  ·Ã‚        Education: All types of educated Customers  ·Ã‚        Occupation: Businesspersons, college students, media professionals and others  ·Ã‚        Customers having moderate income  ·Ã‚        Customers having both positive and negative attitude towards life Wide variety of books will attract different types of customers Affordable prices of the books will attract huge range of customers Discounts offered to the customers will attract them a lot Convenient store location will enhance numbers of customers Table 3: Recommendation on Segmentation of New Book Retail Company Barnard, S., 2016. Retail or e-tail? Brick or click? Is e-tailing the ideal solution for all industries?: opinion. The Retail and Marketing Review, 12(1), pp.89-91. Booksandpublishing.com.au. 2017. The market down under | Books+Publishing. [online] Available at: https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2016/09/30/74713/the-market-down-under/ [Accessed 7 Apr. 2017]. Broberg, P., Umans, T. and Gerlofstig, C., 2013. Balance between auditing and marketing: An explorative study. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 22(1), pp.57-70. Efendioglu, A.M., 2015. State of information technology in small retail and service businesses: an exploratory study. Journal of Small Business Strategy, 8(2), pp.13-24. Gray, D., 2013. Out of the Box and into the Bookstore: Non-Traditional Use of the Bookstore. Against the Grain, 15(3), p.10. Gump, S.E., 2014. Everyday Book Marketing: Promotion Ideas to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life by Midge Raymond (review). Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 45(4), pp.409-413. Ibisworld.com.au. 2017. Book Stores in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/specialised-market-research-reports/consumer-goods-services/book-stores.html [Accessed 7 Apr. 2017]. Ibisworld.com.au. 2017. Newspaper and Book Retailing in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/retail-trade/other-store-based-retailing/newspaper-book-retailing.html [Accessed 7 Apr. 2017]. Parsons, A.G. and Descatoires, E., 2016. Retail marketing: A novel research agenda. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 24(2), pp.102-107. Pons, F., Giroux, M., Mourali, M. and Zins, M., 2016. The relationship between density perceptions and satisfaction in the retail setting: Mediation and moderation effects. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.1000-1007. Stephens, P. and McGowan, M., 2015. Service Convenience: On-Line versus Brick and Mortar Bookstores. International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), 7(3), pp.1-14. Wehner, C., Wehner, C., Wehner, C., Wehner, C. and Wehner, C. 2017. Bookselling Industry Analysis for Australia - Porter's Five Forces & PEST. [online] bluetrain. Available at: https://bluetrainenterprises.com.au/blog/2016/11/18/industry-analysis-australian-print-bookselling/ [Accessed 7 Apr. 2017].
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Carl Marx View on Human Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Carl Marx View on Human Freedom - Essay Example Much more, freedom in education will be narrower if we wouldn't have access to quality education - this will somehow fall into privilege. The same thing goes with our freedom for the quality nourishment. We wouldn't be entirely free or privileged if stock of food will be limited, as we are under the restriction of immediate available means. Several factors also considered to be major hindrances of such freedom. Racial discrimination is one. It is apparent that it suppresses the rights and freedom of many colored-skin people, just because of their skin. There are cases that some housing privileges were not considered to the blacks because of their skin color. Undeniably there are still rights and privileges that some of the colored skin people cannot fully acquired. Faith or spiritual conviction can also limit the freedom of certain individual regarding beliefs and spiritual principles and practices. This also somehow affects the lifestyle of individual inevitably, when one put into application the beliefs and principles. Gender is also another factor that limits the freedom of certain individuals.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Cognitive Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Cognitive Psychology - Essay Example The authors’ main research questions were: If updating is the automatic result of locomotion, would people have ease or difficulty with ignoring their locomotion when walking without vision? If updating was an optional process that only occurred as the result of deliberate and effortful cognitive processing, would people find the task easy? Is the performance of people walking without vision better in the updating condition when they are told to ignore their locomotion? Is there was any difference in performance when people walked blindly to near targets compared to far targets? Are people able to overcome the information specifying their real positions in space and temporarily by adopting a different perspective, when they are given enough time to carry out the necessary cognitive operations? First hypothesis of the research was that: Performance of people while updating their spatial relationships is better as compared to when they are told to ignore their locomotion. The third hypothesis was that: If subjects can retrospectively overcome the earlier automatic spatial updating, then their performances in the ignoring condition should improve relative to the updating condition. These hypotheses were justified on the basis of background research and theory, because the authors have given an extensive review of literature citing other researchers’ works, and explaining them in order to support the need to conduct this specific research. They have cited literature which discusses the automatic updating of non-visual spatial relationships. The population of interest was young people. The sample for the first experiment included ten student volunteers from the Strathclyde University Psychology Department; and, the sample for the second experiment included ten other student volunteers from the same department and university. The sample was not very
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Liberal ideology Essay Example for Free
Liberal ideology Essay How important was new Liberal ideology in leading to the welfare reforms of 1905-11? In answering this essay it is probably best to understand what is meant by ideology. Ideology is defined as a set of beliefs and aims by a group or groups of individuals who share the same common views. The word liberal means being free. The Liberal party is seen as a party that has an open mind over issues and follows what the majority of people want. In this essay I will explain the key issues that might have led to the Liberal party implementing these welfare reforms in Britain between 1905-11. New something -ism is often just a name given by a party to show that their ideologies have evolved from previous, outdated times. New Liberal ideology is looked at in the context of older Liberal beliefs. This idea of renaming the ideology of a party was seen as an attempt by a party to gain support by claiming to bring in new, unique policies (Simon Potter). However, these thoughts cannot be used when referring to New Liberalism. Under the leadership of politicians such as Asquith, Churchill and Lloyd-George the Liberal party seemed to break away from its past. In fact, in 1906 after two decades of political failure, the Liberal party came to power. It introduced the biggest number of social reforms of its time in Britain. It is the reasons behind these reforms that I will be looking at. The main difference between Old Liberal thinking and New Liberalism was that more emphasis was put on collectivism rather than individualism, which had previously been preached. People began to change their minds from earlier thinking and began to believe that it was the governments duty to improve life for the community. These ideas as well as those of positive liberty only seemed to appeal to a small minority of Liberal ministers. However, it did appeal to influential Liberals that were in power. This included the future Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. It is my belief that increased knowledge of poverty was more important than new Liberal ideology (aka New Liberlism). Many people in Britain were poverty stricken or in need for help. The government needed to find out exactly how people were getting into poverty. Seebohm Rowntree, a historian in the 19th-20th Century, carried out a survey into poverty in York. York was more typical of the whole country rather than the East End. Seebohm calculated a poverty line (minimum income necessary to stay out of poverty) based on scientific calculations. Those people that did not have the minimum income were in primary poverty and could not achieve physical efficiency. He discovered that those people who were in secondary poverty were there because they hadnt spent their money well enough. Seebohms statistical figures and results opened the eyes of many in Britain. It made many people realise how poverty had come about and how The liberal party believed that welfare reforms would make Britain more competitive and efficient with foreign countries such as Germany and USA. Britain was less advanced than these two superpowers in their army, in industry and in education. Some believed that changes to the education system and administration would make Britain on a more equal level with the two above-mentioned countries. Others believed that sorting out poverty and health would improve Britains national efficiency. Liberals believed that welfare reforms would help improve the standard of living of the poorer classes. These people tended to be unfit and therefore were unable to join the army. It was also the poorer people who wanted to become soldiers. By improving the lives and health of poor people, then more would be accepted into the army. Therefore, this is one area that would become more efficient and competitive. Changes to health and child reforms would also make Britain more efficient. Children were Britains future prospects. By improving all aspects of their lives (especially those that were coming from poorer backgrounds), children would help Britain to become an all round superpower in 30-40 years to come. They were arguably the most needy of welfare reforms, which maybe explains why the Liberal party implemented many reforms regarding them between 1905-11. The need to win working class support and beat off challenges from the Labour party was the most important reason for the introduction of Welfare reforms between 1905-11. New Liberalism was based on political beliefs, but the need to resist the Labour parties potential challenge was based on political advantages. The 1903 Lib-Lab pact made Labour more of a threat on the political stage. They gained there most number of seats in Parliament in the 1906 elections and with the support of the majority of the working class and the Trade Unions; the labour party were proving to be capable opposition.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
The Philosophy of Birches :: Robert Frost Birches Essays
The Philosophy of Birches      The philosophy expressed in "Birches" poses no threat to popular values or beliefs, and it is so appealingly affirmative that many readers have treasured the poem as a masterpiece. Among Frost's most celebrated works, perhaps only "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" ranks ahead of it. Yet to critics like Brooks and Squires, the persona's philosophical stance in "Birches" is a serious weakness. [. . .] The didactic and philosophical element that some critics have attacked strikes others as the very core of Frost's virtue. [. . .] Perhaps impartial observers can accept the notion that "Birches" is neither as bad as its harshest opponents suggest nor as good as its most adoring advocates claim. [. . .] "Birches" . . . contains three fairly lengthy descriptions that do not involve unusual perspectives. In fact, the most original and distinctive vision in the poem--the passage treating the ice on the trees (ll. 5-14)--is undercut both by the self-consciousness of its final line ("You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen") and by the two much more conventionally perceived environments that follow it: the rural boyhood of the swinger of birches (ll. 23-40) and the "pathless wood," which represents life's "considerations" (ll. 44-47). As a result, the poem's ardent concluding lines--its closing pronouncements on life, death, and human aspiration--do not arise from a particular experience. Instead, they are presented as doctrines that we must accept or reject on the basis of our credence in the speaker as a wise countryman whose familiarity with birch trees, ice storms, and pathless woods gives him authority as a philosopher. Since in "Birches" the natural object--tree, ice crystal, pathless wood, etc.--functions as proof of the speaker's rusticity, Frost has no need for extraordinary perspectives, and therefore the poem does little to convince us that an "experience," to use [Robert] Langbaum's wording, "is really taking place, that the object is seen and not merely remembered from a public or abstract view of it." This is not to deny that the poem contains some brilliant descriptive passages (especially memorable are the clicking, cracking, shattering ice crystals in lines 7-11 and the boy's painstaking climb and sudden, exhilarating descent in lines 35-40), and without doubt, the closing lines offer an engaging exegesis of swinging birches as a way of life. But though we learn a great deal about this speaker's beliefs and preferences, we find at last that he has not revealed himself as profoundly as does the speaker in "After Apple-Picking.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Hollifield Family Reunion Essay
Every year around the last week of July my father’s family all meets for a two day reunion in the small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Hollifield’s have resided in the area for over 100 years! There are many streets named after us and if you’re walking around town some people even notice you’re a Hollifield just by looking at you. Although it is only two days long, the reunion is something I cherish deep in my heart, for it’s the only time I get to see my father’s family. One night in 1974, my grandpa and a few other family members were sitting around reminiscing about their childhood. They were laughing at all the memories and good times they’ve had and all the trouble they got into. My grandpa was telling everyone he had been thinking of a way that everyone could make some time to all come together for a couple days once every year. His uncle told him that they should start a family reunion. So starting in July of 1974 the annual Hollifield reunion began. Everyone gets to the hotel Friday night and gets settled in and reacquainted a lot of hugging, kissing, laughing, and eating. My sister and I get our own hotel room so most of our cousins bring sleeping bags and stay both nights in our room. We talk about what we’ve all done that year, who’s dating who, what kind of cars we’ve bought; we pretty much talk each other’s ears off. The next morning we all get up and find somewhere to eat and walk around town. Downtown Spruce Pine is absolutely beautiful. There are flowers and pine trees growing everywhere, and you can smell all the bakeries and barbeque pits. There are little stores with antiques and instruments, florists, wedding dress shops, and candy stores. It could go from 90 degrees with the sun shining to a humid rain in a matter of minutes. When it rains you can smell it a hundred times better than in California. After we walk through town we get to a huge, long wooden bridge. It’s been there for years and underneath it flows a beautiful creek and a park filled with laughing children frolicking in the sunlight. We normally go to the park and mess around on everything then make our way to the creek. You have to go down a steep hill made of dirt and freckled with little patches of bright green grass. The boys catch crawdads and crayfish while us girls dip our feet in the clear chilly water and wait for the train to pass. The train is large and used to transport coal and freight. Personally, the train is one of my favorite parts of Spruce Pine. It’s loud yet still soothing and controlled. After a few hours the rest of the family begins to show up at the park with fresh, good old-fashioned southern food. They unload the cars of barbeque, slaw, potatoes, mac and cheese, collard greens, green beans, pasta salads, and more desert than any amount of people should ever consume. Following our meal is the baseball game. The whole family plays and we get chosen randomly for two teams. In the end my grandpa tells us that everyone won and an MVP is chosen from each team who receives a golden trophy of a boy or girl with a tiny body and huge head, holding a baseball bat. We all clean up then head back to the hotel to get swimsuits and drive over to the pool. A few hours into swimming we decide to go to the hotel and shower then all the kids find a place to eat supper. Upon leaving the restaurant someone informs us that the annual hide-n-seek game has begun. We take off running towards the hotel to find a hiding place while the person chosen as â€Å"it†stays and counts for 5 minutes. The game involves a lot of pushing, shoving, screaming, laughing, and those little chills you get when you’ve found a place and you know that any second you could be found. After the game we all head back to my sister and I’s room and hang out. We stay up all night talking about everything that happened, who did the most embarrassing thing, which was the funniest, and other things we had encountered that day. As the night goes by we start to notice our time is almost up. Most of my cousins live in NC so they see each other all the time, but as the hours pass my sister and I notice that our time in NC is almost over; that we’ll have to wait yet another slow, California year before we get back to the peaceful happiness of NC. Around 9 in the morning our cousin’s head back to their rooms to get ready for our last meal together. For breakfast Sunday morning the whole family fills the back room of The Western Sizzler. Western Sizzler may be the best place to get breakfast ever. It’s is 3 large buffet tables covered in bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, fruit, veggies, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, yogurt, granola, hash browns, country potatoes, varieties of juices, milks, sodas. And at the end there is a huge dessert bar. We eat and talk and talk and eat. And eat some more†¦ and then a little bit more. We catch up with some of the older members of the family and tell them what we did all weekend. My aunt Vicki walks around and takes millions of pictures with her big nice camera that has a flash that could blind the whole family at the same time. When everyone has finished my grandpa stands up and talks about all the great things that have gone on during the weekend, all the graduates and birthdays, all the births and deaths. We end the reunion by hugging and some crying (I won’t lie; Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢m one of the criers). If my family had never got the idea to have a reunion, I don’t know when I would ever see them. The reunion brings us together in a quick two day span filled with great food, laughter, and all around happiness. It seems like when we’re all together nothing can go wrong. My cousins and I have vowed that when our time comes, we will carry on the tradition of the Hollifield Family Reunion until the day we die.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Foreign Workers in Malaysia
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. At least that’s what quite a lot of Malaysians I know feel about them. Deputy Human Resources Minister, Senator said that there are 1. 403 million foreigners here holding the Temporary Employment Visit Pass, which accounts for 11. 2% of Malaysia’s total workforce. That’s actually quite a lot of foreigners for a country with a 2. 7% unemployment rate as of last year. But it’s no use denying the fact that we need them. The fact that we still don’t have minimum wage means that there are just too many jobs out there that pay too little (from the perspective of Malaysians) and are considered not worth the trouble by Malaysians. As our cost of living continues to rise against stagnating wages, even fresh graduates earning around RM2,000 will sometimes find it hard to keep things afloat living in Kuala Lumpur, let alone having to survive on a construction worker’s wages. And even now we can see foreign workers in supermarkets and restaurants, jobs that are considered ‘comfortable’ and not ‘heavy’, but more and more locals are turning away from them simply because in the current economic climate the pay is nowhere near good enough. On the one hand it’s a shame that we prefer being unemployed rather than at least earning something, even if it means working a hard job with not very good pay. But on the other hand it’s also understandable why we’d prefer to hold out and keep looking for something better, considering the economic realities that we have to face in our daily lives. The side effect of being dependent on foreign workers is that it puts a strain on a lot of things – public amenities and services especially. They also compete with the poor for low cost accommodation, and the congested living conditions have also contributed to societal and environmental problems. But blaming things on them will not solve anything. The fact of the matter is, these are men and women trying to make an honest living in a foreign country where their presence is not exactly welcomed with open arms. They had to leave their family behind, live in sometimes abominable and unacceptable conditions, and push themselves to the limit to work as many hours as possible in order to send as much money as they can home to their families. Try doing that and see if you won’t find yourself in similar social problems should you be in their exact same shoes. It’s easy to blame the ‘other’ when you’re comfortably on the other side of the fence, but not so easy when you really look and try to empathize with them. Trying to combat these problems will definitely cost money, and if we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s just like dousing a raging fire – it’s unlikely that we can totally put a stop to it. The only way we can avoid these problems is by not having them here or not being too dependent on foreign workforce. Paying the 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous and difficult) better wages to attract locals to do it is a start. A good minimum wage is a start too. Of course companies employing foreign workers will moan that this is not good business, but that is why we vote and have a government – to think about how best to solve this dilemma, because what’s a government here for if not to take care of its people?
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Fast Facts About Ancient Ephesus
Fast Facts About Ancient Ephesus Ephesus, now Selà §uk in modern Turkey, was one of the most famous cities of the ancient Mediterranean. Founded in the Bronze Age and important from ancient Greek times, it contained the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and served as a crossroads between the East and West for centuries. Home of a Wonder The Temple of Artemis, constructed in the sixth century B.C., contained wondrous sculptures, including the multi-breasted cult statue of the goddess. Other statues there were constructed by the likes of the great sculptor Phidias. The temple was sadly destroyed for the last time by the fifth century A.D., after a man tried to burn it down centuries earlier. Library of Celsus There are visible ruins of a library dedicated to Proconsul Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemeanus, governor of the province of Asia, that housed between 12,000-15,000 scrolls. An earthquake in 262 A.D. dealt a devastating blow to the library, although it wasnt fully destroyed until later. Important Christian Site Ephesus wasnt just an important city for the pagans of antiquity. It also was the site of St. Pauls ministry for years. There, he baptized quite a few followers (Acts 19:1-7) and even survived a riot by silversmiths. Demetrius the silversmith made idols for Artemiss temple and hated that Paul was affecting his business, so he caused a ruckus. Centuries later, in 431 A.D., a Christian council was held at Ephesus. Cosmopolitan A great city for pagans and Christians alike, Ephesus contained the normal centers of Roman and Greek cities, including a theater that seated 17,000-25,000 people, an odeon, a state agora, public toilets, and monuments to the emperors. Great Thinkers Ephesus produced and fostered some of the brilliant minds of the ancient world. As Strabo writes in his Geography, Notable men have been born in this city... Hermodorus is reputed to have written certain laws for the Romans. And Hipponax the poet was from Ephesus; and so were Parrhasius the painter and Apelles, and more recently Alexander the orator, surnamed Lychnus. Another alumnus of Ephesus, the philosopher Heraclitus discussed important thoughts on the nature of the universe and humanity. Restoration Ephesus was destroyed by an earthquake in 17 A.D. then rebuilt and enlarged by Tiberius.
Monday, November 4, 2019
Brand launches by agencies, an arrogant pursuit of tactical Essay
Brand launches by agencies, an arrogant pursuit of tactical opportunism which misunderstands the core competences of an advertising agency or a profitable opportunity to earn respect from clients - Essay Example ly focused on how firms try to capture target markets by setting an oligopolistic trend, characterised by an arbitrary controlling mechanism which tap the instinctive faculties of the mid of customers (Jones 1998a:33). There is hardly any room for argument that such practices are, or in fact should be, assessed on the basis of righteousness or reason. This is because any firm or production house reserves the intangible right to maximise its profit by operating within a legitimate proviso. What is still vaguely understood by the proposition of branding is that it is primarily based on creative usage of available resources, and yet, it tends to expand its scope and field of implementation through quantitative measures. The fundamental dualism inherent in these two mechanisms makes it a complex issue to address. Majority of the pioneering ad houses, famous for their innovative business strategies, adopt not so frequently tried means to promote their brands. It is the uniqueness of approaches to what can otherwise be termed as routine brandishing of various products that sets the boys apart from the men, so to speak. As for creating an oligopolistic market and seizing it at the right moment, brand equity plays a defining role. While most of the top brands offer more than what is generically expected out of a non-branded product having similar attribute(s), the topnotch players disseminate their products in a way that encourage fairness and transparency. Brennan et al. (2007) argue that in our age of heterogeneous competition, the chance of discreet marketing can never be discarded altogether. Therefore, retaining the credibility value of production should always be prioritised, regardless of the business model espoused by the concerned firm (105). In line with this principle, it is imperativ e to give out a fair deal on the principle of equity. It will let shareholders and customers feel confident and assured about the products that they want try out for
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Assignmentweek5 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Assignmentweek5 - Assignment Example The employee training that is derived from the client’s needs is useful in addressing customers concerns. Being the boss, I believe that the buck stops with me. During the training, I will tell employees that the importance of feedback mechanism is to get an opportunity to learn from our challenges and weakness with the view of offering better services to the customers. It also informs us on how we can remain competitive and easily beat our competitors (Stacey, 1996). Focus groups involves gathering of between 6-8 persons from the target market guided with a moderator and have them share their ideas, feelings and attitudes about a subject. Some of the advantages includes; cost effective when gathering primary data, easily to build on others ideas and makes it easier in getting the idea of the target market. The disadvantage is that it can only gather opinions on ideas and concepts and not how people can best use the designs. They can be used when attempting to develop something new but not sure on how people might react and also when one has no or little knowledge about the target market. They could however go wrong when an idea of a vocal person overrides other participant’s ideas besides, it can go wrong when quantitative data is required (Stacey,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)