How to Promote Literacy and Skilled Communication

How to Promote Literacy and Skilled Communication How to Promote Literacy and Skilled Communication How to Promote Literacy and Skilled Communication By Mark Nichol You may or may not agree that English-language usage is deteriorating, but it is clear that many young people are unable to express themselves well in writing according to contemporary standards. How can we develop a population of competent writers? First, we must avoid exaggerated notions of an entire generation of illiterates. It is true that electronic communication media like texting and Twitter discourage careful composition. (Twitter requires conciseness, but coherence is often a casualty.) It is true that absorption in high-tech entertainments such as computer games distracts youth from the rewards of reading. It is true that a tragic focus on quantitative evaluation of students has caused a decline in qualitative expression. But I’ve read lots of articles and books written by people who weren’t even born when I began writing and editing professionally but are already more talented than I’ll ever be. The English language as we know it isn’t going anywhere (not in our lifetimes, anyway). Yes, we must acknowledge that our society does not value the written word the way it used to, but we must not dramatically bemoan the death of literacy. Here’s what we can do, both on an individual level and a societal one, to improve our collective competency in writing: We can advocate for extensive and intensive writing experiences for children that are developmentally appropriate. Don’t push children to learn to read and write when they aren’t ready, but when they are ready, inundate them with meaningful opportunities to express themselves in writing crafting narratives, not filling in worksheets. An effective cumulative process includes modeled writing (demonstrating practically to children how one translates thinking aloud into writing), shared writing (having students collaborate to produce a piece of content such as a collective account of a shared experience or a summary of what they’ve learned), guided writing (monitoring students’ individual writing to help them learn to generate and express ideas), and independent writing (encouraging students to craft their own work by writing and rewriting). We can also teach reading rationally. Public education has suffered from politicized mood swings between various approaches to developing children’s reading skills. Educators, parents, and the general public must accept that phonics is neither a cure-all nor a curse and that whole-language instruction should neither be the sole means of instruction or be avoided. Why not incorporate both approaches? (Indeed, that is the basis of a strategy called balanced literacy.) But this combination should take into account that children are most motivated to learn to read when the material is meaningful to them. They should be encouraged to read their own writing and that of their peers, and although assignment of high-quality reading texts is productive, they should also be given free rein to choose their own reading materials, even comic books and other writing forms that are not necessarily considered substantial. The greatest challenge to literacy, however, is not children’s apathy toward or antipathy about reading and writing, and it is not adults’ bickering about the best teaching strategies. Two other interrelated factors are responsible: inadequate funding for public education and a cultural devaluation of writing skills. Government and school officials have eroded public confidence in their ability to use education funding wisely and effectively to teach children basic literacy skills, resulting in voter skepticism about the wisdom of approving school bonds and other financial resources. Not only does this failure degrade the quality and efficacy of the curriculum, it also results in deteriorating infrastructure in the public schools, which erodes teacher and student morale. But high-quality public education requires carefully considered, long-term planning and generous infusions of funds. Also, the general public hears and sees media reports hyping the peril of poor writing skills in texting and other high-tech communication, and observes these facts firsthand. The business world, and the journalism and publishing industries, do suffer from poor communication skills among workers. But these problems aren’t limited to the younger members of society; they permeate all age groups. The answer is a well-thought-out, well-funded educational system and a network of support including continuing education (wholly or partially funded by employers for their workers) and/or internal mentoring. And we, as a society, must accept that people will shrug off substandard informal writing, but we must also demand that they demonstrate respect for the language and for those they share it with by striving to communicate well. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Regarding Re:"Have" vs "Having" in Certain Expressions20 Criminal Terms You Should Know

Consultancy Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Consultancy Report - Essay Example Further, the practice of recommendations through incentives is a major ethical issue that needs to be curtailed. It is important for the three firms to reorganize their acts and put on a higher degree of professionalism when it comes to competitiveness. It is this way that will lead to lesser unethical practices where there will be lesser stealing of product formula and incentive recommendation practices by the three firms leading to a civilized pharmaceutical industry that other firms will look up to as their model industry. The three companies selected for this discussion are: Novartis AG, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Pfizer Inc. These companies are the three largest pharmaceutical companies in the world employing over 300,000 people across the world and sharing more than $150 billion in revenues in between them. The three firms are very innovative and compete with each other on their brand equity and image. Ethics is defined as the standards that enable one to tell the difference between right and wrong. Thus, ethics is a standard that can vary for each individual, company or entity. The ethics standards of a truthful and honest person will be higher than that of a regular liar. Ethics is what enables one to judge something as right or wrong. It is highly qualitative and as mentioned earlier, can differ greatly for two entities (Framework for ethical thinking, 2009). Focusing constantly on innovation and quality, it is not possible for any of these firms to engage in quality compromise as it would not only be detrimental to human life but would also endanger there future existence in the market. Thus, ethics is one of the most important pillars of operations in the pharmaceutical industry. However, this quality is not religiously practiced when it comes to competition. Novartis, Pfizer and Glaxo manufacture a wide variety of medicines and drugs that are cures for the same diagnosis: the only differences lie in

European Law Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

European Law Assignment - Essay Example The consignment of jam is clearly â€Å"goods† for the purposes of the Treaty and as the case of SIOT v Ministry of Finance 2asserted; freedom of movement and transit within the Community constitutes a prima facie fundamental of community law. Furthermore, the Article 28 provision is also intended to ensure non-discrimination between domestic and foreign products of Member States3. Furthermore, Article 30 (ex 25) formally abolishes customs duties and any other charges having equivalent effect and provides that: â€Å"Member states shall refrain from introducing between themselves any customs duties on imports and exports or any charges having equivalent effect, and from increasing those which they already apply in their trade with each other4† If France’s restrictions on Jessica’s exports are found to be in breach of Article 30, Jessica will only have recourse under EU law if Article 25 has â€Å"direct effect5†. The case of Francovich v. ... lity of Article 30 and â€Å"measures of equivalent effect† was considered in the leading case of Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen9, where the ECJ asserted that Article 12 (now 30) had direct effect. As such, the Treaty provisions were required to be applied by national courts as domestic law. Accordingly, Article 30 can be invoked before national courts and is applicable as national law in the EU member states. Therefore, in the current scenario, Jessica can invoke the Article 30 rights against France and each of the other territories imposing restrictions as members of the EU. Furthermore, it is also important to mention that EC case law has established that Treaty provisions have direct effect and direct applicability giving nationals rights under the Treaty provisions in national law10. Accordingly, Jessica may under Article 30 claim that France has breached EU law and the next issue is to determine what constitutes a breach for the purpose of A rticle 30. The fee imposed by France is imposed by the customs department for the purpose of testing suitability of the consignment for the French market. Although the fee being charged by France is not expressed in terms of being a customs duty, it could still be illegal under Article 30 for being a â€Å"measure of equivalent effect†. In considering the definition of measures of equivalent effect, the ECJ held in the Re Statistical Levy case, Commission v. Italy 11that the term â€Å"charges of equivalent effect† was: â€Å"any pecuniary charge, however small and whatever its designation and mode of application, which imposed unilaterally on domestic and foreign goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier, and which is not a customs duty in the strict sense, constitutes a charge†¦. even if

Solutions regarding Google Glass privacy issues Research Paper

Solutions regarding Google Glass privacy issues - Research Paper Example g Privacy Issues in the Context of Google Glass† draws on his over 10-year experience studying privacy and mobile computing to examine the negative sentiments that have afflicted Google Glass. He looks at the issue from the perspective of lessons learned about privacy from the ubiquitous computing project in the 1990s, as well as current expectations of privacy change. Yesenia Duran in â€Å"Google Glass Finds Its Way into Law Enforcement† discusses the use of Google Glass by law enforcement and government agencies to increase situational awareness. Ribeiro Furlan in â€Å"Google Glass† discusses the risks posed to users of Google Glass with regards to hacking, which can make private information available to unauthorized people. Finally, Schreiber discusses the considerable challenges that Google Glass portends on existing privacy laws and paradigms, examining implications and solutions. From these articles, a question arises: What are the solutions to Google Glas s’ privacy issues? This paper will argue that Google Glass should seek to improve security by ensuring recording can only occur with the knowledge of people around the wearer, as well as ensuring that information collected through the device is secure from unauthorized access. â€Å"Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format that can interact with the Internet via natural language voice commands† (Duran 18). However, because of this, Google Glass wearable computers pose pertinent privacy questions that need to be addressed before Google can make them available on the market. To begin with, Google Glass threatens those not using it as they are always under surveillance. Most of these people will react to people wearing Google Glass as if they are recording them, even when they are not. In turn, this will threaten their ability to hold anonymous, candid, or private social interactions, increasing the likelihood of social venues banning its use. In addition, although the Google

Osmosis and Potato Chips Essay Example for Free

Osmosis and Potato Chips Essay Osmosis is the movement of water from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration across a semi permeable membrane. An osmotic system is established when a semi-permeable membrane is placed between two solutions. In this biological systems context, osmosis is the exchange of water between the potato cell and the surrounding medium of varying sucrose concentrated solutions, with the plasma membrane being the semi- permeable membrane. Because water molecules have kinetic energy, they are constantly moving around in gaseous or liquid form, moving randomly from one place or another. The greater the concentration of water molecules in a system or solution, the greater the total kinetic energy, and the higher its water potential. This means, that as the concentration of glucose increases in a solution, the concentration of water decreases, lessening the solutions water potential, and lessening its ability to move between solutions by osmosis. Relating this to the potato chips: basically, as the concentration of glucose in each solution increases, the water in that solution is less able to move to the potato as there is a higher concentration of water in the potato chip than in the highly concentrated sucrose solution, causing water from the potato to move to the solution, thereby achieving a percentage loss in mass. At concentrations such as 0.0molL-1 and 0.9molL-1, the concentration gradient is steeper; therefore the rate of diffusion is quicker. For the potato chips in the hypertonic 0.9 sucrose solution, the concentration of water molecules in the potato chip cells is greater than the water molecules in the 0.9 sucrose solution. This means that through the process of osmosis, water molecules will move from the potato cell through its semi permeable membrane and into the sucrose solution, therefore resulting in a percentage loss in mass of the potato chips as depicted by my results (a loss of XXX%), thereby justifying w hy the potato chips in the 0.9 sucrose solution being plasmolyzed. In comparison, in the hypotonic tap water solution, the tap water with no sucrose solution (0.0) will have greater water concentration compared to the potato chip, forming a steeper concentration gradient. This means that through the process of osmosis, water molecules will move from the tap water solution through the potato chip cells semi permeable membrane and into the sucrose solution resulting in the rate of water movement from the tap water solution to the cells in the potato chips to be quicker, resulting in a net percentage gain of mass  as shown by my results (a gain of XXX%), therefore justifying why the potato chips in the tap water solution became turgid. As the potato chips are placed into sucrose solutions which concentrations of sucrose are closer to the approximate isotonic range (0.1-0.2), the concentration gradient between the semi permeable membrane of the potato chip cells and sucrose solutions decreases, thereby resulting in the potato chips in the 0.1 solution having only a slight percentage mass increase while the potato chips in the 0.3 sucrose solution having a lower percentage mass loss compared to the potato chips in the 0.9 sucrose solution over the approximate 24-hour period. In the living cell, both the cell wall and plasma membrane determine the permeability of the cell, but the latter of the two is the least permeable of the two. The ability of a substance to pass through these barriers is known as the permeation of the substance. Since not all substances may pass into or out of the cell, the cell surface is known as selectively permeable or as a semi permeable membrane. The semi permeability varies from cell to cell and under certain conditions. A solution in which the concentration of sucrose is greater than that inside the cell is called a Hypertonic solution and will cause a cell to become plasmolyzed. An example of this in my results is the test at 1 molar. In other words, it becomes dehydrated and loses water through plasmolysis. If the concentration of the sucrose solution outside the cell is less than that inside the cell, this means that the solution is Hypotonic to the cells of the potato chip. The water will diffuse into the cells, making it turgid. This would explain why potato chips put into a solution of 0 molar seemed very firm compared to the potato chip used for 1 molar, this was because the cells of the potato had lost their turgor, and had become flaccid. To conclude this, I can say that the movement of water through a selectively permeable membrane is affected by concentration of glucose solution, or by any other solution. The higher the concentration of glucose solution, the potato chip will have a net percentage loss in mass.

profile of a killer Essay -- essays research papers

During the last decade the world has witnessed a staggering elevation in serial killings. To give some insight into the scale of the problem posed by the serial killer, in the United States can be gained from examining the statistics for just one year. In 1989 (the last year for which detailed figures are available) there were 21,500 recorded homicides, of which some 5,000 are unsolved. Unofficial sources believe that as many as a hundred serial killers may be at large at any given time. Add to this the number of known victims of serial killers, then between 3,500 and 5,000 people are killed by serial murderers every year. (Lane and Gregg 3) These numerous multiple murders, often without consequence and justice, have shocked civilized society with incomprehensible acts of inhumanity. Horrific amounts of body counts and volumes of spilt blood accompany the discovery of each new serial killer. The indescribable events associated with each murder leave such unanswered questions as: what deviations lurk in the mind of a serial killer, what provokes an individual to commit such hideous acts, and what can be done to reduce these inconceivable murders? There are a set of variable elements, which distinguish the "serial" murder from the single-incident ("normal") murder, the "mass" murder, and the "spree" murder. The "mass" murder can be defined as an act in which a single assailant kills a number of people during a short period of time in roughly the same geographical location. The "spree" murder can be defined as a multiple number of killings, which take place during a short period of time, hours or days. The "serial" murder exhibits five distinct sets of characteristics, which help distinguish it from the "mass" murder and "spree" murder. First, the killings are repetitive ("serial") and often escalate over a period of time, sometimes years, which will continue until the killer is taken into custody, dies, or himself is killed. Second, the killings, like "normal" homicides, tend to be one-on-one. Third, there is no, or ve ry little, connection between the perpetrator and the victim. Fourth, although there may be a "pattern," or "victim trait," individual murders within a series rarely display a clearly defined or rational motive. Fi... ...ny police agency, having an unsolved murder, will submit to the FBI Academy a thorough description of the case using a twenty-seven-page questionnaire. VICAP will then alert the crime analyst to similar cases nationwide. During my interview with Dr. James R. Metts, Sheriff of Lexington County S.C., he informed me of the procedures involved in the Shari Faye Smith and Debra May Helmick case. He noted that "the Behavioral Unit in the FBI was extremely helpful in solving this case by giving us a psychological profile of the perpetrator and advising us on how to handle the media throughout the case" (Metts). "America’s fascination with serial killers is reaching an all time high-and may be fueling their deadly deeds" (Toufexis 64-65). Serial killings graphic details in incomprehensible madness almost seem fictional, but the statistics reveal an alarming rise in these murders. Ignoring this terrifying fact will not make it disappear, only increase. The thought "It will not happen to me" is no longer logical due to the constant elevation of serial killings. These callous and meticulous killers are without prejudice or motive, leaving everyone susceptible.

indians :: essays research papers

the native american indians are very spiritula people. They hunt bison and buffalo In Indian Blood II, I incorrectly stated that Allan W. Eckert started "the Blue Jacket War."   He did not.   It seems clear now that Robert Van Trees did.   In fact, to call it a war is to mischaracterize this mindless tirade by Van Trees and some of his ardent supporters over a simple academic question:   Was Blue Jacket white?   Ã‚      Blue Jacket was a Shawnee chief and it is not really important  whether he was adopted or native--any more than it makes a difference whether one of his wives was white, which Van Trees does not dispute.   According to the information on Carlyle Hinshaw's website, Hinshaw called for a "crusade," using his word, to protest and suppress the republication of Eckert's The Frontiersmen. Thereafter, Eckert's publisher was bombarded with  letters and phone calls from the dozen or so people involved.   Letters were sent and some were posted on the site. Several people wrote Allan Eckert directly.   Ã‚      When asked for comment, Eckert said that some of the letters  he received in this "crusade" were actually hate mail, personally attacking him and calling him names. Pointless harassment.   I should point out that none of the responsible Shawnee scholars--neither Randy Noe nor John Sugden--would join in this disgraceful display of lynch-mob mentality.   Ã‚      I was given Hinshaw's web address by another Shawnee researcher.   Hinshaw's website   at first favorably impressed me, but after I came upon a page of protests led by Van Trees‘s article  entitled "Bluejacket and Swearingen Families Declare War on Eckert," I was taken aback. "Declare War," he says, in such strong language that makes you think of terroristic attacks, some kind of crazy holy war for, in his words, our "honored dead."   This strikes me as unfair and bizarrely un-American, like shouting down the opposition.   Ã‚     This is, after all, a simple and rather silly academic issue. If someone--Rev. Jesse Jackson, say--should write a book claiming that Blue Jacket was actually black and that historians had been wrong in their account of him all these years, would there be a similar protest?   I hardly think so.   Why not just write your own book and let the other fellow write his?   Ã‚     When I asked Mr. Van Trees about this, he said that the tirade against Eckert was justified and by US Mail he sent copies of the rabid hate mail that Robert Denton Bluejacket and others had sent  to Eckert--as if that explained everything.