Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Definition and Examples of Academic Prose Styles

Definition and Examples of Academic Prose Styles Academese is an informal, pejorative term for the specialized language (or jargon) used in some scholarly writing and speech. Bryan Garner notes that academese is characteristic of academicians who are writing for a highly specialized but limited audience, or who have a limited grasp of how to make their arguments clearly and succinctly (Garners Modern American Usage, 2016). The Tameri Guide for Writers  defines academese as an artificial form of communication commonly used in institutes of higher education designed to make small, irrelevant ideas appear important and original. Proficiency in academese is achieved when you begin inventing your own words and no one can understand what you are writing. Examples and Observations Dale was not a good writer. Trust me on this. . . . [I]n training to be an academic, Dale was crippled by the need to write in academese. It is not a language formed by any human tongue, and few, if any, academics survive the degradation of it to move on to actual prose.(Dan Simmons, A Winter Haunting. William Morrow, 2002)There is original thought here, but the reader is immediately confronted by the language academics apparently use to communicate with one another. Sometimes it reads like a translation from the German, at others that they are merely trying to impress or indulging in a verbal cutting contest. Here are a few of the words you should be prepared to encounter: hermeneutics, commodified, contextualizing, conceptualize, hyperanimacy, taxonomic, metacritical, rhizome, perspectivizing, nomadology, indexical, polysemy, auratic, reification, metonymic, synecdoche, biodegradability, interstitial, valorize, diegetic, allegoresis, grammatology, oracy, centripetality, and esempla stic.(Stanley Dance in a review of two anthologies of jazz studies; quoted by George E. Lewis in A Power Stronger Than Itself. University of Chicago Press, 2008) Vernacular Equivalents to Academese[E]ffective academic writing tends to be bilingual (or diglossial), making its point in Academese and then making it again in the vernacular, a repetition that, interestingly, alters the meaning. Here is an example of such bilingualism from a review of a book on evolutionary biology by a professor of ecology and evolution, Jerry A. Coyne. Coyne is explaining the theory that males are biologically wired to compete for females. Coyne makes his point both in Academese, which I italicize, and in the vernacular, staging a dialogue in the text between the writers (and the readers) academic self and his lay self: It is this internecine male competitiveness that is assumed to have driven not only the evolution of increased male body size (on average, bigger is better in a physical contest), but also of hormonally mediated male aggression (there is no use being the biggest guy on the block if you are a wallflower). It is this type of bridge discourse that en ables nonspecialists and students to cross from their lay discourse to academic discourse and back. . . .In providing a vernacular equivalent of their Academese, writers like Coyne install a self-checking device that forces them to make sure they are actually saying something. When we recast our point in vernacular terms, we do not simply throw out a sop to the nonspecialist reader, much less dumb ourselves down. Rather we let our point speak itself better than it knows, to come out of the closet in the voice of the skeptical reader.(Gerald Graff, Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind. Yale University Press, 2003) If you cannot write about it so that anyone who buys the paper has a reasonable chance of understanding it, you dont understand it yourself.(Robert Zonka, quoted by Roger Ebert in Awake in the Dark. University of Chicago Press, 2006)Varieties of AcademeseCritics outside the academy tend to assume that academese is one thing, public discourse another. But in fact there are major differences of standards ranging from field to field: what constitutes evidence or valid argument, what questions are worth asking, what choices of style will work or even be understood, which authorities can be trusted, how much eloquence is permitted.(Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication. Blackwell, 2004)Lionel Trilling on the Language of Non-ThoughtA specter haunts our cultureit is that people will eventually be unable to say, They fell in love and married, let alone understand the language of Romeo and Juliet, but will as a matter of course say Their libidinal imp ulses being reciprocal, they activated their individual erotic drives and integrated them within the same frame of reference.Now this is not the language of abstract thought or of any kind of thought. It is the language of non-thought. . . . There can be no doubt whatever that it constitutes a threat to the emotions and thus to life itself.(Lionel Trilling, The Meaning of a Literary Idea. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society, 1950) Passive Voice in AcademeseIf your style has been corrupted by long exposure to academese or business English, you may need to worry about the passive. Make sure it hasnt seeded itself where it doesnt belong. If it has, root it out as needed. Where it does belong, I think we ought to use it freely. It is one of the lovely versatilities of the verb.(Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering the Craft. Eighth Mountain Press, 1998) Pronunciation: a-KAD-a-MEEZ Also see: Academic WritingBafflegabGobbledygookLanguage at  -ese: Academese, Legalese, and Other Species of GobbledygookRegisterStyleUnder the Flapdoodle Tree: Doublespeak, Soft Language, and GobbledygookVerbiageVerbosity

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Managing involvement and participation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing involvement and participation - Essay Example In the 1990s, worker motivation, productivity and the like became priority issues.3 In fact, raising productivity is a key government objective in the United Kingdom.4 Do employee involvement and participation initiatives contribute to increased employee motivation, productivity and retention? There are differences between these two subjects, 5 but they are not entirely distinct from each other .Employee involvement is â€Å"a range of processes designed to engage the support, understanding and optimum contribution of all employees in an organization and their commitment to its objectives.† Employee participation, on the other hand, is â€Å"a process of employee involvement designed to provide employees with the opportunity to influence and where appropriate, take part in decision making on matters which affect them.† Both of these definitions are those of the Institute of Personnel Development.6 In terms of engaged work, therefore, participation is more extensive than involvement. This paper looks into employee participation and involvement individually, discussing the concepts in relation to motivation, productivity and retention, and finally integrates them in a conclusion. Motivation, productivity and retention, however, will not necessarily be presented as a cluster every time a relationship is made with employee participation and employee involvement. In like manner, from the other end, organisational performance as a construct may point to the dimension of productivity, hence suggesting motivation and possibly even retention when related to employee participation and employee involvement. Participation may refer to ‘influence in decision-making exerted through a process of interaction between workers and managers.’7 But variations are possible in the degree or depth of participation, the range or scope of decisions subject to participation, the form that participation structures might take, the

Friday, November 1, 2019

Hedge funds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hedge funds - Essay Example The term "hedge fund" involves any pooled investment medium that is (1) organized in private, (2) directed by experienced and professional investment managers, and (3) not accessible to the public. Hedge funds are supported by rich personalities and institutional investors who are regarded as primary investors. Other investors include (1) endowment funds, (2) pension plans, (3) funds of funds, and (4) retail investors. (Boyle, 2007) Other bodies characterized as hedge funds are systematic and limited partnerships and liability companies or most commonly reside outside the United States. (President's on Working Group on Financial Markets, 1999) Hedge fund originated in 1949. By 1968, 140 hedge funds were operating as reported by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Within the last 20 years, hedge fund industry bloomed and become common in the U.S. market. According to Phelim Boyle (2007), in the year 1990, a total number of 610 funds are controlling $39 billion worth of assets. By 2000, there were 3,873 funds directing $490 billion assets. The estimated size of the hedge fund industry in mid-1998 was in the range of 2,500 and 3,500 hedge funds controlling between $200 and $300 billion worth of capital, totaling more or less $800 up to $1 trillion in total assets. As compared with other U.S. financial market sectors, hedge funds are relatively small. ... (President's on Working Group on Financial Markets, 1999) The Marko Maslakovic (2008) reports that despite the existence of market destabilizations, the hedge fund industry continued to grow in management assets and the number and type of institutions investing in hedge funds. For the assets under management, the hedge fund for this category amounted to over $2,250 billion in the end of 2007. Figure 1 shows the trend of global hedge funds in relation to their assets under management. The number of hedge funds reached over 11,000 in 2007 or 12 percent increase from the previous year (2006). The presence of the increasing credit crisis and increased market volatility did not hinder hedge funds assets from growing by 30 percent in 2007. Hedge funds did not incur any significant influence on the credit crisis because only 5 percent of their assets were examined in mortgage-backed securities in September 2007. Boyle (2007) mentions six (6) reasons for the hedge funds growth: (1) technological innovations, (2) derivatives revolution, (3) special ization, (4) increase of market complexities such as catastrophe bonds and structured products, (5) recent poor market equity performance, and (6) low interest rates. Figure 1 For the distribution of hedge funds in the world, reports of Maslakovic (2008) show that the United States is the major source of hedge fund investments with 67 percent of the total hedge funds assets in 2007. Europe and Asia are the next large sources with 22 percent and 7 percent shares respectively. New York City is the world's leading city for hedge managers and it is followed by London. In New York, around 60 percent of hedge fund managers are stationed in this city.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

A Strategic Alliance of UTV and Disney Case Study

A Strategic Alliance of UTV and Disney - Case Study Example The UTV company was started in 1981 by Screwvala (UTV and Disney). At the time it was India’s first cable TV entity. While the company originally started out for several channels, it would late expand to include international content for channels such as BBC, CNN, and National Geographic. Later ventures in the US and UK markets significantly increased the company’s market share. The company is noted to have three verticals. The first is the company’s television content production; the second is the movie production and distribution; the third is post-production and special effects development. In terms of the company’s business relationship with Disney, the primary concern is with UTV’s Hungama TV. This entity is the company’s kids’ channel – the first of its kind in India. It was strategically hoped that in cooperating with Disney within the confines of Hungama TV, the company would also gain furthered access to international m arkets. Disney is one of the world’s largest and most recognized companies. Since originating over seventy-five years ago, the company has diversified into the major segments of Media Networks, Studio Entertainment, Disney Consumer Products, and Parks and Resorts. Most notably, in 2004 Disney launched a business venture into India. This venture was a major company element, reaching over 107 million homes (UTV and Disney). While Disney controlled Toon Disney and the Disney Channel in the Indian market, they desired to further expand through the acquisition of UTV’s Hungama TV. From Disney’s perspective, the acquisition of Hungama TV would further grant Disney access in the Indian market, as well as give the company increased access to UTV’s many media outlets.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Factors Affect Chef Acquisition Essay Example for Free

Factors Affect Chef Acquisition Essay CAROL L. CRISTOBAL, , â€Å"FACTORS AFFECTING CHEF ACQUISITION IN SELECTED HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN LEGAZPI CITY†, (Undergraduate Thesis, Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges Foundation, Rawis Legazpi City, April 2012) This descriptive study determines the factors affecting chef acquisition in selected hospitality industry in Legazpi City. The qualification requirements include the educational attainment, number of years of experience and skills. Problems encountered and possible solutions by the respondents were discussed in terms of manpower supply, qualifications of applicants and position. A total of thirty (30) hospitality industry managers served as respondents of the study. The study showed a statistical data presentation of the surveyed respondents. This study was conducted in twenty three (23) restaurants namely : Alibar Restaurant, Boklan Food Center, Brent’s Bar and Grill, Colonial Grill, Delica Restaurant, Gasthof Grill, Gerry’s Grill, Golden Boat Bar and Restaurant, Harbor Work, Kanzo Hall and Restaurant, Kim’s Bowl Restaurant, La Roca Veranda, Max’s Restaurant, Mr. Crab Restaurant, Round the Clock Restaurant, Sibid-Sibid Restaurant, Sikatuna Grill, Small Talk Cafà ©, South Ocean Villa, Swaisi Bar and Restaurant, Valentino Bar and Grill, Waway’s Restaurant, 7 degrees Bar and Grill and seven (7) hotels namely: Alicia Hotel, Casablanca Hotel, Casablanca Suites, Hotel St. Ellis, Hotel Venezia, Pepperland Hotel, Tanchuling Hotel. All of the cited literature and studies in this study discussed the relevance and similarities which give the ideas to the researchers to formulate the process in the conduct of the present research study. The theoretical and conceptual framework, the synthesis of the art and the gap bridge of the study were presented to facilitate understanding of this work. Likewise, this study presented the possible solutions to resolve certain problems encountered by the respondents. Findings The following are the significant findings of this study: 1. Requirements for the Chef Position A. Educational Attainment The most important criteria in the selection of employees is educational attainment, thus, the respondents choose the bachelor’s / college degree and vocational diploma / short course certificate who rank as first (1st) with a frequency of 30. Second in rank (2nd) is the Culinary Course Certificate with a frequency of seven (7). With the frequency of two (2), the food and beverage services management rank as third (3rd). B. Number of Years of Experience In the membership of thirty (30), fourteen (14) rank as first (1st) who have 2 – 4 years of experience. Next in rank is the 5 – 6 years with the frequency of nine (9) and lastly with a frequency of seven (7) with a 7 – 8 years of experience. C. Skills It showed that in terms of skills, the first (1st) in rank are the knowledgeable in HACCP and other sanitation standard, having excellent communication skills and being computer literate with a frequency of thirty (30). The second (2nd) in rank is the Advance cooking skills and techniques with a frequency of twenty eight (28). The next in rank is having excellent organizational skills with a frequency of ten (10).The forth (4th) in rank is having knowledge in various cuisines with a frequency of seven (7). Lastly, the Knowledge in costing ranked as last with a frequency of six (6). 2. Problems Encountered by the Respondents A. Manpower Supply In terms of manpower supply, the limited applicant due to international opportunities has the highest weighted mean of 2.76 which result to an adjectival rating of often encountered. The second in rating fell on lack of qualified applicants with a weighted mean of 2.26 or interpreted as seldom encountered. In terms of low wage it got the lowest weighted mean rating of 1.79 or interpreted as seldom encountered. The general weighted mean is 2.27 or interpreted as seldom encountered. B. Qualification of Applicant The highest weighted mean of 1.20 and interpreted as never encountered is shown on lack of trainings. The next in rating fell on lack of skills and competencies with a weighted mean of 1.10 and interpreted as never encountered. Not physically fit got the lowest weighted mean of 1.06 or interpreted as never encountered. The general weighted mean is 2.27 or interpreted as never encountered. The qualification of applicants is not a problem to the respondents for a reason that they will not hire a certain applicant if it is not suitable for their needs. C. Position In terms of position, it is noted that the highest weighted mean which is 2.49 or interpreted as seldom encountered fell on unable to match properly the person to fit in the position. Difficulty to fill up higher position got a 2.46 rating or interpreted as seldom encountered. The lowest weighted mean of 1.06 or interpreted as never encountered is the highly demandable position. The general weighted mean is 2.00 or interpreted as seldom encountered. It implied that position is very important in every establishment to properly disseminate the tasks of every staff. 3. Possible Solutions that can be suggested to Solve the Problems Encountered by Respondents A. Manpower Supply In terms of manpower supply, providing competitive package to attract chefs got the highest weighted mean with the rating of 3.86 or interpreted as strongly agree. Next is should have a proper wage who got a rating of 3.13 or interpreted as agree. The lowest weighted mean of 2.40 fell on providing necessary trainings or interpreted as moderately agree. Training can much give familiarity and understanding with the venture of work that they have. The general weighted mean is 3.13 or interpreted as agree. B. Qualifications of Applicants Along qualification of applicants, the highest weighted mean is 3.26 or interpreted as agree showed up on providing necessary on the job training to seek potentials among trainees. Determining the skills and competencies got a rating of 3.13 or interpreted as agree. The lowest weighted mean of 2.67 and interpreted as agree is on requiring a recent (w/in 1 month) results of standard pre – employment physical exam. As the chef is always in the kitchen to do the cuisines that the customer should wish, the sanitation and hygiene of the cooks is much very important. The general weighted mean is 3.02 or interpreted as agree. C. Position In terms of creating more comprehensive positioning was rated with the highest weighted mean of 3.23 or interpreted as agree. Providing support among employees in terms of trainings, seminars, conferences and other food show activities came second in rating and has a weighted mean of 3.00 or interpreted as agree. Designing a well versed and well trained hierarchy of chef got the lowest weighted mean of 2.93 or interpreted as agree. The general weighted mean is 3.05 or interpreted as agree. Conclusions On the basis of these findings, the following conclusions were derived: 1.The requirements for the chef position in selected hospitality industry in terms of educational attainment, number of years of experience and skills as a whole, it showed that the selected hotels in Legazpi City are hiring an employee who has experienced in their job, matured with pleasing personalities, talented and skillful, sympathetic and congenial to the clients of the establishments. 2.The problems encountered by the respondents are seldom come across in terms of manpower supply, qualification of the applicants and position. 3.Respondents agree on the possible solutions that can be suggested to solve the problems encountered by the respondents in terms of manpower supply, qualification of applicants and position. Recommendations In the light of the findings and conclusions drawn from the study, the researchers offer the following recommendations: 1.The managers of the selected hospitality industry must periodically evaluate the performance of their employees to properly show if the employees meet the satisfaction of the managers. 2.The chefs or cooks are encouraged to undergo upgrading through seminars and workshops to gain more knowledge and skills. It is important to boost all their talents and skills in cooking process. 3.The managers of selected restaurants and hotels are encouraged to keep themselves abreast with trends in terms of interviewing and staff selection process. They must maintain and continue a positive relationship among employees to further reach their goals and objectives. Areas for Further Study The following areas for further study are likewise recommended: 1.Personnel Management of Restaurants and Hotels in Legazpi City 2.The Managerial Practices of Hotels in Legazpi City 3.Human Relationships Practices of Restaurants in Legazpi City 4.Innovation in Hotel Management for Curriculum Improvement in College

Friday, October 25, 2019

Character Education Programs :: essays papers

Character Education Programs One of the most important things to parents is that their child grows up to be a caring, healthy human being. Parents were actually asked what the most important thing they wanted for their children was. â€Å"The most common response, given by 48% of the parents, was making sure their child grows up to be a moral person.† (http://www.joe.org/joe/1998april/a3.html). A good way to ensure this is by implementing character education programs. With the increase in violence in young people today, character education programs are a great way to teach people various good and useful morals. Character education programs are exactly how they sound; they are designed to build one’s character throughout childhood so that the individual is able to make good decisions in life. Character education programs are intended to handle â€Å"aggressive behaviors, build self-esteem, resolve conflicts peacefully, encourage diversity tolerance, practice core values and promote character education† (http://www.joyinlearning.com/). The effect of character education programs on student’s behavior will be addressed. Character education programs are designed to help with many issues such as aggressive behavior, life skills, conflict and violence, safety, diversity tolerance and most of all, they exist in order to help build one’s character. Effective character education programs need to include many main beliefs. It is said that â€Å"Character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character.† This means that some values which include caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others are all essential to building character education. The hope is that schools that implement character education programs look at these values as obligations for the student to uphold. The second thing that character education needs to have is thinking, emotion, and behavior. The point here is to help people understand the difference between what is right and wrong, good and bad, and to use those â€Å"good† values throughout their life. In schools using character education, intentional, proactive, and comprehensive approaches are used to follow the values of good character. The intentional approach and proactive approach try to develop character, and the comprehensive approach uses every feature of schooling. For example, it would use the environment in and surrounding the school to try and build character. It would also make sure that the bus driver for the school bus is in good character.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Is the war on terror

The delight in comparing the historical accuracy of Arthur Miller’s play to the real events of the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s comes from both the time at which the play was published and the historical parallels between the two times in American history. Furthermore, the play holds value as an attempt to explain unexplainable behavior and to teach lessons from the history in the hopes that they will not be repeated. It is a sad lament that the lesson remains unlearned and fifty years later we are faced with another American witch trial, this time under the name â€Å"War on Terror.†In short summation, â€Å"The Crucible† is a play ostensibly about the Salem Witch trials. In it, a preacher’s daughter falls ill after dancing in the woods with a slave and some of the other village teen agers. Her father calls in assistance from more world church investigators to find the root of the witchcraft that has left his daughter ill. A fter he threatens to whip the slave to death, she confesses to witchcraft and seeks to take blame away from herself by pointing the finger at other Salem citizens.Eventually, the finger is pointed at a married woman, Elizabeth Proctor, by her former maid Abigail who had been having an affair with the woman’s husband John. Her accusations are at first doubted because John admits to the affair and shows that Abigail is attempting to tarnish his wife’s reputation or indeed mess up his life, but Elizabeth, thinking she is protecting her husband, refuses to admit to knowing about the affair. She is eventually found guilty of witchcraft and spared the gallows because she is pregnant, but in the same misguided desire to spare herself more torment, accuses under questioning that her husband is also a witch. At the end of the play, John Proctor is being led to the gallows for his crime.Is any of this real? Yes. Elizabeth Proctor was given a stay of execution because she was pre gnant and most of her family was executed during the Salem Witch Trials (Burns, 1). The pastor’s slave, a Caribbean Indian woman named Tituba was among the first accused and pointed the finger at her owner’s daughter and others in the community, but there is no historical evidence that John Proctor had an affair and the real Abigail was an 11 year old girl at the time of the trials (Burns, 1). So why did Arthur Miller chose to make it all up? Possibly to give reason to the unreasonable. Though the witch hunts in Salem lasted a relatively short period of time, they left an indelible mark on American history, a time when man turned against his wife and children and neighbors to avoid being killed.Miller, a victim of Joseph McCarthy’s â€Å"Red Scare’, understood the premise all too well. The origins of the Red scare are much easier to trace than the origin of the Salem Witch Hunts, but Miller clearly could see the parallels between the two. In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in February, 1950, McCarthy made clear where his venom and hatred came from. â€Å"Five years after a world war has been won, men’s hearts should anticipate a long peace—and men’s minds should be free from the heavy weight that comes with war. But this is not such a period—for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of â€Å"the cold war.† This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps—a time of a great armament race. â€Å"(â€Å"Enemies from Within†, 1).There is a term used in sociology to reflect the behavior, called identifying the â€Å"other†. The other is a person unlike ourselves who has some characteristic that makes them a threat to society as we know it. In the witch trials, it was witches. During the Red Scare, it was Communists. Today, it is anyone who appears Arabic or studies Islam and can therefore be deemed likely to be a terrorist.   Not having learned the lessons of history or of literature, after September 11, 2001, Americans were terrified and they turned to a new witch hunt, this time with the witches semi-identifiable by race.Too bad that you can tell an Arab-American who has lived her forever, or an Afghani refugee, or simply a hard-working Middle Easterner who has never considered the way of Al Qaida just by looking at them. Instead, we demonize a race and lock people up in Cuba at Guantanamo Naval Base on the suspicion that they might have knowledge about someone or something that might want to hurt us. The Patriot Act makes it an offense just to know people who might be associated with terrorism and encourages people to rat out their friends, with the same kind of threats that the preacher used on his slave Tituba.But this is not the first witch hunt since McCarthyism and is probably not the last. In fact, in many ways, Miller may have contributed to one of his own in the writing of â€Å"The Crucibl e†. In 1950s northern America, Communists were the enemy, but in the South, it was the uppity African-American wanting rights that he had been granted but not given after the Civil War. By making Tituba a Negro slave and implying that she practiced some form of voodoo, Miller may have contributed to this anti-African-American attitude (Hansen, 3).   By the 1970s, the witch hunt was against the American military and specifically those who had served in Vietnam, in the 1980s Reagan-era; it was those darned Communists again.The 1990s brought on a witch hunt in the Catholic Church, where suddenly every priest was assumed to be a pedophile and in 2001, Al Qaida made themselves into the witches of the new millennia.   At Guantanamo Bay, McCarthy’s famous question, â€Å"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?† (Popkin, 139) has been revised. The quest now is to find the next threat to Americans and the next unidentified witch.Works Cite dBurns, Margo. â€Å"Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Fact & Fiction (Or Picky, Picky, Picky†¦) October 24, 2003. , November 17, 2007.McCarthy, Joseph R. â€Å"Enemies from Within†, February 9, 1950. < http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456>, November 17, 2007.Popkin, Henry. â€Å"Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’†.College English > Vol. 26, No. 2 (Nov., 1964), pp. 139-146   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/373665?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents, November 17, 2007.