The Devil’s Snare

The Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 By Mary Beth Norton In the Devil’s Snare is a book about the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 in which the towns people accused women and men of using witchcraft to cause unexplained happenings throughout the town. The men and women appeared to be possessed by the devil, nothing else could explain it. In early times people didn’t understand reason. Especially the Puritans who only saw God’s will and the evilness of the devil.During the Salem witchcraft crisis, Puritans struggled to decipher communal security and find the truth around them. They believed that Satan recruited humans to do his evil and be servants to him, i. e. witches. The witches had a magical power that allowed them to harm others. To protect the community the judges of the town took it upon themselves to hold jury trials and hang the witches as punishment. Many believed the witches were burned at the stake, however that is untrue. The idea of witchcraft seemed to be the only logical answer to the community.Nothing else could possible explain the fires, flood, windstorms, droughts, livestock disease, and epidemics raging through the town. These issues needed an explanation. Puritans could not conceive the notion that this could simply be misfortune, due to their belief in Gods will. Witchcraft was the only explanation because many members of the community dabble in it here and there to spell curses or fortune tell. Although the belief in witchcraft was widespread the prosecution of the witches was sporadic and only a few towns executed the witches.Many towns held trials, because they didn’t want to rush to judgment. However it was not easy to prove witchcraft, until 1692 when things turned for the worse and problems increased dramatically. Desparate for an answer the towns people finally started to believe this was the only explanation. The town of Salem was an already troubled when the happenings began. Me mbers of the town often fought over pretty much anything. The first witches were teenager girls who saw hallucinations; the town took this very seriously.The accusations led to formal charges filed against thirty-eight men and one hundred six women. Prosecutors were able to obtain fifty-four confessions, which was used at evidence to execute twenty people (fourteen women and six men). Mary Beth Norton wrote this book as if she was on a witch hunt herself. She had a one way direction of writing and was not objective to both sides. If she were on the jury of the Salem Witches she would have convicted them herself. I did not like the book because I felt it left me hanging, longing to know the other side of the story.

Strategic Planning, Learning Theory, and Training Needs Analysis

The five phases of the training process model include; Needs Analysis Phase; Design Phase; Development Phase; Implementation Phase, and the Evaluation Phase. The â€Å"Needs Analysis Phase† is to determine each employee’s needs and ask â€Å"What do we want our employees to get out of the program? † This phase will help identify the difference between comparing the company’s current results to the company’s â€Å"expected organizational performances. The performance gap is one way to figure out what is best needed in the training process of the company. Our text states that the â€Å"needs analysis phase begins when there is a performance problem within the organization. Examples of this problem might be: lack of quality, customer dissatisfaction, or reduced profits. If the identified problem is related to employee knowledge, skills, or attitudes, then a training need is indicated. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) It is much less costly to have a gap analysis prepared; than to guess at what the needs are before the training objectives begin. The â€Å"Design Phase is where the needs of the â€Å"training objectives are created along with the factors needed to facilitate learning through content delivery. † This assessment of needs can be linked to the information and then used to â€Å"create the new curriculum of the program objectives. These provide specific direction for what will be trained and how. † The phase of design should allow us to begin to think about our â€Å"operational considerations to the program. We may ask ourselves how the delivery of the program is going to â€Å"influence the business operations† in the foreseeable future. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The Development Phase is described as the â€Å"process of formulating an instructional strategy to meet a set of training objectives as well as obtaining or creating all the things that are needed to implement the training program. † In this stage the materials used can be movies, games, visual aids, etc. The trainer nee ds to be sure they keep the trainees fully engaged with activities to ensure the knowledge is retained. With updated materials and â€Å"revamping of statistical data† the trainee’s should be able to stay focused and interested in the program. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) In the Implementation Phase, â€Å"all the aspects of the training program come together,† and the training actually takes place. Some important things to keep in mind are what practices will be discussed; potential leadership skills; addressing classroom rules and class expectations required, and have on hand, a feedback form for the trainee’s to fill out at the end of the program. The Evaluation Phase consists of two types of evaluations. First, â€Å"the process evaluation determines how well a particular process achieved its objectives. † Like, â€Å"did the trainer follow the exact training process suggested? † Second, is the outcome evaluation, which is conducted at the end of the training to determine the effects of training on the trainee, the job, and the organization? † Furthermore, â€Å"if the outputs of the program were less than expected, then changes to the program may be necessary. Companies should establish a systematic evaluation process to enhance the effectiveness of the training. † The company really needs to determine, through the evaluation phase; whether the training enhanced employee’s performance or the company’s performance as expected. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The end results focus on â€Å"both the evaluation process combined with the training unit and has a complete picture of the training from needs analysis to training techniques. It furnishes information about the trainer, and measures learner’s outcomes through reaction, learning, behavior, and results. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) Identify three factors that might inhibit HRD managers from developing a strategic planning approach to training. Recommend how these three factors might be overcome. Some factors that may inhibit a HRD manager from developing a strategic plan could be â€Å"the lack of motivation to participate in new learning tasks; a lack of funding available; a lack of clarity on the role of HRD; and perhaps not enough time available for new development in the company. †It is important for every Company in business to be aware of certain factors; in order to accomplish their goals successfully. Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) Overcoming some of these negative factors maybe the â€Å"HRD manager needs to ensure that their HR teams is open and committed to the highest training expectations that are available to every employee’s success. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The company should be totally â€Å"committed by financing the proper training that is needed for the future success of the company as a whole. † What a business puts into the investment of their employee’s, are most l ikely to surface motivated success for the company. The HRD should clearly clarify exactly what their role is going to entail, right from the start, so there will be full understanding of each employee’s expectations. The company needs to â€Å"dedicate sufficient amount of time each year for the proper training of its employee’s. † Dedication of the company is just as important as the employee’s dedicating their KSA to the company. Compare and contrast the behaviorist and the cognitive approaches to learning. Explain which is more relevant to training. Behaviorist approaches to learning usually are â€Å"focused on people who have specific observable behaviors or habits that they want to change. After understanding the principles of learning, they may even be able to modify their own behavior. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The Cognitive approaches are concerned with the â€Å"thought process; these people focus on changing the way they think. Our text explains that the cognitive approach suggests that the learner controls learning, and they may come to training with their own set of goals and priorities. † Whereas the behaviorist come to training with a specific goal and believe the â€Å"environment controls the learning outcome. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The two definitely are different in ways, but â€Å"behavioral and cognitive approaches are being used in the same multimedia application. Both involve analysis, decomposition, and simplification of tasks in order to make instruction easier and more efficient† (Jonassen, 1991). Both use â€Å"devices to arouse, attract, and focus attention. Both force learner engagement through interactive decision-making points in the material. Both give importance to intrinsic feedback, though it may be expressed in voluntary help or advice option s in applications with cognitive design. Both value meaningful learning and realistic contexts for application of knowledge and skills† (Atkins, 1993). It is my opinion both are equally relevant to the training programs, depending on which approach one wants to take. Fully explain the purpose of a training needs analysis (TNA). Argue the conditions under which a TNA is always necessary, and offer two examples when a TNA might not be required. The purpose of a training needs analysis is to â€Å"close a gap between what the â€Å"actual organizational performances are and what the expected organizational performance should be. The TNA is represented as having a triggering event, an input stage, a process stage, and finally an output phase. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The input phase â€Å"consists of three levels of analysis; the organizational analysis focuses on organizational strategies, resources, resource allocation, and the internal environment. The analysis of the organization’s internal environment will help to identify the cause of the organizational performance gap, and will help to decide if training is the appropriate cure. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The operational analysis â€Å"examines the specific jobs to determine and what KSA are necessary to get the job done. This process is known as job analysis, which is a detailed examination of all of the job tasks. Once the tasks are identified, then a decision can be made as to what KSAs are necessary to do the job competently. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The operational analysis â€Å"examines specific jobs to determine and what KSA are necessary to get the job done. This process is known as job analysis, and it is a very detailed examination of all of the job tasks. Once the tasks are identified, then a decision can be made as to what KSAs are necessary to do the job competently. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The person analysis; is the final stage that actually† focus on those in the job who are not meeting the performance requirements. Data on individual employees may come from a number of data sources, but the two most common sources are performance appraisals and efficiency tests. By incorporating the three levels of analysis, organizational, operational, and person, the identification of the performance gap should be complete. From here decisions can be made as to whether a training need or a non-training need has been identified. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) The TNA is always necessary when the organization notices performance problems, because they need to know what the causes are, so they can be corrected in a timely manner. For most â€Å"training situations, use of the TNA will increase the relevance and effectiveness of the training. It ensures wise use of training funds, delivers the appropriate training to the right people, and contributes to the fulfillment of organizational goals. Diversity, language, retirement, and â€Å"turnovers are all factors that might contribute to a performance gap. † (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) According to chapter 4 in our text; â€Å"TNA might not be necessary when an organization is trying to communicate a new vision or address a legal concern, which would include all employees to be present in the training program. † When the organization has d ecided to conduct â€Å"team building skills for a more positive performance outcome†; all employees will be trained in this case; there is no need for a TNA to be done. (Blanchard / Thacker, 2010) Reference Blanchard N. & Thacker J. (2010) Effective Training: Systems, Strategies, and Practices, Pearson Education, Inc. / Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Martin G. L. & Pear J. (2002) Behavior Modification: What It Is and How to Do It, 7th ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, Retrieved on April 25, 2011 from http://www.ryerson.ca/~glassman/behavior.html SBI Conduct a TNA to test and find out if training is the best solution Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://www.leopard-learning.com/tna.html Jonassen, D.H. (1991). Objectivism versus constructivism: Do we need a new philosophical paradigm? Educational Technology Research and Development, 39(3), 5-14. Atkins, M.J. (1993). Theories of learning and multimedia applications: An overview. Research Papers in Education, 8(2), 251-271.Retreived on April 25, 2011 from http://www.ct4me.net/multimedia_design.htm

Introducing Walmart into Saudi Arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Introducing Walmart into Saudi Arabia - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that Saudi Arabia is regarded as one of the largest food exporters in the Gulf countries. The market of Saudi Arabia has many barriers to entry since it requires the huge investment in establishing infrastructure, forming efficient distribution system, building brand name and also a considerable capital base for supporting the new entry. However, it can be portrayed that WalMart enjoys these advantages globally owing to its ability to invest the required amount for successful entry. So, in order to enter the market of Saudi Arabia, WalMart has to outline the estimate of investments to be made. The estimation is totally based on local requirement and competition. For understanding requirements of local Arabs and examine competitors in the market, WalMart should undertake an efficient market survey. The market survey will highlight the demand for the local Arabs and kind of products that they prefer most, besides indicating to the purchasing power of customers. The competitor analysis is the most important part of a market survey. The competitors and their business aspects will be critically analyzed by WalMart so as to identify strategies that they follow. The strategies followed by competitors allow WalMart to comprehend the exact likings and lifestyle of Arabs. Interviews with local Arabs will reflect their tastes and preferences as well as help in building trust and confidence. WalMart aims at selling most essential goods, which fulfills the basic need of any individual. The company does not highlight any particular product group and sells a wide-ranging set of products, thereby serving a diversified customer base. It can be noticed that many companies based in the United States (US) have ignored cultural beliefs of the targeted foreign markets and as a result, had encountered huge challenges that in turn led to the collapse of these companies. Nonetheless, it is extremely necessary for WalMart to consider all preva iling religious beliefs and traditions while preparing for entry into the Saudi Arabian market. It is observed that Saudi Arabia imports the largest amount of goods from the US, which highlights the fact that American products do not contradict social beliefs and traditions of the Arabs.

Duty to rescue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Duty to rescue - Essay Example Statute should be passed which would impose civil and/or criminal liability for a failure to rescue. The duty to rescue should be imposed as a mandate subject to criminal and civil liability because it is a positive obligation which can benefit people. This duty finds support in the utilitarian principle. This principle is a normative theory which â€Å"explains all of morality and political justice in terms of positive obligation – the single positive obligation to benefit people as much as possible† (Murphy, 2001). In this case, the utilitarian principle emphasizes that the morality of actions is based on the obligation to benefit people. The earliest philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill discuss that actions are right if they bring happiness and they are wrong if they bring about the opposite of happiness. In this case, happiness should be brought to the one performing the action and the person affected by such action (West, n.d). In fulfill ing one’s duty to rescue, benefit and happiness is surely brought upon the rescued; and happiness is also felt by the rescuer. Based on this theory, legislation which imposes civil and/or criminal liability to those who fail to rescue is justified because it benefits the rescued and the rescuer. Granting that the benefit to the rescuer may also be based on an egoistic need to make oneself look or feel good, this egoism still does not negate the validity of the duty to rescue. Based on the utilitarian theory, â€Å"it is possible for the right thing to be done from a bad motive† (West, n.d). Therefore, even if a person’s motive in rescuing may be bad or selfish, it still does not diminish his obligation or duty to rescue. The very essence of utilitarianism is rounded up in the query, â€Å"What ought a man to do?† The answer is that he ought to act in order to produce the best possible

Surface Structure Space Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Surface Structure Space - Essay Example Thus, Andrew Bolton argued that â€Å"all clothes have social, psychological and physical function†. According to Entwistle (2003, pg 93), there is a strong relationship between dress and body. Basically, dress that is inform of materials such as fabric, jewelry, paint or even feathers closely relate with the body or flesh at all times. Moreover, the body is affected by choice of materials to wear. For instance, some individuals prefer to dress in leather instead of silk, some choose Lycra instead of cotton among other preferences, which they presume match with their bodies well. Notably, the choice of dress for individuals influences their looks and feelings. According to Kornblum & Smith (2011, pg 51), Umberto Eco gives a perfect example about the existing relationship between dress and body. Eco argues that having been used to dressing in Jeans, it becomes very uncomfortable since they pinch and restrict movements even after losing weight thus leading to â€Å"epidermic self awareness†. As a result, Eco has become conversant with the current dress code and as such there h as been strong connection between the lower body and the external world. In light of this, dress could then be described as a form of â€Å"human epidermis† (Entwistle, 2003, pg 93). Going by the fact that human beings do not form self awareness, it is argued that dress forms a presumed second skin, which in most cases do not demonstrate consciousness. Nevertheless, the consciousness of dress is increased when something about it goes amiss. For instance, the consciousness of dress could be influenced by the possibility of dressing in clothes that are not fitting and/or those that do not fit a given occasion. In this regard, some individuals might dress casually when they are expected to be formal thus increasing individuals’ consciousness. Besides, Kornblum &

Right Relationship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Right Relationship - Essay Example â€Å"Cordelia : All bless’d secrets, All you unpublish’d virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate (Shakespear,121)†. Evidently, It shows that, Cordelia has her morals so deeply rooted in her that she find no way to project her love and admiration for her father. King Lear on the other hand, is a fun and frolic person, who is more engaged in worldly pleasures than royal obligations. He wants to enjoy the luxurious and richness of his kingly status but ignores the responsibilities and duties coming along with it. Moreover, he proclaimed a test to verify the fatherly love of his daughters which shows that he is more of a displayer of love than a believer. Later due to the evil nature of certain characters in the play, King Lear and Cordelier gets captivated and end up in trouble. â€Å"Lear:Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the house:‘Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;[Kneeling.]Age is unnecessary: on my kn ees I beg That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food† (Shakespear,68).Apparently, the play is portraying an evident transition in the nature of King Lear as he realizes his daughter’s true dedication and love for him. ... Lear: Out of my sight!† (Shakespeare,8 ). The above conversation shows that, he was a blind in his materialistic world and never could perceive the real beauty of love and affection. However, Cordelier was his favorite daughter but he never could understand her real feelings and emotions .The Shakespeare has portrayed Cordelia as a character who is entirely lovable with little or no traces of evil in her. It is when the evil characters of the play attempt to corner the King that he realizes the love and dedication of his affectionate daughter Cordelia. King Lear being blind to the real truth of nature banishes the two most powerful and loyal characters in the play in an ignorant manner. King Lear banishes his youngest daughter Cordelie for not giving a superfluous speech showing her love for him. Shakespeare shows in the act that a person blind to truth can no longer differentiate between good and evil and remains ignorant all his life. Apparently, all what Shakespeare is tryin g to do is to educate the people as to the value of virtue and vice. Is King Lear virtuous according to Aristotle’s concepts? King Lear can never be considered virtuous till the end of the play. He lives a blind life by giving no consideration for truth, morality and ethics. All his effort was in living as a joyous royal entity by forgetting his duties towards his children and the country.Shakespear in this play is trying to gauge the characters from the point of view of Aristotle. According to Shakespeare, a human nature has only two sides, either goodness or evilness. King Lear indeed fell in to the evil category, even though he developed goodness as to the ending stage

World Trade Organization (CHINA MEASURES RELATED TO THE EXPORTATION OF Essay

World Trade Organization (CHINA MEASURES RELATED TO THE EXPORTATION OF VARIOUS RAW MATERIALS) - Essay Example This paper provides an in-depth discussion on the compatibility of China’s export strategy at hand, with articles of GATT 1994, examining the exceptions set out in Article XX of GATT 1994 and WTO jurisprudence with regard to Article XX of GATT 1994 (WTO 9). Increased transparency and uniformity with regard to the administration of trade regulations, particularly in terms of export restrictions will effectively counter such disputes in the future. The WTO appellate panel issued its report after examining complaints by the European Union, US and Mexico with regard to China’s exportation of certain raw materials. In essence, the panel’s verdict found China’s export restriction regarding its rare earth metals to be in complete violation of China’s WTO commitments. The WTO dispute centered on four forms of export restrictions that China imposed on the exportation of certain raw materials. The raw materials in question encompassed certain forms of bauxite, magnesium, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus, zinc, manganese, coke and fluorspar. China is notably the chief producer of all the aforementioned raw materials used in the production of common items, as well as products used in the manufacture of technological appliances. The complaints contended that the imposition of export restrictions create scarcity and cause the prices of raw materials to increase within global markets. This means that Chinaâ₠¬â„¢s export restriction of raw materials primarily produced in the country gave the nation’s domestic industry substantial advantage by means of a sufficient supply, as well as low and highly stable prices for the raw materials in question. This form of restriction is, as a matter of fact, in utter contravention of WTO provisions. After China’s concurrence to the WTO, the country agreed to do away with all export taxes or duties with the exception of several products

New York City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

New York City - Essay Example This essay declares that the city had a very important role in the development and history of America. However, in the early twenty first century, its worth increased with the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in September 2011. Commercial jet airliners were hijacked on their way from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California. The pentagon was also bombed. The attacks caused the death of 3000 New York citizens. The city was a target for the terrorists because of its financial strength in America. The opening of Erie Canal secured the city’s economic dominance. It joined the Atlantic Ocean and the great lakes and created a wide economic domination for New York City. This paper makes a conclusion that in the late twentieth century, majority of New York workers secured employment in the new telecommunication and high technology industries. Businessmen continued to establish small companies and industries while former ones collapsed. New policies were adopted and the dramatic urban improvement helped reduce the rate of crime and urban poverty. The city also became a cultural centre ranging from hip hop and rap music, the genre that increased in popularity until today. Television programmes increased as well as a centre for cable networks. National newspapers such as wall street journal and New York Times were born. New York became a leading market in offering financial services such as banking, stock market, and investment banking.

Trends Executive Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Trends Executive Memo - Essay Example Further, technology will assist in the collection of evidence for use in courts, and in surveillance of correction centers to reduce the breakout incidences that have been on the rise. This is a major step into the future which ought to happen soon. However, serious planning and strategizing is necessary before taking the steps (NRC-US, 2002). Partnership between the state and private security agencies will be enhanced. This will ensure that security information is shared as received from the public and actions taken in a team fashion. The correction department in the country has experienced a number of challenges. Besides the increased breakouts, it has been noted that many inmates get connected to the outside ‘friends’ through the help of the wardens (Gingrich & Worthington, 2013. Pg. 365). This has to stop. Every correction center must have installed surveillance system to monitor activities within (Priest & Arkin, 2011, pg. 76). These systems, from all centers, will be channeled to the head office surveillance department in real-time. The future of the security is that collaborative units will work together to ensure that the public is secure. Further, technological innovations will replace the manual entries and surveillance making the work easier to execute and monitor (Evans, Martin & Poatsy, 2005. pg. 245). Each of the departments will, therefore, perform their mandate with connectivity and collaboration rather than

How to Become a Straight a Student Essay Example for Free

How to Become a Straight a Student Essay Introduction â€Å"My friends always wondered why I was never in the library, but instead in the student center socializing, or at a party, or at an event. They said I made it ‘all look so easy. ’† Anna, a straight-A college student This is not your average college study guide. Unlike the titles next to it on the shelf, none of the advice presented here was devised by professors or self-proclaimed academic skills experts. I promise that you won’t find any mention of the Cornell note-taking method, mental map diagrams, or any other â€Å"optimal learning technique† crafted in an office or laboratory—environments far removed from the realities of typical college life. Instead, this book reveals—for the first time—the study habits used by real straight-A college students. All of the advice that follows was distilled from a series of interviews I conducted with a large group of top-scoring undergraduates. These participants were drawn predominantly from the Phi Beta Kappa rolls of some of the country’s most rigorous colleges and universities—including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Amherst, and Skidmore—and they were carefully chosen to represent a wide variety of academic concentrations. In each interview, I asked the student to detail his or her study habits. The questions ranged from the general (â€Å"How do you defeat the urge to procrastinate? †) to the specific (â€Å"What techniques or systems do you use to locate and organize sources for a research paper? †). If the questionnaire revealed the student to be a grind—someone who earns high grades simply by studying an excessive amount—I discarded the responses. I was interested only in students who improved their grades through smarter, more efficient study skills—not through longer hours and more painful study sessions. How did I know such students existed? I am one of them. When I arrived as a freshman at Dartmouth College, I had no idea how to prepare for exams or write college-level papers. Like most students, I left high school believing that to study meant to reread your class notes and assignments as many times as possible and that paper writing required you to sit down in front of your computer and start typing until you finished. The problem, however, is that college is not high school. The material to be mastered is much more complicated and the professors have higher expectations. In the college environment, simple brute force study methods can end up requiring a lot of time and causing a lot of pain. Nevertheless, most students still rely on them. And this is why they find themselves regularly pulling all-nighters and developing an antagonistic attitude toward their courses. The taxing effects and spotty success of these methods also underlie the common belief that only geniuses and grinds can score top grades. When I first entered college, I shared in these beliefs. But soon I became dubious. It didn’t take long for me to decide that there had to be a better way to learn the material. The results of my studying using simple techniques varied widely—I’d spend all night hacking away at an essay and end up scoring a B-, or give what I thought was a frantic last-minute review for a quiz and score an A. I constantly felt like I was behind in my reading, and there always seemed to be new deadlines on the horizon that I had to scramble to meet. It was truly a chaotic existence. But when I looked around, all of my friends seemed to be having the same experience—and none of them seemed willing to question it. This didn’t sit right with me. I wasn’t content to work in long, painful stretches and then earn only slightly above-average grades for my efforts. I wanted to be exceptional. And I wanted to achieve this without having to sacrifice sleep or my social life. To many students, such a goal may sound hopelessly hubristic. But I’m an optimist by nature, and, observing the sorry state of my current study skills, I was convinced that I could do better. It took me most of my freshman year to construct, through repeated experimentation, a toolbox of sufficiently improved study habits. But once I had perfected them, the results were profound. Of the thirty-six courses I took between my sophomore and senior years of college, I scored exactly one A- and 35 perfect As. The most stunning piece of this transformation, however, was how much less time I had to spend on studying. As my strategies became more refined, the hours required were reduced. By my senior year it got to the point where, during finals periods, I would sometimes pretend to be heading off to the library just so I wouldn’t demoralize my roommates, who were preparing for yet another grim all-nighter. What was my secret? Efficiency. The simple truth is that the brute force techniques used by most students are incredibly inefficient. When it comes to exam preparation, passive review is not an effective way to learn complicated concepts. It’s also mentally draining, which further diminishes the rate at which you can absorb and internalize information. For paper writing, this same problem holds. When you approach the task without proper preparation, it becomes incredibly tiring and you can end up spinning your wheels. After a while, even the formation of coherent sentences becomes difficult and time intensive. In contrast, the techniques I came up with were so streamlined that I could learn more material than my classmates and actually spend less time studying. By eliminating stupid habits and wasted effort, I transformed exam prep and paper writing from a dreaded chore to a targeted activity. For a while, I was convinced that I was unique for having discovered such a smart approach to learning. But, alas, this illusion was soon shattered. It occurred during the winter of my senior year, when I was attending a ceremony celebrating my induction, along with thirty other classmates, into Phi Beta Kappa. This group represented, more or less, the thirty students with the highest G. P. A. s out of my class of over a thousand. Accordingly, I had arrived at the venue prepared to spend the evening with some serious nerds. As it turns out, however, I was in for a surprise. Upon walking through the door that night, I was immediately struck by how many of the other students I knew socially. These were people who, given their level of visibility on campus, I never would have imagined were scoring straight As. They were magazine editors, frat boys, and crunchy environmentalists. I knew them from parties and campus clubs and through mutual friends. They were, for the most part, normal, well-rounded, and interesting—not at all the type of super-grind one might assume would occupy such an elite level of academic achievement. The lesson of that night was obvious: Perhaps I was not, in fact, as unique as I had first imagined. Maybe there were others out there who had discovered similar secrets to academic success. The writer instincts in me soon took over. Fascinated to know exactly how these seemingly normal students had done so well, I sent all of my fellow Phi Beta Kappas a survey about their study habits. Most were happy to share their methods and I quickly confirmed that my suspicions were true. Not only were many of them using innovative, homegrown study strategies, but many of these strategies were surprisingly similar to those that I had developed during the previous few years. At the time I had just finished editing the manuscript for my first book, How to Win at College, so I wasn’t exactly eager to get started right away with another massive writing project. But after seeing these initial survey responses, I knew I had stumbled onto something big. While most college students toil arduously through the study and paper-writing processes, there exists an elite group of undergrads who have discovered unconventional strategies for earning much higher grades in much less time. I wanted to share these secrets with other students, and thus the idea for this book was born. Soon I was sending out more questionnaires to more straight-A students at colleges around the country, until I gathered enough responses, from students with enough different backgrounds and majors, to distill the advice presented in this guide. In the pages that follow, you will discover the details of these often surprising study strategies. I’ve included examples and case studies throughout the book to demonstrate how to apply the advice in many different reallife academic situations. You will learn how to: †¢ Manage your time and deal with the urge to procrastinate. †¢ Take targeted notes in class. †¢ Handle reading assignments and problem sets with ease. †¢ Prepare efficiently for exams. †¢ Master the art of exam-taking. †¢ Write incisive critical analysis essays. †¢ Conduct thorough research. †¢ Write standout term papers. Remember, this advice comes from real students and was honed, through trial and error, in real college classrooms. This distinction is important. It’s what separates this book from the many existing study guides that sit next to it on the bookstore shelf. As mentioned, most study guides are written either by professors or academic skills experts, many years separated from their own college experience. The result is that the authors of these guides are disconnected from the realities of undergraduate life. For example, How to Study, by college professors Allan Mundsack, James Deese, and Ellin K. Deese, suggests that students wake up at 7 A. M. each morning, go to sleep by 11 P. M. each night, and on many days schedule only a single hour of â€Å"recreation,† with the rest of the time dedicated to attending class, eating, or working. One gets the feeling that these professors haven’t spent much time socializing with students lately. Even their plan for Friday—the biggest party night of the week—has the student working until 10 P. M. , taking a one-hour break, then turning in by eleven. Student Success Secrets, written by Eric Jensen, a learning expert and professional public speaker, offers equally out-of-touch suggestions. His tips to help you remember concepts learned from a reading assignment include â€Å"put it in a picture or poster—use intense colors,† â€Å"act out the material or do a fun role play in your own room,† or â€Å"create or redo a song; make a rap. † Just try to imagine a sophisticated liberal arts major attempting to make a rap about her recent reading assignment concerning post-structuralist interpretations of pre-Victorian English literature! (Key question: What word rhymes with â€Å"Foucault†? ) The granddaddy of all unrealistic study guides, however, just might be What Smart Students Know, by Princeton Review cofounder Adam Robinson. In this best-selling guide, Robinson suggests—and I swear I am not making this up—that students approach a reading assignment as a twelve-step process! That’s right, twelve separate steps. Before you even crack the actual assignment, Robinson suggests that you jot down questions about the importance of the reading and then take notes on what you know about the topic, what it reminds you of, and what you want to learn. He then asks you, among other things, to read the assignment a total of three separate times, write and then rewrite your notes, represent the information in picture form, construct â€Å"question charts,† and devise mnemonics to help you memorize the concepts. Needless to say, this approach to a simple reading assignment is humorously unrealistic. I even did a little math. For a typical college-level liberal arts course, a student might be assigned an average of two hundred pages of reading a week. In his book, Robinson provides a one-page sample reading and describes twenty-three different questions that students might ask about it. At this rate of twenty-three questions per page, spending thirty seconds on each query, we would end up spending around forty hours a week (i. e. , a full-time job’s worth of time) simply completing one of the twelve steps on the reading assignments for just one class. Sounds like a great plan! These examples highlight the simple truth that the advice in most existing study guides—written by â€Å"experts,† not students—is often impractical and time consuming. How to Become a Straight-A Student, on the other hand, is the first guide based on the experiences of real college students, and it was written to provide an alternative to the other titles on the market. In the pages that follow, you will find homegrown strategies that are compatible with the demands of your day-to-day student life. They may not be as elaborate as the intricate systems devised by the â€Å"experts,† but they’re easy to implement—and they get the job done. Best of all, when you start putting these strategies into practice, you will experience immediate results. Keep in mind: If you find a piece of advice that doesn’t quite fit your needs or circumstances, that’s okay. In fact, you should expect this. Each of the students I interviewed for this book had his or her own unique take on the best way to study. Follow their lead and, when stuck, experiment. Replace techniques you don’t like with ones that seem better. If these new techniques work, keep them; if they fail, replace them with something else. The key to improving your grades without becoming a grind cannot be found in any single study habit. It is, instead, rooted in the big picture decision to reject rote review once and for all and begin the flexible search for strategies that work better for you. Above all, remember that college is a multifaceted experience, of which grades are just one of many important pieces. It’s my hope that this book will help you painlessly conquer this one piece so you can have more time and energy to explore all of the others—the friends, the unburdened idealism, the heroic beer consumption—that make these four years so rich. A common complaint I hear from students is that they never seem to have enough time to finish all of their work. They vent about how many hours they spend—late nights reviewing in the library, weekends sacrificed to paper writing—but no matter how hard they try, there always seems to be something else due. As Matthew, a straight-A student from Brown, explains, it’s easy for college students to become â€Å"stuck in a state of permanent catch-up. † Understandably, these students feel like they have reached their academic limit; they believe that unless they forgo sleep or any semblance of a social life, there are simply not enough hours in the day to stay on top of all their schoolwork. Let’s start by getting one thing clear: This belief is false. The problem here is not the amount of available hours, but rather how each hour is spent. I know this from firsthand experience. While researching this book, I spent time with some of the country’s most accomplished students, and I can assure you that no matter how diligent you think you are, there is a Rhodes scholar out there who fits in three times the amount of work and activities you do and probably still manages to party harder than you would ever dare. I don’t mean to imply that everyone should aim to become a drunken Rhodes scholar (though it would certainly be fun to try); rather, my point is that a surprising amount of work, relaxation, and socializing can be extracted from a single twelve-hour day. A lack of time, therefore, isn’t enough to explain why so many students feel overwhelmed. So what does explain this phenomenon? The answer, as it turns out, has much more to do with how we work than what we’re trying to accomplish. As humans, our minds have evolved to prefer short-term tasks such as â€Å"run away from that lion† or â€Å"eat food. † Therefore, when you walk into the library on a Sunday morning with the goal of finishing all of your homework and writing a paper, your brain isn’t happy. The idea of spending eight consecutive hours trapped in a study carrel is dispiriting. Plus, it’s hard to focus for that long, so pretty soon fatigue will set in, your concentration will wander, and every distraction will suddenly seem impossibly appealing. Before you know it, the day will be over and you’ll realize that you haven’t accomplished much productive work at all. The next day, new assignments will pile onto those you didn’t finish on Sunday, and the tedious process starts all over again. Jason, a straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania, uses the term â€Å"pseudo-working† to describe this common approach to studying. The pseudo-worker looks and feels like someone who is working hard—he or she spends a long time in the library and is not afraid to push on late into the night—but, because of a lack of focus and concentration, doesn’t actually accomplish much. This bad habit is endemic on most college campuses. For example, at Dartmouth there was a section of the main library that was open twenty-four hours a day, and the students I used to see in there late at night huddled in groups, gulping coffee and griping about their hardships, were definitely pseudo-working. The roommate who flips through her chemistry notes on the couch while watching TV is pseudo-working. The guy who brings three meals, a blanket, and six-pack of Red Bull to the study lounge in preparation for an all-day paper-writing marathon is also pseudo-working. By placing themselves in distracting environments and insisting on working in long tedious stretches, these students are crippling their brain’s ability to think clearly and efficiently accomplish the task at hand. The result is fatigue headaches and lackluster outcomes. The bigger problem here is that most students don’t even realize that they’re pseudo-working. To them pseudo-work is work—it’s how they’ve always done it, and it’s how all of their friends do it. It never crosses their mind that there might be a better way. Straight-A students, on the other hand, know all about pseudo-work. They fear it, and for good reason. It not only wastes time, but it’s also mentally draining. There is just no way to be wellbalanced, happy, and academically successful if you’re regularly burning through your free hours in long, painful stretches of inefficient studying. The students I interviewed for this book emphasized again and again the importance of avoiding this trap. In fact, when asked what one skill was most important in becoming a non-grind straight-A student, most of them cited the ability to get work done quickly and with a minimum of wasted effort. So how do these students achieve this goal? A big part of the solution is timing—they gain efficiency by compressing work into focused bursts. To understand the power of this approach, consider the following simple formula: work accomplished = time spent x intensity of focus Pseudo-work features a very low intensity of focus. Therefore, to accomplish something by pseudo-working, you need to spend a lot of time. The straight-A approach, on the other hand, maximizes intensity in order to minimize time. For example, let’s rank intensity on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most intense). Assume it takes ten hours to finish studying for a test by pseudo-working with a low intensity score of 3. According to our formula, this same amount of work can be accomplished in only three one-hour bursts, each with an intensity of 10. The work that took you all day Sunday to complete could instead be finished by studying an hour after breakfast, an hour after lunch, and an hour after dinner—the rest of the day being free for you to relax! With this formula in mind, you can begin to understand why many straight-A students actually study less than their classmates: They replace long, low-intensity stretches of work with a small number of short, high-intensity sessions. Of course, this is not the whole story behind their success; what straight-A students actually do in these short bursts is also crucial—technique is just as important as timing. Part Two (Quizzes and Exams) and Part Three (Essays and Papers) of this book are dedicated to these technical details. But learning how to follow an efficient schedule, and banishing pseudo-work from your college experience for good, is a crucial first step toward your academic overhaul. To accomplish this transformation, however, you will need to gain control over your lifestyle—and that’s often no small task. For example, you will need to spread out the intense work sessions so that you have time in between to recharge. This requires basic time-management skills. You’re also going to have to overcome your urge to procrastinate, because scheduling your work is meaningless if you don’t actually work in the time you set aside. This requires self-motivation. Finally, to obtain the highest possible levels of intensity, you need to choose the right locations, times of day, and durations to study. If you aren’t careful about how you select these three factors, you can unintentionally sabotage your ability to focus. This requires a smart planning strategy. Part One will teach you how to satisfy these requirements. It begins with the presentation of a simple timemanagement system, customized for the busy college lifestyle. Don’t be frightened, the system is incredibly lightweight—it’s designed to require only five minutes a day of planning and can survive periods of neglect. Part One then continues with a collection of battle-tested strategies to help you fight procrastination. This advice comes straight from the experiences of real students and has been proven to work amid the chaos and distractions of the typical undergraduate lifestyle—it is simple, easy to apply, and surprisingly effective. This part concludes with a discussion of when during the day, where on campus, and for how long to study to maximize your productivity. The students interviewed for this book experimented extensively to find the right answers to these key questions, and, in this final step, I pass these answers on to you. Together, these basic skills are the foundation upon which all the advice in this book is built. Without them, you’ll be unable to implement the specific study techniques described in the parts that follow. Master them, however, and you will experience improvements in all aspects of your life—not just grades. You’ll have more free time, you’ll get the sleep you crave, you’ll party harder, and you’ll be able to devote more energy to your extracurricular interests. So relax. You are about to take your first step toward a much more enjoyable and productive college experience. Step 1. Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a Day Real straight-A students, like most reasonable students, hate time management. After all, college is supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, making new friends, and becoming obsessed with needlessly complicated drinking games. An overwhelming interest in time management is best left to harried business executives (or, perhaps, premeds). At the same time, however, you can’t abandon all attempts to keep tabs on your schedule. As mentioned in the introduction to Part One, all of the techniques described in this book require some ability to control your schedule. Ignore this skill, and you doom yourself to four long years of playing catch-up with your work. As Doris, a straight-A student from Harvard, states: â€Å"Time management is critical—it’s a skill that you absolutely must develop over the course of your time at college. † Most students, however, misunderstand the purpose of time management—they believe it’s used only to cram as much work as possible into the day. But this is not the main motivation behind controlling your schedule. As it turns out, a little planning goes a long way toward reducing your daily stress levels. Having deadlines and  obligations floating around in your mind is exhausting—it makes it impossible to completely relax, and, over time, can lead you down the path toward a breakdown. However, once you figure out what work needs to be done and when, it’s like a weight being lifted from your shoulders. The uncertainty vanishes: When you work, you can fully concentrate on the assignment in front of you, and when you relax, you can do so without any anxiety. â€Å"I don’t believe in giving up anything,† says Jenna, a straight-A student from Princeton. â€Å"Not my social life, not my extracurricular activities, not my academic success. † Basic control over your schedule breeds balance. This is why time management, as Doris stated earlier, is the key to getting the most out of all aspects of your college experience. The goal of Step #1 is to present a time-management system that helps you achieve this stress-free balance without requiring you to sacrifice the spontaneity and excitement of college. Specifically, we present a system tailored to the typical undergraduate lifestyle that meets the following criteria: 1. Requires no more than five to ten minutes of effort in a single twenty-four-hour period. 2. Doesn’t force an unchangeable minute-by-minute schedule on your day. 3. Helps you remember, plan, and complete important tasks before the very last moment. 4. Can be quickly restarted after periods of neglect. We will cover the details of this system in a few simple steps and then conclude with a detailed case study so you can see how it works in a realistic setting. What You Need This system requires two pieces of equipment. 1. A calendar: It doesn’t matter what type of calendar, and it’s not something that you have to carry around with you. It can be Microsoft Outlook or iCal on your computer, a cheap day planner, or one of those advertisement-laden freebies they hand out at orientation. It just has to be something that you can reference every morning that has enough space to record at least a dozen items for each day. 2. A list: Some piece of writing material that you can update throughout the day. This you do have to carry around with you, so make it something simple, like a sheet of paper ripped out of a notebook each morning. The Basic Idea Record all of your to-dos and deadlines on your calendar. This becomes your master schedule, the one place that stores everything you need to do. The key to our system, however, is that you need to deal with your calendar only once every twenty-four hours. Each morning, you look at it to figure out what you should try to finish that day. Then, throughout the day, whenever you encounter a new to-do or deadline, simply jot it down on your list. The next morning, you can transfer this new stuff from your list onto your calendar, where it’s safe. And we’re back where we started. That’s it. Pretty simple, right? The whole system can be summarized in three easy steps: (1) Jot down new tasks and assignments on your list during the day; (2) next morning, transfer these new items from your list onto your calendar; and (3) then take a couple of minutes to plan your day. Now, we’ll examine these steps in a little more detail. In particular, we need some strategies for how to plan your day each morning using your calendar and what to do when unexpected events interfere and turn that plan upside down (trust me, this will happen more often than not). Update Your Calendar Each Morning This is where the magic happens. Every morning, spend a few minutes to update your calendar and figure out what you should try to accomplish. This is the only serious time-management thinking you have to do for the whole day, so the demand is pretty reasonable. This updating process should proceed as follows: Find your list from the day before. It will probably look something like the example described in Figure 1. Don’t worry too much about how this list is formatted; we will discuss that shortly. For now, focus on the â€Å"things to remember† column, which contains the new to-dos and deadlines that were jotted down throughout the day. Figure 1. Sample List Tuesday—1/24/06 Today’s Schedule †¢ 10:00 to 12:00 Econ class †¢ 12:00 to 1:00 Lunch with Rob †¢ 1:00 to 1:45 Government reading †¢ 2:00 to 4:00 Government class †¢ 4:00 to 5:30 Finish government reading. †¢ 5:30 to 6:30 Start French essay Things to Remember †¢ Econ study group, Thur. at 9 P. M. †¢ French quiz moved to Friday. †¢ Laundry †¢ Start researching summer internship opportunities. Transfer these new items onto your calendar. Write the deadlines on the appropriate dates, and write the todos on the days when you plan to complete them. Following the example of our sample list, you would first jot down the econ study group time under Thursday’s date and the French quiz under Friday’s date. You would then choose a day to do laundry and jot down a reminder under that date, and choose a day to start internship research and  jot down a reminder under this date . You can move these items around on your calendar as many times as you want, so don’t worry too much about which date you initially choose for a new to-do. However, try to use some common sense. For example, if Wednesday afternoon and evening are packed with meetings and work, this might not be the best day to schedule doing your laundry. Similarly, if you have a big test Monday morning, don’t schedule a lot of annoying errands for Sunday; you’ll need your concentration for studying. If something is not especially time sensitive, such as the internship research example from above, don’t be afraid to put it on a day far in the future, at a point when you know you will be less busy—such as right after midterms or at the beginning of a new semester. Next, move the to-dos that you planned for yesterday, but didn’t complete, to new days on your calendar. In our sample list from Figure 1, the Today’s Schedule column describes to-dos planned from the day before. As you can see, in this example, all the to-dos were completed except the â€Å"Start French essay† task, so you would need to move this task to a new date. At this point, your calendar once again holds everything that you need to get done. Now it’s time to figure out your plan for the current day. Go ahead and trash yesterday’s list—it’s served its purpose—and grab a fresh sheet of paper to use as today’s list. Divide it into two columns, as shown in Figure 1, and label them Today’s Schedule and Things to Remember, respectively. Next, look at the calendar entry for the current day. It will probably contain a handful of appointments and todos. Your goal is to figure out how much of this work you can realistically accomplish. You might be tempted to simply copy all of these tasks into your Today’s Schedule column and then treat it as a simple to-do list for the day. Don’t do this! If you want to avoid getting overwhelmed by your work, you need to be smarter about your time. Here is what you should do instead: Try to label each of your to-dos for the day with a specific time period during which you are going to complete it. Be honest. Don’t record that you are going to study for three hours starting at three if you know that you have a meeting at five. And be reasonable about how long things really take—don’t plan to read two hundred pages in one hour. For simplicity, group many little tasks (errands that take less than ten minutes) into one big block (for example: â€Å"10:00 to 10:45—mail letter, return library book, buy new deodorant, fill out transcript request form at registrar†). Leave plenty of time for breaks. Give yourself an hour for meals, not twenty minutes. And, if possible, end your day at an appropriate hour; don’t try to fit in work right up until sleep time because you need to be able to unwind and relax. In general—though it may seem counterintuitive—be pessimistic. The truth is: Things will come up. Don’t assume that every hour that looks free in the morning will stay free throughout the day. Remember, the goal here is not to squeeze everything into one day at all costs, but rather to find out how many of the tasks listed for the day you actually have time to accomplish. If you can’t fit all the to-dos into your schedule for the day, no problem! Simply move the remaining items onto the calendar entries for future dates. You can deal with them later. Your final step is to record the tasks you will have time for into the Today’s Schedule column of your list. As shown in Figure 1, label each task with its time. That’s it. You can now reference your list throughout the day to remind yourself of what you should be doing and when. But here’s the important point: The specific times on your schedule aren’t set in stone—they’re more of a suggestion. As we will discuss shortly, you will be free to move tasks around throughout the day, depending on your energy level and unexpected events that may arise.

The Lottery and A Good Man Is Hard to Find Analysis

The Lottery and A Good Man Is Hard to Find Analysis Fiction/Short Story Essay In both of the short stories, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor, both authors use characterization, character names, and symbolism to portray their characters values and beliefs and their strengths and weaknesses in a similar yet different matter. The characters names and symbols in each story support the theme of each story that they were created in. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor seemed to use the more modern for the time the book was written and basic description of evil-good people who face the wrath of a disturbed man for no reason. The story was far more complex than just its description of evil, and was interesting in many ways, but not so much interesting in its depiction of the evil character. Overall, Id say the story supported traditional thoughts about what a disturbed character was, the Misfit, someone who was a criminal and who killed those who crossed him with little to no reason. The Misfit can be seen as more evil if one looks at the story more literally and to a deeper point, understanding the grandmother as his actual biological mother. However, this would mostly serve to support the nature of the disturbed characters that already exists. A person who would kill his own mother for any reason would likely fit into anyones classical definition of disturbed. The main disturbed characters in this sho rt story are: The Grandmother and the Misfit. The Grandmother is the manipulator in the story, she doesnt want to go to Florida because shes got relatives to see in Tennessee and seizing at every chance to change Baileys mind. (OConnor 567). To try and gets her way, she trying to scare her son with reports of a criminal on the loose and guilt trip him about taking his children there. This is said by the grandmother: Just you read it. I wouldnt take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldnt answer to my conscience if I did. (OConnor 567). With the Misfit, he was the mysterious criminal who had run into the family and killed them all as he assumed that they were in his way of escaping. His moment of zenith was him saying: I found out the crime dont matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later youre going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it (OConnor 578). Th e symbols in the story are the Misfits car, the dark forest, and the cloudless, sunless sky; each of these foreshadowed the events of death were to come. I didnt see The Lottery by Shirley Jackson as portraying a disturbed character, but more as disturbing ways in their society. While there were sinful deeds being done, it would be nearly impossible to pin them on any modern individuals in the story, and therefore is slightly different from the other story that we have read and discussed. However, the evil is presented as taking the lives of innocents, a common theme wherever evil is presented. The main characters in this story are: Tessie Hutchinson, Old Man Warner, Mr. Summers, Bill Hutchinson, and Mr. Harry Graves. Tessie was the unlucky one of the drawing and was stoned to death, she is a type of hypocrite in the story. That she is excited to participate in the lottery, but objects when her family name is called, it is now unfair. As shouted by Tessie to her husband: Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. You didnt give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasnt fair! (Jackson 6) Mr. Warner was the oldest, and declare that this prevents the barbaric state from returning to the village. Mr. Graves helps with the lottery, as well as Mr. Summers assisting in the ritual. The symbols in this story are: The lottery as the main importance of the day as it is meant to be as a human sacrifice to the higher beings, the black box as to symbolize the choice as to who will die today, the stool could represent the holy trinity, and the stones as a way to generate a crowd to come and watch and/or participate. The Lottery had started as a way to sacrifice for a good growing season, but soon became a routine in their daily lives annually. Both of these stories have similar thematic connections within them to match up with the Southern Gothic genera, as defined as disturbed people doing disturbing things. Jackson and OConnor use central characters to show how men have the power to misrepresent reality into something the people accept into everyday life as a tradition in The Lottery said in the story they half listened to the directions, (Jackson 4) and in A Good Man Is Hard to Find the character, Misfit, does not remember why he was locked up, but killed the family to save them from sinning again in order to keep up his mind straight. Both stories were shocking in their grade of disturbing and callousness, and I agree with both authors representation of the nature of disturbing and the way people respond to it. In both of the short stories, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor, both authors use characterization, character names, and symbolism to portray their characters values and beliefs and their strengths and weaknesses in a similar yet different matter. In this way they show that years apart from each other, the Southern Gothic genera will remain the same. As for the similarities between all the characters in both short stories, they will remain the same and have fatal endings. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find it is a more traditional evil represented throughout, while in The Lottery it represent an evil and disturbed society they live in. Citation Page Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery PDF in Canvas. 1948 OConnor, Flannery A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Written Communications II: Reading,  Writing, Researching, Citing. Edited by Spencer Richardson-Jones. W.W. Norton and  Company, 2014. Pp. 567-590 OConnor, Flannery. A good man is hard to find. New Canadian Library, 2015. Jackson, Shirley. The lottery and other stories. Macmillan, 2005. Lohafer, Susan. The short story. The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945 (2012): 68.

Life Was Never the Same: The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on the Survivo

"The release of atomic energy has so changed everything that our former ways of thinking have been rendered obsolete. We therefore face catastrophe unheard of in former times. If mankind is to survive, then we need a completely new way of thinking." ~Albert Einstein Life Was Never the Same: The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on the Survivors In August of 1945, the world changed forever with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lives of millions were shattered in a few seconds as the bombs demolished their homes and murdered their family members. Never has one incident in history affected such a great number of people for so many years. Today, the Japanese are still feeling the effects of the dropping of the atomic bombs. With the marking of the fifty-year anniversary in 1995, the dreadful scars still remain in the bodies and the hearts of those who were present in 1945. The radiation emitted from the atomic bombs caused numerous growth disorders, many psychological and social effects along with a drastic increase in leukemia and breast cancer that affected many innocent civilians. Many scientists were interested in accessing the damage done by the atomic bombs; therefore, surveys began immediately after the bombings. Military agencies and scientists from various universities designed the first surveys. Americans felt it was necessary to investigate the effects of the atomic bomb, so President Truman established the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in 1946. Its major goal was to obtain survey samples that reflected the actual conditions of the exposed and it was responsible for many studies including the Adult Health Study and the Life Span Study.1 The commission did not disband until 1974 ... ... Notes 1. Ishikawa, Eisei, David L. Swain, trans. The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ed., Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1981), 510-512. 2. Historical Background Relating to Relocation of the Radiation Effect Research Foundation (RERF), http://www.1amesh.ne.jp/usui-n/radiante.htm (1 November 1999). 3. Eisei, 222-230, 450-52. 4. Eisei, 14. 5. Eisei, 449. 6. Frank. W. Chinnock, Nagasaki: The Forgotten Bomb (New York: New American Library, 1969), 297. 7. Eisei, 259. 8. Radiation Effects Research Foundation, http://www.rerf.or.jp/eigo/experhp/rerfhome.htm (1 November 1999). 9. Eisei, 186-210. 10. Eisei, 489-90.

Letter to Frank in Eveline Essay -- essays research papers

Dear Frank,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  You have made the biggest difference in my life in so many ways. Ever since my mother died, I have had a tough time getting along with things. You helped me liberate myself, from all the troubles that I know of. How you help me from day to day is priceless and I want you to never forget how much I care about you. You know that our relationship has been stressed on a little because of my father’s relentless attempt to put an end to it. I want you to remember that we did continue to see each other because we know that he is wrong for trying to keep us apart and that we do mean a lot to each other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When we decided together to go away and leave everything we know of behind, I felt a bit nostalgic of the idea. I know that I am supposed to be there with you now, but I couldn’t come and I want to explain myself. This whole idea of getting married and moving away came quite quick. You are usually always sailing everywhere, and don’t have too much care for responsibility. Now you want to settle down right away, which befuddles me. I know you want to be with me and mean good, and I the same, but there are other things I must think of in all of this. Another possible problem is your tendency to spend all your money in one shot. We have to learn together to grow and be more responsible if we are to make a big change like getting married, not to mention moving away. You know that wh...

Maturation in Bless Me, Ultima Essay -- essays research papers

In Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya defends the assertion, â€Å"for in much wisdom there is much grief, and increase of knowledge is increase of sorrow,† from Ecclesiastes. Tony endures many trials throughout the novel, therefore increasing his knowledge of life but also increasing his grief and sorrow. After witnessing Lupito’s death, Tony realizes that people are not always what they appear to be. Tony also begins to question his religion because of trials in the novel, some of which include Lucas’ cure and the sighting of the golden carp. In his trek during the blizzard, Tony learns of his brother’s sinful doings and he witnesses the death of a good man. Tony gains much knowledge in these scenes, but, unfortunately, with this knowledge comes grief. Lupito’s death marks the first scene in the novel in which Tony’s grief is a direct consequence of his knowledge. Tony’s naivetà © causes him to take people at their face value, not realizing that they may not be as they seem. Narciso is the town drunk, yet he is the only man on the bridge that maintains his common sense. â€Å"’I...

How to Take Care Your Hair

TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN COLLAGE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE & HUMANITIES CERTIFICATE IN MASS COMMUNICATION (PUBLIC RELATIONS) YEAR 2012/2013 AHCC1033 PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES FOR MASS COMMUNICATION COURSE WORK INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION NAME : LILY CHAN CHOY LI ID NO : 12AHC07160 CLASS : CPR TOPIC : HOW TO TAKE CARE YOUR HAIR MARKS ALLOCATION TABLE :Topic selected| /20%(marks are based on the topic’s difficulties and abilities to generate interests and curiosities among the audience)| DeliveryVoice ( /10%)Body language ( /10%)Eye contact & facial expression ( /10%)| /30%| Content of the speechIntroduction ( /5%)Body ( /5%)Conclusion ( /5%)Organization ( /5%)| /20%| Visual/ audio aids| /15%|Language| /15%| Total| /100%| Title: How to take care to your hair. Name: Lily Chan Choy Li General Purpose: To share Specific Purpose: To share 6 steps to take care your hair Time: 5 minutes 1. INTRODUCTION A. Have you always wanted that long, thick, shiny volumized bouncy hair? B. Although there are no magic tricks to quickly make your hair grows faster, you can try the following steps to get thicker and fuller hair fast.C. Hair is a part of our image, having a healthy and tidy hair really will give others a good impression. D. I will take about 5 to7 minutes to share with you 6 steps to take care your hair. 2. BODY/ CONTENT * I would like to begin with, Step 1-Visit the hairdressers. If you have any split ends, dead ends on your hair that look brittle and dry, visit the hairdressers as soon as possible! You have to cut your hair at least every six months. Your hair will not only look thicker but will look much healthier.Step 2- Use the suitable shampoo and conditioner. Go to your nearest beauty store and ask for a volumizing shampoo and conditioner. You should use conditioner because it will keep your hair healthy and shiny also de-tangled. *I already covered the step 1 and step 2, let’s move on to Step 3-Hair treatments. While you're buying your new shampoo, also ask for a few hair treatments to keep your hair shiny. A better choice is using natural ingredients like use egg yolk. Leave it in for 20-30 minutes and repeat twice a week.It will make your hair thicker and shinier. Step 4- If you blow dry your hair, do it upside down. It will make your hair thicker than usually. Put leave on conditioner before you blow dry your hair. It can protect your hair damage by the heat. *Ladies and gentlemen now I would like to continue with, Step 5-Relax and sleep about 7-8 hours in a day to make your hair grow faster. Factors like sleep deprivation and stress trend are often associated with the problem of hair loss. Step 6-Exercise regularly to improve circulation and metabolism, which aids n faster and thicker hair growth. While swimming, wear a cap to avoid damage due to chlorinated water of the pool. 3. CONCLUSION Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve come to the end of my talk. Let me sum up by saying that cut your hair at least every six months, choose a su itable shampoo and conditioner brands, , sleep and rest enough and get exercise, there are all the step to let you having a beautiful black hair. In conclusion, I hope you enjoy my presentation. Thanks for attention and spending precious time.

Symbolism – “My Antonia”

Literary device – Symbolism Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities: symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts. â€Å"There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made† (10). â€Å"In all that country it was the spot most dear to me† because when all of the land has been cleared for farming, this â€Å"island† where two roads meet is the only place where the tall prairie grass still grows undisturbed† (62). Even while we whispered about it, our vision disappeared; the ball dropped and dropped until the red tip went beneath the earth. The fields below us were dark, the sky was growing pale, and that forgotten plough had sunk back to its own littleness somewhere on the prairie† (50-51). Willa Cather My Antoni a In the book, My Antonia, Jim Burden finds himself an orphan leaving his beloved home to a new, stranger place. When he first arrives he observes the country and how different the surroundings are. Throughout the story Jim finally settles in and has a new friend, Antonia. Many things happen and soon we are mourning over the death of Mr.Shimerda. His death was a big event and effected Antonia and her family. Her family was forced to work three times harder to keep themselves alive. As you transition into book two, more conflicts are invited and new symbols. There are three main types of symbolism that are appealing to the eye. The first quote uses the prairie as a symbol of Jim’s friendship with Antonia during his childhood. It may also symbolize the immigrants and the vast size of the prairie. Which may suggest both the opportunity for a new life and the overwhelming fear that goes with trying to create a new life.The third quote is usually missed as a sign of symbolism. The gravesite is a remnant of the prairie in its purest form, and it symbolizes Antonia’s and Jim’s longing for the past. It is also unwelcoming and â€Å"the  sky cries as if in sorrow, and the elements in the new land are not friendly, just as they have not been welcoming to  Mr. Shimerda† (61). In the final quote the symbol is the plough. It symbolizes man’s â€Å"beautiful and harmonious† connection to the land. The imagery suggests Jim’s impending separation from Antonia and while Antonia remains on the prairie, Jim leaves for good. Willa Cather uses many examples of symbolism.The lighting is one that is seen in many books, such as Of Mice and Men and more. A vivid description of light shows every major change that occurs in the novel. For example, at the end of the novel, after Jim leaves Antonia for the last time, he stands alone on the prairie roads in â€Å"the slanting sunlight† and reflects on the â€Å"incommunicableâ₠¬  past he shared with Antonia. The light from the sun is setting and at this time Cather uses the light to show the ending to Jim and Antonia’s relationship. Symbolism in this novel is important in deciding the lives, actions, and moods of the characters.

If i were a millionaire short Essay

Everyone have dreams andand every dream is unlike with each others. Some of them want to be a teacher, and slightly of them want to be an astronaut, but for me, I have in interesting and marvelous dream. My dream is to become a millionaire. If I were a millionaire, would life have to change for me? Would I overhaul it every(prenominal) on myself and my family.But, how would I do that, I already have all that I want for a palmy and happy living, how and what would I add? Could then I be in a position to stand by others in need, with that money, as, with a million to spare, I could render a lot of help to several people in need. I shall invest few of my money in prize bonds, saving Certificates and the like. In this way I shall not yet hold fast benefit for Myself but besides help my pastoral in its development plans. Further, I shall clear schools and colleges that will realize free education with Board and populate to poor students. I shall Set out on a world tour to know about the living conditions and springer of different nations. It will give me first hand knowledge slightly life in other countries.  I would spend all this money as my contribution towards mans rudimentary needs. Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers! A storehouse of knowledge would be constructed in the excogitate of a public library, at the doors of which, poor people would get free education. It will contain a large fleck of valuable and rare books. It would help in making the poor, moralistic and self reliant. This library would have books which, besides knowledge, would also give the readers insight into their behaviors. I would also start for the poor only some vocational centres where they would be taught skills by virtue of which, they would, at a later stage be able to get a livelihood. The plight of the poor sick in our country is absolutely heart rending. I would like to ensure give-and-take of  the urban poor in good, well established hospitals. This would be financed by me for at least a few patients.

Deception Point Page 69

â€Å"I'll come to your office.† â€Å"No,† she said hurriedly. â€Å"It's late. Your presence here would raise concerns. I'd prefer to keep this matter between us.† Pickering read between the lines. The President knows nothing about this. â€Å"You're welcome to come here,† he said. Tench sounded distrusting. â€Å"Let's meet somewhere discreet.† Pickering had expected as much. â€Å"The FDR Memorial is convenient to the White House,† Tench said. â€Å"It will be empty at this time of night.† Pickering considered it. The FDR Memorial sat midway between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, in an extremely safe part of town. After a long beat, Pickering agreed. â€Å"One hour,† Tench said, signing off. â€Å"And come alone.† Immediately upon hanging up, Marjorie Tench phoned NASA administrator Ekstrom. Her voice was tight as she relayed the bad news. â€Å"Pickering could be a problem.† 81 Gabrielle Ashe was brimming with new hope as she stood at Yolanda Cole's desk in the ABC production room and dialed directory assistance. The allegations Sexton had just conveyed to her, if confirmed, had shocking potential. NASA lied about PODS? Gabrielle had seen the press conference in question and recalled thinking it was odd, and yet she'd forgotten all about it; PODS was not a critical issue a few weeks ago. Tonight, however, PODS had become the issue. Now Sexton needed inside information, and he needed it fast. He was relying on Gabrielle's â€Å"informant† to get the information. Gabrielle had assured the senator she would do her best. The problem, of course, was that her informant was Marjorie Tench, who would be no help at all. So Gabrielle would have to get the information another way. â€Å"Directory assistance,† the voice on the phone said. Gabrielle told them what she needed. The operator came back with three listings for a Chris Harper in Washington. Gabrielle tried them all. The first number was a law firm. The second had no answer. The third was now ringing. A woman answered on the first ring. â€Å"Harper residence.† â€Å"Mrs. Harper?† Gabrielle said as politely as possible. â€Å"I hope I haven't woken you?† â€Å"Heavens no! I don't think anyone's asleep tonight.† She sounded excited. Gabrielle could hear the television in the background. Meteorite coverage. â€Å"You're calling for Chris, I assume?† Gabrielle's pulse quickened. â€Å"Yes, ma'am.† â€Å"I'm afraid Chris isn't here. He raced off to work as soon as the President's address was over.† The woman chuckled to herself. â€Å"Of course, I doubt there's any work going on. Most likely a party. The announcement came as quite a surprise to him, you know. To everyone. Our phone's been ringing all night. I bet the whole NASA crew's over there by now.† â€Å"E Street complex?† Gabrielle asked, assuming the woman meant NASA headquarters. â€Å"Righto. Take a party hat.† â€Å"Thanks. I'll track him down over there.† Gabrielle hung up. She hurried out onto the production room floor and found Yolanda, who was just finishing prepping a group of space experts who were about to give enthusiastic commentary on the meteorite. Yolanda smiled when she saw Gabrielle coming. â€Å"You look better,† she said. â€Å"Starting to see the silver lining here?† â€Å"I just talked to the senator. His meeting tonight wasn't what I thought.† â€Å"I told you Tench was playing you. How's the senator taking the meteorite news?† â€Å"Better than expected.† Yolanda looked surprised. â€Å"I figured he'd jumped in front of a bus by now.† â€Å"He thinks there may be a snag in the NASA data.† Yolanda let out a dubious snort. â€Å"Did he see the same press conference I just saw? How much more confirmation and reconfirmation can anyone need?† â€Å"I'm going over to NASA to check on something.† Yolanda's penciled eyebrows raised in cautionary arches. â€Å"Senator Sexton's right-hand aide is going to march into NASA headquarters? Tonight? Can you say ‘public stoning'?† Gabrielle told Yolanda about Sexton's suspicion that the PODS section manager Chris Harper had lied about fixing the anomaly software. Yolanda clearly wasn't buying it. â€Å"We covered that press conference, Gabs, and I'll admit, Harper was not himself that night, but NASA said he was sick as a dog.† â€Å"Senator Sexton is convinced he lied. Others are convinced too. Powerful people.† â€Å"If the PODS anomaly-detection software wasn't fixed, how did PODS spot the meteorite?† Sexton's point exactly, Gabrielle thought. â€Å"I don't know. But the senator wants me to get him some answers.† Yolanda shook her head. â€Å"Sexton is sending you into a hornet's nest on a desperate pipe dream. Don't go. You don't owe him a thing.† â€Å"I totally screwed up his campaign.† â€Å"Rotten luck screwed up his campaign.† â€Å"But if the senator is right and the PODS section manager actually lied-â€Å" â€Å"Honey, if the PODS section manager lied to the world, what makes you think he'll tell you the truth.† Gabrielle had considered that and was already formulating her plan. â€Å"If I find a story over there, I'll call you.† Yolanda gave a skeptical laugh. â€Å"If you find a story over there, I'll eat my hat.† 82 Erase everything you know about this rock sample. Michael Tolland had been struggling with his own disquieting ruminations about the meteorite, but now, with Rachel's probing questions, he was feeling an added unease over the issue. He looked down at the rock slice in his hand. Pretend someone handed it to you with no explanation of where it was found or what it is. What would your analysis be? Rachel's question, Tolland knew, was loaded, and yet as an analytical exercise, it proved powerful. By discarding all the data he had been given on his arrival at the habisphere, Tolland had to admit that his analysis of the fossils was profoundly biased by a singular premise-that the rock in which the fossils were found was a meteorite. What if I had NOT been told about the meteorite? he asked himself. Although still unable to fathom any other explanation, Tolland allowed himself the leeway of hypothetically removing â€Å"the meteorite† as a pre-supposition, and when he did, the results were somewhat unsettling. Now Tolland and Rachel, joined by a groggy Corky Marlinson, were discussing the ideas. â€Å"So,† Rachel repeated, her voice intense, â€Å"Mike, you're saying that if someone handed you this fossilized rock with no explanation whatsoever, you would have to conclude it was from earth.† â€Å"Of course,† Tolland replied. â€Å"What else could I conclude? It's a far greater leap to assert you've found extraterrestrial life than it is to assert you've found a fossil of some previously undiscovered terrestrial species. Scientists discover dozens of new species every year.† â€Å"Two-foot-long lice?† Corky demanded, sounding incredulous. â€Å"You would assume a bug that big is from earth?† â€Å"Not now, maybe,† Tolland replied, â€Å"but the species doesn't necessarily have to be currently living. It's a fossil. It's 170 million years old. About the same age as our Jurassic. A lot of prehistoric fossils are oversized creatures that look shocking when we discover their fossilized remains-enormous winged reptiles, dinosaurs, birds.† â€Å"Not to be the physicist here, Mike,† Corky said, â€Å"but there's a serious flaw in your argument. The prehistoric creatures you just named-dinosaurs, reptiles, birds-they all have internal skeletons, which gives them the capability to grow to large sizes despite the earth's gravity. But this fossil†¦ † He took the sample and held it up. â€Å"These guys have exo skeletons. They're arthropods. Bugs. You yourself said that any bug this big could only have evolved in a low-gravity environment. Otherwise its outer skeleton would have collapsed under its own weight.†

Nordstrom Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nordstrom - Assignment Example Nordstrom, like other departmental stores has a central management in Downtown  Seattle,  Washington with stores spread in many other states. Another defining characteristic of Nordstrom as a departmental store is its high level of customer service, though this comes at a price, making Nordstrom products and services more expensive than in other retail outlets. Customer Service Nordstrom has cultivated a culture of full customer service whereby all the firm’s employees know the true meaning of putting customers first. First, important customers are identified, served well, and measures put in place to ensure they return over and over again to give Nordstrom business. The first measure is sparing no efforts to ensure that the customer leaves the premises with maximum satisfaction. In addition to acquiring goods, the customer gets high quality service utility. Secondly, business cards are exchanged between the customer and the sales person that they interact with. This ensur es that the sales person has complete control of this relationship that is free from interference by the management. This sales representative acts as the link between Nordstrom and its customers, with only a rule stating that the former uses their best judgement to ensure customer satisfaction. Another strategy for ensuring a long-term relationship in Nordstrom includes follow up calls on customers informing them of new products. In summary, Nordstrom identifies its customers and gives them undivided attention to ensure a thriving long-term business relationship. On the other hand, there is Target. Target is a business enterprise that does not provide much choice of products for customers. In addition, Target has been widely accused of poor customer service and its lack of concern for customer needs. In contrast to the expensive Nordstrom, Target sells designer merchandise at discount prices but there are stringent rules for their sales. For instance, Nordstrom exchanges goods for customers even if they did not sell the said goods but in Target, after three days, sales are not reversible. Nordstrom encourages its customers to do business with them while in Target a willing customer may get a hard time in an attempt to be served. Factors Contributing To Company Success Six managerial and positional components of service in Nordstrom ensure the survival in a highly competitive environment including the six P’s i.e. product, place, promotion, price, presentation, and personnel. First, on product, the firm only sells according to its customer requirements as Eric Nordstrom said that business has to go on even if only one shoe was in sale. Second is the place consideration whereby the management puts all possible factors including, gut feeling, into consideration before setting up a new business. Promotion is the third factor and Nordstrom uses the customers’ word-of-mouth as their main promotional vehicle, giving customers the best service and count ing on them to spread a good word about Nordstrom. The other factor is price and Nordstrom exploits the common belief that a higher price translates to higher quality of goods and services. Prices at Nordstrom are above normal. However, customers flood into the stores expecting premium quality service and Nordstrom does not disappoint. Presentation is the fifth strategy whereby products are presented just the way

Amazon's Kindle Fire Old and New 4 P's Research Paper

Amazon's Kindle Fire Old and New 4 P's - Research Paper Example With growing urge for portability, it was important that a product that offers the quality of a complete computer in a portable way be introduced and the computer responded to this squarely. Still on the product, the company was tactical to include in its new feature, services that were absent in the ordinary computer or laptop (Institute of Development Studies, 2012). By this, consumers had something new to buy the Kindle Fire to expect. On the factor of placement or place, it would be said that the computer placed itself so strategic by taking total advantage of web 2.0 and new media that it was virtually impossible for any computer and for that matter internet user to be out of place in terms of accessibility to the product. This is because the product was launched directly onto the internet to make online purchases possible. There were therefore no limitations in terms of place or location. The computer also used the power of social media to promote its product as advertisement and publicity of the product was all over the social networks and other digital media (Mangalindan, 2012). This way, users of social media, who are said to be the highest users of the internet, were made to thirst for owning one of the product. Finally, the Kindle Fire came onto the market as the cheapest tablet PC and this was an important competitive advantage as the product was introduced just around the time the world economy was recov ering from global economic shocks and thus consumers preferred value for money in their buying (Ovide, 2012). As the years went by, competition became tougher on the tablet PC market and so it was just right and appropriate that Amazon respond squarely to keep its place on the market for the Kindle Fire. For this reason, a market strategy that was more focused on internal structures and systems rather than external systems was instituted. This internal strategy took its source from

Project paper and Feasibility Paper Research Proposal

Project paper and Feasibility Paper - Research Proposal Example The primary independent variable is desire for social acceptance because drinking is such an important part of American society and all the social events and celebrations, that teenagers just can’t separate themselves from it and thus begin drinking at an early age and become victims of accidental injuries and death when they drive after drinking. The primary dependent variable is underage drinking, which is a cause of increasing concern amongst American socialists and policy makers, considering its alarming effects on teenagers health, their academic and occupational performance, sexual behaviors, and most importantly the increasing number of traffic accidents. According to statistics published by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2007, 31 percent of young drivers (between the ages of 15 and 20) who were killed in traffic accidents had blood alcohol concentrations of 001g/dl. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol is the most commonly abused drug in the United States (more than illicit drugs and tobacco). The American Medical Association states that approximately 11 million American youth consume alcohol, of which 11 percent are people between the ages 12 to 20. A 2007 survey conducted by the Youth Risk Behavior revealed that approximately 45 percent of all highà ‚  school  students drank some amount of alcohol, of which 26 percent binge drank and 11 percent drove under the influence of alcohol. The primary independent variable causing underage drinking is social acceptance. When teenagers enter college, they experience a new sense of freedom being away from home and they begin interacting with more people and attend more social events. The glamorous way in which drinking is portrayed in advertisements, movies and all media generally, has made drinking an integral part of celebrations and having fun. Thus no social event and teenage party is complete without alcohol and the teens start drinking

Chinese Silk Road Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Chinese Silk Road - Essay Example It plays a momentous part in the development of social and economic situations of China. The Chinese Silk Route resembles the advent of globalization within China, which influences economic, social & cultural conditions of the nation in a favorable way (Wood 9-15). Urbanizations results in growth in population and accordingly these increase the demands of basic needs. Thus, to satisfy the country’s need, the Chinese Silk Route was introduced for the betterment of lives. Moreover, to boost the process of transferring goods through export and import quickly, Chinese Silk Route is being established. It enables the tourists to visit such countries that are connected by routes and thus helps to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) in respective counties. After introducing the Chinese Silk Route, national and international trades and investments are identified to grow rapidly with generating varied positive outcomes. Maritime commerce is playing a decisive part in connecting divers ified industries, culture and economy of different countries. As the trade relationships between countries are growing, distinct sorts of new pioneering ideas are implemented to enhance the productivity of the routes (Agnew 3-17). The essay intends to analyze the history of Chinese Silk Route, which has been introduced with the advent of globalization. Apart from this, the essay attempted to describe the process of the above stated history and also its influence on developing the social as well as economic conditions of China. Chinese Silk Route continuously developed within the period of second century BC to fourteenth century AD. During the 500 BC, Chinese people adopted nomadic style and rode horses for exporting along with importing goods. This route was initiated by Zhang Qian in Hun Dynasty and during the growth of this dynasty, the Chinese Silk Route gained immense power to expand across