A study of his poetry and its reflection Essay Example For Students

A study of his poetry and its reflection Essay This will be done by utilizing a wide selection of Wordsmiths poetry spanning the poets lifetime. HIS experiences are certainly mirrored In the subject matter of his creations and because of the Inextricable link between Wordsmith the man and Wordsmith the poet, the poems discussed in this paper have been separated into three sections. The first section will deal with poems from the Lyrical Ballads. The second section explores Wordsmiths Sonnets. While the last section will deal with the Ecclesiastical Sketches, as they have been referred to by critics and poets the like. In his famous poem The Rainbow, Wordsmith grandly proclaims that, the Child Is the Father of the Man (line 7). If we are to consider this claim on the basis not of its philosophical merit but rather of its personal relevance to the poet, this statement must be considered an absolute truth. For Wordsmith, through his poetry, explores himself: his thoughts, motives and feelings; in short Wordsmith poetry is in essence an exploration of the soul not of the mind and it is because of this that his poetry is so profound, so fluid and so Romantic In nature. Thus Wordsmiths poetry reflects him the man and hence the subject matter of his poems changes throughout the years as he goes through different experiences. In he poem Lines written a few miles above Tinder Abbey, Wordsmith discerns that there are three main stages of development: childhood, youth and manhood. Indeed these stages can be likened to Wordsmiths poetical development. The publication of Lyrical Ballads marked Wordsmiths birth and early childhood while the Sonnets of 1 802 and beyond definitely reflect a wiser, worldlier Wordsmith. However it is in his Ecclesiastical Sketches that Wordsmith the poet reaches the pinnacle of his development: his manhood in the world of poetry. Hence the separation of this paper into the three stages of his development. Wrought his life experiences, many of which are recounted in his poetry. There is, undoubtedly, a direct correlation between his life and his poetical works and a thorough knowledge of his background is necessary to understand his poetry and the stages that it undergoes. For example, the poetry of the Lyrical Ballads is light and carefree in tone and ambiance while that of the Sonnets is somber and reflective. This is because Wordsmith suffers a period of political disillusionment with the defeat of the French Revolution which is heavily reflected in his poetry of the time. It follows naturally that if the subject matter and ambiance are affected by Wordsmiths life then so would the themes and images of the poems. For these reasons, the poems have been separated into three distinct groupings to be explored separately. However while these poems may differ in content, they reflect the same elements of Romanticism seen in Wordsmiths poetry. In fact, the differences in content only serve to highlight Romanticism as a poetic style applicable to all genres of verse. BACKGROUND AND ContraindicationWilliam wordsmith north of England. He homebodies the yeoman of England with its sturdy constitution and independence of mind (11). So says R. S. Thomas in his introduction to A Choice of Wordsmiths Verse. His poetry is very reflective of his disposition and throughout his life the main constant in his poetry is its reverent response to and appreciation of nature. If we are to return to the line, The Child is the Father of the Man, then Wordsmiths poetry becomes as pure and as clear to us as the Cuckoos song was to him. For Wordsmiths childhood, described at length in his epic poem the Prelude, was idyllic. In the Prelude book I he describes life as a baby in his nurses arms, hearing and being drawn to the music of the river Deterrent. His childhood follows along a similar theme of communion with nature. Indeed natures influence on the spirit is the underlying theme of his poems in Lyrical Ballads. Then at the age of seventeen, after the deaths of his parents in 1778 and 1783, Wordsmith was separated from his five siblings and sent away to school at SST. Johns College in Cambridge. There his life was simple and unencumbered. Vacations were spent in walking tours around England and on the continent with friends. It was on these excursions that many of the ideas expressed in Wordsmiths poetry began to take shape. His deep appreciation of nature developed into a more sublime, spiritual communion. The Revolutionary Years 1791, Wordsmiths poetic life began in earnest. He revisited France where he came into brief contact with a Frenchman, Annette Balloon, by whom he had a child. His reunion with his daughter is beautifully depicted in his sonnet, It is a beauteous evening, calm and free. On this visit to France, Wordsmith became engrossed in the literary work and philosophies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Because of this influence, he developed strong republican sympathies and French people. In 1793 he returned to England where the excitement of the revolution quickly descended into disillusionment with the beginning of the Reign of Terror in September 1793. Wordsmiths actions during the French Revolution have been alternatively praised and criticized by critics. Those who praise his actions claim that Wordsmith showed himself to be a morally sound individual, who, sympathetic to the plight of a people, was moved into action. Others view Wordsmiths timely departure before the war as form of escapism. Whatever the case, the French Revolution heavily impacted upon him and his poetry, and after the death of the revolution Wordsmith became depressed and angered with his fellow man. As Graham Hough, Professor of English at Cambridge University states,let is customary to reproach Wordsmith for abandoning it (the revolution), which is absurd; even Romantic poets must be permitted to grow up. What we can legitimately regret is that he abandoned so much with it, so many of the ideals that should have been immune to historical disappointment. (53)This abandonment of deals is found in the Sonnets which tell of Wordsmiths worldly disillusionment and later embitterment. The abandonment becomes even more apparent in the later Ecclesiastical Sketches which showcase Wordsmiths seldom seen cynical side where biting remarks with a distinctly fatalistic tone reign. Then in the winter of 1794, he fled England to avoid military conscription and went with his sister, Dorothy, to Germany. That winter was indeed a revolutionary one for it was here that Wordsmiths and Samuel Taylor Coleridge friendship blossomed. The winter spent in each others company precipitated the publication of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798 and marked in earnest the popularization of Romanticism in Britain. The Reclusive Hearst years 1802 and 1803 were busy ones for Wordsmith. 1802 saw him married to a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. Before the wedding, Wordsmith revisited France for a settling of affairs between him and Annette. While in France he spent some time with his illegitimate daughter, Caroline. However following this, Wordsmith and his wife installed themselves at their new home from which he seldom vacated. But more importantly, these years saw a revival in Wordsmiths political interests which are reflected in his sonnets, composed around this time. For in 1802 the Peace of Amines was concluded with France formalizing Britains recognition of the newly formed French Republic, a move which was welcomed by liberal sympathizers. This political revival elevated Wordsmiths verse to new heights and his sonnets are profound in their expressions of disappointment, tempered with newfound hope. The Declined again Wordsmiths political hopes came crashing to the ground when the unstable period of peace ended in the beginning of a personal despotism This was all too much for Wordsmith to bear and his later work shows his defeatist attitude and the lack of hope with which he became imbibed. WORDSMITH THE Reinterpretations, as succinctly defined by wisped. Org, is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe. The Romantic Period ushered in a period of literary revolution where old fashion neoclassical ideals were permanently abolished. Before the advent of Romanticism, emphasis in poetry was placed on the order and balance of reasoned thoughts. Poets had to adhere to strict rules of form and diction and the higher the level of elevation of language, the greater the substance of the poetry created. Furthermore, the subject matter of the poem was also a matter of tacit understanding amongst most poets. For poems depicted Kings, Queens and Gods and described major historical, social and political events. Hence why Wordsmiths poetry has been hailed by many as revolutionary; for it was only with the birth of Romanticism that ideas such as nature, human imagination, childhood, and the ability to recall emotional memories of both happiness and arrow were able to be discussed and dissected in poetry. Compare and contrast 'The Man He Killed' by Thomas Hardy and the 'The Charge Of The Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson EssayTherefore the effect of nature on the poet is still seen as it is almost as if the Leech- Gatherer is sent by Nature herself to rouse Wordsmiths spirits, such is the link teens the old man and the surroundings. Thus through these distinctly Workstations concepts, the undercurrent of Romanticism is evidently seen. For while Wordsmith uses personal experience to fortify his stance on nature, the Romantic idea of appreciating natures beauty for not only its aesthetic greatness but also for the emotional healing it offers those willing to look. THE LANGUAGE OF COMMON Northwesters thoughts on language are best described in his own words. In the Preface of the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsmith expresses his view of poetry, the role of the Poet and his stance on engage and poetic ornament. Wordsmiths expression of poetry as, the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in tranquility became a benchmark of Romanticism and with it came his views on language:The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unallocated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than hat which is frequently substituted for it by Poets. This quotation, while rather long, is extremely important for it expresses Wordsmiths purpose as a writer and completely separates him from neoclassical poets. For here we have Wordsmith boldly proclaiming that his poetry is for everyone! It is a reflection of ordinary life he says; poetic ornament is necessary he cries and poets who pride their poetry on this are not poets. So why does Wordsmith embark on such a grand literary revolution? Let us not forget where he came from. Wordsmith was a highlander; a yeoman. He grew up eating poetry that was unrelated perhaps even at times incomprehensible to a young man from a background such as his. Hence it was his responsibility to create a whole new genre of poetry that could be read and enjoyed by the masses. This is really what Romanticism was all about: changing the rules to create a new level playing field where everyone had a voice. Throughout Wordsmiths literary career, he remains true to his thoughts as intimated in the preface. Poems such as Lucy Gray, The Rainbow and the Solitary Reaper published in 1799, 1802 and 1807 respectively are all testament to Wordsmiths view of language. In his preface however, Wordsmith states his opinions as fact which is where my opinion seems to differ from his. For Wordsmiths feelings about language as being more profound in its simplicity are more personal opinion than absolute truth. Indeed the poems where he does not adhere strictly to his rule on language are some of his most profound. Tinder Abbey, Mutability and Intimations on Immortality are some of his most widely praised poems and they all violate his golden rule. This is not to undermine Wordsmiths edict but rather to show that it is not an absolute one for he was able to confer the same profundity into all his poems, no tater the diction used. WORKSTATIONS PHILOSOPHIESWordsworth has been known to refer to himself as a philosopher however I am not of the opinion that he was ever truly one. In his poems though, many aspects of other peoples philosophies are dissected and given a Workstations twist. While the discussion of philosophy featured prominently in neoclassical poetry, what is different about Romantic poetry is that emphasis was placed on thoughts and feelings over reasoned thought. In Wordsmiths poetry he was able to combine these two elements of emotion and philosophy to create ideas that were truly unique Thoughts and Feelings expressed in the Lyrical Bailsman of Wordsmiths lyrics are deceptively simple poems, not only because of his diction but also because of his simple rhyme scheme. One such poem Lines written in Early Spring expresses two extremely essential ideas: Heartless philosophy of Associations and Darnings theory of the Sensibility of Plants. Associations is a complex psychological theory that gives insight into the human personality. Many critics of Hartley claim that his description of the emotional and moral process is coldly mechanical in that he saw human development as bound by environment and necessity. Hartley thought that the human mind linked similar situations together until we developed sensibilities from these associations. However Wordsmith was not concerned with the root of Associations but rather the grand idea of it all as expressed in the poem: To her fair works did Nature link/ The human soul that through me ran. Only Wordsmith the nature poet could take such a scientific theory and manage to convey a spiritual association between the divinity of nature and the human soul. But this was a central Workstations belief as we have already seen and in the preface Wordsmith says that man and nature are essentially adapted to each other. Another great Workstations concept was the belief in Darnings theory of the sensibility of plants, I. E. That plants have the natural capacity for conscious thought. Th is belief is clearly seen the poem: The birds around me hopped and played The budding twigs spread out their fan/ To catch the breezy air/ And I must think do all I can/ That there was pleasure there (13, 17-20). While these thoughts or concepts are expressions of the poets moral wanderings, the soul of Wordsmiths poetry is in the emotion or feeling he conveys to the reader. In this poem, Wordsmiths feelings of lost revolutionary zeal are expressed. He grieves for what man has made of man (8) and plaintively appeals to mankind: have I not reason to lament what man has made of man? (23-4)Thoughts and feelings expressed in the Syntheses sentiments of lamentation are echoed in Wordsmiths sonnets. In his London 1802, he expresses his general dissatisfaction and disillusionment with England. The poem opens with an apostrophe (direct address) to the great British poet John Milton. With this cry of desperation, Wordsmith launches into a heated description of present England and why the entry is in need of a savior:She is a fen/Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, a nd pen, [Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower/Have forfeited their ancient English dower/Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; / Oh! Raise us up, return to us again; [And give us manners, virtue, freedom and power. (2-8)Len this quote, Wordsmith denounces the church, state, literary world, the home and the throne. Here he is strong and direct in his placement of blame for he says we are selfish men. The whole country is to blame for the erosion of the moral values that Thoughts and Feelings expressed in the Ecclesiastical Sketches poem Ode: Intimations on Immortality is almost a philosophical discourse. In this poem ideas are all interconnected, so much so that readers are distantly reminded of Heartless theory. However this poem is a very important one historically as it is Wordsmiths own explanation to the line the Child is the Father of the Man:Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our lifes Star/ Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from afar: / Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness/ But trailing clouds of glory do we come Heaven lies about us in our infancy! / Shares of the prison-house begin to close/ Upon the growing Boy/ But He/ Beholds the light, and whence it flows The Youth who daily farther from the east/ Must travel, still is Natures Priest At length the Man perceives it die away, / And fade into the light of common day. (59-64, 66-70, 71-2, 76-7)Wordsmiths explanation of his famous line in this metaphysical exultation is only one of the two ideas so beautifully expressed in the passage above. For Wordsmiths cynical view of the world is also seen. However to first discuss the metaphysical, Wordsmith lives that the Child is born trailing clouds of immortality in that the child is born with some knowledge of the divine home from which we were all brought. However as time passes and especially with adolescence, the child loses the ability to recall the divine until, in adulthood, the ability is completely lost. This idea in itself is not a new one; the idea of losing ones childhood innocence to the conventions and routines of daily adult life is an ancient one. However it is the sadness and anger with which Wordsmith expresses these sentiments that makes them so profound. The first line of the passage sets the tone as a rather cynical proclamation of defeat. We are born to die, Wordsmith says as he goes on to elucidate his view.

Western Political thought Machiavelli Essay Example

Western Political thought: Machiavelli Essay Nicollo Machiavelli is one of the political thinkers that have contributed immensely to the development of the political thought. However, his thoughts and principles were a radical departure from those of his contemporaries. One of the political thoughts that were different from that of the past thinkers was on the morality of power. According to him morals cannot be used to judge the legitimate and illegitimate application of power. He claims that power and authority are equal variables and anyone that has power gains the right to give commands. He claimed that being good does not give one a moral authority and goodness does not give power to anyone. This view conflicts with the moralistic political theory that associated morality with authority (Nelson, 1995). Machiavelli criticizes the moralistic concept of authority saying that it does not add any value to power.The other political thought that was distant from the past thinkers was on the subject of law and force. Machiavelli f irst agreed with the past thinkers saying that good laws are important for an orderly political system. However he claimed that good people do not like following laws which means that for the good laws to work, there must be coercion. He wanted to imply that good laws have their legitimacy founded on the use of force. This thought appeared to be cruel, but in reality, laws cannot be legitimate if they are not accompanied by coercive force (Sydney, 2005).The last extreme thought by Machiavelli was on his treatment of politics. In opposition to the definition of the past thinkers who saw politics pragmatically. Machiavelli dismissed politics and an entity that could only be seen from the supremacy of powers that are coercive. The authority in politics according to him cannot exist independently and politics is all about gaining supremacy for personal interests (Nelson, 1995).Though Machiavellian political thoughts were different from those of the past thinkers, modern political theory is based on Machiavellian principles and thoughts. His eccentric thoughts have provided a foundation for the modern political theory.ReferenceNelson, B.R. (1995). Western Political Thought from Socrates to the Age of Ideology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Sydney, A. (2005) .Machiavelli the First Century: Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance. Oxford: Oxford University Press

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.