Caribbean Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Caribbean Literature - Essay Example These woman writers were born in the late 1940s and 1950s and they produced their first major works in the 1980s. "The term 'Caribbean women writers' describes an extremely diverse collection of women: women of numerous racial and ethnic groups who reside in many nations and write in at least four European languages and many Caribbean Creoles." (Rody, 117) Significantly, the most acclaimed woman writer of the region, Jean Rhys, is a white woman identified with English modernism who lived in the wake of Caribbean women's renaissance in the 1980s. Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, and Maryse Conde are some of the prominent figures during the Caribbean women's renaissance in the 1980s. Therefore, a profound analysis of the Caribbean literature of 1980s, one recognizes a key stage of development in women's writing. In the critical work 'The Invisible Woman in West Indian Literature', Ramabai Espinet investigates the 'invisibility' of East Indian woman in Caribbean literature and one gets the notion that women arbiters are marginalized by virtue of their ethnicity a

Performance Evaluations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Performance Evaluations - Research Paper Example Center of discussion in this paper is performance evaluation as one of the crucial factors in enhancing the performance of an employee and in stimulating growth in the organization. However, the organizations that do not have a proper performance appraisal system may face difficulties in retaining and sustaining their workforce. It harms the organization as well as the well-being of the employees. Performance evaluation can be described as the process of providing feedback to the employees regarding the job efficiency as well as career guidance. It can be considered as a fair and balanced examination of the performance of an employee. Performance evaluation tends to structure the relationship with the employees of the organization thus providing legal protection to the companies. The morale and also the performance of the employees tend to improve with the help of the performance evaluation. It is because of good evaluation system the poor performers in the organizations can be ident ified and therefore various suggestions can be provided in order to improve the performance. One of the significant problems faced by the employees in the organizations is related to the performance evaluation. The workplace faces with myriad workplace problems with the employees in relation to time, money and loss of productivity. This tends to increase the overall cost to the organization. Therefore, it is significant for the organizations to prevent such problems from occurring from the very beginning. It is the performance evaluation of the staffs that assists in dealing with the complex problems related to the employees. By instilling good employee evaluation system in the organization and if used constantly with all the employees most of the problems can be prevented from cropping up in the near future. Despite the best efforts of the organizations, difficulties with the employees are bound to occur. It is during such circumstances, performance evaluation has a role to play to identify and thus deal with the complex problems. It also brings discipline at the workplace to a great extent (Delpo & Guerin, 2009). One of the challenges that the supervisors at the organizations face is the performance related problems. The supervisors who are into the profession for a longer period of time have mentioned that the performance evaluation is one of the toughest and most complex issues. However, it is worthy of mentioning that identification of the performances of the employees at the organizations is one of the main responsibilities of the supervisors. Failure to identify the poor performances at the organizations may have a negative impact upon the overall organization thus leading to lower productivity and morale of the staffs. The supervisors at the organizations need to be tactful at handling the poor performances of the employees in the organization by means of performance evaluation system. A few of the preventive measures can be taken in order to prevent s uch issues from happening. It is significant for the supervisors to communicate the set performance standards and what is expected from the employees clearly. If the employees are unaware of the expectations of the employers from them, they might not be motivated to work as per the expectations. It is not required to produce as written document

Workplace Violence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Workplace Violence - Assignment Example Therefore, workplace violence remains a grave threat to employees and the larger community. This paper argues that victims of workplace violence experience perceived fear and psychological distress or mental problems immediately after the unpleasant incident. These negative outcomes of workplace violence cause dysfunctions in an organization. Hence it is important to implement effective prevention policies against workplace violence. Perceived Fear and the Psychological Effect of Workplace Violence Numerous studies have reported the effect of workplace violence on the victims’ psychological or emotional wellbeing, as well as on their self-perception. Some examples of the psychological impacts of violence in the workplace are lowered self-worth, distress, vulnerability, anger, fear, depression, denial, humiliation, and guilt. Several researchers have identified post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an outcome of violence in the workplace among those victimized. Several of th e warning signs of PTSD are damaged concentration, weakened memory, recurrent nightmares, disturbance, isolation, bad temper, physiological stimulation, and anxiety (Cavanaugh et al., 2012). Victims of workplace violence immediately feel physical and psychological numbing, distress, denial, and suspicion. Immediately after the unpleasant incident, the victims go through three kinds of effects (Browne-Miller, 2012): (1) withdrawal effects such as truancy, social isolation; reliving effects such as nightmares, recollections; and (3) other effects such as excessive shock, anger, fear, and irritability. Horizontal violence is one of the forms of workplace violence that brings about negative psychological effects on victims. And horizontal violence is most prevalent in health care settings. Increasing rates of continuous horizontal violence or harassment and bullying have been reported to negatively affect the physical and psychological wellbeing of nurses, employee retention, and job sa tisfaction as well as indirect impacts on patient care quality and possibility of negative health outcomes. Horizontal violence harms the individual’s self-esteem and eventually becomes damaging to the nurses’ career, as violent behavior develops from colleagues who are supposed to be providing support, assistance, and guidance (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Continuous horizontal violence among nurses is a major problem. In enhancing and broadening the field of research to intervention and prevention level, theoretical perspectives from sociology, psychology, and biology are explained alongside the theoretical explanation of the frequency of horizontal violence against nurses. Several studies discovered that employees are more likely to be victimized by people outside their organizations or by members of the civic sector than by colleagues, even though there are discrepancies. Nevertheless, in spite of the evidently lower prevalence of co-worker violence existing findings indicate that its psychological effects are more damaging and serious than those of public hostility (Mueller & Tschan, 2011). In the study of Kelloway and LeBlanc (2002 as cited in Mueller & Tschan, 2011), public hostility determined perceived fear and possibility of future victimization but was not related to emotional dedication, physiological health, and psychological wellbeing. In contrast, co-worker violence did not determine perceived fear or possibility of future victimization but was strongly related to reduced employee retention, weakened dedication, and poor health. The explanation for this pattern of findings needs additional study to resolve but there are several available possible explanations. First is that public hostility or client-initiated workplace violenc

Risk management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Risk management - Essay Example This created a bubble in the housing finance sector and mortgage properties. Investment banks and other financial institutions started to lend money to the mass of people as well as corporate houses for purchase of land or other business purposes. The land and housing properties were kept as mortgage serving as underlying securities for those loans. These loans were granted to the borrowers without looking at repayment feasibility of the loans or without carrying out adequate evaluation of the credit parameters. The credit parameters like income of the borrower, assets available to service the loan, existing liabilities, etc. were ignored by the financial institutions in the mortgage loans. This led to the inflation of the bubble in the housing sector which developed earlier. The bubble finally burst as the borrowers were unable to repay the loans and the defaulters in the mortgage loan market started to become heavy. This led to the devaluation of the mortgages which served as under lying securities. ... w of information to the market led to the erosion of investors’ confidence that reflected in the plunge of share prices of the company (Allen, 1999, p.24). Huge wealth of the investors was eroded in short time thereby causing a situation of liquidity crisis. Several companies like Lehmann Brothers, Bear Stearns, Meryl Lynch, etc. were affected due to fall in the valuation of the companies and inability to return the investment of the shareholders. The liquidity crisis created shortage of monetary supply in the economy which tightened the credit conditions in the economy. This created a global credit crisis which was fuelled by the implementation of revised regulatory standards, enforcement of strict credit parameters and revised policies of the companies to counter the global financial crisis. Role of financial engineering: derivative products were a risk management device Derivatives products are financial instruments that derive its value from the underlying assets such as s tock, interest rates, currencies, commodities, etc. Derivative products involve two parties entering into a contract for payment of a certain amount on a certain date under the agreed terms and conditions. The derivative products may be of two types, namely â€Å"lock† and â€Å"option† derivatives. The lock derivatives enforce the parties entering into the contract to fulfil the payment obligations of the derivative product as per terms and conditions. The â€Å"option’ derivative provides the right to the buyer to enter into the contract but the buyer is not obligated to enter into the contract in â€Å"option† derivatives. The derivative products are used to hedge financial risks and also to speculate financial gains in the time of adverse financial situations. The derivative products were used a

Growing Up Essay Example for Free

Growing Up Essay This short story looks at children and two of Carys ovels were directly concerned with childhood. Themes Children and growing up is the central theme of this story, as it is with several of the other stories in the Anthology. However, the central character is an adult and so it links well with Flight, where the story follows the emotions of a grandfather trying to accept his granddaughters forthcoming marriage. Your Shoes also has a central narrator, although that story is written in the first person. This short story is certainly concerned with relationships between the generations. Children as a destructive orce appear in Growing Up, in the came way that the boy in Chemistry has an urge to damage his mothers boyfriend. Superman and Paula Browns new Snowsuit also examines the theme of the destructive power of children. Adults struggling to understand the behaviour of children are a central issue in Growing Up, as they also are in Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit. Notes The first paragraph establishes the central character, a businessman Robert Quick. He is named, unlike the anonymous central characters of several of these stories. He is described as a conventional businessman, in a dark suit and hat. Significantly, he sheds some of his formal clothes as he goes into the garden, perhaps representing that the rules and values he will encounter there are far from civilised. Ls. 7 19 The garden is described as a Wilderness. It has been neglected because Mr and Mrs. Quick are too busy to tend it. It has suggestions of other gardens, perhaps the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. Perhaps also there is a suggestion that Mr and Mrs. Quick are too busy to other civilising their daughters, Just as they have ignored their garden? Could the story symbolise the wild, untamed nature of the children who run wild in it? l. 23 a suggestion of the frontier, primeval forests.. Cary hints that there may be the possibility of fear and menace in the garden. It is not a place of easy comfort, as Mr. Quick thinks. L 27 the children have previously enjoyed a close relationship with their father and have made a fuss of him when he returns home. However, this contrasts with the way they ignore him this time. Is the reason they snub him because he is a man? Quick recognises that they will be women soon in lines 42 to 49; later on in the story they are wellbehaved for their mother and he feels rejected. Cary is specific about their names and ages; Jenny is twelve and Kate thirteen. They are both deep in their own worlds and Quick doesnt mind that they pay hardly any attention to his arrival. He thinks it represents their honest attitude to him. Perhaps he is too easy going with the children. Do they need to show him a bit more respect? Ls. 58-81 the two girls

An Insight into Academic Writing Essay Example for Free

An Insight into Academic Writing Essay Authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Berkenstein claim in their book, They Say, I Say, that academic writing is not about â€Å"playing it safe and piling up truths and bits of knowledge,† like many people assume. Rather, it is about the dynamic interaction between other people’s points of view and the author’s response to those perspectives. In chapter one of Graff and Berkenstein’s book they emphasize the necessity of balance when implementing certain writing â€Å"moves,† specifically, when introducing a counter-view, summarizing other’s arguments, and when quoting someone else’s words. Graff and Berkenstein contend that by opening an argument with an explanation of what the thesis is responding tointroducing a counter-viewgives the main point clarity and relevance. They encourage stating the opposing view or assumption initially so that it will define and explain what the thesis is addressing. But, they also caution the writer not to bloat their introduction with extraneous information for fear of losing the audience’s focus and engagement. What Graff and Berkenstein suggest, then, is that â€Å"as soon as possible you state your own position and the one it’s responding to together, and that you think of the two as a unit. † Basically, they insist that the best way to give a â€Å"genuine response to other’s views† during academic writing is to have a balance between introducing what â€Å"They Say† (the opposing point of view) and what â€Å"I Say† (the writer’s response). If being in a constant dialogue with others’ positions is essential to arguing persuasively, as Graff and Berkenstein claim, â€Å"then summarizing others’ arguments is central to [the writer’s] arsenal of basic moves. † All too often during a summary, writers will provide their own opinions on an article’s topic rather than revealing what the article is actually stating. On the opposite extreme, there are the writers who â€Å"do nothing but summarize,† which dilutes their own views in an ocean of someone else’s ideas. Graff and Berkenstein remind us that a â€Å"good summary requires balancing what the original author is saying with the writer’s own focus. † In other words, an exceptional summary contains the perspective of the original author, while emphasizing the points the responding author wants to address. One of the best ways to initiate an effective argument is not only to summarize what they say, but to quote their exact words. According to Graff and Berkenstein, â€Å"Quoting someone else’s words gives a tremendous amount of credibility to your summary and helps ensure that it is fair and accurate. † By quoting someone else’s exact statement it serves as a proof of evidence that you are not just fabricating another’s claim, but that you are disclosing their true ideas. Like introducing a counter-view and summarizing, quoting requires that you find an ideal balance between the quantity of quotes and content of commentary. A common issue with quoting is when the author assumes the quote speaks for itself. As Graff and Berkenstein, quotes are like literary orphans that have been taken from their original context, â€Å"they need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings. † In simpler terms, a quote needs to be introduced, interpreted, and then connected to the central idea. I found chapter one of Graff and Berkenstein’s book, â€Å"They Say,† to be extremely interesting and useful. The way they tied all their information to a central idea, while explaining how to do just that fascinated me. I felt like their writing had a constant flow from introduction of a move, to implementing balance, to common problems, how to fix those problems, and then to exercises that would reinforce their primary concepts. Their style and content kept me engaged and focused. Also, I learned a handful of writing tactics, like introducing a counter-view, summarizing, and inserting quotes, that I was not one-hundred percent sure on how to do prior to the reading. Overall, I found the chapter to be engaging, informative, and beneficial to me and my writing style.

Soundtracks In The Movie Industry Film Studies Essay

Soundtracks In The Movie Industry Film Studies Essay What are the major conventions and functions of the classical soundtrack, and how have these been challenged by filmmakers and composers working outside of this tradition? Soundtrack in the movie industry terminology is a contraction of the term sound track. This is an audio recording which is created or used in the film production industry or in post production. The dialogue, the music and the sound effects in a film have their own separate tracks i.e. the soundtrack, dialogue track and the music track. This mixed together are called the composite track. It is what is heard in the film. When a film is dubbed into another language, a dubbing track is created. This is also known as an ME (music and effects) track. It contains all the sound elements without dialogue. It is later supplied by a foreign distributor in the native language of the territory. This contraction soundtrack came into the public consciousness with the coming of the soundtrack albums in the early 1950s. The movie companies first saw it as a promotional gimmick for new films. The film is a visual medium and yet also like many of the other contemporary media it happens to be audio visual. It employs sound as an integral element of the sensual experience. The image predominance stems partly from the history of films. This was so until the mid 1920s, three decades after the motion pictures were invented that the technology became developed so as to produce films with recorded soundtracks. Film with recorded sound became standard so quickly after the first largely successful film was featured with soundtrack in 1927. We will analyze the traditional use of sound. What is the purpose and the effect of sound that is added to the image pictures? We will also analyze other alternative practices that exist and how they are used in conjunction with the common approaches to sound. It is not surprising that sound has been used to reinforce the classical cinema mode. This has shaped the techniques that are dominant in cinematography and editing. Sound will often increase the sense of presence and the immediate need. To be able to achieve this sound and the image must be closely related. They work together to achieve a meaning or an effect. Images and soundtracks in the film are two components that are distinct and are usually produced in part separately from one another. Due to the fact that there has been technological growth in sound capabilities audio recording and playback have really expanded. There has therefore been a tendency of rely more on postproduction of sound work as there has been increased technological advancements in audio recording and playback. There has been therefore great necessity to create an impression that the sounds that are heard are natural and are produced by the actions and the environments that are shown by the film. To achieve t his sound effect, it will serve to increasingly enhance the intensity of the sensual effects and also promote that sense of verisimilitude. Below are some of the ways through which the sound serves these two main functions. The main sounds that make a soundtrack are three. There is the human voice, sound effects and music. Music and the sound effects are the two most applied in the production of the heightened sensory experience. In the mainstream cinema, the sound effects are designed so as to reinforce the narrative realism. They may appear to be natural but in the real sense, along with the other sound elements, they are crafted with care so as to focus attention on some particular aspects of the image or the action and also to influence the response of the viewers to them. We can therefore conclude that sound effects do support a sense of realism. The dense and accentuated sound emphasis are associated with the key actions or the settings and do not necessarily provide the natural production of the sound one would hear in such a situation. In accordance to the prevailing sound film conventions, music does not follow the prescriptions of realism in similar ways. There are conventions which have background music that do not in any ways relate to the theme of the story. We in fact always expect musical score that goes hand in hand with film as a non digetic element. The academy awards do include categories for best score. If we do employ a number of the conventions and the conventions the moviegoers have planned to respond to this in a certain way. Claudia Gorbman is cited in his seminal work (Gorbman, seminal work- unheard melodies) explaining how the background music, or rather the score serves as the signifier of emotion in the cinema. A good example of this is the melodrama. A 19th century genre is an original, as suggested by the name à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"melo-dramaà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚  is a play that includes music as the essential element. The orchestra would be in place to accompany the play; the drama action would be interlaced with melodies that would function almost in the same way as the emotional punctuation. Any time the dramatic action would lead to a moment of sadness, the orchestra would be brought in the break in the dialogue and underscore the effects of emotion with a melody that is appropriate. When for example the drama gets to a climatic highpoint, a melody that is dramatic would come so as to help ratchet the suspense in the place. The melodramatic importance of accompanying music is now a standard technique both in the melodramatic films and for all the genres in the classical cinema. While the crucial function may as well be to guide and also enhance the emotional responses, the scores of music will as well contribute to that sense of continuity. This is central to classical cinema. This score will indeed help to smoothen over the necessary breaks and the gaps that are in the films continuity such as including the cuts from one scene unto the next, or even a jump in story over a given period of time. Music may be used to fill in the gaps that exist; it may repeat the musical intents to inculcate into the viewer the significance and/or the connection existing between the various events. In any of the instances, when music actually serves its purpose it does not intend to draw attention back to itself. As Much as classical style of editing of this continuity system tries to make the breaks and the gaps not to be seen, the score of music of the classical narratives of the cinema attempts to remain inaudible. In the instances when music functions according to these guidelines, it is following the tradition of continuity. CW serves to distinguish between the two traditions of film sound. This tradition of continuity will adhere to the principle of classical cinema, as we have realized in the topics highlighted previously, they are dominant in every area of film: an example, as the image presence is the dominating tradition in cinematography, or the temporal and the spatial continuity as primary objectives of the editing responsibility. Sound montage on the other hand will serve to free up sound from the subservient responsibility as company to the image narrative and allows it to stand in for right of itself. Instead of merging the soundtrack to narrative flow of images, the montage approach will divide the sound and let it to speak in separation, this provides distance to the story on the film, this will offer among many other things, the opportunity for a thought that is reflective or a critical analysis on the film events. We will go through the formal details of the sound, it is important to indicate how the montage techniques will work in concert with the common culture of continuity to yield a meaning or provide emphasis without altering the basic principle of the classical cinema. The topic of sound grants an opportunity to work with some concepts that are basic of the film form. Looking at some of these cases, the concepts can actually apply to the other film elements not related to sound. These terms which are discussed here are vital for utilization in the individual sequence analyses for week two films. This term synchronous sound refers to the parts of the soundtrack that do correspond in direct proportion and spontaneously to that which is happening on the screen. One of the most common examples of this is the normal dialogue. We do see the speaker moving their lips and the thing that is being said is usually heard at the same instance at the other end of the soundtrack. This will apply also to other sources of sound as well. The door will slam and we will hear the sound, the cannon will be fired and we eventually hear the blast. Speaking strictly, voices will perhaps be synchronous sounds although we may not see the lips moving. Giving an example, soldiers in a movie of war may be shouting and also screaming at the same time as they attack the position of the enemy. We actually do see the scene from a distant position; we do understand how to connect voices to the charging of the soldiers although we do not actually see the movement of their lips. For an example, a movie concerni ng journalists, we will hear the sound of the finger movement typing on the keyboard and the film will at the same time show a scene of the reporter and topic of coverage. These are good examples of asynchronous sounds. A point out is that some analysts will prefer the differentiation of the onscreen appearance and effects and at the same time the off-screen effects. Both sides of the set is fine, however the latter suggests the way synchronous is to be used in a specific sense when we are referring to the film sound. An example, in a conversation situation, the camera may be maintained on the face of first speaker although they may have already finished their speech and the present speaker is responding in an off-screen position. The man on the camera may choose to maintain the camera on the first speaker so as to show the reaction (could be the emotional reaction) to the response that is given. Though the words of the other speaker will be heard as they are uttered in narration or speech, they will come from off the screen and will technically be in consideration asynchronous of sound. Rather than to rehash the explanation, we will refer to the instance of sound, Apocalypse Now and then let you distinguish as to whether these sounds are synchronous or asynchronous and also an example of the parallelism. Opening sequence we see Willard lying in bed and from his subjective point of view see a shot of the ceiling fan above him, while we hear the chop-chop-chop sound of helicopter blades on the soundtrack. Is this synchronous or asynchronous sound and is it an instance of parallelism or counterpoint? [You will find the answer in the larger discussion of this sequence in the essay on Apocalypse Now. One of the other important distinctions which have wide use in the film analysis is that between diegetic and the non diegetic. Diegesis usually refers to the world of the films story. For example, when Annie sings a song at a nightclub, as she does twice in Annie Hall, the songs are diegetic sound. In Do the Right Thing there are several examples of diegetic music, coming directly from the radio station or from one of the various radios or boom boxes found in the film. At times, it is even hard to distinguish when the music is diegetic and when not. But a good example of when it is nondeigetic is the opening credits sequence, where Rosie Perez dances in changing settings, costumes, and lighting to Public Enemys Fight the Power. The song is actually heard many (one)times throughout this movie, most often diegetically, however in the opening scene, it is strictly non diegetic. Looking the other hand, I think we can assume that the Doors song The End in the opening sequence of Apocalyp se Now is diegetic.