October 20, 2009

Discrimination Essay

It has been said that our destiny is unpredictable, and that often we must make decisions that will help us in the future. To make the decision to leave your country and to begin a new life in a different one, is very complicated and is also influenced by several factors. Like your family, living with them and sharing, seeing each other on the weekends, and and unexpectedly leaving them, its very hard to deal with. Also the school you used to go, your classmates, your friends, the environment, the society. Trying to adapt myself to a new country, a new city have been undoubtedly my biggest challenge for the past couple of years. I was only fifteen when I decided to come here but I didn’t realize at that moment the consequences of my decision. During my first two years here I learned about different cultures, how to understand them, interact with them and respect them. I also learned about how different educational systems could work to help students and achieve their goals. The adaptation process I went through had changed me very much.

When I first came here, I was impressed by the quantity of ethnicities living in this city. I had never seen so many different cultures working all together. My mother told me certain things about the population but I never thought there was more than twenty different cultures. I started to understand why so many people move to Los Angeles. It is a city where people can achieve their goals, improve their economic situation, to raise their kids, to work hard and save money for their families and to fulfill their yearning.

Los Angeles is an enormous city in comparison to the city where I grew up. Where I grew up the place was very peaceful, there was no noise, no transit, and I used to feel very comfortable because of the environment. People is more social in my country, they try to help each other on what they can. An interesting fact about all the people coming here is that they become too individualist, they just worry about their own business. They just care for themselves and not for others. Keep reading →

October 9, 2009

Modern History Essay

Many groups used different methods to achieve a fairer society within industrialized countries. These groups were: The liberals, the democrats, the socialists, the Trade unions, the anarchists, the utopians, And the Marxists.

The liberal reformers struggled to free the individual. They wanted “laissez- fair” meaning ‘allow to do’. They urged the state should cease interfering in economic affairs. Liberals also wanted an end of the alliance of the throne and altar. As well as freedom of thought and expression. In many countries liberals regarded the Catholic Church with acute distrust.

Democracy resembled liberalism; However Democrats were more devoted to the ideal of equality of political and civil rights. Democrats believed that the power lay not in constitutional systems or in the representative parliamentary assemblies, but in the general will of the whole people. Democracy, even more then liberalism, was a central cause of change and revolution in the century after 1815.

Socialism aimed to create a society, which has full equality and no poverty. The socialists aimed to socialize the means of production and exchange. Eg to transform the capalistic society into a collectivist or communist society and has for its methods the economic and political organization of the proletariat. The socialist party is of a class struggle and of revolution. Socialism did gain strong support such as in 1903 in Germany or in 1908 when the British labor decided to adopt socialism as a part of its platform. However still in the 21st century there is still poverty in the world, so one asks the question of how affective socialism was. Keep reading →

September 25, 2009

Hamlet Essay

Hamlet, one of world’s most appraised tragedies, was written in 1601 by William Shakespeare, an English playwright and poet, considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Hamlet is a brilliant play that explores the highly complex personality of the title character, the crown prince of Denmark, and demonstrates themes of honour and revenge. Although Hamlet prominently displays the main characteristics of a tragedy – the eminent death of the leading characters – Shakespeare also incorporates a number of comic elements. He does this for variety of reasons. First of all, the occasional use of humour allows the audience to take a brief pause from the monotony of a depressing storyline. Secondly, via humour and riddles, the prince, Hamlet, is able to mock other people, in their presence. Finally, the comical scenes provide a valuable insight into some of the characters’ personalities.

William Shakespeare, as a clever dramatist, knew that if a play is completely filled with melancholy events, the audience will easily lose interest. This fact was especially important during the Elizabethan times when the most frequent visitors of theatres were people of the lower society. These simple folks, who came to theatre to forget their every day’s ordeal, preferred comedy to tragedy. As a result of this, Shakespeare incorporates bits of humour in-between the most intense and gloomy scenes. The first comic episode in Hamlet is located in Act 2, Scene 2, where Prince Hamlet mocks the royal counsellor through riddles. Their conversation, starting with, “Do you know me my lord? / Excellent well. You are a fishmonger” (II.ii, 173-4), provides a short distraction after the earlier melancholy incident when Hamlet learns the painful truth regarding his father’s sudden death. Another excellent example of a passage that serves as a mental breather for the audience is the sex-related talk between Hamlet and Ophelia, who is his sweetheart, when the play “The Murder of Gonzago” is about to begin. At one point, when the time has come for the truth about the murder to be revealed, the audience is kept in great suspense. To break the tense air, Hamlet asks silly questions: “ Lady, shall I lie in your lap? /Do you think I meant country matters?” Keep reading →

September 14, 2009

Essay on Euthanasia

Euthanasia it is a Greek word which means – «easy death». The modern term “euthanasia” means any action or, on the contrary, inactivity which as a matter of fact or to intention results in the death which are having for an object elimination of a pain and suffering. There are various positions against euthanasia. One position opposes cases of “active” euthanasia, where an active, or overt, effort is made to bring about death, such as in administering a lethal injection, or “passive” euthanasia, which means inactivity to the patient.

Supporters of euthanasia have purposely provoked terminological confusion by various statements that it is necessary to understand as this term. In this item we should consider all sides of a euthanasia problem.
The essence euthanasia was known for a long time from the extreme antiquity. So in Sparta killed the babies which were born weak or sick. Some primitive tribes had custom to kill or leave the old men becoming a burden for family.

And in XX century the concept “euthanasia” has come to life. It has taken place because opportunities of medicine began much more. Earlier if the person who had insult or heart attack immediately died. So now the medicine can rescue him, moreover, it can take out the person from a coma or even clinical death. It can happen when the patient is sick of heavy illness and it is considered doomed on death or on long tortures. Further, if the patient asks for euthanasia and it is legalized then him destroy. What we have the right, return the person to a life, and then take and destroy him? It is absurd situation. Keep reading →

September 3, 2009

Child Abuse Essay

Not more than 20 years ago my parents used to slap my sisters and me, or beat us with what ever they could get their hands on. It was not considered abuse back then, it was called discipline. I became interested in this topic because now a day if you spank your child it is considered child abuse. The idea of “child abuse” is controversial. Are children getting it easy these days or are they really being abused?

There are four major types of abuse, physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect. The one I am going to focus on through out my paper is physical. Physical abuse is defined as any physical injury (ranging from minor bruises to severe fractures to death) as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting (with hand, stick, strap, or other object), burning or otherwise, harming a child (www.calib.com). Why would a parent want to harm their child in such a way? Some people may have no control over their actions. They may be so drunk they do not realize what they are doing. It made me wonder, if a parent does not want their child why don’t they just give it up for adoption? In some cases there are things a parent can do if they do not want to keep their child. In some states you can drop your baby off at the hospital, no questions asked, but that is consequently that is not so in all states. Child abuse is a relatively common problem in our society. “In 2000-2001, 13,285 children reported being physically abused to childline” (www.childline.com).

When I first started my paper I was convinced that children were getting off easy these days. As I did more research on the subject I realized that child abuse is a problem. Child abuse is found in all societies and is almost always a highly protected secret, wherever it takes place. Only recently and in various countries and cultures, has the abuse of a child come to be seen as a major social problem and a main cause of many people’s suffering and personal problems. Yet abuse on younger children has a more devastating impact if they are not treated in their childhood.

Abuse usually occurs when a child is unwanted or in single parent households or when a family is suffering from financial problems. Parents who have drug and alcohol problems may also abuse their children. Most children who are abused as a child become abusing parents when they have children. The impact of abuse is far greater than its immediate, visible affects. Survivors of child abuse may be at a greater risk for problems later in life. They may have low academic achievement, drug use, teen pregnancy, and criminal behavior. There are short and long term consequences that can be caused from child abuse, such as brain damage, developmental delays, learning disorders problems forming relationships and aggressive behavior and depression.

After reading the definition of child abuse I could not understand how a parent could throw, shake, stab, choke or burn their child. I understand that parents get mad and frustrated but there is a point when you need to walk a way and let your self cool down. “In the year 2000, an average of 2,400 children was found to be victims of child abuse each day” (www.calib.com). “At least 2,000 children die each year as a result of child abuse” (www.jimhopper.com). “Furthermore, 95 percent of children that were abused were abused by some one they know” (www.childline.com). When the abuser is some one the child knows it can cause more problems for them. If a child is being abuse they can always call a child abuse prevention agency to get help. They can also go online or talk to a teacher or councilor to get help.

They are unsure weather or not they should turn their abuser in because of threats or weather or not some one is going to believe them or not. The fact that a child might have to grow up with the devastation of being abused is horrible. They have a less chance to succeed than someone who was not abused as a child.
The court system has begun to step in and try and help children that are being abused. In most cases that is not enough. They can always try and remove a child from the home but in some cases it might be some one that does not live in the home that is abusing a child. You can always lock an abuser up, but if they did not commit murder they are likely going to get out sooner or later. Who is to say they will not go after the child that got them locked up in the first place?
After doing research on child abuse my views totally changed. I learned that child abuse goes beyond a spanking or a whooping. Furthermore, it is not just a problem in the U.S. but all over the world. Child abuse can be very harmful to a child, not only physically but mentally to. And can affect them for the rest of their lives. It makes me rethink they way I should raise my children when I have them. Just because I used to get whoopings and I turned out fine does not mean that if I whoop my child they are going to be fine to. I hope that one day everyone will come to realize that child can not protect themselves and we will do everything we can to protect them.

August 26, 2009

Writing Technical Articles

Give the paper to somebody else to read. If you can, find two people: one person familiar with the technical matter, another only generally familiar with the area.

Papers can be divided roughly into two categories, namely original research papers and survey papers. There are papers that combine the two elements, but most publication venues either only accept one or the other type or require the author to identify whether the paper should be evaluated as a research contribution or a survey paper. (Most research papers contain a “related work” section that can be considered a survey, but it is usually brief compared to the rest of the paper and only addresses a much narrower slice of the field.)

Research Papers

A good research paper has a clear statement of the problem the paper is addressing, the proposed solution(s), and results achieved. It describes clearly what has been done before on the problem, and what is new.

The goal of a paper is to describe novel technical results. There are four types of technical results:

  1. An algorithm;
  2. A system construct: such as hardware design, software system, protocol, etc.;

    One goal of the paper is to ensure that the next person who designs a system like yours doesn’t make the same mistakes and takes advantage of some of your best solutions. So make sure that the hard problems (and their solutions) are discussed and the non-obvious mistakes (and how to avoid them) are discussed. (Craig Partridge)

  3. A performance evaluation: obtained through analyses, simulation or measurements;
  4. A theory: consisting of a collection of theorems.

A paper should focus on

  • describing the results in sufficient details to establish their validity;
  • identifying the novel aspects of the results, i.e., what new knowledge is reported and what makes it non-obvious;
  • identifying the significance of the results: what improvements and impact do they suggest.

Paper Structure

  • Typical outline of a paper is:
    • Abstract, typically not more than 100-150 words;
    • Introduction (brief!): introduce problem, outline solution; the statement of the problem should include a clear statement why the problem is important (or interesting).
    • Related Work (or before summary). Hint: In the case of a conference, make sure to cite the work of the PC co-chairs and as many other PC members as are remotely plausible, as well as from anything relevant from the previous two proceedings. In the case of a journal or magazine, cite anything relevant from last 2-3 years or so volumes.
    • Outline of the rest of the paper: “The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we introduce ..Section 3 describes … Finally, we describe future work in Section 5.” [Note that Section is capitalized. Also, vary your expression between "section" being the subject of the sentence, as in "Section 2 discusses ..." and "In Section, we discuss ...".]
    • Body of paper
      • problem
      • approach, architecture
      • results

      The body should contain sufficient motivation, with at least one example scenario, preferably two, with illustrating figures, followed by a crisp generic problem statement model, i.e., functionality, particularly emphasizing “new” functionality. The paper may or may not include formalisms. General evaluations of your algorithm or architecture, e.g., material proving that the algorithm is O(log N), go here, not in the evaluation section.

      Architecture of proposed system(s) to achieve this model should be more generic than your own peculiar implementation. Always include at least one figure.

      Realization: contains actual implementation details when implementing architecture isn’t totally straightforward. Mention briefly implementation language, platform, location, dependencies on other packages and minimum resource usage if pertinent.

      Evaluation: How does it really work in practice? Provide real or simulated performance metrics, end-user studies, mention external technology adoptors, if any, etc.

    • Related work, if not done at the beginning
    • Summary and Future Work
      • often repeats the main result
    • Acknowledgements
    • Bibliography
    • Appendix (to be cut first if forced to):
      • detailed protocol descriptions
      • proofs with more than two lines
      • other low-level but important details

It is recommended that you write the approach and results sections first, which go together. Then problem section, if it is separate from the introduction. Then the conclusions, then the intro. Write the intro last since it glosses the conclusions in one of the last paragraphs. Finally, write the abstract. Last, give your paper a title.

Title

  • Avoid all but the most readily understood abbreviations.
  • Avoid common phrases like “novel”, “performance evaluation” and “architecture”, since almost every paper does a performance evaluation of some architecture and it better be novel. Unless somebody wants to see 10,000 Google results, nobody searches for these types of words.Use adjectives that describe the distinctive features of your work, e.g., reliable, scalable, high-performance, robust, low-complexity, or low-cost. (There are obviously exceptions, e.g., when the performance evaluation is the core of the paper. Even in that case, something more specific is preferable, as in “Delay measurements of X” or “The quality of service for FedEx deliveries”.)
  • If you need inspiration for a paper title, you can consult the Automatic Systems Research Topic or Paper Title Generator.

Authors

The IEEE policies (Section 6.4.1) used to state the following about authorship:

The IEEE affirms that authorship credit must be reserved for individuals who have met each of the following conditions: 1) made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the manuscript, 2) contributed to drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content, and 3) approved the final version of the manuscript, including references.

This has now moved to the IEEE PSPB Operations Manual, Section 8.2.1.

Abstract

  • The abstract must not contain references, as it may be used without the main article. It is acceptable, although not common, to identify work by author, abbreviation or RFC number. (For example, “Our algorithm is based upon the work by Smith and Wesson.”)
  • Avoid use of “in this paper” in the abstract. What other paper would you be talking about here?
  • Avoid general motivation in the abstract. You do not have to justify the importance of the Internet or explain what QoS is.
  • Highlight not just the problem, but also the principal results. Many people read abstracts and then decide whether to bother with the rest of the paper.
  • Since the abstract will be used by search engines, be sure that terms that identify your work are found there. In particular, the name of any protocol or system developed and the general area (“quality of service”, “protocol verification”, “service creation environment”) should be contained in the abstract.
  • Avoid equations and math. Exceptions: Your paper proposes E = m c 2.

Introduction

  • Avoid stock and cliche phrases such as “recent advances in XYZ” or anything alluding to the growth of the Internet.
  • Be sure that the introduction lets the reader know what this paper is about, not just how important your general area of research is. Readers won’t stick with you for three pages to find out what you are talking about.
  • The introduction must motivate your work by pinpointing the problem you are addressing and then give an overview of your approach and/or contributions (and perhaps even a general description of your results). In this way, the intro sets up my expectations for the rest of your paper — it provides the context, and a preview.
  • Repeating the abstract in the introduction is a waste of space.
  • Example bad introduction:

    Here at the institute for computer research, me and my colleagues have created the SUPERGP system and have applied it to several toy problems. We had previously fumbled with earlier versions of SUPERGPSYSTEM for a while. This system allows the programmer to easily try lots of parameters, and problems, but incorporates a special constraint system for parameter settings and LISP S-expression parenthesis counting.

    The search space of GP is large and many things we are thinking about putting into the supergpsystem will make this space much more colorful.

  • A pretty good introduction, drawn from Eric Siegel’s class:

    Many new domains for genetic programming require evolved programs to be executed for longer amounts of time. For example, it is beneficial to give evolved programs direct access to low-level data arrays, as in some approaches to signal processing \cite{teller5}, and protein segment classification \cite{handley,koza6}. This type of system automatically performs more problem-specific engineering than a system that accesses highly preprocessed data. However, evolved programs may require more time to execute, since they are solving a harder task.

    Previous or obvious approach:
    (Note that you can also have a related work section that gives more details about previous work.)) One way to control the execution time of evolved programs is to impose an absolute time limit. However, this is too constraining if some test cases require more processing time than others. To use computation time efficiently, evolved programs must take extra time when it is necessary to perform well, but also spend less time whenever possible.
    Approach/solution/contribution:
    The first sentence of a paragraph like this should say what the contribution is. Also gloss the results.In this chapter, we introduce a method that gives evolved programs the incentive to strategically allocate computation time among fitness cases. Specifically, with an aggregate computation time ceiling imposed over a series of fitness cases, evolved programs dynamically choose when to stop processing each fitness case. We present experiments that show that programs evolved using this form of fitness take less time per test case on average, with minimal damage to domain performance. We also discuss the implications of such a time constraint, as well as its differences from other approaches to {\it multiobjective problems}. The dynamic use of resources other than computation time, e.g., memory or fuel, may also result from placing an aggregate limit over a series of fitness cases.

    Overview:
    The following section surveys related work in both optimizing the execution time of evolved programs and evolution over Turing-complete representations. Next we introduce the game Tetris as a test problem. This is followed by a description of the aggregate computation time ceiling, and its application to Tetris in particular. We then present experimental results, discuss other current efforts with Tetris, and end with conclusions and future work.

Bibliography

  • Avoid use of et al. in a bibliography unless list is very long (five or more authors). The author subsumed into et al. may be your advisor or the reviewer… Note punctuation of et al..
  • If writing about networks or multimedia, use the network bibliography. All entries not found there should be sent to me. A listing of frequently-used references for networks is available.
  • Internet drafts must be marked “work in progress”. Make sure that they have been replaced by newer versions or RFCs. Any Internet Draft reference older than six months should automatically be suspicious since Internet Drafts expire after that time period.
  • Book citations include publication years, but no ISBN number.
  • It is now acceptable to include URLs to material, but it is probably bad form to include a URL pointing to the author’s web page for papers published in IEEE and ACM publications, given the copyright situation. Use it for software and other non-library material. Avoid long URLs; it may be sufficient to point to the general page and let the reader find the material. General URLs are also less likely to change.
  • Leave a space between first names and last name, i.e., “J. P. Doe”, not “J.P.Doe”.
  • References such as
    John Doe, "Some paper on something", technical report.

    are useless. Cite the source, date and other identifying information.

  • For conference papers, you MUST name the conference location, month and the full conference name, not just some abbreviation. Page numbers are nice, but optional. All of this information is readily available via the IEEE or ACM digital libraries.
  • Check if Internet drafts have been published as RFCs or if there’s a newer version.
  • Having a citation
    Jane Doe, "Some random paper", to be published, 2003.

    is useless, as the paper has presumably been published by now. Google or the ACM or IEEE digital libraries will help you find it.

Acknowledgements

  • Acknowledge your funding sources. Some sources have specific wording requirements and may prefer that the grant number is listed. The NSF requires text like “This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant EIA NN-NNNNN.”
  • Generally, anonymous reviewers don’t get acknowledged, unless they really provided an exceptional level of feedback or insight. Rather than “We thank X for helping us with Y”, you might vary this as “X helped with Y.”.

Reporting Numerical Results and Simulations

In all but extended abstracts, numerical results and simulations should be reported in enough detail that the reader can duplicate the results. This should include all parameters used, indications of the number of samples that contributed to the analysis and any initial conditions, if relevant.

When presenting simulation results, provide insight into the statistical confidence. If at all possible, provide confidence intervals. If there’s a “strange” behavior in the graph (e.g., a dip, peak or change in slope), this behavior either needs to be explained or reasons must be given why this is simply due to statistical aberration. In the latter case, gathering more samples is probably advised.

Figures should be chosen wisely. You can never lay out the whole parameter space, so provide insight into which parameters are significant over what range and which ones are less important. It’s not very entertaining to present lots of flat or linear lines.

The description of the graph should not just repeat the graphically obvious such as “the delay rises with the load”, but explain, for example, how this increase relates to the load increase. Is it linear? Does it follow some well-known other system behaviors such as standard queueing systems?

LaTeX Considerations

  • There’s no need to enclose numbers in $$ (math mode).
  • Use \cite{a,b,c}, not \cite{a} \cite{b} \cite{c}.
  • Use the \usepackage{times} option for LaTeX2e – it comes out much nicer on printers with different resolutions. Plus, compared to cmr, it probably squeezes an extra 10% of text out of your conference allotment.
  • Multi-letter subscripts are set in roman, not italics. For example,
    x_{\mathrm max}
  • For uniformity, use the LaTeX2e graphics set, not the earlier psfigure set:
    \usepackage{graphics}
    ...
    \begin{figure}
    \resizebox{!}{0.5\textheight}{\includegraphics{foo.eps}}
    \caption{Some figure}
    \label{fig:figure}
    \end{figure}

Things to Avoid

Too much motivational material
Three reasons are enough — and they should be described very briefly.
Describing the obvious parts of the result
“Obvious” is defined as any result that a graduate of our program would suggest as a solution if you pose the problem that the result solves.
Describing unnecessary details
A detail is unnecessary, if its omission will not harm the reader’s ability to understand the important novel aspects of the result.
Spelling errors
With the availability of spell checkers, there is no reason to have spelling errors in a manuscript. If you as the author didn’t take the time to spell-check your paper, why should the editor or reviewer take the time to read it or trust that your diligence in technical matters is any higher than your diligence in presentation? Note, however, that spell checkers don’t catch all common errors, in particular word duplication (“the the”). If in doubt, consult a dictionary such as the (on line) Merriam Webster.
Text in Arial:
Arial and other sans-serif fonts are fine for slides and posters, but are harder to read in continuous text. Use Times Roman or similar serif fonts. Unusual fonts are less likely to be available at the recipient and may cause printing or display problems.

Source: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/writing-style.html

August 20, 2009

Sample Essay on Abortion

When people talk about abortion, they are talking about ending the life of an unborn child or expelling the foetus from the mother’s uterus before the pregnancy reaches ‘full term’ and the growing embryo has had a chance to live. However, when talking about abortion, they may also mean a ‘miscarriage’ or ’spontaneous abortion’. This is when the abortion unfortunately happens naturally without the parents or doctors having any choice. Having said this, I think that in today’s society, when abortion is mentioned, they mean a deliberate abortion, known as a ‘procured abortion’. If a woman wants a ‘procured abortion’ to take place she has to talk her reasons through with a doctor and it must happen within the first twenty four weeks of the development of the foetus, and is against the law after this time, because if it was born at this time, it could survive. A woman may choose to have an abortion for a number of reasons, for example if the pregnancy was brought about by rape, if the child is going to be born severely handicapped, if the life or health of the mother is at risk or if the mother is too young or if she is not in a good relationship. Some people think that some reasons, like those above, for instance, are acceptable for a woman to abort the foetus, however some would say that everyone or everything should have the chance of developing and the right to live a life. Some people believe that it is entirely up to the woman carrying the baby as it is her right, her life, her body and therefore it should be her choice whether to have an abortion or not. But others think this serious issue should be discussed with both doctors and the father of the developing child, before a decision is made. During the course of making a decision, a doctor does not always have to agree that the mother has a good enough reason to have an abortion, for example if a woman does not feel that the time is right for a baby. Many young girls have an abortion if they feel they are not ready to be mothers as they have to cope with school and other worries. In this instance doctors would agree that a child would cause depression and anxiety to the mother. People may also have abortions if they feel they do not have the money to support a baby. There are many different reasons why a woman may want to terminate the pregnancy, should anyone judge their reason or choice? Keep reading →

November 18, 2008

The Finer Points of Organizing an Essay

There’s a vast difference between knowing and being able to show other people that you do, and this is the chasm that divides the articulate from the rest. Among the former, there are some who are masters of the written word, others who have excellent oratory skills and wow people with the gift of the gab, and some who are blessed enough to be able to do both.

While writing is a flair that comes from within, there are certain aspects to it that can be taught, like ways to organize your thoughts and put them down coherently so that they read well. A thousand ideas may be clamoring in your head screaming for release, but if you’re not able to provide them with some form of order, they lose every bit of their value and become equal to indecipherable gibberish. Similarly, you may know your subject well, but if you’re not able to put down what you know in an essay in such a way that your reader is captivated from start to finish, you might as well have not known anything at all.

Organizing an essay is easy enough if you go about it in a systematic manner. All essays begin with an introduction, end with a conclusion, and contain two to three paragraphs in between. Here are a few golden rules to be followed when framing your essay:

•    Open Strongly: Enough cannot be said about the importance of a good introduction. Well begun is half done, to use an oft-repeated cliche. Since your reader will more likely than not form an opinion of your essay with the first few words that you’ve written, you must make sure you hold their attention and make them want to read more. An introduction is a preview to what they can expect to follow in the paragraphs below; it creates anticipation, so it must be teasing, revealing enough but not telling all, and gently egging on the reader to move forward and read the rest of your essay.
•    Put ideas where they belong: Your middle paragraphs tell the whole story of your essay, the theme that you’ve focused on. It’s best to organize this part into two or three separate paragraphs, depending on the topic you’re writing about. Make sure that you don’t mix your ideas and strew them all over the body of the essay. Before you put your thoughts down on paper, draw a rough outline map where you name sections and write each idea under the category it belongs to. This way, you know that all your ideas are down on paper, exactly in the sections they belong, and you don’t have to redo any part of your essay when you realize you’ve forgotten an important aspect.
•    End Conclusively: A conclusion must sum up the points you’ve made throughout your essay and finish on either a conclusive note or leave a theoretical question hanging for the reader, depending on the relevance of the topic. It’s best not to leave threads hanging from the paragraphs above, and the conclusion is the best place to tie them all up to make sense.
•    Check thoroughly: Even the best of us makes mistakes, so it’s best to read your essay once or twice, making corrections where they’re needed and tweaking your language a bit. Ask a friend to run their eyes over it too, just to be on the safe side.
•    Follow instructions: If you have a word limit, adhere to it. Generally though, you’re better off not writing long-winded stories or putting down your each and every thought on paper. Keep it short and sweet, and you’re likely to see good results.

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of online colleges and universities. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

September 20, 2008

Lies, to Tell or Not?

Telling lies, which literally means not telling the truth, is strongly associated with dishonesty. It seems to be antipathetic with human integrity. However, it is what happens around us all the time. Being asked “Did you have breakfast?”, you may perfunctorily utter a “Yes.” though your stomach is rumbling without any staff. Lies have become everywhere as oral tags. But do we really need so many lies? In my opinion, life cannot be so charming without lies.

Basically, telling lies can assist the afflicted to handle difficulties in a more hopeful way. For an incurable patient, what is the meaning to tell her or him the truth? Instead of putting out the fire of passion for life, consolations like “It doesn’t matter. You will soon be OK.” with a confident smile will kindle the extinct heart to hopefully head for a better stage that will definitely not appear when the truth is haunting around. Where truth cannot help, lies step in to build a leading, directing and encouraging image. To this extent, telling lies is a psychological process of self-consummation. By the guidance of beautiful lies, a vivid vision can easily occupy the mind thus excluding the distracting elements.

Further more, many forms of lies are applied in nearly all walks of life while people regard them as intelligent. Will you always tell your opponent politicians what you are striving to achieve in a campaign? Will you reveal what ideas you have come up with to your rival in the bidding for a center building? Will you disclose your plans to your enemy during the liberation war? You may tell the opposite in order to obtain success. In all these fields, lies, in the names of strategy, measure or means, are told. But what happens after is not as expected; people will not scold these dishonest. Instead they admire the lie-teller’s intelligence. A war strategy, a campaign measure or a competition method can be remembered and reused for generations and bring the motherland integrity, the avoidance of exploiting government or the establishment of a world famous enterprise.

As stated above, telling lies can be both helpful to the life-end travelers and to build wonderful lives. But lies abusing is far beyond tolerance. Before telling lies, we should ask ourselves whether this practice can really do good. If lies and truth both serve for this principle, what is the difference to tell either of them?

September 18, 2008

Criticism, the First Step to Improve

Criticism, the First Step to Improve

Article from reader yingooee@163.com

With the socialist modernization, evaluation system has been introduced to nearly all walks of life. So it does happen to the education field. On line appraisal, traditional written form, face to face interview and all other modus operandi have gained their access to students to help evaluating teachers. Then here comes the question whether this evaluating method can really create the anticipated effects to optimize teachers and finally optimize the education process. The following advantages of this practice can give a clear “yes” to the question.

First and foremost, students’ evaluation and criticism, to a certain extent, can reflect how the education process is going on. Students are the direct receiver of education process. Therefore in order to make an overall appraisal of the process of teaching and learning, it is necessary to count these direct effect receivers in. Teacher-appraisals can not only bring good to the teachers, but also be beneficial to students in return. No matter in which form the reflection is carried out, it will inevitably indicate what the students need, whether their teachers are qualified to meet all those needs and whether the way of teaching can be acceptable and easily enough to access students as long as students taking part in are in large number. Regular evaluations, say, once in a term, show what teachers need to improve, which help to push them to be on the way to a better teacher-student interactive relationship. On the other hand, much more satisfied with the adjustments teachers made, students will be more likely to be fully devoted in study.

Secondly, evaluation and criticism constitute the core portion of education. Evaluating and criticizing is different from complaining which means continuously expressing the unsatisfactory facets that occur in education. It means more than just expressing. It calls for critical thinking to differentiate facets coming from teachers that can be changed from those of themselves and those cannot be improved; it requires students to think a second thought before clicking, writing or speaking, which can neither be well practiced in the class environment. What is working and exercising during the process is the elemental method for progress teachers of generations have been striving to instill in students’ minds.

With the points mentioned above, students’ appraisal for teachers can be both beneficial to either part for its progressive outcomes. However, abuse of the evaluation system is still looming large. Occurrence of loss of respect and discipline in the classroom is calling for much attention. To avoid this, a comprehensive regulation system and before-hand instructions should be applied. All in all, human can never be perfect and to evaluate is the first step to improve.

by yingooee@163.com