Madame X essays

Madame X essays The work of art I will be describing will be Madame X, by John Singer Sargent, was done in 1884, on an oil canvas, page 59. I will be describing the work of art as it appears in our text. The painting is of a lady standing with her hand gripping the edge of a small circular table, slightly above her knees, set on her right side. The picture was done in many different shades of black, grays, and white. The back round appears to be a room with nothing on the wall or floor. The wall is a dark shade of gray and then gradually lightens as it meets with the floor. Where the floor meets with the wall the floor appears to be a dark shade of gray and then gradually lightens as it moves forward to where the lady is standing and to where the painting is cut off as its base. The painting is extremely vivid and almost looks like a photograph, it is extremely detailed and realistic. The lady is standing with her hand on the table as I described above, with her hand of the small table to he r right, she has her head turned to her left as if she is looking at something or is simply camera shy. She appears to be what we commonly refer to as white or Caucasian, she has her hair done up in some kind of elegant braid, and she is wearing some kind of elegant gown or dress. Her hair appears to be black, she has petite facial features and is fairly attractive. The straps to her dress are of a gold chain-like configuration and are fasined to the dress with intricate buttons. The dress fits her hour-glass figure fairly snug, the dress appears to be black and is made so life-like by the light shadowing effect that the painter has incorporated. Her breasts appear to be fairly large, she has a small waste and the dress poofs out a bit around her back side, excentuating her hour-glass figure, the dress then flows down to the ground, hiding her feet by the shadowing. The tab...

What Is Content Hacking (How to Be a Content Hacker) - CoSchedule

What Is Content Hacking (How to Be a Content Hacker) Have you ever heard of growth hacking? Its a  marketing technique developed by technology startups that uses creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure. Its a bit scrappy, and completely focused on results. Does that sound familiar? Growth hacking isnt too far off from its counterpart, content marketing, a technique that we all know and love. In fact, its so close that it just might call for an entirely new breed of hacker:  The content hacker. Wait, hacking? Cant you go to jail for that? #ContentHacker = A growth-focused content marketer. #growthhacking #infographicListen, if you want your blog to grow, you may want to learn a thing or two from the content hacker. He or she is traffic-obsessed and focused on nothing but growth. In my upcoming book,  The 10x Marketing Formula, I describe in depth how to combine the best of growth hacking and content marketing. Heres an excerpt from the book that sheds more light on how to become a content hacker. Becoming A Content Hacker In 2010, Sean Ellis, co-author of Hacking Growth and CEO of GrowthHackers, coined the term growth hacking in a blog post entitled, â€Å"Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup.† Ellis wrote: â€Å"A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth.† He further explained, â€Å"An effective growth hacker also needs to be disciplined to follow a growth hacking process of prioritizing ideas (their own and others in the company), testing the ideas, and being analytical enough to know which tested growth drivers to keep and which ones to cut. The faster this process can be repeated, the more likely they’ll find scalable, repeatable ways to grow the business.† From its inception, growth hacking described people whose sole focus is growth. And whose process is a thousand short-sprints that methodically test ideas. Keeping what works; killing what doesn’t. Growth hacking has never been code for being irresponsible and unaccountable. Running fast doesn’t mean running without strategy. But strategy in this context isn’t traditional fare. In marketing, growth strategies are confused with 52-page internal documents that spell out how often you’re going to blog, publish to social media, and push ad campaigns. The stuff of marketing plans. But think about this. Every second you’re not finding ways to directly benefit your customer base and audience is wasted effort. Because once the strategy is submitted, reviewed, and approved by your boss, it’s over. Now, instead of assuming responsibility for the results, you’ve passed it off on your boss. He or she now owns them, not you. In the bureaucracy, so long as you have a strategy, you’re safe. I see this happening all the time. Writing it down feels safe. But the problem with feeling safe is it becomes the goal rather than results. After you’ve spent a week or more in documentation mode, all that’s left is working the strategy. But in the digital landscape, what’s the likelihood said strategy will be viable three months from now? This is the primary fault line in the marketing-plan mindset. Ready for the good news? You can become a superhuman marketer by merging the best of growth hacking and content marketing. The Three Constraints Growth hacking is about turning clever tactics into fast-paced growth. Content marketing is about creating, publishing, and sharing valuable content with your audience to convert traffic into customers. But as we saw in chapter one, with its rising popularity, content marketing alone may not be enough. This means marketers need to take a page from the growth hacker’s playbook. We need to become content hackers. A content hacker is a results-or-die! marketer who merges agile growth tactics with high-converting content to achieve rapid 10x growth. And they never stop doing this. All you need to start are the three constraints: One Metric that Matters + Goal + Timeline = Content Hacker One Metric that Matters The first constraint is focus. Content hackers doggedly pursue growing one, and only one, metric. It’s the gas pedal to slam on- the one metric that will accelerate your business more than any other. Goal The second constraint is specificity. Content hackers set specific goals for measuring the one metric that matters. They’re not looking for â€Å"more† users or â€Å"increased† revenue. They are dead-set on a $100,000 increase in monthly sales. Content hackers set hard numbers to reverse engineer from. Timeline The third constraint is speed. Content hackers define a clear timeline for when their goal will be a reality. It’s a specific month, day, and year. And ideally, it’s much shorter than what sounds safe or comfortable. And there you have it. The three constraints are your new documented marketing strategy; and the tactics and communication between your team remains fluid. People are usually stunned by this. But it’s the happy truth. It’s neither complex nor gangly. Instead, it’s simple, messy in the middle, and effective in the end. We hope you realize that you can do this, too. That doubling your sales, tripling your email list, or increasing users tenfold isn’t outside of your grasp. And even better, you can start sprinting toward 10x growth in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee. This infographic will give you a peek inside their inner psyche and help you become a content hacker. The Tweetable  Characteristics Of A  Content Hacker The #ContentHacker doesnt see product/market fit, he sees content/audience fit #contentmarketing The #ContentHacker eats, sleeps, and drinks blog growth #contentmarketing An opportunistic #ContentHacker turns contacts into connections #contentmarketing Where a #GrowthHacker sees scale, a #ContentHacker sees sustainability #contentmarketing The #ContentHacker eats data and only settles for moving the needle forward  #contentmarketing An SEO-minded #ContentHacker has been leveraging the search base since 1991  #contentmarketing Viral growth can be manufactured if youre a real #ContentHacker  #contentmarketing

Understanding Organisations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Understanding Organisations Management - Essay Example Understanding Organisations Management Ritzer compares society today to a have adopted the characteristics of such a fast food chain. While sociologists like Weber viewed political systems like bureaucracy to explain the shift in society, Ritzer uses the example of a fast food place. He claims it to be far more representative of the contemporary paradigm into which society has shifted today. The concept is better described by the four terms employed by Ritzer himself. They are used to better understand and explain this concept. These four terms are vital to determine the reliability and efficiency of any organization. The first of this is efficiency. Ritzer emphasizes the importance of this term. It represents the optimal technique that can be employed to succeed in any task. However, efficiency is not just a technique used to bring optimum results. Ritzer prefers it to have a very specific meaning which in intoned with entire concept of Mcdonaldization.This means the speed with which the individual is able to move from one point to another. This is evident in the service provided by Mcdonalds. It aims to satisfy its customer's hunger in the least amount of time possible. Thus, they work to remove hunger and achieve full satisfaction in a limited period of time. This idea of efficiency is ever dominant in the establishment that works to fulfill its customers need in the shortest period possible. In this way, the work of an organization is thought to be one that allows an individual to gain results in the shortest time instead. Another term employed by Mcdonaldization is calculability. This mode ensures that the individual uses data that can be quantified rather than ones than are subjective. In this mode, an organization has to pay attention to the numerical and statistics rather than tastes and behavior. In this formula, quantity is seen as another term for quality. This idea makes sense when compared to the work done at a fast food chain. In this organization, if food is provided at a fast rate, the quality ceases to matter. In other words, by providing a large quantity of food within a short span of time, the individual ensures that the consumer assumes it to be of the highest quality. This is because individuals are conditioned to compare how much quantity they receive to the money they paid for it. The organization works to ensure its consumer s that they receive a large amount of goods for a small quantity that they have paid. In return, the consumer automatically assumes this to be the best quality available. This concept can also be employed for workers. According to Ritzer, the employee is judged by the degree of work they can produce in the workplace. This is contrary to the kind or quality of work they produce, which assumes secondary importance. The Mcdonaldization of Society also speaks of the predictability. This can be meant to explain the standardization of services that are present within society. The concept is further ensued in the idea of uniformity in the services that are given by an organization to its consumers. Working against the idea of Mcdonalds, Ritzer shows how the consumer at the fast food chain can expect the same service to be provided to them, no matter which outlet of this food enterprise they visit. Once again, this concept is not unique to

Character & Theme in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Essay

Character & Theme in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Essay Example So, the intriguing plot development begins in the Arctic Circle as the symbol of mystery and unpredictability. The time when the novel was written was that of rapid scientific explorations. As well as many other young men, Victor Frankenstein was fond of natural scientific researches and decided to devote himself to the science. But he did not just scientific experiments, but he decided to transform living substance from the dead one! Victor Frankenstein's explorations were based on medieval alchemists' researches which tried to prove that resuscitation is possible and a human being can be immortal. Alchemists provided such experiments but nevertheless their dream wasn't realized. But the people's dream of resuscitation and transformation of lifeless substance was and is still survived, and this aspiration is eloquently reflected in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In the spirit of Enlightenment, Victor Frankenstein tried to explore the human nature. He was sure that scientific reason can surpass God, and he made his supernatural experiments intending to bring scientific benefit to the mankind. The spirit of Enlightenment appealed liberty, including human liberty from God, and Frankenstein wanted to realise this idea, but he transformed this idea into the idea of artificial intelligence. It was a popular philosophical idea, and it still survives today, in our century of genetic engineering. But that time Victor Frankenstein used less effective scientific methods than we do today: he used electricity. Experiments with electricity were very popular in the 18th and the 19th century, and many scientists tried to apply it in many realms, including medicine. The experiments with electricity were widely used in medicine as the demonstration showing that frog leg can jolt under the influence of electricity - Victor Frankenstein decided to use this technology for resuscitation. He imagined himself as a great scientist who is able to surpass God and create new life using scientific methods: "So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein--more, far more, will I achieve; t reading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" (Chapter 3). In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the old idea of aspiration of man superiority over nature is clearly visible. Alchemists and different scientific experimenters always aspired to surpass nature and place a man over nature, and they didn't reflect possible consequences. Victor Frankenstein realised the danger, nevertheless he went on. But later he found that his creature is not as ideal as he had planned. The monster was ugly, and nobody could see it without fear, and even his creator couldn't look at him without fear: "I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived" (Chapter 5). What was Victor's purpose to create his monster It was an ambition of a man who tried to use his experiments to demonstrate the power of science and the power of humans over nature. Victor internalized his monster, and then

The Construction of News Essay Example for Free

The Construction of News Essay What makes the use of visual and verbal strategies in news construction so important? The answer has to do with the fact that what makes any good news item attractive is its ability to capture and retain the attention of the audience. There are many ways you can use to get your audiences attention, but visual and verbal strategies have been tested and proven to be the most effective. Any news item in the print media, radio or television, however news worthy it might be, will not be taken with the seriousness it deserves if visual and verbal cues are not used. The human mind reacts to more readily to statements which are accompanied by powerful verbal and visual connotations than it does blank, or what Simmons calls ‘imageless’ statements. News papers utilise pictures as a means of capturing attention. Televisions on the other hand make use of moving images, or what is commonly known as video. Pictures speak a thousand words, moving images speak millions. Images, whether still or moving, are indispensable in the media industry. These are not only appealing to the eye and/or ears, but they also help the reader, viewer and listener to grasp the message better. Television journalists usually use videos taken from the source area of the news material. It would be very monotonous and even tiring if TV news lacked live shots of their news. These videos serve the same purpose as picture serve in newspapers. They are a powerful means of capturing and retaining the audience’s attention. War scenes have always had more impact on the viewer because of the images used. The coverage of the war in Iraq managed to elicit a lot of strong, albeit differing views and emotions. This can be attributed to the effectiveness of the kind of images that were used by news channels in broadcasting this news. According to Pfau and Haigh, the use of images in television war stories is very influential. They say that television news provides viewers with a â€Å"front row seat to view combat†. In other words, it gives the audience a feeling of presence, like they are a part of the combat out there in the battle field. Abrahams argues that television news communicates more emotion than other news venues. This tendency is even more pronounced with graphic images of war which he says are â€Å"among the most powerful visuals known to humankind Not all images taken from a scene are used in the final news item. The images are usually edited to suit the needs of the audience. Dramatic images often make interesting news material and video journalists will always strive to the best part of a video clip to show to the audience. This kind of news presentation has been criticised in the past for being partial. Brown, in his Video Aid techniques book, says that news makers usually look out for the most bizarre, which also happens to be the most negative part of a video shootage to use in their news. This has a way of making people misunderstand a situation. For example, many news channels, while covering the Iraq war, usually depicted the brutality of the terrorist insurgents over civilians, yet they failed to report the brutality of some of the American soldiers to the same civilians. Many people thought that the Iraqis actually liked all the American soldiers and yet the situation on the ground was far much different. Film and television have also had a big role to play in how images are used in the other news media. The pictures used in newspapers and magazines reflect what the reader had already watched in a film or on television news. The pictures that journalists use are put in such a way that the message they contain will be reinforced in the readers’ mind. News broadcasters also use creative language to hold their audience’s interest in a particular news story. They do not use the normal street language, nor do they confine themselves to the formal language. Rather, they construct their news in such a way that the words they use are appealing to the listener. The verbal strategies have to be used hand in hand with appropriate non-verbal cues in order to achieve to the maximum, the desired effect. Radio journalists only have their voices to rely on when presenting news to their audience. They usually use sophisticated, yet understandable languages. They have to use high levels of creativity since their presentation is only verbal. In most cases, journalists are able to present a news item to the listener in such a way that the listener feels like he/she is part of the events happening in the news. Images in the news media are also important in the presentation of societal norms and expectations. The media, most often than not, depicts what is happening in the society. Therefore, many news editors prefer to use images that people can relate to or are used to. Conclusion Journalists have had a major role to play in writing and reproducing major occurrences in the history of human kind. Today, it is possible to get a video clip from the Second World War due to a journalist’s efforts. It is also possible to access newspaper articles from long as the 1800s. There are many images depicting past events that should never be forgotten. These are preserved in various museums and media houses for posterity. Therefore, it can be said that journalist have over the years utilised the development of images to preserve the history of humankind. Journalists have also used visual and verbal strategies to showcase the social injustices that are plaguing much of the world today. It is through the images presented in our media that we are able to appreciate and grasp what is happening around us. The media showed the world what was happening in Darfur, and the world was able to act fast to avoid another Rwanda episode. The famous photographer, Mohammed Ali, received worldwide acclaim for highlighting the Ethiopian famine which was killing hundreds of people in Ethiopia. Though journalists have used images for the good of people who are viewing them, there needs to be some regulation on how they present these images. For instance, they should use images that show both sides of the story in order to avoid misplaced understanding among the audience.

Divorce Impacts a Child Emotionally, Mentally and Academically Essays

Divorce Impacts a Child Emotionally, Mentally and Academically Over 60 percent of couples seeking a divorce have children still living at home. ( 6) What some parents don’t realize when they file for a divorce is the great impact that it will have on their kids. Divorce affects children in many ways. It affects kids emotionally and causes them to experience feelings such as fear, loss, anger and confusion. Divorce also hurts a child’s academic achievement. Children whose parents divorce generally have poorer scores on tests and a higher dropout rate. (3) Children react differently yet similarly in divorce. Every child caught up in the distress of divorce has a hard time coping with it and imagining their life without a parent. Their anxiety levels peak as they feel they are going to be abandoned. They experience feelings of loneliness due to the loss of the other parent. Different children go through these emotions at different levels and at different times depending on the child’s age. How bad or how well children handle the divorce depends on how the situation is handled. It can throw the child's entire life into a whirlwind. Young children, up to age five or six, are the most confused and the most disoriented by their parents’ separation. They often fear they are going to be abandoned by their parents, which causes great anxiety. The loss of a parent is extremely sad to a child of this age because they feel that their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their family was together. Many of the children in this group are worried that they will be left without a family or their parents might have money troubles and they will be deprived of food and toys. These thoughts that children of this age have cause them to have feelings of guilt, being unloved and fear of being alone. Some children will be extremely sad and show signs of depression and even sleeplessness. They might feel rejected by the parent who left and think that it is all their fault, that they weren’t good children and th eir parents stopped loving them. They also sometimes have increased tantrums, or may cry more easily than usual. Children at this age may develop physical complaints, like headaches, or stomachaches due to this depressing situation and time they are going thr... ...ng up in a single-parent home (usually female-headed) is seven times as likely to be a delinquent. The rate of violent crime and burglary is related to the number of single parent households with children aged twelve to twenty. (1)In a new study of 72 adolescent murders and 35 adolescent thieves, researches for Michigan State University demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of teenage criminals live with only one parent. Fully 75 percent of those charged with homicide had parents who were either divorced or had never been married at all.( 5) So, in conclusion, divorce is very bad for children. It ruins their lives and happiness. Losing a parent destroys a child emotionally, mentally and even academically. They would rather live with both parents because both of them are an important part of their lives. Two parents are better than one! Bibliography: 1) http://www.alfra.org/risks2.htm 2) http://www.canadianparents.com/articles/feature08b.htm 3) http://www.divorcereform.org/crime.html 4) http://www.ksu.edu/psych/bartel/adolescence/divorce-yes.html 5) http://www.theallengroup.com/members/Fr_flammer.html 6) http://www.womentodaymagazine.com/family/kidsdivorce.html

Texting Phenomena

Interpersonal communication is vital to humans and is used in everyday situations. â€Å"Interpersonal communication refers to face-to-face communication between people† (35), according to West and Turner (2007), authors of Introducing Communication Theories. West and Turner explain that exploring how relationships form, the upholding and continuation of these relationships, and the end of relationships, are the main characteristics of interpersonal context.Interpersonal communication began as face-to-face communication between two people, but as technology advanced, it expanded to include new communicative technologies such as telephone calls, email, instant messaging, chats, social media networks, and text messaging. Text messaging through cells phones, also known as texting or SMS (Short Message Service), is a form of interpersonal communication that can be represented through the Linear Model of Communication: A message is sent from a source to a receiver through a channel , which may be interrupted by some form of noise.Texts are person-to-person messages received from and sent to known individuals. Text messaging provides a one-to-one, personalized, and individuating social medium (Reid and Reid, 2007). The phenomena of text messaging, has researchers and scholars questioning whether this new communication technology adds or takes away from interpersonal communication and people’s learned communication skills. Review of Literature Texting as a New Phenomenon of Communication Everyday social arrangements and interpersonal contact are now routinely affected by mobile technology (Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, and Simkin, 2010).As opposed to 15 years ago, today’s youth have a greater variety of options to choose from when communicating with their peers. â€Å"Communication, via cell phone and the internet, are now widely available and very popular with the young† (Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, and Simkin, 2010, 197). The global cell phone market now stands at approximately 1. 8 billion subscribers, and is estimated to reach 3 billion by the end of 2010, by which time nearly half of all human beings on the planet are expected to own and use a cell phone (Reid and Reid, 2007).A recent survey of 2,000 teenagers in the United States revealed that 80% of teens, or approximately 17 million young people, have a cell phone. 96% of those teens use the texting function, and of that 96%, 1 out of 10 teens say that they text for 45 minutes a day (Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, and Simkin, 2010). Over 900 billion messages were sent in 2005, with expectations that this will rise to more than two trillion messages in 2010 (Deumert and Masinyana, 2008). Text messaging has become a common means of keeping in constant touch with peers, especially among young people all over the world.The phenomenon of texting is continuing to increase, raising substantial awareness of the â€Å"new† texting language. Researchers are proposing to treat electro nic communication as a distinct mode of intermediate communication, in between the oral and the written medium (Fandrych, 2007). According to Ingrid Fandrych (2007), author of Electronic Communication and Technical Terminology, â€Å"Online conversation takes place on the written level, while using specific stylistic conventions which are very similar to oral communication, especially abbreviations of frequently used phrases and emoticons to replace facial expressions† (148).Fandrych (2007) claims that acronyms, blends, and clippings are responsible for the characteristic style of Internet English, and that offline usage is increasingly influenced by Internet usage (148). Some new and creative word formations have even found their way into everyday usage including the acronyms â€Å"btw† (by the way) and â€Å"ttyl† (talk to you later), as well as the blending of certain words like â€Å"all right† into â€Å"alright. † Fandrych (2007) predicts som e changes in general (â€Å"off-line†) English due to texting language as well (151).People â€Å"talk† via text messages: using the keyboard, they make use of abbreviations, they omit non-content words, and they do not capitalize. Fandrych (2007) explains that: Electronic interlocutors replace contextual cues which would have been present in face-to-face communication with abbreviations and emoticons, which are, of course, consciously employed and sometimes intended to entertain, a feature which internet English shares with other jargons and in-group registers (151).Electronic communication, as a medium, shares characteristics with the written language and the oral language. Letters and symbols are used through typing which are displayed on a screen, but at the same time, it is very informal and conversational which replaces the linguistic context with special cues that do not exist in the traditional written mode (Fandrych, 2007, 151). Text language is neither identi cal to speech nor writing, but adaptively features characteristics of both.Fandrych (2007) titles this electronic communication language as â€Å"Netspeak,† and categorizes it as a fourth medium alongside written, spoken, and sign language (152). Communication through text is informal and characterized by new elements. Fandrych (2007) concludes that the electronic medium can be considered to constitute a separate level, between the spoken and the written modes and overlapping, to some extent, with both of them (152).The new texting phenomenon not only creates a new form of language between oral and written mediums, but it also develops a globalized texting standard. English language texts produced by bilingual speakers share many of the features which have been reported for English SMS communication internationally, and provide evidence for what one might call a global English SMS standard (Deumert and Masinyana, 2008). English messages are strongly represented in all communi cative functions of text messaging by bilingual individuals.Deumert and Masinyana (2008), co-authors of, The use of English and isiXhosa in text messages (SMS), study how English is combined with isiXhosa, one of the official languages of South Africa, in text messages between native South Africans. Deumert and Masinyana state that â€Å"The historical and continuing dominance of English on the world-wide-web has supported the popular belief that the language of electronic communication in general is English, and in some cases, English can replace a user’s first language in this medium† (123).In studies focusing on bilingual texting, most messages were written in English combined with the local language. Researchers concluded that there is the existence of a global English SMS norm because of brevity and speed, paralinguistic restrictions with the medium and local language, and the restriction of texting characters (Deumert and Masinyana, 2008). The phenomenon of texti ng has transformed individual’s lives by creating the possibility of being in constant communication at all times, as well as creating a tendency towards cross-cultural homogeny.Texting as a Negative Form of Communication Although texting provides the opportunity for constant and immediate contact with others, it tends to have a displacing effect on face-to-face communication. Similar to face-to-face communication, texting allows for conversational turn-taking, but excludes intonations, emotions, and the ability to send long messages. Llana Gershon (2008), author of, Email my Heart: Remediation and Romantic Break-Ups, performed a study looking at how Americans are experiencing and using new technologies to end relationships.Gershon (2008) discusses, through the use of American college student’s break-up narratives, the ways in which certain social media create new possibilities for disconnecting with others (15). Although a break-up may be happening, an individual has the opportunity through text messaging to hold separate or multiple conversations simultaneously with the break-up. This takes away from the personal aspect of intimate relationships and tends to enforce the displacement of face-to-face communication.Teens especially use instant messaging and texting in particular as substitutes for face-to-face communication with people from their physical lives, therefore, feeling less psychologically close to their instant messaging and texting partners (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). This may also damage the emotional quality of a relationship. Online interactions lack important features of face-to-face communication, such as gestures, eye contact, and body language, making them less rich than offline interactions (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008).Although texting is still communication, social anxiety and anti-social behaviors can be an effect of the lack face-to-face communication with teens today. â€Å"Reports in the press and survey s from parents find points of view that range from exuberant, discussing how socially-interactive technologies can save youth from social isolation and depression, to alarming, focusing on how constant use of these technologies fosters anti-social behavior† (Bryant, Sanders-Jackson, and Smallwood, 2006, 557).The reality is that texting and other forms of social technology lie between these two extremes. A recent survey revealed that cell phone owners declaring a generalized preference for texting on their cell phones were both lonelier and more anxious than those who preferred talking (Reid and Reid, 2007). People who have social anxiety will not come to terms with their fears without experiencing face-to-face communication and, as an effect, use texting as a divergent, to kill time or avoid some other activity.Texting allows users to disengage from the demands of immediate interactive involvement, releasing time and attentional resources to compose and edit messages (Reid and Reid, 2007). Although texting may be an outlet and a preferred mode of communication for people with anxiety problems, it also may give others a false sense of the persons’ real personality. Along with peers, there is a growing concern that adolescents’ extensive use of electronic communication to interact with their peers may impair their relations with their parents, siblings, and other family members (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008).Subrahmanyam and Greenfield (2008) show how peer relationships are being enhanced at the expense of family relationships in an example role of technology in modern family life: When the working spouse, usually the father, came through the door at the end of the day, the other spouse and children were often so absorbed in what they were doing that they greeted him only about one-third of the time, usually with an obligatory â€Å"hi. † About half the time, children ignored him and continued multitasking and monitoring their var ious electronic gadgets (135).Parents are having a much harder time breaking into their children’s world because of the distance and privacy established through text messaging. Teens are using cell phones to institute generational boundaries, such as screening calls from parents into voicemail, as well as undermining family rituals, such as mealtimes and vacations (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). Cell phones give adolescents the power to control the people with whom they talk and have more room into which they can share thoughts freely and privately from their family members.The landmarks of the electronic transformation stage include greater teen autonomy, the decline of face-to-face communication, enhancement of peer group relations at the possible expense of family relations, and greater teen choice (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). According to Raymond Williams (1997), author of Mobile Privatization, new technologies only serve to further aggravate the modern human condition of â€Å"mobile privatized social relations† (129). This seems to be a concern that is provoked further by new mobile communication technologies with people talking of â€Å"detached presence† (Lin and Tong, 2007). Adolescent’s constant use of mobile communication can be seen as a symptom of a general loss of human connectivity in the modern condition† (Lin and Tong, 2007, 305). Texting as a Positive Form of Communication Although many studies have shown the negative effects of text messaging, other research has shown that this new form of communication has positive aspects as well. Text messaging is a form of communication that has many uses: coordinating plans, multi-tasking, friendship maintenance, information, and romantic relationships. Text messages are convenient, immediate, less disturbing, and have no constraints.Since there are so many communicative functions, text messaging has become a common means of keeping in constant touch, espec ially among young people in many parts of the world today (Lin and Tong, 2007). Today’s youth use text messaging especially to keep in touch and maintain either close or distant relationships. Recent research studies have explored how text messaging can offer a sense of intimacy between friends as well as between strangers. This is especially appealing to youth because they can be bonded to all of their social networks through one device. The virtual presence (or ‘absent presence’) of ‘persons elsewhere’ through mobile communication facilitates networking, deeper relationships, or simply increased contact. People who are physically far away can be brought into immediate cyber presence† (Lin and Tong, 2007, 305). Mobile texting allows people to be in constant social contact, which therefore gives them a sense of co-presence at all times. Lin and Tong (2007) explain that text messaging has created new kinds of modalities for co-presence and commu nication, which contributes to a sense of virtual intimacy (305).Text messages, rather than standard telephone calls, allow for total individual communication; there is no chance of anyone overhearing the conversation and thus supports a sense of security and privacy. It is appealing because the text is expected to reach a specific person directly, no matter where they are or the time of day. This form of communication is very popular between adolescents and their peers because they feel as if they can communicate privately, not under the supervision of their parents.Teens travel between their homes, school and nearby places that are all under a high degree of regulation by adults. â€Å"Mobile text messaging has thus fulfilled an important function which provides a sense of co-presence for young people who lack the means to share some private physical space free from adults’ surveillance† (Lin and Tong, 2007, 306). Because this form of communication is relatively free from adult supervision, teens often use texting to maintain romantic relationships as well as friendships.A study found that texting is used to negotiate â€Å"gender relations,† especially among couples (Lin and Tong, 2007). For instance, after a fight, couples may not want to directly speak to each other or hear one’s voice, but texting avoids the embarrassment of making romantic advances or even when saying ‘no’ to these advances. The informants of the study also expressed the fact that some messages are highly private and very meaningful, which can be saved and stored in the mobile device.Since the conversation remains private, even in public location ns, individuals tend to reveal more about their emotional selves through texts. Thus, youth text messaging end on an optimistic note about the positive uses of SMS by young people for gaining freedom from surveillance by adults and for negotiating subtle gender relations (Lin and Tong, 2007). Relationshi ps can actually be strengthened through text messaging because of its convenience, intimacy, and privacy among users. Another strength of text messaging is that it allows people to keep in touch with friends who are separated by physical boundaries.Although other forms of communication such as telephone, email, and written letters allow people separated by distance to keep in touch as well, texting allows both sender and receiver to keep in contact at both of their conveniences. The message is sent and received immediately regardless if the other person is â€Å"online. † It allows for multi-tasking while holding other conversations or tasks, and also is less disturbing, by far, than other forms of communication such as phone calls or face-to-face communication.While people may interact frequently in person with people who are in their lives every day, it may not be possible to meet other friends, family, or acquaintances face-to-face on a regular basis. To fill in-person com munication gaps, people used text messaging to stay connected and make plans to meet when convenient (Quan-Haase, 2007). Text messaging is a more suitable fit to maintaining distance relationships as opposed to other forms of communication.Aside from convenience, some people actually prefer text messaging because it gives them a chance to think about what they want to say, which is not always possible during face-to-face communication. â€Å"Text messaging gives people time to think about the wording of their messages, allowing them to be more informal and candid, even with close friends† (Reid and Reid, 2007, 425). Some people, due to SMS and other forms of text based communication, even develop an entirely separate, â€Å"brave SMS self,† which contrasts with their more reserved real-life personality (Reid and Reid, 2007).Text messaging can be used as an outlet to help expand communication and closeness with peers. For instance, in an essay that discusses the relatio nship between texting and social anxiety, Donna Reid and Fraser Reid (2007) write: By delaying or eliminating the audience reactions that normally accompany real-time spoken interaction, SMS may offer anxious individuals a way of making social contact without fear of immediate disapproval or rejection, allowing attention to be refocused away from the observer’s perspective and towards the composition of messages that more effectively achieve self-presentational goals (425).Interactive media, such as texting, allow people to individuate themselves, communicate with peers, and accomplish stages of intimate contact that they could not achieve in other interactional settings. Research Questions Texting helps maintain social relationships in modern society, and affords resources to achieve a sense of co-presence and intimacy with both existing friends and new acquaintances, while avoiding having to deal with face-to-face interaction or the intrusive disturbance of a phone call (Li n and Tong, 2007).Although texting may be a convenient source of communication that is direct, individualized, and private, it also may be taking away from the importance of face-to-face, interpersonal communication. If people are relying on a text based communication exchange, they are not experiencing or learning interactional conversations involving tonal inflection, reactions, and especially body language. Nonverbal communication is a big part of interpersonal communication because it shows the reaction of the individual after receiving the message, therefore giving the sender a form of feedback that strengthens the communication process.As technology continues to advance, there is rising concern that social, interactional, and communication skills of today’s youth and future generations will consequently decline. As a result, this study will address the following questions: RQ1: Is texting taking away from or adding to interpersonal communication and individual’s learned communication skills? RQ2: Will texting affect how children and adolescents communicate with one another? RQ3: Do people rely on texting to fulfill their emotional, psychological, and other forms of needs as opposed to other types of communicative technology or face-to-face communication?

Importance of Historical Perspectives Essay

The organised use of labour or Management as we now call it, is as old as time. However it was only in the 19th century that management and the idea of management thought emerged as an important element of political, economic and social development. I believe that historical perspectives have been critically important to the development of management thought through the centuries. Management ideas have been developed out of social and cultural circumstances, over time the social and cultural circumstances have radically changed and developed but the principle of management and management thought has been slow in keeping up with these developments. From my reading, I would argue that there have been three main phases that have fundamentally shaped management thought since ancient times. These phases are; the early autocratic management approach, the change in management thought following the reformation and thirdly, the new work practices required to support the industrial revolution. From my research, it is evident that major historical events have also had an important role to play in the development of different management styles and structures. In ancient times, management of people was purely autocratic. Many of the work force in these times were slaves. This early practise of management seen in ancient Egypt, continued through to feudal times. It was very effective in supporting some of the great construction projects which ancient Egypt is famous for, such as the building of the pyramids, the irrigation of the Nile and the building of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Similarly in ancient China, the building of the Great Wall of China. These great works provide us with evidence of a very organised and autocratic approach to the use of labour and also project management skills . This early autocratic period of management was heavily dominated by cultural values such as; fear of punishment, fear of god, where people had no sense of individual achievement and they could only look forward to a better life after death. This form of management continued through the middle ages and in these non-industrialised circumstances there was no â€Å"no need to develop a formal body of management thought†(Wren & Bedeian, 2011: 37) As long as society was dominated by fear and oppression this form of management was sustained. As long as Christianity and the divine right of kings maintained their hold on society, management thought could not evolve and develop. However, these feudal times where religion was invincible and demanded total subservience ere coming to an end. The crusades were a major catalyst for change in these times and by weakening the strength of the catholic church they were the beginning of a cultural rebirth which led to the protestant reformation. With the reformation came the protestant work ethic which I would argue has transcended the history of management and has fundamentally changed work practises opening the door to completely different and new management styles and structures. Prior to this commerce was viewed as an evil that corrupted peoples’ minds and the idea of trade could undermine the obedience demanded by the catholic church. Max Weber in â€Å"the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism† urges strongly that the spirit of capitalism grew out of Protestantism and the protestant work ethic. (Wren & Bedeian, 2011: 26) It is clear that the transformation in attitudes in society due to the reformation brought with it the need for new management structures which would support creativity and competitiveness. These changes did not happen quickly, but they were pivotal in the fundamental shift to the organisation of labour being managed by many people and many different types of people rather than the autocratic few. These new managers began to think about personal gain and had to consider the best ways to achieve these gains. The shift to personal gain was accompanied by the strengthening of national economies in Europe and further afield as new countries and colonies were being discovered and established. The scene was being set for the industrial revolution. Historical perspectives were changing and along with them, new principles in management thought were emerging. Adam Smith was one of the evangelists of management thought during the early stages of the industrial revolution. One of Smith’s new thoughts on management was that the market economy would be se self regulating, that is to say that the market would be ruled by the â€Å"invisible hand†(Wren & Bedeian, 2011: 34). His other contribution were his thoughts on the division of labour culminating in the substantial productivity that the use of technology brought to replace human man power. Smith’s principles are fundamental to modern management thought. The industrial revolution brought with it the move from agrarian life to urban living. Production became large scale and the increasing number of factories coming into production demanded more managers who would have to be capable of successfully organising and managing all aspects of these new work places. There is no doubt that historical perspectives have been mportant in bringing about great changes for the better in management thought as evidenced by the evolution of the three phased covered herein. However I would conclude, that despite the advantages of having historical perspectives, society and the management of society does not really learn from these perspectives. I think this is well summarised in Will Durant’s quote in â⠂¬Å"the story of civilization part 1† where he states that â€Å" a nation is born stoic and dies epicurean†(Durant, 1935: 259). There is no clearer example of this than in Ireland today. We have spent centuries struggling against the autocratic management of Irish society both by the catholic church and by British rule. The adversity of these times was eventually replaced by the development of new management structures bringing with them creativity and competiveness. However, as with many developing societies and civilisations, with this development came affluence and opportunism which in turn undermined the integrity of these management structures. Like the Epicureans, poor thought was given to how this would impact tomorrow. So as in Greece and Rome, the lack of long term prudent management and the lack of learning from the historical perspectives on management thought have meant that we have not escaped the Epicurean death blow that has been rendered to Ireland.

buy custom Tragic Stories essay

buy custom Tragic Stories essay Jo Ann beard is an American essayist who graduated from University of Iowa. She works as an editor for a physics journal in the same university. Beard is also a professor at Sarah Lawrence College of creative nonfiction. Beard employs an effective writing style to depict tragic events in her essays. She implements a series of allegorical scenes that intertwine with one another. She uses metaphors and present tense in her works (the Fourth State of Matter and Maybe It happened) to relate events. Present tense is an uncommon and a shrewd way to relate events in a vivid way (Malone, 2011). The author cleverly draws its audience away from questioning his memory in relation to the occurrence. The author creates immediacy and the audience, who evidently, were not part what happened empathize with the author. They audience feel what the author went through at that moment. This paper aims to portray the similarity of The Fourth State of Matter to other works of Jo Ann Beard. It will also des cribe an effective style of relating tragic events to the audience, who did not experience the tragedy first hand. The fourth state of matter, and its relations to other works by the Author In her work, the author relates tragic events, in a faraway manner; as if it is a long bad dream that a victim hopes will never come out true. There is extensive use of metaphors in relating tragic events. In her work the Fourth state of Matter, the tragic events got related vividly by use of metaphors (Hansen, 2009). Beard began her essay by depicting her daily routine of caring for her dog and the daily frustrations of feeling a sense of helplessness. While her routine sharply strikes the audience as boring, it serves to show how actions serve as a consolation to her resigned life. The main character, her dog-the collie, is particularly intriguing all through the story. Hansen (2009) argues that the author might have used the dog as a metaphor to show how her life was going at that moment. The author depicted the collie as overly dependent on her. It cannot go upstairs, but only lies at the bottom and stares at the furniture. The author has to change the dogs bedding constantly as the dog pees on them. Again, this seems to sum up the life of Beard. The audience clearly pictures the author attending to the dog with pity. The dog may as well represent her husband in a profound manner. She admits to Chris, her colleague at work that her husband was dumping her. The void left could only be filled by daily routine of work, whether dull or engaging. She hopes things would turn round for her, but on the contrary, there seems no hope. Her reaction to the message she found in the answering machine at the office shows her state of despair. The first of her husbands calls made her heart lurched with hopeful way. Her hope however gets diminished when in the second call her husband tells her he was fine. She recounts how she has to put the dog to sleep. Chris- her colleague- wonders why she is letting this continue. We could argue that Beard allowed the problems she was experiencing to torment her. She talks to her husband who had abandoned her hoping to reconcile. The husband however, does not seem ready to get back as she hoped. Before she left for the office, she tells her dog to wake up and smell bacon becau se she was leaving forever. This might have been a way of empathizing with her husband when he said those words to her. It gave her the ultimate experience of her partner when he told her was quitting. The dog appears to be a culmination of her experiences after the separation (Olin, 2011). The statement I can take almost whatever thing at this point, tells us that the author had fully accepted her misgivings; a helpless dog that constantly required her attention and a husband, who had quit on her. Although the dog, being an animal, was expected not to realize the gravity of its actions, the contrary has been related to the reader. The dog showed concern and tried to stand, but the author rested those concerns by patting her. This illustrated the author as a caring and concerned person. She brings out her personality in such a witty manner. The squirrels on her house sent her sleeping downstairs on the dogs couch. One would wonder why he did not simply exterminate the squirrels rather than sleep with dogs on the couch. She however, claims that she sleeps there to calm the collie that gets restless whenever she got up. She finally decides to ask Caroline to rid her house of squirrels. Caroline is depicted as having a brave character. She finally got rid of the squirrels. The squirrels can be argued as being more than just squirrels. They could represent troublesome companions or noisy neighbours. After the tragic massacre, at the end of the essay, the author feels a surge of hope, when a branch scraped against her house. She listens and hopes that the little squirrels would return. Could the squirrels have been used to represent real people? People in her work place or community that bothered her? She admitted that she did not get along with Bob, her colleague at work. Lu is also another person who seems not to like Bear d. She greets him and sure to her expectation no reply came. The fact that she expected no reply from Lu means they might have had some differences. Her favourite colleague was Chris. She tries to console herself by deceiving her mind that Chris had escaped death in the tragedy. The phrase the never come back once theyre gone, in relation to the squirrels, show us how the departed go for good. It also contradicts the common notion that happiness sets in with the departure of those who make our lives hard. She missed the squirrels though they purely meant trouble to her. The statement could show how she missed her dead colleagues and how she hoped they would come back. Her work on Maybe it Happened is related to The Fourth State of Matter in that both use one tense. The latter uses present tense creating immediacy while the previous employs past tense. Both styles are useful in the situations surrounding each incidence. In the second incidence, the emotions surrounding what occurred could have overwhelmed the author if any other tense was used. The recount of the story would have not have been more real. She uses past tense in Maybe it Happened. She relates a story of a kid who ends up hurting herself from a fall at play. The babys elder cousins, who apparently got bored babysitting, left her. The elder children did not find the baby interesting and left her. Left to her own demise, the baby climbed on to a milk crate. The shrill of phone might have startled the kid who fell off the crate, hurting her knee in the process. The single tense helps develop tone and mood in a narrative. The tone changes when phone rang. The author wanted to show how lea ving a baby in the hands of children could end tragically. The act is brought out clearly through the use of events that follow each other. These acts can be used to warn or caution people on the occurrences of such tragic incidences. This is seen in the last paragraph when the author talks of girls playing the role of the mother, caring for a child, while mothers did other things. The girls were left to care for the baby while the mother got her hair done. The end results were tragic (Beard, 2008). A relation in her works is also brought about by styles used to write. The author uses styles including metaphors and similes. Metaphors were widely employed in her work The fourth State of Matter. Dogs and squirrels were more than just animals. They symbolized human beings to some extent. The author enlists the help of a friend to have the squirrels chased but later misses them after the tragedy. The squirrels having been troublesome may depict people who did not go well with the author. Their exit in the tragedy would however, leave the author lonely, hence missing them. The statement petting her, like a puppy, in Maybe it happened amounts to a simile. This style of writing helps the reader to see more clearly. The author ends her stories in a creative way that leaves the audience hoping that the tragedies never actually happened. The reason could lie in the fact that tragedies create a sad mood and the author in her ingenuity does not wish to leave her audience in that state. She therefore, creates some kind of doubt in the reader as to what happened. Doubt helps to lighten the heart and the reader hopes what had just been related did not actually happen. Chris is shown replying to the author in The Fourth State of Matter at the end. Doubt is created although we had been told that Chris had been killed. The closing statement in Maybe it Happened also creates a similar effect on the audience. There is order in the presentation of events by the author in her work. She does not literally jump from one point to another confusing her audience. The events that take the starting point could be seen as inconsequential to the final tragedy. This is however, not the case since the events play an important role. It helps the audience understand what happened in a more clear and organized way. The tragedy is therefore, presented in a more orderly way to the audience. The styles used to relate tragic events. The author related her experience more vividly using one tense throughout the narrative. The use of present tense helps the reader to associate with the events happening in the narrative and allows the author to pass the intended message more effectively. The style serves to create significance in the mundane experiences felt by many and universality in what occurred to a few. The broad issues under discussion are reduced to the specific events happening at that particular moment. Beard vividly relates her experiences in a mood that draws the reader into the events as though they were happening then. The author feels like it is happening to them rather than the writer. Her narratives create a deep interest in readers because of their uniqueness. The audience cannot help but pity Beard in the Fourth state of Matter as she relates her routine and her resigned attitude. She does nothing to change the problems she is facing. She allows the reader to feel and hear as the story unfolds; th e boring routine of having to attend to a sickly dog, the anxiety of separation and the final massacre. The style brings immediacy to her recount of the tragedy that befell her at work place. This tense helped show the reader what really happened in what would otherwise be an unfathomable occurrence. The intensity of her tragedy does not escape the audience. The directness of the tense makes the reader to focus attaching them to the current issues. Her narration is so elusive that the message may escape a reader who is not keen. Malone (2011) notes that present tense helps develop a closer relationship and intimacy between the reader and the story. The reader is forced into experiencing events that happened long ago at that moment. This helps in passing the messsage that the author intended to relate effectively. This style of using a single tense is also seen in her work Maybe It Happened. The author employed past tense to relate how the babys play tragically ended in an accident. Past tense was used all through relating how, left to her own, the baby climbed on a crate of milk and ended falling with the result that she hurt her knee. Malones work on The First Week of After used this style extensively to relate the tragic event that befell the couple. She uses present perfect tense for her bigger part of her work to effectively pass her message. Her husband got diagnosed with cancer, a terminal disease. The audience may not immediately understand the pain that one goes through when a partner is diagnosed with such a disease. This style brings immediacy to the reader. It develops a feeling that the narrative was written as it unfolded. The experience becomes more relatable to the audience than the actual victim. It helps the reader to actually feel and understand what the narrator went throug h. The reader feels like they are part and parcel of the events that are happening. The use of metaphors implicitly compares two things that might not be related. Metaphors assert that one subject is the same as another, completely unrelated, by comparison. The dog, which is the major character in her work the Fourth State of Matter, can be seen as a metaphor. In the literal meaning, the dog has taken the position of her husband. It has to be attended to, frequently. The dog also becomes restless when the author leaves the room. Its bedding has to be changed when she pees on them. This creates a scenario applicable to an invalid husband in the care of a loving and caring wife. One is left wondering whether the author dutifully attended to the dog out of pity or whether she did it out of fantasy. Perhaps she did it exaggeratedly because she did not have any person to attend to after her husband left her. In her work The longest Night: saying goodbye to my beloved pet, the author relates how she could not come to terms with the fact that her dogs condition could not b e treated. She does not agree with the vet who suggested that the pets life would have to terminate if its condition did not change. This could be seen as a protective behaviour only given to humans who suffer terminally. The void created by her husbands departure was so big that she was reduced to talking to the dogs. Before she left for office, she tells the dog to wake up and smell bacon because she was leaving for good. This scenario could as well show the reader how the drama that led to the authors separation with her husband actually happened. She played the role of a callous husband suddenly stating that he was leaving never to return. The audience is drawn into the saga feeling nothing but pure pity for the deserted. The squirrels could have represented neighbours whose endless squabbles gave one no peace of mind. They became lively at night and heir noises could not give her peace of mind. The tone in the essay the Fourth State of Matter moves in one single direction for most part of the narration. We could only describe it as a monotone. The audience does not immediately realize that the events being related are part of a tragic happening. The audience does not a major thing to happen later when her daily routine becomes the beginning. The audience cannot help but sympathize for her at the beginning. This voice however changes near the end when Beard saw the letter that Gang Lu wrote before the massacre. The tone shifts and gets psychic before Lu committed the heinous act. The readers perspective immediately changes and they feel precisely as the author had at that time. This makes the climax a little more appalling. from all orders made by people you bring! Your people also get 17% discount on their first order The use of similes is also helpful in relating and making the reader to see how tragic events occurred. In her work Maybe It happened, the author says the elder children got bored with nothing to play with except a little kid who had just sat therewhile they were petting her, like a puppy. This style can be employed effectively in relating events. It helps the reader to see more clearly what the author intended to relate. Conclusion Conclusively, it can be argued that Jo Ann Beards works interrelate. Her works clearly indicate that the style chosen should suit the occasion in accounting terribly tragic events. This is shown in all the works of art. Her shrewd way of presenting tragic stories leaves the audience appalled. Her style of writing powerfully draws the audience into the narrative and creates immediacy. Use of present tense is extensive in her works (Beard, 1996). This is a powerful but rare style in literature. Its use could be helpful in relating events whose memories would overwhelm an author during a normal dialogue. It also helps to present what occurred in a systematic way leaving no detail behind. The audience also feels relatable to the ordeal than the victim. Right from the start the reader feels part of the narrative. Present tense is very powerful in relating tragic events even though it is very rare. Beard sets the mood and the tone of her narratives right from the start. The tone is constan tly monotone in the Fourth State of Matter. The tone shifts near the end as she relates the final horrendous ordeal. It is important to create a certain mood and vary tones of a narrative at appropriate points in order to capture the interest of the audience. Metaphors can also be very powerful when relating occurrences. Buy custom Tragic Stories essay

Julia Ward Howe Biography

Julia Ward Howe Biography Known for: Julia Ward Howe is today best known as the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was married to Samuel Gridley Howe, educator of the blind, who was also active in abolitionism and other reforms. She published poetry, plays and travel books, as well as many articles. A Unitarian, she was part of the larger circle of Transcendentalists, though not a core member. Howe became active in the womens rights movement later in life, playing a prominent role in several suffrage organizations and in womens clubs. Dates:  May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910 Childhood Julia Ward was born in 1819, in New York City, into a strict Episcopalian Calvinist family. Her mother died when she was young, and Julia was raised by an aunt. When her father, a banker of comfortable but not immense wealth, died, her guardianship became the responsibility of a more liberal-minded uncle. She herself grew more and more liberal- on religion and on social issues. Marriage At 21 years old, Julia married the reformer Samuel Gridley Howe. When they married, Howe was already making his mark on the world. He had fought in the Greek War of Independence and had written of his experiences there. He had become the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, where Helen Keller would be among the most famous students. He was a radical Unitarian who had moved far from the Calvinism of New England, and Howe was part of the circle known as the Transcendentalists. He carried religious conviction in the value of the development of every individual into work with the blind, with the mentally ill, and with those in prison. He was also, out of that religious conviction, an opponent of slavery. Julia became a Unitarian Christian. She retained until death her belief in a personal, loving God who cared about the affairs of humanity, and she believed in a Christ who had taught a way of acting, a pattern of behavior, that humans should follow. She was a religious radical who did not see her own belief as the only route to salvation; she, like many others of her generation, had come to believe that religion was a matter of deed, not creed. Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe attended the church where Theodore Parker was minister. Parker, a radical on womens rights and slavery, often wrote his sermons with a handgun on his desk, ready if necessary to defend the lives of the runaway slaves who were staying that night in his cellar on their way to Canada and freedom. Samuel had married Julia, admiring her ideas, her quick mind, her wit, her active commitment to causes he also shared. But Samuel believed that married women should not have a life outside the home, that they should support their husbands and that they should not speak publicly or be active themselves in the causes of the day. As director at Perkins Institute for the Blind, Samuel Howe lived with his family on campus in a small house. Julia and Samuel had their six children there. (Four survived to adulthood, all four becoming professionals well known in their fields.) Julia, respecting her husbands attitude, lived in isolation in that home, with little contact with the wider community of Perkins Institute or Boston. Julia attended church, she wrote poetry, and it became harder for her to maintain her isolation. The marriage was increasingly stifling to her. Her personality was not one which adjusted to being subsumed in the campus and professional life of her husband, nor was she the most patient person. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote much later of her in this period: Bright things always came readily to her lips, and a second thought sometimes came too late to withhold a bit of a sting. Her diary indicates that the marriage was violent, Samuel controlled, resented and at times mismanaged the financial inheritance her father left her, and much later she discovered that he was unfaithful to her during this time. They considered divorce several times. She stayed, in part because she admired and loved him, and in part because he threatened to keep her from her children if she divorced him - both the legal standard and common practice at that time. Instead of divorce, she studied philosophy on her own, learned several languages - at that time a bit of a scandal for a woman - and devoted herself to her own self-education as well as the education and care of their children. She also worked with her husband on a brief venture at publishing an abolitionist paper, and supported his causes. She began, despite his opposition, to get more involved in writing and in public life. She took two of their children to Rome, leaving Samuel behind in Boston. Julia Ward Howe and the Civil War Julia Ward Howes emergence as a published writer corresponded with her husbands increasing involvement in the abolitionist cause. In 1856, as Samuel Gridley Howe led anti-slavery settlers to Kansas (Bloody Kansas, a battlefield between pro- and anti-slavery emigrants), Julia published poems and plays. The plays  and poems further angered Samuel. References in her writings to love turned to alienation and even violence were too clearly allusions to their own poor relationship. When the American Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act- and Millard Fillmore as President signed the Act- it made even those in Northern states complicit in the institution of slavery. All U.S. citizens, even in states that banned slavery, were legally responsible to return fugitive slaves to their owners in the South. The anger over the Fugitive Slave Act pushed many who had opposed slavery into more radical abolitionism. In a nation even more divided over slavery, John Brown led his abortive effort at Harpers Ferry to capture arms stored there and give them to Virginia slaves. Brown and his supporters hoped that the slaves would rise in armed rebellion, and slavery would end. Events did not, however, unfold as planned, and John Brown was defeated and killed. Many in the circle around the Howes were involved in the radical abolitionism that gave rise to John Browns raid. There is evidence that Theodore Parker, their minister, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, another leading Transcendentalist and associate of Samuel Howes, were part of the so-called Secret Six, six men who were convinced by John Brown to bankroll his efforts which ended at Harpers Ferry. Another of the Secret Six, apparently, was Samuel Gridley Howe. The story of the Secret Six is, for many reasons, not well known, and probably not completely knowable given the deliberate secrecy. Many of those involved seem to have regretted, later, their involvement in the plan. Its not clear how honestly Brown portrayed his plans to his supporters. Theodore Parker died in Europe, just before the Civil War began. T. W. Higginson, also the minister who married  Lucy Stone  and Henry Blackwell in their  ceremony asserting womens equality  and who was later a discoverer of  Emily Dickinson, took his commitment into the Civil War, leading a regiment of black troops. He was convinced that if black men fought alongside white men in the battles of war, they would be accepted as full citizens after the war. Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe became involved in the  U.S. Sanitary Commission, an important institution of social service. More men died in the Civil War from disease caused by poor sanitary conditions in prisoner of war camps and their own army camps than died in battle. The  Sanitary Commission  was the chief institution of reform for that condition, leading to far fewer deaths later in the war than earlier. Writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic As a result of their volunteer work with the  Sanitary Commission, in November of 1861 Samuel and Julia Howe were invited to Washington by President Lincoln. The Howes visited a Union Army camp in Virginia across the Potomac. There, they heard the men singing the song which had been sung by both North and South, one in admiration of John Brown, one in celebration of his death: John Browns body lies amouldering in his grave. A clergyman in the party, James Freeman Clarke, who knew of Julias published poems, urged her to write a new song for the war effort to replace John Browns Body. She described the events later: I replied that I had often wished to do so.... In spite of the excitement of the day I went to bed and slept as usual, but awoke the next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished-for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if I dont write it down immediately. I searched for an old sheet of paper and an old stub of a pen which I had had the night before, and began to scrawl the lines almost without looking, as I learned to do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room when my little children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me. The result was a poem, published first in February 1862 in the Atlantic Monthly, and called Battle Hymn of the Republic. The poem was quickly put to the tune that had been used for John Browns Body - the original tune was written by a Southerner for religious revivals- and became the best known Civil War song of the North. Julia Ward Howes religious conviction shows in the way that Old and New Testament Biblical images are used to urge that people implement, in this life and this world, the principles that they adhere to. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. Turning from the idea that the war was revenge for the death of a martyr, Howe hoped that the song would keep the war focused on the principle of the ending of slavery. Today, thats what Howe is most remembered for: as the author of the song, still loved by many Americans. Her early poems are forgotten- her other social commitments forgotten. She became a much-loved American institution after that song was published but even in her own lifetime, all her other pursuits paled besides her accomplishment of one piece of poetry for which she was paid $5 by the editor of Atlantic Monthly. Mothers Day and Peace Julia Ward Howes accomplishments did not end with the writing of her famous poem, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. As Julia became more famous, she was asked to speak publicly more often. Her husband became less adamant that she remain a private person, and while he never actively supported her further efforts, his resistance eased. She saw some of the worst effects of the war- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause. Distressed by her experience of the realities of war, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality in its many forms) and seeing war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War, she called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a  Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action. She failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mothers Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who had attempted starting in 1858 to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. Ann Jarvis daughter, named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mothers work, and the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mothers Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. And from there the custom caught on- spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912, and in 1914 the President, Woodrow Wilson, declared the first national  Mothers Day. Woman Suffrage But working for peace was also not the accomplishment which eventually meant the most to Julia Ward Howe. In the aftermath of the Civil War, she, like many before her, began to see parallels between struggles for legal rights for blacks and the need for legal equality for women. She became active in the  woman suffrage movement  to gain the vote for women. T. W. Higginson wrote of her changed attitude as she finally discovered that she was not so alone in her ideas that women should be able to speak their minds and influence the direction of society: From the moment when she came forward in the Woman Suffrage Movement ...  there was a visible change; it gave a new brightness to her face, a new cordiality in her manner, made her calmer, firmer; she found herself among new friends and could disregard old critics. By 1868, Julia Ward Howe was helping to found the New England Suffrage Association. In 1869 she led, with her colleague  Lucy  Stone, the  American Woman Suffrage Association  (AWSA) as the suffragists split into two camps over black versus woman suffrage and over state versus federal focus in legislating change. She began to lecture and write frequently on the subject of woman suffrage. In 1870 she helped Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, found the  Womans Journal, remaining with the journal as an editor and writers for twenty years. She pulled together a series of essays by writers of the time, disputing theories that held that women were inferior to men and required separate education. This defense of womens rights and education appeared in 1874 as  Sex and Education. Later Years Julia Ward Howes later years were marked by many involvements. From the 1870s Julia Ward lectured widely. Many came to see her because of her fame as the author of the  Battle Hymn  of the Republic; she needed the lecture income because her inheritance had finally, through a cousins mismanagement, become depleted. Her themes were usually about service over fashion, and reform over frivolity. She preached often in Unitarian and Universalist churches. She continued to attend the Church of the Disciples, led by her old friend James Freeman Clarke, and often spoke in its pulpit. Beginning in 1873, she hosted an annual gathering of women ministers, and in the 1870s helped to found the Free Religious Association. She also became active in the womans club movement, serving as president of the New England Womens Club from 1871. She helped found the Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW) in 1873, serving as president from 1881. In January 1876, Samuel Gridley Howe died. Just before he died, he confessed to Julia several affairs hed had, and the two apparently reconciled their long antagonism. The new widow traveled for two years in Europe and the Middle East. When she returned to Boston, she renewed her work for womens rights. In 1883 she published a biography of Margaret Fuller, and in 1889 helped bring about the merger of the AWSA with the rival suffrage organization, led by  Elizabeth Cady Stanton  and  Susan B. Anthony, forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1890 she helped to found the General Federation of Womens Clubs, an organization which eventually displaced the AAW. She served as director and was active in many of its activities, including helping to found many clubs during her lecture tours. Other causes in which she involved herself included support for Russian freedom and for the Armenians in the Turkish wars, taking once again a stand that was more militant than pacifist in its sentiments. In 1893, Julia Ward Howe participated in events at the Chicago Columbian Exposition (Worlds Fair), including chairing a session and presenting a report on Moral and Social Reform at the Congress of Representative Women. She spoke at the to the  1893 Parliament of the Worlds Religions, held in Chicago in conjunction with the  Columbian Exposition. Her topic, What is Religion? outlined Howes understanding of general religion and what religions have to teach each other, and her hopes for interfaith cooperation. She also gently called for religions to practice their own values and principles. In her last years, she was often compared to Queen Victoria, whom she somewhat resembled and who was her senior by exactly three days. When Julia Ward Howe died in 1910, four thousand people attended her memorial service. Samuel G. Eliot, head of the American Unitarian Association, gave the eulogy at her funeral at the Church of the Disciples. Relevance to Womens History Julia Ward Howes story is a reminder that history remembers a persons life incompletely. Womens history can be an act of remembering- in the literal sense of re-membering, putting the parts of the body, the members, back together. The whole story of Julia Ward Howe has not even now, I think, been told. Most versions ignore her troubled marriage, as she and her husband struggled with traditional understandings of the wifes role and her own personality and personal struggle to find herself and her voice in the shadow of her famous husband. Im left with questions to which I cannot find answers. Was Julia Ward Howes aversion to the song about John Browns body based on an anger that her husband had spent part of her inheritance secretly on that cause, without her consent or support? Or did she have a role in that decision? Or was Samuel, with or without Julia, part of the  Secret Six? We dont know, and may never know. Julia Ward Howe lived the last half of her life in the public eye primarily because of  one poem  written in the few hours of one gray morning. In those later years, she used her fame to promote her very different later ventures, even while she resented that she was already remembered primarily for that one small accomplishment. What is most important to the writers of history may not be necessarily the most important to those who are the subject of that history. Whether it was her peace proposals and her proposed  Mothers Day, or her work on winning the vote for women- none of which were accomplished during her lifetime- these fade in most histories beside her writing of the  Battle Hymn of  the Republic. This is why womens history often has a commitment to biography- to recover, to re-member the lives of the women whose accomplishments may mean something quite different to the culture of their times than they did to the woman herself. And, in so remembering, to respect their efforts to change their own lives and even the world. Source Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe: Gary Williams. Hardcover, 1999.Private Woman, Public Person: An Account of the Life of Julia Ward Howe from 1819-1868: Mary H. Grant. 1994.Julia Ward Howe, 1819 to 1910: Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott. Reprint.Julia Ward Howe and the Woman Suffrage Movement: Florence H. Hull. Hardcover, Reprint.Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe: Deborah Clifford. Hardcover, 1979.Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown: Edward J. Renehan, jr. Trade Paperback, 1997.

Comerical law. sale of goods Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Comerical law. sale of goods - Case Study Example Under this UCC, John can claim that ABC’s president promised him that they roofing sheets were of high quality through the phone call and that is why he opted to buy them (Cornell University Law School 1). John can claim that the roofing sheets did not meet the fitness purposes for which goods of the kind of roofing sheets he wanted to buy meet. Such roofing sheets should be able to withstand poor weather. The roofing sheets lacked freedom from minor defects; they endanger the lives of the workers in the company safe and its durability was short term. John can file a claim against all these factors since ABC’s president promised him that all these issues will be addressed yet they were not (Hooley 19). If someone has been sold a faulty product, then they are lawfully entitled to claim from the seller any direct expenses that they have incurred (Adams 53). John can, therefore, file a claim on the expense of restoring back his company. This includes the $125,000 spent on the new roofing and the roughly $200,000 lost on damages by the previously damaged