Writing with Speech Recognition Software

Writing with Speech Recognition Software Writing with Speech Recognition Software Writing with Speech Recognition Software By Michael A professional writer might add a thousand words a day to their rough draft. With speech recognition software, some writers can add several thousand. Thats one reason why more writers are choosing to dictate their books. Today the error rate of speech recognition software has improved to within a percentage point of a human being. According to IBM, even a human transcriptionist hears the wrong word 4 or 5 percent of the time. IBM reached 5.5 percent in 2017. Google claims even lower than that 4.9 percent in 2017. Speech recognition can be found in Google Docs, Windows 10, your smartphone and in various home devices. Dragon Naturally Speaking is the only commercially-available speech recognition software for consumers, mostly because they bought all their competitors. According to their website, Dragon is 3x faster than typing and its 99% accurate. For higher accuracy, Dragon can be trained to recognize your own voice and vocabulary. Tips for writing with speech recognition Dictate in complete phrases or sentences. Recent advances in accuracy have come not so much from speech recognition (thats a buh not a duh) as from language recognition (after the words eat or peel the sounds buh nah nuh are probably banana). I can sometimes see my software rewrite a sentence once Ive completed it, because it now has more of the context and so can recognize more of the words. Pause between phrases, not words. Thats mostly what I just said, but it bears repeating. Separating parts of speech with pauses (It was the best of times) can really confuse the software. It likes to sense the sentence structure as you speak. Pausing between phrases is also a good habit for public speaking, or for speaking in general, for that matter. Yes, you need to pause while you think, but you dont need to keep talking while you do it. Watch the screen. If there are any errors or omissions, you want to make sure theyre not so serious that you cant remember what you really meant to say. I can handle Dragon spelling to instead of too or member instead of remembering. But sometimes the software provides a perfectly spelled word that would make no sense later. In that case, I can usually dictate the correct word again, perhaps preceding it with or rather as a newscaster might. Or you may be able to train Dragon (and yourself) that you pronounce to as tu and too as te-yoo. Or restate your sentence in different words. Dont worry about polluting your masterpiece with synonyms its probably faster than hemming and hawing for the perfect word. You can perfect it when you edit it. Keep a consistent tone, speed, and volume. Shouting, whispering or pretending youre Robin Williams will make the software work harder. It doesnt appreciate or even recognize histronics. I did a stint as a professional voice transcriptionist, repeating the speech of another person more clearly so that Dragon could understand it better. We maintained a cheerful tone as we worked, but we werent dramatic. Dont stop for mistakes. Keep a consistent flow, where words come out of your mouth at approximately the same speed they come into your mind. Your mind will appreciate that. Dont stop to fix typos or punctuation errors. Talk around any blatant mistakes restate anything thats unclear but keep dictating. Your first transcription may not be smooth or free of mistakes. But mistakes inspire creativity, because they beg you to fix them. So dont worry about making mistakes when dictating. Dont try to speak the keyboard. Youre better off just dictating words and not trying to operate your computer with your voice. Yes, Dragon has many editing commands: Scratch that, Scratch that n times, Go back, Go to top, Stop listening, Search eBay for text (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT TRY TO WRITE NOVEL AND SHOP ON EBAY AT THE SAME TIME.) But the main commands I use are Period and New line Im supposed to be writing not editing remember? and Ive turned off my internal editor. Dragons commands are great for people who cant use a keyboard they can say Open Google Chrome or Post to Facebook but the extra learning curve can sour other people on trying the software. Hands-free editing I keep Dragon in Dictation Mode, which ignores commands as long as Im dictating quickly. Otherwise, if one of my paranoid characters shouts, Stop listening, Dragon might take me literally and not transcribe anything else. So how do you edit without using editing commands? Dictate the section again, without the mistakes. Really. Its probably faster than using the commands. It may be faster than using a keyboard. Many writers with repetitive stress injuries say that what hurt their wrists was not the typing, it was the constant cutting, pasting and mousing. With dictation, the only movement is your mouth and your eyeballs. Dictation lets you hear your words again, which lets you decide if you really like them. It even lets you combine several versions. You could have both versions open on your computer and switch your eyes between them as you read your favorite paragraph with each. Or you could print out both versions, lay the pages all over the floor, rearrange them as you like, edit them with a fat marker pen, and then smoothly read them back into your microphone. When I first tried this technique, though, the new version wasnt much better than the old. I hoped that as I reread the passage, my mind would naturally find things to correct, as a storyteller does. But seeing the text in front of me made it harder to see areas of improvement. A better strategy might be to silently read both versions again, then close my eyes and retell the story into the microphone. Dictation software works better for some writers than others, and for some types of writing than others. At first you may miss the feel of the keyboard or the pen, or you may be distracted by the sound of your voice. But for many writers, speech recognition software can set their creative process free. 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:75 Contronyms (Words with Contradictory Meanings)Among vs. AmongstOppose and Opposed To

Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel essays

Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel essays Friedrich Frbel, or Froebel, is best known as the pioneer of the kindergarten system. Radical in his day, he highlighted the significance of play, theorizing that it is the elementary engagement with the world that provides understanding. Strongly influenced by Pestolazzi, Froebels ideas blossomed out of a kindness and desire to teach children by enhancing their natural tendencies, and focusing on their developmental stage as opposed to the traditional methods of the day which treated young children as small adults. Born in 1782, Friedrich Froebel was the youngest of several brothers. His mothers passing at the very tender age of nine months . . . influenced the whole environment and development of my being: I consider that my mother's death decided more or less the external circumstances of my whole life (Froebel 3). Froebel was basically raised by his older brothers because his father, a pastor, well known in his own right, was focused on the development of his parish while the servants charged with Froebels education were largely unavailable to him. Of course his fathers faith, as well as his work in botanicals, permeated the home and Froebel grew up with a strong sense of religion, spirituality, and its connection with Nature, which would later influence his work in education. After the death of one of his elder brothers, Froebel became commissioned with this brothers young sons. Heavily influenced by Pestalozzian philosophies, Froebel spent a fair amount of time observing these boys and their interaction with the world through play. Fascinated with the auto-didactic nature of this play, Froebel began to develop teaching methods of his own based on his observations and his personal views of the interconnectedness, or Universal Harmony of creatures with God and with nature. These methods were aimed at providing a warm environment that encouraged the ...

Leadership Course Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership Course - Assignment Example It should be noted that all these posts are about leadership. Patti Besuner notes that the leadership course reinforced ethical responsibilities especially in line with moral leadership (Cameron, 2012). It is a fact that leaders should be morally upright and responsible since they usually tend to be role models to numerous personalities in the society. Therefore, according to Besuner, â€Å"A leader must care about and demonstrate concern for employees if optimal organizational productivity is to be achieved†. It is worth noting that Besuner leadership knowledge was geared to reflect how an organization, employees, society, and a nation should relate (Brammer, Jackson, & Mattens, 2012). Notably, this concern is vital since each of these groups must be answerable to another for effective, efficient, and smooth coexistence. From this post, it is apparent the leader acknowledged the roles of effective leadership as being effective for the coexistence of human being within a socie tal setup. Jones’ first post concentrated on the understanding of different aspects of leadership. He notes that leadership has ever been described in different concepts that lead to different types of leadership. For instance, Susan D. DeVore’s to leadership skills in the healthcare industry and to the same effect she is the current premier healthcare alliance CEO and president. Jones noted that DeVore has effective leadership skills that include transformation, system thinking, and collaborative techniques.

NJ state police and blacks on the NJ turnpike Essay

NJ state police and blacks on the NJ turnpike - Essay Example There are at least two operative definitions of the practice knows as racial profiling: The first is what is termed as ‘hard profiling’, which puts an individuals race as the only consideration in the minds eye of the officer in making a preliminary assessment of suspicious criminality. When a police officer views a black person or other minority, and the officer does not have anything else to substantiate criminality, he pulls the black person over for a pat down on the hope that he may either Find a weapon or drugs in his possession. The second form is referred too as ‘soft racial profiling’, where the police officer uses race as one of the reasons, among others which have been previously detailed to him as stereotypical of drug dealers or couriers. The New Jersey State Troopers for example, have intelligence that Jamaican drug posses have a fondness for Nissan Pathfinders as their vehicles of choice when transporting marijuana along the Northeast Corridor. The controversy surrounds racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike as practiced by New Jersey State Troopers was focused almost exclusively on highway stops. Where the police were stopping a disproportionate share of black and other minority drivers for traffic violations, but the prevailing argument states that the stops were specifically carried out as a means of drug interdiction. Of course in many instances, the driver may have committed an infraction, but there might, and usually were others within the specific cluster in which he was traveling, who also committed a similar violation. But it was their lucky day for the others, because a minority was in the vicinity. 2 New Jersey State Police and Blacks on the New Jersey Turnpike We will take a look into a court case which led a Superior Court judge to conclude in 1996 that the New Jersey State Police had a policy of 'selective enforcement' by targeting blacks for investigation and arrest. Some of the finding were as follows; "The ruling followed one of the states longest evidentry hearings-six months of testimony and 200 exhibits, many of them statistical surveys of drivers and traffic stops on the southern most 26-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike. Judge Robert Francis found that troopers looking for drug suspects had pulled over an inordinate number of black drivers over a three year period simply because of their race. The survey determined that some 98 per cent of all the drivers along the stretch of the turnpike were going over the speed limit of 55 miles per hour, giving the police latitude to stop virtually anybody. The survey found that while 13.5 per cent of the drivers on the stretch of the highway were black, 46 per cent of those halted by the police over a 40- month period were black" According to the public defender, Fred Last, who helped design the survey, said, "They were pulling over blacks out of proportion to the population of the turnpike" (Last). Judge Francis agreed, saying, "The statistical disparities are indeed stark", the judge added, "utter failure" of police commanders to monitor the arrests or investigate the many claims of institutional discrimination, manifests its indifference if not acceptance" (Francis) One striking result of the survey, which the judge noted, was that the troopers using 3 radar tended to stop black drivers at near their rate in the highway population, while the

Websites Essay Example for Free

Websites Essay Websites are an integral element in ensuring proper electronic communications between various entities bearing in mind that the world is rapidly going high-tech. Websites may thus be categorized into 3 groups namely: bad; good; or ugly. Good sites ensure fast maneuverability besides offering accurate and relevant information. Ugly sites are those that appear plain silly owing to various omissions or unnecessary additions. Conversely, bad sites have the characteristics of being inefficient to use owing to poor design. The Department of Homeland Security website is an example of a good site because it is both interactive besides providing original and credible content. Regarding interactivity, the website has provisions for visitors to subscribe to electronic mail alerts (Department of Homeland Security, 2010). This aspect ensures that visitors are up-to-date regarding the organization’s activities. Concerning credibility, the website provides current news about activities that have been carried out by known homeland security officials. This aspect makes the site credible with regard to information. Conversely, the Space Is the Place website appears ugly owing to its awful color combination. For example, the colors blue and yellow are placed side-to-side (Harman, 2007). The contrasting nature of these colors makes the site quite off-putting especially to color-sensitive visitor. To rectify the site’s appearance, the designers should do several things. For example, they should modify the color scheme to incorporate more complementary colors. Moreover, they should adjust the appearance of the suspended saint to show that he is comfortable. This will make the appearance plausible by changing the current appearance whereby the saint is controversially happy while hanging in space. Moreover, by making the website’s content less crowded, the designers will make the website more acceptable. Conversely, the Ling’s Cars website is poorly designed. To begin with, the advertised cars are barely visible due to obstruction by huge adverts. Further, numerous eerie images litter the site, making it unintelligible. To cap it all, the websites’ arrangement of various elements is simply outrageous (Biz/ed). To improve the site, the cars should dominate it since it is meant to sell them. Moreover, the images on the site should be systemized, perhaps, providing them in slide form, so as to enhance readability. To improve overall quality, the haphazard arrangement of the site’s many features should be overhauled by creating definite sections that hold specific elements.

Night Out On The Ritz :: essays research papers

In the short story â€Å"Babylon Revisited†, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald there are many different settings in the story. One of the main settings in the story is the bar at the beginning. The bar it self represents the jazz era, where everyone wore fancy clothes, partied all the time and tipped well. The bar is also a cold reminder how the Americans used to live in the 20’s, since they have almost no money in the 30’s. It also represents the old Charlie Wales and it serves as a reminder to the new Charlie Wales about his past. â€Å"We were sort of royalty, almost infallible, with a sort of magic around us†(89). The old Charlie Wales lived during the economic boom of the 20’s, or other wise known as the jazz era. He lived a good life. During that time, he spent a lot of time drinking and throwing away money: â€Å" he remembered thousand-franc notes given to an orchestra for playing a single number, hundred-franc notes tossed to a doorman for calling a cab†(90). Sometimes just acting childish with his friends Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles: â€Å"We did have such good times that crazy spring, like that night you and I stole that butcher’s tricycle†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (98). Nevertheless, he spent a lot of time in a bar called the Ritz. When he first got there, it was instinctive to give the head barman his numbers were he was staying as if it was his second home. â€Å"If you see Mr.Schaeffer, give him this†¦It’s my brother-inlaw’s address. I haven’t settled on a hotel yet†(86).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the rolling 20’s came the economic depression of the 30’s. Everyone was affected, even the high and mighty that thought they were even royalties were affected.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charlie Wales asked the bartender â€Å" By the way, what’s become of Claude Fessenden?† Alix lowered his voice confidentially: â€Å"He’s in Paris, but he doesn’t come here any more. Paul doesn’t allow it. He ran up a bill of thirty thousand francs, charging all his drinks, his lunches, and usually his dinner, for more than a year. And when Paul finally told him he had to pay, he gave him a bad check.†(87) When Charlie Wales first came to Paris his first stop was an old bar he used to go to, the Ritz. Much had changed since he had left. â€Å"It was not an American bar any more-he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it†(86).

Case Study of Negligence

Duty of care Issue: Does defendant (David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery) owned duty of care to plaintiff (Tony)? Rules: * The neighbour principle: In Donoghue v Stevenson1, Lord Atkin concluded that we all owe a duty of care to our â€Å"neighbors†, meaning those persons who we should have in mind when we are contemplating actions that we take as we go about our business and private lives. * Neighbour Defined: â€Å"My neighbors are persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question†. Foreseeability: For an action in negligence to succeed, it must be foreseeable that the act (or omission) of the defendant could cause harm to the plaintiff. The test is one of â€Å"reasonable foreseeability†, which is an â€Å"objective†. * Proximity: There must be some relationship between the parties for the duty to exist. In other words, proximity that requires care to be taken must exist. Application: As Tony was having the surgery in the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery, therefore, whatever will happen based on the surgery, it should be the duty of care of the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery.Be more specific, David is employed there as a full-time dentist and he was the one who attached the artificial teeth by strong dental glue instead of the way which recommended by leading dentists. If David did not change the way of attach the teeth, Tony would never get a severe infection caused by the method of fitting of the artificial teeth. Conclusion Applying the neighbour principle and reasonable foreseeability, David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery do owed the duty of care of Tony.And it is foreseeable that the act of the defendant, which may be David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery, could cause harm to the plaintiff, which is Tony. Breaching that duty of care Issue: Does the defendant ( David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery) breach his duty of care? Rule: * Reasonable person-Standard of care: the standard person would have foreseen harm in the circumstances and would have taken steps to prevent it. The defendant will be in breach of their duty if reasonable steps are not taken to prevent foreseeable harm.The test is an objective one –what a reasonable person thinks. * Weighting test: 1. The likelihood of injury: If the risk of injury is minimal, there will be no breach of the duty of care. 2. Gravity of injury if occurring: The seriousness of any resulting injury 3. Steps needed to remove the risk: The steps required to eliminate the risk 4. Benefit (social utility) of the defendant’s conduct: The social utility of the defendant’s conduct must be weighed against the gravity of the risk. ApplicationAs David’s conduct is measured against the reasonable person who should told Tony there was a risk to use the dental glue . It is possible that David get hurt from the dental glue and the surgery. The gravity of injury is quite serious as his teeth fell out of the new desk while he was on TV presenting the evening news. After he got home his whole mouth was aching and he complained of severe pain in the gap left by extraction. For the steps to eliminate the risk, David should foresee the harm which caused by the dental glue and the possible consequence might cause.Last but not least, there is no benefit (social utility) of the defendant’s conduct. In fact, David could transfer Tony to his other workmate if he is not familiar with the way which suggested by the leading dentist. However, David chose to do it by using the strong glue which causes all the damage. Conclusion Hence, David did breach the duty of care of Tony as he was the reasonable person who should foresee the damage and it is easy to eliminate the damage. LOSS OR DAMAGE FOLLOING FROM BREACH OF DUTY IssueWas Plaintiff (Tony)’s damage the dire ct result of defendant (David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery)’ breach? Rules * Causation (but for test): But for the conduct of defendant, would the damage have been suffered? The test was explained well by Lord Denning in Cork v. Kirby Maclean Ltd (1952) 2 ALL ER 402 at 407 , as follows: If you can say that the damage would not have happened but for a particular fault, then that fault is in fact a cause of the damage; but if you can say that the damage would have happened just the same fault or no fault, then the fault is not a cause of the damage.If there is more than one cause of the damage the â€Å"but for† test will have limited application. In such case the courts will use a â€Å"balance of probabilities’ test in determining causation. * Remoteness of damage (reasonable foreseeable test, the test is objective) would a reasonable person have foreseen the damage? * Assessment of damages: the aim of damages is to compensate the plaintiff for the loss or damage that flowed from the defendant’s breach of duty of care owed.Such loss or damages is quantified by the judge hearing the case to compensate the plaintiff not only for their actual loss but for their future potential loss as well. Application After diagnosing of Tony’s mouth, it was certified that there was a severe infection in Tony’s gum that was shown in tests to be caused by the method of fitting of the artificial teeth. In fact, as David decided to use the dental glue, instead of the traditional method that was recommended by the leading dentist.And David, who is the reasonable person, owned the duty of care of Tony. According to the fact, Tony not only suffers variety of physical damage but also physiological damage. He became depressed due to his appearance and loss of work, and is seeing a counsellor for therapy who suggested him to go for a holiday. Therefore, he had suffered the medical and dental expense total $ 14, 000, loss of wages $ 12,00 0, and counselling$1,800. And the cost of trip is $ 5,000. Conclusion: Therefore, Tony’s damage directly resulted from David’ breach of duty of care.If He in civil proceedings is successful, a remedy will be rewarded as compensation of dental expense $ 14, 000, loss of wages $ 12,000, and counselling$1,800. And the cost of trip is $ 5,000. What is more, he could DEFENCES TO AN ACTION IN NEGLIGENCE Issue Are there any defences available to defendant (David or the Bright Smiles Dental Surgery)? Rules Defences to an action in negligence: * Contributory negligence: It occurs where the plaintiff can be held partly to blame for the loss sustained as result of a failure to take reasonable care against a foreseeable risk of injury.This rule has been modified by statue in Section 26 of the Wrong Act 1958 3(Vic. ): Where any person suffers damages as the result partly of his own fault and partly of the fault of any other person or persons, a claim in respect of that damage shall not be defeated by reason of the fault of the person suffering the damage, but the damage recoverable in respect thereof shall be reduced to such extent as the court thinks just and equitable having regard to the claimant’s share in the responsibility for the damage. Voluntary assumption of risk: if a person assumes the risk of injury voluntarily, this is complete defence to a claim of negligence. It is difficult defence to rise as it must be proved that the plaintiff was aware of the risk and accepted that risk freely. Application After checking Tony’s x-rays, David extracted the teeth and put the artificial teeth in place. However, David was not familiar with the accepted method of attaching artificial teeth recommended by leading dentists and instead attached them by way of strong dental glue.However, it was David determined to use the strong dental glue instead of the method recommended by the leading dentist. On the other side, Tony should figure out that his met hod is different from the one which recommended by the leading dentist, and he should do some more consulting of the new method which was going to be used in his surgery. Conclusion Therefore, Tony did contribute to his damage as he did not check his new method which causes the inflection and further damage.

Public Finance Entitlement Essay

Entitlement is said to be corrupting us according to the article written by Nicholas Ebertadt. According to him, as each day passes, the government focuses more attention to the pubic transfers of money, goods and services to individual citizens than any other goals. They spend more on the individual than the rest of other issues combined. In 2010 alone, the government spent over $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services. According to the article, two-thirds of resources and money goes into entitlement. This is what is causing people not to be hardworking citizens. People are depending too much on government spending rather than working hard for themselves. The American way of life has become the mentality of taking not working. On the article written by Willaim A. Gaslton, Entitlement is not corrupting but rather they are part of the civic compact. That is, entitlement is meant for future generations and those who cannot take care of themselves and not those who can do something for themselves but refuse to do so. The article suggest that it is ok for low wage income earners who are working hard but cannot afford certain amenities to seek for aid from the government. These groups of people can be described as interdependency. Well, for my point of view, I would not say Entitlement is corrupting us but rather it is an issue that needs to be looked at critically. My reasons being, first, many people are giving birth at age of 18 and 16 years that just completed high school or might still be in high school, and they believe is ok to be in that situation because after all the government will help. There a lot of people that I know that are about 18 years old and already has 2 kids plus one more on the way. What is she going to do to support her kids other than take form the rich and give to her, thus Medicaid, food stamps, etc. There are a lot of people who will give birth to a child they cannot support but just for the sake of getting tax money from the government. It is alright to help the ones that are working hard but still struggle taking care of some amenities and also the ones that cannot work due to reasonable factors. However, I think it is wrong for people to ask for government help when they are physically strong and capable of working but refuse not to. That is where the problem lies and needs to be fixed.

Free Essays on In Praise Of Censure

The Power of Censure In the essay, â€Å"In Praise of Censure,† Garry Wills, the Henry r. Luce Professor of American Culture and Public Policy at Northwestern University, defines censure, as oppose to censorship. Wills also strives to persuade the reader that censure, the open expression of moral disapproval, can strongly and effectively hold certain ideas up for critical analysis without suppressing them or hindering the rights protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as toleration or censorship does. Wills supports this claim with the use of factual evidence, authorative testimony, and rhetorical questions. Wills uses factual evidence to back his declarations. In the first paragraph of his essay, Wills strives to introduce examples of censorship against censure to the reader. He does this with accounts of several different instances in which censure has been used. He speaks of feminists joining â€Å"reactionaries to denounce pornography.† He narrates of how the rock musician Frank Zappa accused Tipper Gore, the wife of Al Gore, of launching an â€Å"conspiracy to exhort† when she asked that sexually explicit materials be labeled with warnings and of how Penthouse magazine charges Terry Rakolta, a house wife who withdrew her support from the sitcom, â€Å"Married†¦With Children,† with â€Å" yelling fire in a crowded theater.† Further along in â€Å"In Praise of Censure,† Wills makes an assertion concerning the First Amendment, â€Å"Belief in the First Amendment does not pre-empt other beliefs, making one eunuch to the interplay of opinions. It is a distortion to turn ‘You can express any views’ into the proposition ‘I don’t care what views you express.’ If liberals keep equating equality with approval, they will be repeatedly forced into weak positions.† To verify his contention, Wills goes to the situation in which an art gallery had cancelled an exhibit of the photographer, Robert Maplethorpe, because th... Free Essays on In Praise Of Censure Free Essays on In Praise Of Censure The Power of Censure In the essay, â€Å"In Praise of Censure,† Garry Wills, the Henry r. Luce Professor of American Culture and Public Policy at Northwestern University, defines censure, as oppose to censorship. Wills also strives to persuade the reader that censure, the open expression of moral disapproval, can strongly and effectively hold certain ideas up for critical analysis without suppressing them or hindering the rights protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as toleration or censorship does. Wills supports this claim with the use of factual evidence, authorative testimony, and rhetorical questions. Wills uses factual evidence to back his declarations. In the first paragraph of his essay, Wills strives to introduce examples of censorship against censure to the reader. He does this with accounts of several different instances in which censure has been used. He speaks of feminists joining â€Å"reactionaries to denounce pornography.† He narrates of how the rock musician Frank Zappa accused Tipper Gore, the wife of Al Gore, of launching an â€Å"conspiracy to exhort† when she asked that sexually explicit materials be labeled with warnings and of how Penthouse magazine charges Terry Rakolta, a house wife who withdrew her support from the sitcom, â€Å"Married†¦With Children,† with â€Å" yelling fire in a crowded theater.† Further along in â€Å"In Praise of Censure,† Wills makes an assertion concerning the First Amendment, â€Å"Belief in the First Amendment does not pre-empt other beliefs, making one eunuch to the interplay of opinions. It is a distortion to turn ‘You can express any views’ into the proposition ‘I don’t care what views you express.’ If liberals keep equating equality with approval, they will be repeatedly forced into weak positions.† To verify his contention, Wills goes to the situation in which an art gallery had cancelled an exhibit of the photographer, Robert Maplethorpe, because th...

Holophrases in Language Acquisition

Holophrases in Language Acquisition A holophrase is a single word (such as OK) that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought. In studies of  language acquisition, the term holophrase refers more specifically to  an utterance produced by a child in which a single word expresses the type of meaning typically conveyed in adult speech by an entire sentence. Adjective: holophrastic. Rowe and Levine note that some holophrases are utterances that are more than one word, but are perceived by children as one word: I love you, thank you, Jingle Bells, there it is (A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, 2015). Holophrases in Language Acquisition [A]round six months children begin babbling and eventually imitating the linguistic sounds they hear in the immediate environment. . . . By the end of the first year, the first true words emerge (mama, dada, etc.). In the 1960s, the psycholinguist Martin Braine (1963, 1971) noticed that these single words gradually embodied the communicative functions of entire phrases: e.g. the childs word dada could mean Where is daddy? I want daddy, etc. according to situation. He called them holophrastic, or one-word, utterances. In situations of normal upbringing, holophrases reveal that a vast amount of neuro-physiological and conceptual development has taken place in the child by the end of the first year of life. During the holophrastic stage, in fact, children can name objects, express actions or the desire to carry out actions, and transmit emotional states rather effectively. (M. Danesi, Second Language Teaching. Springer, 2003) Many of childrens early  holophrases are  relatively idiosyncratic and their uses can change and evolve over time in a somewhat unstable manner. . . . In addition, however, some of childrens holophrases are a bit more conventional and stable. . . . In English, most beginning language learners acquire a number of so-called relational words such as more, gone, up, down, on, and off, presumably because adults use these words in salient ways to talk about salient events (Bloom, Tinker, and Margulis, 1993; McCune, 1992). Many of these words are verb particles in adult English, so the child at some point must learn to talk about the same events with phrasal verbs such as pick up, get down, put on, and take off. (Michael Tomasello,  Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press, 2003) Problems and Qualifications The problem of the holophrase [is] that we have no clear evidence that the child intends more than he can express at the one-word stage. (J. De Villiers and P. De Villiers, Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press, 1979)The single word in conjunction with the gestures and facial expressions is the equivalent of the whole sentence. By this account, the single word is not a holophrase, but one element in a complex of communications that includes nonverbal actions. (M. Cole et al., The Development of Children. Macmillan, 2004) Holophrases in Adult Language Holophrases are  of course a significant factor in modern adult language, for example, in idioms. But by and large, these have historical compositional origins (including by and large). In any specific example, words came first, then the composition, then the holophrase . . .. (Jerry R. Hobbs, The Origin and Evolution of Language: A Plausible Strong-AI Account.)

Managing the United Kingdom Health Service Essay

Managing the United Kingdom Health Service - Essay Example This has been totally missing from the management at NHS. Management is can be defined both as art and science. It is the art of bringing out efficiency of people and making them more effective than they would have been with you. There are four basic pillars: plan, organize, direct, and monitor. The basic role of a manager is to make the staff more effective. Making them do work more efficiently than they are doing presently. If you add value to your staff's work, you are a successful manager. However, in NHS, managers are mere implementers who have no active decision making power. They merely implement the rules and regulations dictated by the Government. There is no way that they can add value to their or their staff's work. The managers at NHS feel that their role is unrecognised by patients, colleagues, the public and the government. Managers at NHS have less autonomy and less involvement in key decision making than their staff assume. And they are subjected to increasing control. Without a plan you will never succeed. If you happen to make it to the goal, it will have been by luck or chance and is not repeatable. You may make it as a flash-in-the-pan, an overnight sensation, but you will never have the record of accomplishment of accomplishments of which success is made. This important element of effective management is missing at NHS. Infact the organisation lacks serious planning and focus. As a result, the quality of services has been detortiating and ultimately the managers are planned by both government as well as public for inefficient services even though they have no power to run the organisation with a vision of their own. A study reveal that the notion of management had become divorced from clinical practice, even though many managers were doctors or nurses who had taken on the role to try to make a difference. To them, what was now called management was just an extension of the profession. Organize Organising and priortising work to ensure smooth, timely as well as quality deliveries and services form the core of good management. The lack of proper management results in poor organisation and prioritisation of work at NHS. Direct Directing your subordinates not as you are directing them but as if you are guiding them how to perform their specific job role. I like to think of this part like conducting an orchestra. Everyone in the orchestra has the music in front of them. They know which section is playing which piece and when. Now you need only to tap the podium lightly with your

Do you believe tht the incresing power of dvertising tht these uthors Essay

Do you believe tht the incresing power of dvertising tht these uthors points to is hrmful to mericn culture - Essay Example widely red nd generlly pprecited nlysis of mening in dvertisements is discussed by Glori Steinem where she wlks the reder through gllery of dvertisements nd discusses their ideologicl content. Her own criticl perspective is informed by vriety of theorists, including Ferdinnd de Sussure, Krl Mrx, Louis lthusser, Rymond Willims, Sigmund Freud, nd Jcques Lcn. Steinem's pedgogic objective is to tech the nive reder how to interpret dvertisements long the lines of these theorists, nd mny reders do find tht their criticl bilities re gretly developed by pplying Steinem's theories: dvertisements lose whtever simple qulities they my hve hd nd become insted texts bout production nd consumption in the consumer society, bout the plce of commodities in socil life, nd bout the cretion of needs to service n economic system tht must sell wht hs been produced. In ddition to teching the interprettion of dvertisements, Steinem explins how dvertising constructs the ideologicl principles tht re embedded in it. For exmple, mny dvertisements borrow ides from externl sources ("referent systems") such s culturl history or concepts of nture. In the process of ppropriting, reworking, nd using them, dvertising trnsforms the borrowed ides. The dvertisements for Virgini Slims cigrettes, which frequently refer to the history of women's, struggle for socil nd economic equlity in meric, illustrte this process. Selected events from this struggle re retold nd edited in selected wys, nd progress is depicted s contemporry women's hving gined the right to smoke. Similrly, hundreds of products tht proclim their "nturl" qulities re in relity highly ltered through complex mnufcturing processes. Instnces like these, Steinem clims, illustrte the construction of ideology through dvertisements. The resulting distortions over the long run lter our understndings of th e originl ides tht were borrowed nd (mis)used within dvertising. Steinem's pproch to the interprettion of dvertisements is founded on her gol of trnsforming the reder's skills. She does not tret s problemtic tht uninstructed reders mke whtever sense they do of the thousnds of dvertisements populting their dily lives. Neither does she tke ny gret interest in how the copywriters who produced the dvertisements thought bout their work. Insted, she ssumes tht nive reder's filure to see the issues she uncovers is flse consciousness of their mening, flseness on which dvertising depends to do its work. The pproch hinges fundmentlly on Steinem's own skill in pplying the vrious theoreticl perspectives to the dvertisements. From the outset she bedzzles the reder by observing detils nd ptterns in dvertisements tht ordinrily slip by n udience. She repetedly points out the contrdictions between wht dvertisements seem to sy nd wht they relly men ccording to the vrious perspectives. lthough Steinem considers dvertising's udience nive, she does not ssume tht its members re merely receivers of pckged messges tht emnte from dvertisers. Rther, she rgues, the udience is implicted in the production of mening, collbortion tht dvertising continully invites: [] crucil feture of these odds nd ends of thought used by ds is tht they do not exist "independently" but in our thought: it is we, s subjects, who re ppeled to s providers of these