Essay on Special Education Reflection - 1336 Words

Running Head: REFLECTION PAPER Reflection Paper En Tseh Wang Lehigh University nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Special Education 332 (Education and Inclusion of Individuals with Special Needs) has been enlightening for me as a secondary mathematics educator. In the beginning of the semester, my feelings towards special education were those of apathy and insensitivity. I now understand that my feelings were due to my lack of knowledge and my judgment based on stereotypes. I always knew that making fun of students with learning disabilities was wrong. However, I never felt that inclusion of special education students in general education classes was plausible or made sense. I felt that special education†¦show more content†¦I always believed that there was something wrong with people with learning disabilities, and thus classified them as abnormal. The activities made me realize that with their learning disability aside, they were no different from me. People with learning disabilities had their strengths and weaknesses, and I had mine. The activities, without fail, made me frustrated. I wanted to lash out at the world, and I always wondered why students with learning disabilities had emotional problems. I came to realize that people with learning disabilities live with their disabilities for the rest of their lives. That these sensitivity activities were only temporary for us, but it was reality for those dealing with the disabilities. This is what changed me the most, realizing this simple truth. Throughout my years at Lehigh, I have proclaimed that I have a passion to teach, to show students that mathematics is not difficult, and that they are able to understand mathematics. However, when it came to special education students, my philosophy changed, due to their learning disability. I was ignorant to the special education movement of inclusion, because I feared the idea of teaching students who were not â€Å"normal†. I use the word normal in quotations because I now realize that special education students are like anybody else, and that we, special and general education students alike, are all normal. There is nothing wrong with special education students.Show MoreRelatedSpecial Education Reflection1329 Words   |  6 PagesRunning Head: REFLECTION PAPER Reflection Paper En Tseh Wang Lehigh University Special Education 332 (Education and Inclusion of Individuals with Special Needs) has been enlightening for me as a secondary mathematics educator. In the beginning of the semester, my feelings towards special education were those of apathy and insensitivity. I now understand that my feelings were due to my lack of knowledge and my judgment based on stereotypes. I always knew that making fun of studentsRead MoreReflection Paper On Special Education Essay1622 Words   |  7 PagesRTI Reflection Paper When you research the word â€Å"exceptional learners† there’s a vast amount of definitions that represent this word. It includes ones traits, characteristics, behavior, abilities and or inabilities they posses. The fact that this definition is so broad educators found it difficult to specifically identify what disability a student had. At the same time variables that lie within ones disability hindered the degree in which traits would be shown. For that reason many students wereRead MoreReflection Of A Special Education Classroom1382 Words   |  6 PagesIn the beginning of June I had to decide on a school to observe. Before I was approved to observe a Special education classroom, I was not sure what kind of teachers or children I would encounter. On June 8, 2015 through June 10, 2015 I conducted my Special education observation at one of my neighborhood schools. Once I walked into Langston Hughes Elementary school, I felt welcomed and excited at the same time. I had an option to pick between four different classrooms, but when I met Mrs. BellRead MoreReflection On Special Education1855 Words   |  8 Pagesdiverse needs, mostly English language learners (ELL) and children with special needs. In the ELL section, we were assigned a student who was identified as ELL and assessed them on their English reading, speaking, and writing proficiency. We then designed instructional practices made to help that child succeed in the classroom. In the special education module, we were given a similar task. We were assigned a child identified with special needs and instructed to form a functional behavior plan (FBA) forRead MoreReflection On Special Education Process952 Words   |  4 PagesILAP Reflection-Special Education Process Throughout my career I have always been amazed by how little regular education teachers know about the special education process. On numerous occasions I have had teachers ask me, â€Å"Why don’t you just test him, to see if he qualifies?† And when I tried to explain that there was more to the process then just testing, most of the time the teachers would walk away in disgust, without knowing the steps we had to follow in the process. Development In discussionsRead MoreReflection Paper On Special Education969 Words   |  4 PagesI vividly remember the first day I walked into the local middle school to complete my first day of observation in a special education classroom. Nothing I ever encountered came close to preparing me for what I experienced over the course of the semester, then again, nothing ever came close to how rewarding it felt being there for the students. At 8 o’clock in the morning, I met my assigned mentor alongside her partners in crime, the paraprofessionals. We waited patiently for the students to arriveRead MoreReflection on My Ability as a Teacher of Special Needs Children1038 Words   |  5 PagesFinal Reflection As I ponder over my personal professional development experiences as an educator the realization of how one has developed over time is personally satisfying. Educating children especially children with special needs is a challenge within its self. As a teacher it is important that this writer makes a positive influence with students. There are going to be certain ideas that one tries to uphold and other discriminations that one will not allow. Everyone has their own beliefs teachersRead MoreThe Importance Of A Reflective Teacher And The Classroom Environment1473 Words   |  6 Pagesmuch reflection occurs in my head after each activity. Meghan and I meet every day to discuss each part of that specific day and analyze whether or not it was valuable for the students learning. Thus, teaching style, pacing, timing of when subjects are taught, and behavior management have all been altered this week to fit the needs of our class. I can see myself becoming more of a reflective teacher that is always focused on if my students are learning or not. However, with several special educationRead MoreBeing A Special Education Teacher879 Words   |  4 PagesI am studying to be a special education teacher they go â€Å"wow you must be a really patient person.† I feel like it takes a special person to have the passion and patients for these children. This course has made me more excited to be able to move on next semester and start my clincincals. My attitude towards individuals with special needs at the beginning of the semester was described as â€Å"assisting them in daily life.† My beliefs have not changed, being a special education teacher you will be withRead MoreEducating Children With Learning Disabilities1612 Words   |  7 PagesEducating Children with Learning Disabilities Research Compiled for Termpapermasters.com, Inc. by M. Hall 8/2009 Introduction Educators and parents sometimes have very different views on the education of their children and the best approaches to classroom process. Educational initiatives since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has led to increasing focus on providing parents with adequate data for decision-making and promoting positive parent/teacher interactions. For

Social Program on the Elderly Free Essays

string(48) " psychological that is associated with old age\." The study of ageing and the elderly not only deals with the physical aspect of ageing but it goes on to discuss the other social implication of the process of ageing on social structures. The processes are very contradictory if considered in the context location for example, elderly people in the modern, so called civilized society, are held in low social status as compared to their counterparts in the backward areas, furthermore they do not readily accept that aging is a process that one has to undergo if he/she is to fully complete the human life cycle; a fact that is readily accepted by the elderly in a backward society (Aye Oberg, 1997). Gerontology is a field that deals in the study of ageing and the elderly. We will write a custom essay sample on Social Program on the Elderly or any similar topic only for you Order Now The field not only deals in the physical aging process but also discusses areas like sociology and culture that are highly influential in the aging process (Manning, 2003). The thesis of the paper is to come up with a comprehensive program that would deal effectively with the problem of the elderly in the society. Statement of the Problem The society that we are currently living in has an ever increasing number of persons over the age of 65 years. The rate of aging has considerably increased. The social effects of aging should be viewed from different points of view which include the question of what aging is and the effects of the said phenomena (Aye Oberg, 1997). In the uncivilized cultures the elderly are respected as they are seen to be a source of immense knowledge and thus they play the role of decision making. In the modern society such knowledge is rarely considered to be of use as the current society views such accumulated wisdom to be outdated and obsolete. On the other hand, the elderly are less acceptant of the idea that aging is inevitable to them as living humans. Advancements in several fields for instance nutrition and medicine has turned the nature of aging from inevitable to ‘delayable’ or in some cases preventable (Hooker, 1978). As compared to a couple of decades ago people now live longer as a result of better hygiene, food and healthcare. Thus due to this changes in demographics sociologists nowadays speak of population ageing. To bring the problem into perspective in Britain the proportion of the elderly in the society was 5% in 1850, the current proportion is 25%. The problem is brought out more clearly by putting into consideration the population increase that is of over 700%. With the current trends almost all developed countries will experience the problem of ageing populations. In the developed world one out of every six people is an elderly man. The forecasts have projected that in the next 30 years 25% of the population will be composed of the elderly. The situation is more grim in Austria and Germany where it is projected that by 2030 the population of the elderly will be 33% and 50% respectively (Watson, 1985). The problem is aggravated by the trend of the ever increasing number of the very old people in the population of the elderly. The process which is at times referred to as the ageing of the elderly is a phenomenon in which the number of persons in the lower ages in the population of the elderly perpetually becomes insignificant to the number of the extremely elderly. The number of persons over the age of 85 years in the next 50 years will be six times the current number. Description of the Organization. Overview This program is aimed at bringing together the elderly in a bid to improve their lives in a family like setting. It therefore includes the provision of basic health services and counselling in order to improve the ageing process for the elderly. Authority The program is constituted under the US laws that allow for the creation of social programs that cater for special interest groups like the elderly. Scope The program will provide healthcare to the elderly as its basic mandate. To aid this, the program will also provide nutritional services and a forum through which the elderly can interact with both the elderly and the young in a family like setting. The program will also be involved in counselling and outreach programs for the elderly. Eligibility The following two conditions must be met by all who wish to join the program: †¢ Must be of 65 years and above. †¢ Must have documents proving his/her identity and age. Benefits The benefits of the program are: †¢ The elderly are provided with better healthcare. †¢ The elderly are provided with better nutrition. †¢ Provides a platform through which the elderly can interact with their peers thus dispelling the feeling of loneliness. Goals †¢ Efficient service provision to the elderly in the society. †¢ Reach as many elderly persons in the society as possible. Objectives †¢ To provide a community for the elderly through which they can feel more appreciated as a constituent part of the society. †¢ To ensure that the elderly find a community in which they can feel more attached to. †¢ To ensure the elderly also contribute to the development of the society. †¢ To ensure the elderly have access to recreational facilities. †¢ To ensure the elderly have access to basic healthcare and nutrition. Services †¢ Provision of basic healthcare services to the elderly in the society. †¢ Providing peer mechanism through which the elderly relate to their peers and to the young as they relate their experiences. †¢ Advising on and provision of proper nutrition services to the elderly. Mission Statement To ensure the betterment of life for the elderly by providing to them all their basic needs as human and social beings in an ethical manner. Value Statement As a social program we believe in respect and adherence to the human rights. We therefore help the elderly as a means of alleviating and/or eliminating the suffering both physical and psychological that is associated with old age. You read "Social Program on the Elderly" in category "Papers" We value the family as the basic social unit. Code of Ethics There are several rules that must be put in place to ensure that the ethics code and mission statements are adhered to in the course of achieving the objectives of the program. The rules can be categorized into those that deal with the relationship between the worker and the elderly and those that deal with the worker and the administration (Watson, 1985). They include: †¢ Human rights The social worker must at all times protect the rights of the elderly. Furthermore, the rights of the social workers must be respected by both the patients and the administrators. †¢ Confidentiality Confidential information on the patient must never be delivered to other persons without the consent of the patient or the intervention of the law. †¢ Professional development The social worker and all other employees must exhibit competence and act according to the professional ethics and standards as stipulated by their profession’s code of ethics. †¢ Responsibility The social workers and all other employees are answerable to the patient and the administration. †¢ Stewardship The program is responsible for the life of the elderly under their care and all employees must behave and act in a manner that is aimed at achieving the mission of the program. †¢ Group Autonomy The organization and all that are involved in the program will at all times respect the culture, autonomy and rights of the program. †¢ Conflict of Interest All complaints or issue arising in the course of working must be addressed through the laid down guidelines †¢ Respect, equity and trust. The organization will always strive for an environment in which all members live with respect and trust for each other and where decisions are made in an equitable manner. †¢ Tools, process and methods All processes, methods and tools will be used as per the requirements of the profession and as per the professional ethical code. †¢ Law The program will at all times obey the authority under which it is instituted. Organizational culture The organizational culture that will be adopted is the clan culture. This type of corporate culture is characterized by a family like setting in the organization (Watson, 1985). The personal wellbeing of the elderly and the people attending to them is a great concern in this type of culture. Furthermore, social workers and the elderly will be encouraged to interact at a more personal level as such interaction will go in line with the objective of creating a family like setting for the elderly. This type of culture is also characterized by promotion from within, which will aid the creation of a family like setting for the elderly which is in line with the objective in the quest for the mission. Leadership The leadership approach that will be employed by the program is transformational leadership. The leadership will be aimed at inspiring and motivating employees so that they can achieve new heights in both their personal and social lives. This kind of leadership has four components namely charisma or idealized influence, motivation, individualized considerations and intellectual stimulation. Being charismatic is defined as having a dynamic, commanding and energetic presence. Such leaders are often idealized. Motivation means having the ability to appeal to basic values coupled with compelling vision. The ability to inspire people into thinking differently is referred to as intellectual stimulation. Lastly, paying attention to and meeting peoples need is referred to as individualized consideration. This program typically presents a clash between standards of behavior and values. Furthermore, the evidence of the problem that the program deals in are based on forecasts and are therefore not quite clear. Transformation leadership is best suited for this kind of situation because, a leader who has a good idea and integrity is more likely to create a change or implement the idea if he/she presents the case with enough enthusiasm that will inspire the people. Oversight There are two important aspect in evaluating the success of an organization. These are service delivery and the method or technique used in evaluation. The important aspect to look at are what we want in a good service delivery system. There are several key areas that our services must fit in, these are: †¢ Our services must be integrated and continuous †¢ Accessible to the elderly †¢ Promote a culture of accountability for actions and decisions in service delivery. Integration and Continuity The program will deliver more than a single program benefit or service. On that account, problems of integrating different program operations, benefits, and services are always an issue. For instance, if system or program parts are not integrated, clients or consumers may be continually sent from one office to the next without understanding the reasons for being shuffled around, this can be so frustrating. Thus integrating the services that are often needed by persons seeking a particular service will ensure integration and also ensure good service provision while at the same time cutting on the costs. The continuity of the program will be ensured by following up all decisions and advice may have been made concerning the old people. Every policy will have an implementation plan that is conclusive and addresses the entire problem of the elderly. Accessibility The program is also set on the key value of accessibility as a service is of no importance if it can’t be accessed by the target population. To ensure this, the services will be provided in all the major towns in readily accessible areas by any means of public transport. The procedures in accessing the services are also simple and do not require much paper work nor prowess in reading or writing. The personnel will also be a mixture of several ethnic groups in order to ensure ease of communication in cases where the service seeker cannot communicate effectively in English or in other major languages. Accountability Another key ideal that the program will be built on is accountability. The following will be implemented to ensure accountability: †¢ Mechanism will be put in place for instance, the use of suggestion boxes, to aid the identification of employees that are irresponsible. †¢ It should be possible for both the employees and their bosses to identify the specific organizational policy that justify any policy by creating well defined policies. †¢ Creating mechanisms through which substantive disagreement, with the preceding opinions by outside third parties, can be heard and resolved. This is provided for in the rules. Independent observers and valuators will be involved in evaluating the success of the program by getting the elderly persons involved in the program take on the service delivery and the effect the program has had on their lives. The success of the program will thus be evaluated by comparing the input into the program and the output. Conclusion The above program if well implemented will lead to the improvement of the lives of the elderly in various locations, even though success largely depend on its implementation. Reference List Aye, K. , Oberg, K. (1997). Elderly Men: Special Problems and Professional Challenges. New York, Springer Series, Spring Publishing. p. 18 Hooker, S. (1978). Caring for the Elderly People. London: Routledge Keagan Paul. p. 12 Manning, S. S. (2003). Ethical Leadership in Human Services. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Watson, D. (1985). A Code of Ethics for Social Work: The Second Step. London: Routledge Kcgan Paul. Wilding. p. 32 How to cite Social Program on the Elderly, Papers

My Favorite Restaurant free essay sample

My favorite restaurant is Capri Eatings. The restaurant is really good. It is located in the downtown of Lahore and it is a very popular restaurant over there. The restaurant has a very beautiful interior and the moment we enter the restaurant the whole interior and atmosphere welcomes us. The restaurant is basically a Chinese restaurant and it has a huge area. There is ample parking for people so whenever someone comes he or she can easily As I told earlier the restaurant is a Chinese restaurant and the food which is offered is Chinese food. There are some other dishes which are also offered in the restaurant, but people mostly visit the restaurant to eat the Chinese. I like chicken Manchurian and chow mein. The taste is simply remarkable. I even tried to make these dishes at my house, but I was not able to make it in a similar way. We will write a custom essay sample on My Favorite Restaurant or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The food is very tasty and also healthy. I have heard that make all the food in olive oil and it is perfect to eat. I go to the restaurant every week. I remember that last week I did not go to the restaurant and there was a certain kind of emptiness in me. I then decided to go to the restaurant and when I went over there I felt very happy. I have my birthday coming up in a few days so I am planning to hold the birthday party over there because the restaurant has offered me discount. â€Å"Review for Topic restaurant above Topic snack bar† Reviewed December 7, 2013 My parter would rate this as very good, me as average. She prefers simple basic dishes, I prefer something I feel I couldnt produce myself. Its worth a trip if you are in Ordino but there are better places such as Gaspa and Casa Leon which you should try first. Remember there are two parts the snack bar downstairs, which is also average and the restaurant upstairs which is open less frequently and with a different menu. Visited December 2013

The History of American Literature free essay sample

The same stories, fables, or belief structures were told repeatedly, each time Identical to the last, and were memorized by the listeners so they would be able to pass these on to the next generation. They also used pictures, carvings, or special mementos such as bones, teeth, feathers, or skins as reminders of great hunts or wars. If an entire tribe and all its descendants were killed off, the specific stories and history of that tribe would also be gone. Other tribes may speak of the first, but never in the same detail or with the same perspective as the original tribe members.Long before settlers arrived In America, explorers reported on their voyages to the continent. Italian explorer America Vesuvius provided some of the earliest European descriptions of the American continent. Before 1600 Sir Walter Raleigh, Richard Hackett, Thomas Harriet, and John White had published accounts of discoveries. The writings of Captain John Smith, an explorer whose travels took him up and down the eastern seaboard of America, represent a shift from exploration narrative toward early history. We will write a custom essay sample on The History of American Literature or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Early histories, however, were written mostly by settlers rather than by explorers. William Bradford, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. Wrote his Of Plymouth Plantation from 1620 to 1647 . Another important historian of early America was Thomas Morton, whose New English Canaan used humor in portraying what he considered to be the overbearing and intolerant qualities of the Puritans . Histories of early America, especially in New England, were filled with references to the Bible and to Gods will. Nearly all events could be explained from this religious perspective: Foul weather and diseases were perceived as Gods wrath; a bountiful harvest represented Gods blessing.Given the Puritans relationship with God, It Is not surprising that sermons and other religious writings dominated literature in America in the 1 sass. John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, and John Winthrop were among the most prominent religious writers. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowland (1682). This work is a firsthand account by a colonist who was taken captive by Indians during King Phillips War. It presents a dramatic tale of suffering and of Railroadings efforts to make sense of that suffering. Her story became the model for a new genre of early American literature: captivity rarities.Such accounts became staples of American literature and eventually provided material for American fiction. While still religious in tone and purpose, captivity narratives emphasized the experiences of individuals. They also incorporated many of the fundamentals of fiction, making use of characters, dramatic action and setting. The Salem witch trials of 1692 were another period In early Massachusetts town resulted in the execution of 14 women and 6 men, Cotton Matters The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) documented the events of the witch trials.Cotton Matter remained an important literary figure in the 18th century. His Magnolia Christi Americana (The Great Works of Christ in America, 1702) is a history of New England that celebrates the founding generation of Puritans. Like his earlier works, it is religious; however, its interest in the human side of the Puritan founders marked a new achievement in American literary history. Matters rewarding career included writings on science and medicine as well as theology and history. His Sentiments on the Small Pox Inoculated (1721) was instrumental in introducing the smallpox vaccine to New England.A new genre for American writers, the travel narrative, would become especially influential late in the sass. Travel narratives include Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America (1778) by Jonathan Carver and Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc (1791) by William Bertram . Travel stories often blended observations on nature and landscape with tales of personal courage and achievement. The first American newspaper, the Boston News-Letter, was founded in 1704, and Joined by the Boston Gazette in 1719.At a time when swapper Journalism was concerned primarily with reporting political events, the New-England Currant, started by James Franklin in 1721, became the first newspaper to include literary entertainment. Franklins younger brother Benjamin Franklin published humorous social commentary in the Currant under the pen name of Silence Dogwood . Magazines also appeared for the first time in the colonies during the mid-sass. Before 1800 magazines were concerned primarily with measuring Americas developing culture against the British model. During the sass Boston and Philadelphia became centers of publishing in addition to being political and immemorial centers. Benjamin Franklin was key in establishing a writing community in Philadelphia. In 1727 he and a group of friends established a mens reading club in Philadelphia called the Junta . Members shared printed works and discussed topics of the day. Such reading and discussion clubs became an important part of American culture. Women organized literary circles in the sass and sass. These groups, known as salons, resembled mens reading clubs. They also encouraged members to compose their own work, mainly poetry, but very few of these works were preserved. By the mid-sass American writing was primarily political. In America the 18th century was known as the Age of Enlightenment. Americans held a growing belief in the supremacy of reason over church; they also stressed the importance of the individual and freedom over authorities and institutions. Americas great Enlightenment writers included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, who also played important roles in the American Revolution.Thomas Paine became a leading figure in the cause of American independence with the pamphlet Common Sense (1776). This enormously popular political document stated that the American colonies received no advantage from Great Britain and that moon sense called for them to establish an independent republican government. Written in a straightforward style using the language of the common person, Common Sense was published Just months before the Declaration of Independence Great Britain could be settled peaceably.Paine shook this belief, making his readers feel that each person had the power and responsibility to participate in the revolution. The Declaration of Independence was a crucial achievement in both politics and American prose. It was structured in the form of an assertion that was then proven through specific examples. The declaration was written by a committee made up of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, though Jefferson was ultimately responsible for most of the writing .The declaration and the Constitution of the United States (1787) were key statements of American freedom, but as collaborative documents they necessitated compromises to satisfy all of their authors. One of the most significant compromises was the absence of any mention of slavery. Slavery was unethical from the views of the American Revolution, but for the sake of unity with the Southern colonies, whose cotton) economy was rooted in slavery, no protest was made against it. A final flurry of political writing at the close of the century arose from the debate over ratification of the Constitution.Federalists supported the strong central government outlined in the Constitution, while an anti-Federalist faction opposed it. A series of essays supporting ratification was published in 1787 and 1788 and circulated in pamphlets. The essays, later published as The Federalist, were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay . Slave narratives recorded another side of life in America. The Interesting Narrative f the Life of Aloud Equation, or Gustavo Vass, the African (1789) has long been considered an important African American text.American fiction was formally established after the American Revolution. The Power of Sympathy (1789), a tragic love story by William Hill Brown, is generally considered the first American novel . Another Literary milestone was Hannah Fosters The Coquette (1797), a novel in the form of letters, or an epistolary novel. Over the course of the 19th century the country progressed from an agricultural economy concentrated on the Eastern coast to an industrialized nation that spanned the continent. With the dramatic changes in the nation came dramatic changes in its literature.At the start of the sasss only a handful of novels had been written, but by mid-century American fiction rivaled the best in the world. Biography and history remained strong; religious writing, on the other hand, had substantially declined in importance. Among the first developments of the young nation was the realization that America had its own language and that American English differed from British English. Noah Webster, noting the unique American styles in language and literature, undertook the massive project of developing an American dictionary.He had already advocated changes in American spellings of English words in such writings as Dissertations on the English Language (1789) . Webster published his first dictionary in 1806. The first edition of his major work, American Dictionary of the English Language, came out in 1828. What made this work radical was his insistence on defining words based not only on traditional English usage but also on American variations in usage, called Americanism, and his inclusion of at least 12,000 new words not previously recognized by English dictionaries. Gaining independence also provided the United States with a history of its own. Samuel Millers A Brief Retrospect of the Revolution. Best known among these patriotic histories was the monumental ten- volume History of the United States (1834-1876) by George Bancroft, who is often called the father of American history . Americas westward expansion after the Louisiana Purchase generated a sizable collection of political writings, especially in light of manifest destiny belief that the countrys territorial expansion was not only inevitable but also divinely ordained.The term manifest destiny was coined by writer John Louis Sullivan in Annexation, an article that argued for the annexation of Texas and appeared in the July-August 1845 issue of United States Magazine and Democratic Review . The Native American experience began to be told in autobiography. William Apses was the first Native American to produce extensive writings in English. In A Son of the Forest (1829) he described his conversion to Christianity and his participation in the War of 1812 between the United States and The greatest development in American biography was the slave narrative.Britain . The tension produced by slavery in America had already become apparent by the Revolution, but it heightened considerably in the sass, right up until the American Civil War (1861-1865). Frederick Douglass created a masterpiece of the genre with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), a work that he revised and enlarged several times for later editions. While describing his life as a slave and his struggle toward freedom, Douglass emphasized the primary role that literacy played in opening opportunities for African Americans.He represented his ability to write his own story as the ultimate act of a free man . Harriet Jacobs offered a different but no less upsetting representation of slavery in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ( 1861). In the book, Jacobs told of the sexual abuse experienced by young female slaves. During the late sass and early sass, romanticism was the dominant literary genre in Europe. In reaction to the Enlightenment and its emphasis on reason, romanticism used emotion and imagination. Until about 1870 romanticism influenced the major forms of American writings: transcendentalist writings, historical fiction, and sentimental fiction.In New England, an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of romanticism. The movement began among an influential set f authors based in Concord, Massachusetts, and was led by Ralph Wald Emerson . Like romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th-century rationalism and established religion, which for the transcendentalists meant Puritan traditions. The transcendentalists found their inspiration in nature and rejected materialism. Emerson essay Nature (1836) was the first major document of the transcendental school.His other key transcendentalist works include Self-Reliance (1841), an essay in which he stressed the importance of being true to ones own nature. Henry David Thoreau, a friend of Emerson, put transcendentalist ideas into action. Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) is his Journal of a two-year experiment in living as simply and self-reliantly as possible in a small cabin that he built on the shores of Walden Pond, near Concord. His essay Civil Disobedience (1849) is a statement against government intimidation that records his short stay in Jail after he refused to pay a tax in support of the Mexican War (1846-1848).New England writer Nathaniel Hawthorne was a master of historical fiction. Influenced to some extent by Blithered Romance (1852) is loosely based on a transcendentalist experiment in manual living at Brook Farm. Still, Hawthorns work, with its deep ethical concern about sin, punishment, and atonement, is less optimistic than most transcendental writing. Hawthorne was a descendant of one of the Judges at the Salem witch trials, and he set many of his works in Puritan New England and during early crises in American history .The Scarlet Letter (1850), a story of rebellion within an emotionally constricted Puritan society, is an undisputed masterpiece in its powerful psychological insights. Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) collects some of his best horn stories and sketches, including Roger Melanins Burial and Young Goodman Herman Melville became a close friend of Hawthorns after Melville Brown. moved to Massachusetts in 1850. He worked on several whaling ships and lived life at sea. His early travel adventures brought Melville early success.Ironically, Melville popularity dropped after the publication of the book now considered a masterpiece of American fiction, Mob Dick (1851). Far removed from his earlier travel narratives, Mob Dick was dedicated to Hawthorne, and like Hawthorns work was darkly metaphysical, symbolic, and complex. The story of the captain of a whaling boat, ABA, and his relentless hunt for one whale, Mob Dick is also about the mysterious forces of the universe that overwhelm the individual who seeks to confront and struggle against them.Written in a powerful and varied narrative style, the book includes a magnificent sermon delivered before the ships sailing, monologues by the ships mates, and passages of a technical nature, such as a chapter about whales. While transcendentalism was deeply optimistic, celebrating human creativity and the beauty of nature, Hawthorne and Melville demonstrated that asking questions about he nature of the univer se could lead to answers showing the darker side of life. Edgar Allan Poe was another writer who inverted transcendentalist thoughts. In his disturbing prose and poetry, Poe explored the nature of humanity and frightened readers with what he found. His tales are obsessed with death, madness, and violence demonstrated in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840). Poe also invented the detective story with such works as The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and The Purloined Letter (1844). The sentimental novel is a major form of American fiction that grew out of the responses of white writers to leaver.The most famous and historically most significant work of American sentimental fiction is Uncle Toms Cabin (1851) by Harriet Beechen Stows. Sentimental fiction aimed to stir up pity for the oppressed. In Stores novel and in novels that followed in this tradition, pity for the oppressed did not necessitate revolutionary change but rather called for an outpouring of Christian love. Sentimental fiction elicited this Christian sympathy from Northern white women in particular by demonstrating how the slave system violated the most basic bonds of humanity, such as that between mother and child.President Abraham Lincoln is credited with having greeted Stows with So youre the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war! Uncle Toms Cabin was powerful as propaganda and expressed the deep antislavery feelings of the North. Two movements became increasingly important in American fiction after the Civil War: regionalism and realism. As the country expanded in area and population, regional differences became more apparent and of Increasing arbitration and the expansion of the railroads had made more of the country accessible.Regional literature would do the same. Post-Civil War America was large and diverse enough to sense its own local differences. With increasing arbitration and more accessible transportation, small, rural communities became a subject o f literary interest. As early as 1820 America had developed a taste for fiction with specific, localized settings and topics. Toward mid-century, regional voices had emerged from newly settled territories in the South and to the west of the Appalachian Mountains. In many of these works local dialects, sayings, and spellings were used for humor.Tales of the West also became a popular form of regional rating and created frontier outlaws and heroes, such as Billy the Kid. These tales were especially suited to the short-story form. 1860 introduced dime novels;inexpensive tales with exciting plots intended for popular entertainment . The first dime novels were set during key events of early American history such as the Revolutionary War, but plots soon incorporated frontier lore, conflicts between cowboys and Indians, and the taming of the West for white settlement. Dime novels may be seen as precursors of the Western, a genre that would reach the height of its popularity in the first half of the 20th century. Ever since even before the White man set foot on this continent, America has had its own way of written communication. Everything from politics, religion, westward expansion, wars, and technology has altered and improved literature. Our society has shifted from taking influences from other societies writings, to being influential.Many social issues still greatly impact literature even today; everything from wars, celebrity gossip, science fiction adventures, real life traumas, and talking animals can result in the newest book on top the Best Seller List. Amidst the downward tendency and proneness of hinges, when every voice is raised for a new road or another statute, or a subscription of stock, for an improvement in dress, or in dentistry, for a new house or a larger business, for a political party, or the division of an estate, 0 will yo u not tolerate one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for thoughts and principles not marketable or perishable?

How to Guess Strategically on SAT Math

How to Guess Strategically on SAT Math SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The SAT gives negative penalties for guessing, so you shouldn’t even bother to guess on the SAT math section...right? Well yes and no. Guessing requires strategy for a test like the SAT, but it is possible (and indeed we recommend that you do so!) when you can do it smartly. In this guide, we’ll go through when and how to guess strategically on the SAT math section and show you examples of it in action. Refresher on SAT Math Scoring and Organization The SAT is a standardized test, which means that each SAT must look and feel like every other SAT as much as possible. The individual questions may vary, but the patterns in how the test-makers design both the questions and the answer choices will be as similar as can be. With time and practice, you can learn to not only recognize these patterns when you see them, but also use the clues in both the question and the answer choices to help you find your right answer (or at least narrow down your options!). To refresh your understanding of how the SAT math test is structured, let’s look at how it is scored. For each multiple choice question, you will get: +1 point for every correct answer, 0 points for every blank answer, and -0.25 points for every incorrect answer. For each math grid-in question, you will get: +1 point for every correct answer and 0 points for every blank OR incorrect answer. There is no negative penalty for an incorrect grid-in answer. There will be a total of 54 math questions on the test, 44 multiple choice and 10 grid-in. [Note: if you receive an extra math section on the day of the test, it will be because this is your â€Å"experimental† section. If this happens, you will have a total of 74 math questions64 multiple choice and 10 grid-in. There will never be any additional grid-in questions in the experimental section.] Developing a Target Score Because the SAT delivers a penalty for incorrect answers, your strategy for how to approach the SAT math section will depend on your target score and will change as your score goals change. First, take a practice test,and try to slow down a little more than might feel natural as you work through your test. In addition, come up with different ways to mark your questionsone mark for questions you don't know how to do, and another mark for questions you're only somewhat confident about. You may even want to create a third marker for questions that you know how to do, but will take a long time or will require multiple steps, so must be done carefully to avoid error. This way, you can save them for last (though this is optional). For now, use your best judgment on whether to skip or guess the questions you've marked, but do make sure that you can identify which problems were which later. These marks will help you when you go to analyze your answers (and your guessing strategy) in the next section. Once you're done with your practice test, check out our guide to developing your ideal target score, based on your current scores and the schools you want to get into. Don't worry if you're a little off your target right now. A little strategy and practice will soon get you much closer to where you want to be (if not right on the bull's eye!). Guessing Based on Target Score After you find your target curved score, see how that translates to your raw score. How many questions must you answer correctly to get that target score? Keep that number in your head and then plan to answer a few more questions than that target. Why? You are leaving yourself room to get a few questions wrong. For example, if your target SAT math score is 600, you’ll need a raw score of about 37. But to get a raw 37, you must answer 37 questions correctly and absolutely no questions wrong. Since this is difficult for most students, you should aim to answer somewhere in the range of 44 questions. This would allow you to miss up to 6 questions and still get a raw score of 37. How? If you answered 38 questions correctly and missed 6, you would have a score of: 38+6(−0.25) 38−1.5 36.5 The SAT rounds up any score ending in 0.5 or 0.75, so your raw score would be rounded to 37. Success! Once you’ve scored your test, look back on the questions you marked. How accurate is your guessing right now? Did you mostly get questions right or wrong that you marked as "didn't know" or "kind of knew," or did you leave most of these blank? Is there a pattern in your missed guesses? But what happens if you're currently well under your target raw score? If this is the case, then you're going to want to establish a two-tonged study approach of brushing up on the individual math topics you're struggling in right now and learning how to guess more effectively. So now that you’ve seen how you’re guessing strategies have worked so far (even if that means you haven't been guessing at all), let’s talk best guessing strategies for SAT math. The more you practice, the more refined and honed your study skills and guessing abilities will become. SAT Math Guessing Strategies The SAT math section is designed to test how well you can recognize and figure out how to apply familiar mathematical concepts to new situations. But though the scenarios may be unusual, each and every math topicon the test is one that you are likely familiar with and have studied for a number of years. This is all to say that you likely have a better understanding of the questions than you may think, even if you don’t know how to actually solve the problem. Often (though not always), a little strategy will allow you to eliminate at least one or two answer choices and make an educated guess. Note: this may seem apparent, but only use your guessing strategies when you don't know how to solve a problem or are not confident about your answer. Guessing often takes a little more time than a straight-solve, so if you know the answer, great! Move on to the next problem. Only stop and take the time to guess if you're stuck. We’ve laid out three of the most important rules of thumb that go into making an educated guess on an SAT math problem. Most of the time you will use a combination of these three techniques on any given problem, so they are less individual strategy than they are a combination of thought processes that you should go through every time you make a guess. So let’s look at all three techniques needed to best make guesses (and when to do so!) on the SAT math section. Guessing Strategy 1: Process of Elimination Being able to eliminate questions SAT is arguably a more important skill than even being able to solve questions (or at least equally as important). Most of the SAT math questions are multiple choice, which means that the correct answer is always there amongst the answer choices. This may seem obvious, but it means that you have two options to get the right answeryou can solve the problem for the correct answer, oryou can simply eliminate four wrong answers. Whatever remains must be correct. Either option you choose will each get you to the right answer in the end. For example, is it impossible that the answer to a certain problem be negative? Do you know the parabola must open upwards, even if you don't know how it's positioned horizontally? Even knowing just a tiny bit about the problem or its possible answer will often be enough to eliminate a few answer choices. But what if don't know enough about the problem toknow that four answers are wrong? Is eliminating just one or two answer choices enough? When, exactly, should you make a guess? Eliminating 0 Answer Choices So you’ve come to a question and you can’t eliminate any answer choices at allshould you guess? Definitely not! The test is designed to make random guessing (quite literally) pointless. With the -0.25 point penalty and 5 answer choices for each question, random guessing will balance out to 0 points earned over time. Why? A one-in-five chance of a right answer will get you one right answer and four wrong answers for every five questions. This gives you: 1+4(−0.25) 1−1 0 points for every five questions. Better to leave it blank and move on. Eliminating 1 Answer Choice All right, let’s say you can eliminate one answer choice, but no othersshould you guess now? Unfortunately, the answer is: it depends. If you can eliminate one answer choice, then you will have a one-in-four chance of getting the right answer. Over the course of several questions, you will earn: 1+3(−0.25) 1−0.75 0.25 points for every four questions you can answer this way. As you can see, technically, if you can eliminate one answer, then it is to your benefit to guess. But this only works over the long-term and, even then, only if you make your final selection at random. Since human beings are not random, our advice is only to guess when you can eliminate two or more answer choices. Eliminating 2 Answer Choices (Now We’re Getting Somewhere!) You’ve eliminated two answer choices that you know have to be wrong and are now down to three possibilities. This is the time to start guessing. Though eliminating one answer and making a guess might be worth it in the long-term (as in, you must do so over the course of several questions), you should really only make a guess when you can eliminate two or more answer choices. This will give you a one-in-three chance of guessing the right answer, which will earn you: 1+2(−0.25) 1−0.5 0.5 points for every three questions you can answer this way. [Note: getting 0.5 points has an extra bonus in that raw scores on the SAT are rounded up at the 0.5 mark. So if you have a raw score of 41.5, you will actually end up with a final raw score of 42!] Eliminating 3 Answer Choices If you can eliminate three answer choices, you’re in a great place! This will give you a one-in-two shot of choosing the correct answer, which, over time will get you: 1+1(−0.25) 1−0.25 0.75 points for every two questions you can answer this way. Go you! Eliminating 4 Answer Choices If you can confidently eliminate four answer options, then celebrate! No need for guessing hereyou’ve found the correct answer. But how exactly do you go about eliminating answer choices? Let’s take a look. Guessing Strategy 2: Approximating If you have even a general idea of what the right answer might be (even a ballpark figure will do), you will often be able to eliminate one or two of the most blatant outliers. Though the answer choices are most often generated based on common student errors or closely related values, there will still generally be answer choices that are way far afield. Let’s take a look at this in action. Don’t worry about actually solving the problem, just give yourself enough of a ballpark to see if you can eliminate one or two answer choices. Garcia won by a ratio of 5:3, which means that Pà ©rez must have lost, but not by a landslide. First, let’s divide the total number of votes in half. 120,0002 60,000 Pà ©rez received fewer than half the total votes, but again, not by too terribly much. At a rough estimate, let's say that Pà ©rez probably received about 40,000 votes. Again, less than 60,000 (half), but not nearly so small as 15,000. Just with this ballpark figure, we can eliminate answer choices A, D, and E. We are left with answer choices B and C. Even if you didn’t understand how to work with ratios, you would still be in a good place to guess at this point. You now have a 50-50 chance of getting the right answer between the two options just from approximating what the correct answer might be. [Note: the correct answer is C, 45,000.] You can also approximate answers on geometric figures on the test. Unless noted otherwise, all figures will be to scale, and you can make a ballpark guess as to their size and angles. Because there is no note to indicate otherwise, we know the figure must be to scale. Just by glancing at the triangle ABO, we can see that angle ABO must be larger than 15 ° and less than 90 °. We can definitively eliminate two answer choices, which leaves us with threeB, C, and D. This is enough to make a guess. But we can even go further. Considering all the angles in the triangle look about the same, we can make an educated guess between our three options. Angle ABO looks about equal to angles BAO and BOA, and we know that there are 180 ° in a triangle. Knowing this, we can make a guess that the answer is D, 60 °, without making any bit of effort to actually solve the problem. [Note: the correct answer is indeed D, 60 °.] The more you can whittle away obviously wrong answers, the better the odds will be of you grabbing thatright answer choice. Guessing Strategy 3: Avoiding Temptation The test is designed around the statistically average student, and many of the answer choices are generated based on common student errors. People have a tendency to fall into predictable thinking patterns, and the SAT is, in part, designed to lure you to fall for traps that the average student falls for again and again. Often, what makes an answer difficult is the wording and the bait answer choices, rather than the difficulty of the mathematical material being tested.So if you look at a question in the medium or difficult range that looks easy oreven worseobvious, it may just be too good to be true. If an answer choice seems immediately appealing, especially on a difficult question, it’s likely a trap. Think about how many other students would have felt the same way on trial tests. Don’t be that person and try not to let yourself fall for the booby traps. This question is near the end of a math section, which means that the test-makers consider it â€Å"medium-difficult.† Knowing this, the answer is probably NOT going to be simple or obvious. If you don’t have a clue as to how to solve the problem, you can still narrow down your answer choices. Consider that we are working with the difference of 4 people vs. 3 people, which means that it is highly unlikely that the correct answer will be x4 or x3. Those answers look too obvious and tempting to be trusted. We can probably also discard answer choice E, 7x. Not always but most of the time, if an answer doesn’t look anything like the other answer choices, there’s a very good chance it is incorrect, and you can discard it. The rest of our answers are in fractions and E is the only answer that is purely a multiple. Let us, therefore, get rid of it. By discarding both the tempting answer choices and the outlier, we are left with two options, answer choices A and D. This gives us a 50-50 chance of getting the right answer and is a good time to guess. [Note: the correct answer is A, x12.] Let's take a look at another example. This is the last question in a math section, which means it is the hardest question (or one of the hardest questions) on the test. With that in mind, the correct answer will NOT be the most obvious. There are two X-marked offices and four offices total. The X’s, therefore, make up half of the total number of offices, which is something we can see right at a glance. This means that the answer is NOT going to be E, 12that is way too obvious to be correct. Considering there are four offices total, it is also safe to guess that the answer is not D, 14 either, as that is still too obvious an answer for question 20 of 20. To solve any problem that is last on a math section, we will need to go through at least two or three math steps. We therefore know the problem will be more complex than simply using the number of offices as the denominator. Even without knowing anything about probabilities, we have narrowed down our options to A, B, or C. It is now a safe time to guess, so we can go ahead and pick an answer. [Note: the correct answer is C, 16] You did it! Now go forth and conquer. The Take-Aways Though it is very useful to know how to actually solve your SAT math problems, we’ve seen that it is not always necessary. Though you shouldn’t guess on every SAT math question, it can help your scores to do so on occasion. Just remember to always employ your guessing strategies when you are forced to make a guess, and take a deep breath. Sometimes you will be able to eliminate enough answer choices to make a final guess and sometimes you'll have to leave the question blank, and that's okay. You probably know more about the math topic in question than you think, and you probably know enough to at least eliminate an answer choice or two, even if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Don’t force yourself to answer questions you don’t feel comfortable answering, but don’t doubt your skills to eliminate possible answer choices either. Pretty soon you’ll be beating the odds and boosting your scores more than ever before. What’s Next? Still not satisfied with your SAT math scores? Improve your individual SAT math topic skills by working through ourindividual math topic guides. In each guide, we willwalk you through the definitions of each topic, the formulas you'll need, and how you'll see the questions on the SAT math section, as well as give you real SAT math problems (and answer explanations) for you to practice your skills on. Been procrastinating on your SAT prep? If you've found yourself in a procrastination rut, check out our guide on how to stop procrastinating so you can get back on that study wagon. Aiming for a perfect score? If you're looking to score a perfect 800 on your SAT math section, then look no further than our guide to getting an 800 on the SAT math, written by a perfect-scorer. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Math strategy guide, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Battle of Flamborough Head in the American Revolution

Battle of Flamborough Head in the American Revolution The Battle of Flamborough Head was fought September 23, 1779, between Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis and was part of the American Revolution (1775-1783). Sailing from France in August 1779 with a small squadron, noted American naval commander Commodore John Paul Jones sought to circle the British Isles with the goal of wreaking havoc on British merchant shipping. In late September, Jones ships encountered a British convoy in the vicinity of Flamborough Head off the east coast of England. Attacking, the Americans succeeded in capturing two British warships, the frigate HMS Serapis (44 guns) and the sloop-of-war HMS Countess of Scarborough (22), after a protracted and bitter fight. Though the battle ultimately cost Jones his flagship, Bonhomme Richard (42), the victory cemented his place as one of the preeminent American naval commanders of the war and greatly embarrassed the Royal Navy. John Paul Jones A native of Scotland, John Paul Jones served a merchant captain in the years before the American Revolution. Accepting a commission in the Continental Navy in 1775, he was appointed as first lieutenant aboard USS Alfred (30).  Serving in this role during the expedition to New Providence (Nassau) in March 1776, he later assumed command of the sloop USS Providence (12). Proving an able commerce raider, Jones received command of the new sloop-of-war USS Ranger (18) in 1777.  Directed to sail for European waters, he had orders to assist the American cause in any way possible. Arriving in France, Jones elected to raid British waters in 1778 and embarked on campaign that saw the capture of several merchant vessels, an attack on the port of Whitehaven, and the capture of the sloop-of-war HMS Drake (14). Returning to France, Jones was celebrated as as hero for his capture of the British warship. Promised a new, larger ship, Jones soon encountered problems with the American commissioners as well as the French admiralty. A New Ship On February 4, 1779, he received a converted East Indiaman named Duc de Duras from the French government.  Though less than ideal, Jones commenced adapting the vessel into a 42-gun warship which he dubbed Bonhomme Richard in honor of American Minister to France Benjamin Franklins Poor Richards Almanac. On August 14, 1779, Jones departed Lorient, France with a small squadron of American and French warships. Flying his commodores pennant from Bonhomme Richard, he intended to circle the British Isles in a clockwise fashion with the goal of attacking British commerce and diverting attention from French operations in the Channel. Commodore John Paul Jones. Hulton Archive / Stringer/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images A Troubled Cruise During the early days of the cruise, the squadron captured several merchantmen, but issues arose with Captain Pierre Landais, commander of Jones second largest ship, the 36-gun frigate Alliance. A Frenchman, Landais had traveled to America hoping to be a naval version of the Marquis de Lafayette. He was rewarded with a captains commission in the Continental Navy, but now resented serving under Jones. Following an argument on August 24, Landais announced he would no longer follow orders. As a result, Alliance frequently departed and returned to the squadron at its commanders whim. After an absence of two weeks, Landais rejoined Jones near Flamborough Head at dawn on September 23. The return of Alliance raised Jones strength to four ships as he also had the frigate Pallas (32) and the small brigantine Vengeance (12). Fleets Commanders Americans French Commodore John Paul JonesCaptain Pierre LandaisBonhomme Richard (42 guns), Alliance (36), Pallas (32), Vengeance (12) Royal Navy Captain Richard PearsonHMS Serapis (44), HMS Countess of Scarborough (22) The Squadrons Approach Around 3:00 PM, lookouts reported sighting a large group of ships to the north. Based on intelligence reports, Jones correctly believed this to be a large convoy of over 40 ships returning from the Baltic guarded by the frigate HMS Serapis (44) and the sloop-of-war HMS Countess of Scarborough (22). Piling on sail, Jones ships turned to chase.  Spotting the threat to the south, Captain Richard Pearson of Serapis, ordered the convoy to make for the safety of Scarborough and placed his vessel in a position to block the approaching Americans.  After  Countess of Scarborough had successfully guided the convoy some distance away, Pearson recalled his consort and maintained his position between the convoy and approaching enemy.  Ã‚   First Shots Due to light winds, Jones squadron did not near the enemy until after 6:00 PM.  Though Jones had ordered his ships to form a line of battle, Landais veered Alliance from the formation and pulled Countess of Scarborough away from Serapis.  Around 7:00 PM, Bonhomme Richard rounded Serapis port quarter and after an exchange of questions with Pearson, Jones opened fire with his starboard guns. This was followed by Landais attacking  Countess of Scarborough.  This engagement proved brief as the French captain quickly disengaged from the smaller ship.  This allowed  Countess of Scarboroughs commander, Captain Thomas Piercy, to move to Serapis aid.   A Bold Maneuver Alert to this danger, Captain Denis Cottineau of Pallas intercepted Piercy allowing  Bonhomme Richard to continue engaging Serapis. Alliance did not enter the fray and remained apart from the action. Aboard Bonhomme Richard, the situation quickly deteriorated when two of the ships heavy 18-pdr guns burst in the opening salvo. In addition to damaging the ship and killing many of the guns crew, this led to the other 18-pdrs being taken out of service for fear that they were unsafe. Using its greater maneuverability and heavier guns, Serapis raked and pounded Jones ship. With Bonhomme Richard becoming increasingly unresponsive to its helm, Jones realized his only hope was to board Serapis. Maneuvering closer to the British ship, he found his moment when Serapis jib-boom became entangled the rigging of Bonhomme Richards mizzen mast. As the two ships came together, the crew of Bonhomme Richard quickly bound the vessels together with grappling hooks. The Tide Turns They were further secured when Serapis spare anchor became caught on American ships stern. The ships continued firing into each other as both sides marines sniped at opposing crew and officers. An American attempt to board Serapis was repulsed, as was a British attempt to take Bonhomme Richard. After two hours of fighting, Alliance appeared on the scene. Believing the frigates arrival would turn the tide, Jones was shocked when Landais began indiscriminately firing into both ships. Aloft, Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning and his party in the main fighting top succeeded in eliminating their counterparts on Serapis. Moving along the two ships yardarms, Fanning and his men were able to cross over to Serapis. From their new position aboard the British ship, they were able to drive Serapis crew from their stations using hand grenades and musket fire. With his men falling back, Pearson was forced to finally surrender his ship to Jones. Across the water, Pallas succeeded in taking Countess of Scarborough after a prolonged fight. During the battle, Jones was famously reputed to have exclaimed I have not yet begun to fight! in response to Pearsons demand that he surrender his ship. Aftermath Impact Following the battle, Jones re-concentrated his squadron and began efforts to save the badly damaged Bonhomme Richard. By September 25, it was clear that the flagship could not be saved and Jones transferred to Serapis. After several days of repairs, the newly taken prize was able to get underway and Jones sailed for Texel Roads in the Netherlands. Evading the British, his squadron arrived on October 3. Landais was relieved of his command shortly thereafter. One of the greatest prizes taken by the Continental Navy, Serapis was soon transferred to the French for political reasons. The battle proved a major embarrassment for the Royal Navy and cemented Jones place in American naval history.

Organisational Behaviour Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisational Behaviour - Case Study Example Lack of managerial control is a key OB issue related to the case. It can be observed that Anne Parker, the senior branch assistant, fails to control the junior employee Ronny Tristan. The newly joined Ronny Tristan is not taking his immediate boss seriously. That means Anne fails apply authority properly. A number of times Anne has complained about Tristan to the top level management. It reinforces the fact that lack of managerial control is evident from the side of Anne Parker. The behaviour of Ronny Tristan is not only pinching Anne but also causing problems for the official environment. Unfortunately lack of managerial control has created deadlock for the situation. Sometimes Anne is getting harsh with Ronny and sometimes behaving in soft way. This kind of inconsistency is creating less managerial control. Lack of accountability from the side of Ronny Tristan is also an important issue in this case. One thing is clear that Ronny Tristan is not giving his hundred percent in his works. His focuses are not at all there. He is taking his bosses pretty lightly. In spite of number of warnings or whistle blowing form Anne, Ronny is not taking them seriously. It means there is a significant problem regarding the accountability of Ronny. Day by day scale of business operations is gaining momentums. It requires significant accountability from all the levels of the organization. But that amount of accountability is missing from the side of Ronny. He is not at all cooperating with other staffs and his boss. His attitudes towards the stipulated works are not proper. In this case team problem is highly evident. Team environment is an integral part of the organizational behaviour. In this case that team environment specifically between Anne and Ronny is missing. There is a clear cut evidence of disconnection between these two persons. In every

American Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

American Politics - Essay Example It becomes a wonderment for me as to why these people, all of them sometimes even more qualified candidates than the mainstream ones, need to battle every step of the way to get on the ballot. With 50 sets of rules and regulations to meet in every state, these alternative candidates dont have a chance to actually represent themselves in the public vote. In a nation where equality is being touted as the basis of all social and political movements, the presidential election becomes the obvious evidence of how the lip service paid in the name of equality remains just that. More importantly, the way the documentary presented the war between Cobb and Nader in such a way that the mainstream media never covered. Thus presenting a better idea to the public as to how the politics of the presidential election truly works and why these alternative candidates need to be given a chance to voice out their platform on the public stage. Maybe in the future, we will have the united 3rd Party that these alternative candidates seem to be working towards. For this part of the essay, I chose to look at the National Rifle Organization Political Victory Fund which is the NRAs political action committee. The NRA mission objective is quite simple. They wish to protect the 2nd amendment and the peoples right to bear arms. A cause that has caused a nationwide controversy with the rising rate of gun related deaths over the past years. The political action committee uses the website to provide those interested with information about the organization and offer them an opportunity to participate in protecting their constitutionally protected 2nd amendment rights. The organization also explains how writing to your representatives during critical moments of gun control legislation could actually become the trigger that prevents a law banning the right to bear arms from being passed. It is because of their mission

Is there a midlife crisis Essay Example for Free

Is there a midlife crisis Essay As a man approaches middle age a number of factors converge that tend to disrupt his previous modes of experiencing himself. For some men, this stress may culminate or be expressed in a â€Å"midlife crisis. † This crisis has been variously described as a pervasive sense of alienation from ones own being in the world, unidentified or misunderstood feelings of anxiety or depression, and/or physical symptoms expressive of psychic distress. In an attempt to bring some order to conflicting reports about the experience of people entering middle age, we reviewed the existing literature. A lack of consensus soon became apparent. Some writers argued that a midlife crisis was a universal experience in male development; others suggested that men reached their peak of self-actualization at this point. Looking at the literature more closely, we saw that the research findings seemed to depend upon which methods were used and in which culture the middle-aged population was being studied. Psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and other writers working with clinical data often see a middle-age crisis as universal a developmental inevitability. Levinson proposes, as did Jaques and others, a developmental sequence, with a period of midlife crisis, which â€Å"exists in all societies, throughout the human species, at the present stage of human evolution† (Sifford 1983). More recently, theorists like Slater, Laing, and Henry have focused on the alienating effects of socialization into a culture based on denial, distortion, and repression. Culture, that is, works to deny and distort what is most human in us. Regardless of whether we see midlife crisis as a consequence of social structure or culture, many theorists tell us that midlife crisis is widespread phenomenon. The impact of historical forces on the life course does not stop with one generation. Each generation encounters a set of historical circumstances that shape its subsequent life history and that generation transmits to the next one both the impact that historical events had on its life course and the resulting patterns of timing. Cultural norms governing the timeliness of life transitions (being â€Å"early,† â€Å"late,† or â€Å"on time†) and norms governing familial obligations also shape individual and collective family timing. In all these areas, historical and cultural differences are critical. Particularly significant is the convergence of socioeconomic and cultural forces. For example, â€Å"middle-age crisis† was a relatively recent invention in popular psychology in American society. It was attributed to middle-class women in particular in describing the problems connected to menopause and the â€Å"empty nest† in mid adulthood. â€Å"Middle-age crises† were not widespread, however. They were a product of stereotypes and a social construction rather than of sociobiological or familial realities. Since the 1970s, a considerable volume of feminist psychological literature has placed â€Å"middle-age crisis† in its proper perspective by exposing the cultural and â€Å"scientific† stereotypes that created the concept (Lawrence 1980). For the process to be fully working, then, we would expect to have evidence from lay accounts that the wider public had accepted and normalised the condition. Further evidence was provided by a Gallup poll survey in 1992 which found that over two-thirds of middle-aged men in the UK believed that there was some indefinable phenomenon called the ‘midlife crisis’. Furthermore, it stated that over half of the sample thought they had experienced a midlife crisis, or were actually having one, at some point between the ages of 40 and 60 (Neustatter 1996:80). Second, a further stage occurred in the United States when the midlife crisis started to appear as a legitimate condition in course material designed for the training of nurses. The psychologist Carl Jung believed that in Western cultures, the midlife crisis of males is rooted in a search for deeper spiritual roots (Marin 2001). From the perspective of male and female roles, there is often a reversal of roles away from the closed/traditional paradigm; that is, the husband moves inward to find strength for the future, and the female moves outward to the work world and career (Morris 1995). Thus midlife men experience the self-doubts, malaise, and concern over issues of a failure of adaptation. External economic changes in the opportunity structure affect changes in the timing of entry into the labour force, and, ultimately, retirement. Institutional and legislative changes, such as compulsory school attendance, child-labour laws, and mandatory retirement, shape the work-life transitions of different age groups and eventually influence their family life as well. People who suffer a midlife crisis in this form see the exciting experience of forward movement as ending with youth and the future as repetition and decay. Some people have midlife crises, but most do not. Crises do occur in midlife, but they are usually caused by a variety of factors, certainly not by chronology alone. We conclude that a more adequate theory of human development must take into account both the socio-historical environment, on the one hand, and internal psychological and biological processes on the other. References Lawrence, B. S. (1980). â€Å"The Myth of Midlife Crisis. † Sloan Management Review, 21(4): 35-49. Marin, Rick. (2001). â€Å"Is This the Face of a Midlife Crisis? † N. Y. TIMES, June 24, [section] 9. Morris, B. (1995). â€Å"Executive Women Confront Midlife Crisis. † Fortune (September 18): 60-86. Neustatter, A. (1996). Looking the Demon in the Eye: the challenge of midlife, London: Joseph. Sifford, D. (1983). â€Å"Midlife Crisis: The Nagging Pain of Unfulfilled Dreams,† Philadelphia Inquirer, October 17, p. 4.

steroid testing :: essays research papers

Steroids   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Picture this. You’re watching your favorite baseball player at the plate and the pitch comes and he absolutely crushes the ball strait out of the park; but the next day there is a big investigation and your favorite player is caught having used an illegal steroid to enhance his play. You hope the news isn’t true but the evidence is over whelming. Your favorite baseball player broke the rules and is a cheater (Brown). This terrible scenario can easily be a future reality if steroid testing doesn’t begin regularly. In baseball the owner is allowed to test for steroids once a season and that’s all that is mandatory (Shaikin). This interests me because some of my favorite athletes in several sports are being accused of cheating the game and I just simply want the truth. Fans over the country agree that there should be more steroid testing, to get rid of the cheaters, but more importantly people believe they need more testing to help save li ves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For instance, many people will be in favor of more steroid testing because they want all the dishonest players out. People want the competition and the level of play fair. Nobody wants to have a league where 90% of the players follow the rules and workout and mold there body bodies by using hard work, and see the other ten percent just simply take a quick injection of some steroid and have there bodies bigger and faster than the rest (Shaikin). Next, and overwhelmingly people want previous records and accomplishments stricken from the record if that person is taking steroids. For example,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   take a player like Sanfrancisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who had 73 home runs in a single season a few years ago and people want him tested for steroids (Brown). It raises a good point. If players have nothing to hide then why not test them. The players seem to have all the control on if they should be testes or not, but people forget that it’s the owners and the league that decide the policies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Still, and most importantly the main reason athletes should be tested is for their safety. For example, if a player uses steroids there a number of side effects. They can get liver cancer, cardiovascular problems, sterility, and testicular atrophy (Miller). In fact, withdrawal from steroids is almost as bad as taking steroids.

Bless Me Ultima Essay

What will Antonio become when he grows up? A priest? A vaquero? A curandero? A farmer? Antonio’s future is not clear because, at the end of the novel, he has finally decided to choose his own path. Instead of listening to the beliefs of his mother or the desires of his father, he will fulfill Ultima’s encouragement to follow his heart. With this in mind, it seems likely that Antonio will probably become a man of learning according to Ultima, Whether or not this means that Antonio will become a priest as well is uncertain. Considering his questions about religion and morality and his anxieties about sin, it seems as if the life of a priest is not for him. However, no matter what he decides to do when he becomes an adult, the most important thing is that he has learned to make his own path. â€Å"I had more time to spend with Ultima, and in her company I found a great deal of solace and peace.† (Anaya 223) If Antonio found solace and peace with Ultima because of what she did (being a curandera). So why should he give up his solace and peace once she was gone? If becomes a curandero he would give himself solace and peace because of what he would do like Ultima. â€Å"I dropped to my knees; bless me, Ultima† (Anaya 260) Antonio asked to bless him right before she died. Antonio did not ask her to bless him in the name of God but a being a curandera. This seems to make Antonio not believe in God but in the powers of curandera. â€Å"I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and beautiful, Antonio. Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and the owls sing in the hills. I shall be with you†(Anaya 261) Ultima’s final blessing to Antonio Her statement also gives Antonio a idea with which to understand her death by offering a sequence of physical objects that he can see as symbols of her life and through which he can continue to feel her presence. Antonio will be without Ultima and will have to make his own choices without her guidance from now on, but she makes it clear in this blessing that her spirit will endure with him and that the lessons she has taught him will still serve him well even after she dies.

Management Info Systems Midterm

Jacqueline Soto Midterm Information Systems I 1) A 2) A 3) B 4) A 5) A 6) C 7) D 8) C 9) C 10) C 11) B 12) D 13) D 14) B 15) A 16) A 17) C 18) D 19) A 20) D 21) B 22) C 23) B 24) B 25) A Essay Questions 26. You work for an auto manufacturer and distributor. How could you use information systems to achieve greater customer intimacy? You could create a website that allows customers to built their car to their satisfaction.You could also implement a forum where customers could communicate with other customers about any questions or concerns they may have and also talk to support personnel. You could also create an automated system that reminds customers about scheduled maintenance routines and such. 31. What do you consider to be the primary ethical, social, and political issues regarding information system quality? Privacy, Accuracy, Property & Accessibility. 32. How do you think our government should handle the political issue of Internet decency and access limitations?In my opinion, the Internet is way too extensive to try and manage or regulate. There are always going to be ways to share copyright information and breach access limitations. The Internet has definitely gotten way out of hand when it comes to music videos, music, software, ect. I think they should just stop trying to limit the users because they will find one way or another to share new material. 33. What are the functions of management? Briefly ExplainFunctions of management are to make decisions and to formulate actions plans to solve organizational problems. They also have to make sure the company is efficient. 34. What is the difference between a risk and an issue? A risk is a future event that may have an impact on budget, scope, and schedule. An issue is a current problem that is not a risk because it has already happened and has influenced the budget, scope, and schedule. Bonus Question What are the keys to managerial effectiveness and how does IT support them?Give an example of each. Effi ciency – Doing the right things. IT supports by automating routine tasks. (Scheduling a backup of exchange on the server every Monday at 6:00pm) Effectiveness – Doing the right things right. IT helps managers identify opportunities. (Make sure the backup ran properly and test to see if the backup is complete) Transformation – Using IT to change the way you do business. Transforming the product or service being delivered. (You can do the testing remotely by using rdp)

How to Calculate Population Standard Deviation

How to Calculate Population Standard Deviation Standard deviation is a calculation of the dispersion or variation in a set of numbers. If the standard deviation is a small number, it means the data points are close to their average value. If the deviation is large, it means the numbers are spread out, further from the mean or average. There are two types of standard deviation calculations. Population standard deviation looks at the square root of the variance of the set of numbers. Its used to determine a confidence interval for drawing conclusions (such as accepting or rejecting a hypothesis). A slightly more complex calculation is called sample standard deviation. This is a simple example of how to calculate variance and population standard deviation. First, lets review how to calculate the population standard deviation: Calculate the mean (simple average of the numbers).For each number: Subtract the mean. Square the result.Calculate the mean of those squared differences. This is the variance.Take the square root of that to obtain the population standard deviation. Population Standard Deviation Equation There are different ways to write out the steps of the population standard deviation calculation into an equation. A common equation is: ÏÆ' ([ÃŽ £(x - u)2]/N)1/2 Where: ÏÆ' is the population standard deviationÃŽ £ represents the sum or total from 1 to Nx is an individual valueu is the average of the populationN is the total number of the population Example Problem You grow 20 crystals from a solution and measure the length of each crystal in millimeters. Here is your data: 9, 2, 5, 4, 12, 7, 8, 11, 9, 3, 7, 4, 12, 5, 4, 10, 9, 6, 9, 4 Calculate the population standard deviation of the length of the crystals. Calculate the mean of the data. Add up all the numbers and divide by the total number of data points.(925412781193741254109694) / 20 140/20 7Subtract the mean from each data point (or the other way around, if you prefer... you will be squaring this number, so it does not matter if it is positive or negative).(9 - 7)2 (2)2 4(2 - 7)2 (-5)2 25(5 - 7)2 (-2)2 4(4 - 7)2 (-3)2 9(12 - 7)2 (5)2 25(7 - 7)2 (0)2 0(8 - 7)2 (1)2 1(11 - 7)2 (4)22 16(9 - 7)2 (2)2 4(3 - 7)2 (-4)22 16(7 - 7)2 (0)2 0(4 - 7)2 (-3)2 9(12 - 7)2 (5)2 25(5 - 7)2 (-2)2 4(4 - 7)2 (-3)2 9(10 - 7)2 (3)2 9(9 - 7)2 (2)2 4(6 - 7)2 (-1)2 1(9 - 7)2 (2)2 4(4 - 7)2 (-3)22 9Calculate the mean of the squared differences.(4254925011641609254994149) / 20 178/20 8.9This value is the variance. The variance is 8.9The population standard deviation is the square root of the variance. Use a calculator to obtain this number.(8.9)1/2 2.983The population standard deviation is 2.983 Learn More From here, you might wish to review the  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹different standard deviation equations and learn more about how to calculate it by hand.

Australian Wills, Estates, and Probate Records

Australian Wills, Estates, and Probate Records Wills and probate records can often be a gold mine when researching Australian ancestors. Wills generally list surviving heirs by name, providing confirmation of family relationships. Probate records which document the handling of the estate through the court, whether the deceased died testate (with a will) or intestate (without a will), may help identify where family members were living at the time, including those residing in other Australian states, or even back in Great Britain. For more information on the valuable genealogical clues estate records can provide, see Probing into Probate Records. There is no central archive of wills in Australia. Instead, wills and probate registers are maintained by each Australian state, generally through the probate registry or probate office of the Supreme Court. Some states have transferred their early wills and probates, or provided copies, to the State Archives or Public Record Office. Many Australian probate records have also been filmed by the Family History Library, but some of these films are not permitted to be circulated to Family History Centers. How to Locate Australian Wills Probate Records AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORYRecords begin in 1911Indexes to wills and probate records in the Australian Capital Territory have not been published, and the records are not available online. ACT Supreme Court Registry4 Knowles PlaceCanberra ACT 2601 NEW SOUTH WALESRecords begin in 1800The Supreme Court NSW Probate Division has published an index to probates granted in NSW between 1800 and 1985, available in the NSW State Records Authority reading room and many major libraries (not available online). An index to early wills not included in the regular probate series is available online. Probate packets and wills from 1817 through 1965 have been transferred from the Supreme Court to the State Records Authority of New South Wales. Many of these probate packets are indexed online in Archives Investigator, including Series 1 (1817–1873), Series 2 (1873–1876), Series 3 (1876–c.1890) and a portion of Series 4 (1928–1954). Select Simple Search and then type in the name of your ancestor (or even just a surname), plus the term death to find indexed wills and probates, including the information youll need to retrieve a copy of the full probate packet. Learn more in the NSW Archives briefs Probate Packets and Deceased Estate Files, 1880–1958. State RecordsWestern Sydney Records Centre143 OConnell StreetKingswood NSW 2747 Access to wills and probate records from 1966 to the present require an application  to the Probate Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Supreme Court of New South WalesProbate DivisionG.P.O. Box 3Sydney NSW 2000 NORTHERN TERRITORYRecords begin in 1911Indexes to Northern Territory wills and probates have been created and published on microfiche. The Family History Library has a partial set, but they are not open for circulation to Family History Centers (viewable in Salt Lake City only). Alternatively, send a SASE to the Northern Territory Registrar of Probates with details on the descendant, and they will send a return letter regarding the availability of the record and fees to obtain a copy. Registrar of ProbatesSupreme Court of the Northern TerritoryLaw Courts BuildingMitchell StreetDarwin, Northern Territory 0800 QUEENSLANDRecords begin in 1857Queensland has more will and probate records online than any other Australian state or territory, courtesy of the Queensland State Archives. Detailed information is available in their Brief Guide 19: Will Intestacy Records. Index to Wills, 1857-1940  - An online index to wills compiled from original Supreme Court files from all districts, including a few wills for people who died outside Queensland.Equity Index 1857-1899  - An online index to original Supreme Court Equity files that include the names of all people connected with a case.Instruments of Renunciation 1915-1983 - Lodged by executors who were no longer willing to administer a will, these records include many details on the deceased and estate.Trustees Files Index 1889-1929 - Files related to trusts set up under the terms of a will. Queensland State Archives435 Compton Road, RuncornBrisbane, Queensland 4113 More recent probates in Queensland are administered by and available through Queensland district court registrars. An index to the most recent probates from all districts can be searched online. Queensland eCourts Party Search – An online index to Queensland Supreme and District Court files from as early as 1992 (Brisbane) to the present. Supreme Court of Queensland, Southern DistrictGeorge StreetBrisbane, Queensland 4000 Supreme Court of Queensland, Central DistrictEast StreetRockhampton, Queensland 4700 Supreme Court of Queensland, Northern DistrictWalker StreetTownsville, Queensland 4810 SOUTH AUSTRALIARecords begin in 1832The Probate Registry Office holds wills and related documents for South Australia from 1844. Adelaide Proformat offers a fee-based probate record access service. Probate Registry OfficeSupreme Court of South Australia1 Gouger StreetAdelaide, SA 5000 TASMANIARecords begin in 1824The Archives Office of Tasmania holds most older records relating to the administration of probate in Tasmania; their Brief Guide 12: Probate includes details on all available records. The Archives Office also has an online index with digitized copies of wills (AD960) and letters of administration (AD961) up to 1989 available for online viewing. Index to Wills Letters of Administration from 1824-1989 (Tasmania) (includes digitized records) Probate RegistrySupreme Court of TasmaniaSalamanca PlaceHobart, Tasmania 7000 VICTORIARecords begin in 1841Wills and probate records created in Victoria between 1841 and 1925 have been indexed and digitized and made available online free of charge. Records of wills and probate records up to 1992 will eventually be included in this online index. Probate records after 1925 and up through about the last decade or so can be ordered through the Public Record Office of Victoria. Public Record Office Victoria99 Shiel StreetNorth Melbourne VIC 3051 Index to Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-1925 (Victoria) (includes digitized records) Generally, wills and probate records created within the past 7 to 10 years can be accessed through the Probate Office of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Registrar of ProbatesSupreme Court of VictoriaLevel 2: 436 Lonsdale StreetMelbourne VIC 3000 WESTERN AUSTRALIARecords from 1832Probate records and wills in Western Australia are not generally available online. See Information Sheet: Grants of Probate (Wills) and Letters of Administration from the State Records Office of Western Australia for further information. The State Records Office holds two indexes to wills and letters of administration: 1832-1939 and 1900-1993. Files up to 1947 are available at State Records Office on microfilm for viewing. State Records OfficeAlexander Library BuildingJames Street West EntrancePerth Cultural CentrePerth WA 6000 Most Supreme Court records in Western Australia, including probates, are covered by a 75 year restricted access period to protect the privacy of persons mentioned in the records. Written permission from the Supreme Court is needed before viewing. Probate Office14th Floor, 111 Georges StreetPerth WA 6000

What an IT do for business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What an IT do for business - Research Paper Example Information technology is developing at a very great speed, particularly in the business world. Many firms are using the internet for various functions to enhance their production efficiency and augment their marketing strategies. However, key among these is the use of technology to increase the competitive advantage of firms. This paper analyzes how a company/business can use information technology to increase its competitive advantage. Introduction Internet has changed the structure of global markets and made it possible to hook up to other systems, people, and companies, without the restrictions of time and space. The dispersion of such a system is purposefully significant for economic development of every country. With the development and progression of the information and communication technology (ICT), competitive advantage plays a vital role in contemporary companies and businesses (Cicak, 2010). Information network comprises diverse types of software platforms and databases, which the companies use to increase effectiveness and augment their competitive advantage. These include venture-wide networks devised to administer all principal functions of the company provided for instance SAP, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards among others. They also include more general-purpose database creations aimed at specific uses for instance the products provided by Oracle, Microsoft, and many others (Dewett & Jones, 2000). Ways in which information technology helps in generating competitive advantage The fundamental means for understanding the impact of information technology on companies is the value chain. This is the set of procedures harmonized to produce a certain product or service and offering it to the consumers. In almost all industries and companies, information networks carry out several separate but interrelated activities that affect the procedures like production, fabricating, advertising, selling or delivering products to customers. Modern industry is endeavori ng to reinforce relationships with clients, generate new revenue opportunities as well as lessen supply chain inadequacy. The directness of Internet networks ensures ultimate compatibility with other technologies and the volatility of internet-based information systems (Cicak, 2010). Because of advancements in information technology, buyers have easier access to information concerning products and providers, therefore boosting their bargaining power. In addition, internet networks tend to lessen variable costs and to generate considerably greater pressure for firms to engage in vicious price competition. Although internet affects the operational efficiency and strategic positioning in various ways, it also offers new opportunities for reinforcing or realizing strategic positioning (Cicak, 2010). Information efficiencies (INE) are the savings on cost and time that effect when Information Technology permits individual workers to carry out their present tasks at a higher stage, take on extra tasks, and enlarge their positions in the company because of progresses in the capability to collect and evaluate data. On the other hand, information synergies (INS) are the routine gains that outcome when Information Technology permits two or more persons or subunits to merge their resources, cooperate, and collaborate across function or subunit limitations (Dewett & Jones, 2000). Another way in which network technology helps to create competitive advantage is through differentiation. Information technology helps a company to differentiate itself through various aspects. These include pricing, product improvement, and shorter-time to market as well as customer service. Furthermore, information network can help a company offer customised products and services, therefore improving differentiation and competitive advantage. Supported by the Internet’s interactivity aspect, for instance registration form and E-mail, a company can easily gather customer information includ ing