Summary of Facts of the Case Study free essay sample

For most of those years, the firm’s name was synonymous with trust, integrity, and ethics. In its earlier days, Anderson sets standards for the accounting profession and advanced new initiatives on the strength of its then undeniable integrity. The Chicago-based accounting firm closed its doors in 2002 that is after 90 years of business. 1. 2 The Advent of Consulting Leorned Spacek joined the company in 1947 following the death of founder Arthur Andersen. Anderson began providing consulting services to large clients such as General Electric and Schlitz Brewing in the 1950s. Over the next 30 years, Andersen consulting business become more profitable on per-partner basis than its core accounting and tax services business. The company linked its consulting business in a joint cooperative relationship with its audit arm, which compromises its auditor’s independence, a quality crucial to the execution of a credible audit. Andersen’s consulting business becomes recognized as one of the fasters growing and most profitable consulting networks in the world. We will write a custom essay sample on Summary of Facts of the Case Study or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ten years later, Arthur Anderson merge it’s operational and business systems consulting units and set up a separate business consulting practice in order to offer clients a broader range of integrated services. Throughout the 1990s, Anderson reaped huge profits by selling consulting services to many clients whose financial statements is also audited. In 1998, then SEC chairman Arthur Levitt publicly voiced this concern and recommended new rules that would restrict the non-audit services that accounting firms could provide to their audit lients that is a suggestion that Andersen vehemently opposed. Nonetheless, in 1999 Andersen chose to split its accounting and consulting function into two separate and often competing units. In August 2000, following an arbitration hearing, a judge rule that Andersen’s consulting arm could effectively divorce the accounting firm and operate independently. By, that time Andersen’s consulting business consisted of about 11,000 consu ltants and brought in global revenue of nearly $2 billion. Arthur Anderson as a whole employed more than 85,000 people worldwide. The new consulting company promptly changes its name to Accenture the following January and the court later order to better represents its new global brand of accounting services. Meanwhile, in January 2001, Andersen named Joseph Berardino as the new CEO of the U. S. audit practice. 1. 3 Baptist Foundation of Arizona The Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA), which Anderson serves as auditor, lost $570 million of donor funds. BFA, an agency of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention, is founded in 1048to raise and manage endowments for church work in Arizona. The foundation also offered estate and financial planning services to state’s more than 400 southern Baptist churches, and was one of the new foundations to offer investment to individuals. BFA invested heavily in real estate, a more speculative investment strategy than other Baptist foundations in the state traditionally used and the foundation officials allegedly concealed losses from investors beginning in 1986. In addition, more than half of the foundation’s employees were laid off. Finally, the foundation petitioned for chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in 1999, listing debt of about $640 million against assets of about $240 million. Andersen, in a February 2000 statement, responded that it sympathized with BFA investors but stood the accuracy of its audit opinion. However, during nearly two years of investigation, reports surfaced that Andersen has been warned of possible fraudulent activity, and the firm eventually agreed to pay $217 million to settle the shareholder lawsuit in May 2002. 1. 4 Sunbeam Andersen’s troubles over Sunbeam Corporation began when its audits failed to address serious accounting errors that eventually led to a class-action lawsuit by Sunbeam investor and the ouster of CEO Albert Dunlap in 1998. Boca-based Sunbeam is the maker of such home appliance brands as Mr. Coffee, Mixmaster, Oster, Powermate and others. The company was also accused of using improper â€Å"bill and hold† transactions, which involve booking sales month ahead of actual shipment or billing, temporary inflating revenue through account receivable, and artificially boosting quarterly net income. As a result, Sunbeam was forced to restate six quarters of financial statements. In August 2002, a federal judge approved a $141 million settlement in the case. In it, Andersen agreed to pay $110 million to resolve the claims without admitting fault or liability. Losses to Sunbeam shareholders amounted to about $4. 4 billion, with job losses of about $1,700. 1. 5 Waste Management Overstated earnings $1. 4 billion at waste management was found by Andersen itself in court over questionable accounting practice. This charged Waste Management was complained filed by the SEC with a huge crime financial fraud over a period of more than five years. This complaint include the company management help and abetted others violations of antifraud, reporting and record keeping provisions of federal securities laws, resulting in a loss to investors of more than $6 billion. In that case Andersen was name as having assisted in the fraud by repeatedly issuing unqualified audit opinions on waste management materially misleading financial statement. SEC documents state that there were amount of fees that capped from Waste Management that would pay Anderson’s auditing services. Andersen identified improper accounting practice and presented to Waste Management official report called â€Å"proposed adjusting journal entries† that is outlined entries that needed be corrected to avoid understanding Waste Management’s expanses and overstating its earning. In other side, waste management refused to make the corrections and entered a closed-door agreement with Anderson to write off the accumulated errors over a 10 years period also change its underlying accounting practices. This agreement was viewed by SEC as an attempt to cover up past frauds and to commit future frauds. Andersen was paid some $220 million to Waste Management shareholder and $7 million to the SEC for this case. Four Andersen partner were waiting for approval and an injunction was obtained against the firm. Andersen also was forced to promise not to ign off on spurious financial statements in the future. After this matter settled, Waste Management shareholder lost $20. 5 billion and bout 11,000 employees were laid-off. 1. 6 Enron Enron is one of the biggest clients of Andersen. Andersen’s new CEO, Joseph Berardino had perhaps viewed the $1 million a week in audit fees of Enron. Andersen also able to make 80 percent of companies in oil and gas industry as its cli ents. On November 8, 2001 Enron was forced to restate five years worth of financial statements that Andersen had signed off on that is accounting for $586 million in losses. Enron had filed for bankruptcy within a month. In January 2002, Andersen was investigation by Justice Department and found that Andersen clients were prompting and its employees jump to ship. Eventually the auditing firm admitted to destroying a number of documents concerning its auditing of Enron which led to an indictment for obstruction of justice. On June 15, 2002 Andersen was found as the first accounting firm ever to be convicted of a felony. 1. 7 Trouble with Telecoms WorldCom was the largest client of Andersen and it had improperly accounted for nearly $3. billion of expenses and had overstated earnings in 2001 and the first part of 2002. Investors was launched a barrage of lawsuits that sent the telecom into bankruptcy court. Andersen was blamed WorldCom for the scandal. However, WorldCom also pointed the finger at Andersen for failing to find the accounting irregularities. SEC filed fraud charges against WorldCom that bring fired of its CFO. There were more telecommunicatio ns firm scandal related to Andersen such as Global Crossing and Qwest Communications. This case is related to the issue of fake asset swaps, in which the accused telecom companies allegedly exchanged fiber-optic broadband capacity at inflated prices in order to show huge gains. Global Crossing was lawsuit but investor and alleging Andersen that artificially inflated audit opinions on their financial statements even though it knew or failed to discover that they contained material misstatement. Qwest was avoid to bankruptcy court and had been admitted of using improper accounting methods and was forced to restate profits. 1. 8 Corporate Culture and Ethical Ramifications From the details of the investigations into accounting irregularities and fraud it appears that Andersen more concerned about its own revenue growth than where the revenue came from. This is because of corporate cultures that have been numerous inexperienced business consultants and untrained auditors were sent to client sites that ignored the company policies. There have another factor include in this matter that is partner’s limited involvement in the process of issuing opinions. When the company grew, the number of partners also stagnated. There also have evidence that Andersen had limited oversight over its audit teams and visibility also balance could not identified when audit teams had strayed from accepted policies. Andersen was hired former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker to institute reform and helps him restore its reputation. After Volcker came, Anderson was offence for obstruction of justice related to the connection with shredding of Enron documents. Andersen was trying to negotiate a deal with international partnerships and salvage what was left. However, the company was forced to begin sell of various business units and ultimately laid off more than 7,000 employees in US. On that time, Alaska Air Group that is an Anderson client restated that an increase in shareholder equity of $31 million. This restatement was made on the recommendation of its new auditor that is Deloitte and Touche which had replaced Andersen. Andersen was fined $500,000 among other penalties. Anderson also had agreed that to stop auditing public corporations. Nowhere, the world Andersen can be found is at Accenture’s website. In 2005, Supreme Court was thrown out his conviction of obstruction of justice. Anderson was found guilty by federal jury for â€Å"corruptly persuading† works to shred document related to alleged improprieties by Enron. However, the court did not rule on whether Andersen’s shredding was wrong rather the case revolved entirely around the adequacy of the jury instructions at the company’s trial. Some expert believes that the court ruling was strictly based on technical issues rather than the fact available during the trial. Many business executive believe that quick rush to down Arthur Andersen’s accounting and auditing business may have negative impact on competition and the cost of auditing for all public corporations. On the way, Anderson’s involvement in many accounting fraud cases should have caused regulatory agencies to overreact. 2. 0 Implications for Regulation and Accounting Ethics Many clients of Andersen going into bankruptcy court because of accounting scandals. This also helps spur a new focus on business ethics, driven largely by public demands for greater corporate transparency and accountability. Other than that, congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new guideline had been established and direction for corporate and accounting responsibility. This act was enact to combat securities and accounting fraud and includes, among other things, provisions for a new accounting oversight board, stiffer penalties for violators, and higher standards of corporate governance. Sarbanes-Oxley emphasizes on the accounting profession about auditor independence and quality, restricts accounting firm’s ability to provide both audit and non-audit services for the same clients, and requires periodic reviews of audit firms. Sweeping legislative and regulatory reform may e occurring too quickly in response to intense public and politic pressure. This reforms may not have been given enough forethought and cost-benefit consideration for those public corporations that operate within the law, that comprise the vast majority of those public corporations that operate within the law, which comprise the vast majority of corporate America QUESTION 1: Describe the legal and ethical issues surrounding Andersen’s auditing of companies accused of accounting improprieties. In this case, Andersen was more concerned about the revenue earned but did not take note where the revenue came from or whether its independence as an auditor had been compromised because of the changes of the company vision and the corporate culture. As a result, Andersen has involved in the illegal issues and unethical issues. Legal Issues * Perpetuate the accounting fraud. The Baptist Foundation of Arizons (BFA) alleged concealed losses from investors beginning in 1986 by selling some properties at inflated prices to entities that had borrowed money from the foundation and were unlikely to pay for the properties unless the real estate market turned around. The investor lawsuit against Andersen accused the auditing firm of issuing false and misleading approvals of BFA’s financial statement, which allowed the foundation to perpetuate the fraud. At last, Andersen agreed to pay $217 million to settle the shareholder lawsuit in May 2002. Its audit failed to address serious accounting errors of Sunbeam Corp. The serious errors include fraudulent accounting strategies such as â€Å"cookie jar† revenues, recording revenue on contingent sales, and accelerating sales from later periods into the present quarter, using â€Å"improper bill and hold† transaction which involves booking sales months ahead of actual shipment or billing. In August 2 002, a federal judge approved a $141 million settlement in this case. In it, Andersen agreed to pay $110 million to resolve the claims without admitting fault or liability. * Questionable accounting practices. For this issue, Andersen was named in the case as having assisted in the fraud by repeatedly issuing unqualified audit opinions on Waste Management’s materially misleading financial statements. Andersen has did â€Å"special work† to earn additional fees, which outlined entries that needed to be corrected to avoid understating Waste Management’s expenses and overstating its earnings. At last, Andersen has paid some $220 million to Waste Management shareholders and $7 million to the SEC. It was also forced to promise not to sign off on spurious financial statements in the future. * Obstruction of justice. On November 8, 2001, Enron was forced to restate five years’ worth of financial statements that Andersen had signed off on, accounting for $586 million in losses. On June 15, 2002, the jury found Andersen guilty of obstruction of justice in case of Enron. It admitted to destroying Enron’s audited documents, which led to an indictment for  obstruction of justice. * Fail to find the accounting irregularities. WorldCom, Andersen’s largest client. Andersen has admitted to improperly account for nearly $3. 9 million of expenses and had overstated earnings in 2001 and the first part of 2002. Besides, Andersen failed to find the accounting irregularities of WorldCom. Ethical Issues * The first issue is Andersen did not audit properly the Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA) which causes the bankruptcy. BFA invested heavily in real estate, the profits from investments were supposed to be used as donation at churches but that real estate began down fall but at the same time the foundation’s top officers still continued to receive six-figure salaries. * The inaccurate information and unqualified audit opinions that provided by Andersen on Waste Management is one of the ethical issue too. It is because investors will make the investment decision based on the audit report. Any misleading information may overstate client’s revenue or hide the inaccuracy information. * The third issue is about the â€Å"unqualified† opinions on Sunbeam’s 1996 and 1997 financial statements despite of Sunbeam’s accounting and disclosure improprieties, where record â€Å"cookie jar† revenues, recording revenue on contingent sales, and accelerating sales from later periods into the present quarter. * The last issue is about compromise the independent of audits according to American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In 1950s, Andersen provides both auditing and consulting services in a corporation in order to earn more profit. It has been compromised the independent of audits and it is not an acceptable standard of stakeholder. QUESTION 2: What evidence is there that Andersen’s corporate culture contributed to its downfall? * After having an overview of this case study, we found there are many evidence caused Andersen’s corporate culture contributed to its downfall. First, Andersen more focuses on growth of revenue in his company and compromise of its independence as an auditor. It caused his company become a confusion of its corporate culture. Actually, independent audit of a client is the expression of an opinion on the fairness with the financial statements and free of material misstatement occurred in company. * Second, many inexperienced business consultants and untrained auditor were send to customer company. It caused Andersen’s become confusion of its corporate culture because all of them are unclear condition about customer company policies. Moreover, lack of understanding about company policies will also caused them make an errors in financial statement. Third, when the company becomes bigger and bigger, number of partners’ also will increase. It will caused limited involvement of partners in the process of issuing opinions. Limited involvement in issuing opinions process will also seriously make confusion of its corporate culture among them. * Lastly, Andersen had limited oversight over its audit teams in his company. Moreover, lack of such visibility was damaged by a lack of checks and balances that could have identified when audit teams had strayed from accepted. It will incur many problems. For example, audits failed to address serious accounting errors such as recording revenue on contingent sales and accelerating sales by using incorrect business transaction. Besides that, it will also lead to many doubtful accounting practices such as unqualified audit opinions will misleading financial statement in company. How can the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act help minimize the likelihood of auditors failing to identify accounting irregularities? In 2002, Sarbanes-Oxley Act has provided several Acts to minimize the likelihood of auditors failing to identify accounting irregularities. The act have enacted to combat securities and accounting fraud and includes provision for a new accounting oversight board, stiffer penalties for violators and higher standards of corporate governance. * According to Section 104: Inspection of registered Public Accounting Firms, it verifies that financial statements are accurate. It could prevent the questionable or illegal accounting practices. According to Section 201: Services outside the scope of auditors; Prohibited activities helps enhancing the accounting profession and emphasis auditor and analysts’ independence and quality, restrict accounting firms’ ability to provide both audit and non-audit services for the same clients and requires periodic reviews of audit firms. Thus, reduce likelihood of compromising good audit for more revenue. * According to Section 203: Audit partner rotation, rotate partners assigned to client, so fresh eyes see work papers. The rotation requirement of the audit partner helps avoiding of the â€Å"partner in crime† relationship. According to Section 204: Auditor Reports to audit committees, auditors must report to committee, who work for the board, not the company. This is to powerless of auditors by giving board power to investigate and rectify. This Act also prevents companies from publishing misleading statements. * According to Section 303: Improper influence on c onduct of audits, it allows to removes power from company personnel. This is to withholding of information from auditors by making the act illegal. Generally, the Act helps to improve the improper illegal and ethical problem introduced by the auditors and its corporation. It does help to minimize the likelihood auditors failing to identify accounting regularities. * According to Section 404: Management assessment of internal control, it gives auditor a voice outside of the audit to attest to policies demonstrated by the company. This Act prevents the information slipping by stakeholders by giving more visibility to the firm. * According to Title VIII: Corporate and criminal fraud accountability act of 2002, it makes a felony to impede federal investigation and provides whistleblower protection. It prevents the destruction of documents and will allow investigators to review work of auditors. * According to Section 1102: Tampering with a record or otherwise impeding an official proceeding, public company companies must also report on a rapid and current basic material changes in the financial condition or operation person acting to corrupt or destroy evidence liable for extended prison term, this is to other from attempting to interfere in an official investigation.

Week 2 Discussion Example

Week 2 Discussion Example Week 2 Discussion – Coursework Example The US legal Adversarial Functions Project The US legal system is adversarial through the interpretation of laws and advising the government institutions. This implies that the legal system undertakes the role of scrutinizing different segments of the constitution to avoid conflicts and breach of pertinent privileges. The US legal system also undertakes the adversarial duty is by guiding the government and private agencies on their roles in protecting the laws (Kagan, 2011). For instance, the US legal system can advise the executive concerning foreign policies or treaties. It can also offer advise the legislature on the constitutional sections that require amendments or repeals. The US legal system performs in adversarial matters through arbitrary functions between conflicting parties. This should involve a neutral approach to the matter with a view of reaching a professional and amicable solution (Kagan, 2011). A forensic psychology professional should be trustworthy to ensure that they correct injustices in the legal system. It is always appropriate to point out areas that may cause constitutional breaches by being truthful and accurate. The other attribute that would be helpful for forensic psychology professionals is being cautious (Kubicek, 2010). This is because some matters may require keen consideration of matters before disclosing them to the public domain. A forensic psychology professional should know the right timing of disclosing information to the public. This helps in avoiding confrontation or demonstration by the members of the public. It is vital to participate in forensic adversarial duties with adequate knowledge of law and legal matters (Kubicek, 2010). It is unprofessional to undertake forensic psychology examination by an individual who does not understand the tenets of the law.ReferencesKagan, R. A. (2011). Adversarial legalism: The American way of law. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Kubicek, T. L. (2010). Adversarial justice: Americas court system on trial. New York: Algora Pub. Week 2 Discussion Example Week 2 Discussion – Coursework Example Weighing Chief Concerns al Affiliation) Weighing Chief Concerns According to Brown, the dilemma between selectingindividuals who will be good officers and weeding out potentially bad officers is an issue concerning Pre-Employment Psychological Evaluation (PEPE). The police chief should act in a manner that would not compromise the duties of the current police officers. However, it would be prudent if the police chief decided to select individual who will be good officers by employing the PEPE process. Kitaeff, (2011) argues that ethical concerns may compromise an attempt to weed out potentially bad officers, in addition to weakening the service in terms of human capital. Dr. Shayleigh Johnson, a police psychological professional, ought to understand all the job analytic information applicable to the intended position. In addition, before administering any psychological instruments, she should disclose information regarding the goals of the evaluation. According to Brown, (2010), the psychologist should employ a written test battery that would serve as an aptitude test measuring the skills for all applicants. Dr. Johnson would then conduct face-to-face interviews with the applicants to verify the results obtained from the written test battery and clinical assessment (Brown, 2010). Disclosure would involve obtaining an informed consent and explaining the limits of confidentiality. The forensic examiner ought to explain to the applicants that the recruiting agency is the client and how they intend to use the information obtained from the evaluation. The limits of confidentiality would involve outlining individuals authorized to access the psychological information obtained and evaluation results. Brown, (2010) convincingly argue that a fitness-for-duty evaluation (FFDE) analysis the ability of an employee to apply both mental and physical capabilities to perform the duties as set in the employment contract. The FFDE initiates by validating its objectives through disclosing all the relevant information to the applicant. Such information includes obtaining an informed consent and explaining the responsibility of the examiner towards upholding confidentiality. In addition, the examiner may conduct various psychological tests to obtain objective information from the applicant. The examiner may utilize intelligence tests to measure the applicant’s intelligence. In addition, occupational tests may provide information regarding the applicant’s interests in known careers. The examiner provides a detailed report of the findings and debriefs the applicants. The FFDE may indicate that some applicants are fit for duty while others require further assessment. The report should indicate applicants whose mental and physical abilities match the skills required for the job and those who require rehabilitation and counseling (Brown, 2010). ReferencesBrown, J. (2010). The Cambridge handbook of forensic psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press. Top of FormBottom of FormKitaeff, J. (2011). Handbook of police psychology. New York: Routledge.

Islamic Civil War - Battle of Siffin

Islamic Civil War - Battle of Siffin Introduction Conflict: The Battle of Siffin was part of the First Fitna (Islamic Civil War) which lasted from 656–661.   The First Fitna was a civil war in the early Islamic State caused by the murder of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan in 656 by Egyptian rebels.             Dates: Beginning on July 26, 657, the Battle of Siffin lasted three days, ending on the 28th. Commanders Armies: Forces of Muawiyah I Muawiyah IAmr ibn al-Aasapproximately 120,000 men Forces of Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi TalibMalik ibn Ashterapproximately 90,000 men Battle of Siffin - Background: Following the murder of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, the caliphate of the Muslim Empire passed to the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Shortly after ascending to the caliphate, Ali commenced consolidating his hold over the empire. Among those who opposed him was the governor of Syria, Muawiyah I. A kinsman of the slain Uthman, Muawiyah refused to acknowledge Ali as caliph due his inability to bring the murders to justice. In an attempt to avoid bloodshed, Ali sent an envoy, Jarir, to Syria to seek a peaceful solution. Jarir reported that Muawiyah would submit when the murderers were caught. Battle of Siffin - Muawiyah Seeks Justice: With the blood-stained shirt of Uthman hanging in the Damascus mosque, Muawiyahs large army marched out to meet Ali, pledging not to sleep at home until the murderers were found.   After first planning to invade Syria from the north Ali instead elected to move directly across the Mesopotamian desert.   Crossing the Euphrates River at Riqqa, his army moved along its banks into Syria and first spotted his opponents army near the plain of Siffin. After a small battle over Alis right to take water from the river, the two sides pursued a final attempt at negotiation as both wished to avoid a major engagement. After 110 days of talks, they were still at an impasse. On July 26, 657, with the talks over, Ali and his general, Malik ibn Ashter, began a massive attack on Muawiyahs lines. Battle of Siffin - A Bloody Stalemate: Ali personally led his Medinan troops, while Muawiyah watched from a pavilion, preferring to let his general Amr ibn al-Aas, direct the battle. At one point, Amr ibn al-Aas shattered part of the enemy line and nearly broke through far enough to kill Ali. This was countered by a massive attack, led by Malik ibn Ashter, which nearly forced Muawiyah to flee the field and badly reduced his personal bodyguard. The fighting continued for three days with neither side gaining an advantage, though Alis forces were inflicting a larger number of casualties. Concerned that he might lose, Muawiyah offered to settle their differences through arbitration. Battle of Siffin - Aftermath: The three days of fighting had cost Muawiyahs army approximately 45,000 casualties to 25,000 for Ali ibn Abi Talib. On the battlefield, the arbitrators decided that both leaders were equals and the two sides withdrew to Damascus and Kufa. When the arbitrators met again in February 658, no resolution was achieved. In 661, following the assassination of Ali, Muawiyah ascended to the caliphate, reuniting the Muslim Empire.   Crowned in Jerusalem, Muawiyah established the Umayyad caliphate, and began working to expand the state.   Successful in these endeavors, he reigned until his death in 680.

Changes must happen in both human eating habits and food cultivation Research Paper

Changes must happen in both human eating habits and food cultivation if the human race is to survive - Research Paper Example uding pizza and burger focusing mainly on takeaway food items, this in return result’s in harmful diseases in conjunction to obesity and poor eating habits and diet namely heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes as per US department of health and human services. In order to overcome these life claiming diseases it is important for people to alter their lifestyles eating habits and recognize the need for healthy diet. Conversely, comparing modern cultivation with traditional cultivation in today’s era the profit norm drives the mechanism of farming paying special emphasis on quantity of crops to be yield using pesticides and chemical fertilizers having implication on both ecosystem and human life, these crucial matters if not tend to than could lead to substantive impact on human lives (National Research Council , 1975). Firstly, poor diet associated with bad eating habits makes a human body more prone to being overweight and obese, according to W.H.O (World Health Organization) these traits makes a human body more susceptible to chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular heart diseases and cancer. People today should recognize the need to alter their lifestyle and incorporate physical activities and more importantly establish a healthy diet routine for themselves and recommend others as well by explaining to them the catastrophic risk on their lives which could be avoided by doing so (Counihan, 2013). Secondly, Stanford hospital USA suggest as per their research that alone in the United States of America obesity has doubled in children and tripled among teenagers since 1980, quoted as per research, that 15% percent of children aged six to 19 are considered overweight, adding to this that more than 60% of adults are either overweight or obese. As per WHO analysis, published on their website obesity was initially to be found more in high income developed countries but today this issue has widespread to developing medium income countries as well this

Linguistic Commentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Linguistic Commentary - Essay Example As Professor Christopher John Poutain (2005) explains it, there can be three types of linguistic acceptable variations: "Acceptability may vary with a number of factors, including place (DIATOPIC variation), social group (DIASTRATIC variation) or time (DIACHRONIC variation)." In the present case, we have a diastratic variation as the boss represents a social group a lot different from the workers' group. We can see that their Spanish is quite different even though they seem to understand each other very well. As we know, the concept of linguistic competence means in pragmatic terms that there is no register better than others as long as communication is established among them. In this fragment we can note a great difference between the boss' Spanish and the workers' Spanish. Spanish is a language of constant changes as Professor John M. Lipski (n. d.) stated in one of his papers: "Spanish -a language spoken on every continent- is the product not only of its Peninsular heritage and of internal evolution, but also of a variety of language contacts, with indigenous languages, languages of forced immigration (the slave trade), and of voluntary immigration." The present fragment is a good example of the many changes that Spanish has experienced along the years. Another distinctive feature of this fragment is the vocalization and th... The boss also uses some of this broken Spanish words when he changes his register. An interesting feature is the pejorative language used by the administrator: "rotos de michica" (l. 7), "fuerino sinvergenza" (l. 17), "sinvergenzas" (l. 18). As he is mad, he uses this kind of language as a way of getting even on the workers. On the other hand, the use of colons speeds up the narrative in lines 25, 26 and 27. The narrator is omniscient. It is narrated in the third person singular. The register of the narrator's speech is standard Spanish. In lines 20 and 21 the narration is very agile: "como un mvil punto obscuro que alejndose se empequeeca". It is also very graphic as we can see the little dot getting smaller with the precise wording of the narrator. This fragment has two distinct parts: one narrative part and one dialogues part. The narration is very concise and explanatory as it gives interesting details of the motives behind the dialogues. It is also very descriptive, especially when it says in lines 12-14 the following: "hablaba ahora a Segundo, que entontecido por su mirada roja de ira, con movimiento de pndulo mova acompasadamente el cuerpo." In these lines we can see the use of a very appropriate metaphor: "pendulum's movement", when referring to the oscillating movement of Segundo's body. The narrator also makes emphasis on the wrath of the administrator. He says that his "glance was red by the wrath" (l. 13), and this image is very graphic and quite appropriate to describe the mood of the boss. But it is relevant to note that there is a change in the color of his glance due to the same wrath. In line 13 it is red,

Analysis of selected passages from Othello by William Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Analysis of selected passages from Othello by William Shakespeare Essay When William Shakespeare made use of the stylist devices he thus tried to paint a multi-dimensional image of his perceptions that he extended in his characters till the limits of reality and belief. And to design variety in this frame of multi-dimensionality Shakespeare not only expressed through the words in the lines which the characters uttered rather the formation of the words and the lines also revealed certain patterns that could be decoded to detect even more subtle reasons and justification behind those expressions. Such flow and expertise of expressing the conceptions cannot be taught easily through the science of writing rather it required the unschooled instinctive ability like Shakespeare’s to play with the words with a unique skill of potency that can metamorphosed the words to survive as the animated version of Shakespeare’s intellect and vision even after being uttered by the characters in the play. In the following excerpts from the play ‘Othello’, there is a variety of Shakespeare’s usage of stylistic devices to arrange words in order to express the difference of thoughts, moods, intensions and beliefs of the protagonist (Othello) and also how the use of such words in a specific style cater in constructing the plot and developing the characters. Theres magic in the web of it. A sybil that had numbered in the world The sun to course two hundred compasses, In her prophetic fury sewed the work; the worms were hallowed that did break the silk, And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful Conserved the maidens hearts. These lines are from the IV scene of the Third Act of the play, and they are uttered on the grounds of misunderstanding that is set by Iago in the mind of Othello. If we observe closely these lines summarize the truth that Othello is ignorant about and the words reveal the irony that Othello has become a victim of. The use of the words like â€Å"magic† and â€Å"web† are justifiable elements of the speech of a contaminated brain and the word â€Å"magic† can be the symbol of Iago’s spell of poisoning Othello’s mind with suspicion and â€Å"web† can be the symbol for the perplexed state of Othello’s mind, which lost the ability to think and trust his own reasons. And the two hundred years old â€Å"sibyl† can be a metaphor for the evil master minded Iago, whose â€Å"prophetic fury† fabricated the whole chaos to take his revenge. The â€Å"silk† can be speculated as a metaphor for the love of Desdemona that came out of her â€Å"hallowed† trust and faith. And the word â€Å"dyed† can be taken as a pun (when analyzing these lines from symbolic references), as the faithful and sacred love of Desdemona ‘dyed’ or â€Å"died† within her â€Å"maiden heart†. The worth and value purposely exaggerated by Othello is a fine example of hyperbolic fantasies that Shakespeare is capable of designing. And thus the handkerchief becomes the symbol of the thin threaded relationship of Othello and Desdemona that was based on superficial beliefs and yet sought the possibility of sustenance of their love. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, Let me no name it to you, you chaste stars It is the cause, Yet Ill not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster, The above mentioned lines are from the Act V Scene II and anaphoric beginning of this passage is Othello’s expression for his exalted emotional dichotomy of disbelief and love for Desdemona. The repetition of the phrase â€Å"it is the cause† are the words that come out of Othello’s weeping brain that has been so badly eclipsed by the poisoning suspicion injected by Iago that it had totally become impotent of thinking on its own. As these lines are uttered during the climax of the play thus it is quite typical of Shakespeare that he lends his protagonist with an ample energy to utter dramatic and highly emotional phrases which let them have catharsis. The desperate utterance of â€Å"my soul† by Othello shows that perhaps the only salvage left for his consolation is to confide in to his soul. Or â€Å"my soul† can also be taken as Othello’s address to Desdemona as it can be observed that Othello still loves her in these lines. And from the ironic aspect the first line also conveys the meaning that it is the â€Å"soul† of Othello that can be taken as the â€Å"cause† of the whole tragedy, because if Othello had really loved Desdemona from his soul he would have had a complete trust in her love and honesty but since he believed more what he listened to and less what was known to him thus he became the victim of suspicion that proved fatal for him and his love. In the proceeding line the address to the â€Å"stars† is made by Othello to mock at Desdemona’s infidelity. â€Å"Stars† have been used as a metaphor for their heavenly status for chastity. It can also be a reference to the Greek tradition of naming the stars by the names of their gods and goddesses. Thus as Othello has completely lost his trust in his wife thus he consider her reference to be an insult for the stars. These lines depict the imbalance of Othello’s power to reason and think and express in coherence with his flow of emotions. In the later lines he reveals his intension to kill Desdemona, but unlike his valiance as a general, he prefers to strangle her because her physical beauty still absorbs his feelings in love and compassion for her. And being a black man himself he admired her fair skin and he refers to her with two different categories of symbols. The use of â€Å"snow† as a simile conveys the softness and coldness of her fair physique which Othello never wanted to distort by killing with a weapon and the metaphor of â€Å"monumental alabaster† can be referred to the stiff and lifeless beauty of Desdemona that laid with no worth for Othello anymore. I have seen the day That with this little arm and this good sword I have made my way through more impediments Than twenty times your stop. But O vain boast! Who can control his fate? Tis not so now. Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed. Here is my journeys end, here is my butt, And very seamark of my utmost sail. These lines are uttered in the Act V Scene II which is almost the resolution of the play and it is one of Shakespeare’s special characteristics that his tragic heroes lose the intensity and the energy of their rhetoric in the last scenes of the play. It is because of the reason that Shakespeare develops his tragic heroes to attain the status of being larger than life and thus speech loses its value when the characters become paranormal. In the above lines the most important aspect that one can notice is the tone of submission and retreat which is conveyed by the choice and arrangement of words like â€Å"little arm† â€Å"But O vain Boast!† and â€Å"Who can control this fate?† by Othello who was a valiant and unbeatable general but in these lines appears to be the defeated and subjugated one in the hands of fate. These lines though do not consist of any special rhyme scheme that would help in bringing an effective poetic impact whilst delivering these lines on the stage but the second line does show some signs of alliteration as the words â€Å"made my way through more impediments† as well as in the third line where the words â€Å"twenty times† are stressed and can be delivered with some high pitched voice by the character. But after these lines the tone changes as the desperation and despondency appear in the words. The last three lines are symbolically referred by Othello to his death. And despite he is â€Å"weaponed† yet he is incapable to fight as he desires death due to his lamenting guilt and in vain repentance. In the last line the use of the metaphor â€Å"seamark† is an appropriate expression for Othello’s choice of vocabulary as it adequately represents his experiences and knowledge as a sailor and warrior.

The Yellow Wallpaper :: essays research papers

In The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Charlotte Gilman, there are many symbols within the text that one can construe a myriad of ways. One of the most prominent and perhaps the most important symbol is the titled yellow wallpaper. To the main character, Jane, the wallpaper is at first a nuisance, then an obsession, and finally salvation. The material of the paper itself represents Jane's everyday life. The illogical pattern that decorates it, reflects the absence of logic in her mind. The very color of the paper depicts the illness that yellows her sight and imprisons her within an unpredictable life. The wallpaper is at first a great annoyance to Jane; she claims that it is confusing and contradicting. Because her disease confuses her mind and contradicts her logic, the paper parallels her mental state at this point. Desperately attempting to unravel the mystery she imagines in the wallpaper, she becomes obsessed with deciphering its meaning. As her illness progresses, she begins to hallucinate and finally concludes that there is a woman trapped within that 'pointless pattern.'; Jane knows that she is the only one who can see the woman and, therefore, the woman's only chance of freedom. Slowly detaching from reality, Jane becomes the woman within the paper not only because of her obsession with it, but because of its parallel to her own life. In her final step toward insanity, she tears the paper off the walls to release the woman and herself. When her husband finds her, with the wallpaper and her sanity about her feet, she forcefully exclaims, 'I've got out at last...in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back.

Report writing on Communications Problems

Nikkei Meta highlighted the small things to be considered while communicating in a group or at personal level such as difference between observation and perception. As the course gradually moved on, professor introduced a case on communication problems in supply chain based industries in which the teams were asked to speak about the case and come to some conclusion. The main part was to present that case in front of the camera. My group got the first chance to present the case, and we were fortunate because we got know our natural skills to resent.After the presentation, professor Nikkei Meta, Assistant professor, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Iambi threw the feedback to us highlighting our shortcomings. Later on we were asked to do the rehearsals as many times as possible before second video recording session. We rehearsed for 12 times to count the time and to check preparation level. Initial days we rehearsed for 60 minutes. As days were passing we had increased the duration of the speech from 60 seconds to 75 seconds,75 seconds to 90 seconds and later moved to 90 seconds to 120 seconds.We have filled the public speaking rubric form once in every alternative days when we had finished our practice. During rehearsals initially I thought my problem was speech appendages. But after rehearsals I found out the real weaknesses other than fillers which are long pauses, lower confidence levels in public speaking, nervousness. With the advice of team members worked on my weaknesses and reduced some of the mistakes through continuous rehearsals. It helped to improve my confidence levels , how to make draft so that long pause weakness can be minimized. In addition to that I improved my interpersonal skills.Later on we were asked to present the same case in front of camera to capture our improvements, preparation, and team coordination. To capitalize this opportunity, we followed a simple methodology. Before going for recording, we rehearsed for 3 times to count the time and to check preparation level. Also we could find the mistakes at the time of rehearsal only which benefited us not repeating the same while recording. We could observe the body language of each other and suggest improvements. Once we had done with our recording, it was shown in the class. Professor critically examined y moments in the presentation with our natural response.He commented on our individual performance as well as entire team highlighting the hand movements, voice modulation, rush delivery, etc. For further improvements sir gave us one more chance for recording. This time, we gone more prepared and we were more confident. For the second time, recording process was much smoother as compared to first time. We analyzed the second recording in a group and compared it against first recording. We could notice many improvements over the last recording on which we worked regularly, but still there is scope for improvements for each one of us.

Expressing Teen Identity by Using Slang: Attitudes and Opinions Towards the Slang of Teenagers

Expressing teen identity by using slang:attitudes and opinions towards the slang of teenagers Introduction One of the most significant elements which people notice while meeting with someone is the person’s language. As Trudge (2000:2) points out, the manner in which we use our language has a great importance while â€Å"establishing social relationship and while conveying information about the speaker†. Ethnic background, gender, education, social class, age and many other aspects may influence the way we talk.And the way we talk may influence other people’s perception about us. Language in the society also differs in the formality levels. When talking about any specific kind of a language we use the term language variety. The variety of the language which is used in a particular situation is called style. Styles are mainly characterized by the vocabulary differences, but also by syntactic ones. Styles range on the scale from very formal to extremely informal. V ocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the continuum is known as slang. 1] Some people might think that slang is only a young people issue. However the truth is that all of us use some kind of slang, and this usage is influenced by many factors. It is obvious that slang creates barriers between people or groups of people. So if you do not want someone, who is not a member of your group, understand what are you saying, you may use a particular slang, which is inherent only for your group. Using slang may also be part of a person’s identity.Therefore the main task handled in this paper is to examine the use of slang among teenagers and the sources they are influenced by. This essay presents a view on teenage slang as a means of expressing their identity. It also includes society perspective and opinions on the adolescent use of slang. The teenage language was for a long period under-represented in language corpora. In order to repair this, a very comprehensive teen age language corpus, the Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Language (COLT, 2002), was created.This large material is focusing on the spoken language of teenagers between 13 to 17 years in London. It consists of five hundred thousand words and it is a part of the British National Corpus. [2] As a basis for my arguments I will be mainly using corpus compilation, analysis and findings named Trends in Teenage Talk published in 2002 by Anna-Brita Stenstrom, Gisle Andersen and Ingrid Kristine Hasund, because as it consider the teenage slang language, it is the most relevant corpus for this essay. Slang and teenage languageIt is hard to give a definition of slang, because there is a difficulty of distinguishing it from jargon (special vocabulary used by particular profession), colloquialisms (special use of vocabulary according to geographical region), usage of vague terms (statements with unclear message) or neologism (new coinages or senses of words or phrases). Definitions do, however, ex ist, and the online Oxford English dictionary (2012) classifies slang into the three types: The first type consider slang as the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type.Another definition is that it is the special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession; the cant or jargon of a certain class or period. And finally the last one says that it is the language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense. Slang is natural part of each language. It is the non-standard vocabulary usually connected with particular group of people. When discussing slang, we should consider its history and development.Slang has its origin in the middle of the 18th century. In that time slang was seen as a low level language, since it was used primarily by criminals, revelers and drunk en people in pubs. Later on slang became regarded as a specific vocabulary of certain professions, like printers, poets and even lawyers or doctors. During the beginning of the nineteen century slang begins to be seen as a highly colloquial part of almost any language. [3] Moreover as the online Oxford English dictionary demonstrates, the word slang appeared in the connection with the language of youngsters for the very first time in 1818, when Sir J. T.Coleridge was recorded to have stated the following: †Two of the best [students] come to me as a peculiar grinder (I must have a little slang)†. [4] This connection appeared as well in William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair: â€Å"He was too old to listen to the banter of the assistant-surgeon and the slang of the youngsters. †[5] This fact proves that the importance of the adolescent talk has been seen as an important variety of language for a relatively long period. As well as human language also slang is continuously changing its form and vocabulary and not all of the expressions have to disappear as its generation grew up.On the one hand there are new slang words springing up and on the other hand old ones are dying. This means that the slang expressions used by teenagers may sometimes overlap the barriers of a particular group and become more widely used. Some of the slang expressions may absorb into the English language and become part of Standard English. Types of slang As I stated previously it is hard to distinguish slang from other types of informal language. Linguists therefore tend to use different terms when describing types of slang.Slang is generally divided into general slang and specific slang. While general slang is used among all people without the need to be a member of an exact group, mainly to avoid conventions; specific slang is used with a purpose to show that a person belongs to a specific group and has a loyalty with other members of this group. It se ems obvious that teenager's slang belongs to the specific one. In the Norwegian study Trends in teenage talk Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 65) stated that adolescent talk do not include only general slang, but also vague (E. . â€Å"stuff like that†, â€Å"lots of†), vogue (words which already exists in the language, but become fashionable for a short period of time[6]), proxy (the usage of a verb â€Å"go† or â€Å"be like† instead of the quotation), small words (E. g. â€Å"you know†, â€Å"sort of†, â€Å"yeah†, â€Å"like†), taboo and swear words; which he described with a term â€Å"slanguage†. In the next section I will look at these features of â€Å"slanguage†. Teenage talk Before we start to talk about teenage language in depth, we must define the word teenager. The word teenager firstly appeared in 1941.Earlier on expressions like puber, adolescent, teen, farrow or teener were used to refer to a young person between the ages of 13 and 19. [7] The teenage years might be viewed by some as the most difficult period in a person’s life. It is typical that society views them as rebellious, sloppy, messy and imprecise. And this view is also reflected on their language. The rebellion might be seen in a use of slang words and new expressions in order to shock, the imprecision in the lack of grammar, sloppiness in amount of fillers like â€Å"like† or â€Å"um† and messiness in their handwriting.They are to some extent expected to act like adults, however, they might still be treated as children. Sometimes even parents may not understand their children language, so that their attitude towards their slang use might be negative. However, the present generation of teenagers is not the first to have these kinds of informal expressions. Each generation uses a language composed of informal words and phrases or a special own way of using a standard vocabulary. Everyone use different kind of language in different situations, so that adolescents will not use the same language while speaking with their parents as they do with their friends.The only reason of using this slang in front of their parents might be to keep them out of the loop. And this generally happens while they are talking about sex, drug or ethnic issues. Although many of these slang expressions are harmless and teenagers are using them just to be on the same boat as they peers, parents should be aware of this slang, so they can avoid some unpleasant situation. Teenage age is the part of life when most people do not yet know what to do with their life.That is one of the reasons why many teenagers are trying to find their place and identity by joining some social groups, which they can feel connected with. They usually feel a need to become members of some subcultures that relate to their own attitudes and interests. Some subcultures have their own private language code, which helps it s members to support their values, attitudes and uniqueness even more; in other words slang language. As already mentioned, apart from general slang, teenagers also use other characteristic linguistic features known as â€Å"slanguage†.One part of the teenage slanguage is vogue expressions. Vogue words are already existing words like â€Å"massive†, â€Å"paranoid† or â€Å"reckon†, which have become trendy in teenage talk, but they tend to lose their popularity in a short time. It might also be words like â€Å"wicked† or â€Å"sad† used in a different new way: a) Sad drinking habits = secret drinking in a boarding school[8], and b) A wicked pair of ragamuffin trousers, wicked rap, wicked music[9]. As Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 86-89) states another fashionable feature in teenage language is the usage of vague words.Some classic examples of vague words are: lots of, stuff like that, kind of, for ages, and so on, and whatever. Vag ue words are used instead of the adequate words in talk. The reason for using them is to take up the talk to a more colloquial level and fill the gaps in a sentence. These words occur in adults talk as well. The example of vagueness we can see in this conversation: Tommy: and they like wanna see like how we talk and all that. [You know] Regina: [Yeah] Tommy: rastafarian style and all[10] According to Chanell (1994: 197) vague words do not have a function of fillers without meaning.They are used for purpose to contribute the communicative message. Vague words are discussed with two interesting features in COLT (2012: 105;106): a) The research showed that usage of vague words is more frequent among adults than teenagers. However this finding might be quite inaccurate, because adults in COLT conversations mainly appear in the position of teachers and they might adopt the language means of their students to get more closed to them; and b) COLT study find that it is not possible to assoc iate the use of vague words with a specific gender or social background.Another trend in present teenage language is the usage of proxy phrases. It is the way of using verbs such as â€Å"go†, â€Å"say†, â€Å"be like† to substitute verbs of quotation. By using these verbs they can report to some situation or conversation and meaning can be also influenced by the tone or mimicry. In the corpus I have found following exmples: a) It was like sort of, she just went (banging noise), and just fell over and I just†¦ [11], and b) Well what I tried last weekend, not quite crying but I did a sort of moody sort of thing, I di= I was really quiet and I just gnored everyone and I was like really like, you know, didn't say a word. [12] According to Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 165) other typical feature of teenage talk are small words, which can be divided into hedges, empathizers and tags. The usage of invariant tags namely â€Å"yeah†, â€Å"eh†, â€Å"okay†, â€Å"right†, and â€Å"innit† is one of the most frequent feature in teenage slang. Empathizers are used to evoke sympathy between speaker and listener. An example of this is â€Å"you know†. By hedges are considered expressions like â€Å"just like† or â€Å"sort of†. Their purpose is to make speech sounds more or less unclear or fuzzier.Another feature of slanguage is a vocabulary which is considered as forbidden because of its offensive character known as taboo words. Taboo words are usually connected with sex, death, excretion or the human body. Slang taboos are used to replace the regular synonyms. Examples of these might be â€Å"take the piss out of† (make fun of), â€Å"screw up† (ruin), â€Å"to be pissed† (to be drunk). Teenage age is generally seen as an age of rebellion. Adolescents want to shock not only with their style of music, clothing, entertainment, but also with the talk style.That is the reason why they have favored the use of taboos. Just like taboos swear words are also considered as a part of forbidden language, which should not be spoken out loud. Although what sets them apart from taboos, might be their acceptance. If person use a swear word in some relevant situation, for example hurting oneself, as a relief, than it might be more acceptable. For example in the Czech republic is not forbidden to curse â€Å"kurva† if you hurt yourself. The purpose of swearing is quite obvious, it can come out of surprise, or anger or it may be used when people want to upset someone.Teenagers usually use some swear words when talking to their friends to look â€Å"cool†. In a recent study by Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002:64), it has been found that swearwords can be used as intensifiers to put more emphasis on adjective or adverb (extremely, fucking crap), abusives to refer to a person you are talking with (you dickhead/sod/motherfucker) or expletives expressing strong feelings, or serving as an oath or curse (for fuck’s sake, shit). Reasons for using slang British lexicographer Partridge (1993) pointed out a good deal of reasons for using slang.These were: to have fun by using playful expressions; to be different by using new expressions; to make your talk seems more witty, inventive and humorous; to be picturesque; to draw attention; to escape from cliches, or to be brief and concise; to enrich the language; to be solid, concrete or abstract; to strengthen or reduce your statement; to soften unpleasant situations; to reduce or disperse the seriousness of a conversation; to entertain the audience; for a social purposes to induce either friendliness or intimacy; to show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, profession or social class; to not be understood by others; to show someone that he or she is not a part of a group. For instance Stenstrom (2002:16) provides an example that shows how someone is not a part of a group. He gave a tape recorder to few teenagers, so they could record their daily conversations. The following is a transcription of one of these conversations: Johnny: We can’t have a squeak in this room. Get out. Brett: I’m not a fucking squeak, I’m just in a choir. Bradley: /laughing/ Yeah, precisely Rick: /laugh/ Ah that just shows your ignorance dunnit really? Yeah I’m a member of that one. Johnny: Shows my ignorance?Brett: Yeah if you weren’t ignorant you’d know there’s four parts to a choir and not just one castrate section. Johnny: And you’re in the Castro section? Brett: /laugh/ No I’m not. Johnny: With a laugh like that you’ve gotta be. Rick: Actually I tell you one good thing about being in this choir yeah, I’m in this little choir tonight, chamber choir yeah, which is only about, which is only about like eight or nine people yeah? Bradley: Oh so you’re the creme de la choir As we can see Johnny is using the slang word â€Å"squeak† when speaking about Brett and, who are members of the school choir. By this he means that they have mutating voice, while singing in the choir and he is also making a fun, that they are castrated.An important aspect of adolescence is to be perceived as â€Å"cool† or accepted by one’s peers. Because being â€Å"cool† also usually means being popular, and popularity is connected with higher social status. Teenager’s desire for being part of a group, and also being a popular member of a group, may by many be considered one of the most important matters in this point of their life. Teenagers have a tendency to favor unique styles of music or clothes. They choose own friends and places where they like to spend their free time. And they also tend to use specific language. So that the usage of particular phrases, words and slang expressions might be seen as an identity marker for them.The aims of young people are to be independent and free, so that they may use rather informal language than formal, to express their positive or negative attitudes towards other people or situations. Nevertheless at the same time they should be aware about choosing right language, while talking with different people. If they are not capable to choose right way to talk for example with older people, then there is no surprise they might be perceived cheeky, rude or less intelligent. Sources and factors influencing teenage speech Compared with the past days, when the society was not influenced by the mass media, the talk of teenagers is very different today. It is mainly affected by the pop-culture. Most teenagers have access to the same music, films, TV shows, and advertisements and especially they have the connection to the internet.Before the introduction of mass media such as internet, television or radio, slang varied mostly according to the regions you lived in. However in present days as there is a poss ibility to access the world via these electronic medias, adolescents share same or very similar culture. The reason why are these sources included to this essay is that they are influencing adolescent’s language and at the same time they help to spread this language quickly and easily. According to editor of the Oxford English Dictionary Jesse Shaidlower, technology has been one of the biggest drivers of new vocabulary for centuries. [13] There is no doubt that the internet is a great source of influence on the English language.In 2010 there were made an experiment by Salzburg academy about the addiction on media including internet. They asked students in ten universities around the world not to use internet, phone, email or any media for 24 hours. The results were comparable with withdrawal symptoms from drugs or alcohol. [14] We can see that most of the adolescents are addicted to the social pages like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, therefore their language is influenced by these social networks. Abbreviations like â€Å"LOL† (laughing out loud), â€Å"OMG† (Oh my God), â€Å"FB† (Facebook) or â€Å"BTW† (By the way) appear on internet pages every day and sometimes you can hear them in a normal spoken language as well.Also there is a grammar issue, because while chatting in the internet grammar is usually missing so the message like this can easily appear: â€Å"BTW hope u r F9 2day. † (By the way hope you are fine today. ) Teenagers tend to save time by reducing proper words to acronyms or symbols. We may say that Net Lingua is slang used among the internet at emails, social networks, online games, etc. We can also find many slang expressions which comes from TV shows, films or advertisements. For example according to Tagliamonte (2005) TV-show Friends popularized the usage of intensifiers such as â€Å"so† and â€Å"very as a means to emphasize some point of view. Another example is the popularization of th e greeting â€Å"Wassup? which is the colloquial pronunciation of the phrase â€Å"What's up? †. It became popular after the screening of the commercial campaign for Budweiser beer in 1999. [15] This phrase was also used in one of the episodes of a popular TV show How I Met Your Mother named Trilogy Time. Another element which influences the adolescent talk is the music they listen to. Most of them prefer main-stream music like pop, pop-rap or pop-rock or hip-hop music. And mainly hip-hop music is the one which has been influencing the English language already for some time. Hip hop renew and usurped already existing words like â€Å"cool†, â€Å"soul†, â€Å"chill†, â€Å"swing† and many other. ConclusionThis assignment has given the overview of lifestyle and speech among today's teenagers and it has find out why teenagers tend to use particular slang to express their identity. Moreover it served the main sources, which influences adolescentsâ₠¬â„¢ language like internet, television or music. It also mentioned the question if the use of slang may leave a bad impression on people they talk with. It was not easy to write about slang, because there are so many sources considering this topic. So that I chose to write about the group I thought uses slang the most, about teenagers. Firstly I tried to explain the term slang, show its origins and development.I have found that for the first time slang appeared in connection with teenagers in 1818. This work showed that above the general slang, adolescents’ talk also include vague, vogue, proxy, small words, taboo and swear words. According to Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 65) this typical vocabulary can be described with a term â€Å"slanguage†. This essay has shown teenagers use the slang to express positive or negative attitudes towards people or situations. On the one hand they use it to support their values, attitudes, and uniqueness and to show their sym pathy for someone. On the other hand they use it to draw the attention, shock, to show the rebellion or antipathy.Perhaps the most important aspect in the life of a teenager is to be perceived as cool. This essay showed that the way teenagers use their language can make them either popular for their peers or outsiders. References: ABC News (2011). OMG! The OED [Hearts] A Few New Words. [ONLINE] Available at: http://abcnews. go. com/US/omg-oed-words/story? id=13220816#. UIgSOsVrit8. [Last Accessed 24 October 12] Ayto, J. , Simpson, J. (1993), The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Battistella, E. L. (2005), Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others?. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Channel, J. (1994), Vague Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eckert, P. (1989).Jocks and Burnouts: Social identity in the high school. New York: Teachers College Press. Green, J. (1988), The Slang Thesaurus. London: Penguin Books. Jelinkova, H. (2011), Slang Used among British and Czech Teenagers. Zlin: Tomas Bata University in Zlin. Oxford University Press (2012). slang, n. 3. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. oed. com/view/Entry/181318? isAdvanced=false&result=3&rskey=tyORJE&. [Last Accessed 16 October 12]. Oxford University Press (2012). teenager, n. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. oed. com/view/Entry/198559? redirectedFrom=teenage. [Last Accessed 17 October 12]. Partridge, E. (1933). Slang To-Day And Yesterday. London: William Press.Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change (2010). Unplugged: Living without the media. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www. salzburg. umd. edu/salzburg/new/news/unplugged-study-goes-global. [Last Accessed 30 October 12] Stenstrom, A. B. , Andersen, G. , Hasund, I. K. (2002), Trends in Teenage Talk: Corpus Compilation, Analysis, and Findings Studies in Corpus Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. Tagliamonte, S. A. , Roberts, Ch. (2005), So weird; so cool; so innovative: The us e of intensifiers in the television series Friends. American Speech. 80. 3: 280-300 Thackeray, W. M. (1999), Vanity fair: A Novel Without Hero. New York: Modern library. The New York Times (2012).Young Women Often Trendsetters in Vocal Patterns. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. nytimes. com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns. html? _r=2&emc=etal. [Last Accessed 24 October 12]. Thorne, T. (2005), Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. 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How to Use the Internet as a Reporting Tool

How to Use the Internet as a Reporting Tool At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, let me explain what it was like to be a reporter in the days before googling was a verb. Back then, reporters were expected to find their own sources and interview them, either in person or over the phone (remember, before the internet, we didnt even have email). And if you needed background material for a story, you checked the newspapers morgue, where clips from past issues were kept in filing cabinets. Or you consulted things like encyclopedias. Nowadays, of course, thats all ancient history. With the click of a mouse or a tap on a smartphone, journalists have access to virtually unlimited amounts of information online. But the strange thing is that many of the aspiring reporters I see in my journalism classes dont seem to know how to appropriately use the internet as a reporting tool. Here are three main problems I see: Relying Too Heavily on Material From the Web This is probably the most common Internet-related reporting problem I see. I require students in my journalism courses to produce articles that are at least 500 words, and every semester a few submit stories that simply rehash information from a variety of websites. But there are at least two problems that arise from this. First, youre not doing any of your own original reporting, so youre not getting important training in conducting interviews. Second, you run the risk of committing plagiarism, the cardinal sin in journalism. Information taken from the internet should be a complement to, but not a substitute for, your own original reporting. Any time a student journalist puts his byline on an article being submitted to his professor or the student newspaper, the assumption is that the story is based mostly on his own work. By turning in something thats largely copied off the internet or not attributed properly, you are cheating yourself out of important lessons and running the risk of getting an F for plagiarism. Using the Internet Too Little Then there are students who have the opposite problem - they fail to use the internet when it could provide useful background information for their stories. Lets say a student reporter is doing an article about how rising gas prices are affecting commuters at her college. She interviews plenty of students, getting lots of anecdotal information about how the price rise impacts them. But a story like this also cries out for context and background information. For instance, what is happening in global oil markets that are causing the price increase? What is the average price of gas across the country, or in your state? Thats the kind of information that can easily be found online and would be perfectly appropriate to use. Its laudable that this reporter is relying mostly on her own interviews, but shes short-changing herself by ignoring information from the web that could make her article more well-rounded. Failing to Properly Attribute Information Taken From the Web Whether you are using online sources a lot or just a little, its crucial you always properly attribute the information you use from any website. Any data, statistics, background information or quotes that you havent gathered yourself must be credited to the website it came from. Fortunately, theres nothing complicated about proper attribution. For instance, if you are using some information taken from The New York Times, simply write something like, according to The New York Times, or The New York Times reported†¦ This introduces another issue: Which websites are reliable enough for a reporter to use, and which sites should she steer clear of? Fortunately, Ive written an article on that very topic, which you can find here. The moral of this story? The bulk of any article you do should be based on your own reporting and interviewing. But any time you are doing a story that could be improved with background information on the web, then, by all means, use such information. Just make sure to properly attribute it.

A New Ending to the Lord of the Flies

Instead of coming at me, like I thought he would he ran the opposite direction and started screaming at the top of his lungs. By now the fire was out of control; it was racing down the mountain side, faster than fast. I started to run again, this time I was running toward the beach. â€Å"I need to get the littluns to safety† I said to myself. I ran and ran to the beach and went to grab the conch were it should have been; but I stopped myself. The conch is gone just like Piggy. Shattered, into a million pieces. I fell to the ground with exhaustion and grief. I could feel the heat of the fire coming nearer and nearer. As Jacks hunters came closer to me I heard them chanting a different chant. I could have sworn that I hear Jack screaming in pain. Someone burst out of the trees, screaming in pain. â€Å"Jack,† I said to myself as I looked to see if I was right. Sure enough I was right, but this was worse than I imagined, he was on fire! Half of his body was burnt. He looked at me with a sad, hurt look. He ran past me and jumped into the ocean. Jack never resurfaced, and I wasn’t about to go and get him. I heard more screaming behind me. I knew they were coming after me so I ducked down and tried to not move. Maybe they won’t notice me. It must have been ten minutes before I heard any noise coming out of the forest. But as everyone gathered around me it became silent. â€Å"Is everything all right? † I heard a somewhat familiar voice say. I looked up to see who was talking. I started to talk, but as I saw who it was my mouth just stayed open. â€Å"Dad? † I said in unbelief. â€Å"I knew it. † I yelled as I got up and ran to him. He stared as if I was dead. Maybe I am dead and this is all a dream. As I jumped in to his arms I was assured that I was alive when he caught me. He whispered in my ear. â€Å"Ralph? Is that you? † â€Å"YES! † I yelled â€Å"it is me! † I said more quietly. I started to cry out of relief. Dad started to cry too. â€Å"I thought you were dead! † he said barely above a whisper. â€Å"Well, how many of you are there? † he asked getting up and putting me down. â€Å"Um, I really don’t know. There are a few kids dead. † I said the last part a little quieter. â€Å"Well than, who is the leader. Roger was standing next to me. When dad said this, I half expected him to claim the glory, and I was going to let him. Instead he backed up, as did all the other kids. Roger spoke up, â€Å"Ralph is the leader. † He said this with a sound of remorse. â€Å"Ralph? How could you let this happen? † dad sounded surprised that I could let everything get so out of hand . â€Å"I tried to keep everything under control, but when jack got mad and left, everything went out of hand. You can’t honestly think that I could keep control over twenty some boys. I said this and started to cry. â€Å"Well then I guess we should get you boy’s home. † My dad said with a look of guilt on his face. I don’t blame him, though. On the ride home I couldn’t help but ask how mom is. She is fine apparently. I can’t wait to see her. Dad said she couldn’t get over the fact that I was gone. When we made sure that every one was home and good, we made our way home. As we arrived to the house I was reminded of the day I left here some time ago. As I burst through the door to start my life over.

Outline the development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity from Research Paper

Outline the development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity from the New Testament Church to the Nicene Creed - Research Paper Example Theological opinions on the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity vary amongst two extremes. Trinity has no basis in the Bible, in contrast, it states that Trinity is clear in the New Testament. A summary of the tertiary writings validates the latter position, and yet still represented by conventional theologians, is largely submitted from the central point that the doctrine of the Trinity was understood in the scriptures and was made clear by the advances of the church fathers (Humphreys, 20) The conclusion of the historians is that the doctrine was not original. The interconnections between history and theology are of specific importance in view of the doctrine development, but conventionally there has been comparatively little exchange of ideas between the two principles. The second fact considered by the education theologians is that no organized expositions of the doctrine might be observed in the New Testament, Roman Catholic shares this opinion, Protestant, eastern orthodox theologians, and by liberal, moderate and conservative theologians. By saying this, they imply that the new testament does not have formal and official statements of Trinity, does not have passages where the subject of debate is Trinity, does not have refutations of subordination, and tritheism and modalism as Trinitarian errors. Lastly, words such as one, the Trinity or God used as one-and-the-same being collectively did not exist in the New Testament. Christians do claim that it might be prese nted in the bible educates that the God is the father, the son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, implying that God is one (PARSENIOS, 400) In explaining their claims, the opposers and proponents of the Trinity that is not present in the New Testament have formed two strategies to support their allegations. The first plan was to conduct an exegesis of particular passages in the New Testament. A good example was seen in the essay by Warfield, he validated