General Motors

General Motors Outsourcing is perhaps one of the most common terms in the HR organs of the companies of the twenty-first century. In its basic sense, outsourcing HR means employing the services of an external agency in the recruitment and selection of candidates on behalf of the internal HR department of an organization.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on General Motors Outsourcing HR specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Perhaps a global example is SEEK, an Australian based company that advertises, recruits and places staff on behalf of other companies. Even though General motors does not directly through its top management issue out human resource outsourcing contracts, its human resource department is keen to deploy this strategy to cut on the costs of the department. One would ask why large companies such as General Motors would contemplate outsourcing its human resource duties, yet it can afford to run such a department. Acc ording to Patriot HR (2004), this is why small organizations do the same: â€Å"cut on costs, increase productivity, and provide a higher level of service to employees† (Para. 1). Concurrently, IBM Global Process Services (2011) â€Å"Automate and streamline HR processes and put transactions employees fingertips† (Para. 3). Outsourcing may happen both to local companies and even in overseas. For instance, as Patriot HR sheds light, in 2004, â€Å"An HRO was handling benefits administration for 1.2 million General Motors employees, retirees, and dependents. General Motors Europe also outsourced human resources functions for personnel in 10 different countries† (2004, Para 1). By outsourcing staff recruitment responsibilities, HR department has many opportunities to focus more on other core strategic activities. People have voiced quite a lot of unscrupulous news across the world about outsourcing. Take for instance the scenario in which â€Å"Texas has put IBM o n notice where Indiana has sued IBM, which in turn has sued Indiana† (Global services 2011, Para.1). In the core of all these stalemates is the perception of outsourcing contracts going haywire. However, on the other hand, General Motors perhaps has a different story to tell about its human resource outsourcing all together. People Strong, a HR Company based in India, Seven Step, and ACS are perhaps some of the companies that offer recruitment services to General Motors.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Talent Management (2012) informs that â€Å"Seven Step, a provider of outsourced recruitment services, announced that General Motors (GM) has chosen it as GMs exclusive recruitment services partner to manage all salaried recruiting and hiring activities in its North American operations†(Para 1). On the other hand, according to HRO Today in 2009, ACS, â€Å"a premier provider of business process and information technology solutions, announced the commencement of services under a new human resources servicing contract with General Motors Corporation (GM) as the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer† (2009, Para 1). Under the terms of contract, ACS was to take up non-core HR chores, which was one of the strategies that GM adopted in an attempt to remain competitive by taking advantage of the ACS immense HR capabilities. Additionally, HRO Today reckons that the terms of contract permitted ACS to â€Å"provide comprehensive HR services for GM’s European entities in 10 countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom† (2009, Para 3). This move immensely satisfies Alexander Cheri, the GM European vice president. In support of the move, HRO Today records him commending that â€Å"We are extremely impressed by the level and range of services we will be receiving as part of this agreement with ACS† (2009, Para 8). In this end, it is somewhat evident that GM not only deploys HR outsourcing in the US, but also in every other place where it has established its global presence. With the HR outsourcing, General Motors leaps from the three-T: talent, technology and transformation, model (Stone 2003, p.14: Vosburgh 2003, p.19) of HR management in perhaps all its operational centers across the globe. Other corporations can also profile such excellence on the strategies already put in place by GM in the yet not so old global methodology of cost reduction: HR outsourcing. References Global Services., 2011. IT Outsourcing: market dynamics. Available at globalservicesmedia.com/IT-Outsourcing/Market-Dynamics/GM,-NC-Have-Sights-on-Outsourcing/22/28/9888/GS100730858617.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on General Motors Outsourcing HR specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More HRO Today., 2009. ACS Announces New Human Resources Servicing Contract with General Motors for European Operations. Available at hrotoday.com/news/2619/acs-announces-new-human-resources-servicing-contract-general-motors-european-operations. IBM Global Process Services., 2011. Human Resource Outsourcing. Available at http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/en/it-services/human-resources-outsourcing-services.html. Patriot HR. 2004. Who is outsourcing. Available at patriothr.com/Public/companies.aspx. Stone, A. 2003. The Intranet Boom. Philadelphia Business Journal, 3(2), pp.17-18. Talent Management., 2012. GM makes seven step excusive recruiting partner. Available at http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/gm-makes-seven-step-exclusive-recruiting-partner. Vosburgh, R., 2003. The state of the human resources profession in 2003: An interview with Dave Ulrich. Human resource planning, 26(1), pp.18-22.

Free Online Public Schools for Connecticut Students

Free Online Public Schools for Connecticut Students Connecticut offers resident students the opportunity to take online public school courses for free. Below is a list of no-cost online schools currently serving elementary and high school students in Connecticut. In order to qualify for the list, schools must meet the following qualifications: classes must be available completely online, they must offer services to state residents, and they must be funded by the government. Virtual schools listed may be charter schools, state-wide public programs, or private programs that receive government funding. List of Connecticut Online Charter Schools and Online Public Schools CT Virtual Learning Center (off-site link) About Online Charter Schools and Online Public Schools Many states now offer tuition-free online schools for resident students under a certain age (often 21). Most virtual schools are charter schools; they receive government funding and are run by a private organization. Online charter schools are subject to fewer restrictions than traditional schools. However, they are reviewed regularly and must continue to meet state standards. Some states also offer their own online public schools. These virtual programs generally operate from a state office or a school district. State-wide public school programs vary. Some online public schools offer a limited number of remedial or advanced courses not available in brick-and-mortar public school campuses. Others offer full online diploma programs. A few states choose to fund â€Å"seats† for students in private online schools. The number of available seats may be limited and students are usually asked to apply through their public school guidance counselor. (See also: 4 Types of Online High Schools). Choosing a Connecticut Online Public School When choosing an online public school, look for an established program that is regionally accredited and has a track record of success. Be wary of new schools that are disorganized, are unaccredited, or have been the subject of public scrutiny. For more suggestions on evaluating virtual schools see: How to Choose an Online High School.

How To Be Idle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

How To Be Idle - Essay Example Individual benefits can easily come from having an early evening drink, meditating, and rambling about aimlessly. While societal benefits may be more easily found in savoring the mid-day meal, leisurely naps, and conversing with people. Though touting the benefits of alcohol may start rumors of alcoholism, it can have benefits physically and figuratively. The evening drink marks the end of the work day. All the frustration, endless reports, and endless traffic now become a distant memory against the backdrop of cheerful conversation and the promise of a relaxing evening. Hodgkinson likens this to a transformation into Buddhism, where thoughts of past or future cease and only the present remains. He paints the picture rather well that it is at this time that people become their â€Å"own master's once more† broken free from the chains of â€Å"wage slavery† (113). It is true that there are those who would take this evening drink and continue into a stupor, but that would be missing the point. The point is to become reinvigorated, not comatose. Achieving a balance of working hard while still pursuing other interests in life including daydreaming is important for people if the goal is quality of life. Hodgkinson suggests using general moments of idleness to meditate, or simply day dream such as waiting for a friend, or bus or while being stuck in a traffic jam (228) . Meditation is world renown as being a soothing exercise to de-stress, and clear one's mind. This helps people to realign themselves with what is really important in life and releases them from that feeling of bondage that the modern trappings of consumerism and debt can have. Some promise that alternative lifestyles will help to free oneself from the feeling of bondage, but consequently they only offer an â€Å"alternative set of rules† that have their own complications (Hodgkinson 228). Of course, it is difficult to ignore the honking of cars and the endless dribble of half hear d conversations, but it is achievable and certainly admirable in the attempt. Walking around aimlessly was once the sole right of the elderly, but no longer. Granted it is not a requirement to be without a destination when rambling, but it is crucial not be fixated on it. Take in the sights. Smell the roses, so to speak. Be a loafer. It is amazing what a person can find when not looking. In truth, rambling is another form of meditation. It is meant to gain appreciation and wonder for everyday scenes like a leaf falling from a tree or the way the clouds move with an oncoming storm. Henry Thoreau said that it is easy â€Å"to become a slave driver of yourself† (qtd. in Hodgkinson 228). Rambling is a way of unlocking the chains of slavery that we have placed on ourselves much like the evening drink unchains us from the bondage of the work place. There was once a time when the mid-day meal meant something in society other than just an energy boost to employees so they can keep sl ugging away at the office or factory. It was a chance to get shade from the sun, catch up with friends, and take a leisurely nap. In short, it was a real energy boost. Right now in most western countries it is simply a legal obligation on behalf of the boss. Otherwise, it seems doubtful a person would ever see it. The average Joe looks forward to lunch all morning only to barely get enough time to eat it.

Bridging the Global Digital Divide Research Paper

Bridging the Global Digital Divide - Research Paper Example The growth of information technology in a country highly depends on the extent to which policy makers in the country recognize the importance of information and communication technology to the country. The policy makers might come in handy when it comes to things like regulations, taxation, incentives and many others. Some developing countries impose a lot of taxes on ICT related companies thinking that, through taxation, the country’s economy is likely to grow (Brooks, Donovan & Rumble, 2005). One thing that they tend to forget that high taxation can hinder the entrance of new players into this industry. Therefore, the country’s economy lacks the contribution of ICT to its economy. Most developing countries lack the appropriate infrastructure that can enable effective application of information and communication technology in the country. This leads to low level of accessibility of services that ICT can offer to the countries’ economy. The ultimate result of thi s is a scenario in which developing countries are unable to have the complete advantage of ICT being used in their economic sectors. Poor infrastructure also leads to poor performance of the ICT related industries which in a way reflect to the general economic performance of the countries. ... The result of this is that their performance turns out to be lower than the performances of the same types of businesses in developed countries (Norris, 2003). The high prices not only affect the economic sector but also other sectors such education and even social life. Being that most developing countries are always in the struggle of trying to attain economic stability, financial resources that are required for development of ICT infrastructure might in some instances be unavailable. The unavailability is always makes it hard for developing countries to invest highly in ICT infrastructure. The eventual outcome of this is economic, educational, and social institutions that have limited or no access to ICT services and resources (Yu, 2006). The effect of this lack of access to ICT resources is heightened by the ignorance of the level to which ICT can improve the effectiveness of these institutions. In the developing countries, language can also be a hindrance to the application of I CT. Television programs, radio programs, computer software, and on line sites always use languages used in the countries in which these appliances have been developed. Given that very few of these appliances are developed in the developing countries, the local people might have a hard time trying to conform to technological assimilation. This factor makes the application of ICT in almost all aspects of human life in developing countries very hard. Studies have even proved that the low rate of growth of ICT is contributed to by stereotypes that have depicted ICT as a highly complex thing. People from developing countries have the tendency of associating ICT to people with affluence and not just everybody. In most developing countries, ICT

Heros Of Today And Heros Of Yesterday Essay Example for Free

Heros Of Today And Heros Of Yesterday Essay Heroes by todays standards can be many things, such as firefighters, teachers, or cops. This wasnt always what the word hero was once intended to mean. What a hero is in present day is surprisingly different than what a hero once was. In ancient times one was only called a hero if they were the strongest, bravest, smartest and the most warlike. During the course of time, the definition of what a genuine hero is has changed and the role and form of a hero has been altered, but yet some things remain the same between the two known meanings of the word. Although there has been drastic changes to the meaning of a hero, deep down some qualities remain unaffected. Heroes of yesteryears and heroes of today still manifest, while not in the same physical forms but the same spiritual forms. Beowulf, Hercules, Achilles, and other heroes of past ages all have the same motives, drives, and characteristics. A great example of how a hero acted in ancient times is in the story Beowulf. In the story Beowulf hears that a friend of his fathers is in need of help, so he bravely went to his aide, it took his courage to help out the way he did. He fought Grendle with his godlike strength and after a great battle, prevailed. Being brave, strong, alert, determined, honest, bold, are all the things that made them heroes. Today, if you look at the men and women that are known for being heroes you will see a great similarity in their bravery, courage, and intelligence. In these ways they are greatly the same. The image of a hero that ancient stories and books told were slightly different than the heroes in our modern tales. An example of an ancient heros behavior that is not inhabited by modern heroes is again in Beowulf. In the story, Beowulf goes into Herot Hall, sits down and begins to boast and brag about his previous battles, as if to say he is better than everyone else. Another example is later on in the story when Beowulf kills Grendel and hangs his bloody arm over the Hall for everyone to see. Seeing how they had perfect physiques and were loud, cocky, and selfish, those things are not needed by todays heroes and some of these more barbaric qualities are even discouraged by todays society. In current time heroes neednt be  physically strong, nor have muscles and if they are cocky and brag and claim to be better than everyone else, they will be looked down upon. A hero in the public eye differs from my personal definition of a hero. I along with many others have a personal hero. My hero is my father, now I really doubt that anyone else would choose him as his or her hero, but I do. He does have a few qualities of a hero such as being strong, brave, and courageous, but the reasons I believe him to be a hero are different. He isnt like any other person, when I talk to him about problems and ask him questions he listens and actually helps me out and gives me answers and solutions that are acceptable to me, he helps understand answers instead of just giving me right ones. He tries to be a perfect father, which is an unattainable goal but I value his efforts and respect him for trying.

The Absurdity of Consumeristic Truth :: Essays Papers

The Absurdity of Consumeristic Truth Imagine a world devoid of a God, where tangible objects and experiences such as clothing and movie watching have come to define and fulfill an entire society. Imagine a culture lacking any philosophical truth, where each individual is running wildly about in their isolated schedules, gleaning comfort and love from any inanimate object that can provide such, in whatever shape or form. Imagine a world where imperfect humans turn to themselves in the search for perfection, and the ultimate source of perfection is blatantly denied for the simple reason that it is too perfect to be understood. Such is the world according to Camus, such is the world that surrounds those that believe in a perfect God, and such is the American world in which you and I live. If one were to understand the purpose and mystery of human life as the coping with ultimate fear, whether it be death, pain, or meaninglessness, then it is possible to discuss the drastically different coping mechanisms that Camus and Christianity set forth. Both present a method in which to approach the phenomenon of fear, yet when it comes to actualizing a solution to the mystery, they turn to very different ends. The result is a society that has been left all the more confused, and has turned to both solutions in order to deal with the overwhelming fear and fundamental lack of truth that is prevalent in today’s post-modernistic philosophy. Of the many themes and philosophies that Camus struggled with during his life and presented to the world through his writings, one of the more prevalent was that of the absurd. According to Camus, the world, human existence, and a God are all absurd phenomenons, devoid of any redeeming meaning or purpose. Through Mersaults’ epiphany in The Stranger, where he opens himself to the â€Å"gentle indifference of the world†, we see how Camus understands the world to be a place of nothingness, which demands and desires nothing from humans. He further explores this philosophy in The Plague, where the world of indifference is understood as a world of fear, which takes a symbolically tangible form in the plague itself. In The Plague the citizens of Oran fear that which they cannot control, understand or fight. They are faced with the most fundamental experiences of life and death, and it is only in the end that a very few find a way to cope with and understand these two ultimatum s.

Internal

In this essay I am notifying how we as humans except reality as which it's presented. As a child I always looked forward to loosing plethora of teeth, because that meant the tooth fairy was coming to see me. For any child, it's easy to believe, because your mind is still developing new things. â€Å"For Instance, growing up believing in fairy tales that only existed to me, since it was always easy to dream.Everyday as my life continued, â€Å"l felt as if it was a replete with interpretation that never made me want to question reality. † Until one day reality came to my actualization, tooth fairies were never real it was all a dream. It wasn't until I was 1 1 years old my whole perception had begun to change. Every late night I went to bed on time after loosing a tooth. It was as if it was all a daily routine to go to sleep wake up and find a tooth right under your pillow.The money under the pillow didn't last for long, till I woke and saw my parents placing twenty-five cents there. So many times as a kid, I would always believe everything I heard, if my dad said Santa was real, of course I was good every Christmas and year. The reason I never questioned or asked myself these little things that mattered so much to me, it all came natural. Finally, growing up realizing how important my initial perception was I felt as if I should have known earlier.

Connection of Figurative Language in the Scarlet Ibis

â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis†, there is a multitude of figurative language used to underline the theme that is repeated in Naomi Long Midget's poem â€Å"Woman with Flower†, ultimately enlightening the reader with a true moral of don't be exceedingly prideful and work something before it is ready. â€Å"Woman with Flower† introduces readers to a woman who is trying to shelter her flower and make it perfect, rather than letting it take its own path and literally letting it grow into a beautiful flower.The poem reflects the short prose â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† via figurative language. An example would be, â€Å"Much growth is stunted by too careful prodding. † This personifies the flower with human like attributes of being sheltered and protected, like many youth are in present time. â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† can also relate to that because of the narrator's need for Doodle's success, not so much for Doodle, but for the narrator's own pride. â€Å"The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. Demonstrates the underlying thought of the prose', when do we leave someone to Geiger life on their own terms, and when do we Intervene and help out? The narrator in â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† struggles to find the answer to this query as he teaches Doodle to walk and become what society views as a normal little boy. In the end of the prose, he makes an irrational decision due to his dwindling patience.

Study Guide to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Poem “Kubla Khan”

Study Guide to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Poem â€Å"Kubla Khan† Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that he wrote â€Å"Kubla Khan† in the fall of 1797, but it was not published until he read it to George Gordon, Lord Byron in 1816, when Byron insisted that it go into print immediately. It is a powerful, legendary and mysterious poem, composed during an opium dream, admittedly a fragment. In the prefatory note published with the poem, Coleridge claimed he wrote several hundred lines during his reverie, but was not able to finish writing out the poem when he woke because his frenzied writing was interrupted: The following fragment is here published at the request of a poet of great and deserved celebrity [Lord Byron], and, as far as the Author’s own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the ground of any supposed poetic merits.In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in Purchas’s Pilgrimage : â€Å"Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.† The Author continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confiden ce, that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of t he latter!Then all the charmIs brokenall that phantom-world so fairVanishes, and a thousand circlets spread,And each mis-shape the other. Stay awile,Poor youth! who scarcely dar’st lift up thine eyesThe stream will soon renew its smoothness, soonThe visions will return! And lo, he stays,And soon the fragments dim of lovely formsCome trembling back, unite, and now once moreThe pool becomes a mirror.Yet from the still surviving recollections in his mind, the Author has frequently purposed to finish for himself what had been originally, as it were, given to him: but the to-morrow is yet to come. â€Å"Kubla Khan† is famously incomplete, and thus cannot be said to be a strictly formal poem- yet its use of rhythm and the echoes of end-rhymes is masterful, and these poetic devices have a great deal to do with its powerful hold on the reader’s imagination. Its meter is a chanting series of iambs, sometimes tetrameter (four feet in a line, da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM) and sometimes pentameter (five feet, da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM). Line-ending rhymes are everywhere, not in a simple pattern, but interlocking in a way that builds to the poem’s climax (and makes it great fun to read out loud). The rhyme scheme may be summarized as follows: A B A A B C C D B D BE F E E F G G H H I I J J K A A K L LM N M N O OP Q R R Q B S B S T O T T T O U U O (Each line in this scheme represents one stanza. Please note that I have not followed the usual custom of beginning each new stanza with â€Å"A† for the rhyme-sound, because I want to make visible how Coleridge circled around to use earlier rhymes in some of the later stanzas for instance, the â€Å"A†s in the second stanza, and the â€Å"B†s in the fourth stanza.) â€Å"Kubla Khan† is a poem clearly meant to be spoken. So many early readers and critics found it literally incomprehensible that it became a commonly accepted idea that this poem is â€Å"composed of sound rather than sense.† Its sound is beautiful- as will be evident to anyone who reads it aloud. The poem is certainly not devoid of meaning, however. It begins as a dream stimulated by Coleridge’s reading of Samuel Purchas’ 17th century travel book, Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto the Present (London, 1617). The first stanza describes the summer palace built by Kublai Khan, the grandson of the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty of Chinese emperors in the 13th century, at Xanadu (or Shangdu): In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree Xanadu, north of Beijing in inner Mongolia, was visited by Marco Polo in 1275 and after his account of his travels to the court of Kubla Khan, the word â€Å"Xanadu† became synonymous with foreign opulence and splendor. Compounding the mythical quality of the place Coleridge is describing, the poem’s next lines name Xanadu as the place Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man This is likely a reference to the description of the River Alpheus in Description of Greece by the 2nd century geographer Pausanias (Thomas Taylor’s 1794 translation was in Coleridge’s library). According to Pausanias, the river rises up to the surface, then descends into the earth again and comes up elsewhere in fountains- clearly the source of the images in the second stanza of the poem: And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,A mighty fountain momently was forced:Amid whose swift half-intermitted burstHuge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:And ’mid these dancing rocks at once and everIt flung up momently the sacred river. But where the lines of the first stanza are measured and tranquil (in both sound and sense), this second stanza is agitated and extreme, like the movement of the rocks and the sacred river, marked with the urgency of exclamation points both at the beginning of the stanza and at its end: And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from farAncestral voices prophesying war! The fantastical description becomes even more so in the third stanza: It was a miracle of rare device,A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! And then the fourth stanza makes a sudden turn, introducing the narrator’s â€Å"I† and turning from the description of the palace at Xanadu to something else the narrator has seen: A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maid,And on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora. Some critics have suggested that Mount Abora is Coleridge’s name for Mount Amara, the mountain described by John Milton in Paradise Lost at the source of the Nile in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) an African paradise of nature here set next to Kubla Khan’s created paradise at Xanadu. To this point â€Å"Kubla Khan† is all magnificent description and allusion, but as soon the poet actually manifests himself in the poem in the word â€Å"I† in the last stanza, he quickly turns from describing the objects in his vision to describing his own poetic endeavor: Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight ’twould win me,That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice! This must be the place where Coleridge’s writing was interrupted; when he returned to write these lines, the poem turned out to be about itself, about the impossibility of embodying his fantastical vision. The poem becomes the pleasure-dome, the poet is identified with Kubla Khan- both are creators of Xanadu, and Coleridge is apeaking of both poet and khan in the poem’s last lines: And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dread,For he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise. The PoemNotes on ContextNotes on FormNotes on ContentCommentary and Quotations â€Å"...what he calls a vision, Kubla Khanwhich said vision he repeats so enchantingly that it irradiates and brings heaven and Elysian bowers into my parlour.†from an 1816 letter to William Wordsworth, in The Letters of Charles Lamb (Macmillan, 1888) Samuel Taylor Coleridge writing this poem â€Å"The first dream added a palace to reality; the second, which occurred five centuries later, a poem (or the beginning of a poem) suggested by the palace. The similarity of the dreams hints of a plan.... In 1691 Father Gerbillon of the Society of Jesus confirmed that ruins were all that was left of the palace of Kubla Khan; we know that scarcely fifty lines of the poem were salvaged. These facts give rise to the conjecture that this series of dreams and labors has not yet ended. The first dreamer was given the vision of the palace, and he built it; the second, who did not know of the other’s dream, was given the poem about the palace. If the plan does not fail, some reader of ‘Kubla Khan’ will dream, on a night centuries removed from us, of marble or of music. This man will not know that two others also dreamed. Perhaps the series of dreams has no end, or perhaps the last one who dreams will have the key....†from â€Å"The Dream of Coleridge† in Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952 by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Ruth Simms (University of Texas Press, 1964, reprint forthcoming November 2007)

Preventative vs. Preventive

Preventative vs. Preventive Preventative vs. Preventive Preventative vs. Preventive By Mark Nichol When you wish to refer to something that serves to prevent, which is the correct adjectival or noun form, preventative, or preventive? The latter word is more commonly cited, appearing by a ratio of three to one, but the longer variant is also widely employed, and with increasing frequency. Might, however, does not necessarily make right. So, which one is better? Both words date back to the 1600s, and the latter predates the former by a mere several decades. It retains the upper hand, however, for two reasons: First, the extra syllable is superfluous, and second, it is supported both by quality as well as quantity: The most respected publications favor preventive, while preventative is more likely to appear in print and online sources with less rigorous editorial standards. That’s a good enough reason to favor preventive. What about similar word pairs such as exploitative and exploitive, which both refer to underhandedly using someone or something to one’s advantage? Like preventative and preventive, the first attestations of these words are only a few decades apart, though they are much more recent coinages; exploitative goes back only to the late nineteenth century, and exploitive is less than a hundred years old. But there’s a significant difference between this word pair and the previous one: In this case, the longer form is widely considered the standard, and exploitive is the inferior alternative. Fortunately, the correct form of most words ending in -ive is obvious, as with cumulative, formative, and representative. But other endings can confuse, such as with the question of whether to use orient or orientate as a verb. In this case, each refers to facing the east, though only orient correctly applies to other references to setting or directing. Likewise, there is the case of systematic and systemic, both of which are valid terms, but with mostly distinct senses: Though both terms obviously pertain to systems, only systematic also refers to classification and to coherent, methodical, thorough procedures. Systemic generally connotes only biological systems and is neutral in value, as opposed to the qualitative senses of systematic. In summary, as a careful writer, research proper usage for word endings in order to avoid employing the incorrect of two similar words or a less favored variant. 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 Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesLoan, Lend, Loaned, Lent50+ Words That Describe Animals (Including Humans)

Discussion Board Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Discussion Board Question - Assignment Example The policies before and after 1986 had a uniform naturalization rule of setting a residence requirement of two years. Policies were expanded for exclusion and deportation of subversives whereby all aliens had to report their address every year. In 1988, a mandate was made to increase border patrol agents. The agents increased by twice as much by 2004. Also, there was provision to enhance national and border security by increasing border fencing, surveillance and detainment of unauthorized border crossing. Religion has influenced me in such a way that I am now able to work and get along with other people. Religion has enabled me to avoid engaging in unhealthy activities such as drug abuse. People are reluctant to talk about religion because some individuals have mystical experiences whereby, they tend to think that their relationship with religion is intimate and should not be divulged to others (Schaefer, 2011). Religion reflects conservative and liberal positions on social issues as it describes people’s views. For example, the conservative rules describe views of various Christians on specific issues unlike liberalism. Another example is that liberalism can support homosexuality in a society while conservative religion can reject