A Comparison of The Jewel in the Crown and Wuthering Heights Essay

Shared Elements of The Jewel in the Crown and Wuthering Heights       The Jewel in the Crown, by Paul Scott, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte', are romantic tragedies which share many common elements. Although written in two vastly different time periods, the shared elements reveal the continuity of romantic tragedies over time. Wuthering Heights, a 19th century realistic fiction, shares the same kind of passionate, violent and emotional characters as The Jewel in the Crown, a post colonial modernist fiction. Both stories contain a love triangle which subsequently end in death.    In both stories, Catherine and Daphne are much alike in that they are the point around which the two men in their lives dance circles around. Catherine and Daphne are both willful, doing as they please, Catherine fostering her love for Heathcliff, and Daphne secretly seeing Hari Kumar. "At fifteen, she [Catherine] was the queen of the country-side; she had no peer, and she did turn out to be a haughty, headstrong creature" (WH, p. 51). And of Daphne, "She had to make her own marvelous mis...

Families Growing Weak in America Essay

Higher divorce rates directly contributes to the breaking down of the family structure identifying that families are growing weaker in the United States. It is tremendously essential for family members to remain together in order to maintain a strong family unit where each individual in the home is able to prosper and develop into a more solid and successful person contributing to a stronger America. Patrick Fagan and Robert Rector, explain the negative effects of divorce on our families in America when they tell us that, (2000, Fagan, Rector) â€Å"As social scientists track successive generations of American children whose parents have ended their marriages, the data are leading even some once-staunch supporters to conclude that divorce is hurting American society and devastating children’s lives. † Not only does divorce affect each individual in the family when the separation of the family occurs but it continues to devastate those same lives later in their personal lives and in their careers later in life, contributing to the breaking down of families and causing an even weaker America. We also learn from Fagan and Rector that According to data reported in 1994 by Mary Corcoran, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, â€Å"During the years children lived with two parents, their family incomes averaged $43,600, and when these same children lived with one parent, their family incomes averaged $25,300. † It is fair to assume that families are growing weaker in our country and in to establish a more concrete and stronger family unit, it is extremely crucial that families work harder at staying together in order for the family to be more successful and grow from a weaker family in our country to a stronger one. For children to grow up to be more successful, parents must strive to build a stronger household by taking all necessary means to keep their family together as one. Dr. Scott Haltzman tells us that (2007, Haltzman, DiGeronimo)â€Å"Overall, children living with their own married parents have fewer behavioral problems compared to children whose parents are living together but not married. Differences in the area of physical health also exist. Young children in single-parent families are less healthy overall than are children in all other family types. † Children from broken homes need extra medical care because of this weakening of the family structure. It is never too late to start building stronger families and working toward improvement in America. There is outside help being offered to families who feel they may need therapy or other means of help to keep their family together. (1985, Stinnent, DeFrain) Nick Stennett and John DeFrain explain that we can get help and tells us about community services that may be beneficial. He tells us that â€Å"Many children and families are resilient, but in these complex times, sometimes they need a little assistance in overcoming the obstacles in their lives. † Reference Page Fagan, Patrick; Rector, Robert. 2000. The Effects of Divorce on America. The World and I. Haltzman, Scott; DiGeronimo. 2007. The Secrets of Happily Married Men. Jossey and Bass. Stinnett, Nick; Defrain, John. 1985. Secrets of Strong Families. Berkley Books

Mediated Communication: Connected or Disconnected? Essay

Abstract: We all seem to live and breathe social media. Sending a message and staying connected is as easy as it can get. Technology is essentially transforming traditional methods and revolutionizing the way we communicate with one another. Today, we have to stay relevant, informed, and up-to-date on the newest communication channels and incorporate them into our range of daily activities. However to build meaningful connections between people, we need to let technology enhance our communication, rather than dictate it. As new communication technological advancements become available, our temptation is also to spend less time on face-to-face interactions at the risk of losing the critical context of our message. Of course, texts, e-mails and social media can dramatically impact the speed and volume of messages, but therein also lies the danger in allowing the subtle aspects of dialogue and personality to fall by the wayside Face-to-face discussions are the foundation of human communication; once established, it allows us to build trust, clearly articulate our ideas and minimize misunderstanding. However, for many of us, face-to-face communication seems to be a dying art – replaced by text messaging, e-mails, and social media. Human communication and interactions are getting shaped by available technologies. Thus we have to ask – in today’s tech-savvy world, are we really connected or essentially disconnected? Is social media sabotaging the art of personal communication? On a crisp Friday afternoon last October, Sharon Seline exchanged text messages with her daughter who was in college. They ‘chatted’ back and forth, mom asking how things were going and daughter answering with positive statements followed by emoticons showing smiles, b-i-gï Å  smiles and hearts(/). Happiness†¦. Later that night, her daughter attempted suicide. In the days that followed, it came to light that she’d been holed up in her hostel room, crying and showing signs of depression — a completely different reality from the one that she conveyed in texts, Facebook posts and tweets . (Courtesy; Forbes magazine, April2012) As human beings, our only real method of connection is through authentic communication. Studies show that only 7%  of communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language. Indeed, it’s only when we can hear a tone of voice or look into someone’s eyes that we’re able to know when â€Å"I’m fine† doesn’t mean they’re fine at all†¦or when â€Å"I’m just sad† means they’re thoroughly depressed. Flooded in technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, the Facebook post or the tweet, projecting any image they want and creating an illusion of their choice. They can be whoever they want to be and without the ability to see or feel, their audiences are none the wiser. Every relevant metric shows that we are interacting at breakneck speed and frequency through social media. But are we really communicating? With 93% of our communication context stripped away, we are now attempting to forge relationships and make decisions based on phrases, abbreviations, snippets, emoticons which may or may not be accurate representations of the truth. This presents an unprecedented paradox. With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected – and potentially more disconnected – than ever before. This is where social media gets dicey. Communication Barriers: New Dimensions Social technologies have broken the barriers of space and time, enabling us to interact 24/7 with more people all over the world. The focus is now on communication quantity rather than quality and Superficiality against authenticity? But like any revolutionary concept, it has initiated a new set of barriers and threats. It is an ironic situation where social media has the potential to make us less social; a surrogate for the real thing. For it to be a truly effective communication vehicle, communicators bear a responsibility to be genuine, accurate, and not allow it to replace human contact altogether. In the workplace, the use of electronic communication has overtaken face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication by a wide margin. This major shift has been driven by two major forces: the speed/geographic dispersion of business, and the lack of comfort with traditional interpersonal communication among a growing segment of our employee population: Gen Y and Millennials. Studies show that these generations – which will comprise more than 50% of the workforce by 2020 – would prefer to use instant messaging or other social media than stop by and talk with someone. This new communication preference is one of the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"generational gaps† plaguing organizations as employers try to manage a new set of expectations and norms in their younger employees. The majority of the world’s largest businesses are using social media with little thought as to how it can contribute to the organization’s overall strategy and that its use is destroying the integrity of face-to-face conversations and replacing it with â€Å"hidden conversations†. This is arguably true to some extent with many companies confused as to the role it should play inside the corporate framework. Further, because most business communication is now done via e-mails, texts, instant messaging, intranets, blogs, websites and other technology enabled media, minus body language, the potential for misinterpretation is growing. Rushed and stressed, people often do not take the time to consider the nuances of their writing. Conflicts explode over a tone of an e-mail, or that all-important cc: list. When someone writes a text in all capital letters, does it mean they are â€Å"shouting†? Are one- or two-word responses a sign that the person doesn’t want to engage? On the flip side, does a smiley face or an abbreviated acknowledgement of agreement really mean they are all set and aligned? Unfortunately conclusions are drawn on frighteningly little information. Getting Real In this wired world when we have only abridged words and faceless chats instead of voice, face and body expression how then do we communicate effectively and build more authentic relationships? Leaders must consider the impact on business relationships and the ability to effectively collaborate, build trust, and create employee engagement and loyalty. Susan Tardanico, leadership and communications executive coach, consultant and professional speaker and CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance LLC suggests certain ways for keeping communication real Suggestions for Keeping E-Communication Real †¢Address your issues. If you are drawing a conclusion about experiencing a conflict based on an electronic exchange, then pick up the phone or have a face-to-face conversation to clear things up. †¢Me first. Make an effort to check your own communications to ensure you aren’t sending an inaccurate  message. Take steps to put forth an accurate picture of reality. †¢Bridging the gap. As employees and employers, there are chances of dealing with different generations who have noticeably different communication preferences. Talk with colleagues about this aspect and ask for input on the best way to keep communication flowing through the team. †¢Stay connected. Don’t fall prey to the comfort of sitting behind closed doors and doing all your work from behind a computer screen or the hand-held device. No doubt it takes the pressure off many of the complexities of management, but this also disconnects us from face to face connections. Find a way to stay connected with colleagues; employee relationship is one of the determining factors for level of engagement and loyalty to the organization. †¢Beware of the disconnect. An eloquent and motivating online communication is easy to write. But if our words are not consistent with our actions and reality, this disconnect will harm our credibility and impede our ability to work effectively. †¢Two-way communication. Communication is essentially a two-way process. Just because you’ve fired off an e-mail or text, it doesn’t mean communication has taken place. We must pay attention to the feedback to see if our message is understood and accepted. Considering that this trend is here to stay, we need to create cultures where managers, employees and stakeholders renew their efforts to get at the real messages and issues. When colleagues spend personal time we can expect better working abilities. Correlations between face-to-face relationship-building and employee engagement and loyalty are a concept that has been proven again and again over the years. This has also been excellently explored in the concept â€Å"Management by Walking Around† in Tom Peters’ groundbreaking book In Search of Excellence. As global citizens of a technologically-enabled world we must find a way to incorporate all the amazing benefits which mediated communication has to offer while ensuring that we aren’t losing the human touch with the most significant personal and professional relationships.

Horror Story Essay

It was a wonderful day in southern Spain and Sara and Kevin was out for a walk in the mouintains on their last vacation day. The view was extrodernery, olive plantings turning the otherwise dry land green and small white houses forming tiny villages, everything bathing in the strong Andalusian sunlight. As they walked upon an old path with a high cliff on the left-hand-side they passed a yellow sign with some text and the cliff painted in black, but since neither of them spoke Spanish they thought nothing of it. They walked on by and enjoyed each others companies very much, holding hands and talking about their holiday. Suddenly Sara stopped and claimed that she heard a noice of a rock falling down from the mountain beside them, but Kevin assured her that it was perfectly okay for them to continue their walk, since he was enjoying it so much. Just a second after he spoke those words a loud noise shoke the ground and before they even had time to react, massive rocks were flying down f rom the cliff just beside them. They threw themselves against a big tree next to the path as rocks kept falling down and dust started to fill the air. The horrible moment seemed to last forever†¦.. At last it stopped, and everything turned dead silence. After a few seconds a voice was heard shouting: ‘’Sara , are you okay? Where are you? It was Kevin ofcourse. He was lying under the tree, and seemed to be safe and sound despite the horrible incident. A few seconds went by without an answer from Sara. He started panicing and shouting, even louder and more anxious than before. Then silently, but still, a wage sound was heard. Kevin jumped up from the place he was lying on and started to look around. There, on the path, under a pile of rocks he saw a red thing but he couldn’t distinguish what it was. Coming closer, he saw that Sara was lying there and that the red was from her T-shirt which she wore that day. He quickly grabbed the biggest rock on top and started to push, at first it was all still which made Kevin again to panic. With all his force he pushed once again and now it slowly started to move and finally, after an heroic effort the rock slid off and Sara could get loose. She miraculously was also without any severe injuries and hugged Kevin harder than ever before, and they agreed that they won’t ignore signs they don’t understand ever again.

Different Kinds of Engineering Material Assignment - 1

Different Kinds of Engineering Material - Assignment Example Brittle fracture basically is a fracture where there is a rapid run of cracks within the stressed material. In this case, the crack works much faster and it is difficult to understand the fracture before failure occurs. The scientific principle in the brittle fracture is that the crack moves close to the perpendicular where the stress is applied, because of this action, there remains a perpendicular fracture which leaves a flat surface at the broken area. Apart from having a flat fracture surface, brittle material more or less showcase a pattern on their fractured surface. Fatigue is the most common material failures found in the engineering field. Fatigue is a kind of failure mode where the material tends to fracture by means of progressive brittle cracking with regard to a repeated cycle of stress. Here, the stress implied on the material is of lesser intensity which means below the average strength. Creep is a failure mode which occurs on engineering materials at an elevated speed. Basically, it is seen on stainless steel when there is constant stress on the material with exposure to high temperatures. According to â€Å"The stress that produces a specified minimum creep rate of an alloy or a specified amount of creep deformation in a given time (for example, 1% of total 100,000 h) is referred to as the limiting creep strength or limiting stress†. The destructive test method is performed to understand the strength, hardness, and toughness of a material. The test utilized here is the stress test and for this purpose, the material chosen was the aluminum crank arm. The specimen was obtained and different loads and stresses were applied on the same. The destructive testing which is also known as mechanical testing displayed some results when stress was put on the iron with the help of a hammer.  

Organizational Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organizational Performance - Essay Example This paper brings out a critical evaluation of Balanced Scorecard models developed by Kaplan and Norton as also the EFQM excellence model promoted by the European Foundation for Quality Management. With a view to measuring a firm's activities in terms of its vision and strategies and to give the manager's a comprehensive view of the performance of a business, a concept which is described as Balanced Scorecard was introduced by Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton in the year 1992. There have been several studies conducted on the subject of Balanced Scorecard to develop the concept further. "The Balanced Scorecard method of Kaplan and Norton is a strategic approach and performance management system that enables the organizations to translate a company's vision and strategy into implementation working from four perspectives." (12 Manage) Measures: Once the objectives are established the next logical step is to identify the proper tools and parameters and define them to measure the organisational's performance towards achieving these objectives. For example the growth in the net margin or the sales in a particular region may well act as the measurement parameters. Targets: When the measurement parameters are established suitable targets need to be evolved to transform the organizational objectives into reality. Achieving a reduction in the manufacturing cost to the extent of 5% annually may be fixed as a target. Initiatives: Proper initiatives in the form of projects of programmes need to be developed as a support for achieving the set targets. If the targets are supported by initiatives, it may not be possible for the organization to achieve its goals. 2.2 FEATURES OF BALANCED SCORECARD: The monitoring of the perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard involves the development and usage of the following features within the broad organizational performance arena. Double-Loop Feedback: It is always essential, in order to exercise a proper control on the performance measures, there need to be data feedback to enable the mangers to determine the cause of variations and identify the processes with significant problems. This would enable the managers to focus their attention on repairing the

Transgendered' honesty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Transgendered' honesty - Essay Example Therefore, the paper establishes a discussion that seeks to determine whether transpeople are oppressed in the society, and the nature of oppression. It will also offer recommendations on how the problem of oppression to the transpeople should be solved, and respond to philosophers such as Talia Bettecher, in relation to the existence of transphobia. On the other hand, the term transsexual is a term referring to the individual using hormonal and surgical expertise to change their body in a way interpreted as chances with sex assignment of birth, and may be readily understandable in conditions of the conventional convictions of sexed bodies. This term has been conventionally related to a psychiatric conviction like gender dysphoria, and it is associated by the nature of being "trapped in the wrong body" though it is redeployed in ways that are amenable to transgender. The term transsexual relates to a deep conviction that gender identifies a match of the appearance or anatomy, which t hey desire to present to the world in a different gender to the one assigned at during birth. This is a condition that is referred to as dysphoria, whereby people undergoes hormone therapy based on the birth gender and the gender they are willing to acquire, and others undergo surgery in order to conform to their gender identity. Transsexualism has been an ancient part of the human experience, and it is not considered a medical illness or a mental disorder since it is a desire to alter the expression of gender identity (Bettcher, 46). People have the rights of expressing their gender through changes in their physical appearance, which entail hormones and reconstructive surgery. Therefore, there is significant distress experienced by those, who are denied the rights to exercise control over their body in terms of expressing their gender, through accessibility of medical services. In fact, they suffer from reduction of the social economic and sexual function capacity; thus, they healt h care providers engaged in transsexual services should charge a reasonable fee for these services. Furthermore, there is a form of discrimination associated with provision of sex reassignment services, which are based on sexual orientation, marital status and physical appearance of patients. Transphobia is a term referring to the fear of transpeople, and the negative attitudes, which relates to hatred, loathing, rage, moral indignation that is harbored towards Transpeople because of gender enactment. Nevertheless, these attitudes are attributed to violence against Transpeople, and this is evident through fourteen murders of transpeople reported during 2003 in United States and thirty eights in other places of the world; thus, there is a consistency of high degree in relation to transphobic abuse against transpeople, whereby eighty percent of reported cases, thirty percent is physical assault. Transpeople have been subjected to a form of oppression about their privacy and dignity, i n a situation where they are involved as victims of crime in a prosecution. For instance, the reports made indicate that victims of physical transphobic hate crimes avoid exposing themselves as trans through the nature of the crime. Moreover, there is fear associated with living with neighbors, employers, community, when they have permanently gained their gender role, due to the chances of being discovered as trans. In this case, the fear of being