Learning Curve Concept

Sodium24 analysis

Sodium24 analysis Don't have the actaul question sheet anymore, and there is images to go up aswell but im having trouble uploading any of my original essays.1 2.Sodium-24 is an isotope used in medicine and the mining industry, as it is a gamma emitter. It is used for studies of electrolytes within the body, and also to locate leaks in industrial pipelines and oil well studies.3.Half-life of Sodium-24 is 14.96 hours, and it takes a further 149.6 hours or 6.23 days to become 'safe,' as 10 half-lives is what is required for an unstable isotope to become 'safe'4.Sodium-24 is used to measure extracellular fluid by indicator dilution and also is used to locate leaks in industrial pipelines and oil well studies. It is injected into pipelines and oil wells, and then measured with scanners and radiation detectors for leaks, so that they can be fixed to prevent stock loss or some sort of disaster from a leak, for example a landslide, and to improve flow, and therefore profit too.Isotope Table5.Sodium-24 is an artificially made isotope. It is made at the Lucas Heights reactor, near Sydney, Australia, as well as at other reactors across the world. It is made by the neutron absorption method, where a stable isotope is placed in a nuclear reactor and bombarded with neutrons, until one is absorbed into the nucleus, creating an unstable isotope.6. There are four main hazards when using sodium-24 -Ionisation ability - is low because ionisation occurs when the decayed particles collide with an atom, knocking out an electron, making it positive. Because sodium-24 is a gamma emitter, the chance of a particle hitting an atom is small, because the particles that are decaying are so small.Penetration ability - Sodium-24 particles are so...

The Interior Monologue of Gregorio Samsa from Franz Kafka's novel, The Essay

The Interior Monologue of Gregorio Samsa from Franz Kafka's novel, The Metamorphosis - Essay Example However, I know believe that many people in the town played a significant role â€Å" OOH, why are so many people, including my parents and family living a life of want, why does the society appear to create economic divisions, I have never really had money. I have to always meet the monetary needs of family members, who I did not sire in the first place, Could it be that past events are against my success and growth as a person. How could I ever know, now that I am insect with no brain or intellectual power? I despise my family and wish that I had a different father. How could they have abandoned me after turning into an insect? Their attitude is reminiscent of crushing a moth once it outlives its usefulness; I am so tired of them Once again, my mind cannot get rid of the thought that my family abandoned me after transforming into an insect. I think I have to accept the seclusion in order to move forward. Why have they locked me in a room alone? Is it possible that they are now a shamed of me? Of course, I have no hope, I am lost, If my family can attack me for showing up in a public event, what else are they capable of doing. I firmly believe that my family no longer find me useful because of the transformation. I pity the hopelessness, shame and mixed feelings felt by people like me. Their lives are empty, empty, empty. Nothing good can be deduced from it. Many people, especially, all insects live empty lives with no contribution to the society. Why should I worry? My loneliness applies to all insects and many people in the society, again, why should I worry? I believe that abandonment is a representation of people or insects who were discriminated against because of their ethnic backgrounds. Regardless of my loneliness, I have to keep to myself. I cannot stand my pretentious family and their greed. Why don’t they value me like they did before? I have to distance

More and More Children Now Spend Most of Their Free Time Locked Away Essay

More and More Children Now Spend Most of Their Free Time Locked Away Playing Games - Essay Example This report approves that the society needs to perform its moral duty by keeping a check on the children. The compressed and restricted life of the modern world makes the adults hostile towards the kids. Children need to explore their physical abilities for which society needs to be lenient towards them. Modern technology gives us a lot of benefits but at the same time it has to pass through the criticism from every walk of life. People especially adults always admire the time they have spent without realizing that it had its own vices. This essay makes a conclusion that parents must accompany their children at the time of purchasing the games. They must look into the content of the game and see if it is suitable for their child or not. Healthy and educational games must be encouraged among children for their healthy growth. At the same time parents should keep a check on the duration of the play. Children must not be allowed to play games for a longer period. Rules must be set down regarding this issue and children should be made to realize the fact that it is actually good for their own health. To conclude it does appear that there is a link between uncontrolled use of video games and the anti social behavior of children. However, if the whole society including the policy makers, game makers, neighbors, schools and parents jointly combines in the effort to modify their children into healthy adults there is no chance technology like video games could have a negative impact on the lives of children. Every one needs to understand his role in the circle for a healthy future.

Anthropological analysis and conceptual synthesis Article

Anthropological analysis and conceptual synthesis - Article Example The society is herein described as one filled with male chauvinism, not ready to tolerate the women’s faith related stands. The saints were very firm on their maintenance of chastity and could even pray to God to make them ugly so that they could protect their chastity. For instance, St. Wilgefortis prayed for ugliness, and she was granted a man’s beard (Winston, Para 4). The male chauvinism however saw her murdered by her father. Others were like St. Lucia whose eyes were torn out for disappointing her family. These examples show that the women believed in their course and bravely stepped out of the societal norms (Winston, Para 6). From the article, it can be seen certain themes can be drawn. One of the themes is religion in which the saints are firmly rooted. The religion brings about the other theme of power whereby the males are seen to possess in plenty. They, however, misuse their power by killing the faithful females. The theme of male dominance is further shown by the linearity of mobility and recreation in which are based on social hierarchies. This is described in the Ghanam who describes the lives of brother and a sister from a low-income neighborhood in Egypt. The brother is drawn as the one dictating the mobility, suggesting male dominance (Ghannam 790-800). Summarizing Ghanam’s article, various methods supporting the solving of reconfiguration of inequalities can be explained. Farha Ghannam explains this by using the example of a brother and a sister who come from a low-income neighborhood in Egypt. Throughout the article, Ghanam describes the methods of liminality of mobility which illustrate social hierarchies. The methods include inequalities referring to mobility, class, gender and embodiment. Eyebrows." Were Some Catholic Saints Transgender? Berkeley Show Raises Eyebrows. 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Risk Factors Schizophrenia

Risk Factors Schizophrenia The Effect of Perinatal Risk Factors on the Incidence of Schizophrenia Background Developing schizophrenia is dependent on different factors. A person who could possibly develop the illness later in life is faintly unusual in terms of cognitive skills, motor functioning, and social behavior as compared to his or her peers. This states that indicators exist as to whether a person will be vulnerable into being a schizophrenic later in life, as dictated by certain abnormalities that can be observed (Mortensen, 1999 and Dean, 2003). Most of the causes being held accountable for the development of schizophrenia can be traced back to genetic or biological factors and environmental exposure that operated early in life of the individual (Dean, 2003, Khasshan, 2008, Mednick, 1970, and Mortenen, 1999). Evidences regarding the effects of obstetric complications, prenatal illness, misuse of drugs, migration and travel, urbanization, and various life experiences on the onset of schizophrenia in later years in life have been noted. These were even incorporated and represented in causation models that encompass psychological, genetic, environmental, and social elements. These evidences can be used as models for clinical and research purposes of determining the risk of schizophrenia, as they cover a wide range of causative agents (Dalman, 1999 and Dean, 2003). It has been a challenge for researchers to understand the cause of schizophrenia, the etiology of which has brought about several hypotheses (Dean, 2003). Different risk factors affect the incidence of the illness, two of which will be given more attention in this paper. A number of epidemiological studies have indicated an increased risk of developing schizophrenia among people who were exposed to maternal infections such as rubella virus and influenza virus in utero (Westergaard, 1999). Other studies have shown that children who were born during inclement weather have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. These are supported by researches conducted on a population basis (Mortensen, 1999). Purpose As stated by the study conducted by Mortensen and others (1999), the location and the season of birth of an individual might be important in the development of schizophrenia. Aside from family history, these environmental factors can be associated with the onset of the disorder. Prevalence studies of Westergaard and others (1999) also showed that exposure to prenatal infections might be a factor in the development of schizophrenia later in life. There is, however, a poor evidence of a strong association between development of schizophrenia and exposure to influenza viral infection. This lead the group into determining whether or not prenatal exposure to rubella would indeed be a factor for schizophrenia development. This is in accordance with previous researches that rubella viral infection might be a significant cause for the illness. With all these research supports as foundation for a prospective study, this paper aims to give a sound explanation on how certain factors might affec t the possible development of schizophrenia later in life. This study will focus on two possible causative agents as parameters. The main purpose of this study is to determine if being born in severe weather, such as extreme hot or cold temperatures, or being exposed to the rubella virus in utero is linked to developing schizophrenia later in life. Research Hypothesis We hypothesized that there would be an increase in the incidence of early adult onset schizophrenia among those exposed to the rubella virus in utero and those born in winter months. Literature Review Several studies have been conducted on risk factors for schizophrenia. One study examined the outcome in 70 individuals whose mothers had rubella infections during pregnancy. Rubella is known to cause severe developmental problems in exposed fetuses. These individuals risk of having schizophrenia by the time they reached the mean age of 22 years was five times higher than normal It has been proposed that environmental factors may also be important in determining risk for schizophrenia. A study done by Mortensen and others (1999) showed that the place and season of birth account for many more cases of schizophrenia than family history of the disease, and family history has been the best-established risk factor. The groups study found out that the risk for schizophrenia was highest for births in February and March and lowest for births in August and September. Another study conducted by Mortensen and others (1999) concluded that schizophrenia was positively associated with birth in late winter. On the other hand, Hultman and others (1999) emphasized the evidences shown by neuropathological researches that the aberrations caused by pathogen invasion disrupt proper brain development. This in turn contributes to the onset of schizophrenia that might even be developed earlier in life than expected. This proposed hypothesis can be associated with the link between obstetric complications and schizophrenia, as both are dependent on risks brought about by prenatal infections, which in turn are connected with neurodevelopment of an individual. Theoretical Framework The physiological framework of this study is based on the notion that conditions during pregnancy have an effect on the fetus psychological development, specifically, the impact of season of birth and exposure to the rubella virus. The prenatal conditions of an individual have a direct effect on the persons future genetic and phenotypic make-up. The most important contribution of the obstetric development lies on the possible alterations on the genes of the individual. Exposure to such abnormalities has a considerable intervention with the normal functioning of the brain (Khasshan, 2008). This means that exposure to infections such as rubella virus has a meaningful link to schizophrenia development of the individual exposed to the pathogen in its prenatal stage. This is serves as one of the backbones of this study, as it is the foundational basis whether the link between congenital exposure to rubella and schizophrenia onset has reliable evidence. After the study which dwells more on the biological or genetic factors, the study will consider the environmental elements that can also be potential risk factors for the disorder. It has been established that the over-all make-up of an individual lies on genetic and environmental factors. The second part or backbone of the study concerns the environmental exposure effects as dictated by season of birth. This can be of importance since extreme weathers might affect a mother psychologically and physically, thereby creating an impact on the life inside her womb. Being born on extreme hot and cold weather can hence be linked to the development of schizophrenia later in life of an individual (Mortensen and others, 1999). Significance and Need for the Study The proposed study is important due to the health and psychological concerns of schizophrenia. Being a disorder which affects the entire lifestyle of the affected individual, it is of great significance to research about the etiology of the disease (Dean, 2003). Prenatal exposure to rubella viral infection might be a cause of the onset of schizophrenia, as well as the environmental effect of being born on an extreme season. Knowledge on these prenatal risk factors can contribute additional information on how to prevent schizophrenia development in an individual. References: Dean, K., Bramon, E., Murray, R., (2003). The cause of schizophrenia:neurodevelopment and other risk factors. Journal of Psychiatric Practice. 9(6), 442-454. Dalman, C., Allebeck, P., Cullberg, J., Grunewald, C., Koster, M. (1999). Obstretric complications and the risk of schizophrenia: A longitudinal study of a national birth cohort. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 281,p. 2170. Hultman, C.M., et al. (1999). Prenatal and perinatal risk factors for schizophrenia, affective psychosis, and reactive psychosis of early onset: case-control study. British Medical Journal, (318), p 421. Khasshan, A., Abel, K., McNamee, R., Pedersen, M., Webb. Baker, P., et al. (2008). Higher Risk of Offspring Schizophrenia Following Antenatal Maternal Exposure to Severe Adverse Life Events. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(2), 146-152. Mednick, S. (1970). Breakdown in individual at high risk for schizophrenia: possible predispositional perinatal factors. Mental Hygiene, 54(1), 50-63. Mortensen, P., Pedersen, C., Westergaad, T., Wohlfahrt, J., Ewald, H., et al. (1999). Effects of family history and place and season of birth on the risk of schizophrenia. The Journal of the American Medical Association, (281), p. 1254. Ross, R. G., et al. (1996). Early expression of smooth-pursuit eye movement abnormalities in children of schizophrenic parents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, (35), p. 941. Sorensen, H., Mortensen, E., Reinisch, J., Mednick, S. (2004). Association between prenatal exposure to analgesic and risk of schizophrenia, British Journal of Psychiatry, 185, 366-371. Westergaard, T., Mortensen, P., Pedersen, C., Wohfahrt, J., Melbye, M. (1999). Exposure to prenatal and childhood infections and the risk of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, (56), p. 993-998.

How to Protect Yourself from Chikan :: Essays Papers

How to Protect Yourself from Chikan All trains and subways in Tokyo and other cities around Tokyo are terribly crowded during rush hour. In addition to the crowds on trains, young female passengers have to go through one more trial on a train. They must protect themselves from Chikans, men who touch women on the train. Women who are working or studying in Tokyo have to keep three things in mind when they are on a train: how to avoid meeting Chikans, how to protect themselves, and how to protect their friends. First, young women should try not to choose lines or trains which have a high possibility of meeting Chikans. Needless to say, Chikans seldom appear on trains which are not crowded. Accordingly, the best way to avoid Chikans is to avoid taking crowded trains. However, women have to take crowded trains during rush hour to arrive at their offices or schools on time. Though they cannot choose the time of the trains, they can choose which line they should take. In general, women meet Chikans more frequently when they take private lines, the subways, or JR lines. They especially have to be aware of some lines which have a bad reputation among young women. For example, the Odakyu line is one of the most crowded trains. We have all kinds of schools, including high-level, low-level, and public schools along the Odakyu line, and many women, especially female students, tend to meet Chikans on this line. I met ones who were male students of a certain school when I was a high school student. In contrast, many schools along the subways in the center part of Tokyo are high-level or expensive private schools, and women do not meet Chikans very much on these lines. The Inogashira line is also famous among women for Chikans. Many young people use this line to go to Shibuya, which is the most popular place in Tokyo. Some of my friends told me that some men use this line only to touch women. Because of these reasons, I often use other lines to go to Tokyo. Next, many young women tend to put up with Chikans silently when they are on a train alone. However, they should protect themselves from Chikans by following three steps. First, if you think that someone is touching you, turn your head slowly and look at his hand to make sure that he is really a Chikan.

Motivation Theories Essay

A couple of decades ago, the topic of motivation were just another term in the books of managers trying to implement behavioural techniques on their employees. Give perks, give monetary benefits, performance rewards and employees are bound to be motivated – as simple as that. But gradually as the years passed by, as people began to move out of the shackles of monotonous, menial work environments, there was a radical shift on how management studies began to view motivation. There were debates, lectures, psychological-social experiments and theories which suddenly threw the old concepts aside and brought in new ones. The topic became a cynosure of all management, scientific and economic studies – a topic which was deemed simple suddenly became a complex monster without which, the workplace culture was poised to be threatened. Employees, after all, are the biggest assets of organizations – and motivation is what keeps them going. This paper will explore why the different motivational theories are important and break away from the usual old age concept of motivation and show it as the world is viewing motivation nowadays. The idea is to generate a certain amount of interest and debate in the topic (otherwise relative) so as to obtain a clear understanding as to what might be the underlying reasons for employee motivation. Motivation Theories Assuming that the reader already knows what motivation is, have known about the various popular motivation theories and can distinguish between the various motivational theories and the literature surrounding them; it has been observed how the traditional motivational theories of Maslow have almost vanished from the experiments and recent research papers, whilst laying emphasis on job environments and social evaluations. As the global market moves through recurring waves of economic slowdown and instability, more organizational changes have occurred leading to fluctuations in employee satisfaction and the way workers view their jobs. Motivation, clearly, has been a challenge. Leaving aside the various theories, basic motivational factors such as compensation rewards, innovative performance evaluation methods, the nature of work, organizational changes and socio-political structure have been evolving over the past few years and that has a direct impact on motivation. Among all the theories, the one which stands out (and is probably relevant) is Herzberg’s motivator –hygiene theory, which divides the concept into two parts – the motivator factors and the hygiene factors. While job satisfaction and work autonomy contribute to the ‘motivator’ factors, ‘hygiene’ factors constituted of pay and performance. Herzberg deduced that the insufficient hygiene factors lead to de-motivation and the motivator factors like job enrichment contribute to motivation. This is in compliance with the Hackman and Oldham’s theory of job enrichment which talks about increasing motivation stemming from skill identity, autonomy, task significance and job purpose. Deci & Ryan’s model talk about the similar aspects, giving rise to the notion that extrinsic motivational factors (factors outside work like pay, performance compensations, rewards) directly oppose the intrinsic factors (job satisfaction, challenging tasks, etcetera). While it is completely baseless to say that monetary rewards, i. e. xtrinsic factors do not work, it has been observed that insufficiency of such factors lead to extreme de motivation. On the flip side, intrinsic motivational factors work only if the work is challenging enough to engage the interest of an individual wherein the job has a psychological impact on the skills of the employee. [1] New Theories and Experiments As we usher into newer business environments, new theories and experiments have cropped up which are causing a paradigm shift in the way the world looks at motivation. The most popular which are used in business organizations are the carrot and stick approach [10] where colloquially employees are given ‘carrots’ as rewards and ‘sticks’ for reprimands. This consequently produces desirable and undesirable behaviours among employees who perform mechanical and process oriented jobs as in the service industry [13] . However, playing by the rules of the motivation theories, there have been an opposition to this and there was an approach constructed around the concept of intrinsic motivation when it comes to jobs which require creativity and rudimentary cognitive skills like building new products. Among the most famous ones are the performance of the candle experiment (see Appendix 1) with a three groups of people where each group was given varying monetary rewards to solve the candle problem [6]. The result shows how the motivation through monetary rewards falls flat in the face of creative and cognitive jobs. The same has been elucidated Author Dan Pink in his bestseller book about motivation, Drive [14]. A similar experiment was performed by LSE economics who concluded that â€Å"†¦ financial incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance† [4]. As the topsy-turvy war between various motivation theories continues, there are companies who have exemplified intrinsic motivation by providing autonomy to their employees to motivate them – Google, Atlassian, Wikipedia are just among the few examples. This display of being able to motivate their employees has led to these companies being the stalwarts in their respective industries. Accountability and autonomy has been redefining motivation theories all across organizations in the Western world [3]. However, across industries, organizations have been still trying to motivate their employees through rewards and monetary benefits while ignoring the age old basics of the intrinsic motivation theory. Motivation in an economic crisis The fire test for managers concerning this subject comes during an economic downturn when employee motivation is at an all time low. Organizational behaviour theory suggests the usage of three models: The Authoritarian model is used by most firms worldwide involving trying to control processes and bring all the resources in order through downsizing. However, this only leads to a substantial decrease in employee motivation. The IT service industry in India and other parts of Asia has been using this model during economic slowdown. This can be traced back to the roots of the Indian society which is built on a more authoritarian culture [11] . As the IT service industry is a more process oriented job, the managers mostly try to balance the company profits with resource downsizing. Interestingly, this industry sector also successfully uses the ‘carrot and stick’ approach to motivate their employees. The Paternalistic model tries to build up on the social protection of employees by gaining their trust and their willingness to continue with the company. This does not dampen motivation but does not elevate employee motivation enough to bring the firm out of crisis, as the employees are not encouraged to improve their skills. Russian firms in the 1990’s used this model to control the economic downturn but failed miserably as the employees were not motivated and it also accentuated the crisis situation. Based on Rensis Likert’s Supportive relationships principle, the Supportive model recognizes the employee as the most important member of the firm, which in turn is likened to a social system [2] . Probably the best form of motivation during a crisis would be the supportive relationship principle wherein people’s outlook towards economic barriers are used to overcome the crisis, hence changing their attitude towards job satisfaction and organization commitment by discovering growth opportunities, giving the employees ideas to foster company profitability and minimizing their professional crisis [5]. Motivation in IT industries – Asian vs. Western As the world is being swept by technological advancements, the IT sector has been in the boom and has been defining the trend in economic patterns. Considering the IT industry, in Asian markets such as India or the Philippines, where the industry is more service oriented, the motivation model is completely different from that which is used in the Western world. Western IT companies, which are more product based, do not follow the age old motivation theories. These theories like Maslow and Taylor of trying to influence workers and employees with fat salaries have been adopted by organizations which have an Indian base. However, the Indian companies which deal with the IT service industry address the needs of the employees in a more radical and structured manner as these companies understand the needs of the employees better than the Western companies with a presence in India. The dichotomy of the East-West cultures force organizations to take various approaches to the subject of motivating employees. In India, the BPO and the IT industry, which mostly dominate the economy, is heavily dependent on people, hence the motivational approaches are as important as the job itself [12]. The industry also shows a large spike in attrition as past trends have shown arising out of factors mainly because the employee is not motivated. An attitude study was conducted by Robbins to find out behavioural patterns of employees in BPO industry and to find out whether redesign of work, autonomy and restructuring teamwork and feedback increase satisfaction at the workplace, which in turn results in higher performance and motivating employees. The results were surprising as it was found that there was no relationship between job characteristics and motivation. Instead it was found that BPO workers were motivated to work as long as their salaries and financial demands were being met [9]. This technique is adopted by a lot of multinational companies which establish their BPO base in Indian and Philippine market. However, the Indian companies in the IT sector take a different approach by addressing the working conditions (like graveyard shift benefits), social concerns and standard of living of the employees. This is provided, not only by monetary benefits, but also by work time flexibility, autonomy, purpose and a sense of belonging. Surprisingly, this is the same strategy which is used in the western culture to motivate the employees. In Malaysia, where the service industry is one of the most emerging markets in Asia, there are several push and pull factors which affect employee motivation, which in turn affects the high rate of attrition in this sector. Studies in the Malaysian IT service market have concluded that though compensation and rewards have been the primary methods to motivate employees, work and job purpose are also seen as among the various pull factors which affect it [7]. Recently, however, international businesses have been restructuring and redesigning their reward and motivation scheme to address the local culture of Asian countries, aligning them with those of the Western cultures. Conclusion Motivation, as we see, is not just about trying to encourage employees with rewards and benefits. A lot of psychological and social aspects are intertwined with the way motivation works. All the motivational theories are bound to clash against each other as organizations are changing the way they look at employees and their needs. Managers need to be aware of the fact that employees are not just assets and treat workers with a sense of belonging. As globalization is turning a page, managers have to keep in mind how the workers react to workplace environments and how they can be motivated to shape up organizations and industries, on a whole by inducing creativity and encouraging them to look at the broader picture existing in businesses.

Creditors to Space Rocketry essays

Creditors to Space Rocketry essays Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky was born in September, 1857 in the town of Izhevskoye, Spassk District, Ryazan Gubernia. On the merits of some of his early research and related writings, Tsiolkovsky was elected to the Society of Physics and Chemistry at St. Petersburg, Russia. On March 28, 1883 Tsiolkovsky demonstrated the reaction principle through experimenting with opening a cask filled with compressed gas. He discovered that movement of the cask could be regulated by alternating the pressure of the gas released from it. Tsiolkovsky completed a draft of his first design of a reaction thrust motor on August 25, 1898. The following year, he received a grant of 470 rubles from the Academy of Science's Physics and Mathematics Department to engage in research. This work was dedicated to the establishment of scientific principles, so no actual motors were developed. In 1903, his first article on rocketry appeared in the "Naootchnoye Obozreniye" (Scientific Review). The article was entitled "Issledovanie Mirovykh Prostransty Reaktivnymi Priborami" (Exploration Of Space With Rocket Devices). In the article, Tsiolkovsky clearly outlined in scientific terms exactly how a reaction thrust motor could demonstrate Newton's Third Law to allow men to escape the bounds of Earth. Also in 1903, Tsiolkovsky drafted the design of his first rocket. It was to be powered by a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, which would create an explosive mixture at the narrow end of a tube. Burning of the fuels would produce condensed and heated gases. The gases would then be quickly cooled and rarefied at the wider end of the tube, located at the tail of the rocket. The resulting exhaust, escaping from a nozzle, would provide lift-off thrust at a relatively high velocity. This design was indeed prophetic, especially when consideration is given to the fact that liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen have traditionally be...

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN THE GENRE HOROSCOPE Essay Example

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN THE GENRE HOROSCOPE Essay Example A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN THE GENRE HOROSCOPE Paper A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN THE GENRE HOROSCOPE Paper A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS IN THE GENRE HOROSCOPEI Gabriela BUENO SANTOS 1. Introduction In attempting to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words, they perform actions via those utterances. (Yule, 1996). That means that when we use language we are not only speaking, telling, saying or writing something. We are also apologizing, complaining, complimenting, inviting, promising or requesting. Speech acts are the actions performed via utterances (e. . apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, equest) and speech events are the circumstances in which these utterances take place. As mentioned before, when we write something we are not only writing, we have a purpose behind that writing and expect that writing to have a certain effect on the readers. Therefore, we can assume that genres do something. What do horoscopes do, for example? This question will be answered in the results and discussion section. And wh y analyze horoscopes? The choice for this genre was made considering three reasons: presence in history, presence in the western media, and lack of research in the linguistic field. During my TFG research and analysis I found out that horoscopes have been present in the history of mankind for about 4 thousand years and have influenced the behavior and actions of powerful men and women, regulating their behavior. I also discovered that seventy millions of Americans start the day reading their horoscopes in the newspaper, which was the first type of media to publish horoscope columns, in 1930. And finally, I have decided to analyze this genre due to the fact that there are no analyses of the genre horoscope in the linguistic field published until now. 2. Methodology A corpus of 15 horoscopes for the sign of Aries (my sign) was taken from 5 magazines, 5 newspapers and 5 websites that contain a horoscope or astrology section. These predictions are daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the kind of media and its frequency of publication. This represents half of the original corpus of my TFG. The chosen magazines, newspapers and websites were: MAGAZINES: Fitness, cosmo Girl, ELLE, -reen vogue and Mane Claire. NEWSPAPERS: LA Times, Daily News, NY Post, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune. WEBSITES: www. astrology-online. com , wrww. tarot. com, wrww. astro. com, wrww. strocenter. com, www. horoscope. com In this analysis I tried to identify the illocutionary acts or forces (functions) present in horoscopes and also classified the speech acts. To do so, I based my work on Yules chapter 6 of Pragmatics. . Results and discussion 1 speecn acts According to an analysis previously made by myself for my TFG, three steps are found in horoscopes: MOVEI Giving advice, MOVE 2 Analyzing present state of affairs and MOVE 3 Making predictions. For this present analysis, I analyzed the horoscopes again and confirmed that horoscopes advise, analyze and predict. Here are some examples of the speech acts found: ADVICE: Accept that you may face challenges, so that you can better deal with th em as they come. [Teen Vogue] Gain clarity by taking five minutes to meditate on yourself and what it is you want to change in the coming weeks. [Teen Vogue] No one expects you to be perfect, so why expect it of yourself? [NY Post] You should be making plans to spend some time with the ones you love. [astrology-online. com] ANALYSIS: Youve a sense that your destiny has already been determined, and it has by you. LA Times] Love: Real love is unconditional, like the love for a child or a family member. Daily News] But this is not selfishness on your part, for you are quite capable of being generous and giving to others. You are more openly affectionate than usual and feel real love for the people around you. It is Just that this aspect of your life love, affection and pleasure is more important to you now than work. [astro. com] Youre in Just the right frame of mind for this. Your business sense is at an all-time high, as is your ability to focus on whatever task is at hand. Intui tion plays a strong role. astrocenter. com] PREDICTION: This week will be a trying one. Teen Vogue] Setting these intentions will be helpful. [Teen Vogue] At some stage today you will realize that you have wasted too much time on a project that isnt going to work. [NY Post] Week ahead: You will want to run your own race, but its more productive to be a team player. [Daily News] 3. 2 Locutionary acts, illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts. According to Yule (1996), the locutionary act is the basic act of utterance or producing a meaningful linguistic expression. Therefore, in horoscopes, we can say that this act happens hen the author of horoscopes is writing them. However, this author is not writing a horoscope Just for the sake of it, he or she has a purpose in producing it. According to Yule (1996), this is the second dimension, the illocutionary act. For horoscopes, writers utter to predict, analyze and advise. However, are readers of horoscopes aware of the illocutionary acts of this genre and the way it can manipulate their behavior? Probably not. The perlocutionary act, which is the effect caused by horoscopes, could not be perceived since we do not know if horoscopes readers ctually believe or follow the instructions given by them. . 3 Speech acts classification According to Yule (IYYO), tnere are Tlve types 0T general Tunctlons perTormea Dy speech acts. They are declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives. In the genre horoscopes, two of these types were found: representatives and directives. Here are some examples: REPRESENTATIVES: YouVe been running too fast for too long! The full moon in Capricorn on the 1 8th means you question how you balance your life. You often oscillate between both ends of the spectrum youre either all work, r all play. If theres any sign out there thats innately equipped to handle conflict, its yours. Youd never admit it, of course, but deep down you actually enjoy it the thrill and the rush of adrenaline that battle conjures up, that is. DIRECTIVES: Gently press for more information. Accept that you may face challenges, so that you can better deal with them as they come. Fighting against how you are feeling will only make the process of moving on more difficult. Gain clarity by taking five minutes to meditate on yourself and what it is you want to change in the coming weeks. During your morning walk, think about how to find a middle ground. 4. Conclusion As a conclusion, we can affirm that a horoscope is a genre that has as an underlying function: to condition and influence behavior of its readers. Through its advices, analyses and predictions it suggests what the reader should do, makes him or her believe that something is happening in their lives or that they are feeling in a certain way; and makes people believe the things will happen. The locutionary and illocutionary acts of horoscopes are clearly identifiable. However, we do not know the erlocotionary act of horoscopes because we cannot see if the readers actually do as the horoscopes tell them and really believe them. 4. 1 Pedagogical implications for ELT The genre horoscope is very popular and widespread, so I believe it is a very interesting genre to be used in English classes. Most students are familiar this genre and, even if they do not believe horoscopes, they have a certain curiosity to know what is said about them. Therefore, it is a genre that generates some enthusiasm in the students and may promote discussion. I believe the kind analysis done in this aper is interesting and useful because reveals some aspects of horoscopes that teachers and students are probably not aware of. It can also be an interesting tool for teachers when teaching this genre or planning a genre based class. The identification of speech acts can help teachers when teaching the simple future (predictions), modals (advices) and simple present and present continuous (analyses). This analysis can also promote a more critical reading of horoscopes by the students and, therefore, help in the formation of critical subjects. ReTerences Yule, G. (1996) Pragmatics. London: Longman

The Unique Aspects of Bristol University Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Perfume Brands Calvin Klein & Bvlgari Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Perfume Brands Calvin Klein & Bvlgari - Essay Example CKCC was a Unilever brand until few years back but its licensing agreement was then bought from Unilever by Coty Inc. Calvin Klein perfumes were known for its premium brand value and extremely good fragrance of all kinds. Eternity and Obsessions are the two popular perfume varieties of CK. These two are offered for both men and women. Bvlgari is the Italian luxury goods manufacturer. Like CK, Bvlgari too has wide array of luxury perfumes catering to the needs of men and women. Voile de Jasmin, Aqua, Pour Homme, Omnia and Rose Essentielle are the popular Bvlgari fragrances. All these names are well placed in the premium perfume segment. Together, CK and Bvlgari form the biggest names in the luxury fragrance industry. Main body Behind the huge success of the brands are not just the marketing activities alone. A major part of the success can be attributed to the perfumers who are in continual efforts to develop the best formula that gives the heavenly fragrance. There are basically two types of fragrances based on the skin scents. The first kind emits its own fragrance or forms the major portion of the overall smell. The second kind helps to enhance the skins own scent by giving it a better fragrance. Compared to CK, Bvlgari is more specialized in the second kind which is more unique. Another factor that differentiates both the brands is the customers that they target.