Television Violence And Television - 1187 Words

Violence and television We live in a society where violence is globalized through films and advertisements. The individual American is exposed to 200,000 advertisements in a day, where Hollywood films portray violence as entertainment and fun, films where bullies and gangs stand out as role models, on the other hand, Hollywood is the main reason kids think, violence is cool and fun. Growing up in a home where I was the youngest boy child in the family. I grew up watching television with my older brothers who were in middle school. When it came to picking a Tv show to watch, it seem as if I was a ghost, because my brothers never asked me for my opinion, things always went there way. With that being said, I grew up watching lots of violent on tv, I never really got to watch kids shows, the only shows I watch were the shows my brothers like. My brothers and I grew up in a violence neighborhood, so we watched violent movies,and tv shows, we felt related to. Outside the doors of our house, were gangs and violen ce, there was no escaping the fact that violence were all around us. During the summer time, those were the craziest in our neighborhood. During the summer kids and teenagers were exposed to lot of violence, I mean with winter being over, every kid left their video games home, television was of doing that amount of time kids were outside playing with their peers, summertime brought beauty in our neighborhood, those were the time the whole neighborhood came outShow MoreRelatedTelevision Violence1499 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿ Who should be responsible for Television Violence? Composition II Who should be responsible for Television Violence? Can we afford to continue ignoring the connection between television violence and the increase in mass murders? The answer is no. We have to take a stance now and fight for stricter regulations by the government and the Federal Communications Committee (FCC). Television has been associated with influencing controversial acts since the beginning of its creationRead MoreViolence on Television Essay1341 Words   |  6 PagesViolence on Television Most people in our society generally have the opinion that violence on television increases aggression in children and adolescents. Does it ? Who is to say whether television has a positively direct effect or a positive correlation ? However, the majority of the people who have researched this topic have discovered that violence on television is indeed one of the prime factors contributing to the increase in violent and aggressive behavior among the youth in societyRead MoreViolence And Sex On Television898 Words   |  4 Pages Violence and Sex on Television: Effects on the Younger Audience In today’s society, the media is used greatly for communication, advertisement, information, and for numerous other reasons. The world has evolved by technological advances as well as by the type of content that is put out on the internet, radio, and especially on television. In particular, violence and sex are two of the most controversial content types that have been recently used loosely in the present as compared to theRead More Violence On Television Essay1023 Words   |  5 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The issue of television violence and its influence on children’s behavior troubles me. Television violence seems to be becoming abundant and violence seems to be increasing. This may be a dangerous form of entertainment, especially when young children become involved. The majority of television programs viewed by children contain large amounts of violence and inappropriate material. Children’s vulnerability poses as the main problem due to desensitization. Psychologists’Read MoreEssay Television Violence627 Words   |  3 PagesTelevision Violence Violence is one of the most primary and controversial issues in today’s society. And true that violence is on the rise. A major concern for many parents is the violence within television shows and movies, and the effect on children’s aggression. I particularly do not believe that violence in television affects children’s aggression, but who am I to say such a thing, for I am not a qualified psychologist. But I have many reasons for my accusation and references to back itRead More Television Violence Essay1326 Words   |  6 PagesTelevision Violence On April 20, 1999, a tragic event took place in an environment where children should feel safe. At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, twelve students and one teacher were tragically gunned down by two boys, one seventeen years old, and one eighteen years old. Recently in Michigan, a first grader brought a gun to school and shot and killed a fellow classmate. These tragedies can be seen as a result of many different factors, such as violence in the home, accessRead More Violence on Television Essay1833 Words   |  8 Pages quot;There was murderers going around killing lots of people and stealing jewelry.quot; This quote comes from the mouth of an eight year old girl after watching the evening news on television. The eight year old girl claims that she is afraid quot;when there is a murder near because you never know if he could be in townquot; (Cullingford, 61). A recent report from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) pools evidence from over 2,500 studies within the last decade on over 100,000Read MoreThe Portrayal Of Television Violence1040 Words   |  5 PagesQianrui Luo Dr. Jason Loviglio MCS 400 Project Outline The Portrayal of Television Violence in the U.S. Programs and Its Impact on Viewers Introduction Over the past one three decades, there have been cases of increased child violence as well as adult conflicts. Many theories have been developed to explain this growing trend in the society. Media violence has been one of the factors considered. There has been continuous research with regards to the relationship that exists between media violence’sRead More Television Violence Essay3780 Words   |  16 Pages Television violence and its effects on viewers has been a controversial issue for many years. Some viewers believe that there is an increasingly large amount of violence on television and this widespread public concern has quot;led to calls for stricter controls on the depiction of violence in programmesquot; (Gunter and McAleer 1990:92). Exactly how much violence is there on television though? Many cultivation theorists have studied this, acquiring data in the form of content analysis. TheyRead MoreEssay on Violence in Television1916 Words   |  8 Pages When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on

How Nora was a victim and victimizer in A Dolls House by...

It is easy to forget how far our society has come in the last hundred years in recognizing the equality of all people. Often when we take a look into the past what we see is very shocking. Such is the case in a Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. Here we see Nora presented as a victim of her father and male dominated society; however she also plays the role of victimizer against her husband, family, and friends. As Nora takes both sides of the conflict we see how she is forced into both roles. Nora plays with Dr. Rank s emotions; though by accident, she does so more than she had intended. Nora becomes desperate for money at one point and intends to use her sex appeal and subtle charm to get some from Dr. Rank. Nora is in the process of flirting†¦show more content†¦We also see his demeaning behavior when he underestimates her ability to handle money. Herman Weigand points out that Torvald tells her in money matters she has inherited her father s disposition (Weigand 27). So Torvald s condescending language and names keep Nora in her place as a doll where he likes her to be. James Huneker put it best when he said It is Nora as an individual cheated of her true rights that the dramatists first depicts, for her marriage, as she discovers in the crisis, has been merely material and not that spiritual tie Ibsen insists upon as the only happy on in this relationship. (Huneker 64) Krogstad victimizes Nora in a very different way than her husband and father. Krogstad does not use his position of dominance as a man to control her. Instead he uses blackmail to manipulate Nora to his will. As we examine her situation Nora seems more a victim of circumstance here than of the not so evil will of her blackmailer. Each time Nora finds herself unable to help herself the problem is easily directly traced back to her husband, her father, and to the overbearing dominance of the male society. She tries to save the life of the man she thinks she loves and in doing so sees how she has become a victim of her own ignorance which has been brought upon her by the men in her life. Works Cited Hunker, James. Iconoclast a Book of Dramatist. New York: Charles

Observing a Scene free essay sample

A common place amongst this university to some would be the housing dormitories. As some may consider me as a loner, I consider myself someone who is keen of privacy. My dorm is a place where I can gather my thoughts, my emotions and grasp reality. Being new to Massachusetts, I could describe any place I gaze upon; all being a new sight. It is too bland of an experience to describe a park, a beach, or a garden, because everyone has painted their own unique pictures of these familiar experiences. So I chose the campus dormitories, well my dorm. The sights, sounds, feelings and smells that occur are just as remarkable as sitting in a park observing the life around me. Looking through my fifth floor window I can easily see two miles into the distance. The sun sets off an explosion of reds, blues, oranges and purples into the sky, that are visible to any naked eye. We will write a custom essay sample on Observing a Scene or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The red rooftops infiltrate my window screen and reflect off my mirror. The streetlights resemble stars that are masked by Salem’s inner city light pollution. The naked maple trees in the near distance are breaching over the multifamily homes; the abundant pine trees are full of life and blooming with greens and strength. Living in Florida for almost all of my life, I never experienced nature’s diversity. When the seasons change it is like watching a slow motion movie take place right before my eyes. The trees transform as the fall approaches. From lively green leaves and bushes turn into to red, orange and browns preparing the ambiance of fall’s serenity. The wind begins to pick up relinquishing summer’s heavy humidity. Lasting roughly three months, the warmth begins to diminish and the icy air begins to emerge from nature’s closet. Winters approaching and the lively, colorful leaves begin to disappear by the branch. Winter is here and the ambiance of the whole city has changed; especially when snow is expected. After a long winter night, the sun rises over those same roofs yet when the snow glistens it creates an image of a winter wonderland. To most, these mornings symbolize gruesome work. To those it is a burden to shovel up a pathway through the freshly fallen snow. Although through my inexperienced eyes, it is beautiful and quite peaceful in a way that stops time for a slight moment. I take a deep breath and the cold air just fills my body with a different life. There are these projects right behind my dorm and at all hours of the day I can hear laughter that the wind carried five stories up into my window penetrating my ears with the sound of innocence. Along with the bouncing of basketballs while they play on the court. There is this disgusting dump truck, which attracts all types of wildlife, right before the sun goes down you can hear the squawking of seagulls. Within the building, I can hear the diversity spread among the hundreds of students occupying Bowditch Hall. As they blast their music, their television, and argue on their phones. We have a large number of heavy walkers who seem to be stampeding right above my room like they are a herd of elephants, just before you drift to sleep. The many days during the early afternoons, the aroma of burnt popcorn coats this building like dust. You wake up to the crisp, cold air weighing down on your chest. To start what feels like, a never-ending day is a struggle. Gaining the motivation to take the first steps onto the lifeless, cold tile, makes you want to curl back up into bed and close your eyes, until you feel the vibration and loud bells ringing from your alarm clock. Taking those first steps of the morning making your way into the bathroom, you are bombarded with steam, it seems like everyone is up at 6:45 A. M all preparing for his or her day. It is too early in the morning for all the different fragrances. The mixture of body wash and shampoos begin to form a headache, the smell of roses, spearmint, lavender, sweet pea, and my favorite, coconut. They are all so vivid. I finish washing my face, go to my room and brew a nice large cup of strong hazelnut coffee. The smell infiltrates the air and it always wakes my roommate out of a dead sleep. I pour it into my to-go cup with a splash of cream and one sugar and storm out, realizing that I am five minutes late to class.

Why Copywriters Journalists Just Can’t Get Along - The Writers For Hire

WHY COPYWRITERS AND JOURNALISTS JUST CAN’T GET ALONG Versatile writers are hard to find. For a long time I was surprised when I’d get great journalism samples from a writer, but the minute I put them on a copywriting project, it was a total flop – and vice versa. But I’ve finally discovered the disconnect: the real reason that some writers have such a hard time, fundamentally, switching between these two genres. The reason is that organization-wise, journalism is the opposite of copywriting. Let me explain The purpose of journalistic writing is NOT to tell the reader everything – at least not right away. You want to tease. You want to raise questions in the readers mind. You want them to keep reading to find out what you mean by your headline, or to discover the solution to the problem that you posed in your intro. In journalism, you want to create intrigue. The purpose of copywriting is opposite. You want to get your biggest baddest benefit for your product upfront, in the reader’s face, no holds barred. You want to lead with a benefit that the reader needs to have. You don’t want secrets. You don’t want intrigue. And you certainly don’t want to depend on the reader actually reading your copy. To help clarify what I mean, following are a couple of examples of the right and wrong ways to start a journalistic article vs. a copywriting piece. Good and Bad Journalism: Wrong: When I arrived at my guest house, a special turn-down present of olive oils, vinegars, and recipes nestled in my down pillows. It was signed by Chef Eric Francis. Why is this bad? You’ve given the reader all the information they need in these lines. It doesn’t raise any questions. It doesn’t compel them to read on. Basically, it’s boring. So how do you fix it? I mean, after all, how exciting can writing about some resort be? Try something like this Right: Chef Eric Francis gifts a signature keepsake to all of Calistoga’s visitors – and it’s not served with dinner. See? Now the reader wants to find out what the keepsake might be. This technique works with fiction too, but what it doesn’t work with is, you guessed it: Copywriting! Good and Bad Copywriting: Wrong: They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But it shouldn’t cost you millions to manage your brand. Here, the writer is obviously attempting to raise curiosity in the reader, much you like you might do with a journalistic piece. But this is exactly the wrong thing to do in good copywriting. In good copywriting you do not want to waste time trying to tease readers along. I believe it was Bob Bly who said that when a reader comes across a curiosity headline he will read it if he has time; when he comes across a benefit-oriented headline, he will make the time to read it. That mantra goes for copywriting intros as well. You need to lead with your best benefit. First. Always. So†¦the right way to start this ad would be something like: Right: CRS staging sets are more affordable than traditional, bulky sets, and they can be customized, shipped, and ready on site within five working days. Now, if you were looking for a staging set, wouldn’t you be interested?

Free Essays on Gandolf In The Lord Of The Rings

Geoffrey Chaucer began the Canterbury tales in 1387. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories set within a framing story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket. The poet joins a band of pilgrims, vividly described in the General Prologue, who assemble at the Tabard Inn outside London for the journey to Canterbury. There were approximately 30 pilgrims going to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims ranged anywhere from a knight, a miller, to a priest. Each pilgrim was supposed to tell 3 to 4 tales, Chaucer only wrote 22 tales. The two tales that will be compared and contrasted in this paper are the Knight’s tale and the Miller’s tale. When the two tales are compared and contrasted we will be looking at the characters, the theme, and the different endings of each tale. In the Knight’s tale, a great conqueror and duke named Theseus ruled the city of Athens. Theseus conquers Thebes, but finds two wounded enemy soldiers lying on the battlefield, nearing death. Rather than kill them, he mercifully heals the Theban soldiers' injuries, but condemns them to a life of imprisonment in a tower in Athens. The prisoners, named Palamon and Arcite, are cousins and sworn brothers. Both live in the prison tower for several years. They both fall in love with a woman named Emeyle. They argue over her but realize that they will never get out of the prison they are in. One day, a duke named Perotheus, friend both to Theseus and Arcite, petitions for Arcite's freedom. Theseus agrees to let Arcite go. Arcite returns to Thebes jealous at Palamon because he can still see Emeyle everyday, and Palamon is scared that Arcite will try and take Athens by force to have Emeyle. Arcite returns to Athens to be closer to his beloved. He enters the city disguised so t hat he cannot be recognized. Arcite takes on a job as a page in Emelye's chamber under the pseudonym Philostrate. This puts hi... Free Essays on Gandolf In The Lord Of The Rings Free Essays on Gandolf In The Lord Of The Rings Geoffrey Chaucer began the Canterbury tales in 1387. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories set within a framing story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket. The poet joins a band of pilgrims, vividly described in the General Prologue, who assemble at the Tabard Inn outside London for the journey to Canterbury. There were approximately 30 pilgrims going to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims ranged anywhere from a knight, a miller, to a priest. Each pilgrim was supposed to tell 3 to 4 tales, Chaucer only wrote 22 tales. The two tales that will be compared and contrasted in this paper are the Knight’s tale and the Miller’s tale. When the two tales are compared and contrasted we will be looking at the characters, the theme, and the different endings of each tale. In the Knight’s tale, a great conqueror and duke named Theseus ruled the city of Athens. Theseus conquers Thebes, but finds two wounded enemy soldiers lying on the battlefield, nearing death. Rather than kill them, he mercifully heals the Theban soldiers' injuries, but condemns them to a life of imprisonment in a tower in Athens. The prisoners, named Palamon and Arcite, are cousins and sworn brothers. Both live in the prison tower for several years. They both fall in love with a woman named Emeyle. They argue over her but realize that they will never get out of the prison they are in. One day, a duke named Perotheus, friend both to Theseus and Arcite, petitions for Arcite's freedom. Theseus agrees to let Arcite go. Arcite returns to Thebes jealous at Palamon because he can still see Emeyle everyday, and Palamon is scared that Arcite will try and take Athens by force to have Emeyle. Arcite returns to Athens to be closer to his beloved. He enters the city disguised so t hat he cannot be recognized. Arcite takes on a job as a page in Emelye's chamber under the pseudonym Philostrate. This puts hi...

Proof That Publishing More Content Wont Grow Blog Traffic

Proof That Publishing More Content Wont Grow Blog Traffic Its a little bold to say that publishing more content wont grow your blog traffic. I mean, more content + more social shares = more blog traffic Right? But this comes  from experience of what happened to us at when we published more content recently. Our social shares dropped  and our blog traffic wasnt too impressive either. And thats happened to us twice after we increased our publishing frequency. So I had to ask myself, Hey Nathan, could there really be a sweet spot for how many posts we should  publish a week to get the most social shares and blog traffic? After all, the answer may not be a lot of blog posts a week, but only a couple. And thats exactly what I found out. How To Publish More Content (And Get Less Blog Traffic) #blogging #contentmarketingWhy Publishing More Content Wont (Necessarily) Grow Your Blog Traffic Well- to be clear- it might but it also might not be worth your effort. Four weeks ago, we switched from publishing two posts a week to three. Thats a lot more content to create (especially considering our posts average 2,000 words and have about 8 graphics in them). So we really wanted to make sure the payoff was worth our time. This is what publishing 2 posts a week looked like. Before we made the switch to publish more content, 4 blog posts (2 a week)  averaged these stats within 2 weeks of being published: Social shares averaged 561 per post. Pageviews averaged 6,074 per post. Comments from readers averaged 6.5 per post. Not bad. So we should have been  able to get a  lot more results with 3  posts a week, right? This is what publishing 3 posts a week looked like. This is what our stats looks like for 6 blog posts (3 a week) within 2 weeks of being published: Social shares averaged 325  per post. Pageviews averaged 4,367  per post. Comments from readers averaged 3 per post. Not so good. This is what it looks like when you compare the  data. So whatever, right? I mean, thats not so bad. In fact, didnt blog traffic increase because we published more content? When you compare the data, switching from publishing 2  blog posts a week to 3: Decreased social shares an average of 236 per post. Thats a grand total of 1,950  which was 294  less than the previous average of 2,244. Yikes. Increased pageviews by 317.5 per post. Yes, that is an increase. It makes a total of 26,204 pageviews compared to 24,299. Thats an increase of only 1,905 pageviews to publish 2 more blog posts in a 2-week period. Decreased comments by 4 per post. So thats 17 compared to the previous 26. So Im kind of full of crap, right? I mean, we did increase our blog traffic. But to me, its not worth publishing two more posts to get fewer than a thousand pageviews per post. But was it really the publishing frequency? Now, there are a ton of outliers to consider into this: Who were the authors and did they have lots of followers? Were the topics we chose to cover not quite right for our audience? Should  we have experimented more with different publish days and times? Should we have shared our content differently with social media? Did we mess up when we emailed our subscribers (aka, you guys)? Did we give this study enough time for our audience to get used to the change? Not to mention: All of these posts target specific keywords that should help us grow our blog traffic in the long term. The posts published in the 3-a-week periods have been gaining a lot of  social shares just this week. Blog traffic has increased for all 10 posts in this study. And Im sure there were a billion other things on my mind once I realized our posts werent performing as well as they used to. Proof That Publishing More Content Wont Grow Your #Blog Traffic (And How To Do That)So I became Sherlock Holmes. The thing was our samples from each data set (2 posts a week,  3 posts a week) were very average for our content (no outliers to throw off the data I analyzed). I even looked at our email open rates: They were nearly the same as always. And during the testing time when we published 3 blog posts a week, we grew our  number of email subscribers. But the moment  our social media shares dropped, so did our blog traffic. My biggest conjecture on this: We gave our audience (you guys) so much content to share that you had to pick and choose what was worthy enough for you to share.  Even if we published 3  awesome posts a week, you needed a little diversity in your social shares- not all from one source. So when social shares drop, so does blog traffic. And that, my dear  Watson, is a complete guess. What do you think? Id love to hear your thoughts about this in the comments. 10 Things You Should Learn From Publishing More Content Honestly, it could have been a dozen things that led to a bit less blog traffic than I was hoping for. So here are my lessons learned from this experiment that will help you choose the right publishing frequency for your blog: 1. Dont be afraid to try new things. While this analysis is a bit young (it happened with content we published in February), I learned a lot by publishing more content. The entire team here at worked hard to mature our processes to create content super efficiently. That is a huge win well keep with us as we continue to create content our readers should really love. And we would have never known that publishing more might not be what our audience wants until we did it. And you can bet that Ill continue to look at the results of those posts to see if my thoughts about this change in a couple months. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it. - Warren Bennis Should the drop in blog traffic prevent us from publishing more content? This experiment- though ultimately not resulting in  the blog traffic I wanted- didnt impact our email subscribers, let alone product signups. Both of those figures were the highest theyve ever been at this time. So that is definitely something to consider for this: Should we really publish less content if stats like new signups are so high? Never be satisfied with status quo. Youll never know if you could be doing something that ends with much higher results. 2. Base your publishing decisions on data. I mentioned that weve bounced around with our publishing frequency a lot at . Thats a little funny coming from the guys who preach how to publish more consistent content, right? This is what our publishing frequency looked like for a couple months in 2014: The point is, we were testing to figure out what would work best for us. We were publishing the content we had. And we werent afraid to get scrappy to get things done. But in the end, we started focusing on publishing the right amount of times to get the most out of our content. By the time November rolled around last year, that right amount for us was twice a week. And hey, at the time, we saw blog traffic increase as we published less content. We published that way to create our own data. But, whats really ironic about this, is that theres already some data that basically says companies  that increase their publishing frequency from 3–5 times a month to 6–8 nearly double their leads.  So while this data is about leads and not blog traffic, publishing 2 posts a week should be a sweet spot. If there isnt any data, make your own. #contentmarketingIt would have been cool to know that information before we started just to measure that even better! 3. Plan  your publishing frequency to  achieve your marketing goals. I would have never cared about these slight changes- or added up the totals for this study- if I wasnt counting on every single blog post to contribute to a much larger goal. For every post we publish at , I measure initial success by the number of social shares and pageviews. For the special posts when we create free blog giveaways, I also monitor how many times you guys download those resources (infographics, checklists, templates, e-books, and more). Every post must contribute to our overall marketing goals to increase: Social media shares. Traffic in general. Email subscribers. signups. Doing the math, its easy to see how publishing more content may help us achieve our goals: Just divide your metrics goal by what an average blog post contributes to that goal. Thats a really rough estimate of how many posts you need to write to hit that goal. 4. Build momentum as you establish your publishing frequency. You shouldnt just rush in to publishing  more content. When we went from publishing 2 posts a week to publishing 3, we just switched to 3 and kept going. In hindsight, I wish I had given the team a bit of breathing room to build up our momentum by staggering several weeks  of publishing 2 posts then 3 posts. That would have helped us work through our processes with a bit less runaround.  But we  got it done because the entire team  had the ambition  to do it (and thanks for helping me out, Ashton and Krista!). Even for the pros, we still need to understand that running a marathon without training ends in fatigue. 5. Test the best days and times for publishing and sharing. A year ago,  we would literally publish new posts every single day of the work week. Then wed publish 3  posts the next week, and 4  the following. Were no strangers to testing what will work for us to achieve our marketing goals. But we needed to do that to know what would work for us. So when we decided to bump our frequency up to 3 posts a week, we used data from the best times to publish and  chose Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday since blog posts published later in the week tend to perform a bit lower. We also bounced this idea off a few of our friends in a content marketing community to get their opinions on the best times to publish. Sometimes its worth it to publish on different days and times to understand how that impacts your blogs performance. 6. Analyze your data to actually know if youre reaching your goals. There is no way Id be writing this post if I didnt plan time to analyze our data. You write every post for a reason. Measure its success against that metric. Here is an easy way to do it: Divide your overarching goal by the number of posts you want to publish. That will give you a rough estimate for your goal per post. Tip: This is  similar to what you did in lesson #3. But its not the same. If you want to hit a marketing goal by maintaining the amount your  current posts contribute to that goal, go with lesson #3. The algorithm shared here actually gives you something to shoot for to  improve every post to hit your goal. From here, you can determine new ways to promote your content to get the blog traffic (among other goals) your content deserves. You write every post for a reason. Measure every posts  success. #blogging7. Dont believe what they say about vanity metrics. unless they say that vanity metrics like social shares matter. There is so much to learn by understanding how people share your content. For example: People read what they know is popular. People share what they know is popular. People subscribe to what they know is popular. And beyond that- social shares provide a solid gauge on how your content is performing. I noticed something was strange with our content when we started publishing 3 posts a week because our social shares count was lower than it had been in a long time. From there, I completely analyzed our blog traffic patterns to gather the data in this post. And that ultimately helped me make the decision to publish only 2 posts a week. 8. Understand the trade-off for quality versus quantity (and go for quality). Yeah, yeah. You already know this. But here is what we did to be able to publish more content: Free blog giveaways dropped from being in 3 of 4 posts to 2 of 6 posts. Thats a bit of a hit for additional resources that we know you guys find super helpful. And thats how we also get a lot of new email subscribers for our content. Graphics per post on average fell from an average of 7.5 to 6. Content length also dropped slightly  (with a couple outliers). While we made sure the topics were awesome- and the content was  great stuff you should have really liked- we did sacrifice a few bonuses we usually had in our content to be able to publish more. So, once again, someone just told  you that sacrificing content quality for quantity takes a hit on your social shares and blog traffic. But this time you  can actually see the data that backs up that claim.

Rhetorical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Rhetorical analysis - Essay Example It lays bare, only too well, the feelings and aspirations of a man who, like all of us, wants to obtain the object of his longing, all the while being completely aware of his inadequacies. One of the main reasons this song was a success was also due to the fact that the person singing the song, Thom Yorke, establishes his credibility from the start. Yorke is, to put it kindly, a very average looking man himself, and, thus, seems more than just a spokesperson, or singer, thereof; when he says â€Å"What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here† (Creep), it seems he is speaking right from the heart. Since Radiohead is an Alternative Rock band, the main audience of this song is young people, however, since it is written from the point of view of a man, perhaps young men would be the specific target audience. Though admittedly Alternative Rock is quite a popular genre of music, being the first single of the band, however, as there was no established fan-base of the ban d, the ethos for the song, musically, had to be built from scratch. Yorke’s personality, in this regard, seems also to foster the image of a young, average looking man who does not see his love being returned for want of a handsome outlook. This seems to be the reason why Yorke seems to have chosen to have written for this audience. Although inclusive language does not form any part of this song – it seems to be just the inner soliloquy of a man – however, the theme of the song is quite common. â€Å"But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo† (Creep) are words used by many a young person, inwardly mostly similar to the soliloquist singer. Hence, there is a sense of inclusion portrayed in the song. In a rhetorical sense, the song also has an ethos-filled content. Creep is replete with emotional substance and passionate imagery. The beloved is described allegorically: â€Å"angel† for instance. Whereas the passion of just how special the beloved is stressed by a vulgar vernacular expression: â€Å"You’re so fucking special† (Creep). This stress is to describe just how highly stressed the specialness of the beloved is. On the other hand, words like â€Å"creep† and â€Å"weirdo† are used to describe the writer himself; again, vernacular is used to portray how low the person’s regard for himself is. There is much repetition in the song – the words â€Å"you† and â€Å"I† are used repetitively in the first and second verse. This repetition creates an aura of exclusion – the writer is differentiating between himself and his beloved. This lays bare his idolization of his beloved: â€Å"You’re just like an angel†¦ You float like a feather† (Creep), while at the same time, the second verse stresses on his need to be good enough for the beloved: â€Å"I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul† (Creep). Though it does not do so directly, the so ng also has logos filled content. The logic of the impossibility of a â€Å"weirdo† or a â€Å"creep† to win the love of someone who is â€Å"an angel† and who â€Å"float[s] like a feather† is all too apparent. This is the reality of the world we live in, those who are beautiful do not, normally, tend to fall in love with those who lack any outward charm. All in all, the main rhetorical objective of this song seems to be to relay the hardship of unrequited, or unsaid, love, where the impossibility of gaining the love of someone â€Å"perfect† seems to be at the forefront. This is exacerbated by the low self esteem of the person writing this song,

Contemporary Diversity Issues Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Contemporary Diversity Issues Paper - Essay Example Increasing numbers of people belong to both a dominant culture and also an ethnic minority that has often been seen as submissive or lower down the hierarchy of power than the other position holds. For example, an African-American MD or Professor holds a high-status position within society because of their education, job and socio-economic status, but still belong to a race that is generally discriminated against. This type of duality may lead to a paradoxical sense of contradiction within the individuals involved. They "belong" to both cultures, but feel absolutely comfortable in none. An example of this is illustrated by John Edgar Wideman in Brothers and Keepers (Wideman, 1984). The book tells of Wideman, a Professor and award-winning writer and his relationship with his older brother who is in prison for murder. Wideman explores whether his brother is more "black" then he himself is, questioning whether worldly success removes an African-American from the culture that he was born into. Issues related to gender, race, and economic class are also an element of questions of diversity. The at times uneasy relationship between those who seek equality of races and those who seek equality between the genders has caused conflict within both movement. For example, while the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's/1960's, whether the peaceful one organized by Martin Luther King or the more militant one as represented by Malcolm X sought equality for African-Americans, such equality often did not extend to the women involved in the movement. Thus women were often relegated to subservient roles such as making meals and tea for the men who were doing the "real" work of the movement (Crawford, 1993). There is an apparent contradiction and even hypocrisy within the role given to women by men who preached the virtues of egalitarian societies and equality between the races. The striving toward or resistance of acculturation is another dynamic that often pulls apart ideas of diversity. As seen with Wideman, the ability of various individuals within traditionally under-represented racial minorities to succeed within a predominantly white society may be seen as acculturation. But such individuals are often rejected by the cultures from which they sprang, while never entirely accepted by the culture that they now, at least nominally, live within. Often those in the culture who have been left behind accuse the one who has "risen" socio-economically of "acting white" (McNamara, 2006) and perhaps even being a traitor to their race. Such resistance to acculturation is problematic. It seems to suggest that to "be black" within this society is in fact to remain at the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy. There is an element of despair and self-hatred redolent within such attitudes, but they are very prevalent within a number of minority communities. In contrast, some other racial cultures, such as Asian cultures, tend to embrace at least certain forms of acculturation. Thus the value placed on education by many Asian-Americans enables the children of first generation immigrants to rise out of the often poor circumstances into which they were born. This form of acculturation is not only accepted, but is actively encouraged. However, other forms of acculturation such as marrying outside the race tend to be much more frowned upon. Thus different patters of

Moral achievements during adolescents Essay Example for Free

Moral achievements during adolescents Essay The adolescent period is marked by a number of physical and emotional changes for individuals. During this period, an individual strives to move from the identity that is dependent on parental and societal influence in to one that is determined by the individual. The purpose of this paper is to review the moral developments during this period of identity formation, and whether it is an entirely free process. To do this, the paper will rely on selected literature to study the various dimensions related to the issue. Introduction One of the hallmarks of adolescence is the search for identity. At this stage of human development, the individual attempts to cultivate a personal identity that will act as the basis for person’s future life. Consequently, this stage is mostly marked by defiance and general non conformity, which happens as one tries to explore practices that are not necessarily in line with both societal and familial norms and expectations. Although important, the search for identity may be a source of discord between an individual and the family or society. The discord may become a source of antagonism between the individual and the society, but more importantly, it may lead to a realization of moral consciousness for the adolescent. In the context of this paper, the word moral shall be taken to be what one perceives right or wrong based on personal conscience. In that regard, moral achievement refers to positive changes in conscience one undergoes during the adolescent period. The paper will be based on selected literature available on the subject. It is however worth noting that the subject under discussion is a multidimensional one, and for that reason, the paper will confine itself to those dimensions covered in the literature as a way of ensuring systematic coverage. The paper will study coping socialization agents, drug use, parental influence on school disposition and identity problems. These are some of the dimensions related to moral achievements. However, even though an individual is supposed to develop a personal identity during this period, the resulting identity is always influenced by external factors such as that from peers, societal and parental influence. Coping Coping refers to an individual’s ability to appropriately react to situations as they arise. Adolescents, like all the other human beings experience adjustments and extensive stressors. According to (Garcia, 2009), some of these stressors and adjustments include dealing with peer relationships, physical and emotional changes that an individual experiences during the period, family dynamics, poverty and crime. Proper coping means that the adolescents must be able to deal with these challenges with resilience and show positive health outcomes (Garcia, 2009). An adolescent achieves cognitive and moral development in a set of three stages. According to (Garcia, 2009), these stages are assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. In addition to these strategies, the adolescent develops critical thinking and information processing, which enables for gradual development of the mind in an adult like thinking one. Guided by the newly acquired traits of critical thinking and information processing, the individual moves away from what they conceive as parental influence and set out to develop their own way of approaching life. At this stage the individual is torn between peer influences and conformity with parental expectations. According to (Garcia, 2009), a well coping individual should be able to develop a healthy identity, which is one developed by the individual as opposed to one imposed by peers or parents. An important element related to coping developed during the adolescent period is the coping strategy. Most prominent of these strategies, according to (Garcia, 2009) is problem solving or help seeking. In other words, during this period, the adolescent will develop coping strategies. In the study, (Garcia, 2009) undertook a study of literature related to the general subject of coping. The study identified coping as coping as one of the key pillars in the health of adolescents. The study found that unhealthy coping strategies lead to unhealthy mental health states such as depression and exhaustion. It is therefore important that during adolescence one develops appropriate coping strategies towards various stressors and adjustments. Religion, peer pressure and drug use These issues are related to search for identity. At this stage, the individuals experiment with new religions, try different types of drugs, which may all be a result of succumbing to influences from peers. According to a survey reported by (Bahr Hoffman, 2008), 22% of youths admitted having used cigarettes, while another 45% had used alcohol, with another 30% reporting being drunk and 18% acknowledged using marijuana. This was a survey done on high school seniors, most or all of who are in the adolescent stage. The finding is a pointer to how life is volatile for the adolescent. (Bahr Hoffman, 2008) further notes that there is a negative correlation between religiosity and drug use. In a way, the report endorses religion as a way of reducing drug use because youths with religious affiliations showed less affinity to drug use. To justify this correlation, the study uses social control theory. According to the theory, deviance is more of a natural act while conformity is not. It then follows that religiosity brings in prosocial controls that encourage individuals to conform. Without it, the individuals would follow their natural instincts, which would mean becoming defiant. The other theory used by the report is social learning theory. From the perspective of social learning theory, the religious groups take precedence over friends and family on matters concerning drug use so that instead of individuals picking this habit from them, they are taught by the church (Bahr Hoffman, 2008). After establishing theories to explain correlations, the study of (Bahr Hoffman, 2008) notes some control variables such as gender and race and then goes ahead to carry out a survey to validate the hypothesis. The result found a negative correlation on religion measured against cigarettes, heavy drinking and marijuana. The results on other illicit drugs were inconsistent and therefore inconclusive. From the study however, it clear that adolescents can, to an extent, be protected from drug use by being encouraged to take up religiosity. Socialization for adolescents Within an adolescent’s life, there are several agents of socialization. Among these are school, family, peer groups (friends) and community. (Arnon, Shamai, Ilatov, 2008) did a research in which peer pressure was examined and its effects compared with those of the other agents such as family, school and community. The researchers’ decision to focus on peer influence is premised on the fact that as people approach adolescence, they tend to move away from parents, religious institutions and other official socialization institutions within the community. That therefore leaves peers as the most significant influences at this point because the youths will tend to spend more time with them at the exclusion of the other socialization agents. The study also relies on social theory to explain the influences of peer groupings. Although the study notes the negative influence of peers, it nevertheless notes that it is important for peers to move away from parents for them to develop an independent identity. What the study finds negative is the tendency of the peers to move from parental influence in to conformity towards peer expectations. The identity so obtained will not be a healthy one according to the earlier noted definition. From the study, it emerged that peer groups were the most influential followed closely by family. Other agents, notably school and community only provided secondary influence. It is therefore clear that adolescents submit themselves to be influenced by peers and other socialization agents. Taking in to account the context of this paper, one can conclude that an adolescent’s moral achievement will largely be dictated by the kind of socialization agents in play during the period. Identity problem symptoms in adolescents (Berman, Weems, Petkus, 2009) defines identity disorder as the inability of an individual to accept aspect oneself. A person is deemed to an identity disorder if for one reason or another, the individual cannot accept certain or all aspects related to his persona. Consequently, the individual becomes predisposed to self denial leading to a form of distress, which may manifest itself in a number of ways. Some of the areas of concern related to this problem, as listed by (Berman, Weems, Petkus, 2009), include career choice, sexual orientation, friendship and religious identification. The research underscores the importance of identity disorder by citing the fact that the problem is listed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) criteria for mental disorders. The importance of identity formation is identified by Erik Erikson as crucial process in young adults because it does provide one with a future direction while at the same time giving a sense of continuity from the past (Berman, Weems, Petkus, 2009). Adolescent’s search for identity is characterized by two dimensions; exploration and commitment. The two dimensions can be combined by the individual differently so as to come up with differing identity statuses. For instance, one of the statuses is known as achievement. An individual with this kind of status has a high exploration and commitment tendencies. Such kinds of individuals tend to be less predisposed to identity disorders. The aim of the study was to show that trouble with identity fit the definition necessary for them to be termed as disorder. Currently, issues related to identity crisis are classified as problems and not disorder, and have consequently been downgraded within the DSM hierarchy. The downgrade is symbolic because the hierarchy is used by various medical stakeholders such as insurance companies and medical practitioners to determine priority in terms of coverage and treatment. The study found that 14. 3% of the sample met DSM IV criteria for identity problem (Berman, Weems, Petkus, 2009). It goes to show that the current classification of the problem is unfair because it underestimates its effects. The study then attributes the rise in the identity problem to increased globalization and immigration, which has subsequently led to more clashes between different cultures and more confusion. Moral achievement in as far as identity formation is therefore dependent on how the youth is able to cope with the increase cultural diversity (or clashes) and globalization. Parental influence and its role in on student’s attitude towards school Parents have a role to play in influencing the attitudes children adopt towards schooling. (Annear Yates, 2010) did a study on how parents influence the children’s disposition towards school. The study drew from a number of aspects of parenting related to schooling such as perceptions of a child’s potential, monitoring and control, level of affect and focus on a child’s ability. The study takes the view that authoritarian kind of parenting was likely to result in lower grades as opposed to parents who allowed their children to undergo the normal process of socialization. It refers to the authoritarian type of parenting as restrictive parenting while for the more liberal parenting, the term used in autonomy support. The study used a sample made up of both parents and students to come up with its findings. The only variable within the study was whether the parent in question was a mother or father. Generally, the study found that autonomy support to have favorable results both in terms of grades and disposition. Further to that, the study found additional side effects of restrictive parenting as sadness, depression and loneliness. Conclusion From the foregoing, it clear that extraneous factors are more responsible at determining an individual’s moral achievement during adolescents. Ultimately, an individual will be responsible for shaping the direction life will take after breaking free of childhood dependencies and parental influence. It however emerges from the paper that even as one breaks free of these influences in search of individual identity external influence is not extinguished, rather, it is just transferred from one entity to another. Implied here is the fact that freedom from childhood dependencies does not mean complete freedom. In an ideal situation, approaching adulthood would mean that one gets to chart the future devoid of external influences so that the individual can claim full credit for the personality developed thereafter. However, that postulation is invalidated by the paper. Theories such as social learning and social control theory would have no place in an adolescent’s world or an adult’s world was that assumption to hold water. This paper limited itself to the adolescent ages between 12 and 18 years, and may not have sufficient grounds to make any inferences concerning post adolescent life. However, this matter can also be extrapolated, to some extent. Given that individuals at adolescence have partially entered adulthood, it also follows that adolescent behavior is not far from adult behavior. For that reason, it is safe to assume that adult behavior will also be subject to influences from external sources, and especially, socialization agents. Bibliography Annear, K. D. , Yates, G. C. (2010). Restricitve and supportive parenting: Effects in childrens school affect and emotional responses. The Australian Educational Researcher , 63-82. Arnon, S. , Shamai, S. , Ilatov, Z. (2008). Socialization agents and activities of young adolescents. San diego: Libra publishers. Bahr, S. J. , Hoffman, J. P. (2008). Religiosity, peers, and adolescent drug use. Journal of Drug Issues , 743-770. Berman, S. L. , Weems, C. M. , Petkus, V. F. (2009). The Prevalence and Increamental Validity of Identity Problem Symptoms in a High School Sample. Child psychiatry and human development , 183-195. Garcia, C. (2009). Conceptualization and measurement of coping during adolescence: A review of the literature. Journal of Nursing scholarship , 166-185.

Arthur C. Clarkes Childhoods End Essay -- essays papers

Arthur C. Clarke's Childhoods End One could never believe that such a piece as Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End," was written nearly 50 years ago. The story itself was far ahead of its time and will probably remain so forever. There are some who dislike or would rather not read science-fiction because of its highly idealistic writing and plot outlines. This novel is the greatest I've read of science-fiction as of yet. Taking consideration into the fact that I am a novice science-fiction reader, one could dismiss my statement as being naive. However, even if I am mistaken, Childhood's End will remain inside my mind and heart as being the very best at playing out what contact in our world with a sufficiently advanced extra-terrestrial civilization and our purpose with them and the rest of the universe would be like. In the introduction Clarke wrote in 1989, he gives an account of a time when he and his late friend Val Cleaver were driving to London when they saw an awe-inspiring sight of silver barrage-balloons anchored above London. They were protecting against, "the present peril." I'd like to think Mr. Clarke has not lost the appreciation for fiction and the human instinct to imagine incredible things since that time. I've heard recently that he has lost his interest in fiction and instead is concentrating on reality. How ironic that as Mr. Clarke is ascending (or descending) into the more realistic universe, the young 18 year-old kid is going in the complete opposite direction. I suppose Sir Isaac Newton has something to do with this. I am not denouncing Mr. Clarke's realization of the fraudulence of humanity's dabbling into the so-called "paranormal." He is very much right. But I ... ...ascending hill to infinity. Each step a part of the ultimate destination that was reached. True, one could say it wasn't us that attained that final step, but it was. Perhaps not physically or psychologically, but it was our voyage that made it happen. The whole time, protected by those who see us shine and fly past them on their way to the top. Incredible! How symbolic of any young person's voyage into the real world. At fist protected by their parents and mentors, they are taught how to deal with the powerful forces that lie beyond them. They are taught to accept the fact that old games and childish actions of their youth must leave them. They are taught that they have a destiny, and they would have to construct it on their own one day. Just think of how a young man, just beginning his voyage into the real world, can see this as being almost allegorical.

Strategies Formulation

STRATEGIES FORMULATION Business Strategies As there are rapid growth credit card business Hong Kong, Hang Seng Bank need to put more effort to increase their credit card customer base. They should put more resources in developing credit card products and improve services. Functional Strategies Product Strategies The Boston Consulting Groups(BCG) Growth-share matrix is applied to assess the sizes and positioning of the Credit Card. Hang Seng Bank Credit Card business is positioned as ? Star? as it has covered high relative market share in fast growth credit card business.The Bank? s credit card business is lucrative and will become the Bank? s further cash cow. The bank has to spend substantial fund to keep up with high market growth rate and fight off its competitor? s attacks. Product Development In order to serve in such a competitive environment. Hang Seng? s target is to provide premium credit card products supported by premium customer Services. Apart from strengthening its exis ting business, the bank also made progress in diversifying its credit card business and expanding its customer base. MarketingTo improve the credit card business in the industry, the bank has adopted a new marketing strategy. Traditionally the bank relied solely on the ? word-of-mouth? approach to promote the services. Such strategy was most successful in the old days but would need to be supplemented in today? s world of communications. More marketing promotions have thus been organized to increase customers? awareness about the credit card offered by the Bank. Series of innovative and aggressive marketing campaign have been carried out to reposition Hang Seng Retail Banking such as ?The Best Goes On Showcase? which promoted the credit card business. Human Resources Excellent products without premium services would only lead to product failures. Hence the Bank has invested a lot of resources on staff training and development. To tie in with the changing environment, the Bank? s tra ining focus on the service culture will now be changed to a sales and services culture. The bank should reinforce staff training especially the product knowledge and the selling skill which is very important in promoting the increasing number of new products and services in the near future.On the other hand, the development of staff is very important as well since a well trained and highly motivated staff with an all-round personality would definitely bring about improved productivity. Recommendation The credit card business is one of the fast growing financial services industry. Hang Seng Bank credit card has positioned at No. 3 with sixty hundred thousand cardholders and the 2nd Merchant Sales Volume bank in Hong Kong. It have potential for the bank to increase their market share in the business.The following recommendation will improve their performance in the business. 1. Enhancing operational efficiency Simplify credit card application form and shorten the time to issue a credi t card to customer, say within 2 weeks time. The improvement can provide customer a convenience way to get a credit card 2. Airline mileage program Most of the credit card issue bank have already launched the airline mileage program in their credit card services like Hong Kong Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. The feedback are welcome to cardholders.In face of the keen competition, Hang Seng bank credit card should add this kind of program to the credit card service. 3. Target new market segments Differentiated marketing strategy should be continually adopted. Consider the lifestyle, income and benefit segmentation. The people in this segment are high potential group. 4. Promotion Strategy Hang Seng Bank credit card should put more resources in promotion which can increase their company images. Using gimmick souvenir and pre-approved to attract customer application intention. 5. Merchant Sales Increase merchant sales will also increase the bank revenue.Since every transaction in a c redit card, the issue bank will grain 1% of the purchase and merchant sales bank will grain 1% as well. Align with other big and famous department store, supermarket and restaurant to introduce ? Co-brand Card?. The will increase the credit purchase rate. More important it will also carry up the merchant sales. 6. Card Referral Program The Card Referral Program is one of the way to increase the credit card customer base. The program show that the bank just give out a small amount of money and get a large return of cardholder.

Thomas Hardy

About the author Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset, a rural county in the south-west of England. His father was a stonemason and the family were not well off. Hardy showed an early interest in books, however, and when he was sixteen, he began training as an architect in Dorchester. In 1862, he went to work in London, where he was able to compare city life with the customs and timeless ways of the country village where he grew up. He began writing in his spare time.In 1870, he met and fell in love with Emma Gifford, but they could not afford to marry. His fourth novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, was a big success. This allowed him to become a full-time writer and to marry. Hardy wrote several more novels, among them The Mayor of Casterbridge, published in 1886. He and Emma lived in Dorset, but they spent part of every year in London, where they mixed with literary people and Hardy was much admired. Although Hardys books were very popular, when Jude the Obscur e appeared in 1896, people hated it.They thought it was an attack on marriage, and ound it shocking and immoral. Hardy turned to poetry and never wrote another novel. He died in 1928. Some biographers portray him as snobbish, mean and hateful towards women. Others believe he was a sensitive man who cared deeply about the human condition. Summary Young, poor Michael Henchard feels trapped by his wife and child and one night gets drunk at a fair and sells them to a stranger called Newson. Horrified by what he has done, he swears not to touch alcohol for twenty years. Eighteen years later he is the mayor of Casterbridge and a successtul businessman.Believing Newson is dead, is wife, Susan, and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, arrive in c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Casterbridge to find Henchard because she has no money. He marries her again and they have a short happy life together. Farfrae, a young man with modern business ideas, arrives at the same time and becomes Henchard's farm manage r. Susan dies, and Henchard learns that Elizabeth-Jane is really Newson's daughter. Henchard falls out with Farfrae, who sets up a rival business, and soon outdoes him. A woman from Henchard's past, Lucetta, comes to Casterbridge. Henchard now wants to marry her, but she and Farfrae fall in love.Henchard's business fails and he loses his house so he starts drinking again. Lucetta dies of shock after the local people make fun of her and Henchard in public. He sees that he will now lose his ‘daughter' as well as everything else. He leaves Casterbridge on foot. He is penniless and has lost his family – Just as at the beginning of the story. ElizabethJane remains loyal to Henchard, but he dies before she can find him. Chapter 1: Henchard, a farm worker aged twenty, has a family, no Job and no home. He gets drunk and sells his wife and child for five guineas to a sailor named Newson t a fair.Devastated at what he has done, he looks for them without success. Henchard makes a solemn promise not to touch alcohol for twenty years. Chapter 2: Susan, widowed and poor, and her eighteenyear-old daughter, Elizabeth- Jane arrive in Casterbridge to find Henchard. She is relieved to find he is now the Mayor and a businessman who needs a corn manager for his growing business. Chapter 3: Henchard employs Farfrae, a handsome innovative Scotsman as corn manager and the business improves. He also meets Susan and devises a plan so that the townspeople do not find their marriage strange.He draws closer to Farfrae and tells him about his past; including a woman in Jersey he promised to marry. Chapter 4: Henchard marries Susan, but she is reluctant to have her daughter's last name changed. He and Farfrae disagree publicly over a worker. Henchard is Jealous and organises a rival entertainment day to Farfrae's, but it fails. Farfrae leaves him and sets up a rival business. Susan dies but leaves a letter with the truth about her daughter. Chapter 5†² Hencnard tells Eliza beth-Jane what happened at the fair twenty years ago but reads in Susan's letter that she is really Newson's daughter.He begins to treat her coldly, and even encourages Farfrae to see her. ElizabethJane meets a woman at her mother's grave who is friendly and offers her to share her house. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Teacher's notes of 5 Chapter 6: Lucetta, the woman from Jersey, has inherited property in Casterbridge and has employed Elizabeth-Jane as a housekeeper. Henchard tries to see her but they fail to meet. Farfrae calls in to see Elizabeth-Jane, who is out. He likes Lucetta and she loses interest in Henchard. Chapter 7: Henchard goes bankrupt because of the weather and his own impatience while Farfrae's business ucceeds.Henchard realises he and Farfrae compete for Lucetta's love, so he threatens her with making their past public so that she accepts his proposal of marriage. Chapter 8: Henchard agrees to postpone their wedding if Lucetta helps him buy some time to repa y a debt to Grower. She cant because she has secretly married Farfrae and Grower acted as witness. Chapter 9: Henchard claims the letters from his safe, and reads them out to Farfrae without disclosing the sender. He promises Lucetta to give tham back to her and asks Jopp to deliver them.Chapter 10: Jopp asks Lucetta to help him become her usband's manager but she refuses. In a pub, he reads out the letters to two women and they plan a skimmity-ride in town to scorn Lucetta and Henchard. Chapter 1 1: A member of the Royal family visits the town but Henchard is not allowed to greet him. Hurt, Henchard fghts Farfrae in a barn but cannot bring himself to kill him. Chapter 12: Henchard is back in town to see the ride. Farfrae does not see the ride because he is lured away from town but Lucetta dies of the shock. Chapter 13: Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane live together happily.Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae renew their relationship and get married Newson returns and te s daughter the truth, whi ch makes her very happy. Henchard leaves the town. Chapter 14: Elizabeth-Jane marries Farfrae and tries to find her father to take care of him but he dies before she can find him. The original text The novel first appeared serially, in twenty instalments, in 1886 in The Graphic, an English periodical and simultaneously in the United States. The book appeared as soon as the serial publication was complete but it differs a lot from the serial novel. It has been adapted for TV as a miniseries.Background and themes Where the story came from: Hardy claims the story as inspired by three actual events: the sale of a wife by her husband reported in a local newspaper, the uncertain harvests and the visit of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, to Dorchester, the town upon which Casterbridge is based, in 1849. Fight with self: The main theme of the book is Henchard's fight against two things: his own character and chance. As he fghts with himself, his actions and decisions affect other pe ople's lives, usually badly. He often allows negative feelings to overwhelm him – at the beginning when things seem so bad he sells his wife.He is lways honest in business, but not always kind; he is often impatient and quick to anger, but he is capable of great love and great loneliness. His complex character creates uncertainty in the reader – should we feel sorry for him or does he deserve everything that happens to him? Chance: Chance plays an important part throughout the story: the chance appearance of Newson in the tent when Henchard is trying to sell his wife; the rain that spoils Henchard's fair; the August weather that ruins Henchard's business; the chance meeting between Farfrae and Lucetta when they fall in love.Hardy believes that although Henchard is a powerful character, he is never fully in control of his life. Alcohol also has a role here. Henchard's life improves when he stops drinking; as he devotes himself to work, builds a successful business and e ventually becomes mayor. Once ne starts again, ne loses his pride and his Judgement. Traditional versus modern: The two men represent contrasting ways of life in the country. Henchard is traditional and old-fashioned. Farfrae is young and modern. Hardy was always fascinated by country customs and ways.He often includes strange country rituals like the skimmity-ride in his novels. They make useful plot devices and allow him to paint pictures of colourful but less important characters. He also uses them to reveal the conservative side of society, which can be very cruel to people who fall outside its strict rules of moral behaviour. Lucetta dies because of the skimmity Joke. This breaking of the moral code becomes a very important theme in Hardys later novels, which shocked the reading public and ended Hardys novel-writing career. Discussion activities Before reading 1 Group work: Students work in groups.Each group chooses an important person in their local community, e. g. factory ow ner, the mayor, the chief of police, a magistrate. They then decide on a terrible secret in the past of their character. They discuss the details of the secret without other students overhearing. The class then questions each group in turn to try and find out what the secret is. Groups have to answer as truthfully as they can. 2 Read carefully: Read the Introduction on pages Ev'ii. Make a chart of the events of Thomas Hardys life. Use these dates: 1840 1871 1886 1895 1913 1914 1928 Example: 1840 Thomas Hardy is born in Dorset.Chapter 1 While reading Pair work: (atter page 4) Michael is ottering his wite or a little money at the fair. Ask students in pairs to make a list of the things they could say to persuade Michael to keep quiet. 4 Discuss: (page 6) Michael makes a formal promise not to drink alcohol for twenty years. Ask students to discuss the following: How hard will this be for Michael? Have you ever made a promise that was hard to keep? After reading 9 Pair work: Henchard wa nts to persuade Farfrae to stay and work with him. How can he do this? Ask students in pairs to write down reasons why Farfrae should stay in Casterbridge.Then they prepare a short speech and give it to the rest of the class. Finally, have a class vote for the most convincing speech. 10 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following: How do you think people in Casterbridge would react if they knew that the mayor had sold his wife twenty years before? How has this changed in present days? Are citizens' decisions influenced by the private life of their authorities? Chapters 3-4 11 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following: What about Farfrae has attracted Henchard? Why would he be interested in him? Guess: Tell students that eighteen years have passed after Henchard's promise not to drink for twenty years. Ask students to guess what has become of Henchard's life. Will he ever find his family again? 12 Write: (after Chapter 3) After he learns about Lucetta and Henchard, Farfrae ad vises him to write a letter to the young woman explaining to her why he is no longer available to keep his word and marry her. He even helps him do so. Ask students in pairs to write the letter from Henchard to Lucetta. 13 Role play: (page 21) Ask students to pretend they are ordinary townspeople at Henchard and Susan's wedding.They are very surprised by the wedding. Ask them to role play the conversation in pairs. 4 Guess: (page 23) Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane receive notes for a secret meeting in a barn. Neither of them has written the note for the other. Ask students to guess who may have wanted them to meet and therefore written the notes. What motive might that person have? 15 Discuss: (page 24) Henchard and Farfrae argue over how to treat a worker. Ask students to discuss how different their approaches to management are. How can they be described? If they were a worker, who would they prefer as a manager? Role play: Susan leaves the fair with the sailor. How do they feel? What do they say to each other as they alk along the road? Ask students to role play the conversation between them. Chapter 2 7 Discuss: (page 9) Ask students to discuss how Susan's life might have been different if she had not left with the sailor eighteen years before. Would her life have been better? 8 Role play: (after reading aloud the first paragraph on page 15) Casterbridge was a very quiet town in Hardys day. Communications with big cities like London and Portsmouth were slow and difficult. So when Farfrae arrives, a visitor from Scotland, it is a big event.Farfrae is in the bar at the King of Prussia. One student is Farfrae. Other students are customers. What do they ask him? Ask them to role play the conversation in small groups. 16 Group work: Put students in small groups. Ask them to discuss how these sets of relationships change in this section of the book: Susan and Henchard; Hencnard and Fartrae; Elizabeth-Jane and Fartrae; Elizabeth-Jane and Henchard. After their discussi ons, groups report back to the class. Chapters 5-6 17 Discuss: Ask students to discuss these questions with a partner. (a) Who is the Woman in black? b) The next chapter is called ‘Love at First Sight'. Which two characters will fall n love at first sight? 18 Group work: (page 33) Henchard has Just been told that he will not be offered the position of mayor again. Farfrae has been chosen instead. Ask students in groups to discuss which candidate would be a better mayor and to give reasons for their choice. Then they share their ideas with the class. 19 Role play: (page 35) Elizabeth-Jane is sitting by her mother's grave, reading. A woman she has never met before approaches and they start talking. She tells her about her life before and after Casterbridge.Ask students in pairs to role play this conversation. Remind them the woman ends up hiring her as a housekeeper. 20 Discuss: (page 40) Will the new planting machine be good for the people of Casterbridge or bad? Ask students t o take a minute and write arguments for and against new machinery. Then they share their ideas with other students. 27 Group work: Wealth (or the absence of it) plays an important role in the novel. For example, Hencnard's interest in Lucetta grows now that she is wealthy and independent. Ask students to work in groups. Assign each group a character (Henchard, Susan, Lucetta, Elizabeth-Jane, Farfrae).Students discuss how money nd wealth have changed their character. Are they better off with money? Are they happier? Then they share their views. 21 Discuss: Elizabeth-Jane wonders why Lucetta did not trust her with the truth. Ask students in pairs or small groups to try to respond to this question. Then they compare their views with other students. Chapters 7-8 22 Guess: Ask students to discuss who the title of the chapter may refer to, when it comes to love. Who are the women involved? 23 Group work: (page 44) Ask students in small groups to list the mistakes or miscalculations Hencha rd made as regards his business.What did he do wrong? What shouldn't he have done? What should he have done instead? Encourage them to give reasons for their answers. Then they share their lists with the rest of the class. Do they have similar ideas? 24 Discuss: Invite students to read aloud the incident on page 45 between the two drivers. Discuss with students how this incident reflects the wider situation between Henchard and Farfrae. Record ideas on the board. 25 Discuss: (page 47) Ask students to discuss the following questions: How does Henchard force Lucetta to agree to marry him? Was she right in accepting the proposal?Did she have any other way out? How will Farfrae feel about this? 26 Discuss: (page 53) Ask students to discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups: What emotions does Henchard feel when he learns of Lucetta's marriage to Farfrae? Will he keep quiet about their past relationship? Then they snare their ideas wit n the rest ot the class. Chapters 9-1 0 28 Guess: Ask students to guess how Henchard might react to Lucetta's rejection. 29 Pair work: (page 55) Ask students in pairs to discuss the following questions: How do Henchard's and Farfrae's management styles differ?What kind of manager would you like to have if you were an employee? 30 Role play: (page 59) Elizabeth-Jane stops Farfrae in the street and warns him about Henchard's feelings but he does not take her seriously. Ask students to role play this conversation. 31 Discuss: (page 66) Mrs Cuxsom and Nance Mockridge plan the skimmity-ride after they listen to Jopp read out the letters. They want to teach Mrs Farfrae a lesson using an old tradition. Ask students to discuss the following: How would people in your country shame others today? 2 Group work: Students compare events in the lives f Henchard and Farfrae by making a good/bad list for each of the two men. Divide the class into four groups. Each group takes and completes one section of the list. Groups report back to the class, writing their ideas in list form on the board. As a follow-up, students write a paragraph comparing the fortunes of the two men. Chapters 11-12 33 Discuss: Farfrae has Just been offered the position of mayor. Ask students to discuss these questions: Do you think he will agree? Why/why not? 34 Role play: Ask students to imagine that they are standing in the crowd watching the royal visit.

Free Essays on Tv

Television is not just a form of entertainment, but it is an excellent form of study of society’s view concerning its families. This study focuses on the history of television beginning in the early 1950s and will run through present day. It examines the use of racial, ethnic and sexual stereotypes to characterize the players of these shows. The examples assist in tracing what has happened to the depiction of the American family on prime time television. It reveals the change of the standards employed by network television as disclosed to the American public. Finally, I will propose the question of which is the influential entity, television or the viewing audience. The Goldbergs, which was originally a radio show, became the first popular family series. It became a weekly TV series in 1949, revealing to Americans a working class Jewish family who resided in a small apartment in the Bronx. The show, while warm and humorous, confronted delicate social issues, such as sensitivity due to the Second World War. It is an excellent example of an ethnic family’s status in society. A classic among classics, I Love Lucy appeared on television on October 15, 1951, (nick-at-nite.com/tvretro/shows/ilovelucy/index.tin). The series’ premise focused on the antics of a nonsensical wife who beguiles her easily angered husband. The series created the men-versus-women standard on television, (such as what we see between Dan and Roseanne on Roseanne today), that still predominates today. One circumstance that led TV executives to seriously challenge the show’s impending success was the use of Lucille Ball’s real-life Cuban husband, Desi Arnaz. The â€Å"mixed-marriage† status was a questionable concept that worried the administrators. The situation prevailed; its episodes routinely attracted over two-thirds of the television audience. Leave it to Beaver, the definitive 1950’s household comedy, focused on life through the ey... Free Essays on Tv Free Essays on Tv Television is not just a form of entertainment, but it is an excellent form of study of society’s view concerning its families. This study focuses on the history of television beginning in the early 1950s and will run through present day. It examines the use of racial, ethnic and sexual stereotypes to characterize the players of these shows. The examples assist in tracing what has happened to the depiction of the American family on prime time television. It reveals the change of the standards employed by network television as disclosed to the American public. Finally, I will propose the question of which is the influential entity, television or the viewing audience. The Goldbergs, which was originally a radio show, became the first popular family series. It became a weekly TV series in 1949, revealing to Americans a working class Jewish family who resided in a small apartment in the Bronx. The show, while warm and humorous, confronted delicate social issues, such as sensitivity due to the Second World War. It is an excellent example of an ethnic family’s status in society. A classic among classics, I Love Lucy appeared on television on October 15, 1951, (nick-at-nite.com/tvretro/shows/ilovelucy/index.tin). The series’ premise focused on the antics of a nonsensical wife who beguiles her easily angered husband. The series created the men-versus-women standard on television, (such as what we see between Dan and Roseanne on Roseanne today), that still predominates today. One circumstance that led TV executives to seriously challenge the show’s impending success was the use of Lucille Ball’s real-life Cuban husband, Desi Arnaz. The â€Å"mixed-marriage† status was a questionable concept that worried the administrators. The situation prevailed; its episodes routinely attracted over two-thirds of the television audience. Leave it to Beaver, the definitive 1950’s household comedy, focused on life through the ey...

Latin Personal Pronouns

Latin Personal Pronouns A pronoun stands in for a noun. A personal pronoun works like a noun in one of the 3 persons, which are, predictably, numbered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In Latin, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined: endings signify the specific use of the pronouns in the sentence. These uses and endings are the cases. Commonly, there are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative cases. Latin Personal Pronouns in the Subject or Nominative Case Subject or Nominative Case pronouns function as the subject of a sentence. (The subject is the word in the sentence that does the verb.) Here are the English subject pronouns followed by the Latin nominative pronouns. I - EgoYou - TuHe/She/It - Is/Ea/IdWe - NosYou - VosThey - Ei Oblique Case Pronouns: Genitive Case The oblique cases are the cases that are not nominative/subject. One of these is familiar from English pronouns. This familiar case is the possessive or Genitive Case, as it is called in reference to Latin. The English determiner my is a possessive. The English pronouns mine, ours, yours, and his/her/its are possessive pronouns. Other Oblique Cases Other oblique cases are the direct object (Accusative Case in Latin) and the prepositional cases (in English). Accusative Case The Accusative Case is used as the direct object of a sentence or the object of a preposition. Not all Latin prepositions take the Accusative Case. Some prepositions take other cases. Dative Case The Dative Case is the equivalent of the English indirect object case. The indirect object is used in English when a verb takes 2 objects: one is acted upon (the direct object/Accusative Case) and one receives the object (the indirect object/Dative Case). (Subject does direct object to indirect object [example below].) You can generally spot the indirect object easily in English because the prepositions to and for precede it*. In Latin, there are no propositions for the Dative Case. He gave the letter to you (Epistulam tibi donavit.) He Subject/Nominative CaseTo You Indirect Object/Dative Case tibiThe Letter Direct Object/Accusative CaseDoing it all with pronouns:He gave it to you. (Id tibi donavit)**He Subject/Nominative CaseIt Direct Object/Accusative Case idTo You Indirect Object/Dative Case tibi Besides the Dative Case for the indirect object, where the English preposition is spelled out (to or for), there are other prepositional cases. Ablative Case The Ablative Case is used with a wide variety of propositions, including with and by. Like the Dative Case, the prepositions are sometimes implied in Latin, rather than written out. The case that is used for the direct object which youll remember is called the Accusative Case is also used with some prepositions. Some prepositions take either the Ablative or the Accusative Case, depending on meaning. * Not all instances of the prepositions to and for in English signify the indirect object. ** Note the subject personal pronoun is not spelled out but is included in the information from the verb, which tells you person, number, voice, mood, aspect, and tense. You could say Ille id tibi donavit if the he in question were important.

Essay quiz Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quiz - Essay Example What is it looking like? A metaphysician generally tries to clarify the notion of the general people’s view towards the understanding about the world. For example, possibilities, cause and effect, time and space, object and their properties and also existence. Ontology is the central branch of metaphysics that investigates the basic categories of being and their relations. Cosmetology is the other central branch of metaphysics that studies the origin, nature, dynamics and fundamental structure of the universe. Sometimes epistemology is also considered as a central branch of metaphysics. However, it is not confirmed. As far as the â€Å"Sceptical Doubts† is concerned there are two most basic types of knowledge, as said by Hume. Those are matters of fact and the relations of ideas. P1: Human knowledge is either necessary or contingent. P2: It is an ultimate truth that there should be relations between the ideas. P3: Matters of fact are considered as contingent truth. Hence it can be concluded that human knowledge is comprised of either matters of fact or relations of ideas. Matters of fact definition†¦ Most of our beliefs are regarded as matters of fact irrespective of their validity or truth – for example natural science. The inherent logical contingency does not allow inductive predictions and statements of matters of fact to the amount of knowledge. However, Hume feels that the sun will surely rise tomorrow like it does every day throughout his life and it would be absurd to think that sun does not rise tomorrow. With this alternative conception metaphysics can serve as a foundation for the nature of reality but not as such for the reality directly. Metaphysics offers most basic accounts that is related to the nature of things like what they are and not of things like how they are. As a step to answer the first question – we need to first differentiate between the two ways in which a statement might be said in

The Lands of Bolivar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Lands of Bolivar - Essay Example The Latin American governments including Columbia have been strongly pressured by the U.S to enhance their drug management efforts. Strained diplomatic ties resulted in the process. This paper examines the role of the United States in the drug issues that are facing Columbia. It also looks at the militarization of the drug control efforts that have been put in effect by the United States and the effects that such programs are likely to have on Columbia. During the reign of Reagan in the United states administration, the war against drugs gained it momentum. Political pressure for drug eradication was mounting in Columbia. Decriminalization and the legalization movements were marginalized by a tough approach to the war on drugs. It became apparent that this war will be militarized. The speech that was delivered by Reagan in 1982 focused on drug prohibition and eradication. In addition to that, the major of the United States war on drugs as put into practice in Columbia included eradication projects through crop substitution strategies and the prohibition of the trafficking routes. It is worth noting that though much of the efforts were militarized, the objectives in Columbia were believed to be counter narcotics. The prospect of maintaining this distinction was critical in upholding the support of public wary of a possible involvement of the U.S in a counter revolution that could ‘Vietnamize’ the overall state of affairs in Columbia. The effectiveness of the US in this situation can attributed to the fact that there was a reduction in the amount of drugs entering the United States and a subsequent growth of a drug-free economy. With better economic opportunities at stake, the farmers in Columbia could grow nutritious food crops rather than the drugs. Additionally, with drug elimination the country has a lot to offer which includes

What could be the expected positive and negative effects of European Essay

What could be the expected positive and negative effects of European Monetary Union on a member country's economy - Essay Example The European Monetary Union (EMU) has been such framework. However, the challenges related to the particular plan have been many. In practice, persuading the member states to align their fiscal and economic policies has been proved a challenging task. The gradual implementation of EMU across member states has been considered as a strategy for controlling risks related to this initiative. The incorporation of ‘the principle of freedom of capital movement in the Treaty for the European Union’, in 1993, has been the starting point of EMU. At the next level, two important activities had to be performed for promoting EMU: ‘the introduction of the legislation related to EMU in all member states and the introduction of the common currency, the euro’. These activities that lasted from 1994 to 1998 have been incorporated in the second phase of EMU’s implementation. From January 1999 the third phase of this plan has started; this phase involves in the replaceme nt of national currencies of member states by euro. In practice, it has been proved that EMU can result to both positive and negative effects for member states. The particular issue is explored in this paper. Reference is made to UK and Spain, as examples, for showing the positive and negative effects of EMU both for countries within the euro zone and for those that are outside the euro zone. In this way also, the potential implications of the entry of a member state in Euro zone are made clear. 2. Which could be the expected positive and negative effects of European Monetary Union on a member country's economy? The participation of countries in a monetary union has been related to a series of benefits. For the member states that participate in EMU these benefits would be also available. According to Albertin (2008) one of the most important benefits of participating in a monetary union is ‘the significant increase of bilateral trade between the countries that have joined such union’ (Albertin 2008, p.3). It is not made clear though whether this benefit can continue in the long term or whether it is related only to the initial period of a country’s entrance in a moneta ry union. On the other hand, a monetary union can protect its members against strong market turbulences. Indeed, during strong financial crises the countries that are members of a monetary union can easier keep their economy stabilized at the level that their interest rates are not highly affected by the crisis, at least not so high as the rates of the countries that do not participate on monetary unions (Farina and Tamborini 2008, p.152). The recent financial crisis can be considered as an indicative example of the above case; the countries that are members of EMU have managed to protect their economy from extensive losses, mostly because they have been under the protection of EMU (Tausch and Heshmati 2012). The fact that not all members of EMU have managed to secure their economy against the global crisis is not related solely to their participation in EMU but it has been also related to their existing fiscal and social policies (Tausch and Heshmati 2012). In any case, the potenti als of a monetary union ‘to protect its members against asymmetric shocks’ (De Grauwe 2012, p.27) seem to be high. Another important benefit of monetary unions is

The International Accounting Standards Board Structure

The International Accounting Standards Board Structure There is overwhelming demand for high quality accounting standards that are internationally accepted. It is of the utmost importance that the IASB delivers these as quickly as possible. Required: a) Outline the current structure of the IASB, highlighting the major influences and controls on it. (30%) b) Explain the main advantages of high quality, internationally accepted accounting standards and the main challenges the IASB faces in developing them. (50%) c) Comment on the quotation above and give a conclusion on its validity. (20%) ANSWER a) The International Accounting Standards Board (hereafter â€Å"IASB†)[1] replaced the International Accounting Standards Committee on April 1 2001. This represented the culmination of a restructuring project based on the recommendations of the report Recommendations on Shaping IASC for the Future.[2] The IASB, which is based in London, is constituted by fourteen board members drawn from nine different countries, of whom twelve are full-time and 3 are part-time. The composition of the membership is as follows: a minimum of five former auditors, three former users of accounts, three former preparers of accounts, and one academic. The remaining two can be drawn from any of these backgrounds or from a different background. The IASB is entrusted with the responsibility to establish International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and its goal is to create conformity and compatibility around the world.[3] Its mission statement is to provide â€Å"high quality, understandable and enforceable global accounting standards†[4]. This is a substantial task, given that the accounting principles generally accepted in each individual country can in practice differ significantly between national jurisdictions. The IASB is organised on the following lines. Its parental body, the IASC Foundation is an independent entity having two main arms, namely, the Trustees and the IASB, and in addition it incorporates the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee and a Standards Advisory Council. The 22 Foundation Trustees of the IASC are empowered to appoint members to the IASB, to exercise general oversight and administrative and managerial supervision, and to generate the funds needed to finance the operation. However it should be stressed that the IASB has sole and exclusive responsibility for establishing accounting standards. The focus of the IASB is on the pursuit of a rolling work plan. The work plan is determined and updated at regular IASB meetings and reflects the objectives and broad timetable of the Memorandum of Understanding[5] between the IASB and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (hereafter â€Å"FASB†) which lays down the so-called Roadmap for Convergence between IFRSs and US GAAP between 2006 and 2008.[6] The Memorandum of Understanding establishes goals that the IASB and FASB have agreed to achieve so as to facilitate the convergence of accounting standard-setting.[7] The long-term strategic priority of both the IASB and FASB remains the establishment of a common set of high quality global standards. b) The overarching goal of the IASB is the creation and maintenance of a set of understandable, enforceable and effective accounting standards for consistent application around the world. The object of this exercise is to attempt to guarantee both equivalence and transparency in certain universal financial statements compiled in different national jurisdictions across the globe by engineering a commensurate and smooth convergence of previously diverse national standards of accounting reporting..[8] It is manifest that the achievement of such an end would facilitate international business and investment, reduce commercial risk and increase transparency, and improve the general quality of financial reporting around the world. The IASB has resolved that if consistently reliable and effective financial reporting infrastructure is to be established it must both embody and reflect four essential characteristics:[9] 1. It is deemed essential that settled accounting standards are consistent, comprehensive and founded on a transparent set of general principles which strive to guarantee that financial reports fairly and accurately reflect all background and underlying financial realities. 2. Functional mechanisms must be put in place to ensure the adoption of efficient and effective corporate governance practices, and that in turn these should incorporate a condition for strict systems of internal control which serve to apply common accounting standards. 3. Auditing practices must be established in which the diverse users and prepares of accounts in the outside world can invest confidence and trust, and which categorically establish that undertakings produce reports which represent a true and fair view of their economic performance and overall financial state. 4. It is necessary to implement a cogent surveillance and enforcement regime which ensures that the fundamental rules and principles as determined by the universally prevailing auditing and accounting standards are both respected and applied.. The Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements[10] was published by the IASB’s predecessor, the International Accounting Standards Committee in 1989. Popularly known as the Conceptual Framework, this document lays down the essential concepts to be adhered to in the production of financial statements for external appraisal and usage. The Framework deals with such matters as: qualitative characteristics of financial information; fundamental assumptions; objectives of financial statements; elements of financial statements; core components of financial statements; measurement of the items of financial statements; capital maintenance issues.[11] That said, it is worth emphasising that the Conceptual Framework is not accorded the full status of an accounting standard. The same can be said of the Statement of Principles of the UK Accounting Standards Board. This obviously constitutes a practical challenge because it renders application less certain and can result in a dilution of the principles it endeavours to entrench. Despite this difficulty, the Framework guides the current work of the IASB in its development of contemplated International Financial Reporting Standards and it influences the IASB’s rolling review of established International Accounting Standards.. It is submitted that this modus operandi should encourage the harmonisation of accounting standards, and hone those procedures and regulations relevant to the presentation and substance of financial statements by setting down an underlying conceptual rationale for reducing the number of different accounting treatments allowed under international standards. The IASB faces a huge challenge in catering for the all the different classes of users of financial statements, who may seek to use those financial statements for a wide number of purposes. Given that users may include classes as diverse as, suppliers, lenders, trade creditors, investors (current and potential), employees, customers (current and potential), the general public and Government agencies, it is clear that the IASB has to take a vast array of different and sometimes competing interests into account in determining the appropriate rules of accounting.[12] c) It is very hard to argue with the quote under review, because there is manifestly considerable demand among, in particular accounts users, who rely upon accounts to guide a multiplicity of business and investment decisions, for high quality accounting standards that are both internationally accepted and respected and universally applied. Given that unarguable truth the second part of the quote is also clearly well founded. Of course it would be desirable to deliver improvements to accounting standards as soon as possible. This commentator can conceive of no reason to delay the introduction of what would represent a significant improvement in conditions of finance and trade, in particular given the increasing globalisation of business and commerce and the relative growth in the number of international transactions as opposed to national transactions with each passing year. In simple words, business is becoming ever more global and accounting standards must consolidate to reflect t hat new environment and practice. The demand and determination to achieve high quality and internationally accepted accounting standards is perhaps best evidenced by the focused cooperation between accounting standard setting bodies witnessed in recent years. In 2004 the IASB started work on a project in partnership with the US FASB which is aimed at the development of a so-called common conceptual framework, in the hope of that such would facilitate the convergence and refinement of the existing frameworks of both accounting standards Boards.[13] Demand for tighter and more consistent accounting standards has also been fuelled by analysis of the high profile corporate collapses of companies like Enron and WorldCom in recent years.[14] Accountants were widely criticised for auditing errors in these cases, which have already proved the catalysts for a raft of new corporate governance regulations.. These huge corporate collapses and others of their ilk have not only given rise to increased demand for accounting standard improvement and consolidation but also underline the very real need for concerted action in this field. In sum, it is submitted that the quote under review is well founded in both its primary assertions.. THE END WORD COUNT: 1574 (excluding footnotes) BIBLIOGRAPHY Recommendations on Shaping IASC for the Future: A Report of the International Accounting Standards Committee’s Strategy Working Party, Recommendations to the IASC Board, 30 November 1999: http://www.iasb.org/uploaded_files/documents/8_210_swp_rep.pdf Mirza and Epstein, IFRS: Interpretation and Application of International Accounting Standards, (2006) Wiley Horngren, â€Å"Uses and Limitations of a Conceptual Framework,† Journal of Accountancy, April 1981 Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements, http://www.iasplus.com/standard/framewk.htm. Alfredson et al., Applying International Accounting Standards, (2005) Wiley. Lewis and Pendrill, Advanced Financial Accounting, (2004) Prentice Hall International Accounting Standards Board website: http://www.iasb.org/Home.htm Inman, UK accounting firms enjoy  £1bn bonanza in wake of Enron, The Guardian, 28 June 2006. Memorandum of Understanding between the FASB and the IASB 27 February 2006: http://www.iasb..co.uk/. The IASB Conceptual Framework An Introduction, Dr Philip Dunn, AccountingWeb, 9 May 2005: http://www..accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=140805d=448h=0f=0. International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) (1998); â€Å"Shaping IASC for the Future†, Discussion Paper, December, 1998 1 Footnotes [1] The non-profit organisation IASC Foundation, incorporated in March 2001 in Delaware, US is the parental body of the IASB. [2] Recommendations on Shaping IASC for the Future: A Report of the International Accounting Standards Committee’s Strategy Working Party, Recommendations to the IASC Board, 30 November 1999: http://www.iasb.org/uploaded_files/documents/8_210_swp_rep.pdf. And see: International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) (1998); â€Å"Shaping IASC for the Future†, Discussion Paper, December, 1998. [3] For an insightful overview see: Alfredson et al., Applying International Accounting Standards, (2005) Wiley. [4] See: http://www.iasb.org/Home.htm. [5] Memorandum of Understanding between the FASB and the IASB 27 February 2006: http://www.iasb.co.uk/. [6] See: http://www.iasb.co.uk/. [7] This is an integral part of the process towards removal of the duty owed by foreign registrants with the SEC to converge their financial statements to the US GAAP model. [8] See for general background and insightful comment: Lewis, R. and Pendrill, D. 2004 Advanced Financial Accounting 7th edition. [9] Statement of Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the IASB, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate, Washington DC, 9 September 2004: http://www.iasb.org/uploaded_files/documents/8_129_040909-dpt.pdf. [10] See: Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements, http://www.iasplus.com/standard/framewk.htm. [11] The IASB Conceptual Framework An Introduction, Dr Philip Dunn, AccountingWeb, 9 May 2005: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=140805d=448h=0f=0. [12] Horngren, Charles T., â€Å"Uses and Limitations of a Conceptual Framework,† Journal of Accountancy, April 1981, p. 90. [13] See: http://www.iasb.org/current/active_projects.asp?showPageContent=noxml=16_107_116_30112004.htm [14] Inman, UK accounting firms enjoy  £1bn bonanza in wake of Enron, The Guardian, 28 June 2006.