Writing and Pronunciation

Writing and Pronunciation Writing and Pronunciation Writing and Pronunciation By Maeve Maddox I sometimes hesitate to address the subject of pronunciation because I usually get complaints. For example, I received this gentle admonition when I wrote about the novel pronunciation of the word news among radio announcers: Methinks a site about writing tips should steer clear of pronunciation. I have to disagree. Pronunciation has nothing to do with grammar or sentence structure, but it does relate to spelling, and spelling is a significant aspect of writing. For example, not everyone pronounces vehicle and often with the same speech sounds, a fact that doesn’t matter in conversation, but does matter if the speaker spells often as â€Å"offen† or vehicle without the h. English orthography is often ridiculed for oddities like rough and knight, but it is nevertheless based on a sound system represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet and several additional symbols represented by letter combinations. Pronunciation may be a matter of personal preference, but correct spelling rarely offers a choice. It is in everyone’s interest to know what sound is represented by each letter or letter combination, even if the sound is not pronounced. It is more useful in a writer to learn the idiosyncrasies of the system. For example, instead of ridiculing the archaic spelling of knight, an English speaker can choose to learn that in modern English writing, kn is an alternate spelling for the sound /n/, and that igh is an alternate spelling of the long i sound, a â€Å"three-letter i.† Many English words have more than one acceptable pronunciation for the same spelling, but speakers who do not pronounce all the letters in a word still need to learn â€Å"spelling† pronunciations. For example, I used to have trouble spelling the word silhouette, which I pronounce â€Å"sil-uh-wet.† I learned that if I think the â€Å"spelling† pronunciation â€Å"sil-hoo-etty,† I can spell it correctly. If you pronounce the word arctic without the first /k/ sound, you need to think â€Å"ark-tik† when you write it so that you won’t leave out the first c. Each of the following words has at least two pronunciations that are considered acceptable in standard English. I’ll leave it to you to listen to the options at one of the online dictionaries with audio buttons. arctic February calm palm salmon clothes forehead comptroller victuals waistcoat medicine ski Contrary to what one college textbook irresponsibly suggests, spelling mastery does not require that you be â€Å"gifted with a marvellous visual memory.† It does, however, require attention to pronunciation, and a willingness to discard the myth that English spelling is hopelessly chaotic. If you want to see some really opinionated thoughts on pronunciation, check out Charles Harrington Elster’s The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations. 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 Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesHow to Pronounce Mobile10 Terms for the Common People

Aa meeting

At the Delta club, otherwise known as Alcoholics Anonymous, the first thing the people there offered me a book to read and study. I held the book open at the first page while we waited for a girl named Amy; I guess she’s the one who starts the meeting all the time. A tall white man in his fifties walked to me and asked me â€Å"first time here? †; â€Å"yes† I said. â€Å"don’t worry; this meeting helped me a lot. I am father of 16-years-old son, I hide and drink and I am mean to my wife,† the man said.â€Å"wow, hope you get better, I said with a surprised voice. I sat in the back on a creamy plastic chair looking around at what kind of posters they had in the room, an interesting poster said â€Å"IAM RESPONSIBLE†, and another big long post was titled THE TWELVE CONCEPTS FOR WORLD SERVICE. At 6:30 pm Amy walked into the room everyone said â€Å"HI AMY†, â€Å"how’s everyone, glad yall made it† Amy said. Here I notice the meeting started everyone sat down and read IAM RESPONSIBLE all together in one voice. Wow! It looks like these people come here a lot they know what to do. â€Å"Iam responsible† post was about words put together to cheer everyone in room to feel that they can be responsible to change for better life. Next they read THE TWELVE CONCEPETS post, they twelve rules are about how to work on changing inside them and working on their problems. â€Å"hmm, very interesting† I said, people keep coming in to join the group there were around 30 persons, age between 25-60, all kind of people male and female, Black, white, Asian, Latin all kind of people. Around 6:50pm group of bikers entered the room all sat next to each other wearing-same jackets, around five guys in their fifties. A white girl in her twenties entered after them with a child and joined the meeting, too. Amy said; â€Å"who’s here for the first time†, everyone turned and looked at me and I thought, â€Å"no way to hide. † I raised my hand kind of shyly. â€Å"Welcome, introduce yourself please† Amy said. â€Å"hi, I am Angelica, and I am here to help my husband stop drinking† I said. Yes I lied about my name and-reason I am there, but that’s what came in my mind when she asked me.â€Å"do you think he’s an alcoholic† Amy asked. â€Å"Hmm, I am not sure but he seems to be drinking a lot these days which is not usual† I said. â€Å"Well, welcome, I hope you find your answers† Amy said. â€Å"Welcome Angelica† everyone said. I sat in back and I listened to everyone talking about their days and lives, families, and people they care about. To start talking in meeting they raised their hand and said their name and â€Å"I am alcoholic,† just like â€Å"hello all I am Angelica and I am an alcoholic.† They start talking about what they want to share with-others. I saw the hope in everyone’s eyes in that room and excitement, talking about pass? And how they had changed. I sat listening to their stories and watching people talking I was all quiet and didn’t say a word. Some of them were calm talking about their family and how happy they were able to take care of them and how this meeting helping them to realize how bad they? Once felt how much their family’s needs them a- father or mother, wife and husband. Some other people were telling their stories with anger and tension about how bad they were, and what they would do to have alcohol. Meeting was one hour. After I sat there and listened to all these stories I felt very sad, and wondered how someone could get to this point, just like drugs. After hour meeting over, everyone returned the book they had and organized the room, and stand together talking about how good it was to see each other, they were all friends, family, not just a group that had come over here to do what they had to do. This was awesome I walked out and said â€Å"thank you, I enjoyed the meeting was good to meet yall. † They answered â€Å"thank you for coming hopefully we helped you a little; enjoy the rest of your day. † That was nice and sweet from them they were very friendly. When I got in-car I knew I will never go back again but it was a different experience. I learned from it: no matter what, people can change if they decide to.

Finance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Finance - Case Study Example Relatively tough economic environment. Economic conditions do not seem to be favorable as the overall industry dynamics may not allow the firm to expand at a rapid pace. With overall low prices, it may seem difficult for the firms to actually maintain their margins and effectively generate sufficient cash flows to service their debts. 2. Higher volume of business with limited capacity to meet the demand. It is also critical to note that though business is expanding, the overall capacity to meet this demand is limited. In order to expand meeting the demand, firm, however, has to borrow indicating that its own equity may be low; therefore, the firm’s own internal stake will be limited. It is critical that the capacity should be expanded with higher contribution from the owners with less reliance on debt. 3. Not professionally managed as firm is still a family business. Business does not seem to be run professionally as despite growing, firm has not been able to expand profession ally. The legal character of the firm is still same to be managed by the two individuals with little hiring except drivers. In order to manage the business, marketing side of the business must be delegated to professionals who can better run the firm and let the owners focus on the expansion of business. Analysis Ratio Analysis A closer look at the return on equity would indicate that for year 2002, ROE is higher than the industry average. However, it was lot lesser than the industry average in 2000 and 2001 suggesting that the firm has been able to increase its ROE. However, owners’ capital has remained constant during the period with increasing long term liabilities. ROE can increase due to higher level of debts and it seems that this large increase in ROE during 2002 is also the result of higher level of debt. Overall debt to equity is higher than the industry; however, interest coverage has increased too during last few years. Firm seems to be liquid as its current and ac id test ratios are higher than the industry average, however, higher liquidity position can be due to higher accumulation of accounts receivables on the balance sheet of the firm. Firm needs to improve its collection policy because higher investment into working capital is also a cost and it is a non-productive asset. Efficiency seems to have improved over the period of time as firm’s receivables in days have consistently been reduced. It is, however, important to note that account receivables are on rise which has basically inflated the liquidity position of the firm. Sales and assets growth has been high too, however, asset growth seems to be due to higher cost of the capital expenditure done. Sales have increased too but this increase has been mainly due to business given by one customer. Sales growth in 2001-2002 has been 29.5% down from 219%, however profit has shown an explosive growth. Statement of Changes Sources of Cash Short term Long Term Other Receivables 51.00 Pr epaid Expenses 935.00 Accounts Payable 17,322.57 Loan 30,000.00 Loan 270,000.00 Retained Earnings 58,750.96 Tota Sources 18,308.57 358,750.96 377,059.53 Uses of Cash Accounts Receivables 17,719.31 Net Fixed Assets 270,000.00 Total Uses 17,719.31 270,000.00 287,719.31 89,340.22 Cash Dec 2002 4,230.00 Cash Dec 2003 93,570.22 4Cs of Credit The loan will be collateralized

High-School Classes on English Composition Essay

High-School Classes on English Composition - Essay Example To play it safe, I always ended up writing something in the third person, recounting events and human experiences as if they are affixed permanently to the past. As these exercises were also for the evaluation of how well I have assimilated the grammatical concepts of the language, there was not much protest from my part and I never felt restricted regarding the expression of my thoughts and feelings through language. However, as I was exposed in due course of time to some of the great literary works our times, I noticed how language had been appropriated by many creative writers who have contributed to the evolution of language itself, over the centuries. Needless to say, my writing also has undergone a sea-change, especially with the help of the course that I have taken. Hemingway’s prose, which most people found in the beginning as an unacceptable, fragmentary one appealed to me as something that carries the raw and fresh force of a de-romanticized life. I have tried to create my own rules, which I confess would not have been possible without a clear understanding of the ways in which the language operates. Hence, as I am not wholly resentful of my high school teacher who made it sure that I learned all the tricks of the languages the conventional way, I have also ventured to explore the unfamiliar realms of it use. I have realized that I cannot set any norms in my writing pattern. There is no hard-and-fast rule as regards the writing-schedule in a day or the quality or quantity of writing. Though the writing exercises have been immensely useful to me, there had been times when I realized that writing systematically, ostensibly under deadlines, may not bring out the best from me. They may help me direct better, focus on my own weaknesses and strengths and lead to some sort of proactive self-research.

The Ethical Concerns with Data Mining Essay example -- Computers

The Ethical Concerns with Data Mining Introduction to Data Mining and Warehousing With the advent of computer technologies that can store large quantities of data, cross reference that data, and compute patterns in the data, benefits abound in many applications. However, with it comes new ethical concerns regarding the privacy and security of the persons or entities in which the information was sourced. While permission may have been received with each bit of information, which may have appeared harmless to divulge, there are issues regarding the data's ownership -- its sharability in US or globally, its combination with other data, its accuracy, its security, and its overall end use [1] -- that could contribute to privacy or security "violations", where some kind of detremental harm could potentially be presented. Many questions exist. Should there be restrictions on what data can be stored? Should permission be required to be up front? How can the data collected be shared? Should there be a mandated set of rules on data collection and use in general for all businesses, governments, to uphold if they want to use data? What are the ethical evaluations of the issues, and would it be correct for a policy to be put in place to monitor the ethical issues? In this paper I will address how some organizations are dealing with the ethical approaches, but first, here is some background on the technology, its uses, benefits, misuses, and issues. What is Data Mining? What are its Uses? Data Mining, Data Warehousing, or Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining(KDDM), are technologies that encorporate computer hardware and software to store large amounts of collected data, usually about people, and then use the infor... .../30/2004 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/30/international0553EST0481.DTL 16. ACLU, "Group Calls for Investigation, New Laws to Restrict Data Surveillance", May 27, 2004, http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15860&c=130 17. Leslie Miller, "EU, U.S. Sign Passenger Data Agreement", Associated Press, May 28, 2004, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20040528/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/airline_passenger_data 18. Amanda Holt, PR Ethics Resource Center 18. Amanda Holt, PR Ethics Resource Center 19. Utilitarian Ethics, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarian_ethics 20. Colleen McCue, Emily S. Stone, Teresa P. Gooch, "Data mining and value-added analysis", The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Nov, 2003. http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_11_72/ai_111496582

Aphorisms in Tuesdays with Morrie Essay

â€Å"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do.† (Albom 18) is the first and one of the most major aphorisms in Tuesdays with Morrie. I believe Morrie is speaking about recognizing your strengths, and not focusing so much on your weaknesses. He means, as he said, to â€Å"accept† your limitations. We are all affected by this aphorism everyday. We have limitations, and a lot of times we get so focused on our weaknesses we don’t take advantage of our strengths., and waste time simply trying to improve upon those weaknesses. For example, I’m not athletic. For a while, I focused on that and I let it upset me. I would set myself up to fail focusing on that, and wasting on my time trying to get rid of that lack of skill. Instead, I should have been focusing on non-athletic things that I am good at, and toning those skills, enjoying using them, rather than focusing on what I’m not able to do. â€Å"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.† (Albom 42) Here Morrie is speaking about the views culture and media release to us, how it preys upon us. Much of the social media is put out there to prey upon our insecurities, or create them to earn our business. We see this everywhere. Beautiful celebrities are plastered all over the tv, movies, and print, which makes us think that we aren’t attractive if we don’t look like them. You can see how prominent this is simply looking at a magazine cover. The titles for the articles, â€Å"The 10 Easy Workout Tips to Get You Slim Fast!†, â€Å"How to get Perfect Skin Now†, imply that you aren’t slim, with perfect skin, know how to get a boyfriend, be popular, etc. As Morrie said, you have to see above those and manage to stay confident even when the media is pressuring you no t to feel that way. â€Å"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.† (Albom 43). In this quote Morrie speaks of the truly important things in life. He was telling this specifically to Mitch because it affected Mitch personally. He spent all his time focused on his work, and living wealthily that he pushed away his family, friends, Morrie, and his whole old way of life altogether. Like Mitch, this applies to many people, and me, too. We spend their whole life putting work, or money, or a certain person or thing as their number one. When this happens we think we’re happy, that we’re satisfied, and that we’re doing things we see as â€Å"important†, when we’re really wasting life. Morrie means you should spend your time doing the things that are best for you and everyone else that you truly enjoy. They should devote themselves to the best life possible, and thinking, if we died today, would we be truly satisfied with our life? We should be. In the quote, â€Å"Don’t let go too soon, but don’t hang on too long.† (Albom 162) , Morrie is speaking about his oncoming death, and experiences altogether. He’s saying that when we have very important experiences, we should take the time to experience them, and feel the emotions – not to move on immediately, but not too move on so fast that it keeps us from living our lives. I’ve lived this aphorism in the experience of losing friendships, and also living people, and not moving on quite as well as I should have. All you want to do is live in memories, and you can’t forget your regrets. Instead of feeling the emotions while you’re still living your life, you simply dwell in the depression and sadness. Morrie wants to prevent that from happening. When Morrie asks, â€Å"What if today were my last day on earth?† (Albom 64) he’s speaking about the elephant in the room with him everyday, which was that he was getting closer to his death everyday. He’s talking about thinking of everyday as your last day. If you died today, what would you regret not doing? Would you wish you had called your dad and apologized for what happened all those years ago? Would you wish you had finally told someone how you felt? Wish you had fulfilled your lifelong dream of skydiving? He’s talking about how, even thought it was most literal for him, any of us could die anytime, any day. We should live without regrets now, because you never know. You see this throughout real life. People die everyday, and many times when people find out they only have a certain amount of time left to live, they go out and do everything they’ve always meant to do. The problem is, we don’t always know our time, and Morrie was saying to live the way you mean to, living life not leaving things unsaid or undone.

Marketing Strategy Michael E. Porter s The Five Forces Model

Introduction This essay is based on Harvard Business School Professor and the father of modern business strategy Michael E. Porter’s â€Å"The Five Forces Model† (1979) and â€Å"The Value Chain† concept (1985) which will be critically analysing the internal and external competitive factors of â€Å"Adidas† sports brand company by applying Michael Porter’s theoretical frameworks that can be used to develop successful strategy for taking the company forward. Introduction of Adidas The global retail sporting goods market is enormous, â€Å"The market is forecast to reach an estimated $266 billion in 2017†. (Thomasson, 2014)Adidas AG international largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and second biggest in the world after Nike. â€Å"Adidas business was†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Our supply chain is global and multi-layered, with many different types of business partners, some of whom are directly contracted factories, while others are not.† (Adidas Group Website) Adidas AG has many alternative multinational suppliers that give the business massive advantage of switching factories easily when needed also high competition among suppliers have significant impact on raw material prices therefore Adidas has bargaining power over suppliers and for these reasons power of suppliers are low. For example, speaking to Bloomberg, â€Å"Anne Putz†, Adidas spokeswoman, said: We have lower purchase prices, as we can buy larger quantities of shoes and apparel. (Procurument Leaders, 2007) Power of Buyers Bargaining power of buyers is high as there are many alternative sports brands i.e. Nike, Puma, Under Armour and some smaller brands out there, for consumers to choose new styles, better price, higher quality etc. Also the buyer has advantage of switching between these brands easily with no extra cost. Threat of Substitutes There are many kinds of competitive brands who retail sports clothing for example Fred Perry, Converse, Lacoste, North Face amongst many others who are a big threat of substitutes for Adidas and also firms who are applying new technologies focused on sports relating clothing and accessories but fortunately Adidas has established a loyal customer base and continue to appealShow MoreRelatedPorter Five Forces3056 Words   |  13 PagesIn today s dynamic and competitive business environment, survival, growth and profitability are the essence goals of all industries. 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These competition among the organizations can be analyzed using Porter s five force model which are: †¢ Threat of new entrants †¢ Threat of substitute products/services †¢ Bargaining powerRead MoreStrategic India s Competitive Advantage Using Enterprise System2132 Words   |  9 PagesStudent ID: 4523233 BCO6615-Strategic Use of ERP Systems Victoria University Sydney Table of Contents Introduction: 3 Why ERP So important:†¦.........†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..3 Value ERP Systems: 4 Porter Five Force Model: 4 Competitive Advantage:†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..5 Strategies to achieve completive Advantage†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..6 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................10 References:†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Read MoreAttractive Industries1304 Words   |  6 PagesAttractive Industries Michael Porter’s Five Force Model is one of today’s leading models on how certain forces that arise within industries creates change in both a negative and positive aspects. 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