Play It Again Rita Essays (274 words) - Conversation,

Play It Again Rita Annonymous By: Paule Marshall One woman tries to convey the variety of voices from West Indians and black American Engilsh which are her heritage. She gained her knowledge through her mother and her friens. She mentioned how listening to her mother affected her life as to being the person that she is tody. She has become a successful writer. (thesis) In The Making of a Writer, Paule Marshall demonstrates that although she grew up in a kitchen listening to her mother and friens talk, not being able to be heard, she learns a few things through her mother and her friends. (topic sentence 1) Marshall's mother and her friends got together for a cup of tea or cocoa and to talk a bit before heading home to their families. They got together in their brownstone home kitchen in Brooklyn everyday for about two hours. She and her sister would be seated doing homework while the ladies talked endlessly. They talked about political events and historical events like wars and the rumors that went on of wars that took place back then. They also talked about their home in the Caribbean and also their adopted home ---- AMERICA ----. (topic sentence 2) The rule for children in the 30's was for them to be seated in the corner of the room, being seen, but not heard. Marshall wasn't able to join in on any of her mother's conversations. She was only able to listen and not say a word. Marshall may not have been able to talk much within the crowd of older folks, but she sure did learn a lot about some events in the past and also about her heritage through listening to her mother's conversations as she grew up.

Business environment Essays

Business environment Essays Business environment Essay Business environment Essay Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. The term agile manufacturing was coined by a US government sponsored research programme at Lehigh University and, Latterly, MIT. It is an enterprise-wide strategy in which the customer is the first priority, change is an opportunity to do things better, and delivering value is paramount. It seeks to cope with demand volatility by allowing changes to be made in an economically viable and timely manner. As the transition into the twenty-first century occurs there are radical changes taking place that are reshaping the industrial landscape of western economies. Customers want to be treated individually. The marketplace has become truly global and requires low volume, high quality, custom specific products. These products have both very short life cycles and development production lead times. Everything is changing very fast and unpredictably. The swift trend towards a multiplicity of finished products has lead many companies into problems with inventories, overheads, and efficiencies. Mass production does not apply to products where the customers require small quantities of highly customised, design-to-order products, and where additional services and value-added benefits like product upgrades and future reconfigurations are as important as the product itself. This leads to a people intensive, relationship driven operation. Perfect quality and very high levels of service are expected and required. Agility relates to the interface between the company and the market. Essentially it is a set of abilities for meeting widely varied customer requirements in terms of price, specification, quality, quantity and delivery. Agility has been expressed as having four underlying principles: delivering value to the customer; being ready for change; valuing human knowledge and skills; forming virtual partnerships. The company must remove the obstacles that prevent it from manufacturing with high velocity the set-ups, the excessive material handling, the poor physical flow, and all production interruptions. And the company must streamline the physical flow, integrate the processes and close the distances between supply, production, assembly, distribution, and the end customer. The emphasis must be on quickly satisfying the service chain of events from the time a customer delivers a request until he is satisfied. Although the word manufacturing is used with this concept, the principles of agility can equally apply to other functions of a business and to service industries. The agilitys success has attracted more than 150 Fortune-500 companies. Lean, flexible and agile in supply chain A supply chain is the process of moving goods from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer. Market demands, customer service, transport considerations, and pricing constraints all must be understood in order to structure the supply chain effectively Managing the supply chain for competitive advantage is not just to reduce costs. All physical and logical events within the supply chain must be enacted swiftly, accurately, and effectively. Leanness, flexibility and agility have to be utilised proactively at suppliers and their suppliers. These inter-company collaborations created can help to achieve desired economic outcomes that the individual firms can not achieve separately. Such networks allow firms to combine resources to gain economies of scale, acquire technologies and resources, gain knowledge, and enter markets beyond their individual capability. They also can help to achieve continuing gains in efficiency, labour productivity, and reduction of cycle time and inventory. Comparison of lean, flexible and agile Lean production allegedly combines the benefits of craft and mass production, without their disadvantages. It delivers quality and variety without the cost penalty of craft production and the large cost advantage of mass production. Flexibility is a feature of the companys production system. It is the inherent ability to adjust or modify its resource deployment according to new or changing demands in the market. Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. Lean manufacturing is being very good at doing the things you can control. Agile manufacturing deals with the things we can NOT control. Agility is built upon the firm foundation of world class or lean manufacturing methods, coupled with an organisation that is physically, technologically, and managerial established for rapid and unpredictable change. Among the four underlying principles of agility: Delivering value to the customer, being ready for change, valuing human knowledge and skills, forming virtual partnerships, the first three can be found within the operating philosophies of companies generally thought to be lean as described in The Machine that Changed the World. To summarize this comparison, agility, flexibility and leanness are not alternatives, but are mutually supporting concepts. Together they improve competitiveness and the prospects of survival in an increasingly volatile and global business environment.

Gratitude and Congratulations

Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations By Mark Nichol Gratitude and congratulations, along with some other words with the element grat and associated with giving thanks, are related. Such words, and a couple of disguised cognates, are listed and defined in this post. Gratitude, and the other words discussed here, derive from the Latin adjective gratus, meaning â€Å"pleasing† or â€Å"thankful.† Gratitude is the state of being thankful, and a synonym for thankful is grateful. The antonym of that word is ungrateful, but someone who withholds gratitude is an ingrate. Gratify, though stemming from the same origin, has a different sense; it means â€Å"give pleasure or satisfaction,† and, depending on context, it can have a positive or negative connotation. For example, the noun form in â€Å"instant gratification† refers critically to an undesirable personal or cultural trait associated with seeking short-term satisfaction to the detriment of more productive habits or pursuits. Similarly, though gratuitous originally meant simply â€Å"free,† that sense has largely been overtaken by the meanings â€Å"unearned† and â€Å"unwarranted,† as in a reference to gratuitous sex or violence in a film; the element or scene is not integral to the plot and is therefore considered exploitative. A gratuity, however, is always welcome: It is something given voluntarily. (Often, the word is simply employed as a formal alternative to tip in the context of rendering services.) Centuries ago, when one expressed pleasure in the achievements of another, one offered gratulation. However, that form was superseded by congratulation, and now it is customary to pluralize that word. (Congrats is a slang truncation.) Unfortunately, thanks to the punning exclamation â€Å"Congradulations!† in the context of graduation from school or college, seen on greeting cards and the like, congratulations is sometimes inadvertently misspelled. Grate, meaning â€Å"grill† or â€Å"scraper,† is unrelated, but grace, meaning â€Å"mercy,† â€Å"elegance,† and â€Å"virtue,† and the identical verb form, meaning â€Å"show favor,† are descended from gratus. Something exemplifying grace in the sense of â€Å"elegance† is graceful, while something lacking that quality is graceless. Disgrace is the loss of favor or honor, and something that brings (or should bring) shame to someone is disgraceful. Meanwhile, scapegrace, on the model of scapegoat, means â€Å"someone who falls out of favor with God.† Another disguised descendant of gratus, by way of French, is agree, meaning â€Å"give assent or consent† or â€Å"coincide.† Something agreed on is an agreement. Something is said to be agreeable when it is acceptable, in harmony with what is desired, or pleasing, and a person with a pleasing or positive disposition is agreeable. In all cases, the antonym is represented by attaching the prefix dis-. 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 Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 "Home" Idioms and Expressions75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†When Is a Question Not a Question?

The Man In The Iron Mask Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Man In The Iron Mask - Essay Example The one constant in the history of the myth seems to be the fact that he was indeed a prisoner in the Bastille and that his name was never revealed. Even upon his death the true name of the prisoner was left in question. The only reality of this particular prisoner's situation, is that he became the most famous and mysterious historical prisoner of his era thanks to the literary works of both Voltaire and Alexander Dumas who both christened him the â€Å"Man in the Iron Mask†. The historical records of the era within which the masked man was supposed to have been imprisoned in the Bastille seem to indicate that the man in question was of a noble status in life. Reports indicate that he arrived at the Bastille on a Thursday, September 18, 1698 under the protection of the newly assigned governor of the Bastille, Benigne d'Auvergne de Saint-Mars who described the prisoner as a long time prisoner who went with him to his various assignments. The man was to remain masked and his na me was never to be recorded in the official records. i According to Saint Mars' official records the man without a name or face was imprisoned in Pignerol at the start. He had been a prisoner for 18 years by the time he arrived at the Bastille, having been earlier 2 imprisoned from 1665 to 1681. There is a supposition that he had already been a prisoner for about 33 years at this point. It was during this time of his arrival at the Bastille that the first mention of a velvet, not iron mask was made in reference to the prisoner's face being covered. One of the wilder theories regarding the Man in the Iron mask is that he was the descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte. This was a claim that was made by Napoleon himself during his many military quests. Claiming that his father was the elder half brother of the king and therefore the rightful heir to the throne. Thus his imprisonment behind the mask. He propagated the theory that the man behind the mask was allowed to marry while in prison an d the union begot a son who was sent off to be raised in Corsica, that child was to become Napoleon Bonaparte. This however, is a theory that does not have any evidence to back it up as anything more than the claim of a mad man to a throne he wished to call his own. ii In order to understand the propagation of the myth, one has to first understand the kind of sociopolitical situation that was existing in France in the 1660's. The so-called â€Å"Sun King† Louis XIV had an absolute hold on political power and government at a time when his people were being ravaged by high taxes, food shortage, and a lack of guidance from their king. The war and religious unrest was also taking its toll on the economic situation of the country. The people were starved for hope of a better life in the hands of a king who once stated "L'etat, c'est moi!" ("I am the state!"). With such control over state affairs in the hands of one man, it is believed that anybody who fell out of favor with the ki ng ended up imprisoned for the rest of his life. Could the man in the mask be one of those people? What error could he have committed to have earned him such damnation in the eyes of the king? One of the 3 many theories about the masked stranger is that he was most likely one of the many nobles who had fallen out of favor with

Human Resources Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Human Resources Questions - Essay Example Source: (O’Boyle and Aguinis. â€Å"The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance†) The recent study that has been conducted reveals the fact that individual performance might not fit a bell curve, however, might follow a distribution where the average is unbalanced, the variance is countless and the pervasiveness of outliers is much elevated. The Paretian curve reveals the fact that the performance of larger number of the population is below the mean in comparison to what is predicted from the Normal Curve (â€Å"The Best and the Rest of Us†). It has been observed from the Paretian curve that the performance of most of the individuals is below the average and thus there is greater variation in the performances. However, the fact is that the performance of the individuals is supposed to be constant each time. By applying the new curve in performance management the performance of the individuals can be observed if they are below the expectations. Hence, it becomes significant to monitor how an individual actually performs in an organization. Inconsistent performance needs to be identified and thus training needs to be offered to the individuals so that the performance can be improved and efficiency of the organization can be increased to a greater extent. Question Two There are numerous assessment instruments that can be suggested for the first client, Rashid, so that he can decide what interests him. The numerous assessment tools related to career are Keirsey Temperament Sorter in which the user is supposed to fill a questionnaire comprising 70 questions that are scored on the Web automatically. The result obtained by the individual tends to be in the form of Myers-Briggs Types. With this approach, the user can gain an idea regarding suitable career options. The other evaluation tool is Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential Assessment. In this appraisal tool, the user is supposed to fill up a surve y form that consists of seventy one triads of three statements. This assessment tool has been created in order to guide and motivate the people to attain their greatest educational as well as career potential. There are other career assessment tools as well such as Myers Briggs personality tests from Ransdell Associates. It comprises personality as well as career preferences related tests along with other two tests such as Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory Tests where a person gets the scope to learn regarding him/her as well as his/her career options. JOBehaviors offers a person with numerous job-related assessments in high-demand industries where the goal is to assist the person at identifying the best job. It recognizes the behavior that is most significant for success as well as job compatibility. It further recognizes the job which tends to be the best behavioral fit for the person. JobDiagonals is a career assessment tool where the person is required to give a short t est so that he/she can evaluate their interests and competencies to identify what career path can be followed by them (â€Å"Career and Transition†). Work preference inventory is also another career assessment tool that can be effectively utilized by the person. It is generally based upon the belief that the method of value clarification is vital in career planning. It offers the

History of Movie Essay Example for Free

History of Movie Essay Jon Lewis claimed that the new movies that were being written and produced marked a period of time where it was the â€Å"end of the cinema as we know it. † This could be argued either way by anyone who has both watched some of the classic movies of the past and viewed the new movies of today. There are many reasons to believe that modern movies are just as great as the movies form the past. The modern movies do have some differences that are present in that there are better affects, better overall research, but still the same magical qualities and wonderful imagination that went into films of the past. Therefore it will be argued that it is not the end of the cinema as we know it. By looking at movies from the past, middle time periods and more recent times it can easily be argued that many movies of these time periods put together great plot lines, memorable characters and wonderful lasting interest among those who have watched them. In 1942 Casablanca was released. This movie introduced the world to some of the most memorable characters in film history. It was a true love story that enveloped the viewer and allowed them to feel close to characters like Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara. This movie also gave the viewer a hope that love could prevail above all else. In an argument about how there are still movies made that have these same values, a great story plot line that whisks the viewer into another world and a cast of unforgettable characters one could look at the movies ET and Mullholland Drive. ET was released in 1982 and again introduced the viewer to ET and the wonderful family that allowed him to be at home in their home. The movie brought hope to many that all people could be accepted and that no matter how different one was there was a way for them to be able to gain such acceptance. Mullholland Drive also used some of these same key factors although it was released years later in 2001. This movie’s plot was a bit difference and rather than giving hope about a life that could possibly happen it instilled some fear in people about what could possibly happen if luck were to strike one the other way. However the movie was a great a film that incorporated many different aspects of film technique and it also left a memory in the mind of the viewer as David Lynch (the film’s producer) was able to portray such a real portrayal of life. When looking through movies that are from the different time periods of the American cinema it is easy to see that the times and what is going on really do affect the movies that are popularized and remembered as being part of the time period. These movies depict both current things that are happening as well as looking at the historical events. In 1949 The Sands of Iwo Jima was released and quickly became a popular hit and movie and yet is another movie that has continued to be viewed by audiences over the past six decades. This movie was a portrayal of a group of U. S. Marines that were in a battle in World War II. In light of the times the movie was a portrayal of a part of the world that was unknown to many of the people who were living in the United States. Some more modern movies, although maybe a bit more far fetched, have also looked at the times and what is going on and have drawn their conclusions from these themes. One of these movies was 1999’s The Matrix. This movie was released during one of the largest technological booms that the country has seen. This movie portrayed aspects of the new forms of technology and what could happen if the world continued to grow technologically more advanced. Another movie that looked at problems associated with modern times was Sin City which was released in 2005. This movie looked at the world of crime and organized crime as it has been able to advance in more modern times. Another way that the cinema has been upheld is through the ways that values and beliefs have been portrayed through the movies of the time. Obviously through modernization there have been changes in the way that beliefs have been looked at but through the cinema these beliefs have been marked for all future generations in great pic time pieces that look at the things that are involved. This topic of values, although still portrayed in films has changed greatly. In 1959 Ben Hur was released and it promoted the standard values and beliefs of Christianity and the morals that are portrayed in The Bible. This movie was portrayed in this way as the majority of the country upheld these same beliefs and values. In the 1970’s the morals of the Untied States were changing drastically. By looking at films and the portrayal of interest in organized crime and more cynical events, as evidenced in 1972’s The Godfather, one can see that although the morality and the values of the country were still being upheld they were changing and the films were changing to meet the demands and interests of the people at the time. Much later in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, there was still this profound interest in crime and the ways that organized crime has been ran only there were much less morals in the overall themes than there had been previously in film. This is due in part to the continued evolution of change in the morality of the citizens of the United States. There have also been monumental portrayals of creativity and imagination in the movies that have been portrayed throughout the times. There have been different types of creativity and imagination has evolved but these features have given the viewer a place to escape to and somewhere that they would like to travel by watching the films over and over again. In 1965’s The Sound of Music, one is led into a world where a wonderful nanny moves in with some rather obnoxious children and learns how to befriend and be able to do her job through the magic of music. This movie whisked the viewer away to another place and led the viewer to hope that he/she was able to have that same type of sing-song wonderful life. In 1999’s The Blair Witch Project a group of college students decided to get creative and make a movie that would end up making them millions. This movie did focus a bit on the mythical belief that there could be modern day witches or members of the occult in the world around the viewer. The film was creatively filmed in a manner that led the viewer to believe that it was a work of non-fictional filming and that the events that were happen on camera were really happening to the actors. Another great portrayal of creativity has been in The Polar Express, released 2004. This film was the cinematic portrayal of a classic children’s book that was meant to show the viewer the wonder and mystery of Christmas and Santa Claus. All of these films used creative elements and things that the viewers could appreciate and that would add a little bit of mystery and fun to the viewers’ lives. In conclusion cinema has changed and evolved over the years. Although there is no way to say that cinema has ended as it was once known. Films are still portraying the same types of things as they have in the past. There are the films that are portraying a story line and are meant to whisk the viewer away, films that are looking at historical events and evolvement, films that are looking at the values and morals of the time period in which they are created, and films that are used purely to induce imagination and creativity. It is absurd to think that there was not supposed to be any type of evolvement in the world of film however it is also absurd to think that this has to be a negative thing and that it has to end the world of cinema or film as it was previously known. Therefore it is logical to disagree with Jon Lewis’ thoughts on the world of cinema changing in a negative way.

Graduation Speech: The Future is Bright :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Our most distinguished guests, beloved parents, members of the faculty of County High School, fellow members of the graduating class, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Four years ago, a new high school was established in the County area. Its establishment created mixed feelings. and expectations from the community. Questions such as: What kind of a high school could this be? Would this be able to uphold academic excellence as well as social and cultural values which most parents would like their children to internalize and live with? Would this be able to provide for the well-balanced development of a child's intellectual and artistic faculties? Would this institution be able to turn out students who could be responsible leaders, and patriotic citizens of the United States of America; citizens who could uphold the ideology many Americans had fought and died for? My fellow members of the class of 2012, after four years of being nurtured under the wings of that institution which is no other than our beloved Alma Mater of County High School, it is with pride and privilege that I say "Yes," rather, we say "Yes" -- County High School has met the community's expectations on the quality of graduates it could yield. We, the members of the class of 2012, are the epitome of what County High School is as training grounds for young adults and future leaders of our community and of our country. Our achievements as students in the last four years all attest to this legitimate claim. Yes, we are the proud graduates of County High School and to all my fellow graduates, please accept my warmest greetings on this momentous day. Next week's commencement exercises will mark the realization of our high school dreams and achievements, the dawning of new challenges and opportunities to pursue college education, and setting the vision for our own professional development. Equally deserving, I would also like to congratulate and express our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to our parents, teachers and administrators, with whom we proudly share our achievements and our joys. This diploma is our gift to you who have cooperatively worked together to see us through four years at Washington High School. To our parents, your immense love and support had provided us with strength and determination to go on when in our youth we did not know which road to take; we could not discern what was appropriate and not; in those critical moments of indecision, you were always there to offer the best for us; in our painful moments of loss as well as our hard fought victories you were there to encourage and protect us.