Comparison Of Hero And Government In Beowulf And Oedipus Rex Essays

Comparison of Hero and Government in Beowulf and Oedipus Rex Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon folk epic written by an unknown author. It was written sometime during the eighth century. Oedipus Rex is an Ancient Greek tragedy written by the playwright Sophocles sometime around 430 BC. Although the two works were written during two different time periods, in two different places, and are different kinds of literature, they can still be compared and contrasted. These two works contain many similarities and differences in the depiction of hero and the depiction of government. Beowulf tells the story of one of the most heroic men of Anglo-Saxon times. The hero, Beowulf, is able to use his super-human physical strength and courage to put his people before himself. He encounters terrifying monsters and the most brutal beasts, but he never fears the threat of death. Beowulf is the ultimate epic hero who risks his life countless times for great honor and for the good of others. Oedipus Rex is a tragic play, which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus--that he has killed his father, and married his mother. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gains the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. The two heroes, Beowulf and Oedipus, are very similar in some aspects and also quite different in others. The first similarity in the depiction of hero is that both heroes are of aristocratic birth. Beowulf is the cousin of Higlac, who is King of the Geats. Oedipus is the adopted son of Polybus and Merope, the King and Queen of Corinth. Furthermore, his real parents are Laius and Jocasta, King and Queen of Thebes. Another similarity is that both heroes end a period of suffering by abolishing a monster. Beowulf ends the suffering in Herot by killing the monster Grendel. "A prince of the Geats, had killed Grendel, / Ended the grief, the sorrow, the suffering / Forced on Hrothgar's helpless people / By a bloodthirsty fiend." (lines 482 - 485) Oedipus is responsible for ending the Sphinx's reign of terror upon the city of Thebes. He does not physically kill the monster as Beowulf does; he merely answers the Sphinx's riddle. When he does so, the Sphinx kills herself. A third similarity is that both heroes are challenged by another character in the story. Beowulf is challenged by Unferth, and Oedipus is challenged by Tiresias. When challenged, both heroes arrogantly boast about their accomplishments. "No man swims in the sea / As I can, no strength is a match for mine." (lines 253 - 254) Beowulf goes on boasting to Unferth, "Nine was the number / Of sea-huge monsters I killed. What man, / Anywhere under heaven's high arch, has fought / In such darkness, endured more misery or been harder / Pressed?" (lines 294 - 298) When challenged by Tiresias Oedipus says, "Tell me when you ever played the prophet straight? Or why when the she-dog Sphinx of riddles sang, you never spoke a thing to break that spell? ?But I, the Oedipus who stumbled here without a hint, could snuff her out by human wit." (page 38) A difference between Beowulf and Oedipus is that each has different qualities that qualify him as a hero. Beowulf is classified as a hero because of his physical strength a nd bravery. "Beowulf, Higlac's / Follower and the strongest of the Geats-greater / And stronger than anyone anywhere in this world." (lines 131 - 133) Beowulf comes to help the Danes in a time of need. This shows him as a dignified example for all human beings, classifying him as an epic hero. Oedipus is not classified as a hero because of his physical strength but rather because of his mental strengths. He uses intellect to solve the riddle of the Sphinx. Many of the most intelligent men of Thebes have been killed trying to answer the riddle, but Oedipus proves his intelligence superior to theirs. Moreover, Oedipus differs from Beowulf as a hero in that his traits that give him riches and power ultimately lead him to his tragic ending. Thus, Oedipus is classified as a tragic hero.

How a style guide can transform your organisations documents

How a style guide can transform your organisations documents Why you need a style guide Whats one thing you can do to transform everything you write at work? In fact, not just what you write: what your colleagues write too – even everyone in your entire organisation. Better still, as well as improving the emails, reports, letters, proposals and other documents you all produce, it can overhaul everyones experience of writing. So what is this magical act? Well, its taking the time to think about style. (And no, I dont mean what to wear on casual Friday.) Specifically, working with a style guide. Defining style And what is a style guide? In short, its the go-to reference for writing within a particular industry, organisation or publication. It outlines how to write the key documents in whatever arena it covers, touching on tone of voice, key terms, formatting and (sometimes) design. Style guides are particularly great at coming to the rescue on any questions that dont have an easy black-and-white, right-or-wrong answer. This would include things like whether to put one or two spaces after a full stop, how to punctuate bullet points, using US or UK spelling and how to style your company name in running text. (And hasnt every workplace or department temporarily ground to a halt at some point, as factions gathered to fight over such a matter?) When a question can be answered only in shades of grey, someone needs to make a style choice. Theyll decide that – for example – theyll always use one space after a full stop, US spelling and an initial capital for their company name. And then everyone at the company will always do it that way. Style guides are the norm in the publishing world. But youll find them in all kinds of fields, including law, medicine, academia, government – and increasingly in business too. Do you need one? Is a style guide right for you and your company? Yes, probably. That may seem like a bold statement (I dont know you, after all). But its a safe guess, because a style guide can help people at almost every level of almost any organisation. For example, if youre a team leader who spends too much time editing colleagues documents and emails before youre happy with them, a style guide can help. If youre the head of marketing and frustrated that the tone of voice in your companys external documents is at odds with your brand, a style guide can help. And if you find yourself heading to Google again and again over the same sort of questions – you may have guessed already. Yes, a style guide could definitely help. What style can do for you So, what benefits can a style guide bring? Well, it can help to settle office arguments. But it can do much more than that. When everyone has the same reference point, the key benefit is consistency. And for a companys or organisations written output – whether thats documents, webpages, letters, emails or all of the above – this is vital. Small inconsistencies in spelling, formatting or tone may not seem like a big deal. But they can niggle at the people reading them – even if those people dont realise quite why. Page by page, or screen by screen, those little irregularities chip away at their confidence in your company. How about that overstretched team leader? Consistencys important for them too. After all, it could mean the difference between needing just 20 minutes to sign off their teams work or several hours and another late night at the office. And its not just the time – its the decisions themselves. With no authority giving a casting vote on style matters, the poor team leader is left to decide every time. That can be exhausting. Research suggests we have capacity for only a limited number of decisions a day, even the seemingly tiny ones. So, finding ways to bypass some of them means preserving a valuable resource: your mental energy. This saving naturally extends to every person writing within the organisation – which, in the age of email, is probably almost everyone. With just one handy reference to check, all are saved from falling into a potential black hole of online searching. Pick a guide (not any guide) But how do you go about choosing the style guide for your organisation? You can choose to use someone elses, such as the highly regarded, informed and eloquent guides of The Economist and Guardian. As long as everyone at your workplace knows which one theyre supposed to check, this can work. However, the best style guides are effective because theyre relevant: everything in them applies to the work that people at the organisation actually do. For most of us, that doesnt include writing articles for the Guardian. When you try to bend someone elses guidance to your needs, you can find yourself stuck with a lot of information thats of little use to you. (For example, the Guardians guide includes a curiously detailed entry on canal boats, and how narrowboats differ from barges.) Meanwhile, youll probably also be missing areas you do need. So you might want to refine your search. For a more business-focused book, you could look no further than our own. We produced The Write Stuff as a universal guide to help people write at work. Thats why it includes sections on writing for the web and for a global audience, tips for clear writing and getting the best from email. Plus, of course, our take on those tricky style issues. Its designed to answer the kinds of questions that youre likely to face at work. You can download it for yourself here. Build your own The ultimate answer is to develop your own guide, purpose-built for your organisation. But how do you go about this? You dont have to start from scratch. Instead, start by looking at whats already out there to see what could be covered, then adapt it to fit as needed. Then pin down the questions that crop up repeatedly in your department or company. Which decisions have to be made over and over again? Which words and terms cause problems or dispute? Is the company name formatted in too many different ways? What tone of voice are you hoping to encourage? What values best sum up your company ethos? How can this be reflected in your writing choices? Gather examples to illustrate all these points – youll need to include these. Create a list, then ask other people to look at the list and add their own ideas. Keep in mind that this isnt a place to catalogue everyones personal punctuation bugbears or to explain complex grammatical issues. (The latter might require training; the former may be best reserved for a personal blog.) Remember that youre aiming to end up with a useful resource for quick reference. Making it work Clearly, even the best guide will do little good if no one uses it or even knows it exists. So bring your colleagues into the process early on: ask them for their thoughts on drafts and for feedback on the finished article. Theyre more likely to take it to their hearts if they dont feel like its merely the product of one persons mission. When its published, consider having a launch event to get people on board and enthusiastic – you could even combine the launch with training. And make the guide easy to find. A searchable online version is good, as long as its not buried on your intranet. But if you really want to encourage people to thumb through it regularly, go old-school and put a hard copy on everyones desk. We can help Even for a seasoned editor, all this can sound like a daunting task. If it does to you, thats OK. You can enlist some experienced help. Weve worked with many clients to create guides that are a perfect fit for their company. Starting with The Write Stuff as a basis, we work directly with them to see what we need to add (or subtract). For example, one client added a section on how to write for PowerPoint. Another cut Writing for a global audience and added guidance on referencing and bibliographies. And whatever additions or subtractions make sense for your team or organisation, by consulting every step of the way we can create the reference that is exactly what you need. If youd like to talk to us about developing the right guide for your company, get in touch. Finding the answers Writing at work comes with all kinds of challenges. It involves hundreds of tiny decisions along the way and – as weve said before – theres no one authority on high to tell us whats correct in the widest sense. The good news is that that doesnt really matter. Within the cosier confines of your daily working life – and with the right book on your desk – you can still have all the answers you really need in one place. If you feel its time for you to settle on a style for your team or organisation, dont forget you can download our guide, The Write Stuff, here. And if youd like to talk to us about helping to develop one tailor-made for you, get in touch. Image credit: Eric Isselee / Shutterstock

Comprehension Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Comprehension Critique - Essay Example In their findings, they noted that all students in the first two cohorts who had graduated were absorbed in the teaching jobs. Furthermore, since the deployments of the two batches, the number of nurses had increased, owing to the fact that now the faculty could afford to enroll more students as a result of availability of teachers. Thus, they concluded that the shortage in the number of nurse could be addressed by increasing the number of faculties since there was going to be a steady supply of lecturers. A lesson to the authorities in charge was to ensure there was to be an increase in the faculties of nursing if the shortage of nurses was to be solved. Their research was reasonably reliable but is not the lasting solution. This is because the funded students in the accelerated doctorate program may decide to down their tools after three years of service. If this will be so, then what will be the fate of the students already admitted into the nursing faculties? I bet they will lack tutors to foresee their academic needs. Furthermore, what will happen if the fund were pulled out? I guess that the doctorate students will pull out. Thus, this solution only applies if the said factors will not happen. Gerolamo, Angela, Roemer & Grace (2011), decided to establish if the key issues behind the shortages of nurse was connected to work load within the faculty. Using qualitative secondary literature review, they worked out on three main objectives namely: to establish the meaning of shortage in the faculty, evidence that shortage is affecting the work process, and analyze policies affecting the process of nurse activities. In their study, they compared the literature concerning work load and nursing and other faculties. In their findings, they noted that all literature concerning nursing shortages pointed to work load as the main cause. Furthermore, they established that

RPOGRAM ANALYSIS OF FIRE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

RPOGRAM ANALYSIS OF FIRE - Essay Example The proposed gym and training area/center will be constructed such that 30% and 70% of it is indoors and outdoors respectively. In terms of design and planning, the program will resemble a military training program from which fire fighters can adapt the same training methods such as rope climbing and tacking hurdles. The application of the site analysis to the community program is to facilitate evaluation of developmental constrains. For instance, while the analysis of surrounding buildings and structures is essential, the topographical characteristics such as terrain are considered. Based on the weather, soil, and available vegetation, the design and construction of the gym and training area/center would rely on this information. From a business perspective, the site analysis will consider how different other variables such as demographics and distribution interact within the area. For instance, the program will make use of a central location from which prospective clients can access the premises. In addition, the dimensions of the gym and the training center will depend on the approximate number of clients within the community. Finally, the site analysis will consider legal aspects of architectural development such as building policies, regulation of private and public structures, and availabi lity space for rental or purchase (Zimmerman,

Do attitudes predict behaviour

Do attitudes predict behaviour Do attitudes predict behaviour? The relationship between attitudes and behaviour is one of the most controversial topics in social psychology. Though the definition of attitudes can not be confirmed yet, this essay uses the description in Hoggs and Vaughans book (1995) that attitudes are â€Å"a general feeling or evaluation about persons, object or issue as well as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, evens or symbols†. This definition indicates that there is a close relationship between attitudes and behaviour. While some critical evidences arose to show that attitudes have little predictive power on behaviour after the LaPieres experiment (1934), the relationship between attitudes and behaviour is still being researched as one of the main topic in the social psychology during recent years. This essay will analyse the link between the attitudes and behaviour. This essay begins by looking at the attitude-behaviour in consistency and then will go on to focus on the theory of planned behaviour which may be regarded as the key theory to deal with the attitude-behaviour relationship. It is so naive as to think a persons attitudes and behaviour are linked directly and consistently. It can be seen all the time that people say they want to keep fit but they never do excises, people are worried about global warming while they are driving high exhaust cars and using air-conditions. The discovery of the attitude-behaviour inconsistency goes back to 1930s America depending on the work of the Stanford sociologist Richard LaPiere. At that time, the people in the US had a strong prejudice on Asian. After LaPiere and his two Chinese friends traveled through the US, they were pleasantly surprised to find that out of the 250 hotels and restaurants they visited, all but one served them courteously. Six months later, LaPiere sent a questionnaire to all the hotels and restaurants they visited, asking â€Å"will you accept members of the Chinese race as guests in your establishment?† Incredibly 90% of participants answered no, they would not accept Chinese race into their establishment. This experiment do shows the inconsistency of attitudes and behaviour. After this research, Wicker (1969) found that the average correlation between attitudes and behaviour was only 0.15, which indicated the weak link between attitudes and behaviour. Though LaPieres experiment caused critics to the attitude-behaviour consistency, it did not deny the link between attitudes and behaviour. LaPieres experiment was not designed for attitudes research and there were some problems lay in the questionnaire that may lead some mistakes in this study: the people who answered the questionnaires might not be the person who severed the Chinese couple; the responders did not be told that the Chinese couple was polite, educated and well-dressed; attitudes may have changed during the six months. One of the influence factors in LaPieres experiment is the measurement method of attitudes. It is not easy to measure attitudes and researchers rely heavily on asking people and using questionnaires which are all self-described methods. States by Fiske (2004), self-report measurement is more easily to gain the explicit attitudes than the implicit attitudes. When the conflict between explicit and implicit attitudes happened, behaviour is always coursed by implicit attitude. As implicit attitudes always gained from indirect and complex methods, self-described method can hardly indicates it. The research done by Sherman, Rose and Koch, et al (2003) on implicit and explicit attitudes toward cigarette smoking shows that implicit attitudes can predict behaviour more stably and accurately. Implicit attitudes are seldom influenced by other factors which can disrupt the correspondence between attitudes and behaviour. In the other words, the using of self-described questionnaires for measuring the attitudes may become a cause of inaccuracy in the prediction of the behaviour. Another important factor influenced LaPieres study is the six months. Though attitude is a stable and enduring evaluation, it may change as the time went by. So as the questionnaires were done after six months, the participants attitudes may have changed during the six month which may lead to the illusion that attitudes do not predict behaviour. As to the other studies on the link between attitudes and behaviour, time interval always exists between the measurement of attitude and behaviour. Some times it would last a long time, six months, a month; or some times just a week. But no matter how long it was, attitude may probably have changed during this period. This will influence the consistency between attitude and behaviour as well. When attitudes are used to predict behaviour, it would be influenced by many different variables, such as the methods of attitudes measurement as mentioned above, the attitude strength, social norm, past experience and habits, etc. So the relationship between attitudes and behaviour is not related in a one-to-one fashion (Hogg and Vaughan, 1995). The general models dealing with link between attitudes and behaviour are the reasoned action theory (TRA) and the planned behaviour theory (TPB). These two theories are not in conflict, TPB is an improvement of the first theory. The reasoned action theory was first put forward by Ajzen and Fishbein in 1974 which believed that behavioural intention is the result of the combination of subjective norm and attitude towards the behaviour and the behavioural intention leads to the behaviour. That is people will behaviour after evaluated by the attitude towards the behaviour and judge the propriety by the subjective norm. It emphasises that people can control the behaviour consciously, for example, â€Å"I can do exercises regularly if I really want to keep fit†. However, as it mentioned above, there are few people do exercise though they want to keep fit. Further more some kinds of behaviour are less under peoples conscious control. For example, people will behave under the automatically activated attitudes without thinking rationally to choose the best reason for action. The repeated behaviour such as smoking as a habit may become divorced from attitude. This kind of automatically activated attitude like habits occurs frequently in daily. So people may only think rationally when they faced new or difficult situations. In addition, a behaviour that performed successfully not only depends on the behavioural intention, but also some other variables, such as opportunities and technologiesï ¼Ë†Peach, . Jimmieson and White, 2005ï ¼â€° In order to describe the link between attitudes and behaviour more accurately, the planned behaviour theory (TPB) was carried out by Ajzen at 1989 as the extension of the original theory. Perceived behavioural control is the improvement in the TPB which means the persons belief about how easy or difficult to perform an act. To make such a decision, people need to combine the past experience with the present obstacles. The accuracy of the prediction of behaviour was improved in the study that Beck and Ajzen (1991) have done about the students dishonest behaviour since the perceived behavioural control has been measured (Hogg and Vaughan, 1995). So in the TRA and TPB, both the external variables such as opportunities, resources and the peoples internal variables such as normative beliefs and abilities are taken into consideration. This combination of external and internal makes TPB becomes the key theory dealing with the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. In these two theori es, the action could be predicted if the persons attitude and social norm are favorable, as well as the level of perceived behavioural control is high. In this essay, the relationship between attitudes and behaviour has been analysed. The inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour was described followed by the reasons why this could happen in the LaPieres experiment. The self-report measurement which is widely used to measure attitudes has been evaluated as it would cause some inaccuracy in the prediction of future actions. The reasoned action theory (TRA) and planned behaviour theory (TPB) have been introduced in details as the main theories dealing with the link between attitudes and behaviour. To conclude, attitudes do predict behaviour once the variables in the measurement and the TPB are well-controlled. The scope of this paper was limited by the lack of introducing other variables influence the correspondence between attitudes and behaviour. However the first step is to realizse that attitude can predict behaviour no matter storge or weak. Reference Fiske S T. Social Being: a Core Motive Approach to Social psychology. John Wiley Sons, Int, 2004. 244~249 Hogg, Michael A. and Vaughan, Graham M. (2005). Social Psychology. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. 150~171 Peach M, Jimmieson N L, And White K M. Beliefs underlying employee readiness to support a building relocation: a theory of planned behavior perspective. Organization Development Journal, 2005, 23(3), 9~23 Sherman S J, Rose J S and Koch K, et al. Implicit and explicit attitudes toward cigarette smoking: The effects of context and motivation. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2003, 22(1), 13~40

Discuss the Minority Presence in Contemporary British Art Essay

Minority Presence in Contemporary British Art "Highly visible yet evasively mute." Art critic Kobena Mercer, comments on the current position of African and Asian artists in Contemporary British Art, when he suggests that minority artists are seen and not heard. This oxymoronic position derives from a long historical legacy of European colonization and the emphasis on 'racial inferiority' and 'otherness.' On the one hand, British art is progressive, allowing some minority art in the general art world. Yet on the other hand minority art is still marginalized by the preferential treatment given to white artists. There is a strong degree of accuracy in Mercer's statement because while minority art can now be 'seen,' the 'voice' is suppressed when the 'ethnic element' is too strong. Subordination comes in many forms. Not only do minority artists have a limited gallery presence in major galleries, but finding information on them can be utterly impossible when the current focus of British art revolves around what it means to be British. The only minority artists that are visible are artists who either play up white stereotypes or allude to a Western artistic tradition. An examination of these artists and the current art climate, indicate that the visible presence of minority artists is controlled by preconceived traditions and perceptions. The difficulties facing minority artists in Britain today relate to the current climate of the art world. A quiet tug-o-war exists between the effort to globalize the British art and return to white dominance. Multiculturalism is everywhere; however, it often plays an artificial role in that its purpose is to fulfill a quota. The predominately white yBa movement defines the current art worl... ...the boat' too much. African/Asian artists must allude to either white stereotypes or traditions, to survive in an art world that continues to be dominated by the majority. Works Cited Chambers, Eddie interview with Petrine Archer Straw. From Annotations 5: Run through the jungle selected writings by Eddie Chambers. Edited by GilaneTawdrows and Victoria Clarke. London: inIva, 1999, pp 21-31 King, Catherine. Views of Difference: Different Views of Art. Yale University Press: London, 1999. Mercer, Kobena, 'Ethnicity and Internationality: New British Art and Diaspora-Based Blackness', Third Text, Winter 1999-2000, p 55 Robinson, Hilary. Visibly Female. 1986 from an interview with Yasmin Kureshi. Reworking Myths: Sutapa Biswas Stallabrass, Julian. High Art Light. Verso: London, 1999. from Ofili, interview with Marco Spinelli, 'Brilliant' pg. 7

Effects of modern gadgets to high school students Essay

PREFACE PART ONE What is a Person? Chapter 1 Missing Persons Chapter 2 An Apocalypse of Self-Abdication Chapter 3 The Noosphere Is Just Another Name for Everyone‟s Inner Troll PART TWO What Will Money Be? Chapter 4 Digital Peasant Chic Chapter 5 The City Is Built to Music Chapter 6 The Lords of the Clouds Renounce Free Will in Order to Become Infinitely Lucky Chapter 7 The Prospects for Humanistic Cloud Economics Chapter 8 Three Possible Future Directions PART THREE The Unbearable Thinness of Flatness Chapter 9 Retropolis Chapter 10 Digital Creativity Eludes Flat Places Chapter 11 All Hail the Membrane PART FOUR Making The Best of Bits Chapter 12 I Am a Contrarian Loop Chapter 13 One Story of How Semantics Might Have Evolved PART FIVE Future Humors Chapter 14 Home at Last (My Love Affair with Bachelardian Neoteny) Acknowledgments Preface IT‟S EARLY in the twenty-first century, and that means that these words will mostly be read by nonpersons—automatons or numb mobs composed of people who are no longer acting as individuals. The words will be minced into atomized search-engine keywords within industrial cloud computing facilities located in remote, often secret locations around the world. They will be copied millions of times by algorithms designed to send an advertisement to some person somewhere who happens to resonate with some fragment of what I say. They will be scanned, rehashed, and misrepresented by crowds of quick and sloppy readers into wikis and automatically aggregated wireless text message streams. Reactions will repeatedly degenerate into mindless chains of anonymous insults and inarticulate controversies. Algorithms will find