Construction and Project Essay

Construction and Project Essay Construction and Project Essay BOSTON UNIVERSITY PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH PROJECT SIDDARTA GUPTA PROJECT MANAGEMENT (AD642) PROFESSOR VIRGINIA A.GREIMANN PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH PROJECT The project I will be working on is construction of a school. Constructing a school is a very complex process that involves many people with diverse interests, talents and backgrounds working together. The owner, the design professional and contractor are the primary parties directly involved in the project but there are others such as subcontractor, material supplies, bankers, insurance companies, attorneys and public agency officials who are also important for the successful completion of the project. Construction project is usually a multiphase system. During the first phase called the pre project phase the project manager must decide what sort of project delivery system is used. How will the various parties be related to each other and how they will work together? What kind of contract will be signed with the contractors and designers? During the second phase the project is fully defined and designed for the selection by a contractor. In the third phase the contractor with the best proposal for the project is selected. The proposal includes time limits and cost allocations for major activities. After this the project manager must decide whether the given proposal for the project is feasible within the constraints of approved budget and time. After that in the fourth phase, before the project can begin, various licenses and insurances for the project must be secured. In the fifth phase during the project operations, project manager’s role includes monitoring and controllin g the work, resource management and documentation and communication. Actual schedule progress must be compared against the project program to determine whether the project is on schedule; if it is not, actions must be undertaken to try to bring the program back into conformance. Likewise, the cost status must be checked to establish how actual performance compares with the budget. Finally, as the project nears completion, a number of special activities

8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques

8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques 8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques 8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques By Sharon Whether you are writing a magazine article, a college essay or an email to a client, getting your text free of mistakes is essential. The spell checker helps, but it is far from foolproof. That is where proofreading comes in. Below you will find 8 tips and techniques to make your proofreading sessions more effective. 1. Concentration is Key If youre going to spot mistakes, then you need to concentrate. That means getting rid of distractions and potential interruptions. Switch off the cell phone, turn off the television or radio and stay away from the email. 2. Put It On Paper People read differently on screen and on paper, so print out a copy of your writing. If you read aloud, your ear might catch errors that your eye may have missed. 3. Watch Out for Homonyms Homonyms are words that share the same spelling or pronunciation, but have different meanings. Switching accept with except or complement with compliment could be disastrous, so pay attention to them. 4. Watch Out for Contractions and Apostrophes People often mix their and theyre, its and its, your and youre and so on. If there is something that can hurt the credibility of your text, it is a similar mistake. Also, remember that the apostrophe is never used to form plurals. 5. Check the Punctuation Focusing on the words is good, but do not neglect the punctuation. Pay attention to capitalized words, missing or extra commas, periods used incorrectly and so on. 6. Read it Backwards When writing we usually become blind to our own mistakes since the brain automatically â€Å"corrects† wrong words inside sentences. In order to break this pattern you can read the text backwards, word by word. 7. Check the Numbers Stating that the value of an acquisition was $10,000 instead of $100,000 is definitely not the same thing. What about the population of China, is it 1,2 million or 1,2 billion? Make sure your numbers are correct. 8. Get Someone Else to Proofread It After checking all the previous points, do not forget to get a friend to proofread it for you. You will be amazed at the mistakes youve missed. A second person will also be in a better position to evaluate whether the sentences make sense or not. 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 Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Masters Degree or Master's Degree?One Fell SwoopSentence Adverbs

Synopsis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Synopsis - Essay Example I felt like my heart is going to explore. A couple days later, I registered NCLEX-RN class (National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse). I studied very hard. I did not feel tired. I felt like I can fly. I could not stop smiling at work, because I had a new dream. I passed the exam at first attempt. I quitted job and find an agency. I was interviewed and accepted in â€Å"A† group for which I only need to pay 25% of one-year program. I told my family at one night that I am going to America in two months. It was like having a funeral service at home. My mom and sister started crying and told me that the agency is going to sell me. My sister said if I leave for America, she was going to die. My dad and little brother were shocked. My lovely sister cried so much, so I could not persist in my plan. I folded my plan just for a while. I got a new job. Actually, I was scouted from the previous work. This was a new opening hospital. I had to teach other nurses and assistants one-on-one, because they do not had any experience in this department. It has been going really well. I was very pleased after hearing that I have strong leadership skill from the director of the department. On a very bright day, my father got a letter, which was about my grandmother land with two other people, and they wanted to sell it. As a result, we got enough money to buy a house, and paid back all the loans. I desensitized my family that America is not dangerous, as my sister said she is going to die if I leave. I opened my dream file again. I found a new agency, got a phone number from the owner of the agency, and asked her if it is okay, my mom calls you to ask questions. My mom talked with the owner for an hour, and then said I can go there. A week later, I had a dinner with my male friends, and I announced that I might go to America in four months. I got a phone call from a male friend with whom I

Celebration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Celebration - Essay Example The paper discusses that there are two traditional festivals attributed to the Islamic faith, which includes Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, both of which are observed according to the lunar Islamic months or sighting of the moon. The term Eid simply means festivity, happiness or joy; consequently, both the Eids are considered to be synonymous with happiness. The Muslims in Saudi Arabia begin the 1st day of Shawwal with Fajr prayer, one of the five daily obligatory prayers. The houses are especially cleansed and decorated all over the country to welcome the festival. After it, some sweet dish is taken, which has already been cooked for Eid day by women. The Saudis wear new clothes, which are specially prepared for this day, and start gathering for another prayer, called Eid prayer, which is generally offered in some vast ground, field or spacious mosque (Cartright~Jones, 2001:5). Before offering the prayer, the Saudis pay fit ran or charity to the deserving and needy people, from all family members, which is obligatory for every Muslim. To conclude, it becomes evident that both the Eids contain meaning and message in their nature and scope. Celebrating the festivals reflect the true spirit of the faith that all humans are equal in the eyes of the Creator, and only the pious and sacrificing enjoys superior status according to the noble teachings of the faith. Since Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha serve as the two sole religious-cultural festivals of the country, the Saudis take very active part to celebrate them in an exciting and thrilling manner.

Anti Legalization Critical Thinking Essay Example for Free

Anti Legalization Critical Thinking Essay The aim of this paper is to logically apply reason to assess the arguments for the legalization of marijuana, and by doing so point out flaws in these arguments. Furthermore, this paper will assess the credibility and the source of these arguments, and present counter arguments to conclude that marijuana should not be a legal drug in California and the rest of the United States. First I will consider The National Organizations for the Reform of Marijuana Laws â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† which is the basis for their argument for the legalization of marijuana, and how this set of principles is flawed. Second I will consider the claim â€Å"that marijuana should be legal in a taxed and regulated manner† and also consider the source of this claim. Third I will emphasize the negative social effects of legalization of marijuana in order to counter the claims for legalization. Finally I will conclude that given these factors, legalization of marijuana would be harmful and detrimental to society as a whole, possessing little or no economic, social, or medical benefits. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law is the leading lobbyist group for the legalization of marijuana in the United States. This organization has made it their commitment to have marijuana legalized in a taxable way as tobacco and alcohol currently are. This organization rationalizes its arguments with a document called the â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† in which is attempts to justify marijuana reform in a socially accepted manner. The very title of the document is ambiguous, the word â€Å"responsible† is a very circumstantial term and is subject to many different interpretations. Furthermore the document assumes that if legalized, citizens will adhere to this unofficial â€Å"code of ethics†, however we can evidently see with alcohol and tobacco that there is abuse regardless of the regulating laws. Despite this, NORML attempts to lay out their interpretation for what â€Å"responsible marijuana use† is ( 4 ); their first point is that marijuana is to be for adults only, and that it is irresponsible to provide marijuana to children. The terms â€Å"adults† and â€Å"children† again are ambiguous, it is not clear where the line is drawn between what defines an adult or a child. This is a concern because many would assume a child is no longer a child after eighteen years of age, thus it can be determined that eighteen and over is considered a â€Å"responsible† user. It need not be said that current alcohol restrictions limit a user to twenty-one and over. According to a 2005 Monitoring the Future Study, â€Å"three-fourths of 12th graders, more than two-thirds of 10th graders, and about two in every five 8th graders have consumed alcohol†( 5 ), with this evidence it would be wishful thinking to assume marijuana would be any different. To further consider this point 6.8% of children ages 12 to 17 use marijuana on an occasional basis ( 5 ). It would be reasonable to conclude that if marijuana was legalized that number would increase drastically. Second the NORMLs â€Å"Principles of Responsible Marijuana Use† attempts to rationalize legal marijuana use by claiming that if legalized responsible users will refrain from driving ( 4 ). Although an illegal drug, it is not surprising that there are already statistics regarding marijuana impaired driving in many states. California who just recently had a proposition for the legalization of marijuana has some of the most relevant statistics; there are various counties in California that have a 16% or higher marijuana involved traffic fatalities ( 3 ). This number would only increase with the legalization, and that is not to include the the amount of non fatal accidents that would occur annually. A recent study by Alfred Crancer and Alan Crancer projected that traffic fatalities would increase by as much as 300% with legalization ( 3 ). Third NORML claims that â€Å"The responsible cannabis user will carefully consider his/her set and setting, regulating use accordingly†. In this claim there is much room for a line-drawing fallacy, in which it is difficult and conveniently vague and up to the individual to determine what set and setting is actually appropriate for usage. It could be assumed under this principle that its safe to use marijuana while caring for children, elderly, while driving, and also very relevantly while working. Forth NORML claims that a responsible marijuana user will â€Å"resist abuse†. They define abuse by: â€Å"Abuse means harm. Some cannabis use is harmful; most is not. That which is harmful should be discouraged; that which is not need not be.† A clever statement however invalid and illogical. Drug abuse is defined as an uncontrollable urge for constant seeking of intoxicants ( 2 ). Many users would be unaware of their abuse, until the point in which it has destroyed their livelihood, relationships, economic security, and health. Legalization would only increase the numbers of active addicts, and make marijuana readily available for them, and being legal, consequently restraining family, friends, and the courts from restricting an addicts use before to much harm is done. The final claim made by NORML is a â€Å"Respect for Rights of Others† in which they attempt to justify the fact that if marijuana was legal, non users will have to deal with it. Again it is wishful thinking to see that users will have respect for the others who are not users, however while illegal we can see that many still cultivate marijuana, drive under the influence of it, and use it as socially as possible. A strict layout of parameters that must be followed with public and private use of the drug would be acceptable, however advocates for the cause prefer the vagueness, in which there are no absolute lines that can be drawn between legal and illegal use (ie. Driving, social events, age, etc.). The entire document is a rationalization and does not seem to give a valid or true pretense to satisfy desires. The most relevant claim argued against in this paper is the claim that â€Å"marijuana should be legal in a taxed and regulated manner†. This claim by itself has the vagueness and ambiguity of a typical bill or legislation. It is this vagueness and ambiguity that encroach on the freedoms of citizens everyday. The fact is that marijuana is a drug, it was made illegal by the Federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970 to stop the violence and abuse that was common practice. We have seen in other countries failed attempts to regulate and tax drugs, like the Netherlands, and we have seen the damage drugs can have on society as a hole, like the dangerous drug cartels that rule Mexico. In evaluating this claim it is also important to consider the sources, one of the biggest supporters of marijuana legalization is Robert Lee. Lee is president of â€Å"Oaksterdam University† a school that teaches students how to cultivate, grow, process, and cure marijuana ( 3 ). It would seem highly logical to acknowledge that this man is not interested in the social repercussions of legalization. His motive is clearly for the profit that can come from legalization. Legalization would drastically increase the amount of growers and interested parties in his school. Another strong voice in pro-legalization is the company S.K. Seymour LLC which is a Medical Cannabis Provider ( 3 ), who again would see a dramatic increase in profit and sales due to the fact that they can open up their business to the public, and not just medical marijuana patients. It seems that neither of the sources, from the research done, are interested in the negative and adverse affects of legalization and only interested in the lucrative value of legalization. It is also important to analyze the negative social effects of marijuana on society, most notably the economic affects and the medical effects. Recent proposition 19 in California stated that: â€Å"No person shall be punished, fined, discriminated against, or be denied any right or privilege for lawfully engaging in any conduct permitted by this Act or authorized pursuant to Section 11301 of this Act. Provided however, that the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.† Basically stating that employers can no longer regulate marijuana use while working unless it can show that performance is being impaired by use ( 3 ). Proposition 19 also is in conflict with the Federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 which prohibits the use of marijuana for recreational use. This would be a mistake by California due to the fact that the state would loose billions of federal dollars in the form of grants and aid called for by the Federal Workplace Act of 1988. Not only would government loose money but also schools and medical centers can potentially be affected ( 3 ). The health risks for marijuana usage are as noteworthy as the social repercussions. Marijuana is known to cause A-motivational syndrome, which is a depressed state of the brain in which reaction times and motivation is affected by long term use ( 3 ). Furthermore â€Å"the gateway theory† blames marijuana as the compromise that leads an individual to try harder more harmful drugs. Lastly marijuana has been placed on the California Proposition 65 list of carcinogenic materials, as proven materials that cause cancer ( 3 ). In this paper I argued that the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws definitions and reasoning for a â€Å"responsible legal† user is flawed. Many of their arguments are invalid and lack sound reasoning to a conclusion. That the claim that marijuana should be legal and taxed is not a fully developed claim and that the sources of the claims motives are not sound in reasoning for legalization. Finally I argued that if marijuana is legalized it would be detrimental to society specifically regarding medical and economic problems. The arguments for legalization are not convincing and present many fallacies, Legalization supporters have the wrong idea of controlled use.

The Black Soldiers :: essays research papers

The Black Soldiers by C.J. Blake All through our country’s history, African Americans have had to choose whether they were meant to live in the States or if they should go live somewhere else. Slavery without a doubt had a strong impact on their decisions. Despite the troubles African Americans have had, they made a great contribution and a very big impact on our military and armed forces since the Revolutionary War. The black man has fought against his country's wars, and he has also fought the war with their country to gain the right to fight and the right to freedom. America's first war was the war for independence from Great Britain was a major achievement. This accomplishment could not have been done if it was not for the African American soldiers in the armies. The first American to actually shed blood during the revolution that freed America from being under British rule was Crispus Attucks, a Black seaman. Attucks and four white men were killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Attucks was still willing to fight against England along with other whites, althoug he was a fugitive slave running from his master. The colonists probably would have kept African Americans out of the military during the war if it was not for the proclamation by the Lord of Dunmore. He said "I do hereby... declare all... Negroes... free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty's troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this colony to a proper dignity." This meant that if any black man was willing to fight for the British they would become legally free. Then, the Americans could not afford to not let black men from joining the army. After that General George Washington officially reversed his policy about letting "free Negroes to enlist." "Of the 300,000 men that served in the Continental American Army during the War of Independence, about five thousand were Black. In addition to several all-Black companies, there was also an all-Black regiment was from Rhode Island. Between 1775 to 1781 there were no battles without Black soldiers. African American soldiers defended for the colonies at Lexington, Ticonderoga, Concord, Benington, White Plains, Saratoga, Brandywine, Savannah, and Yorktown. There were two Blacks with George Washington on the day he crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Day in 1776. Unfortunately despite African Americans' help to the war effort and the large

British American Tobacco Implementation of SWOT Analysis

According to the economic theory (firm theory), a firm’s utmost objective is to maximize its profit. Hence during the initial stages of the enterprise growth, managers use financial metrics such as cash flows, revenue, and pre-tax profit to evaluate performance of their firm.However, these metrics only tell of past events and therefore can not be used for strategic management, with time the market conditions change. As a result, a firm will tend to invest more to develop capabilities and customer relationships on a long-term basis.Customer relationship is becoming critical for the firm and therefore as the firm embarks on the financial metrics; it must also add consumer satisfaction metrics for it to remain successful. Hence in this new environment over reliance on the financial metric is not enough in evaluating the path to be followed by companies to increase value through investing in employees, consumer, technology and innovation. In order to address the insufficiency of t hese metrics, business information consultants have put forward several strategic management tools and models.Some of these models and tools include the SWOT analysis, Balanced Scorecard (BSC) analysis etc. The BSC has four aspects namely, the customer perspective, internal business perspective, innovation and learning perspective and financial perspective.The SWOT analysis evaluates the weakness, strength, opportunities and threats involved in company's operations. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the firm and evaluate the internal capability while Opportunities and threats are out-offing business control and refer to how the business is affected by the external environment.Strengths refer to areas where the business can excel in, for example business's competence and resource utilization. Weaknesses is what the company cannot do and managers should consider areas which need improvements, areas which the company do poorly and what should be avoided.Opportunities refer to th e market attractiveness and threats are the potential challenges which hinder business operation. British American Tobacco’s (BAT) goal is to build a long-term shareholder value through development of new brands and products.The company has used the SWOT analysis to implement strategic management and performance evaluation to achieve this goal. BAT is multinational company that manufactures tobacco products and it has many branches around the world.The implementation of business management tools is aimed at shifting management from quality performance to corporate performance. Strengths The company manufactures markets and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products. By the end of year 2007 the company had more than 300 brands and a work force of about 53,907 employees both in UK and internationally.Its revenue base for the period stood at $ 20,054 million. It offers adult consumers products of high quality and also assists them to make sure that they choose their product ove r those of competitors.Continued improvements in productivity have helped the company develop more brands hence increase earnings: for instance it has introduced smokeless cigarettes aimed at reducing smoke related diseases. To remain competitive in the market, the British American tobacco has embarked on cost reducing strategies and complexities in its supply chain.In 2004 the company made the commitment to reduce overheads cost and other indirect costs by $ 200 million annually by the end of 2007 through implementation of a single procurement processes within its area of operation.The company also offers from time to time training to its workers so as to make them adapt to the changing business environment. Threats The company's operations have been affected by the tobacco regulation policies across the world. One of them is the suggestion by the World Health Organization to have all products packaging be plain or unbranded.Removing colors and trademarks familiar to consumers is a critical challenge because consumers will not able to differentiate cigarettes from BAT and those of its competitors or the genuine products and fake ones.The company has strongly opposed the idea of plain packages claiming that there is no evidence that suggest that plain packs would have effect on smoking by children. In addition restriction of corporate trademarks by any government is a breach of intellectual property rights in international trade.The issues of counterfeit product harm the company's revenue and there have been cases of trade in illicit tobacco globally. In order to reduce the cases of cigarette smuggling, the company has supported various governments, world custom organizations and world trade organization in seeking ways to eliminate illicit tobacco trade. WeaknessesThe main internal challenge that has faced the company is the inability to produce less harmful products. However, for some years now the company has embarked in search for less harmful products.Hig h overhead costs have been another threat to the market competitiveness of the company's product. Before the implementation of single procurement system in 2003, the indirect costs had been too high which resulted to high cost of its tobacco products.Opportunities British American tobacco has more that 30 branches across the world and about 180 markets and has opening new factories in more countries. The demand for tobacco products has been rising as more and more youths have started smoking.The company has utilized this opportunity provided by the market through development of more products to satisfy the market demand. The company has decentralized its factories across the globe to increase it market share and position their product for the consumer who have decided to buy tobacco products.Bibliography BAT, consumer and trade, retrieved on 13 December 2008, from http://www. bat. com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen. nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO6ZXMRV opendocument&SKN=1BAT, plain packaging, retriev ed on 13 December, 2008, from http://www. bat. com/group/sites/uk3mnfen. nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO7J7DCZ?Opendocument&SKN=1 Capgemini, ‘5-year procurement target at British American Tobacco,' 2003, retrieved on 13 December 2008, from www. at. capgemini. com/m/at/cs/ss_British_American_Tobacco. pdf.Dickson Vicky, Balance Score Card as strategic management tool, 2005, retrieved on 13 December 2008 from http://www. betterlocalization. com/index. php? itemid=44.

Is There a Biodiversity Crisis Essay

Most commonly, biodiversity is referred to as the differences in the forms of life inside an ecosystem. There are different definitions regarding to the scope and to whoever has defined the word biodiversity. The first definition which the most common definition of the word states that biodiversity is the variation of life at levels of biological organization. This definition simply states that biodiversity claims the general differences in the living organisms that exist in an ecosystem. The second definition characterizes biodiversity as an assessment of the overall health of an ecosystem. The health of an ecosystem is relatively based on the number of species that thrives in an ecosystem. Thus, biodiversity is also measure of the relative physical condition of the different organisms alive in an ecosystem. Another definition, which is most commonly used by ecologists, describes biodiversity as the entirety of the genes, species and ecosystems of a certain region. This third definition relates the three basic levels that identify biodiversity: (1) genetic diversity, (2) species diversity and, (3) ecosystem diversity. In the main, biodiversity for ecologists also relates the interactions of species to species and also the interaction of the species to the environment they are in. Therefore, it is not only the species of organism that are interacting with one another but also the organism are interacting with the air, soil, water and the factors that constitutes the totality of the environment. The environment is very essential to all the living forms in the planet. Clearly, it is the provider of our most basic needs: food, water and air. It gives us water for drinking, air for breathing, food to supply as with energy and other necessities. Humans are pat of a very big ecosystem – the earth. With all the animals and the other forms of living things in the earth interacting with one another, surely, one kind of species needs the other in order to survive. Such as the way the spider needs its web and the horse needs the grass, all the organisms, need the planet’s wealth in order to survive. The collection of plants and animals are the ones that keep an ecosystem stable. The more diverse an ecosystem is, the more that it is stable and the more that it is likely to survive. Biodiversity crisis is one of the threats that lead to the extinction of certain species of animals and plants. Still, nobody knows the importance of each and every living thing on earth. However, their loss can be equated to a loss in medicine, technology and balance in nature, which in turn mar risk the lives of humans. Factors There are so many factors that contribute to the weakening and deterioration of biodiversity. It includes too much use and over exploitation, physical and chemical modification of the areas which serves as habitats for certain organism, introduction of foreign species of organisms to an area and modifications in the conditions of habitats. Some factors that contribute to the total fall of biodiversity in an area are also socially based. This includes rapid population growth, over exploitation of resources, useless and ineffective knowledge, unworthy management and increasing demand for areas to be modified into industrial and technological spots. Human activity is a large fraction of the causes of biodiversity crisis of the world. The diverse activities of humans can be accounted as the primary cause of the degradation of the diversity of life of the planet. Certain human activities create a huge impact to the environment. Two of which are human population and the level of consumption of humankind. These two factors constitutes to the major environmental changes that are happening in the planet. Also, the principal activities of humans for the purpose of his survival in the planet such as agriculture, fishing, hunting, manufacturing, trade, industry, and even recreational activities such as hiking, mountaineering and tours are directly and indirectly creating a major effect on the environmental balance. Records show that hunting and sever use and exploitation of the animal life and environment are the most cases that can be observed in the word today. These activities are the biggest threats to the existence of various kinds of animals not only in Tibet but also in other countries such as Thailand and Philippines. In Tibet, exploitation of animals is a major environmental problem. Animals are being killed for commercial reasons. Skin of rare animals, antlers of deer, heads of various animals mostly the Tibetan gazelle and fur of wild animals such as leopards can be seen in the market and are sold openly without penalties and forced restrictions by the authorities. More to that, hunters are not only free to kill animals in the wild but also, they can get their own permit to hunt in the wild. They are given permit to kill animals for the purpose of producing income and for the purpose of causing a rapid decrease in the population of the animals that they use for commercial purposes. Also, another major cause of biodiversity crisis in the world and still, an example of human activity is forest degradation and transformation of habitats to industrial sites. Forest degradation does not only concern the loss of trees in the rainforests but also the loss of the animals that depends on these trees for survival. Wide exploitation of the forests has been recorded in most of the countries in the world as early as human population began to rapidly increase. The act of cutting trees to be used either for construction of houses or for the purpose of selling to companies and other groups and for the purpose of having a new site wherein industries, houses, subdivisions and chemical plants are to be erected, all constitutes to the improper and over utilization of resources. These activities are the roots of extensive migration of birds and animals to other areas which causes over crowding of species in an area and wide losses in certain species that eventually dies due to the loss of trees and the loss of the existence of rainforests which serves as their habitat. Losses These human activities in effect, cause enormous impact to the environment. Effects incorporate land transformations, rapid decrease in the population of specie which mostly results to extinction and immense changes in the patterns of weather, water cycle, nutrient accumulation and chemical introduction. In the long run, these direct effects of human activities consequently are the ones that cause various changes in the global climate, patterns of migration, reproduction and habitat and an overall irreversible loss form the environment and consequently a loss to the humankind. On the whole, human activities have brought changes not only to the other living organism in the planet but also to the planet itself. Accordingly, human activities have caused the environment to weaken inducing a less stable planet that could less support existence of life. The world is rapidly loosing its wealth and richness. Due to the acts of man, not only he and the other forms of life are at risk but also the whole world. Man’s activities constitute much of the factors that contribute to this hasty decline. As man continues to increase its population and greedy concept of living, the diversity of life is steadily going to a point of fall. As this happens, lakes and rivers are transformed to highways and canals, forests will soon be out of trees and animals and will be turned to deserts. Natural diversity will be continuously raped and will make way for the rise of towering buildings, winding roads, infrastructures, houses, villages, factories, mines, schools, shopping malls and gardens. Existence of the technological advancements will soon interfere with the usual patterns of the weather and global climate as well as the lives of different species. In turn, they will be extinct and will never be enjoyed again by the coming generations. Eventually, the works of man today will weaken and continuously exploit the wealth of planet until comes to a point where it can no longer hold for the existence of man and his doings. References Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. (2007). Biodiversity in Crisis?. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from http://cbc.amnh. org/crisis/crisis. html. Simberloff, Daniel. (2007). Habitat Change, Population Growth, and the Biodiversity Crisis: Getting Ahead of the Extinction Curve. Retrieved, December 5, 2007, from http://www. angelo. edu/events/university_symposium/93_Simberloff. html. Shah, Anup. (2007) Biodiversity. Retrieved, December 5, 2007, from http://www. globalissues. org/EnvIssues/Biodiversity. asp. The Fruitarian Foundation. (2000). The Biodiversity Crisis. Retrieved December 5, 2007, from http://www. fruitarian. com/ab/TheBiodiversityCrisis. htm.

The Greek Words Used to Name Dinosaurs

The Greek Words Used to Name Dinosaurs If it sometimes seems as if the names of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals come from another language, well, theres a simple explanation: the names of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals really do come from another language. Traditionally, paleontologists the world over use Greek to christen new species and genera - not only of dinosaurs, but also of birds, mammals, and even microbes. Partly this is a matter of convention, but partly its rooted in common sense: classical Greek and Latin have been the shared languages of scholars and scientists for hundreds of years. (Lately, though, there has been a trend for using non-Greek roots to name dinosaurs and prehistoric animals; hence sibilant beasts like Suuwassea and Thililua.) But enough about all that: what good does this information do you if you have to decode a mouthful of a name like Micropachycephalosaurus? The following is a list of the most common Greek words used in dinosaur names, along with their English equivalents. If you want to have some fun, try assembling your own fictional dinosaur from the ingredients below (heres a nonsense example to get you started: Tristyracocephalogallus, or the extremely rare three-headed spiky chicken.) Numbers Mono OneDi TwoTri ThreeTetra FourPenta Five Body Parts Brachio ArmCephalo HeadCerato HornCheirus HandColepio KnuckleDactyl FingerDerma SkinDon, dont ToothGnathus JawLopho CrestNychus ClawOphthalmo EyeOps FacePhysis FacePtero WingPteryx FeatherRhampho BeakRhino NoseRhyncho SnoutTholus DomeTrachelo Neck Animal Types Anato DuckAvis BirdCetio WhaleCyno DogDraco DragonGallus ChickenHippus HorseIchthyo FishMus MouseOrnitho, Ornis BirdSaurus LizardStruthio OstrichSuchus CrocodileTaurus Bull Size and Shape Baro HeavyBrachy ShortMacro BigMegalo HugeMicro SmallMorpho ShapedNano TinyNodo KnobbedPlaco, Platy FlatSphaero RoundTitano GiantPachy ThickSteno NarrowStyraco Spiked Behavior Archo RulingCarno Meat-eatingDeino, Dino TerribleDromeus RunnerGracili GracefulLestes RobberMimus MimicRaptor Hunter, ThiefRex KingTyranno TyrantVeloci Fast Times, Places, and Assorted Features Antarcto AntarcticArchaeo AncientAustro SouthernChasmo CleftCoelo HollowCrypto HiddenEo DawnEu Original, FirstHetero DifferentHydro WaterLago LakeMio MioceneNycto NightOvi EggPara Near, AlmostPelta ShieldPlio PliocenePro, Proto BeforeSarco FleshStego RoofThalasso Ocean

Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store

Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store Some writers find that producing authentic-sounding dialogue comes naturally to them. For a much larger majority, however, mastering the art of dialogue is something that takes a lot of time, effort and experimentation. Even if you find it easy to write passages of dialogue, that doesn’t mean that you’re getting it right. There’s more to mastering dialogue than being able to fill page after page with your characters’ conversations. That’s a lesson that I learned the hard way. I wasn’t fazed by writing dialogue - in fact, I actually enjoyed it - but I didn’t get the balance right, and my writing suffered as a result. My first novels and short stories were full of long passages of, well, meaningless dialogue that didn’t really move the story along. When I went back, several years later, to rewrite those initial books, I cut one manuscript from 120,000 words to 89,000 words, just by tightening up my dialogue. In this article, part of a series on developing and strengthening your writing techniques, we’re going to be looking at 3 of the common dialogue mistakes that writers make and discovering how you can master the art of dialogue by practicing 3 (relatively) simple methods. I can’t promise to make you love writing dialogue, but I can help you to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles in a productive way. Why is it So Important to Get Your Dialogue Right? Dialogue plays a huge role in your writing, so if you’re not getting it right, then you’re less likely to be succeeding as an author. Readers are picky creatures, and they notice things like badly-written dialogue or dialogue that isn’t effective. As writers, we’re slaves to the wants, needs, and desires of our readers, so it’s not like we can just expect them to accept that we have our own way of writing dialogue. If they don’t like our dialogue, they won’t be back - and they’ll probably leave scathing reviews about how disappointed they are. That’s the worst-case scenario, of course, and there are different degrees of bad dialogue (which cause anything from mild annoyance to outright outrage in our readers). The thing you need to understand is that dialogue serves so many functions in a novel that getting it wrong can have a huge impact. In a novel dialogue: Reveals emotion Breaks up the narrative Moves the story along Reveals character traits Do You Make These 3 Dialogue-Writing Mistakes? There are more than three dialogue-writing mistakes that you can make, but these are both the most common and the most problematic. Try to be hyperaware of these mistakes, so you can catch yourself in the act of making them and avoid a lot of editing later. #1 Letting Grammar Rules Rob Your Dialogue of Authenticity When I was in school, I didn’t learn grammar rules. I was born in the United Kingdom, and at the time there was a theory that children didn’t need to be taught the rules of grammar. I’ve no idea why that was the case, but my earliest stories weren’t hindered by worries about grammar. Then I studied English Language and grammar made its bold entrance into my writing. It wasn’t all bad. Some things improved. Unfortunately, my dialogue wasn’t one of them. I’ve discovered that being a stickler for grammar rules only leads to one thing in dialogue: inauthenticity. When I was shackled by grammar rules, my dialogue became formal and unnatural. Like this: Ashley set her handbag down on the dresser. â€Å"Good evening, Martin,† she said. â€Å"Good evening, Ashley,† Martin replied. â€Å"I must inform you that Mrs. Edmundson telephoned during your absence. It was requested that you return the call at your earliest convenience.† Now, there may be instances when it’s okay to use this kind of dialogue - if it portrays character traits, for example, but as a rule of thumb, in dialogue, you don’t need to stick to grammar rules 100%. Your sentences still need to make sense, but people don’t strictly adhere to grammar rules when they talk, so neither should your dialogue. Ashley dumped her bag on the dresser. â€Å"Hey, Martin,’ she called as she walked into the kitchen. ‘Hi, honey,† Martin said, looking up from his laptop. â€Å"Your Mom called while you were out; said can you give her a call back?† Doesn’t this sound way more realistic? #2 Using Dialogue to Explain Back Story in an Obvious Way Every time I see this in a novel, I cringe. I get why authors make this mistake, and I’m probably guilty of doing it myself. Using dialogue to explain back story or offer important facts that the reader needs to know is really common, but for readers, it’s just, well, wrong.Let’s look at an example: â€Å"As you know, Matt, we’ve been researching this aspect of our family history for ten years now,† Theo began. â€Å"Yes, that’s right, Theo. We got started when we had to do a project when we were at high school, didn’t we? It’s been quite an adventure! We’ve discovered some really scandalous things back in the 1700s.† â€Å"I know!† Theo replied, chuckling. â€Å"But, now we can do the Ancestry DNA and find out even more. I sent for the kit last week and it arrived this morning.† There’s nothing natural about this exchange. The characters clearly know all these things so there’s no reason why they’d need to tell each other the details - it’s purely for the readers’ benefit, and that is quite jarring. If you really must convey some backstory in dialogue (though there are lots of other ways to explain your backstory in a creative fashion), then you need to ensure that the conversation sounds more natural. Like this: Theo grabbed the Ancestry DNA kit off the counter and spun round to face his brother. â€Å"Hey, Matt, what’s your favorite thing that we’ve found out about the family history?† he asked. Matt thought for a moment. â€Å"I dunno. There’s so much scandal to choose from,† he replied. â€Å"But I guess it’d be the baby being left on the steps of the church. I mean, that’s what got us hooked on the whole family history stuff.† â€Å"Yeah,† Theo agreed. â€Å"I can’t believe we’ve been investigating this stuff for ten years! It’s like some weird addiction.† â€Å"Better to be addicted to research than the kind of stuff that the other kids who did the same project in high school got addicted to,† Matt said, sighing. â€Å"You heard that Johnny OD’d last week?† Conveying backstory in this way makes the conversation sound more natural and authentic, and it’s not an obvious dump of back story into a dialogue exchange between characters. #3 Overusing Character Names This is one of my pet peeves when I’m reading a novel. It interrupts the flow and makes dialogue sound really unnatural. Take this for an example: â€Å"Hey Dominic, how're things going?† â€Å"Not bad, Alex. How about you?† â€Å"Oh, everything’s going fine, Dominic. Are you still working at the same place?† â€Å"Yes, Alex. I’ve been working there for ten years now. I heard you’d moved up the career ladder.† â€Å"You heard right, Dominic! Got myself a promotion last year, and I’m in the running for another one this year, too.† Think about the conversations you have on a daily basis. Do you use the other person’s name in every question you ask or response you make? I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you don’t. It’s not natural. Once, maybe, but not in every turn as this example shows. It just sounds weird - and although I get that you might try this technique to avoid overusing dialogue tags, just don’t do it. Please. There are much better ways of structuring your dialogue without dialogue tags that don’t make you resort to writing such artificial dialogue. Make Dialogue-Writing Your Superpower: 3 Methods You Need to Deploy Becoming a dialogue-writing superstar isn’t tremendously difficult. It just requires that you change the way you approach writing scenes of dialogue. These 3 methods have helped me improve my dialogue skills - and they can help you, too. #1 Record Real-Life Conversations As a Reference We have conversations with people all the time, but unless you’ve got some kind of memory superpower, it’s unlikely that you remember exactly how the conversations pan out. We remember the gist of conversations, and maybe certain phrases, but conversation is so common that it’s not something we’re likely to remember verbatim. It can be really helpful to have recordings of real-life conversations that you can refer to when you’re writing. This can help make your dialogue sound natural, and can also help with working with dialogue styles and how the way people speak can convey aspects of their character. A word of warning, though. Never, ever record a conversation with someone without asking their permission first. Tell them why you’re recording, and if they’ve got reservations, just don’t record the conversation. Recording your interactions with people without their knowledge can get you into trouble, and it’s really not worth the risk. It’s likely that you’ll have plenty of people who won’t have issues with you recording - it’s just important to be transparent about it. #2 Don’t Strive to Be 100% Realistic I started out trying to make my dialogue realistic, and while I pretty much succeeded in doing that, it wasn’t the best way to approach dialogue. You see, realistic dialogue is full of†¦ well, fluff. We have conversations with people that go off on tangents, are packed with small talk and sentences that kind of trail off. Humans interrupt each other, don’t always use the most concise means of explaining themselves, and often stammer or spend time searching for the right word. If you put all of that in your novel, you’ll absolutely be creating 100% realistic dialogue, but you’ll leave your readers confused, frustrated, or simply running for the hills and vowing never to read anything you write ever again. Okay, that last one is a bit over-dramatic, but it’s how I feel when I read books with â€Å"realistic† dialogue (even though I’m guilty of doing it myself!). Of course, while your dialogue shouldn’t be 100% realistic, you need to get the right amount of realism into your dialogue. It’s a delicate balancing act between too much realism and too little. You still need to incorporate a certain amount of aspects of real human speech, or your dialogue won’t sound natural. If that sounds like trying to navigate a minefield while blindfolded, here are some tips to help you get the balance right in your dialogue: Read your dialogue aloud as you write it. This enables you to notice how the exchanges sound, and you’ll notice if it sounds stilted, contrived or unnatural in any way. You can identify passages of dialogue that don’t flow well, and you may also find yourself tripping over words - which is a big indicator that your dialogue is not as natural as you’d like it to be (or, maybe, if it’s a thick dialect, too realistic). Give your characters different speech patterns - and don’t be afraid to steal these from people you know. Having your characters speak in a certain way - using certain words, dialect aspects and so on - that you’re familiar with makes it easier to create the right amount of realism. Have your characters interrupt each other or trail off in what they’re saying.Be cautious with this one, and use it sparingly. It creates realism, but if you use it too much, you’re going to start annoying your readers. Be careful with accents and dialects. While accents and dialects play a big part in creating distinctive speech patterns for your characters, don’t go overboard with this. It’s okay to have your characters to use some dialect words, but if you have a character with a thick accent, and you convey this in dialogue, it can get†¦ messy. Establish that your character has an accent or dialect, but don’t let this make your dialogue passages confusing or unreadable. #3 Working With Dialogue Tags and Action Beats Dialogue tags (he said, she said and so on) can become intrusive in passages of dialogue if they’re not used in the right way, but they’re also necessary to help readers know who’s saying what. Beginners to the craft of writing often fall into the trap of trying to avoid using ‘said’ all the time, by coming up with all kinds of creative ways of using dialogue tags. There’s nothing wrong with ‘said’, and, in fact, it’s one of the least intrusive of all dialogue tags. You can use other dialogue tags, of course, and it’s a good idea to use other verbs to attribute dialogue occasionally. Readers are so familiar with the word ‘said’ that actually they don’t really pay it much attention - like words such as ‘the’ and ‘and’. One thing that you should avoid when you’re writing dialogue is using adverb dialogue tags. Adverb dialogue tags are those such as ‘she said angrily’, or ‘he muttered grumpily’. Adverb tags are all too common in fiction - and while readers don’t particularly hate them, they’re actually a sign of a lazy writer. What I mean is that using a tag like ‘she said angrily’ is a cheat - you’re telling your readers that your character is angry without taking the effort to use your character’s words to show that they’re angry. You can show it in their actions, too. Just don’t cheat by resorting to the adverb tag. That brings us onto action beats. Action beats are the parts in your sections of dialogue where you describe things like facial expressions, gestures and (sparingly) your characters’ thoughts. It’s good practice to use action beats in your dialogue to avoid having monotonous ‘he said/she said’ tags. Let’s look at an example: Without action beats: â€Å"The hospital called me today,† Becca said. â€Å"What did they say?† Michael said. â€Å"The results came back,† Becca said. â€Å"My counts are back to normal!† â€Å"That’s wonderful news!† Michael said. With action beats: Becca took a deep breath and turned to face her husband. â€Å"The hospital called.† â€Å"And?† Michael froze with a glass of water halfway to his lips. â€Å"The results are in - and my counts are back to normal!† â€Å"Oh, thank God!† Michael set the glass down on the counter and threw his arms around his wife. Action beats give much more impact to your passages of dialogue and can be used to convey all kinds of emotions, responses and so on. Try it out on some existing passages of dialogue and see for yourself what a difference it makes. Becoming a Master of the Art of Dialogue You won’t always get your dialogue right. Even when you’re a master of dialogue-writing, you’re still going to slip up sometimes. Even the biggest names in the fiction-writing world do that sometimes. You can, however, continue to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles so that you don’t have to think so hard about structuring and constructing your dialogue as you’re writing. Over time, it will become more natural to write authentic and effective dialogue. You’ll make fewer mistakes, use dialogue tags in the right way, and your readers will appreciate the effort that you’ve put into honing your craft as a writer. What are you waiting for? Start practicing the art of writing kick-ass dialogue! Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store Some writers find that producing authentic-sounding dialogue comes naturally to them. For a much larger majority, however, mastering the art of dialogue is something that takes a lot of time, effort and experimentation. Even if you find it easy to write passages of dialogue, that doesn’t mean that you’re getting it right. There’s more to mastering dialogue than being able to fill page after page with your characters’ conversations. That’s a lesson that I learned the hard way. I wasn’t fazed by writing dialogue - in fact, I actually enjoyed it - but I didn’t get the balance right, and my writing suffered as a result. My first novels and short stories were full of long passages of, well, meaningless dialogue that didn’t really move the story along. When I went back, several years later, to rewrite those initial books, I cut one manuscript from 120,000 words to 89,000 words, just by tightening up my dialogue. In this article, part of a series on developing and strengthening your writing techniques, we’re going to be looking at 3 of the common dialogue mistakes that writers make and discovering how you can master the art of dialogue by practicing 3 (relatively) simple methods. I can’t promise to make you love writing dialogue, but I can help you to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles in a productive way. Why is it So Important to Get Your Dialogue Right? Dialogue plays a huge role in your writing, so if you’re not getting it right, then you’re less likely to be succeeding as an author. Readers are picky creatures, and they notice things like badly-written dialogue or dialogue that isn’t effective. As writers, we’re slaves to the wants, needs, and desires of our readers, so it’s not like we can just expect them to accept that we have our own way of writing dialogue. If they don’t like our dialogue, they won’t be back - and they’ll probably leave scathing reviews about how disappointed they are. That’s the worst-case scenario, of course, and there are different degrees of bad dialogue (which cause anything from mild annoyance to outright outrage in our readers). The thing you need to understand is that dialogue serves so many functions in a novel that getting it wrong can have a huge impact. In a novel dialogue: Reveals emotion Breaks up the narrative Moves the story along Reveals character traits Do You Make These 3 Dialogue-Writing Mistakes? There are more than three dialogue-writing mistakes that you can make, but these are both the most common and the most problematic. Try to be hyperaware of these mistakes, so you can catch yourself in the act of making them and avoid a lot of editing later. #1 Letting Grammar Rules Rob Your Dialogue of Authenticity When I was in school, I didn’t learn grammar rules. I was born in the United Kingdom, and at the time there was a theory that children didn’t need to be taught the rules of grammar. I’ve no idea why that was the case, but my earliest stories weren’t hindered by worries about grammar. Then I studied English Language and grammar made its bold entrance into my writing. It wasn’t all bad. Some things improved. Unfortunately, my dialogue wasn’t one of them. I’ve discovered that being a stickler for grammar rules only leads to one thing in dialogue: inauthenticity. When I was shackled by grammar rules, my dialogue became formal and unnatural. Like this: Ashley set her handbag down on the dresser. â€Å"Good evening, Martin,† she said. â€Å"Good evening, Ashley,† Martin replied. â€Å"I must inform you that Mrs. Edmundson telephoned during your absence. It was requested that you return the call at your earliest convenience.† Now, there may be instances when it’s okay to use this kind of dialogue - if it portrays character traits, for example, but as a rule of thumb, in dialogue, you don’t need to stick to grammar rules 100%. Your sentences still need to make sense, but people don’t strictly adhere to grammar rules when they talk, so neither should your dialogue. Ashley dumped her bag on the dresser. â€Å"Hey, Martin,’ she called as she walked into the kitchen. ‘Hi, honey,† Martin said, looking up from his laptop. â€Å"Your Mom called while you were out; said can you give her a call back?† Doesn’t this sound way more realistic? #2 Using Dialogue to Explain Back Story in an Obvious Way Every time I see this in a novel, I cringe. I get why authors make this mistake, and I’m probably guilty of doing it myself. Using dialogue to explain back story or offer important facts that the reader needs to know is really common, but for readers, it’s just, well, wrong.Let’s look at an example: â€Å"As you know, Matt, we’ve been researching this aspect of our family history for ten years now,† Theo began. â€Å"Yes, that’s right, Theo. We got started when we had to do a project when we were at high school, didn’t we? It’s been quite an adventure! We’ve discovered some really scandalous things back in the 1700s.† â€Å"I know!† Theo replied, chuckling. â€Å"But, now we can do the Ancestry DNA and find out even more. I sent for the kit last week and it arrived this morning.† There’s nothing natural about this exchange. The characters clearly know all these things so there’s no reason why they’d need to tell each other the details - it’s purely for the readers’ benefit, and that is quite jarring. If you really must convey some backstory in dialogue (though there are lots of other ways to explain your backstory in a creative fashion), then you need to ensure that the conversation sounds more natural. Like this: Theo grabbed the Ancestry DNA kit off the counter and spun round to face his brother. â€Å"Hey, Matt, what’s your favorite thing that we’ve found out about the family history?† he asked. Matt thought for a moment. â€Å"I dunno. There’s so much scandal to choose from,† he replied. â€Å"But I guess it’d be the baby being left on the steps of the church. I mean, that’s what got us hooked on the whole family history stuff.† â€Å"Yeah,† Theo agreed. â€Å"I can’t believe we’ve been investigating this stuff for ten years! It’s like some weird addiction.† â€Å"Better to be addicted to research than the kind of stuff that the other kids who did the same project in high school got addicted to,† Matt said, sighing. â€Å"You heard that Johnny OD’d last week?† Conveying backstory in this way makes the conversation sound more natural and authentic, and it’s not an obvious dump of back story into a dialogue exchange between characters. #3 Overusing Character Names This is one of my pet peeves when I’m reading a novel. It interrupts the flow and makes dialogue sound really unnatural. Take this for an example: â€Å"Hey Dominic, how're things going?† â€Å"Not bad, Alex. How about you?† â€Å"Oh, everything’s going fine, Dominic. Are you still working at the same place?† â€Å"Yes, Alex. I’ve been working there for ten years now. I heard you’d moved up the career ladder.† â€Å"You heard right, Dominic! Got myself a promotion last year, and I’m in the running for another one this year, too.† Think about the conversations you have on a daily basis. Do you use the other person’s name in every question you ask or response you make? I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you don’t. It’s not natural. Once, maybe, but not in every turn as this example shows. It just sounds weird - and although I get that you might try this technique to avoid overusing dialogue tags, just don’t do it. Please. There are much better ways of structuring your dialogue without dialogue tags that don’t make you resort to writing such artificial dialogue. Make Dialogue-Writing Your Superpower: 3 Methods You Need to Deploy Becoming a dialogue-writing superstar isn’t tremendously difficult. It just requires that you change the way you approach writing scenes of dialogue. These 3 methods have helped me improve my dialogue skills - and they can help you, too. #1 Record Real-Life Conversations As a Reference We have conversations with people all the time, but unless you’ve got some kind of memory superpower, it’s unlikely that you remember exactly how the conversations pan out. We remember the gist of conversations, and maybe certain phrases, but conversation is so common that it’s not something we’re likely to remember verbatim. It can be really helpful to have recordings of real-life conversations that you can refer to when you’re writing. This can help make your dialogue sound natural, and can also help with working with dialogue styles and how the way people speak can convey aspects of their character. A word of warning, though. Never, ever record a conversation with someone without asking their permission first. Tell them why you’re recording, and if they’ve got reservations, just don’t record the conversation. Recording your interactions with people without their knowledge can get you into trouble, and it’s really not worth the risk. It’s likely that you’ll have plenty of people who won’t have issues with you recording - it’s just important to be transparent about it. #2 Don’t Strive to Be 100% Realistic I started out trying to make my dialogue realistic, and while I pretty much succeeded in doing that, it wasn’t the best way to approach dialogue. You see, realistic dialogue is full of†¦ well, fluff. We have conversations with people that go off on tangents, are packed with small talk and sentences that kind of trail off. Humans interrupt each other, don’t always use the most concise means of explaining themselves, and often stammer or spend time searching for the right word. If you put all of that in your novel, you’ll absolutely be creating 100% realistic dialogue, but you’ll leave your readers confused, frustrated, or simply running for the hills and vowing never to read anything you write ever again. Okay, that last one is a bit over-dramatic, but it’s how I feel when I read books with â€Å"realistic† dialogue (even though I’m guilty of doing it myself!). Of course, while your dialogue shouldn’t be 100% realistic, you need to get the right amount of realism into your dialogue. It’s a delicate balancing act between too much realism and too little. You still need to incorporate a certain amount of aspects of real human speech, or your dialogue won’t sound natural. If that sounds like trying to navigate a minefield while blindfolded, here are some tips to help you get the balance right in your dialogue: Read your dialogue aloud as you write it. This enables you to notice how the exchanges sound, and you’ll notice if it sounds stilted, contrived or unnatural in any way. You can identify passages of dialogue that don’t flow well, and you may also find yourself tripping over words - which is a big indicator that your dialogue is not as natural as you’d like it to be (or, maybe, if it’s a thick dialect, too realistic). Give your characters different speech patterns - and don’t be afraid to steal these from people you know. Having your characters speak in a certain way - using certain words, dialect aspects and so on - that you’re familiar with makes it easier to create the right amount of realism. Have your characters interrupt each other or trail off in what they’re saying.Be cautious with this one, and use it sparingly. It creates realism, but if you use it too much, you’re going to start annoying your readers. Be careful with accents and dialects. While accents and dialects play a big part in creating distinctive speech patterns for your characters, don’t go overboard with this. It’s okay to have your characters to use some dialect words, but if you have a character with a thick accent, and you convey this in dialogue, it can get†¦ messy. Establish that your character has an accent or dialect, but don’t let this make your dialogue passages confusing or unreadable. #3 Working With Dialogue Tags and Action Beats Dialogue tags (he said, she said and so on) can become intrusive in passages of dialogue if they’re not used in the right way, but they’re also necessary to help readers know who’s saying what. Beginners to the craft of writing often fall into the trap of trying to avoid using ‘said’ all the time, by coming up with all kinds of creative ways of using dialogue tags. There’s nothing wrong with ‘said’, and, in fact, it’s one of the least intrusive of all dialogue tags. You can use other dialogue tags, of course, and it’s a good idea to use other verbs to attribute dialogue occasionally. Readers are so familiar with the word ‘said’ that actually they don’t really pay it much attention - like words such as ‘the’ and ‘and’. One thing that you should avoid when you’re writing dialogue is using adverb dialogue tags. Adverb dialogue tags are those such as ‘she said angrily’, or ‘he muttered grumpily’. Adverb tags are all too common in fiction - and while readers don’t particularly hate them, they’re actually a sign of a lazy writer. What I mean is that using a tag like ‘she said angrily’ is a cheat - you’re telling your readers that your character is angry without taking the effort to use your character’s words to show that they’re angry. You can show it in their actions, too. Just don’t cheat by resorting to the adverb tag. That brings us onto action beats. Action beats are the parts in your sections of dialogue where you describe things like facial expressions, gestures and (sparingly) your characters’ thoughts. It’s good practice to use action beats in your dialogue to avoid having monotonous ‘he said/she said’ tags. Let’s look at an example: Without action beats: â€Å"The hospital called me today,† Becca said. â€Å"What did they say?† Michael said. â€Å"The results came back,† Becca said. â€Å"My counts are back to normal!† â€Å"That’s wonderful news!† Michael said. With action beats: Becca took a deep breath and turned to face her husband. â€Å"The hospital called.† â€Å"And?† Michael froze with a glass of water halfway to his lips. â€Å"The results are in - and my counts are back to normal!† â€Å"Oh, thank God!† Michael set the glass down on the counter and threw his arms around his wife. Action beats give much more impact to your passages of dialogue and can be used to convey all kinds of emotions, responses and so on. Try it out on some existing passages of dialogue and see for yourself what a difference it makes. Becoming a Master of the Art of Dialogue You won’t always get your dialogue right. Even when you’re a master of dialogue-writing, you’re still going to slip up sometimes. Even the biggest names in the fiction-writing world do that sometimes. You can, however, continue to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles so that you don’t have to think so hard about structuring and constructing your dialogue as you’re writing. Over time, it will become more natural to write authentic and effective dialogue. You’ll make fewer mistakes, use dialogue tags in the right way, and your readers will appreciate the effort that you’ve put into honing your craft as a writer. What are you waiting for? Start practicing the art of writing kick-ass dialogue!

Digital Forensic Laboratory Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Digital Forensic Laboratory - Assignment Example In this regard, most laboratories without a digital forensic unit are either becoming obsolete or creating space and remodeling existing spaces to create the digital unit. Digital forensics can be defined as the forensic investigation of electronic devices capable of storing data or information in one form or another. The core purpose of performing digital forensic is to extract the digital data from the said devices so as to aid in the investigation and prosecution of a committed crime (Press, 2012). In addition, the collected evidence is also admissible in a court of law. This article will highlight the architectural and engineering design requirements for digital forensic laboratories. In addition to that, it will also explore the history of forensic investigation, and what are the essentials in coming up with a basic reliable site. Laboratory budget In planning a budget for a digital forensic lab the first most crucial part to be considered should be training. The staffs who will be involved in the actual forensic duties need to be adequately familiar with their work and tools of trade (Vacca, 2010). In addition to that, the procedures involved need to be fully understood is shoddy work is to be avoided. In addition to training costs, digital forensics bases its accuracy on advanced equipments that are properly installed and maintained. Considering the fact that technology changes fast it is essential to consider the best, and affordable means of acquiring the equipments especially computers. For operational costs and lab maintenance expenses, it is best to break down the costs down to daily, quarterly, and annual expenses so as to project finance uses, and properly set the budget (Jones et al, 2011). Laboratory expenses include the following: Hardware, these are computers microscopes and all other relevant, and essential equipment required for a successful investigation. Specialized software for an in depth analyses of crime data, facility space and the tr ained personnel who will e operating the equipment’s, and laboratory investigations (Jones et al, 2011). Safety measures and recommendations Based on the sort of sensitivity the data requires safety measures have to be put in place to ensure the integrity and reliability of the evidence that shall be extracted thereafter. In addition, the involvement of high level electrical equipment also means that hazardous situations may arise due to machine-human interaction (Bill. Nelson, 2010). Digital forensic investigation and safety measures requirements can be briefly summarized as follows: Information and data collection: This involves the acquisition, identification, labeling and recording of evidence on site. Data retrieved from all possible sources need be carefully handled and isolated in order to preserve its integrity, and avoid contamination. Examination of data: his involves the use of various methods such as automated examination to evaluate and extract relevant and valid information from collected evidence. Caution has to be exercised so as not to add or miss relevant and useful facts. Data analysis entails the use of legal techniques to derive useful facts that can be presented as evidence against a given individual or party. Finally, reporting the analyzed information in a presentable and simple format. Usually this involves the description of the entire process, tools that were used, and reasons why a particular criteria was used in achieving the results. Furthermore, it is at this stage that recommendations are also given besides the final conclusion. This is normally done so as to improve future investigations (Vacca, 2010).