Helpful Hypnotism :: Short Stories Hypnosis Court Papers

Helpful Hypnotism I sat in amazement as the opposing lawyer went into a lecture about hypnosis. He was obviously very informed in the area and had a lot to say. All the members of the jury followed the lawyer back and forth with their eyes as he spoke his final words. Hypnotism is what I had based my entire defense on for the last month and now this scrub lawyer was schooling everybody in the courtroom. â€Å"What is the first thing you think about when you hear the word hypnosis? For most people it’s the crazy genie with a watch swinging back and forth in someone’s face, controlling their every action, and making them do things they normally wouldn’t. But this is far from the truth of what real hypnotism is. Hypnosis is a well-accepted method of alternative medicine (Alman). â€Å"Many psychologists and other doctors study and use hypnotherapy with their patients. This type of hypnosis is completely different than the one with the genie holding absolute power. In fact, there are many misconceptions about this type of hypnosis. Yes, there is a hypnotist that talks to a subject in a soft voice and says things to get a number of different reactions. But any person in their right mind wouldn’t run around bucking like a chicken and not know what is going on. Things like being unaware under hypnosis or the only one who can take you out of a trance is the one who put you in are not true. Truth is that many times people are more fully aware under a trance and anyone including yourself can get you out (Brenman 55). In fact many doctors don’t use the word trance when describing the relaxed state because the person is so aware. They feel that the word trance implies a different mind level or mental lapse and sends out the wrong idea to peop le who don‘t know the subject (Brenman 55). The lawyer paused for effect and took a sip of his drink. I went through a scenario in my head of me getting up and crow-hopping him in the jaw. The cocky bastard continued†¦ â€Å"To be hypnotized a person is often told to close their eyes to reduce distractions.

Using Appropriate examples, discuss the Elitist and Pluralist Approach to Governance

In this Essay, our main aim of discussion is to build a general understanding about how organisation sustainability researchers propose evaluating organisation sustainability and how the proposed models and frameworks changed over time. The analysis is carried out from the perspective of several aspects, focusing on the methods, tools and models proposed for organisation sustainability assessment, noting the organisation level of evaluation (the organisation level, a broader industry of value chain level, or a narrower product, service or process level).Two other aspects of the research were the definition of sustainability in the proposed models with regard to sustainability dimensions, and different empirical studies conducted using the proposed theoretical models. Administration is a long and slightly pompous word with various humble meanings. The word administration was derived from the Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means to serve. To administe r is to manage, direct or serve. It also means to care for or to look after people or management of affairs. In simple terms, administration is the process of managing affairs.It is practised by all kinds of organizations from household to the most complex system of the government. For instance; the giving of instructions by the husband to the wife in a home to prepare food, looking after ailing of the children by the mother and preparing tea and all the duties that a husband deems fit in a home all comes to the administration in that particular home. When it comes to the government, the collection of income-taxes by Income-tax Departments, the disbursement of salaries by the Treasury to the officers constitute some instances of administration.Administration may be defined as the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends. Administration is mainly concerned with proper organization of men and material to achieve desired ends. It consists of â €˜doing the work’ or ‘getting the work done by others’. The problem of administration arises, whenever and wherever men live together. Man being a social animal, the activities of a man in society are to be properly organized and managed. Without a proper organization and management, it would become difficult for men to live together.Administration is therefore a necessary activity of every human grouping. It may be called ‘technology of social relationships’. It involves rational organization and management of men and material. Administration comes in two forms namely public and private. Private administration refers to activities of a household, club corporation or company which are private organizations. Public administration is defined in various forms. Public administration can be defined as public policy, management of public affairs or as government in action.In public administration, we refer to the activities of the State performed by the central, provincial or local government. Public administration can be defined in many various forms. To some thinkers, public administration is termed as the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities. It deals with the problem and powers, the organization and techniques of management involved in carrying out the laws and policies formulated by the policy making agencies of government. Public administration is law in action as it is the executive side of the government.In addition, public administration is also an art, science of management as applied to the affairs of State, a science of administration which has to do with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch were the work of the government is done as earlier stated. From the above definitions, we have noted that public administration in the wider sense includes all the activities of all the three branches of the government namely the legislative, executiv e or judiciary which make the subject unwieldy and lead to confusion.In the narrow sense public administration is restricted to the organization and operations or activities of the executive branch only. Public administration is concerned with such questions as how law should be administered with equity, speed and without friction. It is the systematic execution of the will of the people which has been discovered, formulated and expressed in the form of laws by the legislature. The assessment and rating of taxes, for instance, the hanging of criminal, the delivery of mails, the recruitment of army are all acts of public administration.Thus it may be said that public administration is the non-political machinery of the government carrying on its work for the welfare of the people according to the laws set up by the State. It is the permanent executive as distinguished from the political one. We must at this stage also be clear that public administration has to do with people and not with things. There is a school of thought which holds that in the future the tendency will be from the administration of persons towards the administration of things which does not carry any sense at all.Things may be arranged but ultimately it is the participation of the human element that matters. Things no doubt, are of great importance to the administrator who arranges them but they cannot be administered by him. Administration has to do with human beings for which it is meant. It is managed by human beings and it serves human beings. It is essentially a matter of social relationships. It must not also be forgotten that the administrator is neither a philosopher nor a politician but the non-political aspect of the executive.He should administer law as it is. It is none of his business to criticize the acts and policies of the government. He should accept an exile from party politics and devote his attention to the sincere performance of his duties. Public administration has been put to two usages according to day’s modern authorities. It is termed to be an activity and it also refers to the discipline of intellectual inquiry and study. For example; enforcement of law and order is an activity and is part of public administration.Public administration is also a discipline like political science, sociology, economics and so forth as such is a subject of study. It studies these activities and functions, frames concepts, formulates theories and shapes models. However, there are divergent views that govern the nature of the public administration such as integral view which engulfs public administration as a sum-total of all the activities undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfilment of public policy. These activities include not only managerial and technical but also manual and clerical.In this view, the definition covers a multitude of particular operations in many fields like the delivery of letters, the sale of public land, the negotiation of a treaty, t he award of compensation to an injured workman, the quarantine of a sick child, the removal of litter from a park, manufacturing plutonium and licensing the use of atomic energy. The other view in the nature of public administration is called the managerial view. According to this view, the work of only those persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial functions in an organization constitute administration.It is these persons who shoulder the responsibility of keeping the enterprise on even keel and to run it most efficiently. Their job is to plan, programme and organize all the activities in an organisation so as to achieve the desired ends. In this view, the term administration is also used in a narrower sense to refer to those patterns behaviours that are common to many kinds of co-operating groups and that do not depend upon either the specific goals towards which they are co-operating or the specific technological methods used to reach these goals.It is has been sa id that there is not any marked difference between public administration and private administration as both are conducted according to the same principle. The techniques of management and organization are common to both public and private administration. Accounting, statistics, office procedures, purchases, stocking, disposal are common to both types of administration. For instance an engineer does the same kind of work whether employed in a public under-taking or a private enterprise. The same employees do the same type of work with more or less the same procedures.Public administration has drawn heavily upon the knowledge and experience of private administration. All undertakings require planning, organization, command, coordination and control and in order to function properly, all must observe the same general principles. However, there are basic differences between public and private administration such as political direction, profit motive, service and cost, nature of function s, public responsibility, uniform treatment, , efficiency, monopolistic, officials remain incognito, psychological difference, financial meticulousness and greater social prestige.In political direction the great distinction between public and private administration lies in the fact that private is not subjected to political direction save in times of the gravest emergency unlike in public administration. The private administrators have their own ends pursued by the own devices as they are not dependent on political decisions made by the government. The administrator under public administration has to carry out order which he gets from the political executive with no option of his own. The other distinguishing feature is Financial meticulousness.Public administration has to very care in financial matters as any misuse of a single penny will raise queries and accountability hence a government ruling or people heading sensitive financial ministries and departments may be found wanting . The misuse of public funds may raise a storm in the country and compel the government to resign. The public money is to be spent meticulously and according to the prescribed procedure. The executive does not control finance. We therefore do not find dichotomy between finance and administration in private administration. Profit motive also accelerates dichotomy between public and private administration.Public administration is conducted with the motive of service to people while the private administration is conducted with a motive of profit making in each and every time of running their business. An example of public administration can be cited as a school for the public. Schools are run by the government and the government offers education to the members of the public not because they should generate income but offering a service to its society for the sake of literacy. With private administration, an investor may establish or build a factory in a particular area as a result of g enerating profit.Further, Greater Social Prestige – Public administration carries a greater social prestige than private as the public administration render services to the people than the private hence it commands more respect than private. Service to the community is the basic urge characteristic public administration hence people equipped with ability, mature experience which enables them to promote and safeguard public interest man public administration. This therefore adds flavour to the social status and enhances their prestige. Service and cost.In the matter of public administration only such amount of money is raised by taxation which is necessary for the rendering of the service. In other words, there is an ultimate relationship between the service rendered and the cost of the service charged from the public. If you take a look at any government budget you will find that it is generally a deficit budget i. e. where the expenditure exceeds income. In private administr ation income often exceeds expenditure because there is usually an attempt to exact as much money from the public as possible. If this does not happen, private administration opts for a closure.The nature of functions in public administration is also more comprehensive as it deals with various types of people. For instance, maintenance of the railways to facilitate movement of goods and passengers, provides posts and telegraphs to facilitate communications, maintains hospitals and dispensaries to protect public health. In terms of public responsibility; public administration has a responsibility to the public to face all manner of criticisms from the public, media and various political parties because they are bound hand to foot to public tasks.The visibility of public administrators is another notable difference between public and private sector. While a manager in a private business may work in relative obscurity, the public manager must operate in the public eye. His or her actio ns are constantly subjected to public scrutiny. The publicness of the work of the public manager doesn't end in merely carrying out public policy, the public manager has to respond to the demands of the public. The â€Å"inevitable tension† between efficiency and responsiveness, the pressure to manage effectively and to be simultaneously responsive to public concerns.This pressure often leaves public organizations in a â€Å"no-win† situation, trying to serve a public that demands effective government but balks at paying for it (taxes). The public also demands accountability in government, an assurance that those who formulate, implement and administer public programs will act responsibly. Government administration differs from all other administrative work by virtue of its public nature, the way in which it is subject to public scrutiny and outcry.A private administration would be regarded as quixotic if it allowed any considerations other than that of its own ultimat e, if not immediate profit. Thus while public administration is directly responsible to the people to a very great extent, private administration is only responsible to the people indirectly and that too also to secure its own ends and not the welfare of the people. In addition the uniform treatment should be consistent in procedure and uniform in dealings with the public as far as public administration is concerned.The official has to chalk out settled line of policy and to stick to it. He cannot show favour to some people and disfavour to others. A private administrator need not bother much about uniformity in treatment. It can cater for various special needs and purposes, charging often what the traffic will bear without raising the storm of public protest which in the case of public administration would immediately arise if in government one law were devised for the benefit of the rich and another for the poor.For instance, a shopkeeper may decide to give some chattels on credit to its regular customer buy may not extend this facility to any casual buyer. Such a feature does not occur in public administration. Further a clerk in the post office cannot sell stamps on credit to persons who are regular customers because the Post office is run privately but public hence no features of favours will be exhibited. Monopolism is also one of the features which distinguish public administration from private administration. The government does not allow private parties to compete with it.In private administration, several organizations can make the same brand in different forms to improve it for the betterment of the public whereas the government does not allow any private entity to emulate its products. For instance the responsibility of establishing Post and Telegram, Railways or coin currency cannot be given to any other persons or private body to do as they are exclusively fields of the government. As we go on, we discover that there is another difference between the private and public administration such as Officials remaining incognito.In private administration an entrepreneur does things on his own behalf and is well-known in the business circles and some businesses are even named after their own names whereas in public administration even the most senior officials remain incognito and their identity is not disclosed because whatever they do is done in the name of the government and not in their own name. The element of Efficiency also had a great effect on the public and private administration. It is felt by some thinkers that private administration is conducted on a level of efficiency as compared to public administration.It is a unanimous feeling that among members of the public that private administration operates in a more efficient manner than the public because of differential wage payments as an incentive to increase production and attract staff of superior ability from rival firms, improving designs and so forth whereas Public a dministration is marked by red tapism, extravagance, corruption and inefficiency. In a private administration the incentive of more profits impels the individual to devote him/herself wholeheartedly to his business. This incentive is lacks to a great extent in the public administration.Consequently, the administration of public affairs cannot be made equal to the efficiency of private administration. The other factor that makes the public sector different from the private is decision making. In public administration, the decision must be and should be pluralistic. The founding fathers intentionally created a democratic republic where all key decisions are made in politicized environment. This allows for maximum participation: open debate, multiple veto points – a decision making hierarchy where consensus must be achieved at each level, ideally, an informed decision.While private administration's decision-making is much more simple- it's monopolistic or close to monopolistic. This type of decision-making would avoid any conflicts in interest; hence, the goal is clearly defined. Finally, the quality that makes public sector different from private is in the form of unit analysis. Apart from publicly owned-companies, most public institutions are part of a larger chain of command and control where it is harder to draw a line between the different parts of the system- and where legal frameworks provide little help in this.For instance: public agencies- like research councils or directorates of health- interact closely with ministries as well as subordinate institution and â€Å"users†. The innovation activities in these institutions are heavily influenced by decisions made above and below the chain of commands. The closest parallel to private sector will be large conglomerates or multinational companies. The complex system of organizations with various (and to some extent conflicting) tasks, is one of the reasons for the inefficiency of public administ ration. Inaddition, although political aspect is both apparent in public and private sector, political aspect is more important in the public than in the private sector. Policy decisions normally affect companies directly and indirectly, through laws, regulations and financial support. The public sector is at least formally controlled by elected politicians. The intimate link between this governance dimension and funding of current expenses of the activities implies a very strong link between ownership and control on the one hand and the growth strategies of the subsidiary organizations.In conclusion, both the public sector and the private sector depend on each other to operate efficiently and to serve the interest of the general populace. They therefore work hand in hand to the good of the society. The distinction between public and private can be seen as one of the â€Å"grand dichotomies† of Western thought. It is also a dichotomy that dominates the field of public adminis tration where it is mostly defined as a binary distinction between the realm of the state and the realm of the market. Both sectors are understood to be driven by different sets of competing and incompatible values.That is why discussions about this version of the public/private dichotomy are preoccupied with questions of how to separate the two domains and the organisations operating within them. This clear-cut distinction between the public and the private sector which originated in economic and liberal thought is now often criticised in public administration for being an oversimplification of reality. Due to various political, social and economic transformation processes, there seems to be a blurring of sectors with the effect that a flotilla of mixed organisational forms has emerged that operates both in the public and the private sector.They are seen as having various degrees of publicness. Not only are public organisations engaged in activities on the market place, there are a lso private organisations that engage in activities which used to be seen as exclusively public. And although performing of public tasks ‘used to be’ something done within the borders and boundaries of the nation-states, these ‘public tasks’ or in many ways now ‘internationalizing’ and in some ways even ‘globalizing’:

Functionalist and Conflict theories Essay Essays

Functionalist and Conflict theories Essay Essays Functionalist and Conflict theories Essay Essay Functionalist and Conflict theories Essay Essay Sociology is the survey of society and the behavior forms of a peculiar group or civilization. In modern-day Australian society. a good apprehension of this is needed in order to do better societal alterations to run into societal demands. When it comes to seeking to explicate and understand society. there are two chief points of position that a individual can take. These are the functionalist position. which is mostly based on plants by Talcott Parsons. and the struggle position. sometimes referred to as Marxism. as Karl Marx made a important part towards this theory. Although in most ways these positions straight oppose each other. finally. they are both seeking to make the same thing. that is. explicate why society is like it is today. : Functionalists see society in a comparatively optimistic manner. They see groups as interdependent. working together for the good of the whole society. They claim that administrations and groups are mostly benevolent. and that they are at that place for utile intents. A individual who takes the functionalist position sees society as by and large runing swimmingly. and perceives that really small alteration is needed. as groups being interrelated agencies that alteration in one country will hold an consequence on the whole society. The functionalist position. while utile in explicating constructions and maps of assorted groups in society. tends to gloss over the negative facets of society. over-explaining them so that occurrences which could hold a big negative impact on society seem fiddling and unimportant. Where consensus is non go oning. it is the struggle position that has the better account. The struggle theory perceives society as stratified. that is. holding important divisions. It puts frontward a more ambitious. oppugning position on society. Peoples who support this position claim that in every establishment there are some people with more power. chances and position than others. This position is about inequalities. dissension. and the usage of power to advantage some while disfavoring others. The struggle theory is the direct antonym of functionalism in that it focuses on the negative facets of society. and even when something is working comparatively good. struggle theoreticians tend to analyze it until they do happen something incorrect. doing a mountain out of a metaphoric molehill. So while the functionalist theory and the struggle theory are two extremes of sociological thought. it is non necessary to take the position of either one or the other. Very seldom are state of affairss clearly black and white. Most frequently. if non ever. there are many sunglassess of Grey in between. Therefore it is of import to take on the position of both theories. and figure out which facet of a peculiar state of affairs applies to which theory. A good illustration of merely how much the two opposing positions differ is to use them both to the cosmopolitan establishment. the household. Functionalists see the household as a critical establishment that is needed to transport out several of import maps. These maps are: ?Regulating sexual behavior and reproduction ?Socialising kids ?Protecting kids and the aged ?Providing emotional support and fondness for its members ?Serving as an of import ingestion unit for society’s merchandises ( Earle and Fopp. 1999 ) These maps by and large still work good in the instances of socialization and reproduction. attention of the kids and the aged. and as an economic unit. earning and consuming. However in today’s society. where there is an increasing sum of domestic maltreatment every bit good as working individual parents or two working parents. members of a household aren’t ever able to supply emotional support and fondness for other members. Besides in today’s modern society there are a great sum of people holding sex before matrimony. and an alarmingly big sum of teenage gestation. Therefore households are non transporting out the map of modulating sexual behavior and reproduction every bit much as they were 20 or thirty old ages ago. Functionalists frequently use biological comparings. claiming that a household is like an being. with each member holding a peculiar function. These functions are considered natural. and must be carried out for the good of the whole household. These functions involve work forces traveling out into the work force and taking economic leading while the adult females stay at place looking after her kids and hubby and making all the housekeeping. The functionalist theory claims the atomic household as the ‘norm’ . The atomic household consists of two parents. one of each gender. and their kids populating together in one family. Although this construction is still reasonably typical of today’s society. it was much more prevalent in the 1950’s. Today there are many fluctuations of the household. and merely about half of households are atomic. With divorce and individual parent households steadily on the rise. and adult females desiring the same rights as work forces. functionalists are holding to come up with ways to explicate these happenings. For illustration. with divorce. a functionalist would reason that divorce is a good thing because it means that when people marry the 2nd clip unit of ammunition they will hold more experience and it will be more likely to last. However. this theory is considered out-of-date. In today’s society with a lifting economic system more and more adult females are traveling out into the work force. But this excess function does non intend giving up their other function as carer. Womans end up taking on two functions – that of the carer and the homemaker. every bit good as that of a worker. This is going unwanted for adult females. doing them loath to get married. The functionalist theory fails to take into consideration the simple fact that things change. And where the functionalist theory doesn’t rather apply. the struggle theory has the better account. The struggle position sees traditional functions in households as restricting women’s lives to caring for their hubby and kids. They claim that this agreement is non biological at all. but socially constructed. that is. created by people. These functions have been around and accepted for so long that they seem natural. but the struggle position argues that in existent fact people have been trained over many old ages into believing this manner. The struggle theory emphasises disagreement and battle as a portion of any human group. Conflict theoreticians say that in any group there will be position issues. something will be unjust. and the power will be divided – some will give orders. others will obey. This applies to the household in that it is frequently. if non ever. the parents giving orders to their children/teenagers. who are supposed to obey. Besides. even in today’s altering society. work forces still frequently have more power than their married womans. In modern Australian society. there are demographic alterations in household signifier. and household families are well smaller. The alterations in household agreement and in household values have of import effects for the household as an establishment. Fewer adult females are holding big households and the matrimony rate has declined. mostly because of alterations in attitudes to marriage and populating agreements. There is an increasing sum of non merely de facto relationships. but besides in the societal credence of these relationships. The divorce rate has besides increased. which so in bend influences the figure of blended every bit good as individual parent households. The struggle theory addresses these issues. and asks the of import inquiry ‘what needs to be changed in order for the household unit to last? ’ On the other manus. the functionalist theory attempts to explicate why these things are go oning and how they benefit society. Both the functionalist and struggle theories raise some really valid and of import points. Functionalism sometimes has a inclination to concentrate on the past. while the struggle theory places a bigger accent on the present. However. both theories are needed if the household is to last in the hereafter.

Class Discussion 3 Example

Class Discussion 3 Example Class Discussion 3 – Coursework Example due: discussion 3 Many heroes must face the underworld. If descending into the underworld, or Hell, this is called a  katabasis. If confronting spirits through a sort of sà ©ance, as Odysseus does, this is called a  nekyia. While Odysseus has clear goals in his sà ©ance with the dead- to gain information from Tiresiaswhat is its purpose for the poem thematically? In other words, do you think that confronting the dead has any special significance to the plot beyond the obvious? Yes, confronting the dead in the poem has a special significance to the plot beyond the obvious. This is evident where the ghost of Agamemnon asked the ghost of Amphimedon to explain what happened to many fine young men who accompanied him to the underworld. The answer by the ghost of Amphimedon reveals that Ulysses had disappeared for a long time such that his wife had some suitors that were courting her. In addition, it is through the answer by the ghost that the intentions of Ulysses wife are known. Sh e had no intention of getting married to any of the suitors courting her, but her aim was to destroy all of them. Another significance of confronting the dead is that it unravels the reason Penelope took four years to complete her needlework. The discussion between the two ghosts disclose that Penelope (Ulysses wife) played a trick on all suitors to avoid getting married. This is clear where the ghost of Amphimedon says that they caught her at night in the act of undoing her needlework that she had completed during the day. In addition, confronting the dead explained how Ulysses came back home. The ghost of Amphimedon explained that Ulysses returned to his home dressed in rags like a beggar so that no one could tell who he was. Furthermore, Amphimedon’s ghost talked of the test of stringing the bow that the suitors failed, but Ulysses succeeded. This signifies their weakness of fear while from the perspective of Ulysses it shows his bravery. Moreover, the ghost of Amphimed on recalled the attack in which they were killed and that their dead bodies were never recovered from Ulysses home. This is an indication of Ulysses power and authority. Finally, confronting the dead disclosed that women who remained chaste after their husband’s death were honored, and their husbands are considered blessed according to the period the poem was written. This is noticeable where the ghost of Agamemnon said that Ulysses is blessed to have Penelope, the daughter of Icarius as his wife. This signifies Ulysses dignity and integrity. â€Æ'Work citedDavis, Paul, Gary Harrison, David M. Johnson, and John F. Crawford. The Bedford Anthology of World Literature, Compact Edition, Volume 1: The Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern World (Beginnings-1650). Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 2000 Pages. Print.

The Big Black Bear †Comprehension Lesson Plan

The Big Black Bear – Comprehension Lesson Plan Free Online Research Papers The Big Black Bear Comprehension Lesson Plan â€Å"Run!† It wasn’t the word that alerted me, it was the sound of cold hard terror that accompanied it. My mind froze. What could possibly have scared the ever tough Sam so much as to inflict that slight tremor in his otherwise gruff voice? Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Clutching the tent peg in my sweaty right hand, I slowly stood. I felt it before my eyes even caught sight of it. My heart stopped. It was in my throat, I was sure. Darkness swirled around me. It threatened to eat me whole. What was happening? My senses slowly returned and when I regained my eyesight, I wished that I had not. For, standing there, before me, was the biggest most terrifying sight of my life. My gaze slowly traveled downward from the swirling grey sky. The clouds, full of rain, were trying to warn me of something. I was too frightened to take heed of the warning. My breath caught in my throat. There he was. The Big Black Bear. The snout glistened with moisture. The teeth, sharp and browned by the decades of eating raw flesh, were exposed in a sneer. The howl that rose from his mouth curdled my blood. His mighty claws, sharp from all those years of wondering the woods alone, curled like some hideous cockatoos beak. His mammoth form filled my vision and halted me in my tracks, as only those things we truly fear can. Should I run? Should I stand deathly still? That choice was taken from me, for, with a roar that no earthly creature should possess, he pounced. Suddenly my legs were like leaden weights. My feet were heavy, but I ran. I ran as fast as I could go. Where was Sam? Mighty Sam, slayer of the giants? My head was fuzzy, which way was the house? The sound of splashing drew my attention. Would it be a good idea to bring this rabid beast so close to my family? If it did get near, could Suzie outrun him? If anything happened to her on my watch, mum would kill me. Well, at least then I wouldn’t have to worry about this monster getting me. With a gruff shout, Sam saved me once again. â€Å"Look out!† The animal took off after him at breakneck speed. I hadn’t realized how close it had come to getting me. Its horrible mouth had been mere inches from my flesh. I’d have to try to help Sam, of course, after just one more breath. â€Å"Sam!† I shrieked trying to work out where he would have gone. Mum would kill me if anything happened to him, too. Aunty June would be livid. She was upset when he went home from holidays with us last time with sunburn. At last I saw him. He was standing, shivering, trying to stare the beast down. The fangs of the monster dripped with saliva. I could see it was almost literally licking its lips. Its eye glistened angrily, glaring their hunger at us. The target. The next meal. It reared up, ready to pounce. The tongue lolled dumbly in its head, ready to eat us. My legs froze. The expression on Sam’s face was a frozen mask of deathly fear. The big black bear lurched forward†¦ â€Å"BEAR!† It was another insistent screech. Mrs Toppernickel. â€Å"Bear, get into this house now!† The big black bear stopped. Its tongue hung limply out of the side of his mouth. Every summer it was the same. Sam and I would spend at least five out of six days of our holiday trying to get away from that beast. Even its sweet rottweiler head never helped us to like it. It wasn’t a normal dog. Mrs Toppernickel, she never looked after it properly, and she never believed us when we told her of its evil nature. â€Å"Oh, not Bear† she would claim, â€Å"He’s as gentle as a lamb!† Yeah, a lamb with rabies, I say! COMPREHENSION 1. Now that you have read the story, highlight all of the descriptive words and identify them as being either, an adverb or an adjective. 2. Try to answer the following questions. 1. What is the meaning of the following words: a) screech b) lurched c) mere d) limply e)gruff f) curdled g) pounced h) livid 2. What is the purpose of writing the Big Black Bear in capital letters? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What kind of person is Sam? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What kind of person is Mrs Toppernickel? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Why is the persona in the story scared of the Big Black Bear? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What does the quote â€Å"mighty Sam, slayer of the giants† tell us about the way the persona feels about Sam? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. What do you think the person in the story was doing when the â€Å"monster† came near him? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. What physical description of the Big Black Bear helps to make the reader realize that the characters in the story should be scared? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. What was happening to the protagonist when he said â€Å"darkness swirled around me..†? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Why is the author talking about being â€Å"frozen† so often? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now that you have completed the comprehension, think about the title of the story. The Big Black Bear! The word ‘big’ is an adjective, a word that describes a noun. It is not a very interesting word though! Now, let’s try to find some other words to use instead of big and small. ACTIVIY: Choose an appropriate word from the box to fill in the space in each sentence. 1. To cast out over the reef into deep water, Dad needed a big __________fishing rod. 2. During the housing shortage, people were prepared to pay big ________ prices. 3. The visiting pop star stayed in a big _________ suite in the hotel. 4. It looked as if I had mumps, as my glands were big _________. 5. The pyramids are big ____________ tomb for ancient Egyptian royalty. 6. The opposing boxer stood there flexing his bib ____________ muscles. 7. Several people began whispering to each other during his big ___________ speech. 8. The rich stockbroker lived in a big _____________ house on the waterfront. 9. The man seen driving off in the stolen car was short and big ___________. 10. The dead bull had become big _____________ after lying two days in the paddock. ACTIVITY: Now that you have learned some more vocabulary words, use as many as you can by writing an alternate ending to the story. Try to keep to the scaffold of the narrative text type. 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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Research Papers on The Big Black Bear - Comprehension Lesson PlanThe Hockey GameThe Spring and AutumnThe Masque of the Red Death Room meanings19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraCapital PunishmentComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayWhere Wild and West MeetHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionHip-Hop is Art

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Research Paper Example Street literature is a genre involving an insightful look into the ghetto life (Morris et al. 20). The stories of â€Å"Midnight: A Gangster Love Story,† â€Å"Midnight and the Meaning of Love,† and â€Å"The Coldest Winter Ever† all fall within this gangsta realism that makes readers experience the high price of ghetto life through the characters. Street literature typically involves people from the African-American descent, and the main characters are usually mid-teens to mid-20s in age. They are usually depicted as people who go through extraordinary struggles in life, and they survive through obstacles such as violence, racism, and severe poverty. The whole story is filled with ghetto language, and this is more formally known as the African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The setting is usually in urban areas, and hip hop culture is the dominant scenario. Themes usually revolve around prostitution, premarital sex, illegal sex, crime, drugs, abortion, viol ence, and other illegal activities. The three novels mentioned above circle around such themes, and they are set within the urban hip hop milieu. However, despite such seemingly negative backdrop, these stories could serve as cautionary tales, and one does not need to go through the same experiences to learn what the characters learn in their life's journeys. The morals involved in the narratives are usually insightful in terms of understanding the, and learning from, the high price of ghetto life (Wright 42-45). â€Å"Midnight: A Gangster Love Story† is authored by Sister Souljah. It discusses the life of Midnight, a Muslim black immigrant from Sudan. In the opening lines of the book, Midnight is described as a tall guy with a dominating personality. He is pure black, and even his eyes are jet black. He is also described as lean and muscular, and females want to always be near him. Midnight is such a strong character because he never feels intimidated or insecure. Midnight i s a fierce fighter inside and out. Being a fighter is one common characteristic among the main characters in the three street literature novels (Brooks and McNair 129-132). Midnight's young life goes through a process of being sheltered and protected under his father's care, to being vulnerable and open to the dangers of a foreign neighborhood. His character is developed by his experiences, and he bravely surpasses obstacles throughout his teenage years. First, due to hardship, he becomes home schooled, and he escorts his mother daily to and from her sweat shop job. Second, to develop himself, he learns martial arts, and he also becomes a talented basketball player. Third, to get over poverty, he begins to earn his own money through a fish market job, and he helps save up to purchase a bigger house for his family in a less dangerous neighborhood. He gets over hindrances towards his family progress and personal development, that is why even language barrier does not deter him from wi nning the heart of a Japanese beauty named Akemi. His character is shown even further development as he adheres to his strict Muslim principles while courting Akemi. It can therefore be said that surviving one hardship after another makes Midnight who he is in the novel, and makes him a striking protagonist in this street literature (A Gangster). As a further backgrounder, Midnight is a boy who flees Africa at

Critical Discourse Analysis for Obama's 2012 cictory speech Essay

Critical Discourse Analysis for Obama's 2012 cictory speech - Essay Example It may also result in oppression of groups based upon gender (Clegg, 1975). Van Dijk (2006) also states that much of what goes into discourse is an attempt to manipulate the audience. Therefore, the central crux of the CDA is how words and discourse is used to control different groups. They must work to change the minds of others, so that these groups’ minds and thoughts are more in line with the groups in power (van Dijk, 2003). van Dijk (2006) looks at the context of speech, as well as examine the discrete parts of the speech for a linguistic analysis, including grammar, style, pragmatism, etc. Included are examinations of sociopolitical contexts, as well as look at how a speech is used to manipulate other groups (Furnham, 1981). Van Dijk (1995) is also interested in how discourses advance ideology. According to van Dijk (1995), ideologies are cognitive, social, sociocognitive, are not true or false, have varying degrees of complexity, have variable maifestations, and are ge neral or abstract. By stating that ideologies are cognitive, van Dijk (1995) states that ideologies are individualistic, which means that the individual has a system of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, judgments and values. An analysis of discourse Van Dijk (1978) further breaks down how discourse should be analysed. He states that there are semantic structures that can be examined to indicate how the speech is being used, and what the goal is, the ideology, and so forth. Speech may be analysed in this way at the microstructure level, or the macrostructure level. The microstructure level is the level that analyses the local level of discourse – the structure of the individual propositions and the relations. The macrostructure is the level that analyses the more global nature of the speech - the discourse itself would fit into a theme, so that the discourse may be seen as a part of a meaningful whole(Clark, 1977). Van Dijk (1978) states that a coherent text base is made up of proposi tions. The proposition is a concept and an argument. The argument may fulfill different functions, such as agent, object and goal of the speech. The text bases must be coherent. One type of coherence is the referential coherence. This is coherence between two propositions that share the same argument, or maybe referentially coherent because one argument is embedded with another argument. There needs to be some kind of argument overlap between all the concepts of the text, for the text to be further processed. If there are gaps, then inference processes may close them – in other words, not everything has to be said. Some things can be inferred. If there are gaps, then one or more propositions must be added to the base of the text, in order for it to achieve coherence. The other concept advanced by van Dijk (1978) is that of the processing cycle. The human memory can only digest speeches and discourse in chunks of information. Therefore, the chunks must all fit together. The ch unks are several propositions. Each of the chunks should link with the other ones that were processed. The chunks are stored in the memory, and only those which are stored in the memory can be used to connect other chunks of information. As long as there is some kind of overlap between the chunks of information, then the text will be interpreted as coherent by the listener. If the proposition shares an argument with another