Hollywood’s distortion of truth Essay

When it comes to film’s interpretation of history and reality, such as the recent film’s â€Å"Argo† and â€Å"Zero Dark Thirty†, Hollywood has long had a habit of altering facts, creating illusions and fabrications, and even distorting final outcomes. Hollywood is an industry, and for a long time now, has understandably aimed at creating the best possible plot line with regard to its films. In some ways, it could be considered a â€Å"dream factory,† with regard to how removed from reality many of the Hollywood plot lines are. After all, Hollywood film makers are motivated by an economic imperative and as such their bottom line is profit, and aim to satisfy their target audience as greatly as possible. However, in too many films supposedly based on fact, reality and truth has been sacrificed all together, in the pursuit of pure, generic entertainment. The phrase, â€Å"don’t let truth get in the way of a good story† is worryingly, far too applicable to modern Hollywood. With regard to films that claim to be based on a TRUE story, there is a line that should be drawn when Hollywood creates its version of history. To put it simply, how untrue, is just true enough? It seems at present, the answer is somewhat flexible. On February 23rd this year, â€Å"Argo† a significantly dramatized, exaggerated and almost ahistorical interpretation of true story, took out the Academy award for â€Å"Best Picture†, the most prestigious of the Oscars. â€Å"Argo†, directed, produced by and starring Ben Affleck, portrays six helpless, and importantly, innocent Americans thrilling escape, notably orchestrated by the CIA, from the hostile and draconian revolutionary Iran, which is depicted to have been overrun by hoards of bearded savages. The story concludes with celebration, surrounding American, heroism, courage and innovation, leaving the Iranians with frustration in their defeat. Now this approach to film making is not unusual, take James Cameron’s â€Å"Avatar†, the highest grossing film of all time. â€Å"Avatar†, unlike â€Å"Argo†, does not imply that it represents history, and reality, and in this respect tells a fantastic story without misleading the audience. Hollywood blockbusters have always traditionally depicted one party as glorious and triumphant, and the other defeated. â€Å"Avatar†, depicts the peaceful, nomadic tribes of the planet Pandora and their experiences with Humans, who have recently landed on Pandora. The audience is positioned to sympathise with the tribes, before the natives are subject to ruthless invasion and onslaught by the armies of ‘future earth’, and with an enormous struggle, eventually emerge victorious over the violent and materialistic invaders. However, this is fantasy, and illusion, in resplendent, eye popping 3D. â€Å"Argo† on the other hand, and other films such as zero dark thirty, take dramatization and illusion a step further, by distorting the truth of the stories intended to be â€Å"based† on history. In this respect, Hollywood alters reality and history for the audience, and leads them to believe fabricated tales and false facts. Argo’s portrayal of the American civilian escape from Iran as danger ridden, with capture and horror always just around the corner was a plot construction by Hollywood. One of the diplomats involved in the actual escape said of it; â€Å"Noone ever asked, the truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out the regular way†¦It was that straight forward†. The Hollywood interpretation of the true story was so far removed from reality that it prompted Ken Taylor, a Canadian Diplomat to say; â€Å"the amusing side is the script writer in Hollywood, had no idea what he was talking about†. According to Ben Affleck, â€Å"It’s okay to embellish, it’s okay to compress, as long as you don’t fundamentally change the nature of the story and what happened†. Yes, to a small extent it is. However, the reality in â€Å"Argo† was drastically manipulated. It portrayed the Iranian’s as immoral, ignored their docile side and failed to depict the fact that they too had a cause, and wanted justice. It made out as though it was almost entirely the American’s who had skilfully crafted and executed the escape plan, but in reality, according to Jimmy Carter, it was more than 90% a Canadian effort. The transformation of the truth and history, into â€Å"Argo†, somewhat resembled that of Griffin Mill’s ‘winning’ marketing elements for films in â€Å"The Player†, a satirical film on Hollywood, directed by Robert Altman. Mill talks of the factors in film needed to market it successfully; â€Å"Suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mainly happy endings. † His statement is then followed by the question asked by June; â€Å"What about reality? †. Hollywood applies Mill’s theory of â€Å"up, everything up†, too satisfy the profit motive by which Hollywood works, and in many cases glorify the American culture; as seen in the fictional conclusion of â€Å"Argo†. It should be acknowledged that this approach to interpretations of history by writers and directors is not new, and was evident in Shakespeare’s late 16th century in which he slanders Richard the 3rd in support of Tudor dynasty. When Hollywood advertises its intention to base a film around history and reality, its ahistorical interpretations of the truth should be curbed, as it is through story telling that we learn about ourselves, and our cultures as the human race. Recent research has shown that film, far more than previously thought is an incredibly powerful tool for teaching ; children in particular. When films distort the truth, and include incorrect facts, the audience too interprets history, and the reality falsely, even the falsity is outlined pre and post screening of the film. In this respect, when claiming to represent truth, Hollywood should defeat the powerful temptation to apply to the film many of Griffin Mill’s ‘successful marketing elements’, and rather than fabricate to produce pure entertainment, represent truth so that society may understand history, truth, and reality.

Impact of Employee Commitment On Employee performance Essay

Employee commitment permanently shows a vigorous part to expand the employees’ performance. Committed employees provide an immense input to organizations in standings of their performance. The study explored the effect of the employee’s commitment on employee’s performance. Data was collected through 200 questionnaires from the employees of banking, telecommunication and education sector from Lahore, Pakistan. For data analysis SPSS16 version was used. The outcomes display a positive and significant association between employee commitment and employee performance. Additionally, comparative analysis of the three dimensions of employee commitment (affective, continuous and normative commitment) shows a positive and significant impact of employee commitment on employee performance. The interpretations, limitations, implications and conclusions are also debated at the end of the study. KEY WORDS: Employee commitment (EC), Affective commitment (AC), Continuous commitment (CC), Normative commitment (NC), Employee Performance (EP). INTRODUCTION:  Employee commitment denotes to emotional affection of employees to the place of work. Now times it is compulsory for every organization to have complete level of its employee’s commitment. In this fashion organizations can have an exceptional performance on extended duration foundation. In the current age when employees work as a team and each team member attempts his greatest efforts to show himself at top among all. All such things rise the commitment level of the employees which as a consequence intensification the enactment of the employees. To get economical advantage every employee of the organization must be committed to the administrative purposes. Still the employee commitment is the utmost puzzling and researchable perception in the arenas of organization and executive behavior. In former times organizations offer job safety to expand the commitment level of the employees which pointers to the enhanced employee’s performance. Advanced level of the employee commitment at singular smooth and administrative level is the crucial element of the superior employee performance. Meyer and Allen’s (1991) established a three-component prototypical of organizational commitment. The three- component model was a inclusive and comprehensible theory for OC. The three-component model consists of: (a)Affective  commitment (AC) is the demonstrative supplement to one’s organization. (b)Continuous commitment (CC) is the affection founded on the addition of respected side risks (pension, skill transferability, rearrangement and self-investment) that differentiate with the organizational participation. (c)Normative commitment (NC) is the linking that is shaped on motivation to duplicate to communal customs about attachment. LITERATURE REVIEW: The article written by Whyte in 1956 in his book â€Å"The organization Man† gives the concept of commitment. Commitment originates when a person makes a side link and extraneous interests with a reliable and consistent activity. The person who remains for a long time with the organization shows his commitment towards the organization. Commitment helps to improve the individual as well as the performance of the organization as a whole. Commitment behavior is also explained by many other researchers(A.Yousef, 1998). Commitment explains the association of large number of systems as an overall link (AlexandraPanaccio & Vandenberghe, 2012). The enthusiasm of collective performers to offer their energy and devotion to social systems, the addition of personality systems to shared associations who are seen as self- sensitive(Ashar, Ghafoor, Munir, & Hafeez, 2013). commitment (1) contains somewhat of the conception of the affiliation; (2) it replicates the existing place of the individual; (3) it has a unusual forecaster probable, providing guesses regarding definite traits of performance , motivation to work, natural input and other correlated results; (4) it propose the distinctive importance of motivational factors(Ashraf, MehdiJaffri, Sharif, & Khan, 2012). To integrate and coordinate the individual and organization objectives, process of using commitment is beneficial(Ayodeji, Oyelere, Tunde, & Mariam, 2011).Commitment is â€Å"a situation in which an individual become bound by his activities and through these engagements to opinions that stand the activities of his own contribution(Chen, Silverthrone, & Hung, 2006).M ore committed employees request to dismiss from the organization at smallest level(Dixit & Bhati, 2012). Commitment is the comparative power of an individual’s empathy with and in a specific organization(Dost & Ahmad, 2011).Low commitment leads toward to extraordinary degree of turnover, however greater the level of job satisfaction and demands high level of organizational commitment which  promote to improved job performance(E.Becker, s.Billings, Eleleth, & L.Gilbert, 1996).Commitment is â€Å"an emotional state that fixes a person with the organization†(Fisher, Mcphail, & Menghetti, 2010). Commitment is a psychosomatic state that symbolizes the employee affiliation with the organization and has an inference on the conclusion to continue connection in the organization(Green, Mahyhew, & k&pack, 2000).Employee commitment diminutions the possibility of employee’s predisposition of departure the job(Khan, Ziauddin, Jam, & M.I.Rammy, 2010).Commitment as a prejudiced, affective attachment to the aims and principles of the organization, to one’s role in relative to goals and values and to the organization for its own benefit , separately from its virtuously contributory means(L.Sims & K.GalenKroeck, 1994).Employee commitment clues to extraordinary level of organizational performance and very small level of employee move from the organization(M.Steeres, 1977). The performance of committed teachers is highly different from those employees who are less committed(Macky & Boxball, 2007). Significant research has been done in the preceding to discover the methods to increase the employee performance e.g.; task performance contains activities which an employee executes to achieve responsibilities given to him by his controller or behavior linked which are the basic procedures of the happenings of the organization(P.Meyer, J.Stanely, & M.Parfyonova, 2012).Organizational performance can be sedate through three basic modules which are economic performance, merchandise market performance and return to the shareholders(Panaccio & Vandenberghe, 2012). Micro placement on method to job approaches and performance association is slightly confusing(Riketta, 2002).Organizational performance is an outcome of the employee understanding and commitment(Saleem, 2011).Developed level of employee commitment in the organizations for individual plans are to the business is supposed as a main intention for improved organizational performance that leads to the organizational success(Shahid & .m.Azhar, 2013).Reliability has been described as the best of the human state ,the better the human are committed to their undertaking will lead to their better performance(Vural, Vardarlier, & Aykir, 2012). Theoretical Framework: The correlation between employee commitment (independent variable) and  employee performance (dependent variable) is presented in the form of schematic diagram; the employee commitment is further divided into three dimension affective, continuous and normative commitment. (Independent Variable)(Dependent Variable) STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The most important interest of the study is to investigate the impact of employee commitment on employee performance and to find the relationship of affective, continuous and normative commitment with employee performance in telecom sector, banking sector and educational sector in city of Lahore (Pakistan). VARIABLES OF THE STUDY: The Variables under the study are Employee commitment as independent variable and employee performance as dependent variable. Commitment has been further divided into three dimension affective, continuous, and normative commitment. Employee commitment: According to Meyer &Allen (1990) commitment is defined as â€Å"the employee’s emotional state of responsibility to stay with the organization, feelings subsequent from the internalization of normative stress exercised on an individual earlier to or following entry†. Reyes (2001) has defined commitment as â€Å"a one-sided, affective attachment to the aims and values of the organization, to one’s role in relative to objectives and principles and to the organization for its own interest, distant from its virtuously influential value†. Employee Performance: According to Meyer& Allen (1990) employee performance has been well-defined as â€Å"the job performance is the work experience in standings of measure and excellence projected from each employee†. . Richard et.al (2009) said that â€Å"organizational performance can be restrained through three basic components which are economic performance, product market performance and reoccurrence to the shareholders. Dimensions of employee commitment: Meyer& Allen (1991) developed a three-component model of organizational  commitment which has been the foremost outline for organizational commitment. The three component model consists of: (A)Affective commitment: Numerous studies, define the affective commitment as a significant orientation of the employees towards the organization, some researchers designate affective approach as â€Å"the supplement of an individual’s set up of affectivity and reaction to the group. Affective commitment prevails to the goals and values and to the organization for its own interest. Porter and Mow day et.al (1979) designate affective approach as â€Å"the absolute strength of an individual’s empathy with the association in a certain organization†. (b)Continuous commitment: When the employees arrive into the organization they are guaranteed to commit with the organization because of the absence of substitute chances and responsiveness of the cost linked with departure the organization. Continuous commitment improves on the basis of two aspects: (1) quantity of stashes that individuals make in their existing organization (2) perceived lack of alternatives†. Continuous commitment is a â€Å"cognitive-continuance commitment as that which arises when there is a profit related with continued involvement and a cost accompanying with leaving†. Some researchers tell that the â€Å"continuous commitment can be sub-divided into high expense commitment (personal sacrifice linked with the departure) and low substitute commitment (restricted opportunities for other employment)†. (c)Normative commitment: Normative commitment develops on the basis of earlier experience for example family-based experience or cultural experience. March (1977) said that â€Å"the normative aspects develop as individual’s perception of their moral responsibility to remain with the exhaustive organization regardless of the status improvement or fulfillment the organization gives the individual over the year†. Normative commitment can be increased through the additional reimbursements given to the employee by the employer. Steven (1978) said that â€Å"an individual is keen to stay within the organization and donate to an organization to resemble with a individual custom†. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: 1. To explore the impact of employee’s commitment on employee performance; 2. To understand the impact of affective, continuous and normative commitment that they have positive and significant effect on employees’ performance; 3. To access some of the possible ways in which organizations can improve the performance of the employees; 4. To analyze that the employee commitment is a key factor towards employee performance; 5. To conclude that a better strategic vision to enable the organization both at the governmental and institutional level to ensure the higher level of employee’s performance. HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY: H1: There is a relationship between the employee commitment and employee performance. H2: There is a relationship between the affective commitment and employee performance. H3: There is a relationship between continuous commitment and employee performance. H4: There is a relationship between normative commitment and employee performance. RESEARCH DESIGN: (1) Instrument: The research targets to study the impact of employee commitment on employee performance. Data was collected through Questionnaire. The employee commitment Questionnaire consists of 18 items (related to affective, continuous, normative commitment), each factor consisted of 6 questions each in which 9 items were taken from the organizational commitment questionnaire by Allen Mayer. The second part of questionnaire is related to the employee performance and consists of 10 items. The questions were measured on a five point Liker’s scale developed by William Anderson(1991)ranging from(1)strongly disagree,(2)Disagree,(3)Neither agree nor disagree,(4)Agreed,(5)strongly-agree this research paper employee commitment(affective, continuous, normative) taken as independent variable and employee performance is taken as dependent variable. First pilot study was conducted by using 25 questionnaires. The crown back alpha was 70% in pilot study. After conducting pilot study some modifications were made in the questionnaire, these changes were made in the items which were creating ambiguity and miss- understanding among the respondents.200 Questionnaires were again used to collect the data from the respondents. The questionnaires were duly distributed and collected from the respondents of the Lahore. The  reliability and analyses were done by using SPSS. (2)Sample: A sample of 200 Questionnaires was used to conduct the research on the topic impact of employee commitment on employee performance. The Stratified random sampling was used for data collection .Liker five point scales was used having two extreme ends. It is a causal type of investigation; the main purpose was to find the impact of employee commitment on employee performance. The research was conducted in a non-contrived study environment means that the study was conducted in a natural environment; it was a cross-sectional study. (3)Subjects: The data was collected from the employees of the three major sectors (banking, telecommunication and education sector), the data collection was confined to the city of Lahore. DATA ANALYSIS: The data will be collected through questionnaires entered in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS); following tools were uses for analysis: Regression analysis and correlation tests. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY: 1. The study was conducted and data was collected only to see the impact of employee commitment of employee performance 2. The study further elaborates the relationship of the dimensions of the employee commitment (affective, continuous and normative) with the employee performance; 3. The study can also be done to know the effects of the other factors on employee performance. The cross-sectional method of study was used to collect the data which means that the research was conducted only one time, but longitudinal method of study can also be used for the better results; 4. Due to the deficiency of cost and time only one city Lahore and three sectors (banking, telecommunication and education) were used to conduct the research. The results might be different for different cities and organization. REFERENCES: A.Yousef, D. (1998). Satisfaction with job security as a predictor of organizational commitment and job performance in a multicultural environment. International Journal of Manpower, 19(3), 184-194. AlexandraPanaccio, & Vandenberghe, C. (2012). Five factor model of personality and organizational commitment:The mediating role of positive and negative affective states. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 647-658. Ashar, M., Ghafoor, M. M., Munir, E., & Hafeez, S. (2013). The impact of perceptions of trining on employee commitment and turnover intention:Evidence from Pakistan. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 3(1), 74-88. Ashraf, Z., MehdiJaffri, A., Sharif, M. T., & Khan, M. A. (2012). Increasing employee organizational commitment by corelating goal setting,employee engagement and optimism at workplace. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(2), 71-78. Ayodeji, O. O., Oyelere, M., Tunde, E., & Mariam, G.-S. (2011). Enhancing employees’ commitmentto organi zation through training. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(280-286). Chen, J.-C., Silverthrone, C., & Hung, J.-Y. (2006). Organization communication,job stress,organizational commitment and job performance of accounting professionals in Taiwan and Amercia. Leadership&Organizational Development Journal, 27(4), 242-249. Dixit, D. V., & Bhati, M. M. (2012). A study about employee commitment and its impact on sustained productivity in Indian Auto-component industry. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 1(6), 34-51. Dost, M. K. B., & Ahmad, D. Z. (2011). Impact of employee commitment on organizational performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 1(3), 87-98. E.Becker, T., s.Billings, R., Eleleth, D. M., & L.Gilbert, N. (1996). Foci and bases of employee commitment:Implications for job performance. The Acadamy of Management Journal, 39(4), 464-482. Fisher, R., Mcphail, R., & Menghetti, G. (2010). Linking employee performance and behaviors with business performance:A comparative analysis of hotels in Mexico and China. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29, 397-404. Green, F., Felsted, Mahyhew, & k&pack. (2000). The impact of training on labour mobility:individual and firm level evidence from Britian. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(2), 261-275. Khan, M. R., Ziauddin, Jam, F. A., & M.I.Rammy. (2010). The impacts of organizational commitment on employee job performance. European Journal of Social Sciences, 15(3), 292-298. L.Sims, R., & K.GalenKroeck. (1994). The influence of ethical fit on employee satisfaction,commitment and turnover. Journal of Business Ethices, 13, 939-947. M.Steeres, R. (1977). Antecedentsand outcomes of organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22(1), 46-56. Macky, K., & Boxball, P. (2007). The relationship between ‘high performance work practices’and employee attitudes:an investigation of additive and interaction effects. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 537-567. P.Meyer, J., J.Stanely, L., & M.Parfyonova, N. (2012). Employee commitment in contex:The nature and implication of commitment profiles. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 1-16. Panaccio, A., & Vandenberghe, C. (2012). Five factor model of personality and organizational commitment:The mediating role of positive and negative affective states. Journal of Vocational Behavior. Riketta, M. (2002). Attitudi nal organizational commitment and job performance:a meta analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 257-266. Saleem, S. (2011). The impact of financial incentives on employee commitment European Journal of Social Sciences, 3(4), 258-367. Shahid, M. A., & .m.Azhar, D. S. (2013). Gaining emloyee commitment:Linking to organizational effectiveness. Journal of Management Research, 5(1), 250-268. Vural, Y., Vardarlier, P., & Aykir, A. (2012). The effects of using talent management with performance evaluation system over employee commitment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, 340-349.

Last Sacrifice Chapter Eighteen

I SPRANG UP FROM THE bed, relieved that I didn't fall over. My head still hurt, but I no longer felt dizzy, which hopefully meant I really had evaded a concussion. Glancing at an alarm clock as I left Sonya's bedroom, I saw that I'd been in Lissa's head for a few hours. Her test had been far more extensive than I'd realized. In the living room, I found an almost comical sight. Victor and Robert stood there, in the flesh, taking in the surrounding details. Even Robert seemed to be with us mentally this time. Only, whereas Victor was studying everything in his calculating way, Robert's attention was fixed on Sonya. His eyes bugged out in astonishment. Dimitri, meanwhile, hadn't altered his position near Sonya or put away the stake at her throat. It was clear from his stance and watchful gaze, however, that he regarded the brothers as a new threat and was trying–impossibly–to stay on guard against everything. He seemed relieved to see me and have some backup. Sonya had gone perfectly still within her chains, which I didn't like at all. It made me think she was planning something. Her red eyes narrowed. The whole situation was tense and dangerous, but a tiny part of me felt smug satisfaction as I studied Victor more closely. The dream meetings had been deceptive. Just as I could shift my appearance in dreams, Victor had made himself look stronger and healthier in those visits than he actually was in real life. Age, disease, and life on the run were taking their toll. Dark shadows lined his eyes, and his graying hair seemed thinner than it had a month ago. He looked haggard and tired, but I knew he was still dangerous. â€Å"So,' I said, hands on hips. â€Å"You managed to find us.' â€Å"There's one lake in this town,' said Victor. â€Å"One blue house. Maybe you had trouble with those directions, but for the rest of us, it wasn't that difficult.' â€Å"Well, if you're so smart, what's your plan now?' I asked. I was trying to stall as I frantically thought about what my plan was. I'd wanted to capture Victor and Robert but didn't know how. Since we had to split our attention between them and Sonya, Dimitri and I couldn't team up. I wished we had leftover chain. Aside from physically subduing the brothers, we would also specifically need to restrain their hands to reduce their ability to use magic. â€Å"Since you're so smart,' countered Victor, â€Å"I assumed you'd have already obtained the needed information.' I gestured toward Sonya. â€Å"She's not exactly forthcoming.' Victor's eyes fell on her. â€Å"Sonya Karp. You've changed since I last saw you.' â€Å"I'm going to kill you all,' Sonya snarled. â€Å"And consume you one by one. Normally, I'd start with the human and work up to the Moroi, but †¦' She glanced at Dimitri and me, her face full of rage. â€Å"I think I'll save you two for last and drag out your suffering.' She paused and almost comically added, â€Å"You've annoyed me the most.' â€Å"Do all Strigoi go through some boot camp and learn all the same threats? It's a wonder you don't cackle too.' I turned back to Victor. â€Å"See? Not that easy. We've tried everything. Beating it out, torturing it out. Sydney went through the names of all her relatives. No reaction.' Victor studied Sydney in detail for the first time. â€Å"So. Your pet Alchemist.' Sydney didn't move. I knew she had to be scared of facing someone who was both a vampire and a dangerous criminal. I had to give her points for meeting his stare unflinchingly. â€Å"Young,' Victor mused. â€Å"But of course she would be. I imagine it's the only way you could manipulate her into this little escapade.' â€Å"I'm here by choice,' replied Sydney. Her expression stayed calm and confident. â€Å"No one manipulated me.' Abe's blackmail wasn't really relevant at the moment. â€Å"Look, if you wanted to keep torturing me with your not-funny comments, you could have just kept invading my dreams,' I snapped. â€Å"If you don't have anything useful to offer, then get out of here and let us wait until hunger weakens Sonya.' And by get out of here, I meant: foolishly think you're going to leave so that I can knock your heads together and drag you back to the guardians. â€Å"We can help,' said Victor. He touched his brother lightly on the arm. Robert flinched, jerking his eyes from Sonya to Victor. â€Å"Your methods were destined to fail. If you want answers, there's only one way to–‘ Sonya made her move. Dimitri was still right next to her, but he'd also been keeping an eye on the rest of us. And of course, I'd been completely focused on the Victor drama as well. It was probably the best opening Sonya could have hoped for. With crazy Strigoi strength, she bucked up from the chair. The chain was wrapped around her over and over, but her quick movement and strength were enough to snap the chain in two places. The rest still encircled her, but I knew perfectly well even one opening was enough for her to eventually bust out. Distracted or not, Dimitri was on her in a flash, and a second later, so was I. She was flailing in the chair, using every bit of her strength and speed to shake off the chains. If she got loose, I knew she'd put up another fierce fight. Dimitri and I met eyes briefly, and I knew we were thinking the same things. First, how were we going to re-restrain her? The chain could probably be rebound, but we'd need to unwind it and start over, which would be next to impossible. We also both knew he and I might not be able to take her down a second time, and now we had innocents around. They couldn't fight, but Sonya might be able to use them to her advantage somehow. All we could do was try to keep her down. Holding her against a flat surface like the floor would have been much easier than the unwieldy recliner. It shook as she fought against us, and we struggled to get a good position on the chair. Dimitri had his stake– I'd set mine down earlier–and he raked it against her skin, giving us some advantage in the struggle. She screamed in rage, and I clung to the hope we might tire her out. Probably not. We'd break first. My aching head was proof enough that I wasn't in peak condition. I saw a flash of movement in my periphery, setting off new alarms. Robert Doru was heading toward us–and he had a silver stake in his hand. The sight was so bizarre and unexpected that I was slow to alert Dimitri. When my sluggish mind suddenly kicked back to life, it was too late. â€Å"No!' I shrieked, seeing Robert raise the stake. â€Å"Don't kill her!' Dimitri turned and saw Robert then, but there was nothing he could do. Dimitri and I had created the perfect opportunity. We were holding Sonya still, and with her chest vulnerable, Robert had a clean shot. Frantically, I wondered what to do. If I stopped him, I'd release Sonya. If I didn't stop him, he might kill our only chance at finding out who– Too late. The stake plunged down with a force that astonished me. Lissa had had a very difficult time staking Dimitri, and I'd assumed the same would be true for someone like Robert, who was older and seemed so fragile. But, no. He still had to use two hands, but the stake went firmly into Sonya's chest, piercing her heart. Sonya let out an intense scream. A brilliant, blinding white light suddenly filled the room, just as an unseen force blasted me away. I hit a wall, my brain barely registering the pain. The small house shook, and with one hand, I tried to grab something and brace myself. I squeezed my eyes shut but could still see starbursts. Time slowed. My heartbeat slowed. Then–it all stopped. Everything. The light. The tremors. I breathed normally. All was quiet and still, as though I'd imagined what had just happened. I blinked, trying to bring my eyes back into focus and assess the situation. I did my best to scramble clumsily to my feet and saw Dimitri was doing the same. He looked like he'd also been knocked over but had caught the wall for support, rather than smashing into it. Robert was lying flat out on the floor, and Victor rushed over to help him. Sydney just stood frozen. And Sonya? â€Å"Unbelievable,' I whispered. Sonya was still in the armchair, and from the way she was sitting back, it was obvious that she'd been blasted by the same force that had hit the rest of us. The chains were still around her, but she'd stopped struggling. On her lap was the silver stake Robert had held only moments ago. Sonya managed to wiggle a hand out of the chain, just enough for her fingers to brush against the stake's surface. Her eyes widened with wonder–eyes that were a rich, azure blue. Robert had brought Sonya Karp back to life. She was no longer Strigoi. When Lissa had saved Dimitri, I'd felt the magic's power through the bond, giving me the full and overwhelming experience of it all. Witnessing it now, without the firsthand knowledge provided from Lissa, was still just as incredible. Victor was preoccupied with Robert, but the rest of us couldn't stop staring at Sonya in amazement. I kept looking for anything–anything–that might give the slightest hint of her previous existence. There was none. Her skin bore the typical Moroi paleness, but it was still filled with the warmth of life, with the faintest tinge of color–not like the Strigoi, who were completely devoid of pigment. Her eyes were bloodshot, but that was from her rapidly forming tears. There was no red ring around her irises. And the look in those eyes †¦ there was no cruelty or malice. They were not the eyes of someone who had just threatened to kill us all. Her eyes were all shock and fear and confusion. I couldn't tear my gaze from her. A miracle. Another miracle. Even after seeing Lissa restore Dimitri, some secret part of me had believed I would never witness anything like it again. That was how miracles worked. Once in a lifetime. There'd been a lot of talk about using spirit to save Strigoi everywhere, talk that had faded when other drama–such as the murder of a queen– took precedence at Court. The shortage of spirit users had also made the idea unpopular, and besides, everyone knew the difficulties involved with a Moroi staking a Strigoi. If trained guardians died fighting Strigoi, how could a Moroi stake one? Well, here was the answer: a subdued Strigoi. A Moroi could manage staking one with two hands, especially with guardian backup. The possibilities made me reel. Robert's magic was strong, but he was old and frail. Yet, if he had still done this, could any spirit user? He'd almost made it look easy. Could Adrian do it? Could Lissa do it again? A miracle. Sonya Karp was a living, breathing miracle. And suddenly, she began screaming. It started off as kind of a low wail and rapidly grew in volume. The noise snapped me to attention, but I didn't exactly know how to respond. Dimitri did. His stake fell from his hand, and he rushed to Sonya's side, where he began trying to free her from the chains. She floundered at his touch, but her efforts no longer packed the supernatural strength of an undead monster seeking revenge. These were the motions of someone desperately, terribly afraid. I'd wrapped those chains pretty securely, but Dimitri had them off in seconds. Once Sonya was free, he sat in the chair and pulled her to him, letting her bury her face against his chest and sob. I swallowed. Dimitri had also wept when he had been changed back. An odd image of newborn babies flashed through my mind. Was crying the natural reaction for anyone being born–or, in this case, reborn–into the world? A sudden movement grabbed my attention. Sydney's eyes were wide, and she was actually moving toward Dimitri–to stop him. â€Å"What are you doing?' she cried. â€Å"Don't release her!' Dimitri ignored Sydney, and I caught hold of her, pulling her back. â€Å"It's okay, it's okay,' I said. Sydney was the most stable factor in this whole operation. I couldn't have her freaking out. â€Å"She's not Strigoi. Look. Look at her. She's Moroi.' Sydney slowly shook her head. â€Å"She can't be. I just saw her.' â€Å"It's what happened to Dimitri. Exactly the same. You don't think he's a Strigoi, do you? You trust him.' I released my hold on her, and she stayed put, her face wary. Looking down at the brothers, I realized theirs might be a more serious situation than I had realized. Robert, while not a Strigoi, looked pale enough to be one. His eyes were vacant, drool escaping his partially open mouth. I reassessed my earlier observation about Robert making Strigoi restoration look easy. He'd staked her like a pro, but obviously, there were a few side effects. Victor was trying to support his brother and murmured soothing and encouraging words. And on Victor's face †¦ well, there was a look of compassion and fear that I'd never seen before. My brain didn't entirely know how to reconcile it with my well-defined and villainous image of him. He seemed like a real person. Victor glanced up at me, his lips twisting into a bitter smile. â€Å"What, no witty quips now? You should be happy. We've given you what you wanted. You need answers from Sonya Karp?' He nodded toward her. â€Å"Go get them. They've certainly come at a high price.' â€Å"No!' exclaimed Dimitri. He still held Sonya against him, but his gentle expression turned hard at Victor's words. â€Å"Are you crazy? Didn't you see what just happened?' Victor arched an eyebrow. â€Å"Yes. I noticed.' â€Å"She's in no condition to answer anything! She's in shock. Leave her alone.' â€Å"Don't act like she's the one who's suffering here,' snapped Victor. Turning back to Robert, Victor helped his brother stand and go toward the couch. Robert barely managed it, his legs trembling and then giving way as he sat down. Victor put an arm around Robert. â€Å"You'll be all right. Everything's all right.' â€Å"Will he be?' I asked uncertainly. Robert didn't look like he was in all that good of shape. My earlier thoughts about spirit users saving Strigoi continued growing unrealistic. â€Å"He †¦ he did it before and recovered, right? And Lissa's fine.' â€Å"Robert was much younger–as is Vasilisa,' replied Victor, patting Robert's shoulder. â€Å"And this is hardly a simple spell. Doing it even once is monumental. Twice? Well, you and I both know how spirit works, and this feat takes a toll on both body and mind. Robert has made a great sacrifice for you.' He had, I supposed. â€Å"Thank you, Robert,' I said. The words came hesitantly to my lips. Robert didn't seem to hear. Dimitri stood up, lifting Sonya easily in his arms. She was still crying, but her sobs were quieter now. â€Å"She needs to rest,' he said gruffly. â€Å"Believe me, you have no idea what's going on inside her right now.' â€Å"Oh, I believe you,' I said. â€Å"You're idiots,' snapped Victor. â€Å"Both of you.' It was a wonder Dimitri's glare didn't pin Victor to the floor. â€Å"No interrogation yet.' I nodded my agreement, not knowing what else to do. When Lissa had changed Dimitri, she'd taken on a fierce, similarly protective attitude. He might not have been the one to change Sonya, but he was the only one here who had any idea what she was going through. I knew he'd had a hard adjustment and that the initial effects of the restoration had been disorienting. That wasn't even taking into account the subsequent depression. He swept past all of us, taking Sonya to her bedroom. Sydney watched them go and then glanced over to the sofa, where Victor still had his arm wrapped around his brother. The Alchemist met my eyes wonderingly. â€Å"I heard †¦ but I didn't believe.' â€Å"Sometimes,' I told her, â€Å"I still don't. It goes against every rule of the universe.' To my surprise, she touched the small gold cross around her neck. â€Å"Some rules are bigger than the universe.' Victor rose from the couch, apparently satisfied Robert was resting. I tensed up. Miracles aside, he was still a criminal, one I intended to capture. He took a step toward me, pitching his voice low. â€Å"Sorry to interrupt Metaphysics 101, but you need to listen to me,' he said. â€Å"Be careful, Rose. Very careful. A lot rests on you now. Don't let your pet wolf keep you from finding out what Sonya knows.' â€Å"But he's right,' I exclaimed. â€Å"Its been five minutes! What she went through †¦ what they both went through †¦ well, it's kind of a big deal. Literally life-changing. He had to recover too and adjust to being saved. Once she does, she'll help us.' â€Å"Are you sure?' he asked, narrowing his eyes. â€Å"Will she think she's been saved? You forget: Belikov was turned against his will. She wasn't.' â€Å"W-what are you saying? That she's going to try to become Strigoi again?' He shrugged. â€Å"I'm saying get your answers soon. And don't leave her alone.' With that, Victor turned and headed toward the kitchen. He soon returned with a glass of water. Robert drank it greedily and then fell into a heavy sleep. I sighed and leaned against a wall near Sydney, totally worn out. I still hurt from the earlier fight. â€Å"What now?' asked Sydney. I shook my head. â€Å"I don't know. We wait, I guess.' Dimitri returned a little while later and spared a small glance for Robert. â€Å"She's sleeping too,' he told me. â€Å"The transformation †¦ it's difficult.' I could see a haunted look in his eyes and wondered what memory was tormenting him now. The memory of being changed? The memory of being Strigoi? â€Å"I don't think we should leave Sonya alone,' I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Victor smirk. â€Å"Someone should stay with her in case she wakes up. She won't know what's going on.' Dimitri didn't answer for a few seconds as he scrutinized me. He knew me well enough to sense there might be something else on my mind. Fortunately, he couldn't find a fault in my logic. â€Å"You're right. Do you mind sitting with her?' he asked Sydney. I groped for something to say. No, no. Not Sydney. If Sonya did turn on us, we needed someone else on guard–someone who could fight back. Sydney, probably guessing my problem, saved me from lying to Dimitri–or from telling him the truth about my concerns. â€Å"She doesn't know me. It might make things worse when she wakes up. Besides †¦' Sydney put on that disgusted expression that Alchemists excelled at. â€Å"I don't really feel that comfortable with someone who was a monster five minutes ago.' â€Å"She's not Strigoi,' he exclaimed. â€Å"She's absolutely, completely Moroi again!' Even I felt a little cowed by the harshness of his voice, but I wasn't entirely surprised at his vehement reaction. He'd had a hard time convincing others he'd changed. His face softened a little. â€Å"I know it's hard to believe, but she really has changed.' â€Å"I'll stay with her then,' I said. â€Å"No, no.' Dimitri shook his head. â€Å"Sydney's right about one thing: Sonya might be confused. It's better if someone's there who understands what's happened.' I started to argue that I was the only one Sonya really knew but then decided I'd rather stay with the brothers. They seemed harmless now, but I didn't trust them. Dimitri apparently didn't either. He took a few steps forward and leaned down, speaking only an inch from my ear. â€Å"Keep an eye on them,' he murmured. â€Å"Robert's down right now but might recover sooner than we think.' â€Å"I know.' He started to turn, then glanced back at me. His commander face had softened into something thoughtful and awestruck. â€Å"Rose?' â€Å"Yeah?' â€Å"That †¦ was that what it was like when Lissa changed me?' â€Å"More or less.' â€Å"I didn't realize †¦ it was †¦' He struggled for words. It was uncharacteristic. â€Å"The way that light filled the room, the way she changed. Seeing that life emerge from death †¦ it was †¦' â€Å"Beautiful?' He nodded. â€Å"Life like that †¦ you don't–no, you can't waste it.' â€Å"No,' I agreed. â€Å"You can't.' I saw something shift in him then. It was small, just like in the alley, but I knew then another piece of the Strigoi-trauma had peeled away. He said no more, and I watched as he walked back down the hall. With nothing else to do, Sydney sat down cross-legged on the floor, holding a book in her lap. It was closed, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. Meanwhile, Victor sat back in the armchair and reclined it. He didn't look as bad as Robert, but lines of fatigue showed on both brothers. Good. The longer they were out of commission, the better. I brought in a chair from the kitchen so I could sit and survey the room. Everything was peaceful. I felt like a babysitter, which I suppose I kind of was. It had been a long day, and night soon turned the windows black. This made worried me. For all I knew, Sonya had some Strigoi pals who might stop by. The fact that Donovan knew her certainly indicated she wasn't a total outcast among them. It made me extra-vigilant, but at the same time, I was exhausted. The brothers were already asleep. Sydney, perhaps in an attempt to keep her human schedule, eventually found a spare blanket and pillow and curled up in a makeshift bed on the floor. And me? I was halfway between human and vampiric schedules. I had a feeling Dimitri was the same. Really, we were on a do-what's-necessary schedule, in which extensive sleep was not an option. A hum of excitement and astonishment suddenly sang through the bond. I sensed no danger or threat, but curiosity made me decide to check in with Lissa anyway. Even if I was in her mind, I knew my body would stay watchful, and I wanted to know how the rest of Lissa's test had gone. Beautifully, of course. She rode back to Court, exhausted but proud of herself. She wasn't the only one. The rest of her companions all wore similar expressions †¦ all except for Ava Drozdov. She had been the only one to break and use the cell phone to call for help. Lissa was surprised that Ava had cracked. After his earlier bitching, Marcus Lazar had seemed the most likely to bail. But no, the old man had managed it somehow, meaning he'd continue on in the monarch trials. Ava refused to make eye contact with anyone, instead staring bleakly out the window as they traveled back to Court. She would still hold a Council spot, but her shot at being queen was gone. Lissa felt bad for her but couldn't spare too much concern. It was the way of the trials, the way they determined the best candidates. Besides, Lissa had her own issues. Staying out in the daytime had run contrary to the normal vampiric schedule. Now, she simply wanted to get back to Court, find her room, and sleep for a few hours. She wanted some peace. Instead, she found a mob waiting for her.

Documentary photography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Documentary photography - Essay Example Documentary photography belongs to a field in photography that utilizes pictures to portray historical information. Visual evidences are employed to document specific events. Instead of purely aesthetic purposes, this school of photography delves into the various social and political issues of the subjects. According to Rothstein, â€Å"The subject matter of documentary photography is unlimited, but not every photograph is documentary. It should convey a message that sets it apart from a landscape, a portrait, or a street scene† (1986, p.19). Most of the time, the pictures evoke emotions of anger, intrigue, and shock. A number of magazines and newspapers capitalize on these visuals to communicate their respective stories. These images are ideal in moving people’s thoughts and actions. Hence, documentary photographers act like eyewitnesses for the general public. They engage other people with social issues through the evidences of their photos. They capture their reflect ions of the messages in different communities for people to see. The photographer’s skills to combine art, journalism, and education are needed in producing valuable results. These records of diplomatic and collective situations aim to pave way for social change. One of the famous 20th century photographers in this area is Paul Strand. He uncovered the potential of photography as forceful vehicles. He is known for his works’ ardor, clarity, and sophistication (Strand, 2009) . His work covered different kinds of locations in Africa, Europe, and of course, his homeland, America. Unmistakably, his interest consisted of various themes and categories over the years. He was a student of Lewis Hine, a renowned documentary photographer. Later, he was introduced to Steiglitz and Steichen, operators of the 291 gallery. After sometime, Strand’s works were featured in Steiglitz’ photography publication called Camera work. Many of Strand’s work were also exhibi ted in the gallery. Much of his famous pictures were on the geometric structures of the city life. His images eventually won prizes at the Wanamaker Photography competitions. In his book, Masters of Photography, Strand featured a number of his photos. Some of the notable photographs are â€Å"Blind Woman, New York† and â€Å"Yawning Woman† (2009). In 1916, his photo of a blind woman highlighted a realistic theme. This image depicts his excellent skill in taking photos without the subject’s knowledge. The photo shows a head-and-shoulder portrait of a woman wearing a sign, â€Å"blind†. This effectively represents one of the diverse minority groups during his time. It challenged the society’s stand on equality, labeling, and rights for individuals with special needs. His other striking photo of a yawning woman was taken in 1917. This candid photo shows a portly female resting at the sidewalk of New York. Similar with his previous work, it demonstrate s a pure image of daily life in an urban area. It illustrates New York and the distinct characters that occupy it. Pictorialism Pictorialism views photography as an avenue for embodying fine art. In this angle, a picture’s aesthetic essence is quite emphasized. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is â€Å"an approach to photography that emphasizes the beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality†

Response and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Response and Analysis - Essay Example The Capitol treats its citizens as slaves totally belonging to the machine of power, and in such circumstances human life is worth absolutely nothing. People can vanish, they can literally die on the TV screen and again nobody will be concerned. Totalitarian regimes are obsessed with the idea of possible revolution and overthrow that is why the Capitol aims to ensure its power by reminding people their place and their worth: â€Å"Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. â€Å"Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen.† (Collins) As I already mentioned, the primary aim of the Capitol is to constantly remind people that their lives are worth nothing for the authority and that they can â€Å"disappear† anytime. And creating Hunger Games is very effective tool in imposing fear, but broadcasting them on TV has more serious meaning. By doing this the Capitol shows people`s their own worst instinctive qualities - violence and lust for blood. And so it turns out that on the one hand citizens are scared to become victims of the Capitol`s power but on the other, when they manage to save their lives, they become animals in their desire to see someone else`s glamorized death on the screen. So literally they join the Capitol in its obsession with violence becoming decent representatives of regime. There is no possibility to tell what is real on the TV show and what is fake, even such things as love and friendship: â€Å"It’s messing with my mind too much, trying to keep straight when we’re supposedly friends and when we’re

Course Evaluation Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Course Evaluation - Term Paper Example Another advantage of this type of report is it allows a broad interpretation of each question. Key adjectives such as â€Å"distanced†, â€Å"engaged†, â€Å"affirming† and â€Å"puzzling† allow the seminar participant to provide more information that simply ranking a number of categories one through five. The report, as structured, invites in depth contemplation about the seminar experience as a whole. It allows the individual that thought the seminar was fabulous to expound on their experience and also gives opportunity for the participant that was highly disappointed to give frank, honest feedback. The questions do not attempt to lead the individual in any predetermined direction or pigeonhole their answers. Finally, the strength in the report from the perspective of the seminar leader or sponsor centers on concise nature of the report. A wide range of responses is available in this open-ended format. This allows those evaluating the responses to receiv e a wide variety of information from just a few answers. Exercise #2 Course Evaluation This evaluation is for the ______________________ course. My major is ___________________. The purpose of this course evaluation is to obtain feedback about the instructional methods used during instruction. Other information will help your instructor make decisions relative to establishing the proper educational atmosphere in the classroom and choosing instructional materials. Please answer honestly and understand that your input is valued and anonymous. Answers are ranked from 1-5. 1 represents strong disagreement with the statement while 5 represents strong agreement. Circle the number that best expresses your feelings about the course. The instructor’s grading guidelines were clear. 1 2 3 4 5 The instructor encouraged and valued student comments and participation. 1 2 3 4 5 The course workload was fair and manageable. 1 2 3 4 5 Stated course goals matched evaluation. 1 2 3 4 5 The cours e encouraged practical application of theory. 1 2 3 4 5 All you have to do to pass this course is read the textbook. 1 2 3 4 5 The instructor was thorough in offering feedback on student assignments 1 2 3 4 5 The instructor was available for help after regular class hours. 1 2 3 4 5 I believe that this course will be valuable to me in my future career. 1 2 3 4 5 I found this course interesting but will not use it in my future career. 1 2 3 4 5 Exercise #3 Peer evaluation is an assessment method that is often employed by instructors when group assignments are given. Group assignments that require students to meet outside of class are valuable learning exercises. They teach skills such as cooperation and compromise that are valuable life skills. Peer evaluations are feedback that members of the group give to the instructor about the other group members. This evaluation is factored into the final grade that is presented to the student. Typically, a portion of the grade results from the efforts of the group. This is then modified for each individual based on how the person’s peers evaluated her. Peer evaluations have some real advantages. When it comes to assessing group work, the instructor is not able to witness the efforts of individual students. Studies have shown that students tend to be very honest in self and peer evaluation reports. The student that slacked is almost always willing to admit this. Peer evaluations tend to give a very realistic view of individual effort within

Educating Prison Inmates Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Educating Prison Inmates - Research Paper Example Apart from that this research paper has also highlighted the opportunity of American inmates’ educating programs in order to accomplish employment. Moreover, the study has evidently perceived that inmates’ educational programs in correctional facility have reduced the criminal recidivism among prisoners and have provided them with employment opportunities. Inmates education has emerge to become a new trend in early 21st century. The tendency of inmates’ education has been mostly observed in American correctional system. The objective of inmates’ education is to convey knowledge among the prisoners for outside world and enhance the rehabilitative aspects of American prison. American government has chosen couple of approach such as vocational training and academic education to educate inmates. It has been also observed that several colleges and university along with few non-governmental organisations have stepped forward in order to offer educational programs to the inmates in America. During the year 1996, American Central Security Control (CSC) has realized that inmates’ education programs can meet their employment needs after the correctional life. Therefore, CSC has designed inmates’ education programs according to teach job skills and rational skills, which will help them to become productive and law abi ding citizen. Thus, the American government has been investing large amount of money on offenders’ correctional education programs since the last decade (John Howard Society of Alberta, 2012). In this research paper, the main aim is to identify weather the inmates’ education programs affect the American correctional system positively or not. Apart from this, during the research the objective is to highlight the impact of offenders’ correctional education programs on the American correctional system. Moreover, through the research report the actual intention is to

Movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Movie - Essay Example An example of this taken from the movie is when the wife Mrs. Smith is at a neighbors party and is holding a baby. The husband then reacts a certain way. The wife is performing an action that normally would not be performed and this persuades the husband to act in a certain way. Compliance resisting is the refusal of a target of influence message to comply with requests. This is shown many times throughout the movie. One significant example is when Mrs. Smith discusses redecorating and the purchase of new curtains. The wife intends to act as a normal wife does. Acting like a normal wife is the wife’s goal to try and persuade the husband into thinking the wife is someone she is not. This backfires as the target (Mr. Smith) reacts in a way that is not expected. Hurtful messages are messages that create feelings of pain and emotional upset. Hurtful messages do not begin in the movie until the couple finds out that they are similar to one another. A specific example of this is whe n the two are advised to kill one another. After they both realize that they are instructed to kill one another they begin producing hurtful messages. The hurtful messages are described when Mrs. Smith is driving in the car and talking to her husband on the phone. They both are relaying hurtful messages to one another.

Perform a rhetorical analysis of a work of your choosing Essay - 3

Perform a rhetorical analysis of a work of your choosing - Essay Example who plan on getting married to cherish their marriage rather than their wedding day, albeit a cursory glance of the article merely gives the impression of a comic trying to make the audience laugh by relating a personal story. By using informal language, appropriate diction, exclamatory sentences, sentence length, and persuasive appeals, Winchell has successfully conveyed the message she sought to express: weddings are not marriages themselves; they are just preludes to what should actually be given importance. April Winchell, by relating the experiences of her own wedding right at the beginning, lays out her credibility for writing a wedding related article. She was also a bride once and so she is qualified to write about weddings and the feelings of the brides, the brides-to-be being the intended audience: seeing how the name of the website where the article was published is brides.com, it is all but natural to assume that the intended target audience is brides-to-be. Therefore, there is no doubt that, rhetorically, this article is sound when it comes to ethos. Winchell normally resorts to informal language, resorting to slang as well in some cases, as she is not aiming to write to a scholarly audience. Her target audience is made up of people (or brides) who come from average households in America, and who are more comfortable using slang or, at least, conversing very informally. Moreover, the use of informal language by Winchell is quite effective in that through its use Winchell has avoided sounding too â€Å"preachy† even though the main objective of her article is to give advice. The style and tone of the piece comes off very casual and relaxed, as Winchell has chose to write in vernacular, take this excerpt from the article, for example, in which she is describing her dress â€Å"I don’t recall where I got the dress, but I’ll always have the memory of how butt-ugly it was.† It is very apparent here that not only is Winchell using vernacular

Assignment 9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assignment 9 - Essay Example He brings his personal experiences and concerns while working at General Motors Assembly line. We are bound to understand him better as he uses his voice to bring out the actual nature of activities and also to let us know the real account of issues as they are. This leads us into taking a position that would not have been possible if such a case was historical in totality. Moreover, he exhibits a different working setting where someone can evade tasks assigned to him or her without eminent consequences, thus delegating the same to another person at the expense of that party. The interests of a person should not be a priority over those of the entire organization. One should strive to provide the best effort for the benefit of the organization and personal utility. For example, Hamper would skive his duties by teaming up with another person, ‘’double up’’ hence when that person did both working, he would hover around in the industry or even reading. Having the ability to do whatever he wants, Hamper jeopardizes the activities of GM as no one seems to care what happens regardless of the expectations. This way he puts personal interests first at the expense of the organization. He seems more interested at how well he can spend time outside the assembly line forgetting that he is duty bound to deliver. The working environment doesn’t seem to favor his bid to have an enjoyable stay. Discipline is also a key to any successful entity. This stipulates and thus lays a framework of how employees should carry out themselves since this is the source from which the external environment paints a general picture of the organization. The common effort of everyone is therefore called to task. In his book, Hamper fails to display any of these as he operates at his will to any direction he feels like. On one hand, the organization ought to institute penalty programs that must be applied judiciously to those who fail to attain the discipline thre shold and on the other hand ensure that the common effort is safeguarded. Moreover, General Motors offers the best state of affairs however according to the author he uses various diversions in order kill boredom and monotony of work. He also never tries to change the situation although the work unions are never harsh to negotiate with. The unions seems to be selective and discriminatory since the writer, apart from managing in his own way, finds it even easier to maneuver his way through them. These serve to give him more room to work uninterrupted even when things don’t seem to work well. The work environment today poses a great challenge to those entrusted with responsibility since one has to deliver to the stakeholders and other interested parties. This entails the account of every single resource used in the verge of the operations of the organizations. The same will enable match efforts utilized with the results realized. The working milieu seems relaxed and without cle ar cut strategies and rules all of which tend to cover rights and specific duties of employees. These regulations have to be adhered to with strictness if the company has to realize its goals of his and thus objectives. The foregoing is not a true account of what happens at GM. ‘Rivethead’ displays a work environment where one person works for two therefore giving room for the other one to be away for a couple of hours. The author, in an attempt to forget all his tribulations in the assembly line

Report Card Essay Example for Free

Report Card Essay The discovery of the computer was the great function of modernity for different to make work easier, more capable, and more adaptable for the humanity. It has brought a new level of knowledge that became the new standard in the industry. It made the school more efficient for students and provided path to communicate to entire earth. Nowadays, computer base system is commonly used by every company and institution and one of this is computerized report card system. The grade of a student is a scale which determines students who need more improvement and require more assistance which will help teachers in guiding them towards their development. It also shows where students excel most so they can be honed and encouraged to continue their good work, improve more, and aim higher. At the end, it will be the reference for the judgment of whether a student can step up to a higher level of learning or remain to be polished. From these reasons, it is clearly concluded how important it is to make sure that the grades of the students are accurately calculated and safely stored in a well-founded database. It is understood that in the traditional grading system, where only calculators and papers are present, it is very difficult and time-consuming to compute grades. Errors are more likely to occur and papers are not very reliable form of database. It is very stressful to calculate grades and check them repeatedly from one record to another. With the use of the Report Card Inventory System, the teachers will only have to input the raw grades of the students and the system will be the one to do the storing of files. This Report Card Inventory System can provide the good service of accurate and secured compilation of grades to those hard-working teachers.

Modules Speeches Essay Example for Free

Modules Speeches Essay Speeches are consciously designed to present particular ideas or values which seep into the audience’s consciousness and stay there’. Discuss the viewpoint in relation to the speakers’ exploration of humanitarian issues. The power of a dynamic and memorable speech lies both in the messages conveyed as well as the craftsmanship, which is consciously designed to present particular ideas and values. When the two combine to create a speech of power and resonance, as well as achieving textual integrity, the impacts are long felt within the audience’s consciousness, and are able to transcend time, echoing context and values. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating’s speech, ‘Funeral Service for an Unknown Australian Soldier’, Margaret Atwood’s ‘Spotty Handed Villainesses’ and Faith Bandler’s ‘Faith, Hope and Reconciliation’ each present particular ideas and values through their exploration of humanitarian issues. Consequently, these values and ideas each seep into the audience’s consciousness and develop a successful and memorable speech. Paul Keating’s transcendental eulogy addressed to the nation on the occasion of the historical 75th anniversary of Armistice Day in 1993 still echoes the notion of an Unknown Soldier today. Keating’s use of rhythmic flow and the powerful repetition of the recurring motif â€Å"we do not know† throughout the simple, yet effective speech, makes this a speech not to be forgotten. Harsh images of leather, metal and battlefield carnage are created through the repetition of ‘military’, which juxtapose universal feelings of joy and grief, with the sadness and regret that no one will ever truly know the identity of the Unknown Soldier. Through the anonymity of the Unknown Soldier, Keating identifies all soldiers and civilians lost during or because of the war. The use of objective, factual war statistics impresses upon the audience the monumental loss that this Unknown Soldier represented: â€Å"One of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Contrastingly, emotional and subjective lexicon is used throughout Keating’s eulogy, as the audience is unified by the employment of inclusive pronouns such as â€Å"all of us†, â€Å"our† and â€Å"we†, emphasizing the idea that the audience is a part of the nation. Battlefield carnage is depicted through the use of the rhetoric â€Å"the great war was a mad, brutal, awful struggle†, as well as incremental adjectives emphasizing the context and tone of the speech. Keating adapts a blend of both informal and formal terminology in order to sustain a broad audience and create a culturally inclusive atmosphere, which additionally increases the transcendental resonance throughout a larger audience, as made evident within the line â€Å"He is all of them. And he is one of us. † Through the inclusive statement â€Å"there is faith enough for all of us†, links are drawn between the â€Å"men and women†, as well as the understanding of the past to those of both a modern and future audience, and the unification of modern Australians to the concept of war, sacrifice and serving of one’s country in which the Unknown Soldier impresses. Through the sincerity portrayed within the ideas and values, and the use of statistics and rhetoric devices, Keating creates an everlasting, patriotic impression as well as his exploration of humanitarian issues and Australian mate ship throughout the speech ‘Funeral Service for an Unknown Australian Soldier’, which contributes to the resonance held within the audience’s consciousness. Drawing connections from ‘Funeral Service for an Unknown Australian Soldier’, Faith Bandler shares Keating’s emotional sincerity, as evident within her speech â€Å"Faith, Hope and Reconciliation†, addressed to a broad audience at the Talkin’ Up Reconciliation Convention within 1999. The speech centres upon the persisting flaws that prevent the Aboriginal people and white Australian nation from reconciling, and ultimately focuses on advancing towards the reconciliation of Aboriginal and white Australians. Aboriginal activist Faith Bandler engages her audience through a variety of techniques, such as her use of inclusive and personal pronouns, such as â€Å"I†, â€Å"we†, and â€Å"us†, made evident throughout the speech. She focuses fundamentally upon the values and ideas of â€Å"Faith, Hope and Reconciliation† throughout the speech, starting with her title, which draws allusions to both a pun played upon her name and to the biblical religious connotation of â€Å"faith, hope and charity†. Through this allusion, Bandler emphasizes the importance of reconciliation, as well as uniting the audience under a religious context. Bandler effectively creates longevity within her speech by drawing upon her own personal experiences, as shown in the line â€Å"My learning was rather hard and slow†, and calls for reconciliation through first person, as well as effectively establishing inclusivity and making her plea distinctively powerful. Through the use of emotive language such as â€Å"ugliness† and â€Å"terrible indignities†, and repetition throughout the speech, Bandler further reinforces her own personal connection to the speech, as evident within the line â€Å"a little sadness†¦terrible utterances†¦terrible tragedy† alluding to her own reconciliation experiences, which further creates resonance within her audience. Bandler reinforces the hardships faced by the Aboriginal Australians during the White settlement through the metaphor â€Å"those ramparts of the rugged past†, as well as the accumulation and the use of verbs throughout the speech. Through the use of a multitude of techniques, Faith Bandler’s effectively simple speech transcends time and civilization barriers by creating resonance within her audience through her powerful plea of reconciliation and her will to change Australia. Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s â€Å"Spotty Handed Villainesses† is a speech drenched in the language, ideas and values of the intelligentsia. Addressed in 1994, the speech is rich with high order language, and comprises a multitude of literary allusions as well as philosophical and feminist concepts, in order to appeal to her audience of academic women. Atwood’s speech focuses fundamentally on the core thematic concern based on the principle that writers and readers must not be constrained by the limitations imposed by the ideology of women in narrative form as mothers and nurturers. Emphasizing this, Atwood strays from the ideal female figure within literature and alludes to the murderesses displayed, particularly the complex Lady Macbeth, to whom the title refers. The opening of the speech skillfully engages the audience through Atwood’s humorous use of children’s nursery rhyme, which supports the ideas and purposes presented within the speech, as well as disarming and amusing the audience. Not all women are good. Atwood further creates satirical intrigue through a reference to her title, alluding to the idea that the speech may â€Å"refer to age spots†, or â€Å"that once-forbidden but now red-hot topic, The Menopause†. Spotty Handed Villainesses† ultimately maintains relevance throughout time through allusions to both high and lowbrow literature. Throughout the speech, Atwood challenges authors and readers to not be limited by the ideological approach of female characters. She describes restricting ideologies as ‘intolerable’ and ‘restricted’, her speech at this point both intellectual and colloquial, carefully constructing a resonance within the audience’s consciousness. Through the craftsmanship and design of a speech, as well as the exploration of humanitarian issues, particular ideas and values are presented which seep into the audience’s consciousness and stay there, as displayed through the study of Paul Keating’s speech â€Å"Funeral Service for an Unknown Australian Soldier†, Margaret Atwood’s â€Å"Spotty Handed Villainesses† and Faith Bandler’s â€Å"Faith, Hope and Reconciliation†.

Study on the association between schizophrenia and violence

Study on the association between schizophrenia and violence Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder characterised by a disintegration of thought processes and emotional responsiveness. Schizophrenic individuals are presented with a wide range of symptoms. These are often classified in terms of positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms may include presentation of hallucinations, delusions, disorganised speech or thinking, disorganised behaviour, catatonic behaviours, derealisation, and unusual motor behaviour, while negative symptoms may include affective flattening, alogia, or avolition (DSM-IV; Kneisl Trigoboff, 2009). Although wide ranging, the experience of psychotic manifestations, such as hearing internal voices or experiencing sensations not connected to an obvious source, are common in this group of individuals. These individuals are often marked by an inability to function in daily life and require a significant level of care and support system. Given the variable presentations, no single or a mix of symptoms is definitive for diagnosis. The diagnosis criteria thus encompass a pattern of expressed symptoms and in conjunction with impaired occupational or social functioning (DSM-IV). The onset of this disorder usually begins during late adolescence or early adulthood. It can be a gradual process, whereby the individual became increasingly seclusive. It can sometimes be sudden, marked by emotional turmoil and intense confusion (Strauss, Carpenter Bethesda, 1972). The prevalence of Schizophrenia is approximately 1% of the general population and appears to be constant across cultures (Bhugra, 2005). The literature suggests that the aetiology of Schizophrenia is multifactorial. In regards to environmental components, it is unclear whether childhood trauma and stress influence the development of Schizophrenia, but there is evidence to suggest that environmental factors (Heinrichs, 1993), such as maternal stress, may be important in the aetiology of Schizophrenia, as high level of stress may trigger Schizophrenia by increasing Cortisol level in the body. In addition, enlarged brain ventricles and decreased activity in the frontal lobe is observed in some individuals with Schizophrenia. Together, it suggests that abnormal brain chemistry and brain structure may be important in the development of Schizophrenia. It has also been observed that there is a strong hereditary component in the manifestation of Schizophrenic symptoms. Individuals with a first-degree relative who has schizophrenia have a 10% change of developing the disorder. Twin and adoption studies observed that monozygotic twins display 50% concordance of Schizophrenia (Van Os, Rutten Poulton, 2008). While this suggests a moderate to high heritability of Schizophrenia, it is clear that this disorder is not deterministic by genetic components. The Association between Schizophrenia and Violence It is now generally accepted that individuals with Schizophrenia are at elevated risk of violent behaviour than member of the general population. In the community, 8% of individuals with Schizophrenia alone were violent, compared to 2% of individuals without mental illness (Eaton Kessler, 1985). In addition, a study estimated that 20% of first-admission patients with Schizophrenia had perpetrated against others in a life threatening manner prior to their admission, while 9% of the discharged patients acted violently in the first 20 weeks after hospitalisation (Humphreys et al., 1992; Monahan Applebaum, 2000). More importantly, longitudinal studies following selected and unselected cohorts showed that Schizophrenic individuals are four to seven times more likely to have committed a violent crime than the general population (e.g., Lindqvist Allebeck, 1990; Tiihonen et al., 1997), and twice as likely than men with other mental disorders to have a violent conviction (Wesselt et al., 1 994). Despite of differences in methodological approaches, these observable results are consistent across studies, cohorts, and cultures. The literature suggests that there is an over-representation of Schizophrenic individuals among the offender and prison populations. As mentioned above, the prevalence of Schizophrenia is less than 1% in the community. However, the prevalence of Schizophrenia in the prison setting was found to approximately 3%. In addition, 9-11% of individuals who were convicted of non-fatal and fatal violence respectively, had a diagnosis of Schizophrenia (Taylor Gunn, 1984), which are significantly higher than its prevalence in the general population. Individuals with Schizophrenia were at a four times higher chance to be convicted of interpersonal violence and ten times greater for conviction of homicide than the general public (Wallace et al., 2004). Interestingly, the chance of developing Schizophrenia among those with a history of violent crime is approximately five times greater than those committed non-violent crime only (Gosden et al., 2005). Thus, individuals with Schizophrenia contribute to a disproportionate rate of violent crimes. Typologies of Offenders with Schizophrenia There is a correlation between the development of Schizophrenic symotoms and increased rates of antisocial behaviour in violence (e.g., Wallace et al., 2004). Similar to offenders without mental health problems, there are subtypes of offenders with Schizophrenia, as defined by the age of onset and persistence of antisocial behaviour. It is suggested that there may be three types of Schizophrenic offenders (e.g., Hodgins, 2008). Type I offenders is a group of offenders that display a long history of antisocial behaviour since childhood or early adolescence, which remains stable across the lifespan (Moffitt, 2006). It is common that they are presented with a conviction for violence prior to onset of Schizophrenia and those who meets criteria for conduct disorder (CD). This group of offenders is presented with a wide array of criminal conduct, including both violent and non-violent crimes. Their criminal history appears to be similar to individuals with CD who lacks other mental health issues. It has been speculated that individuals with CD who developed Schizophrenia are characterised by lower levels of anxiety, heart rate, and cortisol level. Type II offenders are a large group of violence offenders with Schizophrenia who had no display of antisocial behaviours prior to the onset of the disorder, but become persistently violent thereafter. The onset of symptoms begins in adulthood for this subgroup and is usually associated with some form of brain disorder (e.g., Hodges et al., 1996). It is suspected that this group is particular susceptible to illicit drug use and that substance abuse may be directly associated with their violent behaviours (Mueser et al., 2006). Substance use by Schizophrenic individuals increases their risk of violence in multiple ways. It acts to further impair social cognition, increase the likelihood of them associating with antisocial peers for drug use and crime, and affect their capacity to engage with service providers and compliance with medication and support (Green et al., 2007). Type III offenders are a small group of serious violence offenders who display chronic course of Schizophrenia with no expression of antisocial and aggressive behaviours prior to their late thirties, and subsequently proceed to violently murder those who care for them. Type II offenders appear to display shallow affect, callousness, lack of remorse, and a failure to accept responsibilities (Sunak, 2006). It is hypothesised that this group of offenders have deficient and fluctuating affective experience, which increases the vulnerability for aggressive behaviour towards others (Hodgins, 2008). Overall, this group of individuals expressed higher level of violent behaviours and are at greater rate of conviction and incarceration of violent crime than individuals of the general community. Such violent behaviours account for a significant amount of human suffering, in party of the victims and their families, also in part of the perpetrators. These behaviours poses further financial burden on the society. Given the prevalence of violence among Schizophrenic individuals, there are important consequences for the criminal justice system. In addition, offenders with Schizophrenia constitute a heterogeneous population. It is suggested that most violence in the Schizophrenia population is attributed to Type I, although it is possible that Type III offenders are over-represented among homicides cases (Mullen, 2006). The development of typologies of offenders with Schizophrenia is relevant to identifying appropriate treatment options that address the characteristics of each type of off ender. Mediators of Violence among Individuals with Schizophrenia Substance Misuse: It has been repeatedly demonstrated that comorbid substance abuse issues significantly increase the risk of violence in Schizophrenic individuals (e.g., Tiihonen et al., 1997; Wallace et al., 2004). Some has suggested that comorbid substance abuse accounts for most rates of violence among people with Schizophrenia (Monahan et al., 2001). It appears that comorbid substance abuse account for up to 30% of violence in the community, compared to 8% in those with Schizophrenia alone (Eaton Kessler, 1985). The literature expressed concerns for the increasing numbers of substance misuse in individuals with both Schizophrenia and a propensity to violence over the past 30 years (Mullen, 2006). Reducing rates of substance misuse among this group of offenders is an important therapeutic goal, which will improve symptom control, quality of life, and act to decrease antisocial behaviours that are related to violence. Active Symptoms: Considerable evidence suggests that the violence observed in Schizophrenic individuals is directed and motivated by psychotic symptoms. Some research has shown that individuals frequently act upon the experienced delusions and that violence is often a defence or retaliation mechanism against seemingly harmful and manipulative actions (regardless of whether their beliefs are correct) that others are directing against the individual (Link Stueve, 1994). The expression of psychotic features is associated a five times increase in the risk of assaults of other person compared to those with no mental disorder (Mojtabai, 2006). For instances, there are evidence to support the association between delusional jealousy and attacks on a partner, persecutory delusions, and hallucinations and non-specific psychotic agitation all on occasion precipitate violence (Mullen, 1996; Mullen, 2006). Personality Factors: More recently, personality factors have been implicated in criminality in Schizophrenia (e.g., Moran et al., 2003). This group of offenders is associated with irritable, dissocial, lack of empathy and remorse, grandiose, suspicious, maintenance of unrealistic beliefs of entitlement, and inability to learn from experience. In addition, it is suggested that the relationship between comorbid substance abuse and violence in Schizophrenia may be mediated by personality factors and social problems. Developmental Factors: Compared to the general population and non-violent Schizophrenic individuals, those individuals with Schizophrenia who are violent are more likely to have experienced developmental problems, deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds, family history of criminality, and a problematic childhood in areas education and social functioning (e.g., Mullen, 2006; Tiihonen et al., 1997). Treatment for Schizophrenia To date, no cure has been found for Schizophrenia. The major goals of treatment are to reduce symptoms, minimise side effects, prevent relapses, and provide social and occupational rehabilitation for this group of offenders. Identification of High-Risk Offenders: It should be of high priority to identify individuals who fall into a high risk category of future violence. Past literature indicated that male individuals with a history of childhood conduct disorder, antisocial and violent behaviour in adolescence, substance abuse, unemployment and a disorganised lifestyle is at increasing rate of being high-risk of violence recidivism. Risk assessment is a practical exercise that should inform the risk, needs, and responsitivity of an individual. Their main function for the clinician is to direct attention to known correlates of violent behaviour. The HCR-20 (Webster et al., 1997) is an instrument that incorporates the PCL, which combines professionals approach to risk assessment and clinical opinion. Psychological Management: The manifestation of Schizophrenic symptoms renders individuals with criminogenic personality traits, attitudes, and social and occupational problems (Mullen, 2006). Reducing violent behaviours will depend large on modifying these factors and the behaviours they generate. While psychosocial treatment interventions have limited value for acutely psychotic individuals, it has been found beneficial to reduce violence risk for individuals who are already stabilised on antipsychotic medication (Swanson et al., 2008). Psychosocial treatment provide clients with the skills to work, self-care, communication, forming and keeping relationships, and learning and using appropriate coping mechanisms to deal with difficult situations and events and increase their chances of associating with others (Penn et al., 2005). Past research indicated that patients who receive regular psychosocial treatment are more likely to be compliant with medication and reduces their rate of relapse (Penn et al., 2005). In addition, recent studies indicate that cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) approaches that teach clients coping and problem solving skills can be beneficial for Schizophrenic individuals in reducing violent behaviours. When compared to control, recreational activities, or support, CBT was repeatedly found to be more effective during and immediately after treatment. CBT has also been found to be effective in relapse prevention and positive symptom control, even when the intervention was presented by therapists who had limited prior training (Durham et al., 2003). CBT as practiced for Schizophrenia should be modified to address some of the specific limitations imposed by the disorder (e.g., cognitive dysfunction, and stigma and loss). Therapists will need to be mindful of developing a therapeutic alliance based on the clients beliefs, to be able to develop alternative explainations of symptoms, and reducing the impact of positive symptoms (Turkington, Kingdon, Weiden, 2006). Treatment for Substance Misuse: Given the significant risks substance misuse poses to increase the rate of violence among Schizophrenic individuals, the assessment and management of drug and alcohol misuse has become a major priority. A study examining an integrated intervention program that consisted of motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy resulted in significantly greater improvement in patents general function, reduction in positive symptoms, and increased the length of abstinence periods from substances in Schizophrenic individuals (Barrowclough et al., 2001). In addition, this effect was still significant at 12 months follow up. Recommendation in relation to Treatment Outcome A careful design of methodology is required to be able to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the treatment program. Participants: A control group is necessary to allow comparisons to be made. Participants should be randomly assigned into control or treatment group. Participants with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia should be compared to a control group also with diagnoses of Schizophrenia. Participants who are actively psychotic and deemed unsuitable for treatment should be excluded. Procedures: All therapists should receive the same training for the intervention program to ensure consistency across therapy sessions. Adequate supervision will need to be provided to determine the qualification of therapist to deliver the treatment. This should be determined based on structured ratings of therapists adherence and competence to the treatment program, using instruments such as an Adherence-Competence Scale (Najavits Liese, 1997). All sessions must run according to the procedures described in a manual that detail the tasks of each session. Measures: Assessments regarding level of violent behaviours needs to be conducted at pre-, during, post-treatment, and follow-up measures. The follow up measures will provide an indication of the duration of treatment effect and patient relapse outcomes. Researchers should be trained in administering all measures. If more than one researcher is responsible, actions should be taken to ensure consistency between them. The current program will involve the treatment of inmates who express violent behaviours. Adequate measures of violence will be needed to examine the efficacy of the treatment program. The rate of violence depends greatly on the levels of violence measured. Most decisions concerning the level of violence of an individual are based on clinical evaluation, patients self report, and structured assessment. Some widely used instrument to assess violent behaviours includes the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), Historical, Clinical, Risk-Management (HCR-20), and the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment. Since comorbid substance abuse issues is indicated to be a significant factor that elevates the rates of violence in Schizophrenia as well as other mental health disorders, the treatment program should target such issue and aim to reduce or eliminate use of substances among this population. The addiction Severity Index (ASI; McLellan, Kushner, et al., 1992) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM can be used to assess substance use outcomes at various point in time. Participants perception of treatment effectiveness should also be assessed. This should be measured at post-treatment, using questionnaires that adequately assess perception of treatment outcome. The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (Attkisson Zwick, 1982) and the End-of-Treatment Questionnaire (Najavits, 1994) can be used to measure participants opinions about treatment. The outcome analysis should include description of the sample characteristics. Depending on what the control groups of the study is, manipulation check should be used to examine whether participants in both the treatment and placebo groups perceived the content of their respective intervention differently.

Kants and Aristotles Ethics Essay -- Philosophy, Philosophers

To be good is good but it has to be done for the right reason. Aristotle and Kant are two famous philosophers who have different ethical theories. The theory’s of virtue and duties rest not only on laws and obligations but from what comes from the inside. Morality comes from inner strength, character and how we live our life to the best end. Aristole 384-322 b.c.e. Aristotle conceptualized the branches of philosophy and contributed to the theories in logic, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy (book 237). Aristotle’s teleological ethics: the reason for being. Aristotle focused on the peoples actions whether good or bad, as well as their character, not there right or wrong actions. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) branches of philosophy included contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. Kant's deontological ethics, a duty based ethics. His focus is on rational will and a conception of self-governing reason, and not what kind of person one should be (Betzler 7). The bases of Aristotle’s and Kant’s theories are different. Aristotle believes when you do something it comes from the virtues you have, while Kant believes there is always a reason behind actions. However, both agree â€Å"that time and practice is required to develop virtues† (betzler 50). Another thing they have in common is that both of them focused on peoples actions and why people performed those actions. Whether, it is happiness or good will we are all completing an action to the end; in order to have a good life. Aristotle’s Strength is his belief in moderation (Book480). Aristotle believes the ultimate goal in life is to be happy and people will do what makes them happy. He defined the highest good as â€Å"eudaimonia† (Chaffee 477). To a... ...n different ways to achieve an end. However, I believe that Kant’s theory is most likely correct because it includes everyone and not just what makes an individual happy. Although, Kant’s views are a bit extreme when it comes to rules, we all have to have rules to live by we cannot just go out and do what makes us happy. I do like the â€Å"Golden Rule† better mainly because that is what my great-grandmother us to tell me all the time and it is a good rule to live by. â€Æ' Works Cited Betzler, Monika. Kant's Ethics of Virtue. Berlin, DEU: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. Broadie, Sarah. Ethics with Aristotle. Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 1993. Chaffee, John. The Philosopher's Way Thinking Critically About Profound Ideas. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2009. Kupperman, Joel. Ethics and Qualities of Life. Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Legalization :: essays research papers

Marijuana and other â€Å"pleasure† drug are outlawed completely under Federal Statues, banned by virtually every state as well†¦   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is not likely that excessive use of marijuana does fog the brain and causes other harm, as its enemies claim†¦   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  But this isn’t crucial point being interpreted. The key point is that if you accept the Libertarian promise that your life is your own and not the state’s, the government doesn’t have any business telling you what you can and can not do. With the exception of prohibiting you from using force or fraud against others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marijuana, the flowering tops of the cannabis plant should be legalized. Marijuana and Hemp has many benefits including medical, economical, libertarian, and political.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marijuana, or cannabis, is commonly described as a recreational drug. In the Unites States, it has been considered an illegal narcotic for the past sixty to seventy years. Cannabis presently is a political issue. The public and officials everywhere are discussing many issues, which concern it. When smoked or ingested, it produces a physical or mental psychological affect. The government considers the narcotic to be harmful to the nation. They believe that the drug causes health problems and accidents. Until recently, these laws have been unarguable in every state. In 1996 Propositions 215 and 200 were voted into effect in the states of California and Arizona. The propositions amend consisting laws allowing physicians to recommend marijuana as medicine and patients to grow, posses, and use it. Hemp is a form of cannabis that has been rediscovered as a natural resource. It was also banned in the 1930’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Propositions 215 amend laws to allow patients to grow and posses marijuana with doctor’s recommendation. People suffering or dying can receive a written or oral recommendation, if their doctor feels it will help them physically or mentally. In California, proposition 215 is called the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. It’s proposal won 56 % to 44% among California citizens and is beginning to take effect now. In Arizona, a similar act was passed called proposition 200. Many people, including doctors, law officials, political officials, and AIDS patients argue in favor of the proposition. They claim that cannabis is very effective in treating cancer, glaucoma, and AIDS, as well as many other illnesses. They see no reason why doctors are allowed to prescribe addictive, powerful, and lethal drugs like morphine, but are prohibited to distribute or recommend marijuana.