Maya Angelou - 994 Words

Dascia Turner Professor Kimberly Balding English 1010: Composition One 20 September 2010 Truly Inspirational I find Dr. Maya Angelou to be a very interesting woman. She has lived a very productive life. She rose up in the face of adversary and succeeded in making a life for herself. Her numerous accomplishments testify to this fact. She did not come from a promising background, but she defied all the odds. During her childhood, she absorbed the faith and values of a traditional African American family such as love and respect for one another. She refused to back down from a challenge. She provides an excellent example of a strong, confident African American woman. She is not ashamed of where she came from. Her upbringings have helped†¦show more content†¦She tackles the most complex issues. She deals with discrimination, exploitation, being on welfare, sexual abuse, and prostitution. She also writes about domestic abuse, child abuse, slavery, drug abuse, and the empowerment of women. She has written over twenty-five bestselling titles. Dr. Angelou is also a singer. Her first album named Calypso Lady was released in 1957. She has also performed in the opera in the performance Porgy and Bess from 1954-1955. In conclusion, Dr. Maya Angelou is a very dynamic woman. She has received many accolades during her lifetime. Her many accomplishments define her as a person. Her two most famous poems have provided an illustration to her innermost feelings. Her poem, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, represents confinement resulting from racism and oppression. She compares a free bird and a caged bird which represents the state of mind of African American human beings today. She encourages society to break the cycle and release its wings to reach their fullest potential. In her other poem, Still I Rise, she is speaking on rising up even when life attempts to push you down. She stresses no matter what the circumstances, she will still rise to the top. By repeating the phrase, Still I Rise, she embeds this mantra in the brains of whoever reads this work of art. Her never endin g drive and carefree spirit will touch the lives of all. A quote from Dr. MayaShow MoreRelatedMaya Angelou655 Words   |  3 PagesMa 2(1565443) Maya Angelou is known as the â€Å"most visible black female autobiographer/poet.† She was born, Marguerite Ann Johnson, on April fourth, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Seeing all the racial discrimination in the American south strengthened her passion for poetry, music, dance and performance. Maya writes about the struggles people face, racism and freedom. At ageRead More`` Speak, By The Maya Angelou1137 Words   |  5 Pageswriter, the late Maya Angelou. This statement also aligns to a 1999 contemporary classic novel, Speak, where a young freshman, Melinda Sordino, faces isolation and depression to an event that occurred over the summer, one that only she knows about. In the novel, Melinda hangs up a poster of Maya Angelou in her make-shift janitor’s closet hangout. Laurie Halse Anderson uses Maya Angelou as a figure for Melinda to learn and ch ange by in the novel Speak. Melinda could learn from Angelou that she can standRead More Maya Angelou Essay1200 Words   |  5 Pages Maya Angelou is a phenomenal woman. She was born into a devastating decade, that suffered numerous tragedies. Not only had society shaped her as a woman, she has also shaped our society and influenced many lives. She is still living today, yet I believe her legend will never die. Furthermore I will share with you what motivated her and some of her gratifying experiences. How she was effected by society, and what she did about it. Also how the time period she was born into made her the extraordinaryRead More Maya Angelou Essay1926 Words   |  8 Pagesthe time she was born, Maya Angelou was subjected to racism, rape, grief and dehumanization. She beared enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people dont experience in a lifetime. Yet she prevailed. She forced herself to become stronger. And in doing so, she produced writings, which in turn, helped others to become strong. Her experiences and the lessons learned gave her confidence to be a teacher, a preacher, and an inspiration to millions. Maya Angelou was courageous. BasedRead MoreEssay on Maya Angelou612 Words   |  3 Pages Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928. Her real name is Marguerite Johnson, but she later changed it to Maya. She was born in St. Louis, shortly after her birth her family up and move to Arkansaw. Maya grew up there in the rural parts of Arkansaw, and later married to a South African Freedom Fighter. She lived in Cairo with him, there she began her career as editor of the Arab Observer. At the request of Dr. Martin Lutheran King Jr., she became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian LeadershipRead MoreEssay on Maya Angelou1185 Words   |  5 PagesDistress in Maya Angelous Life Marguerite Ann Johnson, commonly known as Maya Angelou, was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She is a famous African-American poet, novelist, and playwright and also worked during the civil rights: Angelou is a very remarkable Renaissance woman who hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature (www.mayaangelou.com). She is also an activist in civil-rights. Angelou went through many controversies during her childhood and adulthood; herRead MoreAnalysis Of Maya Angelou s Angelou 2396 Words   |  10 Pagesparents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage and Father shipped us home to mother† (Angelou 7). 1. This excerpt comes from the beginning of chapter one. The narrator, who is also the main character Maya Angelou, informs her reader of her family status. 2. The author informs us that she is currently living with her Father’s mother due to the separation of their parents. 3. Maya Angelou includes this passage to show that there is no perfect marriage and provide knowledge as to how hardRead More Maya Angelou Essay1043 Words   |  5 PagesMaya Angelou      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By consistently weaving the theme of motherhood into her literature, Maya Angelou creates both personal narratives and poems that the reader can relate to. Her exploration of this universal theme lends itself to a very large and diverse audience.   Throughout Angelous works, she allows her followers to witness her metamorphosis through different aspects of motherhood.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Well-worked themes are always present in Angelous works-   self-Read MoreMaya Angelou Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesMaya Angelou was an inspiring activist, poet, and woman. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. Throughout her lifetime she explored her career options as an actress, dancer, singer, writer, and editor among many other careers. Angelou had a tough childhood. Her parents divorced when she was very young and she was sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas along with her brother Bailey. As an African American, Angelou experienced discrimination and racial prejudices. AngelouRead MoreEssay On Maya Angelou1879 Words   |  8 PagesMaya Angelou is one of the most important American Authors who ever lived. She was an African-American woman who spoke her mind and when someone told her she couldn’t do something, it made her want to do it even more so that she could prove them wrong (Shapiro). Her life was incredi bly difficult, but it made her who she was and influenced her writing and poetry immensely. As Gary Younge once said, â€Å"To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your

Euthanasi Murder Or Mercy - 1375 Words

Euthanasia:Murder or Mercy? Imagine having to witness a family member suffer through many years of pain and not being able to do anything about it. This,however, can be resolved through euthanasia. Euthanasia is an intentional act that involves a doctor or physician ending a patient s life so that the patient may stop suffering from a harmful disease (Nordqvist 2016). It is a solution in which doctors can help patients with terminal diseases, such as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, to end their suffering because they do not want the patients to live a life in which they have to endure such pain and agony. 87% of the people believe and support the fact that euthanasia is beneficial for those with terminally ill diseases (â€Å"Euthanasia Statistics†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦How exactly in this situation is â€Å"Do no harm,† being interpreted here? Is letting a patient who has a terminal disease, continue to live their life full of pain and suffering, not causing harm to the patient? Rather, the patient could end their suffering through a painless death (Torrey 2016). It is the doctor s job to make sure that their patient is living a life with happiness and hope rather than suffer and all their thoughts of hope vanishing (Andersen 2014). A doctor named Philip Nitschke said â€Å" Over time the Hippocratic Oath has been changed on number of occasions†¦. References to women not studying medicine and doctors not breaking the skin have been deleted† (â€Å"Top 10†¦.† 2013). The oath has been changed in order to fit today s society (â€Å"History Hippocratic†). Doctors break the Hippocratic Oath by letting their patients continue to live a life of pain, by doing so, they are doing more harm than good because a patient is living in immense suffering, when the doctor could ease the patients suffering (Andersen 2014). One opposition of euthanasia comes back to the Hippocratic Oath being broken, especially on the â€Å"Do no harm,†part. The anti-euthanasia activist view doctors killing their patients to end their suffering as worsening the patient’s conditions rather than help. Many believe that doctors tend to make many mistakes and are killing their patients through their mistakes. People feel killing the patient is doing more than just

Does War Affect Literature Free Essays

string(74) " in their government and it began to spill over into literature and arts\." Many writers use the environment, political issues, or social issues as inspiration to their work. During romanticism nature imagery was a common occurrence in literature. However does on particular issue effect writers so much that a new literature movement is sprung from it? I pose the question what were considerable differences between Victorian literature and Modernism and how did the Great War play apart in those differences? Was it because of the war that there was the Victorian Era and Modernism or was it bound to be a new literary movement with or ithout the Great War. We will write a custom essay sample on Does War Affect Literature or any similar topic only for you Order Now I pose to answer these questions to the best of my ability in this paper. The Victorian era took place from 1830 – 1901, which is almost the exact same time frame that Queen Victoria reined thus the name Victorian Era. Writers during this time were at an awe trying to respond to the expansion of the country due to the industrialization going on at the time. Reactions it the changes going on at that time were numerous between writers and the people. Some welcomed the changes, while others challenged the changes because they found them to be threatening to their raditions. While others felt that breaking away from the traditions was more freeing than trying to maintain this conventional life. The Victorian Era was full of liveliness surrounding the social and industrial changes that were going on at the time. Nevertheless with all the change some things are bound to stay the same, Great Britain was still in a great deal of debt. Even though national debt was at an all time high the British banks continued to borrow money. Brantlinger says borrowing money is the best way of sustaining credit in his book, the debt that the country was n played a major role in the literature and art of the time because money is used in everyday life. Whether you were paying with credit or ready money determined whether or not you would eat that night. During the Victorian Era writers focused most of their literature on social differences in social classes and reform. During this time society’s interpretation reined supreme over personal interpretation. During that time writer such as John Stuart Mill, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde emerged. John Stuart Mill shed more light on the philosophical idea of Utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill son of Philosopher James Mill was a close friend to the creator of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism is the doctrine that actions are morally and socially acceptable if they benefit the majority. John Stuart Mill used this doctrine to preach reform in the social classes. John Stuart Mill felt that the government should work on the living conditions of working and lower class people. This philosophical idea was used to argue in most political arguments during the Victorian period. Even when it came time for parliament to decide whether to continue to borrow money from allied ountries, this greater good philosophy came into play. An idea that remains strong and has stand the test of time still being used by philosophers today. Charles Dickens was renowned to be one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian Era. His works were heavy on sub textual references. He enjoyed creating then breaking down meanings and interruptions. Otten times ne put some ot his own person experiences into his work. Fore example in his novel â€Å"Oliver Twist†, Charles Dickens himself once lived in an orphanage after his father was thrown into debtor prison like many people during this time period. While using â€Å"Oliver Twist† to somewhat tell his life story, he was also using a very melancholy type of humor reminiscent of other authors during the time. Mid Victorian era literary realism appeared, Writers and artist began to incorporate the industrial work and the excessive use of credit in the country into their work likewise discussing the social conventions of the time. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest takes a Jab at Victorian social conventions in this satire filled play. Beside the play making fun at the Victorian Era it also marked the end of an era and the start of Modernism and also the events leading up to the Great War. The Great War began in summer on 1914 with the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungry, once Britain entered the war they quickly asked for both financial and military assistance from allies and colonies of theirs. By entering the Great War, a greater financial strain was put on to both the country and the people. Britain fell further into debt with the United States as the war continued to rage on and on. Besides Britain suffering financially, on the battlefield the men were suffering. Spending countless days and nights in muddy blood filled trenches to stay out of the line of fire. A new type of warfare emerged through the bloodshed, poison gas. All you saw on the battlefields during were gas masks gas, gas, and gas. Chlorine gas killed more soldiers than actual bullets during this war. Most men who enlisted to fght during the Great War were dead men walking. Chlorine gas was a favorite weapon of the Germans as Duffy has told us. However soldiers went the only ones being choked to death so to speak. Freedom of speech was being silenced in Britain by the Defense of the Realm Act in 194, besides silencing the people election were deferred during the war. Britain was becoming a place were the people no longer aw eye to eye with the government. The working class was now truly breaking away from the idea of the Victorian period; they no longer wanted to survive Just solely on credit in fear of losing everything if they were not able to pay their bills on time. This war made the people actually see what was going on in their country and in their government and it began to spill over into literature and arts. You read "Does War Affect Literature" in category "Papers" Literature went from discussing social class and poverty to describing battlefields in great details and questioning the readers’ moral Judgment. Modernism directly followed the Victorian Era. It is said that Modernism started in 1901 and lasted until the 1960’s or 70’s. I believe it was small changes in art and literature started in 1901 but Modernism did not really begin to appear until during the Great War and everything after. It was a conscious break from traditional art, subjective, full of alienation and despair while also rejecting the past. Modernism is extremely different from Victorian Literature, while modernism focuses on how the readers will interpretation the work and not society. Where in Victorian literature it was society’s interpretation trumps everything. Also during this time both World Wars had occurred giving writers at the time even more to write about and shed their own opinions on. This period was a time where experimentation and individualism were encouraged most things about the past were thrown to the side and discouraged like writing about social conventions or painting pictures ot a dinner scene. Also Modernism unlike Victorian Era gives you a clear definition on what to expect from literature and art during that time period. I attribute the mast amount of differences between the two literary periods to the dark cloud that was hanging over Britain and its people once the Great War was over. People were questioning both their countrys morality and their own patriotism. Just like the Victorian Era there were great Modernism authors. Authors like Joseph Conrad, T. S Eliot, and Wilfred Owen all with very similar dark styles that you can attribute to the Great War. Joseph Conrad still known for his short story The Heart of Darkness and novel â€Å"The Nigger of the Narcissus†. Both works drift far away from the traditional standards of the Victorian Era and was a true work of modernism. The slow dark story of The Heart of Darkness was a story whose major theme was savagery versus civilization while traveling through Africa. That was something that was not seen at that time. This story made people question savagery and civilization. Everyone has a little savage in them but how much is too much and you cross the line of being uncivilized. This was a very big question during the Great War, what was too much? What was considered uncivilized? That was a question that was constantly raised during the Great War. Besides questioning civilization Conrad had a dark way about his work similar to another Modernism writer. The Heart Of Darkness was dark story about a voyage, a voyage that many of us could never dream of making or going on. A voyage that would test the morality of most men, Just like the Great War tested the morality of most of its soldiers. Was it morally acceptable to continuously heave poison gas back and forth at each other? T. S Eliot was a dark writer with his works such as â€Å"The Hollow Men†, a poem that begins by quoting Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness and mimicking its darkness for entirety of the poem. Unlike the Conrad’s story, which questioned what is civilized and what is not this poem, speaks of the end of the world and humanity, as we know. The poem discusses us as humans losing our individuality and becoming empty. While reading â€Å"The Hollow Men†, I questioned was humanity lost after the Great War with all of the unnecessary bloodshed and death. People in Britain became empty and inhuman after the Great War. Besides his dark works T. S Eliot’s poems are prime examples of Modernism. Poems like â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† and â€Å"The Wasteland† both poems were bold and broke far away from everything Victorian. In Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† he broke away from tradition with a title that has on particular inference to anything in the poem, there was no love in this poem. Modernism is all about being different and T. S Eliot did that. He also wrote with a style that forced readers to read his work several times to grasp the different meaning, with his lines like the muttering retreats, of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels. Which could be interpreted as he had a considerable amount of one- night stands or he traveled a great deal and was in a different city every night. The interpretation varies from reader to reader another characteristic of Modernism. Lastly Eliot’s work do not fit any type of cookie cutter mold, Eliot focused only on † The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†. Solely on his chaotic thinking and perception of his ife. He’s not worried about what social effect his poem has on the world. This poem shows he does not care if the reader can even understand his thought process completely subjective like Modernism works should be. Wilfred Owen another author to nave works published during Modernism. Owen is known tor his war poems classifying him as a war poet. Many of his poems describe British soldiers after or during battle. Most famously known for his poem â€Å"Dulce et Decorum Est† which was published towards the end of the Great War. In his poem Owen paints a gruesome picture of English troops dying from poison gas. The same young men that were so anxious to fght for their country are now tired covered in blood and barely alive. At the end of the poem Owen uses Just a bit of satire after describing this horrible scene. Owen’s tells us that it is sweet and right to die for your country. Owen tells readers the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mor. But really how sweet is it to choke to death for your country. I bet most soldier would rather be shot than to die choking on a cloud of poison gas. The Great War made it possible for works like â€Å"Dulce et Decorum Est† to be created and become popular for the reason that it is ust like a car crash people will slow down to watch, so if a writer is describing the horrors of the battlefield people will slow down and read it. Just like the writers I described before Owen’s his works our faultless examples of Modernism and how the war contributed to the development of the literary movement and the clear differences between Victorian era and Modernism. After writing this paper I know have an improved understanding of what was going on in Britain Pre war and after. I also can further see the differences between the two literary movements, the topic that were debated on plus by what means the topics were conversed about. The primary topic in literature during the Victorian Era were the remarkable differences between the social classes and the living conditions of the mast majority of citizens in Britain during this time. Most of these works were Jam-packed with humor to try to contradict the dim truth about the horrible situations many citizens had to deal with on the day to day. Spending countless hours each day working low paying Jobs in factories, orphans on the street begging for money because their parents were locked in debtors’ prison. As much as authors complained of the living conditions and he need for social reform in the country, they still remained very patriotic. Nevertheless once the Great War began both the country and the literature started to change. I expected the change but I did not expect to see such a massive change in the short four-year timespan of the Great War. Even though the textbooks roughly estimates that Modernism began before the Great War on the other hand authentic Modernism did not appear until the war began. That is because most Modernism literature questioned actions that occurred during the war. Actions like use of poison gas, trench warfare, and imperialism. Modernism was also a decline in the patriotism that was apparent in Victorian literature. The Great war made writers break from caring about the entirety of the countries issues and focus only on what interests them. For Wilfred Owen it was war, Joseph Conrad focused on imperialism and questioning morality. To answer the question I posed in my introduction the Great War played apart in making the differences between Victorian era and Modernism because it gave authors a new topic to discuss and new moral to question. Pre-war authors did not have to question the acts of their countries soldiers if they were morally acceptable or not. The last question I posed – was it because of the Great war that Modernism appear or was it bound to be another literary movement with or without the war. After doing this paper I believe that it was bound to be another movement without the war i t is Just that the war gave authors the push needed speed up the movement. In the end I can say that war does affect literature. How to cite Does War Affect Literature, Essays

An Exploration of the Intimate Economies of Bangkok free essay sample

Ara Wilson’s detailing of her exploration of Bangkok in her ethnography â€Å"The Intimate Economies of Bangkok†, I was able to become an observer of the meshing of the native culture that already existed in Bangkok with the Western culture that has been spreading into the nation for many years. Typically the concept of cultural homogenization discusses an extremely skewed power dynamic in which one regional culture (typically one that exists in countries that have been classified as developing) is taken over and dissembled by the presence of the prevalent Western culture. From Wilson’s account, I find that economies in Bangkok are not so much experiencing a homogenization, but a merging of different cultures which keeps the elements of the native culture, but reworks the rules around the global market. At the same time there is this pervasive air of hegemony which dictates that the Western way is the better way. As per usual when dealing with hegemony, many of the Thai/Sino-Thai people that are affected by this encounter are not aware of its presence. This unawareness comes in the face of continued reiteration of Western ideals that subliminally commute the message that Western commodities are better. This may explain why Western standards of beauty/organization still find their way into the lives of the people featured throughout Wilson’s in-depth portrait of Bangkok. Wilson’s ethnography also illustrates how this meeting of global capitalism and local, cultural models works in the real world. Wilson fully illustrates global capitalism’s effect on Thailand by delving into the local culture in Bangkok and talking to the people who are living in this meshed world. Wilson’s ethnography is able to provide a more complex understanding of the coming together of global capitalism due to her exploration of the interplay of global capitalism and local practices. According to Richard Robbins in his work â€Å"Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism†: The culture of capitalism is devoted to encouraging the production and sale of commodities. For capitalists, the culture encourages the accumulation of profit; for laborers, it encourages the accumulation of wages; and for consumers, it encourages the accumulation of goods. As is the case in many countries who are introduced to culture of capitalism, Thailand experienced a boon in the interest concerning Western goods and business models. Chapter 3 of Wilson’s ethnography discusses the influx of malls that started in the 1970s and was still in place during Wilson’s time in Bangkok. Before the introduction of the culture of capitalism, malls did not exist in Thailand. Instead the Thai/Sino-Thai utilized the traditional shop-house or market place which featured a more individual approach when it came to selling items as opposed to malls having stores selling various goods all condensed and placed into a particular area. While the notion of the mall existing in Thailand may appear to represent the homogenization of the Thai marketplace, elements of traditional Thai culture ended up weaving themselves into the structure that existed within the mall. In the cases of various malls that Wilson discussed in her third chapter, the owners of the malls were sure to include structures that would be family friendly (such as theme parks, miniature zoos, and ice skating rinks). However, many of these structures, in the words of Wilson, â€Å"represented high investments, but usually low returns. Despite the disparity between the investment in these structures and the income that they yielded, business owners continued to include them in the designs for malls that were being built because the, â€Å"companies rely on concepts of family that are not timeless and traditional but emerge through and in relation to commercial discourses and institutions. † This concept of producing structures that aren’t economically viable in order to appeal to a particular market typically wouldn’t be done in the traditional Western business model. If structures aren’t viable in this traditional model, then they are typically torn down and replaced with structures that would justify the money that was initially invested in them. However, the Thai version of this â€Å"Western† business model differs from this rule of profit. In order to produce malls that are more appealing to a given market, the business owners must discover and recognize the current cultural norms that are in existence in Thailand. While the malls and the family-based structures completely deviate from tradition in the purest sense of the word, traditions all over the world have changed and evolved with the changing times and the new level of cultural exposure that exists at this time. In the case of the malls, while the idea of a mall can be recognized as being Western at their base level, in many ways they embody the current desires of the middle-class Thai/Sino-Thai population. In this case it can be argued the malls ended up representing a fusion between Western and Thai ideals. Wilson’s ethnography provides a more complex understanding of the coming together of global capitalism and local, cultural models by virtue of the detail that she goes into when recounting the stories behind the rise of the corporations along with the honest discussions that she is willing to engage in with various Thai/Sino-Thai people. Perhaps due in large part to her gender (which made it more socially acceptable for her to have continued conversations with women without any significant reputational backlash for her female informants) combined with her American-ness ( which places her outside of the limitations imposed by typical gender-dictated rules regarding deportment and behavior in Thai/Sino-Thai culture) , Wilson is able to circumnavigate the gender stratified Thai society and gain information regarding the perspectives of both males and females who are navigating through modern-day Thailand. Most of the individuals who Wilson interviews are toeing the newly developed line between traditional and â€Å"modern† modes of behavior (whether these modes are referring to romantic relationships, dealings with familial obligations, navigating through the job market). One of the many examples of such navigation around or through norms in Thai culture would be the story of Sila, a Thai tom woman who was an Avon lady. As Wilson discovered while gathering information for her ethnography: Within many Sino-Thai and Thai families, earning income and fulfilling family duties can overrule the costs of inappropriate gender or sexual behaviors†¦what most determined status in Sila’s household was fiscal, rather than normative gender, achievement. As a tom and a female, Sila could typically expect to be discriminated against and afforded less privilege then her male relatives in her family, but due to the increased emphasis in Thai culture on the role that income now plays in the Thai/Sino-Thai family structure (probably due, in large part, to the introduction of the rules of Western capitalism), Sila was still able to have status in her family. It is highly unlikely that such status would have been possible before the introduction of the capitalistic economic structure since this structure also introduced novel methods of subsistence. These subsistence methods (i. e. jobs with multinational corporations such as Amway, Avon, and Shinawatra which remains intrinsically Thai while still resembling the Western business model at surface level) provides more opportunities for those who fall outside of the â€Å"norm. † Such stories enable the tale of the joining of capitalism and Thai culture to jump off the page and become real to whoever is reading the story. Wilson’s analysis of the impact of globalization in the economy of Thailand suggests that capitalism is reworking the threads of the traditional kinship economy of Thailand, but not truly extinguishing it. Wilson postulates: Capitalist markets interact with other economies—with folk, kin, and moral economies. These alternate economies are not timeless but have transformed alongside and informed modernization in Thailand. They provide a symbolic and practical counterpoint to capitalist exchange. In this respect, I am inclined to agree with the presentation of her argument. In the final chapter of her ethnography which was entitled, â€Å"The Avon Lady, the Amway Plan, and the Making of Thai Entrepreneurs,† I was able to directly view how American corporations marketed themselves to the Thai entrepreneur. I was also able to view how, in turn, the Thai entrepreneur marketed and sold these Western commodities to their friends and family within the scope of the traditional Thai kinship-based economy. Wilson’s presentation of the market structure in Thailand during the time following the initial introduction of capitalism has led me to conclude that globalization as it is presented in Thailand has not led to cultural homogenization (which typically dictates that one culture completely yield to another and abdicate the traditional ideals). Instead globalization has produced a hegemonic notion of Western products being more valuable and desirable. While I wouldn’t presume to state that Thailand’s situation applies to all (former and current) developing nations, this notion steeped in hegemony is one which has changed the nature of the kinship based economy by introducing products that were not previously commoditized into the Thai commodity knowledge base and creating a necessity for them. While the traditional mode of economy is strained under this increased outside pressure, it is yet to yield. Instead it continually evolves within the structure that is forever changing around it.

40 Synonyms for Lie

40 Synonyms for Lie 40 Synonyms for â€Å"Lie† 40 Synonyms for â€Å"Lie† By Mark Nichol Humans may not be the only species capable of deception, but we’re probably the most sophisticated animals when it comes to lying, and our languages contain many words to describe variations of untruth. Here’s a roster of synonyms in English for referring to lies and similar creations: 1. Bluff: a statement intended to deceive or confuse 2. Canard: an unsubstantiated story or report 3. Deceit: a deceptive statement 4. Deception: A statement or action intended to mislead 5. Distortion: a deviation from the true meaning, or an overstatement of proportion 6. Equivocation: a misleading or confusing statement based on the possibility of differing interpretations 7. Exaggeration: an overstatement or overemphasis 8. Fable: a fictitious statement or story, in the sense of something made up to explain or justify an unmerited action or state of affairs 9. Fabrication: a made-up fact or incident 10. Fairy tale: a misleading story, especially a simplistic one that would not be expected to deceive anyone 11. Fallacy: a deceptive or erroneous statement; also, a false idea or a flawed argument 12. Falsehood: something untrue or inaccurate 13. Falsification: an alteration of facts in order to deceive 14. Falsity (see falsehood) 15. Fib: a simple, perhaps transparent lie 16. Fiction: an invented statement or story 17. Half-truth: a statement with some basis in truth that nevertheless serves to deceive 18. Humbug: a false, deceptive, or nonsensical statement 19. Invention: a statement crafted to deceive 20. Jive: a deceptive, insincere, or nonsensical statement 21. Libel: a written or similarly presented lie that defames a person 23. Mendacity: an act of lying 23. Misconception: a poor understanding, perhaps deliberate, of a fact 24. Misinformation: a purported fact presented with the intent to deceive 25. Misinterpretation: a deviation from the facts or from a reasonable analysis of them 26. Misreport: an inaccurate account 27. Misrepresentation: an erroneous or unfair interpretation of facts 28. Misstatement: an inaccurate or erroneous comment 29. Myth: a perpetuated notion, belief, or tradition that is suspect or unfounded 30. Obliquity: a deviation from the truth to obscure or confuse 31. Perjury: a lie presented under oath 32. Pose: a false or deceptive position or self-representation 33. Pretense: an unsupported claim, an insincere purpose or intention, or a superficial effort 34. Prevarication: a deviation from the truth 35. Slander: an injuriously false statement about a person 36. Story: a lie, or a rumor 37. Tale: a false representation 38. Taradiddle: nonsense (also, see fib) 39. Untruth: a deviation from truth or the facts 40. Whopper: an outsized lie 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 Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing Prompts 101At Your DisposalCapitalizing Titles of People and Groups

Varying Assignments to Enhance Student Learning Styles

Varying Assignments to Enhance Student Learning Styles Methods for Varying Assignments Each student comes to your class with their own learning style strengths and weaknesses. Some will be stronger at auditory learning or learning through listening and sound. Others might find they learn better visually, gaining understanding through reading and writing.  Ã‚  Finally, many  students will be stronger kinesthetic learners, learning better through hands-on activities. Therefore, it is important that we present lessons to students through a variety of techniques that play to each of their strengths. While most teachers know this and try to vary presentation techniques as much as possible, it can be quite easy to forget about changing up assignments. In other words, if your student is an auditory learner, their understanding of the material will be reflected better through an auditory method. Traditionally, we have students present us with what  they have learned through written means: essays, multiple choice tests, and short answers. However, some students might do a better job reflecting their comprehension of what they have learned through either verbal or kinesthetic means.   Therefore, requiring students  to vary their responses can not only help more of them shine by working in their dominant learning style but it can also allow all students the chance to find new ways to learn.   Following are ideas for activities that you can have students complete in each of their dominant learning styles. Realize, however, that many of these actually play to the strengths of more than one category.   Visual Learners Typical Written Activities - These include assignments like essays and short answer questions.  Outlining - Students can outline a chapter in a book or other reading assignment.  Flash Cards - Students can create flashcards that they can not only submit as an assignment but also use for review.  SQ3R - This stands for  Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review and is quite an effective reading comprehension method.   Auditory Learners Cooperative Learning Activities - Activities that include auditory interaction between students can be quite powerful.Class Discussions - Students can discuss the lesson with teacher support.  Debates - Students can work in groups to debate an issue.  Recitations - Having students memorize and recite poetry or other readings also has the added benefit of helping improve their memory.  Musical Activities  - Students can use music in a number of ways. For example, in an American History class, students might find songs that represent the turmoil of the 1960s protests. You might also have students write their own lyrics to songs as a way to present the information that they have learned.   Kinesthetic Learners Dramatic Presentations - Having students present their information through a play or other dramatic presentation not only helps kinesthetic learners, but also auditory learners as well.  Speeches With Props   - Students can stand before the class and speak about a topic while using props.  Teacher  for the Day Activities - Give students parts of a lesson that they are to teach to the rest of the class. You can choose to have the students work individually or in small groups.  Simulations - Getting students moving around the classroom as they simulate an event like a presidential election can build  interest and excitement in learning.  Manipulatives - Students enjoy being able to use manipulatives in classes like mathematics and science.Incorporating Dance or Exercise - While this might not work in some  classes, allowing students the ability to choose to incorporate dance or exercise  as a method of lesson presentation can open up a whole new avenue of learning.  Outdoor Activities - Students  can be given assignments that require them to go outside and move around.    Obviously, your subject matter and classroom environment will impact which of these would be the best fit for your students. However, I challenge you to move outside your comfort zone and try to find a way to not only represent lessons while incorporating all three learning styles, but also giving students assignments and activities that allow them to use different learning modalities as well.

Annette Jacksion's Small Craft Store to Web Conversion Essay

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Performance Appraisal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Performance Appraisal - Essay Example The performance appraisals are used to give feedback to the employee on the performance rating and the need for improvements. This also expresses the need for trainings, promotion, demotion, retention or firing. The performance appraisal is among the critical factors of a manger or a leader to provide employee with the feedback and clarify the job expectations. An effective performance appraisal enables employees to know about themselves and understand the management values. The performance appraisals make use of evaluations as feedback in order to improve the performance of employee and reduce the turnover. It increases motivation and instills a feeling of equity among the employees. The appraisals act as a linkage between the rewards and performance. This enhances performance as employees are told about their performance and related strengths and weaknesses. This makes the employees become proud of whatever they are doing well and enables them focus their efforts on areas that require improvement. In overall, organization will benefit when the performance of the employees improves. Every organization is interested in witnessing their employees advance in the company and get other better and well paying positions. This is normally brought about by performance appraisal. For instance, when an employee is told to improve personal skills to be eligible for the following promotion may act as a driving force to that employee to enable them improve their per formance (Goswami, 2013). The performance appraisals are used by the management in making important decisions by the management. These decisions include promotions, demotions, firing and remunerations among many others. Efficient organizations must have established means through which they can make their decisions. The decisions depend on appraisal data. The appraisals can be considered as efficient tools in documenting the organizational decisions. This

Case study discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Case study discussion - Essay Example In this regard, the assets, interests, and rights of the project are basically held as the secondary security or act as the collateral. Therefore, in any case the forecasted cash flow from the project does not sustain the project, there is high risk exposure to debt risks though the failure of the projects may be attributed to many factors like the interest rates, business risks, economic situation like inflation and the type of the shareholders (Gatti, 2013). In the case of Autopistas del Centro, the financial recession hit the project quite since most of the projected cash flow had been forecasted prior to the great financial crisis of 2008 (Lubian, 2015). Therefore, the only option it to sell the project to new owners since the shareholders are reluctant to go into their pockets and revive the project once. Therefore, it is imperative to identify some of the factors that must be considered when pricing the project so as to make sure both the buyers and sellers are satisfied. Besides, the head of the projects is deeply concerned about the best approach that can be used to make sure that the shareholders are satisfied with the handing over of the project to the new owners. Inflation is one of the critical issues that must be looked into when pricing a project to the new owners. The implication is that inflation has the potential to increase the original estimates of the construction costs (Esty, 2014). Usually, the inflation rates are put into consideration when the project is at the design stage but future changes in the inflation rates may affect the original estimated construction costs and this will have a huge effect on the final pricing of the project (Gatti, 2013). Therefore, when pricing the project, it would be important to look at the inflation rates in Spain, as well as Europe in general. In 2009, the CFO of AC, Martinez saw the need to revise the status of the project finance under different circumstances under which the

Exploring Students Attitudes Towards English Homework

Exploring Students Attitudes Towards English Homework Abstract This research aims at exploring students attitudes towards English homework. There is abundant literature regarding homework, but the voice of the students is absent from most of the literature. In this study, qualitative case study approach is used to look into the perspectives of one junior form class (F.1) and one senior form class (F.4). The literature review includes four major trends in the latest homework research: 1) relationship between homework and achievement, 2) relationship between time and achievement, 3) parental involvement and 4) homework design. I conducted 45 questionnaires and 6 in-depth interviews by purposive extreme sampling. After synthesizing all the data, I analyzed them by using constant comparison method and transcript based analysis. The results of the reserach showed that most students think homework is important to their learning. But the poor design and lack of teachers constructive feedbacks discourage them to complete their English homework. In addition, it is shown that different ages and genders require different kinds of homework to meet the learning diversity. This study contributes to the current literature in terms of its latest and un iqueness. Introduction When talking about homework, it seems that everyone has an opinion concerning its worth and purpose. Interestingly enough, in discussions of homework, it quickly becomes a debate. People either with adamantly favour or strongly oppose the practice. For myself, I struggled with the English homework when I was a secondary student. I thought it was just a burden for me without any meaningful purpose. On the other hand, when I was a student teacher, I liked assigning homework to my students because I assumed homework could improve both teaching and learning. Most importantly, homework was the communication channel between student and me. Some students who seldom handed-in their homework, but they still got a good grade in the exams, vice versa. This situation perplexed me. I have ideas and doubts about homework, but never really studied the issue. Therefore, I wanted to conduct an action research study in my honour project, in the hope that I could modify it so as to fit the needs of the students. After reviewing the literature, I decided to examine the attitudes students hold towards their English homework. My general intention was to obtain evidence indicating whether I neglected some factors when blaming on students who do not complete their English homework. I perceive the homework issue is faced among many teachers. No matter which schools and what kinds of students are the teachers working with, they must face the homework completion problem. Hopefully, this research can help teachers to handle the homework issue easily in the coming future. Part 1: Literature Review: The literature review consists of articles and books from 1980 to 2007 on the history of the homework debate. The majority of the scholarly articles are from EBSCO Databases (e.g.: A+ Education, Eric and Education Research Complete). The themes discussed in the literature are relationship between doing homework and achievement, time spent on doing homework, parental involvement and homework design. 1.1 The History of Homework Debate According to Copper (2007), homework is described as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours (p.5). Copper explains that the use of word-intended because students may do the homework during recess, lunch time or even during subsequent classes. Homework is not new. It has a long and controversial history (Gordon 1980; Cooper 1989a-2007; Bonyun 1992; Earle 1992; Foyle 1992; Hallam 2004; Jha 2007 and so on). Among these studies, there are both pro and anti- homework groups respectively. Gill and Schlossman (2000) analyzed the views of different stakeholders: educators, teachers and parents. Different parties hold very distinct views towards the issue of homework. Up till now, there is a lack of consensus among researchers which they only agreed that homework is a complicated issue. Apart from different stakeholders views, there are many variables related in the topic of homework: environment, students ability, time and re searchers own biases. Some of the critical views are discussed in the following part. 1.2The relationship between homework and achievement When the researchers analyzed whether there is a relationship between the amount of time spent on doing homework and achievement, they mostly used one of two research designs. The first one is experimental. They typically compared two groups of students who were assigned homework and who did not receive any homework. And then, these two groups of students were given the same test to check whether homework can carry a positive influence on students academic achievement. Copper (2007) showed that students doing homework had higher unit test scores than 73 percentage of students not doing homework 1.3The relationship between the amount of time spend doing homework and achievement The second type of research examines the relationship between time spent on homework and achievement. Kohn (2006) mirrored the work of Copper (2007), they found a positive relationship between time spent doing homework and achievement. That means time spent on homework increases, achievement increases. However, Kralovec (2000) examines that the relationship between achievement and time spent on homework is negative for younger students. He suggested that homework appears to be more effective for older students than younger students. All in all, homework appears to be positively correlated with achievement, but the effect varies dramatically with grade level. According to the research conducted by Vatterott (2009), in grades 3 to 5, the correlation was zero, in grades 6 to 9, the correlation was .07; and in grades 10-12, the correlation was.25. However, 1.00 is a perfect correlation between two measures and zero means there is no correlation between the measures. 1.4Parental Involvement In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on encouraging parents to become involved in the education of their children. Most parents think the setting of homework as necessary and important (Vatterott, 2007). There are two reasons for parents wanting children in doing homework. The first reason is because homework works as the schools commitment to educational achievement and also that it gives them a platform to apply what they have learnt in the lesson. The second reason is parents who view homework as a criterion for assessing schools. Since communication between home and school is often difficult, homework takes up the role of providing a bridge between home and school. Parents can easily check what the teacher is teaching and the progress of their children based on the homework. However, we cannot interpret parents wanting their children to do well in school to mean that they want their children to have homework if the homework is not going to improve academic achievement (Jha, 2006). Some research has suggested that parental help with homework improves achievement (Hallam 2007; Chen and Stevenson 1989). Other research suggests that the findings are not conclusive or that effects are trifling (Levin el al. 1997; Vatterott 2007). This contradictory result implies that parents may provide more help for the students than they actually need with their school work. The worst situation is that tension may develop between parents and their children over their homework. Later on, it can cause frustration and disappointment and may be counter-productive to the students performance in school. 1.5 Homework Design Among most findings, there is a considerable agreement among teachers that homework is worthwhile. There are two major reasons for teachers to give students homework: instructional and non- instructional (Xu, 2005). For the instructional objective of homework, teachers use homework as a means of ensuring that students have went over and learned the curriculum in preparation for tests. The non-instructional purpose of homework is to develop student responsibility, social skills and communication between parents and teachers. Despite this, homework was seen to have a negative influence on family involvement (Van Voorhis 2003). There has been considerable interest in the feedback given to students when homework has been completed. There is general consensus that homework must be collected and marked (Van Voorhis, 2003). However, there is much less agreement about the most effective marking procedures. Marking homework is time-consuming. Most teachers assign, collect and mark the homework regularly. However, there is variation in the kind of feedback the teachers give. Feedback can vary from teachers providing students with a mark, grade, a written comment, e.g. Very good, good or seen. Giving grades seems to be effective (Xu, 2005) but the type of grading given seems to make little difference to learning outcomes. 1.6 Summary of the literature review With the support of the literature review, the definition of homework is clear to all readers in this report: tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours (Copper 2007). The major issue surrounding the homework controversy is whether it can improve students achievement, the views of different stakeholders and the weakness of the existing research. We can see that there is a lack of students voices among the research. Part 2 Research Questions What kinds of homework do the students prefer? Do students attitudes to homework vary according to characteristics such as age-group and gender? Does homework help to instill positive attitudes and study habits? Nowadays, almost all research regarding homework is from the adults point of view. Very few of them try to put themselves into the shoes of students to look into the homework issue. Student is the core of our education; therefore, the research regarding homework is always incomplete without the voice of students. This study aims at finding students attitude on their English homework and the reasons why students do not hand in English homework. Part 3 Methodology 3.1 Design This research is an explorative qualitative case study, but also with some quantitative features. Multiple methods are used because they will provide the data I require to produce a complete piece of research. It is unwisely to solely depend on one method because it is labeled as qualitative study. The aim of this study is to explore the students attitudes to homework in order to encourage students to complete their English homework. Finally, educators and teachers may design more effective homework to help students learning better in the future. I collected data from both teachers and students by 6 in-depth interviews (Appendix E F) and 45 questionnaires (Appendix C D). The reason for using in-depth interviews is due to its adaptability and credibility of the study. On the other hand, the use of questionnaire is due to its convenience and time effectiveness (Patten, 1998). This research explored the Form 1 and Form 4 students attitude towards English homework. 3.2 Participants The setting of this research is a secondary school in Tuen Mun. Participants were one Form 1 class and one Form 4 class students and 5 English teachers. The study required exploring the attitude towards homework on two groups of students taking the English course at school. 3.2.1 Sampling For the questionnaire, all students and their English teachers in those classes were asked to participate in the questionnaire research. For the interviews, I only picked up some samples from the participants. I had in-depth interviews with 4 students and 2 teachers using purposive extreme sampling. Patton (1990) defined extreme sampling should be used when the case are rich in information because they are unusual or special in some way. (p.109) 3.3 Instrument 3.3.1 Interviews One major advantage of the interview is its adaptability. With interviews, I could follow up ideas, probe responses and explore the feelings of the respondents, which the questionnaire cannot do. I could ask follow up questions based on the response of the interviewees, such as, the tone, the facial expression and even the hesitation. According to Bell (2005), questionnaire responses have to be taken at face value, but a response in an interview can be developed and clarified (p.157) However, since interviews are time-consuming, I used group interviews instead of one to one interviews in the beginning. But I discovered that the disadvantages of group interviews overrode the advantage of one-to-one interviews. The first disadvantage is that some strong personalitys interviewees influenced and in some extent they took over the group and made it difficult for the less assertive interviewees to speak (Refers to Extract 2). In addition, one to one interview can maintain higher privacy than group interviews. After considering all the factors, I decided to redesign my interviews to individual interviews instead it is more time-consuming. Extract 2. The transcript of the interview Interviewer: Why do you not hand in the homework on time? Student A: Well, I do want to do it. But as you know, the English homework is really boring. It doesnt matter we do not do it as I can still can good results from the exam. Interviewer: We? How about students B? Do you agree with student A? Student B: amà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦yesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.probably. (Feel embarrassed) Student A: Let me tell you more. And we are very busy all the time. It is common that different subject teachers assign the homework on the same dayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.Its impossible for us to finish themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Besidesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. 3.3.2 Questionnaire Since there are only twenty students in each class, it is feasible to give out all questionnaires to the whole classes. With questionnaires, all respondents are presented with the same questions. Therefore, I could compare the responses among different groups easily. As long as, there is no interviewer coming between the respondent and the question, it is essential to design the effective question wording. Before I sent out the questionnaires, I discovered the wordings in my questionnaires were very ambiguous. Bell (2005) suggested that words which have a common meaning to you may mean something different to other people (p.138). For example, I wanted to find out how often students are able to hand in their English homework on-time. Originally, I used some very ambiguous wordings, such as, always, often, sometimes and etc (Refers to Example 3A). But after the pilot testing, I changed the options to a specific period of time. (Refers to Example 3B). Precision in wording is important s ince it enables me to compare the data later. Example 3A. BEFORE the pilot test :Question 3 in the students questionnaire Example 3B. AFTER: the pilot test: Question 3 in the students questionnaire 3.4 Procedure First of all, I obtained permission from Hong Kong Institute of Education, the school principal, the participating teachers and students to collect the data. This study lasted for 8 weeks, from 14th March 2011 to 20th May 2011. At the beginning of the study, I collected archival data in the form of their first uniform test scores and some of their English homework from the participating students, so that I can get a general picture of students completion of English homework. Since I have decided my research questions, I used the problem oriented approach to limit the amount of documents. The sources included both primary and secondary sources. According to Bell (2005), primary sources are those which came into existence in the period under research, such as, the English homework, the scores of the uniform test. Apart from the primary sources, I also collected some secondary resources. Secondary sources are interpretation of events based on primary sources (Munn, 2004), for example th e report card given by the teachers. All these documents gave me the background of the participants and reinforced the core of my research. In the second week, I gave my cousin, who is a secondary school student, to do the questionnaire as piloting the questionnaire. With the trial, I understood how long it takes recipients to complete them, to check that all questions and instructions are clear and to enable me to remove any items which do not yield usable data. There are two reasons why I chose my cousin to pilot the questionnaire. The first reason is that her background is similar to those that would form the population of my study. Therefore, her perception and understanding are similar to my respondents. The second reason is sincerity. Since she is an outsider of this research, she is willing to tell me her true feeling towards the questionnaire. I distributed the questionnaires in the lesson and asked the students to do them during the lesson at once. It makes sure that the return rate is one hundred percentage and students could ask questions when they were doing the questionnaires. After glancing through all responses from the questionnaires, I carefully picked up some extreme case from the respondents to the questionnaire. Since these respondents are rich in information and they possess the common characteristics of the groups. For example, I picked up two students: 1) one hands in ALL English homework and 2) one never hands in any English homework respectively. Therefore, I could compare the similarity and differences among these distinct groups easily. 3.5 Data Analysis First of all, all data got from document, questionnaires and interviews are only raw data. They have to be categorized and interpreted; otherwise, they are useless. After synthesizing all the data, they were analyzed by constant comparison, comparing the emerging themes from all the participants in all categories (Hatch, 2002). Next, I compared the categories yield by each of the subgroups: gender and age, to check the differences and similarities among their responses. Based on students preference, I synthesized the results by using the summary sheet. Lastly, I used the transcript-based analysis to evaluate the information from the in-depth interviews. Based on Krueger (1994), Transcript-Based analysis includes the below steps: 1) Make backup copies of the recordings 2) Transfer the recordings to transcript 3) Category the data 4) Go through the research questions 6) Develop coding categories and code the data 7) Classify the data into coding categories 8) Diagram the analysis 9) Revise data to check is there any important information missing. (p.157) 4. Findings 4.1 Background Diagram 5 shows that over 80% of students think homework is important. They agree that in ideal situation, homework can help them learn better and practice what they have learnt in the lessons. However, less than 35% of them can hand-in the English homework more than 3 times a week (Refers to diagram 6). Due to this contradictory result, the following research questions will look into the attitudes of students towards English homework deeply. Diagram 5: Is English homework important to your learning? (from the Questionnaire) Diagram 6: How often do you hand-in the English homework on-time? (From the Questionnaire) 4.2 Students preferences for different kinds of homework The findings show that students disliked homework which was about copying, boring and tedious. Students also complained that sometimes the English homework sometimes has little relationship to the work in hand, is poorly set, marked late and poor feedback from teachers. In students own words: I do not return the English homework because I dont like doing those kinds of homework, such as, newspaper cutting and writing journal. They are not related to what we are learning. It is very boring to do the same type of English homework every weekend. (From a Form 4 student) I wanted to hand-in the homework, but sometimes I just cant. Once I go back home, I cant control myself to play the computer games. In the beginning of the semester, I was still able to hand in their English on time, or at least able to hand them in one day. But later on, I discovered that my English teacher did not scold me, even I did not hand in the homework. So, Im just used to not hand in the English homework now. (From a Form 1 student) From the findings, I found out that there is a range of factors affected pupils attitudes towards doing their English homework including motivation, mood, teachers response and quality and quantity of homework. Surprisingly, more than 80% students said that they would hand in their English homework if the teachers carry out some actions if the students do not hand in the homework (Refers to Diagram 7). Diagram 7: Teachers will take some negative consequences to students who cannot hand in the English homework. Do you think it is useful to encourage you to hand in the English homework on-time? In teachers own words: Im just very busy. Its impossible for me to check whether every student has handed in their English homework. (From a male English teacher) What actions I can take? If I ask them to attend the detention class, I have to go too. And somehow, I think students should take up their own learning responsibility. (From a female teacher) Students said that they enjoyed and valued homework when it was: well-explained; had adequate deadlines; interesting and at their level. Similarly, the findings show that students dislike doing homework that neither consolidated nor contributed to their learning. However, the reality is teachers are under heavy workload. They do not have extra time to care for the homework issue. 4.3 Relationships between students characteristics and altitudes to homework Students attitudes to homework seem to vary according to background factors, such as gender and age. For example, apart from spending more time on homework, female students seems to have a better attitudes towards it than the male students 4.3.1 Gender and Age Diagram 8: Relationship between gender and time spent on English homework a week From the above table, we can conclude that female students tend to spend longer time doing their English homework than the male students. Apart from the longer time, the English teachers expressed that female students are more conscientious with regard to homework and their homework are tidy, well planned and showed evidence of effort. On the other hand, male students seem spending very few amount of time on it. They are easily distracted by other things, such as, extra-curricular activities, computer games and some gang activities. Both boys and girls believe that homework is important in helping them to do well in school, although this tendency is stronger in girls especially in the senior forms. Based on the findings from the questionnaires, male students tended to spend more time in larger groups after school, whereas girls like spending time with a single close friend, which may be working on homework together. 4.4 Homeworks influence on attitudes to study Instilling a positive attitude towards study is always claimed the major reason of assigning homework to students. Diagram 9A 9B show that older students seem to give internal reasons for doing their homework, such as, revision and keep themselves on the track to the lessons. On the other hand, junior students tended to give more external reasons for doing English homework: obeying the teachers and parents. Diagram9A Diagram 9B This is probably an indication that students are developing more self-regulated and responsible attitudes when they are grown-up. Some students, especially junior students, are forced to do homework, so it is difficult to prove whether doing homework can facilitate the acquisition of self-regulatory skills. Therefore, this is another area that could clearly benefit from further research. 4.5 Summary of the responses The result reveals that most students think that homework is important to learning. Students prefer homework that is interesting and let them feel successful. Homework like journal and newspaper cutting make students feel bored because they are tedious and they only do a lot of copying instead. (Extract from the student interview). In addition, the relationship between students characteristics and attitudes towards homework is directly related. Male students like playing outside and hanging out with friends after schools, especially for junior students. Some students indicated that they learnt better through researches, projects and other learning activities. The key point in the data shows that students change their attitudes towards when they are grown up. 5. Discussion In the following parts, future directions are given based on previous literature reviews and my research findings. And then, I will suggest some future studies so as to make the homework issue clear to everybody. 5.1 Explanation of the findings 5.1.1 Students preferences for different kinds of homework Both the literature reviews and findings show that homework is mainly for scrutiny. It is routinely given to satisfy school requirements or meet the curriculum needs. It is high time that careful consideration to its purpose and the need to align tasks with aims. The role of teachers to the students completion of English homework cannot be underestimated. Both the amount the teachers set and the types of feedback given have an impact on the motivation of the students to complete it. It is rare that schools will reward students for completing homework. They always assume that students should take up their own responsibility to finish the homework. If teachers do not give constructive feedbacks or even worse they do not mark it, then the students will have no motivation to do the homework. The data from the study suggests that 80% of the participating teachers have not received any training related to designing homework. It is essential to provide professional development for designing homework. And government should help to balance the workload of teachers, so that teachers can put more time to design high quality homework. 5.1.2 Relationships between students characteristics and attitudes to homework Almost all students agree that homework is important; however, they think the nature of homework hinder them to hand in their English homework on-time. Teachers like assigning homework, like, writing journal and newspaper cutting. All these assignment are easily set by the teachers; however, students do not see the points of learning from these authentic materials. It is suggested that homework should be tailored to be aligned to the learning aims. For example, if the aim is to promote independent learning, then the teachers should try to devise some interesting tasks. Ideally, homework can even have a bigger function if teachers can skillfully set the homework. For example, homework can even help to improve examination performance. Combinations of aims can be met over time through providing variety in homework. 5.1.3 Homeworks influence on attitudes to study Students value homework because they think it can improve their learning and future prospects. At the same time, some regard homework as an encroachment on their leisure time, especially male students. They expect that teachers can give different types of homework to different students and which have to be related to their ongoing classroom work. For example, boys should be given more group work rather than individual work. Although different students hold various attitudes towards homework, all of them hope the same attitude: we need someone to listen to our concerns. There is no doubt that students are the ones who bear the consequences of not completing homework. But, as an educator, we have the responsibility to explore the students attitude towards homework and design appropriate homework to them. 5.2 Recommendations for further study The weaknesses of this study prompt three major recommendations for further study. Firstly, this study is a small scale qualitative study due to the time and resources constraints. A larger qualitative study is needed to increase the validity. It is suggested that we set up a forum for discussion, so that students can leave the comments freely in anonymous. Secondly, I tried to relate attitude to time spend on English homework in the third research question. However, students may do the homework because their parents force them to so, rather than they sincerely want to do the English homework by themselves. Moreover, it is difficult to define when the effect of classroom teaching ends and the effect of homework begins. Besides, it is not easy to check how the prior learning influences the achievement. Homework research is especially complicated because we are checking the effect of something than happens out of our sight and out of our control (Vatterott, 2009). Therefore, the settin g of the research should extend to the home, rather than simply classroom. The third recommendation is to add socio economic factors to the study. This study mainly reveals students attitude from their own individual factors, another factors should be included to strengthen the findings.

Kurt Vonnegut :: essays papers

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut is one of the greatest pacifist writers in the world, although criticized by many he still tries to get his message across to the public. Kurt Vonnegut has written many novels in his lifetime the most well known is Slaughterhouse Five, which tells of his experiences somewhat in World War Two. Throughout all his novels he seems to keep the same â€Å"recurring Vonnegut theme is the evil that occurs when technology is allowed by man to run rampant. I am the enemy of all technological progress that threatens mankind.†(Saturday Evening Post, May/June 86 pg. 38) Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11th, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was born into a family where the father was a respectable architect, but less than a year after his parents marriage came World War One. â€Å"Prohibition ended the Lieber income from brewing and the Great Depression brought a halt to building and hence unemployment to to Vonnegut’s architect father. Looking back on those years, Vonnegut has said that the time of the Great Depression was not particularly hard for him.†(American Writers, A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 2,Part 2 pg 754) Kurt Vonnegut had his first writing experience a Shortridge Highschool in Indianapolis. He then attended Cornell University where he majored in chemistry and biology. After being kicked out of Cornell he then Enlisted in the army. Soon after his enlistment his mother committed suicide and his father died roughly 13 years after. He had become a German prisoner of war in 1944 which was the inspration fo r his book Slaughterhouse Five. After returning home he began the start of many novels. Many things had affected his life such key items as the Great Depression, his parents dying when he was young, being captured in the war and the death of his 41 year old sister. This would lead him to mock how society would be in years to come. In his first novel Player Piano he makes fun of an electric company that sacrifices humanity for technology. This was set in years to come where scientists and other people of that field were attempting to have machines take over humans jobs. This is the start of many personal experiences that motivate him to either mock society or warn them if they are not careful. In using his own experiences he makes his points more realistic.