Social Networks Essay Example for Free

Social Networks Essay Should businesses be able to use Facebook and Twitter searches to determine whether a person is eligible for employment? There are a lot of mixed feelings about this topic, but a lot more companies are doing performing searches on potential candidates for employment eligibility. I think that employers should use social media in conjunction with hiring an individual. Many jobs today are related to the service industry and I feel that some people just do not qualify for jobs in this industry. More employers today are using Facebook and Twitter searches for determination on if a person is eligible for employment, and for retention of a current employee. In 2010 nearly 22% of employers were checking Facebook profiles when hiring a person to see if they were drinking too much, doing drugs or talking bad about a former employer (Oleniczak, Pike, 2010, P13). So some people argue that it is violating privacy, which has made this questionable (Oleniczak, Pike, 2010, P14). Well the Federal Government enacted some laws that could be interpreted as a questionable action (Oleniczak, Pike, 2010, P14). One of these states â€Å"Personal information shall not be collected by a collector for the inclusion in a record or in a generally available publication unless: (a) The information is collected for a purpose the is a lawful purpose directly related to a function or activity of the collector and, (b) The collection of the information is necessary for or directly related to that purpose (Oleniczak, Pike, 2010, P14). Well under the first principle an employee could argue that Facebook is personal and considered what they do outside of work, and under reference b, a potential employee could argue that their privacy was invaded and they candidate was not informed that their Facebook profile would be investigated (Oleniczak, Pike, 2010, P14). There have been many lawsuits brought against employers that use Facebook as part of their hiring process, which is starting to be a turn off to employers, because this could hurt them financially (Olencizak, Pike, 2010, P14). Although the laws do protect us, but employers can still use some of the information in their decision (Elzwig, Peeples, 2009, P9). Employers are basically using the information to apply it towards â€Å"good business† (Elzwig, Peeples, 2009, P9). Although employers must take certain steps first before applying their search towards the candidate, which are: * Check social networking sites before making employment decisions in order to gain important information * Verify the accuracy of the information * Recognize the actual purpose of the site Consider the age of the employee or potential employee Develop clear policies in regards to the using social networking * Post what the potential use of the information that is gathered on job postings and the application * Have employees and candidates sign a consent form prior to accessing the information * Check state laws and statutes for privacy (Elzwig, Peeples, 2009, P9) There are a lot of mixed feelings on whether an employer sho uld use social networks as a hiring tool. Two professionals weighed in on an interview in 2008 about this topic, Greg Fish and Timothy Lee. Greg fish stated: â€Å"Social Networking profiles are not resumes and companies should not use them when determining if an applicant should be hired† (Castone. 2008). He further stated, â€Å"When companies use these profiles to find not only a professional but also an ideological match for a job, they’re misleading themselves and building ill will with talented prospective employees, who might decline to apply for a job for fear of a comment about China on their blog makes their persona non-grata† (Castone. 2008). Timothy Lee argues that there are plenty of reasons why employers need to look at social networks (Castone. 2008). He states, â€Å"Employees in sales public relations and customer service function as representatives for the companies they work for, so employers have a legitimate interest in ensuring potential workers won’t embarrass the company† (Castone. 2008). â€Å"People shouldn’t fear that an employer will get a hold of their profile, but instead expect it and use it to their advantage,† Lee states (Castone. 008). What I feel the Timothy Lee is trying to get at by using our social network profiles to our advantage is basically use it to market yourself in the public view so that you can land that good job, just make sure you keep it clean and neat. I agree with Timothy Lee in his statement that we should not fear that an employer will get a hold of our profiles. Furthermore, I think we should expect it, and accept that an employer is looking at our p rofiles. We should use proper etiquette when setting up our profiles and not post anything negative about previous employers, or even post provocative photos. The one thing that I hate the most about going into Wal-Mart, is when I get a rude associate helping me or cashing me out. Wal-Mart does not screen their employees before hiring, I know because I used to work for the company. In conclusion, as time goes on more companies are going to be weighing in on using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace as a tool for their hiring process. Although companies should make that as a notable item to potential candidates in the interview giving them a heads up into the fact their company does run a background check and includes a search on social networks. More companies are going to weigh in on this concept and we should just accept the fact that an employer is going to use our profile as a reference. Especially in the service industry such as customer service, collections, sales, or anything that has to do with you being the front or face of the company, should mainly be focusing on this issue.

Gender Essay Example for Free

Gender Essay The history of gender and American policy is one crafted and based on historical events and changes in the men’s and societies’ view of women, especially as regards their roles in influencing policy change’s and implementation. According to scholars women roles for the past two centuries have improved remarkably if current events are to go by. Apparently, the study of gender as regards American foreign policy is a completely new aspect which has metamorphosed over the ages to became a crucial and significant approach of analyzing America’s foreign policies as regards, contribution to war, politics, economics and culture. In essence gender studies indicate the expectations, that the society holds to the different genders and the roles each group play. Dating back to the biblical times, the issue of gender and more so gender imbalance having been predominant in our society is, one coined on the society’s understanding and expectation of the male and female members of the society. It’s upon this that women over the ages have found themselves, marooned and dominated by men in major policies that have affected the society especially as regards warfare, diplomacy and violence. From ancient Greek, Roman, Babylonian empires, women have often being regarded as a weak gender compared to men, this has quite often led to maltreatment and abuse of women by the dominant male specie Braudy states â€Å"certainly the tradition of allying weakness with women and strength with men is a long one† (328). Its upon this conceptual thought that women have been destined, to play if any, a minimal role in matters of war. However it’s the statement of scholars and historians that though regarded as a marginalized group and less often actively involved in war, women â€Å"occupy a privileged place as an alternative source of national moral strength† (Braudy 328). In essence a good woman was always portrayed as pliant, submissive and subordinate. Thus the concept of gender imbalance has been with us for long, this was especially portrayed by the remarks and views held by male and society as regards women. For instance some scholars portrayed them as a â€Å"savagery within civilization† and as Braudy, states a â€Å"source of both fascination and disgust† (328). This is vehemently expressed by the 19th century view of women menstruation as a wound. However scholars do agree that progress has been witnessed over the ages as regards women role in society as research show that women have tremendously established themselves as a dominant force in society though, they still lack behind in a world where war, politics, economics, diplomacy issues are dominated by male. It’s thus upon this views that women remain less actively involved in war. According to scholars women have partly participated in wars and hence as history shows wars have been attributed to men. So is war a man’s affair. War and especially violence was, and still continues, to be a man’s affair in that men have always been attributed to intolerance and aggressive behavior, which is replicated in the art of war. Barash, states â€Å"if we could eliminate or even significantly reduce male violence we would pretty much get rid of violence† (1). For ages the art of war has been and still is dominated by men. For instance looking back at past war events ,its difficult to find any war which might have been instigated by a woman, on the contrary men have been responsible for all major wars and even violence related incidents in the society including genocide and homicide. Experts thus postulate that, war is a man’s affair in which men seek to dominate others, by the crudest of ways. It’s a concept that has been among the male species. The ancient warriors thus were taught to be strong and vicious, going contrally to that was risking ones sexuality in the sense that one would be braded as an â€Å"effeminate† a term often used to refer to men who were weak and coward. Thus it’s an agreed fact that a true warrior or man was identified on his possession of power attributed to ones manhood. Thus in order to show the effect of gender as regards war the male dominated societies used the most atrocious and ridiculous way such as castrating, homosexuality, masturbation and circumcision to humiliate individuals , thought to be weak, a trait that was attributed and reminisce of the women. This was done to portray other men as having qualities akin to women as demonstrated by the act of penetration. For instance during the ancient times homosexuality was used to render punishment on the male enemies. Sodomizing war captives was cogently used by Babylonians. Also studies indicate that war captives were treated on the basis of their gender in that women were raped, children enslaved while the males were subsequently killed and humiliated, in one incidence they were forced to masturbate while get the erect before being sodomized. This according to Trexler proofed to â€Å"show linkage between gender and humiliation in war fare† (20). By castrating the others scholars do ascertain that it was to be â€Å"a basic element in man’s fighting instincts. †(Trexler 19). To crowns it all, this acts were often instigated against other men in order to prove ones superiority over the others. Castrating and cutting the enemies manhood became a way of showing how the enemy had been subdued. This is depicted by the ancient Jewish society where warriors would cut their enemies private parts and foreskins to present to kings as a show of victory in war. In modern society violence and war is overwhelmingly dominated by male, for instance according to a researcher conducted in America, over 90% of homicide cases in America have been perpetrated by men. Moreover a great number of men are enlisted in the national army. What makes it more interesting is how terrorist groups are predominantly male established . In essence any where there is violence and war man is. It has thus been concluded that war is the art of man, as depicted by the studies of ancient history of warfare and current affairs. Barash cogently states that â€Å"what can be called killing establishment, soldiers, executioners, hunters, even slaughters is overwhelmingly male†(1). he concept of war and gender can thus be summarized as follows; war is a mans affair, violence and war is something that men direct at each other, men are the instigators and subsequently victims of their acts of violence, women are the victims of men’s warfare but not partakers or instigators and finally when people are murdered and slaughtered as in case of genocides and war, men are always the culprits. Religion and war According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary religion re fers to a personal set or institutionalized set of religious beliefs, attitudes and practices. In that point, the debate over whether religion is responsible for the many wars witnessed in the history of mankind has continued to rage with both critics and proponents ascertaining their views and subsequently providing proofs to justify and authenticate their claims. Before understanding this issues it’s important thus to define war. According to Merriam –Webster online dictionary war is thus a state characterized by hostility, conflict, or antagonism Thus the concept of intermarriage between religion and war and especially its contribution to war, its one which has found favour in the ideologies of atheist and scientist as such. So does religion cause wars? Religion has been the greatest threat to mankind and thus it’s been the cause of many bloody confrontations. Charles Kimball, states â€Å"It is somewhat trite, but nevertheless sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history. †(1) This has often led to some critics of religion pointing that, if man is to live peacefully then religion should be scraped or rather the belief in God should be descanted. Timothy Fitzgerald quips that; â€Å"religion should be regarded as a form of mystification and scrapped† (26). The contemporary attitude on religious contribution to war arises due to a number of factors or rather reason that is religious conflicts, religious wars, religious ideologies based on teachings of some religions and modern fundamentalism attributed to different religious groups. It’s the statement of scholars that the history of religions contribution to war in modern world and as regards organized religions is to be traced to the Roman Catholic which was responsible for some of the greatest conflicts in history of mankind. During the dark reign of the Catholic Church in Europe many people were slaughtered and mercilessly killed due to their beliefs. According to Hitcher, the church has a history responsibility for the crusades, persecution of Catholics, Jews and deserters (17). Thus the Roman Catholic Church which represents Christianity is accountable for grave atrocities that culminated in the murder, persecution of millions of people based on its principle of heresy. It’s been the overwhelming statement and consensus of scholars that the blood birth witnessed during the dark reign of the church by far surpassed the jihads. Also the pope at the time is believed to have contributed tremendously in influencing major wars at the time. On another point, historians ascertain that, the competition for support and the fundamental believe that one religion is superior than the other has fueled animosity between religious groups, often leading to bloody confrontations that have often led to war. Moore in describing about this competition states â€Å"it had to be cruel in the general sense that any group identity is liable to be formed in hostile competition† (29). Its was this religious dreams of superiority that led to the Islamic conquest and expansion during the 18th century ,at that time, its estimated that millions of people were killed and others taken as slaves. This competition among religious groups has often led to war between the different opposing religions. For instance according to Price most of the greatest conflicts such as the Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and even 9/11 attack are as a result of religious differences. These facts are clearly demonstrated in the crusades that were responsible for fighting the spread of Islam in Europe . during this time the pope coined what was termed as â€Å"just war†. Thus it was believed that some wars were justifiable especially if it entailed safeguarding the very cores of the religion. On their part the Muslim desire for expansion was characterized by forced conversion through war commonly referred to as Jihad. What has come to be the greatest threat to mankind in this century it’s also attributed to religious fundamentalism . Following the aftermath of the 9/11, the world witnessed the rise of terrorism ,a new tool used by Muslim fanatics and which is based on Islamic fundamentalism though the 9/11 event has been regarded by some as not influenced by Islamic fundermentalism,the facts point to the contrary . For instance the known mastermind of the attack and the leader of Alquieda, Osama Bin Laden ,in his speech calling for the murder of citizens in western countries attributed his action to Islam and more so the holy book Koran. These proofs to show that despite the denials by some Islamic leaders, the calls of Osama seek to justify the views held by majority of the Islamic community. The Muslim have also used the word â€Å"Crusade† to describe the policy of western countries especially America to occupy Islamic states. This is a symbolic meaning to the crusades, organized to counter Islamic conquest during the 18th century. It’s thus the belief of scholars, that the Islamic fundamentalism is based on religious beliefs of Islamic faith though some Islamic scholars do oppose these beliefs. Scholars have thus argued that the terrorist attack on America that killed innocent civilians could not have happened if not for religious believes. The Palestinian and Jewish conflict has been continuing for long, this conflict has often led to bloody confrontation between the two groups. According to scholars this conflicts is the brain child of religious fundamentalism based on Islam and Judaism. Thus critics do argue that the history of enmity between this two religious groups, bases its root on hard core ideologies attributed to the groups religious affiliations, thus as long as the groups seek to identify themselves on religious background, it will be hard to tackle has been their for long hence as long as each group seeks to identify the other in terms of religious background, it will be hard to tackle. This conflict has led to the extend of isolating the Jewish state of Israel from the rest of Middle East countries with calls by some Muslim fanatics and religious leaders for the murder of Jewish citizens. It’s thus the statement of historians that the Yom Kippur war between Israel and other Arab countries was as result of religious differences. Thus critic’s quip that religion has led to nations forming alliances on bases of religious believes, thus leading to conflicts which have led to emergence of hardcore ideologies and conflicts across the world. It has also been said that, religion has been instrumental in influencing wars in Europe. for instance the French religious wars are attributed to religion , Holt, says â€Å"the French civil wars which began with the massacre at vassy in 1562 and concluded with peace of the alass 1629 was a conflict of religion†(56) Different religions also have been known to encourage war of such is the Buddhism religion in which the tales of Bhagavad-Gita are based on war and made to justify war as an act of self protection, in its case Judaism and especially the old testament depicted war as necessary in order to defend the convictions of their teaching, in the bible the Israelites who believe that they are Gods children and the chosen ones called on God to fight for their course According to some studies conducted it has further been established that some individuals use religion in order to advance their political ambitions ,for instance , having used Jews and Judaism as a ladder to ascend to political power Hitler gained the channel he so much needed to murder 6 million Jews, in our modern society prominent personalities and politician have been known to make grievous remarks based on religious conviction, the calling by Iranian president for complete annihilation of the state of Israel and calling of Musl ims to unite against Judaism that stands for the Jewish state of Israel is a sure way of describing how religion has been used to sphere head murder of innocent civilians. A true religious individual thus does not advocate for violence. Thus according to proponents of religion it has subsequently been ascertained that the absence of religion in the modern nations especially communist did not deter their leaders such as Stalin from leading any less violently.  Despite the growing claims that religion causes war, proponents and researchers have criticized, this claims by ascertaining that religion and especially organized religions are peaceful the teachings of most religion call for peaceful existence of individuals, this is depicted by the teachings of individuals who have been ardent followers of their respective religions. According to martin Luther king Jr, the knowledge of God brings inner peace, in his teaching also he advocated for tolerance and use of non violence. Also Gandhi one of the staunchest supporter and believer of Buddhism advocated for the use of non violence (ahisma) in his philosophies which have become instrumental in influencing the thoughts and ideas of modern leaders.

Trends of Punctuation in English and Lithuanian

Trends of Punctuation in English and Lithuanian Introduction The world of knowledge always tempted the scientists of any spheres. The nature, human body and brain gave birth to the many branches of science such as physics, medicine and philosophy. The analysis of a language was also one of the most popular branches of research of the linguists and grammarians of the fifteenth century. The unbounded interest in the development and variation of a language, and its constructions presented to the world the new approaches analysing the oral and written forms of any language: the phonology, phonetics, grammar and semantics. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the scholars focused on the study of sounds and their pronunciation. The phoneticians and linguists analysed the origin of vowels and consonants, their structure and the interactions with other sounds, proffering different theories on the usage of them. A few decades later, the majority of scientists turned their focus on the analysis of a communication, basically, the orally expressed l anguage. They gave birth to the new branch of the analysis of language: the rhetoric. Analysing the language as the changeable system of sounds and their combinations, the scientists believed that oral presentation of a language could be divided into smaller units, which were distinguished with the assistance of hearing. Moreover, this division could help to show the purpose of the thought expressed, not only indicating the mood of a speaker, but also presenting the correct function of a thought in a sentence. However, the sixteenth century and the growing needs of the written texts, made the scholars to realize that the language was more complex system of communication. The influence of a church encumbered the scientists. Consequently, the linguists had to concentrate not only on the structure of a sentence and its correlation in a paragraph; they also had to find a method to inbreathe the emotions to the written expressions of thoughts, that the created sentences on the paper would have the same intonation as it was produced orally in a conversation. In order to achieve this purpose the punctuation was created. Motivational basis of the research. The grammarians paid great attention to the phonology, syntax, grammar, the structure of a sentence and its expressions in the oral and written forms. They noticed that the oral structure of the thought cared equal importance of the one visually presented. Moreover, the scientists realized that fair influence was made on the comprehension of a thought or a text. They believed that the punctuation was the basis not only in the specification of the purpose of a sentence, but also in the identification of a style of a text presented. In order to understand the purpose and the usage of marking, the scientists analysed punctuation from different trends of linguistic. Thus, the punctuation was divided into two different traditions: the rhetorical and grammatical. From rhetorical point of view, the composition played the most important role in any kind of communication. The grammarians assumed that composition was a foundation-stone in the science of rhetoric. They presented a theory that a good text or a paragraph depended on three components: â€Å"clear thinking, reading the best and most vigorous writers; and frequent practice in writing, along with careful polishing of what we have written.† ( Meiklejohn J. 1915:175) In other words, the good presentation of a text, especially a thought expressed in written or oral form, depended on the correct and considered structure of a sentence. The linguists, on the contrary, saw oral speech as a â€Å"multimodal, multi channel event that encoded a lot of redundant information.† (Dawnkings J. Breath, Grammar, and Proper Punctuation 1925:1) According to them, people varied the intensity of speech; modulated the intonation, making their voice to rise or to fall as well as using the gestur es, body language and facial expressions. These actions provided additional information on the message produced. The linguists also assumed that the punctuation was expressed with help of intonation, pitch and pauses. Later, these methods took the role in the grammatical division of a sentence. Intonation in written texts served as â€Å"a controller of meaning† providing â€Å"more phrasing information to the reader.† (Flippo R.F. Punctuationand intonation effects on the perception of texts 2001:133). Pitch, on the other hand, indicated the emotional state of a speaker. Rising or falling tone of any word uttered showed the feelings of a communicator either anger, the cry, warring or command. The body language and gestures also assisted in the comprehension of a thought expressed. Grammatical tradition of punctuation, however, lost these â€Å"visual and auditory channels leaving only words and grammatical structures to carry the message.† (Dawnkings J. 1925:2) The grammatical punctuation was used as system of marks that separated or combined the words, sentences or their parts. The linguists assumed that the main function of the punctuation marks was to present a correct meaning of a thought and a speaker or writer was responsible for this action. However, the grammarians soon realized that the liberal rules of punctuation not only provided the freedom of a writer to express their thoughts in the structure they wanted; frequently, this method of punctuating texts led the readers into the ambiguity. Although, the grammarians tried to present and explain the grammatical rules in the simplest way as possible, many people as well as students yet confronted with the difficulties in punctuating any sentence or a text. Therefore, the interest in the punctuati on as intonational device expressing the thought of a written language and the arising difficulties analysing the sentence from structural point of view in both languages English and Lithuanian languages have formed the motivation basis of the research. Different groups of linguists understood the conception of the punctuation differently. Ones concentrated on the intonational part of the sentence and analysed the punctuation marks as the markers of the mood or emotional state of a reader or a writer. Others believed that marking consisted of the strict, sometimes called dogmatic, grammatical rules which could divide the sentence for the further graphical analysis. From these opinions the traditional (rhetorical) and modern (grammatical) concepts of the punctuation appeared. Although, the traditional point of view of punctuation lost the attention in the beginning of the sixteenth century, more and more the grammarians chose to focus their attention on the analysis of the text from the rhetorical point of view, and to practice this way of teaching the grammar, especially punctuation, concentrating on the fluency and the sound of the thought, rather than the structure or strict order of the words. They were of the opinion that the richness and fluency of any text was provided through the intonation and the way to achieve that correct punctuation was required. It may seem that the grammatical point of view had the same function: to indicate a sentence and provide the fluency of the thoughts or texts. However, modern view of punctuation concentrated on the structure of a sentence. It divided a text into units, sentences, and their parts. It indicated the beginning or the end of the thought presented in sentence; provides the general information about a cert ain type of a sentence such as declarative, affirmative, or question. Grammatical analysis distinguished the sentence into units, while rhetorical point of view presented the sentence analysing its â€Å"voice† expressed while reading in silent or out loud. The purpose of the research paper attempts both: the introduction of the punctuation from the traditional and modern points of views and the comparative analysis of punctuation marks comma and dashas well as their interactions with the structure and meaning of a sentence of the texts in English and Lithuanian languages. The main tasks for attaining the aim are: to introduce a reader to the major trends of punctuation to collect the empirical data coherent with the variation of the punctuation and its application of rules on the original texts and their translations to analyse and compare the system and the usage of the punctuation marks of both languages: Lithuanian and English In order to fulfil the research, the analytical, interpretive and comparative methods have been used. The study of analytical method is used for the analysis of scientific literature sources related to the punctuation, its development and the difficulty of its usage. The application of interpretive methods is necessary for the presentation of the different aspects and ideas presented in the analysis the punctuation. The comparative method provides the possibility to distinguish the different functions of punctuation marks used in the texts of scientific and belles-lettres styles. Literature review. Analysing the punctuation from the very ground, it appeared that the first ever used mark in presenting a sentence was a â€Å"space.† Its function was to indicate a short pause between the words either in oral or written forms. Though rhetoric was an ancient science of speaking, it also had some changes including the development of new theories on its function. Defining the rhetoric, it might be said that this science was a system of five canons: â€Å"inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria and pronuntiatio.† (NauckÃ…Â «naitÄ— 2000: 12) These canons served as the guiding lines to the correct and clear way of a speech presented. Though, the classicists and modernists of rhetoric analysed the texts according to these five canons, they expressed different opinions on the relationship between a speaker and communication. The classicists believed that the mind was the most important feature in a human, while the main purpose of rhetoric wa s to persuade the listener. The followers of the modern rhetoric, on the contrary, stated that the significant part in a human was the feelings. The expression of feelings used in the communication provided the mutual understanding between the speaker and the listener. Concentrating on the relationship of speaker and listener, the modernists drew a conclusion that the main purpose of rhetoric was to inform the listeners rather than to persuade. Passing decades, however, made the linguists to realize the significant changes in the conception of rhetoric. Many of them noticed that the rhetoric started to be used an indicator of stylistics. Meiklejohn saw the rhetoric as â€Å"the art of putting sentences together.† (Meiklejohn J. M. D. English Grammar, its history and literature 1915: 175) He stated that â€Å"a text has to be presented clear, coherent and vivid. â€Å"(1915: 175) To achieve this, the writer had to know the grammar, sentence structure, and the particularity of language and its clarity. Rhetorical approach of punctuation presented the punctuation marks as indicators of the intonation. The term of intonation referred â€Å"to a means for conveying information in speech which is independent of the words and their sounds.† (Nolan F. 2006:1) According to Francis Nolan, the intonation fulfilled several tasks in analysing language. Intonation â€Å"signalled grammatical structure, [†¦] reflecte d the information structure of an utterance, highlighting constituents of importance.† (2006:1) The punctuation marks, used in the field rhetoric analysis, provided a reader the stylistically presented text. In the text, the punctuation marks indicated the pitch (beginning or the end of the sentence), tone (the mood or attitude of a speaker), and pauses (the length of time, used between the words). Each mark had its own function, such as presenting a request, an order or command. In other words, punctuation provided a reader vivid and natural utterance of a language, which was very similar to the conversation. The usage of a specific punctuation mostly depended on the style the text or a paragraph presented. Therefore, it might be assumed that stylistics also contributed to the rhetoric. Knowing the style or genre of a written text (whether it was scientific, belles-letters or essay) it was easy to notice a particular structure of the sentences, which characterised the punctua tion. A text, written on the scientific purpose, had more complicated structure of punctuation than the belles-letters. Long complex sentences, unemotional, specific terminology and concrete language pictured the scientific style, where the basic punctuation marks appeared to be comma, semicolon and colon. On the contrary, the belles-letters style and essay offered more liberal marking system of a text using the figures of speech such as parenthesis, similes or periphrasis. These figures of speech often played the role of a text colouring. Ã…Â ½uperka K. in his work Stilistika showed the punctuation as a tool of a rhetoric, where the words provided the emotional shade of a sentence and the marks only indicated the mood of the speaker. Walker J., however, offered a different explanation of punctuation. According to him, punctuation was a system of principles that arose† from nature of the living voice, from the perception of harmony in the ear, and from a certain super addition to the senesce of language, of which grammar took no account.† (Walker J. A rhetorical grammar 1829:40) This kind of attitude provided the basic explanation of the prediction of a mark. In order to present the actual intonation, used in any conversation or written text, the writers concentrated on the melody of a thought, rather than on the correct structure of a sentence. They wanted to save the natural fluency of words and sentences produced in the written texts, therefore, most of writers focused on the intonational part of a s entence, and its alteration during the conveyance of a correct meaning of a thought. Intonation, especially the rising or falling tones, played as the indicators of emotions of a speaker as well as the directive in the determination of a sentence type. From structural point of view the punctuation belonged to the syntax â€Å"a device of the communication and the expression of thoughts, presented in the form of colloquial language or written text†. (Labutis V. LietuviÃ…Â ³ kalbos sintaksÄ— 2002: 7) Presenting punctuation as a â€Å"device of the syntax†( Ã…  arÄ eviĆ¡ 1997:179), the grammarians and linguists concentrated on the functional structure of marking a sentence. The punctuation marks served as the indicators of the sentence or a text. They separated or combined particular parts of a sentence, or the whole units, marked the beginning or the end of thought. Other function of the marks was to present a clear, correct and emotional sentences used in silent reading, as they would be produced in oral communication with all specific details such as tone, intonation or pitch. Mcelroy J. presented the punctuation as a system â€Å"ultimately controlled by the principles of constructio n or thought that depended upon the usage only so far as the usage truly represented these laws of thought and construction.†(Mcelroy 1878:1) He assumed that the choice of punctuation marks and their quantity used in a text was â€Å"a question of taste† and depended on a writer. Although, clearly presented conception of the liberal punctuation gave the freedom to the creators of texts, it also influenced the text structure and incorrectly used punctuation, which let the reader or listener to the ambiguity and mistakenly interpreted meaning of a thought. Therefore, the liberty of a writer to choose the punctuating marks according to his point of view, in modern English grammar was replaced by the strict and concrete rules of punctuation. Analysing Lithuanian, on contrary, it might be said that the modern punctuation of this language were taught and used as a strict system of the rules, indicating the way of punctuating a text. Recent research, however, presented a â€Å"liberal tendency of the usage of punctuation.† (SpingytÄ— M. 2010:3)SpingytÄ— M. stated that â€Å"this liberation provided to the writer a possibility to correct the emotional weight of a sentence.† (2010:3) It was a choice of a writer to mark or emphasize a specific word or part of a sentence, which, according to him, might have some additional or influential meaning. However, there was a possibility that this kind of liberalisation might negatively affect the functions of separate punctuation marks. The liberal punctuation rules lessened the specific function of each punctuation mark, leaving a writer to decide which marking was better to be used. It might be stated that the liberal punctuation concentrated more on the intonation rather than grammatical structure of the sentence. This conclusion is based on an analysis of silent reading, which was more influenced by the visual usage of intonation and tone, and less- by the grammatical structure. The empirical data of the research.The primary resources of the bachelor paper are taken from the works: Expression of the Communicative Function of Language in Punctuation by SpingytÄ— M; Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics by Lyons J, and the Forsyte sagaby Galsworthy J. The examples used in the analysis of the punctuation marks are taken from Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics and the Forsyte saga, and their translations to the Lithuanian language. The structure of the research. The bachelor paper consists of the introduction, two main sections, conclusions and the references of the works used. The first part of the research introduces the reader to the two concepts of the punctuation, its variation and the application in the different fields of study. The first section contains the analysis of the punctuation marks from the traditional and modern points of view, i.e. the study of punctuation marks from rhetorical and grammatical fields, and their influence to the meaning of a context. The second part of the research paper provides the analysis on the system of punctuation, comparing the specific punctuation marks such as comma,dash and hyphen in English and Lithuanian languages, used in the texts of scientific and belles-lettres styles. The figures, presented in the second part were used to indicate the functions and the spread of their usage. Part I The major trends of punctuation Punctuation has been an inseparable part of written or spoken language. The punctuation marks, which served only as indicators of the elocution at the beginning of the fifteenth century, quickly influenced other parts of science: grammar, syntax and nowadays widely analysed field of the programming. Through centuries, the formed theories of the purpose and the usage of punctuation marks intrigued the experts and scientists of any language. The grammarians such as George Puttenham and Simon Daines were the first ones who provided the classification of the English punctuation marks from the rhetorical point of view in their works The Arte of English Poesie and Orthoepia Anglicana. The main purpose was to bring, at least, the basic order of punctuation marks, which were missed in the works of twelve century. The biggest merit was to be given to the grammarian Ben Johnson, who systemized the punctuation and provided its analysis from the syntactical point of view.This approach of the punctuation was used till the beginning of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the Johnsons analysis had not provided a specific usage of marks; the writers used â€Å"commas with every subordinate clause and separable phrase.†(Encyclopaedia Britannica Punctuation in English since 16002008:85) T herefore, analyzing the texts of the middle and early modern English, the inordinate usage of the comma usually is found in those texts. Later decades brought more clarified analysis of the punctuation marks. The grammarians classified and structuralised the punctuation marks according to their purpose or functions. Punctuation became a significant part of structure and cohesion of any text. The deeper analysis of the text revived the interest of grammarians in punctuation not only from rhetorical point of view, but of grammatical as well. Punctuation became important attribute of grammar for the expression of thoughts and the correct understanding of meaning of a sentence. It did â€Å"conduce to make a written language more effective, by exhibiting with greater precision and definiteness the ideas, feelings and emotions of an author.† (Wilson J. A treatise on English punctuation 1856: 2) Therefore, the main aim of the writers was to inbreathe the same intonational expression and emotional influence to the written texts, which was used in the speech and oral communication. 1.1. Rhetorical tradition of punctuation Rhetoric was the oldest science that analysed a language from the oral perspective. Defined as â€Å"the Art of Persuasion†and â€Å"artistic use of language for the sake of aesthetic effects†(Jonge C. 2008:49), rhetoric also served as the guide to correct pronunciation and rhythm, used in speaking or the speech presentations. (Walker J. 1829: ii) Intonation, pitch, the length of pause, all these elements were classified as important features used in simple communication or presenting a speech. Moreover, they not only presented a language as a rhythmical system of sounds, they also provided additional information about the speech and the speaker himself. The rhetoricians believed that these â€Å"elements of language [were] physical: the noise words made and the rhythm of their relationship.† (Tredinnick M. Writing well 2008: 14) In other words, they had the ability to change the meaning of a sentence produced, when the pitch or tone was used incorrectly. Since the oral communication was the first human step towards the analysis of a language as a separate field, rhetoric had to carry two functions: to correct the prosody of oral language and to present the basic grammar, in this case- punctuation. The rhetoricians stated that the speech of any style provided to audience had to respond to five basic questions, also called cannons: a) inventio, b) dispositio, c) elocutio, d) memoria and e) pronuntiatio.† (NauckÃ…Â «naitÄ— 2000: 12) Each of the canons had specific function which was needed in order to express the thoughts in correct and beautiful manner of speaking. Inventio was used to gather and classify the material related to the topic. The speaker had to specify the information used in writing a speech. The term dispositio stood for the enunciation. Its purpose was to group the elements of language logically. Elocutio (style) served as the indicator of a speech presented. It was used as guiding line identifying a style of the written text and the correct grammatical usage of language. Memoria (memorization). Each speech, presented to the audience, needed to be learnt by heart. Pronuntiatio (speaking). The purpose of this canon was to present the speech in correct manner of articulation and gestures. A speaker had to pay attention to the intonation, pitch, tone of the speaking voice, especially, in order to convey the correct meaning of the thought; apart from the articulation, a speaker needed to use the gestures that convinced the meaning of a though expressed. The rhetoricians believed that, being correctly used, these canons could present the perfect creation of written or spoken work. However, rhetoric was used not only the elocution, it also involved the concrete cycle of transformation of a thought to a word. In other words, the silent or loud reading also was under the influence of the rhetoric. The reading itself was regarded as a â€Å"system of rules, which teaches us to pronounce written composition with justness, energy, variety, and ease†. (Walker J. 1829:39).Thus, it might be assumed that the reader needed to use a combination of rhetoric and grammar, in order to understand a text correctly, and to convey the correct meaning to the listener (if a text was read out loud). The rhetoric, mostly, the communication itself, involved every part of human life: â€Å"thought, language, voice and action.†(NauckÃ…Â «naitÄ— 2000:13) Although the main canons remained the same, passing decades brought some disagreements between the scholars who analysed the rhetoric. The rhetoricians were in the dilemma regarding the approach to a human and communication. These disagreements divided rhetoric into two groups: classical and modern rhetoric. (see Table 1) The followers of classical rhetoric believed that the main purpose of rhetoric was to persuade a listener; it meant to present the ideas, which were correct and kept as facts, until other, more persuasive, thoughts appeared. The information presented needed to be clear, correct and concrete, without any additional elements. The followers of modern rhetoric disagreed with the classicists. The modernists assumed that a text presented had to inform listeners or readers rather than to persuade them. The communication with the audience was the requirement; the information presented needed to imply some feelings to the audience. Modernists believed that great influence of any speech resided not only in its structure or the specific information, but also in the manner of its presentation. It might be said that the modernists had found a more delicate way to control the attention of a listener or larger audience. Table 1. The differences in classical and modern rhetoric Though, the approach of human and communication in the rhetoric confronted disagreements between the scientists, the function of punctuation was clearly defined:†the chief reason for punctuating: to clarify the intent structure of language that would-or simply might-otherwise be confusing or misleading.† (Lauchman R. Punctuation at Work 2002:24) In rhetoric, however, punctuation was used for a wider purpose. In order to present stylistically correct and â€Å"living† sentences or text, the punctuation concentrated on the speech patterns such as pitch, tone or intonation. Each mark had to fulfil a specific function that would help the reader or speaker to produce the texts more naturally, i.e. to inbreathe the exact or, at least, similar sound of a tones or pitch used in the oral communication. Moreover, the punctuation marks provided the meaning of the finished thought or showed the need of additional information as well as indicated the type or the functions of th e sentences. For instance, the full stop showed the end of a sentence, which had the falling tone. The thought was finished, and had no additional meaning. The question mark, on the contrary, introduced the reader to the rising tone and intonation, and showed the need of additional information form the different speaker. Though, each punctuation mark was important in the reading and understanding any written text, comma, dash and hyphen were widely used in rhetorical punctuation. 1.1.1. Comma and intonation Communication was inseparable part of human life. It helped to understand others, read their actions, or simply to exchange the information with each other. Writing as well as speaking had the same purpose: to present any information to a reader. However, the complication arose: the most of the aspects of a language used in speaking were not â€Å"as well represented in writing: the rises and falls in pitch, the accents, the pauses, the rhythm, the variations in voice quality— all of them features of sound that contributed significantly to speaking but that writing showed haphazardly if at all.†(Chafe W. 1989:1) Thus, the main purpose of the usage of punctuation was to present the visual equivalent to the spoken language in order to show the correct tone or intonation used in the sentence. The missed or misplaced punctuation mark often led to the misinterpretation of the meaning. The equal misinterpretation of a meaning depended on the rhythm, i.e. the stress marks and the length of syllables. Intonation itself strongly effected the communication; the correct function of information depended on the manner of its utterance. The linguists noticed that people â€Å"more violently react to intonational meanings than to lexical ones.† (Hewings M. Tone Choice in the English Intonation of Non-Native Speakers 1995: 251) It might be stated that the information presented to the audience usually was under the influence of intonation. Pitch, rising or falling tones began to play the significant role in the quality of any spoken text. A speaker needed to pay attention not only on spoken text, but also to control his voice level and the length of pauses between the words. The scientists of phonetics noticed that the variations in a spoken activity were influenced by several external factors: environment, the rank of people spoken to and the audience to which information was presented. Through the careful analysis of speech activities, the scientists noticed the three styles of pronunciation: formal, careful colloquial, and rapid familiar. Formal style of pronunciation was used to â€Å"reading, reciting, speaking before larger audience, at ceremonies, or delivering an academic lecture.† (Hoppe R. 2004: 20) The careful colloquial style had medium tempo and used the assimilations. This style was used in â€Å"every-day conversations, when talking to the official persons or strangers.†( Hoppe R. 2004: 20) The rapid familiar style was expressed in â€Å"rapid conversations: speaking with friends, in the family, or in the pub.† (Hoppe R. 2004: 20) This style used fast speed, the assimilations and reductions. The speech spoken in rapid tempo lessened the length of a pause in a sentence; this led listeners not only to the misunderstanding of the whole information, but also to the annoyance towards the speaker because the information spoken in rapid manner was hard to follow. The slow speaking, on the contrary, extended the length of pauses and they lost main function. A speech or presented text became monotonic and hard to follow, as well as influenced the variation of tone; the long pauses changed the structure of sentence. Therefore, in order to control the length and structure of the sentences, punctuation was used. It might be stated that comma was the most widely used punctuation mark in rhetoric. The main function of this mark was to present the pauses between the words and to indicate a type of tone or intonation used in a sentence. The changes of intonation depended on the place of comma used in a sentence. In other words, comma separated the words from them to running to other parts of a sentence influencing their changes of intonation. To present the deeper analysis of the tone and intonational variations, the sentences from Galsworthy J. work The Forsyte Saga and its translation into Lithuanian by Irena BalÄ iunienÄ— were chosen. The visual presentation of the flow and the alteration of the tone and intonation of sentences were analysed using the special markingâ€Å'. (see Table 2) Table 2. The symbols used for the transcription of the pronunciation The symbol The purpose of usage. â€Å' à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ long pause à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ short pause low falling melod

how to become a great baseball player Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being great at a particular sport, such as baseball, is actually quite simple. It takes a mix of talent and even more hard work. I have seen a very large number of athletes come through this high school with all the talent in the world, but had no work ethic. Talent is only a fraction of what is needed to be great.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The process of becoming a great baseball player takes talent, hard work, and a ton of practice. Baseball, being the second hardest sport in the world is a hard sport to stay discipline at. As a player, he must make sure he works at all the drills everyday, boring or not. Also, he must have the mental mind set that he definitely wants to make it to the big leagues, if he doesn’t, then its ...

Tin :: essays research papers

Tin Tin's discoverer is unknown but one thing is known. Tin has been used and discovered by the ancients. Tin was an accidental discovery. Tin has been around for many years. Proof is in the fact that tin is mentioned in the old testament of the bible. Tin had a great effect on the world because of its low price, high electric conductivity, and because tin protects against rust and weak acids in food if the can is made out of tin instead of aluminum. Some common compounds of tin are organtin a combination of carbon and tin. When tin is formed with carbon to make organtin it can make more than 500 organtin compounds. These compounds are used in everyday things. One is toothpaste containers and also are things such as wood, paper, textile, farm sprays, and Hospital disinfectants. To get pure tin you must first find ore cassiterite or tin stone, a dioxide of tin. The ore cassiterite before smelting and roasting must be crushed into a powder to remove the arsenic and sulfur from the ore cassiterite. When you smelter the tin you must heat it with carbon to remove the zinc, copper, bismuth, and iron from the tin. Tin had been used for many things but tins use is dropping rapidly although tin is still used a lot for plating. Plating such things as electical contacts. Tin is also used as a protective coating. This protective coating can be as small as 15/1,000,000 of an inch. This protective coating protects against rust on steel and other metals. A coating of tin also gives a great look to plain old steel. Tin cans for food prevents weak acids from damaging the inside of the can. Not many cans are made of tin since aluminum started to be used for cans tins use dropped sharply. Tin is also used to coat staples, pins, bronze bell, pewter pitchers and many others things. Another popular tin mixture is tin and lead. Tin and lead make solder for electric work. Battery contacts in the Black and Decker snake lights are also tin plated. A compound tin salt is used to spray onto glass windows to produce electrically conductive coating for panel lighting and frost free windshields for cars. One last use for tin is in the making of glass windows that are made by floating molten glass on molten tin. This produces a flat piece of glass to be used as a windows. Industries basically only use tin for plating for electricity or for protection on there metals such as tin. Tin is found in Molaya, Bolivia, Indonesia, Zaire, Thailand, Nigeria, but

Kants Fundamental Principles Of The Metaphysics Of Moral Essay

Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Moral The central concept of Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals is the categorical imperative. â€Å"The conception of an objective principle, in so far as it is obligatory for a will, is called a command (of reason), and the formula of the command is called an Imperative.† (Abbott, 30) An imperative is something that a will ought or shall do because the will is obligated to act in the manner in which it conforms with moral law. The categorical imperative is an obligation by the will to act so that the action can be classified as a universal law. When one acts in conformity with the universal law at all times, they are following out the categorical imperative. This differs from the hypothetical imperative in that the hypothetical imperative acts on the basis that the will in the end will gain something (not a means to an end). The categorical imperative is a means to an end, and the action to obtain the end must have moral worth. Stipulations of the categorical imperative are that all actions should act only on the maxim, that actions have moral worth, and the end is necessary. From these stipulations, it can be derived that the categorical imperative should be followed in order to live morally. â€Å"If an action is conceived as good in itself and consequently as being necessarily the principle of a will which of itself conforms to reason, then it is categorical.† (Abbott, 32) â€Å"There is therefore but one ca... Kants Fundamental Principles Of The Metaphysics Of Moral Essay Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Moral The central concept of Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals is the categorical imperative. â€Å"The conception of an objective principle, in so far as it is obligatory for a will, is called a command (of reason), and the formula of the command is called an Imperative.† (Abbott, 30) An imperative is something that a will ought or shall do because the will is obligated to act in the manner in which it conforms with moral law. The categorical imperative is an obligation by the will to act so that the action can be classified as a universal law. When one acts in conformity with the universal law at all times, they are following out the categorical imperative. This differs from the hypothetical imperative in that the hypothetical imperative acts on the basis that the will in the end will gain something (not a means to an end). The categorical imperative is a means to an end, and the action to obtain the end must have moral worth. Stipulations of the categorical imperative are that all actions should act only on the maxim, that actions have moral worth, and the end is necessary. From these stipulations, it can be derived that the categorical imperative should be followed in order to live morally. â€Å"If an action is conceived as good in itself and consequently as being necessarily the principle of a will which of itself conforms to reason, then it is categorical.† (Abbott, 32) â€Å"There is therefore but one ca...

Structural Rationalism

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