The Violence Against Women Act Creates A Right To Be

The Violence Against Women Act creates a right to be "free from crimes of violence" that are gender motivated. It also gives a private civil right of action to the victims of these crimes. The Senate report attached to the act states that "Gender based crimes and fear of gender based crimes...reduces employment opportunities and consumer spending affecting interstate commerce." Sara Benenson has been abused by her husband, Andrew Benenson, since 1978. Because of this abuse, she sued her husband under various tort claims and violations under the Violence Against Women Act. Now Mr. Benenson is protesting the constitutionality of this act claiming that Congress has no right to pass a law that legislates for the common welfare. However, Congress has a clear Constitutional right to regulate interstate commerce. This act is based solely on interstate commerce and is thereforeConstitutional. Because of abuse, Sara Benenson was afraid to get a job because it would anger her husband. She was afraid to go back to school and she was afraid to go shopping or spend any money on her own. All three of these things clearly interfere and affect interstate commerce. Women like Mrs. Benenson are the reason the act was passed. There has been a long history of judgements in favor of Congress's power to legislate using the commerce clause as a justification. For the past fifty years, Congress's right to interpret the commerce clause has been unchallenged by the Court with few exceptions. There is no rational reason for this court to go against the powerful precedents set by the Supreme court to allow Congress to use the Commerce clause. In the case of Katzenbach v. McClung, the Court upheld an act of Congress which was based on the commerce clause, that prohibited segregation. McClung, the owner of a barbeque that would not allow blacks to eat inside the restaurant, claimed that his business was completely intrastate. He stated that his business had little or no out of state business and was therefore not subject to the act passed by Congress because it could not legislate intrastate commerce. The Court however, decided that because the restaurant received some of it's food from out of state that it was involved in interstate commerce. The same logic should be applied in this case. Even though Sara Benenson's inability to work might not seem to affect interstate commerce, it will in some way as with McClung, thus making the act constitutional. The Supreme Court had decided that any connection with interstate commerce,as long as it has a rational basis, makes it possible for Congress to legislate it. In the United States v. Lopez decision, The Supreme Court struck down the Gun Free School Zones Act. It's reasoning was that Congress had overstepped it's power to legislate interstate commerce. The Court decided that this act was not sufficiently grounded in interstate commerce for Congress to be allowed to pass it. The circumstances in this case are entirely different than in the case of Sara Benenson. For one thing, the Gun Free School Zones Act was not nearly as well based in the commerce clause as is our case. The Gun act said that violence in schools kept student from learning and therefore limited their future earning power. It also said that violence affected national insurance companies. These connections are tenuous at best and generally too long term to be considered. However, in the case of Mrs. Benenson, her inability to work and spend directly and immediately affected interstate commerce. Therefore, the Lopez decision should not have any part in the decision of this case. The Supreme Court, in McCulloch v. Maryland, gave Congress the right to make laws that are out of their strict Constitutional powers so as to be able to fulfill one of their Constitutional duties. In this case, the Court allowed the federal government to create a bank. There is no Constitutional right to do this and Maryland challenged the creation of this bank. The high court ruled that in order for Congress to be able to accomplish it's duties. The same logic should be applied here. The Violence Against Women Act is an example of Congress overstepping it's direct Constitutional rights so it can better regulate and facilitate interstate commerce. In order for Congress to legislate interstate commerce fairly, it must allow people to be able to work and spend as they should be able to. If a woman is afraid of being abused if she gets a job or spends money, it affects interstate commerce. Thus The Violence Against Women Act is Constitutionally based and necessary for interstate commerce. Violence against women is

AFP

AFP A Long Tradition of Newsgathering : Created in 1835, Agence France-Presse is one of the three global news agencies.It is the world's oldest established news agency, founded by Charles-Louis Havas, the father of global journalism. Today, the agency continues to expand its operations worldwide, reaching thousands of subscribers (radios, TVs, newspapers, companies) from its main headquarters in Paris and regional centers in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia and Montevideo. All share the same goal: to guarantee a top quality international service tailored for the specific needs of clients in each region. The AFP News services cover politics, economics, international news, social and sports news from around the world. The network provides around the clock coverage. Newspapers, magazines, news agencies, TV and radio stations worldwide rely on AFP for its accurate, speedy quality reporting of world news. AFP subscribers also include many businesses, banks and government bodies. It has also, fo r many years, maintained close links with the national news agencies of all countries.AFP stand at Barcelona GSMA 2008Four regional headquarters, each responsible for the bureaus in their region, co-ordinate the work of journalists and photographers under their direction and transmit news and photographs to clients in their zone. Hundreds of news items per day; reporting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. General News comes from the world over. A significant proportion of news is from Europe where correspondents cover all European territories. AFP's presence throughout the Middle East and Africa provides thorough news coverage of these regions. Sports News covers all major national and international events.A worldwide multilingual and multimedia news agency: The agency also offers multimedia products online: text, pictures, graphics, dynamic graphics and video. AFP provides content formatted ready-for-use. The AFP brand guarantees clients editorial quality and reliability - a reputation built since the agency...

Total Quality Management Survey Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Total Quality Management Survey Paper - Essay Example 3. Effective involvement and utilization of entire staff. 4. Constant and continuous improvement in the business performance. 5. Working through synergy with suppliers. 6. Establishing the performance measures for various areas. In this discussion, we would be analyzing three companies from manufacturing, service and not for profit organizations and would be further analyzing customer driven quality, leadership, employee management and training and measurement, monitoring with analysis for each and every organization. The Organization that I am going to discuss is the Caterpillar, the company was found in 1925 as a result of a merger with Holt Manufacturing Co. and it strived and settled it self because of the lack of competition, they were the pioneers in manufacturing the construction equipments of that time which were also used in the world war I and II effectively. The company is manufacturing seven types of products, but has a list of four hundred products as the seven are the main product types, originally it was formed as a heavy equipment industry and providing services such as construction and agricultural products, including tractors, engineering vehicles, bulldozers, loaders, but it has also diversified now keeping in view its customer's needs and wants, and so it also started making the rough and tough shoes. The company was having the revenue of about US $ 36.339 Billion in the year 2005 and it is currently employing about 77,000 people approximately, the organizational culture that the company is showing is strong enough in terms of services they are providing right now, it was all due to the fierce competition with Komatsu that the company decided to change its culture in 1990s as a result they are having very strong hold in the market, the culture was weak before 1990s as there were so many of the labor strikes and a lot of shutdown processing, but sooner the company identified its weakness and worked on it, one of the biggest reasons of its success is that now the entire union of employees work together and corporate at their level best with the customer as a result the company has achieved excellence, which was otherwise not possible if there wouldn't be any team work or if there was no maximum utilization of the work force they have. The Customers of Caterpillar are usually construction firms and also few contractors having construction business, as no body can buy the Caterpillar products for the personal use, thus all the efforts are directed on the industrial business zone rather than private customers. The customers are viewing Caterpillar a high quality product as the company has produced even the custom made equipments for them, without accepting nonconformance. The features, performance, conformance, reliability, durability, service, response and reputations are the quality dimensions, which have been attracting the customers from a long time. The leadership has played a major part in the survival of Caterpillar Co. No body can expect a company to resist the pressure when the labor turns against it, here the leadership played a vital role for Caterpillar, now the organization has recruited people who are already excelled in their fields and have no complaints against the organization, the employees are bei ng treated as family members and all of these

On Roses Liberty, Property, Environmentalism Essay

On Roses Liberty, Property, Environmentalism - Essay Example In property regimes, parties involved may not come up with conformity is a possibility. In the first place, it is a tough activity to manage the environment. It is hard to manage it because it is vast and unlike a single property or so, it is tough to control or maintain it due to its area of coverage (Rose 1). On the other hand, the environment is largely considered under the property domain of the public. This means that everybody could significantly own any possible integral component of an environment. In the case of Scarborough shoal, the heated debate between the Philippines and China continues to create significant tension as these two countries could not actually come up with an agreement as to which the territorial responsibility on this rich-oil area should fall. Due to significant benefits that this land could provide, it would ignite significant intentions which make it hard for the two countries to actually come up with an agreement. A rich-filled oil area is considered to be an asset of a country as processed oil has become lifeblood of the modern economy. Thus, economically and politically speaking, it would be a great opportunity for either China or Philippines to take hold of the said parcel of land or territory. Another pitfall of property regimes is their being ineffective. For instance, if prevailing law concerning area of territorial responsibility between nations is effective, then China and the Philippines would not have become too narrow-minded on the issue about Scarborough shoal.

Outline Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Outline - Thesis Example 1. Saline wastewater: Agro-food, petroleum and leather industries. The discharge of such wastewater continually increases in salinity and organic content. Without prior treatment, there is adversely effects on the aquatic life, water portability and agriculture (Wadvalla, 2011). 2. Menopause and ovarian cancer: the rodent ovary contains an enzyme system capable of metabolising polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It occurs with reactivation of electrophilic intermediates known to cause cytotoxicity, mutation and cancer (Rodrik, 2009). 3. Wildlife extinction: industrial air pollution have been known to cause sickness and death of the later for over 100 years. Primary effects include direct mortality, debilitating industrial related disease, anaemia conditions, physiological stress and bioaccumulation. Some air pollutions have caused a change in the distribution of certain wildlife species (Pascual Khalil, 2014). The questionnaires were assessed by using the SPSS and that most of the people living near industrial places were affected more than those living far away from industrial places among the people in the Middle East. Most of the industrial pollution levels affects people living on the planet and r all linked to the emergence of industries. The more reason for agencies and governments t take action is because environmental degradation is at a very high rate. In addition, most countries are at the industrial stage hence developing more industries currently without view of the pollution effect. The governments and bodies in charge of the environment should act and act

Treating Alcoholism

Treating Alcoholism Introduction Alcoholism is defined as a disease that is persistent, progressive and often fatal. It is not a symptom of other diseases or emotional problems; it is its own disorder. Alcohol affects every part of the body even the brain which will eventually adapt to the alcohol use by becoming dependent on it after prolonged use. Genetics and environment are factors that are influenced by this disease. Drinking can reduce life expectancy by 10-12 years and next to smoking is the second most common preventable cause of death in America. The earlier a person starts drinking, the greater their chance is of developing serious illness later on. Once dependant on alcohol, its very difficult to quit. The cause of alcoholism is unknown. Just drinking gradually and consistently over time can produce alcohol dependence and cause withdrawal symptoms during periods of abstinence, but this is not the only cause of alcoholism. To develop alcohol dependence several other factors typically come into play, like genetics, culture and psychology. The signs of alcoholism or a dependence on alcohol vary from person to person and depend on how much the person drinks or how the person drinks. The definition of alcohol use and abuse ranges from moderate drinking, which is defined as equal to or less then two drinks a day for men and equal to or less then one drink a day for women. Hazardous or heavy drinking would be defined as more then 14 drinks per week or 4-5 drinks at one sitting for men or more then 7 drinks a week or 3 drinks in one setting for women or frequent intoxication in either gender. Harmful drinking is when alcohol consumption has actually caused physical or psychological harm or alcohol consumption has persisted for at least a month or has occurred consistently for a year. Alcohol abuse is used when the person either cant fulfill work or personal obligations and/or has recurrent problems with the law. Alcohol dependence is used for people that three or more alcohol related problems in a period of one year that in cludes increased amount of alcohol needed to produce an effect earlier obtained with less alcohol, experiences withdrawal symptoms or drinks to avoid withdrawal symptoms, drinks more then intended, unsuccessfully attempting to cut down or quit, gives up hobbies or leisure activities to drink. Summary Emotional and behavior problems such as depression and anxiety put people at a high risk for alcoholism and often are the reason the elderly turn to alcohol. Problem drinking in this case can be a way to self medicate. People may also use alcohol to become less inhibited in public situations that for some may be a source of great anxiety. Those that have impulsive personalities are also at a great risk for developing dependence to alcohol, due to the fact that they have low impulse control. Alcoholism affects every part of the body causing illness, cancer and with long term consumption can even cause death. Frequent, heavy drinking is associated with a higher risk of death to injury, violence and medical disorders, like pancreatitis, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, nerve damage and even impotence. As people age it takes few drinks to become intoxicated and organs are damaged by smaller amounts of alcohol then younger people. Those that require surgery also have an increased risk of postoperative complications, including infections, bleeding and decreased heart and lung functions, along with wound healing problems. If withdrawal symptoms are present can inflict further stress on the body and delay healing. Neurological or mental disorders can be caused from binge drinking which can cause memory impairment and problems thinking and concentrating. Nerve damage from severe vitamin deficiencies can impair mental function and memory and cause emotion disorders and even psychosis, like Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, that causes loss of balance, confusion and memory loss and can lead to permanent brain damage and even death. Diagnosing alcoholism can be hard, since nearly always people deny the problem. But for most, denial may be the first warning sign that their drinking is out of hand. There are tests to screen for alcoholism, most are short and allow the person to take them on his or her own time. Because people deny their problem or attempt to hide it, the questions relate to problems associated with drinking, rather then the amount of liquor consumed. The quickest test is the CAGE test and is an acronym for: 1. Attempts to CUT (C) down on drinking. 2. ANNOYANCE (A) with criticisms about drinking. 3. GUILT (G) about drinking. 4. Use of alcohol as an EYE-OPENER (E) in the morning. This test is called a Self Administered Alcoholism Screening Test (SAAST) and appears to be the most useful in detecting alcoholism in white middle aged males. Alcoholism, hard to detect in elderly women is sometimes diagnosed as depression and prescribed anti-anxiety drugs that can have dangerous effects when mixed with al cohol conclusion Treatments for alcoholism vary, but the overall goal in treatment is total abstinence, since those that abstain have better success rates then those that dont. Treatment should also, include replacing addictive patterns with satisfying, time filling, behaviors which are able to fill the void in daily activities when drinking has stopped. Because alcoholism is so difficult to treat, most doctors will choose to treat alcoholism as a chronic disease that include relapses and remission periods. Inpatient and outpatient treatments are available to those that would benefit most from these types of treatments. Those with co-existing medical or mental disorders or those that might harm themselves have greater success with inpatient treatments at a psychiatric hospital or alcohol center. Outpatient treatments work best with people that have a good support system and are able to take medications for mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms. Psychotherapy treatments focus on Psychotherapeutic approaches and include cognitive-behavior therapy is used for severe alcoholism and gives people the opportunity to learn to cope and control their behavior, by changing the way they think about drinking and Interactional group psychotherapy that includes group based therapy like Alcoholics Anonymous or AA, 12-step program. Alcoholism is a very real and serious disease that requires medical treatment and those suffering will require lifelong care and support.

gatjay Failure of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald :: Great Gatsby Essays

Failure of Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby A society naturally breaks up into various social groups over time. Members of lower statuses constantly suppose that their problems will be resolved if they gain enough wealth to reach the upper class. Many interpret the American Dream as being this passage to high social status and, once reaching that point, not having to concern about money at all. Though, the American Dream involves more than the social and economic standings of an individual. The dream involves attaining a balance between the spiritual strength and the physical strength of an individual. Jay Gatsby, of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, fails to reach his ultimate dream of love for Daisy in that he chooses to pursue it by engaging in a lifestyle of high class. Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activ ity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.

Martha E Rogers

A casual occurrence, she shared her birthday with Florence Nightingale born 94 years before and had passed away four years before. They will share more than a birthrate as we will see later namely the role of the nursing as distinct from medicine. One is helping nature while nursing puts the patient in the best environment for nature to act 3 Martha was born in a family which valued education and from an early age she was an avid reader challenging herself to read up to five books a week.She was an avid learner as well with no hesitation for the harder classes such as math and algebra. She ran in the first gender issue then as she was the only woman in that class. She wanted to put her learning skills and knowledge towards contribution to social welfare hesitating between law and medicine and eventually opting for the later. She started in pre- med at the University of Tennessee (1931) but withdrew in 1933 under the pressure this was not a career deemed suitable for a woman. This was even told her by her parents.She eventually received a diploma from the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing in 1936. Despite her being valedictorian of her class, her parents were not happy she did not have a degree and enrolled the George Peabody College in Nashville where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Nursing in 1937. After graduation, she worked for the Children's Fund of Michigan as public health nurse. Her work involved home visits, case finding giving vaccinations, planning and giving health teaching programs.She then decided to further her education by entering into a Master program at Columbians Teacher's College in New York in 1939. She would graduate in 1945 having worked at the Visiting Nurse Association in Hartford CT culminating her involvement there as acting Director of Education. Upon graduation in 1945, she took the position of executive director of the Phoenix Visiting Nurse Association in Arizona. An intellectual she called for an â⠂¬Å"educational revolution in nursing'6 that differentiated university education from vocational training grounded in theoretical knowledge.This intellectual curiosity led her to another Master in Public Health in 1952 from the John Hopkins University, the premier health program in the US. She went on to earn a Doctor of Science degree (Sad) in 1954, with a circus similar to a PhD, thus becoming one of the very few nurses holding a doctoral program. Her view on what the requirements for nurses should be which had led her to her pursuit of academic achievements was rewarded with the position of professor of Nursing and head of the Division of Nursing a New York University in 1954.In her mind, nursing was not a vocational school but required the expansion of curriculum with theory based leaning and a bachelor of science program. It is during this period that she developed a new theory – the science of unitary human beings, writing three books Educational Revolution in Nursing ( 1961), Reveille in Nursing (1964) and An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970). This last book marked the beginning of a new era in nursing.She identified the central focus of nursing concerns by understanding the importance of studying human beings and their environments as an irreducible unitary whole and that human beings are more than and different from the sum of their parts. I do not claim to understand everything it means and I have followed the presentation by a am of students from Northern Arizona University in nursing who presented this as a final project to their class. She proposed an abstract system which is comprised of four key concepts: Energy fields: the fundamental unit of life.Openness: there are no boundaries to prevent the flow of energy between human and environmental energy fields providing for the continuous movement of matter and energy. Pattern: distinguishing characteristics of the field that reflects the dynamic change of nature and man' s innovative wholeness. Pan-dimensionality: non linear domain without spatial or time-based characteristics, the coming together of n infinite number of dimensions. These four concepts are the building blocks that construct the three scientific principles of homeostasis which proposes a way to view the unitary human being.Integrally: The human energy fields that are mutually and continuously changing: we affect our environment and it affects us – meditation or music can promote a positive human environment. Resonance: from the field of physics. The constant change of the way patterns from higher to lower frequency – the flow of energy between people and everything in the world around them. Can be done through human touch, talking, drawing, storytelling or any active usage of imagination.Helical: any small change in any environmental field causes ripple effect which creates larger changes in other fields; the continuous evolution of change that results from the interact ion of human environment fields. It is both constant and unpredictable and explains the fact that there are many forces that are interacting. This extremely intellectual approach to nursing which was also the result of her education and her thriving for knowledge derives also from a philosophy with a positive attitude to the human being.It seeks for the patient to reach self- actualization as described by Abraham Moscow. I would argue that beyond the theoretical construct she wrote and which can be difficult for the layman to understand, Martha Rogers gave a fundamental belief that nurses are more than simple caregivers and though their communication and understanding of the patient, the nurse can provide a fundamental boost and daily encouragement to the patient to reach well-being. This psychological drive is combined with the scientific elements of knowledge of what is a proper environment for the patient to move forward.This last point is very much in line with the theories put forward by Florence Nightingale in creating a nurturing environment for patients. It is may be a coincidence that both were born on the same day but also remained unmarried dedicated to the cause of nursing at promoting a healthy filed and environment for patients to recover. In your opinion, how did the theory of Martha Rogers enhance and improve the nursing care given to the patients? Martha Rogers believed that nursing was both a science and an art.Her thriving for more scientific knowledge for nurses means that attentions were taken care of by better educated nurses who were more able to understand the medical underpinning of the treatment administered to the patient. At the same time the holistic approach derived from her theoretical research means that patients can expect nurses who are more in tune with the forces which affect their lives and how the environment in which they are recovering can be affected by the attention and care given to them.The overall affect they receiv e is enhanced through the concept of helical – the gentle push given to support the patient's morale by the nurse has a profound effect on the patient's recovery. This is enhanced as the psychological makeup of the patient is affected by the care attention and devotion given by the nurse who has been trained to understand both the technical remedies offered by medicine but also tries to communicate and fosters the energy fields of the patient – his or her resilience in the face of illness and all of the motivation which will help the patient fight for full recovery.Behind the complex words in Martha Rorer's theories, I view the role of the nurse as both understanding the regimen of medical treatment which has been proposed by the doctors but also a close legislation with the patient which means that the patient is not alone in fighting for recovery. It reminds me of the final plea of Patch Adams when he tells his fellow students to listen to the nurses.They have a fing er on the psychological pulse of the patient and can relate to the will for recovery and offer actual support to the patient. By articulating that trained nurses can understand both the technical issues of a treatment as well as the human issues of a patient, Martha Rogers elevates the role of the nurse from a simple caregiver to an individual fully involved in the recovery and well-being of patients.

Criticizing the Successful

Criticizing the Successful Clint Eastwood and squinting. JK Rowling and YA. Clean billionaire romance stories and $80K in sales. Last week a blog poster bashed Clint Eastwood and his squinty eyes, saying he had only one look. Whether you feel he is or isnt limited in his screen personalities, Mr. Eastwood became quite successful acting, writing, producing, and directing stories. Hes highly respected and made a lot of money being so. . . limited. In JK Rowlings early years of Potter, she was accused of promoting evil, demonism, and anti-Christianity. Today shes revered and most people dont recall what those earlier days were all about. A handful of authors jumped on clean billionaire romance stories of 40,000-50,000 words, capitalizing on 50 Shades of Grey only wanting to make them G-rated and quick reads. A friend of mine made $80,000 with those books one year, and her cohorts in the sub-genre made six figures. I love Clint Eastwood, have never read Potter, and do not enjoy reading cozy romance. However, I will indeed admire the business acumen of anyone who figures out a niche, a marketing gimmick, a subgenre, or a voice, and becomes successful at it. I can respect the skills while not enjoying the product.

Full Review Erica Meltzers Complete Guide to ACT Reading

Full Review Erica Meltzer's Complete Guide to ACT Reading SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Erica Meltzer’s test prep books have burst onto the test prep scene (if that wasn't a thing before, it is now) in the last few years, to great acclaim. She's published 2 books on the ACT: The Complete Guide to ACT English and The Complete Guide to ACT Reading (which is what I will be reviewing in this article). While Meltzer's books are high quality, they are not without their flaws, so read on to figure out whether or not this book is appropriate for you and if you should integrate it into your own ACT test prep. All shall be explained! Why Trust This Review? When you get advice (both in general and specifically on the Internet), it’s very important to know why that advice is trustworthy/believable. I don't want to sound alarmist, but your ACT score is pretty important, and following the wrong advice might lead to a bad score and loss of chance to improve it. So why can you trust this review (over other reviews?). Well, for one thing, I know what I'm talking about. While haven’t taken the ACT (yet), I scored two perfect scores on the reading section of the (2005-present) SAT, and have been doing in-depth analysis of the ACT questions by skill set and writing articles on each skill. Other writers who haven't done that sort of analysis don’t necessarily have the expertise to be able to differentiate between books, so they end up recommending books as kind of an afterthought (and it’s pretty obvious). In contrast to other sites (like about.com and reviews.com), who get money if you click on their links to purchase the books they review, I'm not getting paid for this review, and don’t get anything if you end up buying the book. Disclaimers Disclaimer the first: I work at PrepScholar, an education company that produces online SAT and ACT prep programs. PrepScholar diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses and customizes a test prep program to suit your needs. I myself mostly write and edit articles for the associated blog and grade the essays of students taking practice tests through the program. While I think that PrepScholar provides the best prep platform currently available, you don’t necessarily need a prep program to ace the ACT. Which means that writing this guide might actually lost us some customers, since you might decide you don’t need a program after all. If you decide you don’t want to have to deal with 5 different books and want an integrated program that is customized to your learning, however, PrepScholar might be just the thing for you. But I digress. Disclaimer the second: While I did not attend college at the same time as the author of this book, honesty compels me to admit that we did attend the same undergraduate institution. I don’t think this particularly influenced my review, but I wanted to be transparent about it.  ©2009 Laura Staffaroni You've got to admit that's some campus, though. The Complete Guide to ACT Reading: Book Review When thinking about and evaluating any (test prep) book, I consider the following three points: Who’s the author and what’s her experience/background? How effective is this book overall? What are the pros and what are the cons of this book? About the author: Erica Meltzer Erica Meltzer started out as a tutor, but has been publishing SAT and ACT prep books for the last few years. She graduated from Wellesley College, which is a highly prestigious college ranked #4 of all the liberal arts colleges in the country (as of the time of this article’s publication – there’re always fluctuations). Even though Meltzer's focus has been on writing, rather than tutoring, for the past few years, her books show a good deal of insight into the SAT and ACT. In addition, she and her company also offer tutor-training sessions for test prep tutoring. How effective is this book? From my own experience, I know that ACT Reading is the most difficult score to improve. The skills you need to master it (logical/critical reasoning skills) are not as easily taught as the content on the Writing and Math sections. This means that it’s important to focus in on different question types and the skills required so that you can approach the questions in a systematic way. Fortunately, this is the approach Meltzer takes in The Complete Guide to ACT Reading. This book teaches how to get at the core of what each question is asking and how to squeeze the right answer out of the passage. If you're aiming for a 36, this is great for comprehensive drilling. If you’re aiming for a 25 or below, however, this book is probably too thorough. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not always good to study from the hardest material. Why? In this case, because Meltzer focuses on strategies that are the most useful for high scorers, she does not cover strategies that would be more helpful for low or midrange scorers (compare, for instance, our articles on how to get a 36 on ACT Reading and how to improve a low ACT Reading score). Pros and Cons of The Complete Guide to ACT Reading Pros Good breakdown of most skill types. Meltzer has a clear division of questions by major skill type – big picture, detail, inference, tone questions. This makes it easy to dip in and out of the book – if there’s one particular type of question you have problems with, you can focus on that and ignore the other sections fairly easily. Realistic passages and questions. The questions in the book are of high quality, as are the (licensed) excerpts the passage-based questions ask about. Some acknowledgement of different skill levels. Meltzer discusses the strategy of dropping an entire section if you’re a slow reader and have problems with comprehension, and also describes playing â€Å"positive/negative† with tone questions as a means to narrow down. Suggested reading list (to prepare for ACT passages). These suggestions are useful not just for Reading skill practice but also for sources to use for your Writing essay (if you do the essay). Also, I've read Inside of a Dog and really enjoyed it, so some of the books might be interesting as well as educational! Includes two full-length reading sections at the end to practice with. Provides useful skimming strategies and tips for how to approach the passage. Cons Expensive for the amount of material you’re getting. The book is 120 pages, but the last 32 pages are all practice reading questions, and many pages are full reprints of sample reading passages, which means the actual "teaching" content of the book is on the shorter side. Dry writing style. There are no pictures and there's not much layout variety (there's a whole lot of text), so it might be difficult to get into. Basically, it’s no frills, which works for me (I don’t really need to spend hours of my life reading about ACT†¦Reading), but it might be difficult for some students to get through. No real discussion of which questions might be easier/more difficult to answer. Meltzer describes some question types as the â€Å"most challenging,† which does help somewhat, but she does not provide clear â€Å"this is the question you should try to answer first if you’re worried about points on Reading† guidelines, which I think would be helpful. Does not cover paired passages. It has become standard on every ACT Reading section for there to be at least one topic area (often Humanities) with two passages; the ten questions are divided between the passages, with 3 questions that ask about both passages. To be fair, there are barely any materials out there that cover this, including the ACT’s own website, but that doesn't mean that they should be left out of a prep book. Overall Rating As far as I have been able to determine, this is the best book currently out there for ACT Reading prep. If you’re planning on scoring a 31 or above on ACT Reading and prefer to study via book, then this is the right choice for you. It’s ridiculously expensive for the amount of content it contains, and it may be too thorough for some students, but it’s a great choice that can teach you a lot. Overall rating: 75/100 FACEBOOK LIKE by Owen W Brown, used under CC BY 2.0/Cropped from original. Alternative Options for ACT Reading Prep I would be remiss if I did not point out that we provide some great free options out there for ACT Reading prep on our blog. In addition to general strategy articles, we also break down Reading questions by skill type with focused suggestions for vocab in context, big picture, little picture, function and development, inference, and paired passage questions. What’s Next? Read our detailed guide to the Best ACT prep books of 2015 and our list of the best ACT Prep Websites you can use to put together your very own study program. What’s a good ACT score for you? Figure it out with our step-by-step guide based around the colleges you’re applying to. Aiming for a high score? Read our guide to scoring a perfect 36 on the ACT overall and on the ACT Reading section, written by our resident perfect scorer (and PrepScholar co-founder) Allen Cheng. Also, don’t forget to check out our top-of-the-class ACT prep program! Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

A Comparison of Student Achievement in Literacy for Students of Low Research Paper

A Comparison of Student Achievement in Literacy for Students of Low Socio-Economic Status and their Participation in a Pre-Kindergarten Program - Research Paper Example Regardless of this, it remains an undeniable fact that there are key factors that are triggered by the socio-economic background of students that hinder them from having successful pre-kindergarten education. Some of these factors include the ability of such students to afford or own supplementary learning materials that are supplied by the school. This research work is therefore committed to comparing the achievement of students in literacy for students of low socio-economic status and their participation in pre-kindergarten programs. Research Problem Though the low socio-economic status of parents of children greatly affect the children’s educational achievement, there still remain a sample of these children from low socio-economic background whose cases have not been given critical attention and these are children from low socio-economic background who do not receive pre-kindergarten education at all. This means that there are generally two groups of children from low socio -economic background, who are those who attend pre-kindergarten and those who do not attend. Among these two, there is a great gap in terms of academic achievement especially when they begin mainstream education. This is because those who attend no pre-kindergarten tend to lack a whole year’s curriculum provisions. ... First, there is the research on the spiral nature of the educational curriculum (Seefeldt, 1993). This particular research sought to examine the relation between lessons studied at the pre-kindergarten stage and the lessons studies in mainstream education starting from the kindergarten stage. The research proved that the pre-kindergarten education is actually a direct continuation of the pre-kindergarten education. The only changes are that as a spiral keeps acquiring a larger bottom as it goes up, so do the lessons taught at the kindergarten level become complicated to those studied at the pre-kindergarten stage. What this means is that studies from low socio-economic backgrounds that stay out of pre-kindergarten education would have great difficulty coping with the advanced learning done in mainstream education. Another research is the one on the natural maturity of the human brain. According to this research, factors that affect the natural maturity of the brain include factors th at allows for personal well-being and satisfaction (Webb, 2003). What this means is that as children continue to be deprived of basic social provisions because of their socio-economic background, their natural rate of mental development becomes affected and this hinders successful learning in mainstream education. Deficiencies in the evidence One area of major deficiency in the evidence presented in the literature or research above has to do with the absence of a study that sought to examine whether at the early stages of their lives, children had any psychological effects of their socio-economic backgrounds. This awareness would have made the literature more complete in the sense that it would

Mary Midgleys Moral Isolationism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Mary Midgleys Moral Isolationism - Essay Example    To put it simply, because an outsider cannot understand other cultures, he or she does not have the right to make judgments about other cultures. Midgley disapproves of this stance as it creates a moral vacuum that tends to hinder one’s critical thinking faculties, â€Å"man’s main evolutionary asset† (36). Furthermore, moral isolationism is just another form of immoralism as it leans towards moral skepticism and the relativism of moral and ethical truths as it â€Å"lay[s] down a general ban on moral reasoning† (36). Midgley’s argument against moral isolationism is five-fold. First, she presents the contradiction that moral isolationists demonstrate when they ask an outsider to show some respect and stop making judgments of other cultures because they simply cannot understand them due to the fact that they are foreigners. Midgley argues that â€Å"nobody can respect what is entirely unintelligible to them† (35). This poses the question that â€Å"if morals are applicable and legitimate only to one’s own culture as he or she cannot understand cultures other than his or her own, then how can one appropriately respect and tolerate cultures that he or she is not a member of?† Furthermore, it is a known fact that people have the capacity to understand other people, be they from different countries. And because cultures are made up of the people that create them and make them unique from others, how then can people not have the faculties to understand and respect other cultu res; and consequently, to make favorable judgments on these different cultures? Midgley’s second argument arises from the fact that throughout history, intelligent outsiders—anthropologists are a very good example—have made sense out of past civilizations and cultures that they were not members of.