Review of a Notated Score essays

Review of a Notated Score essays I am going to write a review of the score I have been given, this is the third movement of the piece Romanza written by the composer Vaughn Williams. I will review this piece by going through all the aspects of the notated score such as the rhythm, tempo, harmony, tonality, melody, dynamics, genre, instrumentation and timbre. There are two parts to this part of the piece and I will refer to them as section one and section two. The rhythm for the stringed part of section one is very conjunct and on the beat. All the instruments in this part play simple triads all in time with each other to the beat. In section two of the stringed instruments the rhythm seems like it could be faster but it isnt, all the notes are played at the same speed and are still on the beat and conjunct except for the last part of the first violin where a much more rigid rhythm is present. The rhythm in the brass and woodwind section is quite syncopated when compared to the strings section. The tempo of the piece seems quite fast when viewed as a notated score but the piece is played at a slow tempo of 66. Also the word lento is present beside the tempo, lento meaning slow. There is a very close harmony within this piece. All the chords are triads so all the notes are kept within the stave to a certain extent. Also this is a crematic piece, as the notes do not keep within the key signature. Because the C major scale consists of all notes and no flats or sharps there are many accidentals in this piece mainly in the first stringed section. As mentioned above this piece is in the key of C major and there are many accidentals within the whole of section one. The melody in this piece is very scalic; it has quite small intervals with a perfect fourth being the biggest interval within this section. There are also scales present within section two of the stringed instruments making this piece more melodic. ...

How to bond with your employees without compromising your authorityÂÂ

How to bond with your employees without compromising your authority   Authority and power are complex issues that come with the task of being a manager. In the workplace, the ability to hire, fire, and give raises sets the power dynamic between employees and bosses. But while power and authority are clearly linked, authority is a bit murkier to define- it relies on the established relationship between employees and their bosses and can be built over years and lost in an instant. Bonding with your employees and projecting authority are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the two things are much closer than one might think.Here are a few ways you might develop both leadership traits.Establish an atmosphere of mutual respectAuthority doesn’t come automatically with a job title. It is earned when managers are clearly knowledgeable and competent, and when they get results. But you can’t get those results without team effort- and your interaction with employees plays a vital role in establishing authority. In order to truly lead a team, you need t o earn trust and establish an atmosphere of mutual respect with employees. If you find yourself pounding on your desk and engaging in intimidation tactics, chances are you are trying to assert authority rather than earn it. But if you build a base of shared respect, then bonding with employees will grow your authority rather than diminish it.Take an interest in your employeesYou don’t want to invite daily gab sessions or become a shoulder to cry on, but being responsive to employees and really listening can help foster your authority. Simple things like knowing where your employees went to college, or the names of their family members, or their personal interests and hobbies, can help you understand their motivations and actions at work and help establish basic respect. This type of bonding also fosters a working relationship that can open the channels of communication so that when your employees have a good idea, they can reach out. This way you can be the boss employees wan t to listen to and will trust to follow.Be a real personSo, can you drink a beer with your employees and just be a regular person? Sure. But you can’t drink too much or share too much personal information. Letting employees see that you’re a real person with your own life and interests outside of work does not compromise your authority, but is part of that two-way street of building mutual respect. Social settings like the office party can help you bond while keeping it professional.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});Set boundariesAfter you relax with employees at an office party or talk up your golf game, you need to be clear when it’s time to focus back on work. The afternoon progress meeting is not the place to shoot the breeze, so take care to establish the atmosphere you want with a simple, firm-yet-kind acknowledgment of when it’s time to get back to business.Head off problem employeesOccasionally there will be the e mployee who can’t separate the friendly boss from the friend and switch gears back to work-mode. If you find an employee becoming overly familiar, too joking, or disrespectful, this is where your authority needs to put its foot down. Nipping a problem in the bud is best, and opening the channels of communication with the individual employee can turn the situation around.Bonding with your employees, when done the right way, can actually help you gain authority. It can take years to cultivate but largely stems from you setting appropriate boundaries and maintaining genuine interest in your employees as people. So ask yourself: are you approachable, or intimidating? And which do you think will get better results?

Geography Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Geography - Research Paper Example Indias climate is influenced by mainly the southwest winds. South-west monsoon brings most of the rainfall during a year in the country. In the months of summer temperature rises up to 45 degree centigrade in the day. In the winter, it falls to as low as 1 to 8 degree centigrade in the night. Intensity of the summer season causes rain in plains of the India. The rain fall varies region to region and it is found to be between 500 mm to 1500 mm except desert of Rajasthan and Kutch where precipitation usually remain less than 250 mm. (Climate) Agriculture has always been a back bone of Indian economy since independence until 1990 when agriculture contributed more than one-third in Gross Domestic Product. India has vast arable area of 170 million hectares in 2005 which is the second largest arable area after U.S. India is among the world’s leading producer of rich, wheat, milk, sugar cane. India is either the world leader or the second largest producer in eight top crops. India is the world leader in the production of bananas, mangoes, and spices which are the important part of Indian meals. (India’s Role†¦) Post reform India saw a big surge in industrial activities and the industrial output showed the growth of 8.4 percent in 1994-95 and exports increased by 27 percent. Experts opine that Indian contribution in the world GDP will rise from 6 percent to 11 percent by the year 2025 and it will become the third largest economy after U.S, and China. The contribution of Indian industry in GDP comes to about 26 percent. (India Industry) India has been in limelight due to its software industry – the sector has been a major export earner for the country. As per The National Association of Software & Services Cos (NASSCOM), Indian IT sector is likely to see exports of $59 billion in fiscal 2011, which will show strong revenue growth of 18.7 percent over previous year. The

Concepts learned in International Relations Essay

Concepts learned in International Relations - Essay Example the ‘national interest’ is captured in the image of a social evolutionary process that predetermines a series of associated connotations and denotations of an otherwise natural phenomenon (Trubovitz, 1998, p.3). The individualistic view of ‘what’s good’ is truly based on the concept of private benefit while social good or benefit is located in a larger context that even encompasses international interests. It’s against this backdrop that American national interest as against international collective benefit ought to be examined. Concepts such as ‘absolute good’ and ‘relative good’ in a politically charged environment of conflict between ideologies are more relevant and highly feasible though definitions of them might vary according to biases and prejudices of individuals who seek to interpret them. Social issues of conflict and ideological differences deserve more attention in a study of international relations than a superficial analysis of consequences thereof. Theoretical underpinnings of social transformation in an international relations context focus attention on the inevitable concept of conflict between private interests and public interests. By extension it’s the same conflict between national interests of the individual nation state and the collective interests of the international community at large. The subsequent developments that unfold as the conflict evolves into a multifaceted phenomenon bear a closer semblance to those social issues such as ideological differences, social biases and prejudices, ethnic and religious interests and societal mores or value systems. At an international level the macrocosmic phenomenon though might assume a diversity and a complexity that has little parallel in conflicts within the boundaries of a nation state. The theoretical rigor with which the polemical issues in interstate relations are treated generates a greater degree of enthusiasm in the conflict and its impact on such relations. While

Problem of Evil Essay Example for Free

Problem of Evil Essay The traditional problem of evil emerges when people believe in and argue for the existence of a God who is both omnipotent and wholly good. According to Mackie’s study (1955), few of the solutions to the problem of evil could stand up to criticism. Today, someone suggests an alternative: God is not perfectly good, but maximally cool. By cool he means to be free from tension or violence. Since God is maximally cool, he is not so much concerned about either eliminating evil or maximizing goodness than promoting coolness. This God appears to be logically valid, but this essay will show that the existence of such God is impossible. First, we should ask this: if God aims to promote coolness, why would he bother to create evil? It is clear that evil is not cool, given that evil creates tension and violence. It may be replied that God is maximally cool and therefore creates anything based on his will and is not concerned with what happens to his creation afterwards. This reply is arguing that God created some cool thing which later then turned into the uncool evil. Then, the fact that uncool evil exists implies that God cannot make this uncool evil to be cool again, which contradicts with the premise that God is omnipotent. Secondly, good is also uncool. According to most theists, good is defined to be opposite to evil and thus always fights to expel evil (Mackie, 1955), so that good is in constant tension and possible violence with evil. Though the God in argument is claimed to be not perfectly good, this God is still good to a certain degree. Then he will still fights against evil and therefore is not always cool. This leads us to conclude that this God cannot be maximum cool. This guy in defense of the existence of a maximally cool God might argue that uncool is necessary as a counterpart to cool. It seems natural and necessary to consider why there should be uncool things if God is maximum cool. He might argue that if there were no uncool, there could be no cool either, in that if there were no violence or tension to be created and involved in, there could be no violence or tension to be free from. It might be that out of randomness, God created evil that generates tension and good that engages in tension against evil. To detach from involvement in tension or to destroy tension might create another tension and may incur violence. If God were to eliminate uncool things that he created, he would enter a tension between cool and uncool. Then, it would be uncool to make uncool things cool. Because God is maximally cool, he will not enter such tension and therefore he leaves good and evil as uncool as they are. By claiming that cool cannot exist without uncool, this guy shows that God cannot create cool without simultaneously creating uncool. This sets a limit to what God can do, which involves two possibilities: either God is not omnipotent or that omnipotence has some limits. If it is the first case, then we can deny the existence of a God who is omnipotent and maximally cool. If it is the second case, one may argue that these limits are logically impossibility. However, according to Mackie (1955), some theists hold the view that God can do what is logically impossible, while many theists maintain that God created logic. This leads us to the paradox of omnipotence, where we consider whether an omnipotent being can bind himself. According to Mackie, although we can avoid the paradox of omnipotence by putting God outside time, we cannot prove that an omnipotent God binds himself by logical laws. Therefore, it is a fallacious approach to prove the existence of a maximally cool and omnipotent by claiming that cool and uncool are counterparts to each other. To summarize, if a God is omniscience, then he must know the existence of uncool. If he is omnipotent and maximum cool, he will promote coolness to the maximum. However, we observe that there are uncool things which are against God’s will to promote coolness and which God cannot make them cool. Therefore, a God that is omniscience, omnipotent and maximally cool cannot exist. Works Cited J. L. Mackie, Evil and Omnipotence, Mind, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 254. (Apr. , 1955), pp. 200-212. In Pascal’s Wager, Pascal concludes that rationality requires people to wager for god. He bases his argument on mainly three premises. The first premise is his construct of the decision matrix of rewards. The second premise suggests that we are required by rationality to assign positive and not infinitesimal probability to God existing. The third premise states that we are required by rationality to perform the act of possible maximum expected utility. This essay will argue that Pascal’s Wager does not demonstrate solid prudential reasons for us to believe in God, by showing the third premise is not necessarily true. We consider that it is not in all cases that we are required by rationality to maximize expected utility. In Pascal’s Wager, we pay ‘one life’ to wager for God and obtain infinite expected utility. Paying finite amount to play a game with infinite expectation appear to be at our interests and can therefore serve as a prudential reason for us to wager for God. However, in certain cases, this action could be regarded as absurd and alternatively, and to the contrary, taking intuitively sub-optimal actions would actually maximize the expected utility. For example, the St. Petersburg paradox could be representative of this kind of situations. In the St. Petersburg game (Martin, 2011), we keep flipping a coin until we get a coin. The total number of flips, n, yields the prize which equals $2n. There are infinite sum of flips possible, so we have infinite number of possible consequences. The expected payoff of each consequence is $1 and therefore the ‘expected value’ of the game, which equals the sum of the expected payoffs of all the consequences, will be an infinite number of dollars. Then, intuitively we will be willing to play the game as long as we only need to pay a finite number of dollars, given that the ‘expected value’ of the game is infinite. However, Hacking (1980) suggested that â€Å"few of us would pay even $25 to enter such a game. † If we were to pay $25 for the game, half of the time we receive $2 and one quarter of the time the game pays $4, so the probability to break-even is less than one in twenty five. Still, because of the very small possibility of the number of flips to be greater than $25, the expected payoff of the game is larger than the $25 payment. According to standard Bayesian decision theory (Martin, 2011), we should play this game. Then again, because of the very small possibility of getting high enough payment, it is very likely that we will need to flip a coin longer than our physical possibility. In that sense, it will be absurd to pay this finite amount and flip longer than physical constraints for the infinite expected payoff. Therefore, it is not always true that rationality will require us to perform the act that yields maximal expected utility. In the St. Petersburg game we experiment infinitely many trials which yield infinite expectation. In Pascal’s wager, we have a single-trial which also yields infinite expectation. It seems natural for Pascal to assume that expectation is a good guide to solve this decision problem. However, according to Hajek (2012), we need to take variance into consideration to make better decision, because in this one-time shot, a large variance could lead us to an outcome which is much worse than the expectation. When the variance is small, it is probable to get an outcome close to the expectation. However, the further the distribution of outcomes spreads out, the more likely it is to get a bad outcome, and the less compelling the third premise seems to be. Assuming that the expectation of wagering for God is infinite, we can calculate the variance of the outcomes of the wager. Given the infinitely good of the good outcome and the status quo of the bad outcome, the variance is infinite. In the case of an infinite variance, due to our risk-aversion, we might be better off choosing to minimize variance than maximizing our expected utility. Indeed, if f2 is made as low as possible, the variance of wagering for God would be much greater than wagering against God. If the probability of the probability of receiving infinite good, is made as low as possible, the resulted variance might make we deviate much further away from the expected utility in an undesirable direction. Both cases above could happen, and if they do, we would feel less compelled by our rationality to maximize our expected utility because the large variance could lead us to a situation that is much worse than expectation. To summarize, Pascal’s premise three is not necessarily true. This premise says that we are required by nationality to maximize expected utility where there is one available. However, the St. Petersburg paradox suggests that rationality does not always require us to maximize our expected utility. Furthermore, in consideration of large variance, expectation might not be a good measure of choiceworthiness (Hajek, 2012). Without the validity of premise three, we cannot draw the conclusion that rationality requires us to wager for God. Therefore, Pascal’s wager does not solidly demonstrate that we have prudential reasons to believe in God. Works Cited Hajek, Alan, Pascals Wager, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ), URL = http://plato. stanford. edu/archives/win2012/entries/pascal-wager/ Martin, Robert, The St. Petersburg Paradox, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . Hacking, Ian, 1980, â€Å"Strange Expectations†, Philosophy of Science 47: 562-567. According to Pollock (1986), you might be a brain floating in a vat filled with nutrient fluid. You do not realize that you are a brain in a vat because this brain is wired to a computer program that produces stimulation in brain to cause experiences that are qualitatively indistinguishable from normal experiences of being a human being. The problem lies exactly in that whether you are a brain in a vat or not, everything seems to be the same to you. Many philosophers have attempted to prove that you are not a brain in a vat and their approaches seem to be valid. Among those, Moore’s argument and Putnam’s argument are two influential but different approaches. This essay tries to show that you cannot use either of these arguments to prove that you are not a brain in a vat. While going through Moore’s argument seems to be an easy way to show that you are not a BIV (brain in a vat), it is not difficult to show how this approach is flawed either. By Moore’s argument, first you open your eyes and form perceptual knowledge that you have hands. Then you deduce that you are not a BIV which does not have hands and thereby you come to know that conclusion. However, it should be argued in the first place that your senses are not reliable. As Descartes argued in Meditations (1986), while you might form the perception that you are wearing a dress in the dream, you are actually undressed in your bed. The flaw in the logic of this approach can be demonstrated in the following analogous story. You see an empty glass on a table. The glass looks orange and in fact it is. You form perceptual knowledge that the glass is orange. You deduce that it is not colorless and filled with orange juice. You thereby come to know that the glass does not appear orange to you because it is colorless with orange juice filled in it. By assuming that there is orange juice in the glass, you establish that the glass does not appear orange to you because it is colorless with orange juice filled in it. Here the problem is that there is no orange juice and you are trying to prove there is orange juicy by assuming its existence. For the same token, if you are a BIV, then the hands that you perceive are hands* produced by one feature of the computer program. The premise asserting that you form a perception of hands is assuming that you are not a BIV and therefore can form a perceptual knowledge of hands. This is begging the question because we want to prove that we are not BIV. Therefore, you cannot prove that you are not a BIV by going through Moore’s argument. Another famous discussion is Putnam’s semantic arguments. One problem of this approach is the narrow scope of the arguments. Putnam started his arguments by drawing analogy between the mental image of a Martian and that of a BIV. Claiming that Mars does not have tree, Putnam established that BIV’s utterance of ‘tree’ has a different referent from the referent of a non-BIV speaking of a tree. While it is possible that you have always been a BIV since you come into being, so you have never seen a tree that a non-BIV sees. It is also possible that you have lived certain part of your life as a non-BIV and then at some point you are made into a BIV. For example, if you recall in The Problems of Knowledge (Pollock, 1986), by the time that Margot tells Mike that he is a brain in a vat, he has been a brain in a vat for three months. According to Margot, Henry, or the brain in a vat that Mike sees, receives a fictitious mental life that merges perfectly into Henry’s past life. To merge perfectly, the language and its referents that the computer generates for Henry must be indistinguishable from those before his envatment. Similarly, if Mike has been speaking English up until three months ago when he was envatted, his utterance of ‘Margot’ after envatment must have the same referent as the one he had before. It must be that now his words retain the same English referents to the same contents in order to achieve a perfect merge (Brueckner, 2012). This perfect merge makes brain* in a vat* the same as BIV, which means whether you are BIV or not, you always speak English rather than vat-English. Because there are no differences in the languages between BIV and non-BIV, the semantic arguments have nowhere to start in this case. Unless you know with certainty that all BIVs have been BIVs since they came into beings, you cannot use semantic arguments to prove that you are not a BIV. To summarize, Moore’s arguments appear to be an easy solution to the problem of knowledge, but these arguments are begging the question and therefore cannot refute the brain-in-a-vat hypotheses. It seems that Putnam’s arguments are more compelling, but still they fail to rule out all possible versions of the brain-in-a-vat hypotheses. Therefore, you cannot prove that you are a non-BIV by using either of these arguments. Works Cited Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960. Print. Pollock, John L. Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Totowa, NJ: Rowman Littlefield, 1986. Print. Brueckner, Tony, Skepticism and Content Externalism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ), URL = .

MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving Essay -- Expository Drinking Essay

MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving It is 2:20 in the morning when the phone rings. You are automatically startled and jump to pick it up after the second ring. That feeling in your stomach tells you that something is terribly wrong. It is the police on the other end of the line telling you that your daughter has been in a fatal accident. As the officer is talking, you seem to freeze and zone out. Your spouse is up now and takes the phone and talks to the officer to find out what is going on. You are in a state of shock as you both drive to the hospital so that you all can identify your daughter. When you become more coherent, you learn that a senseless fool who was drunk took your precious baby away from you. This is one phone call that parents all over America go to sleep praying every night that they will not get. It is horrifying to learn that your child has been in a car accident, but if the cause of the accident was a drunk driver then it is even worse. This is so because you know that it was someone’s cho ice to drink and drive and this led to the death of your child. Losing a child or a family member to drunk driving is hard fact to come to grips with. Losing someone you love is hard to deal with, yet when it is due to drunk driving it is hard for different reasons. There are support groups throughout the country that were created to aid people in dealing with the loss of some one that they loved. People who have to face these hardships need to know that there are others out there who want to help. Those suffering need to know ways in which they can support others in their same situation and ways in which they can help defeat the crime of drinking and driving. Probably the most famous group that helps people cope wi... ... audience and help get the message out that MADD wants to send. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is an organization that strives to stop drinking and driving, supports the victims of this crime and attempt to prevent underage drinking. This determined group of people is also known for the support that they give to the families of the victims. The websites of this organization are key in guiding those interested in helping or being helped. The websites are a great way to get involved in achieving their cause and learning more about MADD. Without the main website of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, some victims would go unsupported because of the lack of audiences. Works Cited MADD. 1 Oct. 2003. < http://www.madd.org/home/>. MADD Illinois. 2 Oct. 2003. (http://www.maddillinois.org/). MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving. 2 Oct. 2003. (http://www.madd.ca/).

Different Kinds of Joy Essay

The pursuit of happiness is a reoccurring theme in numerous novels. In the novel, Their Eye’s Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, what brings happiness differs to each character. To the main character Janie, happiness is found in love, but to her grandmother Nanny, happiness is found in security. At first, Janie does what Nanny wills her to. At the age of 16, Janie marries into security. She is safe, but unhappy. Still yearning for love, Janie runs away with Mr. Starks. With Starks, Janie is once again safe, but unhappy. Starks then passes away, and Janie finds her true love, Tea Cake. Through Tea Cake Janie re-realizes her dream of love and abandons Nanny’s dream of security, she descends into the muck with Tea Cake, learning to love life too. To find happiness, Janie has to step down from her pedestal and into the muck. Hurston efficiently uses this reverse metaphor to convey that happiness comes from mutual love, and that this can be found anywhere, even from the muck of society. Nanny’s ideals in life and Janie’s are different. To â€Å"take a stand on high ground† (p16) is the ideal for Nanny. Nanny wants Janie to marry into security. With security, Janie could be safe from the abuse that her grandmother and mother had experienced. At first, this is what Janie does even though it is not what she wants. She wants to be in love, â€Å"to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees and singing of the beginning of the world! † (p11). When Janie finds this, she realizes what Nanny’s dream had done to her. She realizes that her dreams had been â€Å"pinched it in to [into] such a little bit of a thing that she could tie her grandmother’s neck tight enough to choke her† (p89). With this realization, Janie’s dream rekindles. She realizes that mutual love, him loving her, and her â€Å"wants (wanting) to want him†, is all she needs to find love in life and herself. Janie’s search for love ends with Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake are at opposite ends of the social spectrum when they meet. Janie is known as Mrs. Mayor Starks, while Tea Cake is known as a â€Å"player. † Even though Tea Cake can offer her no security, he can offer her love and acceptance. When first meeting, Tea Cake asks Janie to play checkers. Janie â€Å"found (finds) herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted (wants) her to play. Somebody thought (finds) it natural for her to play† (p96). Tea Cake sees Janie as woman, not a trophy wife. And because of this, Janie sees Tea Cake as a lover, not a lowlife. Once Janie is able to love Tea Cake, she learns to love the muck as well. Janie thinks, â€Å"if people think de same they can make it all right. So in the beginnin’ new thoughts had tuh be thought, and new words said† (p115). Janie has to experience new things with Tea Cake, like the muck, in order to love and understand him even more. Once she accepts the muck, she becomes a part of it. Sometimes Janie would think of the old days in the big white house and the store and laugh to herself† (p134). This is because like Tea Cake, the muck accepts her. â€Å"Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk sometimes herself if she wanted to† (p134). Being in the muck is like being in love, except with place, and eventually with life. Even though the muck has no riches and is the lowest aspect in society, it doesn’t matter to Janie. In the muck, Janie is poor but she is accepted. Janie is loved, and Janie is happy. Janie has a dream of love and happiness, but her grandmother also has a dream of security. At first Nanny’s dreams overpowered her own, leading Janie into a secure but loveless marriage. Janie then becomes Mrs. Mayor Starks, which Nanny would have loved, but joy still eludes her. To find this joy, Janie has to find love. Then Tea Cake appears in her life, becoming her one and only. He gives her what she wants, a mutual love. Janie then moves to the muck with Tea Cake and learns to work. She is no longer Mrs. Mayor Starks, she is Janie. In the muck, she learns that love is trust and acceptance. She learns to find love in everything, even herself. Janie is now truly happy. Even in the lowest part of society.

bpo management system Essay

1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document describes the high level design for the CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping Application and the CHART Internet Mapping Application. The purpose of this design is to show the high-level technical approach to meeting the requirements defined in system requirements specification. This serves to identify the architecture of the system and high-level interactions between major system components. 1.2 Objectives Identify and describe the software architecture for the system. Provide  high-level approaches to various technical challenges. Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1.3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2.1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications.  The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: 1. Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. 2. When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML  data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2.2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. ArcSDE provides a set of API and administrative utilities that help manage the spatial data storage. For the CHART mapping systems, the combination of ArcSDE and SQL Server manages the spatial information in the relational database. ArcSDE adds spatial functionalities without disrupting standard SQL database capabilities. 2.3 Map Server (ArcIMS) ArcIMS includes a few components that will play important roles in the CHART mapping application. The workhorse component that processes the data and generates maps is the spatial server. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP.Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP.Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2.4 Web Server (IIS) .Net Framework and ASP.Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP.Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP.Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the .Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP.Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The .Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP.Net modules. The ASP.Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. 2.5 Security 2.5.1 Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2.5.2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc., the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2.5.3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i.e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it  against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2.5.4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2.5.5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3.1.1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still  utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3.1.2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3.1.3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the  Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. 5. Technical Challenges 5.1 Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5.1.1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For  CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5.1.2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5.1.2.1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5.1.2.2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5.1.3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5.1.4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5.1.5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display  based on the updated information. 5.2 Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the data in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display.   The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5.3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5.4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5.5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP.Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP.Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. 5.6 Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be  recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. 5.7 Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP.Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP.Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP.Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP.Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6.1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the  CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. 3. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. 5. PromptFrame will display the current tool selected and instructions for user activities. Here is a screen shot of the preliminary user interface design: 6.2 Internet Map Site User Interface The overall CHART Internet mapping web site design will stay the same as current web site. The site will stay as part of the overall CHART web site by including the CHART navigation menus into the site. The site will not be using frames; instead, all elements will be laid out as HTML tables. 7. References 1. CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification 2. CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification 3. Security and ArcIMS – ESRI White Paper 4. ArcSDE Configuration and Tuning Guide for Microsoft SQL Server – ESRI White Paper 5. ArcIMS 4.0 High-Availability Configuration Testing Using Network Load Balancing –ESRI White Paper 6. Vector Markup Language (VML) Specification – W3C 8. Terms and Glossary ArcXML – ESRI’s map request/response specification in XML format CORBA – Common Object Request Broker Architecture CSS – Cascading Style Sheets DOM – Document Object Model ESRI – Environment System Research Institute GIS – Geographic Information System GML – Geography Markup Language NLB – Network Load Balancing SSL – Secure Socket Layer SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics VML – Vector Markup Language XML – Extensible Markup Language

Conjugation of French Verb Entrer (to Enter)

Conjugation of French Verb Entrer (to Enter) The French verb  entrer means to enter and its a very useful word to know. As you use French in more conversations or travel to French-speaking regions, youll find forms of  entrer  everywhere. Just like with all verbs, when we want to say entered or entering, the verb needs to be conjugated. A short lesson will demonstrate how to do that. Conjugating the French Verb  Entrer Entrer  is not only a very common verb, it also follows a very common verb conjugation pattern. This is a  regular -ER verb  and it shares the same infinitive endings with similar verbs like  enseigner  (to teach),  exister  (to exist), and many others. As with all French verb conjugations, begin by identifying the verb stem:  entr-. We can then add a new ending to match the present, future, or imperfect past tense with the appropriate subject pronoun. For instance, I enter is jentre and we will enter is nous entrerons. The easiest way to memorize all these verb forms is to practice them in context. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities in everyday life to utilize  entrer. Subject Present Future Imperfect j' entre entrerai entrais tu entres entreras entrais il entre entrera entrait nous entrons entrerons entrions vous entrez entrerez entriez ils entrent entreront entraient The Present Participle of  Entrer The  present participle  of  entrer  is  entrant. Not only is it a verb, you can also use it as an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances. The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © To express the past tense entered, you can use either the imperfect forms or the  passà © composà ©. Forming the latter is quite simple and you might find it the easier option of the two. To construct it, begin by conjugating the  auxiliary verb  Ãƒ ªtre  according to the sentences subject pronoun. Then, add the  past participle  entrà ©. As an example, I entered becomes je suis entrà © and we entered is nous sommes entrà ©. More Simple  Entrer  Conjugations Should you find that the action of entering is subjective or uncertain, use the subjunctive verb mood. Similarly, the conditional verb mood implies that entering will only occur if something else happens. The possibility of needing the passà © simple or the imperfect subjunctive is low. Thats because these are primarily reserved for writing. Yet, knowing them will help your reading comprehension. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j' entre entrerais entrai entrasse tu entres entrerais entras entrasses il entre entrerait entra entrà ¢t nous entrions entrerions entrà ¢mes entrassions vous entriez entreriez entrà ¢tes entrassiez ils entrent entreraient entrà ¨rent entrassent Forming short, direct commands or requests is very easy with the imperative verb form. When using this, the subject pronoun is not required, so tu entre can be entre. Imperative (tu) entre (nous) entrons (vous) entrez

The Whys and Hows of Paraphrasing

The Whys and Hows of Paraphrasing The Whys and Hows of Paraphrasing The Whys and Hows of Paraphrasing By Mark Nichol Paraphrasing, rewording of spoken or written content, is a necessary skill for every writer. This post discusses the purposes of process of paraphrasing. Why Paraphrase? Quoting directly without attribution is plagiarism, an offense against those responsible for crafting the original message. In a scholarly setting, it constitutes academic dishonesty, which when committed by students is punished with a failing grade, suspension, or expulsion; it also compromises their future in academia. In the case of faculty or academic researchers, it signals a lack of integrity and can ruin one’s career. Even with attribution, however, extensive direct quotation in course assignments or in scholarly research is discouraged; some sources recommend that no more than 10 percent of an academic paper or article consist of exact wording from a research source. In both trade books and scholarly publishing, the same benchmarks seems appropriate; journalism is more accepting, but direct quotation consisting of more than 25 percent of an article (except in the case of a question-and-answer interview) is likely to be regarded as excessive. Why should paraphrasing predominate? The purpose of academic writing is not to exactly reproduce the findings and interpretations of others; it is to report findings and interpretations and produce commentary on them, extrapolate and evaluate, and make new inferences, as well as to synthesize multiple sources. Therefore, academic writing should summarize the work of others, reproducing content verbatim only when a strikingly original conclusion, or a statement that should be clearly attributed as exact wording, merits inclusion in the secondary work. In journalistic writing, quotations often add color and vibrancy to an article. Precise reproduction of some of a subject’s or source’s comments conveys the person’s character and personality or lends authority. However, just as with scholarly prose, direct quotation should be the exception, not the rule; the reporter’s task is to describe an event or issue or to create an impression for readers who were not present during an incident or an interview. Paraphrasing also allows reorganization of sources’ or subjects’ statements not in order to manipulate the comments with the intent to mislead, but to improve the narrative flow or place randomly uttered thoughts in coherent chronological order. This technique also enables writers to impart information that is valuable or integral but was not expressed well. How to Paraphrase Paraphrasing is simple: Read a passage from a source, or examine your notes from an interview, and imagine you’re sharing the information with others which is exactly what you’re doing. Strive to find a simpler, more direct way to describe what you’ve read; it’s acceptable to use the same word now and then, and you may occasionally employ partial direct quotations to reproduce key phrases, but always remember that your goal is to report, not reproduce. And though you may consider the source content better stated than what you can produce, be confident that your paraphrase will be good enough. How would you paraphrase a passage like the first sentence of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? Here’s the source material: â€Å"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.† Lincoln’s strategy for placing the event he refers to in chronological context is eloquently poetic, but a paraphrase need only provide the context: â€Å"Almost a hundred years ago† is sufficient. The nouns identifying the actors, the locale, and the result are easily replaced with predecessors (or, more colorfully, forebears or â€Å"those who came before us†), land, and country, and â€Å"brought forth† can be rendered formed: â€Å"Those who came before in this land us formed a new country† says the same thing as the rest of the first phrase of the original. â€Å"Conceived in liberty† can be rewritten â€Å"created while fighting for freedom.† The paraphrase of the final phrase, meanwhile, could consist of the words â€Å"inspired by the idea of human equality.† The result, not as stirring, but serviceable, is reportage that says, â€Å"According to the speaker, almost a hundred years ago, those who came before us in this land formed a new country while fighting for freedom and inspired by the idea of human equality.† However, the restatement unnecessarily retains the syntax and is wordier than necessary (and wordier than the original text). Keep trying: â€Å"The speaker said that our forebears, believing in human equality, formed a new country here when they fought for freedom almost a hundred years ago.† If you wished to insert at least a few words of the original wording, you might delete the phrase about freedom and throw in â€Å"conceived in liberty,† set off by commas and framed in quotation marks, after here. As you paraphrase, keep in mind that the key to the process is distillation of the source material to its essence with or without commentary, depending on whether interpretative content is expected from the paraphrasing writer. 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 Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Addressing A Letter to Two People8 Proofreading Tips And TechniquesEach vs. Both

Describing a situation where leadership was properly exemplified or Essay

Describing a situation where leadership was properly exemplified or not - Essay Example Ethical issues / Behavior The leadership style of Nelson Mandela is exemplified in the way he handled ethical issues that came his way. Mandela had a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong. He did not let societal prejudices and his former experiences determine how he handled things. He was a man of high ethics, and that is why he fought against the social injustices that were being meted out against South Africans. His belief in doing the right thing landed him in jail, but even this did not stop him from fighting for the rights of others (25). His ethical leadership is also seen in the way he handled the AIDS scourge in South Africa. While many leaders chose to not talk about the topic, Mandela took the bull by the horns. The death of his son that was caused by AIDS did not stop him from speaking about the disease and this not only helped reduce stigmatization of people suffering from the disease, it also helped create awareness (Limb 46). Political Perspective The leade rship qualities that Mandela possessed enabled him to steer a country torn apart by racial segregation to prosperity. He was a well loved figure among the African majority who had suffered a lot under the apartheid regimes. He could have used his power and his popularity to avenge himself and his people. However, he had the insight of a great leader, and so this is one path that he avoided. Instead, he decided to use his political clout to unite the people of South Africa. His political legacy speaks for itself. Though he had the power to ‘punish’ the whites in South Africa, he chose the path of humility and forgiveness (Boehmer 41). His decision to keep South Africa politically stable by avoiding any activities that could have given rise to racial tensions may have saved the nation from political turmoil. Many African leaders are known to hold on to power even when their time to give it up has come and gone. For Nelson Mandela, he did not hold onto power for longer tha n was necessary. He was ready to give others a chance to lead South Africa, even though he was still popular enough to continue being the president. It could be said that Mandela showed a level of political maturity that is very rare in the African continent. He paved the way for a peaceful transition of leadership and this put him up amongst the most respected politicians not only in Africa, but in the whole world as well. His exemplary political leadership is not only appreciated in South Africa, Mandela has proved to be a reliable and respectable statesman in his international missions (58). Economical Perspective When South Africa gained majority self rule in 1994, many pundits thought that the country would suffer economically. Their opinions were shaped mainly by what had occurred in many African countries where poor leadership had disintegrated the economy. However this was not to be during Mandela’s tenure as president (Limb 87). He was a focused leader who did not le t little matters of perceived racial discrimination affect the way he run his country. This way he was able to retain the investments that had so far made South Africa the economic powerhouse it was. His leadership was also very clean and open, in that he did not condone any form of corruption. He was an honest individual and he led using an honesty policy (Boehmer 94). Social

The impact of advertisement on female customers in Doha Research Paper

The impact of advertisement on female customers in Doha - Research Paper Example This "The impact of advertisement on female customers in Doha" essay outlines the effect of an ad on the society. According to Brooks (2008), recent trends in Doha’s advertisement content suggest that 70% of people seen in food advertisements belong to the female gender. These advertisement figures are usually of lean and slender body shapes. This creates perceptions that slender and lean figure represents the ideal body weight of women in modern societies. Relevant psychological studies indicated that portrayal of idealized thinness in the advert media falls contrary to actual average body weight of female consumers around Doha. In this case, women tends to develop negative moods and personal perceptions whenever their actual body weights fall short of the idealized body figures seen in advertisements. The worst part is that these adverts largely communicate messages on fast food. As a result, female population usually tries to emulate the celebrities in advertisement by consuming the advertised fast food products. In this context, social studies indicate that teenage girls in Doha are unhappy about their actual body weights. Brooks (2008) emphasize that they are striving to consume fast food in an effort to attain idealized body weights seen women within commercial adverts. Importance of this research comes in on the effect of fast food consumption among the teenage population. It is undeniable that fast food presents negative health results like obesity and high cholesterol level in the body. In this case, the research seeks to ascertain the role of advertisements in influencing current nutritional trends witnessed among the female population in Doha. In the essay, we acknowledged earlier that this research paper