Hispanic Cultural Variations in Childrearing

Mexican American/Chicano/Latino/Hispanic Cultural Variations in Childrearing Mexican Americans form about 12.5% of the population in the United States. They are of Mexican descent and most of them trace their origin to the ancient colonial settlers. The Mexican Americans are descendants of Mexicans and Spaniards. The group is multiracial. The Mexican Americans are mostly concentrated in Southwest of the United States. Today many Mexican Americans are illegal immigrants as they come to look for employment.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Mexican American/Chicano/Latino/Hispanic Cultural Variations in Childrearing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Mexican Americans migrated to the United States during the early colonial days. Most of the Mexican Americans lived in areas in the USA that once belonged to Mexico that is areas such as California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and others and in the regions that they got employment as well as in steel producing areas in the United States. The i dentity of this group has changed rapidly throughout history as it fought for equal treatment in the USA. Today the group struggles to the definition and maintenance of their identity. The Mexican Americans form the largest part of employees in labor market. The rising numbers of illegal immigrants provide cheap labor to their white employers and most work as janitors, gardeners and other blue-collar jobs. In matters of education, due to their immigrant status most families had to choose between sending their children to or save the meager income for other needs (Englekirk and Marin 1). The Mexican Americans have strong family values and have strong family relationships. The bond goes beyond the nuclear family due to familism-family obligation and care. Mexican Americans has strong cultural practices that are passed on to children and this responsibility is mainly left to the women. Through socialization, the children are able to grow up and become integral members of the family. Th e parents often demand that the children comply with authority and those who fail are often punished physically. Through strict parenting, the children are given verbal commands and often-harsh threats when it comes to discipline. Through this strategy, parents want to teach their children the value of family or familismo and respect especially for the adults-respecto. This involves parental behavior that the children are supposed to copy to learn how to behave in the family or with the family norms. Next, let us focus on gender socialization among the Mexican Americans (Livas-Dlott, Alejandra et al 567-9). Gender socialization among the Mexican Americans is tailored along traditional roles. Just like in most societies in the world in which gender roles are determined by one’s sex so is the Mexican American gender socialization. It is also interesting to note that in spite of changes about gender roles in the country most Mexican Americans retain their traditional view about gender expectations (Raffaelli and Ontai 288).Advertising Looking for essay on cultural studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Traditionally the female gender roles are being submissive, dependent and chaste. On the other hand, male gender roles are independent, virile and dominant. The different ideals of gender roles thus have an impact on how boys and girls are socialized to fit in their expected gender roles. For example, the girls were expected to maintain their virginity and thus had to be careful during dating while the boys did not have to observe any rules during dating. This means that girls are restricted from interacting with romantic partners in case they lose their virginity. Girls are also restricted in their movements and cannot go wherever they wish as their brothers can as their parents tend to be very protective with them (Raffaelli and Ontai 287-288; Englekirk and Marin 1). The Mexican Americans parents have different child rearing habits from their African Americans and Anglo Americans. â€Å"The Mexican Americans place greater emphasis on the development of proper demeanor and a sense of dignity than on early achievement or attainment of developmental milestones† (Kolobe 440). The Mexican American families are nurturing, indulgent and egalitarian. This leads to different outcomes of their children’s behavior and that of children from other cultural backgrounds in the United States. It is also important to note that the among the Mexican Americans there are different child rearing practices depending on the origin of parents for example parents who are USA born and speak English tend to allow their daughters to play like boys and are less protective. On the contrary, parents who emphasized on traditional femininity roles have lower levels of education. In addition, fathers who encourage their sons to get involved with roles traditionally set out for girls an d restrict their sons movement have higher education levels(Raffaelli and Ontai 294-295). Mexican Americans even in the 21st century are still considered as foreigners by the other members of the society (Englekirk and Marin 1). Many of them have complained about discrimination and especially about police profiling. The Mexican American youths face problems concerning identity as they try to maintain their cultural identity as socialized and being acculturated into the Anglo American culture fully due to the benefits that come with it such as speaking English. The youths also face the challenge of a segregated educational, system and the schools they attend lack all the necessary facilities and many students drop up thus reducing their employability (Chavkin195). It is important for the problems that Mexican Americans face to be addressed well to reduce the feelings of anti-Americanism by the Mexican Americans, as America is their country too.Advertising We will write a cust om essay sample on Mexican American/Chicano/Latino/Hispanic Cultural Variations in Childrearing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Chavkin, Nancy Feyl. Joining forces: Education for a changing population. Educational Horizons 68.4 (1990): 190-196 Englekirk and Marin. Mexican Americans. 2010. 12 May 2010. https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Le-Pa/Mexican-Americans.html Kolobe, Thubi. â€Å"Childrearing Practices and Developmental Expectations for Mexican-American Mothers and the Developmental Status of Their Infants.† Journal of the  American Physical Therapy Association 84. 5 (2004): 439-453. Livas-Dlott, Alejandra, Bruce Fuller, Gabriel Stein, Margaret Bridges, Araina Figuoera and Laurie Mireles. Commands, Competence, and Carion: Maternal Socialization Practices in Mexican American families. Developmental Psychology 46. 3(2010):566-578 Raffaelli, Marcela and Ontai, Lenna. â€Å"Gender Socialization in Latino/a families from two retr ospective studies.†Sex Roles: A journal of Research 50.5 (2004): 287-299.

Website Content Template How to Get Content Right the First Time

Website Content Template How to Get Content Right the First Time You’ve checked your backlog and suddenly you see it. You need to craft content for a new web page. For some marketers this marks the beginning of endless back and forths with developers, upper management or even clients over what content you need to create. Wouldn’t it be easier to simplify this process? That’s where a website content template comes into play. What are some benefits to using them? Lets count three: They make it easier to take a content-first approach with everything written and ready to hand off to a developer. Templates help provide the clarity your developers need to insert the content you’ve created to the webpage without them having to endlessly ask for it. T hey also help you and your marketing team remain consistent which leads to more pages being published on time. After all, who wouldn’t like being on time? Plus, they make it easy for writers to pass content back and forth for editing review. This post will walk you through how to use our template to create your initial content for any web page. Well also cover a four-step planning process to share with your marketing team. Keep reading to see how you can simplify your entire website content creation process.

W1 Asig Datawarehouse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

W1 Asig Datawarehouse - Essay Example ch, in one’s corporate setting where IT is deemed a crucial source of information and response to inquiries needed by other departments, especially by the marketing department, the apparently slow response could be attributed to the sources of information that needs to be tapped before it could be disseminated to end users. The model below clearly depicts the flow of information from operational systems to end users: From the conceptual framework, it could be deduced that the operational systems undergo a series of processes on the information or data upon solicitation: extraction, integration, cleansing, and transformation. This information is then stored in the organization’s data warehouse to serve varied needs and demands of the users. The cause of delays in soliciting data from the external environment could be diverse: from frequent changes in factors affecting the external environment to the need to update currently available information. As emphasized, â€Å"reports generated in high data volume environments normally take a long time to run. To speed up report generation, many systems use tools that employ a summarization technique to reduce the amount of records by aggregating records together with common characteristics. Problem with this technique includes inherent inflexibility and inability to cope with the constantly changing information needs of manufacturing† (MAIA Intelligence, 2009, p. 4). Overall, the information gathered by the IT department needs to be processed and transformed in the most accurate manner before being transformed and stored to the organization’s data warehouse. As such, the delay should be understandable given the volume of information from the external environment that needs to be summarized and integrated according to the users’ needs. Concurrently, experts in BI has asserted that â€Å"business leaders want to obtain real metrics and near-real-time, linked directly to the business processes, system data and insights

Employment-At-Will Doctrine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Employment-At-Will Doctrine - Essay Example Similarly, the Employment-At-Will Doctrine provides that an employee can leave his/her job without any reason, cause or warning (Stone, 2007). Thus, when employees feel that they do not wish to continue working for the current employer, they can just leave their work station without any explanation whatsoever. This doctrine has emerged as controversial, considering that the proponents of the doctrine observes that it is a balanced contractual policy, where both the employer and the employee are given absolute freedom to determine whether they should continue with an employment contract or not. However, those opposing this doctrine observe that it serves to create more injustice, considering that the bargaining powers between the employer and the employee are not equal (Stone, 2007). The employer always have an upper hand, and thus those opposed to the doctrine finds it inappropriate, since it allows the employer to dismiss employees anyhow, while the employees are left without any re medy or cause of action, when such an action is taken. Therefore, the bottom-line of the Employment-At-Will Doctrine is that there exists no law that protects the employee or the employer against any action that any of the party to the employment contract may take, whether on the basis of good reason, bad one or no reasons at all (Stone, 2007). Evaluating each of the eight (8) scenarios and assessing whether one can legally fire the employee The action taken by John is not within his rights under the employment-at-will doctrine, which grants an employee the right to strike, quit freely or cease to work (Stone, 2007). The doctrine does not provide the freedom for an employee to take any action that can harm the employer, other than quitting at will or striking for any reason. Therefore, the action taken by John warrants his sacking, since he is destroying the relationship between the employer and its clientele. The action taken by Jim to send an email to the rest of the employees, pr otesting a change in commission schedules and bonuses is within his rights under the employment-at-will doctrine, since it entails protesting against wrongful discrimination, which is an exception under employment-at-will doctrine, within the protected actions (Stone, 2007). Therefore, it will not be right to fire him, since he is protesting against discriminatory change in commission schedules and bonuses. Similarly, Ellen has taken an action that is within her rights under the employment-at-will doctrine, through criticizing the employer on the blog, on the basis of what she believes to be wrongful discrimination in CEO’s bonus, which only favors director, leaving out the rest of the employees. This action is provided for under the exceptions to employment-at-will doctrine, where the employee should not be fired for protesting against protected actions, such as wrongful discrimination (Stone, 2007). Bill, on the other hand has taken an action that is against his rights, thr ough using the company’s assets to run his side venture. This is not a right guaranteed to him by the employment-at-will doctrine, and thus warrants the employer to fire him. Joe is another employee that lacks any legal basis for suing the employer under the employment-at-will doctrine. Joe threatens to sue the company for invasion of privacy after being disciplined for

Danshui Plant No.2 Essay Example for Free

Danshui Plant No.2 Essay Danshui assembling computer hard drives on a contract that was fulfilled at the end of May 2010, although the assembly hard drives was different with assembly of Iphone, Danshui was confident that its workers would adapt to the new assembly tasks and that it could hire and train the additional workers as needed. But in fact, Danshui didn’t manage employee property. The workers showed low efficiency in assembly Iphone with produced lower quantity than budgeted which is 180,000 units instead of 200,000 units. Other than that, Danshui couldn’t hire enough qualified labor to get production up to 200,000 units even though they raised wages by 30% because of Foxconn starting pay by 35% to the labors. In addition, Danshui operation department keep having flash memories damage problem, there were around 1,000 flash memories damage in August. It’s shown that Danshui’s labors are not enough skill to assembly Iphone. We suggest that Wentao Chen could organize more training program for labors to solve the problem of damage of flash memories because of labors might lack of skill in assembly Iphone since they are more familiar in assembly computer hard drive before on contract with Apple. In order to improve the skill of labor in assembly Iphone so that will be decrease the number of damage of flash memories, and the decreasing of number of damage will be decrease the cost of assembly and increase the revenue. In addition, for the problem of couldn’t hire enough qualified labors to get the production of 200,000 units per month even though Danshui had raised the wages up to 30%. In order to solve this problem, we would like to suggest Wentao Chen to apply the intrinsic need of labor. For example, Danshui can set up a Childcare centre for take care the children of labors or provide free meal for those having over time workers and their children who in Childcare Centre. For example, Maybank has undergone various business transformations in the last four years to enhance their service offerings to their customers, improve operational efficiency and to focus efforts on their most valuable asset – their people. Currently, Maybank has put in place a plan to build a childcare centre to be used by employees during emergency situations. Parents who are faced with challenges in securing childcare services are able to utilize the centre for a temporary period of time whilst they source for alternative childcare services and facilities. The centre will provide parents with a safe environment, high-quality care as well as provide fun activities for their children when their regular care provider is unavailable or during emergency situations. The childcare centre is cur rently under construction and targets to open its doors to employees by the last quarter of 2013. We believe it’s can fulfill the satisfaction of employees and increase the retention of employees, in the other hand Danshui also can attract labor to work in Danshui without raising wages. Other than that, Danshui can improve the productivity of labors to get the production of 200,000 units with their high satisfaction to Danshui. Wentao Chen could help Danshui to get the production of 200,000 units without improve skill of labor or improve the productivity by satisfied the labors, he could using â€Å"outsourcing† to get 200,000 units production to reach the deal with Apple. Danshui can outsource to other similar assembly manufacturer for 20,000 units to fulfill the Apple contract.

Womens Rights :: essays research papers

Worcester is an amazing city with much historical importance and recognition. Many residents often do not realize the significance of this great city. Most individuals familiar with Worcester have heard about the smiley face, the first valentines, and the birth control pill all coming from Worcester, but these items tend to go to the back of one’s mind after time. What many do not realize is that the First Woman’s National Rights Convention was held right here in Worcester as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This historical event took place at Brinley Hall on Main Street, In Worcester, Massachusetts, in October 1850, after being arranged by such prominent anti-slavery activists as Abby Kelley Foster and Lucy Stone. The convention drew a crowd of one thousand people, consisting of both whites and blacks, and most surprisingly to many, both men and women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Speakers such as, Abby Price, Paulina Wright Davis, and Lucretia Mott spoke out at this event with extreme effectiveness towards advancements for the woman’s rights movements. â€Å"†¦ no one could listen to them without respect for the talent of the speakers, whatever they might think of the merits of the cause,† reported the Massachusetts Spy newspaper. Although there was a similar convention held two years earlier in Seneca Falls, New York, it had attracted little attention. It was not until the First National Woman’s Rights Convention was held in Worcester that advancements to proposed resolutions were starting to spring about, due to its national recognition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In my opinion, one of the most relevant resolutions brought up during this convention was that of women suffrage. Not only were speakers calling for women suffrage, but also for the suffrage and rights for African Americans as well. You can see this hope for the future from the quote of one of the resolves stating, â€Å"Equality before the law, without distinction of sex or color.† While many people might not have agreed with that statement back during this time, this convention proved of the intelligence and the universal respect for everyone that a lot of people exhibited at Brinley Hall. It went to show that not everyone was racially prejudice. Because there were men there also supporting the memorable event, it also showed that they knew in their wisdom that women were equal with men and were plenty capable to make decisions for the United States, by voting in the wonderful system of democracy. These men were strong and courageous for supporting such a radical idea, at that time, as the equality of sexes.

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 for their efforts in creating economic and social development for the masses below.The Chairman of the Nobel Committee said in his prize announcement speech that poverty is reduced if large groups of people work towards it, and microfinance is one such method. Muhammad Yunus is one person who had the leadership and the vision and took an initiative to translated those visions into practical action, and benefitted people in Bangladesh and other countries. He established the idea to give loans to poor people who had no financial security. Muhammad Yunus was given the award because he established a model for many other organizations to follow.He had the vision that every man, no matter how poor, has some talent within him that he can pursue for his own economic uplift. This is especially true for the women in the society who deserve to get an equal opportunity to men to acquire the necessary finances to pursue t heir talents. Microcredit is one of the methods that Muhammad Yunus thought could help in the erosion of poverty from the world. (Cozyinhel, 2006)Muhammad Yunus gave a speech about the microfinance revolution. In this video, he talks about how he came up with the idea of microfinance. He explained how when Bangladesh was formed, it faced a lot of problems, economy was sliding down and famines struck too. He was an economics teacher at that time and he felt terrible for not being able to use all that he teaches to help the people of his country. He wanted to remove people from this frustration and agony and the one thing that caught his attention most was the ruthlessness of the money lenders in a small village.He researched into how many people in the village actually went to these money lenders for money and found out how less they borrowed. He realized how entrenched the money lending system was in the roots and this led him to the solution that he came up with. He thought that if he gives the mere amount of money to people from his own pocket, they can return that to the money lender and they will be free. So the basic idea he had in mind was to free the people from the money lenders.He did this initially as a onetime action and later wanted to expand this into a systematic system. He then thought of an idea to go to a bank and ask them to lend that amount to the villagers, which blatantly refused to lend money to the poor people because they were not credit worthy. He then convinced them to allow him to be the guarantor and lend money to the poor.This was agreed upon and he kept growing this system. He is of the opinion that during the entire process, all he did was to struggle against mindsets (Calit2ube, 2007).He was also of the opinion that banking system was unjust because it excluded the poor and the women, so he decided to put his maximum focus on lending money to the women. Again at this point, he faced a struggle of mindset because women themselves were scared and unwilling to take the money and use it to create something. But he said that this was not the voice of the woman but the voice of fear and if worked upon patiently, these fears can be removed. Ultimately, they started lending to women and the impact on the families was much stronger than lending to men.Keeping this in mind, Grameen Bank thus started lending 97% to women only! Grameen Bank was owned by these poor women, who were the shareholders and on the Board of Directors, and it worked for the poor women too. Grameen Bank went to the poor, the women and the rurals. They worked on the philosophy, â€Å"The less you have, the more attractive a borrower you are for the Bank† (Calit2ube, 2007).He thus started a system that was then established all over the world. Muhammad Yunus is of the opinion that poverty is not created by the poor people, it is created by the system, by our mindsets and by our institutions. Microfinance enabled people to change their lives , it gave a mere 15$ to enable people to move away from a begging position to a dignified position.In an interview with Charlie Rose, Muhammad Yunus said that the system was to give money to poor people without collateral and a guarantee. The existing financial system served to only top one third people who have a huge amount of money and lent money to those who had money to give you collateral.They decided to give money to those who have no money to start with. It worked so well and expanded all over the world because there always was a crying need for it and nobody had ever paid attention to it (Rose, 2007). He has a strong conviction that such a system if grown exponentially can eradicate poverty from this world because poverty is artificially sown in the society and once that seed is removed, it can be eliminated.

Ghana is a mixed but capitalist oriented economy” critically examine this statement Essay

There is not one single definition for a mixed economy, but the definitions always involve a degree of private economic freedom mixed with a degree of government regulation of markets. A mixed economy is an economic system in which both the private enterprise and a degree of state monopoly (usually in public services, defence, infrastructure, and basic industries) coexist. Investopedia defines a mixed economy as an economic system that features characteristics of both capitalism and socialism. A mixed economic system allows a level of private economic freedom in the use of capital, but also allows for governments to interfere in economic activities in order to achieve social aims. This type of economic system is less efficient than capitalism, but more efficient than socialism. All modern economies are mixed where the means of production are shared between the private and public sectors. A mixed economy is also called a dual economy. Most modern economies feature a synthesis of two o r more economic systems. The public sector works alongside the private sector, but may compete for the same limited resources. Mixed economic systems do not block the private sector from profit-seeking, but do monitor profit levels and may nationalize companies that are deemed to go against the public good. Mixed economic systems are not laissez-faire systems: the government is involved in planning the use of resources and can exert control over businesses in the private sector. Governments may seek to redistribute wealth by taxing the private sector, and using funds from taxes to promote social objectives. Capitalism allows prices to be set by supply and demand forces and socialism fixes prices through central planning. Capitalism is a socio-economic system that allows private owners to profit from the goods and services they provide. Investopedia defines capitalism as an economic system based on the private ownership of capital and production inputs, and on the production of goods and services for profit. The production of goods and services is based on supply and demand in the general market (market economy), rather than through central planning (planned economy). Capitalism is generally characterized by competition between producers. Other facets, such as the participation of govern ment in production and regulation, vary  across models of capitalism. One of the cornerstones of this system is the right of the individual to choose what to produce, how to produce it, and what price to sell it for. It is popular in  nations that value the freedom of the individual over the stability of the society. Most modern nations use some form of capitalism, such as state, corporate, or social market. Capitalism is also called the free market system. Capitalism requires unregulated supply and demand and little or no government interference in matters of trade. Each individual is free to produce what he or she wants and to sell it at whatever price the market will support. These decisions are typically made by the laws of supply and demand: if there is no demand for a particular product, the producer won’t be able to make a profit, but if the demand is high, he Capitalism is often closely associated with economic growth, as production and price are determined by the market rather than by governments. Private property rights provide individuals with the freedom to produce goods and services they can sell in the market. In the 1990s, the government continued to play a decisive role in the direction and pace of economic development in Ghana. Under the Economic Recovery Program initiated in 1983, the government tried to shift the burden of economic growth from government to the private sector through a dual strategy of cutting government spending and promoting private production. In particular, the government tried to boost export production through currency devaluations, tax incentives, and government-funded development projects. At the same time, budget deficits were almost entirely wiped out. Currently, Ghana is a mixed economy but depends mostly on the private sectors. The production of goods and services in Ghana is based on supply and demand in the general market (market economy), rather than through central planning (planned economy). With Ghana’s economic system, trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy. It can therefore be concluded that Ghana is a mixed but capitalist economy.

Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing

Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing By Guest Author This is a guest post by Arthur Plotnik. ALL WE WRITERS CRAVE is to charge into the resistant, overloaded brain of a reader and shoot forked lightning through every last dendrite. Why else, if not to achieve high-voltage impact, do we push our own synapses into the red zone night after night, year after year? We are talking force herethe force that gets writing devoured, felt, remembered and published. Lacking it, the worlds most crafted content fizzles at the first neuron . Force in writing neednt always be nuclear-strength, any more than nonverbal cues have to be violent or clangorous to seize attention. Think of a despairing glance that pierces the heart, or a sound-squelching image like Scott Spencers botanical silence. But to overcome a readers natural resistance to static, sameness, and irrelevance, written words must somehow deliver the Godfather imperative: This is a message you cannot refuse. The ways of such force are legion, ranging from over-the-top exaggeration to sly understatement. Classical rhetoricians described these techniques by the hundreds. Writing programs pound away at a standard few, such as amped-up verbs and pared-down verbiage. I would include these among the knee-breakers Ive found most persuasive in overcoming reader resistance. Here I offer you an even dozen. You cannot refuse them: I know where you writers live. 1. Specificity. Why say she ordered an appetizer when you can pucker the senses with pickled herring or giant shrimp in Tylers ketchup sauce? We experience life in particulars, and theynot generalities jolt our memories and feelings. Name the telling things and actions as specifically as you can, but dont dilute their force by specifying everything. 2. Supercharged verbs. Every writer knows this techniqueshe savaged her steak rather than she ate the steak hungrily. Find or create forceful verbs; rewrite to be and to have sentences with action verbs. But writers beware: Overuse of forceful but trendy verbs (she rocked a bikini) and the huffing of too many power verbs per passage become transparently bush. 3. High performance modifiers. Like most words, adverbs and adjectives have personalities: some are kickass powerful, others are totally lame hangers-on. Unfortunately, the lamest ones have given the whole class a bad name. But robust terms like venal, venomous, strident, radiant, rousing, meteoric can be the driving force of a passage. Contrary to myth, even No-Adjective Ernest Hemingway used evocative modifiersif sparinglyto trigger response. ( . . . the sleigh-smoothed, urine-yellowed road; . . . three of the big birds squatted obscenely.) Pull your listless modifiers and plug in high-performance ones where force counts. 4. Fresh intensifiers. Drop such overused, now-forceless intensifiers as great, incredible, awesome, and amazing from your writing unless you can recharge them, as in skull-spinningly great or fall-to-your-knees awesome. Look for or create Grade-A Intensifying Adverbs, the kind that give fresh emphasis to commonplace adjectives: concussively stupid, sublimely stupid, weapons-grade stupid. 5. Sound words. Whomp. Whap. Nuzzle. Guzzle. Words imitating sounds suggest the forces that make the sounds. Even quiet forcesmurmur of innumerable beesgrip the imagination when evoked by onomatopoeia, as the technique is called. Sounds make for resonance, whether as the THOOM! of graphic novels, the KABOOOOM of a climactic literary passage (Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer), or the boom, boom of clogs amplifying a girls fears (The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold). 6. Surprise images. Apt and unexpected images, as in metaphors, excite cerebral enzymes. He had the complexion of baba ghanoush.. His tongue darted into my mouth like a tadpole escaping from a jar. (Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics). Anticipated imagery such as she blushed tomato-red excite nothing. 7. Nowness. Vogue terms and pop references carry the force of novelty, fashion, and immediacyfor about one week to a year, after which they become swiped-out. But used in their moment, especially in journalism, they can be party-starters of Bieberesque boldness. 8. Street beat. Capture the rhythm and soul of the street, and you gon be head of the situation, knowm sayin? Who isnt moved by echoes of street life in all its raw effusiveness and funky phrasing? Cant kill nothin and wont nothin die. Any street will doany ethnic. Theres a girl who keeps bumping into you. You say to her, Pero mi amor, ya. And she says, Ya yourself. (Junot Dà ­az, The Cheaters guide to Love. ) The trick is to develop an ear for authenticity and an eye for fitwithin the overall tone and momentum of your narrative. 9. Big nature. Writers have always drawn on the energy of natural forcesthe violence of typhoons, the insistence of tides. Big nature makes for mighty figures of speech: Shes a Mount Saint Helens waiting to erupt. Theres an ozone hole in his thinking. But be creative; a maelstrom of clichà ©s lies in wait. 10. Tough talk / Irreverence. You talkin to me? Kiss off. Make a hole. Go take your shoes for a walk while you still got legs. To break through apathy, theres nothing like defiant expression armored with attitude, menace, slang and sometimes profanity. It can bear the force of insult, of dire consequence, of all that thrills as it threatens. The usual rules of execution apply: well timed and credible. 11. Understatement. Less can be overwhelmingly more when the immensity, the ironythe jokeis snapped together in the readers mind. When Mom says, Dont worry, its nothing, alarms go off. The not scantily endowed beauty sets hearts juddering. Lets take a little ride is not what you want to hear from Tony Soprano. 12. Torque through intensity. The ultimate force is an aggregate effectthe various elements winding the spring, torquing the intensity. It comes about via soul-jarring themes, characters in peril and on the edge, smoldering conflict, inflamed dialogue, manic introspection. It demands strategies and, yes, craft. My non-negotiable advice: go for it, element by element. Whatever the outcome, youll be a force to be reckoned with. Arthur Plotnik is an acclaimed editor and author whose eight books include the newly revised and expanded The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words (2012) and the recent Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives (2011). He lives in Chicago. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About Numbers"Owing to" vs "Due to"Proverb vs. Adage

October 2007 Most Popular Articles

October 2007 Most Popular Articles October 2007 Most Popular Articles October 2007 Most Popular Articles By Daniel Scocco Gross Writing Errors Found on the Web: That being said, a little attention toward correct spelling and basic grammar rules couldn’t hurt, right? Below you will find some curious, to say the least, errors that we gathered on the Web. 8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques: Whether you are writing a magazine article, a college essay or an email to a client, getting your text free of mistakes is essential. The spell checker helps, but it is far from foolproof. That is where proofreading comes in. Below you will find 8 tips and techniques to make your proofreading sessions more effective. Japanese Loan Words: Each language has borrowed from the other. In the case of English, there’s a long list of borrowings. Some of these have no direct English equivalent and describe inherently Japanese concepts. Others come from Japanese via Chinese. Here are a few examples: Companies Are â€Å"it†, Not â€Å"they†: A common error in modern writing looks a little like this: â€Å"Microsoft announced they are releasing a new Xbox console next week†¦Ã¢â‚¬  TV’s War on â€Å"Me† and â€Å"I†: Television scriptwriters - or perhaps actors who are failing to read what has been written for them–seem to be determined to reverse the functions of the pronouns â€Å"I† and â€Å"me† in American speech. Four Tips For Successful Web Writing: If you want people to read your web content, you have to make it appeal to them. Here’s how to do it. Spelling Reform and the Writer: The free and easy use of personal spellings to convey the pronunciation of the word intended by the person writing has not been an option since the middle of the seventeenth century–at least not for writers who wish to avoid having their credibility questioned. A â€Å"Diploma† is not a â€Å"Degree†: The word degree has many meanings, but in academic terms, it refers to a certification awarded at the university level. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesAbstract Nouns from AdjectivesI wish I were...

Social Security Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Security Act - Research Paper Example This program especially benefits those workers that have paid into the system during their entire working life. The Social Security Act helps to provide financial assistance for retirees, the unemployed, and people who have disabilities that prevent them from working and making their own living. Other categories of people that can benefit from Social Security include families with dependent children, maternal and child welfare, and the blind. The money for the Social Security fund comes directly from a percentage of a worker’s paycheck. Unfortunately, while those that currently receive Social Security appreciate the system, there are workers that are on edge about what will happen to them when they retire. There may be money in the system now - their money - but they fear that by time they retire there will be no money left for them. They are involuntarily contributing to a system they might not be able to benefit from when they retire. Another controversy in regard to the Social Security system was that there would be a loss of jobs, but this was given a convincing counterargument: older workers would be inspired to retire knowing that the Social Security system would take care of them financially, therefore making room for younger people to obtain jobs. Before the Social Security Act became what it is now, it was a system that lacked the proper security that people needed after retirement. The first version of the Act did not include women and minorities for unemployment insurance and old age pensions. The only jobs that were eligible for Social Security benefits were considered â€Å"white male† occupations. Teachers, nurses, hospital employees, government employees, and agricultural labor were among those occupations that were not qualified for Social Security (Dobelstein). At the time, women were only able to get their insurance through their husbands or children. However,