Napoleon Bonaparte and Mohandas Gandhi - Two Great Leaders...

Some historians view history as a chain of events caused or involving certain extraordinary people. This viewpoint can be supported by examining the impact that leaders have had on their society throughout history. These exceptional individuals led their people in a new direction whether or good or bad. Two leaders who changed the society in which they lived were Napoleon Bonaparte and Mohandas Gandhi. Napoleon was able to lead his country out of civil war and economic crisis into prosperity and glory through warfare. However greedy and power hungry he was, still, should not overshadow the fact that he rejuvenated his country to its former prominence. Gandhi was able to win India’s independence from Great Brittan through non-violent and†¦show more content†¦He wanted to reassert France as a world power and through his conquests brought economic stability and peace back to his country. Napoleon ultimately was just trying to change his countries economic and political s ituation while advancing his own personal situation. He accomplished this through his military genius and many epic battles. Napoleon’s impact was not only on his own country, but on the whole world. He brought his society back from turmoil and darkness to a world power still strong today. France would be a third-world country today if not for Napoleon and his leadership. It is safe to say that Mohandas Gandhi is the epitomy of peace and righteousness. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Brittan was using India for its natural resources such as tea and cotton. Many Indians wanted their independence and were willing to use violent methods to get it. Gandhi wanted India’s independence too but he was very intelligent in realizing that Brittan’s army was far more equipped and trained and force would be useless against them. His idea was to have India gain her independence through civil disobedience and non-violence. One of his most famous acts that he organized was the Dandi Salt March in 1930. It was 400 km (240 mi) and gained Gandhi worldwide recognition. World public opinion turned against Brittan bringing them shame and for India and Gandhi. After pressure from the rest of world and from increasing Indian actsShow MoreRelatedTop 10 Greatest Leaders of all Time1615 Words   |  7 Pages10 Greatest Leaders of all Time Leadership is something that people are born with. It is an inherent charm and it doesn’t hide even if you want to hide it. There is a leader amongst us and he or she is the one that leads other people to great things by inspiring and motivating people to do good deeds. Leadership has been described as â€Å"a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task†. This way a leader can decide whatRead MoreNapoleon a Great Military Leader1029 Words   |  5 Pagesthey still need a leader, who can guide them during those hunting journey. Time goes by, the develop of human society makes we need another type of leader who can dominant, confident, aggressive, creative, and long term view, etc. Many great leaders were born to guide the human society develop to higher level; but anything has two sides of it, and sometimes we have some leaders who tried to destroy the society. Those people are Julius Ca esar, Genghis Khan, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, EleanorRead MoreLeadership Is Not A Common Entity Among The Ideals Of People Essay1700 Words   |  7 Pages The concept of leadership is not a common entity among the ideals of people. Most people are just looking for a leader to lead them but are not willing to step up and be the leader themselves. Leadership can come in many different forms and is based off of the followers and the experiences they live. Leadership, whether it come from the traits someone is born with or the skill set they have acquired over time, I believe is something everyone should aspire to have. I believe that everyone shouldRead More Changing the Military with Servant Leadership Essay2609 Words   |  11 Pageshistorical influence through the eyes of a famous leader. Whether one studies Sun Tzu’s â€Å"The Art of War†, Martin Luther King Jr.’s extraordinary passion for equality, or even Vince Lombardi’s coaching gen ius, one can easily find models for inspirational leadership and strategies for success. Inspirational leadership conveyed through motivational speakers boosts the passion of its audience because it taps into emotions. So what is it that draws people to a leader? Is it charisma, passion, kindness, or fairness

Sonny s Blues A Story Of A Young Jazz Musician - 976 Words

Sonny’s Blues This is a story of a young jazz musician (Sonny) from Harlem, NY who gets addicted to heroin, is arrested for using and selling drugs, and returns to his childhood neighborhood after his release from prison. He moves in with his older brother (the story’s narrator) and his brother’s family. The two brothers sort of reconnect after a very tense few weeks during which both try to deal with their anger towards each other. Drugs are a central part of the story, but it’s also about family, music, and trying to overcome life’s struggles. The love of his brother makes him forget all the anxiety that he had lived through. Farther more it made from Sonny different person. Which is really got him improved himself. â€Å"Being family† is also about supporting each other through life’s inevitable changes. â€Å"It’s knowing that your family will be there watching out for you through thick and thin†. In any family always there is one g ets off the road, but there is always one that can help, like a family member. Also, family bonds are tied with true love, and true love involves attention, awareness, discipline, effort, and being able to care about someone and sacrifice for them, continuously, in countless every day. You put your arms around them and love them regardless, even when they’re not very lovable. And of course they do the same for you. In this story the narrator loves his brother (Sonny), he expresses the love and affection he has for his brother. He was familiarShow MoreRelatedMusic Is Exceptionally Powerful And Meaningful To People1353 Words   |  6 Pagesliterary works integrate music into their stories. In Baldwin s short story, Sonny s Blues, jazz music is an important part of the story that explores the life of one of the main characters, Sonny. During the time this short story was written, Charlie Parker, an influential jazz musician that is briefly acknowledged in the story, had an imm ense following. Charlie Parker (along with Louis Armstrong) is considered by many to have forever changed jazz and to have left a legacy that permanentlyRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues Essay1154 Words   |  5 Pagesntroduction: James Baldwin, author of Sonny s Blues, once said, I grew up with music...much more than with any other language. In a way, the music I grew up with saved my life (Session 3 Inquiry: Rudolfo Anaya and James Baldwin, 2015).   Blues becomes Sonny s drug and his addiction to it his salvation.       Even though the adults refrain from lamenting their sufferings directly to the children and telling them about the darkness, the child-narrator still intimates its marks in their facesRead MoreLiterary Canon Of The 21st Century1637 Words   |  7 Pagesmeaningful life messages that the authors try to convey to the audiences. One of them is the short story â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, written by James Baldwin in 1957. This story shows us the reality as well as the complexity of life matters, and an overall picture of all the subcategories also really shows us the reason why it should be remained as a part of the literary canon of the 21st Century. The story is possibly considered a great one because it meets several standards that are used by critics to determineRead MoreJames Baldwins Sonnys Blues859 Words   |  4 PagesJames Baldwin s Sonny s Blues In James Baldwin s short story Sonny s Blues a young man questions his brotherly obligations after finding that his younger brother has been arrested for using drugs. In the attempt to rectify his younger brother s behavior and life, the young man faces his own feelings for his brother and comes to terms with the life his brother Sonny lives. The developments of certain elements-plot, character, point of view, setting, symbolism-in the story help accentuateRead MoreEssay on Literary Analysis of James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues2323 Words   |  10 Pagesreaders. Some authors create stories with a singular point of view, while others introduce more complex plots and storylines. When it comes to author James Baldwin’s short story Sonny’s Blues, there is much depth given to the storyline and the characters. Sonny’s Blues has been analyzed by many different people throughout time because the story has many elements. From Baldwin’s skillful use of m etaphors and similes to his incorporation of religious references, this story is insightfully and complexlyRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues Essay2104 Words   |  9 PagesSeveral dialectics are at play in James Baldwin’s short story â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† including a dialectic between the narrator and his beloved brother Sonny involving their opposing responses to the sense of oppression and limitation that arises from living in Harlem. This dialectic and its resolution closely parallel Baldwin’s masterful use of Blues, Jazz, and Gospel music. We follow the narrator and his brother Sonny as they traverse the complexities of their individual and interconnected Harlem livesRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Sonny s Blues 2020 Words   |  9 PagesBaldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† has an apparent theme of suffering that directly relates to the title of the short story. The title of the short story has multiple meanings. The term â€Å"blues† refers to the jazz genre, which Sonny feels very passionately about, but also signifies his severe depression. Sonny is increasingly distant with his brother as time goes on, which increases his unhappiness. His happiness deteriorates with his relationships with his other family members, such as Isabel and Grace.Read MoreSelf Actualization : A Struggle For Identity1584 Words   |  7 Pagesso one might make many wrong choices. Sonny and his older brother are faced with several obstacles while being on a journey to self-actualization in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues † by James Baldwin. However, these obstacles not only come from their surroundings, but within themselves as well. The narrator himself and his younger brother, Sonny struggle with, and gradually develop their own identities while on a journey toward self-actualization. As Sonny is really young, he chooses a lot of wrong paths withoutRead MoreThe Tragedy Of The Harlem Renaissance1086 Words   |  5 Pagesracism to light as the mother warns that a similar fate could happen to sonny. Lastly it shows the oppression that the sonny and his brother but also their family had to face and try to overcome in that era. One of the main points of Sonny’s blues is the narrator and Sonny trying to strive to be better and rise above. The narrator did in fact rise by becoming a teacher and sonny try to rise above by becoming a jazz musician. The darkness that was mentioned could be viewed as sense of general hopelessnessRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s The Blues And Jazz Essay2185 Words   |  9 Pagescame from his spirit of evangelism with lyrical stylings of both the blues and jazz. Baldwin’s writings appropriate all three of these elements of African-American culture in both small, singular elements and entire story structures. All three styles — as well as Baldwin’s own writing, chronicle the Black response to an oppressive society that seeks to silent them. From the perspective of the narrator, the short story is a blues narrative as he becomes more keenly aware of his brother’s troubles in

Carrie Chapter Twenty-one Free Essays

Part Three Wreckage From the national AP ticker, Friday, June 5, 1979: CHAMBERLAIN, MAINE (AP) STATE OFFICIALS SAY THAT THE DEATH TOLL IN CHAMBERLAIN STANDS AT 409, WITH 49 STILL LISTED AS MISSING. INVESTIGATION CONCERNING CARIETTA WHITE AND THE SO-CALLED ‘TK’ PHENOMENA CONTINUES AMID PERSISTENT RUMOURS THAT AN AUTOPSY ON THE WHITE GIRL HAS UNCOVERED CERTAIN UNUSUAL FORMATIONS IN THE CEREBRUM AND CEREBELLUM OF THE BRAIN. THIS STATES GOVERNOR HAS APPOINTED A BLUE-RIBBON COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE ENTIRE TRAGEDY. We will write a custom essay sample on Carrie Chapter Twenty-one or any similar topic only for you Order Now ENDS. FINAL JUNE 5 030 N AP From The Lewiston Daily Sun, Sunday, September 7 (p. 3): The Legacy of TK Scorched Earth and Scorched Hearts CHAMBERLAIN – Prom Night is history now. Pundits have been saying for centuries that time heals all wounds, but the hurt of this small Western Maine town may be mortal. The residential streets are still there on the town’s East Side, guarded by graceful Oaks that have stood for two hundred years, the trim saltboxes and ranch styles on Morin Street and Brickyard Hill are still neat and undamaged. But this New England pastoral lies on the rim of a blackened and shattered hub, and many of the neat houses have FOR SALE signs on their front lawns. Those still occupied are marked by black wreaths on front doors. Bright-yellow Allied vans and orange U-Hauls of varying sizes are a common sight on Chamberlain’s streets these days. The town’s major industry, Chamberlain Mills and Weaving, still stands, untouched by the fire that raged over much of the town on those two days in May. But it has only been running one shift since July 4th, and according to mill president William A. Chamblis, further lay-offs are a strong possibility. ‘We have the orders,’ Chamblis said, ‘but you can’t run a mill without people to punch the time clock. We don’t have them. I’ve gotten notice from thirty-four men since August 15th. The only thing we can see to do now is close up the dye house and job our work out. We’d hate to let the men go, but this thing is getting down to a matter of financial survival.’ Roger Fearon has lived in Chamberlain for twenty-two years, and has been with the mill for eighteen of those years. He has risen during that time from a third-floor bagger making seventy-three cents an hour to dye-house foreman; yet he seems strangely unmoved by the possibility of losing his job. ‘I’d lose a damned good wage,’ Fearon said. ‘It’s not something you take lightly. The wife and I have talked it over. We could sell the house – it’s worth $20,000 easy – and although we probably won’t realize half of that, we’ll probably go ahead and put it up. Doesn’t matter. We don’t really want to five in Chamberlain any more. Call it what you want but Chamberlain has gone bad for us.’ Fearon is not alone. Henry Kelly, proprietor of a tobacco shop and soda fountain called the Kelly Fruit until Prom Night levelled it, has no plans to rebuild. ‘The kids are gone,’ he shrugs. ‘If I opened up again, there’d be too many ghosts in too many corners. I’m going to take the insurance money and retire to St Petersburg.’ A week after the tornado of ’54 had cut its path of death and destruction through Worcester, the air was filled with the sound of hammers, the smell of new timber, and a feeling of optimism and human resilience. There is none of that in Chamberlain this fall. The main road has been cleared of rubble and that is about the extent of it. The faces that you meet are full of dull hopelessness. Men drink beer without talking in Frank’s Bar on the corner of Sullivan Street, and women exchange tales of grief and loss in back yards. Chamberlain has been declared a disaster area, and money is available to help put the town back on its feet and begin rebuilding the business district. But the main business of Chamberlain in the last four months has been funerals. Four hundred and forty are now known dead, eighteen more still unaccounted for. And sixty-seven of the dead were Ewen High School Seniors on the verge of graduation. It is this, perhaps, more than anything else, that has taken the guts out of Chamberlain. They were buried on June 1 and 2 in three mass ceremonies. A memorial service was held on June 3 in the town square. It was the most moving ceremony that this reporter has ever witnessed. Attendance was in the thousands, and the entire assemblage was still as the school band, stripped from fifty-six to a bare forty, played the school song and taps. There was a sombre graduation ceremony the following week at neighbouring Motton Academy, but there were only fifty-two Seniors left to graduate. The valedictorian, Henry Stampel, broke into tears halfway through his speech and could not continue. There were no Graduation Night parties following the ceremony; the Seniors merely took their diplomas and went home. And still, as the summer progressed, the hearses continued to roll as more bodies were discovered. To some residents it seemed that each day the scab was ripped 69 again, so that the wound could bleed afresh. If you are one of the many curiosity-seekers who have been through Chamberlain in the last week, you have seen a town that may be suffering from terminal cancer of the spirit. A few people, looking lost, wander through the aisles of the AP. The Congregational Church on Carlin Street is gone, swept away by fire, but the brick Catholic Church still stands on Elm Street, and the trim Methodist Church on outer Main Street although singed by fire, is unhurt. Yet attendance has been poor. The old men still sit on the benches in Courthouse Square, but there is little interest in the checkerboards or even in conversation. The over-all impression is one of a town that is waiting to die. It is not enough, these days, to say that Chamberlain will never be the same. It may be closer to the truth to say that Chamberlain will simply never again be. Excerpt from a letter dated June ninth from principal Henry Grayle to Peter Philpott, Superintendent of Schools. †¦ and so I feel I can no longer continue in my present position, feeling, as I do, that such a tragedy might have been averted if I had only had more foresight. I would like you to accept my resignation effective as of July 1, if this is agreeable to you and your staff. . . Excerpt from a letter dated June eleventh from Rita Desjardin, instructor of Physical Education, to Principal Henry Grayle: †¦ am returning my contract to you at this time. I feet that I would kill myself before ever teaching again. Late at night I keep thinking: If I had only reached out to that girl, if only, if only †¦ Found painted on the lawn of the house tot where the White bungalow had been located: CARRIE WHITE IS BURNING FOR HER SINS JESUS NEVER FAILS From ‘Telekinesis: Analysis and Aftermath’ (Science Yearbook, 1981), by Dean D. L McGuffin: In conclusion, I would like to point out the grave risk authorities are taking by burying the Carrie White affair under the bureaucratic mat-and I am speaking specifically of the so-called White Commission. The desire among politicians to regard TK as a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon seems very strong, and while this may be understandable it is not acceptable. The possibility of a recurrence, genetically speaking, is 99 per cent. Ifs time we planned now for what may be †¦ From Slang Terms Explained.. A Parents’ Guide, by John R. Coombs (New York: The Lighthouse Press, 1985), p. 73: to rip off a Carrie. To cause either violence or destruction; mayhem. confusion; (2) to commit arson (from Carrie White, 1963-1979) From The Shadow Exploded (p. 201): Elsewhere in this book mention is made of a page in one of Carrie White’s school notebooks where a line from a famous rock poet of the ’60s, Bob Dylan, was written repeatedly, as if in desperation. It might not be amiss to close this book with a few lines from another Bob Dylan song, lines that might serve as Carrie’s epitaph: I wish I could write you a melody so plain/ That would save you, dear lady, from going Insane/ That would ease you and cool you and cease the pain/Of your useless and pointless knowledge†¦ From My Name Is Susan Snell (p. 98): This little book is done now. I hope it sells well so I can go someplace where nobody knows me. I want to think things over, decide what I’m going to do between now and the time when my light is carried down that long tunnel into blackness †¦ From the conclusion of The State Investigatory Board of Maine in connection with the events of May 27-28 in Chamberlain, Maine: †¦ and so we must conclude that, while an autopsy performed on the subject indicates some cellular changes which may indicate the presence of some paranormal power, we find no reason to believe that a recurrence is possible or even likely †¦ Excerpt from a letter dated May 3, 1988, from Amelia Jenks, Royal Knob, Tennessee, to Sandra Jens, Maiken, Georgia: ? ­and your little neece is growin like a weed, awfull big for only 2. She has blue eyes like her daddy and my blond hair but that will porubly go dark. Still she is awfull pretty I think sometimes when she is asleep how she looks like our momma. The other day wile she was playin in the dirt beside the house I sneeked around and saw the funnyest thing. Annie was playin with her brothers marbles only they was mooving around all by themselfs. Annie was giggeling and laffing but I was a little skared. Some of them marbles was going right up down. It reminded me of gramma, do you remember when the law came up that time after Pete and there guns flew out of there hands and grammie just laffed and laffed. And she use to be able to make her rocker go even when she wasen in it. I gave me a reel bad turn to think on it. I shure hope she don’t get heartspels like grammie did, remember? Well I must go do a wash so give my best to Rich and take care to send us some pitchers when you can. Still our Annie is awfull pretty her eyes are as brite as buttons. I bet she’ll be a worldbeeter someday. All my love, Melia How to cite Carrie Chapter Twenty-one, Essay examples

Computer and Me free essay sample

I have always been interested and intrigued by computers, ever since I was very young. I started using a computer when I was seven. Since then I have been using a computer for all my life. To many people computers are just a simple tool, but to me it is a hobby; my life changed since the first time I came in contact from it. They turn my mind around completely; it was like a perfect match. Since the first time I sat in one, I knew they will become an undeniable part of my life.It has been eleven years since then and I my opinion remain the same. I have in fact discovered many uses for them. They are a good method for relaxation and a useful machine that makes my life easier. First, computers are my best method of relaxation when I am severely stressed. They provide me with entertainment; for example, when I use a graphic program like Photoshop to create a design, or when I use a word processor like Microsoft Word to create a sign I want to put in my room. We will write a custom essay sample on Computer and Me or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I can get very creative and even design posters, conniving words and pictures that later I can use to decorate my room. I can also find a lot of interesting things by exploring the internet without a specific objective. On most of my spare time, I will just surf the web to see what is the newest technology, the news, and even random information. It helps me learn many things that I never knew. Computers also provide me with fun, which is definitely one of the best medicines for stress.They allow me to listen to music, watch anime, and play games whenever I want. Second, computers are very useful tools. They can make my life a lot easier and economical. For example, I used them for communication purposes, through e-mail and through chat programs like AIM. By using e-mail to communicate with my family I save a lot of money because I dont need to make long distance calls, and what it makes it even better is that I dont have to pay any extra charges for using this

Code of Ethics Shell Oil

Introduction Shell oil has a code of ethics that can be found in any other business because it is very standard. This paper will identify the ethical system employed at Shell Oil and discuss how this code of ethics is applied within the company. In this paper, I will also identify the type of ethical system used within this company by including information regarding the different departments and the code of ethics.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Code of Ethics: Shell Oil specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More All the stakeholders in a company need to understand the whole code of ethics because each will find different uses for the code in their respective duties. In addition, a discussion of the modifications to the code will be looked at to identify any amendments if necessary. Lastly, the paper will explore possible amendments to the code of ethics by employers and employees. Company Profile Shell oil is on e of the leading oil, gas and petrochemicals producers in North America. It is a prominent company in the oil production industry in the Mexican gulf. Shell is a branch of Royal Dutch, which is a prominent company in the oil industry. Shell oil has purposed to operate in the same way as the Royal Dutch. The company has also purposed to handle its clients in a way that will create a close relationship with them. The company also aims to help its employees achieve their full potential. The company’s code of ethics is aligned to ensure that the company succeeds financially and that its clients are well taken care of. The code of ethics is specifically written to spell out the main requirements of employees, how breaches are to be reported, and how to deal with the accountability issue (Shell Oil 2011, p. 1). Type of ethical system The code of ethics and consequently the ethical system at Shell Oil is a duty-based or deontological ethical system. A duty based ethical system invol ves a moral obligation for an individual to act in a certain way, but an outside authority determines right and wrong. Such a system simply states that some things are right and others are wrong and therefore individuals have a duty to do or avoid them. This is in line with the key requirements stated in Shell Oil’s code of ethics. The requirements have a list that spell out the moral principles at Shell. The list says that all employees should act in accordance with high standards of honesty, integrity and fairness and expect others to do the same for them while maintaining a work climate that fosters the same standards.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It also states that employees must not in any circumstances, seek or accept any favor in whatsoever form from third parties to their own advantage as described in the code of ethics of any Shell company unless such things are gifts of nominal value appropriate in particular circumstances (Kerns, n.d, 1). Implementation At Shell, the code of ethics is used to guide employees to act with honesty, integrity and fairness. Employees are encouraged to maintain high moral principles towards senior management and customers to foster a good business environment that will ensure that the company meets its goals. Employees are also expected to adhere to the SGBP in dealing with securities and any other provisions. This is done to avoid conflicts of interest as stipulated in the terms and conditions of employment. The code has been used in many occasions to bar management from using their positions for their own interests. It also prohibits them from soliciting or accepting favors or doing special favors and from misusing the company’s resources. It is common practice for employees to model their own behavior after executives and managers have shown a good example. Therefore management should first adhere to the code. If they fail then they should not expect junior employees to perform any better. Management also employs the code of ethics when hiring employees. It is not just the ability and willingness to do a job that determines potential employees but their level of honesty and integrity plays a great role. Management should display the same when hiring potential employees making sure that they are not biased in their selection. The Board of directors should also conduct itself with integrity because this affects the bottom-line results. They are expected to apply ethical standards in making decisions or before taking an action. It is confirmed that company’s that succeed in promoting ethics make them a top priority starting from the hiring of employees and communicating them clearly.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Code of Ethics: Shell Oil specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More When employees feel that they are working in a friendly environment, they a less chance of them engaging in activities like covering up mistakes. They will instead work with a sense of integrity and accountability. They will feel indebted to the company because of its ethically strong management team and board of directors (Shell Code of Conduct, n.d). Code modification Employees at Shell oil have been complaining of age discrimination by those above the age of 54 have been retrenched or demoted from ranks of higher management and replaced by what some managers call the youth. This has been made possible by the decentralization of authority at Shell. There is no doubt that empowered lower level employees and managers may use their authority and engage in unethical issues such as this. Such cases on many occasions have gone unpunished. This calls for a modification of the code of ethics because the existing ones are not being followed. The code of ethics should be modified to include rest rictions barring management from sacking or demoting any employee without a justifiable reason. In case an employee has to be sacked, then the affected party has to be notified about the same and also be given a chance to defend himself. In this way, the principle of honesty, integrity and fairness to all will be upheld. The principle of inclusiveness especially in the area of decision making should be encouraged. This will ensure that decisions affecting the company are not left to a select few. Reactions and effects of the code Various reactions are expected from employees. Those who are perceived to have been the most affected by the previous systems are expected to agree without any problem. Those who benefitted from it will feel aggrieved especially those who misused their authority will feel deprived. It should be clear that all employees should abide by the code and those who will fail to do so will have no option but to quit. This will drastically change the culture of the c ompany from decentralized structure, where individual had the power to decide on behalf of the company to one where decisions are pooled from all parties. Such an environment will boost employee morale and work productivity. Summary In this paper we have seen that a code of ethics is not just a formal statement that outlines related policies. It helps in integrating positive values within an organization. Following its code of ethics, Shell Oil has achieved in its goal of taking care of its customers; it is a model of diversity in corporate America; it has achieved a leading edge in financial, health, safety and environmental performance.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The company however fails in the area of allowing people to achieve their full potential, but with a change in its code of ethics will see it achieve this. It should be understood that having a code of ethics alone will not prevent an organization from every crisis. A code of ethics only ensures that employees have a clear understanding of the company’s expectations. Management should therefore collaborate with its employees on defining and setting up of rules so that everyone becomes aware of the requirements. With this in place, the management can then take necessary actions to make sure that core values are instilled in the system. With regular review and reinforcement, Shell Oil will rest assure that its ethics will guide every decisions that its team will make, they will become a vital element in the way it conducts its business. References Kerns, T. (n.d). A brief introduction to formal ethics. Web. Shell Code of Conduct. (n.d). Shell Code of Conduct: How to live by the Shell general business principles. Web. Shell Oil. (2011). Shell Oil Company – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Shell Oil Company. Web. This research paper on Code of Ethics: Shell Oil was written and submitted by user Hailee Livingston to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Moi Non Plus - French Expression Explained

Moi Non Plus - French Expression Explained The French expression moi non plus ​(pronounced [mwa no(n) plu]) expresses agreement with a negative statement. Its the equivalent of the English statement me neither or neither do I. It literally translates to me no more and its register is normal.  Note that moi can be replaced by a name, a noun, or another stressed pronoun: Pierre non plus - neither does Pierre, Pierre doesnt eithermon mari non plus - neither does my husband, my husband doesnt eitherles professeurs non plus - neither do teachers, teachers dont eithertoi non plus / vous non plus - you either, neither do yoului non plus - him either, neither does heelle non plus - her either, neither does shenous non plus - us either, neither do weeux non plus / elles non plus - them either, neither do they Examples Tu naimes pas le jazz ? Moi non plus.You dont like jazz? Me neither / Neither do I. Sandrine ne veut pas y aller, et moi non plus.Sandrine doesnt want to go, and neither do I. Nous navons pas dargent, toi non plus ?We dont have any money, you (dont) either? Je ne peux pas taider, et Dany non plus.I cant help you, and neither can Dany. You can also use non plus with a negative adverb or pronoun:Je naime pas le jazz non plus.I dont like jazz either. Il ne parle personne non plus.Hes not talking to anyone either. And you can use non plus on its own, in which case there is no simple English equivalent: -Nous navons pas de thà ©.-Et du cafà © ?-Non plus.-We dont have any tea.-What about coffee?-(We dont have) that either.

Bipolar Disorder Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Bipolar Disorder - Article Example Bipolar Disorder It also seeks to give a relevant case study, as well as the historical and policy issues that have been put in place to handle cases of bipolar disorder. It is absolute that examining the issues surrounding bipolar disorder will help in understanding ways through which it can be mitigated and how people can learn to live with those affected. 1.1 Mental Health According to the World Health Organization (WHO), psychological well being is an imperative aspect in life. In the year 2002, it was estimated that around 450 million people across the globe were suffering from behavioral, as well as mental disorders in which around 150 million of them suffered from severe depression. Mental health has serious profound impacts on families and individuals affected as far as their physical, social and economic life is concerned. Since psychological disorders often tend to affect communities as well as the families of those affected, it is essential for people to understand the major effects of men tal illness on both the social systems as well as on individuals. Consequently, this will help in improving the mental care systems and ensure effective development of related mental health programs. It is alleged that mental health covers a vast range of compulsions often affecting the elderly (Nash, 2010). The American Nursing association is focused on collaborating with the health policy makers to enhance the restoration of universal access to mental health care among the US families. Although there has been extensive efforts aimed at enhancing the world mental health, the World Health Organization has stressed on the need to have a comprehensive definition of what mental health is, and to ensure that this extends beyond the presence or absence of diagnosed disorder to include autonomy, self efficacy, well being and competence (World Health Organization, 2013). One of the common mental health issues that has been widely debated on, and that I have had a personal interaction with is bipolar disorder. In this case, it is important to give a synopsis on the historical and policy issues that surrounds, it as well as other essential factors such as its treatment. 1.2 What is Bipolar Disorder? Scholars define bipolar disorder as a manic depressive mental health state in which a person exhibits bidirectional fluctuations from a depressive to a euphoric state. Other common symptoms are irritability, a sense of hopelessness, grandiosity, low self esteem, insomnia, racing thoughts, distractibility, agitation and suicidal thoughts (Friedman, 2001, pp.165-166). Research also shows that the sleeping patterns of persons suffering from bipolar disorder often vary with the severity, the clinical state, as well as the stage of the disorder. For instance, when depressed, bipolar patients tend to sleep excessively and when in a manic state, they sleep less or not at all (â€Å"The Biology of Mental Disorders,† n.d, p.88). In the US, it is estimated that more than two m illion people suffer from bipolar disorder. One of the main reasons behind its unprecedented rise is complications that hinder appropriate as well as accurate diagnosis. Research shows that half of all the respondents reported visiting more than three mental health experts before having a correct diagnosis (Calibre, n.d, pp.1-2). According to Torrey and

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 100

Assignment Example Poverty, joblessness and dysfunctional families are common traits of highly segregated groups. This leads to high rates in crime as a way of venting stress. 3. Ethnic diversity has economic and social benefits. Economically, such cities achieve high rates of growth because of minimal segregation and, therefore, workers tend to have peace of mind at their workplaces hence increasing their overall efficacy. On a social perspective, ethnic diversity improves the talents of individuals. For example, the diverse genres of music present in the U.S. are positive consequences of ethnic diversity. 4. Los Angeles is among the most highly populated cities in the U.S. It has most Latinos than anywhere else in America, but is ethnically diverse. One reason is because of the presence of ethnic enclaves such as ‘Little Ethiopia,’ ‘Chinatown’ et cetera, which gives each group a sense of belonging. In addition, it is a busy city with numerous opportunities making people too busy to be segregating themselves. d. San Francisco, California- Other groups are the ethnic minorities because the city has ethnic diversity and has other races relatively well represented (Mapping America: Every city, every block, 2010). a. Southern Cities- Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, Jackson, and Atlanta have Black or African American as the main race. This is because of their location. It is likely that during the early entry and slavery of the Blacks, most gained entry into America from these regions and settled there. d. Our three largest cities- New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have Whites who are not Hispanic or Latinos as the main race. However, Blacks and other races also make up a significant fraction of the population. This is because they are chief economic hubs thereby attracting ethnic diversity. 7. The three types of boundaries that can be seen from the map are racial boundaries in

Golden Rule, The Mischief Rule and The Literal Rule of Statutory Essay

Golden Rule, The Mischief Rule and The Literal Rule of Statutory Interpretation - Essay Example An example where Golden Rule was applied was the Sigsworth, Re, Bedford vs Bedford. In this case, a son has murdered his mother who was yet to make a will. Under the Section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925, there should be inheritor and in this case, the son was the sole issue, therefore, he should have inherited the mother’s property. However, the judge ruled under the golden rule and the son did not receive the inheritance. This is because it would have been illogical to give the inheritance to the son as he murdered his mother and would have been benefited by committing a crime. Mischief Rule Mischief Rule of statutory interpretation gives authority to the judge to contain the mischief in the crime and apply it in instances where there occurs an ambiguity in the law. Thus this rule aims to understand the mischief and also to lay down a solution which would correct the situation if implemented. A popular case that came under the Mischief rule was Smith vs. Hughe s. In this case, prostitutes were charged for recruiting clients from a public place while within the confines of a private area, which were the windows that overlooked the street. Under the Street Offences Act of 1959, it is illegal to attract clients with the intention of offering sex services on streets. The defendants pleaded that they had not attracted clients on the streets but were within their own homes. However, the judge found them guilty since the prostitutes had mischief on their mind and were, in fact, taking clients from the streets. Literal Rule Literal Rule as the name suggests allows the judge to give out a ruling by taking into account the literal meaning of the word since they do not affect the ruling of the case. The judge, in this case, does not have to consider the meaning or the implications behind words or sentences such as in the case of the previous laws. This is usually the most preferred rule of statutory interpretation. An example of this is the R Vs Har ris case under which the defendant harmed the victim by biting his nose. Since the law considers stabbing, cutting or wounding a person through an instrument as a crime, therefore the defendant was acquitted since he did not commit the crime in the literal sense. Application In normal circumstances, the literal rule is first applied before considering any other approach. When a different approach is taken, a significant reason should be presented as to why the Golden or the Mischief rule had been applied. ‘After 45 years in litigation, I have seen so much money spent, stress caused and delay encountered. Reaching settlement at the door of the court is entirely unsatisfactory’. Sir Henry Brooke in ‘Mediation; Lawyers still need convincing’, Law Gazette (18th September 2008). Â  Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) ADR is an acronym for Alternative Dispute Resolution. Under ADR, the dispute is resolved by allowing the conflicting parties to come to an agreem ent without having to go through the process of filing a case against the defendant. In this system, the dispute is resolved with or without the presence of a third party.

The Errors Vs Mistakes English Language Essay

The Errors Vs Mistakes English Language Essay According to Brown in order to analyze a learner language, it is important to understand the distinction between errors and mistakes. A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, seeing as a failure to use a known system correctly. Mistakes can happen in both native and second language are the result of some sort of temporary breakdown, hesitations, slip of the tongue, random ungrammaticalities, or imperfection in the process of producing speech and can be recognized and corrected by native speakers. However errors are idiosyncrasies in the language of the learner. They are actually deviation from adult grammar of a native speaker. It shows the competence of the learner. Then mistakes are referred to performance errors in which the learner knows the system but fails to use it while errors are the result of ones systematic competence. It means that the learners system is incorrect. According to James cited by Brown (2007) the learner is not able to self correct the errors while mistakes if called, can be corrected by the learner. Then error correction can be used as a means for identification of errors and mistakes. However, Brown noted that making a distinction between errors and mistakes is difficult because if no such error correction occurs, we are not able to distinguish those (2007). Keshavarz (2008, p.49) also noted that there is a distinction between errors and mistakes. Errors are rule governed, systematic in nature, internally principled and free from arbitrariness. They show learners underlying knowledge of the target language that is his transitional competence. In contrast to errors, mistakes are random deviations and unrelated to any system. They are related to performance of the learner and might occur in the speech and writing like slip of the tongue, slip of the ear, slip of the pen, and false start. According to Keshavarz (2008) mistakes are due to non-linguistic factors such as fatigue, strong feeling, memory limitations, and lack of concentration and so on. These kinds of mistakes can be corrected by the learner if brought to his attention. He considered that distinguishing between learners errors and mistakes has always been problematic for teachers and researchers as Corder (1967) and Brown (1987) cited in keshavarz (2008) maintained this problem too. Nevertheless most error analyst use a general criterion for distinguishing between errors and mistakes the frequency of occurrence that is: errors which are low frequent are considered as mistakes or performance errors and those which are high frequent are systematic errors. However this criterion alone is not enough for distinguishing between errors and mistakes because low frequency of certain error may due to the low frequency of grammatical patterns or avoidance strategy that a learner uses. Then error analyst should consider casual factors of learners deviant structures as a means of distinguishing between errors and mistakes. According to Corder (1997) cited in Park (2010) errors refer to learners underlying knowledge of the language and mistakes refer to incorrect forms caused by memory lapses, slips of the tongue and other instances of performance errors. Corder considered that learners can correct their own mistakes but they cannot correct their errors because they do not have enough knowledge to distinguish their own utterance and that of the native speaker. He also pointed out two explanations with regard to learner errors. First, the occurrence of errors is merely a sign of the present inadequacy of the teaching techniques (p. 163). That is, if it were possible for teachers to achieve a perfect teaching method, there would be no occurrence of student errors in the target language. The second explanation is that despite teachers best efforts, the occurrence of errors is inevitable because errors occur for many reasons. The reasons can be: interference from L1, overgeneralization, an incomplete knowle dge of the target language, the complexity of the target language, and fossilization. Therefore, teachers should be more concerned with how to deal with students errors than the simple identification of them. For this study, I will use the terms errors and mistakes interchangeably because sometimes it is difficult to distinguish students errors from mistakes. Identification of Errors: (Categories of Error) Corder (1971) cited by Brown (2007) provided a model for identification of errors. Based on his model any sentences uttered by the learner can be analyzed for idiosyncrasies. According to his model there are two types of error: overt and covert errors. Overtly incorrect utterances are ungrammatical at the sentence level and covertly incorrect utterances are grammatically correct at the sentence level but are not interpretable within the context of communication. Then overt errors are sentence level and covert errors are discourse level errors. Burt (1975) cited in Park (2010) categorized errors as global and local ones. Global errors are errors that hinder communication and affect the overall organization of the sentence such as wrong word order, missing, wrong or misplaced sentence connectors however local errors do not usually hinder communication and affect single elements in a sentence such as error in noun and verb inflections, articles, and auxiliaries. He mentioned that the correction of global error clarifies the intended message more than the correction of several local errors. Moreover he argued that teachers should correct high frequent errors first. From another perspective Chaudron (1977, p.32) cited by Park (2010) classified the range of errors from linguistic (phonological, morphological, syntactic) to subject matter content (factual and conceptual knowledge) and lexical items. Valdman( 1975) cited in (salim shahin) provided the same division as Burt and said that in the case of global error the communicatio n between the student and teacher will be blocked and the student requires correction but in the case of local error, communication between the teacher and the student will not be blocked and it is up to the teacher to require the correction of the error, or let the error passes. Hammerley( 1991) cited in (Salim Shahin, 2003) classified errors into surface and deep. According to him surface errors need minor corrections and explanations while deep errors require explanation of why the error was made and what the correct form is. Hendrickson (1978) cited in (Salim Shahin, 2003) divided errors into three main types. 1) errors that hinders communication; 2) errors that have highly stigmatizing effect on the listener or reader but do not hinder communication; 3) errors that can be described as lapses that students usually have in their utterances. These errors are quite common in the speakers utterances yet they hardly block communication between the speaker and his interlocutor. Mackey et al. (2000) cited by Park (2010) categorized four types of errors in their analysis of L2 interactional data as phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical, and semantic ones.1) Phonological errors were non-target like pronunciation; 2) morphosyntactic errors were omitted plural-s and the preposition in; 3) lexical errors were inappropriate lexical items; 4) semantic errors were incorrect meaning or expression. Prabhu (1987) cited in (Salim shahin, 2003) divides errors on the basis of their treatment rather than their nature. According to his division there are two kinds of error: systematic and incidental errors. Systematic errors are those that deviate from the native speakers form and the teacher uses linguistic explanation, long interruptions, and exemplification to help and correct learners error. But Incidental errors do not require linguistic explanation or exemplification from the teacher, such as when the teacher corrects a pronunciation error or when he raises his eyebrows to draw the students attention to the error. Moreover Lennon (1991) cited by Brown (2007) identified different categories for description of errors: Errors of addition, omission, substitution, ordering Level of errors: phonology or orthography, lexicon, grammar and discourse Global and local errors: an error that hinders communication or prevents hearer or reader from understanding some aspect of a message is global and an error that does not prevent a message from being understood, usually due to a minor violation of one segment of a sentence, allowing a hearer or a reader to make an accurate guess about the intended meaning is a local error. (burtkiparsky, 1972 cited by Brown, 2007) Domain and extent error: domain error is the rank of linguistic unit from phoneme to discourse that must be taken as context in order for the error to become apparent. Extent error is the rank of linguistic unit that would have to be deleted, replaced, supplied, or recorded in order to repair the sentence. Other educators like Allwright (1975) cited in (Salim Shahin, 2003) believed that errors should be treated on the basis of their frequency, rather than on their classification. Then errors of high frequency should be given more attention and emphasis than errors of low frequency. Some Definitions in Error Correction: There are different terms when providing feedback in response to learner error in second language acquisition. These are repair, treatment, feedback, negative evidence and correction. Brown (2007, p.388) defined repair as correction by the learner of an ill-formed utterance, either through self-initiated repair or in response to feedback. Chaudron (1988) cited in Dabaghi (2006) defined treatment as any teacher behavior that follows error and shows the error to the learner. Ellis (1994a) cited by (Dabaghi, 2006) also identified feedback as a general cover term in which listeners provide information on the reception and the comprehension of the messages. Lightbown and Spadal (1999) cited in Dabaghi (2006) defined corrective feedback as an indication to the learners that they use target language incorrectly. According to Ellis (1994a) cited by Dabaghi (2006) correction has a narrower meaning than these terms. It is any attempt to provide negative evidence in the form of feedback that draw learners attention to the errors they have made. As Schachter (1991) cited by Dabaghi (2006) said corrective feedback, negative evidence and negative feedback are terms that are respectively used in the field of language teaching, language acquisition, and cognitive psychology. Most of the researchers use these terms interchangeably. In the present research we use error correction and corrective feedback interchangeably whenever the general sense of feedback provision was involve. Types of spoken error correction: According to Lyster Rantas model (1997) cited by Coskum (2010) the types of spoken error correction are as follows: Explicit correction: clearly indicating that the students utterance was incorrect, the teacher provides the correct form. S: there is a little milk in fridge. T: + in the fridge Recast: the teacher implicitly reformulates the students error, or provides the correction without directly pointing out that the students utterance was incorrect. In other words it is the teachers reformulation of all or part of a students utterance, minus the error. S: he like pop-music. T: yes, he likes pop-music Clarification request: the teacher indicates that the message has not been understood or that the students utterance included some kind of mistake and that a repetition or a reformulation is required by using phrases like Excuse me? S: there arent many /hotÄ ±ls/ in this town. T: again? à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ Metalinguistic clues: the teacher poses questions like Do we say it like that? or provides comments or information related to the formation of the students utterance without providing the correct form. Metalinguistic clues contain comments, information or questions related to the well formedness of the students utterance, without explicitly providing the correct form. Metalinguistic comments generally indicate that there is an error somewhere. Metalinguistic information generally provides either some grammatical metalanguage that refers to the nature of the error or a word definition in the case of lexical errors. Metalinguistic questions also point to the nature of the error but attempt to elicit the information from the student. S: there isnt any books. T: + there isnt gà ¶rà ¼nce uncountable, yani sayÄ ±lamayan bir Ã…Å ¸ey kullanmamÄ ±z gerekiyormuÃ…Å ¸. Ds: there isnt any money Elicitation: the teacher directly elicits the correct form from the student by asking questions (e.g. How do I ask somebody to clean the board?), by pausing to allow the student to complete the teachers utterance (e.g. He is a good à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..) or by asking students to reformulate the utterance (e.g. Can you say that again?). Elicitation questions differ from questions that are defined as metalinguistic clues in that they require more than yes/no response. It refers to at least techniques that teachers use to directly elicit the correct form from the students. First teachers elicit completion of their own utterance by strategically pausing to allow students to fill in the blank as it were. Second, teachers use questions to elicit correct forms. Such questions exclude the use of yes/no questions. The question likes Do we say that in English is metalinguistic feedback, not elicitation. Third teachers occasionally ask students to reformulate their utterance. S: there are a few books in my /lÄ ±brari/ T: in myà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦? à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ Repetition: the teacher repeats the students error and changes intonation to draw students attention to it. S: How much money do you have in your /pakÄ ±t/? T: /pakÄ ±t/? à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ DS: /pokÄ ±t/ T: yes Sources of Error: According to Brown (2007, p.263) there are four sources of error: 1) Interlingual transfer: it is a significant source of error for all learners. It is the effect of one language (usually the first) on another (usually the second). At early stages of learning a second language, the linguistic system of the native language is the only system that a learner is familiar with. Then the native linguistic system can interfere or transfer and cause some errors in second language. 2) Intralingual transfer: Another source of error which goes beyond the interlingual transfer is intralingual transfer. It is the effect of forms of one language (usually the target language) on other forms within the same language. According to Odlin (2003), Jaszczolt (1995) and Taylor (1975) cited by Brown (2007) once learners have begun to learn the system of second language, it is the system of second language that cause error. In fact intralingual transfer that is generalization within the target language occurs. 3) Context of learning: The third source of error is context of learning which is called false concept by Richard (1971) and induced error by Stenson (1979) cited by Brown (2007). It overlaps two types of transfer and refers to classroom, materials and social situation that can lead learners to make faulty hypotheses about the language. 4) Communication strategies: The forth source of error is communication strategies. They are production strategies that learners use to enhance getting their message across, but these strategies can become a source of error. Moreover Corder (1975) cited by Keshavarz (2008, p101) distinguished three types of sources of errors: Inter lingual errors which are caused by first language interference Intralingual errors that are caused by the learners generalizing and over generalizing particular rules. Errors caused by faulty teaching techniques. Another classification was considered by Dualy and Burt cited by Keshavarz (2008, p. 101) for second language learners error which are called goofs: Interference-like goofs: errors which show native language structure and are not found in first language acquisition data of the target language. L1-developmental goofs: errors that do not reflect native language structure but are found in L1 acquisition data of the target language Ambiguous goofs: those errors that can be as either interference-like goofs or L1 developmental goof. Unique goofs: errors that do not reflect L1 structure and also not found in L1 acquisition data of the target language. Significance of errors: Many scholars in the field of error analysis have stressed the significance of second language learners error. For example Corder (1967) cited by Keshavarz (2008) remarked that errors are significant in three ways: First errors are significant to the teacher in that they help him to understand how much the learner has progressed and what remains for him to learn. Second errors provide evidence for the learner to recognize how language is learnt or acquired and what strategies and procedures are used by the learner to discover the language. Third errors are important to the learner himself in which they are a device the learner uses in order to learn. Moreover Richard (1971) cited by Keshavarz (2008, p.45) noted that errors are significant and of interest to: 1) Linguistics, because according to Chomsky the study of human language is the best way of understanding the human intelligence; 2) Psychologists, because by comparing childrens and adults speech, they can examine the nature of the mental processes that seem to be involved in language; 3) Teachers, because by analyzing learners errors, they would be able to discover their difficulties and devise a method for comparing them. Besides, Jain (1974) cited by Keshavarz (2008) maintained 2 reasons for the significance of error: Understanding the process of second language acquisition Planning courses incorporating the psychology of second language learning. Other researchers like Dulay and Burt (1975) cited by Dabaghi (2006) stressed the significance of error by indicating two major reasons: 1) error provides data from which interferences about the nature of the language learning processes can be made, and 2) it shows to the teachers and curriculum developers in which part of the language, learners have difficulty with and which error types detract most from the learners ability to communicate effectively. Historical perspectives of error correction: Russel (2009) noted that error correction is a controversial issue in the field of second language education (SLE) and second language teacher education (SLTE). How to correct errors depends on the methodological perspectives of teachers. In behaviorist teaching models such as audio lingual method that was popular in 1950s and 1960s, error correction was stressed at all cost. Behaviorists believed that errors were inevitable but they tried to provide the correct form immediately. Brooks (1960, p.56) cited by Russull (2009) considered that like sin, error is to be avoided and its influence overcomesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the best way to overcoming errors is to shorten the time lapse between the incorrect response and a presentation of correct form. However in 1970s the value of grammar instruction and error correction in behaviorist model was questioned. Russull (2009) considered that in 1970s and 1980s some scholars claimed that error correction was not only unnecessary but also harmful to second language acquisition. The most well known model which was against error correction was Stephan Krashens monitor model which has five hypotheses about language learning. Rashtchi keshavarz (2007) noted that the learners affective an d emotional status can act as filters which do not allow easy absorption of input. It means that affective filter will hinder the process of learning (p.76). Moreover they noted that according to natural order hypothesis all linguistic elements and skills are learned in a predictable order and this order is not influenced by the native language of the learners. Russell (2009) mentioned that Terrell created the natural approach which is a method that emphasizes the development of communicative competence. According to his approach affective rather than cognitive factors are primary concern in the language classroom and correction of learners error is negative in terms of motivation, attitude and embarrassment. In this approach teacher never correct the learner oral errors. Then learners themselves should study grammatical structures in order to correct their mistakes. Communicative language teaching approach became popular in 1980s and like natural approach focuses on communicative competence and notional functional concepts over the instruction of grammatical structures. (Richards Rogers (1986) cited by Russell (2009). The objective in CLT is the development of fluency and acceptable language use and since emphasize is on meaning over form, error correction is not of primary importance. However when learners accuracy is assessed, it is always done in context. (Omaggio Hadley, 2001 cited by Russell), and in 1990s some researchers assert that explicit grammar instruction, error correction and focus on form could promote SLA. (Aljaafreh Lantolf, 1994; Doughy Varela, 1993; Ellis, 1993, 1994; Fotos, 1994; Long 1996; Schmidt, 1990, 1993, 1995; Sharwood Smith, 1993). Error correction and second language acquisition: According to Dabaghi (2006, p. 25) there are different views and opinions about language teaching and learning in which the changes in methodologies, materials and attitudes toward second language learning have always been important to language experts. Since error correction cannot be separated from these views and opinions, it must be discussed in terms of its relation to the theories of second language acquisition. In the following sections, we can see a number of second language acquisition theories and models that in some way affect our understanding of error correction. Contrastive analysis model: In the era of contrastive analysis and audiolingualism, there was a negative approach towards errors. According to Stern (1983) cited in Dabaghi (2006, p.25) some of the scholars during 1950s and 1960s had a puritanical perspective about errors committed by second language learners and as Brooks (1960) cited by (Dabaghi, 2006, p.25) said like sin, error is to avoid and its influence overcome but its presence is to be expected. According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) cited by Dabaghi (2006), in contrastive analysis, there is a comparison between learners native and target language and these differences cause the majority of an second language learners errors. Based on behaviorist view which was prevalent at that time, learning is a process of habit formation and errors from first language habits interfere with the learners attempt to learn new linguistic behaviors. Then to avoid errors, teachers should prevent and correct errors and shorten the time lapse between the incorrect response and the correct model. But as Dabaghi (2006, p.26) said, paying too much attention to prevention of errors and teaching learners to use language creatively in response to expected and unexpected stimuli in the environment are the drawback of contrastive analysis model and structural approach and caused the very foundation of contrastive analysis as a result of Chomskys transformational generative grammar, which emphasize d the active participation of the learners mind in processing data. In short, according to CA, learning is a process of habit formation and interfering language habits with learners attempts to learn new linguistic behaviors cause errors. Then the audio lingual approaches to teaching aimed to prevent learners from committing errors and believed that errors should be corrected immediately. Inter language model: In inter language era the second language learner was considered to be an autonomous creator of a language system who has a built-in-syllabus (Corder (1981) cited by Dabaghi (2006, p. 26)). It means that a learner is equipped with an internally programmed sequence which is sometimes in accordance with what teacher teaches and sometimes contradictory and learner follows his/her own build in syllabus. According to this view errors are the evidence of the learners present transitional competence and manifest the way the learner processes the input in her linguistic environment. Dabaghi (2006, p.27) mentioned that the inter language view of language acquisition believed on the whole role of language learning to the language learner and weaken the impact of negative evidence in second language development. According to this view, if negative evidence is provided within the syllabus predetermined in the mind of language learners, it can be effective otherwise it causes frustration and confusion for the learner and teachers. This view was strengthened by non-interventionist view taken by Dulay and Burt (1973), Krashen (1983) and Prabhu(1987) cited by Dabaghi (2006) who argued that grammar instruction should be abandoned in order to let the learner acquire the language from untutored language setting. The teacher should only provide the learner with opportunities for natural use of language. To sum up, the inter language model considered second language learners as self governing creator of a language system who follow their own built in learning program which c an sometimes benefit from error correction and sometimes not. Krashens Input Hypotheses: it is commonly known that for the acquisition of a second language, input that is provided either by a teacher or by another learner is essential. Corder (1967) cited by (Faqeih, 2012) distinguished input from intake. According to him, what is available to the learner is called input and what is actually internalized is called intake. According to Faqeih (2012) Krashen proposed the most influential theory of the role of input in second language acquisition in 1980. He noted that for the acquisition of second language, learners must be exposed to comprehensible meaningful input which contains linguistic data that are a little beyond learners knowledge (i+1) where i is the second language learners current linguistic competence and (i+1) is the next level of that competence achieved with comprehensible input ( Krashen, 1985 cited by Faqeih, 2012). He also suggested that production of the target does not directly aid acquisition. Krashen considered that learners can make use of three kin ds of contextual information: extra-linguistic information that is learners knowledge of the world and previously acquired linguistic competence; the input that can be available via interaction; and interaction in which meaning has to be negotiated e.g. when there is a communication problem. Krashen (1985) cited by (Faqeih, 2012) also distinguished learning and acquisition. He considered that acquisition uses unconscious processes and those grammatical rules are not helpful. In other words, second language is acquired more like first language and parents focus on communication and meaning instead of focusing on explicit instruction of the language. He also implied that if input is understood and there is enough of it, the necessary grammar is automatically learnt. He also argued that error correction (= negative evidence) do not improve second language performance. On the other hand learning is the conscious process that involves the memorization of many formal grammatical rules and error correction can have a role in this. According to him learning leads to grammatical and mechanical knowledge of the language, but it does not lead to fluency. Note that although Krashen distinguished between learning and acquisition, but this thesis uses them interchangeably. According to Faqeih (2012) Krashens input hypothesis is supported by some scholar such as Shwartz (1993) and Truscott (1996). They noted that for learners to acquire second language, only positive evidence that is a model from the target language is sufficient and negative feedback such as implicit and explicit feedback to any non target like feature in learners speech does not help learning and that structures learned through error correction cannot become part of internal grammar. They also proposed the negative effects of error correction such as confusing the learners, causing over use of a particular form or interfering with natural language acquisition processes. Others like Lightbown Spada 1993 cited by Faqeih (2012) said that excessive use of error correction lead to lower motivation. According to Krashens affective filter, classroom teachers should not focus intentionally or explicitly on errors of language from during class but should instead provide comprehensible input t o learners. Other scholars such as Mitchell Myles (2004) cited by Faqeih (2012) criticized this hypothesis because of lacking in empirical evidence and untreatable owing to its vagueness. Moreover White (1987) criticized Krashens input hypothesis for not considering the possible benefits of providing rules, said that certain types of errors may need rules instruction. Others like Ellis, Tanaka, Yamazaki (1994) cited by Faqeih 2012 considered that although interaction can solve communication problems through negotiation and increased comprehension, it does not mean that increased comprehension automatically leads to L2 acquisition; that is, learners may not necessarily retain the comprehended target language. Longs Interaction Hypothesis: Based on Krashens input Hypothesis in which input is important for acquisition to take place, Long suggested his own interaction hypothesis (Long, 1996, 2007 cited by Faqeih (2012)). He considered that input is not sufficient on its own for language learning to occur and some type of negative evidence may be beneficial role in acquisition and more attention should be given to the interaction that learners are engaged in. In 1996 he updated his hypothesis and mentioned that some controversial strategies such as repetitions, confirmation checks, comprehension checks, clarification request or recasts can solve communication problems. This kind of interaction involved components like negotiation, recasts, and feedback. According to Long (2007) cited by Faqeih (2012) interactional feedback is very important aspect for language development because it helps learners become aware of their error, and notice the mismatches between their inter language and the target language. It also encourage s learners to hypothesize the correct form and test them and modify their inter language. Long (2007) cited by Faqeih (2012, p.29) claimed that for error correction to be affective, simultaneous focus on form and meaning should be provided in a classroom context and the best strategy for the negotiation for meaning is recast, Because it is implicit and does not interrupt the flow of interaction. Dabaghi ( 2006, p.28) mentioned that according to Long, when there is a conversation between two interlocutors ( native speakers and non native speaker) there are both similarities and differences in the form of grammatical complexity between them. They use some conversational tactics such as clarification request, repetition or comprehension checks. It shows that the non native speaker or less component interlocutor is experiencing comprehension problems and using these tactics is very useful in language learning. In the process of interactional adjustments, both interlocutors make effort to understand each other. It means that they adjust their input to make it more comprehensible that is i+1 in Krashens term. However this hypothesis was criticized by Braidi (1995

Autonomy and Political Responsibility after the Cold War Essay

Autonomy and Political Responsibility after the Cold War After World War II, Europe emerged as a continent torn between two very different political ideologies, Communism and Democracy. As the two major superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States, struggled to defend their respective governmental policies, the European Continent was caught in an intrinsic struggle to preserve the autonomy which had taken so long to achieve. During the Cold War, Eastern European nations struggled to achieve autonomy with the help of the West's dedication to break the Soviet sphere of influence. After the disintegration of the USSR, the struggle for autonomy among nations shifted from an intense, inward, nationalistic struggle to break away from a superpower to a commitment of international unity and cooperation as nations began to take moral and political responsibility for their actions. The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a... ... and a special exhibit on the Internal Workings of the Soviet System. This site provides an accurate representation of the Soviet System during the Cold War as seen by the actual Soviet documents. Also, this site gives detailed information of pivitol moments during the Cold War era, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Berlin Wall gives a brief over-view of the Berlin Wall, its history and its fall. Provides many useful links to several other sites which offer a more in depth exploration of the circumstances surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a vital link for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the seperation of East and West Germany and the Berlin Wall itself during the Cold War era. Crockatt, Richard. The fifty years war : the United States and the Soviet Union in world politics, 1941-1991. London; New York; Routledge, 1995. Autonomy and Political Responsibility after the Cold War Essay Autonomy and Political Responsibility after the Cold War After World War II, Europe emerged as a continent torn between two very different political ideologies, Communism and Democracy. As the two major superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States, struggled to defend their respective governmental policies, the European Continent was caught in an intrinsic struggle to preserve the autonomy which had taken so long to achieve. During the Cold War, Eastern European nations struggled to achieve autonomy with the help of the West's dedication to break the Soviet sphere of influence. After the disintegration of the USSR, the struggle for autonomy among nations shifted from an intense, inward, nationalistic struggle to break away from a superpower to a commitment of international unity and cooperation as nations began to take moral and political responsibility for their actions. The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a... ... and a special exhibit on the Internal Workings of the Soviet System. This site provides an accurate representation of the Soviet System during the Cold War as seen by the actual Soviet documents. Also, this site gives detailed information of pivitol moments during the Cold War era, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Berlin Wall gives a brief over-view of the Berlin Wall, its history and its fall. Provides many useful links to several other sites which offer a more in depth exploration of the circumstances surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a vital link for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the seperation of East and West Germany and the Berlin Wall itself during the Cold War era. Crockatt, Richard. The fifty years war : the United States and the Soviet Union in world politics, 1941-1991. London; New York; Routledge, 1995.

20th Century Genius Award Essay

A nominee for the 20th Century Genius Award should be Riley B. King. King has had an integral part in the history of the blues style of music since the mid 1950s. The manner in which he plays his guitar, Lucille, and his voice are very distinguishable. His style of instrumentation has carried over to other genres of music as well. He is hail as the reigning king of the blues. Most blues guitar solos will have some of the recognizable King inspired bent notes. Riley B. King, better known as B. B. King, was born September 16, 1925 to a family of poor sharecroppers in Mississippi. King’s artistic contribution to the 20th century is music, most notably the Blues. In the blues arena, he is probably one of the greatest and most respected guitarists in the history of the genre. When one hears the name B. B. King, the music of the blues immediately comes to mind. His musical motivation came from the music in his church. At first, Riley wanted to become a gospel singer. The pastor in his church taught him the basics of guitar. He then became a self taught guitarist by using instruction books he ordered through the mail. Since his arrival on the scene in the mid 1940s, King has been the definition of blues for the world wide audience. In his youth, he would play his guitar on street corners for dimes. There were nights when he would play in four towns. Riley also performed with small gospel groups. At the age of 21 hitchhiked from his home in Mississippi to Memphis to pursue his dreams in music. In 1948 King’s performance on a radio station in West Memphis launched his career. This performance turned in to regular performances at a grill in West Memphis called Sixteenth Avenue Grill and to a 10 minute time slot called â€Å"King’s Spot† on a radio station in Memphis. King’s 10 minute show was such a hit, the show was lengthened and turned in to a show called â€Å"Sepia Swing Club. † Riley decided he should have a name that was easily remembered for his radio show, so he started out with Beale Street Blues Boy. That named seemed to be too long, so he shortened it to Blues Boy King. When Blues Boy King first performed in New York, he decided to shorten his stage name to B. B. King. King has named his guitars â€Å"Lucille† after he performed at an event in Twist, AR. A couple of men began to brawl over a woman and during the brawl a stove that was fueled by kerosene was knocked over. This set fire to the building and everyone rushed out. When King realized his guitar was still inside, he risked his life to run back inside and retrieve it. After it was all said and done, he found out the two men were fighting over a lady by the name of Lucille. At that time he figured he would give the name â€Å"Lucille† to his guitars so he would remember to in no way do a foolish thing like fighting over a woman. In King’s song, â€Å"Three O’clock Blues (1951), the song begins with a four bar guitar introduction, followed by four full choruses of the twelve bar form. The third chorus is an instrumental with the guitar improvising on the harmonic progression. In this song, King sings and then plays guitar lines that serve as a response to his vocal lines. The guitar lines reproduce and expand on the vocal melody to which they answer and often use string bends to reach blue notes. An accompaniment is provided by saxophones playing notes that are long held. The drums are very quite with little or not accenting of the backbeat. Some urban sophistication in the arrangement is the occasional use of half step slides into some of the main chords of the progression. A great deal of the time, King slides down to the appropriate chord, then turns around and slides up to the tonic chord at the final beat. During his career, King has created one of the most individualistic guitar techniques in the world. He integrated his specific and intricate vocal-like string blends and his left hand vibrato. These types of instrumentation have turn out to be important works of a rock guitarist’s expression. B. B. King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987 and has received honorary doctorates from several universities. According to Billboard, â€Å"B. B. King has 74 entries on the Rhythm and Blues charts and he was one of the few full fledged blues artists to score a major pop hit when â€Å"The Thrill Is Gone† crossed over to the mainstream success. † King’s lyrical and expressive solo style has made a large impact on several artists in the rock genre such as Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield. B. B. King’s urban blues guitar style includes the playing of lines that are equal in importance to the lines he sings. There is no single recording that can show the brilliantness of B. B. King’s abilities as a guitarist or a singer. His interest in playing melodic lines rather than chordal accompaniments is quite obvious in several of his numbers. King has performed as a featured soloist with jazz bands and groups of all sizes. He has also performed with large orchestral string sections playing arrangements of blues songs. Considering what B. B. King has done for the art of blues music, the accomplishments he has had during his career, and the influence he has had on the various genres of music, his contributions to the blues music will continue to impact the music industries for years to come. For these reasons, B. B. Kind should be considered for nomination for the 20th Century Genius Award. References (April 03, 2008). B. B. King. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from Academy of Achievement Web site:  http://www.achievement.org/

7 Key Grammar Differences Between Spanish and English

7 Key Grammar Differences Between Spanish and English Because Spanish and English are Indo-European languages- the two have a common origin from several thousand years ago from somewhere in Eurasia- they are alike in ways that go beyond their shared Latin-based vocabulary. The structure of Spanish isnt difficult for English speakers to understand when compared with, for example, Japanese or Swahili. Both languages, for example, use the parts of speech in basically the same way. Prepositions (preposiciones) are called that, for instance, because they are pre-positioned before an object. Some other languages have postpositions and circumpositions that are absent in Spanish and English. Even so, there are distinct differences in the grammars of the two languages. Learning them will help you avoid some of the common  learning mistakes. Here are seven major differences that beginning students would do well to learn; all but the last two should be addressed in the first year of Spanish instruction: Placement of Adjectives One of the first differences youre likely to notice is that Spanish descriptive adjectives (those that tell what a thing or being is like) typically come after the noun they modify, while English usually places them before. Thus we would say hotel confortable for comfortable hotel and actor ansioso for anxious actor. Descriptive adjectives in Spanish can come before the noun- but that changes the meaning of the adjective slightly, usually by adding some emotion or subjectivity. For example, while an hombre pobre would be a poor man in the sense of one not having money, a pobre hombre would be a man who is poor in the sense of being pitiful. The two examples above could be restated as confortable hotel and ansioso actor, respectively, but the meaning might be changed in a way that isnt readily translated. The first might emphasize the luxurious nature of the hotel, while the second might suggest a more clinical type of anxiety rather than a simple case of nervousness- the exact differences will vary with the context. The same rule applies in Spanish for adverbs; placing the adverb before the verb gives it a more emotional or subjective meaning. In English, adverbs can often go before or after the verb without affecting the meaning. Gender The differences here are stark: Gender is a key feature of Spanish grammar, but only a few vestiges of gender  remain in English. Basically, all Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine (there also is a less-used neuter gender used with a few pronouns), and adjectives or pronouns must match in gender the nouns they refer to. Even inanimate objects can be referred to as ella (she) or à ©l (he). In English, only people, animals, and a few nouns, such as a ship that can be referred to as she, have gender. Even in those cases, the gender matters only with pronoun use; we use the same adjectives to refer to men and women. (A possible exception is that some writers differentiate between blond and blonde based on gender.) An abundance of Spanish nouns, especially those referring to occupations, also have masculine and feminine forms; for example, a male president is a presidente, while a female president is traditionally called a presidenta. English gendered equivalents are limited to a few roles, such as actor and actress. (Be aware that in modern usage, such gender distinctions are  fading. Today, a female president might be called a presidente, just as actor is now often applied to women.) Conjugation English has a few changes in verb forms, adding -s or -es to indicate third-person singular forms in the present tense, adding -ed or sometimes just -d to indicate the simple past tense, and adding -ing to indicate continuous or progressive verb forms. To further indicate tense, English adds auxiliary verbs such as has, have, did, and will in front of the standard verb form. But Spanish takes a different approach to conjugation: Although it also uses auxiliaries, it extensively modifies verb endings to indicate person, mood, and tense. Even without resorting to auxiliaries, which also are used, most verbs have more than 30 forms in contrast with the three of English. For example, among the forms of hablar (to speak) are hablo (I speak), hablan (they speak), hablars (you will speak), hablarà ­an (they would speak), and hables (subjunctive form of you speak). Mastering these conjugated forms- including irregular forms for most of the common verbs- is a key part of learning Spanish. Need for Subjects In both languages, a complete sentence includes at least a subject and a verb. However, in Spanish it is frequently unnecessary to explicitly state the subject, letting the conjugated verb form indicate  who or what is performing the verbs action. In standard English, this is done only with commands (Sit! and You sit! mean the same thing), but Spanish has no such limitation. For example, in English a verb phrase such as will eat says nothing about who will be doing the eating. But in Spanish, it is possible to say comerà © for I will eat and comern for they will eat, to list just two of the six possibilities. As a result, subject pronouns are retained in Spanish primarily if needed for clarity or emphasis. Word Order Both English and Spanish are SVO languages, those in which the typical statement begins with a subject, followed by a verb and, where applicable, an object of that verb. For example, in the sentence The girl kicked the ball, (La nià ±a pateà ³ el balà ³n), the subject is the girl (la nià ±a), the verb is kicked (pateà ³), and the object is the ball (el balà ³n). Clauses within sentences also usually follow this pattern. In Spanish, it is normal for object pronouns (as opposed to nouns) to come before the verb. And sometimes Spanish speakers will even put the subject noun after the verb. Wed never say something like The book wrote it, even in poetic usage, to refer to Cervantes writing a book but the Spanish equivalent is perfectly acceptable, especially in poetic writing: Lo escribià ³ Cervantes. Such variations from the norm are quite common in longer sentences. For example, a construction such as No recuerdo el momento en que salià ³ Pablo (in order, I dont remember the moment in which left Pablo) is not unusual. Spanish also allows and sometimes requires the use of double negatives, in which a negation must occur both before and after a verb, unlike in English. Attributive Nouns It is extremely common in English for nouns to function as adjectives. Such attributive nouns come before the words they modify. Thus in these phrases, the first word is an attributive noun: clothes closet, coffee cup, business office, light fixture. But with rare exceptions, nouns cant be so flexibly used in Spanish. The equivalent of such phrases is usually formed by using a preposition such as de or para: armario de ropa, taza para cafà ©, oficina de negocios, dispositivo de iluminacià ³n. In some cases, this is accomplished by Spanish having adjectival forms that dont exist in English. For example, informtico can be the equivalent of computer as an adjective, so a computer table is a mesa informtica. Subjunctive Mood Both English and Spanish use the subjunctive mood, a type of verb used in certain situations where the verbs action isnt necessarily factual. However, English speakers seldom use the subjunctive, which is necessary for all but basic conversation in Spanish. An instance of the subjunctive can be found in a simple sentence such as Espero que duerma, I hope she is sleeping. The normal verb form for is sleeping would be duerme, as in the sentence Sà © que duerme, I know she is sleeping. Note how Spanish uses different forms in these sentences even though English does not. Almost always, if an English sentence uses the subjunctive, so will its Spanish equivalent. Study in I insist that she study is in the subjunctive mood (the regular or indicative form she studies isnt used here), as is estudie in Insisto que estudie. Key Takeaways Spanish and English are structurally similar because they have common origin in the long-gone Indo-European language.Word order is less fixed in Spanish than it is in English. Some adjectives can come before or after a noun, verbs more often can become the nouns they apply to, and many subjects can be omitted altogether.Spanish has a much more frequent use of the subjunctive mood than English does.

The 3 Best College Finders and Search Tools

The 3 Best College Finders and Search Tools SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips College finders can be a useful tool in your college search. College finders allow you to search for colleges based on specific criteria like size, selectivity, and cost. You select what you’re looking for in a college and then the college finder will spit out its results. In this article, I will explain what makes a college finder good and detail the pros and cons of some of the better college finders on the internet. What Makes a College Finder Good? The best college finders possess these qualities: Offer Ample Search Criteria The bad search finders will only allow you to search colleges based on a few items. Most of the subpar finders will limit their search criteria to only very general categories like location (US region), size, and type of college ( 2-year or 4-year and public or private). If you can only search for the location and the size of your ideal college on a certain finder, that may not help you narrow down your college search effectively. You may get hundreds of results that match what you’re looking for in those categories. You’ll more easily be able to find colleges that are a good fit for you if you can search for colleges based on many factors like cost, selectivity, majors offered, diversity, and extracurricular activities. At a minimum, a college finder should allow you to search for location, size, college type (2-year or 4-year and public or private), selectivity (admission rate and average GPA and SAT score), majors offered, extracurricular activities available, cost, and average financial aid awarded or percentage of financial need met. Allow You To Pick Multiple Options in Specific Categories A good college finder will allow you to select multiple options in the same search category.For example, better college finders will allow you to search for schools that are both large and medium size, as opposed to only being able to select one option. Give You the Ability to Choose How Important an Option Is to You Good college finders will allow you to prioritize how important specific search criteria are to you and will factor that into their search results. Maybe you’d prefer to go to a selective college, but that’s not extremely important. On good college finders, you’ll be able to indicate that that’s only somewhat important to you. Provide Important Facts and Statistics About the Colleges It Finds On good college finders, when you click on one of the colleges in your results, you’re given information about the school like its average SAT/ACT score and GPA, application deadline and requirements, student size, cost, and average financial aid award. How to Use a College Finder Effectively Think about your priorities for what you want in a college before you begin using a college finder. If it’s very important to you to go to a school with a stellar reputation, then â€Å"selectivity† will be an essential factor you should search for.For most college finders, selectivity is determined by the admissions rate and the average SAT and ACT score of the college. Schools with low admissions rates and high SAT and ACT scores tend to have a higher caliber of student and the best reputations. Search for colleges using the most important factors to you to help narrow your search.I think the most important factors you should search for when using a college finder are location (rural or urban and geographic region/state), selectivity, and majors offered. Some finders allow you to select a more general area of study or select multiple majors. If you just look for big colleges and get hundreds of results, that probably won’t be very helpful. To really narrow down your search results to a reasonable number, you’ll probably also have to select search criteria like extracurriculars, cost, percent of financial need met, and diversity. I think a good number to aim for in your results is 15-40 colleges. If you get more than 40 colleges in your results, add more factors or increase the level of importance of certain factors. If you get fewer than 15, you can remove some search options or decrease the level of importance of certain options. If you feel like you need everything you searched for, then those could be the schools you should apply to. Make sure you’re applying to at least a couple of safety schools. Generally, when you go through the search results, you’ll be able to eliminate at least a few of the options because they won’t have a quality that you must have in a college. Finders will give you a list that matches most of the criteria you’re looking for, but not every school in your results will match everything you searched for. I did a hypothetical search on the college finder College Board's Big Future based on qualities I'd want in a college if I ever got a chance to do my undergraduate experience again. I guess I like to think about things that are impossible. I got 33 results, but I was able to immediately eliminate more than half of them because they were in a state or city I wouldn’t want to live in (I searched by region) or they were either religious or tech schools. I wouldn’t want my second undergraduate institution to have a specific focus. Once you get your results, after you do any immediate eliminations, click on each individual result to get more information about the college. After reading about the school and its statistics, if it still interests you, save it (this is also an option in certain finders) or write down the name of the school. After you've gone through all the results in your search, you should be left with a list of potentially good college options for you. Then, it's your job to research those schools more extensively. Look at their websites, read college guidebooks like Fiske or Princeton Review's Top 380 Colleges, and consult teachers, counselors, and alumni. Additionally, you can gather information about specific colleges and learn about their reputations from college ranking lists. Reviews of College Finders All of these finders are completely free to use. They do require registration, which is also free, to use features like saving your searches or search results. Big Future Big Future is the College Board's college finder. How Does It Work? Step #1: Select filters on the left to narrow down your college search. Enter the most important qualities to you in your dream college first. As you're entering search factors, the number of results is updated and displayed. Under each category, there are related subcategories. For example, under "Test Scores Selectivity,† you can enter your SAT/ACT score and the level of selectivity (by acceptance rate) you’d like your college to have. Step #2: Add more search filters until you're left with about 15-40 schools, and you've selected everything that's important to you. Step #3: Click on the colleges in your search results that interest you to see full profiles where you can get useful information like average standardized test scores, graduation rates, application requirements and deadlines, and the most popular majors. Profile for Abilene Christian University Step #4: From all this information, determine if each college still interests you. If it does, write down the name of the school, or you can click "Add to My College List." If you register at the site, you can save your college list when you're done. Step #5: You can click "Compare Colleges" for a side-by-side comparison of major statistics for up to 3 colleges from your list to help you rank them or eliminate schools from consideration. Step #6: After you’ve read about and compared the colleges from your search results, you should be left with a list of anywhere from 6-20 colleges to research further. If you’re in the preliminary stages of your college search, you can do multiple searches as you consider what you’re looking for in a college. For efficiency purposes, I recommend doing no more than 3 searches. If you’ve determined some basic priorities for you before you use the finder, this shouldn’t be an issue. Keep in mind that most college experts recommend that you apply to about 6-12 colleges (including at least 2 safety schools) so that you have options, but you’re not applying to so many schools that the application and selection process becomes overly burdensome and time-consuming. Each student’s situation is unique, though. I know recruited athletes who only applied to one school because they were guaranteed admission and offered full scholarships to colleges they wanted to attend. Additionally, many students only apply to one school if they apply early decision to their #1 school and are admitted. On the other end of the spectrum, I know wealthy students who applied to over 20 colleges because they were able to incur the costs and they had multiple people helping them with the application and selection process. As a note, there are application fee waivers for students who can’t afford application fees. Step #7: After you apply to schools and get your acceptance letters, you can return to the finder to do more research or get statistics on the schools that admitted you to help you select the college you’ll attend. Pros Before you even do a search on the finder, there’s an interactive guide that breaks down each of the search criteria and asks you questions to answer to help you determine what you’re looking for in a college. Check out the info from the guide about â€Å"Location.† On Big Future, you can select how far from home or any other specified zip code you want to be, from within 20-3000 miles. Another advantage of Big Future is for each search category, you can choose how important it is to you from "Don't care" to "Want" to "Must have." Additionally, there are multiple search options within each category. For example, under "Type of School," you can select 2-year or 4-year, school size, public or private, and religious affiliation. One unique search category in Big Future is "Support Services." You can choose options like services available for learning disabled, services for minority students, and services for low-income students. Support services can be extremely beneficial resources to enable your success in college. Also, you can pick multiple options in different search categories. If you're searching by US region, you can select as many regions as you like. Another great feature is that you can see how your GPA and SAT scores stack up against other applicants if you click on "How Do I Stack Up?" From this feature, you'll get a better idea of how competitive the school is and how likely you are to gain admission. I made up some SAT scores for myself and this is what I was shown on the Abilene Christian profile: Finally, Big Future offers a quality user experience and is easy to use. The search criteria and results are displayed prominently. The information for each college in the results is organized clearly, and the font and organization of information allow you to see all the info easily. Cons While all the categories are extremely objective, there aren’t really any categories related to campus life or quality of life. On other finders, you can search for things like the quality of the party scene and whether a college is located in a great college town. Under diversity,you can choose the percentage of diversity when searching, but there isn't a search filter to help search for the level of representation of specific groups. While you can look for historically black colleges, if you’re an African-American student looking to go to a school with a sizable African-American student population, you can’t search for that on Big Future. College View College View is another good finder that provides a wealth of information and unique features. How Does It Work? Step #1: Select filters on the left to narrow down your college search. Enter the most important qualities to you in your dream college. There are 24 major search categories. Select as many search filters as possible. You can determine the importance level of each factor from "kinda" to "must-have." Step #2:Once you enter your first search category, you can choose the number of results that are displayed regardless of how many factors you search for, 10, 20, 50, 100, or 250. I recommend searching for 20, but you can search for 50 colleges if you are in the very early stages of your college search. Step #3: Click on the colleges in your search results that interest you to see full profiles where you can get useful info like links to virtual tours, graduation rates, application requirements and deadlines, and average standardized test scores. Step #4:From all this information, determine if each college still interests you. If it does, write down the name of the school, or you can click â€Å"Pin It!† If you register at the site, you can save your search and pinned schools when you’re done. You can pin up to 25 colleges for any search. Step #5:Click â€Å"Compare pinned schools† for a side-by-side comparison of the major stats for all your pinned schools. However, you can only view the info for 5 colleges on the screen without having to click the right arrow at the top of the screen. Step #6: After reviewing the info from the schools in your results and comparing them, make your list of schools that you’re interested in for further research. If possible, try to give the colleges preliminary ranks or put them in tiers from â€Å"most interested† to â€Å"kinda interested.† The ideal number of schools to research at this point is about 6-20 before you finalize your list of schools to apply to. If your priorities change during the college research process, you can use the finder again to update your list. Step #7:You can use the College View finder to help you with the college selection process after you learn of admissions decisions. Pros There are 24 search categories; you're able to select numerous filters to help find colleges that possess the qualities you want. College Viewdoes have more categories that can impact quality of life like â€Å"liberal-conservative,† â€Å"party scene,† â€Å"greek life† and â€Å"great college towns.† Also, unique to this finder, you can search for schools with a strong LGBT support system. For the colleges in your search results, you’re given a ton of information. I was especially intrigued by links to virtual tours and important application advice from each college’s website. In College View, you can search for colleges that have â€Å"high,† â€Å"typical,† or â€Å"low† representation of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, or Caucasians. Cons Some of the results didn’t seem to match what I was looking for. I did a search and selected that it was â€Å"very important† to find a â€Å"very selective† school (admitting less than â…“ of applicants) and it was â€Å"very important† to me to find a school that matched my made up SAT score of 2130. Based on the other options I selected, one of the search results was Northern New Mexico College, which doesn't even require SAT or ACT scores for admission and isn't considered a selective school. The user experience is not as good as Big Future’s. The design and font make search options hard to locate. The information looks cluttered and it’s not as easy to identify all the listed information. While it does have â€Å"special services† and disability services† categories, you can’t search for colleges with services for minority students and services for low-income students.In my college counseling experience, I know programs like EOPcan be very beneficial for low-income and first-generation college students. Finally, for cost, you can only search for the cost of tuition and required fees. In Big Future, you can search for the percentage of financial need a school meets and for colleges that have work-study programs, financial aid for international students, and college application fee waivers. Keep in mind that the listed cost of attendance is not what you'll have to pay if you demonstrate financialneed. College Data College Data is a good finder option for those of you who are especially interested in financial information. How Does It Work? Step #1:Select search filters to narrow down your college search. Enter the most important qualities to you in your dream college. Select as many factors as possible to limit the size of your search results. Step #2: Once you’re done selecting all of the factors that matter to you, you can view your results. The colleges in your results will be listed along with their statistics. Step #3: Click on the colleges that interest you to read about them and get helpful information like freshman retention rates, application requirements, organizations, and class size. Step #4: After reviewing the info from the schools in your results and comparing them, make your list of schools that you’re interested in for further research. Step #5:Do additional searches later on if your priorities change or to assist you during the college selection process. Pros There is much more extensive financial information in College Data than in Big Future or College View.You’re given many more statistics regarding financial aid for the colleges in your search results. For example, here is the financial aid information for Boston University. Also, there's a "financial friendliness" search category. You can search for the percentage of financial need met, amount of student debt, and percentage of students that receive merit aid. Additionally, you can search for colleges by their level of representation of students from particular backgrounds, including Native American, African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and international. For each group, you can select â€Å"No preference† or greater than or equal to 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 50%, or 75%. Lastly, you can select up to 3 majors or disciplines from a very extensive list to help limit your search results and find the college you're looking for. Cons There are far fewer search categories than in Big Future and College View. College Data only has 9 major search categories. You can't look for schools based on your SAT score or religious affiliation. Also, you have to register before you can use a number of the best features to investigate the colleges in your search results. Some of these features include estimating your chances of gaining admission, calculating your net price (cost after financial aid), and saving colleges from your search results. I was reluctant to register because College Data is sponsored by 1st Financial Bank and a student credit card is advertised on the home page. I thought if I registered, I might get a bunch of spam. Big Future is run by College Board, a non-profit, so you don’t have to worry as much about Big Future trying to sell you stuff. Like College View, the user experience isn’t great on College Data. The design and display of information makes information hard to locate. Also, the font size and style make everything a little difficult to read. Finally, for most of the search categories, you can only select one option, and you can't select how important search options are to you. Examples of Bad College Finders Big Future, College View, and College Data are three of the better college finders on the internet, mainly because they offer tons of information and unique features to help you find the best college for you. Here are a couple of bad college finders. They're less beneficial to use. Niche Niche only has 9 search categories and no subcategories. There are no search categories that you can’t find on other search finders. Nothing is uniquely good about this finder and it doesn’t have many of the options of the better finders. Peterson's Peterson's only has 8 search categories. All can be found in other college finders, and you can’t choose how important a search option is to you. While the user experience is good, this finder is far too general. There is so much more information on the better finders. Final Tips Overall, I think Big Future is the best finder. It offers the best combination of features, information, and user experience.However, College View is good to use if you want to do a search focusing on campus life or quality of life criteria. College Data is good to use if you want to do a search on or get extensive information about cost and financial aid. College finders should only be one tool, albeit a valuable one, in your college search. You should use college search websites, guidebooks, ranking lists, and guidance from teachers, parents, and counselors to help you select a college. Remember that these finders aren’t perfect and can’t determine for you which school is the best fit. They can give you insight and information to guide you, but after deciding what’s important to you, doing your research, and visiting colleges (if you have the chance), it’s up to you, and possibly your parents, to decide. What's Next? Make sure you read this excellent article on how to choose a college. Also, learn more about the differences between public and private colleges. Finally, look at this post to help you decide if you should go to a big or small college. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: