Dante

The Medieval Church played a far greater role in every person's life than it does today. Medieval people believed that God, Heaven and Hell all existed and from the very earliest of ages, they were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended. The control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land producing food for their families. They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods produced by the peasant farmers. As peasants had little money, they almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year. What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns; a lot of the stored grain would have been eaten by rats or poisoned by their urine. A failure to pay tithes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died. This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. Henry VIII dissolved the Church to get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them. You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, ... Dante Free Essays on Medieval Church/Dante The Medieval Church played a far greater role in every person's life than it does today. Medieval people believed that God, Heaven and Hell all existed and from the very earliest of ages, they were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended. The control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land producing food for their families. They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods produced by the peasant farmers. As peasants had little money, they almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year. What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns; a lot of the stored grain would have been eaten by rats or poisoned by their urine. A failure to pay tithes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died. This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. Henry VIII dissolved the Church to get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them. You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, ...

A Brief History of U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Relations

A Brief History of U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Relations Even though Palestine is not an official state, the U.S. and Palestine have a long history of rocky diplomatic relations. With Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas set to appeal for the creation of a Palestinian state at the United Nations on September 19, 2011- and the U.S. set to veto the measure- that foreign policy history is again in the spotlight. The story of U.S.-Palestinian relations is lengthy, and it obviously includes much of the history of Israel. This is the first of several articles on the U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli relationship. History Palestine is an Islamic region, or perhaps several regions, in and around the Jewish-state of Israel in the Middle East. Its four million people live largely in the West Bank along the Jordan River, and in the Gaza Strip near Israels border with Egypt. Israel occupies both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It created Jewish settlements in each place, and has waged several small wars for control of those areas. The United States has traditionally backed Israel and its right to exist as a recognized state. At the same time, the U.S. has sought cooperation from Arab nations in the Middle East, both to achieve its energy needs and to secure a safe environment for Israel. Those dual American goals have put Palestinians in the midst of a diplomatic tug-of-war for nearly 65 years. Zionism Jewish and Palestinian conflict began at the turn of the 20th Century as many Jews worldwide began the Zionist movement. Because of discrimination in the Ukraine and other parts of Europe, they sought territory of their own around the Biblical holy lands of the Levant between the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. They also wanted that territory to include Jerusalem. Palestinians also consider Jerusalem a holy center. Great Britain, with a significant Jewish population of its own, backed Zionism. During World War I, it took control of much of Palestine and maintained post-war control through a League of Nations mandate finalized in 1922. Arab Palestinians revolted against British rule on several occasions in the 1920s and 1930s. Only after Nazis staged mass executions of Jews during the Holocaust of World War II did the international community begin backing the Jewish quest for a recognized state in the Middle East. Partitioning and Diaspora The United Nations authored a plan to partition the region into Jewish and Palestinian areas, with the intention that each become states. In 1947 Palestinians and Arabs from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria began hostilities against Jews. That same year saw the beginning of a Palestinian diaspora. Some 700,000 Palestinians were displaced as Israeli boundaries became clear. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. The United States and most members of the United Nations recognized the new Jewish state. Palestinians call the date al-Naqba, or the catastrophe. Full-blown war erupted. Israel beat the coalition of Palestinians and Arabs, taking territory that the United Nations had designated for Palestine. Israel, however, was always felt insecure as it did not occupy the West Bank, the Golan Heights, or the Gaza Strip. Those territories would serve as buffers against Jordan, Syria, and Egypt respectively. It fought- and won- wars in 1967 and 1973 to occupy those territories. In 1967 it also occupied the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. Many Palestinians who had fled in the diaspora, or their descendants, found themselves again living under Israeli control. Although considered illegal under international law, Israel has also built Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. U.S. Backing The United States backed Israel throughout those wars. The U.S. has also continuously sent military equipment and foreign aid to Israel. American support of Israel, however, has made its relations with neighboring Arab countries and Palestinians problematic. Palestinian displacement and the lack of an official Palestinian state became a central tenet of much anti-American Islamic and Arabic sentiment. The United States has had to craft foreign policy that both helps keep Israel secure and allows American access to Arab oil and shipping ports.

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 5 Essay

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 5 - Essay Example Strategic human resourcing decisions with ethical dimensions help exploit the potential of workforce for higher creative output. An effective human resources strategy therefore helps to bring together diverse ideologies and interests of the workforce to promote common goals. The increasing pluralistic format of societies demand ethically delivered HR goals and objectives so as to ensure that people from diverse background enjoy equal opportunity at workplace. Tailor (2008) believes that cultural competencies of diverse workforce need to be exploited ethically for improving performance and gaining competitive advantage. Strategic HR decisions help to create cohesive workforce that highlights cross-cultural understanding, mutual respect and shared goals. Indeed, HR decisions are redefined in terms of shared vision and collective actions that rely on fair and non-discriminatory practices so as to meet new challenges successfully. Moreover, ethical considerations within recruitment, performance evaluation and promotion, training development etc. become pertinent issues for motivating workforce for higher productive outcome. They not only generate job security but also help inculcate higher sense of self-worth (Beardwell & Claydon, 2007). Thus, strategic HR decisions with ethical dimension have wider societal

The Positive Impact Of Online Social Networking In The Conflict Case Study

The Positive Impact Of Online Social Networking In The Conflict - Case Study Example Online social networking is of immense advantage to individuals, for example, by easing communication; however, the same does carry along its fair share of demerits, such as being a productive platform for protestors to incite others. It is noteworthy that online social networks are easily accessible to individuals as long as one has an Internet connection. Within these remarkable online platforms, individuals are able to send messages to each other, comment on each other’s activities and converse among themselves. Subsequently, if conflicts sprout, people within the online social networks are able to discuss more on the rows. Consequently, if there are any inciters among the users of the online platforms, they may take advantage and talk others into resulting in violence, maybe to act against the conflicts. Inciters can convince people to turn to violence in order to seek a resolution to a matter at hand by using impeccably articulated sly moves within the online social networks. During the recent conflicts, which erupted in Tunisia, the government censored various online routes of communication as a way of minimizing the conflicts. However, some of the online social networks were almost impossible to bloc k. In turn, people within Tunisia were able to attain enough information to build up more emotions that caused them to continue with the violent protests. According to an analysis presented by Sami Ben Gharbia, a Tunisian blogger, a lot of content that fuelled the protests had its origin from one of the leading online network sites in the world, the Facebook (Ghannam 16). Although the government in Tunisia put effort to curb communication and sharing of protest-related information via online social networks, it is a crystal that the main problem was the uncontrollable conveying of information.

Reading of Jane Austen(TM)s short stories Essay Example for Free

Reading of Jane Austen(TM)s short stories Essay From a reading of Jane Austens short stories what do we learn about womens lives in the late eighteenth century? In Jane Austens a collection of short stories Love and Friendship, she shows us the lives of women in the late eighteenth century, and what they have to deal with. These short stories are written in epistolary (letter) form between women who were friends at the time, these letters show us what their lives were about and what was considered to be important to them. Jane Austen writes about marriage, status, personal views and the attitude to what she saw, she also uses humour in her letters showing us how shallow women were in that time. For young women in the late eighteenth century marriage was very important and a woman who did not get married was considered worthless, all women were expected to get married. There were many important reasons to get married for a woman living in this time, the most important reason being having money. If a woman had no money she would be considered as having a bad status, because women when they were with their parents had no possession of their own. In the three sisters Mary is not sure about marrying Mr Watts she does not like him but she still considers marring him because he has a lot of money. He has a large fortune and will make great settlements on me. I hate him more than anybody else in the world. This shows us the amount of money he has is more important than the relationship and how happy they will be together. She decides to marry him if he will give her all she wants, this shows us how shallow the women could be and what they will do for possessions, she demands a new carriage hung as high as the Duttons, and blue spotted with silver; and I shall expect a new saddle horse, a suit of fine lace, and an infinite number of the most fine jewelsmust always let me do just as I please and make a very good husband. This shows us all the things she expects to get in marring him they are all but one material goods. This shows us that women in the eighteenth century were very much focused on marriage and how much money they could get out of it. If a woman did not get married she would either have to live with her mother or a paid female companion. Another alternative was to be a governess to a wealthy family; this was not a good thing to be because you would be treated a little better than a servant, they would neither be on the same level as the servants or the family. Young women in the late eighteenth century were considered well educated if they had plenty of accomplishment, these were things like sewing, singing, reading and entertaining their guests at a dinner party. In Lesley Castle, Margaret Lesley was writing to Charlotte Lutterell tell her what they did to pass the time in Scotland and what they do is we read, we work, we walk and when fatigued with these employments we relieve our spirits, either by a lively song, a graceful dance or by some smart bon-mot and witty repartee. This shows us that they did not do any challenging or intelligent type of work. The women in the late 18th century were also polite this shows us that this mattered in this time; we can see they are polite because they write long pleasant letters to each other. Lesley Castle demonstrates that it is important to have accomplishments in this time and it allowed them to get into a good marriage which was the most important thing in a young ladys life in the late eighteenth century. Not many girls of the time attended school but the few that did attended boarding school, would not learn to be clever they would only learn things like sewing and singing. Margaret Lesley and Charlotte Lutterell both went to boarding school together, it is four years since my removal from school. School was mostly for boys, some girls went to boarding school but the education was not very good because they did not need lessons and the teachers did not know what to teach them. Women in the late eighteenth century did not own anything or have any property for themselves. A womans inheritance would be given to a distant male relative the woman would never be given the whole of the money. The only way women could get money was through marriage, Mary only wants to marry Mr Watts because he has a large fortune and will make great settlements on me. She also expects the pinmoney; two hundred a year. Which Mr Watts only want to be a hundred and seventy-five. When Mary agrees to marry Mr Watts she expects him to build her an elegant greenhouse and stock it with plants a room on purpose and a theatre to act plays in. she also expects to be allow out of the house all the time she insists on spending every Winter in Bath, every Spring in town, every summer in taking some Tour, and every Autumn at a watering place. Marys mother is set on not letting such an opportunity escape of settling one of my daughters so advantageously. This shows us that money was not only important to the woman but also important to the rest of their family, to ensure that the family would stay with money. It would also be in a mans interest to marry someone with lots of money because some of the family money would be given to him for marring into the family. Marriage was based on material goods not on a relationship. If you did not marry you would have no money and possessions you could have from your father. In Lesley castle Charlotte Lutterell is worried what will happen if by this second marriage sir George should have a second family, our fortunes must be considerably diminished those jewels which once adorned our mother Matilda would no longer sit at the head of her fathers table. This shows us how easy it is to loose money and financial security. Female friendship in the late 18th century come over as shallow, because they are always judging each other Margaret Lesley calls her mother-in-law an insignificant dwarf. Where their mother-in-law Susan Lesley calls Margaret and Matilda scotch giants and continues I am sure they would frighten you out of your wits. This show us that women in the 18th century judge each other and think they look better than each other. There is also a lot of rivalry between friends Mary in The Three Sisters, says how I will triumph over the Duttons and the two families were friends; this shows us that was even rivalry between friends and even though they were nice to them to their faces they were horrible behind peoples backs. Manners and etiquette were more important than actual friendship; Susan Lesley and Charlotte Lutterell are only friends even though they are feed up with each other because she is too polite and I am too civil to say they still write letters which are still as frequent and as affectionate. This show us that women in the late eighteenth century are very selfish, and their lives were very shallow. We have learnt from reading Jane Austens short stories that women in the late eighteenth century had very little choice to what they could do because they had to marry to ensure that they would still have enough money to live. Life in the late eighteenth century for women was very much everyone out for themselves and they all had to fight over having a rich man and material goods better than everyone elses. Jane Austen did not like living in this time we can tell this because of the humour she uses with the women to show how important money was to them in The Three Sister Mary is very indecisive whether she should marry Mr Watts or not. Today we find it hard to compare with how they lived in the late eighteenth century because it is so different to how we live now. I am glad that we live in a society today which is more accepting to women and how both male and female should be treated the same. I also believe that Jane Austen would prefer to live in the society that we live in today because Jane Austen always humours the women in her collection of short stories.

Essay --

How different would the U.S. be if it were not energy dependent upon the Middle Eastern nations? It is estimated that the United States used over â€Å"18.6 million barrels per day (MMbd) of petroleum products during 2012†. (â€Å"How dependent are we on foreign oil?†) The U.S.’s dependence on oil has caused major difficulties regarding its military and economic status. However, biochemists in the U.S. have discovered new ways to decrease the U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil. By fermenting and distilling the sugars of corn, biochemists can create an organic compound called bioethanol (or denatured ethanol) that, when mixed with conventional gasoline, can be able to operate cars. Environmentalists have stated that ethanol may be more detrimental to the atmosphere than traditional gasoline. In addition, carmakers have noted that the use of ethanol may cause problems in cars’ engines. Does the benefit of America being energy dependent outweigh the speculated detrimental consequences of using ethanol? Ethanol is usually combined with traditional gasoline to create â€Å"gasohol† or gasoline and alcohol. â€Å"In fact, one-third of gasoline sold in the US is mixed with ethanol.† (Giametta) Adding ethanol lowers carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Carbon emissions occur when the fuel combustion of the car is not fully completed. An incomplete combustion may yield carbon, carbon monoxide, and other chemicals. Ethanol is thirty percent oxygen. Adding oxygen yields a more complete fuel combustion; therefore, it would lower the amount of carbon emissions. There are two types of ethanol gas that can operate regular, unmodified cars: E10 and E15. E10 has a concentration of ninety percent gasoline and ten percent ethanol, while ... ...uction can get rid of waste and make fuel. [Also] From farm to car, cellulosic ethanol releases less greenhouse gas than gasoline (86 percent less) and corn ethanol (52 percent less than gasoline).†(Nasr) Cellulosic ethanol shows promising benefits, but it also has its own share of consequences. It, like corn ethanol, will significantly decrease a car’s mpg. Growing the biomass needed to create the ethanol is another matter at hand. Will the U.S. have enough land to grow enough plant biomass to satisfy the demand? Cellulosic ethanol emits greenhouse gases as well, so in reality, it doesn’t particularly solve the problem of greenhouse gases. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to mass produce an alternative fuel without any detrimental consequences, but until that time arrives, I believe that corn ethanol isn’t worth the financial and environmental risks.

How Can Risk Influence Risk Premium Essay

Risk and return are the fundamental basis upon which investors make their decision whether or not they should invest in a particular investment. How they are related and the influence between the two, is the decision making process that all investors must weigh up. This essay will show how risk can influence risk premium, outlining their relationship and how risk and return are related. Within any investment there is a certain amount of risk, which must be taken into account by an investor when deciding to invest. Risk is defined as the chance of financial loss or, more formally the variability of returns associated with a given asset. This concept in finance is the idea that all investment carries a risk, the higher the risk, the greater the return, however the adverse is also relevant, when the risk of an investment is lower the return is expected to also be lower. However, with all investment there is never a guarantee of return. Return is the total gain or loss experienced on an investment over a given period of time. It is measured by the asset’s cash distributions plus change in value, divided by its beginning-of-period value. (Gitman, et al. , 2011, p. 08) Returns on investment are the motivation to all investors, however as all investment carries a risk, the investor must have a required and expected return on the investment. Expected return, is the return that an asset is expected to produce over some future period of time, while required return, is that which an investor requires an asset to produce if he/she is to be a future investor in that asset. It is here that we see the relationship between risk and return. With the expected and required return on an asset, an investor can calculate the return of an asset and its risk. Kidwell, et al. , 2007, p. 307) To better understand this relationship we must analyse risk premium. Risk premium refers to an asset’s expected rate of return and how that exceeds the risk free rate. The risk free rate is the interest rate of a stable investment usually a government bond or Treasury bill, which is used as a stabilizer and market equivalent in the calculation of the risk and return. (Kidwell, et al. , 2007, p. 307) The required rate of return is therefore based on the expectations of the investor. Risk premium is the compensation for making and undertaking an investment and risk. It is here that we bring all the above mentioned components of risk, return, and risk premium together to formulate: Required rate of return = Risk-free rate of return + Risk premium From this equation we see how risk can influence the risk premium and in turn affect the required rate of return. As risk premium is based on the investor’s compensation for undertaking the risk, we can surmise that the higher the compensation wanted by the investor, the higher the risk will have to be to gain the required rate of return.

In What Sense Does Technology Change Society

There is no doubt that technology is increasingly important in our modern society. It is amazing how fast technology has developed. In the last century major advancements have been invented. Modern society has had a great deal of change throughout the years. With the help of electronics people can also attain information in their home using the Internet. Technology has brought people from across the world together, but at the same time made communication less personal such as with texting and email. It was technology that helped man reach the moon and now we are planning to advance our technology to explore more into space. Technology can be viewed as having changed our culture. Technology is used for peaceful purposes and violence as well. Weapons were made to hunt for food and eventually used on each other since humans learned how to make them. Products such as Teflon and non-stick surfaces, which were created for the space program, make everyday life easier for millions of people. Computers allow us to analyze significant amounts of data and eliminate the need for paper. The Global Positioning System allows us to know where we are located while driving in our cars or using a cell phone. There are so many ways that technology has changed society, it is hard to even count them all. These are just a few ways that technology has influenced society and made our lives easier. With new technology, difficult tasks are made simple and easy to perform. Technology has brought about many changes in how we conduct day to day activities. It is always evolving and with it society changes as well. Aside from doing good technology can be used to cause harm to any society. In American society, teenagers who are our future are using texting in that it was not intended. Texting has become the new thing to do with young adults. Up until 6 years ago this word was not heard of, but now has brought about many legal issues people send exposing messages to each other. What should be examined is not whether technology is good or bad but rather how we decide to use it.

Seven Ways to Build Up Your Writing Confidence

Seven Ways to Build Up Your Writing Confidence Seven Ways to Build Up Your Writing Confidence Seven Ways to Build Up Your Writing Confidence By Ali Hale Do you ever worry that your writing isn’t good enough? Maybe you’re scared to let anyone read your latest short story. Or perhaps it’s worse than that – you find yourself agonising over every email that you write. You’re not alone. Most writers – even those who make a living from their craft – lack confidence at times. Writing is, after all, a daunting thing to do: you’re putting down your thoughts on the page and hoping that they’ll be worthy of someone else’s time and attention. A lack of confidence, though, can be crippling. It leads writers to give up before they’ve even begun – or to fret for hours over the simplest of writing tasks. Whether you’re struggling to get to grips with grammar or preparing to launch your third novel, you can become more confident. Here’s how. #1: Practice Writing – Regularly As a child, I had piano lessons. I didn’t much like having to practice – but I knew that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t get any better. It’s the same with writing. Some people love writing, others find it tedious: but either way, you’ll find that the more you practice, the more you’ll improve. That could mean: Spending ten minutes free-writing every morning Working through different writing exercises, so you get experience in several forms Deliberately working on the elements of writing that you find hard (e.g. if you write fiction, practice dialogue or description; if you write for work, practice those difficult emails) Writing a weekly post for your blog – no excuses! Write from a prompt (a word, phrase, question or image that inspires you) Your writing exercises might be for your eyes only – or you might choose to develop them into something more. Author E.J. Newman’s From Dark Places is a book of short stories that started as pieces written from prompts sent in by her â€Å"story of the month club†. #2: Read Widely You’re probably already reading a lot in your chosen genre or area – but try dipping into a book, magazine or blog that’s very different from what you’d normally choose. You’ll come across authors who are: Journalistic and factual, giving you the details without making any judgements about them Extremely personal and introspective, writing based on their own experiences Unconventional and creative with their use of language, perhaps coining new words and so on. There’s no one â€Å"correct† way to write a book, a blog post, or an article – and the more you read, the more you’ll realise that lots of different styles can be effective. You’ll learn new techniques, and you’ll also get a better feel for your own voice and style (look at what resonates with you – and what turns you off completely). #3: Take Time Over Your Writing If you don’t like writing, or if you find it anxiety-provoking, then you might be tempted to get it over with as quickly as possible. That’s not a great way to build your confidence. No writer – not even Shakespeare! – can produce a perfect piece of work in just one draft. By taking a little extra time to edit your work, you’ll realise that you can: Spot clumsy or ambiguous sentences and correct them Change words that aren’t quite right Fix any typos or spelling mistakes that have crept in I often advise writers to write a basic plan then produce a quick first draft, without worrying too much about quality: that way, they don’t get bogged down trying to perfect the first paragraph. After that, though, it’s important to edit rigorously. You’ll feel more confident about your work when you know you’ve given it enough time and attention. #4: Learn About Writing I’ve been writing with serious intent (i.e. hoping to get published!) for thirteen years now – half my lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books and ebooks about writing, I’ve subscribed to a writing magazine, I’ve taken several online courses, and I’ve completed an M.A. in Creative Writing. Obviously, I wouldn’t have progressed very far at all if I didn’t actually write (see #1!) – but I learnt a lot about the theory and practice of writing from all these resources. Whether you’re a brand-new writer or an old hand, there’s something you can learn. Look out for: Blogs on writing (like this one) – a great place to start learning for free. Books about your specific area or genre – try your library Specialised ebooks and ecourses – you might want to start with 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid Writing conferences where you can attend lectures and workshops Degree programs – a big investment of time and money, but a great way to study writing in a thorough and rigorous way, alongside other students #5: Ask For Feedback This one requires a bit of bravery but it’s a great way to give your writing confidence a real boost. Ask someone for feedback. Ideally, pick a writer or tutor who you know and trust – you want them to be honest but also thoughtful. Get them to tell you what you’re already doing well (because there’ll be plenty of good things in your work!) And ask them what you could improve on. I know it can be quite daunting to have your work critiqued but once you’ve edited a piece based on feedback, you’ll be able to have real confidence in it. #6: Share Your Work With an Audience One great way to boost your confidence is to have appreciative readers for your work. But where do you find them? The Web 2.0 era has made publication accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Sites like Blogger.com are free and extremely easy to get started with, and allow you to publish your writing online. (If you start getting serious about blogging, I’d recommend using WordPress and hosting the blog on your own domain, for maximum control over your work. For all things blogging-related, check out Daily Writing Tips’s sister blog, Daily Blog Tips.) You might even choose to put together an ebook for people to download and read. You can create this using a word processing program (like Open Office or Microsoft Word) and then convert it to a .pdf file, which can be read on any type of computer and on many devices like Tablet computers and ebook readers. #7: Submit Your Work for Publication One of the best ways to achieve publication is to send a guest post to a big blog. This can be a pretty daunting thing to do but it’s a huge confidence boost if you get your post accepted. Follow the tips above and make it as good as you can before sending it in – and make sure you follow any submission guidelines. You might think that you have to already be a big â€Å"name† in the writing or blogging world in order to get published, but this simply isn’t true: editors care about the quality of your writing and the professionalism of your approach. If you’re a fiction writer, try entering competitions – winning a prize, or even being shortlisted, is a great validation of your work. And if you’re aiming to write for magazines as a freelancer, try sending in fillers or letters to the editor – a great first step in making contact and seeing your name in print. Keep Moving Forwards – However You Feel Maybe it seems like other writers have far more confidence than you. You see them chatting away at conferences, or you look at their work on big blogs or you read their prize-winning competition entries and you think if only I was as confident as them. Perhaps you already are. Maybe they spent a week screwing up their courage to send in that competition entry, or they had to take a deep breath and conquer their nerves before striking up a conversation with a stranger at that conference. As you write more (regardless of how you feel) and as you put your work out there in the world, you’ll find that you gradually become more confident and comfortable with your writing. What one step could you take today to help boost your writing confidence? Pick something from the list above – or add your own ideas in the comments! You can find Ali Luke posting all over the blogosphere – but her home base is on her own blog, Aliventures. If you want to get more writing done, check out her post How to Write Thousands of Words Every Single Week and follow the eight simple steps there. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowDisappointed + PrepositionEbook, eBook, ebook or e-book?

How to Create Great Images for Your Blog Posts

How to Create Great Images for Your Blog Posts Images for your blog posts  are important for many reasons. They illustrate important points to your readers, make social shares of your posts stand out in the newsfeed, break up text to make the content easier to read, and encourage people to share your post for no other reason than they like the main image. While there are many sources of ready to use images available, you should consider creating unique images on your own. In this post, were going to look at the reasons why you should create your own great images for content and the ways you can do it. Why You Need to Create Your Own Images You might be wondering, since I mentioned that there are many sources of ready to use images already available, why you would want to spend the time creating your own. Here are just a few good reasons. Stock photos are generic and widely used. Anyone can buy and use a stock photo for less than a dollar, which means many images appear on the Internet hundreds, or even thousands of times. If youre goal is to create unique content, why top it off with a generic image? Creative Commons image use can backfire. Many Creative Commons images are licensed specifically for non-commercial use. Non-commercial is open to interpretation by the owner of the image, therefore, if you use their image on a blog owned by a business or a blog that generates revenue, it may be considered commercial usage. People are more like to share images theyve never seen. People who love sharing images on sites like Pinterest are more likely to share yours if its something theyve never seen before that is either useful or simply visually appealing. People are more like to share images theyve never seen. #visualcontent #contentmarketing @kikolaniNow that you know why you should create your own images, lets take a look at how to create them. How to Create Effective Screenshots For those who enjoy creating how-to and tutorial content, screenshots are essential. Free tools like Jing will allow you to not only capture screenshots, but also easily annotate them. Annotations help make your points or instructions crystal clear to readers who need a little visual supplementation. People will not only appreciate your ability to illustrate your points clearly, but youll also get requests from others who want to share your annotated screenshots. Use those requests to get your name in front of new audiences without any additional work. Another great tool for screenshots is FooCapture. You install the extension on Google Chrome and use it to capture screenshots, annotate them, and have them automatically added to your WordPress (WordPress.com or WordPress.org) media library. Premium service plans for this tool is only $6 per month for unlimited connections / WordPress connections. How to Customize Images on Canva For graphically challenged individuals like myself, Canva is a tool that helps you quickly create graphics for your blog content, social media, and presentations. They have templates with built-in images and overlay text that you customize to fit your content. All of the work is done online, and what you create is free, unless you pick a template that uses a stock photo in the background. If youve browsed the blog graphic templates, you might have noticed they all come in one size (800px x 1200px). The key to using Canva is to not limit yourself to the blog graphic templates, even if thats what you are using them for. There is a total of twenty categories of template types, with square and rectangular designs. You might find that the Facebook cover templates are better suited to your posts than the actual blog graphic templates. To further customize your images, use your own background photos, or find stock imagery from other sources. This will easily differentiate your blog graphics from someone elses. When you do choose your own background photo, aim for a similar color pattern and blurring effect, the latter of which you can do using tools mentioned in the upcoming section about using your own photographs. This will ensure the text overlay provided in the template still stands out. How to Generate Infographics Infographics have gotten a bad reputation in the last year due to the influx of low-quality infographics created in order to build links for SEO purposes. They are still some of the most popular types of images to share. So how do you create infographics? First, youll need to start with some interesting data that relates to your products, services, or industry. ShareThis, a popular social sharing plugin, regularly publishes infographics about the social sharing statistics around music festivals, sporting events, holidays, and other trending topics. If you dont have data from your products, you can use public data sources or conduct surveys on your own. Once you have your data, you will want to share it in a visually appealing image, aka the infographic. Tools like Piktochart allow you to create infographics based on pre-built templates or using their drag and drop editor, removing the need for you to be a graphic designer. Similar tools include Infogr.am, Visual.ly, and Easel.ly. How to Use Your Own Photographs If you enjoy photography, then creating your own photos for content is a great way to incorporate your hobby into your marketing. Take your camera everywhere you go to capture images that could be used for future pieces of content. For example, if you write about local marketing, then photos of local businesses would be great literal options. If you like to inject some humor into your content, take photos of things that would be funny. Any opportunity to photograph a scene with words can also come in handy for content. The best part about using your own photography is that you dont have to be a professional photographer with expensive equipment and software to create great photos. You can simply use your smartphone and free apps like Aviary to edit the photos you create, right on your device. You dont have to be a professional photographer to create great photos. @kikolaniFor those who do have a digital camera, you can do simple editing work (such as cropping your images) in free programs like Gimp. For those who want to do more advanced editing, such as adjusting brightness, contrast, color balance, saturation, clarity, and built-in presets, there is Adobe Lightroom. It has lots of great features for photo editing without the complexity of Photoshop. Best of all, thanks to the Adobe Creative Cloud, if you do want Photoshop, you pay a monthly access fee as opposed to hundreds of dollars up front. For example, you can take Photoshop and Lightroom for a 30-day free trial, and then pay for $9.99 per month. How to Create Memes Speaking of using your own photography, if youre a fan of memes, you can create your own with your photographs. Start by going to the all famous Cheezburger site and click on the Create link at the top right. To add a simple caption, choose the Add a caption option. Upload your photo, and then select it to add some captions. The result? Your own meme! Captions can help you turn almost any image into one that is relevant to the piece of content you are writing. The best part is people love them! I created one for a post a while back using a photo of my newest adopted family member a sweet little black and white kitten. It resulted in a lot of pins.

Huck Finn, Asher Lev and Emma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Huck Finn, Asher Lev and Emma - Essay Example But his religion, Hasidic Judaism, does not encourage art. His father a staunch follower believes that art is for the devil. The authors of these three novels use a number of literary elements and techniques to portray the growth of the protagonists. Of these the three elements of theme, characterisation and setting have helped the authors in their endeavour to show the progress in the lives of the protagonists. On reading these three novels we find that all the three protagonists are in search of self-awareness and go on a journey to seek it. In Huckleberry Finn, the hero, Huck, goes on a journey down the Mississippi River, with a slave named Jim. As he journeys Huck gets to learn a lot about life. He learns about slavery, trust, death and all these lessons help him to improve as a man and also helps him to mature as a man. He learns to listen to his conscience. "Conscience says to me What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean... I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead" (Twain, 1985, chap.16). Asher Lev, the hero of My name is Asher Lev, unlike Huck does not go on any journey in the literal sense. Asher through his paintings throws light on what has been happening to him in life. We get to see a journey of h is life through his art. Austens heroine, Emma Woodhouse too does not set out on a journey in the real sense. The story is all about the journey Emma makes to enter womanhood and how she matures psychologically after marriage.