More Amazing Recommendation Letter Samples from Teachers (Part 2)

More Amazing Recommendation Letter Samples from Teachers (Part 2) SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Last time we review how you would go about writing great recommendation for a student strong in literature or engineering (click here to see that post!) This time, we continue the series and go over a strong social science recommendation as well as a general hard-wroker recommendation. Update: We just made our two-part guide one-part. You can access it all here: Go to our full recommendation guide! What's Next? // Are you a teacher writing recommendations for your students? Read all about how to write an outstanding recommendation letter for your students, along with what not to include. Are you or a student you work with applying to a selective school, like Harvard? Learn about what kind of letter she should get for the Ivy League. Now that you've read these examples of strong teacher recommendation letters, check out these examples of bad ones. Warning: rec letters may appear better than they actually are. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The 7 Best Places to Find High Paying Ghostwriting Jobs

The 7 Best Places to Find High Paying Ghostwriting Jobs After my first article about earning big as a ghostwriter on FundsforWriters, the next obvious question so many writers asked was where to find clients that pay well for ghostwriting jobs. Following you’ll find seven high-paying markets for ghostwriters. While there are plenty of websites and portals that offer ghostwriting gigs, most of these do not pay well. It seems counterproductive to give away your hard work for a pittance and not even have the right to claim it as yours. The good news is that not all websites are created equal, and places exist with well-paying projects with the potential for long-term work. Dig beyond the usual freelance websites like Upwork, Freelancer or Fiverr. The average gigs here are short term and in the low-to-mid range. Moreover, stiff competition drives down the on-going rates further. Upwork features an Enterprise Program for selected freelancers while Fiverr offers you to apply for Fiverr Pro if you meet their criteria. The gigs there are well-priced, but unfortunately, they are not open to all. Seven Better Places to Find Profitable Ghostwriting Jobs 1.  Ã‚     LinkedIn ProFinder– This is a new service launched 2.  Ã‚     Working Nomads– Working Nomads is one of the best places to find remote working jobs including ghostwriting. The site was set up to connect freelance professionals with scouting companies. Only the best jobs are posted here as each job post costs the employer $149. Digital nomads often take home five- to six-figure earnings. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Freelancewriting– Open since 1997, Freelancewriting is a job board hosting both full-time as well as part-time gigs for ghostwriters. Most jobs are in the five-figure range (for full-time work). 4.  Ã‚     Scripted– Scripted sets very high standards for its writers and has an impressive portfolio of clients, with a strict recruiting process. Once you are in, you gain access to some of the best ghostwriting gigs available. There is a minimum prescribed rate for each writing category. This ensures a minimum payout for each gig and undercutting is not allowed. 5.  Ã‚     Writers.work– A freelance writing job aggregator, this site sifts through the internet to pick out the best gigs and delivers them as a digest to your dashboard. It is a pay-for-membership service but totally worth the expense. 6.  Ã‚     Remote As the name suggests, remote features only remote jobs. They are all well-paid, too. No wonder it has over 2.5 million professionals, including ghostwriters, connected. And the number is growing every day. Remote uses an intelligent AI-based matching system to predict a high probability for job success. 7.  Ã‚     ProBlogger Job Board Established in 2004 as a learning guide on making money as a blogger, Problogger has now become a freelancer’s go-to site for its job board. Clients have to pay to advertise their requirements to its vast database of writers. That’s why the jobs advertised are much better paid than those on content mills. Joining freelance job aggregators like  Periodix  or subscribing with  Freedom with Writing  can also make the search easier without you having to spend hours each day scouring the net. Additionally, joining the  Association of Ghostwriters  or  Nonfiction Authors Association  will not only help you build your credibility as a ghostwriter, it will help you get quality job leads.

Analyzing Value Net for Omni Hotel & Resort Essay

Analyzing Value Net for Omni Hotel & Resort - Essay Example Customers that are satisfied with their experience are highly likely to tell their friends about it. A second way customers could add value to the firm is by becoming recurrent customers of the company. Rivals – The company faces competition from direct and indirect rivals. All four and five star hotels in Texas are direct competition of Omni Hotels. Homes that rent their facilities for short monthly contracts are an indirect competitor of the firm as well as condos. Three direct competitors of Omni Hotels in the Corpus Christ marketplace are Days Inn Beach, Radisson Hotel, and Knights Inn. The rivals of the company represent a threat to the business organization. Omni has over 50 hotels across the United States (Omnihotels, 2011). The Corpus Christi hotel can add value and turn this threat into an opportunity by forming marketing alliances with other competitors. All the registered hotels in Corpus Christi can form a cash pool to advertise the region to tourist inside and outside of the United States. Such an initiative would increase the total tourism money that the region receives which would benefit the entire hospitality industry. Suppliers – In the hospitality industry suppliers have little power over hotels. Hotel chains such as Omni enjoy several competitive advantages including power to buy in bulk and take advantage of economies of scale, high variety of supplier options, and greater brand value than their suppliers. Several key suppliers that Omni Hotel must emphasize include food suppliers, cleaning suppliers, and bathroom supplies. The food suppliers are instrumental toward the success of hotel operated restaurants. Tourists are willing to pay a premium prices as long as they receive superb service and quality food. The organization can add value in its supply acquisition by advertising to the customers that they can take for free any supplies in from the room such as

The internal physical surroundings of a retail outlet have important Essay

The internal physical surroundings of a retail outlet have important implications for building store image and influencing consu - Essay Example In-Store Environment Physical environment of the retail stores play a crucial role in influencing consumer behaviors and provide the retail stores with an ability to create un-rivaled image particularly in service businesses. Additionally, retailers rely heavily on store atmosphere as it prolongs the time consumer spend in the store and increases impulse buying of the consumer. More importantly, enhancing the store atmosphere is the last option for the retailers in terms of gaining competitive advantage (Blackwell, Miniard, and Engel, 2006). A store environment can be best defined as an external stimulus that attracts individuals on personal level. The in-store environment includes cues, messages and suggestions for the customers to gain their attention so that they can spend quality time at the store. Retailers are provided with variety of benefits through effective and breathtaking in-store environment due to which they tend to design store environment that significantly enhances c onsumer’s positive feelings and motivation to purchase or stay longer in the retail store (Yoh, 2000). On the other hand, physical environment can be distributed into three categories. ... Providing the customers to move freely in the store significantly influences the customers to frequently visit the store to satisfy the personal needs and wants. Signs, Symbols and Artifacts Communication with the customers in the store is quite essential. Communication either through direct medium or indirect medium can motivate the customers to stay longer at the retail store. Moreover, decoration and design of the signboards creates a positive image in the mind of the customers. Another classification of environmental factors is as follow (Mowen and Minor, 1997): Ambient Cues The ambient cues have significant impacts on potential customers as it includes attributes such as temperature, music, noise and lighting. Design Cues The design cues give rise to aesthetic feelings of the customers as it includes style, layout and architecture of the retail store. Social Cues Such cues relate to factors such as employees and the customers. The ability to provide the customers with effective and interactive employees can significantly motivate the customers through high quality service. Nature and Importance of In-Store Environment In the 21st century, providing the customers with unique and special retail environment has become a necessity for organization to enhance its differentiation from other retailers. This significantly provides the retail outlets with an ability to bind customers through the un-rivaled experience. Indeed, the retail outlets are showing interest in the design of outlets so that the outlet can create an experience that would lead to consumer purchasing behavior. Moreover, the design and the environment of the retail outlets are the two most prominent factors for

Russia, Democratic or Not Essay Example for Free

Russia, Democratic or Not Essay Russia should be considered a semi-democratic country. They have the characteristics of a democratic country, yet at the same time they dont. For example, they have freedom of speech but to an extent. As shown in a round table discussion show thats been on air for years. But, its only good things are spoken about the government and Putin. Also they can vote and what not but the government tries to rig it. Another example is that people may oppose the government, but may not publicize it widely. A show of this would be like the man that broadcast his ideas about the government on the radio, but he is only aloud to at on station. Any other station has him blacklisted. So not many people hear his ideas. Another problem is there freedom to assemble. They can do this but only with the permission of the government. Also they sometimes pay kids to participate in rallies that oppose anyone against the government and Putin. And lets not forget about the private owned businesses because these are essential. In Russia businesses can be privately owned to an extent plus they can choose what to sell and how much, also they decide who they hire. Also, the Russian Federation confirms a citizens right to state healthcare and medical assistance free of charge. Citizens do not pay for this but instead companies and government subsidies do. Plus the health care is poor. They may have well trained doctors but indecent equipment. This is a helping cause in the reason why the death rate is higher than the birth rate. The life expectancy is also low. These are all signs of a semi-democratic country.

William G. Morgan and Volleyball Essay -- sports, history, YMCA, net

Fundamentals of Volleyball Volleyball was originally meant for middle-aged men who weren’t able to move well enough to play basketball, but now it is a fast-paced and highly competitive sport for both men and women. Today, people dive and leap across the floor in order to keep the ball from hitting the ground on their side of the court. So it is safe to say that the game of volleyball has evolved from the relatively calm game it once was when it originated in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895. The fundamentals of volleyball include passing, digging, serving, attacking, setting, and blocking. It also involves the skills needed to do these things. Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan. Morgan wanted to come up with an indoor sport that was better accustomed to the fitness level of older men. He invented the sport by looking at elements of other sports (basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball) and assorted them together to fit his needs. Volleyball was initially played with an inflated basketball bladder (the inner lining of the ball). However, Morgan found that this was too light and a normal basketball was too heavy. It was eventually decided that the ball would be a rubber bladder covered with leather or canvas. In the beginning, Morgan called the new game â€Å"mintonette† because it reminded him of badminton. According to Sherrow, â€Å"He presented an exhibition match for a group of YMCA physical education directors. One spectator, Dr. Alfred Halsted, suggested that Morgan change the name of the game from â€Å"mintonette† to â€Å"volley ball,† because the players were volleying the ball b ack and forth with each hit. The first official volleyball game was played at Springfield College on July 7, 1896† (14). Formerly, the game was organiz... ...see how all of the fundamentals come back together to compliment each other and form the game of volleyball. Works Cited â€Å"Basic Skills in Volleyball.† Basic Skills in Volleyball . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 April 2014 Kelly, Zachary A. Volleyball, Attacking to Win. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke, 1998. Print. Kelly, Zachary A. Volleyball—the Serve. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke, 1998. Print. â€Å"Rules of the Game of Volleyball.† Rules of the Game of Volleyball. Volleyball World Wide, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014 Sherrow, Victoria. Volleyball. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2002. Print. â€Å"Special Olympics Oregon- Training for Life.† Special Olympics Oregon- Training for Life. Special Olympic Oregon, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. "TriState Volunteers ®: About/Home." TriState Volunteers ®: About/Home. Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, n.d. Web. 30 April 2014.

Creating a story Essay

This is a story about William, a seventeen year old son of sir James – once a powerful feudal aristocrat in England. Sir James used to own a large portion of land in the Wales, but times have changed. As money started to be used, sir James lost parts of his land because he could not afford to keep it. On top of that, some of his peasants have left and became mercenaries who were hired by sir James’s neighbor. These days, around year 1200, sir James is still among the few noble English families left, noble but yet not belonging to magnates. It is William that sir James counts on to move up the social ladder. William is not a true son of sir James, the boy was born to sir James’s brother, sir Henry. 10 years ago sir Henry died and his brother, sir James, exercised the right of wardship – he started taking care of William and of those lands that used to belong to his father. William started living with his uncle when he was seven years old. As soon as he moved in to sir James’s castle, William became a student of many studies – he was being prepared for a court life. William is trained to become a good hunter, but also to be able to charm a court lady – he has teachers who teach him to sing songs, tell stories, flirt, dance, he has a special teacher who teaches him the rules of different ceremonies in court, the terminology to use, how to behave, how to dress. All of these activities are taking place in the castle of sir James, which is neither small nor large. A stone castle is surrounded by several wooden homes of sir James’s peasants who are busy with manufacturing of flax, wool, growing of geese and pigs for the inhabitants of the castle. The whole territory is surrounded by a stone wall. William’s day begins early in the morning. A servant brings him a basin with water to wash. When he is ready, William goes on to morning hunting exercise, which takes place until breakfast. At breakfast William usually meets sir James, they discuss William’s morning practice and talk about the upcoming tournament. After that, William has music and dancing lessons followed by yet another practice. During his free hours William either sleeps or goes for a walk into the country where he spends hours dreaming about his romantic love for lady Mary, whom he met at the last tournament. After dinner, William spends hours with his teacher of court manners and another one with whom William reads and writes poems. In other words, William spends his days doing and learning everything that chivalry behavior requires. Once done will all classes, William puts on his armor and goes horse riding into the woods. Supper is usually late in the evening with lots of meat and wine. These days William is busy more than usual with horse-riding and weapon usage practices due to the coming tournament. Being of a noble family William is allowed to participate in knight tournaments where he hopes to attract attention of lovely lady Mary, on whose patronage is also counting sir James. Lady Mary is a heiress of a wealthy magnate and her hand would provide William and sir James a higher status and allow them to enter a narrow circle of English aristocracy. The previous tournament was a good one for William – he conquered his opponent winning his horse and armor, and on the other hand, at the banquet following the tournament, he was able to speak with lady Mary and got an impression that he has actually charmed her and now she is favoring him. Patronage of lady Mary, who’s father is not only very wealthy but also in a good relationship with the monarch himself, would definitely secure William a place among nobility. The only person who disapproves of William’s lifestyle is his step-father – a priest in the local church, father John. Father John finds that William’s attraction to lady Mary and court life in general diverts him away from God. However, William is convinced that his chivalry lifestyle is the highest expression of worldly conduct, and is the best path to choose if one has already made a choice in favor of secular and spiritual life path. Thus, William spends his life in accordance with the requirements of his time when feudal aristocracy was in the past giving a place to nobility class which claimed to have a special, highest social ranking and privileges given to them by their right of birth.

John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes Essay

During the seventeenth century, Great Britain produced Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two of the greatest political philosophers of all times. Both men are known for their great philosophical ideas that help to explain the role of government in man’s life. Their explanations are based on the description of their understanding of man’s state of nature. While both men do have opposite views on many of their political arguments, the fact that they are able to structure the essence of their conflicting ideologies in to the shell of what they define as the state of man in nature, is the link that relates them to each other. Both man share there desire in an establishment that provides order to ensure not only the protection of the individual, but also the security of the state. In Hobbes philosophy, the state of nature is a very unwelcoming, dull place. His theory is that individuals in their true nature are guided by their innate primal, animalistic instincts, rather then reason. Hobbes’ concept of the state of nature is based on his believe that morality such as the ideas of good and evil do not exist in tis state. He claims that with out guidance, man will use any power at his deposal, to defend his life and positions. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes describes this condition as war, in other words, it is every one against every one. (Hobbes) In addition, he depicted the state of nature as a state in which individuals are without any of the benefits that are taken for granted in modern society. Hobbes describes the lack of these benefits as: â€Å"No commerce, no agriculture, no account of time, no arts, no letters, and no society. (Hobbes)† Hobbes believes that without proper structure, man is in constant state of war. A state where an overbearing sense of fear and grief, triggers men to be on a constant defense in order to protect themselves, and their belongings. Hobbes relates man’s desire to escape from the state of nature and war by seeking peace, which allows man to end his unremitting feeling of fear. In order to obtain peace, Hobbes claims that it is the use of reason that enables man to respond the laws of nature. It is through reason, that man transfers all rights to a higher power, according to Hobbes, which in turn allows man to receive man’s natural right to all things, providing that others will do the same. Hobbes labeled this mutual transferring of rights contract. Hobbes knew, however, that there has to be some collective authority in place to enforce the laws. He believed that human’s appetite for power would be a constant threat to the contract. To prevent this threat, Hobbes saw a necessity for government. He concluded that there aught to be some sovereign authority that could enforce laws and would be authorized to punish anyone who broke the rules; an authority that is endowed with the responsibility to uphold the rights of every individual, as a part of the social contract. Hobbes believed that the best form of government to fulfill this role is in form of an absolute monarch as ruler over the people. He named the role of the absolute sovereign Leviathan. The role of the monarchic ruler was to be successful because it helped to create a endless circle that reinforced the social contract. The sovereign was to control the masses through fear, as he had the power of the threat of punishment bestowed upon him. This power helped to reinforce the mandates that the laws of nature provided, thereby ensuring the continued operation of the social contract that was in place. In turn for turning the responsibility to protect and serve over to the ruler, the people essentially gave up all of their own personal rights to govern themselves to the sovereign. The concept was that people are able to maintain their right to self-preservation by granting the sovereign all of their other rights. Hobbes titled this idea of a system of sovereignty the Commonwealth. It is through this social contract that is upheld between the people and the sovereign in the commonwealth, Hobbes states, that â€Å"man is able to get out of the state of nature and into society. (Hobbes)† Being a philosopher of political theory in the seventeenth century, John Locke understood and believed in the social contract and the state of nature as much as Hobbes. The positions he took on them, however, were most of the time on the polar opposites of the spectrum. Locks interpretation of the state of nature becomes evident in his publication Two Treaties of Government, where he states, â€Å"while there were no civil societies yet formed, people basically were able to live in peace, because the natural laws that governed them were an innate quality which everyone had. (Locke)† In other words, is Locke’s believe that in the state of nature, all people are equal, and have executive power of the natural laws. One of the major clashes between Locke’s and Hobbes’ theories was the interpretation of the state of nature. Hobbes was a firm believer in the state of â€Å"war† as a natural part of the state of nature. Locke on the other hand, alleged himself with the thought that the two states were not the same. Locke’s philosophy states that the human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. He believed that in the state of nature all men where equal and independent. Further more Locke believed that it is every ons right to protect his rights of life liberty and property. He states that people govern to govern their lives by using reason, and do not need a common superior, or leader. The state of war occurs when people try to force things on others, and it was Locke’s belief that when this occurs, people have the right to wage war because force without right is an adequate basis for the state of war. In order to transition from the state of nature into a civil society, Locke believed that people would innately want to give up their natural freedom in order to assure protection for their lives, liberties, and property. Locke claimed that the most efficient form of government for a civil society would be one that is run by the majority of people with common views, and that the individual, when entering into this society would submit to the will of the majority and follow the rules set forth by it. In transitioning from the state of nature to a civil society, Locke stated that the state of nature differed from a civil society because it lacked â€Å"an established, settled, known law; a known, and different judge; and power to back and support the sentence†. In order to complete this transition into a civilized society, the individual has to relinquish certain natural rights. These rights include the right to do what they wanted within the bounds of the laws of nature, and the power to punish the crimes committed against natural law. Both rights are given up in order to put oneself under the protection of the executive power of the civil society. According to Locke, it is a transfer of these rights to the civil society. Lock states that there will be â€Å"a law, a judge, and [an] executive working to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good of the people. † Locke’s ideals were considered to be very progressive at the time of their creation and based on the principles of equality and government working to the advantages of the people. After entering into a civil society, Locke stated that the government of the commonwealth, using the element of a majority, should have a single legislative body that was used for the creation of laws. Locke suggests many types of governments such as Democracy, or Oligarchy, but he never states that one is better then the other. This again is another difference in the views between Locke and Hobbes. While Hobbes favored one single person to have the divine power to rule, Locke stated that the power to create law should rest within a majority legislative body and that the law created by it should be absolute. No other body could create laws of its own, and every member of society and the commonwealth must abide by the laws that were created by the legislative majority. While the legislation is an absolute governing body, it does in fact have limits as well. Locke states that the legislative body must govern by fixed laws that apply equally to everyone, and that the laws that are designed are to be done solely for the good of the people; lastly, the legislative body cannot increase taxes on property owners with out the people’s consent. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes ideas about common law governments help to explain, at least from a philosophical ideal, the evolution of man from the animal age to the enlightened seventeenth century in which they resided in. While I believe the critical difference between their views is the amount of power they each placed in the idea of a sovereign power, they also shared many other different ideals, such as the state of nature in which people resided, and their ideas of how people living in the commonwealth should relinquish their rights. However, one crucial element of commonality should be noted that existed between Locke and Hobbes. Even though many of their ideals differed their end result was the same; the common good of the people. Though they both may differ on how this plan works, they are able to base at the crux of each of their arguments, the essential need for reason in man’s life, and how we as a race are able to better ourselves through the tools of reason and government. Work cited: Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. first edition . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909. Print. Locke, John. â€Å"Two Treatises of Government . † 22/04/2003: n. pag. Web. 18 May 2011. .

Internet Business and E-Retail essays

Internet Business and E-Retail essays Internet Business and E-Retail: A New Medium for a New Millennium? The Internet is no longer the sole domain of the nerd and the physics professor. Increasing use of the Internet in schools and the integration of Internet protocols into existing hardware (i.e. TV, mobile phones, and fridges) has widened the breadth and scope of Internet user. Britain currently has approximate. 21 million members of its population online and 14 million (30%) access the net at least once a month. These figures are reflected across Europe and significantly improved upon in the Scandinavian countries. The total projected number of Internet users by 2003 is 500 Million (approximately 1/12 of the world population) with Jupiter research's European online retail report estimating 85 million European buyers spending around 64.4 Billion Euros by 2005. European users still lag behind their US counterparts in terms of time spent on the net. US users average 719 mins/mth while this was only 308 mins/mth in Europe. Germany leads the way with its users at 367 mins/mth in the UK t he figure is 276 mins/mth. It is clear that the Internet user is becoming more aware of the technical aspects of the Internet and that initial fears about the reluctance of consumers to embrace the net have been exaggerated. The Internet market is many things. It is the advertisers, the people who use the computers, the products being sold and the technology that allows it to work. It is diverse, worldwide and easily accessible to anybody with a P.C. It provides both the advertisers and the users with ways to customise the way that advertising reaches its target audience. The advertisers can obtain a lot of data about individuals who are using particular websites, looking at certain products etc. This allows the advertiser to accumulate useful information, and to target their products and the way they advertise their products very specifically at the people who are going to buy them...

Passive Voice Definition and Examples

Passive Voice Definition and Examples In traditional grammar, the term passive voice refers to a type of sentence or clause in which the subject receives the action of the verb. For example, A good time was had by all. Contrast with active voice. The most common form of the passive in English is the short passive or agentless passive: a construction in which the agent (that is, the performer of an action) is not identified. For example, Mistakes were made. (In a long passive, the object of the verb in an active sentence becomes the subject.) See the discussion of the passive gradient in Examples and Observations below. Often the passive voice is formed by using the appropriate form of the verb to be (for example, is) and a past participle (for example, formed). However, passive constructions arent always made up of be and a past participle. For example, see the discussion of the get-passive. Though many style guides discourage use of the passive, the construction can be quite useful, especially when the performer of an action is unknown or unimportant. Passive constructions can also enhance cohesion. Examples and Observations Last week our dogwood tree was struck by lightning.Pandora, from Greek mythology, was given a box with all the worlds evils in it.(Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, 2008)It is believed that in the elementary school a class of fifteen pupils for one teacher gives better results than either a class of three or a class of thirty.(Psychological Foundations of Educational Technology, ed. by W.C. Trow and E.E. Haddan, 1976)[Fern] found an old milking stool that had been discarded, and she placed the stool in the sheepfold next to Wilburs pen.(E.B. White, Charlottes Web, 1952)America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else . . .. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy.(Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, 1965)Her bones were foundround thirty years laterwhen they razedher building toput up a parking lot.(Maya Angelou, Chicken-Licken. Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well, 1975) In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.(Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, 1979)Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.(attributed to Gabriel Garcia Marquez)The young gentleman was later seen by me in front of the gare Saint-Lazare.(Raymond Queneau, Passive. Exercises in Style, 1947) In Defense of the Passive Voice The proportion of passive verbs varies with the type of prose: scientific prose, for instance, may show far more passives than narrative prose. But to point this out is not to denigrate scientific writing. The difference merely reflects the different natures of content, purpose, and audience. . . . Not only is the passive voice a significantly frequent option in modern prose, but it is also often the clearest and briefest way to convey information. . . . Indiscriminate slandering of the passive voice ought to be stopped. The passive should be recognized as a quite decent and respectable structure of English grammar, neither better nor worse than other structures. When it is properly chosen, wordiness and obscurity are no more increased than when the active voice is properly chosen. Its effective and appropriate use can be taught. (Jane R. Walpole, Why Must the Passive Be Damned? College Composition and Communication, 1979) True Passives, Semi-Passives, and the Passive Gradient The statistic from corpus analyses that four-fifths of passive sentences in texts occur without the agentive by-phrase makes a nonsense out of deriving passives from actives. In the active subjects are obligatory; there can be no active sentences without a subject. So where do all these passives with no agent come from whereby the agent is unknown? Not from an underlying active, obviously. It is common practice to assume a dummy subject in such cases, equivalent to someone, i.e. underlying My house was burgled is the sentence Someone burgled my house. But that is stretching a point beyond credibility. . . . [Randolph] Quirk et al. [in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 1985] attempt to get over this problem by presenting a passive gradient and the notion of semi-passive, exemplified by the following sentences: (33) This violin was made by my father.(34) This conclusion is hardly justified by the results.(35) Coal has been replaced by oil.(36) This difficulty can be avoided in several ways.- - - - - - - - - - -(37) We are encouraged to go on with the project.(38) Leonard was interested in linguistics.(39) The building is already demolished.(40) The modern world is getting more highly industrialized and mechanized.(41) My uncle was/got/seemed tired. The dotted line indicates the break between real passives and semi-passives. Those above the line are real passives, those below the line are increasingly remote from the ideal passive with a unique active paraphrase, and are not real passives at allthey are semi-passives. (Christopher Beedham, Language And Meaning: The Structural Creation of Reality. John Benjamins, 2005) Rise of the Get-Passive The passive in English is usually formed with the verb to be, yielding they were fired or the tourist was robbed. But we also have the get passive, giving us they got fired and the tourist got robbed. The get-passive goes back at least 300 years, but it has been on a rapid rise during the past 50 years. It is strongly associated with situations which are bad news for the subject- getting fired, getting robbed- but also situations that give some kind of benefit. (They got promoted. The tourist got paid.) However, the restrictions on its use may be relaxing over time and get-passives could get a whole lot bigger. (Arika Okrent, Four Changes to English So Subtle We Hardly Notice Theyre Happening. The Week, June 27, 2013) When to Use the Passive Voice in Journalistic Writing Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald [in When Words Collide, 8th ed., Wadsworth, 2012] offer two situations in which the passive voice must be used. First, passive voice is justified if the receiver of the action is more important than the creator of the action. They use this example: A priceless Rembrandt painting was stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday by three men posing as janitors. In this case, the Rembrandt should remain the subject of the sentence even though it receives the action. The painting is obviously more importantmore newsworthythan the three men who stole it.Kessler and McDonalds second reason for using passive voice is if the writer has no choice. Thats when the writer does not know who what the actor, or the creator of the action, is. The example they use: The cargo was damaged during the trans-Atlantic flight. Air turbulence? Sabotage? Was the cargo strapped in properly? The writer doesnt know, so the voice must be passive. (Robert M. Knight, A Journalistic Approach to Good Writing: The Craft of Clarity, 2nd ed. Iowa State Press, 2003) Evasive Uses of the Passive Voice: Mistakes Were Made [W]hen [New Jersey Governor Chris Christie] said mistakes were made, did he know he was quoting Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler, or did that particular obfuscatory use of the passive voice just pop into his head? (Katha Pollitt, Christie: A Bully’s Bully. The Nation, February 3, 2014)Mistakes were made. I didnt make them. (Chief of Staff and later Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Jr., on the Watergate scandals, January 1981)We did not achieve what we wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so. (President Ronald Reagan, regarding the Iran-Contra affair, January 1987)Clearly, no one regrets more than I do the appearance of impropriety. Obviously, some mistakes were made.† (Chief of Staff John Sununu, when caught using government military aircraft for personal trips, December 1991)Mistakes were made here by people who either did it deliberately or inadvertently. (President Bill Clinton, when it was discovered that he had invited the countrys senior bankin g regulator to a meeting with the Democratic Party’s senior fund-raiser, January 1997) I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. (Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, March 2007)We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voicethat is, until we have stopped saying It got lost, and say, I lost it. (Sidney J. Harris, On the Contrary, 1962)

A Romantic Dinner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Romantic Dinner - Essay Example Outside, the landscape had changed. Where once there were the brash, insistent reds and greens of late summer now were the glamorous, rich shades of ochre, crimson and orange. Lisa stepped into her thin shoes and let the door slam shut behind her, leaving behind the cheer and light of her kitchen for the valley that was topped by the glorious shades of a sun setting behind the mountains. Her worn, cotton dress, whose colors had mellowed from being hung to dry in the sun, swished around her ankles. Twigs snapped like matchsticks beneath her feet as she walked towards the silvery sheen of the lake. From within the basket could be heard the faint clink of glass and silverware. Lisa paused and smiled even brighter at the figure sitting on a blanket by the lake. She hadn't seen Colin for over three months while she had been away for the summer, visiting her grandparents in Louisiana before school started up again. The days had seemed like years, the weeks had seemed like aeons and the months like an eternity. Lisa had met Colin when the two of them were fifteen. They both hated the same people in high school, which had led to them loving each other, although Lisa had suspected that Colin was gay at first. She liked the way he always had the edgiest jokes, the most intellectual references, the most sincere kindness and the most tasteful pants. He was head and shoulders above the other boys in her class. She knew that her heartstrings were permanently soldered to this boy when, at their upper-crust private school, Colin confessed that as soon as he was eighteen, he wanted to run away from home, join Greenpeace, and "fight eco-terrorism," as he put it. And when Colin was asked by the school basketball coach, "Why don't you want to join the team" and answered with, "Because I don't like you," she nearly proposed. Colin was on his back, staring at the sky. When he heard Lisa's footsteps, he tilted his head backwards, looked at her and smiled brightly, then casually walked over to her and squeezed her as tight as she could. The two of them laid down on the grass, embracing. Colin went back to his sky-gazing, while tapping his black, Converse-clad foot gently to some tune heard only within his head. Between his fingers he twirled a single blade of grass, then rolled it between the square palms of his hands. "I missed you, baby," Lisa said, inhaling the scent of his blond hair. He smelled like Suave shampoo and soy milk."I missed you, too," he said. "What do you have for me to eat Did you make tasty treats for me""I thought you would never ask," Lisa smiled. She sat up and pulled the heavy wicker basket towards them and started sifting through its contents. Lisa was fairly young-just shy of twenty-two-but in spite of that, she had marvelous skills within the kitchen, probably as a result of having an almost unhealthy interest in the domestic arts. She adored quilting, baking, sewing and knitting; her room was always spotless and beautiful, with finely crocheted ecru lace curtains on the windows and a homemade apron hanging on her door. Her dream was to one day own a giant farmhouse with lots of children (six, to be exact) and raise sheep, goats and bees. She envisioned herself making cheese and candles and liked the idea of teaching her children to spin and die skeins of yarn into all t he colors of the rainbow-burgundy, cobalt, sage and blonde,

H.W Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

H.W - Essay Example This car was carrying around 125,000 litres of propane gas that had begun to escape through the leaks. The intention of the railroad employees was to convey the contents of the tank car to the storage tanks of the Williams Energy Company. In order to correct the leaks in the valves, one of the employees struck at the valve with a wrench. This proved to be the beginning of the catastrophe as the sparks that flew as a result of the friction between the two ignited a flame. Since propane is highly inflammable, the resultant flame quickly grew into a large fire. The forked fire grew to heights as large as seventy to eighty feet. By this time, the leaks had expanded to both vertical as well as horizontal directions. This led to further difficulties in the confinement of the perimeter of the fire. With an expansion in the amount of pressure that had been building up in the railroad car, there was an explosion that was felt by everyone who was within a radius of a little over eight kilometr es. The immediate impact was felt by the firefighters who were stationed near the site of the explosion. Including those who died later of burns, eleven deaths of firefighters have been recorded till date (â€Å"The Disaster Story,† 2011). Before a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) incident occurs, the fire grows to dangerous heights. The real hazard however, lies in the explosion that is caused by a sharp rise in pressure in whatever contains the fuel. During a BLEVE incident, the firefighters are faced with the twin-problem of quelling the fire and not allowing pressure to build up within the container. Needless to say, the damages that are caused to life and property in such a situation also arise from the above-mentioned twin sources. The part of the incident that could have been avoided, however, was the casualties that were caused by the large number of spectators. Many people gathered to watch the fire,