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.