Discussion 2 Week 10 The Assignment Model Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion 2 Week 10 The Model - Assignment Example ce in the balanced assignment model, the supply and the demand at each source and destination are clearly determined and limited to one, decision makers are provided with the essential tools to solve the problem conveniently. Likewise, as described, when the problem is unbalanced, it is either that the supply exceeds demand, or the demand exceeds the supply (Taylor, 2010). There are several benefits which could be gained from using the assignment model. For one, the decision makers are provided with clear constraints that would facilitate the formulation of decision variables along the indicated expected demand and supply at source and destination. In addition, through a study written by Caulley (1982), it was revealed that the applicability of the assignment model is appreciated in situations where â€Å"there is a variable to be optimized, such as teacher satisfaction. In the example used to demonstrate the assignment model, students are assigned to teachers in a way that matches them up with the students they request as much as possible†¦ The author concludes that the advantages of these models are that they give a better solution than can be obtained by inspection and they take teachers wishes into account regarding assignment† (par. 1). In addition, since these type of problems could be solved using computer applications through Excel or Excel QM, the decision makers could be provided with accurate solutions at the soonest possible time – giving the user of the model the convenience and ease of arriving at the most viable solution within a limited time period. Caulley, D. (1982, February). The Use of Assignment and Transportation Models in Evaluation. Research on Evaluation Program. Paper and Report Series No. 68. Retrieved from eric.ed.gov:

Individual Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Individual - Assignment Example In these scene the actions are done in order. The cat turns to see the mouse which in turn moves away from the cat. The method ti turn the cats head to face the mouse is this.cat gethead, turn ToFace this.mouse, the animation style used is Begin_And_End_Gently with a duration of 1.0 seconds. The method used in moving the mouse away is this.mouse gethead, turn ToFace this.cat, the animation style used is Begin_And_End_Gently with a duration of 1.0 seconds. the mouse then takes one step forward by lifting its right knee as shown above. The method involved is this.mouse getRightHip turn Right with a distance of 0.25. the hip is then dropped down and the next lifted.The cat on the other hand lifts its back left hip and back right hip at the same time. In this way the mouse is always one step ahead of the cat. This is are the final method and they are looped throughout the game. Farooq, M. (2012, October 5). Creating a Scene by Adding and Positioning Objects. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from Slideshare:

Evolutionary Analysis of Culex Species

Evolutionary Analysis of Culex Species INTRODUCTION: Culex, a mosquito belongs to the phylum Arthopoda, is an important factor causing filariasis [1] St. Louis encephalitis [2]West Nile virus [3] Avion malaria (4). C.quinquefasciatus also called the Southern house mosquito is extensively studied as it transmits crucial diseases [5]. C. pipiens found in the urbans (6) is because of swift urbanization uncanny city growth which eventually resulted in the progression the disease transmittors (7,8,9). Lymphatic filariasis is spread worldwide, affecting 120 million people  [10]. They bite on the foot regions of humans  (11) causing skin allergy associated with irritation  (12).Since 1979 there are reports Japanese encephalitis in India, AP and was again reported in 2003  [13]. Known as a cosmopolitan mosquito, acts as vector for protozoan parasites (14 ),filarial worms (15), and for arboviruses(16 ,17). Cx. quinquefasciatus is the prime vector in India causing filariasis  (18) which involve 91% caused by Wuchereria bancroftiCobbold   [19] Hence, therefore, it is very important to eradicate this for the human welfare for which it is very essential to understand them at their molecular levels. The genome sequence of Culex quienquefasciatus  [20]triggered a new hope for the researchers. However, the researchers are still involved in identifying and characterization of these species causing diseases  (21). The objective of the present article is to access the evolutionary relationship among the culex species with the DNA barcoding and to assess the evolutionary relationship with Tamura 3 Parameter. To accomplish the objective, it is important to use the advanced techniques like the computerized data assessments (22) which could have an immense impact on the health care S. Morio, Computers in Biology and Medicine, 9: 295 (1989)(BOOK) (23) system as the data could be accurate (22). The use of DNA barcoding has been in practice over the conventional 16s ribosomal DNA (24) which is more advantageous and promising (25) by playing a pivotal role in identification between the species (26). 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 2.1 Larvae collection and Characterization: Culex larvae were sampelled from various parts of Hyderabad during the breeding season from different locations, say stagnant water, coconut shells, tires etc. Thus collected larvae were reared and were identified morphologically for Culex quienquefasciatus under the microscope. Microscopic analysis revealed the following characteristics, Short and stout head, yellow long mouth brushes. It was also observed that the abdomen has eight segments, the saddle and the siphon, which is four times longer that its width, securing the larvae to be Culex quinquefasciatus. The larvae were allowed to grow into an adult (27). Further study was performed from the F1 generation of the pure culture after they were identified morphologically for adult. 2.2 DNA EXTRACTION: From the 4th instar larvae, the total DNA was extracted and was then finely ground in 50  µl of homogenate buffer (28). The homogenate was left in the thermo cycler for 30 minutes at 60oC with a quick addition of 7  µl of 8M CH3COOK. Incubate the tubes in ice for 30 minutes and centrigugate them for at a maximum speed for 15 minutes. Transfer the supernatant into fresh tubes. To precipitate the DNA, incubate the tubes for 15minutes after adding 100  µl of 95 % ethanol. DNA pellet was collected after a rapid centrifugation for 15 minutes at maximum speed and decay the supernatant. Air dry the pellet and suspend it in Tris buffer. Store it at 20oC till further experimental procedure is carried. COI Partial sequencing, amplification, Sequencing and Alignment: The isolated DNA was further amplified on PCR by mitochondrial Cytochrome c Oxidase I (COI) gene, which can differentiate between the diversity of taxa . The mitochondrial COI gene of ~ 500 bp was amplified by forward and reverse primers (28) which were developed on the spanning, ~700 bp of Aedes aegypti, Anapheles stepfheni and Cx. Quienquefasciatus. The reaction mixture, 25  µl, consisting of 10-50 ng of DNA template, 200 µM of dNTPS’ 1U of Taq DNA polymerase, 1X assay buffer and 5p mol of primer was then subjected to amplification for 2 minutes at 94o C initiation, denaturation of DNA template for 35 cycles for 30 seconds at 95 o C, followed by primer aliening -30 seconds at 55 o C, extension- 70 o C for 30 seconds and final extension at 70 o C for 10 minutes. The amplified sequence ,thus, was run on Agarose gel electrophoresis and then the sequencing was perfoemed by Bioserver Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. The sequence was submitted to NCBI. The accession number assigned was JX08870 (501bp). Further multiple sequence alignment was performed for partial COI gene sequence of 501bp with the default parameters. Sequence alignment studies elucidate the similarity and differences among different species in India along with other parts of the world. Further, the results of the DNA barcoding were made increasingly vivid with the phylogenetic analysis by the construction of phylogenetic tree. The analysis of the phylogeny was attained by maximium likelihood method (29) with the deletion of gaps and missing data. Bootstrap replication was used to validate the tree. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Known as the ‘Southern House Mosquito’, Cx. Quienquefasciatus a vector which played a prime role in filariasis and the incidences have seen in different parts of the world. Hence, there is an utmost need to address this problem with priority. In order to snub the prognosis of this vector, it is very essential to take certain control measures. To attain this, the mosquito larvae were collected and grown into an adult. The DNA was isolated and amplified and run on the agarose gel electrophoresis. The agarose wells comprised of sample from different locations along with 200bp marker DNA. The amplicons were seen between 400bp and 600bp of the DNA marker and were then subjected to sequencing. It was noted that the sequence was identified to be novel and was submitted to NCBI-gene bank nucleotide database and the accession number assigned was JX088701. Further, the multiple sequence alignment was performed to understand the evolutionary relationship among the species of the world.. Using the Maximum Likelihood Method, which creates a tree of highest Likelihood from the given data. The Maximum Likelihood tree elucidates that the Culex species of Hyderabad was closely related to the UK species and hence both emerged as out group in the phylogenetic tree. CONCLUSION: The medium sized brown mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, predominantly exists all through the tropics acts as a vector causing several parasitic diseases. Usually active at night, it is an opportunistic blood feeder which allows the parasites to use the humans as hosts. It is hence important to address their control with priority. The present article the DNA sequence was successfully isolated, sequenced and was submitted to NCBI-Gen Bank nucleotide database. Further, to understand its evolutionary relationship the phylogenetic analysis was performed. It was noticed that the DNA sequence of Hyderabad Culex quinquefasciatus was different from other species and can be used as DNA barcode to identify the organism REFERENCES: Deepak Kumar, Rakesh Chawla, P. Dhamodaram, and N. Balakrishnan Journal of Parasitology Research. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/236838. Ary Farajollahi, Dina M. Fonseca, Laura D. Kramer, and A. Marm Kilpatrick â€Å"BIRD BITING† MOSQUITOES AND HUMAN DISEASE: A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF CULEX PIPIENS COMPLEX MOSQUITOES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY Infect Genet Evol. 2011 October ; 11(7): 1577–1585. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2011.08.013. Linda M. Styer et al Mosquito Saliva Causes Enhancement of West Nile Virus Infection in Mice JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY, Feb. 2011, p. 1517–1527 doi:10.1128/JVI.01112-10. Fabrice Lalubin et al Temporal changes in mosquito abundance (Culex pipiens), avian malaria prevalence and lineage composition Parasites Vectors 2013, 6:307 doi:10.1186/1756-3305-6-307. Emilie Dumas et al Population structure of Wolbachia and cytoplasmic introgression in a complex of mosquito species Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:181. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-181 P. F. MATTINGLY Population Increases in Culex pipiens fatigans Wiedemann 1962, 27, 579-584. D. SINGH The Culex pipiens.fatigans Problem in South-East Asia 1967, 37,239-243. Sharma, V.P. et al., ed. Community participation for disease vector control. Proceedings of an ICMR/WHO Workshop,February 1986, New Delhi, India. Roberta Bivins The English Disease† or â€Å"Asian Rickets†? Medical Responses to Postcolonial Immigration Bull. Hist. Med., 2007, 81 : 533–568 E.A. Ottesen, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 1997, 75 (6): 491-503. Oduola AO,Awe OO Behavioural biting preference of Culex quinquefasciatus in human host in Lagos metropolis Nigeria J Vector Borne Dis.2006 Mar;43(1):16-20. Bhoopendra SINGH et al Interdiscip Toxicol. 2012; Vol. 5(4): 184–191. doi: 10.2478/v10102-012-0031-4 Repon C. Paul et al A Novel Low-Cost Approach to Estimate the Incidence of Japanese Encephalitis in the Catchment Area of Three Hospitals in Bangladesh Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 85(2), 2011, pp. 379–385 doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2011.10-0706. C. van Riper III, S. G. van Riper,M. L. Goff, and M. Laird, â€Å"The epizootiology and ecological significance of malaria in Hawaiian land birds,† Ecology Monograph, vol. 56, pp. 327–344, 1986. S. M. M. Ahid, P. S. Da Silva Vasconcelos, and R. Lourenc ¸ode- Oliveira, â€Å"Vector competence of Culex quinquefasciatus Say fromdifferent regions of Brazil to Dirofilaria immitis,† Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, vol. 95, no. 6, pp. 769–775, 2000. S. Sucharit, K. Surathin, and S. R. Shrestha, â€Å"Vectors of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV): species complexes of the vectors,† The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and PublicHealth, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 611–621, 1989. G. Molaei, T.G. Andreadis, P.M. Armstronget al., â€Å"Host feeding pattern of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) and its role in transmission ofWestNile virus inHarris County, Texas,† American Journal of Tropical Medicine andHygiene, vol. 77, no. 1, pp. 73–81, 2007. Sarkar M et al Insecticide resistance and detoxifying enzyme activity in the principal bancroftian filariasis vector, Culex quinquefasciatus, in northeastern India Med Vet Entomol.2009 Jun;23(2):122-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2009.00805.x. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/12579/5/05_chapter%201.pdf ( BOOK) Peter Arensburger Sequencing of Culex quinquefasciatus establishes a platform for mosquito comparative genomics Science. 2010 October 1; 330(6000): 86–88. doi:10.1126/science.1191864. U.Suryanarayana Murty Rule-based system for the fast identification of species of Indian Anopheline mosquitoes Comput Appl Biosci(1996)12(6):491-495.doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/12.6.491 Upadhyayula Suryanarayana Murty Rapid identification of female Culex mosquito species using Expert System in the South East Asian region Bioinformation 1(2): 40-41 (2005). S. Morio, Computers in Biology and Medicine, 9: 295 (1989)(BOOK) Setti A, Devi TP, Pawar SC, Rajesh G, Srikanth S, Kalyan S.Molecular evolution of pathogenic bacteria based on rrsA gene, 2012 Hebert PD Biological identifications through DNA barcodes Proc Biol Sci.2003 Feb 7;270(1512):313-21. Saied Reza Naddaf et al Confirmation of Two Sibling Species among Anopheles fluviatilis Mosquitoes in South and Southeastern Iran by Analysis of Cytochrome Oxidase I Gene J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2012, 6(2): 144–150. Eugene JG. Manual for mosquito rearing and experimental techniques. Am Mosq Control Assoc INC, 1970, Bulletin No.5, 7-27 Sambashiva Daravath, Aravind Setti, Yuvo singh, Swarnagowreeswari G, Madhavi Yadav M, Smita C Pawar, Reddya Naik B. DNA barcode of COI genetic marker of the Indian Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Insecta: Diptera: Culicidae). Medical Science, 2014, 5(15), 21-25. Koichiro Tamura et al MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Molecular biology and evolution, 2011, 28 (10), 2731-9 Ref without PMC ID: C. van Riper III, S. G. van Riper,M. L. Goff, and M. Laird, â€Å"The epizootiology and ecological significance of malaria in Hawaiian land birds,† Ecology Monograph, vol. 56, pp. 327–344, 1986. S. M. M. Ahid, P. S. Da Silva Vasconcelos, and R. Lourenc ¸ode- Oliveira, â€Å"Vector competence of Culex quinquefasciatus Say fromdifferent regions of Brazil to Dirofilaria immitis,† Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, vol. 95, no. 6, pp. 769–775, 2000. S. Sucharit, K. Surathin, and S. R. Shrestha, â€Å"Vectors of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV): species complexes of the vectors,† The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and PublicHealth, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 611–621, 1989. G.Molaei, T.G. Andreadis, P.M. Armstronget al., â€Å"Host feeding pattern of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) and its role in transmission ofWestNile virus inHarris County, Texas,† American Journal of Tropical Medicine andHygiene, vol. 77, no. 1, pp. 73–81, 2007. Setti A, Devi TP, Pawar SC, Rajesh G, Srikanth S, Kalyan S.Molecular evolution of pathogenic bacteria based on rrsA gene, 2012 Eugene JG. Manual for mosquito rearing and experimental techniques. Am Mosq Control Assoc INC, 1970, Bulletin No.5, 7-27 Sambashiva Daravath, Aravind Setti, Yuvo singh, Swarnagowreeswari G, Madhavi Yadav M, Smita C Pawar, Reddya Naik B. DNA barcode of COI genetic marker of the Indian Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Insecta: Diptera: Culicidae). Medical Science, 2014, 5(15), 21-25

Review of Behind the Arch: The Truth about Drinking at BVU :: College Drinking Essays

Review of Behind the Arch: The Truth about Drinking at BVU Behind the Arch: The Truth About Drinking at BVU, by Chris Allen, Alisa Dixson, Jennifer Durham, Shelley Katzer, Max Kenkel, Teri Kramer, Toby Malavong, and Courtney Weller, is a book about drinking at Buena Vista University. It was written because the University of Illinois did a survey on colleges around the county about their drinking habits. When some BVU students read it, some did not think it was accurate, so, they did their own research and got some of their own statistics. By the opinion of the students, the information they found was more accurate than what the University of Illinois found. This book had many things wrong with it. There were many problems with the writing styles and the research in my opinion. It was too long and too detailed, especially with the insignificant ideas in, which should not have been in it, such as the explanation of our campus, an insignificant detail. There was not a good comparison in the national average, Buena Vista University is a small campus in a small town, not similar to, say, the University of Missouri with a large student population and in the city of Columbia. The research was not well done and was unbalanced. This book was about the drinking at BVU found from the survey, not when some of the professors were attending. The book did have some good points. It did have good statistics and were accurate for out campus. I believe that most of the students on campus do drink, but not to get drunk such as the book stated. The personal experiences were well written also. The book does give a bit of reflection on when drinking was not a large problem on campus, but it is insignificant. This book also did do a good job of what is being done on campus to stop the drinking. We now have midnight basketball, and volleyball, and alternative happy hour so the students have something other to do than drink or go to the bar. Many things could have been changed in the book. It was too long. They went off subject with the September, 11 2001 terrorists attacks, that are not significant and way off topic, and made the book last too long. If they had not strayed off the path of where the book was going it would have been shorter and probably kept my interest more, not making me want to sleep. Review of Behind the Arch: The Truth about Drinking at BVU :: College Drinking Essays Review of Behind the Arch: The Truth about Drinking at BVU Behind the Arch: The Truth About Drinking at BVU, by Chris Allen, Alisa Dixson, Jennifer Durham, Shelley Katzer, Max Kenkel, Teri Kramer, Toby Malavong, and Courtney Weller, is a book about drinking at Buena Vista University. It was written because the University of Illinois did a survey on colleges around the county about their drinking habits. When some BVU students read it, some did not think it was accurate, so, they did their own research and got some of their own statistics. By the opinion of the students, the information they found was more accurate than what the University of Illinois found. This book had many things wrong with it. There were many problems with the writing styles and the research in my opinion. It was too long and too detailed, especially with the insignificant ideas in, which should not have been in it, such as the explanation of our campus, an insignificant detail. There was not a good comparison in the national average, Buena Vista University is a small campus in a small town, not similar to, say, the University of Missouri with a large student population and in the city of Columbia. The research was not well done and was unbalanced. This book was about the drinking at BVU found from the survey, not when some of the professors were attending. The book did have some good points. It did have good statistics and were accurate for out campus. I believe that most of the students on campus do drink, but not to get drunk such as the book stated. The personal experiences were well written also. The book does give a bit of reflection on when drinking was not a large problem on campus, but it is insignificant. This book also did do a good job of what is being done on campus to stop the drinking. We now have midnight basketball, and volleyball, and alternative happy hour so the students have something other to do than drink or go to the bar. Many things could have been changed in the book. It was too long. They went off subject with the September, 11 2001 terrorists attacks, that are not significant and way off topic, and made the book last too long. If they had not strayed off the path of where the book was going it would have been shorter and probably kept my interest more, not making me want to sleep.

Love has to look like something

As for my opinion, most of the people know will say that love is an action. And for me it it's the most appropriate meaning then for me. Love can be felt, yes love but love is also the action you need to do to show reciprocity to what others show to you or has done for you. As to Mr.. Dye, love started from loneliness, but as for what I have been taught. Love comes from God. And because he loves us first, we are able to love him back and his example of love has been our model as to how should we love others. According to Mr.. Dye, loneliness started the experience of being love.I know I ant question him right there because every individual has his own say but as for me, it isn't. Because love is the most beautiful thing that God has given us. Because without his love, we are maybe not here anymore. But I know some will tell me that because of love u became broke. But we can only be victorious because of Jesus. Although we have different backgrounds and different time frames with Jesu s, one thing that we find that remains the same is God's love for us. His love never changes, His love remains the same, and His love never fails.So if you feel like someone betrayed you, why not eve him first. Sometimes love can be taken for granted and the word used over and over. For example, you might say, â€Å"l love my car, or I love the smell, or love ice cream. In our minds though, love has to look like something. But when the words â€Å"l love you† come to mind, we become scared of it because of our past. Maybe someone you loved left you and so you want to guard your heart and don't really want to believe those words anymore. What then is God's definition of love?In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 it says that, â€Å"love is long suffering† (patient). That's the first definition. The second is, â€Å"Love is kind. † Then continuing it says, â€Å"Love does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in inequity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and love never fails. † I might emphasized the words LOVE NEVER FAILS. Yes, true love, it does not fails.So you're probably thinking then now that why that many relationships has to be end, and families come to be ruined, say, it is cause they don't have the right foundation of love. I have read this note which I rephrased that â€Å"most of the reasons why we commit mistakes and doomed ourselves, is because we were not willing to wait, that we were not been patient. It might be true right. Because according to statistics, each year, the number of teenage pregnancies are rampantly going higher each time, many relationships has been broken because they were not patient to each other.And according to the bible, the very first definition is â€Å"long-suffering†. Jesus is a perfect example of that love, he has suff ered a lot of insults, he has en accused of many things and yet he has given us patience just so we can see his purpose here unto this earth. He suffered and bore all the pain because he loves us and he doesn't want us to be lost again and because he knows that through him, we can be redeemed and we can be accepted as God's children again.. Love should not be over busy with other things.In Luke Chapter 10 -it is when Jesus visited Mary and Martha household. Martha was so concerned with the things that had to be done so she asked Jesus to send Mary to help her. But Jesus said to her that Mary chose the good part by listening to His words, and t shall not be taken away from her. In the Bible, Paul says that we must rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us and not on our own human efforts; because our human efforts, our achievements, and our possessions are simply garbage when comparing to what we have In Jesus.There are times when we don't understand what is happening in our lives. W e feel, we hope, we trust, we get let down, and we get burned. But God in His sovereignty says to you who are spiritually mature to keep pressing on. He has something better for you but you need to go through this in order to obtain it. That's the race you're on. When you get there you will understand. But in the process, love has to look like something. Otherwise, who will the unsaved look for in love? How are they going to know what love is?Thus, we need to be the light to show the world what love looks like. In 1 Core. 14:1 it says, â€Å"Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire his love. † Furthermore, the Bible says in John 15:2 to be glad that, â€Å"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. † This just means that we should row the thing that brings out the best in us and prune those we think that will put us into ruin. Love cannot be over busy.One day I remember God talk to me and he revealed something to me, some people think that they are unworthy, they are dirty, they were ashamed to approach people because they were afraid that you'll goanna judge the, most of this people felt unloved and so, that is why, our love shouldn't be busy overlooking into things that it felt like weave filled them with much attention already, there are lots of people who needs to be love. And because I am filled with love by God and by the people rounds me, why not share my love to this people.Why not share a glimpse of how God filled you with much enthusiasm and joy in your heart. They were all just like us, Jesus came to the world so he could love everyone, and when he went up to heaven, he has given us the authority to love his people. Just by merely talking to them could give them a hint how much loved you're filled with. Because when they can see the passion that resides in you, they will then reflect the light you've given them. John 15:4-5 says, â€Å"Remain in me, and I will remain in you for a branch cannot reduce fruit if it is severed from the vine.And you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and in them will produce much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. † All the energies we have when we're investing in the Lord, sitting at His feet, don't know how many times we continuously say devotions, devotions, devotions. We sit at His feet, listen to His voice, but don't you close the book and say that we're done. Devotions begin our time with the Lord, but it doesn't end when we close the book. He says for you to look like love in this hurting world.

Challenge in people management of contemporary

The first part of this article is an analysis which in a viewpoint of evolution to understand and anticipate the change of project management. Second part is to further illustrate how those changes affect the environment of project management and eventually change the role of project manager. The last three parts are combination of conceptual and practical elements to elaborate one fact that the competence of a project manager is the key factor to both project success and organization success. Evolution of project management â€Å"A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product, service or result.And project management is the application of knowledge, tools and techniques to project activities to achieve project requirements. † -? MAMBO. As society and organizational structures have shifted over years, the tools and techniques, methodologies, factors and requirements of project management have consequently change d as showing below in Figurer. Figurer project management evolution timeline Project management is a methodology which was originally developed to purr sue maximum utility of resources in order to accomplish a common goal, in this case, I think its fair to say that I it's based on utilitarianism. 2Picture and illustration origin from w. Iv. Protectorate's. Com The â€Å"big bang† period At the very first evolutionary step, the project objective was mainly for living. People are organized to utilizes limited resources for survival or better life. Even though the achievement of manage meet is remarkable where we can see the concrete evidence like the pyramids in Egypt or the Chinese great wall. These astonish inning artificers also prove that people have already found a model to work efficiently together in this prehistoric period. And a hierarchy organization was recognized as the one and only sol caution at that time. The industrialization the hard facts Within the next step of industrialization and mechanization, people started to make a division of work in production line. The business processes were divided into small work steps to produce a product or service. They started to realize that it is more likely to get an â€Å"secure† project approach by detailed planning of tasks. The † Tailors†3 dominated through people at this time as Henry Ford surprised the world with his automobile empire. 3. The soft facts As a result of productive rate increasing, the complexity of product increased as w ell and speeded up their life cycles.Industrialists like Henry Ford soon observed that the â€Å"hard facts† (scientific management) has its limit. The further improvement of efficiency is mainly contributed by knowledge workers who has â€Å"special know how' within himself, â€Å"trust† from other project partners (from leaders, project colleagues or suppliers and customers) and a social network from previous successful project work. And it's the first time people b egin to recognize that all people are different in their objectives, senses, set of beliefs, construction of reality and needs.Individual leadership within a project is practically important. . Multipurpose management As the competitive pressure and complexity accumulating, the â€Å"traditional model† to work together could no longer fulfill increasing complicated requirements and dynamic of market. The limited amount of â€Å"knowledge workers† were seen as scarce resources and required to be balanced within project programs or project portfolios in several dimensions of procrastination. And industrialists begun to pursuing Increase of long term survival of the company in global society and economy.As it well illustrated by Jim Collins in his book â€Å"Good to great† the â€Å"Level 5 Manager†4 . 5. Utter Trial project management competence 3 Scientific management, also called Tailors, is a theory' of management that t analyzes and synthesizes workflow . Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management. Its development began with Frederick Winslow Taylor in the sass and 1 8905 within the manufacturing industries. Collins often discusses a â€Å"Level 5 leader† in his writings. This refers to the pea k of a fitter hierarchy of leadership characteristics presented in the books. A Level 5 Leader is someone who embed dies a â€Å"paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. † 2 Today we have nearly all information in real time by multidimensional corporate communication networks and Internet. And shareholder driven companies are required to grow steadily because of the † compound interest agreement†, and they are Inevitably required to start â€Å"super national† (e. G.European wide) or global expansion activities to overcome the local market saturatio n. The world is becoming flat where companies confront with intercultural problems and business environment changes. They Start heading toward a new there of problems such as customer requirements, competitor environment, supplier structures, logistic chain, finance flow, the legal environment, climate, values of beliefs and historic cult rural development. 6. Netter Trial project cooperation competence Today the high development and successful centralization of technology require a knowledge intensive competence within companies.Inverness, the ability to adapt with the dynamic of markets and shorten product life cycles is getting more and more crucial. And the research of Exonerative predicts that after the current yes (development of monoculture cooperation) will follow the â€Å"real globalization† with the global masterwork of intercultural cooperation. That's why the competence to realize and manage intercultural project cooperation and develop the corporate culture betw een companies will become existential importance.Sociological development models e. G. Spiral Dynamics also show that people and social human systems including those from a certain level Of conciseness (Value Meme 8) are going to take the evolutionary step from previous â€Å"Misapplied contracts† to interdependent cooperation. 7. The lifework balance firework balance is a step where project work, private and family life are bal once. Current studies show that the increasing complexity and dynamic working environment causes a lot of psychological illnesses.Only the balance between intensive work and recreation, spare time and time with the family is the foundation Of a long term fulfilled life Of happiness. 8. The consciousness level balance 5 From â€Å"The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Identifiers Century' , an intern cantonal bestselling book by Thomas L. Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The t title is a metaphor for viewi ng the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. In economics, Exonerative waves (also called cypresses,great surges, long w eaves, Saves or the long economic cycle) are supposedly jellylike phenomena in the modern world economy. It is claim med that the period of the wave ranges from forty to sixty years, the cycles consist of alternating intervals between high sec Doral growth and intervals of relatively slow growth. 7 Spiral Dynamics is a dynamic model of human development and development of mimes carrying systems such as a social network, society or company introduced in the 1996 book Spiral Dana miss by Don Beck and Chris Cowan.The book was based on the 1 sass theories of psychologist Clare W. Graves. Spiral Dynamics argues that human nature is not fixed: humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their envier moment by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models of the world that allow them to handle the new problems. 8 A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that c an be transmitted from one mind to another wrought writing speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme.The fact is that there is barely human being who has achieved power and economical wealth is really internally satisfied and completely fulfilled with happiness. They often suffer from dissatisfaction or deep, highly unpleasant loneliness. The project manager who achieves the balance of his consciousness levels in this Step , will increase his lifetime periods in happiness by personality developing â€Å"selfless†. He will develop the ability to flower out his full consciousness potential on the level of the person lit (Ego/intelligence/mind) to the level of visible world.The difficulties of project manager in contemporary society As going through the above mentioned evolution process, we can sum up that the project management changes fr om industrial driven (hard skill oriented) to people driven (soft skill oriented), from national management to global cooperation and from material to immaterial satisfaction. But there are one thing remain unchanged that the project can only be completed by team, which means project performance can be seen as team performance not only externally (by sponsor) but also internally (by team members).And team building can be affected by several factors, such as individual characters and expertise, HRS cost and availability, project WEBS and organizational norms. One simple universal fact is that there is no â€Å"recipe † (one fits for all) of project management, different team structures may suit for different project types, and project managers need to adopt different roles with different responsibilities in different team structures accord Nagy. A contemporary project manager has to embody all the relative skills into himself to make projects success in all circumstances.Compl icated diversity of project types As time being, projects are getting more and more complicated, the simple production project which dominated in the past is no longer enough to cover all the diversity of projects. And there is a lot of way to categorize projects, they can be divided into longer, midterm and shorter projects by time, or they ca n be categorized by purposes as shown in Figurer, and each type of project will need different tea m strategy in correspondent. Figure 2 Types of projects As project team, it can be oversimplified into two categories , Mechanist Structure and Matrix Structure. (see Figurer as below) Figure 3 : Type of project teams Mechanist structure is more suitable for classic project which highly focus on tasks and results which are comparatively familiar, and as a result resource management will be the most crucial factor. Matrix structure is more relying on collaboration instead of cooperation, where codependent is needed and it is especially effective in innovation project , and network management is highly valued. . Various competence of project manager As the team structures shift, the success of the project management function will depend heavily upon the project managers' entrepreneurship, outworking, and collaboration skills. All of them are relying on good communication, without frequent, effective, and efficient communication among the project manager, project team, project sponsor, and other stakeholders, a project is likely headed toward disaster despite how good technical expertise the project manager has.Wisped defines collaboration as : â€Å"working together retro achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals†. The idea behind collaboration is that the sum of all elements is always greater n value than a single element, and it is the best way to codebook a stronger product or service to stakeholders. It is well illustrated by George Be rnard Shaw : â€Å"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and will still each have one apple.But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exec angle these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. † The future of project management will emphasize strong internal entrepreneurial roles where individuals are expected to partner and collaborate on tasks to deliver greater value to the customers resulting in a sustainable competitive advantage. The competence of adapting different roles in different team with different projects to not only make the right thing but also make things right, will be the true shall Eng to a good project manager. 3.Complexity Of Stakeholders' satisfactions Defining a project success is not solely by the golden triangle of project management ( cost, time, quality) but dependent upon its stakeholders, which means without the satisfaction of stakeholders, a success project can and will be seen as a fall in pro ject management. But every person, from the project manager to the CEO, could has a different idea of what success means-?and often that's why teams don't get projects done efficiently. Nowadays, things are getting even more complicated because of the social net work blossom.Industry is not the only one gets globalization in modern time, so does the NIMBI, † Noting my backyard† becomes more and more Often † Not in my neigh brood† even â€Å"nothing anywhere†. 9 This fact emphasizes the demand for building and sustaining strong relationships with individuals not only internal but also external to the project engagement, information shared across boundaries will enhance the capabilities available t meet the needs of that climate. 9 BANANA is an acronym for â€Å"Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything g† (or ‘Anyone†).The term is most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain advocacy groups to land De velveteen . 6 Additionally, expanding relationships across multiple functional divisions throughout the organization will help identify new opportunities and quickly bring expert personnel together to generate a solution. The ending result equates to a satisfied business sponsor whose needs are being met. To sum up, skills focusing on managing project itself is far from enough or a project manager in nowadays, and stakeholders are not anymore solely whom project are related directly.A contemporary project manager now manages with things more and more metaphysical, which is not well covered by the project management methodology yet. And we as a future project manager, have to understand and realize those characteristics to create our own solutions and methods to get projects done. The spell of hierarchy in Taiwan A Chinese proverb says . † From rags to riches and back again takes only three generations† 1 0, which is an old saying to encourage people not relying on family wealth UT to explore your own fortune in life.Inverness, it is also a very true spell in Taiwanese business environment. In Taiwan, most successful .NET reprises are family business, and all successful enterprises 11 are strongly high hierarchical organization. All those wealthiest people on Forbes' list today are funded himself or the second generation, it may be too premature to judge their future, but history always repeats itself. Let's take ACRE as example, it was established by Stan Shih, and under his lead it becomes the biggest PC supplier in Europe and 13th in the world.But things going down after he stepped own the CEO and retired, the successor misjudged the trend of SIS and Android which eventually causes a tremendous financial loss since 2010. The company is still facing the survival crisis and desperately recruits Stan Shin back in charge who is already 70 years old in 2014. Jack Ma, the founder of Alabama group, once commented that : † It will be a hopeless place, if som eone who is over 70 still have to talk about innovation. † On the other hand , most of the biggest western enterprises are as well family business, but they don't have such a problem.It proves that family ownership is not the etiology, the devil is hidden in he organization : hierarchy. Since 221 BC , Chinese people was already used to hierarchical domination. In history, every revolution in china is just a repetition to espouse another emperor until 19th century. Even in contemporary, democracy in Taiwan is still like a walking baby. It seems like there is a tendency of us to obey and seek of r super leaders, every candidate was made up as hero during campaign, where the spotlight is law yes on the candidate himself instead of his manifesto.Just like in ancient time that every emperor had to be believed as the true blood of god. In this mind Of cultural , Hierarchy and Coercion undoubtedly becomes the most welkin and popular way to lead and even be leaded, not only in politic but also in business. 10 11 There is a similar English proverb : ‘from clogs to clogs is only three generation NSA†. According to Forbes Twain's 40 richest list Undeniable that hierarchy organization is the most efficient one, but its drawback could be deadly in contemporary.Because after internet was invented, the information starts flying and product life cycle is further compressing and the demand of innovation becomes skyrocketing high. Under the hierarchy structure, everyone is afraid of making mistake, the goal of employees becomes to accomplish your superior's satisfaction or even anticipate it. The individual objective overvalue the organizational objective, personal interest in power ladder is more important than company's best interest, and the innovative ideas are often killed or buried during this process.That's also why most of the famous Taiwanese enterprises are all MEMO suppliers, and even there once are some famous brands like ACRE, SASS, ETC, they can' t sustain long and all facing survival crisis today. 12 Break the spell by project management Over this decade, the number of PM in Taiwan grows significantly from hundreds to more than twelve thousands. A PM certification is not anymore a â€Å"plus† , but a â€Å"must† for applying a manager position nowadays.The seed of preconditioned anarchically organization has been planted, and I believe it will definitely sprout someday. Every project is an opportunity to bring different experts across the organization together, to cooperate and collaborate in a limited time scheme, which means no time for bureaucracy that people can be released from hierarchy and focus on problem solving. Every project is a synergy of organization, not only vertically but also horizontally and it can be seen as an authorized way to break the exist structure to work together.

Europe and the American Revolutionary War

Europe and the American Revolutionary War Fought between 1775 and 1783, the American Revolutionary War, otherwise known as the American War of Independence was primarily a conflict between the British Empire and some of its American colonists, who triumphed and created a new nation: the United States of America. France played a vital role in aiding the colonists, but accrued great debt in doing so, partly causing the French Revolution. Causes of the American Revolution Britain may have triumphed in the French and Indian War of 1754–1763, which was fought in North America on behalf of Anglo-American colonists but it had spent considerable sums to do so. The British government decided that the colonies of North America should contribute more to its defense and raised taxes. Some colonists were unhappy with this - merchants among them were especially upset - and British heavy-handedness exacerbated a belief that the British weren’t allowing them enough rights in return, even though some colonists had no problems owning slaves. This situation was summed up in the revolutionary slogan â€Å"No Taxation without Representation.† Colonists were also unhappy that Britain was preventing them from expanding further out into America, partly as a result of agreements with Native Americans agreed after the Pontiac rebellion of 1763–4, and the Quebec Act of 1774, which expanded Quebec to cover vast areas of what is now the USA. The lat ter allowed French Catholics to retain their language and religion, further angering the predominantly Protestant colonists. Tensions rose between the two sides, fanned by expert colonial propagandists and politicians, and finding expression in mob violence and brutal attacks by rebel colonists. Two sides developed: pro-British loyalists and anti-British ‘patriots’. In December 1773, citizens in Boston dumped a consignment of tea into a harbor in protest of taxes. The British responded by closing down Boston Harbour and imposing limits on civilian life. As a result, all but one of the colonies gathered in the ‘First Continental Congress’ in 1774, promoting a boycott of British goods. Provincial congresses formed, and the militia was raised for war. 1775: The Powder Keg Explodes On April 19th, 1775 the British governor of Massachusetts sent a small group of troops to confiscate powder and arms from colonial militiamen, and also arrest ‘troublemakers’ who were agitating for war. However, the militia was given notice in the form of Paul Revere and other riders and was able to prepare. When the two sides met in Lexington someone, unknown, fired, initiating a battle. The ensuing Battles of Lexington, Concord and after saw the militia - crucially including large numbers of Seven Year War veterans - harass the British troops back to their base in Boston. The war had begun, and more militia gathered outside Boston. When the Second Continental Congress met there was still hope of peace, and they weren’t yet convinced about declaring independence, but they named George Washington, who had happened to be present at the start of the French Indian war, as leader of their forces. Believing that militias alone would not be enough, he started to raise a Continental Army. After a hard fought battle at Bunker Hill, the British could not break the militia or the siege of Boston, and King George III declared the colonies in rebellion; in reality, they had been for some time. Two Sides, Not Clearly Defined This wasn’t a clear-cut war between the British and the American colonists. Between a fifth and a third of the colonists supported Britain and remained loyal, while it’s estimated another third remained neutral where possible. As such it has been called a civil war; at the close of the war, eighty thousand colonists loyal to Britain fled from the US. Both sides had experienced veterans of the French Indian war among their soldiers, including major players like Washington. Throughout the war, both sides used militia, standing troops and ‘irregulars’. By 1779 Britain had 7000 loyalists under arms. (Mackesy, The War for America, p. 255) War Swings Back and Forth A rebel attack on Canada was defeated. The British pulled out of Boston by March 1776 and then prepared for an attack on New York; on July 4th, 1776 the thirteen colonies declared their independence as the United States of America. The British plan was to make a swift counterstrike with their army, isolating perceived key rebel areas, and then use a naval blockade to force the Americans to come to terms before Britain’s European rivals joined the Americans. British troops landed that September, defeating Washington and pushing his army back, allowing the British to take New York. However, Washington was able to rally his forces and win at Trenton, where he defeated German troops working for Britain, keeping morale up among the rebels and damaging loyalist support. The naval blockade failed because of overstretching, allowing valuable supplies of arms to get into the US and keep the war alive. At this point, the British military had failed to destroy the Continental Army and ap peared to have lost every valid lesson of the French and Indian War. The British then pulled out of New Jersey, alienating their loyalists, and moved to Pennsylvania, where they won a victory at Brandywine, allowing them to take the colonial capital of Philadelphia. They defeated Washington again. However, they didn’t pursue their advantage effectively and the loss of the US capital was small. At the same time, British troops tried to advance down from Canada, but Burgoyne and his army were cut off, outnumbered, and forced to surrender at Saratoga, thanks in part to Burgoyne’s pride, arrogance, desire for success, and resulting poor judgment, as well as the failure of British commanders to co-operate. The International Phase Saratoga was only a small victory, but it had a major consequence: France seized upon the chance to damage her great imperial rival and moved from secret support for the rebels to overt help, and for the rest of the war they sent crucial supplies, troops, and naval support. Now Britain couldn’t focus entirely on the war as France threatened them from around the world; indeed, France became the priority target and Britain seriously considered pulling out of the new US entirely to focus on its European rival. This was now a world war, and while Britain saw the French islands of the West Indies as a viable replacement for the thirteen colonies, they had to balance their limited army and navy over many areas. Caribbean islands soon changed hands between the Europeans. The British then pulled out of advantageous positions on the Hudson River to reinforce Pennsylvania. Washington had his army and forced it through training while camped for the harsh winter. With the aims of the British in America scaled right back, Clinton, the new British commander, withdrew from Philadelphia and based himself in New York. Britain offered the US a joint sovereignty under a common king but were rebuffed. The King then made it clear he wanted to try and retain the thirteen colonies and feared that US independence would lead to the loss of the West Indies (something Spain also feared), to which troops were sent from the US theater. The British moved the emphasis to the south, believing it to be full of loyalists thanks to information from refugees and trying for piecemeal conquest. But the loyalists had risen before the British arrived, and there was now little explicit support; brutality flowed from both sides in a civil war. British victories at Charleston under Clinton and Cornwallis at Camden were followed by loyalist defeats. Cornwallis continued to win victories, but tenacious rebel commanders prevented the British from achieving success. Orders from the north now forced Cornwallis to base himself at Yorktown, ready for resupply by sea. Victory and Peace A combined Franco-American army under Washington and Rochambeau decided to shift their troops down from the north with the hope of cutting Cornwallis off before he moved. French naval power then fought a draw at the Battle of Chesapeake - arguably the key battle of the war - pushing the British navy and vital supplies away from Cornwallis, ending any hope of immediate relief. Washington and Rochambeau besieged the city, forcing Cornwallis’ surrender. This was the last major action of the war in America, as not only was Britain faced with a worldwide struggle against France, but Spain and Holland had joined. Their combined shipping could compete with the British navy, and a further ‘League of Armed Neutrality’ was harming British shipping. Land and sea battles were fought in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, India and West Africa, and an invasion of Britain was threatened,  leading to panic. Furthermore, over 3000 British merchant ships had been captured (Marston, American War of Independence, 81). The British still had troops in America and could send more, but their will to continue was sapped by a global conflict, the massive cost both of fighting the war - the National Debt had doubled - and reduced trade income, along with a lack of explicitly loyal colonists, led to the resignation of a Prime Minister and the opening of peace negotiations. These produced the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3rd, 1783, with the British recognizing the thirteen former colonies as independent, as well as settling other territorial issues. Britain had to sign treaties with France, Spain and the Dutch. Aftermath For France, the war incurred massive debt, which helped push it into revolution, bring down the king, and start a new war. In America, a new nation had been created, but it would take a civil war for ideas of representation and freedom to become a reality. Britain had relatively few losses aside from the US, and the focus of empire switched to India. Britain resumed trading with the Americas and now saw their empire as more than simply a trading resource, but a political system with rights and responsibilities. Historians like Hibbert argue that the aristocratic class which had led the war was now deeply undermined, and power began to transform into a middle class. (Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels, p.338).

Breast Augmentation essays

Breast Augmentation essays Known colloquially as a boob job, breast augmentation surgery has become an increasingly common cosmetic surgery option for women worldwide. The medical term for breast augmentation surgery is mammaplasty but mammaplasty also refers to breast reduction surgeries. Breast augmentation involves the surgical insertion of a silicone bag filled with salt water beneath the natural breasts. The prosthesis offers the appearance of larger, fuller breasts while allowing the woman to keep her natural nipples. Surgical scars are in most cases hidden well. Women choose to have their breasts enlarged for any number of personal reasons. Breast augmentation is an invasive procedure and does involve some degree of risk that most non-surgical cosmetic procedures do not pose. However, the surgery is widely practiced in the United States by qualified physicians and is generally safe. Breast augmentation can offer a woman a renewed appreciation for her body, correcting problems such as asymmetry, post-pre gnancy sagging, age-related sagging, and a number of other issues that affect appearance. Like any cosmetic procedure, breast augmentation is an act of vanity. Breast augmentation therefore differs only in matters of degree from hair styling, wearing makeup, or whitening teeth. Women spend large amounts of money on beauty products in the quest to look their best. Breast augmentation surgery is one option for women who value the appearance of their chest. For some women, breast augmentation may be considered as a necessary career move. Exotic dancers, models, actors, and anyone in a profession in which appearance reigns will need to build the best body possible and breast augmentation surgery is the only means by which a woman can increase her cup size appreciably without gaining weight. Exotic dancers and nude models cannot pad their bras to achieve the illusion of larger breasts. Rather, their breasts must be a part of their bodies. Augmented...

Writing with Computers Too Easy

Writing with Computers Too Easy Writing with Computers Too Easy Writing with Computers Too Easy By Hugh Ashton Last week we looked at antiques: quill pens, fountain pens, and typewriters. And so we come to word processors and computers. The word processor brings obvious advantages to writers. The ease with which you can write and revise, having typing and spelling mistakes corrected as you go, leads tocarelessness. I’m not simply referring to over-reliance on spell-checkers that’s been covered adequately in other articles* on this site but to sloppy style and composition. It’s all too easy, as I have found in my nearly 30 years of using word processing software (I started with WordStar 3.1 on CP/M80 for the archeologists among you), to write using these tools. The obvious advantage is that it is easy to go back and change your words and your mind about what you want to say. But one of the serious disadvantages is that you can write half a sentence, break off and come back to write the other half, which may not match the first half in style, content or overall meaning. Of course, this is technically possible with any other writing method but somehow it seemed harder to stop in the middle of a sentence with a pen or a typewriter. In any case, with a typewriter, you felt honor-bound to finish the page. Dropping one piece of writing mid-sentence, taking out the sheet of paper, re-setting margins, etc. and continuing the original on the re-inserted piece of paper usually didn’t work too well. This ability to stop writing a sentence, do something else, and continue from where you left off without always finishing the thought with which you started can make for very disjointed writing. The â€Å"something else† can be totally unconnected with writing (food breaks and the like) or can be something writing- and computer-related (e.g. answering an e-mail message or Twitter message in a completely different writing style to the one used in your main writing assignment) or can even be within the same document, going back and revising something that’s already been written. While writing this piece, I’ve been guilty of all three types of mid-sentence breaks. Can you see them? I hope not, because I do go back and re-read what I have written, matching style and making sure the logic flows neatly from one part to the next. However, it does seem painfully obvious to me reading some writing (including some of my own past work) that the flow of thought hasn’t been checked, and that the â€Å"first fine careless rapture† is the final published product. It may not be as exciting to polish a diamond as to dig it out of the ground, but unpolished uncut diamonds are not nearly as valuable as their processed counterparts. Take time to polish your gems before putting them on display to the world. More about word processors next week. *Spell Check isn’t foolproof Site, sight, and the spell check syndrome Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Mostly Small But Expressive Interjections34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better WriterWriting a Thank You Note

Answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Answer the question - Essay Example With this, it becomes paramount to understand peoples’ emotion in a social context. The emotional and social intelligence consists of four quadrants. These are self-management, Self-awareness, relationship and social awareness management. A framework of self-management enables leaders or individuals to use their beliefs, knowledge, abilities, and skills to facilitate health-related outcomes. This aspect is crucial because it enables leaders to managers others effectively as they understand their interests in areas of professionalism. Self-awareness is the recognition of one’s personality, which includes weaknesses, strengths, beliefs, motivation, emotions, thoughts, and opportunities. Self-awareness is importance because it enables people to understand other people, their attitude, and responses at a given place or time. Through self-awareness, one is able to see where his emotions and thoughts are directing to. It enables people to control their own emotions, personali ty, and behaviour as they work hard toward facilitating growth in any set-up. Relationship and social awareness management enables leaders to understand their own feelings, concerns, and needs. ... Still, one may lack a clear understand of his behaviour patterns, thoughts, and personality thus not facilitating into success. In my opinion, social and emotional intelligence is important for managers to understand. This is because it creates a strong ground to understand one’s thoughts and how others perceive things. HR managers and leaders should also pay attention to it to foster excellent leadership at their assigned duties (Seltzer 20). By utilizing social and emotional intelligence, one understands people’s behaviour, their personality, behaviour patterns, and what they can do best. For many years, social and emotional intelligence has been considered as the most critical and important factor of determining how successful an employee or individual can be in work or life. The intelligence quotient account helps managers to understand what accounts for an individual’s success at work or in life. It creates a strong ground to understand what an employee can do best. As a result, this fosters success in that it allows competitive employees to perform their assigned duties effectively and successfully. Of the 26 competencies of the social and emotional intelligence, I believe I have the greatest strengths in achievement drive, integrity, and empathy. In all assigned duties, I strive to meet the standards of excellence, and this motivates me to work hard. I have a strong achievement drive to be the best in all I do, and strives to enhance growth, success, and change in all I do. At the work place, I maintain high standards of truthfulness, sincerity, honesty, and ethics. I am optimistic in all I do and persist in achieving my set goals and objectives regardless of setbacks and obstacles. Lastly, I have

Martin luther king jr Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Martin luther king jr - Research Paper Example Martin Luther King Jr. was born in January 15, 1929. His grandfather served Baptist Church in Atlanta from 1914 to 1931. After the death of his father, he served at the church as a co-pastor. At the age of 18, King became a Baptist minister. After completing his graduation in 1948 from Morehouse College, he attained his PhD degree from Boston University in systematic theology. King then served Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery as a pastor in 1954. King was also nominated as a member of the executive committee of the National Association. It was one of the major organizations who was working for the rights and advancement of Black people. One of the initial civil rights actions of Martin Luther King was when he led the Bus Boycott. A lady Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man which resulted in this Boycott. King was leading the blacks in this Boycott, which was against the segregation in buses for black and white and it lasted over a year. Martin had to pay a lot for leading this Boycott as his house was bombed and he was jailed too but his efforts worked finally. He came out of the jail and the discrimination in the buses came to an end. Martin Luther King, in 1963, also organized a March consisting off 250,000 people. The aim of the march was to protest against discrimination in schools, employments etc. During this march, he delivered a famous speech titled as "I have a Dream". This resulted in a great achievement when, in 1964, a civil rights act was passed. He also made a major contribution in writing by becoming the author of five books. For his restless contribution against African-Americans segregation, King was awarded with noble prize only at the young age of thirty. He further proved himself to be a leader devoted to his objectives when he announced to donate the prize money for civil rights movement. He was

Probing into Internet Culture as New Media Essay

Probing into Internet Culture as New Media - Essay Example Our first question is whether newer forms of technology seek to belittle traditional fields and disciplines. In this respect, we talk of how Plato in his book Phaedrus stood staunchly against writing, as a new form of technology. From here we continue analyzing how computers and the internet, an integral aspect of the phenomenon of new technology and an advance over writing and printing, manipulate the human thought process. The study will be based on how technological advances have faced stiff reaction from the time of Plato. While Plato voiced his reaction against writing as a technological advance over the traditional tool of oration, modern writers criticize the effect of the internet, as an advance over writing, on human memory. Our essay will comprise of a thorough analysis of the boons and curses of the internet on human life today. We will make significant probings into past and present research including literary sources on 'internet culture' to see how it dominates human thinking. We will analyze the literary and online resources to understand the workings of the internet as an aspect of modern technology. Here, we try to see how advances towards technology had been regarded as a social contagion from ancient times. Plato, the classical Greek philosopher, argued in favor of the 'superiority of the spoken word' over writing as a new technology, which had a detrimental effect on human memory. Those who received partial information without instruction remained mostly ignorant. The philosopher debated in his book Phaedrus, through the words of Socrates, about the 'myth of the invention of writing', which often resulted in forgetfulness and the loss of memory. (Plato, Hackforth 156-159). Writing is described as a pastime instead of 'serious business' and importance is given to dialectics, which is ingrained in the souls of men. (Plato writes on the dangers of writing, 2006). Now the question is what Plato would have thought about the internet (Plato's complaint, 2000) Plato's reaction against writing probably anticipated the modern day response towards the computer and the internet. Plato believed that writing isolated man from society. Likewise, computers are perceived as mediums of separating man from social gatherings. Writing is an integral part of our lives. We do not see it as a product of modern technology. Modern tools such as pen, paper, ink and paints are used in case of writing. Writing undermined the power of the word centuries ago. Computers, a technological advance over writing are perceived in the same light now. (Ong, 77-94). Walter Ong specified that, writing or other artificial modes of technology had an enhancing effect on the human mind. He asserted that alienation from society, which writing provided, was required for enhancing the conscious. Writing and computers, he said was the most effective way of technologizing the word. After the word is technologized, the technological means cannot be criticized. Arguments, however, counteract the aforementioned stance about technology. We will mainly focus on how the technological boom, which has swept many a nation, the world over, has a debilitating effect on the brain and human memory. The internet is an encyclopedia, offering

Electrical Engineering Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Electrical Engineering - Personal Statement Example My father who was an engineer used to teach me about technological advances and has always encouraged me to learn more about this. My first interaction with computers was at the early age when I was only five years. In my primary school, I was very good in science subjects and the same was reflected in my secondary school. I used to perform as the best student in physics and computer subjects. As a result, my teachers continued to encourage me to engage in electrical engineering once I go for higher education. Once I joined the University I chose to undertake a bachelors degree in electrical engineering. While in college I found my studies very enjoyable as I engaged in what I was interested in. Spending most of my time in the laboratory was not something I dread but the best thing is that I take pride in my work. This has contributed to the successful completion of my graduate degree. During my college education, I have also been able to design a functional microprocessor which I pe rceived as an experience and achievement for learning. It was also a major focus for my technical and professional advancement which is now motivating me to undertake a post-baccalaureate study in electrical engineering. I always aspire to take what my heart feels comfortable with and since being an electrical engineer professional is my major goal that’s why I would like to enroll in this program. Having already completed my graduate degree I would like to undertake more research and engage in coursework which will help me enhance my competence in electrical engineering. My main goal is to finish my post-baccalaureate degree and then pursue my Ph.D. The type of research that I am mostly interested in is on optical properties on MEMS devices and develop faster electro-optical interfaces. My special interest in this area is derived from my undergraduate studies in MEMs in the development of advanced and favorable tri-axial accelerometers. Pursuing this type of research will be a challenge to me and at times I might feel defeated but my special interest in this field and learning will give me the courage to accomplish my goal.

Sexual Offenders and Predators Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sexual Offenders and Predators - Term Paper Example This paper will provide statistical information in the hope to empirically determine whether reporting requirements influence the recidivating behavior of a convicted sex offender or predator. Specifically, this paper will study recidivism rates among registered sex offenders after release from incarceration or from any forms of legal punishment in two different states: 1.) State of California, which last amended registration and notification requirements in 2002; 2.) State of Alaska, which appended new reporting requirements in 2009. The rape and murder of seven year old Megan Kanka by a two-time convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas in 1994 spawned the Megan’s Law in 1996. Though Megan’s Law varies from state to state, it only has one general goal anyway: to notify communities when a sex offender resides within their location and to provide them necessary information about the offender (Larson, 2003). Like Megan’s Law, Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (named after Jacob Wetterling who was murdered when he was eleven) also requires sex offenders to register. The Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act assisted the effort of creating a national database to track down sexual offenders (â€Å"Megan’s Law, registered,† n.d.). Now, the information can be accessed among states. Though registration and notification laws do not serve as a further castigation, they were never offender-friendly. Lawmakers go to argue that the personal interests and privacy of the sex offenders are just the least of the government’s concern compared to the general safety (â€Å"Megan’s Law, registered,† n.d.). Furthermore, information withheld and disclosed is up to the good judgment of the state government (Klaas, 2008). There are only two major ends to these laws: to deter sex offenders to re-offend and to promote public safety. Offenders

Fleet Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fleet Assignment - Essay Example Thus, the spilled passengers are 50 passengers, and they would wish to travel in flight 1 and 125 passengers who would want to travel in flight 2. Since the fare for A-B itinerary is much less than the two local itineraries, the profit maximization is to spill 50 passengers on the A-B itinerary (15000 dollars). From this, the remaining demand for flight 1 does not exceed the capacity (Holloway, pp.124-178). Because the local fare for flight 2 is much less than the fare for X-Z itinerary, 75 passengers are spilled from B-C itinerary (16875 dollars). Hence, the minimum spill cost for fleeting 1 15000+16875 = 31875. The spill cost for each transient is in Table 5. Thus, the fleeting contribution for fleeting 1 is 71250-(30000+31875) = $9375. Through analysis, the rest of the fleeting as shown in Table 5, that the optimal fleeting is fleeting 1. The spill minimizing strategy for this case in every flight is to drop passengers in view of increasing fare until passenger’s number accurately equals the assignment capacity in every flight. For instance, managers always spill passengers in order to keep the higher fares for connecting

Sexual Offenders and Predators Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sexual Offenders and Predators - Term Paper Example This paper will provide statistical information in the hope to empirically determine whether reporting requirements influence the recidivating behavior of a convicted sex offender or predator. Specifically, this paper will study recidivism rates among registered sex offenders after release from incarceration or from any forms of legal punishment in two different states: 1.) State of California, which last amended registration and notification requirements in 2002; 2.) State of Alaska, which appended new reporting requirements in 2009. The rape and murder of seven year old Megan Kanka by a two-time convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas in 1994 spawned the Megan’s Law in 1996. Though Megan’s Law varies from state to state, it only has one general goal anyway: to notify communities when a sex offender resides within their location and to provide them necessary information about the offender (Larson, 2003). Like Megan’s Law, Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (named after Jacob Wetterling who was murdered when he was eleven) also requires sex offenders to register. The Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act assisted the effort of creating a national database to track down sexual offenders (â€Å"Megan’s Law, registered,† n.d.). Now, the information can be accessed among states. Though registration and notification laws do not serve as a further castigation, they were never offender-friendly. Lawmakers go to argue that the personal interests and privacy of the sex offenders are just the least of the government’s concern compared to the general safety (â€Å"Megan’s Law, registered,† n.d.). Furthermore, information withheld and disclosed is up to the good judgment of the state government (Klaas, 2008). There are only two major ends to these laws: to deter sex offenders to re-offend and to promote public safety. Offenders

Pressure Sores Essay Example for Free

Pressure Sores Essay The basic philosophy of palliative care is to achieve the best quality of life for patients even when their illness cannot be cured. Palliative care is provided through comprehensive management of the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of patients, while remaining sensitive to their personal, cultural, and religious values and beliefs. Hospital palliative care services are often provided through an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals including, but not limited to: Doctors, Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Priests. FATIGUE Fatigue is a common, distressing and debilitating symptom experienced by people with cancer. In those receiving palliative care it is probably the most frequently reported symptom and is experienced by more than 90 per cent of these patient. However, it represents the most commonly unrelieved cancer symptom. Cancer related fatigue can have a number of factors that can be difficult to establish, however despite these problems advancing research will help to promote the problem as a palliative care symptom that can be assessed and managed. In patients with advanced cancer, the prevalence rates of various symptoms are approximately as follows Pain 89% Fatigue 69% Weakness 66% Anorexia 66% Lack of energy 61% Nausea 60% Dry mouth 57% Constipation 52% Dyspnoea 50% Vomiting 30%. (Donnelly 1995) Defining Cancer-Related Fatigue Cancer-related fatigue is a complex phenomenon with physical, cognitive and affective methods of expression. A clear understanding of what it means is essential before it can be assessed and managed, or healthcare Assistants are able to discuss it with patients and colleagues. After exploring fatigue from the perspective of patients, Ream (1996) derived the following definition: a subjective, unpleasant symptom which incorporates feelings ranging from tiredness to exhaustion, creating an unrelenting overall condition which interferes with individual’s ability to function to their normal Causes and effects. The causes of cancer-related fatigue is still unknown, and lack of success in treating it at the end of life stage is in part due to this lack of knowledge. Quality of life is related to symptoms, functioning, and psychological and social well-being, while during end-of-life care, spirituality is a major issue, patients become too tired to participate fully in their roles an d activities that make life meaningful, fatigue therefore significantly affects their quality of life. Patients/Family Perceptions One of the barriers to treating fatigue at the end of life may be patients, families and Doctors perception of it as an unavoidable, untreatable symptom (Johnson, 2004).Many people experience fatigue, but studies have shown that fatigue experienced by patients with cancer is more rapid in onset, more energy-draining, more intense, longer-lasting, more severe and more unrelenting when compared with typical fatigue. Advance care planning and establishing goals of care are essential because they enhance the control patients have over their care and assure autonomy if the patient is unable to communicate their wishes or make decisions at later stages of illness. Patients want a voice in their healthcare, they want to know what to expect and how to plan for their treatment and their future. Establishing goals early on for current and future healthcare helps to avoid future unnecessary harm and inappropriate prolongation of dying. It is well recognized that interventions focused on curing dying patients result in increased suffering, with little or no benefit for the patient. This suffering may even extend beyond the patient. Nurses also struggle ethically and emotionally when care for dying patients is focused on technology rather than on comfort and quality of life. In addition, twenty-per cent of patients relatives develop a physical illness in response to the stress of coping with their loved on es poor health. Treating Underlying Causes Before a patients fatigue is simply attributed to the cancer it is important to identify and treat easily reversible underlying physiological and psychological causes of fatigue. For example, this may involve reducing non-essential medications, treating infections, correcting hypercalcaemia and electrolyte disorders or treating pain, depression, sleep disorders or anaemia .A link between fatigue, sleep and anxiety can be readily identified, and the approach to management is a general one. In palliative care, efforts are directed at alleviating symptoms, as well as toward preventing or treating the underlying cause when that is possible interventions should begin with the promotion of sensitive communication, giving patients the opportunity to discuss their fatigue in the context of living with a terminal illness and its impact on their lives , found that enabling patients to talk about their fatigue both facilitated professional assessment and helped them to explore the meaning of th e cancer and fatigue experience for themselves, and for their family and friends. This can help patients regain a sense of control and freedom to focus on other important aspects of their lives, so restoring their self-esteem .Patient and family education can be of great value in understanding cancer-related fatigue. Family members may interpret fatigue as a sign that the patient is giving up, when it is actually beyond her or his control. Complementary medicine embodies the principles of palliative care by helping to ease the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual effects of illness. It aims to control symptoms and to enhance quality of life for patients and their families. Relaxation, visualisation, massage and aromatherapy are currently being evaluated as part of a global intervention known as Beating Fatigue. There is already evidence of the beneficial effect of massage and aromatherapy on depression and other symptoms including fatigue. CONCLUSIONS/EVALUATIONS Whilst undertaking this assignment certain words keep coming to mind. Words like empathy, caring, stress, burnout, teamwork many more but I have learned to respect all patients, promote dignity, to be a better team player be confident in my abilities, but mostly I have realised that to further a career in any area of palliative care will require more training, more understanding of different patients conditions and there requirements on a daily basis and to be more conscience of the responsibilities of healthcare assistants when caring for all patients. As said previously I will seek further training in this area not only to be of greater benefit to the patients but also to seek training in some form of grief counselling to be of greater assistance to relatives and friends of patients, to empathise more and to just be able to listen when needed. Despite the high prevalence of cancer-related fatigue among patients in palliative care, its treatment is less successful than treatment for other symptoms at the end of life. The causes of fatigue in patients with advanced cancer are often unclear, multiple factors may be responsible and little is known about its causes. The specific goals of palliative care are to improve the quality of the last stages of patient’s lives, control symptoms, and provide support to family members and to pay attention to patient’s perceptions of purpose and meaning of life. The experience of cancer-related fatigue has a major impact on patient’s motivation as it means they are unable to undertake physical activities and that they lose interest in activities and life in general. Although it is difficult to conduct research on patients who are highly distressed, have severe symptoms or who are dying, there is the potential for such research to have a therapeutic benefit for those taking part. Providing patients with cancer an opportunity to discuss their feelings associated with symptoms such as fatigue provides information necessary to develop professional understanding and can also help patients to make sense or come to terms with their condition. Future research should focus on determining effective solutions including alternative and complementary therapies rather than on reassessing need. More focused fatigue assessment tools and targeted fatigue interventions for patients at the end of life are required, as is training in fatigue management so that healthcare assistants are more knowledgeable and skilled in assessing and managing fatigue. By understanding the physical, psychosocial and emotional needs of an individuals experience of advanced cancer, palliative care research demonstrates that health professionals can help patients to adapt to living with cancer-related fatigue. Such intervention can empower patients to maintain control over decisions relating to their care and can assist them to understand and find meaning in their fatigue. REFERENCES Donnelly S, Walsh D.(1995) The symptoms of advanced cancer. Semin Oncol 1995; 22(2 suppl 3):67–72. Johnson, C. (1992). Coping with compassion fatigue. Nursing, 22(4), 116, 118-120. Ream E. (2007) Fatigue in patients Nursing Stand.2007: 21(28)49-56

Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions

Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions in the English of Syrian Students Abstract In recent years, studies of foreign language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors since they allow for prediction of the difficulties involved in acquiring a foreign language. In this way, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by their students and devote special care and emphasis to them. Prepositions, on which this dissertation focuses, are one of these difficult areas. Thus, the main objective is to investigate whether the English preposition errors of the Syrian university students come more from inter-lingual interference or from other sources and whether classical or colloquial Arabic has the dominant influence on this interference. It also investigates which category of error in inter-lingual interference is the most frequent in the students using the prepositions in, on, at, of and to. The data is samples consisting of the answers of a diagnostic test by 38 Syrian first-year students of law. The diagnostic test was designed as a mu ltiple choice test and took by the students online. This investigation showed that preposition errors come mainly from inter-lingual interference, which is attributed more to standard Arabic here. It also showed that the students seem to have a serious problem in first language interference errors, especially substitution errors. This has implications for curriculum change and teachers method of teaching. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background of the study Language difficulty is often determined by how far or close the target and mother languages are. â€Å"Contrastive analysis is one of the areas of linguistics which elude a clear, unequivocal, and simple definition† (Vizmuller-Zocco, 1990:466). Errors in a certain area of grammar in the second language are often compared with an area of grammar in the first language. One of the most challenging things in learning English as a second language is using prepositions, â€Å"Among those who teach or learn the English language, prepositions have earned a reputation for difficulty if not downright unpredictability.† (Pittman, 1966) â€Å"As any English teacher well knows, our prepositions are a particularly troublesome lot to the non-native speaker of English† (McCarthy, 1972). When we, non-native speakers of English, speak English, we usually hesitate over choosing the correct preposition or whether a certain verb needs a preposition or not. This matter has always interested me, as many Arabic-speaking learners of English complain about it. Thahir (1987) indicates that prepositions can cause a problem for Arabic learners of English. For instance, an Arabic speaker would say this sentence *Fast trains can travel at a speed of 300m in hour. This is because per hour is expressed as in hour in Arabic. This transfer from Arabic into English is what makes Arabic learners English seem broken. Moreover, some linguists say that the mastery of prepositions in English is a late stage in native-language learning as well (Scott and Tucker, 1974). Therefore, this dissertation intends to look into the differences of preposition aspects between Arabic and English: are their distributions the same? Do all the Arabic words that need prepositions also need prepositions in English? If the words that need prepositions in Arabic also need prepositions in English, are these prepositions the same or different? From these general questions more specific questions will be formulated in the ‘Methodology chapter. 1.2. Grammar of English and Arabic prepositions â€Å"Arabic has a wealth of prepositions†¦with both verbs and adjectives. Many of these do not coincide with their direct English translations† (Swan and Smith, 1987:152). Nevertheless, Arabic prepositions are more limited in number than those of English. Abbas says that there are only twenty prepositions in Arabic (1961:320), while in English, there are fifty seven (Hayden, 1965:171-176). This, as a matter of fact, makes it harder for Arabic learners of English to have a command of English preposition usage. Grubic says: Non-native speakers of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions: 1. Using the wrong preposition, e.g.: *My grandfather picked the name on me. (for) 2. Omitting a required preposition, e.g.: *I served the Army until 1964. (in) 3. Using a superfluous prepositions, e.g.: *I studied in Biology for three years. (2004:22) Despite all the efforts made by grammar book writers and teachers, learners of English still make mistakes in the usage of prepositions. So, what makes EFL learners make these errors? There is no doubt that Arabic learners of English translate grammar from Arabic into English, ignoring the rigorous grammatical structures of the English language. However, are all preposition-usage errors related to L1? Prepositions are words or groups of words that typically come before a noun phrase and indicate syntactic relations (Matthews, 1997). v My fathers plane arrives after midnight. v We have got a tree in front of the house. v There are no snakes in Ireland. One important feature of prepositions is that they cannot stand alone, regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992). Since prepositions are not independent, they form meaning when combined with nouns or noun phrases, for example: after midnight, in front of the house, in Ireland. â€Å"Prepositions can be divided into three categories, i.e. basic prepositions, systematic prepositions and idiomatic prepositions: v standing on the table. v come on Friday. v comment on speech.† (Karlsson, 2002) In expressing time, on is used with days, such as on Friday, on Saturday and on January 30th. At, on the other hand, indicates a specific part or time of the day, such as at 12 oclock, at noon and at midnight. While in is used with years, months and seasons or main parts of the day, for example in 2001, in summer, in April. For explains a period of time, and by and within indicate limitation of a period of time, such as for six years, by next year and within two hours (Hewings, 2005). The Arabic preposition fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²), which is equivalent to the English in, is used in almost all of the above cases, but for within Arabic uses khilal ( ºÃ‚ »Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ »Ã‚ ). By and for have no equivalents in Arabic and they are expressed in phrases. As for prepositions of movement and place, in is used when indicating a certain position and on when talking about the surface, as in: v The keys are in the drawer. v The keys are on the table. At is used when pointing at a certain place which is close to the object, for example: v Im waiting for you at the bus stop. Inside is used to indicate the inner place of a certain object, while outside is the opposite. v There is a scorpion inside my room. v Outside the Palace, there were crowds of people waiting for the Queen to show up. Also, from and to are opposite prepositions. From indicates the origin of the movement, but to indicates the target of the movement (ibid), as in: v My plane ticket is from London Heathrow to Damascus International Airport. All of the prepositions of movement and place have their equivalents in Arabic:  § in → fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²)  § on → ala ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °)  § at → inda ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ª)  § inside → dakhel ( ºÃ‚ ªÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ »Ã… ¾)  § outside → kharej ( ºÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ®Ã‚ ºÃ‚ )  § from → min ( »Ã‚ £Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥)  § to → ila ( ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °) 1.3. Study aims The prepositions in, on, at and to are the most commonly used prepositions in English. Therefore, my research study is going to focus closely on these four prepositions in the English of Syrian university students. I will see whether the first language interference kind of error is more effective than the other kinds. I will identify the errors that have to do with L1 interference and see if the interference comes from classical or colloquial Arabic. I will also look at the categories of L1 interference errors and see which one is the most frequent: substitution, addition or omission. This will, hopefully, help Syrian university students improve their written and spoken English. 2. Literature review 2.1. Error analysis One way for identifying errors in preposition usage is error analysis. First of all, it is important to define the word ‘error. An error is â€Å"an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author† (James, 1998:78). Brown considers the errors as either ‘overt or ‘covert (1994:208). According to Ellis (1987) Error analysis was considered as an alternative to contrastive analysis, and it is considered of value in the classroom research (Brown, 1994: 214). It also predicts the difficulties of acquiring a second language (Richards, 1974: 172). Error analysis shows â€Å"the significance of errors in learners inter-language system† (Brown, 1994:204). Ellis and Richards et al say that error analysis can be conducted for pedagogical purposes (1994:51; 1993:127). At the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which the teacher can assess learning and teaching and determine priorities for future effort (Richards, 1974:15). When we analyse errors, we should give a detailed explanation for each type of error that corresponds to the different processes that Selinker (1992) reported as central to second language learning: language transfer, transfer of training, strategies of second language learning, strategies of second language communication, and overgeneralization of TL [Target Language] linguistic material. Error analysis helps teachers overcome the difficulties learners of English face in learning the language through figuring out the sources of errors and, consequently, taking some precautions towards them. It can be said that error analysis can be used to determine the learners need in learning. 2.2. Language transfer The â€Å"study of transfer depends greatly on the systematic comparisons of languages provided by contrastive analyses† (Odlin, 1989: 28). Odlin goes on to say that although many contrastive analyses provide useful and sometimes highly perceptive information about languages they compare, none comes close to meeting in full the criteria of descriptive and theoretical adequacy. There is no doubt that interference constitutes a major problem and obstacle in language usage amongst learners of a second language. They cannot help letting their mother tongue interfere in the target language. Therefore, some errors are tolerable to native speakers of English. Even native speakers of English have problems with certain preposition structures. Over-generalisation or intra-lingual transfer is said to have a considerably negative effect on learner English. Learners of a second language sometimes transfer some features of grammar to apply it on other inappropriate features. This certainly results in errors in the target language. Almost all the research that has been done so far indicates that preposition misuse is mainly caused by linguistic interference, inappropriate learning and wrong application of rules. Some views contradict this saying that errors of prepositions are due to the complexity of the English language itself. Others go so far as to say that the misuse or errors of a language could be related to bad teaching and resources, ignorance, lack of practice and carelessness. In fact, attitudes vary considerably. The first attitude represents the feeling that errors are undesirable and, therefore, should be avoided, but the second says that errors are inevitable in an imperfect world (Corder, 1981). In behaviourism, errors are depicted as sins that should be avoided and bad habits that should not be tolerated, while in cognitivism, errors are perceived as part of the learning process. The main focus of behaviourism followers methods is on preventing errors, whereas the focus of the methods of cognitivists is on intellectual analyses of the causes of errors and ways of dealing with them. This supports Frenchs argument (1989) that â€Å"errors are oddities that are not evidence of carelessness or of unwillingness but of growing pains and a desire to learn, not punishable offences because they are accidents† (French, 1989). Actually they are part of the language learning process. Humans cannot learn without making errors to err is human. Krashen and Terrell (1983) argue that the errors made by learners are a natural process in learning, and learners will get over this stage of inter-language interference and develop naturally. L1 interference is one of several types of errors learners of a second language make (ibid, 1988: 64-69). When learners of a second language use this language, they have no way but to submit to the grammar of their first language. In the case of English prepositions, when Arabic learners of English are not sure which preposition to use, they literally translate from Arabic into English. As Arabic and English prepositions seldom have one-to-one correspondence, this results in inter-language interference errors. An Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions, while an English usage may have several Arabic translations (Scott and Tucker, 1974: 85). 2.3. Studies on language transfer The processes of language transfer and over-generalisation receive considerable attention. Jain (in Richards, 1974) and Taylor (1975) reported that over-generalisation errors are an application of the generalisation strategies of the learners second language to produce this same second language. Brown states that inter-lingual transfer is the negative influence of the mother tongue, and that intra-lingual transfer is the negative transfer within the target language (1980:173-181). Swan and Smith give a detailed account of errors made by speakers of nineteen different first language backgrounds (1995:ix). Also, Diab (1996) conducted a research on error analysis showing the interference of the mother language, Arabic, in the English writings of EFL students at the American University of Beirut (1996). The transfer of Arabic structures in the Lebanese students writings resulted in a number of errors. However, they made more errors where they felt English and Arabic were similar (articles, prepositions and choice of diction). James indicates that â€Å"the clearest proof of L1 interference is where L1 nonstandard dialect gets transferred to L2† (1998:179). Dulay et al (1982) defines language interference as the automatic transfer from the surface structure of the first language to the surface structure to the second language, while Lott (1983) defines it as errors in learners foreign language that can be attributed to the mother tongue. Ellis also comments on interference saying that it is â€Å"the influence that the learners L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2† (1997:51). ‘An Analysis of Interference Errors in the Written English of Sudanese Students is a study made by Tadros (1966) in order to analyse the errors of language interference in the writings of Sudanese students. He looked into 472 scripts written by 236 students in their seventh year of English learning. The students were first given different exercises about relative clauses and had to follow explicit instructions. Then they were asked to write a paragraph about their school, using relative clauses. This research made the writer come up with the conclusion that this is an effective way to apply what they have already learnt. I think the conditions were helpful for the students, so their writings were not an indication of their true proficiency level in English. The students were asked to write paragraphs immediately after they had been taught. Scott et al (1974) also made a study in Beirut called â€Å"Error Analysis and English Language Strategies of Arab Students†. This study examined samples of Arab students speech and writing both at the beginning and the end of the semester in an intensive English course; compared the types of error in speech and writing, the frequency of these errors and the relative frequency of the errors made at the beginning and the end of the semester; identified the sources of errors; considered both inter-language interference and intra-language interference in the English learning strategies of Arab students and identified some rules that represent early and late acquisition of a second language. This researcher made this study on 22 Arab students in the first semester of a lower intermediate intensive English course at the University of Beirut. Those students had already completed their school education, where the medium of instruction was Arabic. They had also studied some English as a foreign language. This study revealed that verbs, prepositions and articles are the areas where the students often made errors. It also showed that the error frequency in the usage of prepositions was similar in writing and speech and that the preposition errors at the beginning and the end of the semester ranked after the number of verb errors. Verb errors Preposition errors Beginning of the semester 80 61 End of the semester 60 51 Half of the errors in writing and speech at the beginning of the semester were due to inter-language interference and the other half due to intra-language interference. About two thirds of the errors at the end of the semester were due to inter-language interference and one third due to intra-language interference. Since the larger number of errors was made due to inter-language interference at the end rather than at the beginning of the semester, this means that the students were making more progress in overcoming intra-language interference confusion than in solving the problem of the first language transfer. The interference of Arabic was most obvious in the frequent omission of auxiliaries and copulas, in preposition and article errors and in the repetition of subjects and objects. However, at the end of the semester, the students made a great progress in almost all areas except in prepositions and articles; the interference of the mother language continued to be a dominant feature in the usage of prepositions and articles. The preposition errors fell into three groups: 1. Interference from Arabic. 2. Interference from English. 3. Errors without identifiable source. The preposition errors were reduced by one third during the semester. Although the larger proportion of these errors was attributed to the interference of the first language, it was thought that the students would make progress in the usage of prepositions since it is a late acquisition in native language learning (Scott et al, 1974:95). The researcher suggested that other studies should investigate the errors made by Arab students at both lower and higher levels of English proficiency and if inter-language interference comes from formal or colloquial Arabic. She suggests that â€Å"interference in writing comes from classical Arabic but interference in speech from colloquial Arabic.† (ibid: 96). Mukattash made a pilot project in common grammatical errors in Jordanian English (1981: 250-291). The broad objective of his research â€Å"Common Grammatical Errors in Jordanian English† is to get a general idea of the areas in English syntax which are problematic to Jordanian students at university. The specific objective of his research was to calculate and analyse the different types of errors in the written English of Jordanian university students. The subject students were 200 first-year students at the University of Jordan. They were graduates of public secondary schools, where they had received eight years of English language teaching. They were also from different parts of Jordan and some of them were from the West Bank in Palestine. The students were given a comprehensive test in comprehension, structure and vocabulary. All the 200 essays contained errors, but the detailed analysis was made on only fifty essays, which were chosen randomly. The errors in the usage of prepositions ranked fourth in the order of the total occurrence of errors. This study disagrees with Scotts study, which ranks preposition usage errors second after verb errors. Here the ranking order is as follows: verbals, articles, nominals and prepositions. The percentage of the preposition errors was 15% of the overall number of errors in the fifty essays. Although we cannot compare the results of the two studies due to the fact that Scott did not state precisely what percentage the preposition usage errors constituted in the writings of her subject students, we can say that preposition errors are still a serious problem for Arabic learners of English. In Scotts study, the percentage of interference from Arabic was 67%, while in this Study, it is 78%. However, the interference of Arabic in the usage of prepositions is still significant in the results of both studies. Also, Kerr (1970) made a study on the common errors in the English writings of a group of Greek learners of English as a foreign language. The research study purpose was to show the teachers of English in Greece the serious problems their students have in writing. Teachers find certain types of errors which they have previously ignored, and so find indications of the kinds of preventive and remedial teaching that would prevent the growth of bad language habits by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the more elementary stages of learning. The errors also indicate the areas of language on which tests and examinations would be based. (Kerr, 1970: ix). Kerr based his study on over a thousand compositions written by adult students at an advanced level of English proficiency. The causes of the errors found were ignorance of words and constructions to express an idea, carelessness of the students, the interference of the mother language and making false analogies within the target language. Between 20% and 30% of the grammatical errors made by the Greek students involved errors in the usage of prepositions of all types (ibid, 1970: 22). Handrickson (1979) made another research study on error analysis and error correction at Ohio State University called ‘Error Analysis and Error Correction on ESL Learners at Ohio State University. The subject learners were adults of intermediate level studying English as a second language. His study aimed at identifying the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors in the compositions of intermediate ESL learners. It also aimed at determining the effect of the teachers direct correction on the English writing proficiency of students. He found that most of the communicative errors were as a result of inadequate lexical knowledge, incorrect use of prepositions and pronouns or misspelling of lexical items. On the other hand, the linguistic errors were caused by inappropriate lexical choice, lack of subject-verb agreement, the omission and misuse of prepositions, incorrect word order or misspelling of words. The effect of the teachers direct error correction on the students English proficiency in writing came out to be statistically insignificant. Another study was made in the United States on EFL learners, but this time on Iranian students. The research was conducted by Henning (1978) at the University of California and is called ‘A Developmental Analysis of English Errors Made by Iranian Students. He analysed the developmental error patterns of the Iranian learners of English as a second language. The subjects of this study were 22 Iranian women in the second semester of their first year at Damayand College in Tehran, Iran. The students had already had an average of six years of English learning and were, at the time of the research, enrolled in an intensive course where 20 hours of English language teaching was being given to them. The medium of instruction was also English. â€Å"The conclusion reached was that†¦mastery in the usage of English prepositions according to their meanings is one of the most sensitive indicators of the degree of English proficiency† (Henning, 1978:396-397). Zarei (2002) also found that, for Iranian EFL learners, the collocations of prepositions are among the most problematic collocations in English. Khampang (1974) also made a research study at the University of California. This Research study is called ‘The Difficulties in Using English Prepositions, and it focused on the difficulties facing Thai learners of English in using English prepositions. The research was conducted to investigate what the prepositions that Thai learners of English found difficult to learn were and whether there was a big difference between the prepositions that Thai learners of English chose and those chosen by learners of English from other L1 backgrounds. It also investigated whether the problem of using English prepositions was universal, shared with non-Thai learners of English, or Thai learners had specific problems. He wanted to know if this problem was due to first language interference and, consequently, predictable from contrastive analysis. The study was only on 8 simple prepositions of time and place: in, on, at, for, to, from, by and the empty form ∅. ‘The subject students in this research were 169 students from different L1 backgrounds: 40 from Thailand, 48 from Japan, 38 from Spain and 43 from countries of different language backgrounds (Persian, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Arabic). The levels of the students were both intermediate and advanced, and they were in adult schools in the area of Los Angeles. The students were tested on the 8 prepositions of time and place by a diagnostic test. This test was in three parts: multiple choice, error correction and close test. Each part consisted of 15 items. The 45 questions included the repetition of each preposition 4 times in random order. The results came up with the fact that: there was no evidence of significant difference between the language groups based on total test scores. Neither was there any evidence found for interaction effects between the language groups and the factors selected. There was only one factor, previous educational level, which showed significant difference between high school and college subjects. (Khampang, 1974: 218). Different language groups did not affect the subject students performance in the usage of English prepositions. Again, age, sex or the number of years or hours per week allotted for learning English were not important factors in mastering the usage of English prepositions. As for the question about whether certain prepositions were more difficult or easier for certain language groups, the writer had to use the criterion of difficulty in order to answer it. If a group had less than 50% of the responses correct, then the test item was considered difficult. 16 out of the 45 items were considered difficult, and the data showed that not all the four groups had the same responses for the test items. Khampang gave some statements that, as he said, are applicable to ESL teaching. He said that of the three test parts, the close test seemed to be more effective than the other parts in testing the usage of English prepositions. He also argues that to teach them English, there is no need to separate students of English by age, sex, or number of years or hours allotted for learning English. Diagnostic and placement tests came out to be more effective than considering the students L1 backgrounds. Moreover, for a heterogeneous language group, the way of teaching English prepositions of time and place should be the same for all students, along with emphasising the areas of difficulty in English language learning for a particular language group. This last statement is the real objective behind error analysis. Im researching Syrian university students preposition errors in order to see if the errors are as a result of the interference of their first language, Arabic. This will help us devel op strategies to teach those students. An investigation on the grammatical errors made by Swedish 16-year-old learners of English was made by Kohlmyr (2003). She analysed errors in around 400 compositions from two national assessment programmes, and she found that preposition errors accounted for 12% of all the grammatical errors. The preposition errors that were mainly found with to, in, at, of and for included substitution, omission and addition. The most frequent type of error was actually substitution. According to this research, the preposition errors were caused by first language transfer, over-generalisation and simplification. About 50% of the errors were caused by over-generalisation, 40% by first language transfer and 10% by simplification. Gabrys-Biskup argues that interference is the prime cause of the learners second language (in Arnauld Benjoint, 1992). All of the above research articles focused on learner English. Some of them also focused on the usage of English prepositions by EFL learners; for instance, the research done by Scott and Khampang. Scott, in her research, found that the usage of English prepositions was a serious problem for Arabic learners of English (1973). While Khampang said that different language groups did not have effect on the students performance in using English prepositions (1974). That suggests that the usage of English prepositions are a serious problem for learners of English as a foreign language. In Scotts research, preposition errors ranked second after verb errors, and in Mukattashs, they ranked fourth. In both cases, preposition errors are problematic for Arabic learners of English. Also, in Kerrs research study, the preposition errors constituted between 20% and 30% of the overall grammatical errors. Some of the above researchers gave some recommendations and suggestions for dealing with errors. Kerr (1970) said that preventive and remedial teaching had a good and positive effect. This can be done by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the elementary stage. However, Tadros (1979) suggested intensive drilling. On the other hand, Scott suggested that further investigations should be made on the errors that are committed by Arabic learners of English at their lower levels of English proficiency (1973). She also suggested that researches should look into the influence of classical and colloquial Arabic on Arabic students written English. These suggestions, in addition to my interest, have urged me to conduct a research study into this problematic area for Syrian learners of English, especially since there have not been many studies on this topic, as far as I know. Even at more advanced levels of English proficiency, Syrian learners of English still make errors in the usage of prepositions. The kind of error they make is due to the mother tongue, and since Arabic has two varieties (formal and colloquial), it is worth investigating which one the learners take their English grammar structures from. Scott (1974) says that the English production of Arabic learners is affected by both formal and colloquial Arabic. Nevertheless, we do not know which variety is dominant and to what extent. 3. Methodology and research procedures 3.1. Research questions In this research study, I will look into the preposition usage errors made by Syrian university students and try to answer the following questions: 1. Which kind of error is more effective in using the English prepositions in, on, at, of and to: inter-language interference or other kinds of error? 2. Which variety of Arabic has the influence on the usage of English prepositions of Syrian university students and w Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions in the English of Syrian Students Abstract In recent years, studies of foreign language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors since they allow for prediction of the difficulties involved in acquiring a foreign language. In this way, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by their students and devote special care and emphasis to them. Prepositions, on which this dissertation focuses, are one of these difficult areas. Thus, the main objective is to investigate whether the English preposition errors of the Syrian university students come more from inter-lingual interference or from other sources and whether classical or colloquial Arabic has the dominant influence on this interference. It also investigates which category of error in inter-lingual interference is the most frequent in the students using the prepositions in, on, at, of and to. The data is samples consisting of the answers of a diagnostic test by 38 Syrian first-year students of law. The diagnostic test was designed as a mu ltiple choice test and took by the students online. This investigation showed that preposition errors come mainly from inter-lingual interference, which is attributed more to standard Arabic here. It also showed that the students seem to have a serious problem in first language interference errors, especially substitution errors. This has implications for curriculum change and teachers method of teaching. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background of the study Language difficulty is often determined by how far or close the target and mother languages are. â€Å"Contrastive analysis is one of the areas of linguistics which elude a clear, unequivocal, and simple definition† (Vizmuller-Zocco, 1990:466). Errors in a certain area of grammar in the second language are often compared with an area of grammar in the first language. One of the most challenging things in learning English as a second language is using prepositions, â€Å"Among those who teach or learn the English language, prepositions have earned a reputation for difficulty if not downright unpredictability.† (Pittman, 1966) â€Å"As any English teacher well knows, our prepositions are a particularly troublesome lot to the non-native speaker of English† (McCarthy, 1972). When we, non-native speakers of English, speak English, we usually hesitate over choosing the correct preposition or whether a certain verb needs a preposition or not. This matter has always interested me, as many Arabic-speaking learners of English complain about it. Thahir (1987) indicates that prepositions can cause a problem for Arabic learners of English. For instance, an Arabic speaker would say this sentence *Fast trains can travel at a speed of 300m in hour. This is because per hour is expressed as in hour in Arabic. This transfer from Arabic into English is what makes Arabic learners English seem broken. Moreover, some linguists say that the mastery of prepositions in English is a late stage in native-language learning as well (Scott and Tucker, 1974). Therefore, this dissertation intends to look into the differences of preposition aspects between Arabic and English: are their distributions the same? Do all the Arabic words that need prepositions also need prepositions in English? If the words that need prepositions in Arabic also need prepositions in English, are these prepositions the same or different? From these general questions more specific questions will be formulated in the ‘Methodology chapter. 1.2. Grammar of English and Arabic prepositions â€Å"Arabic has a wealth of prepositions†¦with both verbs and adjectives. Many of these do not coincide with their direct English translations† (Swan and Smith, 1987:152). Nevertheless, Arabic prepositions are more limited in number than those of English. Abbas says that there are only twenty prepositions in Arabic (1961:320), while in English, there are fifty seven (Hayden, 1965:171-176). This, as a matter of fact, makes it harder for Arabic learners of English to have a command of English preposition usage. Grubic says: Non-native speakers of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions: 1. Using the wrong preposition, e.g.: *My grandfather picked the name on me. (for) 2. Omitting a required preposition, e.g.: *I served the Army until 1964. (in) 3. Using a superfluous prepositions, e.g.: *I studied in Biology for three years. (2004:22) Despite all the efforts made by grammar book writers and teachers, learners of English still make mistakes in the usage of prepositions. So, what makes EFL learners make these errors? There is no doubt that Arabic learners of English translate grammar from Arabic into English, ignoring the rigorous grammatical structures of the English language. However, are all preposition-usage errors related to L1? Prepositions are words or groups of words that typically come before a noun phrase and indicate syntactic relations (Matthews, 1997). v My fathers plane arrives after midnight. v We have got a tree in front of the house. v There are no snakes in Ireland. One important feature of prepositions is that they cannot stand alone, regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992). Since prepositions are not independent, they form meaning when combined with nouns or noun phrases, for example: after midnight, in front of the house, in Ireland. â€Å"Prepositions can be divided into three categories, i.e. basic prepositions, systematic prepositions and idiomatic prepositions: v standing on the table. v come on Friday. v comment on speech.† (Karlsson, 2002) In expressing time, on is used with days, such as on Friday, on Saturday and on January 30th. At, on the other hand, indicates a specific part or time of the day, such as at 12 oclock, at noon and at midnight. While in is used with years, months and seasons or main parts of the day, for example in 2001, in summer, in April. For explains a period of time, and by and within indicate limitation of a period of time, such as for six years, by next year and within two hours (Hewings, 2005). The Arabic preposition fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²), which is equivalent to the English in, is used in almost all of the above cases, but for within Arabic uses khilal ( ºÃ‚ »Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ »Ã‚ ). By and for have no equivalents in Arabic and they are expressed in phrases. As for prepositions of movement and place, in is used when indicating a certain position and on when talking about the surface, as in: v The keys are in the drawer. v The keys are on the table. At is used when pointing at a certain place which is close to the object, for example: v Im waiting for you at the bus stop. Inside is used to indicate the inner place of a certain object, while outside is the opposite. v There is a scorpion inside my room. v Outside the Palace, there were crowds of people waiting for the Queen to show up. Also, from and to are opposite prepositions. From indicates the origin of the movement, but to indicates the target of the movement (ibid), as in: v My plane ticket is from London Heathrow to Damascus International Airport. All of the prepositions of movement and place have their equivalents in Arabic:  § in → fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²)  § on → ala ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °)  § at → inda ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ª)  § inside → dakhel ( ºÃ‚ ªÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ »Ã… ¾)  § outside → kharej ( ºÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ®Ã‚ ºÃ‚ )  § from → min ( »Ã‚ £Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥)  § to → ila ( ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °) 1.3. Study aims The prepositions in, on, at and to are the most commonly used prepositions in English. Therefore, my research study is going to focus closely on these four prepositions in the English of Syrian university students. I will see whether the first language interference kind of error is more effective than the other kinds. I will identify the errors that have to do with L1 interference and see if the interference comes from classical or colloquial Arabic. I will also look at the categories of L1 interference errors and see which one is the most frequent: substitution, addition or omission. This will, hopefully, help Syrian university students improve their written and spoken English. 2. Literature review 2.1. Error analysis One way for identifying errors in preposition usage is error analysis. First of all, it is important to define the word ‘error. An error is â€Å"an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author† (James, 1998:78). Brown considers the errors as either ‘overt or ‘covert (1994:208). According to Ellis (1987) Error analysis was considered as an alternative to contrastive analysis, and it is considered of value in the classroom research (Brown, 1994: 214). It also predicts the difficulties of acquiring a second language (Richards, 1974: 172). Error analysis shows â€Å"the significance of errors in learners inter-language system† (Brown, 1994:204). Ellis and Richards et al say that error analysis can be conducted for pedagogical purposes (1994:51; 1993:127). At the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which the teacher can assess learning and teaching and determine priorities for future effort (Richards, 1974:15). When we analyse errors, we should give a detailed explanation for each type of error that corresponds to the different processes that Selinker (1992) reported as central to second language learning: language transfer, transfer of training, strategies of second language learning, strategies of second language communication, and overgeneralization of TL [Target Language] linguistic material. Error analysis helps teachers overcome the difficulties learners of English face in learning the language through figuring out the sources of errors and, consequently, taking some precautions towards them. It can be said that error analysis can be used to determine the learners need in learning. 2.2. Language transfer The â€Å"study of transfer depends greatly on the systematic comparisons of languages provided by contrastive analyses† (Odlin, 1989: 28). Odlin goes on to say that although many contrastive analyses provide useful and sometimes highly perceptive information about languages they compare, none comes close to meeting in full the criteria of descriptive and theoretical adequacy. There is no doubt that interference constitutes a major problem and obstacle in language usage amongst learners of a second language. They cannot help letting their mother tongue interfere in the target language. Therefore, some errors are tolerable to native speakers of English. Even native speakers of English have problems with certain preposition structures. Over-generalisation or intra-lingual transfer is said to have a considerably negative effect on learner English. Learners of a second language sometimes transfer some features of grammar to apply it on other inappropriate features. This certainly results in errors in the target language. Almost all the research that has been done so far indicates that preposition misuse is mainly caused by linguistic interference, inappropriate learning and wrong application of rules. Some views contradict this saying that errors of prepositions are due to the complexity of the English language itself. Others go so far as to say that the misuse or errors of a language could be related to bad teaching and resources, ignorance, lack of practice and carelessness. In fact, attitudes vary considerably. The first attitude represents the feeling that errors are undesirable and, therefore, should be avoided, but the second says that errors are inevitable in an imperfect world (Corder, 1981). In behaviourism, errors are depicted as sins that should be avoided and bad habits that should not be tolerated, while in cognitivism, errors are perceived as part of the learning process. The main focus of behaviourism followers methods is on preventing errors, whereas the focus of the methods of cognitivists is on intellectual analyses of the causes of errors and ways of dealing with them. This supports Frenchs argument (1989) that â€Å"errors are oddities that are not evidence of carelessness or of unwillingness but of growing pains and a desire to learn, not punishable offences because they are accidents† (French, 1989). Actually they are part of the language learning process. Humans cannot learn without making errors to err is human. Krashen and Terrell (1983) argue that the errors made by learners are a natural process in learning, and learners will get over this stage of inter-language interference and develop naturally. L1 interference is one of several types of errors learners of a second language make (ibid, 1988: 64-69). When learners of a second language use this language, they have no way but to submit to the grammar of their first language. In the case of English prepositions, when Arabic learners of English are not sure which preposition to use, they literally translate from Arabic into English. As Arabic and English prepositions seldom have one-to-one correspondence, this results in inter-language interference errors. An Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions, while an English usage may have several Arabic translations (Scott and Tucker, 1974: 85). 2.3. Studies on language transfer The processes of language transfer and over-generalisation receive considerable attention. Jain (in Richards, 1974) and Taylor (1975) reported that over-generalisation errors are an application of the generalisation strategies of the learners second language to produce this same second language. Brown states that inter-lingual transfer is the negative influence of the mother tongue, and that intra-lingual transfer is the negative transfer within the target language (1980:173-181). Swan and Smith give a detailed account of errors made by speakers of nineteen different first language backgrounds (1995:ix). Also, Diab (1996) conducted a research on error analysis showing the interference of the mother language, Arabic, in the English writings of EFL students at the American University of Beirut (1996). The transfer of Arabic structures in the Lebanese students writings resulted in a number of errors. However, they made more errors where they felt English and Arabic were similar (articles, prepositions and choice of diction). James indicates that â€Å"the clearest proof of L1 interference is where L1 nonstandard dialect gets transferred to L2† (1998:179). Dulay et al (1982) defines language interference as the automatic transfer from the surface structure of the first language to the surface structure to the second language, while Lott (1983) defines it as errors in learners foreign language that can be attributed to the mother tongue. Ellis also comments on interference saying that it is â€Å"the influence that the learners L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2† (1997:51). ‘An Analysis of Interference Errors in the Written English of Sudanese Students is a study made by Tadros (1966) in order to analyse the errors of language interference in the writings of Sudanese students. He looked into 472 scripts written by 236 students in their seventh year of English learning. The students were first given different exercises about relative clauses and had to follow explicit instructions. Then they were asked to write a paragraph about their school, using relative clauses. This research made the writer come up with the conclusion that this is an effective way to apply what they have already learnt. I think the conditions were helpful for the students, so their writings were not an indication of their true proficiency level in English. The students were asked to write paragraphs immediately after they had been taught. Scott et al (1974) also made a study in Beirut called â€Å"Error Analysis and English Language Strategies of Arab Students†. This study examined samples of Arab students speech and writing both at the beginning and the end of the semester in an intensive English course; compared the types of error in speech and writing, the frequency of these errors and the relative frequency of the errors made at the beginning and the end of the semester; identified the sources of errors; considered both inter-language interference and intra-language interference in the English learning strategies of Arab students and identified some rules that represent early and late acquisition of a second language. This researcher made this study on 22 Arab students in the first semester of a lower intermediate intensive English course at the University of Beirut. Those students had already completed their school education, where the medium of instruction was Arabic. They had also studied some English as a foreign language. This study revealed that verbs, prepositions and articles are the areas where the students often made errors. It also showed that the error frequency in the usage of prepositions was similar in writing and speech and that the preposition errors at the beginning and the end of the semester ranked after the number of verb errors. Verb errors Preposition errors Beginning of the semester 80 61 End of the semester 60 51 Half of the errors in writing and speech at the beginning of the semester were due to inter-language interference and the other half due to intra-language interference. About two thirds of the errors at the end of the semester were due to inter-language interference and one third due to intra-language interference. Since the larger number of errors was made due to inter-language interference at the end rather than at the beginning of the semester, this means that the students were making more progress in overcoming intra-language interference confusion than in solving the problem of the first language transfer. The interference of Arabic was most obvious in the frequent omission of auxiliaries and copulas, in preposition and article errors and in the repetition of subjects and objects. However, at the end of the semester, the students made a great progress in almost all areas except in prepositions and articles; the interference of the mother language continued to be a dominant feature in the usage of prepositions and articles. The preposition errors fell into three groups: 1. Interference from Arabic. 2. Interference from English. 3. Errors without identifiable source. The preposition errors were reduced by one third during the semester. Although the larger proportion of these errors was attributed to the interference of the first language, it was thought that the students would make progress in the usage of prepositions since it is a late acquisition in native language learning (Scott et al, 1974:95). The researcher suggested that other studies should investigate the errors made by Arab students at both lower and higher levels of English proficiency and if inter-language interference comes from formal or colloquial Arabic. She suggests that â€Å"interference in writing comes from classical Arabic but interference in speech from colloquial Arabic.† (ibid: 96). Mukattash made a pilot project in common grammatical errors in Jordanian English (1981: 250-291). The broad objective of his research â€Å"Common Grammatical Errors in Jordanian English† is to get a general idea of the areas in English syntax which are problematic to Jordanian students at university. The specific objective of his research was to calculate and analyse the different types of errors in the written English of Jordanian university students. The subject students were 200 first-year students at the University of Jordan. They were graduates of public secondary schools, where they had received eight years of English language teaching. They were also from different parts of Jordan and some of them were from the West Bank in Palestine. The students were given a comprehensive test in comprehension, structure and vocabulary. All the 200 essays contained errors, but the detailed analysis was made on only fifty essays, which were chosen randomly. The errors in the usage of prepositions ranked fourth in the order of the total occurrence of errors. This study disagrees with Scotts study, which ranks preposition usage errors second after verb errors. Here the ranking order is as follows: verbals, articles, nominals and prepositions. The percentage of the preposition errors was 15% of the overall number of errors in the fifty essays. Although we cannot compare the results of the two studies due to the fact that Scott did not state precisely what percentage the preposition usage errors constituted in the writings of her subject students, we can say that preposition errors are still a serious problem for Arabic learners of English. In Scotts study, the percentage of interference from Arabic was 67%, while in this Study, it is 78%. However, the interference of Arabic in the usage of prepositions is still significant in the results of both studies. Also, Kerr (1970) made a study on the common errors in the English writings of a group of Greek learners of English as a foreign language. The research study purpose was to show the teachers of English in Greece the serious problems their students have in writing. Teachers find certain types of errors which they have previously ignored, and so find indications of the kinds of preventive and remedial teaching that would prevent the growth of bad language habits by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the more elementary stages of learning. The errors also indicate the areas of language on which tests and examinations would be based. (Kerr, 1970: ix). Kerr based his study on over a thousand compositions written by adult students at an advanced level of English proficiency. The causes of the errors found were ignorance of words and constructions to express an idea, carelessness of the students, the interference of the mother language and making false analogies within the target language. Between 20% and 30% of the grammatical errors made by the Greek students involved errors in the usage of prepositions of all types (ibid, 1970: 22). Handrickson (1979) made another research study on error analysis and error correction at Ohio State University called ‘Error Analysis and Error Correction on ESL Learners at Ohio State University. The subject learners were adults of intermediate level studying English as a second language. His study aimed at identifying the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors in the compositions of intermediate ESL learners. It also aimed at determining the effect of the teachers direct correction on the English writing proficiency of students. He found that most of the communicative errors were as a result of inadequate lexical knowledge, incorrect use of prepositions and pronouns or misspelling of lexical items. On the other hand, the linguistic errors were caused by inappropriate lexical choice, lack of subject-verb agreement, the omission and misuse of prepositions, incorrect word order or misspelling of words. The effect of the teachers direct error correction on the students English proficiency in writing came out to be statistically insignificant. Another study was made in the United States on EFL learners, but this time on Iranian students. The research was conducted by Henning (1978) at the University of California and is called ‘A Developmental Analysis of English Errors Made by Iranian Students. He analysed the developmental error patterns of the Iranian learners of English as a second language. The subjects of this study were 22 Iranian women in the second semester of their first year at Damayand College in Tehran, Iran. The students had already had an average of six years of English learning and were, at the time of the research, enrolled in an intensive course where 20 hours of English language teaching was being given to them. The medium of instruction was also English. â€Å"The conclusion reached was that†¦mastery in the usage of English prepositions according to their meanings is one of the most sensitive indicators of the degree of English proficiency† (Henning, 1978:396-397). Zarei (2002) also found that, for Iranian EFL learners, the collocations of prepositions are among the most problematic collocations in English. Khampang (1974) also made a research study at the University of California. This Research study is called ‘The Difficulties in Using English Prepositions, and it focused on the difficulties facing Thai learners of English in using English prepositions. The research was conducted to investigate what the prepositions that Thai learners of English found difficult to learn were and whether there was a big difference between the prepositions that Thai learners of English chose and those chosen by learners of English from other L1 backgrounds. It also investigated whether the problem of using English prepositions was universal, shared with non-Thai learners of English, or Thai learners had specific problems. He wanted to know if this problem was due to first language interference and, consequently, predictable from contrastive analysis. The study was only on 8 simple prepositions of time and place: in, on, at, for, to, from, by and the empty form ∅. ‘The subject students in this research were 169 students from different L1 backgrounds: 40 from Thailand, 48 from Japan, 38 from Spain and 43 from countries of different language backgrounds (Persian, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Arabic). The levels of the students were both intermediate and advanced, and they were in adult schools in the area of Los Angeles. The students were tested on the 8 prepositions of time and place by a diagnostic test. This test was in three parts: multiple choice, error correction and close test. Each part consisted of 15 items. The 45 questions included the repetition of each preposition 4 times in random order. The results came up with the fact that: there was no evidence of significant difference between the language groups based on total test scores. Neither was there any evidence found for interaction effects between the language groups and the factors selected. There was only one factor, previous educational level, which showed significant difference between high school and college subjects. (Khampang, 1974: 218). Different language groups did not affect the subject students performance in the usage of English prepositions. Again, age, sex or the number of years or hours per week allotted for learning English were not important factors in mastering the usage of English prepositions. As for the question about whether certain prepositions were more difficult or easier for certain language groups, the writer had to use the criterion of difficulty in order to answer it. If a group had less than 50% of the responses correct, then the test item was considered difficult. 16 out of the 45 items were considered difficult, and the data showed that not all the four groups had the same responses for the test items. Khampang gave some statements that, as he said, are applicable to ESL teaching. He said that of the three test parts, the close test seemed to be more effective than the other parts in testing the usage of English prepositions. He also argues that to teach them English, there is no need to separate students of English by age, sex, or number of years or hours allotted for learning English. Diagnostic and placement tests came out to be more effective than considering the students L1 backgrounds. Moreover, for a heterogeneous language group, the way of teaching English prepositions of time and place should be the same for all students, along with emphasising the areas of difficulty in English language learning for a particular language group. This last statement is the real objective behind error analysis. Im researching Syrian university students preposition errors in order to see if the errors are as a result of the interference of their first language, Arabic. This will help us devel op strategies to teach those students. An investigation on the grammatical errors made by Swedish 16-year-old learners of English was made by Kohlmyr (2003). She analysed errors in around 400 compositions from two national assessment programmes, and she found that preposition errors accounted for 12% of all the grammatical errors. The preposition errors that were mainly found with to, in, at, of and for included substitution, omission and addition. The most frequent type of error was actually substitution. According to this research, the preposition errors were caused by first language transfer, over-generalisation and simplification. About 50% of the errors were caused by over-generalisation, 40% by first language transfer and 10% by simplification. Gabrys-Biskup argues that interference is the prime cause of the learners second language (in Arnauld Benjoint, 1992). All of the above research articles focused on learner English. Some of them also focused on the usage of English prepositions by EFL learners; for instance, the research done by Scott and Khampang. Scott, in her research, found that the usage of English prepositions was a serious problem for Arabic learners of English (1973). While Khampang said that different language groups did not have effect on the students performance in using English prepositions (1974). That suggests that the usage of English prepositions are a serious problem for learners of English as a foreign language. In Scotts research, preposition errors ranked second after verb errors, and in Mukattashs, they ranked fourth. In both cases, preposition errors are problematic for Arabic learners of English. Also, in Kerrs research study, the preposition errors constituted between 20% and 30% of the overall grammatical errors. Some of the above researchers gave some recommendations and suggestions for dealing with errors. Kerr (1970) said that preventive and remedial teaching had a good and positive effect. This can be done by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the elementary stage. However, Tadros (1979) suggested intensive drilling. On the other hand, Scott suggested that further investigations should be made on the errors that are committed by Arabic learners of English at their lower levels of English proficiency (1973). She also suggested that researches should look into the influence of classical and colloquial Arabic on Arabic students written English. These suggestions, in addition to my interest, have urged me to conduct a research study into this problematic area for Syrian learners of English, especially since there have not been many studies on this topic, as far as I know. Even at more advanced levels of English proficiency, Syrian learners of English still make errors in the usage of prepositions. The kind of error they make is due to the mother tongue, and since Arabic has two varieties (formal and colloquial), it is worth investigating which one the learners take their English grammar structures from. Scott (1974) says that the English production of Arabic learners is affected by both formal and colloquial Arabic. Nevertheless, we do not know which variety is dominant and to what extent. 3. Methodology and research procedures 3.1. Research questions In this research study, I will look into the preposition usage errors made by Syrian university students and try to answer the following questions: 1. Which kind of error is more effective in using the English prepositions in, on, at, of and to: inter-language interference or other kinds of error? 2. Which variety of Arabic has the influence on the usage of English prepositions of Syrian university students and w