Rammed Earth free essay sample

Despite Rammed Earths extensive use throughout history, its use is still not so popular within the UK. Reason for this is largely due to architects/ Builders not knowing enough about the material and sticking to the familiar concrete, timber and brick ways that they know, rammed earth can often also be perceived as having cruder finishing and not in keeping with the clean-sharp lined finished which are so often preferred in today’s architecture- Though with the appropriate shuttering clean finishes can be achieved. Building with rammed earth is considered to carry greater risk and uncertainty, the material is yes, more suited to arid climates, but even in arid climates modern method of construction using rammed earth are being continually tried and tested e. g. in Australia. Rammed earth is a perfectly viable and good material to be used within the UK – there is a need to get past the reluctance to use and experiment with it more here the climate presents a challenge which can be won in innovative ways. We will write a custom essay sample on Rammed Earth or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page [pic] The Use of Rammed Earth within the UK

Westinghouse essays

Westinghouse essays Most people know the name Westinghouse as the name of an appliance, but where did the name come from? Many people may not know that George Westinghouse was not only an inventor, but a visionary. George Westinghouse's many inventions fed the Industrial Revolution that swept through America in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution brought many changes to the United States. Even though America was progressing, many ill effects were brought on by this expansion. Westinghouse was one of the Industrialist that actually cared about the many problems he saw in urban America. Westinghouse, at the age of forty-two, could no longer ignore "the evils of social upheaval created by too rapid industrial development"(Levine, 2). George Westinghouse wanted something done, but it looked as if he was the only one that would do it. George Westinghouse had influenced many areas of his era and ours. His many inventions, his good-willed policy toward his workers and his business practices have affected all of us; but nothing will compare to the influences that he left on our country's upper-class - the concept that they had a responsibility toward the society that had made them who they were. George Westinghouse was born eight of ten children into a middle class family on October 6, 1846. Westinghouse's father ran a small machine shop in Schendectady, NY, that manufactured mostly farm implements; as a result, Westinghouse was introduced to the world of machines at a very early age. Due to curiosities he found during the Civil War, in which he served in both the Northern Army and the Navy, Westinghouse invented a rotary steam engine. At age nineteen, this was his first patented invention; however, the design proved to be impractical. Despite his troubles, Westinghouse went on to invent a device for placing derailed railroad cars back on their tracks. The next year, Westinghouse was riding on a train that was ...

Language change and Language contact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Language change and Language contact - Essay Example The linguistic structure of any language is the pillar of dialect differentiation. That is vocabulary and grammar which is composed of the formation of words (morphology) and sentence structure (syntax). For instance, in Australia, Canada and US, the term corn is interpreted as maize. The same word means wheat and oats in England and Scotland respectively. A language code is a letter or a number for identifying different languages. They are useful in the organization of data for a particular language. Schemes use them to classify languages. In ISO 639‑1 for instance, the name of English is en and the name of Spanish language is es. In the 16th to 19th century, Europeans and non-Europeans interacted in other areas other than Europe. There various activities that led to these interactions such as colonization, plantation agriculture, mining and trade. Pidgin as a language, it developed as a means of communication between those groups. There were no native speakers as the users of the language used it only for their activities and they went back to their native languages for intrapersonal communication. When different cultures and languages come together, they combine their gestures, sounds and their words to form pidgin. In communication of people from different language backgrounds, there exist different gestures, different vocal patterns and speeches. For smooth communication, they have to adjust all of them according to their personal usage. Communication accommodation is practiced to reduce social differences. There are two processes that are involved in communication accommodation which are convergence and divergence accommodation (Fromkin & Hyams, 2014). Phonology is a part of language change and deals with how to sequence and structure the speech sounds. Different languages have different phonemes (speech sound). For instance, the sound ng in bang cannot be allowed to come in front of the word. In phonology

Galileo's Stardom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Galileo's Stardom - Essay Example Hence, when the highly acclaimed Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle proposed that Earth is the center of the universe, Catholic theologians readily validated as such perspective coincided with the relevant passages of the Holy Scripture. According to Aristotle, the heavens were made of 55 concentric crystalline spheres to which were attached celestial bodies orbiting the Earth at different measures of velocity. Aristotle further claimed herein that an outermost sphere existed being the domain of the ‘Prime Mover’ which brought its constant motion to be distributed among the inner spheres, including the sun. This notion was acceptable to the church on the grounds that it could be affirmed by certain passages in the Bible. As such, the biblical verses of the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, particularly Gen. 19:23 and Gen. 28:11, indicate in phrases â€Å"The sun had risen on the earth ...† and â€Å"... because the sun had set† (ESV), respectivel y, that the sun exhibits movement, as of rising and of setting. Then since the interpretation hereafter had been widely acknowledged in the literal sense of the text, the moving sun was thought of by the church to be the one rotating as all the rest of the cosmic spheres do about a core where the Earth’s spot was. ... xpressed inclination to his science and philosophy inasmuch as it seemed unlikely to question the inseparability between the church and its determination to keep the Aristotelian geocentric model. By the time that Renaissance or the Age of Enlightenment (14th – 17th c.) came and the enlightened thinkers prevailed to introduce reforms to the old system of thinking and living in several aspects, Galileo Galilei was born to challenge the traditional geocentric belief scheme. As one of the prominent figures who made ‘Scientific Revolution’ possible to soar to heights of radical vision and discoveries, Galileo studied astronomy, mathematics, physics, and natural philosophy that he found a great deal of significance in applying the scientific method. Through the inductive means of conducting his endeavor in astronomy which involved thorough use of math and physics for accurate computations, he managed to prove the Copernican findings that the sun is the center of the un iverse. The Roman Catholic Church, nevertheless, could not afford to permit the promotion of this concept since it had already perceived certainty in the gradual reconciliation of science and religion via the Earth- centered approach of Aristotle. It infuriated some theologians and church leaders to the point of severe opposition and accusation, charging the Italian astronomer of heresy upon examining Galileo’s heliocentric insights. His Copernican-based ideas appear contrary to the biblical statements concerning the movement of the sun or scriptural portions that reflected the Earth in fixed position while the Sun keeps not a single location, just as is depicted in Ecclesiastes 1:5 – â€Å"The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises† (NIV). Galileo, however, responded by

Slave owners Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Slave owners - Thesis Example This research will begin with the statement that the institution of slavery was a dark era in the history of the American nation. Although now criticized as morally intolerable, several in colonial America believed that the economic growth of the United States was dependent upon forced laborers. Although it was a very popular form of labor during the early stages of American growth, it was very cruel and evil type of labor and Americans understood this; to be a slave owner you had to of had a mindset that was just purely focused on wealth and status and no respect for the black race at all. The owner and slave relationship was characterized by the domination of the owner over the slave. Force was the basis of this relationship and this idea was clearly articulated in the 1829 decision by a judge in North Carolina concerning the relationship between an owner and a slave. He wrote: With slavery ... the end is the profit of the master, his security and the public safety; the subject, one doomed in his own person, and his posterity, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that another may reap his fruits†¦. The power of the master must be absolute, to render the submission of the slave perfect. Another common aspect of American slavery was isolation. Africans were stolen away from their homes, families, and culture. Everything that was familiar to them was stripped away and they were then isolated in a new world.... laims of birth, they were also denied the right of creating family ties that would be recognized by the law.5 Selling children away from their parents was a common practice. The law did not recognize African slave relationships, and families could be ripped apart if masters desired. Selling husbands away from wives or children away from mothers was a common practice in America and was sometimes used as a threat of punishment.6 Some masters tried to keep families together; however this was rare. "Kenneth Stamp forcefully insists that the great majority of slaveholders chose business over sentiment and broke up families when under financial pressure."7 For most masters, monetary success tended to be more important than the happiness of slaves. African slaves in America were deemed social outcasts. They were thought to be strange and assumed to be savage. These were the major components in that sense of difference that provided the mental margin between masters and African slaves. They were never considered equals to whites and were placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. As Winthrop Jordan wrote: They did not belong to the same community as Christians, or civilized Europeans. The focus of this "we-they" distinction was at first religious, later racial. †¦to be Christian was to be civilized rather than barbarous, English rather than African, white rather than black.8 African slaves were considered strangers by the white population and also among each other. They were taken from various areas throughout Africa and the chances of being enslaved with others from the same area or clan were slim.9 Owners could use slaves for whatever they pleased; slaves had no rights. They could not make basic decisions on their own such as what or when to eat. Slaves could not choose

Importance of aligning human resource processes with business strategy

Importance of aligning human resource processes with business strategy Strategic alignment these terms are some of the phrases which are being used to explain the latest, evolving function of human resources process. The aligning human resource processes with business strategy about the growth of the business, increasing the performance of the employees and keeping the costs under a control. Which means the employee satisfaction and benefits provide to the population as they are not the strategic goals, but they are tools to reach the goals important for the whole organization. The importance of the alignment of the HR process with the business strategy is about going deeper and finding the real root components of the successful human capital management in the organization. The HR Managers have to identify the real goals of the business, the business way how to reach the goals and the real needs of the business from Human Resources. Dainty (2000) the HR tends to take care of employees, but it is not what the business asks for usually. The HR process ali gnment with the business strategy needs many discussions inside Human Resources about the real goals of the organization and how the organization will utilize its human capital to reach the goals. It is not about the employee satisfaction, it is a side effect. They have to understand, how the business wants to reach the goals and then the HR process can be developed and fully aligned with the business strategy. The aligned HR process misses the nice words about the retention, the employee satisfaction and other nice HR initiatives. These are the tools; the real business goals are different. These few points which are important in jumpstarting the organisations revenue and profit growth if well utilized: Develop a workforce that can perform higher-grade assignments. Increase efficiency, effectiveness and standards of performance by the employee Keep the employees informed Provide the usual training of new recruited workforce Business strategy remains important in ensuring that a business performs well. It is important that human resources process is carried out in a proper manner the human resource has a function of delivering strategy insights in the organisation so as to enable the organisation to be more effective in sourcing, evaluating and motivating employees in this increasingly unstable business environment. J. D Wheelen (2003) the human resource has to continue providing administrative services which are dependable, responsive and cost effective to the needs of the organization. Starbucks and Humana companies have been able to be successful because of their good human resources management practices. It is clear that, for any company to be able to achieve, its market goals, it has to have correct human resources management. However, aligning the human resources does not guarantee 100% success towards achieving the market objective of a company. 2.  Discuss how the firm used benchmarking to determine the performance standards for leadership, client-facing and specialty/support functions? Leaders in different organisations and contexts do not look the same, but they share many characteristics. The challenge for  businesses is to understand both what they have  and what they  need in order to  secure  their future. Druker, J (1995), the Support Function will be an integral part of this practice which helps service-based businesses achieves significant, rapid, and sustainable improvements in customer satisfaction, cost, and revenue performance. These strategies bring our clients competitive advantage and significant, measurable, bottom-line impact. Benchmarking leadership and clients facing talent must take account  of  the values and strategic intent of the organisation. Leadership and client facing assessment can be applied at all levels in the organisation, from the identification of high potential leaders to an intervention with a senior team to examine their effectiveness and help them to raise their performance. The benchmarking for leadership, clien t facing, specialty/support functions may be driven by: Mergers and acquisitions Changes of ownership Changes to adapt to new technologies or markets Building leadership bench strength and a leadership pipeline Appointments to senior leadership positions Building high performance teams Self-confidence is more trustworthy than the statistical data. Develop approaches and methods for optimizing business support functions in strategic and administrative area Prepare project proposals and client discussions, assist with project planning, organize client workshops/meetings/conferences Participate in internal knowledge building/management Strategic and creative thinkers who are exceptionally adept with quantitative analysis and business case work Passionate about and committed to operations and technical excellence Proven leaders with the ability to inspire others, build strong relationships, and create a true followership Results-driven achievers who are able to grasp and communicate complex ideas clearly Collaborative team players, capable of working well with others but also autonomously with little direction Demonstrated broad business perspective 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Identify and explain three objectives of the talent management system including one from each category of operations, customer, and financial objectives? Objective of talent management system is to optimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. However within many companies the concept of human capital management has just begun to develop. In fact only few of the organizations have a clear talent management strategy and operational programs in place today. It is very important to develop a clear talent management strategy and to increase awareness of available talent and successors, all organizations should conduct regular talent review meetings to be prepared for a variety of business changes, such as mergers, company growth, or a decrease in talent needs. In the same way that all companies have regular meetings and reports regarding their financial status and budgetary needs, the talent review meeting is designed to review the current talent status and future successor needs in the organization. Grant R.M. (2005) the talent review meeting is an important part of the overall talent management process; it is designe d to review the performance and career potential of employees, to discuss possible vacancy risks of current employees, to identify successors and top talent in the organization, and to create development action plans to prepare employees for future roles in the organization. This is what talent management is all about gathering information about talent, analyzing their career interests and organizational business needs, identifying top talent and successes, and developing these individuals to reduce the risk of losing the best people and experiencing extensive leadership gaps when turnover occurs. Main objective of Talent Management System will assist organization in developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing organizational talent to increase workforce productivity and maximize operating performance. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss how the company would measure each objective. Company would measure any objective through Balanced Scorecard. This is a management system that maps an organizations strategic objectives into performance metrics in four perspectives: financial, internal processes, customers, and learning and growth. These perspectives provide relevant feedback as to how well the strategic plan is executing so that adjustments can be made as necessary. The term scorecard signifies quantified performance measures and balanced signifies that the system is balanced between: short-term objectives and long-term objectives financial measures and non-financial measures lagging indicators and leading indicators internal performance and external performance perspectives The financial perspective addresses the question of how shareholders view the firm and which financial goals are desired from the shareholders perspective. The specific goals depend on the companys stage in the business life cycle. Hunger (2003) the customer perspective addresses the question of how the firm is viewed by its customers and how well the firm is serving its targeted customers in order to meet the financial objectives. Generally, customers view the firm in terms of time, quality, performance, and cost. Most customer objectives fall into one of those four categories. Operation objectives address the question of which processes are most critical for satisfying customers and shareholders. These are the processes in which the firm must concentrate its efforts to excel. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss how the changes made to Porter Novellis talent management system impact organizational performance. Carter, L. Goldsmith, M. (2010) changes made to Porter Novellis talent management system impact organizational performance to meet the needs of todays organizations, this handbook is filled with practical advice on how to implement employee and customer-centered programs that emphasize consensus building; self, group, organizational, and one-on-one awareness and effective communication; clear connections to overall business objectives; and quantifiable business results. With lessons from companies that are widely recognized as among the best in organization change and leadership development, for succeeding during challenging times. As best practice organizational champions, these companies share many similar attributes including openness to learning and collaboration, humility, innovation and creativity, integrity, a high regard for peoples needs and perspectives, and a passion for change. And all these outstanding organizations have invested in human capital the most important asse t inside of organizations today. Porter Novellis talent management system offers lessons from the worlds best organizations in various industries and sizes, and shows how to identify the key elements of leading successful, results-driven talent management; access the tools, models, instruments, and strategies for leading talent management; apply practical how-to approaches to diagnosing, assessing, designing, implementing, coaching, following-up on, and evaluating talent management; and measure critical success factors and critical failure factors of a program. No matter what the size or mission of the organization for diagnosing, assessing, designing, implementing, coaching, and evaluating a winning team of talent.

Brave New World :: essays research papers

Title: Brave New World Significance of Title: In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in act 5 scene 1, on line 204, Mira states: â€Å"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!† To say the least, this book has quite a few references to Shakespeare. This segment in particular is used, because the setting of the book is of a ‘brave new world’ where almost everything is different from our current situation, and outwardly, every member of the society seems content in their position. It is likely that Huxley thought this was slightly ironic, as what appears to be a perfect government is in reality ultimately oppressive of the most basic personal freedoms, infringing even upon the opinions of its constituents. Author: Aldous Huxley Significant facts about the author: Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1894 to a family deeply rooted in England's literary and scientific tradition. Huxley's father, Leonard Huxley, was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley, a well-known biologist who gained the nickname "Darwin's bulldog" for supporting Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. His mother, Julia Arnold, was related to the important nineteenth-century poet and essayist Matthew Arnold. Brought up by a family of teachers and scientists, Huxley had an exceptional education. His intelligence was very well balanced between English writing and science, making him a very good science fiction writer. Huxley was very eager to believe new theories and ideas in the science world, and quickly incorporated them into his novels, which, although unscientific, produced extremely entertaining results. Huxley’s writing has also been affected by a partial blindness that he contracted at an early age. First of all, it forced him out of his preferred career as a doctor, and it also show up in quite a few of his novels as a theme. After graduating from Oxford in 1916, Huxley began to make a name for himself writing satirical pieces about the British upper class. Though these writings were skillful and gained Huxley an audience and literary name, they were generally considered to be somewhat vapid and meaningless. Huxley continued to write prolifically, working as an essayist and journalist, and publishing four volumes of poetry before beginning to work on novels. Without giving up his other writing, beginning in 1921, Huxley produced a series of novels at an astonishing rate: Crome Yellow was published in 1921, followed by Antic Hay in 1923, Those Barren Leaves in 1925, and Point Counter Point in 1928.

Power of Active Directory in Windows Server 2003 Essay

In order to understand the concept of active directory first lets take a look at directory service. Directory Service is a service which stores information of using and managing different objects of network at a centralized point. Those objects include printing servers, file servers, printers; fax servers etc . The directory service stores all of the information regarding the resources and at the same time provides mechanism of easy access to the resources’ information for the users. Active directory is also a directory service in windows server 2003 which stores information about the netwrok resources and about the services that make this information available to the users. Now let’s look at the power and key features of active directory in windows server 2003:  ·Multiple selections of directory objects: We can change the common attributes of many users at the one time.  ·Drag-and-drop functionality: You just need to drag and drop the directory objects from one container to another in order to move them  ·Efficient search capabilities: The object oriented searching facility provides efficient search minimizing the traffic on the network.  ·Saved queries: The active directory queries can be saved, exported, reopened and refreshed, and the results of the attributed queries can also be exported.  ·Active Directory command-line tools: A number of command line tools are available to manage the active directory. Those tools are Ntdsutil, Dsget, Dsrm, Dsmod, Csvde, Dsadd, Dsquery, Dsmove and Ldifde.  · Domain functional levels :Active directory’s domain wide features in your network can be enable using domain functional levels.  ·Forest functional levels: The Active directory’s forest wide features in your network can also be now enabled using forest functional levels.  ·Secure All Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) traffic:   All Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) traffic is signed and encrypted by Active directory’s administrative tools, by default. It ensures that the data is not corrupted and that it is coming from the known source.  ·Active directory quota: With Active directory quota, the ownership of objects by a user, computer or group can be limited by assigning quotas.  ·New Group Policy settings: more than 200 group policy setting are included in windows server 2003‘s active directory.  ·New Resultant Set Of Policy (RSoP) Wizard is included which enables you to check the policies assigned to a specific user or computer.  ·Folder redirection is also made very easy.  ·Advanced options for software installation are available, which makes installation process easy and administration effective.  ·InetOrgPerson class has been added to enhance the security and it can be used in the same way as the user class is used.  ·Cross forest support is also provided.  ·The Software Restriction Policies that are included can identify unwanted or hostile soft wares and hence will not let them execute on the computer. But this requires that the system is either being run on Microsoft Windows XP Professional or on a family member of Windows Server 2003.  ·Domain controller renaming: The domain controllers, without demoting, can now be renamed with the active directory of windows server 2003.As well as the domain name can now also be renamed with this.  ·In the domain hierarchy, the domains can be moved from one location to another.  ·The two way transitivity can now be extended by creating forest trust.  ·The users’ access of one domain or forest can be allowed, disallowed or given selective access to another domain of forest.  ·Unnecessary objects of the schema can be deactivated  ·In order to link the auxiliary classes to the objects on dynamic bases, extra support is provided.  ·When the partial attribution set is extended , the resulted administrative actions take place; at that time the Tuning global catalog replication is available for preserving global catalog’s state of synchronization All in all the active directory of Windows server 2003 provides a lot of additional features which to facilitate the management, administration and usage of resources in the network. The security additions are also very remarkable and a lot of flexibility is given to the administrator to check and configure different parameters of the network. Other than this some work has also to improve the responsiveness of the network and to cater with the network traffic. Flexibility for moving objects and domains, and for renaming them is also made easy .And with the new policies introduced the access of a user from one domain of forest to another can also be a controlled effectively. Providing these all functionalities and flexibilities to the networks administrators and mangers make their tasks of access controls, security, managing of objects etc very easy. References Spealman, Jill, & Hudson, Kurt (2004). Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure. Redmond ,Washington: Microsoft Press. Jones, Don (2003). Windows Server 2003 Weekend Crash course. NewYork: Wiley Publishing Inc..

Free Essays on Mafia On Ice

It is widely known that the Russian mafia has a hand in corrupting many aspects in the country’s current status. One would think that something of meaning would be kept pure. As baseball is the national pastime of the United States, the same can be said for the sport of hockey in Russia. Hockey is Russia’s baby and on a worldly level has been the country’s dominant sport for the past century. Russia has medaled in an unprecedented 12 of the 17 Olympic games, more than any other country. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/events/1998/nagano/medals/ice_hockey_results.html) Russia’s hockey schools and minor leagues have been internationally recognized for decades. So for some, it may seem as a surprise that a sport that brings joy to rich and poor alike could be a place of corruption for the mafia. In 1997, after a 15-month senate investigation of more than 100 players, owners, and officials were interviewed about possible extortion between the Russian mafia and Russian NHL players living in the United States. The investigation concluded that there has been a direct influence on NHL players by the Russian mafia for some level of extortion (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/news. rusmafia.html). The report said it was estimated that nearly 50 players were, or have been, extorted in some way. Senate investigator Michael Bopp reported that one third of these players even had direct involvement in the wrong doings (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/news.rusmafia.html). Most of the players were reluctant to speak about their involvements but after doing so said that it was a relief to be able to get it off their chest. One unnamed player followed a similar statement with, â€Å"I’m not going to tell you again so donà ¢â‚¬â„¢t ask me. And I’m not going to testify, but I’ll tell you about being extorted (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/new... Free Essays on Mafia On Ice Free Essays on Mafia On Ice It is widely known that the Russian mafia has a hand in corrupting many aspects in the country’s current status. One would think that something of meaning would be kept pure. As baseball is the national pastime of the United States, the same can be said for the sport of hockey in Russia. Hockey is Russia’s baby and on a worldly level has been the country’s dominant sport for the past century. Russia has medaled in an unprecedented 12 of the 17 Olympic games, more than any other country. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/events/1998/nagano/medals/ice_hockey_results.html) Russia’s hockey schools and minor leagues have been internationally recognized for decades. So for some, it may seem as a surprise that a sport that brings joy to rich and poor alike could be a place of corruption for the mafia. In 1997, after a 15-month senate investigation of more than 100 players, owners, and officials were interviewed about possible extortion between the Russian mafia and Russian NHL players living in the United States. The investigation concluded that there has been a direct influence on NHL players by the Russian mafia for some level of extortion (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/news. rusmafia.html). The report said it was estimated that nearly 50 players were, or have been, extorted in some way. Senate investigator Michael Bopp reported that one third of these players even had direct involvement in the wrong doings (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/news.rusmafia.html). Most of the players were reluctant to speak about their involvements but after doing so said that it was a relief to be able to get it off their chest. One unnamed player followed a similar statement with, â€Å"I’m not going to tell you again so donà ¢â‚¬â„¢t ask me. And I’m not going to testify, but I’ll tell you about being extorted (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/news/1997/06/10/new...

Writing Techniques To Improve Reading Comprehension

Writing Techniques To Improve Reading Comprehension Periodically, I watch episodes of the TV show â€Å"Numb3rs† on Netflix just to pretend that I’m a math genius. My friend and I have made an inside joke about one particular writing technique the show has used to help dull audience members like myself understand the math technique they are about to use. We mouth â€Å"It’s like†¦.† to each other whenever a character mentions some obscure math approach, and then we wait for the characters to launch into the illustration. Moving past the hilarity of that particular video on so many other levels, you can see how the writers of that show made the math geniuses spout off the math technique they were going to use and then follow immediately with a more understandable example the lay person could grasp. I appreciate these more understandable illustrations. How To Discover Awesome Writing Techniques That Will Improve Reading ComprehensionBranching Your Ideas The â€Å"what if† and â€Å"it’s like† writing techniques  are a kind of â€Å"branching† approach to both idea generation and reader understanding. Following an idea down a singular path is a way to get things done, but it’s not a way to generate future ideas or think creatively. For example, when I set out to write about content marketing game theory  for this blog (and was hopelessly out of my element, believe me), I decided to branch out in a couple of directions so that I could better understand the topic as a writer and, perhaps, better explain the topic to the reader. By branching my idea and asking â€Å"what if†, I managed to come up with two examples (â€Å"it’s like†) for readers. Only by branching and traveling down various paths to see where they might take me was I able to do this. Writers' block? Branch your ideas with 'what if' and 'it's like' #writing techniques.Some content marketers prefer to have one idea and shoot straight for the finish line; that’s perfectly acceptable. But others, like myself, enjoy the happy accidents that occur when you allow your ideas to branch. Don’t be afraid to branch out; you won’t be left out on a limb. (rimshot) Recommended Posts  To Improve Reading Comprehension: 5 Teaching Theories That Will Improve Your Educational Content Marketing How To Use The Best Content Types To Boost Reader Learning How To Communicate Effectively With Your Blog Readers To Keep Them Reading Using â€Å"What If† To Generate Ideas The â€Å"what if† writing technique is usually something used by fiction writers to help them develop characters and plot, but it can still be helpful in a slightly different version for content marketers. Let’s use that game theory post of mine as an example. As I researched the topic more and more, the idea of a tree came to mind. What if I approached this as if it were a tree?  I wondered. I was struggling to understand the topic in a way that allowed me to explain it, but the tree idea seemed to have promise. Then I set about to talk about matrices and competitors. What if I used â€Å"The Fugitive† as an example?  It was a popular movie and seemed to fit perfectly. There were a few other â€Å"what if† approaches that led to dead ends, but by the time I finished with these two, I understood much better what I wanted to say in the rest of the post. Here are a few â€Å"what if† approaches you could use when writing blog posts. You can see they are much more than just about finding ideas, but also about the order and structure of the actual post, too. What if (I): Put the conclusion at the beginning? Used a recent hit movie as the foundation for this post? Played the devil’s advocate until the final conclusion? Said the exact opposite of what is expected/I believe? What was true was not true? Used a different search engine/resource? Learned how it was done five years ago? My blog could speak for itself?What if you played the devil's advocate until the final conclusion of your post?Sometimes silly questions lead to fresh ways of thinking about a common thing, even if the answer to the question itself is irrelevant to the branch you ultimately end up on. The â€Å"what if† writing technique is definitely part of your brainstorming toolbox  when it comes to finding ideas. It helps you write beyond the typical boundary and find research you otherwise wouldn’t have considered looking for. Using â€Å"It’s Like† To Explain Ideas Using the â€Å"it’s like† writing technique will help you do three crucial things with your content: Understanding:  Obviously, the â€Å"it’s like† approach helps your reader understand an idea in a different way. It’s a classic method teachers use. Hook:  The â€Å"it’s like† technique can also grab your reader’s attention if you approach this method with a certain level of non-conformity and use comparisons the reader doesn’t expect. Convince:  When you’re selling a new idea or product that is unfamiliar to your audience, there’s a barrier you need to overcome. Using â€Å"it’s like† and explaining it as something familiar helps reduce that barrier  and make it easier for a reader to buy into what you have to say. But first: If there’s one thing you don’t want to do on social media, it’s misuse the words â€Å"metaphor† and â€Å"simile†; the grammar police will correct you. Metaphors simply make a comparison, while similes use the words â€Å"like† or â€Å"as† to compare things. For example: I tend to think of metaphors as all about making a strong statement with language (it’s not  like  something, it is  something), while similes are all about helping readers understand a bit more gently. Using â€Å"it’s like† is the simile approach to explanation, though you are taking it a bit further than a simple simile comparison most of the time. If you’re following the lead of the writers in the show â€Å"Numb3rs†, you are looking for an in-depth explanation that matches ounce for ounce the concept you want your reader to comprehend  in their own terms. You are looking for an analogy. Similes can spice up your copy and create a playful collection of words that pique a reader’s interest, but analogy is the true workhorse of the â€Å"it’s like† writing technique, a kind of extended version of a simile. When creating analogies, remember: Your audience matters.  Analogies work best when you use an example that your audience understands. I could use a variety of farming analogies that I know from growing up on a farm, but most of the readers of this blog aren’t farmers. That kind of analogy won’t help at all. Knowing what experiences your audience will identify with is crucial when choosing a simile or analogy. To make things better.  Not all complicated topics need an analogy; some just need to be clearly discussed. Analogies work best when a topic is so far out of the range of your audience, either through lack of knowledge or because they’ve never experienced it, that the only way to make the concept resonate is to repackage it with the familiar. Sometimes I write analogies and then eventually edit them out and the reader never sees them. Yet by writing that analogy, I helped myself understand the topic better and was able to explain it better without the addition of an analogy. To shed light on the larger concept.  Some topics are better served simply by breaking them down into bite-sized chunks than through analogy. You would better understand the process of changing the oil in a car if I explained the actual process step-by-step rather than me saying, â€Å"It’s like cleaning files off your hard drive.† Analogy is less useful in teaching step-by-step instruction (i.e. how to specifically change the oil in your car) and more useful in teaching the larger idea that those step-by-step instructions make sense in (i.e. you need to change the oil because your engine will be ruined if you don’t). That less is more.  Use one or two analogies, but don’t use too many more. Lots of analogies make things more confusing and actually dampen the power they might have if you used them more sparingly. Consider what you absolutely want your reader to take from your content, which topic is difficult or unfamiliar, and use your analogies for that. You don’t leave your audience with the analogy.  Once you’ve explained a concept through an analogy and your audience understands the underlying fundamentals, you should go back and reiterate what you wanted them to understand in the first place, drawing direct comparisons between the analogy again if needed, so they understand the actual topic and  the analogy. Recommended Posts  To Improve Reading Comprehension: Are You Making These 5 Assumptions About Your Audience? 4 Lessons From Psychology That Will Help You Grow Your Blog Analogies are all about helping your audience experience a moment of Gestalt, where they finally â€Å"get† the bigger picture of something that was confusing before. So, how do you find the perfect analogy? Figure out what the main point is.  Ask yourself what the most important thing is that you want your reader to understand about your topic. There is a lot they could understand, but what is the most important concept that you need them to take away in order to understand the rest of what you have to say? You could probably compare just about anything to everything, but you need to find something that gets a specific point across. Life is like a box of chocolate, is like a beach, is like an oyster, is like anything at all- but what is it you’re trying to say about life? Keep it mostly (but not too) familiar. As I mentioned above, your audience has to be familiar with the analogy you are about to use or they won’t understand it, either. However, by choosing or using a scenario that is slightly surprising, you’ll keep them interested in reading. We’re all pretty used to the â€Å"life is like a box of chocolates† saying by now, but when it first came out with the movie â€Å"Forrest Gump†, it was very novel and new. People wondered â€Å"how in the world could life be like candy?† and it made them read on. In the book Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, author Douglas Hofstadter referred to boring analogies as â€Å"banalogies.† Generally, the first analogy you come up with is not the one. Go nuts and think of two or three or ten or twenty, and then choose from your list. Turn the distasteful into something good.  A great analogy not only explains a concept to help your reader understand, but it can also help them understand something differently. An idea that isn’t appealing from one angle can, with the help of an analogy, look a lot better from a different angle. For example, I’ve gone on record  stating that I’m not much of a salesperson. A few years back, though, I was reading a book on selling art which used an analogy to help me see sales differently. Instead of it being an exchange of money for goods or services (which it is, technically, and which seems tawdry at times), the author illustrated how sales is also problem solving (for the customer), an exercise in creativity (finding a market that fits the product), and so on. Through analogy, I was able to see things from a different viewpoint. Maintain your desired focus.  Analogies can get out of control. If you use sailing as an analogy, for an example, remember what your main point is and keep to it. Avoid veering off into using every aspect of sailing- ropes! knots! wind! boom! tacking!- and stick to just the parts of the analogy that will sell your main point the best. An analogy isn’t an anecdote; it’s a highly persuasive tool that can make the unfamiliar into something familiar. Maintain focus if you want the tool to work. Don’t forget the visual.  Depending on the content you are creating (e.g. written vs. spoken), you may find a visual helpful as your analogy, or alongside your analogy. In the â€Å"Numb3rs† clip, the imagery of the boats helps illustrate what the actress is saying. We visual learners appreciate it! For Fun:Which of the following similes would you love to see expanded into analogy? Why do some stand out for you and not others? Which ones make you curious enough to keep reading? Which could be used to clarify a particular aspect of content marketing? Run with them in the comments if you’d like to take a crack at it.Content marketing is†¦ Like a box of old pencils. A  camera without film. Like a movie without credits. Like a buoy in the Pacific Ocean. What happens when polar bears meet penguins. Superman with an extra cape. Superman without a cape.

Week4A4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week4A4 - Essay Example Confidentiality will allow the authorized user to access the company information. Integrity will allow the safe transmission of data and information from the sender to the receiver. In this business scenario, the focus is on safe relay of company information such as emails and safe consumer transaction over the internet such as online purchases. Availability deals with the timely and secure access of requested information to the company and customer (Habiyaremye, 2011). All these three components are interlinked together in a system. Systems are vulnerable to threats and vulnerabilities. A vulnerability is defined as a weakness in the system which is not necessarily known by the user and the attacker. A threat is a possible attack directed to the system. However, the system is not necessarily vulnerable. Our website will be made invulnerable to threats through preventive measures that will be provided below. Because a system cannot be 100% secure, we anticipate building a security system that will address all the security issues as and guarantee safe transaction. In order to attain this, we categorise security features into four and deal with them separately. A standard client server model contains three components; the server system, the network and the client system. In order to secure the transaction between the client and the business, we are going to use the firewall in our internal systems. A firewall is a combination of softwares and hardwares that allow only external trusted users to bypass a protected network. By installing a firewall, unwanted users and programmes are prevented from accessing the system. We shall employ demilitarized zone technology using two firewalls, the outer and the inner firewall. The outer firewall will contain open ports that will allow incoming and outgoing HTTP requests. The shoppers browser will thus be allowed to communicate

Team operating guide lines and principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Team operating guide lines and principles - Essay Example (1995) found that â€Å"[t]eams that evaluated themselves as more effective on team interpersonal process also regarded themselves as more successful venture businesses† (Watson et al., 1995). Therefore, it is important to consider deal with all team members equally in both responsibility and accountability. All group members will take notes during meetings. Notes will be prepared individually. Notes should be in writing. The notes will cover full length of the meeting. Notes will be reviewed at the end of meeting. Meetings are organized for promoting mutual understanding and sharing insights. In order for the goal of any kind of meeting to be achieved, it is critically important that all attendees mutually know the contents (Cramton, 2001). It is, therefore, required that all team members prepare notes individually while the meeting is in progress. This way, they can have the minutes of meeting prepared individually. Later, they can share and compare the contents to ensure everybody is on the same board. effectiveness in venture partnerships and its connection to perceived success. Journal of Business Venturing. 10(5), 393-411. Retrieved from