Reflection on christianity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reflection on christianity - Essay Example Loving the Lord God with all the heart, mind and soul is expounded in the law given to Moses where people are supposed to honor God first and foremost. Making graven images for people to worship is an act of dishonor to the God who made all things therefore, God commanded against it. Moreover, God teaches the people not to dishonor Him with their words but to praise Him with their lips instead and also to follow his footsteps, resting on the The second greatest commandment on the other hand encompasses the other commandments in the Law of Moses. It instructs the people how they are supposed to show their love and respect to each other by not murdering, slandering, nor committing adultery. The commandments do not just mention respecting people but it also tells them to regard what they own with respect by not coveting their neighbor’s house, wife, menservants and maidservants as well as his other belongings. Since undoubtedly, everyone would want to be loved, the second commandment simply says to love other people as one would love

The Baroque Era Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Baroque Era - Term Paper Example In comparison to the forms of music preceding the Baroque music, the Baroque music is more intense, ornate and texturized in a lavish manner. The melodic line of the Baroque music is immensely decorated and has a rich counterpoint. A myriad of traits define the music of the Baroque era that include but are not limited to the basso continuo’s use and a faith in the affections’ doctrine which enable the composers to incorporate their feelings and emotions into their work. One of the most distinguishing features of music in the Baroque era is the emphasis it places upon the pace, volume and texture of the music. These features were altogether non-existent in the conventional music from the late Renaissance. Moreover, the Baroque music replaced the austerity of the early Renaissance and the Medieval style with the color of the instrument and the use of voice. In the Baroque era, there was an abundance of the secular forms of music and their use was just as much as that of t he liturgical styles of music. Imitative polyphony was one characteristic that reflected in most of the preceding music eras as well as in the Baroque era. It was used in the musical lyrics. On the contrary, the homophonic style was gaining increased attention and use in the music of the Baroque era, unlike the preceding music eras. Along with the employment of the homophonic music in the Baroque era, several innovative types of polyphonic music were surfacing in this era as well. Composers in the Baroque era were of the opinion that the counterpoint’s art.

Robert Reich’s “Supercapitalism” Chapter 2 Analysis

Robert Reich’s â€Å"Supercapitalism† Chapter 2 Analysis Richard (Ben) Dowden Analysis of a chapter from Robert Reich’s â€Å"Supercapitalism† Outline of Reich, chapter 2 Argument outline of Reich, chapter 2 Overall argument Since the 1970’s competition between corporations grew as technology developed, American companies began to pursue profit to remain competitive resulting in supercapitalism triumphing over democratic capitalism. Reasons Globalisation, new production processes and deregulation increased competition giving consumers and investors more choices. Increase in investor culture drove companies to compete for shareholders (i.e. highest possible profits) regardless of their social responsibility. The decline in union membership as a result of pursuits in profit has led to the decline of power workers have over their employers, the corporations. Evidence for reason 1 In Section 2 (pp. 56-60), Reich describes how technology developed for use in the Cold War had influence over American business. He asserts the technology had three indirect outgrowths: globalisation, new production processes and deregulation (p.60). He argues that each of these outgrowths increased business competition giving concrete evidence for each in the following sections. Section 3 (pp. 60-63) argues that globalisation has reduced the cost of overseas trade creating opportunities for global supply chains. Reich states that the Vietnam War resulted in the growth of commercial, global logistics. Reich gives concrete evidence of how seven new containership companies entered the market in the year following the war and how industry grew at a high rate thereafter (p.61). Moreover, Reich argues this created the concept of global supply chains. Reich notes the great increase in American imports from American owned overseas factories between 1969 and 1983 (p.62). He then gives examples describing large companies’ global supply chains (p.62). Section 4 (pp.64-65) argues new production processes trumped the economies of scale used by the oligopolies resulting in a marketplace growing in complexity. Reich gives examples of how new production processes allows specialisation. He explains how standardised steel gave way to specialised galvanised steels designed for a niche market (p.64). Furthermore, a huge brand like Coca-Cola faced a variety of specialised drinks taking away Coca-Cola’s market share (p.65). In section 5 (pp.65-70) Reich argues that as businesses innovated, new profitable, yet restricted opportunities were discovered within regulated markets, companies lobbied for deregulation, driving competition. Reich states that in some cases, deregulation put companies out of business since they lost the cross-subsidies from other previously regulated, profitable companies. He gives evidence of the Bell System’s segmented telecommunication companies based in the country becoming unviable, opening business opportunities to smaller, extremely competitive companies (p. 68). Furthermore, trucking and airline deregulation led to added competition, particularly in freight (p.69). Evidence for reason 2 At the end of section 5 (pp.65-70) Reich quotes Edward E. Furash stating that due to the change in psyche in American’s management of wealth, the American financial system will shift towards competing for investors (p.70). Reich describes the financial deregulation of banking giving new opportunities to investors among others he gave evidence of stock broker, Merrill Lynch setting up mutual funds (p.67). Reich seems to contribute the increase in investment choice and effectiveness because of deregulation to savers becoming investors. Reich backs the claim with statistics at the start of section 6 (pp.70-75) citing the increase in percentage of households owning stock (pp.70-71). Reich goes on to say this also coincided with the bull market of 1980-2000 (p.71). His overall argument here is that companies had to compete for investors which meant maximising returns. Reich gives evidence of how profit margins rose from the beginning of the 1980 to 2000 at a high rate of change (pp.72-73). He also gives evidence of how the number of companies that ran at lower profit margins that were subjected to hostile takeovers increased by a factor of 11 from the 1970’s to the 80’s (pp.73-74). In Section 7 (pp.75-80), Reich begins by quoting the former CEO of Coca-Cola stating companies have the sole responsibility of generating returns for their investors (p.75). He continues to point out a CEO’s job security is increasingly attributed to the company’s stock price recommendation. 50% of CEOs’ company’s stock was downgraded in investment recommendation were fired in the following six months (p.76). Reich uses evidence of how 60% of senior executives in the Fortune 500 companies had been at their firm for fewer than six years (p.76). His argument is that CEO’s no longer have room to worry about the social consequences of their organisation. He uses the example of Malden Mills, a family-owned textiles company which ran at a loss manufacturing in New England. Their CEO did not want to close the factory since the local economy had high dependencies on it – he was eventually sacked by the company’s creditors (p.79). Evidence for reason 3 Section 8 (pp.80-86) focusses on the decline in union membership starting from the 1970’s. He cites evidence from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics of how union membership rapidly declined beginning in the 1970’s (p.80). He explains this is a consequence of employers contesting unions, giving concrete evidence of this through the decrease of uncontested union elections (p.80). Reich also gives evidence of how the rate of illegal dismissals of union members rose through the 1970’s and into the 90’s (p.81). Reich’s explanation for corporations’ behaviour was related to cutting the costs of the payroll to remain competitive as consumers and investors looked for the cheapest deal. Reich gives concrete evidence of how the nonunionised sector of the American economy grew at a greater rate than the unionised sector (pp.82-83). This increase in opposition arising from nonunionised companies forced unionised corporations fight the unions to remain competitive. Reich uses evidence from a range of industries to describe this citing: the air travel industry (p.83), the ‘Big Three’ American car manufacturers (pp.83-85) and the construction industry (p.85). Reich goes on to explain how the public services sector was never unionised, consequently suffering low wages. Reich uses the evidence of how members of the public services industry went on strike responding to their wages being cut as anti-union Wal-Mart entered their industry (p.86). Reflection: How the chapter intersects with my life The chapter reaffirmed my own opinion that wealth distribution in developed nations, particularly America’s, is unequal. It shows that while deregulation may improve its GDP per capita, it doesn’t guarantee a higher quality of life. In fact, in more regulated economies like in Scandinavia, quality of life indicators are higher since wealth distribution is far more equal (Wilkinson Pickett, 2009). The chapter is interesting, considering the debate surrounding the deregulation of tertiary education in Australia. It does give universities ability to form an identity, which is a way of saying it encourages elitism. After all, a university’s ‘prestige’ is generally attributed to how well-endowed it is. But is it just the first step to university privatisation? Will universities eventually just pursue profit like companies? List of references Reich, R., 2008. Supercapitalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K., 2010. The spirit level. London: Penguin Books.

An Analysis of Ballad of the Harp-Weaver Essay -- Ballad Harp-Weaver E

An Analysis of Ballad of the Harp-Weaver Take just a second to read the first eight lines very carefully. Picture yourself as a small child being with your mother or father sitting on their lap as they hold you. It is a good feeling that brings warmth and security to any child or any adult needing to recapture the essence of their childhood. In the first four lines we are to understand that the boy's mother is trying to rub his skin to make him warm. That is what "chafe" means, to warm by rubbing. But how many times have you found yourself not quite sleepy enough to go to sleep and you ask your mother or father to read you a bedtime story? In this section we find the relationship between mother and son the very epitome of maternal union. Their bonding takes place in a form that most children can remember from the early part of their lives. The act of storytelling is a wonderful part of growing up. Before the invention of reading and writing, people struggled to survive against nature, animals and other humans. This poem is a good example of this basic need to survive by using whatever resources you have to keep alive. To survive, people developed skills that grew into cultural and educational patterns. This idea is present when we read the part about the severity of that winter and the mother and son burning up their furniture to stay warm. The boy's mother is teaching him that you can use the wood in the furniture to use in the fire. That is an important lesson that a parent can pass down in order to insure the survival of their offspring. It teaches a lesson that a child would not otherwise know and can be used again and again to help future generations. For a culture to continue into the future, peop... ... into their path of agony by letting us know it is Christmas. The boy cannot be soothed by his mother's singing and cries himself to sleep. This is so heart wrenching for any mother to have to endure. I believe this is the climax of the poem. The mother knows she can no longer go on with just rhymes and singing. In fact even her love cannot soothe her sons torment anymore. But we are left to wonder what it is she can do. She uses the only thing left, the harp. The boy talks about a light that falls on her, yet its source is unknown. Is it the light of God or divine intervention that is helping her to understand what she must do? Or is it just that light that appears in our heads out of nowhere when we have exhausted all our options? We begin to understand that the harp is her last resort. The poem makes no mention of her playing the harp before so why now?

Textbook Analysis

University of Latvia Faculty of Humanities Department of English Studies Textbook Analysis 3rd year, group B student Kristaps Briedis Riga 2013 Introduction The â€Å"Focus on Advanced English C. A. E. † is written by Sue O’Connell and first published in Pearson Education Limited at the Edinburgh Gate, Harlow in year 1999, and the edition at hand is the thirteenth impression printed in 2006. The textbook is oriented for students preparing for the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English examination.Further, the analysis of syllabus will be based on the material given in the revised and updated edition of the â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † The whole text book consists of 240 pages. It includes fourteen units, which are divided according to different topics (e. g. Severe Weather, Time Eaters, Stress etc. ). Each unit of the â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † is devoted to the development of all language skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking. Moreo ver, there are grammar and vocabulary tasks in each unit. One unit from the â€Å"Advanced English C. A.E. † (Unit 12 â€Å"Living Dangerously†) was chosen for the analysis of the whole book, because each unit is devoted to the development of all language skills and thus, it is enough to analyze only one of them in order to understand how the whole book â€Å"works†. Reading Reading can be defined as the process of constructing meaning from written texts (Online 1). Thus, learning reading skills means understanding the text what one reads. But why do we need to understand what we read? According to Harmer (2001:200), there are two types of reasons for reading.The first is instrumental reason, which means that people read because it helps him/her to achieve particular goal (e. g. people read road signs in order to know where to go). The other type is called pleasurable. That means that the reason for reading some particular text is to get pleasure (e. g. reading illustrated cartoon). Thus, it does not matter what reason the student has, it is important for him/her to practice reading skills. Unit 12 of the â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † offers the students two reading exercises.The first text is the magazine article called â€Å"Living Dangerously. † It contains about 400 words and is divided into 8 paragraphs. There is a pre-reading exercise, which students should do before reading the main text. The pre-reading exercises motivate the students and encourage their involvement in the topic and theme of the text (Online 2). After doing a pre-reading and a while-reading activity, students are asked to fill the gaps in the article choosing the proper paragraph (from A-G) given after the text.In order to achieve a general understanding of a text, the students do extensive reading, which includes scanning (a quick reading, focusing on locating specific information) and skimming (a quick reading to know how the passage is organize d and to get an idea of the intention of the writer) (Online 3). Finally, the post-reading exercise is given to check how the students have understood the text and to develop their critical thinking. In this exercise the students are asked to find given expressions in the text and work out the meaning of them from the context (e. g. ested interest might mean a personal stake or involvement in an undertaking or situation). As the second task, a newspapers article â€Å"You are caught in a fire then what? † is given. It is about two times longer than previous article (about 800 words). Firstly, students are asked to scan the text (to read it quickly) in order to be able to answer some questions in pre-reading activity (e. g. Who devised the Survival Game and why? ). Then, students should read the article more carefully in order to do the following post-reading exercise. This type of exercise is different from the first one.In the second case students have to answer multiple cho ice questions. There are 6 questions with 4 answers in each. Some advantages of this type of exercises are the following: multiple choice exercises require less time than some written tasks, it is considered to be more objective than a usual written task, and â€Å"it will allow assessing one’s knowledge without taking into account all the irrelevant factors† (Online 4). Writing Writing is said to be a method of representing language in visual or tactile form (Online 5). And more important it is a skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text (Online 6).There are many reasons why writing is important, for example, the ability to express one’s thoughts and ideas, communicative competence (letters), also it serves as a record, as in expressing one’s ideas for future references (Online 6). There are different types of writing – writing to inform, educational writing, writing to entertain, persuasive writing and motivational writing (Onli ne 7). To improve writing skills there are some essential instructions that need to be performed – research, think, organize, write, edit, revise, relax (Online 7).Two writing exercises are included into the unit 12 of the â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † The first exercise is writing an article (~250 words) about an interesting adventure. The textbook has a good approach to the writing tasks as it provides a ‘Task Checklist’, where there are several guideline questions concerning format and approach, content and organization, style and the target reader, for example, ‘Who are the magazine readers? ’ or ‘What language features are needed for this content? ’.Also the textbook provides a ‘Writing File’, where the features of different types of writing – formal and informal letters, articles, reports, reviews and so on – are shown. The second part of the exercise is the involvement of some structures in th e article in order to emphasize or add some dramatic effect, for example, writing sentences using inversion (a reversal of normal word order) or cleft structure (A construction in which some element in a sentence is moved from its normal position into a separate clause to give it greater emphasis) (Online 8).The second exercise on writing consists of writing a memo (~50 words) and a report (~200 words) about the security in collage. The essential part in this task is to use the information that is already given, but using one’s own words. The task also has a ‘Task Checklist’ with the guideline questions and indication to the ‘Writing File’ and also includes the explanation and tips on writing a memo. â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † aim is based on covering different types of writing.The Unit 12 included persuasive writing (writing a memo), which improves the skills of argumentation (Online 7), and informative writing (writing an article). Th e tasks are well organized and easy to understand, they provide comprehensible instructions and also some tips for writing the given type of the text. Additionally there is a supplement, where the features of the different types of texts are enclosed, so it is easy for a student to rapidly find the necessary information. Listening Listening is the ability to accurately receive messages in the communication process (Online 9).Listening is not an easy process because the listener should concentrate and understand everything what he/she hears on the spot. It is impossible for the listener to adjust the pace of speech, listen again or check an unknown word. In addition, listening is not the same as hearing as listening means paying attention to not only what is being told, but also to the manner how it is being told. According to the statistics, adults spend approximately 70% of time communicating, while approximately 45% of the time spent on communication is listening (Online 9).After a short explanation on what is listening and why it is so important in everyday communication, it is essential to look how listening is taught in schools. The textbook under analysis provides mostly two (in some units – one) listening tasks in each unit. According to Rost (2002), listening tasks can be divided into three phases: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. This division is not always present in the textbook because in quite many of the tasks pre-listening or post-listening is missing.Pre-listening and post-listening are very important because pre-listening is like a warm-up for while-reading as it ‘activates the background knowledge and  integrates  the directions of listening’ (Helgesen, 1998), while post-reading ‘allows the learner to build mental representations and develop shortterm second language memory, and increase motivation for listening a second time’ (Rost, 2002). The textbook presents such pre-reading tasks as questions on the theme and vocabulary related exercises. In Unit 12 two vocabulary related exercises are offered as lead-in tasks into the following istening tasks as well as into the whole unit and theme. All while-listening tasks are divided into four different types or parts (as they are called in the book). In parts 1 and 2 a monologue or sometimes a dialogue can be heard. The task type used in these parts is mostly filling in the gaps. The students are tested for ability of hearing specific information (or bottom-up listening), which, according to Helgesen (1998), is similar to scanning. He writes that listening to specific information is difficult as students ‘try to catch everything, often taking the time to mentally translate it into their mother tongue’ (Helgesen, 1998).A longer recording of a discussion or conversation can be heard in the part 3. The student’s ability of understanding the text as a whole (or top-down listening), including the gist and s pecific information, is tested in this part. The task types are filling in the gaps, sentence completion and four-option multiple choice questions. In part 4 five short extracts can be heard. Students are asked to identify the situation or topic, the manner and the attitude of speaking, the goal of the speaker or specific information. The task types are multiple matching or three-option multiple choice questions.The while-listening texts are in the form of formal and informal conversations, public announcements and private messages. The while-listening tasks in Unit 12 are of parts 1 and 3. Both exercises are filling in the gaps, and the recording can be heard twice in each of them. The few post-reading tasks are mostly questions on the theme, for example, the task in Unit 12 asks to imagine yourself in the situation connected with the previously heard text and discuss what you would do yourself, which is quite creative and interesting post-reading exercise.Most of the tasks are one -way as ‘all input comes from an outside source (like a videotape) to the learner’ not from outside, for example, a speaking partner (Rost, 2002). In addition, the listening sub-skills, such as skimming, scanning, note-taking, understanding attitudinal and conceptual meanings, understanding unfamiliar lexical items through context, understanding relationships within the sentence, also are taught in the textbook (Online 10). Speaking Speaking is  the delivery of language through the mouth (Online 11). Speaking skills enable learners to enter the community of the target language (Kramina, 2000: 86).This vocalized form of language usually requires at least one listener (of course, some people talk to themselves! ) – speech can flow naturally from one person to another in the form of dialogue, or it can also be planned and rehearsed, as in the delivery of a speech or presentation (Online 11). According to Kramina (2000), to act as a speaker participating in the com municative process, the learner must be able to carry out a sequence of skilled actions which comprise: cognitive, linguistic, and phonetic skills. There are speaking tasks throughout the textbook under analysis that help practice and enhance those skills.There are four parts to the speaking tasks in â€Å"Advanced English C. A. E. † each focusing on different speaking skills and sub-skills. Part 1 focuses on general social language – general social English and the ability to interact with other people in English. Part 2 focuses on transactional language – ability to give information clearly. Part 3 practices negotiation and collaboration skills, and Part 4 is designed to test the ability to report, explain, summarise and to develop a discussion naturally. Pictures and other visual prompts are used in Parts 2 and 3 to cue various tasks.Unit 12 of the textbook under analysis includes four speaking tasks – three of them concerning Parts 3 and 4, and one on Part 2. According to Kramina (2000) the development of communicative ability requires a range of suitable classroom activities that should provide learners with a degree of communicative urgency so that they have something interesting to say and a reason to communicate with their partners. Learners may be motivated to communicate by the enjoyment of playing a game, the challenge and satisfaction in solving a problem or completing a project.Tasks 1 through 3 focus specifically on problem solving. In task 1 the learners are faced with an unfinished statement and five possible variants to conclude it: the learners are to engage in a discussion and give well-founded answers to the follow-up questions. The correct answers can then be found on the answer page of the book. Task 2 consists of parts a and b. Part a is a work in pairs, where each of the participants are to imagine themselves in a particular problematic/ difficult situation and have to come up with a sound solution, or choose one from the already given visual prompts.In part b, the participants have to briefly explain to the rest of the class the decisions they came to with their partners, and say how far they agree or disagree with the opinions of others. Task 3 is a discussion of points concerning the topic of the unit. Several questions are given, designed to encourage the learners to use their existing knowledge on the subject, brainstorm for new solutions and express personal opinions. Next to these three tasks, tips are given on how to develop the discussions further by listening and responding to what your partner says and allowing the partner to comment on what you say.The last speaking exercise of the unit concentrates on both presenting information clearly and listening carefully to the information given by a partner. Students have to work in pairs and each gets a picture to look at – the pictures are of the same scene but there are several differences between them. First, Student A is t o describe the left-hand side of his picture in detail, while Student B listens carefully and notes any differences (without interrupting), and when A has finished, B should mentions any differences noticed.Then vice versa, Student B describes the right-hand side of the picture, while Student A studies for differences. When students are done with both parts of the task, they are to look at the two pictures together and compare their answers to the list given on a different page. This textbook is, however, lacking tasks that would help with the phonetic skills development, so it would be up to the teacher to help students learn the skills to articulate the utterance appropriately. (Kramina 2000: 65)Conclusions Although â€Å"Focus on Advanced English C. A. E. † is a textbook designed specifically as an integrated course for students preparing for the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English examination, it covers all the essential language skills for foreign language learning and is suitable for English language acquisition, and is generally a good material for the preparation of several other English examinations, e. g. , the English examination of Secondary education in Latvia.The textbook offers 14 units covering a wide variety of stimulating topics, authentic reading texts from a range of sources, thorough practice of all language skills, a Grammar File with detailed information of all points covered in the units, and a Writing File with model text types and useful language, all coming from the experienced teacher, teacher trainer and examiner Sue O’Connell. References 1. Harmer J. (2001) English Language teaching. England: Pearson Education Ltd. 2. Helgesen, M. 1998) ESL Magazine. 1 (4): 24-25. Available from http://www. mgu. ac. jp/~ic/helgesen/marc. article2. htm [Accessed March 5, 2013]. 3. Rost, M. (2002) Listening Tasks and Language Acquisition. Available from http://jalt-publications. org/archive/proceedings/2002/018. pdf [Accessed Mar ch 5, 2013]. 4. Kramina, I. (2000) Linguo-didactic Theories Underlying Multi-purpose Language Acquisition. Riga: University of Latvia. Online Sources 1. Available from http://lrs. ed. uiuc. edu/students/jblanton/read/readingdef. tm [Accessed March 6, 2013]. 2. Available from http://tlc. cet. ac. il/ShowItem. aspx? ItemID=ccd2b528-84f5-4078-a76f-d6b1243f26e9&lang=EN [Accessed March 6, 2013]. 3. Available from http://fis. ucalgary. ca/Brian/611/readingtype. html [Accessed March 6, 2013]. 4. Available from http://www. multiplechoicequestionsservice. com/multiple-choice-questions-advantages/ [Accessed March 6, 2013]. 5. Available from: http://www. omniglot. com/writing/definition. htm [Accessed March 6, 2013].

Corrections Timeline

This essay is going to show the development with four eras of the correctional system. The four eras that will be discussed with be: 1800, 1960, 1980 and 2000. For each era we will go over the description of the holding or monitoring of the offenders, the treatment and punishment of the offenders and the influences of the particular era on today’s correctional system. The conclusion will discuss the most beneficial era to the correctional system, as well as, recommendations for ways in which the current correctional system could be improved upon. Penitentiary era 1800’s With the ideas of The Age of Enlightenment growing in popularity, a new concept of criminal punishment came into play; the penitentiary. The penitentiary first appeared in 1790 when the Philadelphia Walnut Street Jail was expanded to allow separate confinement of inmates. The western State Penitentiary was established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1819, as well as the Auburn State Penitentiary in New York. The Auburn State Penitentiary was based on a congregate system. Seeks to redeem offenders through a well-ordered routine of the prison, implementing strict discipline, labor, obedience, and silence. The inmates were held in isolation at night but congregated in workshops during the day. They could not talk or look at each other while working or at meals. The work consisted of hard labor, such as the construction of roads or buildings. The inmates had to walk in unison, in a formation known as the lock step. The goal of The Auburn State Penitentiary was to redeem the offender through the well-organized practice of the prison (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, 2009). In 1821 after many years of lobbying from the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, the Pennsylvania Legislature approves funding to build the Eastern State Penitentiary. The new prison will hold 250 inmates. In 1829 Masks are fabricated to keep the inmates from communicating during rare trips outside their cells. Cells are equipped with feed doors and individual exercise yards to prevent contact between inmates, and minimize contact between inmates and guards. In 1839, the County of Chester built its first off site jail at Market and New Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania. This structure subsequently underwent alteration and additions up until 1941. This Prison was modeled after the Walnut Street jails in Philadelphia the first County institution which was built in 1770. The only differences were the sanitary provisions, beds and heating for each cell. 1862 – A cabinet shop is opened in the prison. In the next ten years, the prison will add a shoe shop, a tailor shop, a wagon factory, and an expansion to the cabinet shop for other furniture and chairs. By 1878, the revenues will be sufficient to allow the prison to run without drawing appropriations from the state’s treasury. A knitting industry is added in 1893, a twine plant in 1912, a cannery in 1915, a license plate operation in 1917, a print shop in the early 1920s, and a laundry in 1940. The laundry, license plate, wood and metal furniture, printing and signage, silk-screening, and tailoring operations survive to this day at the prison. Community Era 1960’s to 1980. During this era there were lot of Development of behavioral techniques in 1930s and 1940s brought about concept of treatment in prisons. â€Å"Correctional Facilities. † Treatment based on â€Å"medical model. † Individual and group therapy programs evolved. Neurosurgery- Used to control aggressive behavior and destructive urges – frontal lobotomies were part of this approach. Sensory deprivation- Denial of stimulation by isolating prisoners in quiet, secluded environment. Aversion therapy- Drugs and/or electric shock used to teach prisoner to associate negative behavior with pain and displeasure. Today’s Prisons In today’s prisons Whites – 1229 incarcerated per 100,000 white males in their late 20’s. Blacks – 10,376 incarcerated per 100,000 black males in their late 20’s. the prisons today with the maximum system looks like the: high fences/walls of concrete barriers between living area and outer perimeter, electric perimeters, laser motion detectors, electronic and pneumatic locking systems, metal detectors, X-ray machines and television surveillance. Medium security prison, Similar in design to maximum security facilities, however, they allow prisoners more freedom. In them, prisoners can usually: associate with other prisoners, go to the prison yard, use exercise room/equipment, visit the library and take showers and use bathroom facilities with less supervision. Also in the medium security prison they usually have dormitory style housing. Cells and living quarters tend to have more windows. These facilities tend to have barbed wire fences instead of large stone walls. Last we have the minimum security prisons which: Housing tends to be dormitory style and prisoners usually have freedom of movement within the facility. Work is done under general supervision only. Guards are unarmed, and gun towers do not exist. Fences, if they exist, are low and sometimes unlocked. â€Å"Counts† are usually not taken. Prisoners are sometimes allowed to wear their own clothes. I believe that all the eras had a lot to do with how far we have come in the correctional system today. I would have to say that the way we are running the system today is the best we have had and we will continue to learn and over time will make the system better.

Smoke-Free Policy Essays

Smoke-Free Policy Essays Smoke-Free Policy Essay Smoke-Free Policy Essay Smoke-Free Policy BY allowancing The Final Report Smoke-Free Policy Purpose of the Survey and the Survey Basics The main research purpose of the survey Smoke-Free Policy was to measure the effectiveness of the smoke-free policy among the students which recently went into effect at Branch College. The questionnaire which our project team designed and administered contained twelve questions including two demographic questions about the gender and the age range of the participants. We wanted to conduct the survey which will contain clear, balanced and well-structured questions and matched espouse categories to have a better response and coverage rate on the issues of smoke-free policy on the campus. The survey was conducted by Danville Tumults, Loan Chattanooga, Marc Farewell, Army Vasquez, and Abdul Sharon. We used the Qualities System of Branch College to create and administer the survey, and the link to the survey questions have been sent over the email to the fellow classmates in PAP 3105 course. The students were allowed one week to answer the questionnaire and submit their responses. The email invitation to participate in the survey was sent on Monday May April 15, 2013, and we closed the survey in a week on Monday, April 22, 2013. Questions asked why selected? Problems with questions The construction of the questionnaire is a very important part of the survey. This is why it is required to keep the research purpose and goals in mind at each step and also determine in advance which topics must be covered, what specific questions must be asked and in which order the questions will be maintained. From the very beginning, our project team defined the issue and the purpose of the survey to measure the effectiveness of the smoke-free policy among the students which gently went into effect at Branch College. In order to get satisfying response and coverage rates, a great amount of time has been devoted to the questions which would be asked, on the pretest and revision of the questionnaire. We also focused on the complete wording of questions and a balanced set of answer choices. To keep the conversational flow and build trust with respondents, it has been determined to start first with general questions before specific ones, open-ended questions before close- ended, and also keep in mind that it is crucial to construct the questions in the allowing order awareness, opinion, behavior, and demographics. We also paid close attention to the response categories to make sure they are balanced, not exhausting, and clear enough to the respondents and matched to the question asked, and are also likely to produce variability. The questionnaire contained 12 questions in total including 2 demographic questions. As an example, the first question reflected the awareness mode of the questions order. It helped our team measure how concerned students are with the effects of cigarette smoke on their health. It has men revealed that 47% of the respondents were very concerned whereas 21% were not concerned at all. The second and third questions reflected the opinion of the respondents, such as, for example, the second question showed that 68% of students think that the number of smokers has not been decreased since the smoke free policy went into effect, and the third question also showed that 42% are still unsure auto ten JODI wanly ten security department does at mentoring ten smoke Tree policy on the campus of Branch College. And we also included two demographic questions t the end of the questionnaire to find out about the gender and age range of the respondents. We managed to be very specific and asked two separate questions in order to get precise information. It has been revealed that there were 47% of male respondents and 53% of female respondents. And as for the age category, 53% of the respondents fell under 18-21 age category, 32% under 22-26 age category and under 27-34 age category respectively. However, one of the problems we encountered while conducting the survey was related to the questions for smokers only. As an example, one of the questions revealed that there were only 9 smokers, and out of them only 22% continued to smoke where it was still disallowed, whereas 78% did not do so. Another question which has also been designed for smokers only showed that there were 16 smokers, and out of them 19% believed that the smoke- free campus policy made it harder for them to get to class on time while 81% responded it was not hard. Perhaps the reason is that either some of the smokers decided to skip the question for the smokers only, or the question itself was not important to their personal understanding of the problem. Another problem was that 4 students still did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey completion and the deadline. Data Collection Mode: Advantages and Disadvantages It is very important to design and implement the data collection mode. In order to conduct the survey Smoke-Free Policy, our team decided to use the Qualities System of Branch College to create and administer the survey. The first step we took was the creation of the survey through Quick Survey Builder which allowed us to create each question in the appropriate order as well as the response categories to cake sure they were clear, balanced and matched to the asked questions. Then our team took the next step the distribution of the survey. We uploaded the list of the respondents email addresses and their full names who we were interested in reaching out to through our survey link. The target of our interest was the students, and we kindly asked our fellow students in our Public Affairs 3105 class to complete the survey. We sent an email invitation to complete the survey online on Monday April 15, 2013. Students had one week from that day to complete the survey until it as closed on Monday April 22, 2013. Out of 23 respondents, we received a response from 19 students who answered all the questions. Through View Results tab the system allowed us to create the final report of the answers given to the questions we provided including the response rate to each question, the percentage rate and even the graph for our convenience. We could also compute the crossbars for each question using the variables age and gender we were interested in to evaluate the results properly. In terms of the advantages, this mode of data collection did not cost us any money, ND it was a very fast and easy way to collect the information, also view the responses and percentage rates and create cross-tabulations by the variables. Advanced options of the online Qualities System allowed us to modify the questions and create some colorful backgrounds and visuals to seem more eye-catchy to the respondents what also could increase the response and coverage rate. Another advantage of this data collection Moe Is ten accuracy. Since ten participants entered tenet responses directly into the Qualities System, the margin of error could be smaller. It was also say and convenient for the respondents to use this kind of the survey as they could pick the time which suited them best, and of course the time required to complete the survey was much shorter. To sum up, this survey mode is certainly less time consuming, allows flexibility, lower costs, faster results and easy construction and administration. However, some of the disadvantages are related to the coverage and sampling problems, respondent availability, and lower response rates. It has been noticed that the level of cooperation is much weaker since there is no interviewer to sky questions directly and build trust and understanding among the participants. This, in turn, could slightly affect the reliability of data. This mode of data collection can also have some technical issues and problems which could affect the results of the questionnaire as well as the final report to review the given answers. As an example, one of the technical problems could be the browser freeze, error messages, or the questionnaire can be completed by same person several times. All these problems may prevent the participants from providing the responses to the questionnaire. Sampling/Selection: Advantages and limitations. Suggestions for the future The survey sample consisted of all the fellow students in the PAP 3105 class and also the professor. 23 surveys have been sent out, and we collected the responses from 19 participants. Since we had the email address of every student in the class, it allowed us to conduct this survey as a census. One of the advantages of taking a census is that with such a small population we would need to take a survey of everyone in the population in order to get significant results. We had almost minimal limitations as we had a target group, the email address of every participant n this group and we also received the responses from almost every student who participated in the survey. However, we encountered one problem. 4 students still did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey completion and the deadline. Therefore, our census might not be representative of the entire group opinion. The results represent the opinion of the students in the class but it is unlikely we could apply their responses for a larger population such as Branch College undergraduates. As for the suggestion for the true, we could recommend to reach out to more potential participants in order to be able to generalize the results too larger population. Coverage: Who was included ? Who was excluded? Did anyone have a better/worse chance of being included ? Why [why not? The survey Smoke-free policy was targeted to the whole class of PAP 3105. It was a census of the whole class so everyone had an equally likely chance of being selected. No one had either a greater or a less chance of being included . Our project team excluded all the faculty members and students who were not in this class. Response and Non-response: Who and how many answered/did not answer the survey? Were any items skipped? Implications? As it has been mentioned above, the survey questionnaire was sent to 23 participants in the class. However, out of 23 surveys which have been sent out, we received the responses from only 19 respondents who answered all the questions. Almost all questions were answered, except of those ones which we designed specifically for the smokers such as the question #4: Does the smoke free campus policy make it harder for you to get to class on tile-e Ana ten quest # Do you continue to smoke winner It Is disallowed? This is where we encountered the problem. As an example, one of the questions revealed that there were only 9 smokers, and out of them only 22% continued to smoke where it was still disallowed, whereas 78% did not do so. Another question which has also been designed for smokers only showed that there were 16 smokers, and out of them 19% believed that the smoke-free campus policy made it harder for them to get to class on time while 81% responded it was not hard. This created a certain degree of inaccuracy as the number of smokers did not match. Perhaps the reason is that either some of the smokers decided to skip the question for the smokers only, or the question itself was not important to their personal understanding of the problem. Analysis: How was the data analyzed? This step was crucial in the process of conducting the survey as it provided our project team with the results of the questionnaire which was distributed to the students in the class. The Qualities System of Branch College allowed us to process the data we collected, analyze and sort out the data using the demographic questions gender and age range. Some of the questions were designed specifically for the smokers or non-smokers but mostly all of the questions were open to every participant in the class. We created cross tabulations of our survey based on the variables of age and gender to find out about existing patterns among male and female respondents of a certain age range. We found out that there was no consistent pattern relating to each age strut or gender what could be considered as a characteristic or a feature for a specific group of students who participated in the survey after we selected which question would be in the banner (in our case age and ender variables), and which question the stub. Findings: Frequencies and crossbars I covered the following issue questions, and therefore, my findings have been based on the information/responses we collected from the participants in the class. 1 . Question #3 How does security do at enforcing the smoke free policy? (N=19) As we can notice from this table, 5% of the respondents believe that the security department does an excellent Job at enforcing the smoke free policy; 21% think it is just good; 42% are still unsure; 26% believe it is bad; and 5% think it is terrible. Question #6 Do you believe you are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke free policy has gone into effect? (N=19) As we can notice from this table, 58% of the respondents think that they are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke-free policy has gone into effect; 32% said no; and 11% are still unsure about this issue. It was also very important to create the cross tabulations for these issue questions by the variables I selected gender Ana age range. I compared ten approval responses Tort total as well by gender and by age. I also compute the percentage rates, and it was quite interesting to see the difference in the responses when applied to specific age or gender categories. Crossbar by 2 variables: gender and age How does security do at enforcing the smoke free policy? (N=19) Crossbar by 2 variables: gender and age Do you believe you are still exposed to second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke free policy has gone into As an example, 58% of the respondents believe that they are still exposed to the second-hand smoke on campus since the smoke-free policy has gone into effect. If we kook at this problem through the findings of the crossbar, we may notice that out of 58% of the respondents who said yes, 8 participants were female (80%) and only 3 participants were male (33%). However, out of 32% (6 respondents) who believe they are no longer exposed to the second-hand smoke on campus, only 2 students were female (2%) and 4 male (44%). It was also quite interesting to observe under what age category the respondents fell. As an example, out of 11 respondents who answered yes to this question, 7 students fell under the age category 18-21; 3 dents 22-26 age category; and 1 student 27-34 age category. Summary All in all, it was very interesting to conduct and administer the survey about the smoke-free policy on the campus of Branch College. The findings of the survey which we obtained from the students helped us measure the effectiveness of the policy which has gone into effect recently and also what students think about this policy in general. As we encountered one problem 4 students did not submit their answers even after the follow-up email has been sent to remind them about the survey implosion deadline, we can conclude that our census might not be representative of the entire group opinion. The results represent the opinion of the students in the class but it is unlikely we could apply their responses for a larger population such as Branch College undergraduates. Perhaps we could recommend reaching out to more potential participants in order to be able to generalize the results to a larger population. The results we obtained were also informative and interesting, and the Qualities System of Branch College allowed us to collect and process the data and analyze the findings in a very easy and fast way. We discovered that the majority of students do not smoke in our class and are concerned about the negative effects of smoking on their health. Students believe that the smoke-free policy should include all areas of the campus. They also believe that the security department is helping increase the effectiveness of this new policy on campus of Branch College, and we strongly believe in the nearest future students who smoke will respect the ones who do not, and pay close attention to the signs where smoking is allowed and where it is not.