Graduation Speech High School Essay - 1016 Words

Ever since I was in the third grade, I’ve wanted to go to the University of Michigan. My dad, who did not attend college, loved the school since he was a kid, mostly because of its football success. Every Saturday we’d watched the Michigan game, so I grew up liking the university, even though I didn’t really know why. Friends and family would ask me what I wanted to do when I was older, but all I replied was, â€Å"To go to U of M!† They all scoffed at me and told me how hard I had to work to get there, but I didn’t realize all the challenges that I would eventually face. From elementary school to high school, I worked so hard to do well. I always did my homework as soon as I got home from school, made schoolwork a priority over pretty much everything, and didn’t accept anything lower than an A-. I sacrificed sporting events and hanging out with my friends so I could make sure my school work was done to the best of my ability. I got involved in my school and community as much as possible by joining student council and holding office, becoming a part of the National Honor Society and participating in numerous hours of community service, joining my school’s dance team and becoming a captain, and helping the mayor and my city with meetings and events. My friends called me everything in the books: a nerd, a try-hard, a party pooper, and the list goes on. No matter how many names they called me, it never really bothered me. Of course I felt out of the loop sometimes and missed theShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : High School934 Words   |à ‚  4 Pageslife would be graduation. For many people, graduating from high school is an objective. It takes a lot of time, effort, and determination to accomplish that goal. For others graduation is the end of high school, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. When graduated people feel as if adulthood has begun. In the long run, graduating opens a lot of opportunities for people to thrive. I can almost reminisce the day as if it was yesterday. I was sitting in bed like any other school day. It seemedRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School852 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to a report from Thomas Nelson Community College website, 15.7 percent is the graduation rate in 2010. 84 percent of students failed to receive their degree. That’s beyond sad. College can be difficulty especially with everyday life is getting harder to main family life work and financials. Because college is challenging, I know that I have issues that I must overcome. I told myself the more patient s I have the better success I will have. Although college will be difficult my goal isRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Essay2254 Words   |  10 Pages The day I graduated from high school The High school graduation day is a life full of journeys for everyone, high school life is a memorable time for most people, for me as well. High school can be filled with lots of good memories for some people and it could be filled with bad memories, for me it was both I had good times and I had bad times. The High school Graduation day should definitely be the best day of your life because that means no more high school, no more having to wake up at 6Read MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation854 Words   |  4 Pagesfail High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time in their lives where they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. This freedom allows students to choose the type of college or University they would like to attend. It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university to attend it may be tempting to want to go to a school thatRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation1507 Words   |  7 PagesForest English 1010 9/9/2014 Graduation During our lives, most of us have hated getting up early. Whether we as humans enjoy mornings or not, we’re always looking forward to that unforgettable day. That special is high school graduation for me. Graduation is a ceremony that recognizes students that have excelled through school. Graduation was one of the best days of my life, perhaps even better than the day that I started college. There is no other day like graduation where there comes this feelingRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation933 Words   |  4 PagesHigh School Graduation With regards to high school graduation, Balfanz, Herzog, and Iver (2007) followed 12,972 Philadelphia students enrolled in traditional middle schools from six grade (1996-1997) until 1 year beyond their expected graduation from high school (2003-2004) in order to understand what indicators would affect their projected graduation date. Unlike many of the early K-8 schools, the population Balfanz et al followed consisted of 64% African American, 19% White, 12% Hispanic,Read MoreGraduation Speech On High School Graduation851 Words   |  4 PagesThere Is No Success Without The Opportunity to Fail High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time when they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. This freedom allows students to choose the type of college or University they would like to attend. It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university they would like toRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School997 Words   |  4 Pagesup, I loved going to school and dreamed of one day attending college. Attending school every day and receiving good grades had become my top priority from K-12. I excelled from K-8th grade, but entering into high school was completely different than primary school. The atmosphere and environment was new to me, I was free to roam the halls or walk back out the door without any repercussions. This began my downward spiral in high school. My freshman year was by far the best school year for me becauseRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School897 Words   |  4 PagesHigh school was one of the most challenging moments in my life. Not only did I have to deal with the academic pressures and social issues from my peers I had external factors that were heavily impacting me as well. During my junior year my mom separated from her husband and me and my three little brothe rs ended up staying house to house with close relatives. Shortly after that time at the beginning of my senior year, my mom was sent to prison. In the midst of dealing with all of the demands thatRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Essay1434 Words   |  6 PagesWhen I was in high school I had one goal, I would graduate top of my class and go to the University of Florida for pre-medicine, then onto their medical school. I never considered that I would want anything else, so I went to a specialty high school that would allow me to specialize in Biomedical sciences(STEM) and never even thought about the possibility of a life other than the one I had so precisely planned out for myself. When my nephews were born my sophomore year all of my priorities changed

The Labor Of Organized Labor During The 21st Century

According to The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S. an important debate has commenced within the ranks of organized labor regarding the future of the movement. The economic and political changes that have taken place in the United States nationally, over the last thirty years as well as globally, have been a result of hostile environments for labor unions more so for workers in general not just women workers. For organized labor in the USA, the path away from oblivion must begin with the recognition of the vastly different situation that the working class faces in the early 21st century from what existed even twenty years ago according to The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S. To organize or to not organize In the United States the history of unions, beginning workers and trade unions played an important role in the part for independence. The unions within the United States progressed rapidly in 1866 with the founding of the National Labor Union (NLU) in the nineteenth century. For certain specific advantages, employers found it in their interests to encourage unionism. Gathering the rights to use it, many employers rushed into contracts with workers, almost deliberately urging their workers into unions. For certain there has always been a need for a vision which includes, but is not limited to organizing of the unorganized. If the purpose of the union were to improve the educational, moral, and social conditions of the workers, in generalShow MoreRelatedLabor Laws And Labor Policies985 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Current labor laws are capable of dealing with labor-management problems. There are many labor laws in the United States that govern employment policies and practices. These laws cover a variety of industries and its workers, and should not be abolished. Five important labor laws that have further clarified labor-management roles includes: Norris LaGuardia, Wagner, Taft-Hartley, Landrum-Griffin, and the Civil Service Reform Act, Title VII. Fossum (2009), states that these five lawsRead MoreThe Labor Relations Act Of The Senate1630 Words   |  7 Pagesin In the fall of 1934 Senator Wagner introduced the National Labor Relations Act in the senate. On July 5, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act. This act was put into place to help unions survive, under the section 7, it gave employees the right to form and join unions and it obligated employers to bargain collectively with unions in a selective manner. Although, the future of organized labor in the economy today looks grim, the unions will have to do whateverRead MoreImmigration Policies During Mexican Immigration Across The Border From The Mid 20th Century Into The 21st Century1627 Words   |  7 Pagesacross the border from the mid-20th century into the 21st century? Alejandra Estrada Professor Sarah Lischer POL 251 To what extent have United States immigration policies contributed to the fluctuating trends in Mexican immigration across the border from the mid-20th century into the 21st century? This report is centralized around two main arguments. The first argument accounts for the ineffectiveness of the United States’ original 20th century Immigration and Nationality Acts andRead MoreHuman Capital Management – Hrm 5311064 Words   |  5 PagesHuman Capital Management – HRM 531 Labor Laws and Unions Week 3 Labor Laws and Unions Michelle Mackey Human Capital Management – HRM 531 02/12/2012 Instructor: Bob Hanks Labor Laws and Unions Abstract My family has an extensive history in the U.S. Postal Service therefore the appeal of the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO was irresistible. My grandfather, godfather, aunt, brother-in-law and even I have worked for theRead MoreSimilar To Many Successful Enterprises, Terrorist Groups1399 Words   |  6 Pagesgroups have always diversified their revenue stream by relying on various forms of criminal activities to fund their operations. Terrorist groups are being forced to converge with organized crime to integrate local criminal activities in order to fund international terrorism. According to Steven D Alfonso, author of Why Organized Crime and Terror Groups Are Converging, D Alfonso notes that there is â€Å"evidence of Hezbollah establishing a strong base in Latin America over the past decade or more and workingRead MoreUnited Kingdoms Employment Law and Relationships953 Words   |  4 Pagesof different sources. Prior to denoting just what these sources are and what effect s they have on various employers, employees, and organized labor unions, however, it is necessary to delineate the development of employment law throughout the United Kingdom which, given this regions lengthy history, is fairly recent. Prior to the midway point of the 20th century, there was no employment law in the UK or throughout various other parts of Europe as well. For the most part, all employment relationshipsRead MoreMarriages Decline902 Words   |  4 PagesMarriages decline, divorces climb as families evolve into 21st century By William Harms   News Office The American family, which has undergone a major transformation in the past generation, is poised to change even more in the coming century. Households continue to diverge from the traditional family-structure model of a stay-at-home mother, working father and children, according to a new report from the National Opinion Research Center. Because of divorce, cohabitation and single parenthoodRead MoreGender Inequality Essay1153 Words   |  5 Pagesknow more and more on the issue of gender inequality in different areas of our society. However, although significant progress has been made during the twentieth century, in an attempt to equalize the rights of women and men, they still do not seem to be met daily. Having a job is considered important for men and women, although the centrality of work is organized completely differently by gender. This form of inequality persists in all areas such as: participation in decision making and the exerciseRead MoreThe Story Of The Puerto Rican People Is Quite Unique In1698 Words   |  7 Pagesstory of the Puerto Rican people is quite unique in the history of U.S. immigration, just as Puerto Rico dwell a distinctive and sometimes confusing position in the nation’s civic fabric. Puerto Rico has been ownership of the U.S. for more than a century, however it has never been a state. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, but even with that they still have no vote in Congress. Being citizens of the U.S. they can move throughout the fifty states without any problems just as any otherRead MoreLessons Learnt From the Great Depression and Progressive Era1386 Words   |  6 PagesAmerican history began slightly before the turn of the 20th century and continued into the second decade of the 20th century, ending around the beginning of World War I. The Great Depression of 20th century American occurred in 1929 and the more intense short-term effects lasted up and through World War II. The paper will scrutinize specific events of this period providing insight, elaboration, and analysis. One major turning point during this period of American history was the significant changes

Counseling And Psycotherapy Essay Example For Students

Counseling And Psycotherapy Essay Differences Between Counseling and Psychotherapy Counseling Theories August 3, 1995 Running head: Coun. v. Psychotherapy Counseling v. psychotherapy is there a difference between the two? This paper will attempt to prove that there are several differences between counseling and psychotherapy. While counseling and psychotherapy have several different elements in each, the following information will also attempt to show the reader that there are some areas where the two overlap. At times this was a confusing topic to research. A fine line distinguishes the two topics and one must look hard to see this line. Definition of Counseling One survey taken by Gustad suggests a definition of counseling where he included three key elements. Counseling is a learning-oriented process, carried on in a simple, one to one social environment, in which a counselor, professionally competent in relevant psychological skills and knowledge, seeks to assist the client by methods appropriate to the latters needs and within the context of the total personnel program, to learn more about himself, to learn how to put such understanding into effect in relation to more clearly perceived, realistically defined goals to the end that the client may become a happier and more productive member of his society (1957, p. 36). In lay terms counseling can be described as a face to face relationship, having goals to help a client to learn or acquire new skills which will enable them to cope and adjust to life situations. The focus is to help a person reach maximum fulfillment or potential, and to become fully functioning as a person. Definition of Psychotherapy Psychotherapy is the process inwhich a therapists assists the client in re-organizing his or her personality. The therapist also helps the client integrate insights into everyday behavior. Psychotherapy can be defined as more inclusive re-education of the individual (Brammer Shostrom,1977). Objectives of counseling The objectives of counseling according to the Committee on Definition, Division of Counseling Psychology, American Psychological Association are to help individuals toward overcoming obstacles to their personal growth, wherever these may be encountered, and toward achieving optimum development of their personal resources (Arbuckle, 1967). In a paper written by Dr. T. Millard, it is stated that Counseling provides clarity and a positive and constructive venue for the individual to sensibly examine the instinctive-emotional and rational (or irrational) motives which determine the drive, content, and even the form of human conduct. This shows the part which counseling plays in a clients treatment. Objectives of psychotherapy According to Everett Shostrom (1967) , the goal of psychotherapy is to become an actualizer, a person who appreciates himself and others as persons rather than things and who has turned his self defeating manipulations into self fulfilling potentials (p. 9). Shostrom also feels that awareness is the goal of psychotherapy, The reason is that change occurs with awareness! (1967 p. 103). Shostrom feels that awareness is a form of non-striving achieved by being what you are at the moment,l even if what you are means the phony manipulative role that we all play sometimes for external support (1967 p. 103). Professional opinions Not all therapists feel that there is a distinction between counseling and psychotherapy. C.H. Patterson feels that it is impossible to make a distinction, He feels that the definition of counseling equally applies as well to psychotherapy and vice a versa. Donald Arbuckle (1967) argues that counseling and psychotherapy are identical in all essential aspects. Others believe that there is a distinction. Psychotherapy is concerned with some type of personality change where counseling is concerned with helping individuals utilize full coping potential. IN Donald Arbuckles work he included Leona Tylers thoughts on the differences between counseling and psychotherapy. Leona Tyler attempts to differ between counseling and psychotherapy by stating, to remove physical and mental handicaps or to rid of limitations is not the job of the counselor, this is the job of the therapist which is aimed essentially at change rather than fulfillment (Arbuckle 1967). Totalitarian Government Essay Paper Differences between counseling and psychotherapy One of the major distinctions between counseling and psychotherapy is the focus. In counseling, the counselor will focus on the here and now, reality situations. During psychotherapy, the therapist is looking into the unconscious or .

Reuven Malters Development In The Chosen By Chaim Potok Essays

Reuven Malter's Development in The Chosen by Chaim Potok Reuven Malter's Development in The Chosen by Chaim Potok Malter's Development in The Chosen One of the most emotional scenes from Chaim Potok's The Chosen is when Reuven goes with Danny Saunders to talk to his father. Danny has a great mind and wants to use it to study psychology, not become a Hasidic tzaddik. The two go into Reb Saunders' study to explain to him what is going to happen, and before Danny can bring it up, his father does. Reb Saunders explains to the two friends that he already known that Reuven is going to go for his smicha and Danny, who is in line to become the next tzaddik of his people, will not. This relates to the motif of ?Individuality? and the theme of ?Danny's choice of going with the family dynasty or to what his heart leads him.? The most developing character from the novel is Reuven Malter. One of the ways that he developes in the novel is in hus understanding of friendship. His friendship with D\fanny Saunders is encouraged by his father, but he is wary of it at first because Danny is a Hasid, and regards regular Orthodox Jews as apikorsim because of the teachings of his father. Reuven goes from not being able to have a civil conversation with Danny to becoming his best friend with whom he spens all of his free time, studies Talmud and goes to college. Reuven truly grows because he leans, as his father says, what it is to be a friend. Another way that Reuven grows is that he learns to appreciate different people and their ideas. He starts out hating Hasidim because it's the ?pious? thing to do, even though his father (who I see as the Atticus Finch of this novel) keeps telling him that it's okay to disagree with ideas, but hating a person because of them is intolerable. Through his friendship with Danny, studies with Reb Saunders, brief crush on Danny's sister (who was never given a name), and time spent in the Hasidic community, he learns that Hasids are people too with their own ideas and beliefs that are as valuable as his. He learns why they think, act, speak, and dress the way that they do and comes to grips with the fact that he doesn't have a monopoly on virtue. A third way in which Reuven grows, though the book doesn't really talk about it a great deal, is in his appreciation of life, or cha'im in Hebrew. He almost loses his vision, his father nearly works himself to death, six million Jews are butchered in Europe, and Danny's brother's poor health threatens Danny's choice to not become a tzaddik. When his eye is out of order he can't read, and indeed does remark that it's very difficult to live without reading, especially with a voracious appetite for learning such as his. His father almost dies twice and he talks about how difficult it is to live all alone in silence (which is a metaphor alluding to Danny's everyday life) for the month while his father is in the hospital. He sees Reb Saunders and his father feeling the suffering of the six million dead, Saunders by crying and being silent, David Malter by working for the creation of a Jewish state and being a leader in the movement, in addition to teaching at a yeshiva and adult education classes. And of course Danny is very worried by his brother's illness (hemophillia?) because if he dies it will be even harded for Danny to turn down his tzaddikship. By the end of the book, Reuven Malter is a very changed character. Potok is an expert with using allusion and metaphor. Very subtly throughout the book he uses this for the purposes of renforcing his points, foreshadowing, and to make the book a better read when you've read it previously and know the outcome. One example of this, one that I missed the first time I read the book in 7th grade is the paragraph at the end of chapter nine where Reuven is sitting on his porch and sees a fly

ACT Scorers How to Perfect Your Score

Guide for Top SAT / ACT Scorers How to Perfect Your Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you already scoring well on the SAT and getting a 1400 or above (2100 in the 2400 scale)? This puts you in a special class, and your strategy for improving your SAT score will be very different from the average students'. Having made the improvement myself, I’ll show you how you can aim for a perfect SAT score too. Why Strategies for Top Scorers and Average Scorers Are Different Where you are on the learning curve absolutely affects what you’ll learn next. Learning to walk as a baby is very different from learning to run in middle school, which is again very different from learning to run in pro marathons. Strategies that are central when you’re doing poorly suddenly stop working when you’re doing well. The main reason for this is that gaining points when you’re an average scorer is more about increasing your skill, whereas gaining points as a top scorer means adapting to the exact shape and format of the test. Completely new strategies are needed, and I’ll show you those SAT strategies right here! My Own Experience as a Top Scorer When I first started studying for the SAT, I was already scoring a 1400 (equivalent to a 2100 on the 2400 scale). As defined above, this definitely qualifies me as a top scorer, and no doubt I was thankful to score even that much. I wanted to score higher though, so I picked up the most popular books: Kaplan, Princeton Review, you name it. I noticed one thing very quickly: All the books are aimed, in a fuzzy way, at average SAT scorers. If you were scoring 400-600 on each section, the material they presented could help you. Kaplan went over basic content like the general idea of geometry areas, but they never spent time talking about how to ace the hardest math questions. In fact, I noticed that many of Kaplan’s hardest math questions had errors, revealing that the book writer wasn’t the best at math. Likewise, Princeton Review was full of test-taking tactics, but they revolved around eliminating just one or two answers or skipping questions. If I’m aiming for a high score, I can’t afford to skip questions or just guess after eliminating a single answer. It dawned on me that the reason most sources were completely unhelpful to my situation was that as a top scorer, my path to improvement was much different than that of the average scorer. Upon realizing this, I began to sit down and spend dozens of hours thinking about the unique situation that we top scorers are in. Not very many resources target us. We suffer from a unique set of issues compared to the average scorer. And most books are written by people who are barely better test takers than us. After really thinking through the issues for many hours, I came up with a set of strategies. These strategies have worked well for me, my classmates, and my tutoring students. Today, we have proof through tens of thousands of our students at PrepScholar that these strategies universally work for top scorers. Let me show you how this strategy works for you! The results of applying my top-scoring strategies: a perfect score. Strategies That Work for Average Scorers But Won’t Work for You First, we will go over strategies that work for average students but will likely stop working once you cross that magical 1400 threshold (30 out of 36 on the ACT or 2100 on a 2400 SAT scale). I’ve picked the most common and helpful strategies for average students that totally stop working for top students. These strategies are alsogood first steps at illustrating how strategies in general can change as your skills change. Learning General Content When you’re scoring 500 in each section, it’s a pretty good idea to do a general review of all your skills. Review circles, rectangles, algebra, and so forth. Average scorers likely have general deficits in their subject knowledge of subjects. However, if you’re a top scorer, learning general content doesn’t work well for you. This is because, as a top scorer, there will likely only bea few areaswhereyou have deficits, and, even in these areas, your deficit will be slight. Unlike average scorers, you won’t be missing serious knowledge across a vast set of skills. This means that learning general content will be a lot less effective than focused study. If you’re a top scorer, you’ll want to hone in on weaknesses rather than gloss over broad topics. The key to thisis identifying exactly which areas are missing and doing a strong push to eliminate those few specific weaknesses. To use another analogy, an average scorer is like a lawn filled with lots of weeds. The best way to remove all the weeds is to spray herbicide everywhere. But as a top scorer, you only have a one or two clumps of weeds in your lawn. The best strategyfor you is just to see where the weed clumps are and target only those areas topull the weeds out. Question Skipping In Jekyll and Hyde, the same man transforms between a good Dr Jekyll and an evil Mr Hyde. In the same way, question skipping is the most powerful of strategies for a low scorer, but it can be harmful to a high scorer. If you’re scoring low, knowing how to skip makes a world of difference. Suppose you have 30 minutes to do 30 math problems. Tenof those problems are really easy, tenare medium difficulty, and tenare hard. If you’re not great at math, trying all 30 is crazy. You probably won’t get the medium and hard questions, and you’re spread thin for the easy questions if you try to answer one question per minute. You might get five problems correct. Instead, question skipping will save your day. If you focus all 30 minutes on the ten easy problems, you’ll spend a careful three minutes on each and probably get all the easy ones. This means you’ll get ten problems correct instead of five, doubling your score. However, if you’re scoring high, you are afforded no such luxury to skip. You have to do all the problems. Once your section score gets above 600, skipping questions starts becoming harmful. A 600 (say in Math) means that you are only allowed to get about ten questions wrong out of 50. If you skip even two or three questions in the entire section, you will already have used upa good part of your quota of tenquestions. With a low margin for error, you need to squeeze every problem for all the points it’ll give you by at least trying it and eliminating some answers. Thus, even at 600, there is no room for skipping. Note: when I say skipping here, I don’t mean leaving the question blank! The New SAT and ACT have a guessing reward, so you never leave the question blank. Skipping here only refers to not spending time on a question. These are the two biggest strategies that work for average scorers but not top scorers. Hopefully, now you have a bit of understanding for why the strategies are different. Just like a 3rd grader needs to learn different math than an th grader, you now need to learn new strategies. Skipping: works for average scorers and hopscotch, but not high scorers Strategies That Stay the Same Before we get into top-scorer specific strategies, I want to emphasize a few strategies that will stay the same. Not everything changes between a toddler learning to walk and a pro marathoner trying to break the time limit. Some things are the same for both of them: like being healthy and exercising. Likewise, top scorers have a few strategies in common with average scorers. In fact, we have alist of strategies that work for all test-takers, regardless of where you are scoring. There are many strategies that are still useful for top scorers like doing realistic practice, understanding your mistakes, not getting in your own head, and so forth. Some of these strategies are worth repeating: Putting in the Time You absolutely still have to put in the time to improve. Just like the old saying in sports goes, no pain, no gain. High scorers come in two camps. The first camp has already put in dozens of hours of SAT study by the time they read this, and they have no fear of putting in even hundreds of hours naturally. If you’re in the first camp, good for you. Work comes easy to you; you should target at least a hundred hours more of studying, and you can skip to the next section. The second camp is students who typically find studying hard. At this point, they may have put less than five hours into studying. They might have scored high because they’re â€Å"naturally smart†, but they haven’t studied a lot. I’ve been in this camp too, so I understand, but I have some advice for you. First, you absolutely can’t think of the SAT as a test of how smart you are. While you may feel good that your initial score was high, if you don't study you'll quickly get discouraged when your score doesn't improve. You might become prone to thinking that you’re just not that smart, and there’s nothing you can do about it the opposite of the truth! It’s much more effective to think of the SAT as not testing how smart you are right now, but how much you work. Thinking of the SAT as a test that reflects hard work isn’t just a useful mindset, it’s also true. After training thousands of students, I consistently find that those who put in more time score higher, even students who were already starting out with high scores. As motivation, you have to realize that, as a high scorer, it is even more important to put time into studying. First, you have less room to improve, so improvements will come harder. You can’t just learn some skipping strategy and raiseyour section score 50 points. Those 50 points will come from your sweat and tears. You need to work extra hard. As additional motivation, you have to really want it from inside. Not your mom, not your teacher, but you need to really want it. Choose a goal, either a school or a score, and convince yourself that it’s important. Then, set a specific amount of time that you want to study and goals for how much to study each week. Every week, see how you’re doing against the goals. Doing Realistic Practice Realistic practice has always been important, but as a top scorer, having real tests is even more critical. Like I said before, improving as a top scorer is all about understanding every contour, flaw and detail of the test. This process is incredibly test specific. Molding yourself into a perfect SAT test taker is way different than molding yourself into the perfect ACT taker. At the high score extremes of the test, all the flaws and quirks become magnified. The ACT always has more time pressure, but when you’re aiming for a perfect 36 on the Math section, you suddenly find yourself under immense time pressure to solve Math Olympiad-level problems. The SAT is known for being tricky, but when you’re aiming for an 800 on Math, you can suddenly end up losing substantial points for missing just a couple of very subtle definitions. When you’re a top scorer, improvement becomes very format-specific. The layout, timing, andfeel of the test all start mattering much more than general math or reading skills. Thus, it’s absolutely critical that you practice on actual SAT or ACT tests given the past. It’s OK to or drill on imperfect problems, but when you actually take a practice SAT or ACT for evaluation and learning, make sure you use a real test you haven’t seen before and make your setting as realistic as possible. Ideally, you’d usethe same exact timings for sections and breaks, and you’d do the entire practice test all in one sitting. At this point, everything matters. Power Strategies for Top Scorers Up to this point, we’ve been talking only about strategies for average scorers. First, we talked about strategies that won’t work for you anymore, and then we went over strategies that you can still use. In this section, we show the jewels, the unique power strategies for top scorers that will get you substantial further improvements. To reiterate, this section is for top scorers whom we define as students who score 700 or more in each section already. To understand top scorer strategies, I will explain the standard pattern of weaknesses that I see in top scorers. The standard pattern for top scorers is that they’re missing points for exactly three reasons: Content Gaps These are small, isolated areas of knowledge that the top scorer hasn’t mastered yet. A top scorer by definition can’t have minor gaps in all areas, and they can’t have major gaps in any area. Therefore, a top scorer may only have minor gaps in a small set of areas. Identifying these gaps, and whether they even exist, will itself take work. Carelessness Top scorers tend to be content masters, but carelessness doesn’t respect knowledge or intelligence. Carelessness can afflict anyone. No matter how good your math is, you’ll never get a question right if you miswrite a 2 as a 3. Time Trouble Top scorers need to answer all questions, and they need to not be careless. On top of that, the SAT and ACT are timed tests. Add this together, and all top scorers suffer from time trouble. That is to say, all top scorers run out of time, and mastering these tests is all about running out of time just as you get everything correct. Folks, take a look at the list above. For the vast majority of top scorers, this list covers all the reasons they score less than they’d like to. Attack Strategies The method that I will show you, the method that works, will go in tactically, surgically, and eliminate each one of the weaknesses above. The method doesn’t optimize for a fast bump in score at the start instead, it'sa surefire, robust way to completely eliminate all sources of error that a top scorer will have. My method is based on the concept of isolate and eliminate. The idea is that we will attack each of the reasons above, one-by-one, until you’re free of errors. Attacking Content Gaps First, we want to eliminate content gaps. To isolate content gaps, we will purposefully not focus on time issues for the moment, Thus, during this phase, you will give yourself double the usual amount of time to do problems. For example, give yourself 60 minutes to do a 30-minute section. We will also purposefully focus away from carelessness. For all questions where you can identify carelessness as the reason you answered a question incorrectly, you can ignore it. This only includes questions where you understand everything but literally misread a number or bubbled in the wrong letter. Carelessness does NOT include misinterpreting a confusing word or making a wrong judgmentcall. These cases are bothreal content issues and not carelessness. With these allowances, take your first practice test. That is, go through one full practice test, and give yourself double the time allowed (split into multiple test sessions if need be). Then, go through every single question you got wrong. The ones that were due to carelessness ignore for now. For all other questions, write down the reasons you didn’t get it. List all possible contributing reasons. For example, if you didn’t apply a sphere surface area formula correctly you should write: Did not understand surface area Did not remember surface area formula 3D geometry Since you’re a top scorer, you shouldn’t get many questions wrong, and you should only have a very short list of reasons at the end. Tally up the reasons, and look at the top 2-4 reasons. These are your content gaps that you need to solve. For each of the top content gaps, come up with a couple of training methods you can use to solve the gaps. Each training method should take at least an hour so you’re not looking for quick fixes. To continue the example above you would write: Did not understand surface areas (4 problems) Training: Review difference between surface and volume (1 hour) Training: Read calculus section on surface areas (2 hours) Training: Google â€Å"Surface area questions† and try a number of them (1 hour) Did not remember surface area formula Training: Create flashcards for 20 most popular surface areas and memorize (2 hours) Training: Open calculus textbook and use calculus to re-derive all above surface areas (3 hours) 3D Geometry Weaknesses Training: Read 3D Geometry Section (1 hour) Training: Do math textbook 3D geometry exercises, complete the three most difficult questions you find (1 hour) Training: Hunt for five 3D Geometry Problems on the SAT and solve each at least two different ways (1 hour) Then, implement your plan. Do all the steps you promised yourself in the time you promised, and then try again with another practice test. Keep on doing this until the number of content mistakes you make has decreased substantially. A good rule of thumb is that you want to eliminate 75% of your content mistakes by repeating the process above or spend 40 hours studying, whichever comes first. Note about PrepScholar: You can do the above method yourself. In fact, I just told you how to identify your errors, come up with the right training, and eliminate your mistakes. However, you might want a program to do it for you. In that case, it’s exactly what PrepScholar Online Prep is for. Our software automatically detects the questions you get wrong, how often you get them wrong, and why you get them wrong, so you don’t have to do the hard work yourself. As you go through practice tests, ask yourself: Are you seeing a reduction in content gap mistakes due to your training? If so, what parts of your training were most effective? How can you do more of this in the future? If not, why did you continue to make the same content mistakes despite training? Why was the training not effective? Improving your standardized testscores is hard work, both in terms of effort and intelligence. You have to put real time and thought into reflecting why you got questions wrong to improve. This deep thinking is a part of testprep that can’t be bypassed by any tricks. You need to spend effort and creativity to find why your training is working or not. Note about PrepScholar: While no one can do all the hard thinking for you, sometimes you can enlist the help of vetted professionals. PrepScholar Online Tutoring tutors are trained in the exact method above. They will help you think of training strategies and reflect on why certain strategies are working or not. Attacking Carelessness Now that you’ve finished attacking content mistakes, the second stage is to attack carelessness. You can blend this in with attacking content, but it’s best not to combine attacking carelessness with attacking time trouble. The method for attacking carelessness is the same as above. Give yourself more time than usual, and notice which problems you’re making careless mistakes on and what caused you to be careless. Somequestions you may want to ask yourself when you answer a question wrong include: Did you not read the question properly? Did you misread a number you calculated because your work was too messy? Did you know the correct answer but filled in the wrong bubble by mistake? When I started training for the SAT, I thought carelessness was an unchanging personality trait. I thought I was doomed to make a certain number of careless mistakes. It turns out that carelessness is something you can controlandcombat by having better habits.If you apply the right methods and safety checks, you’ll rarely be careless. For example, if you make it ahabit tobrush your teeth nightly or buckle your seat belt, you’ll find that very rarely do you forget to do these things. Since you have the luxury of extra time, you should try to adopt two habits. The first habit is double-reading each question and underlining keywords before you even begin working on the problem. A lot of carelessness comes from not reading the question correctly. For example, if you see the question: How many even integers are between -3 and 14 inclusive? I would read it twice, and then underline the question as follows: How many even integers are between -3 and 14 inclusive? Each of the underlined words, if misread, could lead to a disastrous misinterpretation of the problem. â€Å"Even† can be easily misread to meanodd or all integers. â€Å"Inclusive† is underlined to remind you that you should include the number 14 in your calculations. The second habit is to re-read the question one last time before filling in the answer. I learned this trick from a top scorer in my test competition days, and it has worked wonders for me and students I’ve taught it to. The idea is that, if you misinterpreted a problem, that misinterpretation will be obvious on your final reading of the problem. To recap:In order to reduce careless mistakes, read the question twice before you start working on it, and underline the keywords. Then, once you've figured out the answer, read the question through one last time to make sure you've understood it perfectly. You can develop your own habits based on introspection of what causes your careless mistakes. For example, if you make arithmetic mistakes, double-check each line, or show more of your work. If you keep in mind that the solution to carelessness can be method-based, you can use these methods to solve all your careless mistakes. However, what if some careless mistakes persist even if you use a lot of methods designed to catch carelessness? What if you’re careless in choosing which line to look at when looking at author intention? Or you’re careless in remembering which idiom is correct? You should understand that these are not careless mistakes, but mistakes of content. Remember, if a mistake persists even after a slow, careful reading of the problem, you canassumethat it’s not really carelessness, but rather a content problem. In the case of persistent problems, I would re-read the section here on carelessness as well as try to identify underlying content issues. Time Trouble Now that you have gotten rid of sufficient content and carelessness problems, it’s time to tackle that final problem all top scorers have time trouble. Generally, this refers to the feeling that you can do better if you had more time. The SAT and ACT are designed with strong time constraints. In fact, you're doing something wrong if you ever find yourself ending a section even a minute early. Up until now, you’ve been giving yourself double time (or more) so you can hone in on your content or carelessness issues. Now you can practice reducing your time. A good way to do this is to reduce your time by 20% each practice test and make sure your mistakes aren’t shooting up. Every time you repeat a 20% reduction, if your mistakes stay the same, then you’re good. For example, for a 50-minute section, start by giving yourself extra time: 100 minutes. If you’re doing well at 100 minutes, reduce this to 80, then 64, and then finally 50 minutes. Inevitably, you’ll need to start developing your own timing strategies to deal with the lower time. Many of these strategies will be ad-hoc. You’ll think of them, try them, and they’ll work. The best students are good at introspection, coming up with strategies, and evaluating whether those strategies work. Here are the two most common and helpful strategies for improving your time management: Rush Through the Easy Questions If a question is clear, go through it fast, but still apply your carelessness prevention habits (diligence) to ensure you get it right. When you’re at the top it’s a fight between diligence and time, and you want to do a bit of both. A common strategy is to reduce your time by 50% on easy questions, spend the standard amount of time on normal questions, and increase your time by 50% on hard questions. For example, suppose you have a 60-minute math section with 60 questions. Each question should take 60 seconds to do this is the standard time. For easy questions, you should target 30 seconds, for medium questions, you should target 60 seconds, and for truly hard questions, target 90 seconds. It makes sense to play with the cutoffs for difficulty and timing to see what works best for you. Skip and Come Back Everyone gets stuck on questions. I’ve scored 99.9th percentile on my SAT and ACT, and I routinely get stuck once or twice per section. If you allow getting stuck to cost you five minutes, you’ll be hosed. If you find that, after spending 90 seconds on a problem, you aren’t getting an answer, try your best guess and mark the question with a â€Å"G† (for guess). This means at the end of your first pass-through of the test, you’ll need to have some extra time. Use this extra time to come back to the guesses. Guesses aren’t the only problems you should come back to. There are certain hard questions that will take a while to double-check, which is not worth doing on your first pass-through the test. For these questions, you can mark them with a â€Å"C† and come back to them later as well. The general reason to skip and come back is because not finishing a single pass-through of every question is highly damaging. Not looking at two or three questions guarantees you won’t get those questions right. Thus, you want to at least touch all problems, and leave a few minutes at the end to come back. You should play around with the strategies above. Look at how double-checking reduces carelessness but increases time. Look at what sorts of markings you should make and how many passes you should make through your test (hint: it’s probably more than one). As you decrease your time, you’ll find these strategies continue to work well and allow you to maintain the same score at 1x standard time. Wrap Up The strategy guide above will carry you far, and likely all the way, if you follow it fully. To recap, I’ll touch upon a few points again. The first is that, for top scorers, losses come mainly from three sources: content gaps, carelessness, and time issues. By isolating each item, you’ll be able to solve each of them with much higher consistency. While you’re doing this, you should still maintain a few strategies that work for all scorers. Two strategies worth repeating are using real practice questions and putting in the time needed to really improve your score. Next Steps Now that you know which strategies a top scorer should use, there is no reason not to get started as soon as you can. If you’re self-studying, you should immediately try to apply the strategies above and also useour blog for further advice. You may also be interested in checking out PrepScholar Online Prep as it does all of the above for you, in optimal ways. For example, we know that you’re a top scorer, and we won’t give you strategies that only work for average students. We’ll emphasize strategies that work especially well for top scorersand give you tips for timing and diligence. Best of all, we’ll identify your exact content gaps which is the hardest and most important information for top scorers like you to know. Click below and you can try us out risk-free for 5 days! Further Reading Since you're already a top scorer, you're probably aiming for a perfectstandardized testscore. Check out our guides to getting a perfect score on the SAT and a perfect score on the ACT,written by our resident full-scorer on both tests. Want to know what it takes to get into the most competitive colleges? Learn how to get admitted to Harvard and other Ivy League schools from a Harvard alum. Need some practice tests to help with your test preparation?We have free and official practice tests for the SAT and the ACT.

Free Essays on Cultural Identity In Bruce Dawes Poetry

Bruce Dawe’s poems â€Å"Homecoming† and â€Å"At Shagger’s Funeral† in Sometimes Gladness reveal significant aspects about Australian cultural identity. â€Å"Homecoming† questions Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War by describing the homecoming flight of the soldier’s bodies over the Australian landscape. The profound sense of loss and futility is foregrounded by exposing the men’s sense of belonging in both rural and urban Australian communities and their connection to the land. â€Å"At Shagger’s Funeral† explores the nature of the Australian cultural identity through the events and emotions surrounding the funeral of a typical ‘aussie bloke† who valued mateship and lived for the day. The representations explored by these poems include the wholesome, rural environment, sense of patriotism towards protecting the values and attitudes that are uniquely Australian, the masculine ‘ockerâ₠¬â„¢ stereotype and the lack of adhering to a religion. Bruce Dawe’s â€Å"Homecoming† explores the representation of Australia’s rural and wholesome cultural identity. The dead portrayed in the poem all have a place to return to, where they once called home, whether in the suburban cities or country towns. The poem uses images that are quintessentially Australian. The image of the dogs who â€Å"raise muzzles in mute salute† in honour to the dead, connotates both the idea of the simple life and the strong relationship between the sheep dog and farmer in rural Australia. The dog also symbolises the community’s sense of loss. Australians are thought of as having a sense of place as people do not disappear into anonymity but are valued by communities for their individual identity. This concept is valid to some extent but marginalizes groups such as the homeless, unemployed or those without family. The role of the physical environment in constructing such aspects of cultural identity is also significant in â€Å"Homecoming† describ... Free Essays on Cultural Identity In Bruce Dawe's Poetry Free Essays on Cultural Identity In Bruce Dawe's Poetry Bruce Dawe’s poems â€Å"Homecoming† and â€Å"At Shagger’s Funeral† in Sometimes Gladness reveal significant aspects about Australian cultural identity. â€Å"Homecoming† questions Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War by describing the homecoming flight of the soldier’s bodies over the Australian landscape. The profound sense of loss and futility is foregrounded by exposing the men’s sense of belonging in both rural and urban Australian communities and their connection to the land. â€Å"At Shagger’s Funeral† explores the nature of the Australian cultural identity through the events and emotions surrounding the funeral of a typical ‘aussie bloke† who valued mateship and lived for the day. The representations explored by these poems include the wholesome, rural environment, sense of patriotism towards protecting the values and attitudes that are uniquely Australian, the masculine ‘ockerâ₠¬â„¢ stereotype and the lack of adhering to a religion. Bruce Dawe’s â€Å"Homecoming† explores the representation of Australia’s rural and wholesome cultural identity. The dead portrayed in the poem all have a place to return to, where they once called home, whether in the suburban cities or country towns. The poem uses images that are quintessentially Australian. The image of the dogs who â€Å"raise muzzles in mute salute† in honour to the dead, connotates both the idea of the simple life and the strong relationship between the sheep dog and farmer in rural Australia. The dog also symbolises the community’s sense of loss. Australians are thought of as having a sense of place as people do not disappear into anonymity but are valued by communities for their individual identity. This concept is valid to some extent but marginalizes groups such as the homeless, unemployed or those without family. The role of the physical environment in constructing such aspects of cultural identity is also significant in â€Å"Homecoming† describ...

Duvall & Hays Chapter 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Duvall & Hays Chapter 5 - Essay Example For example is the book of Ecclesiastes wherein it says that life is meaningless in the first chapter. If one would only consider the scripture and not the historical-cultural context, there might be misunderstanding that life is indeed meaningless where in truth, it specifies that life is meaningless without God. Another example is the parable of Good Samaritan in New Testament. The reader would more appreciate it if the reader knows how dangerous and a lengthy walk is Jerusalem to Jericho (Duvall and Hays, 2008). Bible offers a lot of learning but sometimes hidden in its words that are most of the time based on old language like Latin and Greek. In this time wherein people want immediate applications, it is easy to bypass some hidden meanings of the scripture due to time availability. However, if providing some guidebooks or introductions to the Bible books would encourage people to read historical-cultural context of the scriptures (Duvall and Hays, 2008). Providing some everyday schedule would also attract people to give time in reading scripture because of organization in

Leadership assessment 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership assessment 4 - Essay Example As the name of the business suggests, our Unique Selling Point is competitive pricing where we try to offer products to our customers at lowest possible rates. Retaining this price advantage in the long run is unfeasible as operating costs have to be maintained at the lowest level at all times. Expansion has increased the operating costs which renders the business unprofitable with the current low profit margin. Also competing on price is unhealthy as we remain vulnerable to new entrants that can offer better prices and customer service. Hence, as the CEO of Cheap as Chips, I will raise the current profit margin by 10% and provide extra to the customers in terms of utility and customer care through investing in our human resource capital. This will also help us to improve our reputation in the competitive market as customers are not just looking for a place to buy products of their need but a complete shopping experience where convenience and long term customer relationships is the w inning factor. In order to elevate our image, we will move from being price-centric to being customer centric. The first step towards customer satisfaction is a staff force that is ever ready to assist the customer, anticipate their problems beforehand and come up with solutions in minimum time. Performance criteria will be developed for each job description so that every employee knows what is expected of him. Performance appraisals will be done monthly in the beginning, especially for the sales force as they are the company’s face for the customers. For the sales staff, performance will not only be judged by the sales made in a department but also the ability of the salesperson to maintain favorable customer relationships. Any gap between threshold performance and current performance of personnel will be filled by training sessions which will be an on-going

Comparing and Contrasting Country Lovers and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay Example for Free

Comparing and Contrasting Country Lovers and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay These elements contribute to the short story’s effectiveness as author uses different literary forms and styles to connect the reader to the story. Style has many characteristics that help the author engage the reader such as; punctuation, the use of connotations, and culture. This is what helps the reader’s imagination take over, paint the picture, and get emotionally connected to the author’s story. In comparing and contrasting the two short stories of â€Å"the Secret Life of Walter Mitty† by James Thurber and â€Å"Country Lovers† by Nadine Gordimer you see the differences and similarities in style between the two authors. The culture, which is the common characteristics of a group or a region (Clugston 2010), is very similar in both stories since they are close to real life with the setting in the 1900’s. Both stories revolve around relationships and love. Thurber style is more imaginative then Gordimer which is defined by his use of connotations and punctuation, although both stories are very detailed when it comes to the characters and settings within the stories. In the short story â€Å"Country Lovers† Gordimer does a great job illustrating the setting, which is the time or place in which the action occurs (Clugston 2010). Gordimer provides details about the South African culture that allow the reader to understand the separatism and segregation the characters are living. The reader gets to feel what it’s like to be black in South Africa through the detailed descriptions of the loving conditions and treatment of blacks. The main characters in the story are Paulus and Thebedi. Paulus is the son of a farmer who was raised with the children of the black families that worked on his father’s farm. He falls in love with a black childhood playmate as a teenager but he understands that a relationship with her is forbidden. Thebedi is Paulus black childhood playmate who becomes his lover. The two begin a sexual relationship which results in a child being born. The theme, which is a representation of the idea behind the story (Clu gston 2010), is interracial love or forbidden love. The laws and culture of South Africa forbid interracial couples. Thebedi Paulus are aware of the dangers of being together but choose to get involved anyway. As the story unfolds, Gordimer brings out the imagination of the reader through the use of metaphors, which is an implied comparison between one object and another that is different from it (Clugston 2010). An example of this is when Goridmer writes, â€Å"hidden by the mesh of old, ant–eaten trees held in place by vigorous ones, wild asparagus bushing up between the trunks, and here and there prickly–pear cactus sunken–skinned and bristly, like an old mans face† (Clugston 2010). This allows the reader to visually paint the picture of where Thebedi and Paulus are at and what the scenery is. A common symbolism, which is something that has a literal identity but also stands for something else (Clugston 2010), that is used in â€Å"Country Lovers† is a tree. A tree can be a symbol for life, death, or immortality. This is a good match with the theme and plot of the story. The plot, which is a dynamic element in fiction, a sequence of interrelated, conflicting actions and events that typically build to a climax and bring about a resolution (Clugston 2010), thickens as both Thebedi and Paulus continue their love affair. Thebedi goes on to marry Njabulo, who is also black, and fails to tell Paulus of her marriage. At the same time Thebedi  also finds out she is pregnant with Paulus baby. When Thebedi gives birth to her daughter it’s obvious the baby isn’t Njabulo’s but he accepts her as it was his own. When Paulus finds out about the marriage and the child he becomes upset, why does he get upset, I believe it’s a sign of his love for Thebedi which ties back to the theme of forbidden love. The story takes an interesting twist, although the author never clearly states that Paulus killed the baby, it’s evident he did by the flow of the story. It’s up to the reader to understand the â€Å"why†, why would Pau lus kill the baby? Again, I believe the â€Å"why† ties back to the theme of forbidden love. Paulus has accepted that Thebedi will never be his wife due to society and the racial customs of South Africa. Understanding this he doesn’t want anyone to find out about the baby because interracial relationships are forbidden so he takes the extreme measure of killing the baby. One could also argue that he killed the baby out of jealousy and not wanting another man to raise his child. The story ends with Thebedi refusing to testify against Paulus in the killing of her baby. This shows that Thebedi has accepted her role in society as a black woman giving up any hope if a relationship with Paulus. Throughout the whole story Thebedi character is submissive to Paulus but the ending shows that Thebedi is also submissive to society by giving into social traditions and discriminatory behavior of South Africa. The short story of â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† by James Thurber is written in a third person point of view, which occurs when the speaker is not a participant in the story (Clugston 2010). The form is limited omniscient, which is when the thoughts and feelings of only one of the characters are related through the narrator (Clugston 2010) that character is Walter Mitty. The setting of this story occurs in a city called Waterbury but the state is never mentioned or disclosed, one can assume its Waterbury, Connecticut. The main characters are Walter Mitty and Mrs. Mitty. Walter Mitty is someone who gets bossed around by his wife so he creates a secret life for himself. In his secret life he see’s himself as a powerful man who is admired by all, something he is not in real life. Mrs. Mitty is the bossy, nagging, overbearing wife of Walter Mitty. Thurber does a great job illustrating the relationship between Walter and his wife which many people can relate too, I found it very humorous. That takes me to the theme of the  story, which I believe is marriage. Thurber portrays a marriage where the husband is submissive to his bossy, nagging, and overbearing wife. A second theme could be masculinity since all of Walter’s dreams portray him as a powerful man who’s admired by all. The story is about Walter taking his wife into town to visit her hair dresser. Along the way Walter begins to fantasize to escape the reality of his real like. Thurber does an excellent job of engaging the reader’s imagination through each of Walter’s fantasy’s allowing the reader to vividly picture what Walter is fantasizing about. An example of this is during Walter’s first fantasies where he is commanding a hydroplane through a storm, â€Å"Rev her up to 8500! Were going through! The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa† (Clugston 2010). The sound of â€Å"ta-packeta-pocketa† is just the cylinders of the car Walter is driving. Each one of Walter’s fantasies is tied to something that is specific to what’s going on in the story. As Walter drives past the hospital he starts to fantasize about being a surgeon. As the newsboy shouts about the Waterbury trial Walters fantasizes about being in a courtroom. The Liberty magazine leads Walter into a fantasy about military dugout. Thurber does a great job of interweaving Walter’s fantasies with the surroundings of the story. The uses of symbolisms in â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† were not used in the traditional literary forms. Instead Thurber ties in the symbolism of control and power in each of Walter’s fantasies by Walter showing bravery, no fear, power, fame, and a man with high ranking titles. Thurber does a great job of connecting and supporting the symbolism with the theme of marriage and masculinity. The use of this symbolism is to show how Walter feels about marriage, since Walter feels powerless throughout the story as his wife talks down to him. There are many differences and similarities in â€Å"Country Lovers† and â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty†. The first and most recognizable difference is â€Å"Country Lovers† is a tragic story with a plot that builds up along with way with romance, physical relationship, racial discrimination, pregnancy,  arranged marriage, murder, deception, secrecy, and acceptance of normalcy. While â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† is a comedy with not much of a plot. Where they are similar, both are written in a third person limited omniscient point of view. Both had themes of love and marriage but were very different in how each played out. â€Å"Country Lovers† was forbidden love and arranged marriage while â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† was love and marriage between a husband and wife. These literary elements contribute to the short story’s effectiveness as author’s uses different literary forms and styles to connect the reader to the story. References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Classical Mythology Essay -- essays research papers

Classical Mythology What would one think if he goes back in time to a period where myths were common? Would one believe it to be true or hold his own opinion? I would say it depends on the situation and on what type of myth it is. Classical period was full of myths. There were many aspects to mythology that were held important in the classical era. One of the most significant aspects of the Greek mythology was that it was the primary concept to put humans at the midpoint of the universe. Not like the animal deities of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, the gods of the Greeks were human in form. Not only did they have human physical character, but they symbolized the touching flaws of humans as well. Unlike the gods of other ancient civilizations, Greek gods were not much omniscient and all-powerful, manifesting typical humans. To the Greeks, the life of the gods so closely resembled human life that the gods felt real and touchable, rather than impenetrable and distant. Even the most magical of Greek myths contain real-world elements: the supernatural Hercules lives in the very real city of Thebes, and the goddess Aphrodite is born in a spot any ancient tourist could visit, off the island of Cythera. In general, Greek myths involve less strange and frightening magic than the myths of other ancient civilizations. In this more normal world, individuals become heroes by virtue of bravery and strength rather than supernatural powers. Even though Greek myth lacks wizards and demoni... Classical Mythology Essay -- essays research papers Classical Mythology What would one think if he goes back in time to a period where myths were common? Would one believe it to be true or hold his own opinion? I would say it depends on the situation and on what type of myth it is. Classical period was full of myths. There were many aspects to mythology that were held important in the classical era. One of the most significant aspects of the Greek mythology was that it was the primary concept to put humans at the midpoint of the universe. Not like the animal deities of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, the gods of the Greeks were human in form. Not only did they have human physical character, but they symbolized the touching flaws of humans as well. Unlike the gods of other ancient civilizations, Greek gods were not much omniscient and all-powerful, manifesting typical humans. To the Greeks, the life of the gods so closely resembled human life that the gods felt real and touchable, rather than impenetrable and distant. Even the most magical of Greek myths contain real-world elements: the supernatural Hercules lives in the very real city of Thebes, and the goddess Aphrodite is born in a spot any ancient tourist could visit, off the island of Cythera. In general, Greek myths involve less strange and frightening magic than the myths of other ancient civilizations. In this more normal world, individuals become heroes by virtue of bravery and strength rather than supernatural powers. Even though Greek myth lacks wizards and demoni...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Davis Weiss The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a federal statute that was signed into law in America by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. It is divided into 10 titles. The bill contains provisions that will go into effect on June 21, 2010 and September 23, 2010. Also, the additional provisions will go into effect in 2014. Title I of H. R. 3590 will ensure quality affordable health care for all Americans by eliminating discriminatory practices by health insurers such as pre-existing condition exclusions. Title I also extends dependant coverage up to age 26, caps insurance companies non-medical expenses, and prevents unfair termination of insurance policies. Title II expands eligibility for Medicaid to lower income persons and assumes federal responsibility for much of the cost of this expansion. These bills provide enhanced federal support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, simplify Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, and improve Medicaid services. Title III will strengthen the quality of healthcare by establishing The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) which is a value-based purchasing program for hospitals that link Medicare payments to quality performance. Title IV puts into place a new interagency council to promote healthy policies and to establish a national prevention and health promotion strategy. Title V will encourage innovations in health care workforce training, recruitment, and retention, and will establish a new workforce commission. Title VI creates new requirements to provide information to the public on the health system and promotes a newly invigorated set of requirements to combat fraud and abuse in pubic and private programs. Title VII allows certain hospitals and treatment centers to receive discounted and/or generic drugs to aid their budget. Title VIII establishes a new, voluntary, self-funded long-term care insurance program, the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Independence Benefit Plan, for the purchase of community living assistance services and supports by individuals with functional limitations. No taxpayer funds will be used to pay benefits under this provision. Title IX levies an excise tax of 40 percent on insurance companies and plan administrators for any health coverage plan that is above the threshold of $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. It also requires employers to disclose the value of the benefit provided by the employer for each employee’s health insurance coverage on the employee’s annual Form W-2. And lastly, Title X requires employers that offer and make a contribution towards employee coverage to provide free choice vouchers to qualified employees for the purchase of qualified health plans through Exchanges. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act reforms the health care system by expanding the availability of health insurance, regulating health insurance coverage, and restructuring health care delivery, including how it is paid for. The bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 31 million, leaving only 6 percent of nonelderly adults uninsured. A number of different mechanisms are used to increase coverage, including expanding Medicaid, which provides insurance to low-income parents and children at very small cost; establishing state-based insurance exchanges with subsidies for low- and middle-income households; requiring individuals to obtain coverage; and mandating that most employers offer health insurance. The new act would make Medicaid available to all individuals earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty line, or $14,500 a year ($29,500 for a family of four) while improving services for beneficiaries. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also create state-based health insurance exchanges, called Health Benefit Exchanges, which are marketplaces where consumers can shop for and purchase health insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act include numerous reforms of the health insurance market, in many cases regulating this market for the first time. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 8 million such persons would remain uninsured. Additionally, the bill restricts access to abortion services in the Health Benefits Exchanges and, in particular, for people receiving federal subsidies. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act saves money by reducing the cost of premiums that families and individuals pay to maintain their health insurance policies. It also saves money by getting rid of waste in the medical industry by establishing a center where physicians can report waste and by supporting comparison shopping for medical equipment. In addition, the act helps small businesses to save money by giving them the opportunity o offer health benefits to their employees without devastating the budget of their company. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act raise revenue by imposing an annual fee on the health insurance sector. Such fees would be imposed on insurance companies that sell high cost health insurance plans. The fee is designed to generate smarter, more cost-effective health coverage choices. The r econciliation bill delays this new fee until 2018 so that plans have time to implement reform and begin to save from its efficiencies. The amount of the fee is $8. 0 billion in 2014, $11. 3 billion in years 2015-2016, $13. 9 billion in 2017, and $14. 3 billion in 2018. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the legislation will reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the first decade and by $1. 2 trillion in the second decade, as compared to current legislation. The CBO has recalculated its estimates several times, first projecting a savings of $132 billion, then $118 billion, and $143 billion. It also increases the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) tax rate by 0. percentage points on an individual taxpayer earning over $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly). The revenues from this tax will be credited to the HI trust fund. The taxable base of the HI tax is also broadened by including net investment income. The act would also impose a ten percent tax on amounts paid for indoor tanning services. The tax is effective for services on or after July 1, 2010. Reduces the deficit in the next ten years and beyond. The bill is fully paid for with revenue provisions that focus on paying for reform within the health care system. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 1. Determine how this Federal law will affect market-driven and non-market driven decisions. This federal will affect the marketing aspect of the health care industry regardless if they are driven or not. If the companies are driven and market correctly then they will be able to attract people that are willing to pay for the services they provide. This will cause for private health insurance providers to change the way they provide services. The new marketing strategies will show how they are providing better care for those who have pre-existing conditions. This law will affect how the private health insurance sector markets the different types of services they provide. The companies will have to go back and look at how they are marketing their services to get the clients they want to attract. If they are market driven then they will market things that are more appealing to the clientele they currently serve or want to be serving, this could involve free health screening, more bang for their bucks, and the opportunity to understand all that the company offers to its insured. Some will be more ambitious to provide new marketing ideas to keep current clients and attract new ones while others might hate change and move slower towards new ideas. This will cause them to either loose current clients and not attract new ones. 2. Describe the circumstances at which you would prepare a strategic plan to include this new law in your marketing decisions, knowing this new law may or may not take effect. I would focus more on the issue of providing current policy holders that currently have pre-existing conditions with better options to health care. I would try to incorporate lower premiums or not charge them as much as competing insurance companies do. I would advertise free screening to all my customers and guarantee coverage. I would sit down with each of my potential policy holders and explain to them the ins and outs of what we offer and what would benefit them. I would want them to feel cared about and not just another policy number. They would feel comfortable coming to us with questions or concerns they may have about their policy. I would provide an around the clock support line just in case they came across a situation where they needed guidance. Also something that would be extremely important would be to have a website where all the needed forms can be accessed and they would also have access to their account information online. My marketing strategy would emphasize on family and hospitality, since that’s what’s most important to people. 3. Discuss how each of the five (5) environmental forces will be affected by the new law, which you believe will be the most affected and why. -Jockeying for position among current competitors. This is the aggressive competition between current firms or companies, the fact that these insurance companies will spend so much on having the best marketing strategy will cause the return compensation to be low. This is because they spend so much money on marketing and competing with its opponents. -Threat of new entrants. Since the new law applies to everyone that means everyone will most likely have to start from scratch or updater their antics. If it’s easy for new comers to come along and get their program up and running, the competitions between the difference companies will only become fiercer. Some barriers of entries for the new comers are if existing customers can trust their current companies, or if there are elevated fixed rates or not enough access to resources. -Bargaining power of customers. If the consumers can produce enough force to affect how many boundaries and capacity they can create, then they hold an incredible amount of power. Reasons why the consumers can have so much power is if they buy large amounts of the products being sold, if the company doesn’t have very many clients, or if they have the opportunity to change companies due to products eing so easy to come about. -Threat of substitute products or services. Depending on whether or not the cost of changing up providers is low and more efficient will determine if substituting is necessary. If the insurance companies are marketing the same products and services that one is already using depending on which more is appealing to the purchaser will determine who gets the service. -Bargaining power o f suppliers. If these insurance companies can produce enough force to affect how many boundaries and capacity the companies can create, then they hold an incredible amount of power. Reasons why the companies can have so much power is if there are limited or no alternates, not many companies with products of interest, or they have something of extreme interest to the buyers and they can’t go without it. I think the rivalry between the current firms will be affected the most, because they will be so wrapped up in their marketing strategy and trying to be the best that they won’t really notice how much money they are spending on the project. Once it starts to show that they are actually losing more money than they are making then it will be too late and another company would have come in and stolen the pie. 4. Describe one (1) new target audience and include the characteristics of their demographic and psychographic profiles. The new target audiences the insurance companies are focused on are lower middle income families instead of higher income families. They base this on income brackets, which neighborhoods theses potential clients live in blue collar workers versus white collar workers. Some companies only serve them through current employment under business aspects. Another target audience is expecting women; the insurance companies are looking to insure the baby as soon as it’s born. This way they can collect premiums on the infants from the start of their lives, while insurance policies for them are extremely high. They also allow young people to be insured who are likely to die soon due to illnesses in their families and based on current health conditions. This way they can assemble the premiums and not have to pay out so much money in the process. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Davis Weiss The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a federal statute that was signed into law in America by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. It is divided into 10 titles. The bill contains provisions that will go into effect on June 21, 2010 and September 23, 2010. Also, the additional provisions will go into effect in 2014. Title I of H. R. 3590 will ensure quality affordable health care for all Americans by eliminating discriminatory practices by health insurers such as pre-existing condition exclusions. Title I also extends dependant coverage up to age 26, caps insurance companies non-medical expenses, and prevents unfair termination of insurance policies. Title II expands eligibility for Medicaid to lower income persons and assumes federal responsibility for much of the cost of this expansion. These bills provide enhanced federal support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, simplify Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, and improve Medicaid services. Title III will strengthen the quality of healthcare by establishing The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) which is a value-based purchasing program for hospitals that link Medicare payments to quality performance. Title IV puts into place a new interagency council to promote healthy policies and to establish a national prevention and health promotion strategy. Title V will encourage innovations in health care workforce training, recruitment, and retention, and will establish a new workforce commission. Title VI creates new requirements to provide information to the public on the health system and promotes a newly invigorated set of requirements to combat fraud and abuse in pubic and private programs. Title VII allows certain hospitals and treatment centers to receive discounted and/or generic drugs to aid their budget. Title VIII establishes a new, voluntary, self-funded long-term care insurance program, the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Independence Benefit Plan, for the purchase of community living assistance services and supports by individuals with functional limitations. No taxpayer funds will be used to pay benefits under this provision. Title IX levies an excise tax of 40 percent on insurance companies and plan administrators for any health coverage plan that is above the threshold of $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. It also requires employers to disclose the value of the benefit provided by the employer for each employee’s health insurance coverage on the employee’s annual Form W-2. And lastly, Title X requires employers that offer and make a contribution towards employee coverage to provide free choice vouchers to qualified employees for the purchase of qualified health plans through Exchanges. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act reforms the health care system by expanding the availability of health insurance, regulating health insurance coverage, and restructuring health care delivery, including how it is paid for. The bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 31 million, leaving only 6 percent of nonelderly adults uninsured. A number of different mechanisms are used to increase coverage, including expanding Medicaid, which provides insurance to low-income parents and children at very small cost; establishing state-based insurance exchanges with subsidies for low- and middle-income households; requiring individuals to obtain coverage; and mandating that most employers offer health insurance. The new act would make Medicaid available to all individuals earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty line, or $14,500 a year ($29,500 for a family of four) while improving services for beneficiaries. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also create state-based health insurance exchanges, called Health Benefit Exchanges, which are marketplaces where consumers can shop for and purchase health insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act include numerous reforms of the health insurance market, in many cases regulating this market for the first time. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 8 million such persons would remain uninsured. Additionally, the bill restricts access to abortion services in the Health Benefits Exchanges and, in particular, for people receiving federal subsidies. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act saves money by reducing the cost of premiums that families and individuals pay to maintain their health insurance policies. It also saves money by getting rid of waste in the medical industry by establishing a center where physicians can report waste and by supporting comparison shopping for medical equipment. In addition, the act helps small businesses to save money by giving them the opportunity o offer health benefits to their employees without devastating the budget of their company. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act raise revenue by imposing an annual fee on the health insurance sector. Such fees would be imposed on insurance companies that sell high cost health insurance plans. The fee is designed to generate smarter, more cost-effective health coverage choices. The r econciliation bill delays this new fee until 2018 so that plans have time to implement reform and begin to save from its efficiencies. The amount of the fee is $8. 0 billion in 2014, $11. 3 billion in years 2015-2016, $13. 9 billion in 2017, and $14. 3 billion in 2018. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the legislation will reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the first decade and by $1. 2 trillion in the second decade, as compared to current legislation. The CBO has recalculated its estimates several times, first projecting a savings of $132 billion, then $118 billion, and $143 billion. It also increases the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) tax rate by 0. percentage points on an individual taxpayer earning over $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly). The revenues from this tax will be credited to the HI trust fund. The taxable base of the HI tax is also broadened by including net investment income. The act would also impose a ten percent tax on amounts paid for indoor tanning services. The tax is effective for services on or after July 1, 2010. Reduces the deficit in the next ten years and beyond. The bill is fully paid for with revenue provisions that focus on paying for reform within the health care system.

A Knight’s Tale Essay

One important character in the film ‘A knight’s tale’ directed by Brian Helgeland is William Thatcher. William helped me understand the idea of following your dreams. William dreams of one day becoming a knight. He grew up in a place called Cheapside London with his father John Thatcher until he was sent away to work for Sir Ector. Sir Ector said that he had a spirit. When Sir Ector died, William thought that he could ‘change his stars’ at that point so he jousted in his place. He then decided that with some training he could win money to feed all his friends. As he did this he followed his dream of becoming a Knight. One Visual technique used to help me see that William is important is ‘close up’. Brian uses a close up in the first joust when William says ‘I have waited my whole life for this moment’. This shows me that he has followed his dreams and he is doing what he has wanted to do his whole life. Another technique used in this film is lighting. This technique is effective to show he is an important character because he is never in the shadows. William is always dressed in light clothing and has fair hair giving the impression that he was a good person, unlike Adhemar who always wore darker clothes and was more in the shadows than William. An example of this is when William was in the jail room and Adhemar walked in, William was standing in the only light in the room and Adhemar was in the shadows. In conclusion, the character of William Thatcher was important because he teaches us to follow our dreams no matter how big they are and that anything is possible. The techniques that helped me to understand this idea were ‘lighting’ and ‘close up’s’. A Knights Tale Essay In the movie A Knights Tale the main character William Thatcher has dreamed of being a Knight ever sense he was a boy. The one overlying problem this tale is that â€Å"A man can’t change his stars†, other wise saying that William was not born of noble birth. This story takes place in the middle ages where to compete in jousting tournaments you had to be born of noble birth. William overcomes this with his hard work, his loyalty and perseverance. In the beginning of the movie, William is only a squire to a Knight. He helps tend to Sir Olrick Vonlictensteins needs and wants. But soon he dies and with no other way to get money decides that he should step up and joust for him under his name. William ends up winning his joust and gets the gold needed for him and the other squires. After the first win he convinces his squires that they could keep doing this at other tournaments to make money for themselves. So after a long debate and a little fighting they decide to help train William. There is a scene in the movie that shows them all working together to help train William to become a better knight. This shows his hard working ethic because even though what they are doing is quite trying, he still manages to pull through and become sucsessful. After they have won they’ve first tournament William had damaged his armor in the joust. As they make it to the next joust they don’t have enough money to fix his armor so he has to joust with his damaged armor on. Even though his arms are almost immoveable because of the damage he still takes the risk to joust so that he can win more gold for them to get new armor made. This shows his willingness to work harder to make the money he needs to fix his armor. Near the end of the movie in his last joust he is against his enemy, Count Adimar. Count Adimar was using pointed lances and ends up wounding William by showing a pointed lance deep in his shoulder. But through his hard work he choose to take all of his armor off and joust, putting himself at great risk. But in the end he ends up knocking Count Adimar off of his horse and winning the joust. William showed his perserveence when he was following his dream of becoming a knight. When his Knight died at the beginning of the movie he ricked everything when he stepped in as a knight. If he were to get caught he would have suffered great consequences. By doing this I believe he showed his perseverance to purse his dreams. William shows his perseverance when, even after he is injured while jousting he chooses to take off all of his armor to joust even though it is a great risk to himself. This shows that William is persevering because he takes the risk of injuring or killing himself to defeat Count Adimar and achieve his dream. He is also persevering when, as a young boy his father sent him away to be a squire. Even sense William was a boy he was working towards becoming a knight by getting as close to the lifestyle as he could. Throughout the movie William shows a lot of loyalty to him men. This helped him to achieve his dream very much so. When Jeff, his announcer and the man who helped him forge documents to make him appear to be of noble birth, gambles and looses, William had to pay to get him free. If it were not for William and his loyalty to him men he would have been stripped of his clothes, beaten and been paraded around the village, but William pays his debt for him to get him free. He also showed his loyalty when his girlfriend tells him that in order for him to prove his love for her she must loose the joust. So he takes a brutal beating for her by deliberately loosing and hurting himself in the process. But then after she has seen enough, she tells him that if he really did love her than he would win all of his tournaments. So even after he had fallen so far behind for her in the tournament he strives to win for her and ends up doing so. This proves his loyalty to her because he is willing to even endanger himself for her. His loyalty is also shown when the Prince of Wales is jousting and everyone else is withdrawing because he is of royal blood and is technically not allowed to joust in tournaments, but William still jousts him because he realizes they are both in the same boat. They both want to be jousting, but they are both now allowed to do so according to their birthrights. In the end of the movie, after everyone finds out about William, knowing that he isn’t born of noble birth he is cast out and let out to be stoned. The Prince of Wales Knights him because of his loyalty. He says, â€Å"even if I were not to have known you well, I could tell you were a good men because of how loyal your friends are to you. But I would know better now wouldn’t I? Because even when you knew who I was you still jousted with me and that is knightly too†. In the end William ends up changing his stars and becomes the knight he has always wanted to be. In this movie point of view played a great roll. If we wouldn’t have had the â€Å"flashbacks† of William and his childhood we wouldn’t have know the depth of his want to be a knight. We also wouldn’t have known that his father has sent him off as a boy to become a squire, which also helped in leading him to his dream of becoming a knight. If we didn’t have the various points of view that a movie can deliver to us this movie would have been flat and would have lost some of its meaning. The point of view gives this movie depth. A Knights Tale Essay Describe a character or individual in the text whom you found interesting. Explain how the director used oral/or visual features to make the character or individual interesting to you. An interesting character or individual in the film A Knights Tale (2001) directed by Brian Helgeland is (Sir) William Thatcher. William is interesting because he is not a typical peasant, he has much more drive and ambition than normal peasants. Helgeland uses oral and visual features to support the points that make William interesting. He uses lots of close-ups and high-angle shots when needed to show Williams enthusiasm and leadership towards what he does. First, William is interesting because he is a brave character and is motivated by ambition. William first starts to bravery when Sir Ector dies, he declares â€Å"I’ll ride in his place.† When the director has a close-up on Williams face, he shows the determination and drive that William feels. It is his desire to rise above is position in the social status, he makes his decision, â€Å"We are the champions†. Helgeland choses this dialogue to show that William is different from most peasants and that makes him an individual. Another interesting part about Williams’s character is that for most of the film he is someone who he is not, ‘Sir Ector and Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein’. This brings tension into the audience. The audience thinks when will his true identity be revealed? When William shows up to the jousting match as Sir Ulrich, the spectators of the match think of him as anybody. But through on the matches, he turns into a celebrity. William was unbeatable in the sport of jousting. It was difficult for William to hide the fact that his real name was not Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein. Finally, William’s tone and oral features are strong, powerful and brave for a peasant. He is straight up with what he says and is a good leader to others. Helgeland uses great visual techniques for William, in the beginning of the film William is an untidy, poor, unshaved, immature, he had dread locked hair and dirty clothes. In the middle of the film, he is cleaner he is more clean and tidy; he is properly shaved, strong, healthy, excited, calm, supportive and enthusiastic person. His looks change, his attitude changes and he becomes a little responsible. In conclusion, William is an interesting, enthusiastic and brave guy, he is also a great leader. He is motivated by ambition. Is also unbeatable in the sport of jousting. Helgeland uses oral and visual features to support the points that make William interesting. William is a role model for the people in society today.