Analysis of the Unforgiven

Analysis of Unforgiven Brenda J. Thompson ENG 225: Introduction to Film Nathaniel Millard October 5, 2009 Summary While the movie Unforgiven (1992) directed and starring Clint Eastwood, as William Munny, is in the genre of a western in the late 1800’s. It has a basic theme that we are still making movies about today, justice and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in our search for it. It is a story of a journey that one man has to make in order for him to care for his children but it ends up being so much more of a journey than he anticipates. This movie is the ultimate of good versus evil on a couple of different levels. It is good guy versus bad guy and it is the evil within fighting the good within and the constant battles that both of these different levels bring to the main character and the other characters of this film. Does justice prevail in this film? Level of Ambition This movie’s level of ambition was that of a typical Clint Eastwood film, straightforward, deep and controversial. Clint Eastwood is known through his characters as the hard, smart talking, no nonsense, afraid of nothing type casted actor and so his films that are directed by him bring a whole new level to that type of character. He brings the softer side to these characters that we do not expect to see. He reveals the inner dilemma within his character to show that just because someone has done some really horrible things in their lives that does not mean that they do not have internal struggles between what is right and what is wrong. The consciousness of the guilt, the validation, and the justification of what he is doing, eats at him and his inner struggles that come with knowing what he has done but seems to diminish over the length of the movie. It seems to get easier for him to accept what needs to be done and just does it even though he no longer wants to do it. Thematic Elements The central idea of this film is injustice and what can happen when an injustice is made right in the eye of the beholder. This movie had hit on several different perspectives regarding its focus and was dependent upon which character it was highlighting at the time. One of those perspectives being from that of the main character William and his constant battle within himself to stay true to his goodness and not to allow the old evil side out. Another perspective is that of the working women who just want to be respected and not feel as though they are personal property. The Sheriff, Little Bill, who was played by Gene Hackman had of course another perspective on the whole situation which was to play off the entire ordeal by fining the two culprits instead of arresting them. With that being said, this film covered several categories regarding a central idea and subordinate ideas. Although I found injustice to be the central idea, I also felt that there were other categories that were touched on. Truth of human nature (Boggs & Petrie, 2008, pg. 26) and how even though this took place in 1880 you could still feel the injustice today and feel those feelings that were portrayed by the characters wanting to make this right although not all the characters wanted to make it right for the same reasons. The social problems that were in this film, which were the crimes against women, social acceptance and the draw that money has always and forever will have on us as a society are still prevalent today therefore we can understand and appreciate what is happening. We know now as a society that we cannot take the law into our own hands but in 1880 it was prevalent and more acceptable therefore we can relate as maybe we wish he could sometimes take the law into our own hands and make an injustice right when one has been wronged. Setting and Set Design The filming took place in the wilderness of Alberta, Canada and one scene (the train scene) in California. The majority of the scenes were either out in the wilderness or within the small town of Big Whiskey’s saloon and the adjacent main street during the fall and winter season of 1880. The buildings were dark, small and gloomy on the inside and due to the fact that the majority of the movie took place in the nighttime hours and it was stormy more than not, the outside was just as gloomy as the inside. The lighting was minimal as it would have been back then bringing mood with it. The foreshadowing of the stormy weather worked in making this movie what it was, the rain seemed to let you know when something was coming. As much as the wilderness scenery was beautiful, I found it downplayed by the drab colors of the costumes and the non use of color throughout the entire film. It seemed as though the only time color was used was determined by what that particular scene was about. For instance, as English Bob came into town the only item of color was the drab red of the stagecoach, so we knew whoever was in that stagecoach was going to become an important character to a scene coming up, everything else was a muted earth tone of tan, brown, green and blue. As stated in our text a director may simply let their settings just be a backdrop and let the action of that scene take over. (Boggs & Petrie, 2008, pg. 74) This was exactly how this movie was told; it focused on the story instead of glamorizing it with colorful costumes and scenery. We needed to see the drabness of the subject in the muted colors of the movie. Another scene that showed a pop of color was that of William (Eastwood) and Ned (Freeman) were having a conversation where William was trying to make himself and his friend believe that he was no longer an evil person, he no longer drank and no long er killed and at that point their horses walked past some very bright yellow colored trees which just brought a sense of hopefulness to that section of the movie. As if by justifying his goodness it truly made him a good man, the validation from his friend was needed by him as a reminder that he really was a good man, that this couldn’t make him a bad man again because he had been good for so long. Sound and Score The first scene of the movie was that of William Munny in the distance tending to his farming as the sun set on the other side of him. The only sound at that time was that of a very soft playing guitar that had the feeling of a ballad, soft and gentle. For the remainder of the movie the sound and scores were very minimal. Natural outdoor sounds, animals, the breeze, rain were the sounds heard most of the time. Music was minimal and was used for dramatic pauses when no words were necessary and the message needed to sink in or to build up to an upcoming scene. The softness of the music was calming and not too overbearing especially in the action parts of the movie when some directors scream music. Clint Eastwood in this movie chose to use music to â€Å"reinforce the rhythms of the action† (Boggs & Petrie, 2008, pg. 375) instead of making it a priority. He used music the same way he used his colors. I found that during the soft reflective moments of the movie that the music was that of a sole guitar or very soft music and when it involved a little more action an orchestra was involved. The most profound sound of all was that of the rain. Depending upon the message coming through made the difference between how hard it was raining and how loud it was heard. Not only was the rain foreshadowing but also the sound of the thunder and lightning that was used. It was letting us know that something was coming, something was going to happen and it was an integral part of the film. Casting and Acting Performances As it is explained in (Boggs & Petrie, 2008, Introduction to Film) â€Å"In the choice of actors, one director may take the safe, sure way by casting established stars in roles very similar to roles they have played before. † Clint Eastwood is well known for his hardened characters and his experience in westerns. I could not imagine any other actor portraying William Munny. Clint Eastwood brings to the table a hardened character that transforms himself from an uncaring murderer to a loving husband and father back to his hardened man that has to make justice where there was none. Little Bill (Hackman) was a typical sheriff of the time where he laid that law with an iron fist and was going to lay that law any way that he could. In the film you want to believe that Little Bill is one of the good guys but in the end he is no better than the men he was trying to run off. In one scene Hackman was explaining that he did not like men of no character or assassins but in true life really was no better than them but justified it to himself with his badge. Morgan Freeman played Ned, William Munny’s old partner in crime. He had also retired from the killing fields and was now a farmer married to his Indian wife, Sally Two Trees. Ned truly believed he could help his old partner but by the end of the film had realized that he could no longer kill someone and chose to return to his wife but not before being captured by Little Bill’s crew and ultimately killed. Freeman brings a sense of calmness, stability and outright warmth to the film and breaks up the stark harshness of William Munny’s character and the haracter of Scolfield Kid, played by Jaimz Woolvett, a young man looking to make some money but has no experience with that of a paid assassin or of life experiences in general. He was a simple character but one that grew throughout the film to make a realization that his view point on a glorified act has sharply turned and took another route. As the characters seem to complement each other and all of the actors seemed to fit each character to a tee, there are not too many actors in my m ind that could have lived up to the actors that were chosen for these roles. I found one character flat but only because she was written that way, I do not blame the actress as I think she did a great job, it was the character as a whole. Screenplay and Narrative Structure Clint Eastwood, as the director, chose to tell this story very simply by filling the audience in with a written narrative in the first scene. It tells you about the main character prior to this time in his life without taking up more time than was needed. It was straightforward and simple. It was not told through any one character but you could feel the story through each of the characters it was focusing on in that scene. As there is no way of knowing how the screenplay was written it is hard to tell if Eastwood followed what the screenwriter had envisioned or what he envisioned but for what it is worth, Eastwood brought himself to this film in a way that shows not only the hard side of a prior life of killing but the softer side of a man that chose the good of a woman and wanting to please her. There is also a narrative at the end of the film that lets us know that William Munny chose in the end, his children and his wife’s goodness. He chose to leave and moved himself and children to Los Angeles and works productively in dry goods. We know that not only did he make it through that darkness but came full circle twice. He started out killing, bettered himself with the help of his late wife, killed again when his friend was killed because of the act that he committed and then went back to the goodness when he felt as though justice had been served. Once his friend was killed and he took a drink of the alcohol, he lost himself in his old ways as the anger and guilt came bubbling out. Once he felt as though he had righted a wrong, he took his children away from all of the bad and started anew. Objective Evaluation Overall this film was successful in bringing to an audience a western drama with compassion, with ignorance, with greed, with honesty. It showed the softer side of a killer, one side we don’t normally see in a film, we saw the journey of a man trying to find who he is without being defined as an assassin and the struggles within that journey. By suppressing the colors and tones of the film and leaving the lighting at a minimal it really focuses on the feelings and the story as a whole. It wasn’t about the actions but about how people react to certain situations (especially when information is misconstrued) for an example, this all started by a whore getting cut in the face but by the time the information was received by William Munny, the crime had more than doubled in severity. If the story of the cutting had stayed true would this story ever had happened? Would the characters have wanted to kill those men if they had known she still had her fingers and such? Maybe that was what William Munny’s inner struggle was about once he had met the cut woman. The story was easy to follow and William Munny’s character was easy to like, he had been trying to live right for 11 years but when he realized he couldn’t provide for his children because the pigs were getting sick, he had to resort to what he knew he was good at. Only problem was that he found that he was extremely rusty at it, from his shooting skills to his eyesight, he wasn’t the same at it and it didn’t feel good to do. The emotions in this film were portrayed wonderfully from Alice the fiery working girl to the laid back calm character of Ned. You could feel their emotions and understand them and connect with them as people. Final Analysis In closing, the movie Unforgiven was a great movie filled with emotion and heroism. Although this movie was about injustice and human nature, it was also about healing, renewing and hope. As gloomy as the subject matter was, it was also about hope and realizing that no matter what you have done in the past you can make a choice or choices and make a new life that doesn’t have to involve criminal behavior. People like to think that justice always prevails so this movie provides that. It provides justice for the girls but at the same time caused a ripple effect and they got more than what they had bargained for, not expecting as much bloodshed as this one incident had caused. Clint Eastwood and the other cast members made this story a believable one. Not only is Munny (Eastwood) a somewhat cold type of character you end up seeing sides to him that make you like him as a person. Not only are we willing to forgive his past, we want to see him succeed whereas Little Bill (Hackman) was in a position of superiority and used it to intimidate and manipulate his way of running things. I found this character to be arrogant which showed when in building his home, asked no one to help him. Clearly it was needed. The only character I found to be flat was that of Delilah (Anna Levine), victim of the cutting. I can understand that her character might be a little timid after the ordeal but found her to be flat throughout the rest of the film and wish she had more of an impact. Overall this movie was a nice movie to watch. Not only was it easy to follow it made you want to continue watching to see what happens. The characters are believable and the storyline tells an entire story. The use of muted colors and natural sounds lent to the mood and tone of the entire movie. The focus is of the story neither the scenery nor the costumes but was strong enough to stand on its own without going over the top. Not only was this film a western but a drama as well, great for men and women as it touches emotions and evokes emotions on both sides of the gender box. References Boggs, J. , & Petrie, D. (2008). The Art of Watching Films (7th Ed. ) with tutorial CD-ROM. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. ISBN: 9780077282301   Peoples, D. W. & Eastwood, C. (Writer/Director). (1992). Unforgiven [Motion Picture]. Hollywood: Warner Bros. Pictures

Katie Hopkins Response to Article Essay

On review of your article ‘’I won’t let my children play with friends that I deem beneath them†¦ that’s what caring mothers do’: Apprentice star admits she targets playmates who are a good influence’ I was shocked to see that you judge children! Not only are you judging children who are too young to even acknowledge their actions but you go as far as to even judge them on the names they have. Children are given names by their parents and therefore have no control of it, you claim that children with Victorian sounding names have smarter parents therefore smarter kids however even a child that has been brought up in a bad environment can flourish at a school where their education is valued. Later on, you state ‘Similarly, I make a mental note when Poppy and India tell me that a particular child – let’s call him Peter – is always late for school. ‘ here you judge a child without even knowing their situation e ven though they could have a medical condition or have a special medical need that requires some time to be attended to. As well as this they might even be in Gifted & Talented and be needing more attention than your daughters who may not be as gifted therefore could be a good impact on your children. You then also say ‘If his parents can’t be bothered to get him into class on time, they clearly don’t care about the education of their child – and, worse still, are hindering the learning of others. My girls are as frustrated with this continual tardiness as I am. Is it beyond the wit of a parent to get their child to school on time?’ First of all you don’t even know the situation of the family they could be in a state of poverty and might not be able to drive to school they would have to walk. As Peter is growing it would be bad to get him to wake up at 5 so he can get to school on time when he catch up on everything he missed after school without it affecting him. After this you say ‘When I hear my daughters talking about children who have all the latest gadgets – whether it’s an iPhone or iPad – I’m instantly on my guard because they definitely won’t have time to devote to homework. As a result, I will discourage any friendship.’ This is beyond serious as you now begin to judge children on their wealth and status. Yes, it may affect them not being able to do their homework however such an upstanding member of the community and budding mother such as yourself must know that you could simply control their use of these gadgets until they have finished their homework.

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Effects of Illegal immigration on Staffing Essay Illegal immigration is the scenario where people travel from a different country and enter another country using false documents or means that and makes it hard for the authorities to trace those who do so. The level of illegal immigrants to developing countries like the USA has been increasing tremendously in the recent past causing increased debates about their causes and effects. The most outstanding effect of illegal immigration basically touches on cost of public service and labor thus forcing several states to enact policies that may ultimately in reducing the number of public services available to the immigrants. Their number of illegal immigrant to the US has been gradually increasing until it has made it hard for the authorities to ascertain exactly their numbers or their exact residences (Yoshida, 2000). 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Staffing is the process in which an organization acquires new and qualified employees to work in order to achieve their objectives and goals. This process entails among other steps replacement, recruitment and selection. Recruitment is usually done when jobs have been analyzed according to the tasks that have been performed and then writing them to suitable job descriptions. This requires the selectors to have basic knowledge on academic qualifications, skills and abilities of those to be selected and the undesired characteristics identified. When it comes to replacement of staff very critical questions are asked to the would-be employees with the help of expert consultants. It is necessary for the experts to handle the process professionally to ascertain the suitability of the job seekers (Dale, 2003). The most important sources of recruitment that may be used for global staffing include internal promotion and introductions, used of recruitment agencies and advertising especially the use of local and the international media. The firm that seeks to recruit individuals as their employees will always try their best to discrimination by race, sex among other forms and this will help in upholding their reputation. When they do this, they always ensure that the candidate they select meet all the requirements that qualifies them to be employed for the particular job that they seek. However, in the developed countries like the USA, there are a lot of illegal immigrants and this affects the recruitment and selection process to the extent that the concerned firm or company may have its reputation tainted. They will however be following what is required of them by the legislation since a country requires all people who work to pay taxes but in this case, the illegal immigrants will be a burden to the government since they do not pay any federal tax (Haines Rosenblum, 1999) Findings and Discussions It is apparently clear that illegal immigration has both positive and negative effects to the general economy and the process of staffing. It is important to note illegal immigration affects the country of origin and the country of destination but the effects are severe on both sides. In this research we are going to consider the United States as the country of destination and Mexico as the country of origin where people emigrate from. Statistics from the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that more than 50% of illegal immigrants in the U. S. originate from Mexico and they supply low-skilled labor to farmers and employers. It is clear that no formal steps and procedures of staffing are followed by the employers who higher the immigrants (Bean Vernez1989). The effects of this illegal immigration that were identified are as follows; burdens the tax-based resources, leads to shortage of labor in the country of origin, fake document mills, tax evasion, distortion of the law of demand and supply in a capitalistic market, drags down the compensation of workers welfare and negative effects on working and middle class citizens. The other effects of illegal immigrations that generally affect the economy and workers is the fact that it makes it hard for a country to raise the minimum wages, it makes the unscrupulous employers to pay alien in cash, increase in crime, overpopulation of the host nation, remittance of money to their country of origin, lack of government reimbursement and mortgage and loan fraud (Bean Vernez1989). It is however important to state that illegal immigration has some positive effects to the economy and includes; provision of cheap labor making harvesting in agriculture relatively cheap, increase of cash flow to retail business, increase in profits of auto insurers, creates a market pool for local foods produced, they purchase real estate, some of them may open bank accounts may make the bankers earn some revenue. Immigrants may also spur economic growth and provides better lifestyles to those enter the country illegally. It is noticeable therefore that illegal immigration has both negative and positive effects (Yoshida, 2000). This raises a very fundamental question whether those found as criminals for being in a country illegally with no valid documents should be judged considering the difficult times caused by the pressures of unemployment, lack of homes, poverty, disillusion, lack of education and low-paying jobs in their country of origin (Daugherty Kammeyer, 1995). As initially stated, illegal immigration causes shortage of labor in their home country because they prefer going to the developed countries. This will ultimately affect the economic growth of the country negatively because there is no labor force to drive the economy. Lack of labor will force the staffing agencies of those countries to lower the minimum job requirements so that they can be able to get the required employees to work for them. This lowers the credibility of the recruitment agencies and the human resource managers who are involved in global staffing. This may make a country to have poorly qualified staffs that do shoddy work and this will lead to poor performance of the economy and ultimate increase in poverty. Illegal immigration promotes brain drain; a situation where the best knowledgeable staff and educated move to other developed countries to look for ‘greener pastures’ for the careers. This will therefore affects the process of recruitment and selection in a negative way (Haines Rosenblum, 1999) Illegal immigration also has a direct effect on the tax-based resources due to the burden exerted by the illegal immigrant. In the United States, all people who work there are taxed by the federal government. Such money obtained as taxed are later used to improve other public facilities among them hospitals, schools among others. However, the government does not have clear-cut measures to ensure that those being treated in such hospitals or using other facilities are the true citizens. This will therefore lead to exerting too much pressure on the resources and may ultimately lead to provision of poor quality services to the genuine citizens. This may have a negative impact of on the labor productivity and the morale of the workers. When this happens, the work done by the citizens may not be well done basically because their esteem has been undermined. This will later make staffing encounter a lot of difficulties in trying to identify the best employees to be promoted since this is always done on the basis of customer performance. The affected organizations or firms may have to use other terms and methods to carry out various staffing processes and this will obviously taint the reputation of the recruitment agency since staffing ethics may not have been properly followed (Daugherty Kammeyer, 1995). This clearly indicates that illegal immigration by straining the resources has a direct impact on the performance of worker. It is clear that illegal immigration leads to an influx of workers to the country of destination like the United States. This will lead to a greater supply of jobs in the market more than it can be absorbed or taken in by the recruitment agencies who work on behalf of companies who are in need of employees. This will lead to the distortion of the law of demand and supply for labor in the market. This may happen in two ways: the first scenario is a situation where the immigrants provide cheap labor for whoever needs it. It is obviously certain that some firms and companies may lay off the workers in preference of the cheap labor in the market. By doing so, they will not have followed any ethics that entails the staffing procedures. The act of dismissing qualified workers with preference of employing those with lower qualifications does not entail any staffing ethics. This shows therefore how illegal immigration may negatively affect the process of recruitment and selection (LeMay, 2007). The other way in which the law of supply and supply is distorted happens especially when more qualified workers immigrate illegally to a country. This will force companies or firms to lay off its workers in preference of the more qualified workers. This automatically makes the companies to lower the minimum wage so as to indirectly discourage workers and some will later resign thus creating opportunities for the cheap labor. When they resign, employment opportunities are created and the human resource managers will rush for the cheap labor. When they do so, they staffers and recruitment agencies may not necessarily follow the correct staffing or recruitment procedures and in the long run, may negatively affect the reputation of global human resource and the entire process of staffing. This indicates that illegal immigration is a vice that must be avoided and checked at all cost (Adler Gielen, 2003). The United States has registered an increased crime in the border between it and Mexico due to a lot of immigrant who enter the two neighboring states. In most of those who enter illegally believe that New Mexico is part of Mexico itself and some even engage in cross-border crime and drug-trafficking as they try to enter the United States. Any crime and a rise of the same will obviously affect adversely the productivity of the citizens who have previously been enjoying the serenity of the working environment. It is important to note that the whole process of staffing is not done over-night. Some processes like promotion and selection may require the monitoring of the employee performance over a certain period of time. It may therefore happen that the period to review the employee performance was when there was rampant crime within the place of work or within the vicinity. The performance the employee at that time will obviously be poor and should any of the process of staffing be mandatory then the rules and regulation of such a process may not have to be necessarily followed. This therefore directly points out that the process of staffing is affected by illegal immigration due to the creation of crime (Haines Rosenblum, 1999). The existence of illegal immigrants in an economy makes it hard for the U. S government to raise the minimum wage required of any worker. It has been noted that the illegal immigrants on most occasions engage in menial jobs like maids and nannies where most Americans are not ready to offer their services. A further complicated scenario is when they work in industries and paid cheaply payment for the services rendered. In the event that the genuine residents of the United States demand any increase in their minimum wage, it would be rhetoric to do so because some cheap labor is available within the same market. Since this is part of the staffing process, such happenings may put staffers in a tight spot because those who would want to increase their revenue earnings will not at any time do so. They will therefore have failed to perform their duties of genuine staffing procedures and this may encourage development of bogus recruitment agencies that may not really care about the ethics of staffing. This will therefore affect the process of staffing negatively and this may further affect the performance of workers and a further effect on the entire human resource (Dale, 2003). Illegal immigration may lead to emergence of unscrupulous employers who may not pay them well. Since the immigrants are consciously aware of their crime of being illegally in the country, they virtually have no voice to press for compensation of damages due to injuries met at work. This is because of the fear that they may be traced, tracked and taken back to their country of origin. The workers are therefore left to perish with their own perils since their employers only want to profit themselves out of cheap labor. The workers in this case are not able to claim any compensation that may arise due to the tasks or work that they do. When such things happen, it is not usually part of staffing or human resource to deny the workers what is genuinely theirs and this may greatly affect the reputation of the staffing companies who may have been involved in the process of selection of the workers in question. This may further affect the compensation of other workers and the eventual work performance (LeMay, 2007). It is important to note that, workers are entitled to join workers and trade unions which may in turn help them in solving problems or issues that arise as it concerns their work. However, it is necessary to understand that workers are able to join such unions when they earn a certain minimum wage which may not be practically possible owing the fact that the illegal immigrants are in abundance and law of demand dictates that they be paid less so that the entire pool of workers may be absorbed. This therefore raises a problem of lack of enough voice to articulate for their rights and this affects even the genuine residents of a country. This is because their will be a seemingly large number of workers but when it comes to those who are dully represented a problem arises. This will therefore be negatively affecting the performance of the genuine immigrants and may influence the way their employers handle them. Any friction that may arise between the employer and employee may affect the work performance and any handling that does not favor the welfare of the worker will be unethical and against the basic expectations from a human resource manager. This will ultimately affect the process of staffing on one way or another (OECD, 2000). Illegal immigrants have their own problems in their home country and there is a possibility that they may transfer such problems to the host country. Such problems may include contagious diseases, overpopulation leading to traffic jam and infection of the genuine residents of a country. This will affect the productivity of workers and this may force the human resource managers to hire other workers to replace those who have fallen sick from infection. As it is usual, the process of recruitment and selection is always carried out after stipulated period of time by the human resource managers and not any arbitrary time. It therefore means that the affected company may be forced to re-adjust their schedule so as to replace the sick employees. it is apparently clear that during such time, the companies are desperately in need of quick labor force to replace the on that is missing (Adler Gielen, 2003). As they do this, it would be absurd to think that the process of recruitment and selection is properly followed and this affects the overall process of staffing. The negative effects of illegal immigration can not really be exhaustibly discussed. The other effect includes emergence of individuals who undertake the crime of providing illegal document (visas) to the illegal immigrants. Such people may end up providing documents to illegal immigrants who end up being terrorists who carry out attacks to the harmless citizens. Such attacks like that of 9/11 were carried by illegal immigrants and this has greatly affected the job market in different ways. First is the fact that it has led to the victimization of people of a particular race or origin. Such people may be subjected to unnecessary scrutiny by the authorities thus discouraging them from searching for jobs in the U. S market (Seltser, et al 1998). This may be an additional task to the recruitment agencies that carry out recruitment and selection of employees and may not be part of what they are supposed to do. This will ultimately affect the quality of staffing processes undertaken by global human resource managers who may be dictated to follow recruitment procedures that does not correlate with the staffing ethics. It therefore links illegal immigration, terrorism and staffing (Djajic, 2001). The second effect of terrorism linked to illegal immigration is that, the nation may end up losing personnel and expatriates needed to drive the economy. This usually happens when the country become too obsessed in fighting terrorism. People may also flee from a country for fear of further terrorist attacks and this will reduce the number of qualified employees that are needed. This may force the global human resource managers to lower the qualifications of the needed job so as to acquire the necessary people required to run the economy. This will ultimately distort the common professional techniques of carrying out interviewing and appraising of candidates which is essential for any recruitment process. It will render it hard to get the best people with the correct mental capabilities, motivation and prospective potentials. The other problem that arises due to illegal immigration is tax evasion and loan and mortgage default. This is because the immigrants do not have identification documents that may help in tracing them and eventual lose the money and also tax. The effect does not end there because those employees of the bank may lose their jobs or incur loses themselves since it is assumed that they should have taken thorough vetting of customers before releasing any funds to them. If this happens it may indicate recruitment process may not have been sufficiently done to acquire the best employees who cannot fall for the fraudsters or the defaulters in this particular case. This may require the organization, bank affected to recheck their methods of recruitment and selection in the future. It may also result in the loss of credibility of the recruitment agency that may have been used by the bank to acquire its employees. This will therefore influence the overall mode of staffing (LeMay, 2007). Despite the negatives results of illegal immigration however, there are positive aspects of the illegal immigration to the economy. The most obvious one is the provision of cheap labor to the industries and agriculture. Most immigrants who come from poor countries do menial jobs like maids, cultivating for the flowers and other jobs that residents of the United States may see it necessary for them to do so. This labor when also provided in farms is relatively cheaper than that of the qualified people who reside in that country. This will ultimately minimize the cost of production an ultimately raises the profits margins of the company or the farmer thus influencing growth positively (OECD, 2000). In relation to staffing, it will be realized that no formal recruitment is done when acquiring such form of cheap labor. This therefore shows that, illegal immigration has the positive effect of reducing the cost of recruitment and selection. This will reduce the cost of production and an overall rise in the revenue of the employer. As has been stated earlier, most of the illegal immigrants who are employed prefer cash payment for their work that they have done than the use of credit cards. This is simply because they want to avoid being tracked since it is very possible with the use of credit cards. The cash payment will increase cash flow in the retail business because they will make most of their purchases there. Increase in cash flow will mean that the business in question has made larger amount of sales and it leads to greater revenues and profits. The firm that has made profits may think of expanding its premises and this creates employment opportunities to other people who have skills in the market. The issue of staffing arises here since recruitment agencies may be called in to carry out the exercise and will be required to do so with diligence as to ensure that the best employees are chosen and that they will be able to serve in a better manner that will enhance the profitability and service delivery. It is clearly indicated that cash paid to the illegal immigrants directly or indirectly influence the employment opportunities for other workers in the economy (Djajic, 2001). Immigrants who move to another country though illegally provide a larger market for the locally produced goods. This is because their living standards will improve compared to their home country. This will obviously spur economic growth of the entire nation with increase in the level of growth. This includes creation of a variety of job opportunities to all the people in that country. A further positive aspect that illegal immigration may bring is the purchase of real estate by the immigrants. They may also buy vehicles and this will enhance the growth of the insurance industry. Growth will obviously include the increase in the number of workers in the industry in question and this will influence staffing just as discussed in the cases studied initially. Illegal immigration is a complex issue but we cannot assume that it has no solution (Brings, 1984). The government of the United States and that of Mexico should start by imposing hefty fines to those found in the crime of illegal immigration and the money that is collected should be used to implement efficient security at the border. When this is done, those planning to do so will be discouraged because they will obviously not be able to pay and the only option they will have are to use genuine means to gain entry to the United States. We should not always assume that is cheap but rather have this in mind that it is a source of problems that are very harsh to the economy. Most immigrants in Mexico come over illegally or from other countries in search for jobs in the United States and they prefer the low pay in the United States than a relatively well paying job in their country of origin like Mexico (Seltser, et al 1998). Conclusion The process of staffing constitutes recruitment and selection of the best qualified personnel with the use of the best ethics in acquisition of employees. This is usually done by global human resource managers or recruitment agencies on behalf of companies or individuals and it is their duty to ensure that the best recruitment procedures are followed so as to obtain the qualified personnel (Scullion Collings, 2006). However, illegal immigration has brought in a lot of problems that affect the quality of the recruitment procedures. As it has been seen in this research, illegal immigration may affect the process of staffing in several ways chief among them, shortage of labor in the country of origin, increase in crime that lead to lowered self esteem of the workers, and distortion of the law of demand and supply. In addition to this there is a further use of public facilities like hospitals and schools in excess of what they may be able to do so. This results in influencing the attitude of workers towards work. It has also been reported that there is increased crime, smuggling of goods and drug trafficking between the border of Mexico and the United States (Lee, 1996). It is however important to not that that illegal immigration has some positive effects and this may include the provision of cheap labor to companies and individuals by lowering the operational cost thus enhancing the market revenue. The laborers also provide ready market for the very local goods that may have otherwise have been wasted and this will influence labor supply in one way or the other. Anything that influences labor supply also influences how and when the recruitment and selection process is carried out (Brings, 1984). Furthermore, it determines how best the ethics have been executed since the greater the degree of ethics that been followed the better the staffing procedures and one is sure to get the best qualified employee out of the others. It is apparently clear that the past history of illegal immigration has been pronounced and has affected the process of economic growth in one way or the other in the United States and Mexico. The effects extend up to affecting the quality of labor in the market and unequal economic growth between the two countries. It is necessary therefore for the leaders of the nations affected to put up measures that will end up this vice once and for all. Illegal immigration is also rampant in Europe evidenced by the number of ships originating from Africa but are regularly arrested though some are unfortunately drowned in the event that they meet strong waves and tides of the sea. This problem can be solved by ensuring that the mother nations have improved economy so that its citizens may not see the need to immigrate to other well developed countries (Seltser, et al 1998). References: Adler, L. L. Gielen, U. P (2003). Migration: Immigration and Emigration in International Perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group. Bean, F. D Vernez, G. (1989). Opening and Closing the Doors: Evaluating Immigration Reform and Control. The Urban Insitute Publishers. Brings, V. M (1984). Immigration Policy and the American Labor Force. Johns Hopkins University Press Dale, M. (2003). Managers guide to recruitment and selection. Kogan Page Publishers. Djajic, S. (2001). International Migration: Trends, Policy and Economic Impact. New York. Routledge Publishers Daugherty, H. G Kammeyer, K. C. W (1995). An Introduction to Population Guilford Press. Haines, D. W Rosenblum, K. E (1999). Illegal Immigration In America: A Reference Handbook. Greenwood Publishing Group.. Lee, R. D (1996). Local Fiscal Effects of Illegal Immigration: Report of a Workshop Compass Series. National Academies Publishers. LeMay, M. C (2007). Illegal Immigration: A Reference Handbook Contemporary World Issues. ABC-CLIO Publishers. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2000). Combating the Illegal Employment of Foreign Workers: International Migration. National Academies Publishers. Seltser, B. J. , Rezmovic, E. L. Stolz, B. A (1998). Illegal Immigration: Southwest Border. DIANE Publishing Scullion, H. Collings, D. G. (2006). Global Staffing. New York. Routledge Publishers. Yoshida, C. (2000). Illegal Immigration and Economic Welfare. Springer. .

The Many Ways To Be Polite

The Many Ways To Be Polite Politeness is the actions taken by a competent speaker in a community in order to attend to possible social or interpersonal disturbance. Politeness is something strange which can be seen in different forms and levels. What is polite and what not depends on where you grew up and what norms of politeness you acquired there ( Meyerhoff 2006: 81). In a conversation a speaker might say something that would be considered very rude by the listener, but that speaker might actually just trying to be polite. He was being polite according to the standards of where he grew up. So, politeness is expressed in different ways, in different places. In this essay, we will see the different forms and levels of politeness and how these forms attend to different social needs. Also we will look at examples of the different forms that requests and apologies can take. We will explore how useful is distinguishing between the politeness which is used between friends and with people that we are not very familiar with. Then we will briefly discuss about the frameworks of politeness that are used in a workplace interaction and intercultural communication. All these phenomenon of politeness will be discussed in this paper with consideration of Brown and Levinsons theory (1978) in order to illustrate how there is more than one way of being polite. According to Meyerhoff (2006) there are a number of different ways in which linguists can analyse politeness. The various approaches differ primarily in the emphasis placed on the speaker, the addressee or both, and the emphasis given to accounting for behavior that would be considered polite or behavior that would be considered impolite (p. 83). The most widely known and extensively used approach to the study of politeness is Brown and Levinsons theory which has the most dominant position in the field.People associate politeness just with ways of speaking that avoid causing offence by showing deference to another person. (Meyerhoff 2006: 84). Brown and Levinson (1978) state that deference would be inappropriate in any speech community, in some contexts. Comments that orient to in-group membership may be what starts an interaction and avoid causing offence. For example you do not always reply thank you so much when someone helps you, cheers or thanks works better. Extreme deference c ould be taken as ironic or snobbish. Now, before continuing in more depth with Brown and Levinsons theory, it is useful to refer to Grices Maxims (1975), a set of rules that people follow in communication to maintain participant harmony. Brown and Levinsons theory suggests that these four Grices principles for speaking in a cooperative way, were correct. These rules can be summed up as the Maxim of quality where a person should be truthful and sincere, the Maxim of quantity: a person must say no more or less than required, the Maxim of relevance: being relevant to that topic and the Maxim of manner: being perspicuous. All of which underpins and is underpinned by the idea that the people involved in a conversation will cooperate with each other (the cooperative principle). These four principles are not considered to be a theory of face but constitute a foundation for a theory of face, later developed by Brown and Levinson. (Adapted for Brown and Levinson 1978:95 ) The theory of Brown and Levinson suggests that there are two types of politeness. The negative politeness strategies which are the strategies that avoid offence by showing deference (e.g. Do you mind if I borrow it for a second?) and the positive politeness strategies are those that avoid offence by highlighting friendliness (e.g. You look fit and healthy-any chance you could help me push the car?). Also, considering a strategy to be polite or impolite depends on the attention that a speaker pays to his own face wants and the addressees face wants. The term face derives from the work of Goffman (1967). In Goffmans work, face was a personal attribute or quality that each of us works to protect or enhance. In Brown and Levinson the definition of face emphasises less that interpersonal and communal nature of the face wants. Face is the public self-image that every model person (MP) claims for him or herself. Brown and Levinson propose that we want to guard our face against possible dama ge when we interact with others. (Meyerhoff 2006: 84) Now, it is important to refer to the factors involved in choosing politeness strategies. Choosing what kinds of strategies would be polite or impolite in a situation depends on evaluating three main factors. Power, distance and weight (cost) of imposition were identified by Brown and Levinson. Power refers to the difference in status between participants in discourse, distance relates to the level of familiarity that exists between the speaker and the addressee, and weight of imposition relates to the extent to which one wishes to impose on another person. People often put more effort to be polite to people that their position have greater social power than we have. For example I will use more negative politeness strategies (more polite) to a government official processing a passport application than I will use (less polite) to a telemarketer who rings during dinner. This has to do with power because I want the government official to do me a favor and speed up my application as for the telemarketer, he needs something from me so I am the one with power. Also, the social distance between speakers has a huge effect on the way that they speak to each other. Generally, we give more attention to the negative face wants (more polite) of people we do not know very well and we are more abrupt to close friends. For example when you are cooking with a close friend you might say Youve got the butter instead of I think the butter is closer to you that it is to me so could you pass it to me. But, when working with someone that you are not very close you might ask in less direct way, showing more attention to their negative face wants, you might say something like Excuse me, are those the telephone accounts? Could I have them for a second? . The cost of imposition, according to Brown and Levinson meant how big the social infraction is. An example is when you ask someone for the time, which is considered as a situation with a minor imposition, you can a stranger in the road for the time and the politeness strategies pay little attention to face wants (Sorry do you have the time?). But, asking for money is greater imposition. You usually ask for money someone you are close to and if the amount is big you will probably ask someone who is even closer to you, like a very close friend. Under this framework there are three social variables which shape the way that people choose the politeness strategies they will use.Their attention to others positive and negative face wants will be determined by the relative power and social of the interactants and by the social lost of the imposition (Meyerhoff 2006: 88). These three factors are by no means independent. Earlier, I referred to the two types of politeness and the term face. Actually, there are two types of politeness because we are concerned with maintaining two distinct kinds of face, the negative and the positive face. The negative face is the want of every competent adult member of a community that their actions be unimpeded by others. The positive face is the want of every member that their wants be desirable to at least some others. (Brown and Levinson 1987:62 in Meyerhoff 2006: 85). Some societies orientate more towards deference and being attentive to negative face wants. In such societies it seems very rude to ignore the distance that might be between you and your addressee and talk as if you know her or him better than you do. A Language example is Forgive me, Ms Smith, I do apologise, but could I possibly intrude for a second. In this sentence the title Ms shows deference politeness and distance attending to negative face. Forgive me and I do apologise try to reduce the imposition of the request and attends to negative face. A further attempt to reduce the cost of imposition is could I, possibly and a second. In contrast, there are societies which orientate towards positive face. The interaction between strangers is expected to be more personable and friendly. In these societies it is rude to interact by emphasizing or drawing attention to the social distance between the interlocutors. Such a society is the Australians, where the use of first names is the norm even in professional contexts. A language example of such a society is a greeting to an old friend that you have not seen for some time e.g. Tapper! Its been ages. Youre looking good. Whatve you been doing nowadays?. In this greeting the use of ingroup code (the nickname Tapper), showing attention to the addressees interests (Whatve you been doing nowadays?) and exaggerating the speakers interest or approval (Youre looking good) are strategies that attend to the addressees positive face wants. Brown and Levinson suggest that some conversational events which represent a threat to another individuals self-image are described as inherently facethreating acts (FTAs). When such an event occurs it is sure that somebodys positive or negative face wants will be threatened, and the participants have to decide what politeness strategies they will use. Examples of FTAs are expressing thanks and making an apology, these are threats to the speakers face wants. Saying thanks establishes indebtedness to the other person. Making an apology is having to state publicly that you have done something stupid or unkind, this threatens your positive face wants as other people may not identify you and will be unwilling to suggest that they share your wants and desires. So depending on how serious an FTA is it will require more or less action to mitigate (or reduce) the potential damage to the addressees or the speakers face. (Meyerhoff 2006: 90). As I said in the introduction I will also briefly discuss about the frameworks of politeness which are used in intercultural communication. Peoples use of politeness varies in intercultural communication depending on where they come from and how their societies orientate towards politeness. An example of such differences is when making a request for a drink in a bar in English and doing the same in German. In English you usually use strategies to attend the addressees negative face wants. (Could I have a glass of red wine, please?). But, in German there is not such an attention to the servers negative face wants and it is appropriate to say I will get red wine. Sometimes a could or please may be added but using both will sound absurd and snooty. (Meyerhoff 2006: 97). Another example is how people refuse an invitation to a meal from a social superior. In some cultures a general answer like Im busy that night Im afraid will be perfectly acceptable but in western communities people want to give a reason for your refusal. (Holmes 2001: 275). This has to do with peoples negative and positive face wants. People from western communities are more concerned about their positive face, they want their wants to be desirable to at least some others and they do not like drawing attention to the social distance. In conclusion, indeed there is more than one way of being polite. As it is presented above, politeness has many forms and levels and can be used in different ways. Politeness is perceived differently depending on where you grew up and your social status so it can be also expressed differently. People use different strategies to express politeness in a conversation depending on who is the addressee, what is his social status and how close they are to him. According to Brown and Levinsons theory there are two basic strategies, the positive and the negative strategy. These two strategies exist because we are concerned to maintain two kinds of face, the negative and positive face. People have to evaluate three factors in order to decide what strategies they will use, power, distance and cost of the imposition.

The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Womans Role in the Family Essay

The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Woman's Role in the Family Female children born into low income families in Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean are burdened with a stereotype that their male counterparts will never know. When faced with the gender oppression their society has constantly been feeding, and the fact that so many women must act as the single financial heads of their families, many women of the Caribbean must settle for low paying occupations associated with 'female' or domestic labor. For women born into families at the bottom of the economic ladder, there is little hope of social mobility or escape from the fist of poverty. In most cases, the cycle continues to feed itself from mother to daughter. In my paper I will demonstrate this cycÀle by examining the Caribbean women's role in the family as head of the household and the education, employment and survival strategies characteristic to many of these women. I will conclude my paper by discussing some of the new organizations and movements that have surfaced in the C aribbean within the past thirty years that are fighting for women's empowerment. In his highly acclaimed novel In the Castle of My Skin, which he dedicates to his mother, in chapter three George Lamming eloquently describes what is actually a common scene among islands of the Caribbean: women gathered together in a common yard for the purpose of gossip. While it may seem to be an insignificant event, in a region where the responsibilities involved in raising a family fall mainly on women's shoulders, their bond with each other is essential. Miss Foster. My mother. Bob's mother. It seemed they were three pieces in a pattern which remained constant. Miss Foster had six children, th... .... 1998. 3. Ellis, Pat. Women of the Caribbean. New Jersey: Zeb Books Ltd., 1986. 4. Haniff, Nesha Z. Blaze a Fire. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1988. 5. Lamming, George. In the Castle of My Skin. USA: University of Michigan Press, 1991. 6. Massiah, Joycelin. omen as Heads of Households in the Caribbean: family structures and feminine status. Colchester: Unesco, 1983. 7. Senior, Olive. Working Miricles: Women's Lives in the English-speaking Caribbean. London: James Currey Ltd, 1991. 8. Shepherd, Verene. Engendering History: Caribbean Women in Historical Perspective. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 9. Walker, Susan."Rastafarian Women Speak Out"The Toronto Star 12 Aug. 1994: Pg. D12. 10. Yawney, Carole D. Moving with the dawtas of Rastafari: from myth to reality. pgs. 15--23; 33--55; and 65--73. (excerpts from Teresa Turner's New Society.)

To Kill A Mockingbird: Childhood Experience :: essays research papers

To Kill A Mockingbird: Childhood Experience   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Have you ever thought of an answer to reply to your children, when they ask you, â€Å"What was the world like when you were a child?†, â€Å"What things that happened that impressed you most when you were a child?† or â€Å"How interesting is your childhood experience?†. Everybody must have had their childhood. Some of the experiences may cause them to smile, or even laugh, while some of them may bring back bitter memories. It is always hard to express the childhood incidents or experience in a clear and interesting way, since they were past memories that happened long time ago. Moreover, when a person has grown up, they will never have the same feeling which they might have in their childhood. However, the authors Harper Lee and Mark Twain can express their own childhood inside the stories they created, in a lively and realistic way. The two novels To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer have a very similar characteristic. It is the way they describe a person's childhood experience, and their feelings and new knowledge that come out from those experiences. This characteristic, however, has given me a big revelation after reading the two novels. The novels show that the childhood experience of a person has a great positive influence on his personality, behaviour, and ways on dealing with others. This idea has been shown by the authors in both novels.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, one could discover that innocent behaviour and misunderstanding can lead a child to view a person or thing incorrectly and incompletely. This behaviour can also lead a child to a wrong perspective. In the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird, the main characters Scout, Jem, and Dill thought that the Radley family and their member, Boo Radley, as strange and unnatural human beings. They described Radley's house as â€Å"That is a sad house....† (Harper Lee, 48). This is a â€Å"fact† they heard from their neighbours. Until one day, their neighbour Miss Maudie's house was found on fire. While Scout was standing outside in the cold watching the fire, someone from behind her and put a blanket around her shoulders. Later, Scout and Jem realized that there was only one person in town who had not fought to put out the fire -- Boo Radley. Scout asked, â€Å"Thank who?†(Harper Lee, 76). Jem replied, â€Å"Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you.†(Harper Lee, 76) It was then that Scout and Jem started

Copper Mountain Essay -- Environmental Issues

It’s a sunny October afternoon and I’m listening to the breeze gently rustle the tree tops above me. I look down into the creek as I sit here munching on some cashews, and I see trout gliding effortlessly through the crystal-clear water. I revel in how incredibly lush the area is†¦although it’s been a dry summer the ground is still moist, plants are bright and colorful, and wildlife is abound. After I finish my snack and tuck my trash away into my backpack, I continue my hike up this parcel of land that is may soon become barren with towers of steel and wire draping the landscape. I wonder to myself what will become of these fish, or the fresh clean water that runs into the Reeder Reservoir, the source of Ashland’s drinking water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ski area expansions are the most ecological damaging task that an area can undertake. In a plan revision for the White River National Forest in Colorado, regarding the Copper Mountain Ski Resort expansion, the EPA hammers that point home when they say that â€Å"†¦no other land management prescription on the Forest directly results in more stream-water depletion, wetland impacts, air pollution, permanent vegetation change, or permanent habitat loss†¦ more wetland impacts and stream depletions resulted from ski area expansion and improvement than from all other Forest management activities combined, including many direct and indirect impacts that are permanent (irreversible and irretrievable).† Meanwhile, skier numbers nationally have only increased just two percent since 1978(source). Which begs the question, why have ski area sizes more than doubled in acreage to the tune of 107%(source)? Mt. Ashland’s future expansion surely isn’t needed due t... ...ts past development and expansion of the Copper Mountain ski area as major factor in the degradation of the watershed and local water quality. Impacts include: increased peak flows, increased water temperature, increased erosion and sediment transport, and decrease flow due to snowmaking activities. The USDA has taken exhaustive steps to help mitigate the damage caused by the expansion at a great financial cost to taxpayers. The USDA has had to redesign all stream crossings to allow for higher stream flows and to withstand expected floods. They also performed physical modifications of the stream patterns and stream geometry to improve long term stream health. Environmental Scorecard Concerned locals first brought attention to the Environmental Scorecard in November of 2008 after an article published in the local newspaper, Ashland Daily Tidings, appeared.

Internet Library Research Essay

The library is one of the best places wherein students can gather information for their assignments and researches. Libraries contain thousands of books that vary in subjects such as mathematics, sciences, arts, languages, and literature. In addition, it also provides students with other types of resources including periodicals, maps, CD-ROMs, and even the Internet. To say, therefore, that libraries are important in a student’s life is an understatement. As such, schools should make sure that students have constant access to the libraries even while at home. The North Central University is one of the many schools in the country that offers online access to its library. Students are able to search for resources that they need to complete their works even while not at the campus. They can talk to a librarian if they wish to. They can refer to guides if they encounter difficulty in using the online library or if they are confused in the writing process and cannot finish their research. The best feature of the university’s website is the abundance of resources it can provide for its students because of the numerous databases that it can access. The login page of the university is simple in that it does not require the students to search the page just to be able to log in properly. The login page also has options for first time users who have no account yet, for students who have forgotten their passphrase, and for those who need to reset their passphrases. An option to remember the user is also available on the page. The login button will take the student to the main page of the university’s website, which is the Learner Portal. Here, the student will be able to view his or her messages, announcements, and important events through the calendar. The portal has links to several other features, which include the library, writing center, and university documents. Clicking on the link for the library will direct the student to the main page of the North Central University online library. There are several options available for students in this area. One can ask a librarian about the availability of certain books. Students can search multiple databases for scholarly references. There are also guides in which students can refer themselves to if they have a hard time writing their researches. To perform a search that will yield scholarly references, students must click the NCU databases link and select their choice of database from here. The databases include EBSCOhost, LexisNexis Academic, ProQuest, and Sage. The database chosen for this activity was ProQuest, and the topic that searched was â€Å"ethical leadership in the 21st century. † Before performing the search however, there was an instruction to select the option â€Å"Database selected† so that the students will have the opportunity to select only the databases that are relevant to the search. The pre-determined databases include Career and Technical Education, Dissertations and Theses, ProQuest Computing, ProQuest Education Journals, and Research Library. The results of the search yielded seven documents from which only three were relevant. Among these three, only two was able to give full access to the document. The subjects that these documents fell under include counseling, organization behavior, anthropology, business ethics, psychiatry, and information science. Of these, only two were relevant to the topic being searched. The chosen citation reviewed was the one with the latest date of publication entitled â€Å"The Ethical Grounding to 21st Century Public Leadership. † There was a little difficulty experienced while searching for the author link because the document was full-text PDF format, which does not contain any links to the author. This was resolved by clicking the option to view the abstract of the document where the author’s name was hyperlinked to his other works. This particular document had two authors. Clicking the link for the first author (Niel R. Vance) gave five documents and only one was related to the original document because it discussed applied ethics. The second author (Brett V. Trani) did not have any other work aside from this document. Because there were only three relevant documents related to the search terms, another search was performed. This time, the word â€Å"21st† was replaced with â€Å"twenty first. † This yielded five results, two of which were relevant. The ProQuest database is user oriented in that it provides a Help link for people to find ways to enhance their search process. At the beginning of the search, the Help option allows students to learn how to improve their search. Students will learn how to limit their searches or exclude other options to refine their search. This would lead to better results and would take the students less effort when searching for their resources. Another Help link is also available after a search is completed. This will teach students how to read and mark a document, cite the document properly, and filter or sort the results. The database can also suggest topics and publications that are related to the student’s keywords. Overall, ProQuest excels in trying to provide scholarly and useful resources for the students of North Central University. The results were very relevant and close to the terms that were used to search the database. There were many helpful hints throughout the website for students to use so that they can experience the best while searching. These tips were also significant because the students are able to apply them in their papers, which would mean that they would commit fewer errors in their works. There was also an option for students to email a specific article if they want to share what they have found in their search. The references that the document used can also be viewed by the student to see if there are relevant information that can be used for his or her work. The experience provided new insights in performing searches. Although it was relatively easy, students need to know some tricks to yield better results like changing some keywords or using the suggested topics that the database provides. There is no doubt that technology has a big impact on everyone’s lives nowadays. Educational institutions have to keep up with the changing of times to meet the needs of their students even if it means having to set up websites and online libraries, and acquiring huge databases for their students. Online libraries are important because this would provide students reliable sources for their papers. This is in contrast to Internet articles that are freely available on the World Wide Web but are sometimes misleading and are questionable in terms of the content and the authority of the person who wrote it. While not all that can be found on the Internet is unreliable, it is better for students to not take the risk, especially if it is their grades that are on the line. Only trusted information should be used when doing academic research papers unless otherwise indicated by professors and instructors. It is essential to mention that students need to learn how to distinguish reliable sources from those that cannot be trusted. They should learn how to distinguish if a website has the requirements for it to be considered reliable. References Bahaudin G Mujtaba, Carol Griffin, Cuneyt Oskal. (2004). Emerging Ethical Issues in Technology and Countermeasures for Management and Leadership Consideration in the Twenty First Century’s Competitive Environment of Global Interdependence. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 9(3), 34-55. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1178660741). Kanungo, Rabindra N. (1998). Leadership in organizations: looking ahead to the 21st century. Canadian Psychology, 39(1/2), 71. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ProQuest Psychology Journals database. (Document ID: 390882341). M. Fleckenstein, Mary Maury, S. M. Patrick Primeaux, Patricia Werhane. (2006). Ethical Leadership in 21st Century Corporate America. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(2-3), 145-146. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1113480671). Neil R Vance, Brett V Trani. (2008). THE ETHICAL GROUNDING TO 21st CENTURY PUBLIC LEADERSHIP. International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, 11(3), 372-380. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1536919851). Rost, Joseph C. (1995). Leadership: A discussion about ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(1), 129. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 4596738). Vivienne Collinson. (2008). Leading by learning: new directions in the twenty-first century. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(4), 443-460. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1506286921).

Public Speaking Self-Reflection Essay

In order for public speaking to become a skill, there are a few areas in which I need to improve to make it a suitable strength. Public speaking is not a weakness for me but I would like to transform it into one of my strengths. During my two minute presentation, I found that in order to do this I need to improve my ability to perform long speeches without hesitation, maintain eye contact, and be energetic in front of an audience showing more overview what topic I am discussing. In class I plan to work on take the steps of improving my verbal communication in front of my peers. While talking I plan to avoid using filler words that will drag a speech on and draw less interest from my audience. Being able to talk among my peers by keeping good eye contact on them at all times. By doing this it allows me the freedom to walk around and not be completely immobile when giving a speech. Understanding how to organize my work to have a solid overview on what I will be saying when presenting. With this class I hope it takes me to a whole new level on how to talk to people and how to control my emotions when in front of any audience regardless who it is. By allowing myself this sense of understand and awareness will help give me a sense of calmness giving me the ability to stand up and say what I need to say when giving a speech or if I am in a crowd listening to someone speak to offer my views on what is being said. In order for myself to improve my weak areas to accomplish my goals I will have to do the following: first write a speech and review it, next go over the speech many times in a place I feel safe performing the speech. After this find a mirror, use this to help reduce my fear when speaking in front of people. If this doesn’t work for me I can always use my family to help me. This will be continued to repeat itself until I felt I was ready to give my p resentation. Once I have accomplished improving my shortcomings will have the tools needed to be successful in any  job related to my career field.

Politeness and Culture Essay

1.1 What is politeness? Politeness is a kind of socio-cultural phenomenon in human communication. It has been defined in diverse ways. For Kochman (1984), politeness has a protective mission exercised in putting things in such a way as to take account of the feelings of others: Polite conversation is†¦ a way of showing consideration for other people’s  feelings, that is, not saying or doing anything that might unduly excite or arouse. The ‘gentleman’s agreement’ (though, hardly just confined to adult males) is and was ‘ you don’t do or say anything that might arouse my feelings, and I won’t do or say anything that might arouse yours’†¦ (1984:204) Watts (1992) defines polite behaviour as â€Å"socio-culturally determined behavior directed towards the goal of establishing and/or maintaining in a state of equilibrium the personal relationships between the individuals of a social group, whether open or closed, during the ongoing process of interaction† (1992:50) Therefore, the term â€Å"politeness† may be generally defined as adequate social conduct and tactful consideration of others aiming to avoid interactional conflicts. Politeness can be realized in a number of ways, among which the use of language concerns us most in the present discussion. Politeness is then taken to be the various forms of language structure and usage which allow the members of a socio-cultural group to achieve their conflict-avoiding goals. If politeness is seen as the adequacy of linguistic behavior, then all speakers of different languages are equally polite, since they all have linguistic means at their disposal, which according to their rules of application are adequate in different situations. The concept of politeness, therefore, is universally valid. 1.2 Motives of Being Polite Why do people apologize when they have done something wrong? Why do they compliment on their friend’s hairstyle? In one word, why do people behave appropriately, hence politely? The explanation of such diverse communicative behaviors lies in the consideration of â€Å"face†. Face is thus viewed as a positive public self-image that is maintaining in society. That is, in newly formed contacts the individual engages in establishing a public image for himself. In continued contacts he engages in sustaining and improving the face he has encouraged the others to develop for him. A fundamental preoccupation of people around the world is maintaining or protecting face. Threats to face, whether intended, accidental, or only imagined, are the basis of most interpersonal conflicts. They arise when people feel that their right to a positive self-image being ignored. One conventional way of avioding threats to face in all cultures is to be linguistically polite. To secure this public self-image, people engage in what Goffman calls â€Å"face work†, performing action â€Å"to make whatever they are doing consistent with face†(1967:12), while trying to save their own face as well as the other’s. Goffman (1967) specifies two kinds of face-work: the avoidance process (avoiding potentially face-threatening) acts and the corrective process (performing a variety of redressive acts). However, he says little about how face can be maintained linguistically while damage is occuring. As implied above, face wants are reciprocal, i.e. if one wants his face cared for, he should care for other people’s face. The reason is that, while the individual is absorbed in developing and maintaining his face, the others also have similar considerations for themselves. It is clear that one way of ensuring the maintenance of their own face is to keep everybody’s face undamaged. Normally, the participants during interaction work on the understanding that one will respect the other’s face as long as the other respects his. This point is best expressed by the concise rule in Scripture: Do unto all men as you would they should do unto you. Since face wants are reciprocal, politeness naturally concerns a relationship between two rational participants or interlocutors, whom we may call self and other. In a conversation, self may be identified with speaker or addresser, and other with hearer or addressee. Also it is possible that  speakers show politeness to a third party that is related to interlocutor’s face. 2.0 Language and Culture 2.1 Defining Culture Culture is a large and evasive concept. Sapir (1921) holds that culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks, and language is a particular way of thought. Language, in this way, is part of culture. Culture is also interpreted in the sense of Goodenough’s definition: As I see it, a society’s culture consists of whatever it is one had to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members†¦ Culture, being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage, must consist of the end-product of learning: knowledge, in a most geneal†¦ sense of the term (Goodenough,1954:167). Culture is thus whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society, including language and conventional behavioral norms that a person must follow or that other people in the society expect you to follow, to get through the task of daily living. When we study a culture, it is not enough to merely learn the knowledge of a language and behavioral norms, as Steinmetz, Bush and Joseph-Goldfare (1994) point out: Studying culture does not mean looking only at customs, insititution, and artifacts†¦, but also studying people’s values, beliefs, and attitudes and how they influence or are influenced by interaction among people. Culture should be studied as a process as well as a product (1994:12). As a combination of these views, culture consists of not only language, behavioural norms, which can be observed, but also values and beliefs underlying them. The famous metaphor of the â€Å"culture iceberg† (Hall & Hall,  1990) indicates that many aspects of culture, such as certain beliefs, world views, and values, are below the surface of consciousness ( in the submerged part of the iceberg). Other aspects of culture, like language, eating habits, customs, are in the conscious area ( above the waterline). It is often the less conscious cultural aspects that influenced the way people communicate with each other. 2.2 Language and Culture We are now in a position to see language and culture in a dialectical relationship. Every language is part of a culture. As such, it cannot but serve and reflect cultural needs. This does not necessarily go against Saussure’s thesis that the signified of a language are arbitrary and hence derive their exact identity from systems of relationships. What needs to be added, however, is that this arbitrariness is not as absolute as he suggested, but is limited by the particular cultural setting from which a language extracts its signified. Within the broad limits set by the specific needs of a culture, a language is free to make arbitrary selections of signifieds. This element of arbitrariness is brone out by the fact that there is of a speech community and its linguistic resources. Thus neither linguistic determinism nor cultural determinism can adequately explain why a language should select its unique system of signs, for these selections are made partly in response to cultural needs and partly owing to the inherent ( limited ) arbitrariness of the process. There is yet another sense in which language is not a passive reflector of culture. Even assuming that culture is in many cases the first cause in the language-culture relationship, language as the effect in the first link of the casual chain will in turn be the cause in the next link, reinforcing and preserving beliefs and customs and conditioning their future course. 3.0 Politeness and Culture 3.1 The Concept of Face In Chinese and English The central to B & L’s politeness theory is the concept of face, and its two concimitant desires—– negative face and positive face, which are defined from the perspective of individual’s wants. B & L maintain that notion of face constituted by these two basic desire is universal (1987:13). This section thus aims to examine whether their notion of face is applicable in Chinese culture. Since they acknowledge deriving their formulation of face from Goffman’s classic account of face and from the English folk notion of face (1987:61), these two sources will be dealt with first. 3.1.1 The Source of B & L’s † Face† The first source is Goffman’s account of face. Goffman characterizes face as â€Å"the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact†. He sees face not as a private or an internalized flow of events, supported by other people’s judgments, and enclosed by â€Å"impersonal agencies in the situation† (1967:7). Seen in this light, face becomes a public image that is on loan to individuals from society, and that will be withdrawn from them if they prove unworthy of it (1967:10). B & L say that their other sources is the English folk concept of face, which is linked to notions like â€Å"being embarrassed of humiliated, or ‘losing face'† (1987:61). But in fact, such notions of face seem to be Chinese in origin. The word â€Å"face† is a literal translation of the two Chinese characters and ( Hu,1944;Ho,1975). Presumably informed of these two sources, B & L characterize face as image that intrinsically belongs to the individual, to the self. This seems to part with their first source considerably. Here, the public characteristic that is essential to Goffman’s analysis of face seems to become an external modifier rather than an intrinsic constituent of this image. 3.1.2 Chinese â€Å"Face† As pointed out above, two Chinese characters and are used to convey the denotative meaning of the word â€Å"face† ( that is, † the front of the head†); they also encode connotative meanings, which have to do with reputable, respectable images that individuals can claim for themselves from communities in which they interact, or to which they belong (Ho,1957). More specifically, stands for prestige or reputation, which is either achieved through getting on in life (Hu, 1944:45), or ascribed by other members of one’s own community. refers to † the respect of the group for a man with a good moral reputation†; it embodies † the confidence of society in the integrity of ego’s moral character†, and it is † both a social sanction for enforcing moral standards and internalized sanction† (Hu, 1944:45). Chinese speakers, therefore, will be seen as being polite if they know how to attend to each other’s and and to enact speech acts appropriate to and worthy of such an image. 3.2 Difference Between Chinese â€Å"Face† and B & L’s â€Å"Face† The first difference is concerned with their overall conceptualization of face—-a difference that has been briefly alluded to above. B & L focus their notion of face primarily upon the individual—-rather than the communal-aspect of face; that is, the self is the principal constituent that contextualizes the concept of face. The self is â€Å"public† only to the extent that it depends on other’s face being manifested (B & L, 1987:61). The self depends on the public only to preserve its own interests. In short, the overall composition of this self-image, with its negative and positive aspects, only concerns the individual’s wants and desires. In contrast, Chinese face encodes a reputable image that individuals can claim for themselves as they interact with others in a given community; it is intimately linked to the views of the community and to the community’s judgment and perception of the individual’s character and behaviour. Chinese face emphasizes not the accommodation of individual â€Å"wants† or â€Å"desires† but the harmony of individual conduct with the views and judgment of the community. Chinese face, to quote Goffman again, is â€Å"on loan†¦from society† (1967:10); it belongs to the individual or to the self only to the extent  that the individual acts in full compliance with that face. The second difference is related to the content of face. B & L conceive of face as consisting of negative face and positive face. Their negative face refers to, and values, an individual’s need to be free of external impositions, a desire to be left alone to enjoy a sense of one’s â€Å"territorial integrity†. â€Å"Privacy† is a particular term used to describe this typical value, which is much more treasured in English culture than in Chinese; whereas Chinese face emphasizes one’s dependence on society’s recognition of one’s social standing and of one’s â€Å"reputable†existence, and subsequently, on society’s endorsement of one’s attending to it. Relatively speaking, Chinese â€Å"face† does not comprise the element of what B & L term â€Å"negative face†. 3.3 Cultural Assumption In this section, the differences of politeness in English and Chinese will be elaborated in terms of the different historicity that the concept of politeness can be traced back to, and of the fundamental cultural assumptions underlying the two different notions of English and Chinese â€Å"face†. 3.3.1 A Historical Review As we have known, privacy is a value derived from B & L’s notion of face. It is a notion embracing at once the freedom, rights, and the independence of action of man. Such a value is closely associated with the emancipation of man from the yokes of the church on the European continent, and with the opening up of the New World on the other side of the Atlantic—-North America. Consequently, showing respct to an individual’s liberty, his rights, his independence in Anglo-American culture, will be considered polite; lack of it will be improper, hence impolite. On the contrary, Chinese culture has had a 2000-year-long history of feudalism. Chinese civilization has been established on agriculture, and †Ã‚  Generations of peasants were tied to the land on which they lives and worked. Except in times of war and famine, there was little mobility, either socially and geographically† (Hu & Grove,1991:1). From this historicity resulted the collective (group-oriented) nature of Chinese value, which was reinforced ideologically in the Confucian tradition, a tradition that advocates subordinating the individual to the group or the community, and maintains that the ultimate goal of human behavior is to achieve harmony, which leads the Chinese to pursue a conflict-free and group-oriented system of an ever-expanding circle of human-relatedness (Chen, 1993). Namely, an individual is presumed not to satisfy the desire for freedom, but to gain self-esteem in harmony with group. Just as English culture values privacy, Chinese culture values harm ony. In modern Chinese, the equivalent of politeness is believed to have evolved in history from the notion of Li . The ancient philosopher and thinker Confucius (551—479 B.C.), in order to restore the harmony of society when there were constant wars between feudal states, advocated restoring Li. Derived from this book are four basic elements of politeness, or what count as polite behaviors: respectfulness, modesty, attitudinal warmth, and refinement. â€Å"Respectfulness† is the self’s positive appreciation of admiration of the other concerning the latter’s face, largely identical with the need to maintain the hearer’s positive face. â€Å"Modesty† can be seen as another way of saying â€Å"self-denigration†; though â€Å"modesty† varies in the importance attached to it in different cultures, it is to a large extent universal, her to interpret it as self-denigration is uniquely Chinese. â€Å"Attitudinal warmth† is the self’s demonstration of kindness, consideration, and hospitality, the speaker runs the risk of infringing on the hearer’s personal freedom, viz. privacy, thus threatening his negative face. Finally, â€Å"refinement† refers to the self’s behavior to the other which meets certain moral standards laid by society; it represents the normative character of politeness in addition to the instrumental aspect. These four essential elements of politeness are believed to manifest themselves in many Chinese speech events. 3.3.2 Two Construals of the Self: Interdependent and Independent If we examine the â€Å"deep structure† from which the two different notions of English and Chinese â€Å"face† can possibly be derived, them they can be said to have been informed metarphorically by two divergent underlying forces (Mao,1994): the centripetal force, which leads Chinese â€Å"face† to gravitate toward social recognition and hierarchical interdependence, and the centrifugal force, which enables English â€Å"face† to spiral outward from individual desires or wants with the self as the initiating agent. The centripetal force and centrifugal force represent two different face orientations, which correspond to two distinct construals of the self: an interdependent construal of the self and an independent construal of the self respectively(Markus and Kitayama, 1991). The independent construal of the self, endorsed by English culture and most Western countries, builds on † a faith in the inherent separateness of distinct persons â€Å". The normative imperative of this culture is to become independent of others and to discover and express one’s unique attributes (Miller, 1988). Thus achieving the cultural goal of independent requires construing oneself as an individual whose behavior is made meaningful primarily by reference to one’s own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions, rather than by reference to those of others; whereas the interdependent construal of the self, favoured by Chinese culture and most East Asian countries, insists on † the fundamental connectedness of human beings to each other†(Markus and Kitayama, 1991:227). A normative imperative of this culture is to maintain this interdependence, therefore, entails seeing oneself as part of an encompassing social relationship and recongnizing that one’s behavior is organized by what the self perceives to be the thoughts, feeling, and actions of others in the relationship, so that the self within such a construal becomes most meaningful and complete. BIBLIOGRAPHY Blum-Kulka, S. et al. 1984. Requests and apologies: A cross-cultural study of speech acts realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics 5(3):192-212 Brown, R. & S. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge:CUP. Chen, Guoming. 1993. A Chinese perspective of communication competence. Paper presented at the annual convention of the speech communication association, Miami Beach, FL. Goffman, E. 1967. Interactional Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books. Goffman, E. 1972. Interactional Ritual. London:Penguin. Goffman, E. 1971. Relations in Public: Macrostudies of the Public Order. Harmondsworth:Penguin Goodenough, W. H. 1957. Cultural anthropologh and linguistics. In Garvin, P.L.(ed.) Report of the 7th Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study. Washington: Georgetown University Press Hall, E. & M. Hall. 1990. Understanding Cultural Differences. Yarmouth, ME: International Press. Ho, D.1975. On the concept of face. American Journal of Sociology 81(4):867-84 Hu, Wenzhong & C. L. Grove. 1991. Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans Yarmouth, ME: International Press. Mao, L. R. 1994. Beyond politeness theory: â€Å"face† revisited and renewed. Journal of Pragmatics 21:451-86 Markus & Kitayama. 1991. Culture and self. Pshchological Review 98(2):224-53 Miller, J.G. 1988. Bridging the context-structure dichotomy: culture and the self. In M.H. Bond (ed.) The cross-cultural Challenge to Social Psychology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 266-81