Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Essay about My Philosophy on Teaching Writing - 3554 Words

My Philosophy on Teaching Writing As someone who has always loved writing, I hope it won’t be too hard for me to relate to students who may not enjoy it. Recalling my own school days, I know there were always some writing assignments that I didn’t find enjoyable or downright disliked, and I hope to minimize these assignments in my own classroom. Sometimes they’re necessary, but a lot of times they’re not. While in my classroom, I want my students to learn to write, but more importantly I want them to like to write. Some may argue that liking writing is not something that can be taught, but I think students can learn to enjoy writing if they are given the right assignments. I plan on teaching and using†¦show more content†¦Although I admit I have qualms about how many rules and regulations would be needed to create such a seemingly relaxed setting, I’d still like to try a modified version of that set-up myself. Giving students so much freedom seems scary, but if it leads to them becoming better writers, and liking to write, then it’s worth it. However, I don’t think you can dismiss the value of standard essays on assigned topics, either. Always letting students write what they wanted to write would be doing them a disservice as they’d be in for a rude awakening when they moved onto a more traditional and structured English class. By having a list of required genres that have to be completed each marking period or year, students could both happy and well-rounded. A big part of what makes other people’s writing enjoyable to read is the sharing of experiences, and the more diversity there is in a classroom, the more both the students and the teacher will end up learning. Things like grammar and organization are the nuts and bolts of writing; important, yes, but not as important as actually having something to write about. It was interesting to read Linda Cleary’s From the Other Side of the Desk because I was introduced to many types of students with various racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds, asShow MoreRelated My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement Essay881 Words   |  4 PagesMy Education Philosophy Developing a personal education philosophy is a process that may never end, but I believe that I am in the midst of creating one based on my own experiences and the lessons I am receiving in college. After examining the various education philosophies outlined in the â€Å"Teachers, Schools Society† textbook by Myra Pollack Sadker and David Miller Sadker, I have decided that my present philosophy is an eclectic combination of Essentialism andRead MoreEducator Application Essay982 Words   |  4 Pages I am writing to apply for the position of Educator Preparation of ELL/ESL, Literacy faculty at Wayne State College. I hold a doctor of philosophy degree in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education (within the TESOL program) with an interdisciplinary specialization in Educational Technology. Moreover, I have experience in teaching diverse learners English in EFL and ESL settings. I am confident that my educational background and teaching experience enable me to make contributionsRead MoreESL Program Application Essay1049 Words   |  5 Pages I am writing to apply for the position of ESL Program Director in the ESL Program at Marietta College. I hold a doctoral of philosophy in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education (within the TESOL program) with an interdisciplinary specialization in Educational Technology from the Ohio State University (OSU). Moreover, I have experience in teaching EFL and ESL learners English and in administration. 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I hold a doctor of philosophy in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education (within the TESOL program) with an interdisciplinary specialization in Educational Technology from the Ohio State University (OSU). Moreover, I have experience in teaching EFL and ESL learners English. I am confident that my educational background andRead More Philosophy of Teaching Essay567 Words   |  3 PagesPhilosophy of Teaching As a future English teacher, my main priority is to share the wealth of opportunities and possibilities that an education in English can provide to a student. Given this task, I’ve begun to develop the guidelines by which my teaching will adhere. Although I still have much to learn, what follows is a simple framework for the ideals that I currently support. Not only do I expect these guidelines to change as I learn more about my students and myself, I look forward to theRead MoreLetter Sample Essay1188 Words   |  5 Pages I am writing to express my interest in the full-time position of ESL and TESL Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics. I am currently a doctoral candidate at Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus with a specialization in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education (within the TESOL program) and an additional interdisciplinary specialization in Educational Technology. I completed my dissertation oral defend in June and wil l officially graduate in this early AugustRead MoreApplication Letter Application Essay933 Words   |  4 Pages I am writing to apply for the faculty position in the ESL program at Cuyahoga Community College (CCC). I hold a doctoral of philosophy degree in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education (within the TESOL program) with an interdisciplinary specialization in Educational Technology. Moreover, I have experience in teaching diverse learners English in EFL and ESL settings. I am confident that my academic and experiential exposure enable me to contribute to the ESL program at CCC in termsRead MoreMy First School Day Of 11th Grade Essay888 Words   |  4 Pagesreluctant to write essays in English because it was hard for me to express my ideas in my second language, and it is easy to make mistakes. I was afraid of making mistakes, but the more I was afraid the more mistakes I made, forming an endless loop. Mr. Wang, my high English school teacher, broke the loop by showing that making errors is not terrifying and by building my confidence through the process of correcting errors. My first impression of Mr. Wang was not so good. It was the first school dayRead MoreEssay on My Philosophy of Teaching999 Words   |  4 PagesPhilosophy of Education Throughout the history of education, there have been many different philosophical views. The views have varied from Platos The Republic, to Rousseaus Emile. Plato believed that the purpose of education was to create a perfect city-state, while Rousseau believed that the purpose was to develop people, who freely choose good. Both of these philosophies cooperate with my beliefs; however, my beliefs do differ in some aspects. Through my philosophies covering the nature

Monday, December 23, 2019

Midterm Exam Accounting 206 2 - 775 Words

Ateneo de Zamboanga University SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTANCY Accounting 206: Cost Accounting and Cost Management, Part II Midterm Examination Kelvin J. Culajara, BSA, CPA Name: _____________________________________ Date: _______________ Score: __________ Test 1: Comprehensive Problem/Reporting Assume that you are the newly-hired chief cost accountant of Wapayutana Company. As the chief officer, you are tasked to monitor the flow of costs throughout the process, and hence, you are accountable for the cost of production report which is done monthly. On your first day of work, you were summoned by the President of Wapayutana to orient you about the ins and outs of the company. He gave you the following information:†¦show more content†¦Cost (in PhP) Beginning inventory: Materials 50,000 Direct labor 20,000 Factory overhead 20,000 Costs added on the month Materials 500,000 Direct labor 200,000 Factory overhead 200,000 Department 2: Mixing Dec. 1, work in process 20,000 Transferred in 90,000 Dec. 31, work in process 10,000 *Beginning work in process is 3/4 complete, while ending work in process is 1/3 complete Stage of completion in beginning and ending work in process refers to conversion costs. Cost (in PhP) Beginning inventory: Transferred in 211,800 Material A 100,000 Material B 150,000 Direct labor 40,000 Factory overhead 40,000 Costs added on the month Material A 450,000 Material B 675,000 Direct labor 180,000 Factory overhead 180,000 Department 3: Bottling Dec. 1, work in process 15,000 Transferred in 100,000 Dec. 31, work in process 5,000 *Beginning work in process is 2/3 complete while ending work in process is fully complete Stage of completion in beginning and ending work in process refers to conversion costs. Cost (in PhP) Beginning inventory:Show MoreRelatedF14 ADMS 4561 course outline Sept 2 14 1 4742 Words   |  19 PagesPersonal Income in Canada ADMS 4561 course outline for all sections Fall 2014 last updated September 2 2014 1 Contact Information – Course Director Section Day Time Location Course Director Email address Section D Wednesday 4-7 pm HNE 030 Joanne Magee jmagee@yorku.ca Section E Thursday 7-10 pm HNE 035 Margaret Riggin mriggin@vfmy.com Section F Wednesday 7-10pm HNE 032 Joanne Magee jmagee@yorku.ca 2 Course Description Together with AK/ADMS 4562 3.0, introduces students to the principles and practiceRead MoreAdvanced Corporate Finance4303 Words   |  18 PagesDo not hesitate to call me at home. If you cannot reach me, please leave a number so that I can get back to you. Email: butcher@pugetsound.edu Home: 206-285-3990 or 360-779-4706 Required Course Materials: 1. Brigham and Daves, Intermediate Financial Management, 10th Edition, South-Western, Cengage Learning, 2010 2. Cases from Harvard Business School, the University of Virginia Darden School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business The URL is http://cbRead MoreVarian Solution153645 Words   |  615 PagesWhen the market price is equal to some consumer i’s reservation price, there will be two diï ¬â‚¬erent quantities of apartments demanded, since consumer i will be indiï ¬â‚¬erent between having or not having an apartment.) 2 THE MARKET (Ch. 1) Price 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Apartments (b) Suppose the supply of apartments is ï ¬ xed at 5 units. In this case there is a whole range of prices that will be equilibrium prices. What is the highest price that would makeRead More_x000C_Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis355457 Words   |  1422 Pagesthomsonrights@thomson.com. Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 10 09 08 07 ExamView  ® and ExamView Pro  ® are registered trademarks of FSCreations, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation used herein under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Used herein under license. Library of Congress Control Number: 2006933904 Student Edition: ISBN-13: 978-0-495-11873-2 ISBN-10: 0-495-11873-7 ââ€"   To my nephews, JesseRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesresources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teaching and learning experience.  » F i n d o u t h ow t o M A K E I T YO U R S  » www.wileyplus.com ALL THE HELP, RESOURCES, AND PERSONAL SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS NEED! 2-Minute Tutorials and all of the resources you your students need to get started www.wileyplus.com/firstday Student support from an experienced student user Ask your local representative for details! Collaborate with your colleagues, find a mentor

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 17~18 Free Essays

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Jonathan Livingston Reaper Amy wore an oversized, tattered â€Å"I’M WITH STUPID† nightshirt and Local Motion flip-flops. Her hair was completely flat on one side and splayed out into an improbable sunburst of spikes on the other, making it appear that she was getting hit in the side of the head by a tiny hurricane, which she wasn’t. She was, however, performing the longest sustained yawn Clay had ever seen. We will write a custom essay sample on Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 17~18 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Ooo ahe-e, I aya oa a,† she said in yawnspeak, a language – not unlike Hawaiian – known for its paucity of consonants. (You go ahead, I’m okay, she was saying.) She gestured for Clay to continue. Clay cued the tape and fiddled with the audio. A whale tail in a field of blue passed by on the monitor. â€Å"There’s someone outside, Captain.† â€Å"Does he have my sandwich with him?† Amy stopped yawning and scooted forward on the stool she was perched upon behind Clay. When the whale tail came down, Clay stopped the tape and looked back at her. â€Å"Well?† â€Å"Play it again.† He did. â€Å"Can we get a feeling for direction?† Amy asked. â€Å"That housing has stereo microphones, right? What if we move the speakers far apart – can we get a sense where it’s coming from?† Clay shook his head. â€Å"The mikes are right next to each other. You have to separate them by at least a meter to get any spatial information. All I can tell you is that it’s in the water and it’s not particularly loud. In fact, if I hadn’t been using the rebreather, I’d never have heard it. You’re the audio person. What can you tell me?† He ran it back and played it again. â€Å"It’s human speech.† Clay looked at her as if to say, Uh-huh, I woke you up because I needed the obvious pointed out. â€Å"And it’s military.† â€Å"Why do you think it’s military?† Now Amy gave Clay the same look that he had just finished giving her.† ‘Captain’?† â€Å"Oh, right,† said Clay. â€Å"Speaker in the water? Divers with underwater communications? What do you think?† â€Å"Didn’t sound like it. Did it sound like it was coming from small speakers to you?† â€Å"Nope.† Clay played it again. â€Å"Sandwich?† he said. â€Å"Sandwich?† â€Å"The Old Broad said that someone called her claiming to be a whale and asked her to tell Nate to bring him a sandwich.† Amy squeezed Clay’s shoulder. â€Å"He’s gone, Clay. I know you don’t believe what I saw happened, but it certainly wasn’t about a sandwich conspiracy.† â€Å"I’m not saying that, Amy. Damn it. I’m not saying this had anything to do with Nate’s† – he was going to say drowning and stopped himself – â€Å"accident. But it might have to do with the lab getting wrecked, the tapes getting stolen, and someone trying to mess with the Old Broad. Someone is fucking with us, Amy, and it might be whoever is recorded on this tape.† â€Å"And there’s no way the camera could have pulled a signal out of the air, something on the same frequency or something? A mobile phone or something?† â€Å"Through a half-inch of powder-coated aluminum housing and a hundred feet of water? No, that signal came in through the mike. That I’m sure of.† Amy nodded and looked at the paused picture on the screen. â€Å"So you’re looking for two things: someone military and someone who has an interest in Nate’s work.† â€Å"No one – † Clay stopped himself again, remembering what he’d said to Nate when the lab had been wrecked. That no one cared about their work. But obviously someone did. â€Å"Tarwater?† Amy shrugged. â€Å"He’s military. Maybe. Leave the tape out. I’ll run a spectrograph on the audio in the morning, see if I can tell if it’s coming through some kind of amplifier. I’ve got nothing left tonight – I’m beat.† â€Å"Thanks,† Clay said. â€Å"You get some rest, kiddo. I’m going to hit it, too. I’ll be heading down to the harbor first thing.† † ‘Kay.† â€Å"Oh, and hey, the ‘kiddo’ thing, I didn’t mean – ; Amy threw her arms around him and kissed the top of his head. â€Å"You big mook. Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.† She turned and started out the door. â€Å"Amy?† She paused in the doorway. â€Å"Yeah?† â€Å"Can I ask you a†¦ personal question, kinda?† â€Å"Shoot.† â€Å"The shirt – who’s stupid?† She looked down at her shirt, then back at him and grinned. â€Å"Always seems to apply, Clay. No matter where I am or who I’m with, the smoke clears and the shirt is true. You gotta hang on to truth when you find it.† â€Å"I like truth,† Clay said. â€Å"Night, Clay.† â€Å"Night, kiddo.† The next day the weather was blown out, with whitecaps frosting the entire channel across to Lanai and the coconut palms whipping overhead like epileptic dust mops. Clay drove by the harbor in his truck, noting that the cabin cruiser that Cliff Hyland’s group had been using was parked in its slip. Then he turned around and caught a flash of white out of the corner of his eye as he drove past the hundred-year-old Pioneer Inn – Captain Tarwater’s navy whites standing out against the green shiplap. He parked his truck by the giant banyan tree next door and humped it over to the restaurant. When Clay came up to the table, the hostess was just seating Cliff Hyland, Tarwater, and one of their grad students, a young blond woman with a raccoon sunburn and straw-dry hair. â€Å"Hey, Cliff,† Clay said. â€Å"You got a minute?† â€Å"Clay, how you doing?† Hyland took off his sunglasses and stood to shake hands. â€Å"Please, join us.† Clay looked at Tarwater, and the naval officer nodded. â€Å"Sorry to hear about your partner,† he said. Then he looked back down at his menu. The young woman sitting with them was watching the dynamic between the three men as if she might write a paper on it. â€Å"Just a second,† Clay said. â€Å"If I could talk to you outside.† Now Tarwater glanced up and gave Cliff Hyland an almost imperceptible shake of the head. â€Å"Sure, Clay,† Cliff said, â€Å"let’s walk.† He looked to the junior researcher. â€Å"When she comes, coffee, Portuguese sausage, eggs over easy, whole wheat.† The girl nodded. Hyland followed Clay out to the front of the hotel, which overlooked the harbor fueling station and the Carthaginian, a steel-hulled replica of a whaling brig, now used as a floating museum. They stood side by side, watching the harbor, each with a foot propped on the seawall. â€Å"What’s up, Clay?† â€Å"What are you guys working on, Cliff?† â€Å"You know I can’t talk about that. I signed a nondisclosure thing.† â€Å"You got divers in the water, people with underwater coms?† â€Å"Don’t be silly, Clay. You’ve seen my crew. Except for Tarwater, they’re just kids. What’s this about?† â€Å"Somebody’s fucking with us, Cliff. They sank my boat, tore up the office, took Nate’s papers and tapes. They’re even messing with one of our benefactors. I’m not even sure they don’t have something to do with Nate’s –  » â€Å"And you think it’s me?† Hyland took his foot off the seawall and turned to Clay. â€Å"Nate was my friend, too. I’ve known you guys, what? Twenty-two, twenty-three years? You can’t think I’d do anything like that.† â€Å"I’m not saying you personally. What are you and Tarwater working on, Cliff? What would Nate know that would interfere with what you’re doing?† Hyland stared at his feet. Scratched his beard. â€Å"I don’t know.† â€Å"You don’t know? You know what we’re doing – figure it out. Listen, I know you guys are using a big towable sonar rig, right? What’s Tarwater looking at? Some new kind of active sonar? If it didn’t have a hinky element, he wouldn’t be here on site. Mines?† â€Å"Damn it, Clay, I can’t tell you! I can tell you that if I thought it was going to hurt the animals, or anyone in the field for that matter, I wouldn’t be doing the work.† â€Å"Remember the navy’s Pacific Biological Ocean Science Program? Were you in on that?† â€Å"No. Birds, wasn’t it?† â€Å"Yeah, seabirds. The navy came to a bunch of field biologists with a ton of money – wanted seabirds tagged and tracked, behavior recorded, population information, habitat, everything. Everyone thought the heavens had opened up and started raining money. Thought the navy was doing some sort of secret impact study to preserve the birds. Do you know what the study was actually for?† â€Å"No, that was before my time, Clay.† â€Å"They wanted to use the birds as delivery systems for biological weapons. Wanted to make sure they could predict that they’d fly to the enemy. Probably fifty scientists helped in that study.† â€Å"But it didn’t happen, Clay, did it? I mean, the data was valuable scientifically, but the weapons project didn’t pan out.† â€Å"As far as we know. That’s the point. How would we know, until a seagull drops fucking anthrax on us?† Cliff Hyland had aged a couple of years in the few minutes they’d been standing there. â€Å"I promise, Clay, if there’s any indication that Tarwater or the navy or any of the spooky guys that come around from time to time are involved with trying to sabotage you guys, I’ll call you in an instant. I promise you. But I can’t tell you what I’m working on, or why. I don’t exactly have funding coming out my ears. If I lose this, I’m teaching freshmen about dolphin jaws. I’m not ready for that. I need to be in the field.† Clay looked at him sideways and saw that there was real concern, maybe even a spark of desperation in Hyland’s eyes. â€Å"You know, your funding might be a little easier to come by if you weren’t based in Iowa. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s no ocean in Iowa.† Hyland smiled at the old dig. â€Å"Thanks for pointing that out, Clay.† Clay extended his hand. â€Å"You promise you’ll let me know?† â€Å"Absolutely.† Clay left feeling totally spent. The great head of steam he’d built up through a night of fitful sleep had wilted into exhaustion and confusion. He got in his truck and sat while sweat rolled down his neck. He watched tourists in aloha wear mill around under the great banyan tree like gift-wrapped zombies. Cliff Hyland’s eggs were still steaming when he returned to the table. Tarwater looked up from his own breakfast and moved his snow-white hat away from Hyland’s plate, as if the rumpled scientist might splash yolk over the gold anchors in a fit of disorganized eating. â€Å"Everything all right?† The young woman at the table fidgeted and tried to look invisible. â€Å"Clay’s still a little shaken up. Understandably. He and Nathan Quinn have been working together a long time.† â€Å"Lucky they made it this long without self-destructing,† Tarwater said. â€Å"Slipshod as they run that operation. You see that kid that works for them? Not worth grinding up for chum.† Cliff Hyland dropped his fork in his plate. â€Å"Nathan Quinn was one of the most intuitively brilliant biologists in the field. And Clay Demodocus may very well be the best underwater photographer in the world, certainly when it comes to cetaceans. You have no right.† â€Å"The world turns, Doc. Yesterday’s alphas are today’s betas. Losers lose. Isn’t that what you biologists teach?† Cliff Hyland came very close to burying a fork in Tarwater’s tanned forehead, but instead he slowly climbed to his feet. â€Å"I need to use the restroom. Excuse me.† As he walked away, Hyland could hear Tarwater lecturing the junior researcher on how the strong survive. Cliff dug his mobile phone out of the pocket of his safari shirt and began scrolling through the numbers. Clay was just dozing off in the driver’s seat when his mobile trilled. Without looking at the display, he figured it was Clair checking up on him. â€Å"Go, baby.† â€Å"Clay, it’s Cliff Hyland.† â€Å"Cliff? What’s up?† â€Å"You’ve got to keep this under your hat, Clay. It’s my ass.† â€Å"I got you. What is it, Cliff?† â€Å"It’s a torpedo range. We’re doing site studies for a torpedo test range.† â€Å"Not in the sanctuary?† â€Å"Right in the middle of the sanctuary.† â€Å"Jeepers, Cliff, that’s terrible. I don’t know if my hat is big enough to hold that.† â€Å"You gave me your word, Clay. What’s with ‘jeepers’? Who says ‘jeepers’?† â€Å"Amy does. She’s a little eccentric. Tell me more. Does the navy have divers in the water?† CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Heinous Fuckery Most Foul â€Å"Jeepers,† said Amy. She was at Quinn’s computer. Streamers of digital videotape were festooned across her lap and over the desk. â€Å"Oh, that’s heinous fuckery most foul,† said Kona. He was perched on the high stool behind Amy and actually appeared to be trying to learn something when Clay came in. â€Å"They’ve been simulating explosions on the lee of Kahoolawe with a big towable array of underwater speakers, measuring the levels. The speaker array is what’s in that big case we’ve seen on their boat.† â€Å"We have a couple of explosions on the singer tapes, but distant,† Amy said. â€Å"Nate thought it might be naval exercises out at sea.† â€Å"Speaking of tapes?† Clay picked up a strand of tape. â€Å"This isn’t my rebreather footage, is it?† â€Å"I’m sorry, Clay. I didn’t get the video, but I pulled the audio off before this happened. Want to see the spectrograph?† Kona asked, â€Å"You think those voices in the water be navy divers?† Clay looked at Amy, raised an eyebrow. â€Å"He wanted to learn.† â€Å"Cliff says there’re no divers in the water, that his operation is it, militarily, in the sanctuary anyway. But he might not even know.† Amy wadded up the videotape and chucked the resulting bird’s nest into the wastebasket. â€Å"How can they do that, Clay? How can they put a torpedo range in the middle of the humpback sanctuary? It’s not like people won’t notice.† â€Å"Yeah, she’s a big ocean. Why here?† Kona said. â€Å"I have no idea. Maybe they don’t want there to be any mistake about whose waters they’re blowing up ordnance in. If they blow them up in between a bunch of American islands, maybe there can’t be any misinterpretation about what they’re doing.† â€Å"Lost now,† Kona said. â€Å"Does not compute. Danger. Danger. Control room needs herb.† The Rastafarian had affected an accent that seemed an excellent approximation of how a stoned robot might sound. â€Å"Submarine warfare is all about hide and seek with other submarines,† Clay said. â€Å"The crews are autonomous when they’re underwater. They make decisions on whether they’re being attacked and whether to defend. Maybe if the navy just shot torpedoes off in the middle of the open sea, someone might misinterpret the action as an attack. It’s damn unlikely that a Russian sub is going to be cruising up to Wailea for brunch and misinterpret an attack.† â€Å"They can’t do that,† Amy said. â€Å"They can’t let them set off high explosives around the mothers and calves. It’s just insane.† â€Å"They’ll go deep and say it doesn’t bother them. The navy will guarantee they won’t blow up anything shallower than, say, four hundred feet. The humpbacks don’t dive that deep in this channel.† â€Å"Yes they do,† Amy said. â€Å"No they don’t,† Clay said. â€Å"Yes they do.† â€Å"There’s no data on that, Amy. That’s specifically what Cliff Hyland asked me about. He wanted to know if we were doing any research on the depth of humpback dives. Said that it would be the only thing the navy would care about.† Amy stood up and shoved the wheeled desk chair away. It bounced off Kona’s shins, causing him to wince. â€Å"Ease on up, sistah.† â€Å"Amy, this wasn’t my idea,† Clay said. â€Å"I’m just telling you what Hyland told me.† â€Å"Fine,† Amy said. She pushed her way past Clay and headed for the door. â€Å"Where are you going?† â€Å"Somewhere else.† She let the screen door slam behind her. Clay turned to Kona, who appeared to be studying the ceiling with great concentration. â€Å"What?† â€Å"You makin’ up that submarine war story?† â€Å"Kind of. I read a Tom Clancy book once. Look, Kona, I’m not supposed to know stuff. Nate knew stuff. I just take the pictures.† â€Å"You think the navy sink your boat? Maybe make something bad happen to Nate?† â€Å"The boat, maybe. I don’t think they could have had anything to do with Nate. That was just bad luck.† â€Å"The Snowy Biscuit – all this getting under her skin.† â€Å"Mine, too.† â€Å"I’ll go put the calm on her.† â€Å"Thanks,† Clay said. He walked to the other side of the office, slumped in his chair, and pulled his editing tools up on the giant monitor. A half hour later he heard a tiny voice coming through the screen door. â€Å"Sorry,† Amy said. â€Å"It’s okay.† She stepped into the room and stood there, not looking as glazed as he would have expected if Kona had put the calm on her in an herbal way. â€Å"Sorry about your tape, too. The camera was making crunching noises on playback, so I sort of rushed taking it out.† â€Å"Not a problem. It was your big rescue scene. It just made me look like an amateur. I got most of it on the hard drive, I think.† â€Å"You did?† She stepped over to the monitor. â€Å"That it?† Frame stopped, the whale tail from the edge, black marks barely visible. â€Å"Just going through it to see if there’s anything else the audio picked up. The camera was running the whole time you were saving my bacon.† â€Å"Why don’t you let it rest and let me take you out to lunch.† â€Å"It’s ten-thirty.† â€Å"What, you’re Mr. Rigid Schedule all of a sudden? Come out to lunch with me. I feel bad.† â€Å"Don’t feel bad, Amy. It’s a huge loss. I†¦ I’m not dealing well myself. You know, to keep this work going, we’ll be needing some academic juice.† Amy just stared at the frozen image of the whale tail, and then she caught herself. â€Å"What? Oh, you’ll get someone. You put the word out, you’ll have Ph.D.’s knocking the door down to work with you.† â€Å"I was thinking about you.† â€Å"Me? I’m crap. I don’t even have a bona fide hair color. Ink on my master’s isn’t even dry. You read my resume.† â€Å"Actually, I didn’t.† â€Å"You didn’t?† â€Å"You seemed intelligent. You were willing to work for nothing.† â€Å"Nate read it, though, right?† â€Å"I told him you were good. And if it’s any consolation, he thought the world of you.† â€Å"That’s how you hire? I’m smart and I’m cheap – that’s it? What kind of standards do you guys have?† â€Å"Have you met Kona?† She looked back at the monitor, then at Clay again. â€Å"I feel so used. Honored, but used. Look, I’m thrilled you want to keep me on, but I’m not going to bring you funding or legitimacy.† â€Å"I’ll worry about that.† â€Å"Worry about it after lunch. Come on, I’ll buy.† â€Å"You’re poor. Besides, I’m meeting Clair for lunch at one.† â€Å"Okay. Can I borrow Nate’s – uh, the green truck?† â€Å"Keys are on the counter.† Clay waved over his shoulder toward the kitchen. Amy took the keys, then started out the door, caught herself, then ran back, and threw her arms around the photographer. â€Å"I really appreciate your asking me to stay.† â€Å"Go. Take Kona with you. Feed him. Hose him off.† â€Å"Nope, if you’re not coming, I’m going solo. Tell Clair hi for me.† â€Å"Go.† He looked back at the computer, looked past the window at the brilliant Maui sun, then shut the computer down, feeling very much as if nothing he did mattered or would ever matter again. How to cite Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 17~18, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

International Business Transaction and Law for Anti-Bribery Norms

Question: Discuss about theInternational Business Transaction and Law for Anti-Bribery Norms. Answer: Background In this factual scenario states that a building contract for building runways at Kamaria International Airport needs to be obtained. The airport is a government subsidiary. The Board of Directors is controlled by the Minister of Airports and it is comprised of members of his family. The Kamarian government has enacted an anti-bribery legislation but its true legislative intent was compliance with international conventions as it is not strictly enforced in the Kamarian jurisdiction. The following paragraphs will identify issues with the various transactions discussed (if any) in light of application of Australian bribery legislation to such transactions. Applicable Rules Australia is a ratifying state to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public officials in International Business Transactions in 1999 and is a part of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), 2003 (Spahn, 2013). These treaties declare bribery of foreign officials as criminal offences and ratifying states must comply with this legislation (Lord, 2016). These treaty obligations which Australia is subject to has been given legislative effect through the enactment of Division 70 of the Criminal Code Act, 1995 which makes bribery (defined as providing a benefit that is not legitimately due to) of foreign officials to obtain a business advantage or business as provided for in Section 70.2 (1) of the act (Deming, 2014). The benefit in question is not strictly restricted to property but can be an advantage of any kind. Section 70.2 also has extra-territorial jurisdiction and does not only apply when su ch a transaction happens inside the territorial jurisdiction of Australia but also when it happens outside the jurisdiction if it is by a person who is an Australian citizen or by a corporation functioning within the jurisdiction of Australia. Section 70.1 (1A) states that such a transaction would constitute an offence even if the purpose of the transaction is not fulfilled (Thompson, 2013). In such a case the bribery of the officials would be: An official or an employee of the foreign government body. A member of any of the wings of the government: Executive, legislature and judiciary. A person who performs official duties as per the law of the foreign country. An official or an employee of a public international organization In case where specifications relating to the runway are not given till a location fee is paid to an official of the Department of Airports when these specifications are supposed to be free of cost. Under these circumstances such a transaction would be considered as bribery of a foreign official however if the amount paid is a minor amount it would be considered a facilitation payment which is a defense as stated by the act at Section 70.4. In this case the location fee to be paid to the official is AUD $100 and this would be considered a minor amount (Beasley, 2015). Thus such a payment would not be considered a bribe and would not attract criminal liability as prescribed under the act. If the transaction consists of paying a consultation fee to the Minister of Airports cousin an amount to the tune of AUD $200,000 and it is known that the amount would go to the Minister of Airports and the Board of directors of Kamaria International Airport is a substantial amount and cannot be considered a facilitation fee as envisaged in Section 70.4 of the Criminal Code Act, 1995 (Mitchell, Merrington Bell, 2014). This is also not a benefit that is legitimately due to the Minister of Airports and the Board of Kamaria International Airport thus this would comprise an act of bribery. It may be argued that the amount is not paid to an individual who is a foreign official however since it is known that the money is indirectly going to the Minister of Airports it would be considered an offence under the provisions of Division 70 of the Criminal Code Act, 1995. When members of the airports corporation are taken on luxurious trips amounting to around AUD $500,000 and the contract for the airport runways amount to a total of AUD $5 Million it would still be a contravention of the provisions of the Criminal Code Act, 1995. This is because as prescribed by Section 70.2 (1) of the Criminal Code Act, 1995 bribery does not strictly extend only to property any form of benefit that is not legitimately due to a foreign official would be considered a bribe. The airport corporation is government subsidiary (as provided for by the act) and thus the members of the airport corporation are employees of a foreign government body. Moreover a luxurious trip that amounts to AUD $500,000 is a substantially large amount and it cannot be deemed to be a facilitation fee. Thus, this act would constitute an offence under the Criminal Code Act, 1995. In a case where a subsidiary is incorporated in Kamaria and two members of the airport corporation are employed as directors and paid extravagant salaries. For such an act to constitute an offence under the Criminal Code Act, 1995 the benefit (which is the extravagant salary) must not be something that is legitimately due to them (Boister, 2018). However, in this instance the members are employed as directors and as directors they are entitled to a lawful salary. The amount of the salary is to be decided by the company and any amount they are willing to pay is legitimately due to the directors. Thus in this instance it would not constitute the offence of bribery of a foreign office as prescribed by the act. In a case where a consultant who is not an Australian citizen and operates and resides in a third country and his fees is used to bribe the Minister of Airports and the members of the board of the airport corporation it would not constitute an offence of bribery as Division 70 of the Criminal Code Act, 1995 can only have extra-territorial jurisdiction when the transaction that involves providing the benefit is made by an Australian citizen (Nichols, 2015). Reference list Beasley, M. (2015). Dysfunctional Equivalence: Why the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Provides Insufficient Guidance in the Era of Multinational Corporations.Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev.,47, 191. Boister, N. (2018).An introduction to transnational criminal law. Oxford University Press. Deming, S. H. (2014).Anti-bribery Laws in Common Law Jurisdictions. Oxford University Press (UK). Lord, N. (2016).Regulating corporate bribery in international business: Anti-corruption in the UK and Germany. Routledge. Mitchell, Z., Merrington, S., Bell, P. (2014). A Comparative Analysis of the OECD Anti-Corruption Models (Asia Europe) And Australias Existing Anti-Corruption Platform.International Journal of Business and Commerce,4(3), 1-23. Nichols, P. M. (2015). The good bribe.UCDL Rev.,49, 647. Spahn, E. K. (2013). Implementing global anti-bribery norms: from the foreign corrupt practices act to the OECD anti-bribery convention to the UN convention against corruption.Ind. Int'l Comp. L. Rev.,23, 1. Thompson, K. (2013). Does anti-corruption legislation work.Int'l Trade Bus. L. Rev.,16, 99.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone Essay Example

Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone Essay Discussing how effectively Arthur Miller manages to portray Eddie Carbone as a tragic character in his play, a View from the Bridge  Arthur Miller, the author of the play, is a very modern writer and likes to base his plays around ordinary people. Eddie Carbone is a forty, husky and a slightly overweight longshoreman. When we hear those customary words, we get the feeling the character Eddie Carbone is a normal middle aged man. Nevertheless even though Eddie Carbone is pictured as a usual, typical man in our minds, he isnt. We know this because Alfieri, a character from the play who acts like Arthur Millers mouthpiece and is the narrator, tells us the audience that the play will run its bloody course. Alfieri had said these words in the past tense so therefore we can interpret that everything has already happened and we are getting told the story by Alfieri. We are been given his view. As soon as Alfieri has said these four words we automatically know that this story will be a tragic, catastrophic one. Since Eddie is the Protagonist, we know that something tragic will happen to Eddie so that doesnt make him normal anymore. Most narratives give us a cheerful outline of the story but this one is entirely diverse. We can imagine it will be tragic just because of the four words Alfieri has said. By reading the first page or two of the play we can get some hints. First of all we can try to understand what Eddies fate will be like; heart-rending. Secondly if his fate is tragic we expect death as we associate tragedy with death or something which is extremely sad. We will write a custom essay sample on Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Arthur Miller portrays Eddie Carbone specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer According to the rules of the Greek writer Aristotle, the character Eddie Carbone is not promising material for a tragic hero. This is because Eddie Carbone is simply ordinary. According to Aristotle, real tragic heroes must have certain qualities. Most of which Eddie Carbone does not possess because of his ordinariness. Tragic heroes must have qualities, such as being a noble leader and having a potential for greatness. He should be great and have people looking up to him so then the audience will begin to like him and therefore understand him. Usually it will be a man because in Greek drama and Shakespearian times, the protagonist was usually a man. The tragic hero also is given poetic verses to show his good upbringing and a rich family could afford to give him an education. When such characters experience a downfall the effects are suffered by many due to the high status of the character. The audience of the play must feel pity, sympathy and empathy for the tragic hero so we understand him and we could also share his pain with him in a way. It will make the audience feel as if they are actually in the play and they feel for the character. The tragic story must end with death because thats the whole point of the play and will give it that sense of waste. So therefore there must be a downfall. The causes are that there maybe a flaw or maybe fate gets in the way. An example of fate getting in the way was William Shakespeares play Romeo and Juliet. The downfall may happen because of a coincidence or sometimes the scheming of others. When the tragic hero dies, we feel a sense of waste as we loose a piece of the jigsaw and that piece was greatness. Before the end of the play that protagonist must have a self realisation and must realise how foolish he has been. This is because they realise all their mistakes just before they die and this makes the story sadder and tragic by the protagonist realising he was wrong in whatever he did and then he must die as well. With the qualities and setting listed above, a play will be tragic if followed. In this case though a view from the bridge; Arthur Miller did not give the protagonist any tragic hero qualities. He is very normal and he is still a tragic hero in his own ways. Eddie Carbone is very limited character as he is only powerful in his own house. Unlike most tragic heroes, he does not talk in poetic verses; he actually talks in an inarticulate manner of speech. For example; you got too big a heart, whatre you so touchy heh and dont trust nobody. Because of his bad grammar he doesnt make sense at times and this shows what kind of upbringing he had yet he does try to make clear points. His character also has a lack of nobility and high status because his only a normal middle aged man. His character is too clumsy to be noble because he goes to the law just because his niece is in love. If he was noble and high status he would get a sword or something and slash the throat of his enemy but he goes to a lawyer which shows how ordinary and weak he is. It may emphasise how weak he is. Nevertheless he is at the same a time a much respected member of the neighbourhood because of his street smartness and he is against snitching which is good to the neighbourhood. His diction does have liveliness and a force. We can tell this because Beatrice and Catherine do what he says most of the time. Also Alfieri reminds us of his essential goodness; he was a good man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten oclock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came. Alfieri basically tells us all how good Eddie was no matter what and how kind he was and how he cared for his family.  There are other aspects of the plays main character and its structure that make it possible to view the drama as tragic.  Arthur Miller admired Greek drama and has used some elements in A view from the bridge.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Writing an Education Term Paper A Complete Guide

Writing an Education Term Paper A Complete Guide A term paper is a large written assignment you are given an entire term to write. Usually it consists of a critical and analytical report on one of the topics you’ve studied as a part of your course, to give you solid ground to build your argument on. Unlike many assignments you may have written in the past that dealt either with summarizing the existing body of research on a particular topic or consisted of your own thoughts on the subject, a term paper is supposed to contain both these elements. In a sense, its goal is to check if you can both collect information from external sources and think on your own. An education term paper is associated with additional peculiarities, because education by definition is located at the crossroads of a number of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, philosophy and others. This means that you have to, on the one hand, have sufficient grounding in several disciplines, and on the other hand – clearly decide exactly which aspect you are going to research. That what this education term paper guide is all about. As for the size, normally education term papers are about 10-15 pages long, although the requirements of your particular university always take precedence over conventions. How to Select a Topic for Your Education Term Paper Sometimes an instructor will assign you a topic to work with, but most often, they only broadly delineate the area with which you will have to work, leaving the choice of a specific topic to you. You shouldn’t approach the choice lightly – you are going to write the paper for an entire term and won’t have an opportunity to change the topic once you’ve committed to it. Here are some tips that will make this choice a bit easier: Stick to what you know. Preferably, if you know something about a topic from beyond the syllabus – this way you will be able to almost effortlessly impress your instructor. Having a personal interest in the subject matter also helps; Brainstorm for ideas. Take a clean sheet of paper, write ‘Education term paper’ in its middle and start writing down all the ideas that come into your head around it. Don’t worry if the ideas are good or bad at this point – your goal is to generate as many of them as possible, you will have an opportunity to evaluate them later. Try using catalyst questions: Are there controversial issues you have strong opinions about? Have you seen something in the news that made you angry or anxious? Is there any issue you want to know more about? Do you have any personal experiences you may use as a basis for your paper (after all, you see the education industry from the inside right now)? Read general background information and look for sources for a few topics you are considering. This will help you decide if the topic is manageable: it should offer enough information to satisfy your obligatory word or page count, and at the same time leave you enough to research on your own. If you see that the exact topic you currently consider has been studied through and through, better look for something else to pursue; Modify the topic if necessary. It is important to retain flexibility and be ready to alter your topic. You don’t know what kind of information you are going to find, and sometimes you may discover that your findings make your original topic invalid, or open up a much more promising avenue for research. You may not want to change your topic, but if it is going to benefit your work, in the long run, it is better to do so. Unless you have to mention your topic to the instructor at the beginning of your work and are directly prohibited from modifying it, this tactic is a fair game. Here are some good topics you so that you can see what you should aim at: Early Childhood Education: Advantages and Disadvantages; Education for Students with Special Needs: Current and Possible Methodologies; Punishment for Bad Grades: What Short- and Long-Term Effects It Has on Children; Role of Social Media in Education: Effects on Students, Their Relations with Teachers and Parents; Bullying in Schools, Its Effects on School Life and Methods of Countering It; Education of Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families: Advantages and Challenges. Preparation The choice of topic doesn’t signify the beginning of writing process – you have a lot of preparatory work to do, namely: Collect information sources; Formulate your thesis statement; Prepare an outline. Let’s elaborate on each of these stages. Collecting Information The difference of a college-level term paper from what you used to write in high school is that it should not only express your own thoughts and findings but have a firm grounding in the existing body of research. It is just the way academic research is built. That’s why before you start writing you have to make sure you have enough sources to rely upon. Know how many is enough. How many sources you need depends primarily on the size of your term paper. According to the rule of the thumb, you should have at least 1-2 sources per every page of your paper – i.e., if you have an average-sized 15-page education term paper, find at least 15 or 20 sources. Take into account that the requirements of your instructor may be different – make sure to consult him about this; Differentiate between primary and secondary sources. Primary are the ones that contain first-hand knowledge (reports, statistical data, documents, interviews, etc.), while secondary contain research, analysis and evaluation of primary sources by other scientists. Your term paper should use at least some primary sources to achieve credibility, although secondary ones are also necessary; Differentiate between high- and low-quality sources. As a rule, the most valuable sources are found in peer-reviewed journals and magazines, and the more times they are cited, the better (you can find this information out by using indexing and search services like Google Scholar or Microsoft Academic Search). The number of citations reflects the influence the paper had on the academic community; Be wary of using Google to look for sources. Many of the results you will get are going to be non-academic and/or biased. Web resources in general are considered a fairly low-value type of sources. Nevertheless, Google can be useful when you do preliminary evaluation of the topic and assess its depth; Be even more wary of Wikipedia – information there can be edited by anybody, and there is no guarantee this anybody is an expert. Again, it is an excellent source of preliminary information, but doesn’t hold up as an independent source. Its most useful part is often overlooked – it is â€Å"References† section at the end of each entry. There you can find lots of links to relevant information sources; Use different types of sources. Although peer-reviewed papers are bread and butter of any term paper, consider using sources of other types: books, articles from mass media, reports from governmental agencies, statistical information on education in different states, interviews, etc. If you manage to land an interview with a person relevant for your topic, it will do a lot to add credibility to your account. Formulating Thesis Statement A thesis statement is the central idea of your term paper, its main point or message. If you heard that it is a mere repetition of the assignment’s topic, you’ve heard wrong – a thesis statement is, well, a statement. ‘Influence of Standardized Tests on the Quality of Education’ is a topic. ‘Standardized tests negatively affect the quality of education, as corroborated by the evidence I’ve collected’ is a thesis statement. You state your point of view on the subject and clarify what you are going to prove in your assignment. It should be a part of your paper’s introduction (usually closer to the end of the first paragraph), but you have to prepare it beforehand. Make it clear, precise and specific. Express your main idea in as few words as possible, as clearly as you can; Make sure it stands out but avoid introducing it using phrases like ‘The point of my paper is†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢; Be ready to revise and refine it as you proceed with your term paper. You may find information that will change your point of view; Check if your thesis contains two or more loosely connected statements (for example, by a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘for’, ‘so’). If yes, then why is it so? Can you make the relationship between these statements stronger and more obvious (e.g., by using a subordinating conjunction such as ‘through’ or ‘because’)? Preparing an Outline Before you start writing, you need a plan, and outline serves as such. Whatever structure your term paper has, write down each significant point here and follow it as you work on each subsequent part. If you mark down all the important elements before you start writing, you won’t discover suddenly that you’ve forgotten to mention something five pages before or put body paragraphs in the wrong order. Writing Education term papers have more or less the same structure as any other assignment of this type, usually consisting of an introduction (including thesis statement), body paragraphs, conclusion and bibliography. Each of them is written following its own set of rules. Introduction The role of introduction is to give the reader a rationale behind your work and justify that your research is viable and important for the field in general. Although you aren’t usually assigned a specific word limit, strive to keep it as short as possible. In as few words as you can, try to interest the reader, explain the reasons behind your research and lead him up to the main part. Body Paragraphs One paragraph should contain but a single new point. If you feel the need to introduce two or more points within a single paragraph, either break it up or restructure your paper. Other than that, normally body paragraphs follow the following structure: Introduction of a new point; Supporting evidence 1; Supporting evidence 2, 3, etc.; Possible objections and counter-arguments against them; Summary; A tie-in with the following paragraph. Conclusion A conclusion shouldn’t give you much trouble, as it is more or less a repetition of what has been said in the introduction – this is why most specialists recommend writing these parts of your term paper together and last of all. Mention the point you made in the beginning, summarize your evidence, explain why you believe your research to be relevant and point out what needs additional investigation. Revision and Proofreading In order to realize the full potential of your term paper, it has to go through rigorous revision and proofreading. Don’t do it as an afterthought even if you are sick and tired of your assignment by now – for its overall success, it is just as important as the first two steps. Check your style guide. Usually, education colleges use APA style for their papers, but there are exceptions. If style isn’t mentioned in your handouts, make sure to consult your instructor about it. When you find out the requirements, carefully read them and make notes in places you consider most relevant for your paper. Then reread your paper and carefully compare how you’ve done your citations, bibliography, page numbers, titles and everything else; Check if you are consistent. Do you use the same terms to refer to the same ideas and concepts throughout the paper? If you don’t, correct it. There is no need to fight tautology in a scientific paper – if repetition makes your writing clearer, repeat without reservations; To notice more mistakes, alter the appearance of your assignment. Print it out or at least change its font and its size. This will transform the text’s â€Å"landscape† and make it easier to notice mistakes; Don’t start proofreading immediately on finishing. You desire to get it done is understandable, but let your paper sit for a couple of days (at least if you have time to do so); Peer-check your term paper. Arrange it with one of your classmates to read each other’s papers and point out flaws in them. Another person is always more likely to notice imperfections than the author. We hope that these education term paper tips will make writing your next education term paper into a much easier and more enjoyable experience than it used to be!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Female genital Mutilation in Sudan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Female genital Mutilation in Sudan - Essay Example Focus is also drawn on the different ways through which the government of Sudan, different international agencies, local non-governmental organizations, and civil groups are working to stop this oppressive practice. Communities that practice FGM perform it in varying ways. The World Health Organization has developed three major categories of FGM. There is Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Type 1 female circumcision is referred to as clitoridectomy. This mainly involves the removal of the tip of the prepuce, with or without excision of part or the entire clitoris. In Type 2, there is the removal of the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora. Type 3 female circumcision is also called infibulation. This involves the removal of most or all of the female genitalia. In this type, there is also the stitching of the vaginal opening, where only a small opening is allowed for urine and menstrual flow (Islam & Uddin 2001, p. 72). Type 3 is considered the most severe form of FGM. In Su dan, there are different names that are used to refer to each of the three types of female circumcision. Type 1 is referred to as â€Å"Sunna.† This involves the removal of the tip of the prepuce. ... For instance, some of the Muslim Sudanese hold that female circumcision is supported by Islam. On the other hand, the Muslim theologians in Sudan believe that there is no provision for FGM in the Koran (Islam & Uddin 2001, p. 73). Nonetheless, Turshen (2000, p. 145) notes that FGM is linked to Islam, even though not all Muslim countries uphold it. With regard to the prevalence of female circumcision in Sudan, the findings of Sudan Demographic and Health Survey (SDHS) of 1989 -1990 show that 89% of the ever-married women have undergone some form of FGM. The Northern part of Sudan ranks high, with approximately 99% of the ever-married women having undergone circumcision (Landinfo 2008, p. 6). In 2001, Islam and Uddin conducted a study in Sudan to determine the prevalence of female circumcision in the region. Their study focused on Haj-Yousif and Shendi, which are in the North, as well as Juba, in the South. Nonetheless, in this paper, the focus is not on South Sudan. The study of Islam and Uddin (2001, p. 74) revealed that female circumcision is highly prevalent in Sudan. 100% of the respondents in Shendi, and 87% of respondents in Haj-Yousif had undergone circumcision. The most prevalent form of female circumcision was found to be the Pharaonic circumcision, which is the most severe form. In Sudan, the process of female circumcision is performed by lay practitioners. These have little or no knowledge on the female anatomy, or medicine. The conditions under which female circumcision takes place in Sudan are below the hygiene standards. Furthermore, no anaesthesia is performed on the females before circumcision, and there is no sterilizing of the instruments used to perform female circumcision (Landinfo 2008, p. 9). A major reason why

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Columbia Ave. Riots Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Columbia Ave. Riots - Essay Example It seemed to be the only avenue open to them due to so many discriminatory laws and practices despite the passage of many laws outlawing black discrimination in social, political, and economic spheres of life. In other words, discrimination was back then and even until now a very persistent problem that defied easy solutions. The race riots in Philadelphia were caused by some black activists who hijacked the sentiments or resentments of black people against a lack of equality and used these for their own ends. The city of Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century had been divided into the white Philadelphia (southern portion) and the black Philadelphia (northern portion). This division is not only geographic but also economic and ethnic because the white southern Philadelphia in many ways was vastly superior to its northern part. White people in the southern portion had a better life in terms of economic opportunities, nicer neighborhoods with less crime, and had a more than fair share of good-paying jobs. This situation can be contrasted with its southern counterpart which had cheap government housing, more crimes, and less jobs to be had. Philadelphia has a great tradition in American history as it was the preferred city of the countrys Founding Fathers who often met in this city. The Declaration of Independence was made in Philadelphia in 1776 as well as the signing of the American Constitution in 1787. It is known as a place of religious and racial tolerance because it welcomes successive waves of immigrants from Europe such as the Dutch, then the English, and then much later, Swedes. They were soon followed in the next century by the Scots, the Irish, and German immigrants. The next century saw new arrivals from southern and eastern Europe such as the Greeks, the Poles, Italians, and Hungarians. Philadelphia became the second-largest city on the eastern seaboard after New York City and rivals it in terms of ethnical

Monday, November 18, 2019

Education - Teaching Beginners Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Education - Teaching Beginners - Essay Example As a result, the potential of learning among the students being taught by that individual greatly reduces (Capel & Anne 2005). Almost every research conducted with an aim of increasing the knowledge base on the teaching industry concerning the teachers’ retention within the profession reports that the first three years are the most taxing and the most risky. During these three years, there is usually a great likelihood that the teaching beginner will leave the profession (Dowding 2008). The rate by which teaching beginners drop out necessitates review of the system of education especially in schools within the urban centers as well as hard-to-staff. As such, these learning institutions are regarded as the major victims as they are not only unable to retain teachers, who are fully certified, but also face an uphill task in attracting replacements. The purpose of this analysis is to access the challenges that the first year educators face and to deduce critically how mentoring o f these new teachers may assist in addressing these problems in an effort towards establishing teaching and learning of indispensable quality Some of the problems that beginners in the teaching industry face include discipline in the classroom, motivation of the students, challenges arising from trying to deal with individual differences, assessing student’s work, teacher’s relationship with the student’s parents, class work organization, insufficient teaching aids and dealing with the individual student’s problems among others. However, there are three main problems, which are regularly faced by these teaching beginners. They are: classroom discipline, motivating the students and dealing with individual differences (Boydell & Bines 2009). As such, they may seem as arising due to the inadequacy of teaching experience but on a greater insight, they were present since time immemorial and as such, they are inevitable and they tend to affect even the most exp erienced teachers. Classroom Discipline Classroom discipline refers to training within the context of self-control and within social conduct, which is in an orderly manner and as such, it is brought about by a classroom management that is not only accepted and desired by many people but also effective in delivering a milestone. According to Capel and Anne (2005), classroom discipline is a challenge of the highest orders that beginning teachers face in their new environments (Capel & Anne 2005). As such, these teachers find themselves compromised in situations where they are required to attend or respond to spontaneous replies coming from the students. Moreover, they find it difficult to give responses to cues coming from the entire class he is teaching. However, such teachers tend to develop an attitude of sensitivity when issues concerning the behavior of the students, which they perceive as capable of disrupting their planned presentation, are brought into contention (Capel & Anne 2005). Further, classroom discipline, due to its dominance among the challenges faced by teaching beginners, can be perceived as a code word. As such, it is a codeword as it encompasses a host of diversified difficulties (Boydell & Bines 2009). Still, it is a codeword as it is a point of reference. In this regard, it can be used as an indication that the teachers who are in their first year of teaching lack some specified skills and as such, it enables the school management to establish

Saturday, November 16, 2019

TATA Consultancy Services (TCS): Organisation Culture

TATA Consultancy Services (TCS): Organisation Culture Understanding an organizations culture from an employee as well as management point of view is as important as understanding ones own job profile and responsibilities to perform well in any structural setup. Given the continuously changing environment, employee insights on his or her work culture is very important for an organization to best define and upgrade its role and objectives. To call for successful implementation of these objectives, it is pertinent to emphasize the importance of culture in motivating and maximizing the value of its human and intellectual assets. Organizational culture can be defined as the pattern of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions considered being the appropriate way to think and act within an organization. Seven key characteristics of what the organization values capture the essence of culture: (1) Innovation and risk taking, (2) Attention to detail, (3) Outcome orientation, (4) People orientation, (5) Team orientation, (6) Aggressiveness, and (7) Stability. Organization TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) Culture of TCS relevant from the employees perspective: The Culture of TCS is observed to be highly ethical as is the case with most TATA Group Companies. The culture according to the various interviews was found to be highly networked although the job responsibilities and positions of employees were clearly defined. This helped the employees settle down in the organization quickly and effectively along with giving providing them the autonomy to bring out the best in themselves due to highly networked nature of the environment. This is well exemplified by the fact that even the CEO of the company is addressed by his first name. The culture of TCS is also the one that supports growth and learning by providing and facilitating platforms for individuals to innovate and experiment even if that is not a direct requirement of their project. One of the most striking feature of this company is that employees are referred to as associates and not employees. This reflects the pride the company wants to experience in being associated with the concer ned individuals and holds them as important and superior as the company itself. However since TCS is huge organization with approximately 170,000 employees, many-a-times underutilization of human resources is observed before the project allocation. Hence periods of inactivity is observed in such cases. The size of the company and its well defined hierarchy is centralized at higher management level and localized at domain or vertical level. The company is also studied to be too customer driven even when its not a part of the customer requirement or specification. TCS overall is an employee driven company, The Company provides the best in the class facilities to work and learn. TCS has a separate learning and development cell, which encourages the associates (yes the employees are called associates) to learn and develop their technical, managerial, interpersonal communication and other skills. The company provides a good mix of talent and challenging work which appeals to the associates. In the interviews, we didnt find one thing that was low on culture practices at TCS. The employees are well paid, well satisfied and love the culture. The company has the lowest attrition ration of 9% for the last 4 quarters is a proof of the culture that prevails there. Apart from the learning and growth prospects, TCS also provides timely work review, assessments, various bonuses, leaves and also growth opportunities. The boundary of management and associates is low and the management is easily assessable. The level of respect for every employee is very high and is maintained with the high to low management and associates. Interview Guidelines:- The interviews should be conducted along different levels of hierarchy. The interviews should be conducted from equal participants from male/female employees The interviews should be conducted in such a way that there should be equal participation from both the freshers and experienced. Avoid conducting the interviews during peak working hours, to avoid any responses based on immediate happenings. Try and accommodate the interview on different days of the week and at different timings. Interview Transcripts Participant: Vanshika Shrivastva Designation: Asst. System Engg. Working with TCS for: 2 Yrs Q: How do you define the work culture at TCS? R: The work culture at TCS is bifurcated in two aspects; there is the organization work culture which follows the Tata Group ethics and beliefs, good learning atmosphere and also a healthy place to work at. The other is the project specific work culture, as there are different client, the project culture varies according to the client and the work needs. But the overall culture is filled with learning and growth option. Q: Can you elaborate with examples what are the learning and growth examples provided to you by TCS? R: TCS has the work evaluation process twice a year, once for the appraisal and once for the review, which helps employees assess their working capabilities, There are timely seminars, webinars, trainings, workshops and other such events to promote learning. TCS also encourages its employees for continuous learning and certification drives to promote a more competitive and better working atmosphere. Q: Are there any specific training program or department taking care of these? R: Yes, there are various training programs available for the associates; we have a learning and Development cell which conducts trainings across various technological platforms, also around better working skills, communications skills, managerial skills, work life balance etc. Plus apart from this, the HR department of every project keeps a [emailprotected] event once every month to promote a healthy working culture. Q: What are the most striking features you find in the workplace at TCS? R: TCS is my first organisation and I dont have any plans to change it in the near future. This is basically for the ethics and culture of work that we find with the company. We do not call anyone sir/mam even the CEO is called by the first name. Also TCS does not call its employees as employees they call us associates. Plus the timely review process at various levels, the apt compensation and the services at the disposal are really good at TCS. Q: What is the hierarchy like at TCS, in terms of working? R: The hierarchy is very well defined at this organisation. Apart from the technical associates like me, there are managerial hierarchies. I report to my team lead, he reports to the project lead, the project lead reports to the project manager and the project manager reports to the group manager. But the best part is, all the managers for the project/domain are present at the same location and are accessible to everyone. So the hierarchy is put across well and is also easily accessible. Participant: Ashish Rustagi Designation: IT Analyst Working with TCS for past: 4 yrs (onsite at US for past 1 yr) Q: How do you like the work culture at TCS? R: TCS is my second employer, I found the work atmosphere here challenging and refreshing at the same time. Q: How would you rate the work ethics at TCS? R: TCS is very high on work ethics, like any other Tata group company. Q: Throw some light on your relation with peers, seniors and juniors. R: At TCS there are no seniors, juniors when it comes to work, everyone is asked to make a contribution to every work, the team work is the driving force here. A team comprises of a good mix of people. So its always challenging and fun as I mentioned. Q: How does TCS help you shape your career? R: TCS provides you immense opportunities to learn and develop your skills. As TCS serves a number of varied clients, so learning in every field is encouraged. The managers are given some technical training so that they can understand the associates better and the associates are given managerial training to maintain small management at work. Q: How do you find TCS in providing learning and development opportunities? R: TCS has a rich culture with learning, the learning and development cell has their weekly and monthly trainings. These trainings are conducted by industry specialist and sometime in house faculty. Even the initial learning program was a fantastic builder for confidence and learning platforms. Q: How does the organisation looks towards the employees? R: TCS believes that their best assets are their employees; Employees are given all sought of comforts to help them shape their future and also help the organisation grow. With good services, Timely appraisals, proper work review, other team building activities makes you come to office with a smile. Q: What is your take on the overall organisational structure at TCS? R: TCS is divided into various segments, with multinational presence the company is divided into service segments called verticals. Apart from this, the various departments work hand in hand and with strength of over 170,000 associates is still one of the best places to work. Participant: Siddharth Khetawat Designation: Associate Consultant Worked with TCS for: 6 yrs (recently left TCS) Q: Why did you leave TCS? R: TCS was the first company I worked for; I had to move on to higher studies. Q: Do you have plans to get back to TCS after your studies? R: I would love to do that, if I get an opportunity. Q: How did you find the culture at TCS? R: TCS game me the perfect ground to work and provided great facilities to sharpen my skills. The infrastructure was well established, and it always felt good when you know everything is in place where you work. Q: How was the management at TCS? R: The management was very well established at TCS, they had a clear goal and mission stated and in my 6 years I learned that the long term plans were very well implemented. Q: Do you have anything that you thought was lacking at TCS culture? R: Its like answering one of the things for apple; you never know what you need till the time they give it to you. Same is the case with TCS, I always thought TCS gave the best work place for associates, Till they included the quarterly appraisal and reviews, then I thought its the best possible thing, till they gave the TCS social service Maitri wing. Finally even before leaving, TCS gave me an opportunity to sign a 6 months working deal and sponsor me a big amount of money for my education. Its a great place to work and I am glad I was associated with them Q: Did TCS provide sufficient learning grounds? R: Indeed, TCS gave a great variety of learning platforms. I did 4 certifications from TCS including an auditors certificate for 6 sigma. Now being an engg. Where can I get such an opportunity? It just reflects the amount of diversity TCS offers someone who is willing to learn. Participant: Ragini Mishra Designation: Group Lead (BFS2.2 domain) Worked with TCS for: Past 14 yrs Q: Such a long time with TCS? R: I worked initially for 6 years with TCS, when I was posted in London for the project. The client that I was working for gave me an offer and looking at the better prospects then I decided to join. But only 18 months into the job I realised that the money might be better but the culture was something that was not what I was used to. So I came back to TCS and since then have been climbing up the ladder. Q: You started your career at TCS as asst. System engg trainee. And now a group lead.. So from technology to management . How was the journey? R: Firstly the journey still continues, I joined TCS as a programmer like everyone else. Then climbing the ladder was easy. As TCS gives opportunities to learn and do everything that one wishes, I was inclined towards management, so after a few years as a technical associate I walked up to my manager and asked told him about it. He advised me to take up the training sessions from the LD department for managerial skills. And since then it was a great transformation. Q: How did TCS help you shape your career? R: TCS provided an excellent ground for me to build my career. When I moved into lower management in the project, I was invited to learning sessions with mid level and upper level management to sharpen my skills and learn. And it proved a great experience and the participants were from the same league as me and all started with experience with TCS as an associate. Q: Does TCS stand by the Experience Certainty tag? R: Oh hi bet we do it better than anyone else in the industry. We stand tall to our mission, vision and practices. And ensure that the client in projects experience certainty in our work and commitment. We believe in providing services of top most quality to our clients so that in turn they can provide better services to their clients. Q: How does the work culture appeals to you at TCS? R: TCS is an employee driven company. Here we believe in putting the Clients and employee first. The company ensures the best possible working environment with challenging and target driven associates. I was personally touched by the company culture when I was given a 3 months maternity leave and my Husband who also is a TCS employee was given a 1 month leave. No other organisation can understand you as good as TCS does. Functional and Dysfunctional aspects of TCS culture/organizations culture in the light of its mission: To help customers achieve their business objectives by providing innovative, best-in-class consulting, IT solutions and services To make it a joy for all stakeholders to work with us Functional Aspects Well Defined Job Responsibility Clear Hierarchy High Values and Ethics Employee Focus Customer Driven Highly open and networked culture Learning Environment Dysfunctional Aspects Stress Under-Resource Utilization Inflexible Project Allocation Regional Bias Allocation of Base Branch Action Plan Stress Management at TCS the workplace has become a high stress environment in many organizations cutting across industries. Employees are experiencing high level of stress due to various factors such as high workload, tight deadlines, high targets, type of work, lack of job satisfaction, long working hours, pressure to perform, etc. Interpersonal conflicts at the workplace, such as boss-subordinate relationships and relationships with peers, are also a source of stress. Experts believed that the dysfunctional aspects of stress could directly impact an organizations performance and also affect the well-being of its employees. Stress at the workplace is linked to absenteeism, higher attrition, and decreased productivity. Stress lead to fatigue, irritability, poor communication, and quality problems/errors. High stress levels also affected the morale and motivation of the employees. Prolonged exposure to stress without effective coping mechanisms could lead to a host of physical and mental problems. For instance, stress could lead to stress-induced gastrointestinal problems, irritable bowel syndrome, acidity, acid reflux, insomnia, depression, heart disease, etc. Moreover; stress could push the victim toward high risk behavior such as smoking, drinking, and substance abuse. Stress-related illness leads to increase in absenteeism and attrition affecting the profitability of the organizations. Organizations cutting across industries are gearing up to provide employees with a stress-free healthy environment. The efforts to address this issue are more pronounced in some industries than others. Experts felt that, though stress at the workplace is a global phenomenon, professionals in some industries are more susceptible to stress than others. For instance, surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007 in the UK and the US respectively, found that employees in Information Technology (IT) industry (including the ITeS outsourcing industry) are the most stressed. Accordingly, these organizations had started implementing various unconventional methods to decrease stress at the workplace. Even in India, organizations had woken up to this menace and were resorting to novel methods including teaching the employees dancing and music, trekking, etc, to reduce stress at the workplace. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. had started different clubs like Theatre Club, Bibliophile Club, Adventure Trekking Club, Fitness Club, Sanctuary Club, Music Club and Community Services Club, etc. TCS should focus on increasing self-awareness and provided the employees with guidance on how to cope with stress through a series of workshops by experts. In addition to conducting stress management workshops, TCS should also conduct off-site picnics, games, and inter-departmental competitions. Some companies were also using a system of mentors and promoted open communication to improve interactions and camaraderie at the workplace. Employees in most of the established companies had access to in-house counseling centers. It can also employ nutritionists to provide healthy food at the office canteens and counsel the employees on healthy eating habits and lifestyle. TCS can also consider employing psychologists to counsel their employees. Experts felt that organizations are resorting to creative methods to address the issue of stress at the workplace, but more action was required on this front, both in terms of assessment of the situation and implementation of concrete steps to tackle the problem. Under-Resource Utilization When new employees join TCS they are put on bench cause of lack of projects availability. It creates a lot of tension amongst them because they are mostly freshers. The duration of the bench time usually varies from a month to even a year. Keeping the resource idle for such a long time makes them unproductive. TCS has around 170000 employees and substantial amount of people on bench. TCS should be leaner they should focus on recruiting people as per requirement of the projects. TCS should also engage people in internal projects and trainings so that people have enough stuff to do at home and they should not be idle. Inflexible Project Allocation After the allocation of Projects to employees its really hard for employees to get release from the projects. They also have hard time dealing with lower management. It finally leads to employee dissatisfaction. The Project Allocation Process should be more transparent and employees should not have hard time to choose/change their projects as per company norms and employee interest. Regional Bias There is a regional bias especially in some office locations of TCS wherein people perform conversation in their local languages at office and people from other regions of the country find it really awkward to adjust in the office environment. It happens majorly because majority of the people at office are from local region and they have bias towards conversations in their local languages. HR of the respective locations should conduct regular sessions to let employees know about the company policies and ethics to be followed in the company. Allocation of Base Branch The issue with the allocation of base branch is also a major problem at TCS wherein employees find it difficult to find a transfer request being accepted. Even the female employees are the victims wherein they dont have option to choose Base Branch of their choice. The Allocation of Base Branch should be done after taking options from the employees and there should be guidelines to let employees decide the base branch and change after serving after certain duration at the respective location.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Depression in Teenagers Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Depression in Teenagers As a teenager, I have experienced depression countless number of times. Many times, I just feel sad, and other times, I feel like the world is not worth living in. Innumerable incidents also have occurred where some of my friends get badly depressed. Since many of my friends would try to talk to me about how they feel when they are depressed, I see a lot the pain and dejection they are going through. Through these experiences, depression began to scare me because of how inferior and worthless it can make a person feel, and where these low feelings would lead to. I realized that depression should not be allowed to dominate a person’s life as it would slowly eat him away. I felt I had to find out what depression really is, what causes it, and most of all, how to deal with it. There are two main types of depression: minor depression and major depression. First of all, minor depression is the type of depression that is encountered most in our lives. It is usually preceded by problems such as adverse relationships, doing badly in school, or the loss of a job. In minor depression, people feel sad and anxious, cry, or are pessimistic. Second, major depression is a type of abnormal depression that might occur when a person experiences trauma such as having a loved one pass away. It can also occur when a person has hormonal imbalances or abuses drugs. In addition to what people feel in minor depression, people in major depression feel helpless and guilty, have insomnia, are lethargic and lose self-esteem. The causes of depression are not clear-cut, but the biochemistry of the brain, the environment, and personality all seem to have an effect on how prone a person is to depression.... ...d gets depressed, I have also learned that there are ways to help ease him out of depression. Through my various experiences with depression in others and myself, I believe that many people are ignorant or badly misinformed about depression. Even though depressed people tend to block out sound reasoning to wallow in disconsolation or anger, some knowledge of depression would help them get out of depression. Works Cited Bootzin, Richard R., Gordon H. Bower, Jennifer Crocker, and Elizabeth Hall. â€Å"Personality, Abnormality, and Adjustment.† Psychology Today: An Introduction. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991. p. 547-550. Cush, Cathie. â€Å"Feeling Bad.† Teen Hotline: Depression. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers,1994. p. 32-36. Goleman, Daniel. â€Å"The Cost of Emotional Illiteracy.† Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 1996. p. 274-283. Depression in Teenagers Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers Depression in Teenagers As a teenager, I have experienced depression countless number of times. Many times, I just feel sad, and other times, I feel like the world is not worth living in. Innumerable incidents also have occurred where some of my friends get badly depressed. Since many of my friends would try to talk to me about how they feel when they are depressed, I see a lot the pain and dejection they are going through. Through these experiences, depression began to scare me because of how inferior and worthless it can make a person feel, and where these low feelings would lead to. I realized that depression should not be allowed to dominate a person’s life as it would slowly eat him away. I felt I had to find out what depression really is, what causes it, and most of all, how to deal with it. There are two main types of depression: minor depression and major depression. First of all, minor depression is the type of depression that is encountered most in our lives. It is usually preceded by problems such as adverse relationships, doing badly in school, or the loss of a job. In minor depression, people feel sad and anxious, cry, or are pessimistic. Second, major depression is a type of abnormal depression that might occur when a person experiences trauma such as having a loved one pass away. It can also occur when a person has hormonal imbalances or abuses drugs. In addition to what people feel in minor depression, people in major depression feel helpless and guilty, have insomnia, are lethargic and lose self-esteem. The causes of depression are not clear-cut, but the biochemistry of the brain, the environment, and personality all seem to have an effect on how prone a person is to depression.... ...d gets depressed, I have also learned that there are ways to help ease him out of depression. Through my various experiences with depression in others and myself, I believe that many people are ignorant or badly misinformed about depression. Even though depressed people tend to block out sound reasoning to wallow in disconsolation or anger, some knowledge of depression would help them get out of depression. Works Cited Bootzin, Richard R., Gordon H. Bower, Jennifer Crocker, and Elizabeth Hall. â€Å"Personality, Abnormality, and Adjustment.† Psychology Today: An Introduction. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991. p. 547-550. Cush, Cathie. â€Å"Feeling Bad.† Teen Hotline: Depression. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers,1994. p. 32-36. Goleman, Daniel. â€Å"The Cost of Emotional Illiteracy.† Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 1996. p. 274-283.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Pleasures of Reading Essay

Some people get pleasure from picnics and tours. Others like to discuss various topics and find pleasure in it. But the reading of books provides us with such pleasure as we do not get from any other activity. Great is the blessing of books. Books are written by learned persons. They contain the best experiences and thoughts of their writers. Literature is said to mirror society. Writers put in their books not only their own ideas and feelings, but also what they observe and find in society. The books of the past reflect the condition of the times in which they were written. By reading books written by great thinkers, we come in contact with their minds. Books enable us to know the best of different countries. So, if we want to keep abreast of the great minds of all ages, we must read books. When we are alone, books are our best friends. They entertain us in our spare moments. Good novels, books on poetry and short stories, give great enjoyment. At times we become so absorbed in our books that we forget even our important engagements. Loneliness is no trouble for a reader. If we are in a cheerful mood, our joy is increased by reading. When we are in a depressed and dejected mood, books console and soothe our troubled minds. They provide us with the best advice and guidance in our difficulties. Indeed, books are out best friends as they help us in our need. Books contain grains of wisdom. They give us sound moral advice. That is why all great men of our country have liked to read the Gita and the Ramayan. The example of Rama and Sita is cited, whenever we want to emphasize noble deeds and their results. We call a bad man by the name of Ravan. It is through the reading of books that we learn to love virtue and hate sin. The reading of good books develops and elevates our character. Now-a-days the world is changing fast. A man cannot remain in roach with the changes in his own country, or in the world, without reading the latest literature. One who wants to be respected in cultured society must keep himself well-informed. Good magazines, newspapers and other books provide us with valuable upto-date information. It gives us great pleasure to feel that our knowledge is upto-date. We get great satisfaction when we feel ourselves to be well-informed and capable of moving in any educated society. Reading of good books is the key to the store-house of pleasure. It was the English author Bacon who said that reading makes a full man. No one can question the truth of this saying. But we cannot derive full advantage from reading, if our choice is not good. Some books are such that instead of doing any good, they do positive harm to the readers. Such books must be avoided. Cheap books, not in cost but in contents, should not be read, even if they provide some amusement and entertainment. It is the reading of good books alone which bestows upon us the maximum benefit. The advantages of reading – the pleasures of reading novels; they carry us into a different world and enlarge our experience; suspense and our tendency to identify ourselves with the hero – other kinds of books are also delightful. The advantages of reading are well known. Reading enables us to pass examinations and get jobs, and enhances our general ability and competence in any field of life. But the pleasures of reading are as important as its uses. In fact, books cannot be really useful unless they are first enjoyed. There can be few more delightful ways of spending a holiday than reading a good novel. One source of pleasure afforded by novels is that they make us escape for a time from the drab, humdrum circumstances of our lives. Romantic novels, of course, transport us into an exciting world poles apart from our own. But even realistic novels bring us into contact with experiences different from our own. Our personal experience in real life is limited and much of it is commonplace. Reading fiction is delightful, partly because it indirectly provides us with several experiences for which we have no opportunities in actual life. Another source of the pleasure of reading novels is suspense. A novel with a good plot makes us eager to know, from beginning to end, what is to happen next. It is because of this quality of suspense in some novels that we are unwilling to lay them aside till we have read them to the end. Again, as everybody knows, another reason why reading novels is pleasant is that we tend to identify ourselves with the hero or the central character, and experience his joys and sorrows for the time being. This mainly accounts for our pleasure in reading biographies. While fiction is usually considered to be a delightful form of reading, other kinds of writing too impart pleasure. Apart from plays which resemble fiction, books of travel and light essays are enjoyable. Poetry appeals to our feelings and sense of beauty. Reading even serious or heavy books – books on science or philosophy – is not without its joy for those who are interested in the subjects concerned. All knowledge is pleasure, and reading a book on the dullest or the most unpleasant subjects can be pleasurable, provided one is intensely interested in it.