Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Animal Farm by George Orwell. The novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is an allegory portraying the dangers of a totalitarian government. It seeks to show how a society where all live completely equal has not been, and cannot be achieved. Orwell, through the use of the character Squealer, shows how propaganda can affect members of a communist society in a negative way. By drawing parallels to events in communist Russia, Orwell's Animal Farm illustrates how propaganda was used to control the Soviet people by deceiving them, threatening them and keeping them ignorant in an attempt to maintain order. The story uses simple language to explain and expose the corruption of communist Russia.Throughout the story, Orwell uses Squealer to illustrate how propaganda persuaded and victimized Russian citizens. Squealer is a sly, crafty pig who is not only intelligent, but a manipulative speaker as well. His cunning is key to the deception of the other animals.Leon Trotsky in 1918.When Old Major dies, Snowball and Napoleon the n become the leader of the animals. Snowball is smart, intelligent and passionate while Napoleon, on the other hand, is devious, power consuming and intimidating. Snowball is symbolic of Leon Trotsky. A radical leader known for his phenomenal organizational and conspiratorial skills. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, a Soviet dictator. Another pig, Squealer, has a small yet important role in the novel as his persuasive speaking ability is of use to Snowball and Napoleon. These three pigs create a policy and name it "animalism". They explain "animalism" to the other farm animals and soon persuade most of the animals to join in the revolution. The revolution soon takes place and Mr. Jones flees from Manor Farm. Snowball repaints the sign "Manor Farm" to "Animal Farm" and then he and Napoleon introduce the animals to the Seven Commandments, which...

Job Spotlight Administrative Assistant

Job Spotlight Administrative Assistant There are currently almost half a million open job postings for qualified administrative assistants- do you have what it takes?Table of contents.What is the job?Where to search for jobs?  Average salary for an administrative assistantHow to get the job?  How to advance your career as an administrative assistantEmployers are seeking applicants with a minimum of an associate’s degree- and the job requirements have evolved from answering phones and fetching coffee. Today’s administrative assistants can expect to not only field incoming calls, but also connect callers to the appropriate contact person, as well as data entry, daily problem-solving, managing office supplies and ordering, coordinating company events, maintaining the boss’ calendar, supervising interns, composing memos and mass emails, and serving as the first point of contact inter-departmental communication.It is an under-appreciated and at times overwhelming role, but it can help prepare you to mo ve onward and upward in administrative jobs in pretty much any field you can think of. [Source: Payscale]Titles for your job searchAdministrative assistantExecutive assistantOffice managerOffice assistantReceptionistCustomer service representativeTellerBookkeeperMerchandiserAccount payable clerkWhere to work?Here are the current top hiring locations for administrative assistants:Spartanburg, SCSpringfield, MAKingsport/Bristol, TNHagerstown/Martinsburg, MDColumbus, GAUtica/Rome, NYMcallen/Edinburg/Mission, TXPeoria, ILHickory/Lenoir/Morganton, NCHuntington/Ashland, WVAnd here are the current top hiring  organizations  for administrative assistants:Wells FargoMacy’sBank of AmericaFamily DollarSeasTargetLowe’sHome DepotHR BlockPetsmartCertifications and skillsIf you’re not already, it’s time to become an expert at Microsoft word, excel, outlook, and powerpoint. Figure out what publications online and in-print contribute to your industry and read them reg ularly. Make sure your written and verbal communications skills are on point- odds are you’ll be called upon for proofreading, at the very least.Though you  don’t have to be great at math, you should definitely be organized enough to handle accounts received and payable, which means tracking bills and checks on their way in and out of the office. If you can, consider taking an accounting course or two- or even getting a certification to bolster your hard skillset. [Source: Wanted Analytics]The bad news is, you have to deal with a lot of personalities, and not all of them will be terrific. The good news is, your skills will be thoroughly transferable, so you can job search by researching companies instead of being limited to a few companies that provide opportunities for a rare specialty.The job can be high stress, until you can master compartmentalizing and set healthy work-life boundaries so your to-do list doesn’t follow you home.Expected salaryThe median ye arly salary for administrative assistants is in the $30k range, and the median hourly rate is under $15. [source: Wanted Analytics]Develop your resumeThe soft and hard skills that make an excellent administrative assistant can come from nearly anywhere- and entry level positions will help polish any skills that you’re still developing. Make sure you frame any experience you’ve had in terms of working with the public, reporting to a busy supervisor, balancing demanding tasks, and communicating efficiently with your colleagues.See also:  3 entry-level job seeking mistakes to avoidAccumulate references/letters of recommendationFor your references, select people who’ve seen you in action at your busiest without cracking under the pressure! Send them a copy of your latest resume and the job posting before you list them as a reference, so they know which of your skills to emphasize when they talk you up.Apply in person or onlineDo your research to find out whether t he company you’re applying to work for accepts applications online (in which case be extra vigilant about uploading the correct and well-proofread versions of your documents; usually saving them as a pdf is most effective), or whether you should drop off a folder with your resume, letters of recommendation, and cover letter.Apply here:  Administrative assistant jobsInterview like a proMany of these basics are widely available online- dress professionally, nothing too flashy or revealing or casual, no cologne, plenty of deodorant, neatly groomed and well-rested. Don’t make the mistake I make nearly every time of over-thinking your handshake or arriving way to early and downing a giant iced coffee while you’re waiting across the street!Research the business ahead of timeKnowing how old the company is, who its founders were, what their mission is, and how your position fits into their overall business will help you answer questions like â€Å"why are you the bes t fit for ABC corp’s downtown office?† or â€Å"what will you bring to ABCs professional atmosphere?† with poise and confidence.In summary: know what you have to offer, and know what they need.Be prepared to highlight 5-7 personal anecdotes that showcase your skills It’s not enough to say you’re organized, describe a project you worked on that required you to exercise all of your organizational skills like planning ahead, coordinating with vendors, tracking payments, running an event, etc.Follow up graciouslyThe morning after your interview, be sure to send a thank-you note or appreciative email to everyone you met with- or if you emailed with only one point person, ask them to pass on your regards. You want to express thanks for their time and information, and reiterate your enthusiasm for the position.See the bigger pictureWhen I first started working as an assistant, I was eager and ready-to-please, but eventually, I got burned out on menial task s and what I perceived as a lack of respect- people talked over me as though I were invisible in meetings and seemed to only think of me when it was time to order things.What I had to realize was that being invisible actually gave me great access to the levels of the company where I wanted to work anyway, and that being the one responsible for keeping everyone in pens and copy paper actually meant everyone relied on me.Be the one everyone wants to knowThe all time great administrative assistants, like Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing or Donna on Suits or Joan Holloway-Harris on Mad Men, thrive because they are the hubs of their offices. If you want to know anything that’s going on, you go to them, and you ask politely, and hope they are feeling helpful. This can be you!As long as you recognize when you’re paying your dues, and are generous with your time and knowledge, people will appreciate your role as gatekeeper.Prove yourselfAnother crucial component is being able to effortlessly pull off the impossible- or at least make it look easy. Assisting is all about anticipating needs, thinking ahead, and taking initiative to make the higher-ups’ jobs run smoothly.I used to get exasperated when my bosses hounded me about small assignments. Eventually I realized the way to avoid follow-up emails with the little urgent exclamation point was to communicate quickly and clearly, even if it was just a quick â€Å"this is still in the works, estimated delivery date is 4/12† note that didn’t even get a response. My bosses learned to trust I would turn jobs around exactly when I said I would, and they could rely on me to communicate if I hit a snag.Be a trusted confidanteI am not going to lie. Office gossip is great. It is fun, it builds work-friendships like nothing else, and seems like a great way to boost your own standing when you’re the one with the intel. But, a truly great administrative assistant knows that loose lips sink s hips- if your boss is trusting you with a big project, or access to confidential information, your career will be better served by keeping a lid on it and being worthy of that trust.Look at tasks that seem more personal than administrative as a sign that you’re becoming indispensible- don’t let it derail your other work, but see what professional benefits come after you demonstrate your ability to keep someone’s confidence.Now that you know what the job looks like, where and how to look for it, and what to do when you get there, you should have everything you need to decide whether a career as an administrative assistant is right for you. Good luck and happy searching!Apply here:  Administrative Assistant jobs

Why Job Hopping Can Boost Your Career

Why Job Hopping Can Boost Your Career Younger employees and Millennials (shout out to everyone with the Snake People plug in!) so often hear that â€Å"this isn’t their parents’ job market† and other frightening underemployment statistics. But here’s some  good news! It may actually be a smart career decision to fluctuate  in your employment history. Here are some  compelling reasons to have a dynamic track record instead of a mono-job history. Aim for 4 years max a one place, and then start looking for your next opportunity.  Rapidly Evolving Skill SetsIf you’re changing jobs every few years, you’re expanding and freshening up your skill set, learning new things, and just as important, acquiring resume-worthy evidence of your evolving job responsibilities. This is also good news for job seekers, because a job you wouldn’t have qualified for a few years ago may have shifted and revamped since its last tenant left.  Technological AdvancementsSpending 4+ years in t he same job is a great way to get comfortable with the in-house software, content management, sales procedures, etc- but even if your company isn’t constantly adopting new technology, your competitors might be. Whether you’re a systems administrator or occupy a more front-of-house role, stay on top of the technological options in your field so that if you change lanes, you’ll be able to keep up.  PerceptionDating analogies in the midst of job discussions generally creep me out, but in this case I think it’s a pretty good comparison. If you meet someone recently out of a 14-year relationship, are you more or less likely to go on another date with them than the person you meet the next night who’s had a series of stable but shorter-term relationships?Put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes- someone with 3 jobs in 10  years can come across as easier to train, more adaptable, and more motivated.  Career AdvancementWhen you stay in one pla ce for a long period of time, if you’re behind someone on the job ladder, there’s always a chance you won’t get to move up until they move up or move on. But if you’re making ambitious moves and expanding your horizons as you change jobs, you can evolve more quickly than you would have done by staying put.As always, be thoughtful about all professional life choices- give each decision time, communicate honestly and in a timely manner with your employers, and make your best effort not to burn any bridges. You don’t want to come across as unfocused or irresponsible, and you certainly don’t want to leave a string of employers who think you’re a flight risk!

The Secret Power of Your Mind

The Secret Power of Your Mind Your mind is a very powerful thing, and most of us take it for granted. We believe we arent in control of what we think because our thoughts seem to fly in and out all day long. But you are in control of your thoughts, and you become what you think about. And that little kernel of truth is the secret power of the mind.   Its really not a secret after all. The power is available to every single person, including you. And its free. The secret is that you are what you think. You become what you think about. You can create the life you want, simply by thinking the right thoughts. Earl Nightingale on The Strangest Secret In 1956, Earl Nightingale wrote The Strangest Secret in an attempt to teach people the power of the mind, the power of thought. He said, you become what you think about all day long. Nightingales inspiration came from Napoleon Hills book, Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937. For 75 years (and likely long before that), this simple secret has been taught to adults around the world. At the very least, the knowledge has been available to us. How the Power of the Mind Can Work to Improve Your Life We are creatures of habit. We tend to follow the picture in our minds created by our parents, our neighborhoods, our towns and the part of the world from which we come. For good or for bad. But we dont have to. We each have a mind of our own, capable of imagining life the way we want it. We can say yes or no to the million choices we each encounter every single day. Sometimes its good to say no, of course, or we wouldnt get anything at all done. But the most successful people say yes to life overall. They are open to possibilities. They believe they have the power to make changes in their lives. They arent afraid to try new things  or to fail. In fact, many of the most successful companies reward people who have the courage to try new things, even if they fail, because the things we call failures often turn into extremely successful things. Did you know Post-It Notes were a mistake in the beginning? How to Use the Power of Your Mind Start imagining your life the way you want it. Create a picture in your mind and think about that picture steadfastly all day long. Believe in it. You dont have to tell anybody. Have your own quiet confidence that you can make the picture in your mind come true. You will start making different choices in line with your picture. You will take small steps in the right direction. Youll also encounter obstacles. Dont let these obstacles stop you. If you hold your picture of the life you want steadfast in your mind, you will eventually create that life. What have you got to lose? Close your eyes and start now. You will become what you think about.

Industrial revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Industrial revolution - Essay Example The revolution took place around the end of 18th century and early 19th century. The overall economic outlook of England’s society saw a turn and twist in the manner in which it operated previously, and this was formally coined in by Arnold Toynbee (Williams, 2011, 138) who gave it the name of revolution and since then the term has been referred to as revolution in form of modernization of society across the world. Apart from the form of practices, it had its effect on the different styles of leadership and ruling over individuals in society as well. Keywords: Development, steel, economic development Characteristics of revolution: It brought about change in the life styles. Prior to it people relied on agriculture and lived a simple life style that was restricted to the rural part of the countries. With the advent of the industrial revolution, industries were developed; machinery came about into usage, people started adopting the new means. Although the revolution was of total ly different pattern as compared to the previous revolutions yet it had an impact on the social sphere, economic sphere and political sphere within different societies. The countries with greater economic development were in position to dominate the situation and enforce their conditions and political systems upon other nations. Imperialism was a sequence of the entire event that took place as a result of dominant and stronger economic states against the weaker ones (Kesselmae et.al, 2011, 51). In the social sphere, it allowed for jobs creation and overall rise in the income level. The ultimate impact was that of improvement of the economy. Per capita incomes (Sng, 2010), G.D.Ps, annual budgets and other social and economic factors saw progress up to multiple folds which was completely unprecedented. Countries with more progress in the industrial sector ended up becoming developed states and those with little access and advantages extraction from the industrial means and mechanism r emained underprivileged and under developed. The impact was directly visible upon the people within those societies and the overall standards of life were of little attractive outlook with regard to income and prosperity level. The earliest traces of Industrial revolution can be traced back in to the English society where people started using the tools and devices at domestic level, although the term came into force and knowledge in France first(Clark, 2000, 5) . This in turn gave rise to the industry at local level and people started progressing with the overall prospect of various professions. Machine, tools, automation, iron, steel were few of the terms that were trade mark of the concept of industrial development that took place in Europe. The spread of development in form of concepts of industrialization did not stop in the social spheres of England only ,rather it made inroads into other societies of Europe as well and later on extended beyond the European continent and United States of America got engulfed into the overall developmental process. The benefits and modifications that resulted from industrial development were not only limited to manufacturing industries or heavy machinery usage, rather they enabled the communication advancements in form of the building of roads, and covering these roads with automobiles of all kinds.

Deforestation and the effects on the environment with philosophical Case Study

Deforestation and the effects on the environment with philosophical theoretical issues - Case Study Example The specific social changes that are responsible for most of the environmental degradation are linked with rapid population growth, the proliferation of national and international trade leading to opening up of more markets due to increased demand and hunger for profits and major changes in land tenure systems that lead to the concentration of land. Traditional mechanisms were aimed at sustainable use of the environment. Since the days of the early man, nature was what guided man (Dharam, 1994). In fact, for the first civilization to exist, they had to adapt to the environment. Much has changed since those days as today, the reverse is true. Human beings no longer seek to adapt to the environment but rather seek for the environment to adapt to their needs. The insatiable need for energy has led to massive deforestation, mining and the use of unclean energy sources. These facts have led to the current infamous conditions generally referred to as global warming that is accelerated by t he emission of greenhouse gases into the environment (Gardiner, 2004). The trend does not seem reversible in the near future as there are very few viable alternatives to those causing harm to the environment and which humans can harness to the same magnitude as the unclean sources. The hunger for more energy is not the sole cause of environmental degradation. On the contrary, social inequalities on the lines of influence, material wealth and gender have been mentioned as part of the contributors to this dangerous trend. Environmental deterioration is not a light matter. In fact, there are numerous numbers of people who bear the blunt for the damage done to the environment. These effects may be manifested in the health, livelihood and well-being of the victims. Pollution and natural resource depletion can be in terms of soil erosion which robs the soil of its mineral contents and renders it infertile hence unable to sustain plants, deforestation which entails the cutting down of the very vegetation that is responsible for the purification of air and formation of rainfall and the depletion of both plant and animal species which inadvertently occasions an imbalance in different ecosystems (Munasinghe, 1993). When these occurrences happen, people are forced to change their ways in a bid to adapting to the new conditions. Consumption and production patterns are affected. The changes that lead people to change their income generating activities, to migrate and reorganize their entire livelihoods ultimately lead to the change in social structures (Vivian & Ghimire, 1990). The transformations usually have a ripple effect on other societies and the result is that more pressure is put on the existing natural resources. For example, a family that is dependent on electrical energy for their domestic usage in rural areas and who experience a dip in their disposable income will be forced to result to more economic sources of energy. This might lead them to adopt firewood an d coal as their primary source of fuel. Naturally, these alternatives are part of the environment and as such, more pressure on the already dwindling natural resources. Discussion Many people simply refer to deforestation as the depletion of forests. The Food and Agriculture Organization which is a department of the United Nations refers to deforestation as â€Å"complete clearing of tree formations (closed or open) and their replacement

Modern Artists Joan Miro and Marcel Duchamp Essay

Modern Artists Joan Miro and Marcel Duchamp - Essay Example The essay "Modern Artists Joan Miro and Marcel Duchamp" explores Joan Miro and Marcel Duchamp and their works. Marcel’s artwork stands out as an artistic handy work with varied materials that make it real and fascinating to look at thereby inducing immense attention from viewers. This is because the artwork comprises of varied incorporated material not necessarily purchased by procured locally probably collecting worn out pieces of metals and other materials including threads. At a first glance, one cannot tell if the materials used entail ready available resources like copper collar, metal stand and a pulley. I also got fascinated by the work since it shows how thought major level of creativity. This is because for one to come up with a final product that encompasses fitting a painted papier- mache demisphere on velvet covered disk requires patience as well as outstanding creativity. Other intriguing encompasses the artiste’s blending of harmonious colors within the wh ole piece of work, which are black, white and brown. Hence, making the object appear integrated also with its settings and other parts such that it is not contrasting its varied parts together with shadow cast just close to it. This brings out the impact of visibility, which makes it exceptional compared to other pieces of work that may resemble it. Mainly, this is an artistic technique commonly associated with exceptional artists in their quest to create attention despite their works’ settings or placement in a museum as in Marcel’s artwork. ... Based on this piece of work (completed in 1936) depicting perching parrot, I guess the artist’s interest encompassed making his works resemble mostly nature and other wild creatures though in an illogical manner. This is evident in the way he is capable of incorporating wild features in his work and other things like a shoe as well as hat whose original settings as expected by mere audience does not resemble what he has made through this artwork. However, the artwork is extremely intriguing, which was the reason of choosing it. Similar to Marcel, the artists has also embraced use of harmonious though having lighter shading to align adequately with the artwork settings and somehow wildly nature. The latter is evident in the way the perched by the parrot seems all through having almost close colors thus no sharp contrasting. In addition, Miro’s work resembles that of his counterpart Marcel through assembly of varied aspects to create a unique and an identifiable object. I n comparison with Marcel’s artwork, Miro seemed to have gone further into utilizing refined aspects to come up with this artwork, which are shoe, art and others like different material for engraving the map, which is diverse from the brown one protruding from the base. The reason behind choosing this artwork was due to the artist’s fascinating way of incorporating nature with other aspects to make the viewer deem he or she is in the wild. This is via Joan merging varied materials to come up with appears like a tree hoisting a bird in order to bring out the hidden fascination in nature and the wild. Thesis: Marcel and Joan despite their respective artworks differing in the manner of materials incorporated in

Forensic nursing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Forensic nursing - Term Paper Example According to the American Academy of Forensic sciences (AAFS) forensic nursing is â€Å"the application of forensic aspects of health care combined with the bio/psycho/social/spiritual education of the registered nurse in the scientific investigation of trauma and or death† (Hammer and Pagliario, 2006). In the past, forensic medical interventions (including lifesaving interventions) were withheld until a Forensic medical examiner (FME) has arrived at the emergency department and had collected evidence (Pyrek, 2006 ). In fact, clients were even transferred to other cities that offered forensic clinical services; moreover, there was not much intervention that could be provided in order to protect forensic evidence ( Pyrek, 2006). When a Forensic Nurse Examiner (FNE) is available at the clinical site, they are able to secure the important forensic evidence requiring timely recovery and preservation without withholding medical interventions ( Pyrek. 2006). In 1991, the American Society of Forensic Nurses was the first to recognize and accept Forensic Nursing as a specialty (Bader and Gabriel, 2009 ). The following year , 72 primary sexual assault nurse examiners formed the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) (International Association of Forensic Nurses, 2006). The aim of the IAFN promoted the education of forensic nurses; thus, the Forensic Nursing Code of Ethics and the Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice was developed in 1997(Bader and Gabriel, 2009). Forensic Nursing is a specialty that is still in its infancy, thus it needs to continuously grow to provide an appropriate response in trauma cases, provide a more holistic care to their clients, and create advocacy for their patients in an unbiased , scientific, and objective manner. In the past many of these roles have been carried out by emergency nurses who may not be

Comments and Opinions While News Reporting Essay Example for Free

Comments and Opinions While News Reporting Essay

Why Nations Go To War Essay Example for Free

Why Nations Go To War Essay There are often people who ask the big question, â€Å"Why do nations feel the need to go to war? † One of the main reasons for this question comes from the loss of life that comes with it. However, on an opinionated theory I have concluded that a larger portion of why a nation decides to go to war would be to expand their territory. They could even be trying to gain freedom for their nation. Many times nations use scarcity of resources in their own country to justify warring with another nation for theirs. Regardless, the nations that begin a war will always be able to provide some reason for the fighting. As stated, territorial expansion is one of the main reasons I believe that nations wage war. Whether it is to prove dominance, or out of jealousy. Larger territories provide for the conquering nation to create a bigger and stronger nation. In some cases, they want to take territory from another nation to make them weak, and unable to stay caught up with the rest of the world. By taking what other nations have, there is the possibility to shut them out. Somewhat in relation to territorial gain, is the possibility to acquire new resources. Having access to more resources like coal, iron, oil, and steel would lead to a larger expanse of trade. This would feed a nation greater sum of money so they could better afford any expenses. At times, war could be caused to take resources from others because the attacking nation has very little of their own. Most wars that are based upon the gain of resources end up devastating the environment they are held in. Lastly, war issues could result from a fight for freedom, this derives from nations wanting the right to self govern themselves. Most times this is due to the abusive control of another oppressive power. Some enslaved nations wish to be free so they can do what was done to them. Eventually they may reach a strong enough point to create their own imperialistic movement. This can also lead to a never ending cycle of fighting for freedom, then turning that new power upon others. Do you have the ability to decipher why a nation chooses to go to war? People often think they know why nations go to war, but can they support their own opinion? I support the connections I made myself with ideas of territorial issues, the need for resources, and the want to truly be free. No matter what issues result in war. They will most likely cause feelings of hatred and resentment between combating nations.

Soliloquy Essay - Two Soliloquies, One from Lady Macbeth and One from Macbeth :: GCSE Coursework Macbeth Essays

Analysis of Two Soliloquies - One from Lady Macbeth and another from Macbeth  Ã‚   On the level of human evil, Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth is about the character Macbeth's bloody rise to power, including the murder of the Scottish king, Duncan, and the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating still more evil deeds. Perhaps, the play's most memorable character is Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbeth's ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play's famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit. Throughout the novel, there are moments when important characters are given the opportunity to express details of their character and reveal information that is otherwise not given, but vital to the development of the story. A soliloquy is a classical literary technique to allow a character to share his or her thoughts and feelings with the audience. I will now examine and attempt to interpret two of these soliloquies, one from Lady Macbeth and the second from Macbeth himself. As the scene opens, Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from her husband. The letter tells of the witches' prophecy for him, which is treated as a certainty, because "I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge". "The perfectest report" means "the most reliable information," so it appears that Macbeth has been asking people what they know about the reliability of witches. If that's the case, he has ignored the advice of Banquo, who is quite sure that witches can't be trusted. But Macbeth seems to trust the witches absolutely, because he is writing to his wife, his "dearest partner of greatness," so that she "mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing". That is, he believes that she has a right to rejoice because she will be a queen. However, Lady Macbeth doesn't rejoice. She is determined that he will be king, but she suspects that he doesn't have the right stuff to do what needs to be done. Speaking to him as though he were really there, she says: "Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way". Her reaction to the letter shows that Lady Macbeth is a woman who knows her husband very well, perhaps because she shares some of his instincts.

Gone Fishing :: Personal Narrative Essays

Gone Fishing    It must have been 4 feet long and must have weighed at least 30 lbs.   It was one of the slimiest ones we ever caught.   The tentacles were almost a foot long and the scales where the size of quarters.@   AYeah right, we believe you, (Paste your name here).@  Ã‚   While my peers were playing video games or hide-and-go-seek, (a friends name) and I were out ether exploring the unknown, or sleeping from staying out all night.   None of the students in my sixth grade class Ashow and tell@ believed me when I told them about the unforgettable experiences (a friends name) and I endeavored. To tell the truth, I didnt really want them to believe me.   If one of them told my mom what (a friends name) and I did then our little butts would have been grounded for a serious amount of time.   The fishing stories that I told where true, all true.    (a friends name) and I had gone on many explorations to far off places.   We had sneaking out at night down to such an art that if we could put it on paper then it would be more famous then Leonardo da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper.   We would sometimes make dummy bodies that would lie lifeless all night under tightly nitid sheets.  Ã‚   The Abig yellow house@ is where we met.   From there we would do whatever sounded like the most fun.   Sometimes it was hanging out and eating ice cream all night. Other times we would go tick someone off by tee- peeing their house.   And yes, there were even times when we would go fishing at this lake that was out in the middle of nowhere.   We called this lake the back- lake because it was the lake way in the back of the golf course.   One night (a friends name) and I had an experience there that would shake us up for a long time to come.    The night started out like a lot of other nights.   First we went to go eat some ice-cream from Foster-Freeze, then we would get on our bicycles and pedal our little butts all the way to the golf course.   Once there, we would get on this road that golf carts use to drive around. The road was very windy.   When we arrived we would just throw our bikes down and run like little rabbits down to the lake.   We would start casting as fast as we could.   We would cast so fast that I don't think we remembered to put bait on the hook.

Brave New Brain

AP PsychologyName Chp 2: Neuroscience Questions for Brave New Brain, Chapter 4 by Nancy C. Andreasen Read this packet carefully & completely. The reading is very long, complex & detailed. Consider it a primer reading to help you study the brain. As you read feel free to highlight or underline the actual text as needed. These study questions are to help you key in on what is important. Be sure to answer each question fully and completely. I expect you to TYPE the answers. You may find it easier to save a copy from my webpage and fill in the questions as you go instead of retyping the questions.Due to the length of this assignment it will count as a test grade. (HINT: Questions go in order) 1. What are the three (3) types of brain tissue? ~Gray matter, white matter, and Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 2. List the two (2) neurodegenerative disorders that destroy cell bodies. ~Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s 3. What does the cell body do for the neuron? ~Performs basic command functi ons 4. Why does â€Å"cerebral cortex† mean â€Å"bark of the brain†? ~The nerve cell bodies are highly concentrated on the surface of the brain, causing it to look like tree bark 5.What does â€Å"subcortical† literally mean? ~Below the cortex 6. Name the two (2) demyelinating diseases listed in the text. What do these types of diseases do? ~Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) both harm the white matter of the brain and cut the ties that allow the neurons to communicate with one another 7. What are ventricles? ~Parts inside the brain that carry CSF 8. Name two of the three important functions that CSF carries out. ~Contain nutrients and byproducts of brain activity to help the brain ~Replace issing brain tissue 9. What are gyri and sulci? Why do we have them? Draw a diagram to explain. ~Ridges and dips that cover the surface of the human brain in order for the brain to have enough neurons and stay at a healthy size, because the brain has to do adjusting and when it does, it creates the gyri and sulci 10. How does the brain grow? List and explain in detail each of the seven (7) steps in Table 4-1 on page 45: neuron formation, neuron migration, proliferation of dendrites and spines, synaptogenesis, myelination, pruning, and apoptosis.You may have to read into the text to explain in detail. ~Neuron formation happens a few months after fetus conception, and when DNA begins to send instructions to cells telling them to differentiate into nerve cells and some to change into liver or heart cells. After a sufficient number of nerve cells accumulate, the neurons then embark on a journey known as neuron migration. Pathfinder cells called glia guide the neurons to a new territory where they will create the cerebral cortex and the various subcortical gray matter parts of the brain.After the brain divides into two sides and the cells organize themselves according to the role that they will play in the activities of the brai n, dendrites and spines are formed (when each neuron sprouts dendrites that extend themselves by sprouting spines). Synapses are communication points that allow many cells to communicate with each other at the same time and mature and change in a process called synaptogenesis. Myelination occurs when axons are covered and insulated by fat layers, which increase the information speed between neurons.Lastly, pruning and apoptosis must occur to create a balance of connections within the brain because of the excess number of unnecessary cells and connections in the brain. Pruning trims the back overgrowth of dendrites and spines, and apoptosis removes the excess in a process known as programmed cell death. 11. What role does DNA play in neural development? ~It provides basic instructions in neural development with a concept called â€Å"brain plasticity† 12. Explain the following in your own words: â€Å"neurons that wire together, fire together. ~Nerve cells that are built toge ther and are stimulated at the same time will produce the same reaction 13. What is LTP or long term potentiation? What major neurotransmitter facilitates LTP? ~LTP is when the size of a neural response increases after stimulation, and is facilitated by Glutamate 14. What does the hippocampus do? ~One of the major memory regions of the brain and stores memories; is the home for much LTP activity with Glutamate 15. What did Hubel & Wiesel win the Nobel Prize for? Specifically explain their experiment on vision & critical periods. Their discoveries about the brain by conducting an experiment involving covering the eye of a very young animal and observing cell alignment and how it impacted the function of the good eye and bad eye. Later, they uncovered the bad eye and determined that it was too late for it to develop like the good eye. 16. What is a critical period (relate this term to more than vision)? ~When an area of the brain (vision, touch, or speaking) develop fully. For some pa rts, timing is crucial and proper development will be lost if stimulation doesn’t occur at the correct time. 17.In your own words explain the following quote on page 49: â€Å"Sometimes single powerful experiences affect our brains for life. † ~It doesn’t take something crazy to alter the brain. If the experience is strong, a sole experience can produce a lasting impact. 18. In your own words explain the following quote on page 50: There is â€Å"†¦ a false polarity between physical and psychological†¦ † ~People think that treatments for depression or anxiety require physical biological treatment, but sometimes non-biological methods can produce the same or stronger results. 19. What is agenesis?How is it caused? Explain fully!!! ~An abnormality of the fetal brain caused by alcohol exposure; nerve cells in the two hemispheres fail to send axons between each other and communicate. 20. What are some social consequences of LTP and human experience mentioned on page 51. ~Over exposure to TV or violence when young can cause children to develop a passive learning style or become insensitive to violence and/or pain. 21. Write down the Latin or Greek meaning and the function for the following: cerebellum, thalamus, hippocampus, subcortical, amygdala, neocortex, hypothalamus & corpus callosum. Cerebellum: â€Å"little brain†; coordinates movement, thinking, and emotion ~Thalamus: â€Å"marriage bed†; filter or central switchboard of the brain ~Hippocampus: â€Å"seahorse†; memory ~Subcortical: â€Å"below the bark†; any gray matter region that lies below the cortex of the brain ~Amygdala: â€Å"almond†; emotional memory ~Neocortex: â€Å"new bark†; more highly evolved cortical area ~Hypothalamus: â€Å"under the bed†; modulation of appetites and drives ~Corpus Callosum: â€Å"firm body†; axon tracks connecting two hemispheres of the brain 22. What is the motor strip in charge of? Where is it located?What is the motor homunculus? Who found it? ~In charge of movement throughout the body; located in frontal lobe. Motor Humunculus is a pattern that connects sense of touch to movement in our bodies and it was mapped out by Wilder Penfield. 23. List and explain what each of the four (4) lobes of the cerebral cortex do. ~Frontal Lobes: planning, deciding, remembering, and making moral judgements ~Temporal Lobes: language and some parts of memory ~Parietal Lobes: sensory and visuospatial associations ~Occipital Lobes: contain regions used for visual perception 24.What do they mean by the â€Å"mind† on page 56? ~Mental activities such as remembering and communicating (rather than the scientific aspects of the brain) 25. Compare and contrast the two (2) general methods of brain research on page 57. ~Lesion method: Provides information about the brain by showing what the brain was no longer able to do after having a particular section taken away ~Functional Imaging Techniques: permit scientists to directly visualize which parts of the healthy brain are used to perform specific functions ~Contrast: Lesion method exploited accidents and strange natural occurrences 26.Define aphasia and then explain the two (2) different types. What happens if your angular gyrus is damaged? ~Aphasia is called the â€Å"loss of language† (failure to associate meaning to sound waves). Types: Wernicke’s (individual loses ability to speak coherently because the ability to comprehend the language is lost) and Broca’s (individual knows what’s being said but can’t express himself). If the angular gyrus is damaged the ability to read and write will be diminished, but the ability to understand won’t be. 27.Explain what Karl Lashley was looking for. What happened to H. M. as a result of his surgery? What do the amygdala and hippocampus do? ~He was looking for proof that no specific lesion could produce deficits in memory; H. M was completely voided of the ability to remember any new information. The amygdala and hippocampus mediate some learning/memory and work together to send and store memories. 28. What brain structure acts as an attention filter? ~The Thalamus 29. What does the prefrontal system (cortex) do?What is a prefrontal syndrome? Historical cases? ~It mediates executive functions (abstract thought, creative problem solving, and behavior). A prefrontal syndrome is a lesion in the orbital region of the prefrontal cortex. A historical case is when Phineas Gage got an iron bar through his left frontal lobe and exhibited drastic personality and developmental differences/changes. 30. What does the cerebellum do? ~Coordinates movement, thinking, and emotion 31. What is the limbic system in charge of?What four (4) major parts make up this system? ~Feeling and monitoring emotions with basic survival drives; cingulate gyrus, hippocampus and amygdala, mammillary bodies and anterior thalamus 32. Brie fly explain how a neurotransmitter works (not action potential). Draw me a sketch. ~Small molecule or chemical that transmits nerve signals from one neuron to another 33. The last parts are wordy. List and summarize all of the functions of the following chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate. Dopamine: first product synthesized from the activity of tyrosine hydroxylase; close chemical relationship with norepinephrine and epinephrine; key neurotransmitter in the brain and plays role in Parkinson’s and schizophrenia ~Norepinephrine: sends projections throughout the whole brain; affects almost every region in the brain, and plays a large part in mood disorders ~Serotonin: near midbrain, similar to norepinephrine and plays important roles in antidepressant medications ~Acetylcholine: in the nucleus basalis of Meyner and protects the hippocampus and cingulate gyrus; memory encoder ~GABA: amino acid neurotransmitter; inhibitory role in th e brain; relatively long tract; characterizes Huntington’s disease ~Glutamate: amino acid neurotransmitter; excitatory role; can be harmful if presented in large amounts (produce excessive neuronal excitation); produce signs of psychosis 34. Finally, in your own words tell me why â€Å"the whole [brain] is greater than the sum of its parts†? ~In order for the brain to function, all parts must work together, which means that no part can be completely dysfunctional (although brain plasticity can to some degree balance and make up for the disfunction).

Health Promotion Essay

According to the World health organization (WHO), health promotion is defined as the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. (World Health Organization, 2014) Nurses play a pivotal role in health promotion that include disease prevention, follow-up treatment, patient education and behavioral changes in respect to their health. Health promotion by nurses have led to positive outcomes including patient awareness, knowledge of diseases process, self-management, and improved quality of life. (Kemppainen, Tossavainen, & Turunen, 2013) This paper will focus on health promotion in the nursing practice through literature review, the evolution of nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion, the implementation methods for health promotion that encompasses all areas of nursing, and the three levels of health promotion prevention. Pr imary Prevention Primary prevention is the first level of health promotion. The goal is to protect healthy individuals from acquiring a disease or experiencing injury before it occurs. Primary interventions used by nurses include but are not limited to education about nutrition, the importance of daily exercise, seat belt and helmet use, dangers of tobacco and other related drugs, routine exams, screenings, immunizations, and identifying potential hazards in the work place. (Institute for work and health, 2009) The concept of primary prevention is traditionally used in reference to physical health but in the article, â€Å"Education in primary prevention in psychiatric-mental health nursing for the baccalaureate student†, it focuses on the concept of primary prevention in reference to mental health. This can be difficult for nurses because mental and emotional problems are related to complex emotional and behavioral factors. For primary prevention the focus for nurses is on providing interventions to groups before a crisis situation could occur. The focus from this article was on implementation of preventative programs for target groups. Alcoholism prevention, prevention of child abuse, and child care for the populations of elementary and junior high school children. Rape prevention, loss or bereavement, drug or alcoholism prevention, and teen-age  pregnancy prevention for adolescents. Parenting, child-birth classes, child abuse prevention, stress management for young adults. Reproductive and sexual concerns for middle aged adults. Sensory loss, rape prevention, loss of loved ones for elderly patients. (Welch, Boyd, & Bell, 2009) Secondary prevention The next level of health promotion is secondary prevention. These interventions used by nurses are used after the patient has an illness or is at serious risk. The goal is to recognize the disease process at its earliest stage and slow or stop its progression. Interventions include medication compliance for example: reminding patients to continue their low-dose aspirin to prevent further heart attacks, TIA’s, or strokes. Regular exams and screenings are recommended for those patients at risk. (Institute for work and health, 2009) In the article,† Primary and secondary tobacco prevention†, primary prevention focused on education and prevention of experimentation and use. Secondary prevention is used for individuals who are currently using tobacco products. Interventions used are successful cessation courses, evidence-based treatment of tobacco dependence, pharmacotherapy, individual and group counseling. This is utilized at the earliest stages of tobacco addiction to help patients quit and remain smoke free. (Tingen, Andrews, & Stevenson, 2009) Tertiary prevention The last level in health promotion is tertiary prevention. These interventions focus on the management and care of patients with disease and the prevention of further deterioration while maximizing the quality of life. (Institute for work and health, 2009) Tertiary prevention is used when managing long-term health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Some examples of tertiary prevention include programs for cardiac or stroke patients, support groups, and pain management programs. In the article, â€Å"Tertiary prevention for individuals: Healing the wounds†, prevention is focused on healing. Primary and secondary preventions were used in the treatment of stress but with all the interventions stress continues to occur in most individuals. Tertiary treatment was designed to return those individuals suffering from high levels of stress back into  their home or work environment and minimize the recurrence of stress. Tertiary prevention relies on both help from the individual and help from other medical professionals. It reaches out for additional assistance from employers and outside resources to ensure appropriate programs are available. (Quick, Wright, Adkins, Nelson, & Quick, 2013) Evolution of nursing roles and responsibilities Health promotion used by nurses is commonly associated with the general principles of basic nursing. Patient education is a regularly used intervention used by nurses in an everyday setting. Health educators are taught health promotion, interventions, state regulations, specific policies, and they must have the ability to apply this education to their patients. Because of the growing diverse population, nurses must become more patient-focused health promoters. While general education is still used, the different patient groups require different health promotional needs. (Kemppainen, Tossavainen, & Turunen, 2013) Implementing health promotion skills is a must for all nurses. The most important skill is effective communication. They must be able to encourage their patients and their families to have an active participation in their treatment planning. The patients must feel comfortable expressing their feelings about their plan of care. Nurses can help their patients by leading by example. This can be achieved by being healthy role models, living healthy lifestyles, and through positive and caring attitudes that promote health and well-being. Nurses must also possess skill-related competencies including teamwork, time management, data collection, critical thinking, and interpretation of information given from a variety of sources. (Kemppainen, Tossavainen, & Turunen, 2013) Conclusion In conclusion, health promotion is more important than ever. Health promotion includes primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions. These include education, practice, research, and reinforcement that teaches patients how to prevent and manage diseases. The future of nursing focus on keeping individuals healthy. Nurses must have a strong understanding of health promotion in order to communicate to a variety of groups. As the population grows and becomes more educated through primary prevention overall health of  the population will improve. References Institute for work and health. (2009). What researchers mean about primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Retrieved from Institute for Work & Health: http://www.iwh.on.ca Kemppainen, V., Tossavainen, K., & Turunen, H. (2013). Nurses’ roles in health promtion practice: an integrative review. Oxford journals. Quick, J., Wright, T., Adkins, J., Nelson, D., & Quick, J. (2013). Preventive stress management in organizations. American Psychological Association, 183-198. Tingen, M., Andrews, J., & Stevenson, A. (2009). Primary and secondary tobacco prevention in youth. Annual review of nursing research, 171-193. Welch, M., Boyd, M., & Bell, D. (2009). Education in primary prevention in psychiatric-mental health nursing for the baccalaureate student. International nursing review, 126-130. World Health Organization. (2014). Health Promotion. Retrieved from World health organization: http://www.who.int/topics/health_promotion

Freedom

Freedom. We all dream about it. We all wish we could break free of the rules, laws and constraints we are all chained down by. The uniforms, taxes, laws and harsh, judgemental opinions: All these keep us in order, organized and running smoothly like a well-oiled machine. But sometimes what is best for people is not the strict guidelines and controlling regulations, but the shattering of the barrier to insanity and liberation, the spreading of wings and freedom of flight that we can only ever experience in dreams. Freedom, however, can have many different definitions.To be able to do anything they want without the fear of trouble, fines or cruel, judgemental opinions, or maybe just to be able to walk to the park alone. There are numerous levels of freedom and everybody’s opinion on where they are on those levels can depend on their upbringing, cultural background, age group and environment. Some cultures, for example, are considered to be stricter than others in certain, or all aspects of their children’s lives, even to the extent of an arranged marriage. There are many reasons for why children should be allowed some freedom, however, but still be on a loose leash.We all need to go through the childhood stage, with we need room to explore the world and take risks in a safe environment and manner. Parents just need to find a balance between the two, letting the child make some of their own decisions, but also letting them make small mistakes as to learn from them. Though some teenagers of this generation feel as if they need more freedom, most of them do not. Teenagers do not know the real meaning of freedom and have not learnt to savour it as those in the work force have. They do not know what it is like to have to fend for themselves, and have others depend on them to live as well.To have just one day where all that responsibility, and the responsibility of sticking to laws and restrictions, is lifted off their shoulders, would be the feeling of t rue freedom. Parents restrict their teenagers from doing some things and going to certain places because they want their children to be safe, but to enjoy and savour the freedom they have now before they are released into the â€Å"real world† and never to experience it again. Teenagers of this day and age have quite a bit of freedom in many aspects already compared to their parents and other older generations.Being a teenager myself, I can see why some others would like more, and feel as if they are deprived of, choice and freewill, though I understand that the restrictions placed and reinforced upon by the parents are only for our benefit. As our parents, they would have decidedly more knowledge of the world and its dangers due to experience, as they have been where us teens are today. The world, however, is changing, and with a new generation comes new experiences. There are many choices in life, and if we do not make mistakes, we would not be able to learn and grow as peo ple.Independence is a crucial lesson in life, and can only be achieved through self nourishment and exploration of both ourselves and the world around us. Though parents may think that by restricting their children from going out and contributing to certain events is to protect them, they may be actually shielding their children from the real world, feeding their children lies when the society they live in isn’t as innocent. Totally shielding that child from the events of the world would be unfair to both the parents and the child. Gradually exposing them to the world however, would be a nicer alternative.The shock of finding out how different the real world is compared to their thoughts and filtered knowledge would be extremely unfair as they would discover all the experiences they did not get to participate in, and feel as if their childhood had been wasted. This shielding of children may also have prevented them from having a social life. They may have been kept at home, q uietly reading, or studying for a test coming up in a couple of weeks, while their friends were out having fun and experiencing and contributing to the memories that they will be able to tell their children when they have grown out of their teenage years.Being kept at home, it would make sense that they would have a quieter and less outgoing personality, and that new experiences would not be as happily welcomed as they would by those who had had the chance to understand and gain knowledge about it. On the other hand, quite often teenagers who are kept at home, but who have knowledge of the outside world, become rebellious and disobedient in order to try and experience new things with friends and also to be socially accepted and to fit in.However, this creates tension and mistrust within families, and therefore harsher restrictions on their freedom, causing other, more forceful forms of rebellion. Freedom is classed on so many different levels, that sometimes, even walking home witho ut the threat of death is a dream. With countless different definitions of â€Å"freedom† each and every person would have a varied view on liberation and different levels on where they feel it. Teenagers need time to explore and experience, but on he other hand, they need to be able to do this in a fairly safe and comfortable environment. Lack of freedom hinders the growth and development of personalities and the teenager’s ever going search to find themselves, and who is going to make their mark in the world in the near future. Freedom is a part of life that shapes and moulds the clay of the future of mankind into the people who will one day run the world. And in freedom, we fly. Freedom Freedom. We all dream about it. We all wish we could break free of the rules, laws and constraints we are all chained down by. The uniforms, taxes, laws and harsh, judgemental opinions: All these keep us in order, organized and running smoothly like a well-oiled machine. But sometimes what is best for people is not the strict guidelines and controlling regulations, but the shattering of the barrier to insanity and liberation, the spreading of wings and freedom of flight that we can only ever experience in dreams. Freedom, however, can have many different definitions.To be able to do anything they want without the fear of trouble, fines or cruel, judgemental opinions, or maybe just to be able to walk to the park alone. There are numerous levels of freedom and everybody’s opinion on where they are on those levels can depend on their upbringing, cultural background, age group and environment. Some cultures, for example, are considered to be stricter than others in certain, or all aspects of their children’s lives, even to the extent of an arranged marriage. There are many reasons for why children should be allowed some freedom, however, but still be on a loose leash.We all need to go through the childhood stage, with we need room to explore the world and take risks in a safe environment and manner. Parents just need to find a balance between the two, letting the child make some of their own decisions, but also letting them make small mistakes as to learn from them. Though some teenagers of this generation feel as if they need more freedom, most of them do not. Teenagers do not know the real meaning of freedom and have not learnt to savour it as those in the work force have. They do not know what it is like to have to fend for themselves, and have others depend on them to live as well.To have just one day where all that responsibility, and the responsibility of sticking to laws and restrictions, is lifted off their shoulders, would be the feeling of t rue freedom. Parents restrict their teenagers from doing some things and going to certain places because they want their children to be safe, but to enjoy and savour the freedom they have now before they are released into the â€Å"real world† and never to experience it again. Teenagers of this day and age have quite a bit of freedom in many aspects already compared to their parents and other older generations.Being a teenager myself, I can see why some others would like more, and feel as if they are deprived of, choice and freewill, though I understand that the restrictions placed and reinforced upon by the parents are only for our benefit. As our parents, they would have decidedly more knowledge of the world and its dangers due to experience, as they have been where us teens are today. The world, however, is changing, and with a new generation comes new experiences. There are many choices in life, and if we do not make mistakes, we would not be able to learn and grow as peo ple.Independence is a crucial lesson in life, and can only be achieved through self nourishment and exploration of both ourselves and the world around us. Though parents may think that by restricting their children from going out and contributing to certain events is to protect them, they may be actually shielding their children from the real world, feeding their children lies when the society they live in isn’t as innocent. Totally shielding that child from the events of the world would be unfair to both the parents and the child. Gradually exposing them to the world however, would be a nicer alternative.The shock of finding out how different the real world is compared to their thoughts and filtered knowledge would be extremely unfair as they would discover all the experiences they did not get to participate in, and feel as if their childhood had been wasted. This shielding of children may also have prevented them from having a social life. They may have been kept at home, q uietly reading, or studying for a test coming up in a couple of weeks, while their friends were out having fun and experiencing and contributing to the memories that they will be able to tell their children when they have grown out of their teenage years.Being kept at home, it would make sense that they would have a quieter and less outgoing personality, and that new experiences would not be as happily welcomed as they would by those who had had the chance to understand and gain knowledge about it. On the other hand, quite often teenagers who are kept at home, but who have knowledge of the outside world, become rebellious and disobedient in order to try and experience new things with friends and also to be socially accepted and to fit in.However, this creates tension and mistrust within families, and therefore harsher restrictions on their freedom, causing other, more forceful forms of rebellion. Freedom is classed on so many different levels, that sometimes, even walking home witho ut the threat of death is a dream. With countless different definitions of â€Å"freedom† each and every person would have a varied view on liberation and different levels on where they feel it. Teenagers need time to explore and experience, but on he other hand, they need to be able to do this in a fairly safe and comfortable environment. Lack of freedom hinders the growth and development of personalities and the teenager’s ever going search to find themselves, and who is going to make their mark in the world in the near future. Freedom is a part of life that shapes and moulds the clay of the future of mankind into the people who will one day run the world. And in freedom, we fly.

American Ethnic Literature

The word ‘ethnic’ denotes or derives from distinctive ways of living created by a group of people. Hence, American ethnic literature must be influenced by the ethnic or cultural ties of an ethnic American author, and must reveal to some extent the distinctive ways of living practiced by the ethnic group that the author represents. Biographical criticism entails a deeper comprehension of an author’s work by knowing the essential details of his or her life.Because writers are real people, the literature that they write generally contains reflections of themselves, the kinds of people they encounter in their lives, and the circumstances that they face. Not all people in the United States belong to the white European race. The Indians were settled on our land before the European whites came along to change the history of the land for ever. Africans were initially brought by the European whites to work as slaves on plantations. The Hispanics and the Asians also entered the land as immigrants.Still, the dominant community in the United States, in terms of population, is that of the European whites. Theirs is the predominant culture in America, and their literature is known as mainstream American literature. At the same time, the Native Americans maintain some of their ancient rites, in spite of America’s predominant culture of the European whites. The African Africans continue to be influenced by the music that their ancestors made on the ships that brought slaves to America (McBride, 2007). The Hispanic Americans and the Asian Americans also maintain aspects of their culture through their distinctive languages and foods.Unsurprisingly, these cultural differences must reveal themselves in American ethnic literature as compared to mainstream American literature. American Ethnic Literature 2 All of the different groups representing the Americans today are maintaining their ethnic differences, even if many of their members feel that they are o ne with the mainstream culture. As a matter of fact, it is but natural for the various ethnicities representing America in our time to be maintaining cultural differences, while trying to fit into the mainstream culture.As mentioned previously, the culture of different ethnic groups must reveal itself in the writings of ethnic American writers. When an American ethnic author does not reveal his or her distinctive culture in literature, however, it is reasonable to claim that the person’s writings represent mainstream American literature. Zane, for example, is an African American author of erotic fiction who is writing mainstream American literature. Although the author belongs to an American ethnic group, her writings do not reflect her ethnicity.She sometimes uses middle-class African American characters in her novels, but she also employs white American characters. Even so, an American writer of European descent may also be expected to do the same. Besides, Zane does not ma ke references in her books to her own race as opposed to the Americans of European descent, and neither does she complain about the problems that the Africans have gone through in America. Rather, the characters in Zane’s erotic novels could be people belonging to any number of races (Zane, 2001; Zane, 2005).One of Zane’s novels, Afterburn, is about a chiropractor in Washington D. C. who visits his local bank because he is interested in one of the employees of the bank. He believes that she is too beautiful to be a single woman, which is the reason why he has never asked her out. When American Ethnic Literature 3 he does, however, he finds out that she has a history of disastrous relationships. He, too, has a broken heart. And so, the two of them finally get together (Zane, 2005). While forming their bond, the man and the woman have to meet a variety of characters who add spice to their relationship.The woman has a fickle minded mother, the man has got playboys as budd ies, and then there are lovers from the past that keep trying to disrupt the new relationship. Nevertheless, Zane manages to turn the relationship into a tie of deep love and longing (Zane, 2005). Most importantly, she creates a story that could happen in anybody’s life. Because Zane is an American, her literature must be considered mainstream American literature. She is an African American, but her literature cannot be considered American ethnic literature seeing that it does not solely reflect the culture and values of the African Americans.Instead, Zane is one of those ethnic American writers who appear to have totally blended into the mainstream American culture. On a similar note, Jamaica Kincaid (1990) in her novel, Lucy, presents a nineteen year old young woman by the name of Lucy Josephine Potter who is trying to forget her roots in the West Indies. In the process, no doubt, the girl is trying to blend into the mainstream American culture. Kincaid is an American ethni c writer who was born in the West Indies (Benson & Hagseth, 2001). A biographical critic might assert that Lucy, the girl who came to North America as a nanny, is a reflection of the author.Regardless, Kincaid’s novel about Lucy may be considered American ethnic literature only because it contains glimpses of the author’s ethnicity. Lucy hated her old home, a British colony; and yet memories of her mother continue to haunt her, taking her back to West Indies. Her mother acts as a symbol for Lucy’s motherland. The American Ethnic Literature 4 girl feels emotionally unattached to her mother, and finds a better motherly model in the United States by the name of Mariah, who acts as a symbol for the new land the girl has come to occupy.Mariah replaces Lucy’s mother with respect to the kinds of feelings people are taught by nature or nurture to feel for their mothers. Moreover, Kincaid’s novel establishes a clear difference between Lucy’s mother a nd the character of Mariah. For example, Lucy’s mother was emotionally dependent on her daughter, to the point of becoming an emotional pain. The mother was also neglectful of the needs of her young daughter. Mariah, on the contrary, treats Lucy as a grownup. She exposes Lucy to the museums of America, and gives her presents.She also looks out for the well-being of the young Lucy during the time that she is adjusting to the new environment (Kincaid). Lucy feels far from her roots in West Indies. She would not read her mother’s letters that arrive in the mail. She wants to avoid the emotional pain that her mother brought into her life, by being oppressively reliant on her daughter. Furthermore, Lucy is trying to leave colonialism behind. She had shown rebellion in West Indies toward the oppressive invasion of the British. She had refused to sing in her school choir, â€Å"Rule, Britannia!† Just as her mother keeps on being brought to mind, colonialism surfaces in young Lucy’s flashbacks of West Indies. She wants to get away from it all. In America and on her own, the young girl would like to be an individualist, able to make her own decisions, and forgetting all that was painful and negative about the past (Kincaid). Because the focus of Kincaid’s book is the girl’s desire to blend into the mainstream American culture while forgetting the past, the novel may also be termed mainstream American American Ethnic Literature 5 literature.Given that it describes the author’s ethnicity thoroughly, however, it must be considered in part American ethnic literature. Amy Tan’s (1989) The Joy Luck Club is similarly part mainstream and part ethnic American literature. Containing sixteen stories that revolve around conflicts between old-fashioned mothers who are Chinese immigrants, and modern daughters who have been raised in the United States, the novel describes the mainstream American culture in addition to the Chines e culture. Tan is an Asian American author, and therefore her writing should have been ethnic American in its entirety.However, her writing reveals that an Asian American author feels like an American before she can relate to the Asian experience. Additionally, although the writer tries to bridge the gap between the two cultures that she is supposed to represent by having her characters travel to China, it is a fact that the American experience cannot be discounted by any means. The only ethnic American authors who write American ethnic literature must be ones who reflect solely on their ethnicity in their works, showing utter disregard for the mainstream American culture.The following passage describes some of these authors: During the years preceding the Civil War, America’s ethnic and racial minorities began to publish novels, poems, histories, and autobiographies that explored what it meant to be an outsider in a predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant society. The r esult was a unique body of ethnic writing chronicling the distinctive experience and changing self-image of ethnic Americans. One of the earliest forms of African American literature was the slave narrative, graphic American Ethnic Literature 6first-person accounts of life in bondage, written by former slaves, including William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Josiah Henson†¦ These volumes not only awoke readers to the hardships and cruelties of life under slavery, they also described the ingenious strategies that fugitive slaves used to escape from bondage. William and Ellen Craft, for example, disguised themselves as master and slave; Henry â€Å"Box† Brown had himself crated in a box and shipped north. †¦Native Americans, too, produced firsthand accounts of their lives. Among the mostnotable is the Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-she-kia-Kiak or Black Hawk (1833), a classic spiritual and secular biography, in which the Sauk warrior explains why he resisted white efforts to seize Indian land in northwestern Illinois during the Black Hawk War (1832). William Apes, a Pequod, published one of the earliest histories from an Indian vantage point in 1836. John Rollin Ridge, a Cherokee journalist, published the first novel by an Indian in 1850, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, which recounts the heroic adventures of a Robin Hood–like bandit in California who protects Mexican Americans from white exploitation. Much more than a simple adventure story, this novel is also a thinly veiled protest of the treatment of Native Americans by someone who had personally experienced the removal of the Cherokees from their tribal homelands in Georgia (â€Å"American Ethnic Literature,† 2007). Such is truly American ethnic literature. It focuses solely on the ethnicity of the author, while disregarding if not rejecting the mainstream culture.On the other hand, novels by ethnic American authors that reveal the differences between mainstream Americ an culture as opposed American Ethnic Literature 7 to the authors’ respective ethnicities are not true American ethnic literature. This is due to the fact that the authors as well as their characters have attempted to blend into the mainstream culture by getting rid of their ethnic identities to a large extent. American Ethnic Literature 8 References American Ethnic Literature. (2007). Digital History. Retrieved September 24, 2007, fromhttp://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/database/article_display. cfm? HHID=646. Benson, K. M. , & Hagseth, C. (2001). Jamaica Kincaid. Voices from the Gaps. Retrieved September 24, 2007, from http://voices. cla. umn. edu/vg/Bios/entries/kincaid_jamaica. html. Kincaid, J. (1990). Lucy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. McBride, J. (2007, April). Hip Hop Planet. National Geographic. Tan, A. (1989). The Joy Luck Club. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Zane. (2001). Addicted. New York: Atria Books. ——. (2005). Afterburn. New York: Atria Books.

Seven Things To Do When You Dont Feel Like Writing

Seven Things To Do When You Dont Feel Like Writing Seven Things To Do When You Dont Feel Like Writing Seven Things To Do When You Dont Feel Like Writing By Ali Hale Sometimes, you’ve got an hour or two free – but you don’t feel like writing. All the advice in the world on becoming inspired or getting self-disciplined just isn’t helping you. For whatever reason, you know your ability to string together a new article or story is temporarily absent. This needn’t be a problem: there are lots of writing-related activities that you can usefully get on with whilst waiting for the muse to reappear. Here’s just seven of them: 1. Grab your notebook and start brainstorming Sometimes, a lack of ideas can cause you to get stuck. Maybe you want to write, but you’re not sure what to start on. Find your notebook and a pen, and start scribbling. Mind-map, write a list, use pretty colors – it doesn’t matter. Just get as many ideas down as you can. Once you’re past ten or twenty, you’ll start reaching the creative, original ones. 2. Read some great writing advice Daily Writing Tips is a good place to start. 😉 But there are lots of other blogs out there devoted to all aspects of writing – and hundreds of different books that could help you. Look for something aimed at writers in your genre (poetry, science-fiction, article writing, academic journals, etc). Don’t just skim through a load of advice, though: take a note of any points which make you think â€Å"aha!† and scribble down ideas of how you can apply them to your own work in progress. 3. Organise your writing files This is one writing chore I always put off: organising my files. If you have bits of your novel in a dozen different places on your computer (emails to yourself, Word documents, notes in your journal software, bits you keep online in Google docs†¦) then get it all sorted out. If you’re a freelancer and write for dozens of different markets, start a folder for each. That way, you’ll know exactly what you need to invoice for at the end of the month. 4. Create a portfolio of your writing If you don’t already have one, start a portfolio of your writing. Get together some of your best pieces from the past few years (published or unpublished) and, ideally, put them into one folder on your computer. If you have the online rights to them, you might want to put them onto your website or blog. Now, when you’re writing to editors and agents, you’ll be able to respond straight away if they ask to see samples. And if you’re applying for college-level courses, you’ll have some great examples of your work to include with your application. 5. Research some markets If you’re aiming to be published, you need to do some homework to find out which magazines, websites or publishing companies might be interested in your work. There are lots of ways to do this. You could search on Amazon for books in your genre and see who published them (Amazon lists the publisher on the book details page). Or you could use one of the many websites devoted to writers’ markets – try Jacqui Bennett Writers Bureau for short stories and Ralan’s Webstravaganza for a huge listing of markets. Also check with Writers’ Market or, if you’re in the UK, the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook to make sure that company is accepting submissions. 6. Send out some short stories or articles For those of you who know the markets you have in mind – send them some of your work. Proof-read that story languishing on your hard-drive, print it out (double spaced, nice white paper), write a cover letter to the editor, include a self-addressed envelope with return postage, and pop the whole lot in the post. Many markets accept emailed manuscripts, but check the submission guidelines first. 7. Read some great fiction Finally, if all else fails, just put your feet up with a good book. Choose an author who you love, and luxuriate in their prose – but keep half your mind on figuring out why exactly you love their writing, and spotting what techniques they use. Alternatively, pick up something you wouldn’t normally read, and cast a critical eye over the ways in which the style differs from your usual favourites. You’ll almost certainly learn something. What writing-related activities do you get on with when you’re lacking the energy to write? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?The Difference Between "will" and "shall"Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns

Yalta Conference in World War II

Yalta Conference in World War II The Yalta Conference was held February 4-11, 1945, and was the second wartime meeting of leaders from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Upon arriving at the Crimean resort of Yalta, Allied leaders hoped to define the post-World War II peace and set the stage for rebuilding Europe. During the conference, President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin discussed the future of Poland and Eastern Europe, the occupation of Germany, the return of prewar governments to occupied countries, and the Soviet entry into the war with Japan. While the participants left Yalta pleased with the result, the conference later was viewed as a betrayal after Stalin broke promises regarding Eastern Europe. Fast Facts: Yalta Conference Conflict: World War II (1939-1945)Date: February 4-11, 1945Participants:United States - President Franklin RooseveltGreat Britain - Prime Minister Winston ChurchillSoviet Union - Joseph StalinWartime Conferences:Casablanca ConferenceTehran ConferencePotsdam Conference Background In early 1945, with World War II in Europe drawing to a close, Franklin Roosevelt (United States), Winston Churchill (Great Britain), and Joseph Stalin (USSR) agreed to meet to discuss war strategy and issues that would affect the postwar world. Dubbed the Big Three, the Allied leaders had met previously in November 1943, at the Tehran Conference. Seeking a neutral site for the meeting, Roosevelt suggested a gathering somewhere on the Mediterranean. While Churchill was in favor, Stalin refused citing that his doctors prohibited him from making any long trips. In lieu of the Mediterranean, Stalin proposed the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Eager to meet face to face, Roosevelt agreed to Stalins request. As the leaders traveled to Yalta, Stalin was in the strongest position as Soviet troops were a mere forty miles from Berlin. This was reinforced by the home court advantage of hosting the meeting in the USSR. Further weakening the western Allies position was Roosevelts failing health and Britains increasingly junior position relative to the US and USSR. With the arrival of all three delegations, the conference opened on February 4, 1945. Agendas Each leader came to Yalta with an agenda. Roosevelt desired Soviet military support against Japan following the defeat of Germany and Soviet participation in the United Nations, while Churchill was focused on securing free elections for Soviet-liberated countries in Eastern Europe. Counter to Churchills desire, Stalin sought to build a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe to protect against future threats. In addition to these long-term issues, the three powers also needed to develop a plan for governing postwar Germany. Yalta Conference, left to right: Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Maj. Gen. L. S. Kuter, Admiral E. J. King, General George C. Marshall, Ambassador Averell Harriman, Admiral William Leahy, and President F. D. Roosevelt. Livadia Palace, Crimea, Russia. Library of Congress Poland Shortly after the meeting opened, Stalin took a firm stance on the issue of Poland, citing that twice in the previous thirty years it had been used as an invasion corridor by the Germans. Furthermore, he stated that the Soviet Union would not return the land annexed from Poland in 1939, and that the nation could be compensated with land taken from Germany. While these terms were non-negotiable, he was willing to agree to free elections in Poland. While the latter pleased Churchill, it soon became clear that Stalin had no intention of honoring this promise. Germany In regard to Germany, it was decided that the defeated nation would be divided into three zones of occupation, one for each of the Allies, with a similar plan for the city of Berlin. While Roosevelt and Churchill advocated for a fourth zone for the French, Stalin would only acquiesce if the territory was taken from the American and British zones. After reasserting that only unconditional surrender would be acceptable the Big Three agreed that Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification, as well as that some war reparations would be in the form of forced labor. Japan Pressing on the issue of Japan, Roosevelt secured a promise from Stalin to enter the conflict ninety days after the defeat of Germany. In return for Soviet military support, Stalin demanded and received American diplomatic recognition of Mongolian independence from Nationalist China. Caving on this point, Roosevelt hoped to deal with the Soviets through the United Nations, which Stalin did agree to join after voting procedures in the Security Council were defined. Returning to European affairs, it was jointly agreed that the original, prewar governments would be returned to liberated countries. Exceptions were made in the cases of France, whose government had become collaborationist, and Romania and Bulgaria where the Soviets had effectively dismantled the governmental systems. Further supporting this was a statement that all displaced civilians would be returned to their countries of origin. Ending on February 11, the three leaders departed Yalta in a celebratory mood. This initial view of the conference was shared by the people in each nation, but ultimately proved short-lived. With Roosevelts death in April 1945, relations between the Soviets and the West became increasingly tense. Aftermath As Stalin reneged on promises concerning Eastern Europe, perception of Yalta changed and Roosevelt was blamed for effectively ceding Eastern Europe to the Soviets. While his poor health may have affected his judgment, Roosevelt was able to secure some concessions from Stalin during the meeting. Despite this, many came to view the meeting as a sellout that greatly encouraged Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe and northeast Asia. The leaders of the Big Three would meet again that July for the Potsdam Conference. During the meeting, Stalin was effectively able to have the decisions of Yalta ratified as he was able to take advantage of new US President Harry S. Truman and a change of power in Britain that saw Churchill replaced partway through the conference by Clement Attlee.

How SAT Practice Got Me a Perfect Score

How SAT Practice Got Me a Perfect Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Can taking official SAT practice tests improve your SAT score dramatically? It can if you do it right. Most students practice the SAT incorrectly and are then surprised when their scores don’t increase. I myself essentially practiced my way to a perfect SAT score, and I’m convinced you can do it, too! I've developed an SAT practice method that has worked for thousands of students- and I'll describe it right here. Overview: How My Method Will Raise Your SAT Score Take official practice testsand apply the methods I'm about to go over. Do this, and I guarantee your SAT score will go up hundreds of points. What do this mean for you? In a couple of weeks, you mightnever get a disappointing score on the SAT again. You might decide to throw away all those other strategies that don't seem to work, the ones that get you the same (not-quite-high-enough) score over and over again. Anytime you think you want to improve your SAT score even more, you'll know exactly what to do. Just take out a fresh practice SAT test, sit down, and apply my method. With my method, wrong answer marks on your score sheet will disappear like smoke in the wind. You'll start to take the SAT confidently and get the score you want.You'll apply to the school of your dreams and get accepted. I know this sounds too good to be true. Practice SAT tests? Don't I need a five-figure course from a college consultant to get the improvement I want? Yet this method is real.It's been proven on thousands of our own students, and I'm making it available to you right here, for free. But why should you trust me? And why is my method so effective? Allow me to introduce myself. Why You Can Listen to Me, a Perfect SAT Scorer I'm Fred Zhang, PhD, and I'm the cofounder of PrepScholar, the site you're visiting now. Though I eventually got a perfect score on the SAT, I personally struggled with improving my score and mastering SAT practice tests. When I first took the SAT, I got a full 200 points lower than what I was aiming for.I knew this wasn't the score I could achieve. There had to be some way to improve, right? So naturally, I did what all great athletes do: I practiced the real deal- the actual SAT. At first, there was very little improvement, but I quickly realized what I was doing wrong. Bit by bit, I built up an SAT practice test strategy that catapulted my score to perfect! Here's the proof: Screenshot of my perfect SAT score report. This score got me into every single college I applied to:Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. It also let me meet some of the most interesting and intellectually curious classmates I'm honored to call friends today. Lastly, it opened up invitations to some of the most competitive firms, such as Goldman Sachs (I ended up turning them down, though, along with all of finance). Screenshot of my acceptance into Harvard, which was due in part to my perfect SAT score. Today, I’m certified to be a college professor, and my main job is tohelp thousands of students succeed using the strategies I developed (along with the aid of many other brilliant SAT experts). Most importantly, through PrepScholar, I've helped thousands of studentsget the SAT scores they want. I'm not saying this to brag. Rather, I want you to have full confidence that what I'm about to tell you will work, as long as you do it right. How NOT to Take SAT Practice Tests Many test takers and self-studiers (mistakenly) believe in the Marathon Fallacy for SAT practice. The usual advice to those training for a marathon is to run more, run longer, and run to your limit. This works for marathons because running requires primarily one adaptation of your body. As you run more- no matter how you run, when you run, or where you run- your circulation should start to improve and your muscles should slowly strengthen. This, in turn, makes you a better runner. Students who believe in the Marathon Fallacy for SAT practice believe in the myth that all they need to do is pick up a practice test and churn away. More specifically, they tend to think the following: SAT skills are a generic muscle that gets stronger as long as you put time into practice, no matter what that practice looks like. The version or year of an SAT practice test doesn't matter. You can do a few practice problems on your phone or iPad while chatting with friends. You don't need to think deeply about the practice SATs after you take them. After churning through a bunch of practice SATs, students who believe in this myth take the SAT again and are shocked that their scores are the same or barely 10 points higher.Who would have guessed, but the brain is not a single muscle that responds to blind practice. Instead of comparing SAT practice to a marathon, it's better to think of the test as being similar to baseball. When you practice baseball, technique matters. Swinging a bat a thousand times will make you swing stronger and harder, but it won’t guarantee you’ll be a good player. That’s because so many other techniques matter more, such as your stance, the angle of your swing, your follow through, and your strategy after you hit the ball. In short, you have to practice baseball to get good at it, but you need to practice carefully. It’s the same with SAT prep: you need to prep for the SAT by taking realistic practice tests, but you need to also make sure you're preppingthe right way. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! The Best Way to Prep for the SAT: 4 Expert Tips Now, let me show you how to best prep for the SAT so that you, too, can get a perfect score! #1: Use Official SAT Practice Tests I see students get this method wrong the most. Students will pick up a generic set of practice SATs, not check the version or quality of them, and just use them from start to finish. The problem with almost all SAT practice tests that are not official (I call them cheap knockoff SATs) is that only a minimum amount of work has been put into them to make them look like the SAT. With cheap knockoff SATs, publishers tend to throw all kinds of trash into multiple-choice format and then call it "SAT practice." Some of the biggest sins I've seen include the following: One popular test-prep company wholesale recycled their GRE questions and called it SAT Practice.I’m not even kidding- I opened up their GRE questions on one screen and their SAT ones on another screen and saw the same questions, word for word! My jaw dropped. One book of SAT practice tests by one of the top test-prep companies had some questions with multiple right answers or no right answers at all. Have you ever taken a cheap knockoff SAT practice test, looked at an answer, and said, "That can't be right"? Well, now you know why! The worst SAT questions are those free problems that float around on websites that clearly have no specialization on the SAT.Usually, these sites have a ton of ads and prey on beginners. But even SAT books from the biggest test-prep publishers- books that look perfectly legit and are even on shelves in stores such as Barnes Noble- suffer from this issue, too. Publishers of cheap knockoff SATs are often under tight deadlines and take advantage of students. They know most students are novices and might be gullible enough to believe that anything in a multiple-choice format is similar to an actual SAT question. This wouldn't be horrible if all there was to the SAT was its multiple-choice format. But the test is much more complicated than this and asks certain questions in certain ways. These ways are very specific and take a lot of work by high-scoring experts to figure out. If you're training with bad SAT practice questions, it's like training with a softball for a baseball game. You'll spend all your time optimizing your skills for the wrong thing. I believe in this concept so much that in my program, PrepScholar, we use onlySAT practice tests released by the College Board for our full-length tests. Even when we design drill-problems, we have three sets of experts carefully review each question to ensure they adhere to every detail and the overall format of the SAT. #2: Take Each Practice Test in a Realistic Setting Many students are tempted to take shortcuts when doing SAT practice tests. Got five minutes before Mom picks you up from sports? Then why not do two SAT math questions on your iPhone? The problem here is that you're training in an environment that differs significantly from that of the real SAT. Let's take the five-minute-on-your-iPhone example above to demonstrate exactly why a realistic setting matters: Giving yourself five minutes for two math questions is way too much time. You’ll be training for the wrong timing and will fall into bad habits, such as grinding out a solution in a way that you could never, ever hope to do on the real SAT. You won’t have scrap paper or a pencil to write down notes and ideas. To do well on the SAT, you must take advantage of the space in the test to jot down ideas, your work, and any notes. Doing SAT practice on an iPhone trains none of these critical skills. You're not taking the SAT inthe normal four-hour context.Regardless of whether you're physicallyfatigued after hours of playing sports or are feeling totally mentally refreshed, the environment simply isn't realistic. Studying hard or hardly studying? Practicing the SAT in bed is a bad idea. Now, five minutes of practice on an iPhone might be an uncommon example, but it's very easy to slack off, even when you're taking a practice SAT at your desk. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine how realistic your SAT practice session is: Did you take the entire test in one sitting (good) or split it up into several chunks (bad)? The more chunks you split a practice SAT into, the worse your practice will be since you won’t learn how to prepare for the fatigue of the test. Did you give yourself an extra long break or take breaks between sections where none are scheduled? On the actual SAT, you don't get to eat a two-hour-long dinner in the middle of the test, so don't do it during a practice test, either! Do you sometimes peek at answers? Peeking at answers is a cardinal sin. Looking at the answer sheet even once during a practice SAT can easily boost your score 100 points. This not only screws up the entire vibe and sequence of the test but can also make you think you're doing better than you actually are. Do you give yourself a couple of extra minutes on a section, maybe to bubble in a few answers? Giving yourself extra time is much worse than it seems at first glance. Knowing how to time yourself so you can finish each section in time, while challenging, is a critical skill you'll need to build up. Part of time management training involves knowing to stop taking the test a few minutes before time is up and also knowing how to deal with last-minute troubles. The best way to prep for the SAT is to take each SAT practice test under as realistic a setting as possible.So what should you do? Get out a table in a quiet room. Have the tests printed in front of you with bubble sheets. Use a real timer to give yourself scheduled breaks, andnever give yourself even a minute more. Once you're all set, take the entire test as if you were at an SAT test center. I believe in using a realistic test setting so much that our SAT prep program encourages this to the fullest extent possible. We have timers exactly like those on the real test, and automatically watch out for any noncompliance that can jeopardize the studying process. #3: Put In Enough Time This might seem obvious, but it's definitely worth repeating the process described in the first two tips. You need to put in time to improve on the SAT. While I'm against chugging practice test after practice test, at the end of the day the chugger will still do better than the test taker who puts in nearly zero time. Improving on the SAT takes hard work. Unwillingness to accept this is the quickest route to stagnation. In fact, in this guide, I am assuming that you will be putting in at least 10 hours of SAT study time in total. If you're studying fewer than 10 hours, nothing can help you significantly improve your SAT score. Not a book, not some cheap tricks, not me- not even a five-figure "college consultant." If you're studying fewer than 10 hours, throw this entire guide away.In this case, the best way to improve your score is to simply put in more study time. Similarly, if you're studying around 10-30 hours, putting in more time will help you substantially. In this range, putting in time is just as important as doing the right kind of SAT practice. We at PrepScholar believe in this time factor so much that our program records the time you study each week, and then predicts your progress based on this time.We also regularly tell you whether the time you spend is enough to get the improvement you want on the SAT. All in all, definitely carve out enough time for SAT practice! #4: Identify and Fix Your Weaknesses The most important part of taking a practice test is to have a clear grasp of what questions you're getting wrong and why you're getting them wrong.Too many students fall into this trap and think thatas long as you've taken a practice SAT, you've gotten all you can get out of it. This is completely wrong. The reality is that analyzing your performance on each practice test is the key to score improvement.Taking practice SATs in realistic settings can only get you so far. What you really need to do isanalyze your mistakes and look for patterns in your weaknesses. Again, SAT practice is like baseball practice. If you keep on swinging your bat wrong, you have to think hard after each swing. What felt off about that swing? What did your coach say about your swings? Are you swinging too hard, too lightly, or at the wrong angle? You need to think before you retry to get the most out of your practice. To analyze your SAT weaknesses, start by looking at each problem you got wrong on a practice test. Then, list the reasons you think you got it wrong. Here are some examples: Didn't know the math formula needed to solve it Ran out of time Made a careless mistake Next, tally up all the reasons for your mistakes on the test and look at the top three. These are the three big weaknesses you'll need to work on the most in your SAT prep. If you got mostly wrong answers, it's OK to take a sample of them instead. For example, you could look at every other question or every third question. Even though you won't get to analyze all your answers, in the end your results should be roughly the same. After, you'll want to eliminate your weaknesses by thinking carefully about how you can fix them.For timing issues, try a number of time-related strategies that have worked well for experts on practice tests to see what works best for you. For weaknesses in a certain topic such as reading or math, you might want to drill specific problem types or review lessons using high-quality tutorial resources likeKhan Academy. "But wait," you might say. "Isn't this guide supposed to be about SAT practice? Didn't you say you can improve a lot with SAT practice?" SAT practice is still the core to your improvement on the SAT. You're spending a large fraction of your time on it to train your muscle memory and diagnose your issues. In fact, you're spending even more time on focused practice SAT problems to drill (and thus fix) your weaknesses. However, there are definitely times when the best way to improve your score is toreview specific content and consider what could be the causes of your weaknesses. The Easy Way to Do SAT Practice Right In this section, I’m going to talk about our SAT prep program, PrepScholar, a bit. First off, you don’t need to use PrepScholar to benefit from the advice above. However, usually when I’ve given this talk in the past, the students most adamant about improving their scores asked me to talk a little more about how PrepScholar uses the tips above. You can feel free to skip this section, as the advice will still help you study even without our program. I used the SAT study strategy above with little external help during high school. In fact, I still have annotated practice tests with detailed notes explaining the reasons I got each question wrong. I also remember keeping a ledger of all my practice tests, a list of all my practice test sources, and a paper tallying all my mistakes. All you need to do is put in the work, be careful, and you'll be able to use this process successfully, too. However, what if instead of reinventing the wheel, all you had to do was log in every few days, do the practice SATs assigned to you, and see your score skyrocket?That's exactly what happens when you use the PrepScholar Complete SAT Prep program. Our program offers the following features: Automatically sources the most up-to-date official practice SATs for you,directly from the College Board website Tests you with an accurate timer, and gives you warnings if you take the practice SAT in a way that might jeopardize its effectiveness Encourages you to put in ample study time, and tells you when you need to put in more Automatically analyzes all the problems you got wrong, explainsthe top reasons you got questions wrong, and generates a curriculum for improving your biggest weaknesses These four steps are where SAT magic happens. You find out what you're getting wrong. You work on these issues until they go away. Your scores climb to your goal. Finally, you get into the colleges of your dreams. No messy self-tracking- just easy, immediate guidance that improves your SAT scores. You can see why our customers think this program is a great tool: "I love the practice tests!""Yes, I can definitely feel improvement. I love the practice tests. Would definitely like 2 or 3 more before I do the real thing.I like how you guys personally interact with me on a daily basis. Makes me feel like I am gettingmore of a personal experience. I love it." - Brian P. North Carolina"He did much better on this test!""You are the absolute best! My son was so happy when he came out. He did much better on this test than he did on the previous test.When my son came out of the previous test, he seemed down in the dumps. We knew right then and there, that the results were probably not going to be what we had hoped for, and that we would be exploring other options. After taking Prepscholar, he came out of the test with a huge smile on his face and told us right away that he did so much better." - Eileen H. VirginiaRead more customer stories here! And you won't believe the price. College costs around $10,000-$100,000 for most students. What's more, a regular cycle of visits to a college counselor or SAT tutor can easily run you over $4,000. Chances are, they might not even know how to improve your score in your specific case! At this rate, a program that figures out your specific issues and targets the exact SAT practice that you need would be a steal for even $1,000. After all, this is how much the most common one-size-fits-all courses by the test-prep dinosaurs charge. Yes, you can buy inferior programs at dirt-cheap prices, but they'll likely mess up your strategies. If you've got hundreds of hours to figure things out and make tons of mistakes, you could self-study, too. But we're talking about your college future here. I'll gladly admit that our PrepScholar Complete SAT Prep package is not the cheapest program on the market. That's because it uses only real SAT practice questions for tests, andall questions have passed three levels of scrutiny by top SAT scorers. We could easily charge more, but there's a simple reason we try our best to keep prices down: we want you to score higher. We want you to get into the school of your choice. After all, that's why we've even given you our top strategy in this guide for free. So why not accept our offer for our Complete SAT Prep program for just $399 and get started today? You're Protected Two Ways When you buy PrepScholar Complete SAT Prep, you're protected two ways. We want you to know that we're taking out all the risk through our double guarantee: Five Day Trial: If, for any reason, you don't like our program in the first five days, just contact us and we'll give you your money back. You get access to the whole program, not some walled-off piece. And in the unlikely chance you don't think it fits you, you get your money back, no questions asked. Some extreme students have worked full-time to finish our entire program in the five-day period, and they got their money back- something we applaud! 240+ Point Guarantee: If you finish our program and don't improve 240 points, you get all your money back as well. It's win-win- you either get the score you need, or you get free prep! What's Next? Studying for the SAT entirely on your own?Get tips on the best SAT prep books to useand learn how to come up with a foolproof SAT study plan that works well for you. Not sure what SAT score you should be aiming for?In this guide, we explain what scores are good and bad on the SAT, and go over how to determine what score you should shoot for based on the schools you're applying to. We've also got another in-depth guide to getting a perfect SAT score.Here, one of our expert full scorers teaches you how to identify your weaknesses and build a study plan guaranteed to get you that elusive 1600 on test day!