Why Playing Call of Duty Will Make You Smarter - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2404 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/05/06 Category Entertainment Essay Level High school Topics: Video Games Essay Did you like this example? The video game industry is thriving like never before. According to a 2018 study, 60% of Americans report playing video games daily (Entertainment Software Association, 2015). Red Dead Redemption 2, released by Rockstar Games in October of 2018, recently made a splash by breaking the record for the biggest opening weekend in entertainment history, raking in $725 million in its first two days. With the rise of mobile gaming and technologies like augmented and virtual reality, video games are more immersive and more accessible than ever before. As such a popular medium for play, researchers have been studying video games and the way they affect our brains since the early 80s. The most well-known and commonly replicated of these studies is whether violent video games increase violent behavior and aggressive attitudes. More recently, however, researchers have turned their attention towards other areas, and what they have found is somewhat shocking by comparison: there is evidence that video game play can significantly improve cognitive skills that help to promote learning. This paper examines recent studies conducted on video game play and attention to propose that frequent engagement in certain types of video game play is useful for people who would benefit from improved attentional control. The majority of studies that examine the link between games and cognitive processes have found that certain genres of games produce more significant results than others. Across the board, action video games have been found to have the strongest relationship to attentional control. This genre includes first- and third-person shooters, driving games, and other subgenres that emphasize real-time combat. Action games are characterized by extreme visual/temporal processing and motor response demands on the player. Players often must attend to a single item or task while continuing to monitor the surrounding areas, search for task-relevant information in a visually clutte red space, and track many independently moving items that vary in speed and may pop in and out of view at random (Green, Gorman, Bavalier, 2016, pg. 108). For these reasons, the studies discussed in this essay focus specifically on the relationship between action video games and attentional control. Researchers have tested various aspects of attentional control against action video game play. These include spatial visual attention, temporal selective attention, and attentional capacity. These skills are crucial for goal maintenance and blocking out distracting information, as well as being able to attend to multiple stimuli at once. In these studies, subjects are given tasks that require them to select and maintain task-relevant information while blocking out or ignoring distracting stimuli. Action video games, as defined above, tend to require the same things of their players, which establishes the assumption that people who play video games regularly are likely to benefit in c ertain cognitive tasks from the increased practice of these skills. The first and probably most commonly studied subset of attentional control skills paired with video games is spatial selective attention. Spatial attention is what allows us to discriminate between the important and irrelevant information in our visual field. This skill is critical for blocking out distracting stimuli when attempting to focus on a task. Imagine a first-person-shooter game in which the player suddenly has 10 enemies shooting at her. She must quickly search through the densely cluttered visual field to identify the important information: where the enemies are, where she may be able to take cover, if there are any tools or ammunition near her that may be helpful for the task of eliminating all 10 enemies. Then, she must focus on eliminating one enemy at a time, blocking out any distracting visual information that might make her shooting less accurate. Clearly in this scenario, visuospatial attention al control comes in handy. The question for researchers was one of causality: were players able to improve their spatial attention by playing the game, or were people with high spatial attentional control simply more likely to play these games because that skill makes them a better player? In 2007, Feng, Spence, and Pratt ran an experiment that addressed this question. They chose 20 subjects, all of whom reported no video game playing in the four years before the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental group that would play an action video game, or a control group who would play a 3D puzzle (non-action) video game. Subjects were then tested using a useful-field-of-vision (UFOV) task. In the UFOV task, subjects were shown a central fixation square for 600ms, followed by the stimulus display for 30ms, which consisted of 24 distraction squares, arranged in groups of three, radiating out from the fixation point in eight directions. For each trial, one of the 24 distraction squares was replaced by a dark, filled-in square. Then, the subject was shown a masking display followed by a response cue. They were asked to indicate the direction in which the target had appeared. After the initial task, subjects went through 10 hours of individually supervised gameplay, in 1-2 hour sessions over 4 weeks. At the end of the last hour of gameplay, they were given an immediate posttest on the UFOV task. All subjects were then re-tested on the UFOV task after a period of 16-24 weeks. At the end of the game training, subjects in both groups showed improved performance in their designated game. Only subjects in the experimental (action game) group, however, demonstrated significant improvement in the UFOV task. Their accuracy improved by 13% from the first task to the final one (Feng, Spence, Pratt, 2007). By performing an intervention study on subjects who were all initially considered non-video game players, Feng et al. were able to produce evidence t hat action video games, and not other kinds of video games, can significantly improve the ability to attend to and pick out important information from a large visual field. Another fascinating phenomenon relating to visual attention is that of attentional blink. This phenomenon is related to the temporal limits of attentional control and how we selectively allocate attention to different goals over time. In an attentional blink task, subjects are presented with a series of black letters, presented for 15ms, followed by a blank screen for 85ms. The subjects are instructed to look for two distinct targets: a white letter, and after the white letter is presented, the letter X in black. Subjects must report the identity of the white letter and whether or not the X appeared after the first target. When the second target is presented 200-500ms after the first, subjects often fail to report seeing it. This is referred to as attentional blink, because the attention it requires to recogni ze and remember the first target does not allow the subject to attend the second target in time. Oei and Patterson performed a study to see if action video game training had any effect on attentional blink. They gathered 75 subjects, all of whom self-reported as non-video game players. These subjects were randomly assigned to one of five groups that would be trained on either a hidden-object, match-3, memory matrix, Sims, or action game. They performed the initial attentional blink task, and then trained in their given video game for a total of 20 hours over 4 weeks. At the end of the 20 hours, they were tested again on the attentional blink task. The four non-action game groups showed no significant improvement in accuracy in the attentional blink task from pre- to post-training. But in the post-training task, the action group showed an average of about 90% accuracy (correctly identifying both targets) over all trials, whether or not the second target was presented during a 200- 500ms time span after the first (Oei and Patterson, 2013). Therefore, action video game training not only reduced, but effectively eliminated the attentional blink effect altogether. This is evidence that action video game players are able to allocate attentional resources to at least two distinct tasks in quick succession without sacrificing accuracy at either task. Finally, researchers were curious about the effect video games have on the ability to divide attention between primary and secondary tasks. Historically, divided attention tasks show that subjects perform poorly on secondary tasks if the primary tasks require large amounts of attentional resources. In action games, however, players are required to monitor and track several tasks at a time. They are often presented with multi-step main objectives, as well as having to monitor and respond to secondary information such as locations on a map, ammunition and when to reload or switch weapons, health/stamina, and various ot her tasks. Chiappe et al. put this to the test using a multi-attribute task battery, which tested four distinct tasks simultaneously. The test resembled a flight simulator, in which subjects were asked to use a joystick to maneuver a target, activate pumps to maintain fuel levels, monitor and respond to lights and dials, and perform several actions in response to auditory commands. Additionally, each test was 30 minutes long, meaning that subjects were required to maintain their attentional control over all the tasks for a potentially exhausting period of time. Similarly to the other experiments mentioned in this essay, the subject pool was made up of 53 self-reported non-video game players, who were randomly assigned to either a control group or the experimental group. The control group played no games at all, while the experimental group were required to play a minimum of 50 hours of action games over 10 weeks. Subjects in the gaming group were also allowed to play more than the m inimum amount of hours, if they so pleased. Researchers kept track of each subjects hours of play to see if increased play had any effect on the results. After the post-test, they found that the gaming group had significantly faster and more consistent reaction times to the communication instructions than in the pre-test, and made significantly fewer errors in the systems monitoring task. Researchers also found that experimental subjects who spent more hours in-game responded faster to auditory commands than those who only played the minimum 50 hours.. These two tasks that showed improvement were considered the secondary tasks, because they were less demanding on attentional resources and also were not presented in the center of the visual field like the other two tasks. So, action game players showed improvement in the secondary tasks, and importantly, this effect did not come at the cost of accuracy in the primary tasks (Chiappe et al., 2013). The ability to effectively multita sk is highly desirable in many professions, so this evidence that video games can increase attentional capacity and lessen the effects of divided attention is very valuable. These results on attention and action games have interesting implications when applied more broadly. Other forms of brain training or games marketed as learning tools tend to be highly task-specific, which means performance can improve through repetition within the same context, but may be difficult to translate to other contexts. The failure to generalize learning is heavily documented in many cognitive tasks and in various other psychological fields (Green et al., 2016, pg. 108). On the other hand, action games, simply by the nature of their format, help to generalize skills learned in-game by presenting them in various situations, locations, and with different goals or outcomes. Many multiplayer action games (Call of Duty, Halo) come with multiple maps and a variety of gametypes that require different stra tegies to win. Here, attention is required to recognize when and where different learned skills may be useful and to make quick decisions about how to apply them. Thus, the skills players learn in these games are more likely to be accessible in a new situation than a skill that was practiced only under one set of conditions. This type of generalized learning is useful in job training or in classrooms, which is why many educators and trainers are moving toward implementation of video games as part of their instruction. But job training is only the beginning of the applications of this type of research. Improved attentional control and capacity is useful to anyone, but some subsets of people might find it more beneficial than others. Video games may actually be able to be used to treat disorders that are linked to a lack of attentional control. For example, some cognitive psychologists have suggested that low attentional control may contribute to some forms of dyslexia. Dyslexia is generally recognized by the inability to decode words by matching letters and letter combinations to their respective sounds. Educators have created remedial programs based on this definition of the disorder, which tend to focus on intense instruction using the rules of phonics. But it also makes sense to think that poor visual attention may make it difficult for a person to visually discriminate between letters in a page full of text, whether they knew the letter sounds or not. An experiment by Franceschini and colleagues examined the effects of action video game play on dyslexic children. Out of twenty subjects with diagnosed dyslexia, 50% were randomly assigned to the action video game group, while the other 50% were assigned to a non-action video game group. After a pre-test in phonological decoding, subjects were trained in their respective games for a total of 12 hours before being given the post-test. The results showed that the action video game group showed significant imp rovements in decoding ability, both of real and pseudo-words, characterized by increased reading speed without a cost in accuracy. The researchers also note that the improvements made by the action game group after 12 hours of gameplay exceeded the expected improvements of a dyslexic child in one year of spontaneous reading training (Franceschini et al., 2013). While these results dont necessarily mean that dyslexia is caused exclusively by poor attentional control, it provides convincing evidence that action video games may be useful as part of remediation plans for those suffering from the disorder. Likewise, other disorders linked to a lack of attention, such as ADHD or schizophrenia, may also see benefits from the inclusion of video game play in treatment regimens. Action video games are often derided as violent, antisocial, and addicting, and many people truly believe they will rot your brain! But we are beginning to see considerable evidence to the contrary. While gameplay and screen time in moderation is always recommended, worried parents might want to think again before writing off video games as a hobby. These games can actually help us become more attentive, less susceptible to distraction, better learners and workers, and may even help to treat learning and brain disorders. Video games are no longer purely for entertainment; theyre an investment in our brains, too. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Why Playing Call of Duty Will Make You Smarter" essay for you Create order

Economic Theory Suggests That Markets Are Efficient and...

 ¡Ã‚ §Economic Theory Suggests that Markets are Efficient and Security Prices are Determined on the Basis of Fundamental Value ¡Ã‚ ¨ Market efficiency requires that security prices react immediately in an unbiased way to the receipt of new information (Robert Shiller S1998). In other words, an efficient capital market is one in which stock prices fully reflect available information. In addition, there are three conditions for market efficiency; information flows freely, market is composed of rational investors where all competing against each other with the objective of maximizing wealth and there is no market imperfections. In efficient market, investors actively compete in the market based upon perceived mispricing derived from an analysis of†¦show more content†¦Best example recently would be the internet stocks from 1996 through 2002 where the price of the internet stock roses over its fair value until the market forces the price back to its original level (Russell J. Fuller 1995). The above argument can fall into the theory of representativeness and conservatism. The principle of representativeness implies overweighting the results of small sample. Financial economists have argued that representativeness leads to overreaction in stock returns (Eugene Fama F1998). In the case of internet companies, great revenue growth for a short time in the late 1990s, causing many to believe that this growth would continue indefinitely. Stock prices rose (too much) at this point. When, at last, investors realized that this growth could not be sustained, prices plummeted. On the other hand, the theory of conservatism states that individuals adjust their beliefs too slowly to new information. A market composed of this type of investor would likely lead to stock prices that under-react in the presence of new information. This is shown in the example of earning surprises . It could be said that both representativeness and conservatism have opposite implications for stock prices. Fama reviewed the academic studies on anomalies, finding that about half of them show overreaction and about half show under-reaction. He concludes that this evidence is consistent with the marketShow MoreRelatedEssay on Share Trading Assignment2386 Words   |  10 Pagesâ€Å"beat the market†. We have  £100,000 which we can invest in the stock market however this amount must be split into two portfolios. Each portfolio will be made up of investments chosen through theories and strategies which come from either the fundamental analysis or technical analysis approaches. Fundamental analysis is method which looks at fundamental information such as competitive advantage, earnings growth, market share and quality of management to indicate a security’s future value. TechnicalRead MoreSwot Analysis : Hedge Equities1723 Words   |  7 Pagesbelieve in creating a new breed of Investors who take judicious decisions through them. 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Investing defined by MalkielRead More A Random Walk Down Wall Street Essay3853 Words   |  16 Pagesprofessional brokers and investment firms. However, Malkiel states this is a major misconception as he explains in his book â€Å"A Random Walk Down Wall Street†. What does a random walk mean? The random walk means in terms of the stock market that, à ¢â‚¬Å"short term changes in stock prices cannot be predicted†. So how does a rational investor determine which stocks to purchase to maximize returns? Chapter 1 begins by defining and determining the difference in investing and speculating. 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The traditional views  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  are  Ã‚  Ã‚  on  Ã‚  Ã‚  the  Ã‚  Ã‚  intensive  Ã‚  Ã‚  and current market price  Ã‚  Ã‚  of  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  security if the current market price securityRead MoreFinal Exam Cheat Sheet6867 Words   |  28 Pagescapital, create the market for innovative new securities that meet the risk and return demand (CMOs, collateralized mortgage obligations – derivative security that separates the cash flows of a mortgage pool into different classes with different maturities and risks). risk and return are the most important characteristics of financial assets. Another is tax. 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Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 2. Theory Assumption methodology†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 2.1 Theory†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.2 2.2 Cash flow model†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..2 2.3 Qualitative factors†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..2 2.4 Quantitative factors†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..3 2.5 financial statement†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 3. Application †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 3.1 Dow Jones †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 3.2 Company-Read MoreCapital Markets, Investment and Finance Essay8037 Words   |  33 PagesCapital Markets, Investment and Finance Assignment 2009/ 2010 â€Å"No one can consistently predict either the direction of the stock market or the relative attractiveness of individual stocks and thus no one can consistently obtain better overall returns than the market. And while there are undoubtedly profitable trading opportunities that occasionally appear, these are quickly wiped out once they become known. No one person or institution has yet to produce a long-term, consistent record of findingRead MoreFinancial Market Institution17199 Words   |  69 Pages19843_05_c05_p141-172.qxd 12/7/05 9:43 AM Page 141 C H APTE R 5 FINANCIAL MARKETS AND INSTITUTIONS A Strong Financial System Is Necessary for a Growing and Prosperous Economy Financial managers and investors don’t operate in a vacuum—they make decisions within a large and complex financial environment. This environment includes financial markets and institutions, tax and regulatory policies, and the state of the economy. The environment both determines the available financial

Units and Generate Economic Resources System †Assignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Units and Generate Economic Resources System. Answer: Introduction Impairment of the assets refers to any deduction in value of assets owned by the company. These assets are referred as the cash generating units and they generate economic resources in future for the definite time period. This accounting report aims to carry out the analysis that will examine implication of impairment of assets in the Myer Holdings Limited. IAS 36 deals with the impairment of assets and provides detailed provisions on how the impairment of assets is done. According to this standard the carrying or writing value of the assets must be greater than its recoverable amount (Collings, 2015). This report will guide through the need, process and data required by the Myer Holding Limited to carry out the impairment testing for their respective CGUs. Evidence that provides need to carry out the impairment testing of CGUs or Assets in context to Myer Holdings In order to find out which CGUs or Assets are needed to make the impairment, there is needed to make division of assets into tangible and intangible assets. Below are the some points that provide the information on whether it is required to carry out impairment or not with respect to Myer Holding Limited. Assets recognition and change in value: After making the analysis of the financial statements of the Myer Group it can be said that the flow of assets has been relatively same and there was no proof that there has been any decline in the value of assets over the past years. As there is no major change in the value of assets it can be said that there is no indication of impairment of assets (Hussey, 2010). Carrying value of the assets: Carrying value of assets means the value that the asset carries in the balance sheet. In order to make reference to impairment testing it is necessary to check any change in value at the end of year as compared with the previous year. It has been found that there is no such change in the value of assets in the past years (Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report, 2016). Assets turnover ratio: Assets turnover ratio means value of total assets to the total revenue of the company. This ratio shows any change in total assets in relation to the revenue. It has been evaluated that there was similar asset turnover ratio during the past few years that indicates that there is no requirement to carry out the impairment testing (Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report, 2016). In order to determine the impairment of assets the Myer Holding has used the discounted cash flow model. As indicated in the annual report of the company in year 2016, the value of goodwill is being taken as $27.1 million and life of the goodwill has been as taken as indefinite. The goodwill is being the most important of the business, it cannot be dividend on individual basis to each Cash Generating Units of the group, and so whole amount of the goodwill is being distributed to the business as whole. In order to carry out the impairment of goodwill there is need to find out the recoverable amount that such asset will provide in future years(Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report, 2016). For this purpose value in use of the goodwill is compared with the recoverable amount of goodwill and any difference is termed as impairment amount which has to be deducted to measure the actual carrying value of goodwill for that year. For the rest of assets impairment is carried through same meth od but the life of assets has been taken on the basis of their productivity. In order to calculate the discounted cash flow from the assets, management has used projections over the five years on the basis of the financial budgets and growth rate. To find the cash flow projections company has used major assumptions like sales growth and gross profit margin. Sensitivity analysis has been performed at the given level of cash flows over the carrying value of assets and this analysis indicates that there are no changes in the key assumptions taken by the management. Overall analysis of the impairment shows that carrying amount of the assets is not more than their recoverable amount. All the details procedure and policies are being disclosed by the company in their annual report (Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report, 2016). Some other non current assets are reviewed for the purpose of impairment testing on the basis of change in value noticed and it has been found that there is carrying value of these assets. It has been analyzed that there is no impact on the cash flow from main CGUs of the company due to any change in other non current assets. Information needed to carry out the impairment process The Myer Holdings Ltd has incorporated the use of AASB 136 and IAS 36 for reporting the impairment of its nonfinancial assets. The Group for asset impairment testing needs to possess information about carrying value and recoverable amount of assets. The recoverable amount of an asset is the amount higher of its fair value less costs to sell and the value in use. The asset or a particular CGU of the group is impaired if the carrying amount of the asset is greater than its recoverable amount. The Group at each reporting date needs to measure the carrying value and recoverable amount of assets for identifying their impairment. The information about the indicators determining the asset impairment needs to be gathered by the Group through both external and internal sources (Impairment accounting the basics of IAS 36 Impairment of Assets, 2011). The external sources include market interest rates, changes in technological, social and legal environment of the entity and its market capitaliz ation. On the other hand, internal sources include internal structure of the entity or physical condition of the assets. However, goodwill is subjected for impairment testing, whether there shows an indication of its impairment or not on an annual basis. The CGU of the asset to be impaired is determined for comparing the carrying value and recoverable amount for that particular CGU. The goodwill is allocated to a group of CGUs if it cannot be assigned to an individual CGU (Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report, 2016). The loss arising from the asset impairment is recognized as an expense in profit or loss for assets carried at cost. The impairment loss in the case of revalue asset is primarily recorded against its previous revaluation gains. The Group also needs to determine the projected value of future cash-flows that is estimated to be realized from an individual asset or a CGU through the use of VIU approach. The estimated value of future cash flows from an asset develops the basis of its impairment testing. The information required by Myer for asset impairment can be summarized by the help of following diagram: Impairment of assets is the ongoing procedure and company has to perform it every year. There is change in value of assets year by year and company has to perform the impairment testing in each year to determine the recoverable amount of the assets. As company uses the set format to determine the assets that are needed to be impaired and if any assets has been found needs to impair than its recoverable is being measured through proper channel fixed by the management. So it can be said that every set of procedures needed to impair the assets are well written and sincerely followed by the people in management (Impairment accounting the basics of IAS 36 Impairment of Assets, 2011). Assumptions needed to carry out the impairment process are taken on the basis that is mentioned in IAS 36 Impairment of Assets. As all the process is effectively followed by the management in determining any change in carrying value of assets, it makes very flexible to the management. Conclusion The above analysis reflects that impairment of assets is not the major issue for the management as all the process goes very smoothly as mentioned in IAS 36. It is advised to the management to follow ongoing procedure to carry out the impairment of assets. References Collings, S. 2015. Interpretation and Application of UK GAAP: For Accounting Periods Commencing On or After 1 January 2015. John Wiley Sons. Hussey, R. 2010. Fundamentals of International Financial Accounting and Reporting. World Scientific Publishing Company. Impairment accounting the basics of IAS 36 Impairment of Assets. 2011. [Online]. Available at: https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Impairment_accounting_the_basics_of_IAS_36_Impairment_of_Assets/$FILE/Impairment_accounting_IAS_36.pdf [Accessed on: 26 August, 2017]. Myer Holdings Limited 2016 Annual Report. 2016. [Online]. Available at: https://investor.myer.com.au/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/dGngnzELxUikQxL5gb1cgA/file/Myer_Annual_Report_2016.pdf [Accessed on: 26 August, 2017].

King Arthur And Camelot Essays - Holy Grail, Mythological Kings

King Arthur and Camelot King Arthur and Camelot The Arthurian Legends are a cycle of stories that has been shaped and passed down through over fourteen hundred years of English history. The legend of King Arthur tells of the adventures of an early king of Britain and the knights and ladies who made up his royal court at Camelot. It tells of a world filled with warriors armed with lance, sword, and armor. It speaks of jousts, tournaments, wizards, falconry, enchantresses, damsels in distress, wars, quests, and the code of chivalry. It is a legend that talks of a great king who came to throne from what seemed to be nowhere and of a noble idea that ends in tragedy. I suppose, the version we know best is the one that was composed in the 15th century. This is the great English version of the story, compiled out of earlier versions by the creative genius of a rather mysterious and cryptic figure, the knight, Sir Thomas Malory. The main characters in romance literature are larger than life. Romance literature is concerned with the feats of kings, queens, and knights---not with common, ordinary people. They follow a code of chivalry. A main character in romance literature is braver, nobler, and more honorable than an ordinary human. Oftentimes, the medieval period in general, and King Arthur in particular, have an air of mystery, romance, fantasy, and adventure that are popular themes in all times and cultures. We see King Arthur's magical powers when Sir Bedivere throws Excalibur into the lake, causing lightning to strike in the splendor of the moon. Main characters in romance literature are god-like characters that have no fear, retain their youthful qualities as they age, and never become a victim of sickness. Sometimes a main character in a romance is motivated by love. Morte d' Arthur is a mysterious, magical and perhaps realistic view of the medieval period. If the name of King Arthur is mentioned, I suppose what comes to mind is not so much one person as a whole array of characters and themes, a montage so to speak. Of course we do think first of the King, the magnificent monarch of a glorified or idealized medieval realm. But we think also of his Queen, of the fair and wayward Geneviere, we think of his enchanter, Merlin, who presided over his birth, who set him on the throne, who established him there in the early and traveled days of his reign. There were the Knights of the Round Table, vowed to the highest ideals of chivalry, and the greatest of them, Sir Lancelot, who, of course, has a tragic love affair with the Queen. We think of the place where these people assembled, Camelot, Arthur's magnificent, personal castle and capital and then, there are stranger things; the story of the quest for the Holy Grail, giving a spiritual dimension to the whole story. There is magic, not only the magic of Merlin but also the magic of his strange, ambiguous student, the women, and the enchantress, Morgan LaFay. And at the end is the tragedy of Arthur's downfall, his passing away at the isle of Avalon, which has been shrouded in secrecy. In Arthurian literature, Mordred turns the Knights against each other, which destroys the Round Table and brings King Arthur's entire world crashing down. One cannot help but wonder about the part that fate played in the society where the legends of King Arthur were created. Case in point, had Lancelot not decided to come to Camelot to join in the Round Table, and Mordred had never been told that Arthur was his father, Camelot may have never been destroyed. A law was made a distant moon ago here, July and August cannot be too hot. And there's a legal limit to the snow here in Camelot ... In that legendary story, a few key events transformed Camelot from a utopian kingdom into a wasteland. King Arthur is nothing but a nave idealist. His dream, or should I say fantasy of Camelot is nothing but an illusion. Arthur's leadership is based on emotional seduction not on power. "I have loste mygh forty knyghtes and also the noblefelyshyp of sir Launcelot and hys blood, for now I may nevermore holde hem togydirs with my worshyp." It is power and fear that make a kingdom great not dreamy words of idealism. Arthur is a sinner just like Geneviere by having a son that he never loved and neglecting his queen-wife-adulteress Geneviere. And he knows of her affair, it is the gossip of all

Free Essays on American Culture

1) How much can you learn about â€Å"melting pot† ? Why has the USA been called â€Å"melting pot† ? - â€Å"Melting pot† is a place for mixing races, religions, languages, customs, etc. On the another word, â€Å"melting pot† is a place where people from many different countries all over the world come to live in. - The United Sates has often been called â€Å"melting pot† because its citizens are immigrants who came to the USA from many different countries all over the world and become one people with a common culture and a common loyaty. The immigrants come to the USA and bring with them their languages, religions, traditions, customs from their homeland so it is said that the USA is the nation of immigrants. Every immigrant can find his place in the USA because of its varieties of climate, geography, people, culture, languages, religions, personalities and lifestyles. The USA has a greater diversity of racial, ethnic, cultural and religions group than any other nations in the world. 2) What are traditional American values ? How do these values affect the Americans characters ? * What are traditional American values ? There are six basic traditional American values which is grouped in three pairs : 1. Individual freedom and Self - reliance. 2. Equality of opportunity and Competition. 3. Material wealth and Work hard. There is a mutual relation in each pair of values : - For their individual freedom, Americans have to be self-reliant, and on the contrary, because they are self-reliant, they have their individual freedom. - For equality of opportunity, Americans have to accept competition, and on the contrary, because they are ready to accept competition, they have equality of opportunity. - For their material wealth, Americans have to work hard, and because of their working hard, they have their material wealth . * How do those values affect the Americans characters ? - Americans believe that all people maybe not equal i... Free Essays on American Culture Free Essays on American Culture 1) How much can you learn about â€Å"melting pot† ? Why has the USA been called â€Å"melting pot† ? - â€Å"Melting pot† is a place for mixing races, religions, languages, customs, etc. On the another word, â€Å"melting pot† is a place where people from many different countries all over the world come to live in. - The United Sates has often been called â€Å"melting pot† because its citizens are immigrants who came to the USA from many different countries all over the world and become one people with a common culture and a common loyaty. The immigrants come to the USA and bring with them their languages, religions, traditions, customs from their homeland so it is said that the USA is the nation of immigrants. Every immigrant can find his place in the USA because of its varieties of climate, geography, people, culture, languages, religions, personalities and lifestyles. The USA has a greater diversity of racial, ethnic, cultural and religions group than any other nations in the world. 2) What are traditional American values ? How do these values affect the Americans characters ? * What are traditional American values ? There are six basic traditional American values which is grouped in three pairs : 1. Individual freedom and Self - reliance. 2. Equality of opportunity and Competition. 3. Material wealth and Work hard. There is a mutual relation in each pair of values : - For their individual freedom, Americans have to be self-reliant, and on the contrary, because they are self-reliant, they have their individual freedom. - For equality of opportunity, Americans have to accept competition, and on the contrary, because they are ready to accept competition, they have equality of opportunity. - For their material wealth, Americans have to work hard, and because of their working hard, they have their material wealth . * How do those values affect the Americans characters ? - Americans believe that all people maybe not equal i... Free Essays on American Culture â€Å"American Culture† . All the choices we make reveal something about our personality, surrounding and our upbringing influences these choices. The way we speak, dress, the food we eat, the music we listen to tells allot about us and how we came to be. Everywhere we look in America we can see different cultural signs. It’s really amazing how we can tell the difference between an American person, and a non American just by looking at them; and between people from different parts of our own country. I think the most significant cultural sign in modern day America is that this year in the state of California, there were hundreds of political candidates running for the governor of California. It illustrates what kind of country we are and that we like diversity and choice and how in the end decisions will be based on introspection. It shows that we are capable of levity even in the midst of a serious campaign. It speaks to the cultural intelligence that is America. I believe that now in the 21st Century the media is responsible for influencing much of our culture. We are saturated with television advertisement. During television commercial brakes we are bombarded with brand new products that are coming out. One of the reason they do that is because they want people to come and spend money in their stores. The three essays illustrated a common perception of American life. The common theme among them is how we as American’slive to work, and we are always trying to invent something else and come out with something new. Bill Bryson, in his what’s cooking essay wrote Walter Scott saw that all the restaurants were closing down at 8 p.m., he decide to load a wagon with sandwiches and park it outside the offices of the Providence Journal, since he had no competition his business was doing well. Soon after this lunch wagons began appearing all over....

What Should I Go to College For

What Should I Go to College For SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Applying to colleges is a rough enough process on its own. If you're interested in a lot of different subjects that don't necessarily mesh nicely together into one major, then figuring out what you should go to school for can seem like an impassable obstacle on the road to figuring out where to apply to. In this article, I'll take you through the same steps I, a student with multiple disparate interests, took back when I was looking at colleges to figure out what I should go to college for. I'll also go through how, as a well-rounded student, you can narrow down what kinds of schools you should apply to. The Dilemma of the Curious and Well-Rounded Student In his article on how to get into Harvard and the Ivy League, PrepScholar co-founder Allen Cheng talks about developing a "spike" to make you attractive to highly selective national universities. The idea of developing a spike makes sense for students who are both dedicated to being the best at one thing in particular and who are interested in applying to the Ivy League and similarly selective universities. If attending somewhere like Stanford or Columbia is your goal, you want to have one area that you really stand out in, rather than being well-rounded. For students who have grown up being told that being a well-rounded student is important, the fact that you probably won't get into a top national university by being good at everything can feel like the deepest betrayal. Now, I didn't know any of this information about not being well-rounded or having a "spike" when I was applying to schools. But even if I had known about this strategy, I doubt I would have opted for it, because it just didn't match who I was as a student. Rather than that picture of one ball with a spike rising out of it, I was more like a morningstar- lots of spikes going off into all different directions for all my different interests. A morningstar, or my different interests? Impossible to tell apart! If you're a well-rounded student not just because that's what you've been told you should strive for, but because you're genuinely interested in (and good at) multiple different subject areas, then figuring out where to apply for college can be tricky. It's hard to choose a school that's strong in the areas you're interested in if the most you can limit it down to is "probably not history?" I know all of this because I was once a high school student who had so many interests that choosing a school that fit those interests (and figuring out what major to select on applications) seemed unlikely, if not impossible. Despite this, I was eventually able to narrow down my list to the eight schools I ended up applying to and ultimately ended up choosing a school at which I thrived. In the next section, I'll go into more detail about my academic background and interests as a high school student and how that pulled me in different directions when it came to choosing where to apply to. The different directions of my interests, but with Ludwigsburg tourist attractions instead of academic subjects. My Academic Background and High School Interests For high school, I attended a good public school in the New York suburbs. Most of the students from my school, then and now, go on to attend 4-year colleges immediately after high school. Because I went to a high school where most students went to college and because my parents had both gone to college and expected their children to as well, I was encouraged to start thinking about where I'd want to attend college during eleventh grade. Growing up where I did also meant I was familiar with at least the names of a lot of Northeastern U.S. colleges (if only because I'd driven by them), but I did not really have a sense of what schools were strong in which areas. As a high school junior, I would likely have described myself as being extremely interested in the following college majors: creative writing, Chinese, music, neuroscience (or psychology), math, or something else I hadn't studied yet but might discover a passion for in college. For me, a perennially curious student, the question was less "what should I go to college for" than "what should I choose what colleges I apply to based on." Figuring out the answer to the question "what should I go to school for?" was particularly difficult for me since none of my interests seemed to mesh together well, at least not on a surface level. Being unsure of what you should go to college for is not an uncommon dilemma for well-rounded students. Based on my own experience, I think this is particularly true at public schools where if you qualify for an advanced class, even if it's not a subject you're particularly interested in, you take it because otherwise you'll be bored in the non-advanced version of that class. Case in point for me: going into junior year, I wasn't super into U.S. History (to put it mildly), but since we had to take it in 11th grade either way, I knew that it would be better if I took AP U.S. History than regular U.S. History. The far-off look of a man consumed by U.S. history. FDR Memorial by David/Flickr. Over the course of my junior year, I thought more about what I was specifically drawn to within each of the subjects I was interested in. This deeper analysis, which I'll go into next, is ultimately what ended up helping me narrow down what schools I applied to needed to be strong in (and what intended major I should put on my applications). How to Choose a College Major (While Still in High School) During the summer between junior and senior year, in between avoiding thinking about colleges and trying to get my summer homework done, I took some time to think about how much I'd explored each of the subjects I was interested in so far and how much it should affect my college search. Below, I've written out roughly what my thought process was for each subject. As you read through, you'll start to notice that even though I am interested in all five of the subjects, the degree to which I'm interested in each area (and want to make sure I can study each subject in college) varies quite a bit. Creative Writing How much have I already explored this? I have been writing creatively almost as long as I have been able to read, in one form or another. I spent the majority of five summers at a creative and performing arts camp working on and writing for camp publications (literary magazine, newspaper, yearbook, playwriting festival, etc); the last two summers (including the summer before senior year), I was a counselor-in-training and helped other campers with their writing. How do I want to pursue this in college? I would like to be able to take creative writing classes in college. I don't necessarily plan to major in it, but it would be good if there was a minor (or a concentration within the English major) Chinese How much have I already explored this? I started taking Chinese (Mandarin) in 7th grade, have continued through now (and plan to next year). I went to China sophomore year for two weeks with my Chinese class (which was an amazing experience). How do I want to pursue this in college? I definitely want to continue taking Chinese in college, which means any college I apply to has to have more than just introductory Chinese classes (since I'll likely place out of those). Ideally, I'll be able to major in Chinese and study abroad in China for at least some of my time in college, if I so choose. Music How much have I already explored this? Since elementary school, I have taken lessons in and performed in ensembles for voice, violin, and viola, both in and out of school. I also began composing and exploring some aspects of computer music in late middle school and have continued to do that through now (the summer before senior year). How do I want to pursue this in college? I want to learn more music theory, particularly for medieval and non-Western systems of music. I probably will play in ensembles of some kind, maybe will pick up a new instrument, so it would be good if I could do that I don't want music to be the only thing I study (so I don't want to apply to a conservatory), but the idea of attending a school that also has a conservatory where I can take classes (even if I don't major in it) is very attractive. Well hello there yourself, Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Wallyford/Flickr. Neuroscience/Psychology How much have I already explored this? I have been doing an independent research project for the past couple of years which has ultimately ended up focusing on the different ways brains of high school musicians and non-musicians interpret sound. I enjoyed the process of reading all the research on music and the brain and neural processing in general; I've also quite enjoyed the research aspect so far. How do I want to pursue this in college? Any college I apply to definitely needs to have a neuroscience major or minor (preferably major). I would like the opportunity to do original research as an undergraduate (rather than just running someone else's studies), but it's not a deal-breaker. Math How much have I already explored this? Since 7th grade, I've been in a two-years-advanced math class and have relished most of it; I will likely run out of math classes to take senior year because I already took BC Calc junior year. I became interested in chaos theory and fractals after reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton in elementary school. I also read Chaos by James Gleick as part of figuring out what I'd study for my independent science research project (even though I didn't ultimately end up going with it). How do I want to pursue this in college? I want to be able to take math and find what advanced mathematical areas appeal to me. I definitely don't want to go to any kind of engineering or math-centric school, just want the option to take more math. If it wasn't for how legible the handwriting is, this is definitely something I could have written about math when I was in high school. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What Should I Go to College For? The Verdict After sitting down and going through my main interests, I no longer felt quite so hopelessly well-rounded. It was clear that while I was interested in studying lots of different kinds of things in college (probably a good sign for someone who wants to go to college), there were certain requirements that mattered more than others in figuring out what I should go to college for (and, as a consequence, what schools I should apply to). Here are the distilled criteria I ended up using in my college search: #1: The school must have creative writing classes (at least a creative writing minor or concentration). #2: The school must have advanced Chinese (Mandarin) language classes. #3: The school must have music theory classes and some way for non-music majors to take music classes and participate in ensembles. #4: The school must have a neuroscience major or minor. These four criteria were specific enough to help me figure out if schools were not a good fit for me, yet not so numerous that there were no schools that would match all four. I ultimately ended up applying to eight schools: Yale, Brown, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Vassar, Oberlin, NYU, and Brandeis. And what about when it came time to choose a college major on applications? If a school allowed you to select multiple possible majors, I did that (usually selecting English/creative writing, neuroscience, Chinese, and music, in that order). If a school only allowed you to select one potential major, I went with "undecided." Even though we have warned against choosing "undecided" as your major in other articles on the PrepScholar blog, being interested in many things is one case where choosing "undecided" makes sense, particularly if your many interests are demonstrated throughout the rest of your application. As long as it's clear that "Undecided" means "too many interests" and not "no interests," it's fine to choose it, even when applying to highly selective schools. Since I mostly ended up applying to smaller liberal arts schools, the question of which program within the school to apply to didn't come up much, but when it did, I went broad. For Oberlin, I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences, not the Conservatory of Music (after ascertaining through talking to the college that I could still do music things even if I wasn't at the conservatory). For NYU, I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences as my primary choice and the Gallatin School of Individual Studies as my secondary choice- I knew that those were the two programs at NYU that would allow me to take the greatest variety of classes. So how did this all turn out for me? I ended up attending Wellesley College (a small liberal arts school), where I managed to pursue all of the interests I'd had in mind (along with many more). Specifically, I... Got 80% of the way to an English minor (including two creative writing classes) Took five semesters of Chinese and studied abroad in Shanghai Majored in music and got to play in various ensembles, learn the viola da gamba, and write lots of music Majored in psychology and got to do two different research projects Took two Math classes: one in multivariable calculus (meh) and number theory (so much fun!!) The Number Theory class I took fanned the flames of my enthusiasm for math (see image). How Can You Figure Out What to Go to College For? At this point, you've read through my journey from a well-rounded high school student with no idea how to narrow down her interests to a college applicant with clear criteria. How can my experiences help you, a well-rounded high school student with no idea of where to apply to, narrow down your areas of interest into criteria for schools? One thing you may have noticed I mentioned a couple of times was that I was primarily looking at (private) liberal arts colleges. Good liberal arts schools like Wellesley are strong in many different fields. They may not be as renowned for research in said field as Harvard or MIT, but they will expose you to a variety of different subjects through core requirements at a high level. Liberal arts schools, in fact, are the well-rounded students of colleges (if that makes sense). A definite drawback to liberal arts schools is their size- most liberal arts colleges fall along the small-to-medium end of college size. If you're looking for a larger school, then liberal arts colleges might not be for you. Similarly, most liberal arts colleges are private, so if you want to attend a public school, then this might not be a good option for you (although keep in mind that many top-tier liberal arts schools offer no-loan or low-loan financial aid). If for whatever reason a liberal arts school doesn't sound like the right fit for you for college, don't worry- there are other options out there for well-rounded students. Larger universities may have a wider variance in quality between different majors, but they also have way more majors than most liberal arts schools. The best national universities are not just strong in one area, but also have multiple well-regarded departments. For instance, when I was applying to Yale, the East Asian Languages, English, and Music departments were all well-regarded in comparison to similar programs at other similar schools. Make it your business to find out how a university stacks up in the areas you're interested in, not just overall reputation. And if they don't have a good program in the areas you're interested in, think hard before applying. Finally, well-rounded students who want to attend large universities or schools with more than one undergraduate college should consider applying to schools that allow cross-registration between undergraduate colleges. That way, you'll have options even if you end up in a specialized program. As an example of this, a friend of mine went to UMich for undergrad, intending to be a computer engineer. While he was there, however, he was able to cross-register in the music school and take music classes as well. He ultimately ended up switching over to become a music major and pursuing a career in that field. As a well-rounded student with diverse interests, if you're looking at schools with many different undergraduate programs and don't like the idea of being bound to a narrow academic path, make sure you only look at schools that allow cross-registration across different programs. In Conclusion Being a well-rounded student applying to colleges can be stressful, not only because it makes it harder for you to get into highly selective national universities but because it's hard to answer for yourself, "what should I go to college for?" My journey from a well-rounded high school student, interested in lots of different things, to a well-rounded college student, still interested in lots of different things, involved thinking deeply about what about my potential college majors interested me. I ultimately ended up attending a liberal arts college because that seemed like the best fit for someone with such omnivorous interests. If you're more interested in applying to large universities, make sure you research before applying to find out what schools are strong in your areas of interest. You should also keep an eye out for schools that let you cross-register between specialized undergraduate programs. There may still be some weeping along the way as you figure out what schools to apply to and what major(s) you want to look at schools for, but at least the tears won't be from frustration at not knowing where to start when it comes to narrowing down your options. What's Next? Want to learn more about the process of choosing a college major? We look at it both from the perspective of students choosing what major to put on their college applications and how to choose a college major more generally. Knowing what you want to study is only one piece of the deciding-where-to-apply puzzle. Learn more about how to make a college list in this article. How many schools should you plan on applying to? We help you figure out the right number of colleges for you to apply to in this guide. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

M7a2 - research methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

M7a2 - research methods - Essay Example This includes all researchers associated with University Institutional Review Board Handbook in conformity with the set of laws developed by the University Institutional Review Board Handbook. By not getting well-versed consent from the board, Ann will not be following the guidelines developed by the board. Even though she believes she is not interfering with participants, it is important to inform the board so that they conduct their investigations (Institutional Review Board Handbook, 2011). According to the code of federal regulations, participants are humans whom the researcher carrying out research obtains information, through involvement or contact with the person. Therefore, these individuals are known as participants. So, the other main purpose of University Institutional Review Board Handbook is to make sure that the risks to participants are reduced (Institutional Review Board Handbook, 2011). This is illustrates indispensable condition for guarantee. The perseverance of when the study participant is at possibility of being at risk is substance of using an ordinary sense and good professional opinion as it relates to the state of affairs of the research achievement (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2007). The board will cautiously weigh the comparative risks and remuneration of the investigation measures as they communicate to the study participants. Therefore, researchers are not justified in not obtaining informed consent from the board (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2007). Ann’s description described above does not meet the Universitys informed consent criteria. This is because she fails to follow the direct procedure developed by the university board. Ann should inform the board about the participants. She should ensure that the participants in the study are fully aware of the risks and that individuals may withdraw from the study at any time without any form of penalty. Ann should also be

History of International Terrorism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

History of International Terrorism - Assignment Example s throughout the world and how different religious-extremist or nationalist groups that are still active contribute to the history of international terrorism.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   People often tend to think that terrorism did not exist before the 9/11 incident, that is not true. The roots of terrorism are deep-seated through the annuls of history. The word itself has been given many different meanings. In an online article, â€Å"The history of terrorism is as old as humans willingness to use violence to affect politics† (Zalman, n.d.). Based on what she says, we may trace the history of terrorism to the earliest of times when the common people used force to revolt against the tyranny of their monarch. As a term, terrorism isn’t quite simple to be limited by a definition. For some, it means to stand up for what you believe in and fight for it, to others it’s a crime. For some, it’s a strategy to break the hold of the tyrant, for others it may be tyranny in itself. For some, it’s their duty to God, to others it’s simply fanaticism by the name of God. Clearly, terrorism does not have an apparent definition. Although ter rorism may not be new, its interpretations and definitions throughout history have changed. What was considered an act of terrorism in the past may not fit the modern definition of terrorism. Zalman mentions how terrorism is more of a modern trend and how the mass media facilitates its purpose to invoke fear among the masses and how it is part of the international system itself (Zalman, n.d.). Let’s now look at a few important time periods in the history of international terrorism and the events that occurred before 9/11, it is important to note that it was not always centered around Muslims unlike modern terrorism. The phenomenon of terrorism has existed throughout history. Firstly, 1793: It is said that the foundations for modern terrorism were laid during this time, Zalman mentions, â€Å"The word terrorism comes from the Reign of Terror instigated by

Arithmetic Mean and Five-step P-value Approach Essay Example for Free

Arithmetic Mean and Five-step P-value Approach Essay A manufacturer of chocolate candies uses machines to package candies as they move along a filling line. Although the packages are labeled as 8 ounces, the company wants the packages to contain a mean of 8. 17 ounces so that virtually none of the packages contain less than 8 ounces. A sample of 50 packages is selected periodically, and the packaging process is stopped if there is evidence that the mean amount packaged is different from 8. 17 ounces. Suppose that in a particular of 50 packages, the mean amount dispensed is 8. 159 ounces, with a sample standard deviation of 0. 051 A. Is there evidence that the population mean amount is different from 8. 17 ounces? (Use a 0. 05 level of significance. ) B. Determine the p-value and interpret its meaning. 9. 27 In New York State, savings banks are permitted to sell a form of life insurance called savings bank life insurance (SLBI). The approval process consists of underwriting, which includes a review of the application, a medical information bureau check, possible requests for additional medical information and medical exams, and a policy complication stage in which the policy pages are generated and sent to the bank for delivery. The ability to deliver approved policies to customers in a timely manner is critical to the profitability of this service. During a period of one month, a random sample of 27 approved policies is selected, and the total processing time, in days, is recorded (and stored in insurance): 73 19 16 28 31 56 45 17 22 18 91 92 50 51 69 A. In the past, the mean processing time was 45 days. At the 0. 05 level of significance, is there evidence that the mean processing time had changed from 45 days? B. What assumption about the population distribution is needed in order to conduct the t test in (a)? C. Construct a boxplot or a normal probability plot to evaluate the assumption made in (b). D. Do you think that the assumption needed in order to conduct the t test in (a) is valid? Explain. 93. 1 One operation of a steel mill is to cut pieces of steel into parts that are used in the same frame for front seats in an automobile. The steel is cut with a diamond saw and requires the resulting parts must be cut within ? ± 0. 005 inch of the length specified by the automobile company. The file Steel contains a sample of 100 steel parts. The measurement reported is the difference, in inches, between the actual length of the teel part, as measured by a laser measurement device, and the specified length of the steel part. For example, a value of -0. 002 represents a steel part that is 0. 002 inch shorter than the specified length. A. At the 0. 05 level of significance, is there evidence that the mean difference is not equal to 0. 0 inches? B. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population mean, Interpret this interval. C. Compare the conclusions reached in (a) and (b). D. Because n= 100, do you have to be concerned about the normally assumption needed for the t test and t interval? 9. 45 In recent year, the Federal Communications Commission reported that the mean wait for repairs for ATT customers was 25. 3 hours. In an effort to improve this service, suppose that a new repair service process was developed. This new process, used for a sample of 100 repairs, resulted in a sample mean of 22. 3 hours and a sample standard deviation of 8. 3 hours. A. Is there evidence that the population mean amount is less than 25. 3 hours? (Use a 0. 05 level of significance. ) B. Determine the p- value and interpret its meaning. 9. 47 You are the manager ot a restaurant that delivers pizza to college dormitory rooms. You have Just changed your delivery process in an effort to reduce the mean time between the order and completion of delivery from the current 25 minutes. A sample mean of 22. 4 minutes and a sample standard deviation of 6 minutes. A. Using the six- step critical value approach, at the 0. 05 level of significance, is there evidence that the population mean delivery time value of 25 minutes? B. At the 0. 05 level of significance, use the five-step p-value approach? C. Interpret the meaning of the p- value in (b). D. Compare your conclusions in (a) and (b). 9. 53 The U. S. Department of Education reports that 46% of full-time college students are employed while attending college (data extracted from The Condition of Education 2009, National Center for Education Statistics, nces. ed. gov). A recent survey of 60 full-time students at Miami University found that 29 were employed. A. Use the five- step p-value approach to hypothesis testing and a 0. 05 level of significance to determine whether the proportion of full-time students at Miami University is different that the national norm of 0. 6. B. Assume that the study found that 36 of the 60 full-time students were employed and repeat (a). Are the conclusions the same? 9. 55 One of the issues facing organizations is increasing diversity throughout the organization. One of the ways to evaluate an organizations success at increasing diversity is to compare the percentage of employees in the organization in a particular position with a specific background to the percentage in a position with that specific background in the general workforce. Recently, a large academic medical center determined that 9 of 17 employees in a particular position were female, whereas 55% of the employees for this position in the general workforce were female. At the 0. 05 level of significance, is there evidence that the proportion of females in this position at this medical center is different from what would be expected in the general workforce? 9. 57 One of the biggest issues facing e-retailers is the ability to reduce the proportion of customers who cancel their transaction after they have selected their products. It has been estimated that about half of prospective customers cancel their transactions after they have selected their products (data extracted from B. Tedeschi, E- Commerce, a Cure for Abandoned Shopping Carts: A Web Checkout System That Eliminates the Need for Multiple Screens, The New York Times, February 14, 2005, p. C3). Suppose that a company changed its Web site so that customers could use a single page checkout process rather than multiple pages. A sample of 500 customers who had selected their products were provided with the new checkout system.

Naked and Free in The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening Essays

Naked and Free in The Awakening The Awakening, by Kate Chopin seems to fit neatly into twentieth century ideals. Chopin addresses psychological issues that must have been difficult for people of the late nineteenth century to grasp. Just as Edna died a premature death, Chopin's book died too. The rejection of this book, at the time, ironically demonstrates the pressure many women must have felt to conform to society. Chopin shows the reader, through Edna Pontellier, that society restricts women the right to individuality. This restriction by society can be seen in the clothing Victorian women wore during the time. For example, we see clothing used as an important metaphor in the story. Victorian women's clothing was extremely confining, much like their life. The clothing can be seen as a type of "cage" which is apparent when we see Edna and Adele walking to the beach in chapter seven. Adele wore a veil, "doe skin gloves, white gauntlets ... was dressed in pure white, with a fluffiness of ruffles that became her" (478). Adele was the ideal of beauty. Edna, on the other hand, "wore a cool muslin that morning ... a white linen collar and a big straw hat" (478). We learn that "a casual and indiscriminating observer ... might not cast a second glance" (478) towards Edna. The fact that Edna was simply dressed showed her non conformity towards society's standards. When the two women get to the beach, Edna removes her collar and unbuttons her dress at the throat. Her decision not to wear all the garments is a hint at the rebellion to come. Another obvious example of the symbolism of clothing is seen at the end of the novel when Edna removes all of her clothing before committing suicide. Chopin writes that when Edna was "there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, prickling garments from her, and for the first time in her life stood naked in the open air" (558). Edna seems to be removing her final restrictions before finding her freedom in death. This last rebellion against society seems to give Edna her final "awakening". This awakening can be seen when Chopin writes, "She felt like some new born creature opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known" (558).

Human Relations Essay

1 In your opinion, do supervisors of entry-level workers rely more on soft skills or hard skills to accomplish their work? Explain. In my opinion, supervisors of entry-level workers rely more on soft skills than hard skills in order to accomplish their work. My reasoning in this is that â€Å"soft skills† often equate to â€Å"people skills†, or developed communication skills. When supervising entry-level workers, such â€Å"soft† skills in communication and working with people will be more beneficial to the supervisor than the technical knowledge or transferable skills referred to as â€Å"hard† skills. When supervising entry-level workers, the supervisor does not actually need advanced technical knowledge or skills relative to the job. Entry-level workers will not have, or necessarily need to learn, such skills and information from the supervisor. Instead, it is most important that the supervisor uses â€Å"soft† skills to maintain open communication channels to understand and respond to worker concerns and needs. 2 Why do people need soft skills in an era of high technology? People need soft skills in an era of high technology for several reasons. Technology is often a tool rather than a tutor or teacher; therefore, human help will always be necessary when workers and individuals are learning to operate new technology. I.T. support staff need to have soft skills in order to carry out their jobs, which involve dealing with people as well as dealing with technology. 3 Discuss two (2) ways that interpersonal skills related to the digital age are demonstrated while interacting with large numbers of people, as well as groups. Interpersonal skills relating to the digital age are demonstrated while  interacting with large numbers of people in several ways. From social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, most people have developed the skill and awareness of â€Å"broadcasting† information or opinions to a large audience. Also though such social media, most people have developed an awareness of privacy filters – for example, in their use of digital technology they may choose to share certain information with a smaller subset of the entire group. 4 How might you improve your effectiveness as a team player in terms of people-related team activities? Discuss three (3) ways. I could improve my effectiveness as a team player by being a more active listener, consistently (i.e., listening attentively to everyone’s contribution instead of periodically â€Å"zoning out† when a certain person is speaking). I could also initiate, as the team members meet for the first time, sharing of each individual’s preferred gender pronouns – if PGPs are uniformly shared at the outset, and this creates a safe atmosphere and dynamic for any gender-nonconforming individuals in the team. Finally, I could make a concerted effort to default to a dynamic of trust, and remind myself that – even if a team member is expressing opinions or taking actions I disagree with – they almost certainly have best intentions.

Billy Baines Middle School Essay

Billy Baines Middle School (BMS) is located in Fort Bend ISD, in Missouri City, TX. Its school teaches sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. BMS opened in August 2006 and was named after Mr. Billy Baines. Mr. Baines was hired in 1959 as the first African American principal and he served Fort Bend ISD for thirty years. BMS has approximately 1,400 students with an average 18:1 student-to-teacher ratio. BMS is a diverse school with equal distribution by gender and ethnicity. African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics are predominating ethnic groups at BMS. Special Education at BMS consists of two classrooms. I had the pleasure of observing Ms. Wheeler’s class. Her class has four male students: Deonte, Samuel, Jonathan, and Cody. Deonte is an African American boy who appears to be about 16 years old, about 6’4†. Deonte shows characteristics comparable to Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Samuel is an African American boy who is about 5’2† and roughly 13 years old. He shows characteristics comparable to Mental Retardation, and Language Impairment. Jonathan is a Hispanic boy about 15 years old, 5’ 6†, and shows characteristics comparable to Mental Retardation and Speech Impairment. Cody is a 5’1† Asian American boy who is left handed and very active in the classroom. Cody shows characteristics comparable to severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a delay in learning. Teachers spend an average of four years being taught to teach, however each student learns differently and there are about a dozen ways to impart knowledge. Students use an array of techniques to learn information, some use music, others learn by doing, or by using a visual aid to assist in learning. Teaching has truly become an art because there are many ways that students learn and process information. Teachers spend hours planning lessons that use each of our multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner introduced the multiple intelligence theory in 1983, and leads educators to think that humans have a wide range of cognitive abilities. By using many methods of instruction teachers can keep students engaged in the learning process. Ms. Wheeler’s class although engaged, was not fully attentive at all times. Her students had a difficult time staying on task. Ms. Wheeler was able to redirect students and keep them motivated. Ms. Wheeler motivated student with rewards for good behavior, correct answers, and following instructions. She also keeps a high level of enthusiasm, by using statements like â€Å"this is neat† or â€Å"this is an exciting thing†. Ms. Wheeler spends time planning assignments that will accommodate each student and their learning style. She uses different instructional methods to keep her students engaged in learning, such as group activities and centers. She does not use a great deal of lecture because students easily get distracted. Ms. Wheeler also uses the many tools in her classroom to accommodate the class. For example, many students are only able to read at a kindergarten reading level, so when the class read about the Ryder Cup Golf she used the SMART Boardâ„ ¢. The students who could read took turns reading while others followed along, some words would have small pictures above them that represented the word. After the class had finished reading she played an audio clip of the reading to review. Ms. Wheeler also used the multiple intelligence theory in her teaching, she taught students to brush their teeth and wash their hands after eating lunch, and this uses logical-mathematics intelligence. She also taught students by using the musical intelligence she had a music therapist come by to teach students how to use music to remember things they are learning in class. Ms. Wheeler’s class is located in room 1105, the front door reads â€Å"Welcome to Ms. Wheeler’s class†. Ms. Wheeler’s class has a welcoming and safe feeling even before you walk into the classroom. Walking into her classroom the first thing you see is the centers arranged around the room. Her classroom is connected to the other special education classroom by the bathroom and kitchen area. Ms. Wheeler’s class is bare with little on the walls. She believes that posters and art causes distractions to her students. Although, it is hard to teach students who are easily distracted, Ms. Wheeler accepts the distractions in a positive manner. She can get task with her students for a moment and find ways to easily transition back to the task at hand. For example, Ms. Wheeler was teaching about the life cycle of a butterfly and Deonte asked her whom she spent her weekend with. Ms. Wheeler replied that she spent it with her cat. In order to get back to the task at hand she told a story about her cat playing in the garden, and they saw a caterpillar. Her transitions between topics work well for her students. Ms. Wheeler’s students also show her a lot of affection; she kindly and professionally returns the affection. Samuel loves high-fives and hugs, while Cody likes fist pumps. Much of the affection shown in the class is done after a task or during transition periods. Ms. Wheeler quizzes her students after each completed task. She typically puts a worksheet up on the SMART Boardâ„ ¢ and calls on students to come to the board and answer one of the questions on the board. Also during centers the teacher or teacher’s aide will ask many questions to make sure the student understands the assignment. When students succeed Ms. Wheeler always praises them with kind remarks. Ms. Wheeler’s class was at most times chaotic. Her class follows little rules and behavior varies between students. Ms. Wheeler does remind students often to use inside voices and to pay attention. However, because the students are all special needs students you cannot punish them for behavior that is relative of their mental or physical disability. The instructor utilizes individualized learning objectives; she uses centers as a way to have one on one instructional time with her students. Each of her students are on different academic levels, so one on one time with her students is vital to the education progression of her students. Based on the progression of her students it is sometimes necessary to make adjustments to their individualized education program (IEP) and individualized schedules. In conclusion, observing Ms. Wheeler’s class has taught me about how to teach students who have any disability and how to individualize education even within the general education. My time in Ms. Wheeler’s class was spent only observing. Fort Bend ISD does not allow much interaction with their special needs students, because they want to keep their students on their adapted schedules. The theory behind this is the children are able to transition between school and home easier. My experience in Ms. Wheeler’s class has taught me the importance of patience when working with young students. It also taught me how important it is to have a student teacher meeting with each of my students and address their weaknesses and strengths. This will help me in making sure each student is succeeding to the best of their ability. I also have decided that when I begin teaching, I will use a large array of teaching strategies to accommodate the different learning style of all students. My desired degree is Education, Math fourth to eighth grade and in my classroom I can use an overhead or SMART Boardâ„ ¢ to allow students a chance to â€Å"student teach†. I can also use personal white boards for rapid math games. Observing middle school special education has confirmed to me that I could not teach special education. Those who can teach these exceptional children in my opinion must have a special quality to handle the demand of their jobs. It takes an exceptional teacher to teach these amazing children. However, I have decided teaching middle school is where I will be most effective. For a long time I believed that teaching elementary was always the way to go, but allowing students to take action in their own education is a future goal of mine. The only way I can see this vision come to pass is by teaching students old enough to take charge of their actions yet young enough to mold. Nelson Mandela once said, â€Å"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. † I want to teach the new generation that taking charge of their education will change the world around them.

Miscellaneous essays

Miscellaneous essays Perhaps more often than men, women in movies are depicted as being constrained by societal expectations even as they are expected not to be boringly ordinary; In the films Queen Margot, Camille Claudel, Children of Paradise and Breathless, different leading actresses take on different parts. What these movies have in common are their portrayal of societies limits on women and at the same time, how women seem able to go around these limitations. Queen Margot is set in 16th century, a time of political deception and religious persecution. Margot, in an effort to end the hostilities between two religious groups, is married to the opposition. Margot has no love or interest in her new husband, and despite her marriage vows, she finds a lover in La Mole. The significance of Margots role in this film is how it portrays women at that time. Needless to say, her character was a bit on the promiscuous side. Not only was she sleeping with her brothers, but she was practically sleeping with anyone. This depicts a very non-representational view of women at that time. Although society at that time would frown upon actions taken by Margot, she found ways to live accordingly. At the same time, she had a reasonable amount of power. It is hard to categorize her with other women because she was royalty, but either way her brothers seemed to have the upper hand. Since ancient times, women artists have been creating alongside their male counterparts. Many of these women were highly successful during their lifetimes, yet have been omitted from art historical documentation. In the movie Camille Claudel, Camille is always in her counterpart/lovers shadow. A logical explanation why is because of the fact that she is a woman. Camille was seen as a "disgrace" to her society. She was not doing something that was accepted out of women. One part in the movie, she is act...

Big Picture Questions in ACT Reading Whats the Main Point

Big Picture Questions in ACT Reading What's the Main Point SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips On ACT Reading, you'll encounter questions that ask you to be able to read large amounts of text and distill them down; we call these "big picture" questions here at PrepScholar. Big picture questions can ask about the entire passage, a series of paragraph, or even just one paragraph (as opposed to "little picture" questions, which will ask for specific information). Being able to answer these types of questions will prove very useful for college/university, where professors will expect you to use these skills with even more dense and academic writing. What are â€Å"big picture† questions on ACT Reading, and what are the best ways to approach answering them? I’ll start by discussing the two primary types of big picture questions you’ll encounter on the ACT, along with common ways the ACT will ask you about each. After that, I’ll give you some strategies to answer both types of questions, illustrated with examples from prose fiction and academic writing. feature image credit: The Bigger Picture by F Delventhal, used under CC BY 2.0/Cropped from original. Type 1: Main Point Questions First of all, what is the main point of a passage or paragraph? For Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science passages, the main point is the central argument. It's a little more complicated for Prose Fiction or Literary narrative, since they don’t always have central arguments; for these passage types, the main point is often the central conflict and its implications. If you're stumped, it can also sometimes help to think of the main point of a Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative passage as a short summary of what happens, or even the â€Å"moral of the story.† Questions that ask you about the main point are not asking about the topic, or theme, of the writing, but are instead looking for something more specific. The main point should answer the question, â€Å"so what’s the author’s point in this paragraph/passage?† in a short sentence. Identifying Main Point Questions It’s usually pretty clear when you’re being asked about the main point of a passage. The wording will go something like the following (all extracted from and modified from actual SAT questions): â€Å"Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?† â€Å"The primary focus of lines 65-92 is..." "The author’s main purpose in lines 54-69 is to show..." â€Å"The main theme of this passage concerns the...† â€Å"The main idea of the first paragraph is that the music of the video game Portal...† Main Point Questions: Examples Let’s take an example from a paper I wrote during graduate school (minus footnotes). I’ll even include introductory material, similar to what you might find on the ACT. This paragraph is excerpted from the paper â€Å"‘This was a triumph:’ Narrative and dynamic uses of music in Portal† by Laura Staffaroni ( ©2013 by Laura Staffaroni). This paper was written as the final assignment for a Research and Materials class. In general, because Portal is a puzzle game, it might be expected to lack a strong narrative; this, however, is not the case. While the gameplay is focused on the solving each level’s puzzle, you are also provided with tantalizing bits of story in the form of dialogue spoken to you by GLADoS, the AI directing the â€Å"tests.† Bits of the story are revealed over the course of the game in this way, picking up with the introduction of secret rooms with writing on the walls and the adorable but deadly turrets. So what’s the main point of this paragraph? If you just go with what the topic is, then your answer might be something like â€Å"games,† or even â€Å"the video game Portal.† *buzzer* EHHHHHH. WRONG. Remember, the main point should be able to answer the question "What's the author's point in this paragraph?" The answer to that question will be something like "The author is arguing that [main point]." So "the video game Portal" doesn't even make sense as an answer - "The author is arguing that the video game Portal" is not a complete sentence, which means "the video game Portal" cannot be the main point of this paragraph. Here's my short answer for what I think the main point of that paragraph is: Portal is a puzzle game that also has a narrative. This successfully answers the question "what is the author's point in this paragraph?" in a way that makes sense: the author is arguing that Portal is a puzzle game that also has a narrative. I will go into strategies for how to extract this information from a paragraph or passage in a little bit. For now, let’s take a look at another example, this time from prose fiction. This paragraph is excerpted from the short story â€Å"Writer’s Block† by Laura Staffaroni ( ©2009 Laura Staffaroni). This story was written as an assignment for a Creative Writing class. Emma gave her friend a glare that conveyed both her disbelief and annoyance. Really, sometimes Rachel could be a bit melodramatic, as shown by, oh, EVERYTHING she had just said and done. If anyone had trouble writing, it was her, Emma. When given a prompt, Rachel’s pen would start racing back and forth across the page like a ping-pong ball on a string, going to the right right right AND back to the left, where the metaphorical paddle awaited. Meanwhile, Emma would be sitting with her pen pushed into the paper, hoping for a few sentences or paragraphs in half an hour. It just didn’t seem fair. Now Rachel was worried about writing? It was probably a ploy, some kind of act she was putting on, so that when she ended up producing a three-page story in the space of fifteen minutes everyone would feel especially awed. What’s the main point, or primary focus, of this paragraph? If you go with â€Å"theme,† your answer might be along the lines of â€Å"jealousy,† or â€Å"writing.† Again, this is not specific enough to be correct. The answer to the question "What's the main point of this paragraph?" should be able to give a person who hasn’t read the paragraph a good idea of what goes on in it, not just what it’s about. So what’s the focus of this paragraph? Again, that can be answered with just a short statement: Emma’s jealousy of Rachel’s ability to write a lot quickly. What about the main point? The main point is that Emma is jealous of Rachel's ability to write a lot quickly. 1961 Triumph TR3A by The Car Spy, used under CC BY-SA 2.0/Cropped from original. Type 2: Perspective Questions Rather than asking about â€Å"what happened†, perspective questions ask â€Å"what is the perspective, attitude, or point of view of the [person, narrator, author], shown in this [paragraph, series of paragraphs, passage]?† These questions are a little different from main point questions (and occur less frequently than main point questions), but since answering them requires you to synthesize large amounts of information down into one central point, perspective questions are still big picture questions. It's a subtle distinction, but it is important to make a note of whether a question is a main point or perspective question, particularly if it is asking about a paragraph, rather than the whole passage. Why? Because it's entirely possible that a single paragraph is from a particular character/person's point of view, and that person's opinion may differ from the objective reality presented in the rest of the passage. Identifying Perspective Questions Here are a couple examples of how a perspective question might be phrased on the SAT: "The passage is written from the point of view of..." "Based on the passage, which of the following statements best describes the overall attitude of the narrator?" Perspective Questions: Examples Let’s use the example of my paper on Portal again. This paragraph is excerpted from the paper â€Å"‘This was a triumph:’ Narrative and dynamic uses of music in Portal† by Laura Staffaroni ( ©2013 by Laura Staffaroni). This paper was written as the final assignment for a Research and Materials class. In general, because Portal is a puzzle game, it might be expected to lack a strong narrative; this, however, is not the case. While the gameplay is focused on the solving each level’s puzzle, you are also provided with tantalizing bits of story in the form of dialogue spoken to you by GLADoS, the AI directing the â€Å"tests.† Bits of the story are revealed over the course of the game in this way, picking up with the introduction of secret rooms with writing on the walls and the adorable but deadly turrets. Question: â€Å"The passage is written from the point of view of...† Correct answer: This passage is written from the point of view of†¦a dispassionate narrator describing a component of Portal’s gameplay. True. The narrator doesn't appear to have particularly strong feelings about Portal, and the excerpt describes an aspect of the gameplay (that you get bits of story through dialogue). Incorrect answer: This passage is written from the point of view of†¦GLADoS, the AI. No. The passage mentions GLADoS, but isn’t written from her POV. Incorrect answer: This passage is written from the point of view of†¦a narrator unhappy that Portal is different from all other puzzle games. No. The narrator mentions that Portal is a puzzle game, but doesn’t mention that it is different from all other puzzle games, nor does the narrator seem unhappy about this. Here's a prose fiction example, again using the passage from before: This paragraph is excerpted from the short story â€Å"Writer’s Block† by Laura Staffaroni ( ©2009 Laura Staffaroni). This story was written as an assignment for a Creative Writing class. Emma gave her friend a glare that conveyed both her disbelief and annoyance. Really, sometimes Rachel could be a bit melodramatic, as shown by, oh, EVERYTHING she had just said and done. If anyone had trouble writing, it was her, Emma. When given a prompt, Rachel’s pen would start racing back and forth across the page like a ping-pong ball on a string, going to the right right right AND back to the left, where the metaphorical paddle awaited. Meanwhile, Emma would be sitting with her pen pushed into the paper, hoping for a few sentences or paragraphs in half an hour. It just didn’t seem fair. Now Rachel was worried about writing? It was probably a ploy, some kind of act she was putting on, so that when she ended up producing a three-page story in the space of fifteen minutes everyone would feel especially awed. Question: â€Å"Based on the passage, which of the following statements best describes the overall attitudes of Rachel and Emma?† Correct answer: Emma does not believe Rachel’s anxiety is real. True: Emma thinks that Rachel's worrying about writing is an an "act [Rachel is] "putting on", which means it is not a real emotion. Incorrect answer: Rachel likes writing, while Emma doesn’t. Possibly true, but not directly supported by anything in the paragraph. Incorrect answer: Rachel is manic and exuberant, while Emma is depressed and calm. Again, maybe true, but not apparent from this paragraph alone. Warning: Main Point and Perspective ≠  Function Warning by Stefano Brivio, used under CC BY 2.0. Main point and perspective questions are different from function questions. Instead of asking "what's the point," function questions usually ask "what does this [line, sentence, paragraph] DO?" Rather than asking "What is the perspective from which the author is arguing her point?" (a perspective question), you'll be asked questions about the author’s purpose: â€Å"why is the author writing this?† Example: "The main idea of the first paragraph is..." You can translate this to "What does this paragraph say,† a main point question. Compare to: "Which of the following best describes the way the fifth paragraph (lines 48–54) functions in the passage as a whole?" You can translate this to "What does this paragraph do," a function question. On the other hand, sometimes main point questions can masquerade as function questions. Take this example (1): "1. In terms of the passage as a whole, one of the main functions of the third paragraph (lines 13-19) is to suggest that... A. ER’ s successes in various professional pursuits helped prepare her to take action in the political world.B. ER had avoided the political spotlight in her personal pursuits.C. ER had competing and conflicting interests during her first year as first lady.D. while ER had many personal accomplishments, little could have prepared her for life as the first lady." Even though the question has the word "function" in its wording, it is actually asking about the main idea of the paragraph. How can you tell? Compare the above question to a similarly-worded function question (2): "2. The function of the first paragraph in relation to the passage as a whole is to: A. orient the reader to the subject of longitude by explaining how longitude is determined at sea.B. explain the political significance of developing an accurate way of determining longitude.C. establish that longitude calculations are necessary to determine time in two different places at once. D. introduce a discussion of how knowledge of Earth’s position relative to the Sun was gained in the process of advances in timekeeping. " The difference is in both the wording of the question and in the answer choices presented. If you reduce the questions down to their basic strucutre, example 1 asks "what does this paragraph SUGGEST (what does this paragraph say)?" By contrast, example 2 asks "What is this paragraph's FUNCTION (what does this paragraph DO)?" The answer choices are also telling: function questions often have answer choices in the form of "verb a noun" (in this case, "orient the reader," "explain the political significance," "establish that longitude calculations are necessary," and "introduce a discussion"). Main point questions, on the other hand, have answer choices that answer the question "what's the point?" For more on the distinction between big picture and function questions, check back soon for my ACT Reading function questions article. Now that you know what big picture questions are, though, how do you go about answering them? Strategies For Answering Big Picture Questions The strategy you use to answer big picture questions depends on how you read the passage. If you have enough time to read each passage in full and answer questions afterwards without feeling rushed, then you should be trying to figure out the main point and author perspective as you read. You can do a quick check to see if there will be any questions about it first, but even if there aren’t any questions that directly ask you about the main point, it can be helpful in answering other questions (more on that later). If you read the questions first, you may be able to get a sense of what the big picture is just by the questions asked. If you skim the passage, then attack questions, you should focus on just the key information the first time through But how do you know what the key information is? Read on to find out! Check The Introduction and Conclusion For questions about non-Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative passages, chances are that if the author’s done a good job, the main point and perspective should be clear in the conclusion, if not the introduction as well. This can, of course, be true for Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative passages as well, but since it isn’t as essential to the construction of a successful piece of prose fiction or literary narrative, an author won't always structure her writing that way. When finding the main point of a single paragraph, on the other hand, this rule gets a little fuzzy. Sometimes there will be direction-changing words in the middle of the paragraph that are essential to understanding the main point - words you might miss if you only focus on the introduction and conclusion sentences. Last sentences also often try to take the argument a step beyond what has been discussed in the article, placing it in a broader context. Still, the introduction and conclusion can be helpful as places to start. If the introduction and conclusion seem to contradict each other, that is a clear sign that you need to dig deeper into the passage/paragraph to find the main point. Use Key Words It makes intuitive sense that you’d want to note where the author says things like â€Å"important† or â€Å"significant† – those things probably are important (or even significant). You can also uncover key information, however, by paying attention to words and phrases that signal changes of direction, like â€Å"in contrast,† â€Å"while,† â€Å"however,† and so on; because the information associated with these words contrasts with what came before, it often is important. Key words can help you get to the meat of the issue by helping you avoid the trap of just reading the first sentence of a paragraph and assuming that is what it will be about. Let's take yet another look at my Portal paper for an example of this. In general, because Portal is a puzzle game, it might be expected to lack a strong narrative; this, however, is not the case. While the gameplay is focused on the solving each level’s puzzle, you are also provided with tantalizing bits of story in the form of dialogue spoken to you by GLADoS, the AI directing the â€Å"tests.† Bits of the story are revealed over the course of the game in this way, picking up with the introduction of secret rooms with writing on the walls and the adorable but deadly turrets. The beginning sentence of this paragraph basically says that Portal doesn’t have a strong narrative. The â€Å"however† later on in that same sentence should catch your eye....however, as should the following sentence that starts with â€Å"While†, because they indicate that something in contrast to the opening statement is being presented. Don't ever abandon a paragraph without double-checking for contrast words.  ©2013 Laura Staffaroni. Answer In Your Own Words If you come across a question that asks you a big picture question, try to formulate the answer using your own words before you look at the test's answer choices, relying only on what you read in the passage or paragraph, not on things that COULD BE true but aren’t supported. Then, when you go to look at the answer choices, see which one best matches the answer you came up with in your own words. If you use this strategy, however, you have to be careful not to oversimplify when you answer the question in your own words. Remember, the central argument is the specific point the author is making, not a general topic or theme. Use as few words as possible to write down your version of the answer – after all, you don’t want to waste too much time on something that won’t be graded – while still being precise. It can be a tough balance to maintain at first, but practice makes it easier. Putting Strategies To Use: A Final Big Picture Example Let’s end by taking a look at the conclusion paragraph of my Portal paper and seeing if we can extract the main point from it, using some of the strategies I mentioned above. This paragraph is the conclusion of the paper â€Å"‘This was a triumph:’ Narrative and dynamic uses of music in Portal† by Laura Staffaroni ( ©2013 by Laura Staffaroni). The paper was written as the final assignment for a Research and Materials class. Overall, the music of Portal tends to fit more within a narrative framework than it does the ideal of interactivity. The use of an ambient musical soundtrack, silences, musical dialogue, non-ambient music for dramatic effect and underscoring of characters’ psychological states, and thematic music for narrative continuity and as a way to transition in and out of the game world all serve narrative purposes. Yet, like many other current game music composers, the composers of Portal created a paradigm wherein â€Å"the music and sound effects are responding to the needs of the game and the gameplayer† by creating tracks like â€Å"Procedural Jiggle Bone† that are able both to loop back into themselves and to move on to other tracks without a problem. This dichotomy confirms that the best way to analyze the music in Portal is not by applying any one analytical schema to it, but instead to assess what the most important elements of the game are and decide from there wh at methods of analysis are most appropriate. Perhaps the way music functions in Portal is best summed up by Whalen’s description of how music should function in general when it comes to digital games: â€Å"By simultaneously enriching the worlds of video games and assisting the player’s navigating the syntagmatic structure of video games, music is essential to the semantic operations of a video game as an interactive story.† If the music in Portal did not both provide narrative structure and respond to each player’s interaction with the game, it would not have been nearly as engaging and successful a game. Whew, that’s a lot of words. Where should I start if I want to figure out the main point of the paragraph? Step 1: check out intro and conclusion sentences: Intro: â€Å"Overall, the music of Portal tends to fit more within a narrative framework than it does the ideal of interactivity.† Conclusion: â€Å"If the music in Portal did not both provide narrative structure and respond to each player’s interaction with the game, it would not have been nearly as engaging and successful a game.]† Do these sentences support each other or contradict each other? My thinking: First sentence says music in Portal fits better with narrative framework than interactivity (whatever I meant by that); last sentence says music in Portal has both narrative structure and interaction parts. Hmm. Better go deeper to double check. Step 2: Look for direction words. Here's a sentence that begins with "yet," a direction word: â€Å"Yet, like many other current game music composers, the composers of Portal created a paradigm wherein â€Å"the music and sound effects are responding to the needs of the game and the gameplayer† by creating tracks like â€Å"Procedural Jiggle Bone† that are able both to loop back into themselves and to move on to other tracks without a problem.† Yikes. This is saying that the composers for Portal’s music did†¦something†¦to make music that could loop and also go on to other tracks. This is sort of contradicting the opening sentence (responding to the needs of the game is interactive, but the opening sentence says the game isn’t interactive). Also, that seems way too detailed to be a main point. Are there any other direction words? Aha, next sentence! "but instead": â€Å"This dichotomy confirms that the best way to analyze the music in Portal is not by applying any one analytical schema to it, but instead to assess what the most important elements of the game are and decide from there what methods of analysis are most appropriate.† [bolding mine] This says you shouldn’t just analyze Portal in one way, which seems to support the conclusion sentence. Good sign. Step 3: Answer in your own words. My thoughts: Main point is that music in Portal is used in both narrative and interactive ways (can’t just go with one or the other). Time to look at the actual answer choices... The main idea of the last paragraph is that the music in Portal: A. was a key factor in the game’s success B. occurs as a way of maintaining narrative continuity C. can be analyzed from a narrative or interactivity perspective D. results entirely from interactions between player and game My thoughts: A: could be true, but not really what this paragraph is about B: true, but that’s not the main idea C: true, and that’s close to how I phrased the main idea D: no, that’s entirely wrong. So the answer must be C. (and so it is) August 25th "The Big Picture We've Done It_I'm a World Record Holder!" by Amanda Slater, used under CC BY-SA 2.0/Cropped from original. In Conclusion... Big picture questions require being able to scan a text and sum up â€Å"what’s the point.† Knowing the main point or perspective of a paragraph, series of paragraphs, or passage can be useful for answering other types of questions, especially function and author technique questions; on occasion, knowing the main point/perspective can also be helpful for little picture, vocab-in-context, and inference questions as well. No matter how you approach the passage, use the strategies of checking intro/conclusion, looking for key words, and coming up with the main point in your own words to help you answer main point and perspective questions. What’s Next? Are these strategies fine in theory...but in real life, you always run out of time when reading (especially on the ACT)? Discover how to avoid that terrible fate here. Want more in depth guides like this? Check out our articles on other ACT Reading skills types, starting with vocab-in-context questions! 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