Saving Private Ryan Essays (970 words) - English-language Films

Saving Private Ryan Saving Private Ryan is a movie that generates strong responses from most people that see it. While interviewing four individuals and reading three movie reviews, I found that each of my subjects would recommend it, not one of the individuals interviewed felt the violence was senseless, and all of them left the movie with a strong emotional response of some kind. It appears that Saving Private Ryan is the kind of movie to which many can relate. Saving Private Ryan is not a romantic, feel-good movie, but it is probably one of the best movies released this year. It is without a doubt one of the most realistic films produced. Each person that I spoke with, and all three of the internet criticisms that I read voiced positive opinions about this movie. It has different types of entertainment for all kinds of viewers. It has elements of violence, patriotism, sentimentality, and heroism all rolled into one film. All of my subjects, including the internet critics, feel that Saving Private Ryan will receive many awards, and that it is a credit to Steven Spielberg as a director. When asked if they would recommend the film to another each of my interviewees responded positively. One widely talked about part of this film is the huge degree of violence. In this case however, contrary to the usual attitudes, the violence is not described as senseless or excessive by anyone that I spoke with. This movie is obviously set against the backdrop of World War II, beginning with D-Day and the battle of Omaha Beach. The killing appears to be overdone as the young men step off the transport boats only to be killed one after the other, but when consulting the history of this battle, it is almost exactly how this battle took place. The beaches were indeed covered with bodies, and the water was red with the blood of the slaughtered soldiers. The recreation of this battle by Steven Spielberg has succeeded in bringing this war, this battle in particular, out of the history books and into larger than life color on America's movie screens. Everyone I interviewed already knew of the terrible acts of the Germans during World War II, but hey had not, however, ever really been able to comprehend the degree of loss that many families experienced. They had also never really been able to picture the battles of the soldiers themselves in quite the detail that Saving Private Ryan provided them with. This is one movie that should not be negatively reviewed because of the degree of violence. Saving Private Ryan is about a horrible war, that took place because of a madman's craziness, and this war was an ugly thing that happened very much like this movie portrayed it. The continuous gore is difficult to watch at times, but leaves the viewer with a greater appreciation of their nation's military, and the sacrifice of the soldiers who serve willingly. It is clear that above all else, Private Ryan is intended to create an awareness of the sacrifice of the soldiers that gave their lives during World War II. In doing that, Steven Spielberg very successfully in brings out intense emotions in the spectator. While this movie had a great deal of violence that was sometimes difficult to watch, the sheer sentimentality behind the mission of the soldiers who have to find Private Ryan and bring him back was heart wrenching to say the least. It would take a cold-hearted individual indeed to feel no sorrow for the pain of the mother of Private Ryan when the military officials arrive at her home to tell her that three of her sons have been killed in battle. The way she falls to her knees on the porch and begins sobbing at the sight of the military vehicle is without a doubt a mirror of any mother's reaction to the same situation. Simply said, the moviegoer feels her pain. Even the hard-core attitude of the soldiers during the capture of the Ger man soldier that has just shot their friend, the medic, brings on conflicting emotions. The German, while digging graves for the dead American soldiers, pleads for his life, insults Hitler, and

Written English - Definition and Examples

Written English s Written English is the way in which the English language is transmitted through a conventional system of graphic signs (or letters). Compare to spoken English. The earliest forms of written English were primarily the translations of Latin works into English in the ninth century. Not until the late fourteenth century (that is, the late Middle English period) did a standard form of written English begin to emerge. According to Marilyn Corrie in The Oxford History of English (2006), written English has been characterized by relative stability during the Modern English period. See also: WritingAlphabetColloquializationFormal Style and Informal StyleKey Events in the History of the English LanguageLiteracyPresent-Day English (PDE)SpellingStandard EnglishWhat Is Standard English?What Is Writing? Early Written English [T]he vast majority of books and manuscripts produced in England before the invention of printing were written in Latin or (in later times) French. Administrative documents were not written in English in any number until the fourteenth century. The story of early written English is one of a local vernacular language struggling to achieve a distinct visual identity and written usage.(David Graddol et al., English: History, Diversity, and Change. Routledge, 1996)[A] new standard form of written English, this time based on the usage of London, began to emerge from the fifteenth century onwards. This was generally adopted by the early printers, who in turn provided a norm for private usage from the sixteenth century onwards.(Jeremy J. Smith, Essentials of Early English. Routledge, 1999) Recording Functions of Written English The history of writing in the English-speaking world reveals a balancing act between competing recording functions of the written word. While written English has always had a role in creating durable records that were never intended to be read aloud, the oral side of writing has been far more important than we tend to realize. Through most of the languages history, an essential function of writing has been to aid in subsequent representation of spoken words. Overwhelmingly, those spoken words have been formal in characterdrama, poetry, sermons, public speeches. ( . . . [B]eginning in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, writing developed a new set of quintessentially written functions with the emergence of newspapers and novels.)In the latter part of the twentieth century, a new twist was added, as writing increasingly came to represent informal speech. This time, there was no intention of later rendering such texts aloud. Gradually, we learned to write as we spoke (rather than preparing to speak as we wrote). As a result weve generally blurred older assumptions that speech and writing are two distinct forms of communication. Nowhere has this muddying of boundaries been more apparent than in the case of email.(Naomi S. Baron, Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where Its Heading. Routledge, 2000) Writing and Speech When writing developed, it was derived from and represented speech, albeit imperfectly . . ..To affirm the primacy of speech over writing is not, however, to disparage the latter. If speaking makes us human, writing makes us civilized. Writing has some advantages over speech. For example, it is more permanent, thus making possible the records that any civilization must have. Writing is also capable of easily making some distinctions that speech can make only with difficulty. We can, for example, indicate certain types of pauses more clearly by the spaces that we leave between words when we write than we ordinarily are able to do when we speak. Grade A may well be heard as gray day, but there is no mistaking the one phrase for the other in writing.(John Algeo and Thomas Pyles, The Origins and Development of the English Language, 5th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2005) Standard Written English Standard or standardized written English (SWE). Its alive and well in our culture, but what does it mean? Many varieties of English get into print in various contexts, but standard doesnt refer to all of themnot even to everything published in mainstream books and magazines. It refers only to one slice of mainstream writingbut an incredibly important and powerful slice: the slice that people happen to call correct edited written English. When people champion Standard Written English, they sometimes call it proper or correct or literate writing. . . . [I]ts a language that is found only on paperand only in the texts of certain established writers, and its rules are in grammar books. So again: standardized written English (or prescriptive written English) is no ones mother tongue.(Peter Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing. Oxford Univ. Press, 2012)Unlike most other kinds of English, standard written English is strongly codified. That is, there is almost total agreement as to which forms and usages form part of it and which do not. . . .Mastery of standard written English is a requirement for many professions, and it is highly desirable in many others. But nobody comes naturally equipped with this mastery. Standard written English has to be acquired, usually by formal education. Sadly, however, in recent years schools in most English-speaking countries have pulled back from teaching this material. As a result, even university graduates with good degrees often find themselves with a command of standard English that is at best inadequate and at worst distressing. This is not a trivial problem, since a poor command of the conventions of standard English will often make a very bad impression on those who must read your writing.(Robert Lawrence Trask, Say What You Mean!: A Troubleshooters Guide to English Style and Usage. David R. Godine, 2005)

Research Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Research Proposal - Essay Example To quit smoking is almost synonymous with ensuring a greener earth to our society, a healthy life for the future generations and a much more peaceful and trouble-free life for the smokers. It has often been found that people smoke out of frustration or a number of other concocted reasons. But the truth is that the addiction increases our vulnerability to all those factors – it exposes us to health as well as mental illness. In fact, it is not only the active smokers who are susceptible to the harms, but the passive smokers too, especially the children who have relatively a much lower immunity power. Smoking seems to be worth quitting from a political aspect as well. Most domestic governments have levy heavy duties on tobacco products. People, who find smoking irresistible, often ignore these facts, when the truth is that they could actually save a lumpsum amount of their money through getting rid of the habit – on the other hand, tobacco tax is considered to be one of the most important sources of government revenues. Dr. Damien De Walque in 2004 found that education had a great impact among the educated youth of the American society about their smoking behaviours. He statistically tested the hypothesis about the effect that education had on the smoking habits of people, on the basis of sample data collected since 1950 and found that the effect to be statistically significant (De Walque, 2004).1 Layte and Whelan in 2006 found that the people belonging to the lower strata of the society, viz., the blue-collar class in North America, were found to be more prone to smoking habits than those belonging to the professional or managerial class. One of the reasons cited behind this behaviour was the impact of education.2 Keeler and Hu in 1998 also found out that formal education had a statistically significant impact on the awareness of the people

Arguments against abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Arguments against abortion - Essay Example Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." The aspect of abortion has been in vogue for centuries in all parts of the world and debated for and against ever since. While individuals arguing for abortion have been insistent on certain safety related issues and also often alleged business related factors, aspects against abortion too have various and even more credible grounds including religious, medical, legal, ethical and so on. While abortion is definitely a favourable decision in case of a medical emergency whereby at least the mother's life can be saved, in today's world abortion has actually become a matter of choice on various counts, and unfortunately, even a family planning tool. Across the country, people on both sides of abortion debate agree that women have a right to make informed decisions about their pregnancy. Women have a right to know what is right, safe and good for them and the child in the long run ethically, morally, medically and even psychologically. However, in honest opinion of this author, there are certain critical issues involved when terminating a pregnancy willingly, which may affect her for a long time. While there are adequate instances of medical practitioners and employers advising women regarding terminating pregnancies purely to save them monetarily through savings on maternity benefits, the abortion decision should not be taken under pressure from the employers. Unfortunately, even this happens far too often in modern world. "Coercive and unethical counselors lie to vulnerable women and pressure them. This has happened in some abortion clinics as well as some pregnancy care centers. Women have died from botched abortions, both before abortion was legalized and after, when it is supposed to be safe. After all, employers do not want to pay for maternity benefits or lose productivity when a mother takes time off to care for a newborn or sick child. "(Source: Feminists for Life, Serrin M. Foster, 1999) WHAT RELIGION SAYS Bible doesn't advocate anything against abortion for the basic reason that abortion was unthinkable in those days when a child was considered to be a gift from the god. Further, childlessness was seen as the greatest curse. Hence, there was no need to mention this aspect at all in the bible. However, "some verses appear to teach that if a woman gives birth prematurely, but the baby is not injured, then only a fine is appropriate. However, if the child dies then the law of retaliation (lex talionis) should be applied. In other words, killing an unborn baby would carry the same penalty as killing a born baby. A baby inside the womb has the same legal status as a baby outside the womb." (Arguments Against Abortion, Kerby Anderson, President of Probe Ministries International, 1997) Roman Catholicism: The popes have taught that abortion is

Boston Lyric Opera Essay Example for Free

Boston Lyric Opera Essay 1. BLO’s eight customer objectives The first objective is to gain generous contributions. The amount per donator, ration between new donators and new contacts (collection rate) and the total amount of the donators and contributions are ways to measure how this aspect is doing. Incentives for the staff should also be incorporated into these objectives, especially ones that steer the process towards multi-year support programs. To measure the board involvement and recruitment, it is important that the reputation of the new board member is blameless and since operating in Boston, a local person with strong ties to the community would be better. To measure involvement the easiest way is to look the member’s activity, how many times they’ve been in meetings and how they’ve acted to build strategy. For example number of new initiatives. Also hours spent educating the board members about strategy and vision could be one measurement. Building an artistic reputation is hard and so is measuring it. Reviews on papers give a sight how the opera is doing, but the best way to know is to make a consumer survey for example once a month. Also comparing the growth in visitors between BLO and other operas gives an idea. Rating different aspects is another way to measure the artistic view. Giving value for example to the lead singer or the orchestra will help to understand how the opera is doing on its main field. These measures aren’t very proactive though, but helpful anyway. One objective is to launch a residency program. Its success can be measured by the amount of acceptances to invites and by comparing the audience amounts to normal. Like when measuring artistic reputation, the best way to measure how exciting and diverse opera’s repertories are is to see reviews and audience amounts. The grading system works when the given grades are compared to the rivals’ same grades and the shows are compared. These are of course not proactive measures. BLO wants to collaborate with other major artistic institutions like museums and theatres. Also other operas and specially talents working in them are important. One way to measure collaboration is the amount of tickets to opera that our associates sell. How many per cent of the total amount of sold tickets is it and have these collaborations brought new visitors to BLO. Community support and focus on community programs can be measured with the amount of local donators and specially the amount of new supporters. Has the PR-campaign been affective? Have local companies supported the opera? This can be measured with the amount of companies. Measurements that measure processes in line with the strategy are not always easy to find and it usually takes a lot of time to find the right ways to use them. Often they need to be adjusted or reset to fit the strategy. The main challenge is to find measures that are pro-active and directive instead of controlling. 2. Boston Lyric Opera had not really measured their organizational performance before. This had ultimately caused lack of focus and limited accountability. Boston Lyric Opera was mainly led by qualitative values as quantitative measures and financials were not the topmost factors in decision making. The new general director Janice Del Sesto and BLO’s board acknowledged that there was a history of expensive opera productions and large losses in Boston’s opera scene and they had to adapt a new business philosophy in order to operate fiscally. Non-profit organizations often have a lack of focus and their strategy concentrates to too many things at the same time. Ken Freed, a BLO board member, acknowledged that a more formal strategic planning process was essential for BLO in order to avoid mistakes that several arts organizations had made in the past. They decided to adapt the Balanced Scorecard to focus their strategic planning process. Using the Balanced Scorecard, BLO and its employees could see their day-to-day activities within a bigger and more strategic context. They started the change by defining BLO’s mission, strategy, competitive advantages, and distinguishing characteristics that would make it unique. The biggest change here was BLO reshaping its strategy. They acknowledged that their most important â€Å"customers† in this situation are the people who resourced their organization. BLO received nearly 70 percent of their operating budget from sources other than ticket sales, mostly from donors and supporters. BLO decided to place donors and supporters as their main interest group in the Balanced Scorecard. They were the body that enabled BLO to carry out their mission and strategy. Even though Boston Lyric Opera is a non-profit organization and its output is intangible, its organizational performance can be measured by quantitative measures. The Balanced Scorecard would bring quantitative measures alongside the qualitative measures. The Balanced Scorecard required BLO to quantify their activities. BLO acknowledged that and they for example created a database where they linked quantifiable donor data to qualitative information about donor meetings etc. Basically, the Balanced Scorecard required BLO to be managed like a business. 3. Lyric Opera had a new question ahead of them. They had to figure out what they wanted to become. BLO’s existing strategy was not valid anymore as their operating expenses rose and revenues from ticket sales were limited. BLO decided to adapt the Balance Scorecard in order to set new strategic objectives and measure their performance against those objectives in order to overcome to challenges they were facing. Adapting the Balanced Scorecard, BLO was able to compose a clear and precise strategy. Actually, the strategy itself was quite complex and multidimensional but the Balanced Scorecard gave it a framework that presented the new strategy clearly. BLO set three strategic themes that they felt were important in reaching their goals and they had objectives and measures of success for all of the themes. Using the Balanced Scorecard and the strategy map, BLO was also able to communicate the new strategy clearly to their staff, stakeholders, and other associates. The fact that BLO now had sufficient information of their organization and operations, it could draw new donors to them. By using the Balanced Scorecard, BLO recognized their key success drivers and they started to focus on the activities that had the greatest impact on their goals. They all had a clear common goal and BLO’s staff worked cross-departmentally, motivationally to reach the goal of providing unique, uality opera in Boston. However Jessica Del Sesto and Sue Dahling-Sullivan faced some difficult challenges and barriers to capture the above-mentioned benefits. There was some opposition from a few board-members of changing the organization’s governance structure, adapting the Balance Scorecard and managing an art organization by quantitative measures. These â€Å"old school† members did not under stand that BLO could not compete with the great opera houses and they could not standout from the crow without differentiating in some way. Del Sesto and Dahling-Sullivan were still able to carry out the new strategy and capture the benefits to make BLO a highly successful arts organization. One of the most crucial parts of the adapting a new strategy was to communicate the strategy clearly to their staff, board members and other stakeholders. It is an unconditional requirement that people understand the new strategy and its benefits in order it to succeed. Del Sesto and Dahling-Sullivan used the strategy map in communicating the new strategy and it clearly presented the reasons and benefits of the new strategy and it lighten opposition substantially. . The departmental managers and the employees of BLO are more empowered after the BSC but the artistic leaders are less. The managers are now more empowered because every department now gets to plan its own scorecard, and describe the ways how the department would meet the high level strategic goals. The employees are with the scorecard more empowered, as they can see the w ork in a more strategic context and therefore set priorities more effectively themselves. However the artistic leaders felt that the scorecard and specially the repertory planning template could limit their opportunities in designing productions. . Del Sesto uses the BSC as a managerial system. The BSC purely concentrates on the big picture; everything is based to support strategy. Del Sesto believes that the BSC helps her to steer board members’ attention to proper tasks. Also, she thanks BSC for helping employees to think more strategically, and with greater clarity towards their objectives. All in all, Del Sesto is clearly more interested on the management aspect of the BSC. One explanation to this is that BLO is a nonprofit organization. Its reason to exist is not to make profit to its owners but to offer culture to the community. All the objectives connected to the three main points are easier to measure with controlling measurements. 6. Kaplan and Norton have studied the success of BSC implementations in different organizations. They have concluded five principals that contribute greatly to the success. These principals can also be found on BLO’s BSC implementation. The process started with planning. Group consisting members from all functions thought in several meeting how the BSC should be made and what BLO is now and what it wants to be. All possible views were brought to conversations and the members were challenged to use their imagination. As a result the group made three strategic themes which determined the main points to BLO’s future strategy. These three big themes were divided to smaller parts and brought to a form that is clear to everyone in the organization. This is similar to Kaplan’s and Norton’s principal 1, where the strategy is translated in to operational terms. The BSC was completed by determining the actions to be made so that the strategy can be fulfilled. After this all parts of the organization got to make scorecards of their own and were so committed to the strategy. The whole organization was aligned to meet the strategy (Principle 2). The project succeeded because BLO was able to find the crucial processes and finish them through. The personnel were part of the developing strongly. During the process of creating the BSC, the role of the entire staff in overall success was emphasized. This made them easier to adapt the new way of doing things and easier to understand the strategy and how it can be fulfilled (Principle 3). Often when BSC implementation fails it is because the scorecard is considered to be only management’s project, just a top-level adjustment. As always with large scale organizational changes, also this project faced some resistance. Some board members and artistic staff were unsure about the motives for changing the old customs. This problem however was solved, as the need for change was successfully communicated through various levels of the organization (Principle 5). Other crucial point which was done well was the targeting. The mission was announced clearly and the goals were easy to understand. The three major themes were chosen wisely and chopped in to smaller pieces well.

Essay example --

Modern Slavery I. Introduction A. How would you feel like living in a world where all your freedom is taken away? B. In history class, we learned that approximately 150 years ago Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves, but we forget that modern forma of slavery still exist in our world today. C. At this moment, there are 27 million slaves in the world suffering from modern forms of servitude. D. First, I will explain this thesis statement in more detail, then I’ll describe how this changed the world and what government are doing to combat this international crisis. E. Now, let me start by giving some background information on modern slavery. II. Human trafficking is the modern form of slavery that occurs in many countries throughout the world affecting men, women, and children. A. Two basic forms of human trafficking are labor trafficking and sex trafficking. 1. Labor Trafficking: Using force, fraud or coercion to recruit, harbor, transport, obtain or employ a person for labor or services in involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. Victims can be found in domestic situations as nannies or maids, sweatshop factories, janitorial jobs, construction sites, farm work, restaurants, and panhandling. (Williams, 2013) 2. Sex Trafficking: Involving commercial acts induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person performing the act is under age 18. Victims can be found working in massage parlors, on the streets, in brothels, strip clubs, and escort services. (Williams, 2013) B. Slavery exist in nearly every country, whether the countries are origin countries, transit countries, or destination countries and effects all men, women, and children. 1. Human trafficking is widespread – data taken from th... ...Council, China's Cabinet The mechanism will be conducive to curbing the rise of human trafficking cases and ensuring that victims of trafficking are rehabilitated and relocated in a timely manner, the plan noted. C. As you can see the United States, as well as many other countries, have made efforts to crack down on trafficking, educate vulnerable people, and rehabilitate the victims of these horrific crimes. V. Conclusion A. Modern slavery affects men, women, and children in every country throughout the world through one way or another, but finally government agencies or organizations are taking action to put an end to this international crisis. B. There are 27 million human beings that are bound to servitude through out the world today. C. The next time you enjoy sipping on you morning coffee, take a moment to think about the slave who made it all possible.

Gen 105

Selected reading: Name your selected reading and page numbers here Keys to Effective Learning: p. 193 (Ch. 7) SurveyDescribe the value of surveying the reading. By surveying the reading I was able to get an understanding of what the reading would be about. I was able to identify that the main focus would be on classical conditioning and the effects that it would have. I was able to look for key bold words in the reading. QuestionWhat questions did you ask as you were reading? I asked if there were other forms of classical conditioning that I could relate to.I also asked what other variations could have been used in the experiments I asked the definitions and examples of conditioned and unconditioned responses ReadHow did surveying and questioning help you read better? Surveying and questioning helped me to grasp the main idea of the reading before reading through the article. I was able to know what I would be reading about and what key words to look for without having read the artic le multiple times. This skill will be an asset with future reading requirements. ReciteHow did you decide what parts of your reading you needed to recite?I recited the questions that I initially asked myself and went over the words that I was unfamiliar with. I learn better by writing. After answering the questions, I wrote them down along with the answers. ReviewHow often do you plan to review? I will review material immediately after reading and then come back to it periodically to prevent from forgetting. Certain topics will not need to be reviewed as often as others. Wrap-up questions: How successful was the SQ3R process in helping you grasp the concepts in the section you selected? Will you use SQ3R in the future as a way to master the content in academic readings?The SQ3R process was very successful. I am not a strong reader and using these guidelines gave me a very good baseline to use with future readings and grow from. These steps will help build a foundation for upcoming c lasses. Looking at an entire chapter or book can be overwhelming but by using these steps, it makes the tasks at hand more manageable. I look forward to strengthening my reading ability by using the SQ3R process.References Carter, C. , Bishop, J. , & Kravits, S. L. (2011). Keys to Effective Learning: Study Skills and Habits for Success (6th ed. ). : Allyn & Bacon.