Stress level among nurses that work in ER department in Nigeria and their work life balance. The WritePass Journal

Stress level among nurses that work in ER department in Nigeria and their work life balance. Abstract Stress level among nurses that work in ER department in Nigeria and their work life balance. , p. 25), which leads to a disconnection from both work and home life. This can have serious consequences if not dealt with effectively, which is why more needs to be done to tackle workplace stresses. This is especially the case when it comes to emergency departments since nurses are under a lot more pressure in the job and are subjected to greater physical demands than other departments. Consequently, it is believed that â€Å"emergency departments should be screened regularly on job and organisational characteristics to identify determinants of stress-health outcomes that can be the target of preventive interventions† (Adriaenssens, 2011, p. 1). Essentially, it is therefore important that the stress level among nurses that work in Emergency departments in Nigeria are reduced and that a work-life balance is being attained by all nurses. Research Aims and Objectives The aims and objectives of this research are to determine the stress levels amongst Nigerian nurses in order to determine whether they are receiving a work-life balance. This will enable a determination to be made as to whether interventions are needed to reduce the stress levels and whether Nigerian nurses working in emergency departments are more prone to stress than those working in other departments. Consideration as to how these nurses cope with stress will also be established, followed by an assessment as to what improvements need to be made in order to prevent nurse shortage ensuing within the emergency department. Research Questions Is stress prevalent amongst nurses in general? What are the levels of stress nurses within emergency departments subjected to and how does this compare with other departments? Are nurses working within emergency departments in Nigeria more likely to suffer from stress than those working in other departments? How do nurses cope with stress? What is nurse burnout? How serious is nurse burnout and in what ways can it be tackled? Are poor working conditions one of the main factors causing stress? Do Nigerian nurses working in emergency departments have a work-life balance? What interventions are needed to reduce the stress levels of Nigerian nurses? Is stress likely to result in nurse shortage? Predictions The underlying objective of this study is to determine the effect stress has upon nurses in Nigerian emergency departments and to consider present stress levels, whilst also analysing the work-life balance of these nurses. H1. Stress levels amongst Nigerian nurses are increased in emergency departments. H2. Nurse burnout is one of the main causes of stress. H3. Poor working conditions ultimately lead to stress. H4. Stress is likely to result in nurse shortage. H5. Nurses within emergency departments are subjected to higher levels of stress than nurses working in other departments. H6. It is important that stress amongst nurses is being sufficiently tackled. H7. Improvements to the working conditions of nurses would allow a work-life balance to be achieved. Key Words Nigerian Nurses Stress Levels Burnout Nigerian Emergency Departments Working Conditions Work-Life Balance Intervention Methodology Design A quantitative research approach will be utilised for this assignment in order to develop theories and hypotheses pertinent to the observations being made about the stress levels of Nigerian nurses working in emergency departments. Measurement is one of the main aspects of quantitative research and for this reason it is important that definitive comparisons between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative connections are made throughout this study. Data collected under this type of research consists of any data in numerical form such as statistics. Furthermore, quantitative data will also be collected from the use of questionnaires by asking participants various questions that are relevant to the hypothesis. Numerical data will then be collected and statistically analysed to answer the question using the data received. It is hoped that the data collected will help to determine the correlation between stress and health in nurses that work in emergency departme nts, whilst also considering how nurses cope with their personal life and the effects stress has on their work-life balance. The data that is to be analysed will be collected from applicable text books, journal articles, online databases and governmental reports. These will consist of both primary and secondary resources which will ensure that a deeper understanding of the subject matter can be acquired, whilst also obtaining an overall assessment of the stress levels amongst Nigerian nurses in emergency departments. An objective and subjective approach will be employed in doing so, as this will ensure that divergent viewpoints are incorporated into the study which will enable a critical evaluation to be made. The collection of immediate data will thus allow a proper assessment to be made as to the impact stress has upon nurses and an overview as to what changes ought to be made will be provided. The secondary data will enable the current phenomena surrounding the stress levels of N igerian nurses to be analysed which will allow the requirements of the study to be satisfied. Although secondary data is considered to be less reliable than primary data, it is important that the study includes existing observations of the hypotheses. Participants Since it would be unrealistic to study every nurse working within an emergency department in Nigeria, it is essential that only a pool of participants is selected. Furthermore, whilst it must be ensured that this pool is small, because of the impracticalities that would arise from studying a large pool, it is important that the amount of nurses studied is sufficient enough for the research question to be answered appropriately. Accordingly, approximately 100 voluntary participants will be used for this study and will consist of nurses from a specialist governmental hospital in Nigeria namely; Gwagwalada clinic and maternity in Abuja. In considering whether this sample size is appropriate, a power and sample size estimation will need to be undertaken. Therefore, it will need to be assessed whether â€Å"there is the possibility of harmful effects from participating in the study† (Taylor and Kermode, 2006, p. 207). Consequently, it will need to be shown that the study will achie ve the desired outcome (power) and that the number of people participating will help to achieve this (sample size). In addition, the data being collected must be measurable on the same scale and the sample size must not be too high. This is because, unnecessary time and expense would otherwise be utilised which would be detrimental to the study overall. Here, the power and sample size estimation has been satisfied since the data is of the same scale and measurement and the sample size does appear reasonable. Materials A questionnaire will be used for this study in order to determine the personal effects in which stress has upon the participants. In doing so, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) will be utilised so that the levels of anxiety and depression can easily be determined. The HADS was originally developed by Zigmond and Snaith (1983, pp. 361-370) and has been considered an effective way of measuring health (McDowell, 2006, p. 297) by looking at items on the questionnaire that relate to anxiety and depression. Once each item has been identified a score of 0-3 will then be given, which will allow a decision to be made as to the level of anxiety and depression that is prevalent amongst these nurses. The use of questionnaires is highly beneficial to this study as the impact in which stress has upon individual nurses in Nigeria will be more easily determined. In addition, the information that is gathered will be more applicable to the study and will help to address the concerns raised in the studies aims and objectives. Furthermore, the answers received will also be relevant to the hypotheses and a detailed account of the existing stress levels amongst nurses will be provided. Procedure Steps to be taken in the research process; Step 1: Determine the purpose of the research and identify the problem Step 2: Determine who the research project is aimed and review current literature surrounding the issue Step 3: Consider the requirements of the study and any limitations Step 4: Investigate the topic by gathering relevant information to be analysed Step 5: Consider what elements of the topic are the most important to the study Step 6: Define the population that is to be studied Step 7: Develop a data plan Step 8: Collect the applicable data Step 9: Analyse the data that has been collected Step 10: Compare the data collected with existing data in order to determine whether   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   hypotheses has been answered Literature Review Summary Nurses generally deal with life threatening conditions in all emergency departments and so are often faced with medical dilemmas which need to be dealt with immediately. Consequently, it is thus unsurprising that the working conditions can become rather strenuous, which ultimately leads to nurse burnout (Masters, 2009, p. 320). As a result of this, it is vital that various measures are implemented in all emergency departments so that the stress levels of nurses can be reduced. This will prevent nurse burnout from taking place and a work-life balance will be more easily ascertained. Whilst nurses are trained to deal with the difficulties they may face, it is important that the health and safety of nurses is also being given due consideration because â€Å"chronic stress takes a toll when there are additional stress factors like home stress, conflict at work, inadequate staffing, poor teamwork and poor supervision† (Kane, 2009, p. 28). Therefore, in order to avoid nurse burnout, it is necessary that all of these factors are avoided from the outset, since this would otherwise lead to inadequate care being provided to patients. Hence, it is therefore imperative that nurses have a work-life balance since this guarantees optimum performance (Nursing Times, 2011, p. 1). In order for a work–life balance to be achieved, it is important to firstly identify the causes of stress. This will allow effective changes to be implemented, which will help to avoid nurse burnout from being instigated in the first place. Unless the problems surrounding stress are acknowledged by emergency departments, it will not be tackled effectively. Emergency departments within underdeveloped countries, such as Nigeria, do appear to have greater stress levels than those within developed countries. This illustrates how a lack of resources will ultimately lead to inadequate conditions for nurses and as put by (Lasebikan and Oyetunde, 2012, pp. 1-2); â€Å"A growing recognition of job stress leading to dissatisfaction among registered nurses in Nigerian hospitals has contributed to current problems with recruitment and retention of nurses.† In accordance with this, it is likely that stress within emergency departments will result in nurse shortages. This is because; nurses will not want to be subjected to stressful conditions, which is why the causes of stress need to be dealt with efficiently. Despite the awareness surrounding these issues, it is clear that nurse burnout does commonly occur throughout Nigeri an hospitals. As absurd as this may seem, it is evident that stress is being insufficiently dealt with. Consequently, various measures therefore need to be implemented in order to reduce the levels of stress that occur within Nigerian emergency departments, yet it remains to be seen what measures will in fact be implemented. Conclusion Overall, it is evident that stress levels are prevalent amongst nurses within Nigerian emergency departments, which is largely due to the added pressure that nurses within these departments are being subjected to. Regardless of this, it seems as though stress can in fact be reduced provided that the problems associated with stress are properly dealt with. Whether this will ever be attained is questionable since it seems as though there has been an awareness of this problem for some time, yet Nigerian hospitals have still failed to implement adequate measures dealing with nurse burnout. Essentially, it is important that something is done to reduce the stress that currently persists as this may ultimately lead to nurse shortages within emergency departments. This would substantially affect the care that is currently provided to Nigerians and the emergency departments would be significantly affected as a result. Data Analysis Subsequent to all of the relevant data being collected, it will then need to be analysed so that a determination can be made as to whether stress levels within Nigerian emergency departments are high. In doing so, however, the data will first need to be cleaned through the inspection of each source so that a decision can be made as to whether the data should be used for the study: â€Å"the quality of the research should be judged in relation to the resources available and the effectiveness with which those resources have been used to investigate the particular topic in question† (Denscombe, 2009, p. 53). Once a thorough investigation of the collected data has been made, it can then be determined what data is most applicable to this particular study. Ethics There are a number of ethical issues that will need to be addressed when undertaking this study since the fundamental issues surrounding this topic are extremely sensitive. As such, it is necessary to ensure that the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants of the study are maintained and that permission to use the data collected is first obtained (Dawson, 2009, p. 150). The ethical rules of conduct will also need to be conformed to, which means that any data collected must be used in a way that is â€Å"honest, unbiased, sincere, free from errors or negligence, open to critique and it must protect confidential communications† (Rensik, 2011, p. 1). This can be achieved by adopting a risk-analysis approach and by conforming to the BPS guidelines. A letter of introduction and an ethics checklist will also be completed and provided to the hospital in order to gain their consent to carry out the research. References Adriaenssens, J. (2011) AE Staff Need Regular Stress Screening, Nursing Times, [Online] Available: nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-zones/accident-and-emergency/ae-staff-need-regular-stress-screening/5027021.article [13 January 2013]. Dawson, C. (2009) Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research Project, How to Books Ltd, 4th Edition. Denscombe, M. (2009) Ground Rules for Social Research: Guidelines for Good Practice. 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill International. Kane, P. P. (2009) Stress Causing Psychosomatic Illness Among Nurses, Indian Journal of Occupational Environment Medicine, vol. 13, no. 1. Lasebikan, V. O. and Oyetunde, M. O. (2012) Burnout among Nurses in a Nigerian General Hospital: Prevalence and Associated Factors, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, [Online] Available: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350958/#B7 [14 January 2013]. Masters, K. (2009) Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice, Jones Bartlett Publishers, 2nd Edition. McDowell, I. (2006) Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires, Oxford University Press. Nursing Times. (2011) How’s Your Work-Life Balance? [Online] Available: nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-zones/educators/hows-your-work-life-balance/5030453.article [14 January 2013]. Resnik, D. B. (2011) What is Ethics in Research and Why is it Important?’ [Online] Available: niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/ [14 January 2013]. Simmons, S. (2012) Striving for Work-Life Balance, American Journal of Nursing, vol. 112, no. 1. Taylor, B. and Kermode, S. (2006) Nursing Research 3e, Cengage Learning in Australia, 3rd Edition. Zigmond, A. S. and Snaith, R. P. (1983) The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, vol. 67, no. 6.

Final Keywords)

Create a Java Constant Variable (Static/Final Keywords) A constant is a  variable  whose value cannot change once it has been assigned. Java doesnt have built-in support for constants, but the variable modifiers  static and final can be used to effectively create one. Constants can make your program more easily read and understood by others. In addition, a constant is cached by the JVM as well as your application, so using a constant can improve performance.   Static Modifier This allows a variable to be used without first creating an instance of the class; a static class member is associated with the class itself, rather than an object. All class instances share the same copy of the variable. This means that another application or main() can easily use it. For example, class myClass contains a static variable days_in_week: public class myClass {    static int days_in_week 7;} Because this variable is static, it can be used elsewhere without explicitly creating a myClass object: public class myOtherClass {      static void main(String[] args) {          System.out.println(myClass.days_in_week);    } } Final Modifier The final modifier means that the variables value cannot change. Once the value is assigned, it cannot be reassigned.   Primitive data types (i.e., int, short, long, byte, char, float, double, boolean) can be made immutable/unchangeable using the final modifier. Together, these modifiers create a constant variable. static final int DAYS_IN_WEEK 7; Note that we declared DAYS_IN_WEEK in all caps  once we added the final modifier. Its a long-standing practice among Java programmers to define constant variables in all caps, as well as to separate words with underscores. Java doesnt require this formatting but it makes it easier for anyone reading the code to immediately identify a constant.   Potential Problems With Constant Variables The way the final keyword works in Java is that the variables pointer to the value cannot change. Lets repeat that:  its the pointer that cannot change the location to which its pointing. Theres no guarantee that the object being referenced will stay the same, only that the variable will always hold a reference to the same object. If the referenced object is mutable (i.e. has fields that can be changed), then the constant variable may contain a value other than what was originally assigned.

Reflection on the Development and Application of a Fundamental Nursing Essay - 1

Reflection on the Development and Application of a Fundamental Nursing Skill in Nursing Practice - Essay Example While Scoliosis is the curving of the spine away from the midline, hence goes sideways (Burtner, et al., 1999, pp.748-57). Spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy patients and the feeding process I realized that patients with health conditions such as James have difficulties when it comes to feeding since he has problems with personal control and swallowing of food and drinks. For that purpose, keen nursing care needed to be given to ensure that the patient feeds and drinks well and is not suffocated in the process as fluid or food particles are likely to accidently sucked into the lungs. The swallowing process is governed by the swallowing centre in the medulla, and in the mid-oesophagus and distal oesophagus by largely autonomous peristaltic reflex that are coordinated by the enteric nervous system. If in the process of swallowing respiration does not stop, fluids and other food particles may enter the lungs causing suffocation (WGO, 2007). During the entire period and specifically dur ing the above mentioned event, other experienced care assistants were available to guide me through the process besides the mentor whom I had been assigned to. The purpose of being at this care home was to learn and improve on my skills of handling people with mental disability and James proved to be the best person to observe and learn from and thus fit a case study description. In the process of fluid feeding, it was important that I have a personal beaker that was dedicated to this activity and for this patient. His beaker was blue with small holes and a spout. Dysphagia may occur in two primary forms and these include Oropharyngeal Dysphagia where patients have a problem initiating a swallow as... The researcher talks about his five week program at a learning disability care home situated on the northwest of England. It was quite an experience and worked as an eye opener in my nursing career. At the time of his placement and throughout the period, the author of the paper happened to observe and took part in a program aimed at feeding the residents within the learning disability care home. In this program, the researcher focused mainly on a resident called James (real name withheld for confidentiality reasons) the NMC Code of conduct require nurses to respect patient confidentiality at all times. In this work the researcher will be using the Gibbs reflective cycle 1998 to guide him in writing and reflecting his thoughts and feelings about his experience. The Gibbs reflective cycle consists of six stages of and helps leaners reflect on what they have learnt or experiences they have gone through. This patient has a medical history of spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy; he suffer s from epilepsy and also scoliosis. As a result of his health condition, James has developed dysphagia- the difficulty someone may have in initiating a wallow or the sensation that foods or liquids are somehow hindered in their passage from mouth to stomach- and for that reason he has to eat and drink in a way that does not harm him and relies on nursing assistance. The author of this article tells that his experience while working at the disability care home exposed him to various issues that are considered in the management of patients with cerebral palsy.

Novel Essay Chapter Analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Novel Chapter Analysis - Essay Example â€Å"Tapakwewin† is one of the World War I chapters, and it takes place in September in the area around Hill 70, near the village of Lens. The action in the chapter involves Xavier and Elijah sniping and their squad managing to take the hill from the German troops. This chapter also features the German flamethrower troops who symbolize quite well all the really horrible things about war. Mixed in with this action and horror are important character developments on the parts of Xavier and Elijah both. They also meet another Anishnabe soldier who helps to clearly define the role that Xavier’s and Elijah’s people play in the war, and how that defines who they are and the problems they have in the story itself. In relation to the other chapters of the novel, the reason that â€Å"Tapakwewin† seems central is that is really focuses on the characters of Elijah and Xavier, and how they are different and similar to one another, in a way that helps the reader to understand the novel’s central theme of loss during war-time. This theme is not only loss of life and health, as Xavier experiences, but loss of innocence and a loss of sanity. It also highlights another of the novel’s themes, which is the problems that Native Americans had and still have in integrating with the mainstream population while simultaneously maintaining their own unique traditions and cultures. The Elijah and Xavier featured in this chapter have both begun to change from who they were, and both seem to feel that they are on a course that can no longer be altered. Xavier shares Elijahs thoughts, revealing that he â€Å"wonders what is growing in him† (Boyden 262). â€Å"In the end,† he says, the answer is simple: â€Å"Elijah has learned to take pleasure in killing† (Boyden 262). This point, roughly 2/3 of the way through the novel, seems a pivotal one. In the

Interest Groups Essay Example for Free

Interest Groups Essay They vary considerably in size and ideological perspectives. The strategies and tools employed by interest groups are not static, and they differ depending on the geographical scope of their operations and the resources they have. While many interest groups tend to address a wide range of issues, others deal with distinct issues. The life span of interest groups is also not static. In this case, some groups have long term objectives; hence, they remain active for long duration. For instance, the interest groups that aim at challenging policy issues and politics operate on a long term basis. On the other hand, some groups are usually initiated with an aim of achieving a particular end after which they are dissolved. For example, during elections, many groups usually emerge with an aim of ensuring that the process is handled according to the stipulated guidelines of the electoral process. A representative government is always formulated in manner that facilitates participation of contending interests, and at the same time it tries to mitigate the variance that inexorably accompanies faction competition. In the traditional creation of pluralism, contending interests work together by mobilizing resources and opinions in order to enhance effective formulation and implementation of essential public policies. â€Å"Institutions are formed to accommodate the inevitability of diverse and competing interest from becoming powerful enough to undermine the rights of others† (Wilson, 2009). This process is governed by constitutional provisions, which stipulate the nature of interest groups’ activities. Therefore, many interest groups that work together tend to stabilize political environment, and this enables them to forward their interests to the government. â€Å"This implies that the pluralist vision of politics is an ideal vision of interest group politics and political institutions† (Barber, 1990). The activities conducted by various interest groups can be used to differentiate them. For instance, some of them endeavor to address several public issues, while others have a narrow scope of private interests. There are two distinct types of interest groups, and they can be described as follows. First, we have public interest groups, and they aim at working on issues that benefit the general public. For instance, they support policies that provide equal opportunities that can be enjoyed by everyone in the society. However, the success of public interest groups may not be very substantial at an individual level since they aim at reaching out to many people. â€Å"Some of the major public interest groups in his category are National Taxpayer’s Union and Concerned Women for America† (Orman, 1988). The second category is referred to as private interest groups. These are groups which endeavor to challenge public policies in order to specifically benefit their members or individuals that support their interests. Nonetheless, the objectives and activities of private interests groups should not interfere with the welfare of other individuals. Political self interest is perceived to b e healthy for a political system. In the USA, there is a popular belief that contending interests make the society more successful. This is because bad policies are always eliminated when various groups compete against each other â€Å"Other examples of interest groups include business organizations labor unions, Professional associations, and Non Governmental Organizations† (Grossman, 2002). The Relationship between Interest Groups and Political Parties There is no great disparity between political parties and various interest groups, because they are both composed of individuals having common objectives and opinions. Apart from this, â€Å"they are similar in the sense that they both seek to challenge government institutions, elections, and they all make public policy choices† (Brunell, 2005). Nonetheless, there are significant variations between these two bodies. Generally, interest groups never directly support their own members to contest for public office, especially in a case where economic parameter is concerned. In most cases, interest groups never adopt overt party labels, which electors use to identify and express their political affiliations (Dulilio Wilson, 2011). However, some electors may link particular interest groups with specific parties in a general manner. For example, the Tea Party is often linked with the Republicans and the white conservatives. In the recent past, public interest groups that are ideologically driven have increased considerably (King, 2011). For instance, a there are some groups which have pushed the tax agenda in political circles. Another distinguishing factor is that interest groups have a limited focus, and they only handle specific issues of concern in the public policy. For example, â€Å"interest groups form around specific concerns like environment, free speech, tax reform, and labor standards† (Petracca, 1992). In contrast to this, political parties tend to focus on several issues. Moreover, political parties try to merge some of these facades under one â€Å"big umbrella†. In some circumstances, interest groups seriously struggle against political parties. For instance, some internal rivalries have been witnessed in key political parties that operate in Texas. When elections were conducted in 2000, several environmentalists who were members of the Texas Democratic Party massively supported Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, since they felt that Al Gore was less committed toward environmental issues. They labeled him â€Å"not green enough†. On the other hand, some Republicans have tried to make the party conservative by working against some of their Republican colleagues. This indicates that the interest groups tend to favor parties and politicians that support their interests, and they ignore those who are less committed in helping them. Interest groups always aim at maximizing policies, while political parties are usually trying to obtain many Congress seats. These competing interests influence the manner political parties relate with the interest groups. According Thomas Brunell, â€Å"interest groups have a preference as which party controls a majority of seats in Congress, which leads them to direct â€Å"sincere† and electorally useful money to this party† (Hay, 2001) When interest groups offer funds to the â€Å"other† party, they always fund it in a manner that is less effective. Interest groups usually execute this goal by offering strategic funds to this party as follows: provide little financial support particularly to the popular candidates who do not necessarily have to be funded in order to succeed in the elections. They can also choose to fund incumbent candidates who already have political clout. Therefore, even if these groups offer funds to these parties, they always do it in a biased manner, and they favor only the parties that are likely to push forward their interests. These funds enable their preferred candidates to run their campaigns smoothly without experiencing financial hitches. Apart from offering finances, interest groups also provide key information that enables their favorite candidates to be more competitive than other contenders. They also sensitize their preferred candidates on issues that always influence election outcomes. All these services are organized by interest groups with an aim of fulfilling their common objective of influencing election results and policies. The fact that these institutions have a relationship is therefore undeniable. These groups often forge close ties and pursue similar objectives in order to enhance their political clout. Nonetheless, they remain independent, and their nature of operation and design also remain different. â€Å"The space for action, speech and flexibility that is maintained in politics makes them much more political than interest groups† (Grossman, 2002). How Interest Groups Try to Influence the President and the Congress? Although interest groups do not directly have elected members in political offices, they do aim at fixing their members into appointed positions. They normally do this to enable them perform their state functions through mechanisms that support the desired policies of the interests groups that facilitated their appointments. The fact that â€Å"groups† operate as political players has always been recognized and examined, even if not properly understood. The manipulation of legislative processes by groups is a question that has not yet been answered, and it is still being begged. Between the period of the 1970 and 1980s, some â€Å"explosions† were witnessed in Washington, and researchers have wanted to clearly understand them. As many groups emerged in Washington, many people joined them, and the groups increasingly funded parties. The citizens at the same time criticized the roles of interest groups and joined them in large numbers probably to suppress the powerful corporate groups. The role of groups in policy issues seemed to have taken a new dimension, and everyone was keen to see how it happened. Therefore, it can be argued that group manipulation of the Congress can be identified by simply examining the development of legislation that a group is favoring. For instance, a group’s ineffectiveness in legislative process can be measured through its failure to intercept unpopular bills. In general, â€Å"interest group activities predict, at least in part, how far bills will progress through the legislative process† (Brunell, 2005). The term influence as applied in this context is quite narrow from the perspective of interest groups, and it is broad from a congressional perspective. Interest groups perceive influence as a process that should produce good policies or prevent undesirable policies from being adopted. However, a group does not have to obtain policies from the Congress that directly indicate their actual desires; rather a group’s influence is seen when the Congress makes or discards a policy, which is in line with the interests of a group. From a congressional perspective, influence emerging from interest groups can come in several ways. Interest groups are often said to have manipulated the Congress when its members are compelled or encouraged to change the course or provisions of a given bill in order to meet the demands of the interest groups. This influence might come in the form of a change of wording, a passage from a subcommittee, and not passing from a standing committee† (Orman, 1988). In this process, interest groups may lead to the change of legislation, and the president may not have the capacity to reverse the whole process of legislation, even if he does not like the content of the bill. On the other hand, the president can also manipulate the Congress by working closely with the interest groups. As discussed above, the law making process can be indirectly manipulated through elections. For instance, an incumbent President may pass some bills in favor of some groups so that he may get some support from them during the next elections. Besides this, interest groups may support pliable candidates whom they can easily manipulate during the law making processes. This symbiotic relationship between the interest groups and the politicians to some extent affect the capacity of both the president and the Congress to formulate effective laws. Politics in America has become complicated to many politicians. This is because interest groups have managed to seriously entrench themselves in politics and much of their attention has been geared towards influencing the White House. â€Å"Since the American President has come to play an increasingly important role in the public policy process, interest groups and their lobbyists now descend on the presidency with the same vigor as they descend on the congress† (Orman, 1988). In this context, the president is faced with the challenge of fulfilling the needs of the ordinary citizens and the interest groups. Interest groups have faced much criticism especially when it comes to policy issues. Its critics contend that most of the policy issues dealt with by interests groups have no connection to the desires of the public. The leaders of these groups have also been blamed for being dishonest because they always fail to fulfill the demands of their members. The weaknesses of the interests groups have been seen as one of the factors interfering with democracy in the USA. It has also been noted with a lot of concern that some political candidates have been seriously intimidated by some interest groups, and this further affects the reputation of the interest groups. Conclusion  The above discussion indicates that the American government is guided various institutions, which work together with an aim of building a more democratic society. The interest groups have been instrumental in addressing the plight of the public by ensuring that policy issues are handled properly. The effectiveness of the government has also been enhanced by the numerous contending interests. The American government has been able to adopt better policies due to the serious competition that exists among various institutions. These groups have played a fundamental role of widening the democratic space in America. The American government has been influenced by several groups over the years to an extent that some individuals refer to it as â€Å"a world of interest groups†. The interest groups should, therefore remain committed towards enhancing democracy and good governance. And I think those groups have same mission, its to make the government do something right like that should be. for example, national education thinks that the system of lesson in ur country have to be changed because it is not effective, so the collect the data to support their argument, and send it to government, and hope it will influence the policy.

The Power of Preparation Essay -- English Literature Essays

The Power of Preparation There is an old adage that claims it is better to be safe than sorry. Most people living on planet Earth would agree. The art of preparation is a skill every old person wants the youth of America to possess. Business leaders want their employees to be better prepared. Simple everyday people want to be ready for all kinds of disasters that life may have in store for them. Someone who was trying to be wise once said,  ¡Ã‚ °Dig the well before you are thirsty ¡Ã‚ ±. This person was obviously relatively smart. Preparation is an essential tool for making life a more positive experience. First, success could come more easily if enough work was done beforehand. For example, many students dislike final examinations for one reason: the  ¡Ã‚ °cramming ¡Ã‚ ± study method. This method is ineffective, and makes students cranky and tired. Relationships at all levels become strained, and everyone is unhappy with everyone else. This situation can easily be avoided with one simple solution. It is preparation. If they had reviewed their notes and read their books periodically, then they would most likely retain all the necessary information to pass any final. Second, preparation can make lives of thousands more pleasant. Picture a red-brick building that is large enough for approximately 1,400 young adults. Now, picture about 400 extra people. Are there any problems that could rise from this high population density? Perhaps, there would be difficulties shifting from room to room...

No child Left behind Act is a controversial United States

The 2001-2002 No Child Left Behind Act is a controversial United States Federal law which attempts to tackle, head on, the problem of America’s public schools. There are more than fifty million students in our schools and there promises to be increases to this daunting number from immigration as well as the natural growth of the country. Under this new law, schools will be required to ensure that their students will meet or exceed the national requirements set forth by the federal government and the Department of Education. Repeated failure of a specific school to reach these requirements will eventually result in the loss of funding as well as a decrease in the number of students attending these schools.The latter is made possible by the freedom that the No Child Left Behind Act gives to students and their parents who are attending schools that repeatedly do not meet the requirements set forth in this act. Any state challenges to the law are threatened with a cessation of fun ds and in 2005; Utah became the first state to challenge the law with the outcome having not yet been played out on the national level[1]. Where the correct amount of attention needs to be paid to and how these problems are to be solved, as well as the effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Act, are sources for much debate. One of the biggest problems is high school drop outs and how this increase in drop outs can be curbed.The No Child Left behind Act focuses on a number of aspects of the public school system which the government believes needs to be improved. The first is the quality of the teachers who teach. It is a popular notion to blame the teachers for the shortcomings of the student in the classroom. The No Child Left Behind Act ignores the fact that today’s teacher is faced with more impediments to their successful ability to teach than ever before. An average student watches more than six hours of television a day, often times where there is no parental influenc e at home since often times, especially within the inner city, the student comes from a broken home and the mother is forced to work two jobs.Students within the inner city are faced with the constant threat of gang violence and gang influence which makes it not only difficult to learn and to achieve an education, but it is also a dangerous prospect as well. Also, there is within the American public school, a dangerous overcrowding, brought on by illegal immigration as well as other important factors. As a result, there are hundreds of schools within the country that are overcrowded. In Chicago, there are more than 150 elementary schools and 15 high schools, despite the addition of twelve new high schools and thirty additions to existing schools, which are overcrowded. Roosevelt High School on Chicago’s East side is more than 177% above capacity and Lerna Elementary school on Chicago’s south side is more than 150% above its designed capacity.[2] As a result, teachers a re faced with an overcrowding of students; often times the number exceeds thirty five to forty students in which an increasing number cannot speak English.However, there exists some merit as to the requirement that teachers be knowledgably in the subjects in which they teach. In a 2004 USA Today expose, it was discovered that in the state of California, over 35% of high school teachers were teaching subjects different than what their major or minor in college.[3] This places the student at a severe disadvantage and makes the parents of these students nervous as to who exactly is teaching their students. The No Child Left Behind Act set forth a plan in 2002, when the law was enacted, that by the 2006-2007 school year, all teachers be regarded as highly educated in the subject in which they were teaching. This is achieved by teachers having standardized tests of their own in the subjects in whom they teach.A teacher must also have achieved a bachelor’s degree and demonstrate a command of the subject that they teach as well as a command of the English language, both in speaking and writing in order to be allowed to further teach. In order to see if these measurements will yield the expected positive results, further standardized testing in grades 3-5, 6-9 and 10-11 will be required.[4] Under the previous system, only students in grades 3, 5, 10-11 were given to standardized testing. It will be seen on a national basis in the coming months, as these results are published, as to whether or not this simple and presumed self evident requirement yield the results which the country demands.Another important addition to the current public school system is the ability of parents and their children to choose the schools that they will attend. Previously, students could only attend the schools which were designed for their area. This gave a uniform feeling to the public school map and ensured that those who were paying real estate taxes to their local school, was us ed to teach the students of the local area. The No Child Left Behind Act allows students and their parents who attend poorly performing schools, the freedom to choose the schools which they will attend. It claims that local government has failed their students and that it now falls upon the federal government to step in and fix the problem.This is a controversial aspect of the law but one which according to the Department of Education, in their 2005 annual report, stated a number of positive aspects to the law. First, more progress was made concerning 4th graders in their reading skills over the last five years than in the previous 28 years combined.[5] America’s freshman in high school achieved the highest math and reading scores since 1971 and that the math and reading scores for African Americans and Hispanics have reached an all time high as well. Lastly, forty three states and the District of Columbia have enjoyed unprecedented success in the increase of their students t est scores.Not only is the law result-driven through the test scores which their students achieve, but focuses on the concept and quality of the education that their students are receiving. The gap between white and African American and Hispanic children, according to the Department of Education, states that it is the lowest that it has been in the history of public education. The parents are more informed about the quality and yearly performance of their schools through the publication of school report cards which grade the schools on a variety of various subjects which are designed to be helpful to the parent.This is also helpful in educating the parent as to what schools in the area would be a good fit for their child, if they so decide to move their child to another school district as their previous school repeatedly under preformed and did not meet their federal requirements. This is helpful as well, not only to the students and their parents but also for the school as well as the administrators are aware and feel the pressure to perform up to standards or their student body will decrease and so too will the amount of federal funding from the government. To many, this is a necessary and effective check on the apathetic attitude that some schools in the nation have felt towards the education of their students which they are employed to teach.A more conventional study is the communication between that of the parent and the teacher with regard to the standardized testing that is required multiple times in a student’s educational career. In 2005, New Jersey signed a contract to spend $35 million over the next four years to implement new testing standards for third and fourth graders with regard to math and science.[6] The Educational Commission Report reported in detail about the state implementation of the NCLBA, not only in New Jersey but all across the nation as well.Different from years past, the new implementation of this act represent a more syst emic approach to achieving testing reform and improvement. Professional development of teachers and technical assistance for low-performing schools are at the front of this debate for needed change. The report also points out the need for states, districts and schools to raise the stakes in order to avoid failure and that steady progress must be achieved and charted in order to improve student achievement.Blending texts and graphics, the report gives a series of snapshots from March 2003-March 2004 in the field of student improvement for math and science scores for sixth graders. The progress is divided up into seven sub categories: standards and assessments, adequate progress, school improvement, supplemental service, safe schools report cards and teacher quality and how each area must meet or exceed state requirements. The danger in failing to do so, the report points out, is that once area may well be able to pull down the other groups as well and erase a great deal of effort tha t has been used in this endeavor.Any legislation the size of the No Child Left Behind Act is going to receive criticism. Much of it is justified and has allowed many to regard the law as ineffective or misguided. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy criticized that: â€Å"The tragedy is that these long overdue reforms are finally in place, but the funds are not.†[7] It has been the long running complaint of school administrators that the money is not being sent to the schools in order to make the necessary changes. â€Å"School Administrator Charles Johnson of the Roosevelt High School in Chicago states: â€Å"If the government wants higher test scores, then they need to show us the money!All of these programs cost money. Give us the money and the results will follow.†[8] This is a problem and will probably continue to be a problem as the 2007 government budget again did not yield the necessary amount of money for these programs which as deemed necessary in the original 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. In our highly bipartisan political atmosphere, progress from the NCLBA can only be claimed through a great deal of studies and statistics in order to make such claims.Not only does the study set forth their guidelines, they give detailed statistics as to what areas of the country are meeting those standards and where in the country are the students falling behind at are at the highest risk of dropping out of school. Many studies come to the conclusion, and this one is no exception, that when a student is achieving in school and finds the subject matter and the atmosphere exciting, there is a minimal chance for that student to them drop out of school. The study found that all fifty states met or were partially on track (an improvement from the days before the NCLBA was implemented, to meet at least half of the 40 NCLB requirements. This constitutes an improvement of 11% over the previous year.[9] The study then concludes by pointing out how much of an i mprovement this is.Another problem with the law and one which prompts criticism of the government taking the lead in education reform is the possibility of corruption. The stakes are high for these schools to perform to the standards which the government has put in place for each individual schools. Some of these schools, knowing that they cannot meet these new requirements, will bend the result sin order for it to appear that they are meeting these new demands. This creative reclassification of the results has helped these troubled schools to maintain their previous level of government funding. In this, students are not learning more but are just being classified differently. In Missouri and Iowa, school administrators have admitted to the fact that in many of the schools across their respective states, they had lowered the requirements in order to meet governmental standards.Despite this temptation to create new and creative ways in which to show that these schools were achieving up to government standards, the No Child Left Behind Act allows for further funding towards schools which perform beneath federal standards as well as gives bonuses to schools that repeatedly meet and/or exceed standards. What does worry the aforementioned schools is the fact that only after a specific number of years, usually from 2-4 years of repeated failure to meet federal requirements, despite the extra funding, will schools then be cut off from this extra funding and will then be made to suffer the consequences.There has yet to be a significant number of schools which are placed under these restrictions and then forced to react in ways which would jeopardize the funding of their respective schools as the law is still relatively new. However, it is estimated that especially within the inner cities, these requirements, whether good or bad, will create a reaction that will eventually command a reform within the most troubled and poorly performing schools within each troubled area .The No Child Left Behind Act is controversial by nature. As the United States falls behind smaller and less affluent countries in the areas of science, reading and math, most everyone agrees that education reform is absolutely necessary.   However, with a problem that affects such a large population of the country in the form of parents, students and teachers as well as the society in which they reside, it is a fact that no legislation will please everyone. The No Child Left Behind Act is being implemented in order to correct decades of misuse by apathetic â€Å"but when high school students, upon their graduation, can read and write at only an 8th grade level, somebody is surely to blame.†[10] What is the source of argument is who exactly is to blame and in what capacity?Are the parents to blame when the student is a product of a broken home and there is nobody present within the home to make sure that the student adheres to his school work? Is the student to blame for no t possessing the self discipline to make himself to study, seek assistance outside of school hours and to ensure his or her own success? Is it the government to blame for avoiding the fact that illegal immigration has flooded many of our nation’s schools which has resulted in the overcrowding of the schools or the fact that before this law, there were teachers who graduated with a degree in History, if they graduated at all, who were teaching Biology.Or is it the fault of society who now places a greater importance on the knowledge of pop culture over excellence in schools? In some degree or another, all of the above mentioned principal players are to blame. What the No Child Left Behind Act attempts to do is tackle all of these impediments to the educational process of our nation’s fifty four million students. The No Child Left Behind Act accomplishes the ability to shed light on a subject which has long been ignored: the public school system. However, no government i nstitution can amend the problems of the public school system until the parents and students do their part as well. Only to a very limited degree can government institute behavior. It is up to those involved to ensure the success of themselves, their children, their school and their teachers. We are all in this together.WORKS CITEDCollins, Kristin. No Child Left Behind National Science Teachers Association. www3. ntsa.org. December 31, 2003. Downloaded June 14, 2007Dixon, Janet How No Child Left Behind Affects Your Children. Chicago Tribune June 12, 2004Graham, Patricia No Child Left Behind. History of Education Quarterly Vol. 47 May 2007Matthews, Jay No Child Left Behind Acts: Fact and Fiction Washington Post November 11, 2003No Child Left Behind Act   www.ed.gov.   The Department of Education Downloaded June 14, 2007

Heena Sidhu: Personal Life Essay

Heena Sidhu is an Indian shooter. She along with Annu Raj Singh won the gold medal in women’s Pairs 10 metre air pistol at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.[1] Heena (384) and Annu (375) won the 14th gold medal for India from the shooting range. She also won a silver medal in the singles event. Heena Sidhu| Personal life Heena is a Punjabi and was born in Ludhiana. Her home town is Patiala. She studies BDS (Dental Studies) and is quite fond of painting and sketching. Career Heena has been a practicing shooter since 2006 when she was in 12th standard and by the end of that year she made it into the National Junior Team. Although Sidhu started practicing shooting quite late but began participating in different competitions from 2007. She played for the Patiala Club and is right handed shooter with right being her dominant eye. Heena, along with Annu Raj Singh and Sonia Rai, won a silver medal in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol Team event at the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China. Her other notable achievements include winning silver medal in ISSF World Cup 2009 at Beijing[2] and 1st position in the women’s 10m air pistol at the national championship 2009, Kerala. Sidhu made it to the Indian squad that represented the nation in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [3] She competed in the Women’s 10 metre air pistol event, finishing 12th in the qualification round. Freeman began athletics at a very young age. Her first coach was her stepfather, Bruce Barber. By her early teens she had a collection of regional and national titles, having competed in the 100 metres, 200 metres, high jump and long jump.[citation needed] In 1987, Freeman moved on to Kooralbyn International School to be coached professionally by Romanian Mike Danila, who became her first real coach and later a key influence throughout her career; he provided a strict training regime for the young athlete.[3][4][5] In 1988, she was awarded a scholarship to an exclusive girls’ school, Fairholme College in Toowoomba. In a competition in 1989, Freeman ran 11.67s in the 100 metres and Danila began to think about entering her in the Commonwealth Games Trials in Sydney. In 1990, Freeman was chosen as a member of Australia’s 4 Ãâ€" 100 m relay team for the Kooralbyn International School Romanian Mike Danila,, New Zealand. The team won the gold medal, making Freeman the first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medallist, as well as one of the youngest, at 16 years old. She moved to Melbourne in 1990s after the Auckland Commonwealth Games. Shortly after moving to Melbourne, Bideau her manager introduced Freeman to athletics coach, Peter Fortune who would become Freeman’s coach for the rest of her career. She was then selected to represent Australia at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. There, she reached the semi-finals of the 100 m and placed fifth in the final of the 400 m. Freeman competed in her second World Junior Championships in Seoul, South Korea. She competed only in the 200 m, winning the silver medal behind China’s Hu Ling. Also in 1992, she travelled to her first Olympic Games, reaching the second round of her new specialty event; the 400 metres. At the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, Freeman competed in the 200 m, reaching the semi-finals. 1994 was Freeman’s breakthrough season, when she entered into the world’s elite for the first time. Competing at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. She also competed as a member of Australia’s 4Ãâ€"100 m squad, winning the silver medal and as a member of the 4Ãâ€"400 m team, who finished first but were later disqualified. During the 1994 season, Freeman took 1.3 seconds from her 400 m personal best, achieving 50.04 seconds. She also set all-time personal bests in the 100 m (11.24) and 200 m (22.25). Although a medal favourite at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics in Sweden, Freeman finished fourth. She also reached the semi-finals of the 200 m. Freeman made more progress during the 1996 season, setting many personal bests and Australian records. By this stage, she was the biggest challenger to France’s Marie-Josà © Pà ©rec at the 1996 Olympics.[citation needed] She eventually took the silver medal behind Pà ©rec, in an Australian record of 48.63 seconds. This is still the sixth fastest time ever and the second fastest since the world record was set in Canberra, Australia in 1985. Only Sanya Richards-Ross has come within a quarter of a second of Freeman’s time since.[6] Pà ©rec’s winning time of 48.25 is the Olympic record and the third fastest ever. In 1997, Freeman won the 400 m at the World Championships in Athens, with a time of 49.77 seconds. Her only loss in the 400 m that season was in Oslo where she injured her foot.[citation needed] Freeman took a break for the 1998 season, due to injury. Upon her return to the track in 1999, Freeman did not lose a single 400 m race, including at the World Championships.[7] ABC footage and interviews of crowds celebrating Freeman’s Olympics win. Her winning streak continued into the 2000 season, despite Pà ©rec’s return to the track. Freeman was the home favorite for the 400 m title at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she was expected to face-off with rival Pà ©rec. This showdown never happened, as Pà ©rec left the Games after what she describes as harassment from strangers.[8] Freeman won the Olympic title in a time of 49.13 seconds, becoming only the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion (the first was Freeman’s 4Ãâ€"400 teammate Nova Peris-Kneebone who won for field hockey 4 years earlier in Atlanta). [9] After the race, Freeman took a victory lap, carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. This was despite the fact that unofficial flags are banned at the Olympic Games and the Aboriginal flag, while recognized as official in Australia, is not a national flag, nor recognized by the International Olympic Committee.[10][11] Freeman also made the final of the 200 m, coming sixth.[12] In honour of her gold medal win in Sydney, she represented Oceania in carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the next Olympics, in Salt Lake City, joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa), John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Lech WaÅ‚Ä™sa (Europe), Jean-Michel Cousteau (Environment), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), and Steven Spielberg (Culture).[citation needed] Throughout her career, Freeman regularly competed in the Victorian Athletic League where she won two 400 m races at the Stawell Gift Carnival.[13] Freeman did not compete during the 2001 season. In 2002, s he returned to the track to compete as a member of Australia’s victorious 4Ãâ€"400 m relay team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Freeman announced her retirement in 2003.[14] Since retiring from athletics Freeman has become involved in a range of community and charitable activities. She is an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.[15] Freeman was appointed as an Ambassador for Cottage by the Sea, alongside celebrity chef Curtis Stone and big wave surfer Jeff Rowley. Cottage by the Sea is one of Australia’s oldest charities and each year provides short-term beachside holidays and respite care for more than 900 children and families in need. [16] Personal life Freeman was born in 1973 at Slade Point, Mackay, Queensland to Norman Freeman and Cecelia. She and her brothers Gavin, Garth and Norman (who died after a motor vehicle accident on 16 September 2008) [17] were raised there and in other parts of Queensland. She also had a sister named Anne-Marie (1966–1990) who suffered from cerebral palsy and spent much of her life in a home for the disabled. Freeman attended several schools, but was mostly educated at Fairholme College, in Toowoomba.[citation needed] Her parents divorced in 1978.[18] Freeman has described how she has been influenced by early experiences with racism and also by her Bahà ¡Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ãƒ ­ faith. [19] Freeman was raised a Baha’i, and says of her faith, â€Å"I’m not a devout Baha’i but I like the prayers and I appreciate their values about the equality of all human kind†.[20][21] Freeman’s mother Cecelia (nà ©e Sibley) was born in the Aboriginal community on Palm Island. Freeman’s father Norman’s father was Frank Fisher; Norman was raised by his mother Geraldine Roy and his stepfather Claude Freeman.[18] Freeman’s late grandfather, Frank Fisher was an outstanding rugby player.[22] Freeman had a long-term romantic relationship with Nic Bideau, her manager, that ended in acrimony and legal wranglings over Freeman’s endorsement earnings.[23][24] Freeman married Sandy Bodecker, a Nike executive and 20 years her senior, in 1999. After her success in Sydney she took an extended break from the track to nurse Bodecker through a bout of throat cancer between May–October 2002.[25] She announced their separation in February 2003. Later that year, Freeman began dating Australian actor Joel Edgerton whom she had initially met at the 2002 TV Week Logies. Their relationship ended in early 2005.[26] In October 2006 Freeman announced her engagement to Melbourne stockbroker James Murch.[27] They married at Spray Farm on the Bellarine Peninsula on 11 April 2009.[28] Freeman gave birth to Ruby Anne Susie Murch on 8 July 2011.[29] She joined with actress Deborah Mailman on a road trip+, a four-part television documentary series Going Bush (2006) where the pair set off on a journey from Broome to Arnhem Land spending time with Indigenous communities along the way. [30][31] In 2008, Freeman participated in Who Do You Think You Are? and discovered that her mother was of Chinese and English heritage as well as Aboriginal. As a result of a 1917 Queensland policy that Aborigines could serve in the military if they had a European parent, her paternal great grandfather On her right arm, the side closest to the spectators on an athletics track, she had the words â€Å"Cos I’m Free† tattooed, Frank Fisher served in the 11th Light Horse Regiment during WWI.[18][32] On her right arm, the side closest to the spectators on an athletics track, she had the words â€Å"Cos I’m Free† tattooed mid-way between her shoulder and elbow. [33] English textbook The story of Freeman and her accomplishments in the Olympics were used in an English book known as Sunshine in Japan. The book was used by Japanese junior high schools in their third year. It told of her winning the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics. It then goes on to talk about Australia’s Aborigines and then about her personal life. Her story is used as a means to teach relative pronouns to the students.

The eNotes Blog These Are a Few of My FavoriteThings

These Are a Few of My FavoriteThings Its almost a new year, let the embarrassing work Christmas parties commence and the Auld Lang Synes ring! For my part, Id like to say farewell to 2012 and herald 2013 with a list of favorite things I discovered or enjoyed this past year, for the most part online. Hopefully youll agree that this collection has a little something for everyone: students, teachers, avid readers, art admirers, humorists, or simply the  perennially  curious. Working for I try my best to promote learning at every age. I strongly feel that if you cannot participate in a classroom, you should at least maintain an active level of curiosity and wonder about the world around you. With the many information-grabbing, curio-snapping sites below, youll never be at a loss for tools of learning and instruction 1. Brain Pickings Its not hard to imagine the Internet as a museum of wonders. Its much harder to imagine oneself as the curator of such an exhibit. Enter superwoman Maria Popova, interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large and creator of the wonderful blog Brain Pickings, the site that collects everything funny, captivating, and obscure from the far corners of the interweb for your consumption. Without Brain Pickings this year I would not have learnt of Salvador Dalis struggle between skepticism and faith, or of  how to talk about books I havent read, or book spine poetry  and how to dabble in it myself. Brain Pickings  is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are  Brain Pickings  is your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, you-name-itology. 2. Underground New York Public Library As the Sartorialist does for the fashion conscious, UNYPL documents in photographs the penchants of everyday people in a bustling metropolis, the difference being that creator Ourit Ben-Haim is more interested in what youre reading than who youre wearing. If youre looking for book recommendations hot off the pavement, this blog is the place to find them. And if youre looking for the picture of a kid grossed out by reading Fifty Shades, that can be arranged too. But the best part about UNYPL (besides the also stellar visuals themselves) is that beneath every caption telling you what the subject is reading, youll find links to either Read by purchasing the book online or Borrow the book from your local library (via the very handy WorldCat library network service). Youll find works you never knew existed, not only in a New York subway, but right outside your front door, too. The photos come together as a visual library. This library freely lends out a reminder that we’re capable of traveling to great depths within ourselves and as a whole. 3. What a year for literary adaptations! Yes, books are adapted for the silver screen all the time, but in 2012 the results really stuck out for me, either for their ambitious undertakings (naysayers said Cloud Atlas and Life of Pi could never be made into films) or for their daring takes on old classics (such as the stage play-esque adaptation of Anna Karenina and the forthcoming 3D red curtain spin on The Great Gatsby). Its also the year that most of the Internet fell in love with the British series Sherlock, a modern-day adaptation of the Holmes mystery series (and precursor to CBSs Elementary). There are so many more books worth a mention here Cosmopolis, The Hobbit, Great Expectations, On the Road,  The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Midnights Children come Oscar season, the awards will be dominated by films that were originally books. Watch out for a punch up over the Best Adapted Screenplay prize, not to mention the Best Visual Effects nod, as filmakers outdid themselves in 2012 to recreate the stunning landscapes of these  imaginative  novels. 4. S#@! My Students Write If you are or have ever been in charge of a classroom, youll likely have a few gems in your back pocket similar to the above. Now theres a tumblr account to collect other unintentionally hilarious snippets from teachers everywhere, and yes theyre all true. Even this one. And this one. You would not believe how much tumblr helped me waste time ahem, grow as a person this year. S#@! My Students Write:  Evidence of the true cost of educational funding cuts. 5. Quizzes Interestingly, a great way to counteract the above problem! This year we at released our very own collection of quizzes across hundreds of book titles. And because theyre all developed in-house, these quizzes contain thousands of unique questions geared towards helping students study for their literature tests. Theyre also a pretty fun way to kill a few minutes, or 30 Out of all of releases in 2012, Quizzes iss definitely my favorite, and its an area of the site we expect to grow and grow. If you havent checked it out yet, test your knowledge today to try and beat some of our top quiz takers. 6. TED Talks Okay, I admit, I must seem a little late to the game right now, but omg TED Talks!! I love you. Youre so great, you even made it into one of those futuristic teasers for the Prometheus movie. Where else could I learn about neo-evolution, how to 3D print a human kidney, or about  time-lapse nature photography  all in one place? I also believe that any site that allows you to sort through its video archives by Rated jaw-dropping must contain some very humbling stuff. If youve never visited TED before what are you doing with your life? Get on it now, or better, watch one of my favorite ever talks below: We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So were building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the worlds most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. Free knowledge for all! (If not a free pass to their annual TED Conferences, which will run you more than the cost of ten Coachella tickets. But hey, thats what the video archives are for.) If youre interested in keeping up to date with all the worlds brilliant ideas, this non-profit organization has a great blog to peruse, too. 7. Books on the Nightstand A podcast I discovered just this year, BOTNS is a great resource to turn to to stay ahead of the latest  book-selling  trends. Hosted by industry insiders Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman, the show offers lots of great conversation on new releases, mostly sorted into various categories (their holiday gift guide does a great job of this, collating best graphic novels, best non-fiction, best childrens lit, and so on into a neat gift-giving manual). Its because of this podcast that I picked up my current read, Age of Miracles, and have a lot more waiting on my Amazon wish list. Check out the show notes on their website  for lots of good end-of-year recommendations, plus info on their annual reading challenge and Booktopia Festival. 8. Twitterature Last but not least, if youve read any of my past posts you may have noticed my growing fascination this year with the idea of Twitterature. I was never a great supporter of Twitter until 2012I knew it was a good publicity tool, yes, but how could it actually work for me in my life? At best, I thought of tweets as glorified Facebook statuses, and the last thing I wanted to read on the Internet were the details of others lives eating chips and looking out windows. I do enough of that on my own, thank you very much. I also dont like this new word we have in our lexicon thanks to Twitter: hashtag. To me, its an ugly word that now, unfortunately, is somebodys ugly name. But I digress In May I encountered Jennifer Egans short story created purely for Twitter, Black Box. The installments, all published as tweets of 140 characters or less, read like a kind of poetry. It struck a chord with meif tweets reveal a persons thoughts, then perhaps narration is perfectly suited to Twitter? Luckily, authors across the world have taken this idea and run with it. At this years Twitter Fiction Festival, I encountered a variety of stories created purely for this new form, from the murder mystery narrated by three party guests Twitter accounts, to a retelling of Hardys  The Turn of the Screw, via the perspective of the nannys tweets. While I still may not hold a Twitter account personally, I am eager to see where this new avenue of literature leads to in 2013, especially in light of the latest Bridget Jones scoop.   Its always exciting to feel in the midst of a big change in the world of literature. Sure, tweeters may not make up the next Romantics, or Beats, or Angry Young Men, but they might, just might, be carving out a new form for a brave new literary world. Well, thats all from me until next year. Happy holidays, and a very happy 2013 to everyone! I hope this new year will be just as exciting as our last.

APA Referencing †Citing Social Media Posts

APA Referencing – Citing Social Media Posts APA Referencing – Citing Social Media Posts With social media, information now spreads faster than ever. And you might even need to cite a social media post in an academic paper at some point. Its a strange new world were living in.(Photo Credit) But social media posts need to be cited when they appear in academic writing, so make sure you get it right! In this blogpost, we look at the rules for doing this with APA referencing. Citing a Social Media Post APA treats publicly available posts on platforms like Facebook or Twitter as websites. As such, if mentioning a Twitter account or Facebook page in passing, you need to provide a URL in parentheses within the text: Thousands of people use the Financial Times’ Twitter account (https://twitter.com/ftfinancenews) to get breaking news on the markets. If referring to a specific post or update on social media, however, you’ll need to give a full in-text citation with a named author and date of publication: In a post on Facebook, the former president referred to the Paris Climate Agreement as â€Å"a crucial step forward in the fight against climate change† (Obama, 2016). In such cases, social media posts cited in your work should be accompanied by an entry in the reference list at the end of your document. Reference List In the reference list, APA has specific requirement for social media posts. The general format is: Surname, Initial. [Screen name/given name]. (Year, Month Day). Title or excerpt [Platform]. Retrieved from URL This includes providing a screen name and the date that the post was made. Since many social media posts don’t have a title, an excerpt of up to 40 words can be used instead. For example, the reference for the Facebook post cited above would appear as: Obama, B. [Barack]. (2016, November 4). Today marks a crucial step forward in the fight against climate change, as the historic Paris Climate Agreement officially enters into force. Lets keep pushing for progress [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10154306132531749 Make sure that the URL provided is specifically for the post in question, not just the page or account from which it is taken. Citing a Personal Communication The rules for citing social media are a little different when the post isn’t publicly available (e.g., if it was a direct message). In this case, you treat the post as a personal communication. To do this, you should indicate that the information comes from a personal communication in parentheses as part of your citation, plus give a date for the message: Dr. Smith (personal communication, January 12, 2017) claimed that the study was promising but inconclusive. Since personal messages are not public, APA does not require you to include them in the reference list.

CONTROLLINGOF CANADIAN TIRE Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

CONTROLLINGOF CANADIAN TIRE - Term Paper Example l O’Donnell (1995) says, â€Å"Control is checking current performance against predetermined standards contained in the plans with a view to ensure adequate progress and performance.† Controlling as part of the management ensures that the organization activities are carried out as planned and ensures that the resources are utilized effectively and efficiently while taking any corrective action so as to achieve the overall organizational goals. Furthermore, every person in the organization has an individual goal which mostly depends on the organizational performance so if the organization goal fails so is to the individuals. So to ensure that the individual goals are met, the overall organizational goals must be controlled for consistency. It also ensures that the organizational policies and rules are adhered to so as to improve the organizational trust, reputation, loyalty and growth from infancy to maturity. As McBride & Hugh (1997) puts it. â€Å"The company-Hamilton Tire and Garage Limited-stocked a small inventory of repair and replacement goods, including tires batteries, automobile fluids. Although automobile Industry was still in its infancy, the Billesses believed surging automobile sales at the Time indicated a bright future for their time. Later that year, in fact, Toronto hosted its first â€Å"Closed car show,† in which windshield wipers, automatic starter and other new car part were introduced." (p.56) The control process in Canadian Tire is not cybernetic, one that is self contained in its performance monitoring and correction capabilities, but it does follow similar principles. That is, setting the objectives of the organization and standards that are feasible, taking measurement of the results and then comparing them with the set objectives or the standards and then takes appropriate action. As Mockler (1970) points out the essential elements of the control process in his definition of control, he says. â€Å"Management control is a systematic