Questions Answered Essays

Questions Answered Essays Questions Answered Essay Questions Answered Essay 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Simile, metaphor, and personification play a vital role in Pablo Neruda’s poem, â€Å"White Bee.† It gave life and various emotions to inanimate and perhaps debatable characters he used such as his soul and the last hawser. Furthermore, these figures of speech made it easier for readers to envision what Neruda describes. In line 12, Neruda notes, â€Å"Your breasts seem like white snails.† This simile helps us form an image of breasts that have a nice round form such as a snail’s with a hint of softness. The metaphor â€Å"word without echoes† makes us think of speaking without actual voice coming out of our mouths. It’s almost similar to being withdrawn and powerless. â€Å"Shadow has come to sleep on your belly† is personification that makes a reader think of peaceful slumber after a long day of work. It doesn’t exactly present a person. Using â€Å"shadow,† a symbol interlinked with night, and â €Å"belly,† an image of a soft that body part where one can serenely lay his/her head makes the personification- and the general mood of the poem- more powerful.2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Spiegelman’s Maus made use of animals for characters instead of humans. We can see this as a good choice as it helps us understand how the author specifically views the ethnicities presented. For example, the Jews are illustrated as mice. This may be due to the fact that Jews are as meek and resourceful as mice during the period of Nazi Germany. On the other hand, Germans are shown as cats- fierce, cautious, poised, and always ready to scratch. The disadvantage with using animals, however, lies in the fact that its readers may not get really attached with the story. It’s true that there will still be emotions since the characters’ facial expressions still changes. But the fact that the characters aren’t humans will limit the depth of compassion or sympathy a reader wi ll have for the characters and the story itself.3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Modern art encompass a long period of time wherein various art movements were started and developed. During this time, abstraction became an important aspect of art. Abstraction helped artists present their subjects, visions, and messages to viewers in a new way. Instead of plainly illustrating natural scenery, a portrait, or a picture of still life, abstraction is utilized to shock or puzzle spectators. This is all done while still using subtle images, colors, or other medium. Let’s look at examples. Claude Monet’s â€Å"Impression: Sunrise† is a good artwork that portrays abstraction in the form of unevenly blended colors and undefined lines. We can see that there’s sunset and some fishermen, but there’s no horizon and what we suppose as fishermen are only visible as shadows.In Vincent Van Gogh’s â€Å"Starry Night,† abstraction is presented in the whole canvas. There are what seem to be swirls of clouds. Then there are the moon and stars with their baffling light-colored strokes that surround them. There’s even the intimidating, dark castle. Finally, there is Marcel Duchamp’s â€Å"Nude Descending a Staircase.† This painting utilized abstraction more seriously than our other examples. At first, one will not be able to see a figure- a nude figure- going down a staircase, as Duchamp used various shapes and presented continuous movement. Only with focused scrutiny will the nude descending a staircase be found.

Useful Mobile Apps for MBA Students

Useful Mobile Apps for MBA Students This list of useful mobile apps for MBA students will help you create schedules, collaborate, network, improve productivity, and make the most of the MBA experience. iStudiez Pro iStudiez Pro is an award-winning multiplatform student planner that can be used to track class schedules, homework assignments, tasks, grades, and more. The app will notify you about important tasks and events so that you can get organized and stay on top of important deadlines and meetings. The iStudiez Pro app also offers two-way integration with Google Calendar and other calendar apps so that you can share schedules with classmates, members of your study group, or people in your social circle. Free cloud sync is available as well, making it easy to wirelessly sync app data across multiple devices. The iStudiez Pro app is available for: iOSmacOSAndroidWindows *Note: If you would like to try this app before you purchase it, a free version of the app, known as iStudiez LITE, is available through the App Store for iOS devices. Trello Millions of people - from small start-up businesses to Fortune 500 companies - use the Trello app to collaborate on team projects. This app works well for MBA cohorts and study groups who are collaborating on a project for a class or competition. Trello is like a real-time, virtual whiteboard that everyone on the team has access to. It can be used to create checklists, share files, and have discussions about project details. Trello can be synced across all devices and works with all major browsers so that you can access the app data wherever you are. The free version would work for most student groups and teams, but there is also a paid version for users who want special features, such as extra storage space or the ability to integrate data with an unlimited number of apps.   The Trello app is available for: iOSmacOSAndroidWindows Shapr Shapr is a professional networking app that is designed to make the entire process of networking less painful and time consuming. Unlike most networking apps, Shapr uses an algorithm that considers your tagged interests and location to connect you with like-minded professionals who are in your area and looking to network. As with the Tinder or Grindr dating apps, Shapr allows you to swipe right anonymously. The app will notify you when the interest is mutual so that you don’t have to deal with random, unsolicited requests to talk or meet up. Another plus is that Shapr presents you with 10 to 15 different profiles each day; if you don’t feel like you can connect with the people it shows you one day, there will be a fresh crop of options the following day. The Shapr app is available for: iOSAndroid Forest The Forest app is a useful mobile app for people who are easily distracted by their phone when they should be studying, working, or doing something else. When you want to focus on something, you open the app and plant a virtual tree. If you close the app and use your phone for something else, the tree will die. If you stay off your phone for the designated amount of time, the tree will live and become part of a virtual forest. But it isnt just a virtual tree at stake. When you stay off your phone, you also earn credits. These credits can then be spent on real trees that are planted by a real tree planting organization that has teamed up with the makers of the Forest app. The Forest app is available for: iOSAndroid Mindfulness The Mindfulness app is a useful mobile app for MBA students who are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out over school obligations. This app is designed to help people manage their mental health and well being through meditation. With the Mindfulness app, you can create timed meditation sessions that are as short as three minutes long or as lengthy as 30 minutes long. The app also includes nature sounds and a  dashboard that displays your meditation statistics. You can get the free version of Mindfulness or you can pay for a subscription to get additional features like  themed meditations (calm, focus, inner strength, etc.)  and access to meditation courses.   The Mindfulness app is available for: iOSAndroid

The Ways We Lie Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Ways We Lie - Research Paper Example ng copywriter, and an author to Companion through the Darkness, in her writing of â€Å"The Ways We Lie,† tries to bring to light the numerous ways in which human beings lie to each other. The lies are justifiable by those who tell while others are not. She argues that every one of us is bound to lie and we do find excuses to get out of it when caught. There are many types of lying, which are to be discussed in this paper, and giving some examples to show how they are told. Ericsson believes that it is practically impossible to live without lying. She even tried doing that herself for a whole week, and she says that it was ‘paralyzing’ and that ‘there must be a merit to lying’. When you lie, it puts an end to the pressing issue or the situation one is in, but others require a series of lies that could go on for a lifetime. If one is not careful, the truth comes out at some point. All they had told becomes null and they get into trouble. The white lie, we are all guilty of this. When we are with our friends, we often lie to them in their faces so that we cannot hurt their feelings (Krentz, 2007). ‘You look okay in the suit’ we tell this to someone getting into an interview room so that they do not panic before they get an interview for their dream job. If we were to tell them the truth at that moment, they may back out from what they were doing and try to concentrate on the not so important details, which may lead them to fail. Men lie to their women almost every morning before they go to work, ‘Honey, your hair is perfect’, yet they have not even given the hair a look at all. Bergen Evans, an English professor said: A man who will not lie to a woman has very little consideration for her feelings. Deflection is another type of lying. It is easily visible in court when you make an accusation against someone and do not have a way to defend themselves. The only option for them is to keep quiet until the other party says something offensive about

Marketing Plan Part B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marketing Plan Part B - Essay Example The Jacob’s Coffee Shop will try to make sure that the customer gets a good experience as they consume the products of the business. This is why the Jacob’s Coffee Shop has decided to use an app that the customer can use in choosing the design and nature of the product. Not many coffee shops offer the customer with a way to be in command of the way he gets his product. This will be very useful in making sure that the customer is engaged and maintained at Jacob’s Coffee Shop. The business will have the name of Jacob’s Coffee Shop. The name is inspired by a story in the bible where one person sold his inheritance for a bowl of well cooked soup. The soup that was served to him was so good that he could not resist and even sold his highly valued inheritance just for one bowl. In this regard, the Jacob’s Coffee Shop will provide its customers with such good coffee and beverage products that the customers will come back for more. While the main product for Jacob’s Coffee Shop will be coffee served at the coffee shop, Jacob’s Coffee Shop will take advantage of the available market to make sure that it has more business. In this regard, Jacob’s Coffee Shop will also offer deliveries especially to functions where coffee is needed in large quantities, at the request of the customer. As Gibson (2013) says, coffee shops must know how to extend their services in order to increase their revenues and profits. Word of mouth will be an important way to promote the business. All the initial customers will be asked kindly to spread the information about the shop to their friends and family. At the same time, to help the word of mouth strategy to work, there will be well designed colorful leaflets that will be made and each customer given a number of them to give to their friends and family. To engage the customers, the social media will be used. There are several social media that are available and they all offer both

Made In Chelsea Analysis of an episode Essay Example for Free

Made In Chelsea Analysis of an episode Essay From the episode of Made In Chelsea I watched, I can say that the representations we have of upwardly mobile young city dwellers are that they are social-oriented, whose lives seem to be some care-free that they can cavort around various places in London—and the world—without any problems. We also only see characters of a certain age range—none are, we assume, above the age of thirty—of which the majority have no jobs or business, leading us to believe that they come from families of ‘old money’, and so having a job themselves would seem rather pointless. Saying that, there are a few characters who do possess their own business or thereabouts. However, our perceptions of the characters are very one sided, as we are constricted to seeing only one side of that character—the one that fits their current storyline the best. This prevents us from seeing, per se, the kind heartedness of a character that has just cheated on their partner. The words ‘characters’ and ‘storylines’ fit well with my next point; the conversations and the events that take place throughout the episode seem far too rehearsed and coincidental for them to be actual ‘reality’. Location shots are used of London sights and attractions to establish the setting of the scene. They also are only of Central London attractions, and the shops and restaurants et al all seem to highlight the wealth of the individuals who shop there, eat there etc. Reactions, for the majority of the show, are shown using over-the-shoulder shots to portray the reaction of the person who is being told something. There is also usage of eye line matching shots that show you what the character may have been looking at from their angle. The episode seems to comprise of short segments that have then been edited in post production so that they can seek out the most entertaining of segments. This is obvious as the episode transitions from one group of people at a restaurant to a boxing arena and then back to the restaurant again. Tzvetan Torodov’s narrative theory that conventional narratives are structured into five stages; Equilibrium—disruption—recognition—repair—reinstatement, could be present within the episode, as you can apply it to the situation between Louis, Spencer and Jamie (the love triangle storyline). The fact that it fits so well with Torodov’s theory does support the question â€Å"How much of Made In Chelsea is actually reality?†

Social Penetration Essay -- Psychology Essays

Social Penetration "Decisions about self-disclosure - whether to reveal one's thoughts, feelings, or past experiences to another person, or the level of intimacy of such disclosure - are part of the everyday life of most persons" (Derlega and Berg, 1987, p. ix). The decisions one makes on the issue of whether or not to self-disclose with others affects not only the types of relationships one will have with others and how they are perceived, but also how well they know themselves. Clearly, self-disclosure plays a major role in the development of close relationships. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, the theorists behind Social Penetration theory, recognized this fact and designed their theory to illustrate and explain this process of self-disclosure through social penetration. In this paper, I will explain Altman and Taylor's Social Penetration theory and the framework behind it, offer come critiques that have been made about the theory by other communication scholars, and present examples of studies conducted using the ideas of social penetration. To understand the idea of Social Penetration theory, one must first understand the ideas behind it, and more specifically, its framework. The theory focuses around the idea that within every relationship social penetration processes exist. Altman and Taylor (1973) explain that these processes include "verbal exchange, nonverbal use of the body, use of the physical environment, and interpersonal perceptions - all of which are exhibited at different levels of intimacy of encounter" (p. 3). The goal of Social Penetration theory is to describe the "formation, maintenance, and dissolution of close relationships" (Derlega & Berg, 1987, p. 5). According to the theory, the form... ...ocial penetration theory. I used Griffin's text mainly as a source for my critiques of the theory. Jourard, S. M. (1971). Self-disclosure: an experimental analysis of the transparent self. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This publication is another psychology oriented edition about self-disclosure. I didn't use any information from this book because it was all repetition from the other sources I gathered. I used the other source information because I found it more reputable. Tannen, D. (1986). That's not what I mean! How conversational style makes or breaks relationships. New York, NY: Ballantine. Deborah Tannen, the author, is the theorist behind genderlects. The only information I used from this book was the quote about the differences between how men and women are seasoned to communicate. Nothing else was relevant to my topic.

Advertising’s Affects on Self-Esteem Essay

â€Å"As most of us know so well by now, when a girl enters adolescence, she faces a series of losses- loss of self-confidence, loss of a sense of efficacy and ambition, and the loss of her ‘voice,’ the sense of being a unique and powerful self that she had in childhood† states Jean Kilbourne in her essay, â€Å"The More You Subtract, The More You Add†. These losses in adolescent girls are natural yet worsened by advertising and entirely overlooked. As media and advertising cause these effects, they also devise to offer just as Jean Kilbourne says, â€Å"Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of offering solutions.† Naturally, advertising has a negative and damaging effect on teenage girls’ self-esteem. Generally speaking, adapting teenage girls strive to be what they see. Commonly, when surrounded by advertising of flawless and thin girls, their goal is then to achieve the same qualities which brings dissatisfaction with their own body. In order to achieve these goals, teenage girls may go to extremes. When size zero models are consistently advertised, that size becomes desired by teenage girls who may not have the ability to be that size. With this desire, comes eating disorders. To reduce this issue, girls shouldn’t be surrounded by only overly thin women in advertisements to avoid added on pressure from advertising when that pressure is already naturally present during adolescence. Advertising produces subtleties that women should remain quiet and have less voice. Advertisements frequently include models with their hands and fingers covering their mouths with catch phrases adding to the negative message. Kilbourne illustrates this well in her essay by saying, â€Å"indeed this is one of the primary messages of the culture to adolescent girls. ‘The silence of a look can reveal more than words,’ says another perfume ad, this one featuring a woman lying on her back†. This expectation can be troubling for young girls, giving them the impression that having too much of a voice is bad, that they should speak in a different way other than using their voice. This as well creates an inequality between boys and girls, that girls should be more ashamed of their opinions and voice. The most distinct negative effect advertising has on teenage girls’ self-esteem is the sexual objectification frequently present in advertising. Advertisements tend to draw a strong emphasis towards sexuality. Girls are taught to be â€Å"overtly sexy and attractive but essentially passive and virginal† (Kilbourne) at a young age. In â€Å"The Merchants of Cool† they explain a â€Å"midriff† role present in the 1990’s explained as your body being your best asset to flaunt even if you don’t understand it. Young teenage girls are prime examples of midriffs because they don’t quite understand their adolescent bodies yet they are pressured from the sexuality shown in advertising to flaunt it the most rather than their brain. Even during Marilyn Monroe’s era, there were advertisements to improve your waist size rather than to reduce it because being curvy was the trend rather than being thin at the time. Yet even this had the issue of excluding naturally thin women that were unable to gain those extra pounds to achieve a thicker bust or waist size. There will always be issues in advertising in society; however, these issues shouldn’t be targeted to negatively effect teenage girls’ self esteem.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 1-5 Summaries

In Chapter 1, the narrator introduces himself as Nick Carraway and talks about himself and his father. He describes himself as tolerant but fails to realizes his views are very biased and speaks with pity to those who â€Å"haven't had the advantages that you've had,† as his father says. Nick comes from a well-known Mid-Western family, and graduated from Yale (as his ancestors have) in 1915. After fighting in World War I, he comes home restless and decides to learn the bond business. His father finances Nick for a year and Nick lives in a house on West Egg. He talks about West and East Egg.West Egg is the less fashionable of the two, and consists of new money. He lives between Gatsby's mansion and another millionaire. East Egg consists of old money people, and that is where his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom Buchanan, live. Tom was one of Nick's classmates at Yale who played football professionally and came from a wealthy family. The Buchanans invite Nick over for dinner, and Nick meets Daisy's friend, Jordan Baker. She is a professional golfer and seems to be bored of being wealthy. At dinner, Tom talks about the book, â€Å"The Rise of the Colored Empires†, and readers learn that Tom is pro-white dominance.Dinner is interrupted by a phone call for Tom, and Jordan tells Nick that it's a phone call from Tom's lover in New York. Daisy and Nick catch up in private out on the veranda. After dinner, everyone chats in a crimson room and when Jordan heads to sleep, Daisy jokes that Jordan and Nick should marry each other. Soon, Nick heads home and sees Gatsby on his dock reaching out his hand across the Sound. Chapter 2 begins with a description of the valley of ashes which is located between West Egg and New York. The area is a barren wasteland and a large billboard with Doctor T. J. Eckleburg's eyes decay in the valley.Tom takes Nick to the valley of ashes so he can meet Tom's mistress. They arrive at George Wilson's garage on the edge of the val ley of ashes and meet with him and his wife, Myrtle. Tom then forces Myrtle (his mistress) and Nick to his flat in New York and throws an improper small party with Myrtle's sister, Catherine, and a couple named McKee. The group then gossips about Jay Gatsby and Catherine claims that he is somehow related to Kaiser Wilhelm, the despised ruler of Germany during World War I. As the group gets more drunk, Myrtle begins to act harsh and almost teenage-like.Catherine states that the only reason Tom hasn't left Daisy is because Daisy is Catholic, and Catholics don't believe in divorce. Nick is surprised by such an accusation because he knows that Daisy is not Catholic. Myrtle then talks about how she never loved her husband, and she made the biggest mistake marrying him. Later, Tom gives Myrtle a puppy as a gift, and the drinking goes on. Sometime after, Myrtle starts chanting Daisy's name, and Tom punches her in the face, breaking her nose. Chapter 3 begins with Nick's description of Gats by's Saturday night parties.These parties are extremely lavish, and earned the reputation of being one of the best parties in New York. Guests gather to admire Gatsby's Rolls Royce and enormous swimming pool, eat delicious food, enjoy the live band, and drink unlimited amounts of alcohol that Gatsby supplies everyone with. Eventually, Gatsby's chauffeur brings an invitation to Nick's door and Nick heads over the next day. When he arrives, the mansion is already packed with anyone and everyone. Many attendees were not invited, even more have not met Gatsby face to face.The crowd is mixed, with people from West Egg and East Egg, and people from New York and some that weren't high up on the social ladder. Nick then runs into Jordan Baker, and they hear rumors among the crowd about Gatsby. Nick and Jordan roam around to try to find Gatsby, and at first end up in Gatsby's library. In his library, they meet a man they call Owl Eyes, who is fascinated by the fact that all the books in the library are real. Afterward, they head out to the garden and begin talking to a man that is young and handsome. He tells them that he served in the same division as Nick in the war.He then introduces himself as Gatsby. Gatsby leaves to take a phone call, but tells one of his servants to seek out Jordan Baker to tell her he needs to speak with her in private. A few hours later, Jordan comes out of the library and tells Nick the conversation was â€Å"simply amazing. † Before Nick leaves, Gatsby invites him to go hydroplaning the next morning and Nick agrees to go. As Nick leaves the mansion, fifty feet from the door, he sees that a car has landed in a ditch. He sees Owl Eyes there and the whole situation is very bizarre. Nick then breaks off to talk about his overall summer of 1922.He states that he did not only attend parties all summer long, but also worked in New York. He met again with Jordan in midsummer, and realized that she had cheated in a golf tournament. Although he knows that Jordan lies constantly, he is still somehow attracted to her. In Chapter 4, Nick returns to one of Gatsby's Sunday morning parties, and he hears a couple of young ladies gossip about Gatsby. They say he is a bootlegger and killed a man because he found out. On another morning, Gatsby invites Nick to lunch in the city. Gatsby then asks Nick what he thinks of him.Nick is very evasive in the way he responds. Gatsby then tells Nick about his past, claiming to be from a MidWestern family and says he is from the city of San Francisco. He then goes on to say that he studied at Oxford and lived in all of the capitals of Europe. And that he enlisted in the war effort, where he was quickly promoted to major and celebrated by every Allied government. Gatsby even pulls out a picture of himself at Oxford and also a medal with his name on it from Montenegro. Gatsby drives very fast through the valley of ashes and is pulled over by a policeman for speeding.Gatsby shows the policeman a white card and the policeman apologizes and doesn't give him a ticket. At lunch, Gatsby introduces Carraway to Meyer Wolfsheim, who is a Jewish man that is an infamous gambler and who claims to have fixed the 1919 World Series. Wolfsheim proudly shows Nick his arm cuff that is made of human molars. Nick soon believes that Gatsby is involved in dark business. After Wolfsheim leaves the restaurant, Nick spots Tom at a table and introduces Gatsby to him. Gatsby is visibly uncomfortable around Tom and leaves suddenly without an explanation.The next time Nick meets with Jordan, she tells him that Gatsby is in love with Daisy. She says that back in 1917, both Daisy and Gatsby volunteered at the Red Cross and Daisy madly fell in love with him. She promised that she would wait for Gatsby to return from war, but while he was away, Tom proposed to her and she accepted. The night before Daisy's wedding, she had realized her huge mistake and drank herself to insanity. Jordan tells Nick that the only reason why Gatsby bought his mansion on West Egg was to be directly across the bay from Daisy.Nick then realizes why Gatsby was on his dock reaching out to the green light across the Sound (because the light is the light on the end of Daisy's dock). Jordan then tells Nick that Gatsby wanted him to arrange a meeting for himself and Daisy at Nick's house. In Chapter 5, the night Nick returns home after talking to Jordan, he sees that Gatsby's mansion is lit from top to bottom. Nick is approached by an eager and nervous Gatsby, and Nick tells him that he has spoken with Jordan. In return for helping him, Gastby offers Nick an under-the-table job that hasn't anything to do with Wolfsheim.Nick is offended by his wish to pay him back for setting up the meeting, and declines the offer. On the day that Gatsby and Daisy are to meet, it begins to rain. When Daisy first arrives, the tension and conversations are very awkward between them. Gatsby is so nervous to be around Daisy that he k nocks over Nick's clock. Nick tells Gatsby to calm down, and leaves them alone for a short while. When Nick returns, he sees that they have just finished hugging and Daisy has joyful tears on her cheeks. They are much more relaxed and comfortable around one another, and they head over to Gatbsy's mansion.Gatsby shows them around, first at some luxurious shirts imported from Europe, and Daisy bursts into tears. Then looking out from a window, Gatsby tells Daisy that he can see the green light at the end of her dock when the night air is clear. After, Gatsby wakes Ewing Klipspringer so he can play â€Å"Ain't We Got Fun† on the piano. While the music floats around in the room, Nick thinks to himself that Daisy will not be able to live up to Gatsby's standards and forget the last five years has ever happened. As Gatsby and Daisy get closer, Nick realizes it is time for him to leave and starts walking home.

Repartee Definition and Examples

Repartee Definition and Examples A repartee means having a quick, witty reply or an exchange of witty remarks and comes from the Old French to set out again. Examples and Observations First one speaks, then presently tothers upon him slap, with a Repartee.(Bayes in The Rehearsal by George Villiers, 1672)†The concept of staircase wit, authored by the French writer Denis Diderot, refers to those devastatingly clever remarks that we’re unable to produce when they’re needed, but come to mind with perfect clarity moments later, as we’re walking down the staircase and heading out the door. There is no similar expression in English, but the Germans have long had their own word for it: Treppenwitz (also ‘staircase wit’). The writer Heywood Broun certainly had this phenomenon in mind when he wrote: ‘Repartee is what you wish you’d said.’... While the word retort suggests the notion of putting adversaries and opponents in their place, repartee is a broader term that refers to clever or witty remarks in almost any social situation. Repartee stories have been around for centuries.†(Mardy Grothe, Viva la Reparte e. Collins, 2005)†Even when members of the Algonquin Round Table pondered some of life’s most serious questions, one or another of the witty group would somehow find a way to lighten the conversation. During a discussion of suicide one day, George S. Kaufman was asked by another member of the group, ‘So, how would you kill yourself?’ Kaufman considered the question thoughtfully for several moments before replying: ‘With kindness.’†(Quoted by Mardy Grothe in Viva la Repartee) Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.(Mark Twain)[T]art-tongued Lady Astor, the first woman elected to the House of Commons, allegedly told [Winston] Churchill, If you were my husband, Id put poison in your coffee (in his tea, more likely). Madam, Churchill is said to have responded, If you were my wife, Id drink it. Many biographers of both Churchill and Astor report that some form of this exchange took place. However, the researcher for a biography of Churchill... discounted the comment as uncharacteristic of the rather prim prime minister.(Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When. Macmillan, 2006) Dorothy Parker â€Å"In the hospital Dorothy Parker was visited by her secretary, to whom she wished to dictate some letters. Pressing the button marked NURSE, Dorothy observed, ‘That should assure us at least 45 minutes of undisturbed privacy.’† â€Å"Dorothy Parker and a friend were talking about a forceful and garrulous celebrity. ‘She’s so outspoken,’ remarked the friend. ‘By whom?’ asked Dorothy.† â€Å"Looking at a worn-out toothbrush in their hostess’s bathroom, a fellow guest said to Dorothy Parker, ‘Whatever do you think she does with that?’ ’I think she rides it on Halloween’ was the reply.†(Quoted in The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, edited by Clifton Fadiman. Little,Brown and Co., 1985) Oscar Wilde â€Å"Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.†(at the mention of a huge fee for a surgical operation) â€Å"Work is the curse of the drinking classes.† â€Å"I have nothing to declare except my genius.†(at the New York Custom House) â€Å"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.†(Quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 6th ed., edited by Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford Univ. Press, 2004)

Definitions and Examples of English Usage

Definitions and Examples of English Usage Usage refers to the conventional ways in which words or phrases are used, spoken, or written in a speech community. There is no official institution (akin to the 500-year-old Acadà ©mie franà §aise, for example) that functions as an authority on how the English language should be used. There are, however, numerous publications, groups, and individuals (style guides, language mavens, and the like) that have attempted to codify (and sometimes dictate) rules of usage. EtymologyFrom Latin,  usus  Ã‚  to use Observations This usage stuff is not straightforward and easy. If ever someone tells you that the rules of English grammar are simple and logical and you should just learn them and obey them, walk away, because youre getting advice from a fool.  (Geoffrey K. Pullum, Does It Really Matter If It Dangles? Language Log, Nov. 20, 2010)The thoughtful, nondichotomous position on language depends on a simple insight: Rules of proper usage are tacit conventions. Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing thingsnot because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice. Standardized weights and measures, electrical voltages and cables, computer file formats, the Gregorian calendar, and paper currency are familiar examples.  (Steven Pinker, False Fronts in the Language Wars. Slate, May 31, 2012) The Difference Between Grammar and Usage In this book, grammar refers to the manner in which the language functions, the ways that the blocks of speech and writing are put together. Usage refers to using specific words in a manner that will be thought of as either acceptable or unacceptable. The question of whether or not to split an infinitive is a consideration of grammar; the question of whether one should use literally in a nonliteral sense is one of usage.  (Ammon Shea, Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation. Perigee, 2014) Arbiters of Usage The present-day scholarly concept of usage as a social consensus based on the practices of the educated middle class has emerged only within the last century. For many people, however, the views and aims of the 17th-18c fixers of the language continue to hold true: they consider that there ought to be a single authority capable of providing authoritative guidance about good and bad usage. For them, the model remains that of the Greek and Latin, and they have welcomed arbiters of usage such as Henry Fowler who have based their prescriptions on this model. In spite of this  ... no nation in which English is the main language has yet set up an official institution to monitor and make rules about usage. New words, and new senses and uses of words, are not sanctioned or rejected by the authority of any single body: they arise through regular use and, once established, are recorded in dictionaries and grammars. This means that, with the classical model of grammar in rapid decline, the us ers of English collectively set the standards and priorities that underlie all usage.  (Robert Allen, Usage. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, ed. T. McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1992) Most of the little manuals which pretend to regulate our use of our own language and to declare what is and what is not good English are grotesque in their ignorance; and the best of them are of small value, because they are prepared on the assumption that the English language is dead, like the Latin, and that, like Latin again, its usage is fixed finally. Of course, this assumption is as far as possible from the fact. The English language is alive now- very much alive. And because it is alive it is in a constant state of growth. It is developing daily according to its needs. It is casting aside words and usages that are no longer satisfactory; it is adding new terms as new things are brought forward; and it is making new usages, as convenience suggests, short-cuts across lots, and to the neglect of the five-barred gates rigidly set up by our ancestors.  (Brander Matthews, Parts of Speech: Essays on English, 1901) Usage and Corpus Linguistics English is more diverse than ever in all hemispheres. Research into new Englishes has flourished, supported by journals such as English World-Wide, World Englishes and English Today. At the same time, the quest for a single, international form for written communication becomes more pressing, among those aiming at a global readership...Many kinds of resource have been brought to bear on the style and usage questions raised. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is the first of its kind to make regular use of large databases (corpora) of computerized texts as primary sources of current English. . . . The corpora embody various kinds of written discourse as well as transcriptions of spoken discourseenough to show patterns of divergence between the two. Negative attitudes to particular idioms or usage often turn on the fact that they are more familiar to the ear than the eye, and the constructions of formal writing are privileged thereby. Corpus data allow us to look more neutrally at the distributions of words and constructions, to view the range of styles across which they operate. On this basis, we can see what is really standard, i.e. usable in many kinds of discourse, as opposed to the formal or informal.  (Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge University Press, 2004) Linguists and Usage As a field of study, usage doesnt hold much interest for modern linguists, who are drifting more and more toward qualitative psychology and theory. Their leading theorist, Noam Chomsky of MIT, has acknowledged, with no apparent regret, the pedagogical irrelevance of modern linguistics: I am, frankly, rather skeptical about the significance, for the teaching of languages, of such insights and understanding as have been attained in linguistics and psychology ... If you want to learn how to use the English language skillfully and gracefully, books on linguistics wont help you at all.  (Bryan A. Garner, Garners Modern American Usage, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2009) Correctness In the past, unproven ideas about the Standard have often been used to forward certain social interests at the expense of others. Knowing this, we do not describe the misuse of the conventions of punctuation in some students writing as a crime against civilization, although we do point out the mistakes. What interests us far more is that these apprentice writers have interesting ideas to convey, and manage to support their arguments well. They should be encouraged to turn to the task of writing seriously and enthusiastically rather than be discouraged because they cannot punctuate a restrictive clause correctly. But when they ask, Does spelling count? we tell them that in writing, as in life, everything counts. For academic writers, as for writers in a wide variety of fields (business, journalism, education, etc.), correctness in both content and expression is vital. . . . Language standardization may have been used as a tool of social oppression, but it has also been the vehicle of broad collaboration and communication. We are right to treat usage both warily and seriously.  (Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine, Guide to Canadian English Usage, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2007)   Usage is trendy, arbitrary, and above all, constantly changing, like all other fashionsin clothing, music, or automobiles. Grammar is the rationale of a language; usage is the etiquette.​  (I. S. Fraser and L. M. Hodson, Twenty-One Kicks at the Grammar Horse. The English Journal, Dec. 1978)   E.B. White on Usage as a Matter of Ear We were interested in what Dr. Henry Seidel Canby had to say about English usage, in the Saturday Review. Usage seems to us peculiarly a matter of ear. Everyone has his own set of rules, his own list of horribles. Dr. Canby speaks of contact used as a verb, and points out that careful writers and speakers, persons of taste, studiously avoid it. They dosome of them, because the word so used, makes their gorge rise, others because they have heard that we sensitive litry folk consider it displeasing. The odd thing is that what is true of one noun-verb is not necessarily true of another. To contact a man makes us wince; but to ground a plane because of bad weather sounds all right. Further, although we are satisfied to ground a plane, we object to garaging an automobile. An automobile should not be garaged; it should either be put in a garage or left out all night.The contraction aint, as Dr. Canby points out, is a great loss to the language. Nice Nellies, schoolteachers, and underdone g rammarians have made it the symbol of ignorance and ill-breeding, when in fact it is a handy word, often serving where nothing else will. Say it aint so is a phrase that is right the way it stands, and couldnt be any different. People are afraid of words, afraid of mistakes. One time a newspaper sent us to a morgue to get a story on a woman whose body was being held for identification. A man believed to be her husband was brought in. Somebody pulled the sheet back; the man took one agonizing look, and cried, My God, its her! When we reported this grim incident, the editor diligently changed it to My God, its she!The English language is always sticking a foot out to trip a man. Every week we get thrown, writing merrily along. Even Dr. Canby, a careful and experienced craftsman, got thrown in his own editorial. He spoke of the makers of textbooks who are nearly always reactionary, and often unscholarly in denying the right to change to a language that has always been changing ... In this case, the word change, quietly sandwiched in between a couple of tos, unexpectedly exploded the whole sentence. Even inverting the phr ases wouldnt have helped. If he had started out, In denying to a language ... the right to change, it would have come out this way: In denying to a language that has always been changing the right to change ... English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and educationsometimes its sheer luck, like getting across a street.  (E.B. White, English Usage. The Second Tree From the Corner. Harper Row, 1954) Pronunciation: YOO-sij

The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East Essay

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