Passive Voice What is Passive Voice How to Improve it with Examples

Passive Voice What is Passive Voice How to Improve it with Examples Passive Voice: What Is Passive Voice How to Improve It with Examples Passive voice has its purposes. It really does. In fact, it can be the politically correct way to phrase something.Imagine†¦The setting: a public school libraryThe players: a librarian (OK, I’m the librarian) and 15 first gradersThe scene: The librarian is reading aloud nonfiction books about sharks.The question: â€Å"Why do sharks _______________?† (some intriguing behavior too complex or gory for me to explain or possibly even understand)The passive voice answer that keeps me employed in a public school: â€Å"That’s the way they were made.†The active voice answer that I would tell my grandchildren: â€Å"God made them that way.†Heres what youll learn about passive voice:What is passive voice?How much passive voice can you use?How to choose to use passive or active voiceActive voice examplesHow to vary your sentence varietyHow to find your percent of passive voiceNOTE: We cover everything in this blog post and much more about the writing, ma rketing, and publishing process in our VIP Selfs:ACTIVE: I love reading.PASSIVE: Reading is loved by me.ACTIVE: AC/DC Thunder won the game easily.PASSIVE: The game was won easily by AC/DC Thunder.With students, the focus is on active voice; with a professional writer like yourself, you will most likely have a blend of both active and passive sentences, but active should still far outweigh passive.Active VS Passive Voice with ExamplesFrom Billboards â€Å"The Biggest Hits of All: The Hot 100s All-Time Top 100 Songs† I selected songs that used active voice in their titles. (WHO selected them? I selected them. That’s another easy example of active voice.)Here are song titles along with a rewrite in passive voice:â€Å"I Love Rock ‘N Roll† * Rock ‘N Roll Is Loved by Meâ€Å"I Gotta Feeling† * A Feeling Was Gotten by Meâ€Å"You Light Up My Life† * My Life Was Lit Up by You†Ã¢â‚¬Å"We Found Love† * Love Was Found by Usâ€Å"I Wan t to Hold Your Hand† * Your Hand Is What I Want to Holdâ€Å"Another One Bites the Dust† * The Dust Was Bitten by Another Oneâ€Å"I Will Always Love You† * You Will Always Be Loved by Meâ€Å"I Heard It Through the Grapevine† * It Was Heard Through the Grapevine by MeSentences with the understood subject (you) have an imperative active voice which is much more authoritative than passive tense:(You)† Un-Break My Heart† * My Heart Should Be Unbroken by You(You) â€Å"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree† * A Yellow Ribbon Should Be Tied Round the Ole Oak Tree by You(You) â€Å"Let the Sunshine In† * The Sunshine Should Be Let In by You(You) â€Å"Play That Funky Music† * That Funky Music Should Be Played by YouConversely, this next song title has a passive voice that works: â€Å"That’s What Friends Are For† (better than Friends Are for That).With the rewrites changing active voice to passive, did you dis cern a pattern where many of them ended with a prepositional phrase containing the person doing the action?Think of gossip. People want to know who is doing what! (They really did that? You’re kidding!) Put the subject right at the beginning so everyone knows whom you’re talking (writing) about and what they did!How to Vary Your Sentence Variety Using Passive Voice and Active VoiceIf you have the same subject over and over and if the object is more of the point anyway, passive voice allows for sentence variety.Furthermore, if it doesn’t matter who did the action because the result is the point, passive voice works.The chairs in the old high school library were refinished and moved to the new library weeks before the tables were moved. Temporary chairs were in the high school library. I needed the tables from the old elementary library to sort the genre boxes, so students had chairs, but no tables for a while. The elementary students enjoyed sitting at the  "invisible† tables and joked how they didn’t have to push in their chairs when they left.After class, a first grader told his teacher very sincerely, â€Å"The tables really are invisible!†I smile whenever I think of his endearing comment.Passive voice rationale: It didn’t matter who had refinished and moved the chairs or who had put temporary chairs in the high school library. I hadn’t done those things, and those details would not have added to the book. Nonetheless, I had completed the genrefication project (where the library was totally reorganized by book genres). I didn’t want to start almost every sentence with â€Å"I + action verb + direct object.† It would sound awkward to repeatedly start sentences with â€Å"I did this, I did that, I, I, I†¦.†Passive Voice Checker How to Determine Your Percent of Passive VoiceBeyond the basic spelling and grammar check (which can be helpful with tools like Grammarly or even Hem ingway Editor) is Word’s readability feature.It tells you various details about your writing, including the percentage of passive sentences, the Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. For example, the segment about the chairs and the invisible tables scored an 8.8 Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level, which means it was written at a reading level where an 8th grader in the 8th month of school should be able to comprehend the text.Many teen and adult fiction books are written at 4th 6th-grade reading levels (based on Accelerated Reader scoring) because the writing flows at those levels for recreational reading compared to reading to learn new information. Newspapers may rank more at a 10th-grade reading level, depending on the complexity of the information.If you are using Word and would like to know your percentage of passive sentences and readability scores, here’s what you do:Go to Review at the top of Word.Select Spelling Grammar from the top left.Select Op tions from the pop-up.Select Settings at the bottom of the next pop up (next to Writing style:)Then scroll down until you see Passive Voice and check the boxSelect OK and youll now be able to check your passive voice in WordIn case you were wondering (and even if you weren’t), this article was written at a 6.7 reading level with 6% sentences being passive.Now check some of your writing and see if you agree with your results. By the way, I just took my own advice here and checked my children’s picture book, The Flower Fairies Meet the Talking Rainbow Rocks. It contains 4% passive sentences (acceptable to me) but has a 4.1 reading level, which is higher than I would have guessed and higher than I had planned for a picture book.My book’s science-related terms increased the reading level. Word’s readability tool actively helps with various writing considerations beyond passive voice. You may use it purely for passive voice, but it will tell you even more.Acti ve writing is lively writing. It is aggressive in the most positive sense. It burrows in there and zooms straight to the point. Stay active with your writing, and stay active in your writing.Are you ready to write a bestseller?Together we can take your writing up a notch and you can self-publish a book that becomes the next bestseller!

Definition of Commonplace in Rhetoric

Definition of Commonplace in Rhetoric The term commonplace has multiple meanings in rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric 1. In classical rhetoric, a commonplace is a statement or bit of knowledge that is commonly shared by members of an audience or a community.   Meaning of Commonplace in Rhetoric 2. A commonplace is an elementary rhetorical exercise, one of the progymnasmata. (See What Are the Progymnasmata?) 3. In invention, commonplace is another term for a common topic. Also known as  topoi (in Greek) and   loci (in Latin).Also see: Commonplace BookEnthymemeTopoiTopic Commonplace Examples and Observations Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, it seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time.(Michael Ende, Momo. Doubleday, 1985)[In John Miltons Paradise Lost, the devils] speech to the deities of the void is a deliberative oration; he seeks to persuade them to give him information he needs by pleading the advantage his mission will bring them. He bases his argument on the commonplace of regal power and imperial jurisdiction, promising to expel All usurpation from the new-created world and to re-erect there the Standard . . . of ancient Night.(John M. Steadman, Miltons Epic Characters. University of North Carolina Press, 1968) Aristotle on Commonplaces - The commonplaces or topics are locations of standard categories of arguments. Aristotle distinguishes four common topics: whether a thing has occurred, whether it will occur, whether things are bigger or smaller than they seem, and whether a thing is or is not possible. Other commonplaces are definition, comparison, relationship, and testimony, each with its own subtopics. . . . In the Rhetoric, in Books I and II, Aristotle talks about not only common topics that can generate arguments for any kind of speech, but also special topics that are useful only for a particular kind of speech or subject matter. Because the discussion is dispersed, it is sometimes hard to determine what each kind of topic is. (Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg, The Rhetorical Tradition. Bedford, 2001) - [A]ccording to [Aristotle], the characteristically rhetorical statement involves commonplaces that lie outside any scientific specialty; and in proportion as the rhetorician deals with special subject matter, his proofs move away from the rhetorical and toward the scientific. (For instance, a typical rhetorical commonplace, in the Aristotelian sense, would be Churchills slogan, Too little and too late, which could hardly be said to fall under any special science of quantity or time.)(Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, 1950. University of California Press, 1969) The Challenge of Recognizing Commonplaces To detect a rhetorical commonplace, the scholar must generally rely on empirical evidence: that is, the collecting and evaluating of related lexical and thematic elements in the texts of other authors. Such components, however, are often hidden by oratorical embellishments or historiographical dexterity. (Francesca Santoro LHoir, Tragedy, Rhetoric, and the Historiography of Tacitus Annales. University of Michigan Press, 2006) Classical Exercise Commonplace. This is an exercise that expands on the moral qualities of some virtue or vice, often as exemplified in some common phrase of advice. The writer in this assignment must seek through his or her knowledge and reading for examples that will amplify and illustrate the sentiments of the commonplace, proving it, supporting it, or showing its precepts in action. This is a very typical assignment from the Greek and Roman world in that it assumes a considerable store of cultural knowledge. Here are several commonplaces that might be amplified: a. An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.b. You always admire what you really dont understand.c. One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels.d. Ambition is the last infirmity of noble minds.e. The nation that forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.f. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.g. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.h. The pen is mightier than the sword.(Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 1999) Jokes and Commonplaces With some hermetic jokes what is required is not knowledge, or belief, in the first instance, but an awareness of what might be called commonplaces. A young Catholic woman told her friend, I told my husband to buy all the Viagra he can find.Her Jewish friend replied, I told my husband to buy all the stock in Pfizer he can find. It is not required that the audience (or the teller) actually believe that Jewish women are more interested in money than in sex, but he must be acquainted with this idea. When jokes play upon commonplaceswhich may or may not be believedthey often do it by exaggeration. Typical examples are clergymen jokes. For instance, After knowing one another for a long time, three clergymenone Catholic, one Jewish, and one Episcopalianhave become good friends. When they are together one day, the Catholic priest is in a sober, reflective mood, and he says, Id like to confess to you that although I have done my best to keep my faith, I have occasionally lapsed, and even since my seminary days I have, not often, but sometimes, succumbed and sought carnal knowledge.Ah well, says the rabbi, It is good to admit these things, and so I will tell you that, not often, but sometimes, I break the dietary laws and eat forbidden food.At this the Episcopalian priest, his face reddening, says, If only I had so little to be ashamed of. You know, only last week I caught myself eating a main course with my salad fork.​  (Ted Cohen, Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. The University of Chicago Press, 1999) Etymology  From the Latin, generally applicable literary passage Also see: AdageAphorismArgumentationDiscourse CommunityMaximPlatitudeProverbSententia Pronunciation: KOM-un-plase

Dealing with Crime and Disorder in Urban Parks Essay

Dealing with Crime and Disorder in Urban Parks - Essay Example The parks in the urban areas are quite large and the security that is present in these parks is not strong enough and not in much number that they can keep a strong check on what is going inside the park. They are only responsible of watching over the outside of the park that no terrorist or burglar enters the park; they only keep an eye on the people who are entering the gate and do not allow who they feel suspicious. The illegal drug dealers know many ways and techniques through which they can make their way to various places from which they can trade and the drug dealers have now chosen urban parks as their main spot of dealing and they usually enter the park well dressed and like respectable ordinary people so the security officers cannot differentiate them from ordinary people. These people then carry out their illegal business in the park and it can only be observed by the people who visit parks regularly for recreation and it cannot be stopped by the local security officers. T his crime has increased and become wide spread and nearly all big parks in the urban areas have been reported for the same issue. ... rolling or other such things then they inform their in charges which then come in a jiffy and quickly wind up their work before any concerned official can get informed and make any sort of raid. The illegal drug dealers have a very wide spread network and informants who are also wide spread in many different years who keep an alert eye 24/7 to prevent their business from being caught by the police (Kinnane, 1979). A very sad part of this whole case is that there are some black sheeps of our own police department who themselves are involved in such activities and business and they are basically those who inform these drug dealers about the raid the police are about to do and other details being discussed in the police department like informing them about the operational planning of the police department. The greatest threat that this business pose is the wide dealing of syringes; the dealers do not care about the syringes being used or unused, they just sell them and the addicted are in so want of them that they also do not care about the syringe and this is a major reason for many incurable diseases that are now a days becoming wide spread in many parts of the country. It is very necessary that a proper operational policing strategy is developed to control this serious and rapidly increasing issue (Ireland, 1996). A proper operational strategy must be designed in order to eliminate this issue from the root. If a weak strategy is designed then it will not be able to overpower the strong network of the illegal drugs business dealers. Like other departments it has become a necessity for the police department as well to design strategies, tactics and techniques and pay a lot of attention towards strategic planning in the past few years because with the advancements in

History Discussion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

History Discussion - Research Paper Example Puritans and the Pilgrims were the initial settlers of New England. The economy was majorly based on lumbering, subsistence farming and manufacturing.Fishing, trade and fish building was also practiced. The pilgrims at around 1920 established a church that they wanted to be free from government interference and free from the Church of England. This ambition neccesited their movement to New England resulting to the establishment of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The New Netherlands was the main trading partner of New England during this period. Moreover, the New England City was more prosperous and independent than Chesapeake colonies with major emphasis laid to slave labor because services were readily available due to influx of slavery. In addition, the economic base of mid colonies majorly depended on both wage and family labor. Both the male and the female slaves worked as domestics. Majority of the poor enslaved men were wagoners, artisans and carters (Jefferson 51-53). In conclusion, slavery was legalized in all thirteen American colonies prior to the American Revolution.However, slavery played different economic and social roles in each of the regions and this mainly depended on slavery management and the size of slaves enslaved. The most common factor among them all without doubt is that they all legalized slavery until the American Revolution changed

Structural Consensus and Structural Conflict Theories

Structural Consensus and Structural Conflict Theories Compare and contrast structural consensus and structural conflict theories of social action with interpretivist perspectives that emphasize human agency In Sociology, one of the main concepts that have influenced social theory is structure and social action. Functionalism and Marxism fit into the structure view that emphasises the macro perspective; examining society as a whole and how it shapes human behaviour and ideas, therefore, in order to understand human behaviour, the social structures are in need of investigation (Brym Lie, 2009) . On the other hand, social action theories are voluntaristic. They focus on human interactions upon a micro level. It argues that individuals have free will and are not ‘puppets’; therefore, the actions and meanings of individuals create and shape the society. This suggests actions are not determined by structure. In this essay, these theories will be addressed in order to gain a better understanding of how they are relevant in today’s society. It is important to compare and contrast these theories through use of evidence and critical thinking as they often contradict each othe r but nonetheless create a wider understanding of human agency. In the first half of this essay, structural conflict is illustrated as an assumption that society is becoming more individualistic, though as a counter argument functionalism uses the idea of social solidarity, which leads to their further analysis showing their agreements and disagreements. A contrary debate is provided in the second section of the essay that focuses further on the humanist individualistic approach. However, Weber believes both structural and social action should be taken in to consideration in order to understand human’s actions efficiently. Functionalism falls into structural consensus theory that came into sociology in the middle of twentieth century, although, some of its ideas were present in the founders of sociology in the ninetieth century. It has been argued that the model that functionalism has created of society has led to other perspectives re-emerging in response to those ideas (O’Byrne, 2010). Thus the theory has made such impact on sociological thinking to this day. Functionalists such as Emile Durkheim (1858- 1917) whom is arguably one of the founding fathers of sociology firstly stressed consensus notion in social structure; stating that any human thinking is inherited rather than invented. This takes place in socialisation process that teaches humans to conform to norms and values or in other words- cultural behaviour considerably accepted in certain settings (Jones, 2003). He deemed this term ‘collective consciousness’; Durkheim described this as beliefs and ideas of a common human b eing in the same society (Punch et al, 2013). Furthermore, Durkheim explored society as a system and its function within the society. In order to explain this, use of organic analogy takes place as a way of describing how each social factor or institutions are interdependent for the society’s needs. For instance, if one body organ stops functioning, then the rest of the body cannot survive, this can be explained within social institutions too, without the nuclear family the society wouldn’t be able to form social cohesion and solidarity (Jones, 2001). On the other hand, other functionalists such as Talcott Parsons had similar ideas, though ‘for Talcott Parsons one of the central tasks of sociology is to analyse society as a system of functionally interrelated variables’ (Cohen, 1968, p.45). Although Parsons does links his ideas to Durkheim, that is, in the society the personal beings and their views need to be treated as variables as stated by Cohen (1968). In contrast to structural consensus theories mentioned above, Marxism is known as a structural conflict theory that has been influenced and introduced by Karl Marx (1818- 1883). Economics was highly influential for him as well how the working class sell labour power, which determines how we relate to one another (Duffy, 2009). The theory examines the conflict between bourgeoisies and proletarians, unlike functionalism, he focused on class conflict and how it can be settled. Though since his death, there have been many interpretations of his thesis, some that stick to structural explanations of capitalism, and others that emphasize human agency as a humanist approach (Fawbert, 2014). Louis Althusser (1918-1990) interpreted Marx’s work on a structural capitalist sense; however instead of solely focusing on economic determinism, he alternatively concentrated on politics and ideologies. He claims that these levels are objective. This is because he believes humans are not active ag ents in social change, as we do not shape our society. For Althusser, to understand why the capitalism hasn’t collapsed, the states and its exercise of power need to be examined. He has discovered the repressive state apparatus, which consists of institutions such as the legal system or the police. In addition to the political apparatus that is- ideological state apparatus that includes media, family, education etc. that shape human’s process of thinking. As a result, our structure can be interconnected, just like how certain structures of dominance changed in history (Jones et al., 2011). To summarise, in his view, human agency plays no part in social change but the structures, and the only way of capitalism being taken over is through its internal contradictions. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), on the other hand was more of a humanist Marxist whom was famous for originating the notion of hegemony idea that there are constant ideologies to alter a person’s perspectives on the world. (Salamini, 1974) ‘For Gramsci, like Althusser, culture is relatively autonomous. However, unlike Althusser, social change is caused by cultural struggles as much as changes in economic forces.’ (Fawbert, 2011, pp.3). As this theory focuses on human agency and social action, it can be argued that it shifts towards the micro perspective due to the ideas moving away from the structural capitalism. This may suggest that the theory is more applicable to contemporary society as human beings have become more complex to understand as a result of constant social change. According to Punch (2013) Marxism and Functionalism have a few things in common, they both investigated the society from a macro perspective view instead of how individuals affect structure, and they were also both concerned about the society moving towards modernity and the ninetieth century industrialization as well as its effects on quality of life. This also included the introduction of theories of how modernity came about and its components. However, Marxists did focus more on the capitalism rather than the industrial society. Marx highly believed in political revolution of the working class that would involve rebellion, although his predictions have been criticised due to Eastern Europe Soviet Union destruction and rise of nationalism. However, it has been argued that in Marx’s eyes, these communists’ movements weren’t what he was hoping for. Durkheim, however, rejected the politics of revolution but did construct ideas about socialism. He focused greatly o n norms and values and social solidarity; therefore, a revolution would disturb these socially. Moreover, although Marxism is stated as highly deterministic, it can be argued that he does look at solidarity within social class. For instance, he believes that the proletarian does have to collectively rise up to the Bourgeoisie’s, sensing the idea of togetherness within the lower class. Though they had different motives, they both however, used analogy to explain the social structure. In this case Durkheim used organic analogy as explained above, whereas Marx used a building analogy – the base and the superstructure. The superstructure involves social institutions such as family and education, which supports class interests along with maintaining and legitimating the base through ideologies and culture. Economic base alternatively shapes the superstructure as it consists of means and relations of production that is owned by the bourgeoisie’s. This suggests that Marxists believed there are only two classes in which it is very difficult to move from one to another. Whereas functionalists disagreed with this and instead believed in meritocracy, the idea that if you work hard enough you can achieve through merit, essentially, gain success of what you deserve. This implies that if you put in enough effort, you can move from lower to upper class (Collins, 20 00). Moreover, both theories have been criticised for ignoring individual differences and their motives. This is because they strongly believe that the society shapes the individual instead of individual’s meanings and actions influencing the society, therefore the theories aren’t as applicable in contemporary society as it needs to examine human’s meanings to the world. Now we turn away from looking at macro perspectives to micro and their differences and similarities within. The ideas of interpritvist view of action and structure are displayed as contrary. Unlike structural theories, social action discusses the interactions between individuals in small groups and their motives; in result of this it is called social pragmatist theory. Human beings aren’t seen a puppets whereas the structure debate talks about individuals as predictable human beings. This then raises question on how the structure influence person’s actions and, in opposition, how does one’s actions alter the social structure (Morselli, 2014). There is a disagreement amongst the theories within social action when the discussion of the connection between society and action comes in. This is because theories such as ethnomethodology disagree with the concepts of wider structures but sees us as rational human beings and how we make sense of our everyday world (Bilton et al., 2002). While others such as G.H. Mead (1863-1931) who is symbolic interactionist stresses the socialisation as much as structural theories, in spite of this, he underlines the idea of reacting self and the behaviour expected. Mead has a base of three premises that tries to explain human agency. The first is that depending on what the thing is, humans will act certainly towards it, such as institutions, for instance, an individual would act differently in a school environment compared to a governmental institution. The second premise enhances the meaning of these things that it derived from- in most cases social interaction. Interpretive process then takes places in order to administer and modify such things (Blumer, 1986). Hence, Bilton (2002) suggests that although they are all micro theorist they interpret the terms of action and meaning inversely. Following on Meads work, these 3 premises challenged other sociological thinking, especially functionalism, to the view that solely the society determined human action and thinking. Evidence to back his theory was shown in Erving Goffman’s (1992-1982) work of whom was vastly influenced by Mead’s ideas of symbolic interactionism. His study tried to examine how social identity was defined by adaptation of certain roles, in this case, the mental asylum tried to reduce each inmate’s individuality through uniforms, haircuts, use of number instead of names, leading to each one of them changing his or her identity and self-image for the institutions interests (Calvert, 1992). Finally, Max Weber (1864-1920) took on an approach that combines social structure as well as agency theory emphasising motivational action. This differed to previous theories as functionalism greatly focused on institutions maintaining cohesion of wider structures, whereas Marx’s ideas were concerned on social class conflict as well as the origins of industrial capitalism. Though Weber rejected Marx’s view of economic determinism, he didn’t come across as falsifying them; he argued that Marx provided an unpolished portrayal of human motivation, therefore, lack of causal analysis of historical circumstances (Hughes et al., 1995). He also rejected the idea of universalism- that all societies go through same stages, due to meaningless infinity of complexity affecting each society differently (Chernilo, 2013). He therefore, tries to look at motivated social action as well as discuss large structures, such as cultural ideas. Weber’s vision was that we have move d away from traditional action to rational or in other words, goal-orientated. Individuals in our contemporary society start to think in a way to gain the benefits of the final goal and outweigh its consequences. Social structure becomes the outcome of this as our lifestyle is the product of our motives. As a consequence, Weber argued that modern capitalist societies are in a triumph of rationality. To explain this he used religion, specifically puritan protestant movement, which criticised the ‘catholic’ way of thinking. An example of this is his book The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (1997). He found that Calvinism created the work ethic and asceticism that contributed to the rise of industrial capitalism; this maintained capitalism due to this religion accumulating constant wealth as a result of belief of predestination. The book moreover, states that the human actions can create consequences of rational thinking on a structural basis. Due to such disenchanted world, all superstition and values become pushed out cultural thinking. This is a crisis for Weber as then this leads to no meaning to the world in the way that religion has created previously (Jones et al., 2011) To summarise, the human agency has been evaluated variably depending on the theories. Durkheim mainly focuses on social solidarity influencing the decision making, although Marx agrees that society is responsible for shaping one’s opinion he’s more economical determinant. To balance this out, Weber brings in human’s motives and how these drives decision making upon an individual, as well as taking structural causes into consideration. Therefore, it can be argued that these sociology fathers have defined human agency but due their differences it is difficult to fully comprehend the affect the society has on human agency. References Bilton, T., Bonnet, K., Jones, P., Lawson, T., Skinner, D., Stanworth, M., Webster, A. (2002) Introductory Sociology, 4th edn., Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillian. Blumer, H. (1992) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method, California: University of California Press. Brym, R. Lie, J. (2009) Sociology: Your Compass for a New World, Brief Edition: Enhanced Edition 2edn., Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc Calvert, SP. (1992) Sociology Today, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Chernilo, D. (2013) The Natural Law Foundations of Modern Social Theory: A Quest for Universalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, P. (1968) Modern Social Theory, London: Heinemann Education Books Ltd. Collins (2000) Internet-linked dictionary of Sociology, Glasgow: HarperCollins. Duffy, F. (2009) Marx, Social Change and Revolution’, Research Starters Sociology [Online] Research Starters, EBSCOhost (Accessed: 17 November 2014). Fawbert, J. (2014) Lecture 6: Structural and cultural Marxism: Althusser, Gramsci and the Frankfurt School, Understanding society, [Online] Available at: https://breo.beds.ac.uk (Accessed: 22 November 2014). Hughes, A.J., Martin, J.P., Sharrock, W.W. Understanding Classical Sociology: Marx, Weber, Durkheim, London: SAGE. Jones, P. (2003) Introducing Social theory, Cambridge: Polity Press. Jones, P., Bradbury, L., Boutillier, S., (2011) Introducing Social Theory 2edn., Cambridge: Polity Press. Jones, S. (2001) Durkheim Reconsidered, Cambridge: Polity Press. Morselli, A. (2014) Contemporary Capitalism between Human Action and Social Structure, Economics Sociology, 7 (2) pp. 11-19 EBSCOhost [Online] Available at: http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.brum.beds.ac.uk (Accessed: 17 November 2014). O’Byrne, D. (2010) Introducing Sociological Theory , Dawsonera [Online] Available at: https://www.dawsonera.com (Accessed: 15 November 2014). Punch, S., Marsh, I., Keating, M., Harden, J. (2013) Sociology, Making sense of Society, 5th edn., Edinburgh: Pearson. Salamini, L (1974) Gramsci and Marxist Sociology of Knowledge: an Analysis of Hegemony—Ideology—Knowledge, Sociological Quarterly, 15 (3) pp. 359-380 Wiley Online Library [Online] Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com (Accessed: 05 December 2014). Weber, M (1905)The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism,London: Routledge. 1

Living in Sin by Adrienne Rich: Of Simplicity and Brevity Essay

Poetry has turned off a lot of people Because of its confusing nature and interjection of difficult-to understand symbolisms, poems have been disregarded by many. Yet what most people do not know is that the landscape of poetry has changed tremendously in the past years. Contemporary poets have realized that their works should no longer include flowery words and deep allegories to be beautiful – that in fact, the poems that eventually become popular are those marked with simplicity and brevity and those that posses the ability to touch the readers’ hearts. If one is to get reacquainted with poetry, Adrienne Rich’s Living in Sin is a good place to start. This particular poem talks of something that is very common nowadays – domestic partnership without the grace of marriage. But the â€Å"sin† Rich referred to in the title does not point to the seemingly sinful relationship of living together but was more a tirade on how people can sometimes persuade themselves about staying in a relationship even when the ‘expectations’ on the particular relationship have not been met. Living in Sin tells how a woman has realized that living with the person she loves is not all â€Å"A plate of pears, / a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat / stalking the picturesque amusing mouse† and that there is indeed â€Å"dust upon the furniture of love†. In Living in Sin, Rich describes how a relationship is something that one needs to work at. This poem is the best one to pick up when trying to re-embrace poetry because it differs greatly from those written under the pens of 15th and 16th Century poets. Revolving around a present-day issue, Living in Sin is sure to be easily understood by new readers. Most of the people nowadays can surely relate to the fact that certain aspects of a relationship can be disillusioning. Almost anyone who enters a relationship do so armed with certain positive expectancies that are – sadly – not met as the relationship progresses. By painting images of boredom (â€Å"†¦he, with a yawn, / sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard, / declared it out of tune†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) and disappointment (â€Å"she, jeered by the minor demons, / pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found / a towel to dust the table-top, / and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.†), Rich successfully communicates her message. Rich’s successful telling of her message can be attributed to her ability of steering clear from highfalutin words and hard-to-imagine imagery. In fact, Living in Sin is marked by simple words and symbolisms that are common to everyone. The language that Rich used in this particular poem is something that we all understand. These are just more reasons to actually pick up and enjoy this particular poem. Yet the good points of Living in Sin do not end there. This particular poem is also armed with only a few lines. Rich employed just 26 lines and a mere 196 words in conveying her message yet those numbers have been enough to transfer Rich’s messages to the readers. Undeniably, no other literary piece can achieve such feat but poetry. Living in Sin – and poems in general – are lovable in that one need not go through lots of word tangles to feel exactly what the author wants him/her to feel. True enough, poems of old are pretty hard to understand, talking about things that most modern-day people can no longer relate to. Yet as with everything, poets have changed and have taken to voicing out topics that are close to today’s readers’ hearts. Adrienne Rich is but one of those poets who have successfully mastered combining relatable subjects with easy-to-grasp symbols and language in her poetry. And reading one of her more popular poems, Living in Sin, will surely convince this generation that poems should be given a chance because, contrary to popular belief, they are beautiful literary pieces that are worth reading.

The Issue Of Child Abuse - 1392 Words

In my consideration of the US population, when it comes down to voting I feel that only the ones who do go out and vote have a say on to what act is being passed. Maybe some look at it as if they do not have children that they could harm so why should it affect them. As a Social Worker student I now try and put myself in other people shoes in order to get a better view as to how they may feel. If they are voting are not, they all have the same views, it is never okay to abuse a child in no way. When considering the perspective of one particular ethnicity, it probably be easier to examine the perspective of African Americans. With consideration based upon income, there exist conflicting viewpoints on the topic of child abuse. In the higher†¦show more content†¦Once the media became aware of the alleged abuse Peterson inflicted upon his son, the media portrayed Peterson somewhat as Public Enemy #1. Peterson went on to lose several high profile sponsorships, his jerseys were ta ken off the market, and he was placed on the National Football League’s Exempt List. This means that Peterson would still receive his weekly pay but he would be banned from participating Minnesota Vikings and league activities until his legal obligations are resolved. When it comes to child abuse and neglect, the dominant belief is that child abuse is especially heinous and intolerable. Those who are found to be guilty of committing child abuse, of any sort, are normally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. For example, individuals found to be guilty of possessing and taking part in child pornography typically receive harsher sentences than individuals who’ve been convicted of murder. The central belief is that child neglect and emotional abuse is particularly important, but obviously not as atrocious as pedophilic actions. In recent years, there has been an influx in child-related deaths due to infants and children being left in hot vehicles during the extremely hot summer months. Therefore, there has been a greater push to punish those guardians who leave those children who’re in their care in such adverse conditions. The prevailing, or lesser recognized form of child abuse tends to be physical abuse. There have been