American Identity and the American Dream Essays

American Identity and the American Dream Essays American Identity and the American Dream Essay American Identity and the American Dream Essay The epoch that enveloped the 1920’s and 1930’s in urban America provided a rebirth of traditional folklore, African beats, and ultimate cultural revival in America. When the long days of extreme oppression towards those of color seemed to simmer down, many migrated north to escape their unfathomable pasts in the southern states. The Blacks’ final destination determined their nest of cultural thriving and prosperity. Specifically, Harlem, New York was transformed into a city of unique art and dance. The famous Apollo theater held many great singers who expressed their joy, woe, and newfound belonging in the city. Likewise, many writers and poets of black origin wrote about their â€Å"freedom† and stress for egalitarian standards that were hindered by Jim Crow law since 1874. â€Å"Separate but equal,† was an ideal that separated rightful American citizens of color from those of lighter complexions. Through the Harlem Renaissa nce, blacks could express their determination for recognition in American society as rightful citizens. Though, for some this idea, seemed uncertain. Great examples of the search and affirmation of American identity is seen in four works by Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps James Weldon Johnson. Many can agree that the Harlem Renaissance was a catalyst for asserting an American identity, acknowledging blacks as an equal component of American societal structure, as well as questioning the possibility of attaining this goal. In Langston Hughes’ poem â€Å"I, Too†, shows American patriotism on the behalf of the black populace. The speaker begins with his admiration of America through, â€Å"I, too, sing America.† (l). The opening line sets a hopeful tone for the scene depicted. The speaker mentions an account of injustice but does not allow this to quash his beliefs as a rightful American. After his sour encounter in the first stanza of being denied a place at the table, he plans to muster his courage

An Open Letter to Ninth Graders

I am one of the co-editors of What Is â€Å"College-Level† Writing? —a 2006 collection of essays that focuses on the difference between high school writing and college-level writing. Because of my work on that book, I’ve spent a great deal of time in the last five years thinking about what students need to make the transition from high school to college. Many studies and reports in recent years have argued that there’s an important â€Å"expectations gap† between the skills students are typically bringing to college and what college teachers like me think students should be bringing with them to college. This letter is an attempt to state those expectations clearly, at least from my perspective. I offer you my advice and encouragement as you embark on your high school career because I think there’s a lot that you can do on your own to get ready for college. A good place to start is with some advice from Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: â€Å"Begin with the end in mind. † I am advising you to set clear and specific long-term goals for yourself and then work incrementally over a period of time to meet them. I would like to provide you here with a number of specific goals that you can work toward over the next four years. Let’s begin with perhaps the most fundamental of all college-readiness skills— reading. Reading Reading comprehension, as measured by standardized tests like the SAT and the ACT, is certainly an essential college-level skill. Students in college are required to read an enormous amount of material across a formidable range of disciplines, and college students must be able to understand and engage with this material thoughtfully. Reading is a foundational skill that makes success possible in virtually all areas of your college education. Strong reading comprehension skills, though, do not in themselves guarantee that you are ready for college. The best college students I’ve worked with over the years have had a number of other reading-related strengths in addition to strong comprehension skills, and I would like to briefly outline them for you here. Remember, you have four years to work on these. Students who are ready for college like to read. If you don’t like to read, you are going to find college very difficult. Students who are ready for college have read some good books as well as some important books while they were in high school. I’m not suggesting that you need to follow any particular or prescriptive reading list, like the one that literary critic E. D. Hirsch includes, for example, in Cultural Literacy. But a high school student who is ready for college should have some sense of our shared intellectual and cultural history, as well as at least some exposure to work outside the Western cultural tradition. A high school student who is ready for college should be able to recognize and respond in some thoughtful way to, say, a reference in a lecture toKing Lear. Ideally, a student ready for college would have some visceral sense of what Lear feels like as a dramatic experience and as a point of reference in our common heritage. The same can be said about the book of Job, Toni Morrison’sThe Bluest Eye, Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory, among others. Students who are ready for college read for pleasure. Reading is not something that a student who is ready for college always associates with â€Å"work,† â€Å"discomfort,† â€Å"inconvenience,† or â€Å"pain. † Students who are ready for college enjoy reading. Being able to enjoy reading is often the result of a long engagement with books and the written word that cannot be replaced by â€Å"cramming† or taking special college preparatory classes. The students whom I have found to be most ready for college have loved books and loved to read. If you don’t love to read, you will probably be confused and frustrated while at college. Reading is perhaps the most paradigmatic activity of a liberal arts education. It is where learning begins at college. You have four years to learn to love to read. Writing Strong writing skills are, of course, essential to college success. As a longtime composition instructor, I know that there are many things that high school students can do to become strong writers. First of all, you should expect any piece of serious writing to require considerable effort. Students who are ready for college routinely plan to produce multiple drafts of essays; expect to read and reread assigned texts; expect to think and rethink key ideas they are exploring in their essays; and routinely ask friends, family members, tutors, and professors for feedback about their work. High school students who are ready for college know that good writing does not get produced without considerable effort, and they are willing to make that effort. Most of the time they do such work enthusiastically. Students who are ready for college come to college interested in learning how to become better writers. Many of the most problematic students I’ve encountered in my teaching career come to college unable or unwilling to believe that they have anything left to learn as writers. (I’ve been writing seriously now for about thirty years, and I’m still actively looking for ways to become a better writer. ) Students should come to college with the understanding that they have a great deal to gain from listening to their professors as they discuss and evaluate their written work. In fact, students who are ready for college understand that this is where much of the most important learning in college takes place. A whole range of behavioral and attitudinal qualities are also essential to anyone who hopes to be a successful college-level writer. English professor Kathleen McCormick described these qualities memorably in an online exchange among contributors to What Is â€Å"College-Level† Writing? Commenting on an essay by Kim Nelson—a student whose contribution to the volume described the process of completing a college-level essay on J. R. R. Tolkien—McCormick wrote, Let’s begin by listing many of the skills with which Kim entered college. I think they should be divided into two types: behavior skills and writing skills. Behavioral skills are not exclusive to college-level writing, but without them, it is hard to achieve anything, and they are skills that few of us articulate as explicitly as Kim does, so I think they deserve to be underscored: Work through â€Å"panic† and refuse to procrastinate. Pace yourself to work on assignments for an extended period of time. Find others to help you (parents, teachers, friends at dinner, tutors at the writing center). Recognize that a critique by a professor, while initially disheartening, is helpful. Initiate repeated visits to the professor. Value intellectual work and collaboration and validation more than the grade. Brainstorm in note form. â€Å"Bang out† an outline and critique it. Choose quotations. Develop a thesis. Transfer writing skills learned in high school to the college situation. Maintain sensitivity to language use. Reread texts you plan to write about; underline. Do library research. Listen to multiple levels of textual analysis. Rewrite and revise your thesis and writing. Thinking I would advise you to seek out classes and learning experiences that challenge you. Research is beginning to show us that the brain responds in very powerful and positive ways to cognitive challenges. Don’t limit yourself to subjects or activities that are familiar or easy. Students who are ready for college bring with them a curiosity about ideas and an interest in encountering new ways of looking at the world. In fact, one of the reasons they come to college in the first place is to expand their minds, to encounter new ideas and perspectives, and to grow. High school students who are ready for college have genuine curiosity about the world and the people in it. Do you? Listening Listening is a vastly undervalued and underappreciated skill in our culture. Strong listening skills (and the patience and empathy that make listening possible) will be enormously valuable to you in all areas of your life, in college and beyond. Listening skills will certainly help you move toward a more open and welcoming engagement with the world and with others. Strong listening skills also make possible healthy, positive, respectful human relationships. Much of college success depends on establishing strong working relationships with professors, college staff, and fellow students. Such relationships are built, of course, with strong listening skills. Students who are unable to listen are typically unable to learn, for all the obvious reasons. Good listeners bring to any interaction with others a number of important qualities, including patience, empathy, personal generosity, emotional intelligence, and respect for others. Good listeners are also able to suspend an interest in themselves and focus instead in respectful ways on what others think and feel. Students who are ready for college have done some of the important personal work that makes this possible. Listening is a skill, like many others, that improves with practice, and one can become a better listener simply by endeavoring to be one. â€Å"Grit† â€Å"Grit† is another quality that is vitally important for college readiness. Researchers who use this term suggest that it includes self-discipline, perseverance, and passion. As psychologists Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman note in their recent essay â€Å"Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents,† grit appears to be at least as important to academic success as IQ or â€Å"smarts. † In fact, all high school students should hear what Duckworth and Seligman have to say about self-discipline: Underachievement among American youth is often blamed on inadequate teachers, boring textbooks, and large class sizes. We suggest another reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline. . . . We believe that many of America’s children have trouble making choices that require them to sacrifice short-term pleasure for long-term gain, and that programs that build self-discipline may be the royal road to building academic achievement. Any student is capable of bringing a quality of joyfulness to their work at college, and the same can be said for the qualities of selfdiscipline, perseverance, and passion. Without these qualities, students can only be considered ready to be bored, lost, angry, or confused at college. Attitude Toward College Drinking, socializing, and taking reckless advantage of â€Å"freedom† on campus lead many students to squander their time at college. I’ve seen many young men and women trapped in a protracted adolescence that often lasts well into their late teens, early twenties, and beyond. As teachers, we want students to have a youthful spirit (however old they may be), but we also want them to bring maturity to the college enterprise. Some students, usually as a result of difficult life experience, arrive at college with such maturity. But many do not. In my experience, mature students are often able to engage with college in very productive ways. Those who do not bring such maturity, however, typically cannot. Such students often find themselves confused or angry or without any real direction. You also need to understand that the chance to attend college is an opportunity of incalculable value. Because many students take this opportunity for granted, I recommend that community service be a required part of every high school student’s preparation for college. Community service is an excellent way for you to begin building a balanced and mature perspective on life. Such a perspective will be invaluable to you when you attend college. Determining Readiness I have developed a checklist of the college-readiness skills described in this article. You can use this practical document to track your progress in high school and ensure that you are ready for college by the time you graduate. Visit here to view and print the checklist. Remember: you have four years to develop the skills that you will need to succeed in college. Patrick Sullivan teaches English at Manchester Community College in Connecticut. He is the editor, with Howard Tinberg, of What Is â€Å"College-Level† Writing? Reading Comprehension questions: Answer the questions below using evidence from the text in your responses where aplicable. Each response should be no less then four sentences.

Marketing Strategy Analysis 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Strategy Analysis 2 - Assignment Example The firm’s online marketing strategy incorporates all features of online marketing, but through all the obvious techniques, it is their aggressiveness, which has stressed and widened their need to succeed and stay at the peak of the retail industry (Hayden et al., 2010). However, a hostile campaign inevitably harvests controversy, and through the years, the firm has been involved with a fair share of negative publicity mainly concerning their particular marketing technique (Bachfischer, 2012). Their bullying attitude has made many perceive them as unfair and unreasonable, but Wal-Mart still hinges at the top of the retail industry despite their negative attention. The firm’s marketing techniques comprises of overflowing the market with their presence (Hayden et al., 2010). This is startling for people who perceive Wal-Mart’s business endeavors startling. However, with such a huge quantity of retail stores, extremely competitive pricing, along with such a huge mar ket share, their marketing method has demanded an overall invasion of all the suitable markets (Bachfischer, 2012). Wal-Mart provides numerous types of products, with a fairly easy list of options (Hayden et al., 2010). The Sam’s Club of the chain store provides an alternative for those who prefer bulk, as well. And, with such a loyal customer base, the firm is capable of setting prices for what their clients pay for (Roth, 2012). If the product is below cost, then many clients can go for it. The truth is that Wal-Mart can give a firm a prime chance to get their goods to a majority of consumers even if they lose funds doing so. Their internet marketing has made them transparent in an effort to deter the controversy of their name (Bachfischer, 2012). A consumer can buy their whole collection of goods through the internet. A consumer can also go through reviews, get alternative deals for exceptional deals available only online and sign-up for a newsletter in order to be-on-the- know with the firm’s products (Hayden et al., 2010). In spite of this, such an organization depends strongly on their physical location, precisely why a store finder is situated at the peak in bright yellow (Roth, 2012). This competitive nature has made controversy thrive under their name. However, their marketing strategy has centered on quantity, as well as delivering a variety in one location (Gereffi & Christian, 2012). Their extending hands to McDonalds and the Subway for transport convenience further confirms this claim (Hayden et al., 2010). A normal shopper can get glasses prescription, their car oil changed and get a haircut under their building. A client can buy draperies on one side of the store and jewelry on the other. Shoppers can grab a new lawnmower and buy groceries, all while taking a haircut (Bachfischer, 2012). Wal-Mart’s recent union with SunTrust Bank has enhanced their presence in the Southeast. Their marketing strategy has always depended on var iety, which is how many things can a client buy in one location (Roth, 2012). Wal-Mart also uses Facebook along with other social media sites to drive their sales (Gereffi & Christian, 2012). The firm allows 22 million Facebook followers to vote on toys would like to see on temporary discounts, or on "rollbacks" (Bachfischer, 2012). The online marketing strategy of Wal-Mart provides convenience for the firm. Their internet

Technology for patient safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology for patient safety - Essay Example fication of the patient, wrong drug prescription, infectious contact with staff, or a prescription that has a reactive quality with another drug already being administered, etc. Over the past few years the need to establish and regulate an effective safeguarding system for both; the patients and the staff, from the day to day errors was felt as a result of which newer technologies for patient safety were formed. This literature aims to address patient safety technologies. All the patient safety technologies and systems developed are first tested and verified to be compatible with certain standards of the Joint Commission or other respective certification organizations. For the effective functioning of the technologies and ensuring their working state; a health care facility must fulfill the standards provided by the certification authority which address issues like medication use, infection control, surgery and anesthesia, transfusions, restraint and seclusion, staffing and staff competence, fire safety, medical equipment, emergency management, and security. The process mentioned isn’t that simple so as to directly implement a certain technology. It is first tested in a health care facility and is first proven to be compatible not only with the health care environment but also with the patients and the other general community. These technologies also focus on detailed data provision to the doctors which is quite important since the doctor must be informed about the patient and his/her condition along with the patient being informed about the health care environment. Polls are taken amongst the patients to take into consideration their views and comfort to implement a certain Patient Safety Technology. For instance; results from a study at a quality of care unit in Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland, found that more than â€Å"90% of patients said they would agree to wear an ID bracelet†. With the accreditation of a health care institute comes the

An investigation into operations management issues within the Essay

An investigation into operations management issues within the hospitality industry - Essay Example With improved productivity and operations, the cost decreases and quality is improved. Since the above mentioned activities are integrated with each other closely in a operations chain, it I important for any company to control and manage these activities to boost its performance and profits. This article will concentrate upon the productivity improvement concerns for a restaurant  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Good Foods Restaurant. Aim The various productivity concerns that the company faces in its daily operations and how these operations can be optimized to increase the production efficiency will the topic of study of this paper. Methodology    The preferred methodology in this case was to study a number of case studies in the hospitality sector that implement any kind of production improvement techniques and then study their previous conditions and the results after the recommendations were executed. Also other forms of literature available from books, online were studied. Company Introduction T he company is involved in the restaurant business to its customers across 17 outlets. Good Foods has been known in the market for its consistent quality of the food being served and a strong focus upon the business. With several dishes being served to its customers, and also catered in some cases, on a regular basis, the company has received the constant positive reviews from its clients. The hotel company was formed in the year 1975 and has built a strong tradition of hard work and faith. The hotel specializes mainly in the sauces, soups and flavor bases that are also marketed under a number of brand names by the hotel company. With more than 3 production units in the region, Good Foods Ltd. is trying hard to make higher margin profits for itself. In the food sector and hospitality service industry, it  is important that in order to remain competitive, Good Foods maintain efficient operations in production and marketing. At present the company own three plants which are not being operated in a desired optimized manner. Therefore, to achieve targets, the company decided to implement some operations management techniques to improve productivity and its hospitality services.    Current Production Phases  Ã‚      The operational methods that are being used by Good Foods to manufacture products that are marketed by the company are quite complex in nature and comprise of a number of multifaceted operations that are spread across the 3 production units. The initial phases that are a part of this operational chain at Good Food are the detailed  scheduling which is done by the management to decrease the down time for each of the three production units. The production scheduling is done manually by the company managers. The production scheduling phase is followed by the resource planning and procurement phase in which the managers decide the quality, quantity of resources that are to be allocated to each line and at what time. The quantity, quality and time o f resource procurement are very important at this point in order to maintain a steady flow of production and product quality. At many instances, the managers noticed that since the resources need to be often shared at many points and levels in the production chain, there existed some sharing concerns. There were variability and waste concerns that were pointed out by the managers. The last step of the production line consisted of cleaning and preparing the line for a new batch of production. It is to be noted here that due to the

Warehousing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Warehousing - Essay Example Contemporary warehouse functions are much different that what they used to be. Previous warehousing systems were simply a place to store product until it was needed and in all honesty used a great deal more space than was necessary to allow for easier tracking of products. Many products were shipped in stored in a manual ledger and cross referenced when it was in demand. New technologies have had the ability to significantly reduce the strain on modern warehouse requirements. Ultimately by incorporating one new technology such as a barcode scanner or radio-frequency identification as a stand alone technology would not necessarily have a large impact, but by incorporating many new technologies in conjunction could significantly increase the efficiency of a DS. A very sophisticated contemporary warehousing facility would have products bar-coded upon delivery trucked to a pre set area with a conveyor belt or forklift, and wrought back to the shipping region when it is needed. In an idea l situation a contemporary DS would be able to be cross docked (Offloaded from one truck or the manufacturing line, directly into another thus alleviating the need for warehousing altogether). Ultimately one of the main goals of warehousing is the turning around of product as seamlessly as possible and the incorporation of new technologies helps aide this process. In a contemporary DS scenario technology would help aide workers in directing as much of their energy as possible to turning product around dedicate as much of their time as possible to moving prouduct out the door whereas out dated WMS would have workers dedicating much of their time to filling out reports, tracking products manually, moving inventory manually etc which can be a cumbersome process. The relevance and importance of Value Added Services (VAS) as well as cross docking systems and

The implications of the major determinants of demand and supply to Essay

The implications of the major determinants of demand and supply to domestic house building industry - Essay Example This paper starts with understanding this market. Here we will discuss about Porter’s Five Forces Model and try to understand the kind of customers marketers have in the domestic housing sector. This section would be followed by the discussion on determinants of demand and supply in the housing industry. Once we have understood the market structure and supply-demands we will be discussing various factors like economic, social, legal and environmental which affect the industry. This will be followed by the analysis and conclusion. The industry is made up of around 192,404 construction firms, 164,000 of which have less that 24 employees. Just 56 firms have more than 1,200 employees. (Source: Construction Statistics Annual 2002/CITB). 2 There are around 192,404 small and big firms. 56 firms have employed more than 1200 employees while 28,348 firms have employed 25 or more than 25 people and rest 164,000 firms have employed less than 24 people in their organization. Around 500 firms work for overseas contracts also.4 The segment rivalry and exit barriers are high. As it is almost mature industry in Britain, the number of suppliers and rivalry among them is high. This gives an added advantage to the constructor to negotiate for the quality and the price of goods supplied by them. The switching cost from one supplier to another is usually high. Buyers’ power in the case of houses is limited. There are several reasons for this i.e. increasing demand of house, lesser number of buyers, buyers not connected to each other, lack of information and others. The threat of substitutes is less and within the category. Housing requirements of an individual or family can be very specific leaving no room for many or instant substitutes. It depends upon the quality, price and availability of the house. The consumer behaviour can be divided on the basis of the type of consumers. They can be divided on the basis of