Who is Gary Soto essays

Who is Gary Soto essays The great Gary Soto is a well-known Chicano writer, the word Chicano means Mexican-American, a slang word they use to describe themselves and their culture. Soto is talented poet as well as writer; he has created many short stories, novels, and scripts ( ). All his writings have been influenced by events during his lifetime, including his childhood, college days and married life. Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952 in Fresno, California to a poverty ridden family. Soto went through the toughest times, he worked for half his childhood to help support his family, and doing this he took away time from his education, which showed through his low grades ( ). He attended Roosevelt High School and graduated with a GPA of 1.6. It was obvious that school was not that of importance to him, but soon later he realized that education is the key to success in life ( ). At the age of 20, life for Soto was becoming clearer to him. He first started getting interested with literature, while he was attending California State University at Fresno. There he received his Bachelor of Arts in English in 1974, and continued his education at UC Irvine, where he acquired his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing ( ). While Soto was working hard to get his graduate degree he met his wife Carolyn Oda. She was a young Japanese-American woman who was working on her degree to become a Veterinarian. Together they had a daughter, and named her Mariko ( ). The United Farm Workers movement had an influence to his writing. As a fellow Chicano he believe it was important to gather the underpaid minorities in California a chance to form a union to raises wages and benefits. This movement was lead by Cesar Chaves and Dolores Huerta in the mid-1960s ( ). To go along with this movement, he was also a follower in the Civil Rights Movement. It stressed the equality of all minorities in the world, so they could be trea ...

French Words for Writers

French Words for Writers French Words for Writers French Words for Writers By Maeve Maddox Here are some French words and expressions of special use to writers. auteur theory This term has come into use from the writings of French film critics. The auteur is the director and the film is interpreted in relation to that directors personality and personal view of the world. Such criticism usually compares the film being analyzed to other films by the same director. belles-lettres (beautiful literature) Since in current usage the word literature is used for everything from Moby Dick to publicity flyers, the term belles-lettres is useful when one wishes to differentiate between lasting literary works, as opposed to writing of a more ephemeral or prosaic nature. critique As a noun, a critique is a critical examination of a work according to some set of standards, with an intention of defining it and assessing its worth. A critique goes into more depth than a review. In English critique can also be used as verb: My assignment is to critique Cargoes by John Masefield. dà ©nouement (unknotting/untying) The dà ©nouement is that part of a mystery story in which the solution is presented and the missing details provided. It follows the climax and heralds the end. film noir (black film) This term was coined by French film critic Nino Frank to refer to a type of crime film of the 1940s. Prime examples: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and Touch of Evil. A few non-crime films are also classed as film noir, for example: Blood on the Moon (western), and The Lost Weekend (a film about alcoholism). What they have in common is that most were filmed in black and white with the camera held at odd angles. They make use of voice-over narration. Lighting is dark and forbidding, and the nature of the story is depressing. More recently, the television series Twin Peaks has been called soap noir. nom de plume (pen name) Although nom de plume is an expression made up of French words, it was probably coined by English speakers on the model of the French expression nom de guerre (war name) which already has the meaning fictitious name. Everyone knows that Mark Twain was the nom de plume or nom de guerre of Samuel Clemens. pastiche The French got this word from an Italian word meaning pie. A pastiche is a parody or literary imitation, usually written with the intention to ridicule, but it sometimes results from too great an admiration for another author. Parodies are usually of short-lived interest or amusement, but sometimes a pastiche turns out to have lasting entertainment value. Alexander Popes long poem The Rape of the Lock is a pastiche of the heroic epic and is still funny to anyone who has read the Iliad. Likewise the film Galaxy Quest is hilarious to anyone brought up on the original StarTrek television series. prà ©cis (from French word for precise) A prà ©cis is an abstract of the essential facts of a work, presented in the same order they appear in the original. This is different from a summary which may present the essential information in a different order. roman clef (novel requiring a key) The word roman in this expression is French for novel. In this kind of novel the fictional characters and events represent real persons and events. Primary Colors (about Bill Clinton) and Postcards from the Edge (about people in Carrie Fishers life) are romans clef. RSVP (please reply) Everybody knows that RSVP on an invitation is a request for the persons invited to tell the host if they will in fact attend the function. Ive seen invitations that say Please RSVP. The abbreviation RSVP stands for Rà ©pondez sil vous plaà ®t. The sil vous plaà ®t is the equivalent of please. RSVP is all thats needed. 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 General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire YouConnotations of 35 Words for Funny PeoplePassed vs Past

What single reform would you implement to enhance democracy in Canada Research Paper

What single reform would you implement to enhance democracy in Canada I picked Proportional Representation - Research Paper Example Discrimination, racism and prejudice are vices that are as old as humanity and have existed alongside it all along, consistently developing in an environment of close association of diverse groups. Historically in Canada, racism has not been confined to any specific group as racist policies are known to have promoted slavery, brought segregation to schools and even prohibited other groups from certain activities and jobs. However, studies show that Aboriginal peoples have and continue to getting the worst experiences of racial discrimination than any other group in the country and, more specifically, within the criminal justice system. According to a report by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, the criminal justice system criminalizes Aboriginal people three times more than non-aboriginal people in violent crime (Brzozowski, Taylor-Butts & Johnson 69). Consequently, Aboriginal people are represented disproportionately in the criminal justice system, especially the courts and correctional facilities. This research project acknowledges that one of the key policy issues of the Canadian government has been the discrimination the aboriginal people are subjected to. From that perspective, it aims to answer the question â€Å"what single reform would you implement to enhance democracy in Canada?† Hence, arguing on the concepts of PR, it will be shown that the discrimination against the aboriginal people can be ended. The discussion will basically be based on the relationship the aboriginal people have with the criminal justice system. The key focus will be on the fact that unless changes are implemented in this relationship, aboriginal people will continue being disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. More importantly, the changes must be implemented in the criminal and correctional systems. In Manitoba, only 12% of the population is made up of aboriginal people. However, out of the 1,600 people in incarceration in correctional

American Printing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American Printing - Essay Example This is a major icon in the technological development of the press industry. In 1885, Otto Mergenthaler invented a linotype that brought much efficiency in print production (Burr, 55). Through this invention, machine typesetting became a major preference in print productions. Compositors of this era capitalized on this inventory in their document processing. The linotype entailed a keyboard that resembled that one of the type writer. This invention was ideal for newspaper and book production. Therefore, the Mergenthaler’s invention was not for commercial document processing (Burr, 56). It purely suited composition and production of newspapers and text books. It entailed an era of stiff competition amongst the dominant publishers in the USA. Bill Barnes and McCann were the dominant compositors of the day (Rumble, 87). They would therefore engage in stiff competitions in their composition of print productions. These competitions would always qualify McCann as the victor. Therefore, he would manifest swift skills over his opponent Bill Barnes (Rumble, 88). The swifts were most popular after the invention of the linotype by Mergenthaler. This entailed coverage of the technical inventions during the early years of the nineteenth century. During this era, major developments were made in the field of science, and the print industry attained observable benefits (Rumble, 96). For instance, the invention of the linotype machine facilitated efficient print productions in this era. The technical inventions initiated the workshop culture even in the print industry. Women underwent severe discrimination during this era. The emergence and gradual development of the print industry manifested harsh experiences that faced women. The entire print industry advocated for men’s chauvinism (Burr, 53). This was evident in the structure and principles of the trade unions established during this era. Male dominance was

Business Ethics vs. Success in Modern Business Paper 2 Research

Business Ethics vs. Success in Modern Business 2 - Research Paper Example Ethics in business is a descriptive as well as a normative field. Nevertheless, researchers exploring matters related to the business and ethics are always concerned about one issue. While studying the business and ethics, to what extent are the just and the unjust attitudes in the business are explored? (Tseng et al., 2010). Good ethics is not necessarily good business. The contemporary firms in the USA and the UK are quite worried about their image in the corporate world and the way they are talked about by the people. It is because of this concern that a vast majority of the current economic scandals that are either linked with the corrupt behaviors or the illegal actions have conventionally ruined the public image and thus the value of the firms involved. Nevertheless, more needs to be done in order to make the contemporary firms refrain from the fraud than just forming new laws and regulations. Employees need to make themselves completely aware of the potential ways in which their firms’ image and future can be ruined by the influence of corruption. It is not compulsory that corruption exists in every department of a particular firm. Enron provides a good example for that. Enron’s management was involved in corrupt activities but Enron’s employees always criticized the managersà ¢â‚¬â„¢ activities and condemned them. The real problem commenced after everybody had given up trying to identify a solid definition of the values (Wieland, 2010). The workers’ association with the firm would definitely improve with the positive energy that is generated by having a suitable space for the functioning of the firm. The improved loyalty would reflect in the increased productivity of the workers. When a firm is caught in the acts of corruption, there needs to be done something in order to safeguard the reputation and hence the future of the firm. There are businessmen that tend to

Understanding Child Development through Observation

Understanding Child Development through Observation Introduction: Background For observing and evaluating the child development, an online site is accessed where a nursery video is available and in the video the child that I chose to observe is a four year old girl that I will refer to as Amani. She is highly intelligent and confident child; not only has this she had extraordinary skills to socially move around independently. I observe Amani in the school classroom; play area and garden area where she has been involved in different activity. This observation has been conducted between 9.23am until 11.09am of all her activities. The objective of this observation is to make the progressive note of the childs physical, intellectual, emotional, linguistic and social development. In the next section there is description of observation and followed by the evaluation and childs profile. Observation Description Amani stands near to table on which there are name tags of students, she leans to pick her names tag with a little hesitance and picks the tag and pastes it on the name board. During the time she has smile on her face and looks pleased with this activity. Later on she is in her classroom sitting on floor along with her all classmates, she is smiling and has her eyes on her teacher, and paying attention to what teacher is saying intently. She is constantly smiling and moving her body in swinging way. Now, teacher is singing a poem Mary and Amani is singing along with the teacher and continuously smiling with pleasure. Teacher is reading the students story about growing flower plants, teacher speaks of flower planting, that there are some seeds and Maule! You will plant them and they will grow into a beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦flower Amani says flower with the teacher. Teacher says Maule! What do you think that seeds are going to needà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ soilà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ andà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Amani cheerfully speaks waterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ waterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ making herself to be heard. Teacher says that you can go and play and Amani raises her hand cheerfully turns back and forth to her classmates and she walks around touching the different objects, she is in painting area and takes out a color out of jar and write her name with write hand, she put down green color and picks another marker. She gets up and walks to garden yard, wears her apron ties the laces and ribbons. She is standing by a large soil pot from where other children are getting the soil; she has a soil pot and tries to get the soil from one of a child standing closely. Second boy standing next to her has two scoops she tries to snatch the one because other boy is not letting her have the soil scoop. She snatches a scoop off the boy and cheerfully put some soil into the pot and says put some soil and it will make soil she picks a scoop and presses the soil inside the pot and says I am gonna show my soil and sits next to her teacher, she tries to take wax dough and laughs when her teacher refuses to g ive her the wax dough, teacher parts the dough and gives her half of the dough she smells it pleasingly and kneads it with her hand. Teacher says to her how does it feel? she says good. Teacher says how does it feel like? she says soft and cheerfully shifts the dough from hand to another. She says where is the stick to put it? and leaned forward to get the one and crushes an object on the table, the teacher exclaimed Oops! due sudden movement of Amani, she says she needs sticks and she hold the stick plate and put that near to her and picks the sticks one by one and put them in dough. Teacher says you could sing a song? she says yes and walks to the garden accompanied her teacher after finishing the wax dough, she puts the dough near to flower pots and waters the plants with the help of water shower. Now she is sitting in the garden party table and holding a spoon with plate and pretending to be eating with them. She gets up and leans forward to get another spoon and uses the spoon for picking sugar from the pot and pours into a tea cup and picks another pot, a milk pot and pour it into tea cup to make tea. She again pretends to be eating and her teacher says can you please make me a cup of tea, Maule!? she says with a smile yes, and puts sugar in the cup pleasingly, teacher says again what are you putting? she says with a smile I am putting sugar, and pretends to add more sugar into cup with spoon. She is on the garden party table and eating with spoon and drinking and says I have made it and get off the chair. Now she is in the class and standing next to her teacher who is sitting and singing a poem to children sitting on the floor. She sings the poem Mary with her teacher and classmates. According to Sheila Riddall-Leech (2005), observation is the most effective way to understand about the childs development stages, and its aim is to gather observation base information about a childs progress. Riddall-Leech (2005) further expresses that a single observation is not enough to determine whether or not a child is progressing and improving the developmental skills. Any observation should provide the data necessary to enable a professional to make balanced and informed decisions, such as the planning of specific activities to meet childrens needs, or whether to seek professional help. According to OHagan (2001), it is vital that parents are involved in the childs day to day activities in the school setting. In addition, the parents permission for observing child development is also important in the same regard. Evaluation Physical Development In physical development, Amani is observed for Development of Gross Motor Skills as well as Development of Fine Manipulative Skills (DeRobertis, 2008). Physically Amani is observed and found to be healthy and normal child since she continues to show physical activeness and physical involvement in every activity that a child of four year old is supposed to do such as walking, running, bending, carrying objects, and rolling. During observation, she is found to be physically comfortable of her environment like roaming around without any physical unbalance. She has shown almost all characteristics of Development of Gross Motor Skills. However, she has good physical balance yet at one point she shows lack of balance and co-ordination and control of body like leaning against the table and crushing other objects on the table. Another level of physical development observed is Development of Fine Manipulative Skills (DeRobertis, 2008). Just like every normal child of four year old Amani is ob served to able to using equipment, holding and gripping and drawing, writing and building. She is observed to feel, pouring, filling, touching and exploring dough and building another new object with it. She is observed to using objects like scoop and plant shower very efficiently and using spoon, dressing and using laces and ribbons. Intellectual Development Amani is intellectually observed remarkable as she shows intellect of mind and especially of knowledge and understanding. Both in classroom and play area she is observed as attentive, concentrated, understanding and learning child. The attention and concentration level is highly related to her responsive attitude. She shows some imagining and creativity too, working with wax dough and making cake and pudding of it. She is observed to have knowledge such as answering the teachers questions with her knowledge and writing her own name. The most important intellectuality observed in the Amani is her problem solving tendency such as wearing apron and tying the apron laces herself that shows her intense ability to show problem solving attitude. The sensing and concept formation of Amani is observed in play area where she makes pudding with wax dough, where she is asked about the wax and she responds correctly of the question that wax is soft and it shows great understanding and conceptuali zation of the girl. She seems to show good memory like sugar is added in tea and how to use the eating objects. Her understanding and recognition of objects and colors is extraordinary; she seems to differentiate between a light shade of green and vice versa. Since children learn language and other things by asking questions such as what, where, why, there has been lack of asking questions by Amani, and she intends to respond to the questions rather. Emotional Development Emotionally Amani is observed to be independent as she is able to walk around freely without any hesitation. Moreover, there is no hesitation or difficulty in her expression. She is expressive and good at expressing herself. However, she shows little lack of control over her emotions like when she is in her play area to plant a seed in soil she snatched the scoop from her classmate who refuses to hand her that scoop, though there is not any intense situation yet she looks little out of control of her emotions. Besides, she shows a good emotional balance towards her classmates, she seems to show warm towards her classmate. Facial expression is observed as maturely because she intends to smile all the time whenever she is amused to show her pleasure. She continues to responds the teacher apparently pleasantly and in expressive way. She seems to show good interaction with others but little direct eye contact is observed. The overall body movement and body posture is simply frequently wi thout any hesitancy and normally active and responsive. Tone of voice and play attitude is observed as interactive and sociable involvement. There is such as no sudden change in behavior or language tone. Linguistic Development Amani is observed to have language skills of the level of four year old child. She seems to express herself rather using language. In addition, she is observed to use short sentences and no difficulties and hesitation in speaking. Since language development of child depends on its cognitive skills and Amanis cognitive skills is observed as functioning and efficient, her language fluency and efficiency is improved and better than other children in the classroom. The selection of words and fluency in the speaking is extraordinary good with correct use of tense. Social Development However, Amani is observed as an active, balanced and interactive child yet it has been observed that she has very little double-sided interaction with her classmates. She is observed to interact with her teacher but little is observed her interaction with her classmates. She seems to look warmly and positively but she does not show a productive and cooperative interaction; for example, at one point, she rather snatches the scoop from her classmate rather than making a polite request she seems to behave a little intense. Since, a child of 3 or 4 year is capable of waiting of his/her turn and in normal situation can share and cooperate with fellows (Kail, 2007) therefore it was a little surprising aspect of her because she seems to behave normally so far in other development. In addition, social roles and social behavior like learning appropriately and respond to other is observed normally. However, she seems to enjoy being in classroom with other classmates and enjoy the social appea rance. In regard to other social skills like dressing and moving around without any help and doing different activities she is observed doing them independently. She seems to show a parallel social playing behavior like playing alongside but not with another child, not very much interacting and talking to other children in her different activities. She has been observed as cooperative and with high self-esteem- valuing herself as a person and confident. She rather seems to appear a self-reliance person in social development point of view. Child Profile I observed the child thoroughly and assessed her physically, intellectually, emotionally, linguistically, and socially. The overall development of Amani is observed to be normal and healthy. She has shown normal tendency in all level of development including physical, intellectual, emotional, linguistic and social. However, physical development means doing movement either gross or large movement of limbs or fine manipulative movement of fingers (Grych Fincham, 2001). Amani is found to have large movement of her body and her finger by using pencils and writing. Because physical development mainly depends on the body growth and nervous system that sends message from the brain to body it demonstrates the muscles to motivate them to move. There is great relevance of physical development with intellectual development, because if a child physically not fit or shows problems like little movement, hesitation, and inactive, all these symptoms show inefficient intellectual development of chil d. Amani has been observed as physically active and responsive her intellectual and mental capacity can be assessed as normal and frequent. The intellectual development of Amani is found to be mentally active and interactive along with reasoning mind. She seems to understand the environment, the teachings taught in the classroom and questions asked; she seems to answer them intellectually. She is very attentive and concentrated girl along with ability to respond the external environment. She has good imagining, creative ability and problem solving attitude. Moreover, she possesses an ability to utilize conceptualization of her reality and creativity. Emotionally she is a well balanced child with independent attitude; she has got normal body posture, eye contact, language tone and unchanged behavior. Moreover, her body language and facial expressions are even and warm towards other mates. In linguistic development I observed that she has ability to use language to express her and the re is fluency in the way of her language. Socially she is active, balanced and inter-active child, she is warmly and positive towards interacting towards her mates. She has good learning skills as a social roles and social behavior like learning in a group appropriately. She is socially independent and warm and communicative and responsive. She is expressive, social, cooperative and sharing the things. She has got remarkable cognitive skills and memory power. Different social activities like eating, moving in group and responding; these are those abilities which are extraordinary brought on in her. Common child features of asking questions about the things that they do not know or do not understand, in Amanis case it are bit different in the way that she does not asking question but answering the question rather. Another thing that is important to conclude is her overpowering and strong and intense feeling about her movement. She is intelligent, cooperative, talkative, communicative , and furthermore, creative and imaginative with good self confidence. According to Gambrell (1994) the child who is motivated to learn has many reasons to read and it also includes knowledge gaining, on the other hand Amani is not observed for reading, which can prove her learning motivation. Nevertheless, she is motivated to learning and learning in group which is undermining part of her development.

Psycho, The Movie Essay -- essays research papers

Psycho (1960) Perhaps no other film changed so drastically Hollywood's perception of the horror film as did PSYCHO. More surprising is the fact that this still unnerving horror classic was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker who never relied upon shock values until this film. Here Hitchcock indulged in nudity, bloodbaths, necrophilia, transvestism, schizophrenia, and a host of other taboos and got away with it, simply because he was Hitchcock. The great director clouded his intent and motives by reportedly stating that the entire film was nothing more than one huge joke. No one laughed. Instead they cringed in their seats, waiting for the next assault on their senses. The violence and bloodletting of PSYCHO may look tame to those who have grown up on Jason and Freddy Krueger, but no one had ever seen anything like it in 1960. Inspired by the life of the demented, cannibalistic Wisconsin killer Ed Gein (whose heinous acts would also inspire THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, 1974 and DERANGED, 1974), PSYCHO is probably Hitchcock's most gruesome and dark film. Its importance to its genre cannot be overestimated. PSYCHO's enduring influence comes not only from the Norman Bates character (who has since been reincarnated in a staggering variety of forms), but also from the psychological themes Hitchcock develops. Enhancing the sustained fright of this film are an excellent cast, from which the director coaxes extraordinary performances, and Bernard Herrmann's chilling score. Especially effective is the composer's so-called "murder music," high-pitched screeching sounds that flash across the viewer's consciousness as quickly as the killer's deadly knife. Bernard Herrmann achieved this effect by having a group of violinists frantically saw the same notes over and over again. Hitchcock really shocked Paramount when he demanded that he be allowed to film the sleazy, sensational novel that Robert Bloch based on the Gein killings. Bloch's subject matter and characters were a great departure from the sophisticated homicide and refined characters usually found in Hitchcock's films, but the filmmaker kept after the studio's front office until the executives relented. He was told, however, that he would have to shoot the film on an extremely limited budget—no more than $800,000. Surprisingly, Hitchcock accepted the budget restrictions and went a... ...ces, nor was it a great performance or their enjoyment of the novel. They were aroused by pure film. That's why I take pride in the fact that PSYCHO, more than any of my other pictures, is a film that belongs to filmmakers." This was no news to Hitchcock's fans. In a 1947 press conference the great director laid out his philosophy of the mystery-horror genre: "I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks. Civilization has become so protective that we're no longer able to get our goose bumps instinctively. The only way to remove the numbness and revive our moral equilibrium is to use artificial means to bring about the shock. The best way to achieve that, it seems to me, is through a movie." PSYCHO provided shocks heard around the world and became an instant smash, breaking all box-office records in its initial release. Hitchcock had a horselaugh on the Paramount executives who wanted no part of PSYCHO from the beginning. The film became one of Paramount's largest grossing pictures and it made Hitchcock not only a master of the modern horror film but also fabulously wealthy. He had outwitted everyone—the industry, the audience, and the critics.