Fhazel Johnnesse †A Young Man’s Thoughts Before June 16th Essay

Summary: The poem communicates the thoughts and feelings of one of the students in 1976 who would lose his life during the protests of June 16th This was the protest of bantu education by thousands of black schoolchildren, many of whom were shot and killed by the police. The poem concentrates on the human aspects rather than political convictions. The student has no feelings of bitterness toward anyone and expresses an acceptance of his impending fate. Tone: nostalgia melancholy longing acceptance Enjambment: Reflects natural speech patterns and adds to the conversational mood of the poem. Structure: Lack of punctuation and free verse: Reflects flow of thoughts. Breaks from normal format – protest for change (see synopsis). Suggests inferior education. A lack of control over the situation. Interpretation: Key: Green – important connotation Yellow – alliteration Line 1 The student looks to tomorrow; the day of the protest. ‘i’ suggests the student’s insignificance in the perspective of improving education for all non-white school goers and his acceptance of the sacrifice he will make to achieve this. That the student will ‘travel on a road’ suggests the well-known metaphor of life being a journey. Line 2 The student’s journey in life is full of difficulty, as suggested by ‘winds’ and ‘hill’. It also suggests the student’s determination as persistence is needed to navigate a winding, uphill road. The student’s life is aimed at achieving a specific goal or summative achievement, in this case the improvement of non-white education. Line 3 – 4 The student takes only his memories on the winding road for comfort. The memories are clearly important to the speaker which emphasises the importance of the human aspects of the protest rather than the political (see synopsis). Line 5 The student realises the heartache and grief his death will bring to his mother. Line 6 The student longs for a time when his life was simpler, and for the social presence of his friends. This shows the student to possess strong interpersonal bonds. Line 7 The student recollects a simple instance with friends. This further emphasises that the student is merely a normal young man. Line 8 In remembrance the student asks only that he be mourned with a song. This may suggest that he wishes his friends and family not to grieve for long over his passing. Line 9 The women who is to sing for him (assumedly his mother) has downturned eyes. This could either be seen as a way to hide her grief or as a sign of submission to the oppressor (the apartheid government). Line 10 The student would also have an old man (assumedly his father) to grieve by means of the song. Line 11 The man has a ‘broken brow’. This may suggest physical scarring but may also suggest that it is furrowed from emotion. This may be from the grief of the student’s death or from the years of oppression suffered under apartheid. Line 12 The student asks others to sing for him which may suggest that he is already dead, as he cannot sing for himself. Line 13 The student describes the end of his life (‘sunset’) as red. Red has connotations of anger, passion, blood and violence, all of which detail the occurrences during the protest. ‘Drenched’ suggests his complete hopelessness of escape from the violence and bloodshed. It also adds to the image of blood and suggests a large number of death. Alliteration: ‘B’ (line 7)- Links with belching onomatopoeia. ‘S’ (line 8-9, 12)- Creates mood- hushed, mellow, sorrowful.

Why I want to be a pharmacist

I have always wanted to work in health care for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a young child, it gave me such great joy to assist someone who needed my help and I have continued to feel the same way to date.Before considering this path, I worked as a nursing assistant. This line of work gave me immense satisfaction because I could care for people. However, I grew fond of my patients and it became so devastating when some of them passed away. At this point, I realized that my compassionate personality could not cope with such close contact with patients. I needed a line of work that allowed me to care for the sick but at the same time, maintain some distance from them. My answer could only be found in pharmacy.I have done a lot of volunteer work in this line and although I have not been paid for my efforts, my experience in this line of work has prepared me to deal with the intricacies of the profession. Through pharmacy, I can get a chance to do some community work espec ially with regard to immunization processes and other procedures that involve offering service to the community.I also believe that pharmacy is a rewarding career. It is one of the most trusted professions in the country. In fact, research shows that pharmacists are the second most trusted professionals in health care. Through pharmacy, I will be exposed to other equally important health care providers.This means that I can then cooperate with these professionals to improve the overall heath of my community. For instance, pharmacy would allow me to offer advice to doctors who may want to find out information about a certain disease.On top of that, I will also b working hand in hand with other sections of the health care profession such as radiography, bio-lab technology among others. These interactions will build my character as a true profession and I will always get an opportunity to learn and grow.A career in pharmacy is highly flexible. In contrast to other professions such as n eo-surgery, in pharmacy, I will always be in control of my working experience hence leaving time for a social life. This degree of flexibility can also allow me to pursue further studies or other work related projects during my free time.Pharmacy is one of the most demanding professions in the health sector. This is especially because it is a combination of various disciplines. For instance, knowledge in industrials chemistry is essential to understand the chemical compositions of drugs. Also, I will need some knowledge in bio chemistry to understand how the body works.The human anatomy and physiology will also be essential. Internalizing all these disciplines requires a great degree of dedication, hard work and enthusiasm which I have in abundance. My interests and talents are definitely compatible with this profession. This are the reasons hwy I feel pharmacy is the career for me.ConclusionAny profession ought to be in line with one’s personality. I believe that my interest s, experiences, talents and personality provide me with a unique advantage in this line of work. On top of that, pharmacy is rewarding, rich and challenging at the same time.

Tools of Managerial Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tools of Managerial Economics - Essay Example Competitive markets, Market power and imperfect markets are the three main areas of interest in managerial economics. Managerial economics underlies the basic factors which monitor the process of a manager - the external and internal factors. As the implies the internal factors lie in the purview of a manager and correspondingly microeconomics define the basic tenets of managerial economics. Thus managerial economics has a more limited scope - it is more application of microeconomics to managerial issues. Thus when we try to analyze a basically macroeconomic phenomenon, the fall of the Socialistic regime in Eastern Europe, we will be basically analyzing the forces which defined the characteristics of different markets in this market under several external forces, the most important being government intervention. Individuals are found to share common motivations that lead them to behave rationally in making economic choices - this is the foundation of managerial economics. This implies that an individual who, when faced the same choices at two different times, will behave in the same way during both the times (Varian 2005). The entire conceptual base is economics is built on the theory of Demand and Supply - the main pillars on which the subject stands. Thinking of the buying process as a contest, demand and supply are the forces which monitor and shape the strategies that the two sides adopt in the market. The aspect of nations it is demand and supply again which determine the level and efficiency in the macro levels of economic activity. The political and economic systems built by the communists in eastern Europe started on its route to collapse by 1973. A prime economic problem of allocation occurred - the planners in this socialist economy stressed on the allocation of a large share of its GNP to in armaments production and heavy industries. This investment, done at the cost of living, led to the immobilization of a large number of resources. Thus the U.S.S.R. was at one time leading the world in the production of several primary goods like coal, oil, electricity, steel, and cement, which was not getting reflected in the final products or finished goods. When one tries to understand the reason for the collapse of the system in U.S.S.R, one should realize that this is a classic example of how the extreme government expenditure has caused a nation's economy to go bankrupt. This is a classic example of a situation where a perfect market has been suppressed - factors of production were being employed at abnormal prices and market demand was being met by a monopolist - the state here. Economists and managers alike, build models of economic behaviour by inductive reasoning. The model is tested with actual empirical data. If the tests support the model, it can be accepted; otherwise, it should be revised. The situation in eastern Europe has thrown across several important information – like the growth of an economy in the midst of severe administrative bottlenecks, the lack of meaningful foreign trade, and political dissonance.  Ã‚  

Benchmark - ECH-640 Lesson Plan Revision, Reflection, and Analysis Essay

Benchmark - ECH-640 Lesson Plan Revision, Reflection, and Analysis - Essay Example The learning resources that the teacher employs and the strategies employed in teaching and learning. The application of modified instructions in teaching for the simplification of the learning process, the application of professional conduct by the teacher all play a major role in guiding the teacher towards the successful passage of information to the students in the learning process. Applying these in educating the students the different subjects ranging from the language education to mathematics will result into successful implementation of the educational needs of the community. The plan will provide a sense of direction to the education program and hence easy achievement of the goals of the education programs. The teaching of languages requires the comprehension of the same language in detail by the teacher to provide the accurate guidance needed to ensure successful education programs. The provision of an in-depth approach to teaching in this field only prove possible if the teacher has the knowledge on the language and is confidently in position to express themselves with it. Through this knowledge, the teacher easily approaches the education of the language. The teacher finds the language more attractive and easy to educate to the students and benefits from their active participation (Field, 2010). The mastery of the content by the teacher provides a positive approach to passing the same to the students hence the learning opportunity presented to the students. The ability of the teacher to employ the language makes it natural for their education of the students in the language. Mathematics being a scientific subject involving majorly calculations requires a good understanding of the subject and proper planning on the subjects to handle. The understanding of the subject provides the teacher with the confidence they need to successfully pass the

Your position on priated movies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Your position on priated movies - Essay Example Pirated movies might be great for some consumers, but they have a negative impact on the film industry, can influence consumers to pay good money for horrible quality, and is considered a form of theft. Since pirated movies are stolen movies, those who create and distribute pirated movies should be treated and punished as criminals. One of the greatest misconceptions of movie piracy is that wealthy filmmakers cannot possibly be affected by losing sales on their films. Indeed, many people who engage in film piracy condone their actions by pointing out that members of film crews make more money than is necessary and can afford to allow a few movies to be released without requiring pay (Aicher 61). What they do not realize is that the profits made from films do not simply line the pockets of the filmmakers, but are also used for future film productions. This negative financial impact on the film industry will result in fewer high budget films, including many of the popular franchises, such as Marvel’s The Avengers, Star Trek, and The Hunger Games, and a significant decrease of releases in general. Furthermore, movie theaters throughout the world would feel the repercussions of film piracy if the film industry ceased to release movies to be shown at the theaters. Theaters would then lose sales, make no return profit, and be forced to shut down business. Though it may be unfathomable, film piracy has the ability to completely destroy the renowned success of the world’s collective film industry (Segrave 115). Regardless of whether or not people think filmmakers make too much money, it needs to be known that for any industry, an individual person or any entire company requires payment to continue doing what they do best. If those heavily engaged in film piracy persist on taking and selling product that are not their own, they will not only rob the film industry of its legacy but destroy entertainment for people worldwide. The filmmakers are not the only

The inequality of miniorities in the criminal justice system. What Term Paper

The inequality of miniorities in the criminal justice system. What type of stereotypes and unfair justice do miniorities face by - Term Paper Example This research essay will have a detailed analysis and discussion on the inequality of minorities in the criminal justice system in USA and how to have a balanced approach without any bias for the offenses committed despite their color and creed. Introduction United States of America can be defined as a nation of diverse culture comprising of white ethnic immigrants, native Americans, Latinos, African Americans and Asians. As per Russell—Brown (2009), slave codes are those set of laws that ruled the life of African slaves as early in 1600s. Under slavery law, majorities of the African Americans were the victims, and their ordeal came to an end due to the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. More rights of the blacks were recognized due to the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865. According to Free (1996), immediately after the elimination of slavery in USA, â€Å"Black codes â€Å"were legislated in many of the US states in an endeavor to employ the legal system to be dominated by the White supremacy with Jim Crow laws, which stipulated separate facilities for blacks, particularly in cars, rail , schools ,bathrooms , etc. (Hartley, 2010, p.112). As per Browne-Marshall, in 1896, in Plessey v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court of USA sanctioned the policy of â€Å"separate but equal† all but legitimate White supremacy. The enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which banned racial discrimination in employment , in public places ,which was trailed by Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave legal acknowledgement to the rights of Black voters.(Gabbidon ,2010,p.66). Though discrimination is banned through Civil Rights Act of 1964, many empirical evidences like Mauer (1994), Tonry (1995), Free (1996), Donziger (1996), Walker (1999), and Walker et al (2000) have shown that racial discrimination prevails virtually in every phase of USAs criminal justice system even today. (Hartley, 2010, p.112). The Main objective of this research essay is to dis cuss about the inequality witnessed by the minorities in the criminal justice system of the U.S.A and to discuss about the type of stereotypes, and unfair justice do minorities face by the treatment of the United States court system in an exhaustive manner. â€Å"Discrimination of Minorities in the American Criminal Justice System† As per Walker, Spohn & DeLone (2000), racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system have long been given attention by the researchers who have found that there has been evidence of discrimination shown to ethnic and racial minorities at every phase of the criminal justice system. Footed upon by the debate posed by Marxist and conflict criminologists, scholars have tried to answer the query whether the law does, in reality, operate to the advantage of a dominant upper class and to the disadvantage of an immobilized lower community. Critics also have raised the question, whether the criminal action of that community which control or own the means of economic production are comparatively impervious from criminal prosecution? (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010, p.475). As per labelling theory of criminal justice, offenders are being treated as if they were criminal, which had the effect of unwanted outcomes on

BUSINESS ECONOMICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

BUSINESS ECONOMICS - Essay Example Open market operations involves the buying back or selling of government securities. Of the government wants to increase the supply of money it will buy back the securities it has sold to financial institutions in exchange of currency that will then be circulated in the market in the form of investments or lending. If the government wants to decrease the money supply it will sell its securities and holding onto the money that was previously in circulation. Another way to control money supply is to adjust the rate of lending at which the banks can obtain loans from the central bank or other banks. Higher rate will result in low borrowing and hence tightened money supply and vice versa. Lastly, Cash Reserve requirement is also adjusted in order to control money in circulation. Cash reserve is the amount of funds that the financial institutions are required to keep aside. This is a percentage of the total deposits and higher cash reserve requirement allows banks to lend out less funds. Similarly lower cash reserve requirement enables banks to have more funds to lend out. Unconventional tools of money supply include the central bank’s commitment to keep rates low in the future. Another means is to adjust the central bank’s assets to provide ease in credit through the change in different rates and prices. Third unconventional way is lower the policy rate to zero by supplying reserves that are more than the required rate (Highered.mcgraw-hill.com, 2011). Money supply is a crucial aspect that determines the value of currency and inflationary measures. Conventional ways are the standard means for the central bank to control money supply. However, if the economic conditions do not permit the central bank to use the conventional means they resort to unconventional means which are effective but not good for the economy in the long run due to their unpredictable and risky nature. (b) In a 2012 study the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that the fiscal

Finding Books (Search Assignment) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Finding Books (Search Assignment) - Essay Example The capability to manage combat stress is a fundamental feature of excellent mental health in soldiers. Consequently, the difference between performance in training and performance under anxiety is imperative, and each service member ought to be exposed to combat instruction under stress. One of the most ordinary mental disorders is Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and according to this article it is apparent that the disorder was formerly not understood. This article specifies that PTSD might lead to mental breakdown in service members, and as combat progresses, the mental disorder is becoming increasingly predominant. This article also specifies that the causes of Post traumatic stress disorder include physical fatigue, exposure to traumatic images as well as the horror experienced in the battle field. The scope of the disorder is prevalent, and may be treated by administering regimes of relaxation and rest (Peter, 2005). By employing the CRAAP evaluation system, it is apparent that this article is contemporary. This is because it was published in 2005, and the links are efficient, and the old sources are also pertinent. The information is applicable to the topic, because it grants the causes, history of the condition, as well as ways of treating PTSD. This article is also reliable, because it is published in an encyclopedia that involves with the military and the consequences of ill health on the military. The precision and the rationale of the information presented in the article are also verified, since the anticipated audience includes students and the public. In conducting this research, I was able to understand how psychiatric disorders occasionally develop as service men and women get exposed to complicated combat zones. I was also able to comprehend how PTSD affects not only the individual sufferer, but also their families. In conducting this research, I was able to

I will upload the file Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

I will upload the file - Essay Example The orientation program will be conducted on all new employees upon arrival at the company. The orientation program covers a presentation on the company history, the mission statement, vision statement and goals. The program will also include a recruitment process, in which the employee learns about the scope of their new jobs, their personal responsibilities and rights. Another aspect of the orientation program is to familiarize the new employee with the organizational structure and the chain of command. The program will also include a visit to all the departments so that the employee can learn about their interdependence. After going through the orientation program, the employee is bound to be more comfortable working in the company. According to McDonald & Hite, training forms an integral part of any career development system since it lays the foundation for good performance within an organization (420). At Superior Roses, both new and current employees will undergo intensive training in their areas of specialization. As for the new employees, training will come right after the orientation process. As soon as the new employee settles in their specific department, then the department members under instruction from the departmental manager will guide the employee on how to go about their duties. For example, an employee joining the sales department will be trained on how to book customer orders, how to prepare order forms, and how to ensure proper shipment of flowers. The employee will also be trained on how to ensure proper coordination of activities in all departments to guarantee customer satisfaction. For those employees who have worked longer in the company, training will also be conducted to ensure that they keep up with variations in the industry. For example, the people within the production department, which basically deals with the production of flowers, will require frequent training on the effects of weather change on flower quality. Most

Case Note for RvR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case Note for RvR - Essay Example t could constitute â€Å"unlawful sexual intercourse†, as defined under Section 1(1) of the Sexual Offences Act of 1956 (4) The wife’s marital consent to intercourse had not been revoked, either by a Court order or by an agreement between the parties. As a result, the question that arose in these circumstances was whether, despite her refusal to consent, the wife could have been held to have consented by the fact of the marriage. 4. The trial judge’s directions to the Jury stated that there appeared to be ample grounds to indicate that consent to sexual intercourse had been withdrawn by an agreement between the parties. Firstly, the parties were not cohabiting. Secondly, the husband’s act in phoning his wife and telling her he intended to see about a divorce constituted implicit consent. On this basis, the prosecution could prove a charge of rape or attempted rape against the husband. 5. The first fact is not material to the disputed issue of rape. The second fact, i.e, defendant had mentioned his intent to seek a divorce, is a relevant and material fact, because it revokes by implied mutual agreement, the consent to sexual intercourse that is imposed by marriage and spelt out under Hale’s common law rule. Hence, it establishes that the husband’s act constituted rape. It also establishes that he is not eligible for immunity under Hale’s rule. The third fact is also material and relevant, because it establishes the second ground of bodily assault. 6. The marital exemption itself refers to the common law rule wherein upon marriage, an assumption is made that the wife consents to sexual intercourse with her husband. This presumption may however be rebutted by evidence that the wife did not in fact, consent. To enforce this rebuttal, some exceptions have been established, when a wife can say no, such as when her health is in danger or when the man’s actions constitute assault. These and other exceptions have been spelt out by case precedent

The climate of the Earth Essay Example for Free

The climate of the Earth Essay The climate of the Earth is always changing. In the past it has altered as a result of natural causes. Nowadays, however, the term climate change is generally used when referring to changes in our climate which have been identified since the early part of the twentieth century. The changes weve seen over recent years and those which are predicted over the next 100 years are thought by many to be largely as a result of human behaviour rather than due to natural changes in the atmosphere The greenhouse effect is very important when we talk about climate change as it relates to the gases is believed that the effect could be intensified by human activity and the emission of gases into the atmosphere. It is the extra greenhouse gases which humans have released which are thought to pose the strongest threat. IMPACTS Scientists around the globe are looking at all the evidence around climate change and using supercomputer models to come up with predictions for our future environment and weather. However, the next stage of that work, which is just as important, is looking at the knock-on effects of potential changes. For example, are we likely to see an increase in precipitation and sea levels? Does this mean there will be an increase in flooding and what can we do to protect ourselves from that? How will our health be affected by climate change, how will agricultural practices change and how will wildlife cope? And what will the effects on coral be? And while it may be controversial some would argue that climate change could bring with it positives as well as negatives. FLOODING The UK has experienced heavy floods over the past decade, which have affected thousands of people and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. The rainfall in June and July 2007 was about 20% higher than ever seen before in records that go back to 1879. Although it is impossible to say this flooding was a result of climate change, some computer predictions say that we can expect to see more extreme weather events such as flooding in the future. The Met Office however project that while heavy summer rains may become more frequent, summers are likely to be drier overall, especially in the south of Britain. According to the Environment Agency, at present 2. 3 million homes and 185,000 businesses are at risk of flooding in England and Wales representing property, land and assets to the value of over ? 200bn. HEALTH The climate we live in affects many areas of our lives. The quality of the food we eat, the water we drink and our homes are all dependent on our climate and weather. Climate researchers predict that the UK climate will become warmer, with high temperatures in the summer becoming more frequent and very cold winters more rare. Winters will become wetter with heavier rain more common. Some scientists have suggested that a warmer world will be a sicker world. However there is not complete agreement that this will be the case. With winters becoming milder, there are likely to be fewer cold-related deaths. However, there is a danger that bacteria would now longer die-off seasonally during the prolonged cold spell meaning that diseases may spread more widely. More heat waves will increase the number of hot-weather related deaths while the number of cases of skin cancer has quadrupled in the last 30 years. High level of ground-level ozone will increase the prevalence of cardio-respiratory disease. Higher average global temperatures mean that diseases, or their carriers, may be able to move to areas that were previously too cold for them to survive. It is possible that a mild strain of malaria will become established in localised parts of the UK for up to four months of the year. Globally, there are likely to be more floods, more droughts and more storms, which will be accompanied by damage to our homes, food and water supplies and impact on our general health. An increase in flooding will promote the spread of water-borne diseases plus the growth of fungi, while droughts encourage white flies, locusts and rodents, all affecting food and water supplies and health. Climate change is likely to have an unequal impact on the world population. Those living in poor and developing countries are going to be less able to adapt to changes. The effects on general UK health are likely to be less severe than in other parts of the world. Health impacts are not likely to be confined to the human population wildlife will also be severely affected. WILDLIFE The affects of climate change arent going to be restricted to humans. The possible dangers for plants and animals throughout the world are a great concern to environmentalists. Birds, fish, and land-based animals are all going to be under threat as their habitats and climate alter. Plants, trees and shrubs are also going to have to adapt. Species are under threat in more than one way. Climate change is predicted to cause a number of weather extremes which could directly affect our wildlife, for example through flooding or storms. However the biggest concern is how the changes in weather will affect the habitats in which species lives. It is estimated 20-30% of plant and animal species will be at increased extinction if the temperature rises by more than 1. 5 2. 5C. Less snow in winter, warmer temperatures in summer and more winter rain will affect wildlife across the board. Sea level rises will reduce land area in some countries, which will instantly affect vegetation which is currently used for homes and foods by animals. WHAT CAN WE DO? Its not just policies and industries that need to be more climate-friendly; each individual has an impact on his or her environment. Choices that we make in our day-to-day lives can ? Affect the climate ? Turn off lights when you leave a room ? Only boil the amount of water you need in your kettle ? Turn off televisions, videos, stereos and computers when they are not in use they can use between 10 and 60% of the power they use when on ? Close curtains at dusk to keep in heat ? let your clothes dry naturally rather than using a tumble drier

Analysing Elizabeth Browning And Lord Tennyson English Literature Essay

Analysing Elizabeth Browning And Lord Tennyson English Literature Essay Two of the most successful poets of the 19th century, particularly between 1830 and 1900, were Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poems being studied throughout this essay are Aurora Leigh and The Cry of the Children by Elizabeth Browning, and The Lady of Shallot, In Memoriam and The Lotus-Eaters by Alfred Tennyson. All of these poems show how poets of the Victorian era dealt with the concept of morality in their own modern worlds. In detail, this essay will focus on Elizabeth Brownings feminist nature in her poems. Browning also writes about the contemporary issues during her lifetime, like the conflicts women faced as regards their home and work lives. This is shown on Aurora Leigh in great detail. She also writes about the struggle of young children and this is evident in the poem The Cry of the Children. This essay will also discuss Alfred Lord Tennyson and the different themes that he used throughout his writings, such as loss, romance and loneliness. His p oetry is based a lot on emotions. It is sometimes suggested that he based his poetry on his own life and his emotional state at different times in his life. Both of these poets give opportunities to the reader to see deeper into the life of society back in the 19th century. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most famous poets in England in the Victorian era for several reasons. Her feminine status aided her poems in getting noticed and in getting read. In most of her poems she shows an interest or at least a glimpse into the world around at the time. Her poem Aurora Leigh (1857) is written in the form of a novel poem. At the time that she wrote this it wasnt know for women to write novel or epic poems, if they were to write it would only be short verses, or in some cases like Browning they would also write sonnets. The poem has a contemporary setting and it shows issues of the modern society, especially in relation to the conflict between gender and genre in poetry. In Victorian society, there was a lot more emphasis put on the purity of women and also there was the sense that women would be looked down upon if they didnt uphold these ideals. Elizabeth Browning wrote in a way, against society, so to a point she was a typical Victorian poet. She was, in a sense, feeding into modernism, moving away from your typical society ways. We can see this too in her poem Aurora Leigh when she says Their sole work is to represent the age, their age, not Charlemagnes, this live, throbbing age (ll. 202-203). In an article by Joyce Zanona on Elizabeth Browning there is a lot of discussion around the feminist nature of Aurora Leigh. She goes through how Aurora talks of the treatment of women, and hoe women to Aurora were being treated as offal. In The Norton Anthology of English literature it tells us of how there were many contemporary artists at this time, such as Emily Dickinson or John Ruskin that admired her work for her moral and emotional ardour and her energetic engagement with the issues of her day. Her poetry is noted to have a general sense of morality running through, in both her early works and her later works after her marriage to Robert Browning, in poems like The Cry of the Children and in her sonnets. In The Cry of the Children Elizabeth Browning gives an insight into gender roles in society in the 1800s, the industrial revolution and also into the system of morality that some say failed during the Victorian period. In the poem, Browning describes the life of little children in the 1800s, during the time of the Industrial Revolution. In the lower classes they were made to work from a very young age, whether it was in the workhouses or on farms or anywhere. A lot of Victorian writers wrote for the cause that was the life of these little kids, and the social life mainly of the poorer classes and the social struggles. In The Cry of the Children Browning say They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of others, in the country of the free (ll. 10-12). A lot of poets felt like it was the lives of the kids that needed to be protected during the hard times of the revolution and the 19th century in general. Her poem, even from the first line, suggests the sorrow of the chi ldren in the 19th century and they sad times that they were faced with. She paints the picture of a nice picturesque place to live with The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, the young birds are chirping in the nest (ll.5-6). She also wonders if the young children wonder why they cry so much. The images of the lifeless trees and dying hope also suggests that at the time that Browning wrote the poem there was a lot of troubles and hardships in society. The damaged images may represent the damaged society that was around then, in that they had a lot of rules and ideals which Browning and other poets felt needed to be forgotten. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was mostly known for his short poems, a lot of which had themes of a mythological nature, like Ulysses. Separate to these however was In Memoriam, which was written in memory of his fellow poet and best friend Arthur Hallam, written in 1850 and being one of the biggest successes he produced throughout his career. In his poetry Tennyson can be seen to have reflected on a common concern that was also evident among other poets of that era, the conflict that was occurring between the expansion of knowledge in the scientific world and the religious faith. In his poem In Memoriam he doesnt really put emphasis on one way of thinking or a particular religion, however in his poem Ulysses Tennyson writes about how it is better to live in the present than dwell on the past, how you need to look forward to the future and move forward with knowledge and experience. In the poem he says that the mind acts to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield (l. 70), so he is leaning towards the side of science, that if you have wisdom you can move forward and be happy, faith isnt a necessity. In In Memoriam Tennyson struggles a little because of his faith, how it started to disappear after the death of his friend. As the poem goes on, the tone changes to a brighter, more pleasant feeling because it seems he has come to the conclusion that his faith cannot be destroyed, especially not by knowledge or science. The Lady of Shallot was originally written in 1832 but it was later revised by Tennyson and finally it was published a decade later, in 1842. The Lady of Shallot can be viewed as being similar to the story of the Maid of Astolat, however Tennyson always said that it was actually based on a personal experience, on an old Italian Romantic encounter. In Flavia Alayas book it says Interpretations of The Lady of Shallot represent it as one of Tennysons many unresolved expressions of his peculiar dilemma: artistic dedication vs. Social responsibility, failing to make an essential distinction between disposition and activity whereby his meaning becomes less paradoxical. He struggled with trying to decide whether or not writing about things that mattered to him, like politics history and general humanitarian issues would take away from his poetry what he worked so hard to put into it, magic. The Lotus-Eaters is a poem which describes a couple of mariners who after eating lotus are isolated from the world. In The Lotus-Eaters there is the theme of whether or not a poet should create work to celebrate the world, or whether they should just enjoy the world simply by living in it. The poem suggests that by giving in to the power that the flower conveys, the mariners are misleading themselves. In the poem Tennyson says meadow, set with slender galingale; a land where all things always seemed the same! (ll.23-24). It is almost as if by eating the lotuss that the mariners were leaving reality and they instead were entering a world where thing seemed to be different than they actually were. The poem The Lotus Eaters considers the differences between living in a community and living on ones own in isolation. Unlike in The Lotus Eaters, in his poem The Lady of Shallot, the woman is isolated but in a different way than the mariners. The difference in their isolation being that she doesnt really have a choice in the situation, she cannot leave whereas the mariners could leave the island. She has no choice in her isolated state. The Lady is lured away and there is also a curse involved. One could make the argument that Tennyson was writing about his own life, the struggle from being isolated and torn between it and the public eye because of his poetry. In both Elizabeth Barrett Brownings and Alfred Lord Tennysons writings, the issue of womens sexuality and their place in the Victorian era is evident. The societal status of women in the Victorian era showed problems in the national power of England with appalling social conditions. Difficulties grew more and more for women because there was this idea where there was the ideal woman. This was at the time when there was gender inequality in both politics and society. Women were seen to have a domestic purpose and to maybe do work in the workhouses if they were poor, but in the poem Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Browning writes about Auroras success in both her professional and home lives, and this too poses the question of what the role was for women in the Victorian era was. Browning seems to of put some of her own experiences as a woman writer in this era into Aurora Leigh, almost as if she is completely writing about herself under a disguised name, her problems as a woman. This essay has shown how in their own different ways, both of these poets dealt with the issue of morality and society in their own way and in their own lives. It also showed the different ways that poets and writers in the Victorian era tried to deal with social issues, like Elizabeth Browning and child labour and feminist activity or Alfred Lord Tennyson and the emotions people had to deal with along with problems et cetera. It showed clearly how there was an awful lot of problems facing writers in the 19th century and it showed the different emotional states which they all went through and how they portrayed these in their poetry. It showed their way of dealing with the moral function of poetry in the modern world.

Organizational change typology of evolutionary and strategic changes

Organizational change typology of evolutionary and strategic changes Introduction: This assignment examines organizational change, focusing on the distinction of changes according to their scope and presenting a typology of evolutionary and strategic changes. Business in the new millennium will continue to increase in intricacy. More and more, this demanding environment forces executives and managers to deal with constant change. Globalisation, increased opposition, international development and reformation are just a few of the challenges faced daily. Success in dealing with these new challenges will depend to a great extent on the organisation’s ability to change and adapt. It will depend on how well these organisations can manage these situations by understanding the opportunities and challenges that accompany it. The organisations that will succeed are those that recognise and react the fastest to change. Therefore, the ability of an organisation’s staff to change can mean the difference between scraping just to get by or else becoming the industr y leader. In either case the results translates into millions of dollars in revenues, profits, or losses. It must therefore be accepted that change is an organisational reality. It is critical therefore for managers and executives in todays business environment to be equipped with the skills necessary to manage change. Ultimately it is people who make organisations, and if they do not change, then there is no organisational change. The challenge therefore is for managers and executives to not only know what to change but how to go about it especially in relation to people, products, processes and systems, marketing strategies etc. Just like the butterfly, organisations will have to change and undergo a metamorphosis before they can fly. If they do not, they will be doomed to live out their lives only as caterpillars, or worse still become dinosaurs. Litrature Review: Organizational change is an empirical observation in an organizational entity of variations in shape, quality or state over time (Van de Ven and Poole, 1995), after the deliberate introduction of new ways of thinking, acting and operating (Schalk, Campbell and Freese, 1998). The general aim of organizational change is an adaptation to the environment (Barr, Stimpert and Huff, 1992; Child and Smith, 1987; Leana and Barry, 2000) or an improvement in performance (Boeker, 1997; Keck and Tushman, 1993). This definition encompasses many situations that should be distinguished by applying certain dimensions to establish ‘typologies of change’. We will refer to the scope of change, because it is one of the most used variables in literature to design change typologies. That way, changes can be defined along a continuum starting in lowscope or evolutionary changes to high-scope or strategic ones. With the aim of making the use of this dimension (scope) easier, we will describe bot h extremes of the continuum, but we should always keep in mind that real changes are not a pure type but a mixture. First, we will describe evolutionary, incremental, or first order changes. These are small changes that alter certain small aspects, looking for an improvement in the present situation, but keeping the general working framework (Blumenthal and Haspeslagh, 1994; Goodstein and Burke, 1991; Greiner, 1972; Levy, 1986; Mezias and Glynn, 1993; Nadler and Tushman, 1989; 1990). The second type of changes arestrategic, transformational, revolutionary or second order ones. They are radical transformations, where the organization totally changes its essential framework (Blumenthal and Haspeslagh, 1994; Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1996; Goodstein and Burke, 1991; Marshak, 1993; Nadler and Tushman, 1989, 1990), looking generally for a new competitive advantage (Hutt, Walker and Frankwick, 1995) and affecting the basic capabilities of the organization (Ruiz and Lorenzo, 1999). Background to Change exits in HP Economic Movement: Managing change is one of the most important issues confronting information technology (IT) organizations today. By combining three powerful products—HP Service centre software, HP Change Control Management software and HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB) software—HP Change Management Suite software gives IT managers, changer managers and change advisory boards (CABs) a complete solution for managing change within an IT environment. This tightly integrated solution enables IT departments to gain visibility into the IT environment and service dependencies, and manage the change process in a standardized manner to increase the number of effective, well-founded changes their companies undertake. It also provides decision support for the CAB by auto mating impact analysis to make change decisions based upon business impact and mitigates the risks inherent in instituting change. Strengths and Weaknesses of Change within an organisation in regards to HP: Strengths: Sole point of contact, high market consciousness, easier for customers to deal and cooperate. Easier to preserve functional skill, staffs tends to be more loyal to occupation, frequently has lower cost at the unit level. Highly combined work units, integrated functions, and backup skills. Easier harmonization, determined on the customer, more supple, minimal isolation, flatter, staff gain broader information of the business. Federal responsibility, higher quality, faster decision making, focused on the customer of each product/service group. Flexible resource planning, high practical knowledge exposed to diversity, forced collaboration service areas. Weaknesses: Less contribution/higher costs, more product or service changeability. Tends not to have end-to-end customer sight, practical priorities sometime are contradictory, more difficult to transform processes due to isolation of functions. Some laying-off of functions, lower sense of useful responsibility. Difficult to put into practice and maintain, requires cross functional expertise, long term management commitment. Comparison of alternative forms of organisational development: Digital change and organisational Development: It is been investigated the determinants of local governmental presence and the influence of organizational presence using econometric scrutiny, supported by qualitative information from the review. The variables included in these regressions and the hypotheses about the impacts of explanatory variables are discussed in a later section. In all regressions, the coefficients and standard errors were corrected for sampling weights, stratification, and the total number of communities in the central region (StataCorp 1997). The results are thus agent of the province as a whole. Standard mistakes were approximate using the Huber-White estimator, and are thus robust to general forms of heteroskedasticity (White 1980). A pathways of enlargement found in the region, were included as descriptive factors in the analysis (along with other factors).10 A development pathway is defined as a common prototype of change in livelihoods and resource management, and thus represents a particular set of ec onomic opportunities and constraints (Pender, Scherr, and Duron 1999). Using data on occupations and changes in profession and land use since the mid-1970s, six pathways of development were acknowledged. Basic grain (maize, beans and sorghum) production is the most or second most important profession in all but one of the sample communities. Other factors were therefore more determinate in characteristic the pathways. The pathways include villages where 1) basic grain production is the dominant economic activity and has been expanding during the past 20 years (basic grains expansion pathway), 2) basic grains production is the dominant economic activity though production has been sluggish or failing (basic grains stagnation pathway), 3) horticultural (mainly vegetable) production has amplified and has become the first or second most important activity (horticultural expansion pathway), 4) coffee production has increased and is the first or second most important activity (coffee expan sion pathway), 5) forestry performance are the first or second most important activity (forestry specialization pathway), and 6) non-farm employment has increased and become the first or second most important source of income (non-farm employment pathway). Involvement of Stakeholders in the Introduction of Change in an Organisation: Stakeholders, including NGOs, investors, and activists, as well as communities, labour, and consumers, are playing an increasingly important role in improving corporate behaviour. Some NGOs are using tactics of direct confrontation. Others have been working for years to create partnerships with companies in order to help them green their production, often in ways that actually save them money. As well, the investor community is taking an increasingly active role in encouraging corporations to consider not just the next quarter’s earnings but also the long-term financial risks of failing to address broader social and environmental issues. Together, these are proving key strategies in compelling corporations to internalize the environmental and social costs that are often ignored in the mad race for profit. Analysis and Evaluation of the Strategies: Corporate managers face many daily pressures, and improving social and environmental records (often in ways that don’t directly enhance the bottom line) is not generally their highest priority—until their corporations suddenly become the targets of bad publicity from a coordinated group of activists. With corporations spending a half trillion dollars each year to create positive images through advertising, a sudden storm of negative publicity from the actions of thousands of coordinated activists can swiftly raise environmental issues to the top of managers’ action-item lists. This fear of public shaming—and the connected loss of profit and stock value—are what makes these â€Å"corporate campaigns† so successful. Unlike traditional campaigns against companies, such as boycotts, labour strikes, and litigation (which remain important but often have limited objectives), corporate campaigns treat the targeted company more as a lever of change th an as an end in itself. When a coalition of NGOs and investors led by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) targeted Citigroup, the goal was to reduce overall exploitation of natural resources. But RAN didn’t target mining and logging companies—which are not in the public eye and depend on continued extraction to survive—pouncing instead on the financial institutions that capitalize the mining and logging companies. Unlike them, banks spend billions to maintain strong brands and customer bases. These assets are essential, and thus exploitable vulnerabilities.And exploit RAN did. In 2000, RAN asked Citigroup to adopt a green lending policy.While the company initially refused, after more than three years of protests, shareholder actions, and other irritating tactics, Citigroup finally recognized that lending to unsustainable industries would be more costly than profitable, while not lending to them would be worth its weight in free advertising. Once Citigroup yielde d, its antagonistic relationship with RAN evolved into a collaboration to ensure adherence to its new standards—a partnership that provided much free publicity to Citigroup. Meanwhile, RAN quietly drafted a letter to Bank of America asking managers to adopt a similar policy. Bank of America, having witnessed the disruption that committed activists can cause by chaining themselves to bank doors, quickly realized that it was better to join the ranks of ecofriendly banks. Bank of America’s capitulation then left JPMorgan Chase as the next target, and it soon followed suit. Conclusion: It can be argued that the booming management of change is vital to any organisation in order to endure and succeed in the present highly economical and endlessly evolving business environment. However, theories and approaches to change management currently available to academics and practitioners are often clashing, mostly deficient pragmatic evidence and supported by undisguised hypotheses concerning the nature of fashionable organisational change management. The reason of this assignment was, therefore, to provide a significant review of some of the main concepts and methodologies to organisational change management as an important initial step towards implementing a new framework for managing change. Reference: Boeker, W. (1997) â€Å"Strategic change: The influence of managerial characteristics and organizational growth†, Academy of Management Journal, 40 (1), pp. 152-170. Blumenthal, B. and Haspeslagh, P. (1994) â€Å"Toward a Definition of Corporate Transformation†, Sloan Management Review, 35 (3), pp. 101-106. Ghoshal, S. and Bartlett, C.A. (1996) â€Å"Rebuilding Behavioral Context: A Blueprint for Corporate Renewal†, Sloan Management Review, 37 (2), pp. 23-36. Goldstein, J. (1988) â€Å"A Far-from-Equilibrium Systems Approach to Resistance to Change†, Organizational Dynamics, (Autumn), pp. 16-26. Goodstein, L.D. and Burke, W.W. (1991) â€Å"Creating Successful Organization Change†, Organizational Dynamics, 19 (4), pp. 5-17. Greiner, L.E. (1972) â€Å"Evolution and revolution as organizations grow†, Harvard Business Review, (July/Aug.), pp. 37-46. Hutt, M.D., Walker, B.A. and Frankwick, G.L. (1995) â€Å"Hurdle the Cross-Functional Barriers to Strategic Change†, Sloan Management Review, 36 (3), pp. 22-30. Leana, C.R. and Barry, B. (2000) â€Å"Stability and Change as Simultaneous Experiences in Organizational Life†, Academy of Management Review, 25 (4), pp. 753-759. Levy, A. (1986) â€Å"Second-Order Planned Change: Definition and Conceptualization†, Organizational Dynamics, (Summer), pp. 5-20. Mezias, S.J. and Glynn, M.A. (1993) â€Å"The three faces of corporate renewal: institution, revolution, and evolution†, Strategic Management Journal, 14, pp. 77-101. Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. (1989) â€Å"Organizational Frame Bending: Principles for Managing Reorientation†, Academy of Management Executive, 3, pp. 194-204. Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. (1990) â€Å"Beyond the Charismatic Leader: Leadership and Organizational Change†, California Management Review, 32 (2), pp. 77-97. Pender, J., S.J. Scherr, and G. Durà ³n. 1999. Pathways of development in the hillsides of Honduras: Causes and implications for agricultural production, poverty, and sustainable resource use. Environment and Production Technology Division Discussion Paper No. 45. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. Ruiz, J. and Lorenzo, J.D. (1999) â€Å"Cambio estratà ©gico y renovacià ³n organizativa: utilizacià ³n de las capacidades latentes y perifà ©ricas†, Revista Europea de Direccià ³n y Economà ­a de la Empresa, 8 (4), pp. 71-82. Schalk, R., Campbell, J.W. and Freese, C. (1998) â€Å"Change and employee behaviour†, Leadership Organization Development Journal, 19 (3), pp. 157-163. StataCorp. 1997. Stata statistical software: Release 5.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation. Van de Ven, A.H. and Poole, M.S. (1995) â€Å"Explaining development and change in organizations†, Academy of Management Review, 20 (3), pp. 510-540. White, H. 1980. A heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator and a direct test for heteroskedasticity. Econometrica 48: 817–838.

Changes in Operations are Needed for Future Threats and Terrorism in th

Threats and terrorism will always exist and are constantly evolving. Even after the dreadful 9/11 attacks, terrorists remain diligent at planning attacks against the United States and its allies. Although not on the same scale as the 9/11 attacks, terrorists have successfully executed plots in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. For example, on April 15, 2013, an attack at the Boston Marathon occurred, killing three people and injuring 264 individuals. In the United Kingdom, on 7 July 2005, the London bombing incidents took place. Fifty-two individuals were killed and 700 were injured. On 7 January 2015, there was a mass shooting at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. On 13 November 2015, terrorists have successfully executed the single deadliest terrorist attack in French history. Multiple shooting and grenade attacks occurred on a Friday night; among the locations targeted were a music venue, sports stadium and an ethnic restaurant. This very s hort list does not take into account the U.S., U.K. and French citizens which fall victim to the endless series of beheadings and bombing in the Middle East. No matter the type of attack or the number of casualties, terrorist activities continue have a great effect on the U.S. and its allies. Transnational crimes are constant issues as well. Transnational crimes can be terrorism, drug, weapon, and human trafficking, smuggling of goods, and cyber crimes. Adversaries in foreign nations also commit corporate espionage and implant computer viruses by infiltrating the nation’s network systems. All of these crimes affect the U.S.; therefore, it is important that law enforcement and intelligence agencies work together to limit the amount of crimes and... ...atu, S., & Fainisi, F. (2011). INTERNATIONAL CYBER SECURITY THROUGH CO-OPERATION. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 6(2), 438-448. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/884338908?accountid=28180 Rascoff, S. J. (2010). The law of homegrown (counter)terrorism. Texas Law Review, 88(7), 1715-1749. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/722437512?accoun tid=28180 Rosen, N. (2006). Thinking like a jihadist: Iraq's jordanian connection. World Policy Journal, 23(1), 1-16. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/232587503?accountid=28180 Tokatlian, J. G. (2008). A new doctrine of insecurity? U.S. military deployment in South America. NACLA Report on the Americas, 41(5), 6-10. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/202714393?accountid=28180

Hemingways The Sun Also Rises Essay examples -- Hemingway Sun Also Ri

Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises Hemingway sat down to write The Sun Also Rises on September 15,1925 and only six days later, the first draft was complete with the title of Fiesta. The first draft was almost a direct journalistic account of his experience in Paris and Spain, with the names of the characters corresponding to real people. After taking a break from it and writing The Torrents of Spring in order to break his contract with publisher Horace Liverwright, Hemingway returned to his first draft of The Sun Also Rises, making major changes including editing out the first two chapters and changing the order of the book to a straight chronology, and changing the names of the characters. In mid-October, 1926, his book reaached the bookstores after being published by Scribners and by Christmas, it was into its third printing. (Svoboda, 3) Because The Sun Also Rises was Hemingway’s first novel, after making a promising entrance as a new author with In Our Time, it was reviewed critically by professionals and the general public. Although critics generally praised it as a book of â€Å"remarkable stature† (Svoboda 3), the shocking nature of the subject matter was probably the most determining factor in its bad reviews at that time. Hemingway presented a world of the post-war generation full of drinking, profanity, lack of moral values, sexual promiscuity, and lack of religious faith. (Reynolds 9) The intensity of the subject matter took many by surprise and was condemned, especially by the older generation of the 1920s: â€Å"The characters are a group of English and American young people who frequent the Paris quarter. They have been too strongly dosed with the more unpleasant kinds of reality...† (qtd. in... ... The Sun Also Rises, including historical background and the different aspects of Hemingway’s writing style. He includes a wide range of outside sources, primary and secondary, in order to give a more comprehensive understanding of Hemingway’s work during the time it was published. http://www.hemingwaysociety.org/virthem.htm This website offered many useful links to articles, biographies, and websites for Ernest Hemingway. Under â€Å"virtual Hemingway,† I was able to found very useful links to articles I could use in my report. http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/11/specials/hemingway-main.html This website was an excellent source with a compilation of articles and critical essays from the New York Times on Ernest Hemingway. It offered the most essential reviews of Hemingway as well as accurate background information and pictures.

Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? Essay

Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? To what extent does the importance of social influence research, justify the methods used in its investigation? The debate about ethics in psychology focuses on two areas: protection of participants and benefiting society. This is a double obligation dilemma as if some psychologists are not allowed to do certain experiments because of ethical restraints; this can cause problems with validity. In social psychology, these psychologists have an obligation to use their research skills to advance our knowledge of human behaviour, for the ultimate aim of human betterment. Milgram’s study into obedience involved participants becoming a ‘teacher’ and applying an electric shock to the ‘learner’ (who was a confederate) when they answered a word association question incorrectly. The participant was not aware that the shocks they administered were false and some believed they may have killed a man. In this instance therefore, the code of conduct and ethical guidelines published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and American Psychological Society (APS) in 1993 were broken in more than one way. The participants’ right to withdraw was disabled as the prods given by the experimenter (such as â€Å"please continue† etc) made the participants feel that they had no choice but to continue. The were also involved in deception as they thought they had administered real shocks and were not informed of the confederate being present. This study, however, was conducted in the 1950’s and the ethical guidelines were not in position and therefore this study may be published in modern day t... ...very case. For example, there was only one prisoner who tried to resist and went on a hunger strike. When he was put into solitary confinement the others were allowed to release him by means of giving up their blankets. They refused. They saw they situation as every man for themselves. Another benefit to society was also the impression this experiment left on the prison system in America at the time, and some aspects of this were changed as a result. Therefore in conclusion, in these two experiments alone, the unethical methods used can be justified as they have helped to profit humanity by providing insight into how humans behave when put into certain social situations. Without these ethical guidelines being broken, both experiments would have lacked ecological validity and the results would not be legitimate.

Critical Review My Place

CRITICAL REVIEW: MY PLACE, SALLY MORGAN Sally Morgan's My Place, published in 1987, is an autobiography about finding her Aboriginal roots and her identity with the focus on the lives of three generations of Australian Aborigines. Sally’s family never talked about their past and she was brought up thinking she was Indian. But she always felt different than her friends, their way of living was not the same, so her curiosity led her to realizing that she is Aborigine. And then her quest for knowledge of her past begins. My Place is actually a novel about woman’s search to find herself and her place in Australian society. The main themes are discrimination, racism and Aboriginal culture. They are presented through two different versions of autobiographical writing. One is Sally’s first person narration, which is more Western autobiographical and it focuses more on her individual quest to find her identity. The other focuses on the Aboriginal life and more on the community and family life of Aborigines. The novel has 32 chapters, which are divided into four parts: Sally’s narration about her early life, education, family relationship, her perception of herself and her self-discovery; Arthur Corunna’s story, he is a brother of Sally’s grandmother; her mother’s Glady’s story and her grandmother Daisy’s story. Their stories focus on their life when they lived in Aboriginal society. The whole book is a combination of narration, dialogues, descriptions, stories within stories, anecdotes, and personal reminiscences from various characters and also humour. All that provides balance and harmony to the book. The book is easy to read, the language is quite simple, descriptions of the nature are really specific and with the use of metaphors, symbolism and personification, the reader gets a vivid picture of the place that is described. However the first part, where Sally describes her childhood is a little bit boring, because there are mostly descriptions and details about things not relevant to the theme of the book. But when she starts to investigate her family roots with her constant attempt to get some answers from her mother and grandmother, the book becomes more interesting. The parts where her family talks about their life are very emotional, the reader gets an insight into their hard life as being black in the â€Å"white world†. Before Sally’s book, not much was known about the Aboriginal life. She writes about the contact of two different cultures, Aboriginal and Western, so we get in touch with their history, their habits, way of thinking, historical background, injustice and struggles they had to fight. Other people always treated them as something less and because all the bad things that happened to them, they decided not to speak about it, they were forced to be silent. There are still a lot of secrets, that are not revealed in the book, because they are too afraid to speak about them, but we get to know some important information about their past from the people who wrote history on their own skin. So this is a really important book for Australian and Aboriginal culture, because it opens some important questions about racism and discrimination. ANA FURLAN

Chapter 20 – Neurofinance

20. 1 INTRODUCTION In this book we have argued that cognition and emotion are powerful influences on people’s decisions. Traders are, of course, no different. This chapter begins by considering what we know about what sets a successful trader apart from other people. We have all contemplated the oft-debated question of nature versus nurture in explaining whether a person thrives or fails. In this final chapter, we further investigate where choices come from. The evidence suggests that there are both environmental and biological foundations. The chapter begins in Section 20. with a discussion of expertise, namely, what makes a skillful trader? Cognitive skills are honed through practice and repetition, but emotion also has a significant role. Next, in Section 20. 3, we turn to the emerging field of neurofinance. Using imaging technology, researchers are contributing to our understanding of how people make decisions. In Section 20. 4, we describe some of the insights recently pr ovided by neurofinance researchers. These researchers have found that cognition and emotion have complementary effects. Traders whose emotions appear to be in balance perform the best.Uncertainty and risk are experienced differently by our brains, as are gains versus losses and risk versus return. The chapter concludes in Section 20. 5 with some practical advice. 20. 2 EXPERTISE AND IMPLICIT LEARNING Consider the following situation. You are at a large concert and run into a good friend, Molly. Of course, you recognize her face immediately. Now think about this. What if, instead, you know Molly is at the concert but is seated across the venue. The friend you came to the concert with, Amy, is going to look for Molly, but the two have never met.You do your best at describing Molly to Amy. What’s the chance that Amy will be able to identify Molly among thousands of concert goers? Not too likely. Much of what we know we cannot describe in words. A face is a very complex thing, an d we simply do not have enough words to explicitly describe one particular person very accurately. Language is categorical, whereas the distinguishing features of two similar faces may be fuzzy. Some cognitive scientists assert that people have knowledge that they cannot verbalize, referred to as implicit learning or tacit knowledge.Brett Steenbarger argues that traders also have information about markets that they cannot adequately describe in words. Like a human face, markets are probably more complex than the language we have to describe them. Does this mean we need a finer grid with which to describe markets? Or, does this view suggest that we need to better understand how traders make decisions? Excellence in most fields requires expertise. How do we define expertise? Usually we think in terms of relative performance so that those at the top of their game are considered to be the experts.Because of tacit knowledge, an expert chess player or pro football player often knows insti nctively what the best move is, perhaps without any cognitive evaluation whatsoever. Recall in our discussion of the foundations of emotion in Chapter 7 that psychologists believe that emotions can develop completely independently from cognition. In other words, you can feel fear without first cognitively recognizing what is making you fearful. While observing a market, a trader may instinctively know the move he wants to make.Steenbarger notes that in many instances traders will make similar buy or sell decisions and then, ex post, provide very different descriptions of the information that led to the decision. The traders saw the same information, acted the same way, but understood their behavior quite differently. Perhaps a trader makes a decision based on instinct with no preceding cognitive evaluation. Afterward, the trader generates an explanation that is cognitively consistent with his expectations. Steenbarger argues that â€Å"the successful trader feels the market but doe s not become lost in those feelings. Studies of expert athletic performers have reached similar conclusions. For example, one study argues that â€Å"emotions, and the capability to regulate them effectively, arguably account for a large portion of the variance in athletic performance. † In the trading domain, an expert trader often has a gut feeling about a particular situation but remains in control by taking careful, deliberate action. Does this mean that trading expertise is innate and cannot be learned? Reading the information in a market could be like understanding a social interaction. Some people are just better at it than others.While some level of innate ability is probably requisite, the evidence suggests that expertise is finely honed. Not too many of us would believe that a professional quarterback spent his teen and early adult years watching football on television while sitting on the couch eating chips. Knowing the rules of a game does not make you good at the game. Practice and repetition are common ingredients across successful experts. For example, accomplished violinists spend, on average, 10,000 hours practicing. Successful traders also devote a lot of time to practice.This practice gives them the ability to connect what they know about a market to the action they should take. Through implicit learning they are able to make better and more efficient decisions. A day trader who spends hours, or even minutes, evaluating a current market circumstance before making a trading decision will certainly find it difficult to succeed. 20. 3 NEUROFINANCE While we know that practice is necessary to hone any skill, unlocking the mysteries of the brain is an important key to understanding how to promote the development of expertise in any realm, including investing.Are evolutionary theorists correct in their contention that our basic emotions have evolved to promote the survival of the species as we discussed in Chapter 7? Do expert performers hav e innate characteristics, or can anyone develop expertise in trading? Neurofinance and neuroeconomics use neurotechnology to examine how the brain behaves while a person is making financial and economic decisions. In these new and growing fields, results from economics, finance, psychology, and neuroscience provide the basis for further investigation.Neuroscience uses brain imaging, as we described in Chapter 7, to understand brain activity and how the brain works. With this technology, scientists can actually measure emotional response. The potential of the technology has not gone unnoticed by practitioners. In fact, Jason Zweig, senior writer for Money magazine and guest columnist for Time magazine and cnn. com writes: I’ve been a financial journalist since 1987, and nothing I’ve ever learned about investing has excited me more than the spectacular findings emerging form the study of â€Å"neuroeconomics. Thanks to this newborn field †¦ we can begin to understa nd what drives investing behavior not only on the theoretical or practical level, but as a basic biological function. These flashes of fundamental insight will enable you to see as never before what makes you tick as an investor. Investors who better understand â€Å"what makes them tick† will be better prepared to make good investment decisions. It is important to understand that neuroscience is not simply interested in mapping out parts of the brain. Instead, by looking at how the brain reacts during various activities, scientists can understand how the brain functions and solves problems.We will better understand the mix of cognitive processing and emotional responses. Which responses are controlled and which are automatic responses? These insights will allow economic theorists to improve models of decision-making, as well as investor education efforts. Recall from our earlier discussion of the brain that automatic and controlled responses are associated with different par ts of the brain. Automatic responses often stimulate the amygdala, whereas controlled responses activate the forebrain (or prefrontal cortex). Using imaging technology, scientists can observe the areas of the brain that are activated during a task.In Chapter 7 we also talked about Damasio’s studies of the behavior of brain-damaged patients. The patients were emotionally flat due to frontal brain lobe damage, and Damasio concluded that decision-making and emotion are intertwined. Though studies of braindamaged patients can be informative, brain imaging technology allows more control so that research can be conducted with greater precision. Neuroscientists are making great progress on brain function, and, as a result, researchers are proposing new models and theories that better incorporate aspects of psychology, including emotion. 0. 4 INSIGHTS FROM NEUROFINANCE Neuroscientists have investigated a variety of questions related to financial decision-making. Several studies have lent insight into the forces of emotion on trading by studying the physiological characteristics of professional securities traders while they were actively engaged in live trading. In one study significant correlations between market movements and physiological characteristics such as skin conductance and cardiovascular data were reported. Differences were also detected across traders, perhaps related to trading experience.Another study looked at whether emotion was found to be an important determinant of a trader’s ability to succeed in financial markets. It was found that those whose reaction to gains and losses was most intense had the worst trading performance, suggesting the obvious need for balanced emotions. Brain imaging has been used as experimental participants have made risky choices. This research indicates that how gains and losses are both anticipated and realized is likely to differ inasmuch as different regions of the brain are activated.When gains are antici pated, a subcortical region known as the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) becomes active. This region is rich in dopamine, a substance that has been associated with both the positive affect of monetary rewards and addictive drug use. The fact that this region is only active during anticipated gains (but not losses) lends plausibility to the differential experiencing of gains and losses in prospect theory. Other brain imaging research indicates that what might lie behind ambiguity aversion is the fact that risk and uncertainty are experienced in different ways.Recall in Chapter 1 where we discussed the distinction between risk and uncertainty. With a risky choice, the person can assess the probability of the outcomes, but under uncertainty the probabilities are unknown. The distinction is important here because the brain may evaluate a choice in a risky situation differently from a choice when one faces uncertainty. Research indicates that when facing uncertainty the most active regions were the orbitofrontal cortex (a region integrating emotion and cognition) and the amygdala (a region central to emotional reaction).In contrast, when facing risk, the brain areas that responded during their task were typically in the parietal lobes so that the researchers concluded that choices in this setting were driven by cognitive factors. In sum, uncertainty appears to be more strongly associated with an emotional response, while risk leads to a cognitive reaction. It has been suggested that when times becomes more uncertain (for example in 2008, as was described in Chapter 14), the inability of investors to properly assess the distribution of future returns leads to their moving from rational deliberation to a primarily emotional response.The result could be widespread unwillingness to hold risky assets in turbulent markets, a tendency that can only exacerbate market declines. A neural test of myopic loss aversion has also been conducted. A group of patients with brain lesions on areas known to be associated with the processing of emotions were compared to a control group. The former group was significantly more likely to take on risk than the control group. Further, the lesion group exhibited greater consistency in their levels of risk aversion. In other words, those with a reduced capacity for fearful responses behaved in a manner more in line with expected utility theory.Another study focused on how decision-makers’ brains reacted to varying levels of risk, rather than on learning or expected values. Using a gambling game, expected values and risk were varied while participants’ brain activation was monitored. As is typical in finance, rewards were measured using expected payoffs and risk using the variance of payoffs. Interestingly, the researchers report that brain activation varied in both time and location for reward and risk. Brain activation in response to rewards was immediate, whereas brain activation in response to risk was delayed .Time and location of activation is important because if we can separate the effects of risk and reward in the brain, researchers can further investigate how changes in risk perception affect decision-making. For example, they could examine how misperception of risk and cognitive difficulties contribute to less-than-optimal behavior. 20. 5 EXPERTISE AND EMOTION Research indicates that understanding neural responses will help us to gain insight into some of the puzzles we have talked about in this book. In addition, there are important implications for trader education.We are all familiar with the old adage that â€Å"practice makes perfect. † In order to gain expertise, it is important to know the rules of the game, so reading up on investing is not a bad idea. But, at the same time, much practice through many simulations under divergent market conditions will promote better decision-making while trading. But, does it pay to become an expert? While we know that many long hour s of studying and practice are required, is this effort sufficiently rewarded? There is evidence that this question can be answered in the affirmative for financial practitioners.One researcher constructed a â€Å"differential reward index† as the income for a specified percentile divided by the median income for each occupation. This measure allows us to differentiate high average income from high income for those whose expertise is greatest in a particular profession. For financial and business advisors, including stock brokers, earnings are related closely to achievement. At the 90th percentile the differential reward index was 3. 5, indicating that the top 10% earned 3. 5 times more than the median income level.In fact, this was the largest observed value for the differential reward index across all occupations studied! Thus the evidence suggests that the benefit of becoming a skilled financial advisor may far exceed the cost. So how can one become an expert? Researchers have concluded that tacit knowledge is an important predictor of success in business as measured by salary, rank, and the level of one’s company (e. g. , whether it is among the top 500 in the Fortune rankings). Practical knowledge, or the ability to gain tacit knowledge and turn it into a good strategy, is a function of a person’s environment and ability.Thus, with a certain level of competence, hard work can be translated into success. A successful trader, nonetheless, should always remember that emotion is critical to the outcome. We have argued throughout this book that emotion can enhance decision-making. Previously cited evidence suggested, however, that traders are advised to be wary of intense emotional reactions. Another recent study used neuroimaging to examine how decision-makers’ brains responded while playing the ultimatum game described in Chapter 11.When unfair offers were rejected by the responders, the investigators reported significant increase s in brain activity in the anterior insula, a brain area associated with emotion. Recall that even offers that are viewed as unfair should be accepted by a responder who cares only about increasing her earnings. Thus, traders are advised to exert their cognitive skills when experiencing a strong emotional reaction in order to overcome the tendency to react emotionally, just as a responder in the ultimatum game who is aware of his emotional response is well advised to accept an offer even if it seems unfair.Emotional responses and cognitive evaluations of risk can be quite different. Think about how many people perceive the risks of automobile and airplane accidents. Though riding in an automobile has been shown to be the less safe alternative, often an emotional response plays the dominant role, which may keep some people off airplanes. CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS 1. Expertise is defined in terms of relative performance so that those at the top of their game are considered to be the experts. 2. Implicit learning reflects knowledge that cannot be described using language. 3.Experts have developed implicit knowledge that enhances performance in their particular domain. 4. Neurofinance uses brain imaging technology and results from economics, finance, and psychology to better understand how the brain works. 5. Physiological differences exist across professional traders, and emotion is an important determinant of a trader’s ability. 6. Measured brain responses to changes in risk and reward vary in both location and time of activation. 7. Practice is necessary to excel in trading, and good traders may make decisions based on gut feelings, while at the same time ensuring that they control their emotional responses.

Hammer Wines Business Report Essay

Introduction Colin Hammer, after arranging an independent review, has found that many of his employees have been avoiding work and other responsibilities by searching the Internet for non-work related amusements. This act is known as cyber slacking and it is said to cost companies billions of dollars each year and often results in managers blocking or limiting access to certain websites. Concerned for productivity, this report will outline the current usage and array of sites potentially being used by the Hammer Wines employees. The sites include those for entertainment or work purposes, and restrictions based on these findings should be implemented. These restrictions must be forever changing and expanding, as each website has a different effect on the varying departments its respective employees. These modifications will also affect the productivity of Hammer Wines and will be discussed in the report by making an â€Å"internet use† policy. Findings Department Spending Most Time on the Internet Cyberslacking is a prominent occurrence amongst the Hammer Wines employees. However, of all employees, the Receptionists spent the longest time on the Internet throughout the one-week trial (see figure 1.0 below). This may or may not be detrimental to Hammer Wines. Often, receptionists complete their work before their set time, meaning that if they’re browsing the Internet, still answering their phone and have completed required work, productivity will remain normal. Studies also show productivity can increase when employees are less restricted with the Internet. This productivity can swing both ways. Negative productivity will be detrimental to Hammer Wines if the receptionist fails to multitask and therefore ineffectively completes required jobs. Internet Productivity and Cyberslacking From the array of websites (see figure 1.1 below) it is difficult to tell if Cyberslacking is present at Hammer Wines. This is because many websites, such as facebook.com and twitter.com, are huge social marketing websites, but can also used as a cost effective methods for company awareness and advertising. These sites, however, can also be misused for personal use. Unless the employee is caught directly misusing these sites, it is hard to tell weather they are cyberslacking or not. Facebook.com is one example of Cyberslacking. It is Hammer Wines’ second most visited Internet site, being used by Sales and Marketing, Reception, Manufacturing and Distribution, Human Resources @ Training and IT Services. Sales and Marketing are the only employees likely to need the site for work purposes. For all other departments, employees must use Facebook.com for personal interests. Websites, including deals.com are often used for both work and leisure. Reception, Human Resources @ Training, Manufacturing and Distribution, Sales and Marketing are all using this site. Assumptions cannot be made in relation to website use. Human Resources @ Training, Manufacturing and Distributing, and Sales and Marketing departments all have valid work-related grounds to use Deals.com, as it is great for promotional and comparative purposes. IT Services were found to be using Games.com. A total of 120 minutes was recorded throughout the week. This is a website purely dedicated to fun and games. This is the seventh most used website recorded. Although it is only a small fraction of the Internet usage, it is clear that productivity has decreased in the IT department, and through the given statistics, Cyberslacking is present. Similarly, Tatts.com was used by the Sales and Marketing department, for up to 80 minutes throughout the recorded week. Tatts.com is a betting website and has nothing to do with the Sales and Marketing of Hammer Wines. However, productivity can be increased in the workplace, with employees having some freedom on the Internet. The use of social media and other personal websites can release stress and tension, thus not wholly being to the determent of Hammer Wines. Conclusion Hammer Wines has a vast array of websites being used by employees for both personal and work use. Cyberslacking is present amongst all employees, with websites aimed at socialization and productivity which both highly used. This, however, is hard to monitor as some sites – such as Facebook.com or Deals.com – are used in the companies Sales and Marketing department, but also used in recreational down time by most, if not all, other departments. It is important for Hammer Wines to implement a strategy to monitor all Internet usage. Receptionist work productivity remained high in correlation to time spent on internet, however, it was obvious the Cyberslacking was overruling the IT department, as they spent 120 hours over the duration of the week on a games and entertainment website. Solution Internet Use Policy Hammer Wines should enforce an â€Å"Internet User Policy† in the employees contract, defining the terms of use for recreational Internet. Any employee found misusing the Internet for purposes strictly other than work, may lead to disciplinary action, and their position at the company may be compromised. Blocking Sites Permanently blocking all Internet sites at Hammer Wines could result in a drop in productivity. Alternatively, a system that allows employees to have an allocated time throughout the day, to specifically visit sites such as Facebook.com and Twitter.com will allow staff members to have high productivity through compromise and strategy. One example of strategic blocking is unblocking all websites for 15 minutes every 3 hours, enabling employees to use restricted sites that coincide with structured break times (lunch, snack and end-of-day). A second option for Hammer Wines is to block all websites, only allowing those who hold a position of authority (manager) or employee that has spoken to someone in a position of authority, to get a specific code to access a blocked website. This code then unblocks all sites and remains unblocked until the page is exited. This could be implemented when departments wish to use sites such as Facebook.com for marketing or promotional purposes.

Feminist Language Planning Essay

1 Feminism and language There is no doubt that feminism has been and continues to be one of the main social movements of this century. Its impact is felt in many societies around the world and in many spheres of life. The women’s or feminist movement strives, amongst other things, for the elimination of gender discrimination and for the greater recognition of women’s contributions to society as well as aims to change many cultural and social practices which perpetuate patriarchal value systems. Language was and is seen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy: for example, the feminist Dale Spender, spoke of the English language as being ‘manmade’ and as being an important contributor to women’s oppression (Spender 1980). It is therefore not surprising that language and discourse practices were and are subjected to feminist scrutiny, often leading to elaborate and detailed descriptions of sexist practices affecting language use. 2. Feminism and linguistic re form Feminists, at least in western societies, also expressed a desire to change the patriarchal and sexist ‘nature’ of language and therefore engaged in various types of linguistic reform or language planning. Although many feminists shared the belief that changing linguistic and discourse practices is an important element in women’s liberation, this did not result in a uniform approach to linguistic reform (see e.g. Pauwels 1998). The social, cultural, political and philosophical diversity which characterizes members of the feminist movement is also reflected in the approaches to and aims for feminist language reform. For example, not all forms of feminism, interpret women’s liberation as a question of achieving mere equality of the sexes. Similarly, not all linguistic reform proposals have as their main aim the achievement of linguistic equality of the sexes. Some reform initiatives primarily aim at exposing the sexist nature of ‘patriarchal’ lan guage by causing linguistic disruptions. The strategies used to achieve linguistic disruption frequently involve experimentation and creativity with all parts of speech. The word ‘herstory’ to refer to history which is not only about men, is an example of linguistic disruption: a morphological boundary has been reconstituted to + on semantic grounds. Creating a women-centred language capable of expressing reality from a female perspective is another prominent objective of some forms of feminist language planning. Proposed changes range from the creation of new women-centred meanings for words like ‘witch’, ‘hag’ and neologisms such as ‘malestream’, ‘femocrat’, graphemic innovations including ‘womyn’ or ‘wimmin’ and ‘LehrerIn’ (German), to developing women-focussed discourses and even creating an entirely new language. An example of the latter is the LÃ ¡adan language created by the science-fiction writer and linguist, Suzette Haden Elgin ‘for the specific purpose of expressing the perceptions of women’ (Elgin 1988:1). Despite this diversity in reform initiatives and objectives for feminist language planning, it is the ‘linguistic equality of the sexes’ approach which has become synonymous with feminist language planning in the eyes of the wider community. This is in part due to the prominence of liberal feminist approaches in the public arena which focus on achieving sex/gender equality. Linguistic discrimination is seen as a form of sex discrimination which can be addressed in ways similar to other forms of sex discrimination (e.g. in employment). In fact the question of gender bias in occupational nomenclature is directly linked to gender discrimination in the employment arena. The prominence of the linguistic equality approach is also due to the media’s attenti on to non-sexist language guidelines, the main instrument of promoting this type of feminist language reform. Advocates of the linguistic equality approach use the strategies of gender-neutralisation (sometimes gender abstraction) and/or gender-specification (feminisation) to attain their goal of creating a language system which allows for a balanced representation of the sexes. Gender-neutralisation involves minimising or eliminating gender-specific expressions and constructions. It entails ‘that any morphosyntactic and lexical features marking human agent nouns and pronouns (or other parts of speech) as masculine or feminine are ‘neutralised’ for gender, especially in generic contexts’ (Pauwels 1998: 109). Examples for English include the elimination of gender-suffixes of -ess, -ette, -(tr)ix in relation to human agent nouns (e.g. hostess, aviatrix, usherette), the creation of compound nouns involving -person (e.g. chairperson, tradesperson), and the avoidance of generic ‘he’. Gender-specification (also known as feminisation) is a strategy used to achieve linguistic equality by making the ‘invisible sex’ (in most cases, women) visible in language through systematic and symmetrical marking of gender. Although English does not use this strategy much (it is found more often in languages with grammatical gender), the use of ‘he or she’, and of phrases such as ‘police women and men’, ‘actors and actresses’ in generic contexts exemplifies the gender-specification strategy. Underlying the linguistic equality approach to reform is a belief that making changes to linguistic forms will contribute significantly to the promotion of non-sexist meanings. 3 Evaluating feminist linguistic reform In the previous section I indicated that there are several approaches to feminist language reform and that the linguistic equality approach is the most prominent and possibly, the most widespread one. In this paper my focus is on the evaluation of the linguistic equality approach. Evaluating the outcome (a result or an effect of an action) is a crucial aspect of any form of language planning. Language planners together with the interest groups, agencies or institutions which encouraged, demanded or sanctioned (allowed) the reforms are usually keen to assess the impact of planning on the linguistic behaviour of the individuals, groups or communities targeted by the reforms. Whereas advocates and/or opponents of linguistic reform are primarily interested in the extent to which the linguistic reform proposals have been adopted or rejected, for language planners the evaluation exercise also provides valuable information on the process of language planning, the factors which facilitate an d/or obstruct change. A further interest for language planners who are also linguistic scholars is the possibility of comparing the process of the spread of so-called ‘planned’ vs ‘unplanned’ linguistic change thus contributing to a better understanding of linguistic change. Here I wish to explore two major aspects of the evaluation of feminist language planning: (1) Evidence of the (successful) adoption of feminist linguistic proposals; (2) Insights into the ways feminist language changes spread throughout the community. The adoption and spread of feminist linguistic reform are examined in relation to a prominent feature of feminist linguistic reform of the ‘linguistic equality’ type: the use of gender-neutral and/or gender-inclusive occupational nouns and titles. Data for this discussion come mainly from English, although reference is also made to Dutch, French and German studies. The discussion of linguistic spread is very preliminary as most data have not yet been subjected to a thorough analysis: i.e. only trends will be noted. 4 Adopting feminist linguistic reform: success or failure? 4.1 Occupational nomenclature In many western societies feminist concerns about gender bias in occupational nouns, professional titles and terms attracted attention primarily through its link with Sex Discrimination Acts and other legislation aimed at eliminating gender-based discrimination in employment. Feminists and women activists in a range of professional bodies highlighted the fact that occupational and professional nomenclature used in employment-related contexts displayed bias in favour of men leading to women’s invisibility in this area of language use. For example, linguistic practices found in many job classifieds assumed applicants to be male. Male-stereotyped language was used to describe applicants (e.g. aggressive, dynamic, virile). The use of ‘masculine’ generic nouns and pronouns (e.g. the applicant – he; storeman, tradesman, cameraman – he) further reinforced the ‘maleness’ of the desired applicant. Research in the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. Bem & Bem 1973, Hamilton 1988, Kidd 1971, Mackay & Fulkerson 1979, Martyna 1978, Pincus & Pincus 1980, Schneider and Hacker 1973, Wilson & Ng 1988) found evidence that masculine generic nouns and pronouns were seldom interpreted in a generic, gender-neutral sense. Instead they were associated with male-specific images in many language users. Two major strategies emerged to eliminate this gender bias in occupational nomenclature: gender-neutralisation and gender-specification (feminisation). Selecting one strategy over another seems partly linked to linguistic typology. Gender-specification as a main strategy is more likely to occur in the case of grammatical gender languages (e.g. German, French, Italian, Spanish) which still have productive gender suffixes (e.g. German). Gender-neutralisation is more likely to be applied to languages with a natural gender system (e.g. English) or languages in which gender suffixes are less or no longer productive (e.g. Danish, Swedish and Dutch). However, the choice of the main strategy is also influenced by extra-linguistic or social arguments. Gender-neutralisation is clearly aimed at ‘taking gender out of the occupational arena’. In other words, the aim is to have a society in which a person’s sex has no relevance or significance for their occupational status. Proponents of the feminisation strategy, on the other hand, argue that it is socially more effective to achieve linguistic equality by showing that there are an increasing number of women in all areas of the paid work force, i.e. women’s participation in the work force needs to be made more visible through the strategy of gender-specification or feminisation. In order to demonstrate successful adoption of feminist linguistic reform in this area of language use, evidence needs to be found that the feminist alternatives are used increasingly in preference to the gender biased forms and that the actual use of the feminist alternatives is in line with their promoted use. In language planning terms , successful feminist linguistic reform entails evidence that the feminist alternatives move from a status of ‘discouraged’ or even ‘disapproved’ use to that of ‘tolerated’, and eventually ‘preferred’ or ‘promoted’ use (Kloss 1968). Findings from Dutch, English, French (see especially Burr in this volume) and German research into the adoption of non-sexist occupational nomenclature confirm that feminist linguistic alternatives are (increasingly) used, although adoption rates vary substantially from language to language and vary according to linguistic context/genre. For the purposes of this paper I will confine the presentation of evidence to that found in relation to the print media (mainly newspapers). English speech communities seem to lead the way in the adoption of feminist linguistic alternatives for occupational terms. Cooper (1984) studied the impact of feminist language planning on the use of masculine generic pronouns and nouns (including occupational nouns) on a corpus of 500000 words taken from American newspapers, current affairs and women’s magazines covering the period 1971 – 1979. He found a dramatic decline in the use of masculine generics, especially of generic ‘man’ and generic ‘he’: their use fell from 12.3% per 5000 words in 1971 to 4.3% in 1979. In New Zealand Meyerhoff (1984) analyzed changes in the use of masculine generics in a corpus of 150000 words taken from five newspapers with a different audience (i.e. a national and a regional daily, a student newspaper, a TV magazine and a women’s magazine as well as a monthly publication of the New Zealand’s journalists’ union). Her study found evidence of a significant reduction in the use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns with the decrease being most pronounced for the student newspaper and the journalists’ union publication. The only publication to support ‘- person’ compounds was the student newspaper. Holmes’ analysis of the occurrence of ‘-person’ vs ‘-man’ and ‘-woman’ compound forms in the Wellington Corpus of Written New Zealand English covering the period 1986 – 1989 found that most such forms occurred very seldom (1 per 1 million words) with the exception ‘spokesperson’ and ‘chairperson’ (Holmes in press). The use of these two forms, however, was considerably lower than that of their masculine generic alternatives: ‘spokesman’ and ‘chairman’. The corpus revealed 6 instances of ‘chairperson(s)’ vs 109 for ‘chairman/men’ and 2 for ‘chairwo man/women’. ‘Spokesperson(s)’ occurred 4 times in the corpus, ‘spokespeople’ once, ‘spokeswoman/women’ twice and ‘spokesman/men’ 36 times. Holmes (in press) did note that the ‘overwhelming majority of the instances of chairman were identifiable as male, a sad reflection of the social reality that it was men who held this position most often, even in 1986’. She found only 4 instances of ‘chairman’ being used to refer to a woman. My own study which comprised a corpus of 200000 words taken from two national Australian newspapers in 1992 and in 1996 similarly found an overall low incidence of -person, -man and -woman compound forms. The number of occurrences of ‘chairman/chairwoman/ chairperson’ revealed the continued predominant use of ‘chairman’, although a breakdown of the numbers according to referents showed that ‘chairman’ was predominantly used to refer to male referents. The few occurrences of ‘chairperson’ and ‘chair’ (see Table 1) do not allow for an interpretation of emerging trends. In the case of ‘chairman’ I would have to agree with Holmes’ comment that its continuing, frequent use reflects the fact that far more men than women continue to occupy this position. It should also be said that newspaper articles are not an ideal source to establish generic uses of this term, as most references to this position specify the incumbent. In the case of ‘spokesman/spokeswoman/spokesperson’ a more substantial change can be noticed: although 38 instances of ‘spokesman’ were recorded, ‘spokesperson’ appeared 32 times. A breakdown in terms of referents showed that 47% of ‘spokesman’ uses referred to a male and that ‘spokesman’ was never used to refer specifically to a female. Most uses of ‘spokesperson’ had no specific referent. There is also some indication that ‘spokesperson’ is being used in connection with male as well as female referents, hence avoiding the trend that the ‘-person’ compound is used as a mere substitution for the ‘-woman’ compound form.