Hallidayan Approach and Categorisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hallidayan Approach and Categorisation - Essay Example Halliday has tended to describe grammar from the perspective of a combination of systems and not rules. The basic contention is that any grammatical structure being studied will reveal the use of different choices from a discernible set of choices. If this approach is taken further, language can be seen as relying on meaning potential. Halliday argues that a grammatical system is closed since it is composed of a finite set of choices. However, a lexical system is open because various new additions are constantly taking place in language. Halliday also claims that language is organised in a meta-functional manner indicating that it is composed of different grammatical systems that aid to provide different kinds of meaning. He attaches the real reason behind language to providing meaning in social life and thus argues that all forms of languages are based on three semantic components. The first semantic component is ideational and works as a resource for interpreting human experience. This component tends to reveal the contextual value of a field in grammar. This indicates that it allows the exploration of the social processes through which the particular use of language in some fashion is being implicated. The second semantic component is interpersonal and serves to perform various functions (which may be simple or complex) that define social relationships. This component is in itself composed of the personas of the writer or the speaker, the social distance between interacting parties and the relative social status difference between the interacting parties. The last semantic component is textual and it aids in combining the two semantic components presented above. This combination allows both forms of meanings to come together in a coherent fashion through textual means. Using the textual meta-function allows an exploration of how coherent a piece of text is which in turn allows discerning the credibility of the subject text. The various forms of grammatical s ystems that are proposed by Halliday are in turn related to these meta-functions that serve to compose them. Comparison of Selected Texts At first glance, it seems obvious that the selected texts are geared to serve different purposes. The first text (extracted from a seller’s website) is designed to sell a product related to the medical condition being discussed. In stark contrast, the second text (extracted from a medical help website) is designed to help understand the medical condition and its progression and growth. This significant difference helps to explain the fact that the first text is more suggestive in nature while the second text is more declarative in nature. In addition, the first text contains little medical terminology because it is designed to appeal to the mass audience that will consume the text. This indicates that the first text is directed towards the layman who is suffering from this condition and is looking online for quick fixes to the problem.

The Battle of Somme Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Battle of Somme - Research Paper Example Anglo-French in nature, the Somme offensive aimed at shattering the powers of Germany. The British army led the allied forces consisting of a major part of British and French army. The German army which awaited them retaliated harshly. The first day of the battle proved the most fatal for the British army. At the end of the day, the British army had lost 60000 of its men (Gilbert, pp65-78). Despite the heavy human loss of almost 1 million from both sides, the British Generals of the time have been criticized for the battle. At the end of the battle, the British army had succeeded in capturing only 12 kilometers from the Germans. The allied forces were still 5 kilometers away from Bapaume which had been termed as a major objective of the battle while Germany was still maintaining much of its frontline. One view however favors the offensive that the battle caused a severe blow to the Germany ultimately bringing its defeat in 1918. At the start of battle, the balance in composition amon g the British and French was 20 British and 13 French divisions. Though majority of the composition was British, it had earlier been decided that the attack on German army would be primarily a French offensive. The German onslaught at Verdun forced the French to depute a huge manpower of its army. The Somme offensive aimed at draining the German forces of reserves and the territorial target was the secondary objective. The Verdun onslaught changed the nature of the Somme offensive completely. The aim had then become to shift German resources from Verdun to the defense of Somme (Doughty, p291). The heavy bombardment was planned to precede the attack which began on June 24. It was believed that the fierce bombardment would destroy the German front line. After the destruction of the front line, the allied forces would become able to walk into the no man’s land and take edge over the Germans. Both the British and French artillery had an equal share in the 3000 guns for bombardmen t. After the bombardment, it was planned that a creeping barrage would lead the advancing infantry towards the front line of the Germans then consecutively towards the second and third trench lines. In addition, Rawlinson’s Fourth army was heavily loaded with arms and ammunitions which had the task of consolidation. During the course, the whole Fourth army would attempt a sudden breakthrough by using the cavalry to catch the gap in the German defense lines. After the possession of the German front line, the plan was that the British army would break through to Cambrai and Douai which meant the breakup of German line into two. 750000 soldiers from 27 divisions went into the offensive. About eighty percent of the army was from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The figures comparison favored the attacking allied forces as only 16 Divisions German army defended the battlefield of Somme (Keegan, pp290-292). What Happened? The bombardment began and continued for eight consecut ive days. The allied forces of British and France had however looked down upon the strengths of the German army and its strong arrangements. The bombardment had failed to destroy either of the German front line’s barbed wire or the strongly built concrete bunkers. It was evident that the Germans were alert for all of the enemy’s onslaughts. Besides, the munitions and explosives used by the British were defective. Many of them did not explode.

Ethical Dilemma Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Dilemma - Case Study Example Linet came alone to the clinic, though had been married for 7 years and the last born was 3 years of age. At the clinic, she stated that her husband did not know of her pregnancy as they had agreed 3 years ago not to have other children due to their financial difficulties. Linet was determined to have another child despite her husband’s ignorance on the issue. When it came to HIV testing recommended as part of routine prenatal care, Susan declined saying they had both been tested with her husband before entering their marriage 7 years ago. She claims that she her first three children had been home delivered, and it is because of her complication that resulted in her last pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, that she decided to start attending clinics. Several weeks later, the nurse practitioner receives another new patient, â€Å"Peter Wanyama.† The patient states that he is concerned about occurrence of thrush symptoms, which had originally been treated 4 months ago. Peter states that he is HIV positive and had discovered his status 2 years ago. He is a long distance truck driver and sometimes sleeps out. He states that he always has protected sex with his wife. He says that in the past 1 year, he had been visiting an infectious disease specialist who lived 150 miles from where he lives. He states that he had consulted his specialist about th e recurrence of his symptom, of which he recommended Peter to seek immediate attention in the town which he lived. 2. Include one ethical principle and one law that could be violated and whether the violation would constitute a civil or criminal act based on facts in the law. The nurse on pulling the file of Linet Wanyama realized that Peter Wanyama was indeed her husband. The nurse practitioner became torn on this scenario as she had an ethical responsibility of informing Linet Wanyama of her need to have an HIV test due to a risk of transmission from her husband who was HIV positive (Lipe, 2008). Furthermore, Linet was living in a world where she believed her husband to be faithful to her when he went on long distance journeys (Lipe, 2008). In addition, informing Linet would help her make a decision on whether to have the child or not as the risk of mother to child transmission would be existing. Furthermore, such a disclosure would help in protecting the unborn child (White, 2008 ). Next, in informing Peter of his wife’s secret and coming open about his status to his wife, would at least help them make a decision as a family whether to continue with the pregnancy or not (Timby, 2009). The nurse got herself in such an ethical dilemma as in doing one right thing, would resulting in breaking some of the ethical rules which the medical practice stood by (White, 2010). If the nurse decided to inform the Linet about Peter’s HIV status, then he would have gone against the medical code of ethics of confidentiality. Nurse practitioners are often required to keep information about their patient’s secret (Martin, 2010). Going against one’s confidentiality usually leads to civil lawsuit (Janie, 2012). A nurse can be sued and even lose her job and certificate from the medical board in case of such a lawsuit. But in this scenario, in trying to keep quiet, would only result to more harm to the family (Daniels, 2009). If Linet is not informed for instance, she may not know her HIV status and hence not get enrolled in taking HAART; therefore increasing the chance of HIV related

Business Biblical Worldview Essay Example for Free

Business Biblical Worldview Essay This paper will explore what a Biblical Worldview is and present a Biblical Worldview process of contracts, ownership and responsibility. A Biblical Worldview is a view that holds to the belief that there is absolute moral truth; no one can earn their way into Heaven with good deeds; the Bible is 100 percent correct in all aspects; Jesus Christ lived a life free of sin while He was on earth; and God is omnipotent, omniscience, and the ruler of the universe (Barna Group, 2009). It has been proven that one’s worldview has a powerful impact on the way he conducts his everyday life and the choices made in any given situation (Barna Group, 2009). One living by a Biblical Worldview is less likely to use profanity; to misuse media; to gamble away money; and to abuse alcohol (Barna Group, 2009). The person with a Biblical Worldview is more likely to be honest; be more civil towards others, and make proper sexual choices (Barna Group, 2009). There exists a belief that a person develops a primary worldview by the time he reaches age 13. The teen and early adult years refine the worldview and then it is passed on to others throughout their life as an adult (Barna Group, 2009). A contract is an agreement that is enforceable by the law. It is created when two or more persons agree to do something or agree to not do something (Liuzzo, 2010, pg. 79). All involved parties must be competent. A competent person is one that is of legal age and possesses normal mental health (Liuzzo, 2010, pg. 80). â€Å"All contracts are agreements, but not all agreements are contracts† (Luizzo, 2010, pg. 9). In business, contracts are used to employ people and to sell goods, and to sell services (Luizzo, 2010, pg. 79). For a contract to be enforceable legally it must contain certain elements. There must be an offer made to one party and acceptance by another party; there must be consideration; all involved must mutually agree; all parties must be competent; there must be proper form; and the expected performance of the contract must legal (Luizzo, 2010, pg. 79-80). Because of the definition of contracts, there is a tendency to view it as a hysical experience with no spiritual implications at all (Chester, n. d. ). Buying, producing, selling and serving take place in the tangible physical world but it is taking place just below the intangible spiritual world connecting them together (Chester, n. d. ). The prophet Elisha saw the connection in 2 Kings 6:17, NASB, †Then Elisha prayed and said, â€Å"O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. † And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Here in the tangible physical world they appeared to be doomed, however, in the intangible spirit world they were victorious. (Chester, n. d. ). The physical aspects of life must line up with the spiritual aspects in a business with a Biblical Worldview. Any business that lasts is organized to line up philosophically, values wise and has the principles that demonstrate the nature of God (Chester, n. d. ). A contract or agreement that holds to a Biblical Worldview would not mirror the lop-sided contract held between Jacob and his uncle Laban. The contact between Laban and Jacob was legal. Both Laban and Jacob were competent, as they are both equals (Mabee, 1980, pg. 194). Though the agreement had all of the necessary elements of the Biblical time to make it legal, Laban did not adhere to the contract. Laban set out to cheat Jacob at every turn. The initial agreement was for Jacob to work at â€Å"Laban, Inc. † seven years for Rachel’s hand in marriage but he ended up working 14 years for her instead due to Laban’s trickery. Altogether Jacob worked for Laban a total of 20 years with Laban changing his wages (the agreement) ten times, â€Å"You know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times†, (Genesis 31:6-7, NASB). As a Christian, the business owner is to honor any made agreements and contracts, as this mirrors the attributes of God. The Bible admonishes the believer to â€Å"Let your no be no and your yes be yes†, and anything outside of that is evil doing (Matthew 5:37, NASB). James 5:12, NASB also warns, â€Å"But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment. Christian business owners who hold to a Biblical Worldview understand and accept the fact that God owns everything (Tacket, 2012). â€Å"Hear, O My people, and I will speak; I am God, your God†¦For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills† (Psalm 50:1-10, NASB). God tells us in Haggai 2:8, NASB that He even owns the silver and gold (money) everyone seeks after, â€Å"The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the LORD of hosts. † Jehovah God is simply loaning it to one and requires good stewardship over the things He has granted.

Globalization and Islamic Fundamentalism Essay -- Muslim Culture Islam

The Al-Qaeda offshoot ISIS, has made its way through Iraq and Syria. This new terror campaign appears to have been rolled out with a decades old objective, which is wrought with violence, propaganda and destabilization. But what are the reasons behind these acts of terror and violence? How is it possible to stop terrorism? What is the future of the endless conflict between Islamic extremism and modernity? The last one is particularly burning, since it touches an issue, entwined in ever-lasting controversy, aggression and needless carnage - the issue of Islamic fundamentalism and its extreme manifestation - terrorism. In my paper I argue that in its essence Islamic fundamentalism is a negation of the values, upheld by globalization, democracy, true Islam and modernity. There are several interconnected focal factors that render Islamic extremism incompatible with modern trends of development. The first and basic factor, always in the context of the history of Islam, is the theoretical foundation of fundamentalism. Also, another important issue is the rise of Islamic nationalism, which helps fundamentalism transform religious and cultural differences into an overt and brutal struggle against non-Muslim countries and their globalizing world. Of particular significance, however, is the poor economic development of Muslim states. Moreover, I believe it is the actual reason behind the violent outbreak of extremism. All these issues combine to form the idea of Islamic ideal versus reality, or the ever-increasing gap between modernity and the nature of fundamentalism. In addition, I argue that poor economic and social conditions in Muslim countries are caused by improper government policies and deep social c... ...://www.worldbank.org/wbi/mdf/mdf1/edecmen.htm> Global Poverty Monitoring. The Middle East and North Africa: An Overview. United Nations Development Programme. Human Development Report 2001 United States Senate. Extremist Movements and Their Threat to the United States. Washington: U.S. Government printing Office, 2000 The Islamic World to 1600: The Rise of the Great Islamic Empires The New York Times; October 31, 2001

“Match Girl” by Anne Bishop Essay

Anne Bishop bases her story, â€Å"Match Girl, off of Hans Christian Andersen’s â€Å"Little Match Girl†, but she adds a disturbing twist. Bishop uses so much torture and violence that as a reader you want no more. â€Å"Little Match Girl† was a story based on an innocent little girl having to face the cold heart of society. On the other hand, â€Å"Match Girl† was a story based on a young girl that has to face a disgusting and cruel world. The misery and cruelty that Bishop adds to her story is too much for this story to gain credibility. The story starts off with Phoenix already having to suffer from her owner’s cruelty. Just like the little girl in Andersen’s story Phoenix is suffering from cold and torn boots, but in Bishop’s story we get to meet her owners. In this tale we have characters that we can hate. Thanks to all of the characters that Bishop’s uses we are able to get a background story, a setting, and are able to have other feelings besides sadness. To start off with her owners were too cruel. Da had no voice throughout the story and the only action he had that was seen was when he hit Moll. Moll is a cold-hearted woman that treats Phoenix badly probably because she is also living a miserable life. She is forced to live in a man’s world. The men in her life control her and at the first chance she gets to show power and control she takes it. At first it seems like she is the only cruel character but that title is removed once we meet the rest of the characters. Moll and Da’s son does not fall too far from the tree. William is a disgusting creature that should have never been given life. He is absolutely good for nothing and does nothing besides shove his penis into innocent and defenseless Phoenix. He gets away with so much and no one says or does anything, not even Phoenix. But William is only a fraction of all the disgusting males in this story. The worst scene in this story is the one when all the men take a turn on raping Phoenix. She has a spoon that is violently hurting her mouth, meanwhile she has men violently rape her one right after the other. These men are completely heartless and time and again Bishop includes scenes of other women being punished by the men when they don’t do what they are told. Bishop only shows the men in the story as being drunk, violent, and horny. It’s as if she is trying to make a greater argument besides the cruel society that Phoenix lives in. All the men in this story are completely useless and do not have any actions besides violence and sex. This violence and sex is what leads critics to say that the cruelty takes credibility away. It is just too much for one girl to stand. There is too much misery for one story too hold. Anne Bishop said, â€Å"While I embellished or modified details to fit the fictional place, I didn’t make up the instruments of torture. They all existed† (Pg 247). I seem to disagree with Bishop. These â€Å"modified details† did not fit this fictional place. It was too much torture for one story, for one specific character to endure. Although Phoenix saw other women being hurt in different ways, she still had to endure watching them suffer. Phoenix when through too much and although in real life humans also have to endure torture and cruelty, I don’t believe anyone will ever go through all that Phoenix went through. I understand that the methods of torture used are real and were used; I just wish Bishop had cut done a bit on all the horrible things that happened to Phoenix. Phoenix didn’t deserve anything that happened to her, but she continued to be kicked around in more misery until the end. This story was really hard to read and accept. The imm ense cruelty took away from the credibility of the tale.

Cloud-computing services provide Essay

1. What business benefits do cloud-computing services provide? What problems do they solve? There are many benefits to cloud computing. Businesses of all sizes have the ability to take advantage of these and often find the costs within their individual budgets. Cloud computing environments are able to run on existing infrastructures, which makes the switch to cloud computing minimal from this aspect. Costs are incurred based on the amount of computing power they actually consume. (Laudon & Laudon, 2014) In addition this type of environment enables businesses to scale their needs on an as-needed basis, which helps to keep costs within budgets. Another benefit is the ability to respond quickly due to the portability of the application. With cloud computing businesses have the flexibility in how they utilize applications; this results in better turn around on information as employees have the ability to gain access to data and applications from anywhere. Cloud computing can assist in solving problems such as reducing costs. Since there is no need for additional equipment budgeting dollars can be spent elsewhere. In addition, with much of the infrastructure in the cloud the need for additional IT employees is eliminated. There is no additional need for support and maintenance on hardware and software with cloud computing. Cloud computing solves many problems such as reducing costs, improving efficiencies, providing additional sources for customers, and providing remote access for employees. Examples given in the case study included Zynga – a gaming platform offered on Facebook. When Zynga comes out with a new game, they have no knowledge of the amount of computing power they will need. They are better able to adjust this based on the popularity of any given game via cloud computing. The reliability of cloud computing for them equals revenue. Many other companies have benefited from cloud computing, it enables them to promote and sustain additional Internet traffic without crashing their internal systems. 2. What are the disadvantages of cloud computing? There are some disadvantages as well. The responsibility of storage is in the hands of the provider. This presents potential security risks as users can upload and download information from cloud computing and potentially use it to perform illegal tasks. (I think of the Target issue in November, whereby thousands of consumer’s information was breached.) Since the software applications depend on the provider to manage and support there is also risk if the site were to go down. The customers are dependent on the provider to find and fix the problem in a timely manner. No business wants their system to be down for an indefinite amount of time especially those that seek to gain revenue. Businesses are also reliant on the provider performing the appropriate updates to systems. As with any information switch there is potential for errors to occur. I believe one such occurrence happened recently with an airline company. The rates were entered incorrectly, which cost the airline a lot of money. There is always potential for errors or â€Å"fat fingers† as it is known. Overall the disadvantages are reliability and security. 3. How do the concepts of capacity planning, scalability, and TCO apply to this case? Apply these concepts to both Amazon and to subscribers of their services. Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by any given organization to meet the needs of the products being promoted. Scalability is the ability to process and handle a growing amount of need and the ability to accommodate this type of growth. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate intended to help buyers and owners determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or system. (Laudon & Laudon, 2014) The concepts of these apply to the case. Cloud computing uses planning, scalability, and TCO. Amazon is one of the biggest online retailers in the world (I think I personally help them to achieve this ranking), this means they need to provide hardware capacity planning and scalability not just for  themselves, but for their subscribers as well. If they overestimate their needs they risk financial losses, and if they underestimate they run the risk of creating shortages for their own business needs as well as subscribers. As subscribers, if they run into non-availability too often they will lose faith in the ability of Amazon to manager their services and seek out other vendors – again causing potential losses to them as a company. Estimating the scalability for a large diverse consumer base without over or underestimating is difficult, but crucial for their continued success. Amazon has to take on the total TCO of its services, while at the same time ensuring it can maintain profitability. The services subscribers’ benefit from not having to be concerned with these issues and not bearing the brunt of TCO issues. 4. What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from using cloud computing? Why? While all businesses can benefit from using cloud computing, it is perhaps more beneficial for those smaller businesses, especially from a budgetary aspect. For smaller businesses they don’t have pre-existing data that needs to be transferred and are able to start their operations directly on the cloud. The ability to scale their operations is another great advantage. As their business grows so can their computing abilities with minimal capital expenditure. The cloud allows these smaller business owners to somewhat level the playing field with those larger companies who often maintain larger IT assets. It is a financially viable solution that doesn’t require large capital expenditures for servers, IT teams, and data system infrastructures. For these larger companies the cost savings are not as easily determined. Many already have â€Å"huge investments in complex proprietary systems supporting unique business processes, some of which have given them strategic advantages.† (Laudon & Laudon, 2014)