Come Participate in the DWT Poetry Competition

Come Participate in the DWT Poetry Competition Come Participate in the DWT Poetry Competition Come Participate in the DWT Poetry Competition By Daniel Scocco I am pretty sure we have many poets and wanna-be poets among our readers (not to mention the ones who just like to read poetry), so it was about time to run a DWT Poetry Competition. First of all here are some good reasons for you to participate: The winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. The three runners-up will receive a free license for the Fanurio billing software. Youll get people reading and giving feedback on your poems. Are you in? Good, now just read the rules: The deadline for the submission is the 1st of March 2010 (midnight GMT). Submissions must be made via email to daniel@dailywritingtips.com (Send your poem either in the body of the email, or as a .doc attachment) The poem must be in English, original, and must not have been published in the past. By taking part on the competition you allow us to publish your poem online (it will stay on the blog even after the competition). But you retain all the publishing rights over the material. From March 2nd onward well publish a batch of poems every Tuesday, and our readers will be able to vote on their favorite poems, until we elect the winner. It is time to reveal the Robert Frost or the Emily Dickinson you have inside! 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 Writing Competitions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Using "a" and "an" Before WordsLatin Words and Expressions: All You Need to Know5 Tips to Understand Hyphenated Words

Audio Lingual Method Essays

Audio Lingual Method Essays Audio Lingual Method Essay Audio Lingual Method Essay 1 GGGV 2044 METHODS IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Semester 2 2009/2010 AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD: A DISCUSSION (INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT) LECTURER: DR. HAMIDAH BT. YAMAT @ AHMAD LISA KWAN SU LI A123040 TESL/2 2 1. 1 INTRODUCTION The Audio-lingual Method (ALM), by its very name – â€Å"audio† and â€Å"lingual† – refers to a language teaching approach that focuses on two aspects of language, namely listening and speaking. Unlike its predecessor, the Grammar Translation Method, which focuses on reading and writing skills, this approach chooses to emphasize on the first two stages in the natural order of language learning (listening, speaking, reading followed by writing) with the belief that learners who are better speakers and listeners consequently make better readers and writers. The ALM has a firm foundation in the theories of both structural linguistics and behavioural psychology, and thus incorporates techniques and strategies that advocate the concepts and assumptions of language learning from both schools of thought. The structural linguistics view of language learning says that language is learned through awareness and specific attention to the patterns and structure of the language. One of the ALM’s main characteristics is its use of repetition and drills that draw learners’ attention to the patterns of the target language which are subsequently memorized and repeated to automaticity. Language learning from the view of behavioural psychology on the other hand, occurs by conditioning and habit formation of accurate responses to stimuli. The right response for a stimulus is modelled by the teacher beforehand and then drilled into the learners repeatedly until such responses become a â€Å"habit† that enables learners to successfully produce accurate responses without clues or prompting by the teacher. This discussion aims to further understand the Audio-lingual Method and explore the advantages and disadvantages of employing it in the second language classroom. The author als o puts out her recommendations for the use of the ALM in the second language classroom. 2. 1 HISTORY By the first half of the twentieth century, the Direct Method had lost its popularity in the U. S. However, it is believed that the decline of the Direct Method brought about the emergence of the ALM. As Brown (2001) puts it: â€Å" by the middle of the twentieth century, the Direct Method was revived and redirected into what was probably the most visible of all language teaching â€Å"revolutions† in the modern era, the Audio-lingual Method. † The U. S. educational institutions at the time still believed that a reading approach like the Grammar Translation Method was more practical than an oral one. Therefore the 1930s and 1940s saw the Grammar Translation Method going strong in all schools across the U. S. However, after World War II, the U. S. saw an urgent need for her to be orally proficient in the language of her allies as well as foes. This led to a drastic change in 4 the current view of language teaching from a mere reading approach to one with a heavier emphasis on aural and oral skills. Special intensive language programs were developed by the U. S. army which came to be known as the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), or more simply, the Army Method. In the 1950s, the Army Method was renamed the Audiolingual Method. 3. 1 PRINCIPLES OF ALM Some of the main principles of language learning in the ALM are stated by Alkhuli 2005 (as cited by Abdel-Rahman Abu-Melhim in the International Forum of Teaching and Studies). One of these principles is that the second language learning process should be similar to that of first language acquisition. This complies with the natural order of language learning which is listening, speaking, reading and finally, writing. It is believed that the learner first learns to speak what he has listened to, then read what he has spoken, and write what he has read. Therefore, the ALM emphasizes on listening and speaking skills in order to facilitate the progress of reading and writing skills besides increasing communicative competency. Another principle is that the second language is best acquired by habit formation. A habit is created when an action is repeated and is subsequently produced 5 in response to certain stimuli almost without conscious activity. This is achieved via the repetitive pattern practices that are part and parcel of the ALM. Translation of the target language into the native language is considered harmful and will hinder acquisition of the second language. Such translations are believed to impede the mastery or control of the second language. When the target language is used in all circumstances in the classroom, learners learn to make direct connections between the vocabulary and its semantics in the target language itself, which is ideal for effective second language learning. However, these principles are merely assumptions. Counter-arguments include: second language learning is completely different from native language acquisition in many different aspects. In addition, the natural order of language learning that the ALM stresses on is irrelevant because the four language skills can be developed simultaneously rather than sequentially. The learning of a second language is not necessarily a process of habit formation where responses are elicited by stimuli, but also involves the cognitive. Finally, translation into the native language has proven a useful technique indeed in learning a second language, demonstrated in methods such as the Grammar Translation Method. 4. 1 MAIN FEATURES As aforementioned, the ALM follows the natural order of language learning. The use of repetitive drills is justified in shaping a new â€Å"habit† for learning the second 6 language. Stimuli-responses are expected and correct ones are immediately reinforced as conditioning, concurrent with the views of behavioural psychology. The native language also plays a minimal role in the ALM. Only the target language is used within the classroom by both teacher and learners. New material in the target language is also introduced in dialogue form, closest to a natural situational context for learners to gain communicative competence and skills. Modeling is done by the teacher whereby a particular structure of sentence is spoken and learners repeat the sentence, mimicking its sound patterns and intonation, and aiming for identicalness. Slips in learners’ pronunciation of words in the sentence are immediately corrected by the teacher to avoid formation of â€Å"bad habits†. Grammar rules are not taught explicitly but are expected to be induced by the learners through the various examples and patterns that are exposed to them during the lesson. Contrastive analyses are also done between the native language and the target language in order to draw learner’s attention to differences in pattern, structure and sound system of both languages. 5. 1 TECHNIQUES There are many techniques employed in the classroom that advocate the underlying principles (or assumptions) of the ALM, and are also based on the aforementioned two main schools of thought for the said method. 7 One of the main techniques used is of introducing new learning material in the form of a dialogue. A model conversation is analyzed, broken down and memorized through mimicry. Dialogues are seen as a natural conversational ontext that will aid learners in applying learned structures and vocabulary. Many drills are used in the ALM. The backward build-up drill (expansion drill) breaks down a difficult sentence into smaller parts. Usually the last phrase of the sentence is repeated by the learners and then parts are added on, or expanded, until learners are able to repeat the complete sentence without further trouble. Single-slot substitution drills require the learners to substitute in cues given by the teacher into a particular slot in the sentence. Multiple-slot substitution drills on the other hand, require a higher level of competence from the learners. Learners must recognize particular slots within the sentence to substitute the cues given by the teacher, occasionally having to alter subject-verb agreements as well. Other drills include the repetition drill, chain drill, transformation drill and question-and-answer drill. (Refer to Appendix A) 6. 1 ADVANTAGES As compared to an extreme method like the Grammar Translation Method, where reading and writing are so stressed on that speaking and listening skills are neglected, ALM does develop the aural/oral skills of learners. Learners through the ALM are able to participate in situational contexts competently. 8 In addition, learners are more aware of the phonetic aspects of the language. Through modeling and mimicry, learners pay more attention to proper pronunciation and intonation. Errors in pronunciation are immediately dealt with, while correct responses are positively reinforced. Learners are sensitive to the intonation and are aware of their different functions of questioning, requesting, pleading etc. Through substitution drills, learners also learn to recognize the borders between the phrases that make up the sentence. They are also exposed to a variety of different sentences that have similar structures through repetition drills as well. Transformational drills help learners familiarize with question tags and their corresponding answers, affirmative and negative sentences and even active and passive ones. Such a wide variety of sentence and question structures serve to enhance learners’ communicative ability. 7. 1 DISADVANTAGES Although the drills that are the ALM’s distinguishing feature may be considered one of its strengths, they are also its weakness. Such drills leave no room for creativity, causing learners to lose interest or feel bored in the classroom. When learners lose their motivation, it negatively affects their progress in second language learning. New vocabulary learned is also limited in context. Instead, the sound system and grammatical patterns are emphasized on more. Learners are taught set phrases in gruel repetition in response to certain questions, where the form and structure are 9 highlighted. Consequently, learners are only drilled to respond correctly with answers that are expected of them without caring much for its meaning. For example, the set phrase, â€Å"Fine, thank you,† is taught as a response to the question â€Å"How are you? † which learners use even when they feel otherwise. This phenomenon is comparable to robots that have no cognition and only give particular responses to particular stimuli! There is rarely any variation in learners’ responses other than the ones that have been taught. Therefore, interaction and dialogue is very schematic and unnatural. In short, communicative competence is still called to question. Learners of the ALM may be able to participate in conversations, but they are rarely spontaneous and it is observed to be rather a case of regurgitating the â€Å"right† responses in a certain situational context from memory. Should they not be able to recall the set phrases that have been learned, they are at a loss as to how to respond to the questions and conversational prompts of the other speaker. 8. 1 RECOMMENDATIONS From the discussion above, it is evident that although communicative competence is insufficient, the ALM drills provide learners with a multitude of structures and grammatical patterns that form the basic foundation for communication. The challenge is to help learners apply the knowledge they have gained to communicating effectively and in a natural manner. 10 However, this cannot be done if drills are continuously insisted upon in the classroom. A degree of flexibility is needed on the part of the teacher to allow spontaneous and natural conversation to take place after drilling them as well. Unguided dialogue practice forces the learners to apply what they have been drilled with into a communicative setting, taking into consideration the meaning of the phrases learnt with relevance to the given situation. Model conversations can still be provided, but spontaneous ones allow for creativity and variety in responding according to the individual learner. Communication becomes more natural. With regards to learner motivation, the responsibility is shouldered by both the teacher and the learners themselves. The teacher needs to, again, be flexible and allow for elements not necessarily ALM-like to be incorporated into the lesson, if only for the sake of breaking the monotone. Drills can still be employed of course, but in more interesting ways like role play and physical activities. In essence, the teacher should be creative in her strategies with the aim of increasing the communicative competency of the learners rather than teach by the book. Learners as well, play a major role in their own learning progress. They should maintain a high level of self-motivation by actively participating in tasks and activities and being attentive at all times. 9. 1 CONCLUSION The ALM definitely has its pros and cons in a second language classroom. However, the disadvantages and negative implications can be overcome if a slightly more eclectic approach to second language teaching is taken. Some teachers may stubbornly hold fast to the rules of the ALM and refuse to stray from it. In such a case, the 11 objective of second language teaching should be questioned. Is one’s loyalty to the method or to the goal of aiding learners in achieving communicative competence? If it is the latter, it does not matter what method is used in the classroom as long as ultimately, learners gain valuable communicative skills. As Celce-Murcia illustrates (as cited by Abdel-Rahman Abu-Melhim in the International Forum of Teaching and Studies): â€Å"Today, language students are considered successful if they can communicate effectively in their second or foreign language, whereas two decades ago the accuracy of the language produced would most likely be the major criterion contributing to the judgment of a student’s success or lack of success. † (1991, p. 125) One single method should never be used exclusively in the classroom because it shall always remain flawed. It is the teacher’s responsibility to determine her teaching goals and appropriate methods to be used; where an eclectic one might better achieve those goals. Therefore, the teacher of a second language must be prepared to modify and adjust her methods to suit the different learning needs of the learners. 12 APPENDIX A Here are examples of the different drills used in the Audio-lingual Method: Repetition drill Repetition drill is the normal drill, usually used to teach the lines of the dialogue. Students are required to repeat after the teacher’s model until they are almost identical. Chain drill The Chain drill uses maybe the first few lines of a simple dialogue. The teacher begins by addressing a student, or asking him a question. The student responds, then turns to the student beside him and asks him a similar question. The second student responds and the chain goes on until each student has participated. This allows for the teacher to check learner’s speech. Transformation drill The teacher may give learners a question, and the learners are then required to formulate an answer from the form of the question given, and vice versa. Or, an affirmative sentence is given and learners need to transform it into the negative. This can be used for teaching active and passive sentences, as well as direct and reported speech. Question-and-answer drill This drill allows for learners to practice answering questions accurately and rapidly. It can also be done the other way round, where the learners form the questions on cue. 13 REFERENCES Abdel-Rahman Abu-Melhim. 2009. Re-evaluating the Effectiveness of the Audiolingual Method in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. International Forum of Teaching and Studies 5(2): 1-9. Britto, Rory. 2009. The Dissipation of Methods in ESL: Expanding to Fill the Void. The Journal of Education p. 75-84. Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, p. 13-37. Second edition. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 2000. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Savignon, Sandra J. 2001. Communicative Language Teaching. Theory Into Practice 26(4): 235.

What factors influencing Chinese parents tosend their children to Literature review

What factors influencing Chinese parents tosend their children to study abroad - Literature review Example China’s system and policies for education have a number of weaknesses and areas for development for likely investment that cause parents to send their children overseas for better studies. Author Ryan discusses reforms on higher learning in China and compares them to those of international economies. According to Ryan, the influential hand of economic and political realities overwhelms modern relative and overseas studies of higher learning reforms (Ryan, 2011). Ryan’s text tries to provide an alternative cultural standpoint to explore the development and conversion of China’s higher learning system. The book argues that China’s culture philosophies affect the development of higher learning (Ryan, 2011). Even so, Ryan notes that current scientific literature does not offer his argument adequate attention. Researchers Li, Liu and Zhang, approximated returns made in the education sector in urban China in 2012. In this study, Li et al experientially approximated the return to learning through a twins model of data. The research’s regular least-squares model approximated that a single year of learning raised a Chinese student’s income by 8.4% (Li, Liu and Zhang 2012). When Li et al used the twins model, this return decreased to 2.7%, but increased to 3.8% after the adjustment of measurement error. These findings indicated that a huge part of the approximated returns to learning occurred because of absent ability or the family impact (Li et al., 2012). According to Li et al, this was proof that the return of education was low in urban China because of its current education system. In 2012, Li et al studied the medical learning system in China in an attempt to understand the country’s national education system. According to Li et al, China is undergoing a crisis of poor and ruined doctor-patient relationships, which officials deny openly. Li et al says there are multiple reasons for the distrust

Domestic Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Domestic Violence - Essay Example Domestic violence has ruined the peace of the society. More and more people are falling into depression and anxiety with the grief of a lost or killed child, parent, sibling or spouse. Ethical dilemma to domestic violence: The ethical dilemma to domestic violence can be understood with the help of an exemplary case study. Let’s suppose that a woman who mothers three children gets hurt by her husband. She approaches a counselor who has newly started his career. The woman tells the counselor that she is physically abused by her husband. The counselor advises the woman to seek divorce and take her kids with her away from the husband. But the woman can not do that as she is afraid her husband would find and kill her along with her children if she attempts escape. In such a case, the counselor feels too inexperienced to give an informed suggestion. If he tells the authorities about this, his competence as a counselor would be suspected. If he gives a decision as he considers approp riate, this might take away four lives. Thus, the counselor is put into ethical dilemma because of the domestic violence experienced by his client. Likewise, several other points can be made from the same case study. Some common forms of abuses in domestic violence: Some of the most common forms of abuses people experience in the domestic violence are physical abuse, sexual abuse, social and emotional abuse, isolation, intimidation, discrimination, racism, threat and neglect. Each of these can be further divided into many forms of violence like punching, hitting, pulling, pushing, restraining, kicking and even hugging. Potential consequences of domestic violence: Consequences of domestic violence are very alarming. It causes homelessness. In order to escape interaction with the dangerous people, people put themselves into social exclusion. Many women who are offered physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse by their husbands take divorce get separated from them. This not only dist orts the whole family setup but also ruins the future of the children. Dysfunctional families, broken homes, depression, social exclusion and suicide are some of the potential consequences of domestic violence (Schweitzer, 2011). My stance on domestic violence and the basis for that: I hate domestic violence. I believe that domestic violence ruins the whole society by distorting the family system. I believe that in order to make a healthy society, people need to live in a strong family system. Almost all religions require their followers to live in nuclear family system. In a nuclear family system, everybody has well defined roles and responsibilities. A father earns bread for the family, while a mother nurtures the children. The children are perfectly brought up with the mutual efforts of both the mother and the father. The broken families harm the psychology of the children along with the separating partners, and they are not able to play a constructive role in the society. Applic ations that can be made to me professionally as a member of the Criminal Justice System: As a member of the Criminal Justice System, I can receive applications to make rational decisions and formulate policies that would address the individualistic concerns of the victims. â€Å"Professionals in criminal justice are called upon to enforce laws and also to implement policies. Policies can be formal or informal.† (Pollock, 2010, p. 154). Formal policies are formulated by the government’

Mango Case Study Essay Example for Free

Mango Case Study Essay MANGO is an internationally famous multinational which designs, manufactures and markets women’s and men’s clothing and accessories. Its Headquarters are based in Palau Solita I Plegamans (Barcelona). At the current time, the company has over 11.000 employees out of which 82% are females, with an average age of 32. The Hangar Design Center, where more than 1500 employees work, is the biggest design center in Europe, with a surface area of 10.000 m2 and more than 550 professionals dedicated to creating fashion garments and accessories for women. The Quality, Purchasing and Design departments are also located there. The central offices have a total surface area of 150,000 m2 and their own structure, which comprises the departments of Image and Advertising, Property Management, Expansion, Production Control and Stores Distribution, Store Architecture and Interior Design, in addition to Logistics, Administration and IT systems. The company currently has a total of 2415 stores in 107 countries worldwide. Their expansion continues in cities of the stature of Tokyo, Beijing, Erlangen or Verona. MANGO considers its keys to their success are: Concept, Team and Logistics System. Concept The company is very keen on having a highly defined concept. The MANGO concept relies on an alliance between a product of a high quality with an original design and a strong brand image. Dressing the modern, urban women for her daily needs is the formula the company has analyzed, adapted and applied in all the countries in which MANGO is present: it has been and remains one of the keys to their commercial success and international prestige.

Essay --

At first I would like to say that I am really excited to write to you this letter and I am doing it with love. As we are going to spend a year together, now I would like you to know about me, my character, my likes and dislikes, my hobbies, and of course about my family. First of all I will tell you about me. I am 18 years old, I am a tall girl with brownish curly hair, brown eyes and quite a pretty face. I am a sophomore at Vanadzor State Pedagogical Institute named after Hovhannes Toumanyan and studying in Philological Faculty, English Department and my major field of degree is the English language. I am a future English teacher for what I am really proud as I love teaching children. I am called "an interestin person" by my friends and relatives. I like to learn something new all the time, in other words _ absorb any information which is important and interesting to me. At the same time I have great sense of humor. I am fond of joking so I often get in touch with such people who are witty, friendly, and of course humorous. By the way I have a lot of friends whom I love and repect very much and friendship to me is very important. All of my friends are very interesting, kind, helpful and trustful. When I am sad and disappointed, they are always there to cheer me up. When I am happy, they are always there to share my happiness. Of course it is mutual. We love, repect and count on each other. What about me, I am a person who seldom gets offended. I hate lying and being lied about. I do not like when people butter somebody up either. That is something horrible for me. I like just and honest human relationships. I should say that my mood is quite changable. And it depends on circumstances and sometimes on weather. I can s... ...witty. He is also skillful with many things. He graduated from Vanadzor State Pedagogical Institute. He is not married yet, but I hope he will soon. I love him too much. Unfortunately, my mother died when I was six. But as I remember her, she was a real beauty. She was very careful, loving, and gentle. She was a music teacher as well as a pedagogue at kindergarten. Though she is not with us now, I am sure she always follows us from the sky and helps us. It is really difficult living without "Mother" but my brother and I try to do everything so my Dad will not feel lonely and sad. Our family is very united. We live in the air of family life. We are as separated as the notes of a piano and as linked as the notes of a song. That is all about me and my family. I hope that you have liked me. I also hope that one day we will meet, love and repect each other strongly.

The Death of Human Interaction: A Pitfall of the Social Network

Not that many years ago there was a thriving business in my hometown of Columbiana, Ohio called The Lazy Bean Cafe. When it moved into its location in mid-2002 it was the place to be for all the kids (and even adults) in the community. It was the only place in town that made and served smoothies right in front of your eyes. The prices were doable for even the kids my age to get something a few times a week. The Lazy Bean also supported local art by having free concerts every Friday night for local bands. It was the place where you would meet friends to go somewhere or just to hangout in the Cafe. A place where people of all ages would meet to catch up with old friends or spend time with the friends they see daily. And so business was thriving for the owners of the Lazy Bean Cafe. For a few years, things went on this way. Even through the beginnings of the recession the cafe remained strong and stable. Overall, the people of my small community saw little effect, for the most part, from the recession. Which is why things stayed mainly stagnant as far as the local market was concerned. Yet for some reason the Lazy Bean cafe was losing business. People were just not going there anymore. Personally, I know my friends still always had money to spend. The Cafe wasn't doing anything that would drive people away, at least not at that point in 2007. Everything was how it always had been, except that people just weren't buying their product anymore, and people weren't meeting or hanging out with friends their anymore. So in late-2008 they had to start taking drastic measures to keep their business afloat. They fired some of their workers and lowered the amount of hours the Cafe was open. Things didn't improve. So about a year after they did this they had to increase the prices of their product in order to make ends meet, which drove away most of the remaining consumers. They lasted only a few months after they changed their menu prices. The members of the community were quick to blame the company's change of menu and prices for the reason their business was plummeting, but I saw through it. I know they wouldn't have had to change their menu if people were consistently coming to buy their products. The reason that the business failed wasn't because of anything they did. It was because people were no longer having conversations over bagels and coffee in their restaurant. There was no longer a need for a public place for people to meet up and talk. Their target market had been taken over by something more convenient, and the real world atmosphere they created was being replaced by something with no feelings or emotions at all. Something made of cold metal and wires. Something cheaper and easier to be a part of. Something that allowed you to have your entire social circle at your finger tips: an internet based social network. Since it's inception in 2004, Facebook has surpassed Decayenne, Friendster, Myspace and all other social networks and become the most populace internet website in the world. More than five-hundred million people have joined the Facebook experience since its beginning and it is growing with every second of the day. Most of these users log on to Facebook everyday; and why shouldn't they? It's the easiest way to keep in contact with what their friends are up to as well as tell them what they have been up to. Sure does beat the heck out of having to walk somewhere to meet them and talk in person. Saves time, money, and most importantly energy. Now, you don't even have to dial a phone number to talk to someone in real time. You just click their name and a box pops up for you to message them. Still, can you actually say that you are talking in â€Å"real time,† can you even really call it a conversation? After all, you can't see the person at all. Well, you can't SEE them when you are talking on the phone either! That is true, but at least you can hear their actual voice. At least on the phone you don't have to guess at which syllable they were emphasizing. You don't have any confusion as to what is meant by what they said when you hear the inflection of their voice coming directly from their mouth. On the phone, you can hear the timing in which things are said. You instinctively become aware of a certain tempo in the conversation and that allows the conversation to flow. Facebook chatting destroys all of this natural human interaction. People no longer have to respond immediately like they would on the phone or in person. They have time to think of exactly what they would want this person to hear. Further diminishing, not only a person's instinctive personality, but also skewing the way they are seen by the one they are talking to. Forming an unnatural bond between these people who may know nothing about the actual person, the one behind the mask being displayed. With the benefits of this new digital age come the drawbacks that we are all too aware of. Dateline's To Catch A Predator is just one such source that exposes what happens when you think you've gotten to know someone online. Although this is an extreme case for a situation that has been fiercely combated, these things happen on a much smaller scale on these social network sites daily. This is partially because when human's interact in person, we absorb all things about that person – their facial expressions, body language, voice inflection, tone of voice, speech volume, and the overall aura that a person gives off. So when all of these things are taken out of the equation and all we have are the person's words, we begin to interpret what they are saying our own way. We begin to craft this person in our head that does not match who they are in real life. We make them into something more drastic than they are, whether that be good or bad. The reason we do this is because the human mind, by nature, is used to having the whole experience when we are talking to people. Our brains are used to having all of the aspects listed above when we are conversing with a person. So intuitively our head begins to replace these missing elements with things that it does recognize. Which could be memories of the person, things you have dreamed of or even had nightmares of. The brain brings in things it has thought about before to fill in the missing gaps. Forging an unbridgeable gap between these people, caused by the natural happenings of their brain. So, since one cannot control the instincts of the human mind, who is there to blame for this loss of human connection? These social networks have made it so we no longer have to, or want to, leave our computers to talk to our friends. They have allowed us to form these people in our heads without ever really knowing about them. This networks make it simple to keep in touch, but impossible to actually touch those we talk to. Imagine that all of your friends, all of the people you care for, are symbolized by a cotton ball. Now, a general term for that cotton ball is a â€Å"Monkey Sphere. † The reason it gained such a name was because, while testing monkeys, scientists noticed that all monkeys tended to have only about 10 to 12 other monkeys that they could cooperate with at one time. Their â€Å"monkey sphere. † They are all the monkeys that one would care for, defriend, marry, etc. And any primate outside of this sphere the monkey rejects. After this research was taken, these scientists wanted to see if the same principles applied to humans as well. Now although they are still running tests, it is clear that the human's sphere is no doubt larger than a monkey's just by the nature of the human brain. It simply holds more information. However, it still has its capacity for overall inter-human relationships and affections just as the monkey's brain does. This finite amount of human connection can be most easily displayed as, like I had stated above, a cotton ball. Without the use of these networking websites your cotton ball would, no doubt, be smaller. And will get smaller the older you get. The ball will be very small and very clumped up, but very dense. Meaning, the relationships you do have are extremely close and personal relationships. Relationships where you almost know what the person is thinking or what they are going to say, without having to ask them. Facebook can't give you that. What it can give you, however, is a much wider cotton ball. A much more outstretched monkey sphere. It does allow you to keep in contact with people that you would otherwise lose touch with. Still, by doing so it thins out the cotton ball a great deal. Someone with this cotton ball has few or no close personal relationships. They never felt the aura of the other individual in person, so they never know exactly what this person is all about. People like this will never experience a true, deep connection with another person. Never realize the similarities that lay within all people. These social networks would combat all of this by saying that their whole purpose for the site is to expand the monkey sphere. Which they do, no doubt about that. These sites definitely allow people to find and reconnect with people they have lost in their past. It lessens the social, cultural, and geographical divide throughout the world and allows more people to care for more people. And while doing so, decreases the separation between all people. Which are all undoubtably good things. We want people to care for other people. We want to encourage new relationships and rekindled ones alike. But at what cost are we constructing these relationships? We are sacrificing real human connection. We are losing the human touch, the human condition. We are steering away from personal contact and toward a world where people talk only through the digital realm. And if we keep this up, soon human interaction will be nothing but short statements and awkward pauses. Soon our monkey sphere's will be so stretched out that they won't be monkey sphere's at all. They will be pulled so thin that we start to lose people off the edges. Then since the whole thing is spread so thin it is only a matter of time until even those at the center of it our lost in passing. All because there was no actual interaction between these people to tie them tighter together. Leaving us as only isolated and lonely individuals. Broken entities wondering lost in a world of blank, empty faces. We can't allow this to happen. We have to take these technological advances as what they are, secondary ways of communications. If we allow them to replace face-to-face discussion then we are destined to lose the the greats part of the human condition. Which is knowing, appreciating, and experiencing other people and their personalities. We need to resuming the bagel-and-coffee talks. The walks together to the corner bistro or down the street. We can't lose the desire to be in the presence of other people. Or Lazy Bean Cafes everywhere will continue to close. Public social networks will become a thing of yesteryear and we will lose ourselves in a sea of people pretending to be what they are not. And, ultimately, we will lose ourselves along the way.

A Mentor Essay

In life there is always a person, or role model that you will look up to and admire. A person may admire their role model, or mentor, because of their looks, wit, or even general personality. No matter who you are there is always someone that you attempt to emulate in some way, shape, or form throughout your life. There is no limit to the amount of role models one person can have. There may only be one person whose ideas you look at and agree with whole heartedly, or you may take portions from a vast number of others in order to create your own unique persona, and ideas. For myself, a prominent mentor was my high school Chemistry and Physics teacher, Mr. Robert Hage. I admired my Chemistry teacher not for his thinning white hair, or for that matter any of his looks, other than his always cheerful smile. I instead looked up to him as a mentor due to his unique personality, and his vast intelligence. He had a love for cats, liberal ideals, and sweaters with an odd pattern displayed boldly on the front. Mr. Hage had a great sense of humor, and was an avid musician. These were the reasons that I admired Mr. Hage, because these were planes that I took interest in and that I could learn from him in. In the classroom Robert Hage was what some students would call ‘a perfect teacher’ he was not incredibly strict, he didn’t ever hand out detentions, but instead would make a mockery of the any student that unintelligently disrupted his class, but did so in such a sly, humorous manner, that even the victim of the mockery would be laughing uncontrollably. Robert Hage lived an expansive life that led him though a great number of careers including a Musician, Chemist, Physicist, Author, High School teacher, and finally, a mentor. Through this vast professional history he showed a great passion for everything he had done, and in doing so gained a large amount of knowledge, in which he would pass on to his students. This is what I admired most about Mr. Robert Hage; I admired his knowledge and passion of all things he did. Read more:  Whom I admire  essay In my sophomore year of high school I entered room 211 to go to Chemistry class. I had always enjoyed classes that pertained to a scientific field,  and hoped that Chemistry would come as easily as the other subjects had to me. However, my freshman year the teacher who lectured the Biology class had no interest in the subject she taught and did so half-heartedly; I started to dislike the class. So I was wary about another teacher who just wanted to get through the class more so than teach the students. Needless to say, I was proved wrong, very wrong. The first day of Chemistry class Robert Hage performed a serious of ‘mystifying’ experiments such as lighting Magnesium on fire, which burns with a flame so white it will leave you seeing spots, and placing pure Sodium in a beaker of water, which will combust. Mr. Hage then stated â€Å"For those of you who had doubts coming into this room, Chemistry is fun†. That was all I needed to hear in order to know that this would turn out to be a fortunate turn in events. As the year went on it seemed that my teacher and I had much more in common than I had initially hoped for. I was at an age where I had not yet taken a stance on any real issues but always sat uncomfortably on the fencepost. When I found myself pondering serious life questions, such as religion, he showed me answers through science and that it was perfectly fine not to accept a religion at all as long as you could provide evidence to support your claims. This was a new concept that had never been provided for me, and best of all it wasn’t force fed to me. When I questioned politics he presented the strengths of a liberal standpoint, but all the while letting me know that as long as I could justify my ideas, it was alright to take whatever standpoint I wanted. Although, with every path that was opened, he always told the group in which it was presented to, not to just blindly accept what he said and run with it, but to examine both sides carefully and choose which you thought was the right one. With not only a rekindled interest in science, I was also left with the new interest of rhetoric and debate. With Mr. Hage’s encouragement I joined the high school debate team. When the season came for debate matches to begin; Robert Hage had some more advice for me which was, it is important to know how to argue your side, but more important to know how the opponent will argue theirs, and the best strategy is to beat them with their own words and facts. I will never forget these words, and they are filled with what is in my opinion some of the most valuable wisdom you will hear. Robert Hage played a large role in sculpting my present day personality, and it is because of him that I have developed an everlasting love for music, and am now fluent in playing five different instruments. He is also the reason that I am comfortable with views that may not be shared with a vast majority. Most of all, he is the reason I chose the path in life that I did; he is the reason that I am currently pursuing my majors of the Chemistry and Pre-Medical fields.

Organ Transplant essays

Organ Transplant essays Nowadays medicine already good enough. When peoples got a disease, they can recovered by taking a pill and giving them an injection, even they have cancer, they can removed it by operation. It seem nowadays medicine is very good. Organ transplant is the one discovery in the medicine. Organ transplantation basically is the patient of removing a useable organ from a person who had just died, usually in an accident and give it to a severely will person who needs it to replace a damage organ. Nowadays many people waiting for organ transplant. The number of patients on waiting lists more than doubled during that period to 56,066 in 1999. In that year, 3,072 patients died waiting for organ. because of this happened, we have to focus on the organ transplants. Most of the patient ¡s organ got very bad disease, and the medicine can not control their bad organs, for example, cancer, heart disease and kidney disease ¡K. Etc. the only way to recover is get another organ to do the transplantation as soon as possible, otherwise their life will be in danger, or probably their disease will be turn worse till the organ can not recover again. Another factor that causes patient waiting for organ transplant is not enough people die in order to get the organ. When doctor take away the organs from the died body, they have to make sure the organ is 100% healthy, otherwise they don ¡t use it in the transplantation. But this is very hard to find a organ is 100% healthy, because the org ans might be damaged after the accident or the died people already have a bad organ. Because of these factors, many people die for waiting organ transplants, we can know that organ transplants is very important for the patient. ¡ Hundreds die each year waiting for transplants ¡ According from Gary Rennie. In order to solve the organ not enough supply problems, doctor thinks another way instead of the organ transplants. They created artificial heart in ...

Parentheses

Parentheses Parentheses Parentheses By Mark Nichol Parentheses serve several specific functions, but their general purpose is to set a grammatical unit of content off from the surrounding text. The parenthesized material can range from a single letter, numeral, or other symbol to an entire sentence. (Because enclosing more than one complete sentence in parentheses overextends the digression, it is not recommended.) Here is a summary of ways to deploy parentheses. First, a definition of terms: Parenthesis denotes a single parenthetical mark, but it can also refer to a digression, interlude, or interval enclosed in parentheses or other pairs of punctuation marks, such as commas, dashes, or brackets. The first of two parenthetical marks is an open parenthesis, and the second is a close parenthesis. The pair together are called parentheses. A parenthesis of an entire sentence can be inserted within another sentence, but omit a period after the parenthesized sentence (However, an exclamation point or question mark is acceptable!) to avoid confusion. (A complete sentence may also follow the terminal punctuation of the preceding sentence; in that case, include a period- or another terminal punctuation mark- immediately before the close parenthesis.) An incomplete sentence within parentheses is not punctuated with a period, but, again, an exclamation point or question mark is allowed. When providing an explanation or an example, the additional information can be enclosed in parentheses. Note in the following sentence how a parenthesis of a parenthesis should be formatted. (The abbreviations e.g. [â€Å"for example†] and i.e. [that is†] generally precede such information in formal and scholarly prose; in more casual contexts, the phrases are employed.) This is general American English style; British English style (and legal style and style for some other contexts) is parentheses within parentheses. Parentheses enclose the abbreviation of an acronym or initialism after the spelled-out name of an agency, company, or organization to inform the reader about how the entity will be identified on subsequent references: â€Å"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909.† (Note that the article the is not repeated in the parenthesis, but it should precede the initialism when it appears again.) Parentheses are used to enclose a note when a reader is directed to a cross-reference or when a writer glosses (presents a brief definition of) a term, provides a citation for a quotation or a fact or figure, points out that he or she has used italics to emphasize part of a quoted passage, or otherwise annotates a quotation. Note that the location of the parenthesis in the following sentence is awkward: â€Å"Consider whether a ‘risk expert’ should serve on the committee (i.e., someone with a background in risk management or oversight relevant to the nature of the organization’s operations).† Parenthesized annotation, just like additional information enclosed in a pair of commas or dashes, should immediately follow the relevant word or phrase, as here: â€Å"Consider whether a ‘risk expert’ (i.e., someone with a background in risk management or oversight relevant to the nature of the organization’s operations) should serve on the committee.† Back-to-back parenthesis is acceptable, but this can be avoided by combining two pieces of information into one parenthesis divided by a semicolon or by reorganizing the framing text to separate the two parenthetical comments. When the items in a run-in list (a list appearing within a sentence rather than formatted vertically) are numbered, they should be enclosed in a pair of parentheses (not with a close parenthesis only)- as in â€Å"The three types of rocks are (1) igneous, (2) metamorphic, and (3) sedimentary†- but numbering is seldom necessary. Use parentheses in moderation; excessive deployment of the symbols can give text a cluttered appearance (note their ubiquity in this post) and result in an obstacle-ridden narrative flow. Often, a pair of commas will suffice in their place, and dashes are appropriate when abruptly interjecting additional information, especially when the writer wants to give an impression of sudden interruption rather than unassuming interpolation. 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 Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the FutureBroadcast vs Broadcasted as Past FormEpidemic vs. Pandemic vs. Endemic

Art Appreciation- Principles of Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art Appreciation- Principles of Design - Essay Example Constable continued to study and copy the work of his predecessors for as long as he lived, constantly measuring their interpretations of the natural world against his own experience of it. His main interest was scenes from nature, despite earning money painting portraits for the rich. Although largely ignored by the English art community in his lifetime, Wilson (n.d.) reports â€Å" The Hay Wain and View on the Stour near Dedham went to the Parisian dealer Arrowsmith in 1824 and created a lively, if short-lived, interest in France.† Since his death the true value of Constable’s has been recognized by all of the art community. ‘Stoke-by-Nayland’ is a dark figure emerging on a path from a shady forest on the right, with the village of Stoke-by-Nayland located on the right. A partially cloudy sky covers the right sky above the village with the left side having a smaller visible sky in proportion with the whole painting. The scale and proportion used allows Constable to make the forest seem in the forefront and the village farther away. The directional forces pull the eyes toward the figure and forest first. Even the brushstrokes seem to be coming from the right. The emphasis is on the mysterious forest. The subordination is the village in the background. The contrast between the colors is obvious with the white clouds and dark greens of the forest. The two most important principles are scale and proportion and contrasts. These two principles define ‘Stoke-by-Nayland’. Constable uses scale and proportion to create a forefront nature scene with a figure emerging and a background village. Constable often used the technique common at the time of sketching actual nature scenes before going back to the studio to paint (Wilson n.d.). This would entail making the sketch using scale and proportion, and then transferring the scale and proportion onto a larger canvas. However Constable accomplished this, he did an

The Increase in the Frequency of Involvement of Ex-Mental Patients in Case Study

The Increase in the Frequency of Involvement of Ex-Mental Patients in the Criminal Justice System - Case Study Example The objective of this study is to determine the effect of deinstitutionalization on the frequency of involvement of ex-mental patients in the criminal justice system through an analysis or review of available data and information on private and public mental hospital capacities, and crime rates in purposively selected U.S. inner-cities. In the advent of deinstitutionalization, several former mental patients have turned out to be considerably involved with the criminal justice system, which is an area they are especially unprepared to deal with. Researchers and observers alike, depending on their specific concern in the issue, have thus far predisposed to examine this outcome of the process of deinstitutionalization in one of two ways (LaFond & Durham, 1992). First, the mainstream media have took hold of particular offenses involving the abrupt and dramatic murder of unsuspecting victims by sadistic murderers, whom they readily recognized as ‘escaped lunatics’ or ‘psychos on a rampage’ (LaFond & Durham, 1992, 33); labels that intricately connects the suspected murderer to mental disorder. Second, mental health practitioners have been swift to reveal what they see as the prejudice and pointless imprisonment of mentally ill people for minor offences, which the experts typify as the unnecessary interference of the criminal justice system into the area of mental health (ibid). Both interpretations of reality have a generally central point of view that deinstitutionalization is at the core of the predicament; furthermore, both perspectives sensibly give rise to a claim for rehospitalization of people with mental disorder, either for the reason that they are incapable of living in civilized society or quite weak to survive a narrow-minded intolerance and mistreatment of society (LaFond & Durham, 1992). The root is identical, the solution is identical, and the only thing that has been inadequate is empirical research of what we all believe to be obvious: ‘that deinstitutionalized mental patients either are criminals or are treated like criminals’ (Bean, 2003, 141).