5 Online Style Guides

5 Online Style Guides 5 Online Style Guides 5 Online Style Guides By Mark Nichol You’re looking for a style guide to adopt, or for one you can use as a model for creating your own personal or professional handbook, but you don’t want to pay for one or more books to evaluate and perhaps use (print versions of the major style guides retail for $20–$65), or you’re done with dead-tree resources (translation: books). You could beg, borrow, or steal a copy, but fortunately, several excellent online style guides are available so that you needn’t resort to these strategies. 1. The Associated Press Stylebook The online version of the AP Stylebook, the bible of US journalists, costs $26 for an annual subscription more than the print version but it features bonus benefits, including email notifications of style updates and access to new entries and recent changes. It also includes a search function and a personalization feature. Subscribers can use the Ask the Editor feature and search its archive, which is more voluminous than the Stylebook itself. The subscription policy includes multiuser and renewal discounts. Print version: $19.95 2. Chicago Manual of Style The primary resource for US book publishers is offered online for $35 per year (with multiuser and government and corporate discounts), but several free features are available on the site, most notably the Chicago Style QA, which offers responses to queries either from the manual itself or from a live (and sometimes snarky) respondent. You needn’t pay for a short-form (but still substantial) guide to citing sources, either, and a guide to preparation of electronic manuscripts and a chart of proofreaders’ marks are also available to all site visitors. The subscription cost includes access to the entire text of the fifteenth and sixteenth editions, as well as an online forum and a personalization feature. Print version: $65 3. The Economist The free style guide for this venerable British publication (focusing, of course, on British English but suitable for Yanks as well) embarks on a sure footing with an enumeration of George Orwell’s famous writing rules, followed by these admonitions: Do not be stuffy. Use the language of everyday speech. Do not be hectoring or arrogant. Do not be too pleased with yourself. Do not be too chatty. Do not be too didactic. Do your best to be lucid. The format is encyclopedic, but the often wryly written entries (from Abbreviations to Wrack no entries, alas, for X ray, yak, or zeugma) are searchable, and some expand with the click of a link. (The long-form entry about abbreviations, for example, is more than 1,000 words long.) Print version: $29.95 4. National Geographic This free online resource from the National Geographic Society doesn’t show up high in search rankings, but it’s an excellent resource. (And, seriously, have you ever seen a clumsy sentence, a grammatical error, or even a typo in National Geographic?) Unusually terse but clear entries are organized alphabetically, and the site includes a directory of new and altered entries and, especially helpful, one of terms and rules that contradict other authoritative resources or are exceptions to the norm. Print version: none 5. Yahoo.com Alone among these five selections, Yahoo’s style guide (both in print form and on the Internet the latter version is free) focuses on online writing, and though concise prose is one of the hallmarks of Web content, the site’s articles are substantial (but helpfully so). The Editing 101 section includes thirty detailed articles about punctuation, abbreviation, capitalization, titles, and numbers, and Writing for the Web features more than thirty extensive articles grouped under ten topics such as Shorten and Strengthen Sentences and Write Clear User-Interface Text. The site also includes a selective but substantial sampling of Yahoo’s word list (downloadable, so you can adapt and add to it), a resource list, and an Ask the Editor feature. Print version: $21.99 Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:25 Subordinating Conjunctions50 Diminutive Suffixes (and a Cute Little Prefix)What Is a Doctor?

Take a Stand for Language Standards

Take a Stand for Language Standards Take a Stand for Language Standards Take a Stand for Language Standards By Mark Nichol English usage is always evolving, but the rate of evolution seems to accelerate all the time, and careful observers will note in a wide variety of content pervasive examples of the relaxation of standards for written English. This post discusses several categories in which it appears that even professional writers often seem unaware of basic precepts of good writing. As discussed in previous posts, the velocity of change in what is considered acceptable written English has sped up thanks to the proliferation of media resources available to the average person and the dynamics of the publishing industry. Because of the explosive increase in content produced by poorly trained writers (amateurs and professionals alike) and the decrease in rigorous editing, substandard writing spreads unchecked, with the following results. Writers often, out of ignorance and/or apathy, close compound words that are treated as open and hyphenated in dictionaries and other writer resources, so that, for instance, we increasingly see â€Å"life span† styled as lifespan and â€Å"time frame† written as timeframe, and mind-set and light-year appear, respectively, as mindset and lightyear. This process has occurred for hundreds of years as a natural progression, but we appear to be in the midst of multiple evolutions occurring simultaneously. In a similar case, â€Å"all right† frequently appears as alright. It has done so since the mid-nineteenth century, but what’s new is that it is now creeping over from lay writing such as personal blogs to professionally produced content such as online newspapers. Amateur and professional writers alike are also increasingly failing to observe two types of distinctions between essential and nonessential phrases. First, for example, is the error seen in identifications of people such as the one in â€Å"Company president, John Smith, was also named in the suit.† The mistaken use of internal punctuation, due to the confusion of the simple job description â€Å"company president† with the appositive â€Å"the company president,† which would require the name to be set off from the descriptor because that phrase and the name are interchangeable (while â€Å"company president† and â€Å"John Smith† are not), is nothing new but is becoming commonplace in professionally produced content. As an example of the second type of essential/nonessential confusion, the following sentence is flawed because it implies that more than one Emergency Alerts system exists, and the one in question, unlike one or more others, can send alerts about catastrophic events: â€Å"The agency sent the alert through the national Emergency Alerts system that can send alerts about catastrophic events.† The following revision correctly observes that â€Å"can send alerts about catastrophic events† describes the system’s function rather than explains the specific function of one type of system (which is the point of the sentence): â€Å"The agency sent the alert through the national Emergency Alerts system, which can send alerts about catastrophic events.† That type of error, published on the website of a metropolitan newspaper, unlike the others noted above, is a cardinal sin rather than a venial one because it doesn’t just â€Å"look wrong†; it affects clarity and comprehension. I’m well aware that observations such as these can make me sound like a get-off-my-lawn geezer, but this is my point: Such shifts in our language are inevitable, but as a treasure hunter tells intrepid teenage Indiana Jones when the latter fails to prevent an artifact from being sold on the black market, â€Å"You lost today, kid, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it.† That is not to say I don’t â€Å"like it,† that I don’t approve of language evolution (which is just as futile as not approving the sun going down or the tide coming in), but what I don’t like is a failure to respect and observe current standards. Just as we agree that certain letters, numbers, and other symbols represent various sounds, quantities, and functions, we should agree on precepts of grammar, syntax, usage, and punctuation. As a professional editor and writer, it is my responsibility to help preserve the language as it is now, according to standards codified in numerous writing and editing guides and other resources, and not anticipate revisions that will appear in future editions, and I recommend that you do so, too. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Cost-Effective vs. Cost-Efficient10 Techniques for More Precise Writing15 Idioms for Periods of Time

The cross section of Globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The cross section of Globalisation - Essay Example Coming out of internal fissures, we then analyse the share of its structural framework in triggering current financial collapse. Free Trade regime promulgated Deregulation, which has been the underlying cause of today's liberalized world. This philosophy has been the source for lax and ludicrous financial sector management that aided the global financial system to collapse. The ensuing panic that has spread out of the economic meltdown is tempting enough for nations to reverse gains of open policies by reverting back to protectionist approach. Calls for G20 to address the very fears of scaling back and to come up with singular global stance, are proving speech fully tactical but practically inconclusive. Despite of all these fears and anxiety, the Gross domestic contribution of free trade has been immense and can not be shrouded by just single brush of jittering. Greater global integration 'brain child of Globalisation, on one hand has not only given us tools for prosperity by employ ing thousands of workers across continents, while on the other hand made them vulnerable on slightest of demand fluctuations. Present crisis no doubt has brought hard time upon Global economic regime but on the same note provided us with an opportunity to rectify those worms that had conveniently been ignored for long time. Introduction The Demise of Globalisation as narrated by Princeton's economist in his obituary "The late Great Globalisation"1 confines us to look in to its realm in a very limited and constrained fashion, such that we only seem to view the extreme shades on the spectrum's periphery while ignorantly shrugging the rest. Globalisation is about finance, economics, investment, trade, borders and barriers no doubt, but it also encompasses while shouting load about the flow of ideas that are free to flow across the world, their convergence and divergence. The breadth and depth of Globalisation is more comprehensively addressed by David Held, a political scientist who envision it as the "widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life"2. Thus expanding the very realm to incorporate slants of life's social, political and economic shades. The Great Shift Seismic shift that has taken place after the violent jolts of world economic crisis has ripped apart the already disdained and reservation-ridden world trade order. Today when the battle for survival is on, Seven years of wasted Doha round are beginning to shape into a painful memoir of impasse. The lost opportunity is beginning to afflict the very foundations of global free trading regime, that could have been achieved if interest of corporations and powerful governments had been neutralised for greater gains of global integration. In the wake of attaining consensus, the presiding of invitation-only ministerial meetings in the so called 'Green rooms, by Lamy1 were enough to dispel the ideals of WTO, whose commitment has been an environment based on consensus, harmony and equality. The height of irony was still grossly palpable when even the exclusive few could not converge on single agenda to work through with. Even before the current crisis ever emerged, the road through WTO had already become rock-strewn. WTO's Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi3 who

Intercultural communication Reflective Journal Assignment

Intercultural communication Reflective Journal - Assignment Example However, multiculturalism presents a huge challenge to intercultural communication (Bloomfield 2007). Therefore, it is important to learn about intercultural communication in order to overcome the obstacles that multiculturalism presents. In this reflective journal, I focus on the aspects of intercultural communication, networking, and career management. In addition, I will also reflect on two major guest presentations, one by a professional from the Butterfly movement, and another by Mr. Adam Whitefield of the World Youth International. Finally, I will reflect on the effectiveness of this journal as a learning experience. 1. Intercultural Communication The aspect of intercultural communication has been core in this course. I have gathered wide and important knowledge on this aspect, and I expect this to be the foundation of my future interactions, both at the professional and social levels. This knowledge, I have acquired through classwork, and other out-of-class activities. The mos t important thing to is that I have learnt and mastered the meaning of intercultural communication. I now understand that this kind of communication is complex and challenging, as it involves people from different backgrounds. I have read in Kalscheuer (2009), that the coming in contact of different people due to the advanced technologies and communication, presents a challenge to intercultural communication. Therefore, although this presents diverse opportunities to people, it is also a common root of conflicts today. However, this course has been eye opening to me, thus my competence level in intercultural communication has improved. Different class activities, including group work, have been a major way through which I have learnt about intercultural communication, and experienced it. Through group work, I have had the opportunity to interact with different colleagues, some of whom I do not share similar social or ethnic background. Together we have discussed, communicated, and l earnt about cultural differences from each other. This also gave me a chance to challenge my assumptions, attitudes, and perceptions I had previously held about certain ethnic groups. Therefore, today, I have learnt the importance of cultural diversity, and I have let go of all the cultural stereotypes I held about certain ethnicities. I have learnt that when one lacks knowledge about intercultural communication, they might fail to see beyond the physical appearance of an individual, because of the irrelevant assumptions and stereotypes, which act as obstructions. Through this, therefore, I have acquired considerable cultural intelligence, which will be of great benefit to my future career, especially when working in an international environment, where I have to deal with clients and colleagues from diverse ethnic backgrounds. 2. Networking With regard to networking, through this course, I have theoretically come to terms with the popular phrase, "It's not what you know, it's who yo u know." In other words, networking is an important aspect of every professional, as technical skills alone are insufficient for one to realize success in their career. This involves making connections and building relationships with different people, mainly for career support and advice. Apart from being of great value to individuals,

Exploring the Mind of Internet Addicts Essay Example for Free

Exploring the Mind of Internet Addicts Essay Addiction is a commonly used word that is mostly associated with a substance(drug or alcohol) and sometimes thought of as an illness. We often hear the word addiction thrown around in conversations. I’ve often used the word addiction when referring to my love of chocolate, but in this case it’s just an expression of speech. For a long time now, though, a lot of controversy has been going on about adding other activities, other than substance use to the word addiction. In this case excessive use of the Internet, Internet Addiction(IA). Many people are wanting to take addiction to a whole new level, by adding Internet Addiction to the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; in other words the â€Å"psychiatric bible†) but is our need, love, desire, and excessive use of the internet just a compulsion or an addiction? Addiction is when a person is dependent on a behavior or specific substance in order to cope with life. The dependence is so important to the individual that even when it becomes harmful to themselves, their family, work, and other important areas of their life they will persist in using the substance, or engaging in the behavior. Also, â€Å"There are actual changes that occur in the brains of addicts and treatments for addiction must address the biology behind the behavior.† So far addictions have focused on highs that are caused from the use of drugs or other substances that affect the brain’s chemical responses. However it has recently been discovered that a person can receive a similar â€Å"high† from using the Internet. The research for this disorder is scarce and fairly new, but the results leave something to argue about for the supporting side. Overly excessive use of the Internet affects everyone involved with the â€Å"user.† There have been con fessions from individuals who claim to suffer from IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder). A case was, reported in the New York Times, A woman who had been divorced by her husband because of her excessive use of the Internet. Still the woman did not come to her senses and continued to use the internet so much that she forgot to buy food for her children, to take them to doctor appointments, and to buy enough oil to warm her home.(Maria Garcia Duran) Sounds like an addiction, but this still doesn’t fit the whole criteria. Remember you have to experience a chemical effect in the brain when your considering an obsessive need for something to be a diagnose as an addiction. There may be some alternative chemical change in her brain, such as the internet use is causing her to be happy, which means endorphins are being released to the brain. But this article isnt clear on whether the internet use really makes her happy, or helps her hide from reality which may still leave her with the same mood set, but just in hiding. Most people who think they are addicted may just be suffering from the desire to not want to deal with other problems going on in their lives. Those problems may in fact be a mental disorder like anxiety or depression. It may be a a relationship problem, serious disability or health problem. The internet use is no different than TV use, so you won’t have to â€Å"go out with the boys† for drinks or talking to your spouse. Others who spend to much time online with out any other problems present may just be suffering from compulsive over-use.

World Wide Creativity :: Geeks Computers Internet Essays

World Wide Creativity What comes to mind upon hearing "hacker" or "geek?" In many cases, one will envision a male in his late teens who wears dark clothes, is antisocial, sits in front of a computer screen, and breaks into computer systems illegally. While such people do exist, they are more accurately called "script kiddies" or, depending on severity of infraction, "crackers." Hackers, in the general sense, merely enjoy "the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations" ("Hacker"). Similarly, a geek is "a person who pursues skill and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance" ("Geek"). Hackers and geeks, together, form a creative force with which there is virtually (pun intended) no parallel. Many of the world's greatest inventors and scientists are geeks in this pure sense of the term. As mentioned in the definition, geeks, by their philosophy, whenever possible do not seek out money or similar worldly possessions. However, if either comes with the task, they does not disagree. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, explains: People have sometimes asked me whether I am upset that I have not made a lot of money from the Web. In fact, I made some quite conscious decisions about which way to take my life. These I would not change—though I am making no comment on what I might do in the future. What does distress me, though, is how important a question it seems to be to some. This happens mostly in America, not Europe. What is maddening is the terrible notion that a person's value depends on how important and financially successful they are, and that that is measured in terms of money. That suggests disrespect for the researchers across the globe developing ideas for the next leaps in science and technology. Core in my upbringing was a value system that put monetary gain well in its place, behind things like doing what I really want to do. To use net worth as a criterion by which to judge people is to set our children's sights on cash rather than on things that will actually make them happy. (107-108). Geeks and hackers seek out, instead of money, the feeling of creating something that may have seemed impossible. This feeling has even been termed a "geekasm," a portmanteau word combining "geek" and "orgasm." By creating things that have been impossible for others, geeks fall in the realm described by Mark Kac as magician genius.

Agriculture Sector in India: Trends, Issues and Challenges Essay

Introduction Agriculture is a critical sector of the Indian economy. Though manufacturing and service sector industries gained attention during the last couple of decades, agriculture remains to be the most important contributor of growth in India. Nearly two-thirds of India’s population depends directly on agriculture for its livelihood. It meets the food requirements of the people and produces several raw materials for industries. From agricultural point of view, India has vast expanse of level land, wild climatic variations suited for various types of crops, rich soils, abundant sunshine and a long harvesting season (rabi and kharif). Approximately, 140-145 million hectares of land is under agriculture. Post Independence, large areas in India have been brought under irrigation but only one-third of the cropped area is actually irrigated. There are many reasons responsible for the low productivity of agriculture. Farming depends mainly upon monsoon rain and farmers own small pieces of land and grow crops primarily for consumption. Another reason for low productivity of agriculture is insufficient storage facilities for crop yield. About one-third of land holdings are very small and less than one hectare in size. Due to small size of land holdings, modern way of cultivation cannot be used. Even today the farmers are using very old methods, tools and implements for farming. Artificial ways of cultivation are not implemented in India. Because of various reasons like lack of awareness, most farmers do not use better quality of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. There is lot of exploitation of marginal farmers. There is also low productivity because of increasing pressure on land and absence of bank credit. Agriculture contributes in foreign exchange of our country. India exports agricultural products and earns foreign currency. Agricultural exports have helped India in earning valuable foreign exchange and thereby improving economic development. Objective India is an emerging market and the objective of this project is to study the important role that the agricultural sector will play in the economic growth in India. Though more than 70% of the population depends on the Indian agriculture, the productivity has decreased post independence area. Lot of emphasis is given on the service sector which has shown tremendous growth in the last few years. It’s time now that policies are introduced to take care of the different issues and challenges in the Agricultural sector. Performance of agriculture sector in india The agriculture sector in India has undergone significant changes in the form of decrease in share of GDP from 30 percent in 1990-91 to 14.5 percent in 2010-11 indicating a shift from the traditional agrarian economy towards a service dominated one. The same is reflected from the below Figure 1. This decrease in agriculture’s contribution to GDP has not been accompanied by a matching reduction in the share of agriculture in employment. About 52% of the total workforce is still employed by the farm sector which makes more than half of the Indian population dependant on agriculture for sustenance. However, non-farm activities also contributed to the growth from rural economy. Source: CSO Figure 1: Sectoral Composition of GDP â€Å"The average size of operational holdings in India has diminished progressively from 2.28 ha in 1970-71 to 1.55 ha in 1990-91 to 1.23 ha in 2005-06 (Figure 2). As per Agriculture Census 2005-06, the proportion of marginal holdings (area less than 1 ha) has increased from 61.6 percent in 1995-96 to 64.8 percent in 2005-06. This is followed by about 18 percent small holdings (1-2 ha.), about 16 percent medium holdings (more than 2 to less than 10 ha.) and less than 1 percent large holdings (10 ha. and above).†(Reference #3) Source: Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Agricultural Census Division, Ministry of Agriculture. Figure 2: Average size (ha) of holdings as per different Agriculture Census Because of increasing population, land fragmentation is increasing which is reducing availability of cultivated land area per household. Added to this, because increasing challenges in agriculture sector, this remains to be least contributor of employment opportunities in rural areas. Because of this additional employment opportunities in the non-farm and manufacturing sector (especially in agro based rural industries) have to be created. Because of this, people have to enhance their skills in corresponding sectors to gain employment. This way, more and more employment opportunities can be created which will be useful in making agriculture practical in a sustainable manner. Figure 3: Farms in rural India. Most farms in India are small plots such as in this image. â€Å"The growth performance of the agriculture sector has been fluctuating across the plan periods (Fig 4). It witnessed a growth rate of 4.8 per cent during the Eighth plan period (1992–97). However, the agrarian situation saw a downturn towards the beginning of the Ninth plan period (1997–2002) and the Tenth plan period (2002–07), when the agricultural growth rate came down to 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. This crippling growth rate of 2.4 percent in agriculture as against a robust annual average overall growth rate of 7.6 per cent for the economy during the tenth plan period was clearly a cause for concern. The trend rate of growth during the period 1992-93 to 2010-11 is 2.8 percent while the average annual rate of growth in agriculture & allied sectors-GDP during the same period is 3.2 percent.†(Reference 3). Source: CSO Figure 4: Growth Rates: GDP (overall) and GDP (Agriculture & Allied Sectors) Note: Figures are at 2004-05 prices. Source: CSO. Figure 5: Comparative Performance of Growth of GDP and Agri-GDP Government policies in agriculture sector The Indian government has employed several steps to improve the situation of agriculture sector in the country. Land Reforms: Land reforms were introduced. The government has encouraged consolidation of land holdings to promote use of modern farm machines. The government took lands of big land owners away and redistributed to landless laborers. The government abolished the Zamindari System. Public investment: Modern methods of cultivation were introduced in the country. The government has improved on providing infrastructure facilities such as irrigation, electricity and transportation. Agricultural equipment such as pesticides, pump harvesters, tractors, fertilizers were made available to farmers. Constructing irrigation reservoirs has helped in supplying water for irrigation in the areas of water scarcity. To ensure a significant growth in this sector, the government is taking steps to provide the necessary infrastructure in terms of cold storage, food grain storage, food processing, refrigerated transported as the industry is estimated to be losing 20% of its produce due to poor storage facilities. The governments have allowed foreign equity participation of up to 51% in cold chain projects. Major policies * The government has introduced significant changes in Incentive policies and Input subsidies. Getting finance from banks was made easier for the farmers. * The crop insurance was another step to protect the farmers against losses caused by crop failure on account of natural calamities like flood cyclone, drought etc. * High-yielding varieties of seeds, fertilizers and irrigation gave birth to Green Revolution. All these led to tremendous increase in the production of crops. Output subsidies * Procurement-cum-distribution policies * Minimum support prices announced by Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices * (CACP) during sowing * Food Corporation of India (FCI) buys all the grains offered for sale at these prices (Above points are from class PPTs) suggestions–new policy measure to help agriculture sector * The Eleventh Five Year Plan has highlighted such a holistic framework and suggested the following strategy to raise agricultural output. * Rate of growth of irrigated area has to be doubled * Water management, watershed development and rain water harvesting has to be improved * Degraded land to be reclaimed and focusing on soil quality * Reducing the knowledge gap by organizing awareness camps * Diversification of high value outputs like fruits, vegetables, flowers but with adequate measures to ensure food security * Animal husbandry and fishery to be promoted * Reforms in improving the incentive structure and functioning of markets * Provide easy access to credit at affordable rates * Agriculture can impact poverty alleviation and rural development with far reaching ability. There are several areas of importance for the agriculture sector growth. These include, increasing public sector investment in research, effective transfer of technology along with institutional reforms in the research set up to make it more accountable and geared towards conservation of land, water and biological resources, the development of rain fed agriculture, delivery, the development of minor irrigation, timely and adequate availability of inputs, support for marketing infrastructure, an increase in flow of credit particularly to the small and marginal farmers. * Achievement of food and nutrition security and alleviation of poverty and unemployment on a sustainable basis depend on the efficient and judicious use of natural resources (land/soil, water, agri-biodiversity and climate). Inefficient use and mismanagement of productive resources, especially land, water, energy and agro-chemicals has vastly reduced fertility and damaged to the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. The limitation on availability of agricultural land has already reached. We have continuous failed to utilize the non-renewable natural resources and this will have serious implications. * Three fourths of total investments in agriculture are by private investments. These are the primary drivers of transition from traditional to high value agriculture. To ensure smooth transition from traditional to high value agriculture, government should support private investments by way of providing greater investments in R&D, public irrigation, roads and other infrastructural facilities. * A strategic vision for agriculture must factor in three important elements: (a) India’s comparative advantage; (b) efficient markets at home and freer trade; and (c) environmental sustainability. There is a lot of scope for major reforms, from marketing to investment and institutional change, especially in water management, new technologies, land markets and creation of efficient value chains. Conclusion The country on an average has enough in stock to meet the food requirements of its citizens. There is a significant increase in the productivity of the land through the years, but there is still a huge gap between the current productivity and international productivity levels. Indian agriculture is quite diversified into various sectors and contributes largely to the nation’s economy. But the coming years pose a lot of challenge in this area with an estimated outburst of population that would reach to approximately 1500million. This would require a huge amount of food grains along with non-food grains. India has to use its vast potential of agriculture in a systematic and planned manner along with reforms in export and import policies of agricultural products. Indian agriculture sector remains to be one of the most interested subjects for academicians around the world. Nobel Memorial prize winner, Prof. Gunar Myrdal of Stockholm University, has rightly remarked, â€Å"It is the agricultural sector that the battle for long term economic development of India will be won or lost.† In fact the prosperity of agriculture is the prosperity of Indian economy. We should not build industries at the cost of agricultural land. References 1. http://nicsr.in/?p=1241 2. Reserve Bank Of India – http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/AnnualPublications.aspx?head=Handbook%20of%20Statistics%20on%20Indian%20Economy 3. http://agricoop.nic.in/SIA111213312.pdf

Nursing Medicine Essay

Medical physicians and nurses have well-built passions about their range of contributions to the health of people. They are concerned with how expert ideas and welfares are to be weighed against the necessity to maneuver a system that works for the greater good of the public. Nurses and physicians work hand in hand for the cure and betterment of their patients; but what makes them different from each other? Some say it’s better to be a doctor for one has the capability to save lives; others say it’s more fulfilling to be a nurse because you not only help offer cure for the sick, you also give them genuine care. Moreover, applying and promoting caring values in the nurses’ practice is not only necessary to their own health as nurses, but its implication is also deeply tributary to finding meaning in their work. Upholding caring values in the nurses’ every day practice helps go above the nurse from a state where nursing is thought as just a job to that of a rewarding profession. While many people see medicine as a better profession than nursing, they don’t realize that nurses also encompass the competence and deep levels of character. The changes in the delivery systems of health care around the world have intensified nurses’ workloads and responsibilities. Nurses must know how to deal with patients’ increased acuteness and intricacy with regards to their health care condition. Regardless of such hardships, nurses are able to find ways to conserve their caring practice. Giving care to different individuals several hours a day is no easy job. This paper will enlighten people to what the nursing profession really is by discussing the theory of human caring. Jean Watson’s caring theory can be seen as essential to this aim. While the sole focus of medicine is to diagnose a patient and cure his/her disorder or disease, nursing entails giving care to the patient. Without care, the cure for the disease would be possible, but the illness would still linger because health would still not be attained without caring. The core of nursing is caring, while that of medicine is cure. This paper doesn’t imply that medicine does not include caring for patients. It’s just that nursing implies caring in a deeper, more attached way. The nursing profession involves working long hours with the sick, developing rapport in every possible way, and acknowledging every patient whatever their attitude or race may be. Nursing and caring have always been thought of as acting in unison. Most people choose nursing as a line of work because of their longing to care for other persons. Watson’s caring theory not only allows the nurse to live out the art of caring, it also seeks to offer compassion to ease families’ and patients’ suffering, and to support their dignity and healing. According to Watson (2001), the chief elements of her assumption are: the carative factors, the transpersonal caring relationship, and the caring moment or caring occasion. These fundamentals are described later in the paper, and will be exemplified and viewed in light of the nursing and medical profession. The caring theory or model can also be measured as an ethical/moral and philosophical foundation for professional nursing and a division of the vital focus for nursing at the corrective level. A replica of caring includes a call for both science and art; it provides a structure that intersects and embraces with science, humanities, art, spirituality, and a new magnitude of body, mind, and spirit. Nursing and medicine is developing openly as a core to human phenomenon of the nursing practice. Carative factors are viewed as a guide for the nursing core. Watson uses the word carative in contrast with medicine’s curative factors. She uses the carative factors for the reason of honoring the human magnitude of the work of nursing and the subjective experiences and inner life world of the patients that they serve. The carative factors have ten elements: faith-hope, humanistic-altruistic system of value, expressing positive and negative feelings, helping-trusting human care relationship, transpersonal teaching-learning, creative problem solving caring process, human needs assistance, supportive, protective and corrective physical, mental, societal and spiritual environment, and existential phenomenological spiritual forces. This however evolved into the caritas process which has a deeper spiritual magnitude and dimension which means to treasure and to give exceptional loving attention (Watson, 2001). Transpersonal Caring regards the harmony of life and relations that move in concentric circles of caring from a person, to others, to the society, to the world, to our planet, and to the universe. Transpersonal caring is established in a happening or actual caring instance. It shows concern for the life within. The patient is regarded as complete and as a whole, in spite of disease or illness (Watson 2003). The transpersonal nurse looks for a connection to embrace the soul or the spirit of the patient, by way of healing and caring (Watson 2003). Caring in the nursing career takes place each time a nurse to patient contact is achieved. Unlike in medicine, some doctors may look at a patient and just prescribe a drug, after that, their deal is finished. In contrast, the nurse seeks to enter the patient’s world in order to draw closer and know the patient as a caring individual, and that it is from this epistemology that the caring of nursing begins to unfold (Schoenhofer 2002). This caring makes a big difference to the well being of each patient. Caring may happen without curing, but curing cannot take place without caring (Watson 2003). It is with that conviction that nurses are concerned for patients in the anticipation that they add to the well being or cure of that patient. Hope may be the only support an ill person has to keep their optimism. Nurses care adequately to credit that hope and hold up for the patient. They have the vision that patient is complete and whole. The one being cared and one caring are unified (Watson 1997). It’s experiencing human being connection at a deeper level than a bodily contact (Watson 2003). This connection describes how the nurse goes further than an objective evaluation, presenting concerns toward the person’s deeper and subjective meaning concerning their own health care condition. The nurse’s caring realization becomes vital for the association and understanding of the other person’s point of view. This approach highlights the exclusivity of both the nurse and the person, and also the mutuality linking the two persons, which is primary to the bond. As such, the one cared-for and the one caring cooperate in connection in mutual search for wholeness and meaning perhaps for the sacred transcendence of suffering (Watson, 2001). The term transpersonal means to go further than an individual’s own ego and the here and now, while it allows him/her to arrive at a deeper spiritual connection in promoting the patient’s healing and comfort. Lastly, the objective of a transpersonal caring association corresponds to enhancing, protecting, and preserving the person’s humanity, dignity, inner harmony, and wholeness. According to Jean Watson (1988, 1999), a caring occasion is the moment (central point in time and space) when the patient and the nurse come as one in such a way that an instance for human caring is formed. Both persons, with their exceptional and phenomenal fields, have the likelihood to move toward together in a human-to-human contract. The one being cared for and the one caring for are predisposed by the actions and choices decided within the affiliation. For Watson (1988, 1999), a unique field correspond to the person’s frame of orientation or the entirety of human experience consisting of bodily sensations, feelings, spiritual beliefs ,thoughts, goals, environmental considerations, expectations and meanings of an individual’s perceptions, all of which are based upon one’s present moment, and one’s anticipated future. Not just a goal for the cared for, Watson (1999) insists that the nurse as well needs to be conscious of her own awareness and genuine attendance of being in a caring instant with his/her patient. Furthermore, in cooperation, the one cared for and the one caring can be predisposed by the caring moment throughout the actions and choices decided inside the relationship, thus, influencing and becoming a fraction of their own life history. The caring event becomes transpersonal when it permits for the occurrence of the spirit of both, then the occasion of the moment expands the restrictions of openness and has the capability to increase human capacities (Watson, 1999). Nursing can enlarge its obtainable role, long-lasting to make offerings to health care inside the contemporary model by developing its opening health strengths and caring healing that have always been in attendance on the edges (Watson, 1999). Nursing is a caring profession that is privileged as the spirit-filled, spiritual practice that it is. I deem it is a mission for a particular spiritual human being who cares about the spirituality of other persons. The humanistic nature of nursing is reflected in the caring replica. Caring is the innermost concept in the discipline of nursing. Caring may seem simple, but it entails these many aspects and it takes a lot of effort to render this, especially to people who we don’t even know. It’s easier to diagnose a patient and just prescribe some medications; it’s another story when you try to have a deep relationship with a patient while still upholding your profession. Doctors leave it to the nurse to care for the patients, because nurses are the ones who have an encounter with them 99% of the time. They are the ones who know the patients condition, even their emotions at times. Moreover, not all patients are considerate and thankful for a nurse’s efforts. Nurses must keep their moods up and not be affected by the ups and downs of their tiresome profession. At the end of the day, they still hold their faces up high and continue caring for every other patient they will be encountering in the future. Caring entails love and loving is not an easy thing to do. It is said that while a nurse enters into a patient’s room, a compelling field of expectation is produced. In this deeper, more stretched out way of thinking about the power, energy, and beauty of love, a caring moment (Watson, 1999b) becomes a vibrational field of cosmic love full of life that radiates mutuality and reciprocity, which transcends space, time, and physicality sustaining and confirming our humanity and our association with the Levinas. The infinity of the whole universe (Quinn, 1992). This ethic of caring and loving becomes the first philosophy for sustaining and facing the infinity of the nursing profession. If nurses follow this ethical order, nursing has a serious role in moving humanity in the direction of the omega point, ever closer to God and the unexplained blessed circle of loving, living, dying, trusting, and being. Lastly, a quote to ponder on the care illuminated by the nursing profession in contrast with that of medicine: â€Å"The heart is as broad as the sky, because it can embrace joy and pain side by side. † Even in the midst of hard to deal with patients, nurses still choose to care.

Enlightenment Notes essays

Enlightenment Notes essays The Enlightenment, or The Age of Reason -all of a sudden, people took all they were learning about science and decided to apply it to society -absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, or something else, people experiment to discover which one works best -people collect data, they study it, analyze it, and record it, then come to a conclusion - first man to do this was John Hobbes -he is an English subject, defended concept of absolute monarch -Hobbes wrote something dramatic that ticked a lot of people off, we give up our rights to the government in order to have a society with law and order -another guy says that everything Hobbes said is wrong -he is John Locke, says they should ditch monarchys completely - all people are born with natural rights, natural rights are the right to life, liberty, and ownership of property -a government should protect the natural rights of its people -Locke then says that the people have the right to rebel, if the government does not -American Revelution was based on this thought 3 guys head of the French Philosophes, Diderot, Voltaire (second estate), Montesquieu Voltaire writes satires, were hugely popular, wrote Candide (made fun of nobles, beausuazi, peasents, Catholic church, every part of french society) Diderot compiled very first Encyclopedia Montesquieu- says if we get rid of the king, we can have a government like this, 3 branches, checks and balances, separation of power, legislative, executive, judicial, legislative, make laws, executive carry out laws, judicial will interpret laws 3 philosofes (Voltaire, Diderot, Montesqueiu) would meet various places, salons, coffee houses, debate topics and go off and write about them Jeane Jacque Rousseau was a poor bay in Switzerland, snuck into school, first day of school, teacher introduces him and all the kids start to laugh because he didnt have any shoes, teachers and students rej...

Biography of Kit Carson

Biography of Kit Carson Kit Carson became widely known in the mid-1800s as a trapper, guide, and frontiersman whose daring exploits thrilled readers and inspired others to venture westward. His life, for many, came to symbolize the hardy traits Americans needed to survive in the West. In the 1840s Carson was being mentioned in newspapers in the East as a noted guide who had lived among the Indians in the region of the Rocky Mountains. After guiding an expedition with John C. Fremont, Carson visited Washington, D.C., in 1847 and was invited to dinner by President James K. Polk. Lengthy accounts of Carons visit to Washington, and accounts of his adventures in the West, were printed widely in newspapers in the summer of 1847. At a time when many Americans were dreaming of heading westward along the Oregon Trail, Carson became something of an inspirational figure. For the next two decades Carson reigned as something of a living symbol of the West. Reports of his travels in the West, and periodic mistaken reports of his death, kept his name in the newspapers. And in the 1850s novels based on his life appeared, making him an American hero in the mold of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. When he died in 1868 the Baltimore Sun reported it on page one, and noted that his name has been the synonym of wild adventure and daring to all Americans of the present generation. Early Life Christopher Kit Carson was born in Kentucky on December 24, 1809. His father had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and Kit was born the fifth of 10 children in a fairly typical frontier family. The family moved to Missouri, and after Kits father died his mother apprenticed Kit to a sadder. After learning to make saddles for a time, Kit decided to strike out westward, and in 1826, at the age of 15, he joined an expedition that took him along the Santa Fe trail to California. He spent five years on that first western expedition and considered that his education. (He received no actual schooling, and did not learn to read or write until late in life.) After returning to Missouri he left again, joining an expedition to northwestern territories. He was engaged in fighting against the Blackfeet Indians in 1833, and then spent about eight years as a trapper in the western mountains. He married a woman of the Arapahoe tribe, and they had a daughter. In 1842 his wife died, and he returned to Missouri where he left his daughter, Adaline, with relatives. While in Missouri Carson met the politically-connected explorer John C. Fremont, who hired him to guide an expedition to the Rocky Mountains.   Famous Guide Carson traveled with Fremont on an expedition in the summer of 1842. And when Fremont published an account of his trek which became popular, Carson was suddenly a famous American hero.   In late 1846 and early 1847 he fought in battles during a rebellion in California, and in the spring of 1847 he came to Washington, D.C., with Fremont. During that visit he found himself very popular, as people, especially in the government, wanted to meet the famous frontiersman. After having dinner at the White House, he was eager to return West. By the end of 1848 he was back in Los Angeles. Carson had been commissioned an officer in the U.S. Army, but by 1850 he was back to being a private citizen. For the next decade he was engaged in various pursuits, which included fighting Indians and trying to run a farm in New Mexico. When the Civil War broke out he organized a volunteer infantry company to fight for the Union, though it mostly battled with local Indian tribes. An injury to his neck from a horseback accident in 1860 created a tumor that pressed on his throat, and his condition worsened as the years went on. On May 23, 1868, he died at a U.S. Army outpost in Colorado.

Womens lives during the sixteenth century colonial America Essay

Womens lives during the sixteenth century colonial America - Essay Example The socio-historical studies on women’s lives during the sixteenth century colonial America were monumental in shaping the status that women of the modern world today enjoy. From the twentieth century-woman perspective, it must have been an extremely difficult and daunting to live in that period. And we have our women ancestors to thank for what they have to endure and how it was able to shape the socio-cultural construction of womanhood. This essay will basically tackle the different experiences as survived by women during the historical colonization of Europe in the Americas. To begin with, the sixteenth century woman could be considered as someone who existed to uphold the domination of Europeans conquistador, even when they are unaware of it or even when they have exerted much effort to resist the colonizers mere presence in their lives. As women took the essential role of reproduction, whether slave or master, they were seen as a key factor to maintain the system of patri archy as well as the continuation of its bloodline. In the case of Spanish borderlands, women slaves were almost always subjected to sexual abuse by their masters. These women slaves themselves were not any given any rights to retaliate or file a cause against their perpetrators, except for the few lucky ones1 who were given certain privileges to live freely after servitude. And the product of these sexual abuses paved way to a second generation of hybrid children. These children, though born from a slave, had actually acquired with them a benefit not enjoyed by their mothers. These children were accepted in the master’s family and treated as part of the kin where they are given equal rights, a privilege they will never have being a slave. Patriarchy then is underscored as this circumstance displays the following characteristics: (1) the male as being reproductively potent and is able to procreate, and (2) the man’s ability to sustain the needs of his nuclear and even these additional and extended families. This more often than not violent relationship of masters and their women slaves have actually mutually benefited both parties. Without their full consciousness, masters have ensured for their women slaves economic benefits for their children while simultaneously these women slaves have ensured for their masters the persistence of his bloodline. Another case where women have more than just a reproductive functional role was in Chesapeake Bay. Women (and men) were imported as indentured slaves due to the lack of manpower to sustain the area’s tobacco production. They are then to serve their European masters while at the same time given the responsibility to toil the fields during planting and harvest periods. In this case, women were forced to double-hat various functions so they could acquire what was deemed as their prize for being slaves – freedom. By securing themselves trans-Atlantic passages and little property after the peri od of enslavement, these slaves were given power to ultimately take control of their lives anew. This new kind of power was an advantageous mechanism for them as they have already adapted and adopted the lifestyle and even the culture of their masters. Their agency allows them to subject themselves to servitude with the end goal of acquiring power through independence. With freedom being prized, it is almost wrong to say that these women are not empowered. Power was within their capacity in fact, but it was not naturally obtained. Certain efforts had to be exerted and many sufferings had to be endured for the end goal of achieving freedom. New England women, on the other hand, because of the nature of Puritanism, were never allowed to inherit the properties of their departed husbands in contrast to Chesapeake women who have the full autonomy over their husband properties upon being widowed. The Church was made the new and automatic owners of properties of widowed women. Looking at t he picture, it would seem to us that Chesapeake women had the upper hand over the New Englanders. But dissecting

Effects of Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Effects of Drugs - Essay Example This paper will assess the influence of drugs one’s family, career and life. As mentioned above, drugs are addictive meaning an individual becomes dependent on the substance and neglects his or her responsibilities in order to satisfy his addiction. Drugs have side effects after use as they imitate or inhibit the action of neurotransmitters which makes them stimulants or depressors (Carlson, 12). In addition, drugs have a toxic effect on the neurons which reduces the mental capabilities of an individual. Therefore, the diminished neuronal function will adversely affect an individual’s cognition making him or her incompetent at the workplace. Furthermore, the patient is likely to experience changes in his personality and regular mood swings which affect his relation to his colleagues. Therefore, drugs make an individual incapable of performing his professional obligations and he or she is unlikely to keep a job. This also explains why the majority of drug users are unemployed. The family of drug user is likely to be affected the most by this habit. This is because the family knows the real personality of an individual on drugs and they are tormented by watching the way drugs metamorphose his or her behavior and character. Therefore, drug use has a severe psychological impact on the family of a drug user. If the individual is the breadwinner, the family will also be affected financially as he will be unable to provide the financial resources necessary for satisfying basic needs (Swain et al. 327-333). Drug users often use the majority of their money on drugs as these are expensive and if they do not use these drugs they begin to experience withdrawal symptoms which are very difficult to resolve. According to sociological studies, drug users are also more likely to be abusive meaning the family can also be subjected to violent attacks from the user. In summation, the life of a drug user is very complicated and he or she is often depressed due to the extremes