Word Families - a Quick Reference for Teachers

Word Families - a Quick Reference for Teachers Word Families are sometimes referred to as groups, chunks or rimes. A word family has something in common with each other, have it be the prefix, suffix or root word. For example, green, grass, grow all have the gr sound in the beginning of the word. What are the Benefits? Word families are important because they help young children recognize and analyze word patterns when they are learning to read. When teaching analytic phonics, teachers use word families to help children understand these patterns and that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds. Most Common Word Families According to researchers Wylie and Durrel, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk. ack- back, hack, pack, rackain - brain, chain, main, plainake - awake, bake, cake, fakeale - ale, bale, sale, taleall - all, ball, call, hallame - blame, came, game, samean - an, ban, can, panank - bank, drank, sank, tankap - cap, map, rap, tapash - bash, dash, rash, sashat - bat, cat, fat, matate - fate, gate, late, rateaw - claw, draw, paw, saway - day, hay, may, sayeat - beat, feat, meat, seatell - bell, fell, tell, wellest - best, rest, vest, westice - dice, mice, nice, riceick - brick, kick, pick, sickide - bride, hide, ride, sideight - bright, fight, light, nightill - bill, hill, pill, stillin - bin, chin, grin, tinine - dine, fine, mine, vineing - bring, king, sing, wingink - drink, link, pink, sinkip - chip, dip, lip, sipit - bit, fit, hit, sitock - block, clock, rock, sockop - cop, hop, mop, topore - bore, more, sore, toreot - got, hot, not, rotuck - buck, duck luck, tuckug - bug, hug, mug, rugump - bump, dump, jump, pumpunk - bunk, dunk, junk,sunk Source: Richard E. Wylie and Donald D. Durrell, 1970. Teaching Vowels Through Phonograms. Elementary English 47, 787-791.

When bullet points are a bad choice

When bullet points are a bad choice Why bullets wont make your case Bullets are designed to call out key points and help the reader scan large amounts of information. Or at least, thats the idea. You can start out with good intentions when you use them – youre probably trying to make life easier for your readers. Perhaps youre trying to create a document thats snappy, easy to understand, and that looks clean and modern. Unfortunately, in practice, bullet points can do the exact opposite. Endless bullets can be tedious to read. Theyve been around since the 80s, so they no longer automatically make a document look particularly modern. And when theyre used in the wrong context, theyre anything but easy to understand. One way that using bullets can badly misfire is when the author uses them to present an argument. A bullet list does not an argument make The theory: When you have a complex argument or analysis to explain, bullet points are a great idea. By breaking your argument into separate bullet points, you can make it easy to understand. Your reader just takes in each idea, one by one. The reality: This often doesnt work, largely because of what psychologists call the illusion of transparency. The illusion of transparency is the mistaken idea that whatever is going on in our own heads is obvious to other people. A classic demonstration of this is for one person to tap out a familiar tune (like Happy birthday or their national anthem) with their finger and then ask another person to guess the song. Try it for yourself. Think of a famous tune and tap it out to a friend or colleague. You will be amazed at how few people can correctly guess the song youre tapping out – experiments find that listeners guess correctly only around 3 per cent of the time. To you, it seems utterly obvious that youre tapping out a well-known tune. But the listener can only hear disconnected taps. Disconnected points Bullet points do exactly the same thing in writing. If you dont explicitly draw the connections between the ideas in your writing, you cant rely on your readers spotting the connections for themselves. The illusion of transparency reminds us that this is usually the case even when the connections between your bullet points are obvious to you. Of course, you can draw connections in ordinary running text. Our language is full of connective words that show the relationships between ideas. These include words like but, and, so, because, or, either and instead. But while you can (and probably naturally would) use words like these in regular structured prose to link your ideas, bullet points strip all of them away. And without them, you cant say – unequivocally – how ideas relate to each other. You cant talk about how or why a particular point is important – or not. And you cant expect your reader to fill in the blanks between your bullet points, as theyll often miss the links that seem obvious to you. Assemble the pieces You may have seen whole reports, proposals or emails that are little more than a list of bullets. The fact is, sometimes we might reach for bullet points as an alternative to fully planning out what it is were trying to say. It can be tempting, especially under time pressure, to try to skip over this part of the process and leave our reader to put the pieces together. But simply laying out a list of facts in bullet points does not by itself constitute a document, or an analysis, or a summary – its just a shortcut to nowhere. Documents like that never do your expertise and analysis justice, and theyre very unlikely to leave the reader informed, persuaded or happy. Instead, you need to make sure you do the work to assemble your argument first. If you start by being clear in your own mind what the connections are, you can then make these clear to your reader – and be sure theyll get your point. This post is taken from a larger lesson about the perils of misused bullet points (and better alternatives) in our online-learning programme, Emphasis 360. The programme is designed to transform your writing step by step in practical, bite-sized lessons. You can try it out for free here. Image credit: hin255 / Shutterstock

Principles of Building Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principles of Building Structure - Essay Example When the beam has sufficient supported against any form of buckling, a failure of the beam is experienced. This results in the generation of the maximum material yield at one point of the maximum moment (Brett 1989). Hence, the applied loads have the potential of ensuring that the beam reaches its plastic moment capacity. This beam is regarded as laterally supported beam and the yield stress governs the design strength. When beams bend on a major axis, they tend to develop a stronger stiffness and strength. Thus, such beams become vulnerable to failure that results from lateral torsional buckling before they acquire their in-plane capacity of the plastic moment, which will brace them against lateral twisting and deflection. These types of beams are regarded as laterally supported beams. Beams bending strength design is governed by yielding and supported against buckling. A laterally braced section of a beam has a bending strength, which is the plastic moment Mp. Inelastic deformation is expected at the service load when the shape factor of the beam is large. However, for shape factors that exceed 1.5, 1.5My limit is applied at the factor load in order to control the inelastic deformation of the various sections of the beam. Such a provision is not expected to limit the plastic moment for the hybrid section when the yield stress is considered to be less than the expected flange yield stress. However, web yielding is not associated with any significant inelastic deformations. When the inertia moment about the axis of bending is less or equal to the out of plane inertia moment, lateral-torsional buckling never develops. Therefore, for shapes, which are bent within the minor axis and those that have lz = ly, lateral-torsional buckling limit state does not apply. Such shapes include circles and squares. Lateral buckling of a beam does not occur when the compression of the flange is adequate and the flexural

Strategic Planning of Amazon.com, Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Strategic Planning of Amazon.com, Inc - Essay Example The paper gives detailed information about Amazon.com Inc. It conducts its business in various fields such as internet services, online retail, and the Kindle ecosystem. Amazon provides its services as Amazon Prime which has the facility of free of cost shipping within two days. It provides a free access to the kindle library (Johnson, et al., 2013). The other internet services provided by Amazon are referred to as Amazon Web Services and it is a side business as the company decided to lease out its services. Amazon is most commonly known as a low-cost retailer and provides its customers with wide range of products. The company started its online bookselling business and rapidly expanding the business to music as well as movies. It also offers online services in household goods as well as electronics (Johnson, et al., 2013). The retail strategy of Amazon also involves the company to act as a channel for the other retailers and earn a portion of revenue with the sale of the products. Amazon has also introduced the sale of used products in order to compete with the competitors such as eBay (Johnson, et al., 2013). The advertising strategies adopted by Amazon attract the customers in the global market and they are able to choose the products from their websites. The kindle ecosystem is part of their business model which is newly launched by Amazon as an electronic book reader and the company is confident that the customers will purchase enough electronic books (Johnson, et al., 2013).

The following problems in the space provided Essay Example for Free

The following problems in the space provided Essay Answer the following questions and solve the following problems in the space provided. When you are done, save the file in the format flastname_Week_1_Problem_Set.docx, where flastname is your first initial and you last name, and submit it to the appropriate dropbox. Chapter 1 (page 19) 1. What is the most important difference between a corporation and all other organizational forms? Corporations has unlimited life time and limited liabilities and also has real entity and legal entity, because any stakeholder can sue against the corporation. Financing is very easy for investment in corporation. On the other hand, all other organizations have limited life span since it is directly owned by one person or partners and also have unlimited liabilities. Investment is very difficult since self-finance. 2. What does the phrase limited liability mean in a corporate context? Stakeholders liability is limited to the amount they invested in the corporations. Stockholders are not responsible for any encumbrances of the company specifically; they cannot be required to pay back any debts incurred by the firm. Therefore, anything that diminishes a property’s worth or makes it less useful or enjoyable; is not responsible by the owners in corporate context. 3. Which organizational forms give their owners limited liability? Corporations 4. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of organizing a firm as a corporation? Corporations are probably the dominant form of business organization in the United States. A corporation is a legal entity doing business, and is distinct from the individuals within the entity. Public corporations are owned by shareholders who elect a board of directors to oversee primary responsibilities. Along with standard, for-profit corporations, there are charitable, not-for-profit corporations. Advantages Unlimited commercial life. The corporation is an entity of its own and does not dissolve when ownership changes. Greater flexibility in raising capital through the sale of stock. Ease of transferring ownership by selling stock. Limited liability. This limited liability is probably the biggest advantage to organizing as a corporation. Individual owners in corporations have limits on their personal liability. Even if a corporation is sued for billions of dollars, individual shareholders liability is generally limited to the value of their own stock in the corporation. Disadvantages Regulatory restrictions. Corporations are typically more closely monitored by governmental agencies, including federal, state, and local. Complying with regulations can be costly. Higher organizational and operational costs. Corporations have to file articles of incorporation with the appropriate state authorities. These legal and clerical expenses, along with other recurring operational expenses, can contribute to budgetary challenges. Double taxation. The possibility of double taxation arises when companies declare and pay taxes on the net income of the corporation, which they pay through their corporate income tax returns. If the corporation also pays out dividends to individual shareholders, those shareholders must declare that dividend income as personal income and pay taxes at the individual income tax rates. Thus, the possibility of double taxation. 5. Explain the difference between an S corporation and a C corporation. The S corporation has the unique feature of passing its income through to its owners, so that the entity itself does not pay income taxes. The owners report the income on their tax returns, thereby avoiding the double taxation that arises in a regular C corporation, where the business is taxed on its income, and then the investors are taxed on the dividends they receive from the corporation. In addition, every shareholder of â€Å"S† corporation must be a United States resident or citizen. A C corporation or a partnership cannot be a shareholder, though estates and certain trusts and charities can be investors. In â€Å"S† corporation there can only be a single class of stock, which prevents preferential payments and voting privileges. Also there are  limited shareholders in S corporations which is not more than 75 but in C corporations there are unlimited shareholders.

i Heard The Owl Call My Name And the Black Robe: The Indians :: essays research papers

"I Heard The Owl Call My Name" and "The Black Robe": The Indians Although the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name, and in The Black Robe are primitive in the technological sense, they are neither simple or emotional people. The Indians in both texts could be classed as primitive people - if we take primitive to mean technologically underdeveloped. The level of technology possessed by the white man is far superior to that of the Indians, yet the Indians in The Black Robe are happy to accept and use muskets, and in I Heard The Owl Call My Name they are familiar with motors, washing machines and modern building techniques brought by white man. The Indians display their level of ignorance in regard to modern technology in The Black Robe, when the enemy tribe believed that muskets could only be fired once and once fired, they are useless. The Indians had little knowledge of modern materials or tools. When comparing the Indians in The Black Robe to the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name, we must take into account that The Black Robe was set two hundred and twenty years earlier than I Heard The Owl Call My Name, and white mans influence on the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name was much greater. Technology did not play an important role in the Indian's way of life. Traditionally, the Indians lived off the land taking only what they needed, and their hunting and building methods had served them well for centuries, therefore their need to develop new technology would not have been great. The Indians are not simple or barbaric people. Their complex belief system and folklore related strongly to the environment and gave reasons for the

Thorn Queen Chapter One

Sad fact: lots of kids know how to use knives and guns. I'd been one of them, but instead of pursuing a life of crime, I'd trained to be a shamanic mercenary. This meant that while my friends were at dances and football games, I'd been out banishing spirits and wrestling down monsters with my stepfather. On the upside, I grew up never fearing muggers or any other assailants. On the downside, an adolescence like that really screws with your social development. It meant I'd never really been like other kids. I'd had some friends, but compared to theirs, my world had been terribly stark and terribly deadly. Their dramas and concerns had seemed so petty next to mine, and I could never fully relate. As an adult now, I still couldn't really connect to kids because I had no shared experiences to draw on. Which made my job today that much more difficult. â€Å"Go ahead, Polly,† crooned the girl's mother, smiling with over-plump lips. Too much collagen, I suspected. â€Å"Tell her about the ghost.† Polly Hall was 13 but wore enough make-up to rival a 40-year old whore. She sat slouched against the back of a couch in her family's perfectly decorated house, chewing gum loudly, looking everywhere but at us. The more I studied her, the more I decided she probably did have problems. I suspected they had less to do with supernatural influences and more with having a mother who had named her Polly and let her wear thongs. It was an unfortunate side effect of Polly's low-cut jeans that I could see the aforementioned thong. After a minute of silence, Mrs. Hall sighed loudly. â€Å"Polly, dear, we've been over this. If you aren't going to help us, we can't help you.† Smiling, I knelt down in front of the couch so I could look the girl in the eyes. â€Å"It's all right,† I told her, hoping I sounded sincere and not like an after school special. â€Å"I'll believe whatever you tell me. We'll get it taken care of.† Polly sighed just as loudly as her mother had a moment ago and still refused to look at me. She reminded me of my unstable teenage half-sister who was currently MIA and wanted to conquer the world. â€Å"Mom,† she said, â€Å"can I go to my room now?† â€Å"Not until you've talked to this nice lady.† Glancing back to me, Mrs. Hall explained, â€Å"We hear strange noises all night: bangs, cracks, bumps. Things fall over for no reason. I've even†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She hesitated. â€Å"I've even seen things fly around the room. But it's always when Polly's around. Whatever this ghost is, it seems to like her†¦or be obsessed with her.† I turned my attention back to Polly, again taking in the sullen mood and thinly veiled frustration. â€Å"You got a lot on your mind, Polly?† I asked gently. â€Å"Problems at school or something? Problems around here?† Her blue eyes flicked to me ever so briefly. â€Å"What about any electrical issues?† This I directed to her mother. â€Å"Things shorting out? Stereos or appliances not working right?† Mrs. Hall blinked. â€Å"How'd you know that?† I stood up and stretched the kinks out of my body. I'd fought a wraith last night, and he hadn't been gentle. â€Å"You don't have a ghost. You have a poltergeist.† Both of them stared at me. â€Å"Isn't that a ghost?† asked Mrs. Hall. â€Å"Not really. It's a manifestation of telekinetic powers, often brought on by rage and other strong emotions during teenage years.† I'd evaded after school special mode, only to slip into infomercial mode. â€Å"I†¦wait. Are you saying Polly's causing this?† â€Å"Not consciously, but yeah. In cases like this, the subject – Polly – lashes out without realizing it, venting her emotions in physical ways. She probably won't stay telekinetic; it'll fade as she gets older and settles down a bit.† Her mother still looked skeptical. â€Å"It sure seems like a ghost.† I shrugged. â€Å"Trust me. I've seen this lots of times.† â€Å"So†¦isn't there anything you can do? Anything we can do?† â€Å"Therapy,† I suggested. â€Å"Maybe get a psychic to come out.† I gave Mrs. Hall the contact information for a psychic I trusted. Waiving my banishing fee, I simply charged her for the house call. Once I'd double-checked the cash she gave me – I never took checks – I stashed it away and made moves toward the living room door. â€Å"Sorry I couldn't be of more help.† â€Å"No, I mean, I guess this helps. It's just so strange.† She eyed her daughter with perplexity. â€Å"Are you sure it's not a ghost?† â€Å"Positive. These are classic symp–â€Å" An invisible force slammed into me, pushing me into the wall. I yelped, threw out a hand to keep my balance, and shot daggers at that little bitch Polly. Eyes wide, she looked just as astonished as I felt. â€Å"Polly!† exclaimed Mrs. Hall. â€Å"You are grounded, young lady. No phone, no IM, no†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Her mouth dropped open as she stared at something across the room. â€Å"What's that?† I followed her gaze to the large, pale blue shape materializing before us. â€Å"Um, well,† I said, â€Å"that's a ghost.† It swooped toward me, mouth open in a terrible screech. I yelled for the others to get down and jerked a silver-bladed athame out of my belt. A knife might seem useless against spirits, but they needed to take on a substantial form to inflict any real damage. Once solid, they were susceptible to silver. This spirit bore a female shape – a very young female shape, actually. Long pale hair trailed in her wake like a cloak, and her eyes were large and empty. Whether it was a lack of experience or simply some inherent trait of hers, her attack proved floundering and uncoordinated. Even as she screamed at the first bites of the athame, I had my crystal studded wand out in my other hand. Now that I'd regained my bearings, I could do a banishing like this in my sleep. Speaking the usual words, I drew from my internal strength and sent my own spirit beyond the boundaries of this world. Touching the gates of the Underworld, I ensnared the female spirit and sent her over. Monsters and gentry I tended to send back to the Otherworld, the limbo they lived in. A ghost like this needed to move on to the land of death. She disappeared. Mrs. Hall and Polly stared at me. Suddenly, in her first show of emotion, the girl leapt up and glared at me. â€Å"You just killed my best friend!† I opened my mouth to respond and decided nothing I had to say would be adequate. â€Å"Good heavens, what are you talking about?† exclaimed her mother. Polly's face twisted with anger, her eyes bright with tears. â€Å"Trixie. She was my best friend. We told each other everything.† â€Å"Trixie?† Mrs. Hall and I asked in unison. â€Å"I can't believe you did that. She was so cool.† Polly's voice turned a little wistful. â€Å"I just wish we could have gone shopping together, but she couldn't leave the house. So I just had to bring her Vogue and Glamour.† I turned to Mrs. Hall. â€Å"My original advice still stands. Therapy. Lots of it.† I headed home after that, wondering for the hundredth time why I'd chosen this mercenary shaman profession. Surely there were other jobs that were a lot less trouble than interacting with evil supernatural beings. Accounting. Advertising. Law. Well, maybe not that last one. About an hour later, I arrived back home and was immediately assaulted by two medium-sized dogs when I cleared the door. They were mutts, one solid black and one solid white. Their names were Yin and Yang, but I could never remember who was who. â€Å"Back off,† I warned as they sniffed me, tails wagging frantically. The white one tried to lick my hand. Pushing past them, I entered my kitchen and nearly tripped over a tabby cat sprawled on the floor in a patch of sun. Grumbling, I tossed my bag onto the kitchen table. â€Å"Tim? Are you here?† My housemate, Tim Warkoski, stuck his head in. He wore a tee shirt with silhouettes of Native Americans that said Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism since 1492. I appreciated the cleverness, but it lost something since Tim wasn't actually an American Indian. He merely played one on TV, or rather, he played one in local bars and tourist circles, using his tanned skin and black hair to elude his Polish heritage. It had gotten him into trouble with a lot of the local tribes. With a garbage bag in one hand and a cat scoop in the other, he gave me a dark look. â€Å"Do you know how many boxes of litter I've had to change today?† I poured a glass of milk and sat down at the table. â€Å"Kiyo says we need one box for every cat and then an extra one.† â€Å"Yeah, I can count, Eugenie. That's six boxes. Six boxes in a house with 1500 square feet. You think your deadbeat boyfriend's ever going to show back up and help out with this?† I shifted uncomfortably. It was a good question. After three months of dating between Tucson and Phoenix, my boyfriend Kiyo had decided to take a job here to save the hour and a half commute. We'd had a long discussion and decided we were ready to have him simply move in with me. Unfortunately, with Kiyo came his menagerie: five cats and two dogs. It was one of the woes of dating a veterinarian. He couldn't help but adopt every animal he found. I couldn't remember the cats' names any better than the dogs'. Four of them were named after the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and all I could really recall was that Famine ironically weighed about 30 pounds. Another problem was that Kiyo was a fox – both literally and figuratively. His mother was a kitsune, a sort of Japanese fox spirit. He'd inherited all of her traits, including amazing strength and speed, as well as the ability to transform into an actual fox. As a result, he frequently got ‘the call of the wild,' making him yearn to run around in his animal form. Since he had downtime between jobs now, he'd left me to take a sort of wild vacation. I accepted this, but after a week of not seeing him, I was starting to get restless. â€Å"He'll be back soon,† I said vaguely, not meeting Tim's eyes. â€Å"Besides, you can get out of chores if you want to start paying rent.† That was our deal. Free lodging in exchange for food and housework. He wasn't deterred. â€Å"Your choice in men is questionable. You know that, right?† I didn't really want to ponder that too much. I abandoned him for my room, seeking the comfort of a jigsaw puzzle depicting a photograph of Zurich. It sat on my desk, as did one of the cats. I think he was Mr. Whiskers, the non-Apocalyptic one. I shooed him off the puzzle. Doing so took about half the puzzle pieces with him. â€Å"Goddamned cat,† I muttered. Love, I decided, was a hard thing. Well aware of my grumpy mood, I knew part of my anxiety over Kiyo stemmed from the fact that he was also passing part of his sabbatical in the Otherworld, spending time with his ex-girlfriend who just happened to be a devastatingly beautiful fairy queen. Fairies, sidhe, shining ones†¦whatever you wanted to call them, they were the tall, long-lived rulers of the Otherworld. I and most shamans referred to them as gentry, an antique term. Maiwenn, Kiyo's ex, was almost nine months pregnant, and although they'd broken up, he was still a part of her life. I sighed. Tim might have been right about my questionable taste in men. Night wore on. I finished the puzzle while blasting Def Leppard, making me feel better. I was just shutting off the music when I heard Tim yell: â€Å"Yo, Eug. Kujo's here.† Breathless, I ran to my bedroom door and flung it open. A red fox the size of a wolf trotted down the hall toward me. Relief burned through me, and I felt my heart soar as I let him in and watched him pace around in restless circles. â€Å"About time,† I said. He had a sleek orange-red coat and a fluffy tail tipped in white. His eyes were golden and sometimes bore a very human glint. I saw nothing like that tonight. A purely animal wariness peered out at me, and I realized it'd be a while before he changed back. He had the ability to transform to a wide range of foxes, everything from a small, normal-sized red fox to the powerful shape before me. When he spent a lot of time in this bigger form, turning human took more effort and time. Still, hoping he'd transform soon, I dumped another puzzle on my desk and worked it as I waited. Two hours later, nothing had changed. He curled up in a corner, wrapping his body in a tight ball. His eyes continued to watch me. Exhausted, I gave up on him and put on a red nightgown. Turning off the lights, I finally slipped into my bed, falling asleep instantly for a change. As I slept, I dreamed about the Otherworld, particularly a piece of it that bore a striking resemblance to Tucson and the Sonora Desert surrounding us. Only, the Otherworldly version was better. An almost heavenly Tucson, warmed by bright sunshine and ablaze with flowering cacti. This was a common dream for me, one that often left me yearning for that land in the morning. I always tried my best to ignore the impulse. A couple hours later, I woke up. A warm, muscled body had slid into bed with me, pressing against my back. Strong arms wrapped around my waist, and Kiyo's scent, dark and musky, washed over me. A liquid feeling burned inside of me at his touch. Roughly, he turned me toward him. His lips consumed me in a crushing kiss, blazing with intensity and need. â€Å"Eugenie,† he growled, once he'd paused long enough to remove his lips – just barely – from mine. â€Å"I've missed you. Oh God, I've missed you. I've needed you.† He kissed me again, conveying that need as his hands moved over me. My own fingers slid along the smooth perfection of his bare skin, reveling in its feel. There was no gentleness between us tonight, only a feral passion fueled as much by animal instinct as love. He had not, I realized, completely regained his human senses, no matter his shape. When I woke up in the morning, my bed was empty. Across the room, Kiyo pulled on jeans, meeting my eyes as though he had some sixth sense that I was awake. I rolled over on my side, the sheets gliding against my naked skin. Watching him with a lazy, satisfied languor, I admired his body and the sexy features gifted to him by Japanese and Hispanic heritage. His tanned body and black hair stood in stark contrast to the light skin and reddish hair my European ancestors had given me. â€Å"Are you leaving?† I asked. My heart, having leapt at his presence last night, suddenly sank. â€Å"I have to go back,† he said, straightening out a dark green tee shirt. He ran an absentminded hand through his chin-length hair. â€Å"You know I do.† â€Å"Yeah,† I said, my voice sharper than I'd intended. â€Å"Of course you do.† His eyes narrowed. â€Å"Please don't start that,† he said quietly. â€Å"I have to do this.† â€Å"Sorry. Somehow I just can't get all that excited about another woman having your baby.† There it was. The issue that always hung over us. He sat down beside me on the bed, dark eyes serious and level. â€Å"Well, I'm excited. I'd like to think you could support me in that and be happy for me.† Troubled, I looked away. â€Å"I am happy for you. I want you to be happy†¦it's just, you know, it's hard.† â€Å"I know.† He leaned over me, sliding his hand up the back of my neck, twining his fingers in my hair. â€Å"You've spent more time with her in the last week than with me.† â€Å"It's a necessity. It's almost time.† â€Å"I know,† I repeated. I knew my jealousy was unwarranted. Petty, even. I wanted to share his happiness at having a child, but something in me prevented it. â€Å"Eugenie, I love you. It's that simple. That's all there is to it.† â€Å"You love her too.† â€Å"Yes, but not in the way I love you.† He kissed me with a gentleness very different from the roughness of last night. I melted against him. The kiss grew stronger, filling with ardor. With great reluctance, he finally pulled away. I could see the longing in his eyes. He wanted to have sex again. That said something for my charms, I guessed. His responsible inclinations winning out, he straightened and stood up. I stayed where I was. â€Å"Will I see you there?† he asked, voice even and neutral. I sighed. â€Å"Yeah. I'll be there.† He smiled. â€Å"Thank you. That means a lot to me.† I nodded. He went to the door and looked back at me. â€Å"I love you.† The heat in his voice told me he truly meant it. I smiled back. â€Å"I love you too.† He left, and I pulled the sheets more tightly against me and made no motions to get up. I couldn't stay in bed all day, unfortunately. Other things – like my promise to Kiyo – demanded my attention today. There was a trip to the Otherworld ahead of me, one that would take me to a kingdom I'd reluctantly inherited. You see, Maiwenn wasn't the only Otherworldly queen in Kiyo's life. Yet, astonishingly, that wasn't the problem for me today. That was easy compared to what else lay in store for me. I had to go to a gentry baby shower.

Relationship Dynamics in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay

â€Å"My life is an afterschool special.† These words, spoken by the character, Patrick, summarize the dynamics of the relationships portrayed in the movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The movie is a coming-of-age story about Charlie, a boy without any friends, as he enters his first year of high school. While the movie is geared toward young adults, the message portrayed about relationships touches everyone: We accept the love we think we deserve. In the movie, Charlie has a crush on a fun-loving, party-girl, senior, Sam, who is already dating an older boy in college. Though they become close friends and share intimate experiences and feelings with each other, Charlie never asks Sam out. see more:reaction paper about earthquake The movie upholds traditional high school relationship stereotypes from the Sadie Hawkins dance to prom photo shoots but it also illuminates the uniqueness of every close intimate relationship. It is best described by Charlie when he says, â€Å"I know someday our pictures will become old photographs,† like how a moment captured on camera can be seen but never experienced the same way again. Through the dynamics of Sam and Charlie’s relationship, I will show how The Perks of Being a Wallflower depicts a genuine, true love story that represents universal elements everyone experiences in close relationships. Before his first day of high school, Charlie writes, â€Å"I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that can be.† He begins his first day alone, eating by himself in the cafeteria, never raising his hand in class, and keeping his head ducked down in the hallways. One night he decides to go to a high school football game, where he first meets Sam and her stepbrother, Patrick. Together, they watch their school football team win the game and Sam and Patrick invite Charlie to the diner with them afterwards where they talk about their favorite music and what they want to be when they grow up. This act of sharing positive experiences together that benefits the progression of a relationship is called capitalization (Reiss, Carmichael, Caprariello, Tsai, Rodriguez & Maniaci, 2010). Sam and Patrick share the experience of Charlie’s first party, his first school dance, and even the first time he gets high. The most theatrical example of capitalization in the movie is when the three friends are driving home and the song, â€Å"Heroes† by David Bowie comes on the radio and Sam demands that Patrick drive through the Fort Pitt Tunnel so she can stand in the back of the pickup truck while blasting the song over the radio. Charlie is so stricken by the feeling of belonging that he looks at Patrick and says, â€Å"I feel infinite.† Sam and Charlie become closer when they offer each other the comfort of knowing that they are not alone. Their relationship grows even deeper when they learn that they can share their experiences and feelings with each other without being rejected. This happens the first time at Charlie’s first high school party. Charlie, while he is stoned, confesses to Sam that his only friend, Michael, shot himself last spring. Sam shares what Charlie told her with Patrick and they later toast Charlie at the party in order to welcome him as their new friend in front of everyone. Charlie looks as if he is about to cry because for the first time, he feels like he belongs somewhere. As their intimacy progresses, Charlie demonstrates his affections for Sam by giving her gifts and offering displays of affection known as maintenance behaviors in relationships (Stafford, 2003). For example, he makes her a mixed tape themed after the night that they drove through the tunnel together even though he couldn’t find the special song that made them feel â€Å"infinite.† Charlie also offers to help Sam study for the next SATs after he sees how disappointed she is when she receives her scores. Charlie’s self-disclosure and efforts to display affection encourages Sam to share the more private parts of her life without fearing she will be rejected by him. Sam’s moment of self-disclosure is after the Christmas party, when she invites Charlie up to her room for the first time to give him a thank-you present for helping her study for the SATs. On her desk is an old typewriter with a bow for Charlie, because she knows that Charlie wants to be a writer s omeday. When Charlie sees the gift on her desk, he says with disbelief, â€Å"You got me a present?† The glow of happiness off of Charlie’s face demonstrates the physiological reaction of expressing gratitude in relationships. Acts of gratitude are known to significantly increase relationship satisfaction (Demoss, 2004). Not only does Sam display gratitude towards Charlie, but she lets him into her room, her private space where none of the other party guests had been invited to go. In a moment of closeness, after Charlie confesses he’s never kissed a girl, Sam shares with Charlie that her first kiss was when her dad’s boss molested her at the age of ten. Charlie responds with validation, telling her that the same thing happened to his aunt Helen and that she turned her life around. When Sam comments that his aunt must have been a great woman, Charlie responds, â€Å"She was my favorite person in the world, until now.† Sam, overwhelmed with tears, tells Charlie that she knows that he knows she has a boyfriend, but she wants to make sure that the first person that kisses him, loves him. Charlie nods, and Sam leans in and kisses him. For the first time she says, â€Å"I love you, Charlie.† And he responds, â€Å"I love you too.† Charlie and Sam do not become a couple, but they continue to teach each other that they are deserving of genuine love. The greater the impact close relationships have on one’s self-image, the greater satisfaction one will receive from the relationship (Mattingly, Oswald, Clark, 2011). Sam and Charlie do this by perpetuating a positive self-image of each other, increasing the happiness they receive from spending time together. Sam does this for Charlie by acknowledging that he is not crazy and that he is someone worth being friends with. Charlie does this for Sam by encouraging her to apply to colleges and offering the emotional support that he believes in her. Sam and Charlie have a genuine concern for each other’s well being. These compassionate, supportive goals are another example of how responsive they are to each others’ needs (Conovello & Crocker, 2011). Charlie doesn’t just give Sam his most beloved gift because he thinks she’s pretty and wants her to like him. He gives her the Beatles record his deceased aunt Helen left him because he truly cares about her, and he wants her to be happy. It is for the same reason Sam gives Charlie his first kiss. They have goals to meet the needs of each other. However, like all individuals and relationships, Sam and Charlie are not perfect. Despite the genuine love and affection Charlie offers her, Sam continues to date her boyfriend who is cheating on her, and Charlie continues to date Sam’s friend, Mary Elizabeth, even though he doesn’t have romantic feelings for her. After Sam finally dumps her boyfriend and Charlie is no longer dating Mary Elizabeth, Sam confronts Charlie and asks him why he had never asked her out. Charlie responds that he didn’t think she wanted him to and that he just wanted her to be happy. Sam replies, â€Å"You can’t just put everyone’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love†¦I don’t want to be someone’s crush, I want people to like the real me.† Charlie fidgets nervously and after a long pause he tells Sam, â€Å"I know who you are,† and he tells her that she’s beautiful and he kisses her. This moment suggests that the impact their relationship had on their self-esteem, brought them both to a point where they could accept the love that the other thought they deserved. Despite all the efforts Sam and Charlie made towards the intimacy of their relationship, the movie does not end happily ever after. The next day Sam leaves for college, and the intimate sexual experience between Charlie and Sam triggered Charlie to have flashbacks of his aunt Helen molesting him as a child and he is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Charlie is left alone wondering how it is possible to be happy and sad at the same time and how someone he loved and idolized like his aunt Helen could have done something that hurt him so badly. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a love story that is told the way Sam described rock love ballads to Charlie: both kitschy and brilliant. The story uses the general setting of stereotypical high school drama to portray the human experience of close relationships. Charlie experiences the euphoria of first love and also the pain of devastating heartbreak. And just like old photographs, whether the setting was a high school dance or a social at a retirement home, the relationships in this movie are relatable to anyone who views them, while also existing as independent unique experiences that will never be lived the same way twice. Even though the movie doesn’t end with Charlie and Sam as a happy couple, it still ends with an uplifting scene reuniting Charlie, Sam, and her brother, Patrick. Charlie is standing in the back of Sam’s pickup truck while they drive through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and his voice narrates, â€Å"I know these will all be stories someday and our pictures will become old photographs, but right now, this is happening.† He acknowledges that the experience of human relationships is something that everyone will experience and that all of the moments shared will become memories, but Charlie shows that the energy that comes from love lives in the moment where you feel like you are the only one who has ever experienced it before. â€Å"That one moment†¦when you’re listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world†¦I swear, we are infinite.† References Canvello, A., & Crocker, J. (2011). Interpersonal goals, others’ regard for the self, and self-esteem: The paradoxical consequences of self-image and compassionate goals. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 422-434. Demoss, Y. (2004). Brief interventions and resiliency in couples. Dissertation Abstracts International: The Sciences and Engineering, 65(5-B), 2619. Mattingly, B.A., Oswald, D.L., & Clark, E.M. (2011). An examination of relational-interdependent self-construal, communal strength, and pro-relationship behaviors in friendships. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 1243-1248. Reis, H.T., Smith, S.M., Carmichael, C.L., Caprariello, P.A., Tsai, F., Rodriguez, A., & Maniaci, M.R. (2010). Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 311-329. Stafford, L. (2003). Maintaining romantic relationships: A summary and analysis of one research program. In D.J. Canary & M. Dainton (Eds.), Maintaining relationships through communication: Relational, contextual, and cultural variations (pp. 51-77). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Government Intervention and Antitrust Law essays

Government Intervention and Antitrust Law essays Government Intervention in Individual Markets: A Look at Government Intervention and Antitrust Law via the Microsoft Case Growth and Development in the US Economy In light of recent developments, I took a different approach to this paper. The Microsoft Antitrust case has been somewhat of a phenomenon that has become one of the most prominent cases in recent years. Because of this, I decided to look at government intervention into individual markets, along with antitrust law, via that particular case. I am of the opinion that we can learn a great deal by using that particular ongoing litigation. Antitrust law protects the public from companies that attain an undue domination of the marketplace via mergers, tying 1 product to another, vertical integration, and other practices tending to eliminate competition or bar entry into the market to newcomers. In the early 1980s, Microsoft was a much smaller company than it is today. However, it had already established a reputation of being a predator, a greedy predator. They were known to terminate licenses mercilessly once they figured out a way to clone a given technology, regardless of whether it was legal or not. Back then, Microsoft had some enthusiastic competition. The biggest of which were Borland (programming), Ashton-Tate (databases), Visicalc and Lotus (spreadsheets), as well as Wordstar and WordPerfect (word processors). All of these companies have now either merged out of existence or are completely defunct, with the exceptions of Borland and Lotus (which are barely afloat). Microsoft now has the leading product in each sector of the market once occupied by these firms. The company was responsible for ridding itself of these early competitors by either buying them out or simply driving them into the ground. This early disregard set the tone for how Microsoft does bu siness even today. Microsofts advantage comes from their domination of operating systems (...

How to Write a Book Review Top 3 Stages to Creating a Masterpiece

How to Write a Book Review Top 3 Stages to Creating a Masterpiece The value of a book review can never be underestimated. Whenever we want something more than a book abstract, the review format is what we should be looking for. It saves readers heaps of time by providing the gist of the book in just one or two pages. Readers dont have to go through two or three hundred pages of a book to see if it is what they are looking for. Having to read a piece of fiction is one thing, but when you need to go through hundreds of, say, scholarly books and you need to keep up the pace, you understand the value of book review writing. But lets get to the core. BOOK REPORT Book reviews are different from book summaries, where you have to enumerate characters, sum up the events and so on. Book review writing requires you to state your opinion regarding the book and provide critical commentary. In this sense, a book review is related to critical appraisal or critical essay. Preparation before Reading Preparation is the key to success. You will always be at an advantage if you know the context of the book and author, i.e. when it was written, what inspired the writer to work on it, how he prepared for it and so on. You will be able to understand the product better and understand the historical circumstances it was created in. Plus, it will show you have taken extra steps to prepare, taken some time to investigate and learned the details. That will give you an extra credit in your class. Reading Note-Taking Once you have gathered the background information, you are ready to dig in. Sit down with a sheet of paper and a pencil and write out the important stuff. Here is what you should state in your book review: Full Title Author Name Last Name Publishing House Year of Publication Edition and Number Include your overall impression into the introduction to state your opinion about the book you are commenting on. Speak about the purpose of the book, its intended audience, and the general message. You should also introduce your main thought (or thesis statement) and maintain it throughout the paper. Once you  are done with the introductory part, proceed to the body, where you should dwell in greater detail on the ideas expressed in the introduction, support them with evidence, point strengths and weaknesses of the book and so on. Conclusion reiterates and sums up the thoughts from the introduction and body paragraphs. Post Writing Post writing refers to proofreading and editing phase of writing. Once you are done with the draft, go ahead and put your book review aside. It works best to put it aside for a few hours or days and then return to read through it once again. The second pass will help you spot grammar and spelling mistakes will show if your book review needs to be structured differently, whether or not its convincing to the reader and so on. As soon as proofreading is done, you are ready to publish and/or submit your paper. BOOK REPORT vs. BOOK REVIEW If book report is the assignment you need to deal with, but arent just sure how   and its team of professional writers are happy to help. We can help you to work on either a part of your book review (e.g. doing background research), or assist you with writing the entire paper. All papers are scanned for plagiarism, so you are guaranteed to receive a fully authentic paper thats been custom written to meet your needs. is the service you can trust! Place an order and get your professionally written book review in time!

Health Care and Intellectual Property Laws Essay

Health Care and Intellectual Property Laws - Essay Example In a knowledge economy where knowledge is considered private property and is thus deserving of full protection under the law, Intellectual Property laws play a fundamental role in ensuring stability and predictability. However, it has been suggested that these laws undermine public health by tending to put the cost of essential medicines far beyond the reach of those who desperately need it most. Intellectual property ownership is a relatively new concept of ownership with staggering social implications. For large pharmaceutical companies investing billions of dollars to continually develop new medicines against diseases, it provides the necessary incentives in the form of patents to provide wider latitude in the development, promotion, and distribution of new drugs to recoup their investments and earn significant revenues for years of research and hard work. It also serves as an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop new products for the prevention or treatment of common as well as dreaded diseases. But for low-income countries struggling to provide basic healthcare services and affordable drugs to their citizens, intellectual property is an onerous imposition that threatens to wreck lives in the wake of killer diseases. The law on intellectual property rights allows pharmaceutical companies unrestricted rights to manufacture and distribute medicines at prices they command. Recent free trade agreements have extended extremely generous patent rights to multinational pharmaceutical companies, and have limited access to generic equivalent drugs. Analysis The first level of analysis is to ask whether or not it is actually necessary to prioritize patients' rights, and if the current system has indeed been inadequate in arresting the problem. Without access to the drugs in the treatment of HIV, for example, to combat the spread of the dreaded disease, people from many countries in Africa experiencing an HIV/AIDS pandemic will die in record number. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. According to current estimates, HIV is set to infect 90 million people in Africa, providing an enormous market for an anti-HIV medicine. There is currently no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS. The only known method of prevention is avoiding exposure to the virus. However, an antiretroviral treatment, known as post-exposure prophylaxis is believed to reduce the risk of infection if begun directly after exposure. Current treatment for HIV infection consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, an expensive procedure that many poor countries in Africa are forced to take. The second level of analysis is whether or not pharmaceutical drug companies can afford to take the pay cuts. It has been argued many times over that these drug companies need the money to innovate and to develop new techniques and new formulations. The evidence, however, militates against this. According to a paper written by Oxfam International: In 2000, for example, the ten biggest companies in the US spent more than twice as much on marketing and administration (34%) than on R&D (14%). Pfizer spent $22.2 billion on dividends and share buybacks in 2003 and the first half of 2004, over twice the amount spent on research. Merck returned $7.3 billion,

MOD 5 FIN SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MOD 5 FIN SLP - Essay Example The challenge for non-profits is to effectively research and find funding resources to receive the necessary funds to perform all projects and functions within the company without missing out of any potential opportunities. We have two major projects we are currently working on that will be examined in this paper. The first project is attempting to improve our development budget to expand the company and purchase equipment and necessary resources for better care to the individuals. The second project is a local nonprofit book festival to allow developmentally challenged persons to interact with members of the community. The first project that we are currently implementing is one in which we are seeking funding for developmental avenues to expand the current operations of the company. We have been seeking different funding methods to increase our development budget and make necessary equipment and supplies purchases that are essential to providing proper care to these individuals. The primary source of funding that should be examined comes straight from state, federal and local grants that can be awarded to nonprofits for providing special care (Foster, Kim & Christiansen, 2009). These grants can be offered to any organization, group or individual based on very specific or broad criteria. Oftentimes, nonprofit organizations attempt to utilize these fiscal resources because grants are essentially free money that never has to be repaid. Grants can involve a lot of paperwork and man hours, but most require no fiscal obligation or investment and can pay for part or all of the necessary expenses to expan d operations given the type of care that is being provided and that we are indeed a nonprofit organization. These are two essential areas that work in our favor and will provide strong reasonable support to justify why we need the funds and that they will be put to good use to improve several of the local communities as