Racism in Finding Forrester Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Racism in Finding Forrester - Essay Example Finding Forrester" has elements of class, race, ethnicity and stereotyping and even gender inequality that are featured invariably in the various threads of the story as the director, Gus Van Sant would relate the 2000 movie. The film tries to reproduce what obtains in society in as close to reality as possible. Starting with sociological perspectives, this paper gives a synopsis of the film, progresses on to the story in selective perception mode and picks on incidents of the story featuring these sociological terms with an insight of what happened.In a gritty New York neighborhood, a shadowy but perpetually unseen figure appears behind thin curtains. Rumors abound regarding The Window's identity and story, prompting African-American Jamal Wallace to accept a dare to infiltrate The Window's apartment and bring something out. Jamal is a 16-year-old scholar-athlete and aspiring writer in inner-city Manhattan. When he's not writing in his journal in his bedroom, Jamal and his boys woul d play basketball on a local Bronx street court. They note that they're being observed by someone with binoculars in a nearby apartment building.As Jamal enters the apartment, he is caught in the act and accidentally leaves behind his backpack, which contains his journals. The Scottish reclusive genius writes comments in the notebooks, and drops the backpack through a window.Jamal returns for more lessons. His efforts lead him to get tutored by The Window, with Jamal agreeing not to reveal his whereabouts. The tutor turns out to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novelist, William Forrester, who wrote "the Great 20th Century Novel," Avalon Landing, and had been reclusive for four decades. Forrester is a male Caucasian in his mid seventies. Sociological perspectives Blacks like Jamal are considered inferior by some theorists as a result of flawed genetic traits (Eitzen and Zinn 2004). In The Bell Curve work of Herrnstein and Murray (1994), Blacks are said to be mentally inferior to Whites. Such genetic inferiority, according to Gould (1994) cannot be changed by environmental changes. These theories bordering on biological deficiency, generally are not accepted in the scientific community (Eitzen and Zinn 2004). Media, however, just like films, continue to give attention to the thinking of these theorists. The Movie Race is a huge issue in the film and many stereotypes are made. Jamal Wallace is introduced in the film as a typical Black teenage male who goes to a low class school in the Bronx and really excels on the court as a basketball player. He is looked upon as an amazing Black as though unexpected because of his color. One proof of this is that the teacher (April Grace) calls Jamal's mother in to school, to inform her of her child's amazing abilities. Jamal is also looked at as given to playing or to pleasure because of his class. Although he had wanted to realize his writing ability, the exclusive New York school that had offered him a scholarship, is actually more interested in having Jamal play basketball to improve their school image. He soon learns that after losing several players to graduation, the school is looking to restock the basketball team. In fact, Jamal gets transferred there as a junior, presumably to have him educated. A Black, Jamal is seen to fit in their objectives as Blacks are of a class, easily pliable and more oriented to playing than studying. Or so the prep school thought. Jamal has been characterized also as an underachiever in class. This plot point caters to the stereotype that Black students get bad grades. This is different from the view that Jamal may want to get bad grades to fit in with his bad-grade-getting peers. This is probable and is more of peer pressure among the young which can be found in whatever race. The first view, however, which appears truer as far as the story is concerned, is stereotyping while the second view is non-racial. The first view which

Applied linguistics Essay Example for Free

Applied linguistics Essay Linguistics, though one of the youngest behavioral sciences, has a background extending over several millennia. During this period scholars with various interests have concerned themselves with language. Some of the most readable treatises on language were produced by the Greeks and Romans, such as Plato’s Cratylus and Quintilian’s advice to an orator. Much of our terminology was devised in the course of this earlier concern. Any of introductions to linguistic cannot, therefore, limit itself to one school; rather it must present the general principles applied in the study of language. A knowledge of earlier studies of languages in particularly important at a time when the vigorous transformationalist school has affirmed its relationship with traditional grammar. Any discipline is based on earlier work, though scientific schools are rarely capable of advancing their subject on all fronts. Thus, nineteenth-century linguistics made particular advances in phonetics and historical linguistics. In the first four decades of this century linguistics contribute especially to refinements in phonological theory, while collecting data on exotic languages. Subsequent linguistics have devoted themselves especially to syntactic study and to the interrelations between linguistics and other behavioral sciences. Since the tempo of scientific research is being speeded up, it is not surprising that the transformationalist school is already becoming fragmented, with some of this member focusing on semantic study. This century therefore has seen a shift in emphasis from phonological to syntactic to semantic studies. At the same time, linguistics has become closely involved with the sciences specializing in human behavior. It is difficult to present in an elementary text all of the concerns of linguistics. Moreover, since linguistics is an empirical science, any elementary text must include a great deal of linguistic data, that is, examples of spoken language. The data included must be taken from the native languages of students. For a pedagogical treatment one must select material carefully because of the richness of language; therefore data from other languages can only be given as supplements to that of English. But students should use every opportunity to collect and study data from other languages as they acquired adequate techniques for assembling and analyzing linguistic material. In order to gain control of linguistics, the data of language must first 1. 1Aims for descriptive linguistics Descriptive linguistics aims to provide an understanding of language by analyzing in its various uses. Generally descriptive linguists deal with one language at a specific time, such as contemporary English. But to gain perspective, they also examine others, preferably those having different structures, such as Chinese, which lacks all inflections, or Japanese, which adds inflections in a regular manner, or Eskimo, which may combine the entities of a sentence into a word-like sequence. Linguists also draw on studies of human behavior; psychology for an understanding of the mental processes involved in the use of language; anthropology and sociology for an understanding of man’s behavior in the contexts in which man uses language and from pertinent fields of other sciences are formulated in grammars. This book is an introduction to the aims and procedures of descriptive linguistics, presenting at the same time some of the contributions of that study to the understanding of language. Like other behavioral sciences-for example, anthropology-linguistics is confronted with two major task is to acquire an understanding of the various languages spoken today or at any time in the history of man. To achieve an understanding of any one language is a great task, as the inadequacy of our grammars many indicate. Providing descriptions of the 5,000 or so languages in use today, as well as future; we may illustrate the extent of the work that needs to be done by noting that the most widely translated book, the Bible, has been translated into only just over a thousand languages. Many of these languages are little known; others are almost completely obscure. But even without knowledge of many languages and with only a seriously inadequate understanding of many others, linguistics must set out to fulfill task number two; to comprehend language as a phenomenon. This second task of linguistics will be our main concern. We will illustrate the aims and procedures involved in carrying out this task by talking our examples primarily from one language, English. As in most linguistic studies, the unit of language selected for linguistic analysis here is the sentence. Speakers of every language speak in sentences and interpret sentences as units. If they are literate, that is, if they display language by means of writing, they divide these units into segments; any English sentence is marked off first by punctuation marks, and is then broken up into words, which are further segmented into letters. Linguists also analyze sentences into smaller segments, as we will see, but with greater rigor than the general speaker. The aim of this linguistic analysis is to understand how speakers construct and interpret any selected sentence and eventually to account for language as a phenomenon of human behavior. Speakers of a language have the remarkable capability of constructing and interpreting sentences they have never encountered before. The sentence A machine chose the chords may have been produced here for the first time; yet no speaker of English has any difficulty interpreting it. Linguistics seeks to determinate the basis of this capability. In carrying out such study, a linguist is investigating human behavior. Linguistics is, accordingly, a behavioral science. Like other scientists, a linguistic limits his concern. A full understanding of any sentence would involve some knowledge of man’s mental processes-how language is stored in the brain, how it is perceived, how it is directed by the brain. Understanding any sentence would also involve knowledge of the society in which the sentence is produced-how for example; any speaker could assert that a nonanimate machine might select some arrangement of tones called a chord. These requirements for understanding language in detail call on so many sciences-biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, among others-that specialties haven arisen within linguistics itself, notably phonetics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. Thorough linguistic descriptions are fundamental to all such specialties, and accordingly descriptive linguistics is the basic discipline of linguistics. In descriptive linguistics various procedures have been devised to arrive at grammars, that is, to produce descriptions of a given language. For most purposes a linguist deals with the sounds of a sentence, using earlier example A machine chose the chords may indicate why the linguist uses transcriptions. Through various historical accidents the spelling sequence ch is used for three different sounds in this sentence: as in sheen; as in catch; [k] as in kiss. Unless a linguistic description identified these different sounds, an investigator of speech perception would be misled. As the transcription indicates, a linguist may also note a vocal patterning of the words that is different from a written patterning of the words. The indefinite article a may be as closely linked in speech to the syllable as is the second syllable of machine; the plural suffix in chords is [z] after [d], rather than [s] as after [t] in courts. In studying relationships of this kind, a linguist is not simply trying to sort out sounds, but he is also trying to determine segments that are grammatically significant. But like all scientists he must limit his goals and deal with one problem at time. As John R. Firth says: The study of the living voice of a man in action is a very big job indeed. In order to be able to handle it at all, we must split up the whole integrated behavior patter we call speech, and apply specialized techniques to the description and classification of these so-called elements of speech we detach by analysis. This book is an introduction to such techniques. In keeping with Firth’s statement, it presents these techniques in a sequence determined by pedagogical principles. Students acquiring these techniques must not assume that the sequence in which these principles are presented reflects directly the structure of language. In many ways Chapters 1 to 7 may be viewed as preliminary; a knowledge of their contents is essential for an understanding of the subsequent chapters, which deal with the procedures by which linguists attempt to understand language as a â€Å"whole integrated behavior pattern†. 1. 2The study of Language as a System of Symbols To achieve an understanding of any language, we rely heavily on an examination of our own language. But to put our own language into perspective, we need to contrast it with one or more other languages; for this purpose in this book we will primarily use Japanese. To survey the procedures of a linguist, we may examine any simple utterance, such as â€Å"Could you please tell me where the station is? † This sentence could be pronounced slowly or rapidly, with some effect on the transcription; we may record one utterance of it as 1. 2. 1Historical Linguistics We could study the sentence â€Å"Could you please tell me where the station is? † in two ways, either by examining its construction or the history of its components. If we were interested in a historical approach, we would note the form of the component tell, for example, in order English, which would be Middle English tellen, Old English tellan. We could relate Old English tellan to Old High German zellan, which became New High German zahlen ‘count‘, and even to other forms. Through such comparison we would note (1) differences in sound: English t versus German ts; (2) differences in form: English tell with no infinitive; (3) differences in meaning: Contemporary English tell is no longer used with the meaning ‘count’, as the German verb is, though (bank) teller preserves this meaning. The study of the development of language is referred to as historical linguistics. Historical linguistics presupposes a thorough description of the stages of development of the languages being studied. For example, a historical grammar of English is based on descriptive grammars of Old and Middle English as well as New English. Descriptive linguistics is therefore a prerequisite for historical linguistics. 1. 2. 2Descriptive Linguistics Dealing with the sentence â€Å"Could you please tell me where the station is? † we note again the inadequacy of the English spelling system for indicating the actual sounds of the language. On the one hand, the symbol e represents various sounds, as in please, tell, me, where. On the other hand, the same sound is spelled differently, as in please, me; the station. Moreover, there are important signals, such as the variations in stress, indicated by [‘? ~], and in pitch, indicated by, which are not represented in the English spelling system. Accordingly a transcription is essential. For Japanese as shorter comparable sentence is: For the Japanese sentence a transcription is even more essential than for English. Since conventional transliteration systems are close to usable transcriptions, we may follow one of these, the Hepburn system, in citing Japanese. Transliterated according to the principles of the Hepburn system, the sentence reads â€Å"Teishajo wa doko desu ka†. Comparing these two sentences, we can equate segments in English with those in Japanese. Any such segments that are recorded as independent entities in dictionaries we can call words. Of the English and Japanese segments station corresponds to â€Å"teishajo†, where to â€Å"doko†, and so on. The words station and â€Å"teishajo† are clearly oral symbols that correspond to things in the world around us. In somewhat the same way, all language consists of symbols. Japanese â€Å"doko† ‘what place’ is a noun, virtually as concrete as is station. But where we feel is less concrete; we interpret it not as a symbol with reference to things in the world around us but rather with reference to a set of possibilities in the linguistic system. An even less concrete symbol is the English pattern of pitch, as marked by which corresponds to the following contour: This intonation pattern contrasts with others, such as one with a final rise, which corresponds to the following contour: In the contrasting set of English intonations indicates that the speaker is marking a serious statement; indicates that the speaker is making a serious statement; indicates that he is expressing doubt. If someone asks the question â€Å"Where is the station† using the intonation pattern, he is seriously concerned with obtaining the information. If he uses the pattern, he shows incredulity; the meaning is? ‘Or how could you ask me where the station is? (We’re standing right in front of it. ). ’ The intonation pattern is then a symbol, much like a word. Other symbols are even less concrete, such as word order. The arrangement â€Å"You could tell me† contrasts with â€Å"Could you tell me†, and the contrast in order symbolizes different meanings to speakers of English. In this way language consists of symbols, some of which may be readily related to things in the outside world, other merely to other potential patterns in the language. It is through such symbolization that we can use language to communicate. Through symbolization language has meaning. 1. 3Symbols Determined by Relationships We have noted above that the functions of symbols are determinate by their relationships to other entities in the system. The meaning of station is circumscribed by other words possible in the same context: airport, school, supermarket, and so on. The meaning of â€Å"Could you tell me† is circumscribed by other possible arrangements, such as â€Å"You could tell me†, and so on. Throughout language the functions of symbols and the significance of linguistic entities are determined by their relationships to other entities in that language. And example from the simplest segment of language, its sound system, may provide an illustration. In English we have a variety of t sounds. Initially before stressed words, as in top, t is followed by a puff air; the typical pronunciation could be transcribed. After s as in stop there is no such puff of air, and the typical pronunciation could be transcribed. In spite of this difference in sounds speakers of English consider the two entities the same; in Chinese or Hindi, on the other hand, and are considered different. Identification in each of these languages results from the interrelationships of the sounds with others in the same language. In English and never occur in the same environment. There is on the one hand no word. (A preceding asterisk is used in linguistic texts to indicate entities that are not attested. ) There is also no English word. In contrast with some languages, such as Chinese and Hindi, the two sounds and never distinguish words in English. For this reason English speakers are not aware of any difference between the ts of top and stop. The two sounds are classed together in one set; they are varying members, or allophones, of the same phoneme, or sound class. The significance of two ts for the speakers results from their relationships in the English sound system rather than from the physical differences themselves. Japanese provides a further illustration. It too has a [t] sound in its phonological system, as we may illustrate with the brusque imperative from mate ‘wait’. But if the t stands before u, as in the indicative matsu, it is followed by an [s], in much the same way that the t of top is followed by an [h]. To understand the Japanese change of [t] to, you can compare the English pronunciation with for nature. For the Japanese the two sounds belong in one class; a Japanese speaker is no more aware of the physical difference between the two sounds and than an English speaker is of the difference between and. Again, the important consideration is relationship. A Japanese speaker always uses before [u], never; on the other hand, he always uses before [e a o], never. What seems different in another language is classed as the same because of relationships. In support of this statement about the patterning of languages we may note the behavior of speakers when they hear a different language. As with many terms referring to sports and recreation, Japanese borrowed touring from British English. Hearing the vowel as u, they interpreted the word as. From within their own phonological system the relationships between [t] and are such that they are exchanged automatically because of the following vowel. These examples of the role of sounds in language may illustrate how a symbolic system has values determined by relationships rather than by physical entities. The relationships, to be sure, are linked to physical entities. But from the externals alone, or, as they are often called, the overt, or surface, phoneme, we do not determine the value or the significance of the entities. Since the value depends on interrelationships that are not obvious on the surface of language, we refer to the essence of language or of any symbolic system as its deep or underlying structure. In examining languages as symbolic systems, comparisons are often made with simple communication systems, such as traffic signals. In these relationships are determined by color: Red means ? stop? , yellow ‘caution’, green ‘go’. Other characteristics of a given system of traffic signals are noncentral: Some systems have red above green; some have a larger lamp for red; the exact hue of red, yellow, or green may vary. Drivers take their signals from none of these nonessentials but rather from the relationships between the three colors; those of longest wavelength are interpreted to mean ? stop? , whether they are exactly 700 millmicrons in length, or whether the number of millimicrons varies slightly. In the same way a speaker of English identifies tin by its difference from pin, kin, thin, sin, and so on. The entities of language that convey meaning are called morphemes, units of from. The values of morphemes are determined by their relationships in any given language. English has a contrast between could and will, which yields a different meaning in â€Å"Could you please tell me? † as opposed to â€Å"Will you tell me? † The meanings may be determined from the patterns in which these morphemes occur. But again, relationships are central. We do not say *Must you please tell me? Although the sequence â€Å"Must you tell me? † is possible. The impossibility is determined by the relationships between please and must, which simply cannot co-occur in questions. It may be difficult to specify the meaning of must and please in order to demonstrate why they cannot co-occur in such sentence. But a native speaker of English simply does not form such a sentence. He knows the possible relationships of each word, and these relationships do not permit such a combined use of must and please in questions. In this way the word relationships determine their meanings. In sum, the meaning of any entity in a symbolic system results from its relationships with other entities; the total of such entities and their values make up a symbolic system used for communication, or a language. As with traffic signals, the reference of the entities is determined by agreement in a social group using the same language. In natural language the agreement results from convention. When we acquire our language, we learn the uses of its morphemes and words. But a symbolic system using other entities and other conventions may also be devised. Examples can be found in the colors of heraldry, which retain their meanings for flags, or in a selection of flowers, which has meaning in literary works such as Shakespeare’s. A simple example is given in Longfellow’s poem on Paul Revere. Two meaningful symbols were prearranged: One lantern in the church tower meant that the enemy was coming by land; two lanterns meant that they were coming by sea. Using lanterns, a symbolic system consisting of two entities, would be cumbersome; after the system’s single use Revere’s system was maintained only in literary tradition. But for a computer two entities, a positive and a negative charge, permit a sophisticated communication system; for these entities can be manipulated somewhat more readily than lanterns. In this way, symbolic systems of various types may be devised to effectively convey meaning for specific purposes. Human systems, in spite of surface differences that provide obstacles to communication, are alike in using entities of sound in various arrangements to convey meaning. To understand the operation of language, we must apply procedures that permit the discovery and description of, first, the surface structures of language and, second deep structures or underlying principles of language. An introduction to descriptive linguistics must discuss these procedures, although it is chiefly directed at indicating the results obtained in using them and at discovering the principles underlying language as a whole. 1. 4Discovery Procedures of Linguistics In setting out to describe any language, a linguistic collects a sample of data. His usable date make up a corpus, which he then analyzes for its entities of sound, form, and meaning. Since the phonological analysis is simplest to discuss, we deal with it first here to demonstrate linguistic method. In our illustration we may start with the earlier example â€Å"Could you please tell me where the station is? † To determinate entities in a given language, a linguist selects such sentence patterns, or frames, and explores various possible substitutions, for in determining possible substitutions, he determines the significant relationships. In order to be certain of avoiding error, the linguist should use entire sentences, for example, â€Å"Would you please tell me† versus â€Å"Could you please tell me? † or â€Å"Could they please tell me† versus â€Å"Would they please tell me? † and so on. But manipulating entire sentences is cumbersome; accordingly linguists generally use single words and look for contrasts among them. They are particularly concerned with pairs of words, such as pin versus bin. Any two words, or sequences, contrasting phonologically in only one item are called a minimal pair. In beginning an analysis of a new language, therefore, a linguist may point to objects, write down the phonological notation for them, and then proceed to describe the system of relationships he has found. Or if the informant, that is, the native speaker, is bilingual and the linguist knows one of the languages, he may use a list of everyday words to elicit the words of the unknown language. A simple substitution English frame may be taken from win. Segmenting from this frame the element ____________in, a linguist may attempt to find all possible sequences of initial consonant. For English he would eventually find the set in Figure 1: Figure 1 Since the initial entities contrast with one another, also in other substitution frames, such as ____at, they may be interpreted to be significant. The frame ______at in Figure 2 would provide further significant entities. Figure 2 As these words and the blank spaces suggest, eventually twenty-four contrasting consonants would be found for English. To describe these, their uses, and the sounds of any language, a linguist must deal with the study of speech sounds in general. This study is known as phonology. If the linguist deal with Arabic, for â€Å"Where is the station? † he might be given the sentence ‘the station where? ’ In this sentence he notes sounds that are not significant in English: [? ], the glottal stop;, a pharyngeal spirant; and the underlined sounds. To be prepared to deal with the sounds encountered in any language, a linguist must have a general understanding of speech sounds. The study of speech sounds is known as phonemics. Phonetics and phonemics make up the two subdivisions of phonology. In addition to sounds and phonemes a linguist looks for contrasts of form in language. An answer to the question â€Å"Could you please tell me where the station is?† might be Take the street over there. Another answer might be: This bus takes you directly to it. Examining such contrasts, a linguist finds sets like take, takes, took, taken, taking and compares them with similar sets, such as pass, passes, passed, passed, passing; sag, sags, sagged, sagged, sagging. Analyzing these, he finds central forms _____take; pass, sag ___and varying elements, for example, s, n, ing. There is a fundamental difference between phonemes and these elements, for the latter carry meaning. We cannot, for example, state meanings for the two elements of win ____w and in. But we can for take, pass, or sag, and for the following s, which has the meaning ‘third person singular subject’. Such entities that have meaning are called morphs; a class of morphs is a morpheme. For example, {Z} is the third singular present morpheme in English. Morphemes may have varying members, or allomorphs, like in passes, [S] in takes, and [Z] in sags. In studying the morphemes of language we must determine the entities and their arrangements. As for such study in phonology, we find suitable frames and determine entities that may occur in them, for example: A machine chose the chords. An accompanist chose the chords. A director chose the chords A machine chooses the chords. I choose the chords. Clearly, a language contains many more morphemes than phonemes. The study of morphemes is therefore highly complex. Various labels have also been given to the study of morphemes and their arrangements. The study of the forms themselves is often called morphology but also morphemics. The study of the arrangements of morphemes, words, and phrases in sentences is called syntax. A name used by some linguists for referring to both is grammar. But there are problems with these labels. The terms â€Å"grammar† is widely used to include phonology as well as morphology and â€Å"syntax†. For some linguists the two labels seem to have separated forms and their arrangements unnecessarily. Some linguists then use the name â€Å"syntax† as a label for both the study of forms and their arrangements. Because of these differences in usages, students will have to determine the use of these terms among individual linguists. In this book â€Å"grammar† will be used as a general term to embrace the study of sounds, or phonology, and forms, or morphology, and  their arrangements, or syntax. Morphology, as is traditional, will refer to two types of study of forms: inflection, which deals with the changes in large closely structured sets of words, such as the parts of speech; and derivation, which deals with smaller, less readily definable sets, for example, retake, takeoff, and so on. The elements detached and described in phonology are merely markers of meaning; those detached and described in morphology are carriers of meaning. Additional procedures are necessary to deal with meaning. These procedures are traditionally applied to words, which are defined for their meaning and listed in dictionaries or lexicons. Yet dictionaries primarily list synonyms, defining one word in terms of another, for example, horse as ‘Equus-caballus’, or where appropriate, though illustrations. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary includes illustrations to help define horse and other selected items, such as soup plate. But the illustrations are limited; there is none, for instance, for antelope. And for some words, for example, abstraction, dictionaries would fins illustrations difficult. Moreover, dictionaries do not deal with meanings conveyed through differences in intonation, for example, Horse? Horse! To deal with meaning in a general way, as is done with sounds, some universal criteria must be devised, such as features of meaning found in many languages. Some features of meaning are animateness or nonanimateness, human or nonhuman, male or female, and so on. If semantic features like these were used in definitions, users of a dictionary would not need to know the language for which it is written to determine meanings. The dictionary would accordingly be more general but also more abstract than are contemporary dictionaries. Semantic analysis for features parallels widely used phonological study of this kind, but it is just in its beginnings. We do not yet know whether there is a set of semantic features that universal in all languages. When such analyses, whether for sounds, forms, or meanings, are carried out, they must be done separately for each language. We have noted that corresponds to a phoneme in Chinese and Hindi, but in English it is only a variant of /t/ before stressed vowels. As another example we may note Italian . This is found in Italian before [g] as in lungo ‘long’ _____compare the in longer _____before [k] as in banca ___compare the in bank _____but not in other environments. Elsewhere, [n] is found. Accordingly in Italian is a variant of /n/. Its position in the Italian phonological system may be illustrated from the behavior of Italian speakers learning English. English words ending in, such as long and bang seem impossible for them, so they pronounce them with final [g], that is. To maintain the they moodily its phonological environment so that it is the same as in Italian. An example from syntax to illustrate the necessity of analyzing each language for its structure may be supplied by German. In German the sentence I see your car is â€Å"Ich sehe Ihren Wagen†. Comparing the two, one may assume that in both languages the verb (see and sehe) follows the subject when the latter is initial in sentences. But from modified forms of the sentence, such as I often see his car and If I see his car, the different syntactic principle of German becomes clear, for these sentences must read â€Å"Oft sehe ich seinen Wagen† and â€Å"Wenn ich seinen Wagen sehe†. These sentences demonstrate that the principles of word order in German are quite different from those in English; the position of the verb is not related to that of the subject but rather to other possible entities in clauses. In German independent declarative clauses the verb stands in second place, but in German subordinative clauses, it stands at the end. Accordingly the arrangement if the forms, and their significance, must be determined separately for English and German, as for every other language. Each language must be investigated independently for its patters of syntax as well as its phonological characteristics. Similarly, meaning relationships must be determined separately for each language. English know corresponds to German â€Å"kennen† when it has an animate object, to â€Å"wissen† when it has an inanimate object, and to â€Å"konnen† when the object is a skill, like a language. We cannot equate English know with these, just as we cannot equate English with Italian. Because of this property of language, we must analyze each language in terms of its own structure. 1. 5Formulation of Results: Display of Description In the course of the study of language the formulation of descriptions has become increasingly compact and precise. Before the development of linguistics sounds of language were often presented in alphabetical order in grammars in the Western tradition. But contemporary descriptions of language follow a linguistic format. Vowels are not listed in the sequence a, e, I, o, u but rather in accordance with a chart reflecting their linguistic significance. The consonants also are presented in accordance with their articulation: the labials p and b, dentals t and d, velars k and g, and so on, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 for _____in and ______at. Similarly, the syntax of a language is presented systematically and compactly. Rather than discursive statements like â€Å"A sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate†, a compact formula may be given, for example:. These formulas are called rules. For the initiated they make a description very precise; the symbolization, however, must be mastered, particularly the abbreviations and the use of signs to indicate relationships. Such grammatical formats may resemble mathematical essays. Yet the information in the rules, however compact, simply corresponds to descriptions presented in more discursive grammars. Far more fundamental than such externals is the underlying design of a grammar.

The Suggestibility of Child Witnesses

The Suggestibility of Child Witnesses Karpinski and Scullins (2009) study tests whether theory of mind and executive functioning affects childrens inclination to adopt the view asserted by misleading questions under pressured interviews. In addition, effects of age ranging from three to five as a factor of suggestibility was investigated. The procedures required 80 preschoolers, over four sessions, to witness a video and live show prior to a theory of mind test, performance on executive function tasks and a Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC) to rank them based on assents to misleading questions (Yield), changing of answer after feedback (Shift) and total affirmative answers given after feedback in Shift (Yield 2). The results showed that children performed better in theory of mind and executive tasks functions with increasing age, making them less suggestible. This suggests that older children, by understanding the theory of mind, comprehending that the interviewer might have an existing false belief, and thu s avoids assenting. Through the VSSC, lower Yield 2 scores correlated with poorer executive functioning, which was observed in younger children. Additionally, pressure from the interviewer has shown a higher suggestibility in children. However, the study only studied children from ages three to five, limiting the age group to a smaller range and did not include older children into the study. Moreover, executive functions and theory of mind are not the sole factors of individual differences in children that play a part in suggestibility. Allwood, C. M., Granhag, P. A., Jonsson, A. (2006). Child witnesses metamemory realism. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 47(6), 461-470. The study conducted was to determine the degree of acceptance of confidence judgments to childrens answers regarding a video about a kidnapping event. This was investigated using a sample of 80 children, from 11 to 12 years old. Four confidence scales, the numeric scale, picture scale, line scale and written scale were used. Frequency judgments of the children were also acquired. Prior training was provided to ensure that the children understood the probability scale. Results were that participants show overconfidence over all four confidence scales after calibration. No significant effect was found whether any of the confidence scales had affected the confidence judgment. However, a significant difference was found by comparing genders, with girls being better calibrated that boys to confidence scales, and the girls had a significantly lower frequency judgment than boys. However, both genders had a higher frequency judgment than the number of questions they actually had answered cor rectly. Lastly, by comparing the results obtained from adults who watched the same video in another study by Allwood et al. (2003), it showed that children were more overconfident than adults. However, this comparison to another study cannot promise that the conditions undertook were exactly the same. The study should extend its age range of children to younger children, who are still developing, though it is not known whether they would comprehend the different confidence scales to render it effective to children that age. Warren, A. R., McGough, L. S. (1996). Research on childrens suggestibility: Implications for the investigative interview. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23(2), 269-303. This review contains consolidated result from various researches to report the best conditions under which childrens recount of experiences would be reliable to use in court. This targets eliminating the possibility of childrens suggestibility. By using the role of the interviewer, the timing of the interview and the process, it emphasizes on points which interviewers should take note of. Specifically, interviewers should not hold any bias, nor ask misleading questions. This should also be coupled with a non-biased response and building ground rules such as the acceptance of unsure as a response. Repetition of questions are not encouraged, though it may require several sessions before details are noted. As for interviews, delays would result in more errors in recalling, especially in children. Video recorded interviews are welcomed, serving as evidence in court for reliability and a source for children to remember previous interviews. For the interview process, guidelines do include the necessity of building rapport with the child and allow free-recall of events, as they give higher accuracy of memory. One method widely encouraged is the cognitive interview. Though anatomically correct dolls are not endorsed, age-appropriate language can be used to encourage the child to indicate abused body parts. Lastly, the interview should be done in stress free environment. Though these information would greatly help interviewers, the best formula is to allow states to train specialists in interviewing children or building specific protocol for other interviewers to follow. 4. Quas, J. A., Goodman, G. S., Ghetti, S. Redlich, A. D. (2000). Questioning the child witness: What can we conclude from the research thus far? Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 1(3), 223-249. The study review conducted a summary of researches and their association to investigating child witnesses. First, the articles reported differences in development between younger and older children. It was found that younger children are more suggestible due to poorer recall. However, preschoolers are proficient in script memory, although it is limited to repeated events. Also, though children can recall memory, they have difficulty putting the memory into a logical structure. This is limited by their source memory. The relationship between stress and memory has not been significantly proven, but children who are more distressed may have a lower recall due to a third factor, such as attention. Trauma, especially repeated ones, are not found to hinder memory. Another idea to factor in is general knowledge, where knowledge consistent to what the child knows is encoded in memory easily. Next, suggestibility was discussed. It was revealed that free-recall allows children to give accurate memories, given that no false information was given prior to recall. However, when false information was given repeatedly, childrens suggestibility increased. Thirdly, individual differences in children was reviewed. It concluded that other than age, internal characteristics of the child can affect the quality of the information elicited. Suggestibility has been related to dual representation, source memory and imaginativeness of the child. Though much has been concluded from previous studies, there are certain areas which have not been researched or little research have been done on those areas. 5. Lyon, T. D., Saywitz, K. J. (2006). From post-mortem to preventive medicine: Next steps for research on child witness. Journal of Social Issues, 62(4), 833-861. The current paper looks into future researches that can be done regarding the suggestibility of child witnesses. It proposes to researchers not to only keep abreast of current researches but also develop new models. The study agrees source monitoring training can be conducted to decrease suggestibility in younger children. Due to reluctance of some children to admit to abuse, research can look into factors affecting such victims and methods to allay the symptoms. Also, researches should encompass older children, other than preschoolers. Moreover, laboratory results should be brought out into the field to test its validity. Through combination of field and laboratory work, methods can be refined to bring about better policies. Additionally, recantation, an important topic in child witnesses, is a subject yet to be researched. Similarly, sequencing of recall in children and the extent of display or description of emotions when interviewed can be researched. A lucrative area can be to d iscover methods to allow both therapy and legal proceedings to coexist simultaneously without increasing suggestibility. Lastly, the paper suggests that instead of looking to sexual abuse cases, researchers should acknowledge that there are large proportions of non-sexual cases that can be looked into. However, authors should note that these researches must be applied to the field in order to be rendered effective. It requires policymakers and researchers to come together to allow such cooperation. Through such partnerships, interview processes can be improved to reduce suggestibility.

Computer Crime in Sri Lanka

Computer Crime in Sri Lanka A research study of the Computer Crimes in Sri Lanka and the protective acts taken by the Sri Lankan government. Background Computer systems are everywhere and control a great deal of our day to day life. Computer systems make our life so much easier. All the people around the world are forced to use the computer systems even if they do not like. These computer systems can be used in a good way or in a bad way. The bad way is known as a computer crime. Motivation Presently, individuals and companies are struggling from computer crimes, thinking is it a crime or not? what are laws available for it, where to file a complaint? etc. To improve the understanding of computer crimes, this topic has been chosen, which allows studying about different kinds of computer crimes and the respective laws applies for those crimes. In this research, the computer crimes in Sri Lanka and the counteract applicable for those crimes and different country laws will be discussed. Computer crime, also known as cybercrime, is any illicit action that includes a computer or network associated gadget, for example, a cell phone. The Department of Justice partitions computer crime into 3 classifications: violations in which the computer gadget is the victim, for instance, getting access to the network; violations in which the computer is utilized as a weapon, for instance, to dispatch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack; and violations in which the computer is utilized as an accomplice to a wrongdoing, for instance, utilizing a computer to save wrongfully acquired information (Rouse, 2010). Examples of computer crime: Making Malware Making and spreading viruses, Trojans or other kinds of malware. DoS attack Impacting the server performance by sending large amount requests. Unauthorized access Accessing the computer system without any lawful authority. Intellectual property theft Thieving an organizations or individuals intellectual belongings. Child pornography Creating or selling youngster erotica. Cyberstalk or Cyberbullying Harassing others online. Cyber terrorism Threat to the national security or national economy or public safety. Fraud Altering data, for instance, altering bank account balance amount details. Espionage Infiltration (an organization or someone). Harvesting Gather account associated data from people. Identity theft Pretend to be someone else. Spoofing Cheating a system by pretending someone else. Spamming Annoying unwelcome large amount of emails trying to fill the inbox. Phishing Fool someone by pretending or acting to be a trustable individual in an e-mail or an organization and trying to get their personal information. (ComputerHope, 2017) To destroy a persons or organizations reputation. To make money or steal money from a person or an organization. Full-fill their desires (by blackmailing, threatening etc.). Show off their skills to their friends / for enjoyment. Lack of authorities or less severe punishments. The Computer Crimes reported, in Sri Lanka are financial frauds, abuse/hate/privacy violation, phishing, scams, malware, unauthorized access, intellectual property violation, DoS/DDoS attack, Social media related incidents. According to SLCERT (Sri Lankan Computer Emergency Readiness Team), Fake accounts crimes are major crimes committed in Sri Lanka. Computer crimes in Sri Lanka keep up increasing every year. According to SLCERT, the computer crime rate has increased up to 4733% from 2008 to 2014. Particularly fake account crimes have increased from nearly 0 to 2300. Figure 2 Computer Crimes Reported from 2008 to 2014 From Colombo to the countryside, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media web applications have spread and it has begun to create an impact on the society and culture particularly among the younger generation. Facebook crimes are the majority of the social media related crime in Sri Lanka. There are many Facebook crimes which ended up with suicides, rapes, or even murders not only among teenagers but also among adults too. (SLCERT, n.d.) Mr. Jayantha Fernando, Program Director, Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) stated that there is a necessity for Internet privacy acts when the standards of information protection are violated since Sri Lanka has no specific acts on Internet privacy. Jayantha mentioned that the Sri Lankan administration has started strategy level deliberations at the initiative of ICTA on data protection and internet privacy acts, and the process of developing the draft is ongoing. In 2015, the Computer Crimes Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrangement below the Computer Crimes Act 2007 managing an expanding amount of complaints on privacy violations and email scooping. The department has explored more than hundred on internet associated misconducts, including twenty-one protests associated with obscene publications, fifty protests of cyber defamation and twenty associated to e-mail hijacking. Additional two thousand protests relating Twitter and Facebook (FB) were informed to the SLCERT in the first 7 months of 2015. The majority of the events had happened on Facebook, and mainly the involvement of fake profiles, Senior Information Security Engineer of SLCERT, Mr. Roshan Chandragupta stated. Mr. Roshan stated that people were hurt in various ways over the internet. Few were threatened with data associated with the target, few were blackmailed for cash, few were harassed sexually and few were even harassed to the point of deceased. A lot of people were hurt by impersonators via social media. Most of them do not know where to file a complaint, hence, the protest related to fake profiles were not filed, he said. An inquiry officer of the Computer Crimes Division of CID expressed Present acts make it very hard for us to bring in the culprits. The officer also said that most of the events that were informed, in which an angry person dispenses the contact information of another person. Generally, this target would be an ex-lover of the offender who eagerly wants to punish her. Since there was no defamation, it does not come under defamation law, therefore it becomes very hard for the police to put the offender behind bars. CID Director SSP.R Nagahamulla said that the Computer Crimes Division does not have enough officers to do the work, and also do not have an adequate amount of standard electronic equipment support investigation. The department has no divisions. Nevertheless, the course of training extra officers and the process of purchasing the devices were begun by the CID. (Nafeel, 2015). Mr. Roshan said that lack of knowledge about computer security on cyber platforms is the main reason for many of the computer crimes. The absence of computer proficiency, correspondence, and breakage in family connections were the genuine foundations for the present surge in social media-related incidents, said by Manoj Jinadasa, senior lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Kelaniya. In Western countries, media literacy is built into the school curriculum. This should be done here too, he said. (Dissanayake, 2014) The senior CID officer said that every day, the CID gets a minimum of ten to twelve cybercrime grievances, which adds up to more than 400 cases for each month. Since the team at CID is little, resolving these cases will be deferred (Wickramasekera, 2015). Here is an example social media crime incident: The headmaster of John Kothalawala School in Kurunegala has been captured by the Police Unit of the National Child Protection Authority. The headmaster was criticized for disgracing a young lady over a Facebook photograph, prompting her suicide. He has been captured as a component of the examination (NewsFirst, 2014). The Computer Crime Act, No.24 of 2007 This act describes the ways of identifying computer crimes and if such crimes occur the procedure for the investigation and the prevention mechanism for the crimes. The provisions of this Act will applicable where: The lawbreaker in or outside Sri Lanka. Computer storage or information affected in or outside Sri Lanka. Facility or service used to commit the crime in or outside Sri Lanka. Loss or damages caused to state or person in or outside Sri Lanka. The offenses and punishments stated in this act are simplified into a table format below: And / Or Table 1 Offences and the penalties mentioned in Computer Crime Act 2007 (SLCERT, 2007) Who will be involved in the investigation? Police officers Computer experts The panel will appoint computer experts to support police department to help with the case. If the police department has sufficient experts, then there is no necessary for more computer experts. Convention on Cybercrime The Convention on Cybercrime is also called as Budapest Convention or Budapest Convention on Cybercrime or European Cybercrime Convention. The Budapest Convention tries to address Internet and computer violations by agreeing to national acts, enhancing analytical strategies and expanding collaboration among countries. The European Cybercrime Convention dealing criminal activities carried out through the computer and the Internet, especially with copyright infringements, child pornography, infringement of system security, hate crimes, and computer associated frauds. In 2015, Sri Lanka was welcomed to participate in the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. The Foreign Affairs Ministry working with the ICTA has optimized Sri Lankas entrance into the Council of Europe (CoE) Cybercrime Convention. Sri Lanka went beyond South Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Philippines and a few different nations in the procedure towards participating the Convention on Cybercrime. Sri Lanka turns into the 1st Nation in South Asia to participate the Convention on Cybercrime, which is the main universal arrangement on cybercrimes all inclusive. The advantage of this convention is that all will be constrained to obey to the privacy guard and information security. Privacy acts are the most critical one where the stockholders from Europe or different nations will consider before investing in Sri Lanka, how their data are protected. (Nafeel, 2015) Comparing Sri Lankan laws with different country laws is a good way of evaluating strengths and weakness of the laws in Sri Lanka. Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 (India) Sri Lanka and India have very much in common, both are Asian countries (closest countries), both are democratic countries. Sri Lanka and India are the members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Sri Lankan culture and Indian culture are pretty much similar. Therefore, the Indian law has been used for the comparison. India has an act called Information Technology Act, 2008 to prevent computer crimes happening and provide guidelines to follow if such incident occurs. This act is an amendment of Information Technology Act, 2000. The offences and punishments mentioned in the act are listed in a simple table format below: And / Or Table 2 Offences and Penalties in the Information Technology Act, 2008 (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, n.d.) Sri Lanka Crime India Fine (LKR) Imprisonment Fine (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¹) Imprisonment à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 200,000 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 5 years Hacking with intention of committing crime à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 500,000 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 3 years à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 5 years Offenses committed against national security / cyberterrorism à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ Life time Table 3 Comparison common laws between Sri Lanka and India Let us compare 2 similar cases from both countries and compare the punishments given each by the government. For the comparison hacking case have been taken from both countries. Sri Lanka A 17-year-old schoolboy from Kadugannawa and a twenty-seven-year old man from Moratuwa were arrested on 29 Aug 2016, for building the hack on President Maithripala Sirisenas site. President Sirisenas legitimate site http://www.president.gov.lk went under assault on 26 Aug 2016, when the site was brought down and a letter posted in Sinhalese, stating the disappointment of a group of hackers calling themselves The Sri Lanka Youth, at the Sri Lankan administration having planned the Advanced Level examination for April, amid the conventional Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The letter was evacuated in a few minutes and a note informing clients that the site would down for scheduled maintenance, set up. The Presidents site was back online a couple of hours after the fact. The website was hacked one more time, the following day (27 Aug 2016), with the resulting note posted in English: (DailyNews, 2016) The Crimes Investigation Department (CID) performed the arrest. According to Daily News (2016) statement, the man was accused of 300,000 LKR and up to three years in prison and since the kid is minor, he ended up in probation. This is the 1st time in the Sri Lankan history a young person has been arrested under 2007 Computer Crimes Act. India Mumbai police have captured twenty-three-years-old hacker for trespassing into an economic site. Despite the fact that the hacker could not get into the primary server of the economic website, which was all around secured by the organization. The hacker made some option to the landing page of the economic site and has added a string of content to the news section of the landing page of the site. Police could break the case by taking after the follow left by the offender on the web server of the economic website. The organization has kept up a different server for money related online exchanges, for which most extreme security has been taken by the organization. The site was facilitated on an alternate server, which relatively had lesser security. The intruder was a tenth pass youth. He has completed IT courses like MCSE, CCNA and so on. He had an addiction to computers. He sits in front the PC for very nearly sixteen to twenty times every day. He was using the ready-made hacking devices, to hack into any site. He goes to a specific site on the web, which encourages him to see the whole catalog structure of that site. At that point utilizing different strategies, for example, getting a passcode record, he gets into the directors shoes and hacks the site. A case was enrolled against the intruder under area 67 of Information Technology Act 2000 and under different areas of Indian Penal Code. (CyberCrimeInvestigationCell, 2005) Result The Sri Lankan government has charged the victim with 300,000 LKR and up to 3 years in prison. The Indian government has charged the victim with 1,000,000 Indian Rupee and up to 5 years in prison. Compare to the severity, Indian hacker just hacked the economic site, but the Sri Lankan hacker hacked the Sri Lankan Presents website which is highly punishable. The punishment that the government gives will be a lesson and the threat for those who try to commit crimes. In that case, Sri Lanka has failed to give a higher penalty. When the group of people, including a 17-year-old boy hacked, president Mr. Sirisenas website (Page 13), in everyones mind a question will raise. Is the preventive move made by Sri Lankan Government to battle against computer crime is adequate? I would say NO. As per the SLCERTs report (Figure 2) and the officers statements (Page 5, Page 6) the computer crime rates keep increasing every year, So, the preventive action taken by the government is not sufficient enough. Suggestions Severe punishments will discourage the offenders committing a crime. Compared to the Indian laws, Sri Lanka laws provide less severe punishments (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3) for the offender. So, increasing the fine amount and impressment period given to each crime is a better way of reducing or stopping crimes happening.   Ã‚   Mr. Jayantha stated that currently, Sri Lanka does not have any specific acts on Internet privacy (Page 5) and an inquiry officer of the Computer Crimes Division expressed that with current Sri Lankan laws it is hard to take an action on the offender. So, introducing more laws, more specific acts on Internet privacy will help to combat against these computer crimes, Especially, sections like 66E, 67, 67A, 67B introduced Information Technology Act, 2008 India (Table 2), since the rapid growth of fake accounts and social media crimes in Sri Lanka. Mr. Roshan said that the reasons for these crimes are not enough awareness about computer crimes in the society. People are not aware of where to file a complaint (Page 5). This is the main reason; the culprits are out there committing more and more crimes. Spreading the awareness about computer crimes through television, radio and social media will reach a lot of people and help reduce crimes. Provide enough equipment, facilities, human resource and training for the Police department and the Computer Crimes Division of CID to do their work without any interruptions. According to Mr. Manojs research, the majority of the victims of computer crime are teenagers. I suggest the education department introduce Computer Crimes as a subject in schools. This prevents the younger generation from falling into trouble or pushing someone into. Todays generation, tomorrows future.  

A Typical Session :: essays research papers

Ronnie quietly walked into her bedroom and closed her door, locking it behind her. She turned on some music appropriate for the occasion; "Am I Wrong?" by Love Spit Love and "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed being her favorite background music during difficult times. Ronnie moved to her dresser and opened one of its many drawers. She pulled out an innocent-looking box of matches from a local candle store. After opening it, she took out a slightly blood-stained cardboard pocket. Inside... A gleaming razorblade. Pulling the blade from its protective sheath, Ronnie sat on her bed. She took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and looked at her left forearm. It was getting harder and harder for her to cut; her scars were not easy to cut over, and neither were fresh scabs. Finding a suitable area, Ronnie braced herself and slowly dragged the blade across her skin. Immediately, a thin line of blood streaked across her open forearm. Ronnie could feel relief flowing through her body. How good it felt to cut! How wonderful to release all of her pent-up energy! Eagerly, Ronnie made a second cut. Then a third. And a fourth. Soon, she had rows and rows of thin red lines, each about three inches long, running down her arm. When she came to her inner elbow, she stopped. Ronnie sat and pondered for a moment. Should she, having run out of space on her forearm, make more cuts on the next best area... her left ankle? Debating mentally, Ronnie finally decided against it. After you've cut an area, you can't cut there again for at least a week while the scabs heal. She needed to save her ankle in case she wanted to cut again in the next few days. The cutting done, Ronnie grabbed the box of Kleenex next to her bed. She pressed the tissues against the flow of blood coming from her arm. After several minutes, the bleeding stopped. Ronnie wrapped paper towels around her affected limb so she wouldn't get blood on her shirt and secured the towels with Scotch tape.

gatillus Unattainable Illusions in The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

Unattainable Illusions in The Great Gatsby      Ã‚  Ã‚   The work of Fitzgerald is the product of the "Jazz" era, a time when all gods had been declared dead, all wars fought, and all faiths in men had been shaken.   Fitzgerald's style is a combination of American idealism and nihilistic pessimism.   In The Great Gatsby, whose originally proposed title was 'Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires,' we also find a narrator and style that make moral judgements through the narrator Nick, a constant overseeing moral vision that is symbolized by the ever-watchful "eyes" of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.   Despite the glittering appearances and material ostentation of West Egg, something is perceived as being not quite right with the conventional American dream and those who achieve it.   Nonetheless Nick opens the novel by remembering his father's advice:   "Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.   I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repea t, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth"   (Fitzgerald   1).    The main character Gatsby, despite the appearance that he has achieved the American dream, is actually a man alone who tries to turn back the clock and win his true love Daisy.   However, despite the glittering parties and material luxuries of Gatsby's world, Fitzgerald's style admits a serious stream of cynicism that is pervasive throughout the novel.   When Daisy tells Nick her baby might be a girl she says "And I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool"   (Fitzgerald   17).   This cynicism and world of false appearances are significant to Fitzgerald's style, especially because the author discovered in his own existence that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.   As much as Gatsby loves Daisy, she is far from a paragon of virtue.   As much as Gatsby is admired for his material success only two people attend his funeral.   The cynicism and nihilism in the novel are products of an era that was discovering that even the "American dream" is an illusion.   In Fitzgerald's style this is true even for heroes like Gatsby, a man who is described at the beginning of the novel as being in control of life to the point where he even owns a piece of nature: "Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr.

Explain errors of omission and errors of commission. Essay

Explain errors of omission and errors of commission. Ans – == Errors of commission == An error of commission occurs when you record an incorrect value in posting. Such errors include original entry errors, transposition errors, calculation errors and reversal of entries. An original entry error occurs when an incorrect figure is recorded and posted. A prime instance of this is the ten-key error, where you accidentally hit the number above the correct key. For example, if you enter 7, instead of 4, you would get a difference of 3, 30 or 3,000,000 even. The transposition error occurs when you switch two digits in a number. For example, if you enter 71 as 17 or 428 as 824, you have committed a transposition error. Notice that the difference between the two numbers in a transposition error is always evenly divisible by nine. The result of 71 – 17 is 54 and 824 – 428 is 396. Calculation errors occur when you use incorrect totals. For instance, if you properly record transactions in a sales ledger but incorrectly total this and use the incorrect figure in the income statement, a calculation error has occurred. Reversal of entries occurs when the correct figures are used in the correct accounts, but they were entered on the wrong side of the respective accounts. For instance, if you record a sales transaction by debiting Sales and crediting Cash/Bank, you commit a reversal of entries error. == Errors of omission == Errors of omission can be one of the more difficult errors to detect, since they involve failing to record a transaction partially or completely. An error of omission may be hard to detect because it could lead to a balanced accounting equation. This type of error demonstrates why accountants and accounting students should double check their work properly to see if anything was omitted, instead of using a balanced Statement of Financial Position as validation. For example, if you fail to record depreciation in a period or record a devalued asset, such errors of omission would only be detected through careful scrutiny of all particulars. == Errors of principle == Apart from being accurate and careful to include all figures, accountants must also ensure that they are procedurally accurate as well. An error of  principle is one that is contrary to the fundamental principles, concepts and assumptions of accounting. For instance, if you record capital expenditure as revenue expenditure or treat withdrawals by the business owner as an expense, these go against the fundamental principles and held concepts in accounting. Such errors will skew the figures in the income statement and statement of financial position. == Conclusion == In accounting, it is important to avoid making errors of commission, errors of omission and errors of principle. While seeing a balanced statement of financial position can be satisfying, it does not indicate that no errors exist in the recording and summarizing of transactions. It is easy to make any one of the three categories of accounting errors at any given time, hence the requirement that accountants be meticulous and alert.