Evidence, Proof and argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Evidence, Proof and argument - Essay Example As the jury, it is your duty to decide fairly, dispassionately and impartially based on the evidence presented by the prosecution4 since the burden of proving the guilt of defendant Duncan lies with the prosecution5 and owing to this stringent requirement, its case must stand and fall on its own merits. The prosecution cannot assert that the evidence for the defence is weak. Any claim therefore by the prosecution that this defendant has not established a valid defence should not be entertained. I would like to emphasize that the duty to prove the guilt of this defendant is the sole responsibility of the prosecution6. This defendant need not do anything since the law presumes his innocence until proven otherwise. However, Members of the jury, I would likewise caution you that the proof required of the prosecution is not absolute certainty that this defendant has committed the grievous act he is accused of. The prosecution is simply required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt(fn-case) that this defendant is guilty. Judgment beyond a reasonable doubt simply requires moral certainty that this defendant committed the offence charged. ... With that as a backdrop, let us proceed with the task at hand. This defendant is indicted for the murder of Simon Chapman by allegedly plunging the knife into the victim’s heart with intent to hurt and cause him serious harm. The death of Simon Chapman allegedly resulted from the acts of this defendant who was then 15 years old. Allow me, Members of the Jury to walk you through the undisputed facts—the decedent, Simon Chapman and his friend Christopher Jones (Jones) were sitting in a coach aboard a train late at night when two boys, defendant Duncan Moore and David Parker (David) were smoking and running about the train passing from one carriage to another. Christopher Jones chided the boys for smoking and to which they replied to â€Å"fuck off†. At this point, David—the younger of the two—decided to pester Jones by grabbing his briefcase. A commotion ensued where Jones pushed David who retaliated with a punch landing on the Jones’ face. As Jones was about to hit David again, Duncan intervened. The ruckus is now between Jones and Duncan. They were throwing punches at each other when decedent Chapman arose from his sleep and seeing that Jones was being hit by Duncan, he, in turn, struck Duncan with his umbrella. Duncan fell on his back and decedent Chapman straddled him, the two went on throwing punches against each other when the fracas stopped. Decedent Chapman was stabbed with the use of a kitchen knife. Thereafter, two boys alighted on the next train stop. Based on this undisputed facts, you shall decide if this defendant stabbed the victim or is there a probability that somebody else on that train who could be the culprit. Before we move on to the evidence presented by either side, it is important that I discuss the

Information Communication Technology ICT Has Revolutionized Education Essay

Information Communication Technology ICT Has Revolutionized Education Essay In the following Research, the main aim is to investigate the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Information communication Technology in Teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo in which the participants of the learning process would obtain when the facilitators incorporate new aids into the process of teaching. We are going to focus our investigation in the effects of using information communication technology (ICT) in Teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. The reasons for this investigation are: To identify the Technology of information that the Language School provides to the facilitators, to point out the common mistakes students make when pronouncing in the target language, to determine the advantages and disadvantages that Technology of information offers to Students and to suggest the usage of Technology of information at the Language School. According to our objectives if teachers put into practice these technological aids in their programs and the advantages that those aids could have for the benefit of students and teachers too. As matter of fact, this research would help students as well as teachers to be more connected and more collaborative in a world that is constantly changing, is more creative and very demanding. Nowadays it is not a matter of getting good grades by the part of the students, but to be engaged and achieve high standards of excellence in order to be able to compete later on with increasing digital learners who have already acquired technology, and this technology has become a tool in their daily life activities. Thats why those digital learners around the world are nowadays more aware of what is happening in their surroundings because technology has revolutionized our lives, as Pope Benedict XVI said on January 25th, These (new digital) Technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavor to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable. (2009) . Hypothesis The Students who use ICTs in English Pronunciation acquire a better proficiency that the students who dont use them. Statement of the Problem Despite the progress that has been made to develop effective methods for the instruction of a second language such as, brainstorming, guest speaker, report-back sessions, role playing, case studies, small group discussions all of this are still focus in a classroom based learning environment. A great number of students feel insecure when it comes to carry out a conversation in English. The traditional methods are not focusing enough in teaching pronunciation to students; as a consequence many students are not able to fulfill the requirements of an appropriate pronunciation once they have finished the whole program. Students are not prepared enough to deal with the challenges posed by an increasingly competitive society. It is required to come up with new strategies and ways in order to give effective response to the exigencies of the world. It is strongly necessary to provide the learner with the level of competence and pronunciation is definitely one of the most important aspects to be taken into consideration. A great number of facilitators are not willing to break the paradigms and implement new teaching aids in their teaching programs which would help students to improve their proficiency and at the same time their performance at any given time. As a consequence, a great number of students, once they have finished the whole program are not able to fulfill the requirements and they cannot vie with other professionals in the same field just because they were not taught according to the new standards in Education. Justification We decided to lead this research because we have noticed that the use of Information communication Technology (ICT) in Teaching English Pronunciation has become a new trend around the world and we have noticed that those technological resources will empower students for a more effective pronunciation performance. As a matter of fact, we have observed that the language school really needs to make some progress in this aspect and offers a standard education program according to the needs of the global community. The world is constantly changing and ICT has become part of it. It has engaged great part of human activities, work, science, health, and education can ´t be apart from it. Information Communication Technology (ICT) offers new paradigms and patterns for teaching. The new generation is demanding for students to be incorporated, to foster the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT). We have perceived that there is a gap in the bridge of the teaching process, so it has been required to integrate ICT in order to fulfill the exigencies of the modern curriculum. The decision of conducting this research is because Pronunciation is essential in a language learner and we have noticed that ICT can empower students for a more effective pronunciation performance at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. Pronunciation is of core significance because it is important to be understood by others when speaking. Purpose To determine the advantages and disadvantages of Using ICT in Teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo and to foster facilitators to apply this new approach to their teaching process, so that they can contribute in the development of students knowledge more effectively. Significance We consider essential to develop this research because we have noticed that the use of Information Communication Technology at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo in order to teach English pronunciation in the whole English program is not reasonably competent. The main sources to teach such important skill are only the chalk, board and radio if it is used. While other undergraduate institutions are quite ahead in the use of technological resources such as TV, radio, slides in PowerPoint, online courses and labs. Consequently, with this research we want to highlight the importance of using these sources so that the corresponding authorities can take this into account and to allot funds to implement these core techniques. Objectives General objective To determine the effects of the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. Specific objectives 1. To identify the age and sex of the population under studied. 2. To identify the Technology of information that the Language School provides to facilitators. 3. To point out the common mistakes students make when pronouncing. 4. To determine the advantages and disadvantages that information Technology offers to Students. 5. To suggest the usage of Technology of information at the Language School. 6. To determine the attitude of the facilitators and students toward the use or implementation of ICT in the teaching process. Research question What are the advantages Modern Languages Students majoring in English at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo obtain by using ICT in acquiring English Pronunciation over the ones who do not use these Technological tools? Scope of the Topic We are going to limit our research to the effects of the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. In the 2012-2 semester when this investigation will be performed at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. We will take into consideration the limitation that Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo Modern Languages School is going through with a minimum budget intended to technological sources. Definition of Terms Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo: It is a public university located in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It was founded in 1538. Currently, the university holds eight schools which are: Engineering, Arts, Humanities, Economic and Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Architecture, Agriculture Sciences, and Law and Political Sciences . ICT: These acronyms stand for Information Communications Technology or Information and Communication Technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications, and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers, middleware as well as necessary software, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to create, access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. In other words, ICT consists of IT as well as telecommunication, broadcast media, all types of audio and video processing and transmission and network based control and monitoring functions . Pronunciation: It is the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced . Student: A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. Language School: Is a department belonging to the Humanity Faculty founded in July 1957 which offers two careers, Modern language major in English and Modern language major in French . Antecedents In our research paper about the Effects of using Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Teaching English Pronunciation to Students of the Modern Language Program at Universidad Autà ³noma de Santo Domingo. We found out that many investigators have been talking about this topic since twenty years ago General Overview In this chapter, we detail the history of computer and internet which are the main focus of our investigation. It starts with the cave drawings 30,000 years ago and continues with the advances of mathematics and science which helped to develop what we know today as computer and internet. After that, we describe how these tools were incorporated in education and the conclusions of different studies about the use of technology in the teaching and learning process. The world keeps on changing with every rotation it makes round the sun. Just a decade ago, students were taught with pens, pencils, black boards, notebooks, and chalks. But nowadays, all that have become history which no one wishes to remember. Light pens and boards, PDF notes, CD rooms have been replaced, and even as you are reading this, the world is advancing rapidly with respect to ICT technology as even computers and laptops are gradually leaving the scene for new technological devices, such as IPods, cell phones, headsets, etc. In consideration of these developments, it becomes imperative for the wise teacher to instill knowledge in students of this dispensation, utilizing fully, the facilities and opportunities availed by ICT Technology to pedagogy. This is because if teachers dont, not only will the students continue to find it difficult to assimilate (having been acclimatized to the easy-ICT world). Hence, it is unequivocal to state that every teacher needs to pull in ICT into their curriculum and methodology, or lose the interest of the 21st century student. Putting this into consideration, below is the history of ICT that for everybodys good it has increased the effectiveness of education in English pronunciation and other disciplines. History of ICT More than two decades ago, information communication technology (ICT) has been being used in schools around the world. The objective of introducing these technological resources has been to enhance and satisfy the huge demand of new generations. Due to the great increase of technology and the innovation of the World Wide Web (Internet) in 1980, schools and universities noticed the importance of information communication technology (ICT) to increase their students abilities and competence in this new digital era. Certain advances have been made in the educational system to provide students with personalized tools in order for them to fulfill their current needs. As Sunkel G. said the general perception has been that they would increase levels of educational attainment by introducing changes in teaching and learning processes and strategies, adapting to the needs of the individual students (Sunkel, 2006) . Information Communication Technology (ICT) at the beginning was not designed for educational purposes; however, after discovering its great effectiveness in different fields and in daily activities it has been transferred to the educational field. According to Watsons (2001), ICT have revolutionized the way people work today and are now transforming education systems. This is the reason why information communication technology is gaining ground in todays world . Everything started 30,000 years ago B.C in the Paleolithic Era, information communication technology started with the cave drawings near France and Spain as the first manifestation of communication among different groups of people. These drawings were painted for the purpose of art Work, and created as meaningful part of religious ceremonies; this was a meaningful advance in the history of ICT . In 510 B.C, Pythagoras a Greek citizen founded an academy where he used to teach mathematics and physics; he came up with one of his masterpiece the Pythagoras theorem that later on helped in the development of mathematics and in daily life activities but his teachings and speeches were in an oral way because at that period of time no advances were made in order to capture his teachings. As matter of fact written communication has always been important for the development of communication, the most important records are written on paper thats why China noticed the necessity and made an important contribution to humanity with the invention of the paper. According to (Twede, D. 2005) paper as we know is originated in china in 105 A.D. the earliest process known is attributed to Ts ai Lun. The manuscript transcription in 382 was an important step on the development of written communication . They were written as a way of transmitting beliefs, stories or knowledge to futures generations and cultures, they recorded the most important aspects of that era where only oral communication was used . Later on Johannes Gutenberg a German inventor introduced the Printing Press to Europe in 1450, he was the first man to use a movable type and suddenly change the history, and until that time monks and academics had the opportunity to acquire the information and were the only empowered to spread the knowledge. From that moment on more and more common people were able to buy books and also acquire information and teach their kids at home. One of Gutenbergs pieces of art was the first bible printed on a movable type also known as the 42-line Bible . In 1600 Public Education was a big step in North American society thanks to the advances that were made throughout time; it was a huge leap for the development of humanity because it gave equal rights to each person to acquire at least a decent education. The first public school in the American colonies was the Boston Latin School, students studied Latin and Greek and the elementary subjects like (Lecture, writing, reading) so forth and so on . A year later in 1700 marked the beginning of a new revolution in the teaching field because some of the first low tech devices were introduced to the teaching process as an example of these were the black board a great innovation for teachers in order to show students in a visual way what they were saying, also the chalk board slates or (writing slates) was another device that even today is very useful for divers in order to communicate under water. In 1700 a slate was very useful in school in order to practice math exercises. In 1800 Books or as Robert Darnton called them in his book What is the History of Books the social and cultural history of communication by print, were introduced for the first time in the teaching field as an innovation . Audiovisual Age Education has developed rapidly with the introduction of technology and the audiovisual resources to the teaching learning process. The audiovisual age started with the invention of the film and the sound recording in 1910. (Comenius 1632) lessons should proceed from easy to complex at a slow and deliberate pace; acquisition of new material began through the senses . The beginning of the audiovisual age marked the parameters of a new platform in the education field it was focused in the implementation of new ways of communication for example the radio created in 1910 is considered the first mass media, (Spiker 1996) radio connects individuals across geographical, cultural, and political devices. It was immediately introduced into education through special children programs to develop their listening and speaking skills, as soon as these programs become popular the radio started increasing its production . Another advance into education was the film strip projector in 1930; it was implemented in the educational system to display in the classroom frames of a strip on which images were printed, in this way students could visualized what they were been taught for their teachers. Likewise the filmstrip projector the overhead projector in 1940 was introduced to the classroom facilitating the interactive environment for teachers and students, because of the easy way teachers can prepare lectures and students can prepare notes before a lesson. Information Age (1960) The information age started in the latter part of the twentieth Century and the beginning of the twenty- first Century with new and challenging advances that demanded more from users as David S. Alberts and Daniel S. Papp stated in their book Complexity and change are the two defining characteristics of the Information Age. Our successes as individuals, families, organizations, communities, and societies will depend more than ever upon our abilities to adapt, in near real time . in this particular period of time appeared some of the most outstanding Technologies of all times for example: Television was one of the most remarkable inventions during the Information age, built 1960 by several people at first moment to entertain population but little by little was introduced as a great device for teaching purposes. Ten years later in 1970, videocassette recorder (VCR) and video home system (VHS) tapes were the new booms in the 70s because with these new devices you could record and play back peoples favorite TV programs. U-Matic was one of the first VHS tapes introduced by Sonic in 1971 to consumers and also for teaching purposes, it was very ground-breaking because in that way students for the first time had access to authentic recorded material which they could review over once and once again . In the 80s the audiotape came as the radios complement for teachers to replay or record authentic materials that later on were destined for teaching purposes; in those years audiotapes were very popular for the listening skill. Computer Age (1990) According to TechEncyclopedia (2002) computer is a general-purpose machine that processes data according to a set of instructions that are stored internally either temporarily or permanently . computers were conceived from arduous years of investigation and failures. Two of the most outstanding pioneers among others in the Mechanical Era of computers (1623-1945) were Blaise Pascal and Charles Babbage, Blaise a mathematician with the help of other colleagues designed a calculator that was able to add, subtract, multiply and divide. On its side Charles Babbage probably designed the first multi-purpose or programmable computing device in 1823 but never completed. To get to the computer age or the age where computer was first introduced to education that means 1990 many things had to happen, in order to mention some of these events for example; First Generation Electronic Computers (1937-1953), Second Generation (1954-1962), Third Generation (1963-1972), Fourth Generation (1972-1984), Fi fth Generation (1984-1990) in the fifth generation computers were more manageable and achieved a high superiority in processing besides they were more stable than their first prototypes. Computers were introduced as tool in order to help teachers perform more difficult tasks and also to present authentic materials to students for them to be competitive in a more demanding world. 1995 The Digital Age 1995 Information Exchange 2000 The Interactive Age The Role of ICT in Education The increasing presence of technology in all areas of human life leads to consider technology as an element of extraordinary importance in our society. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are the cultural and technological events of great scope and expansion of the recent centuries, they are present in all areas of human life, and education is not excluded from this process. They were implemented in the educational systems in the early nineties, since then they have provided access to a great amount of information (Wagner et al 2005) says that  ´Ã‚ ´ICTs ´Ã‚ ´ are currently being used widely to aid education in many developing countries, and it appears that there is an increasing demand for their use in education by policymakers and parents in developing countries . The integration of ICT in education has become a priority in developing countries, because digital technologies can enhance the teaching process through innovation in teaching materials and teaching methods making more effective the learning process. Also because the challenges of education are increasing and requiring an effective learning with the implementation of new instructional strategies, according to students ´ needs. ICTs have had a major impact on education; some of these impacts are related to the need to make a change in education ´s methodology, and in its teaching-learning purpose. It is that a new methodology is required to introduce the technology in the academic field, thus achieving the transformation of educational system. ICTs have provided the educational field new pedagogical possibilities, expanding the resources of acquiring new knowledge. With the incorporation of ICT by students and teachers in the teaching-learning process is facilitated the collaborative learning due to ICT provides learners and professors tools such as chat, email, blogs etc. Which motivate the active participation in the classroom. According to Buckingham D. in his Handbook of New Media: Students Edition expressed that computers bring about new forms of learning which transcend the limitations of older methods, particularly linear methods such as print and television, and it is children who are seen to be most responsive to these new approaches: the computer somehow releases their natural creativity and desire to learn, which are apparently blocked and frustrated by old-fashioned methods . With the incorporation of computers, projectors, Internet, into the teaching-learning process it is noticeable the motivation students feel when they use them because they are projected to improve the quality of education through the diversification of contents and methods, promoting experimentation, innovation and learning stimulation. Since ICTs were introduced into the educational field they have given a new approach for those teachers who based their classes only on the green board practices and scheduled classes year after year following a monotonous curriculum. As ICTs enter the socio-cultural setting of schools, they may trigger changes in the activities, curriculum and interpersonal relationship in the learning environment, and is reciprocally affected by the changes they cause (Demiralslan and Usluel, 2008) . The use of ICTs into education look for changing old patterns of teaching focusing primarily on students in an interactive environment for learning encouraging motivation and communication methods; allowing students a greater autonomy in learning, in addition to overcoming the barriers of time and space. The rapid use of ICT in the education system makes expectations to grow about the potential of ICT and its contribution to improving the teaching learning process. ICTs have brought significant changes in our lives and especially in the education. Many schools and universities have been associated with these changes offered by technology and integrated them into its educational system to implement the changes required by the contemporary world. New tools, technologies, and skills allow innovations to be introduced to the teaching-learning process and education to continue the rapid advances and progress exposing students to new technological challenges. Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT Digital devide Advantages ICT Help to better prepare students for the constantly grow of technology. One of the most important reasons for using ICTs in the classroom has been to better prepare the current generation of students where ICTs, particularly computers, the Internet and related technologies, are becoming more and more ubiquitous:  Ã‚ ¶ Greater efficiency throughout the school.  Ã‚ ¶ Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and chat rooms  Ã‚ ¶ Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a beneficial motivational influence on students learning of pronunciation.  Ã‚ ¶ Students are generally more on task and express more positive feelings when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.  Ã‚ ¶ Computer use during lessons motivates students to continue using learning outside school hours.  Ã‚ ¶ Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources.  Ã‚ ¶ More focused teaching, tailored to students strengths and weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data  Ã‚ ¶ Improved pastoral care and behavior management through better tracking of students  Ã‚ ¶ Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in pronunciation.  Ã‚ ¶ Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration.  Ã‚ ¶ Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning.  Ã‚ ¶ Flexibility of anytime, anywhere access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)  Ã‚ ¶ Development of higher level learning styles  Ã‚ ¶ Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful and more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem  Ã‚ ¶ Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centered than in a traditional classroom  Ã‚ ¶ Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational multimedia resources  Ã‚ ¶ Opportunities to address their work to an external audience  Ã‚ ¶ Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside school Disadvantages of ICT One of the major barriers for the cause of ICT not reaching its full potential in the foundation stage is teachers attitude. According to Hara (2004), within the early years education attitudes towards ICT can vary considerably. Some see it as a potential tool to aid learning whereas others seem to disagree with the use of technology in early year settings. Blatchford and Whitebread (2003:16), suggests that the use of ICT in the foundation stage is unhealthy and hinders learning. Other early years educators who are opposed to offering ICT experiences within the educational settings take a less extreme view than this and suggest that ICT is fine, but there are other more vital experiences that young children will benefit from, (Blatchford and Whitebread, 2003). In theory some people may have the opinion that the teachers who had not experienced ICT throughout their learning tend to have a negative attitude towards it, as they may lack the training in that area of the curriculum. Another important drawback to using ICT in schools is the fact that computers are expensive. According to the IT learning exchange (2001), in most schools ICT will be the single largest curriculum budget cost. This may be seen as a good thing but on the other hand there will be little money left over for other significant costs. ICT Tools incorporated in the Teaching Process The world that we are living today has turned in a global village because the physical distance existing among humankind is getting closer, and closer due to the technological changes. These changes or technological advances such as the computer and the internet has changed the whole world quite a lot and more when this technological advances are used in education. After the internet invention a lot of websites and software have been created to develop the way people learn languages, giving them, thousands of alternatives no matter how far they are from one another, just by having a computer an Internet connection they can have access to many education sites. In this section we are going to present a series of website used for teaching English and teaching English pronunciation such VoiceThread, Manythings.org, Fonetiks.org, BBC Learning English, Learners TV so forth and so on. These sites are specifically used for teaching, learning English and English pronunciation. VoiceThread in the Classroom VoiceThread is especially beneficial within the classroom. Teachers and students are using VoiceThread as a storytelling tool, a deep thinking tool, a research tool, an expository communication tool, and even an assessment tool (Dyck, 2007). VoiceThread has brought storytelling to the 21st century and allows stories to be shared around the world. VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways. Through the use of comments, VoiceThread creates an interactive environment in which individuals can share common interests and ideas. It can also be used as an assessment tool for examining others opinions and as a tool for teachers. Businesses, teachers, and students use VoiceThread. It provides a creative outlet for students and encourages the sharing of ideas. But the uses of VoiceThread are not limited to storytelling. VoiceThread has unlimited possibilities in which it can include voice, type, doodling, unlimited slides or just a simple slide. It can include pictures or typed documents. It can be embedded or exported to other destinations and multiple identities can be created under one account. This is great for teachers who can establish one account and have kids use multiple identities to create and comment. VoiceThread can be used to collect information as well by uploading a simple slide and evaluating comments. Not only can VoiceThread be used as a creative outlet but it can also be used to learn more about others experiences and views. VoiceThread makes it possible to examine the thinking of others through pictures, text, doodling, and voice. VoiceThread is an online album that other VoiceThread users can directly comment on using voice, writing, video, and drawing. VoiceThreads can be used to share information, start a discussion, receive feedback, or simply tell a story. The basic VoiceT

Essay on Shelleys Frankenstein and Miltons Paradise Lost

Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Paradise Lost   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Even upon first glance, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John Milton's Paradise Lost seem to have a complex relationship, which is discernible only in fractions at a time.   Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's reaction to John Milton's epic poem, in which he wrote the Creation myth as we perceive it today.   His characterizations of Adam and Eve and the interactions of Satan and God and the impending Fall seem to have almost taken a Biblical proportion by themselves.   By the time that Mary Shelley read Paradise Lost, it was indeed a stalwart in the canon of English Literature, so it should not come as a surprise to the reader the it should play such a large part in her construction of the Frankenstein myth, which has become an archetypal ghost story on its own.   What makes each of these narratives so fascinating to the reader is the author/authoresses' innate ability to use the ultimate struggle -- that between God and Satan (or Good and Evil) -- which in turn in volves the reader in a most personal manner.   The characters in Paradise Lost, which is chronologically first, and Frankenstein, seem to appear over and over as aspects of themselves and other characters.   The essence of these characters is on the surface relatively bland, but when aspects of Satan start to enter Man and they reconfigure each other, the interest picks up rapidly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shelley's use of these characters is drastically different than that of Milton.   Mary Shelley was a product of the 19th Century, when Romanticism, the Gothic Aesthetic, and Science took the forefront of Western Culture.   Milton's era was different: there was little secularization, and religious change was everywhere as the Protestant ... ...2. Elledge, Scott, ed. Paradise Lost. By John Milton. 1674. New York: Norton, 1993. Fish, Stanley. "Discovery as Form in Paradise Lost." Elledge 526-36. Ide, Richard S. "On the Uses of Elizabethan Drama: The Revaluation of Epic in Paradise Lost." Milton Studies 17 (1983): 121-37. Martindale, Charles. John Milton and the Transformation of Ancient Epic. London: Croom Helm, 1986. Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley. Her Life, her Fiction, her Monsters. Methuen. New York, London, 1988. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Elledge 3-304. Shawcross, John T. "The Hero of Paradise Lost One More Time." Patrick and Sundell 137-47. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992 Steadman, John M. Milton's Biblical and Classical Imagery. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1984.   

What Are the Ethical Teachings of Al-Ghazali and How Important and Relevant Are They to Contemporary Muslims? Critically Discuss

What are the ethical teachings of al-Ghazali and how important and relevant are they to contemporary Muslims? Critically discuss. Imam al-Ghazali (d. 1111) remains perhaps the most important religious authority in Islam after the first three generations of Muslims. The title, ‘Proof of Islam’, conferred upon him by the majority of Muslims, is a reflection of the complexity of his work, which included jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, psychology, and mysticism.This essay will demonstrate how al-Ghazali synthesised concepts of tawheed (unity of God), islam (ritual worship, virtue, ilham (Godly inspiration) and tasawwuf (Sufism) in a broad ethical theory. His ethics, as illustrated in the Ihya Ulum id-Deen, can be applied by common Muslims, Muslim scholars. More broadly, its implications–spiritual, social, behavioural, and intellectual–can play a significant role in the umma’s Islamic revival.Al-Ghazali’s ethical vision was based on humans att aining happiness, which is ultimately found in salvation in the next life (Hourani 1976, p. 77). The means by which he thought this was achieved best was through spiritual devotion rather than rationality. Al-Ghazali prioritises spirituality over intellectualism in knowing what is right and wrong based on his assertion of the soul as the human’s most important component (Moosa 2005). The soul possesses reason, thus holds the potential of knowing God and the capacity to know the realities of this world.As the immaterial soul is merged with the material body, the temporal worldly form of a human is experienced. The body is the vehicle through which the soul can achieve its potential of knowing God; bodily senses become tools through which the soul achieves ethical behaviour. The body has faculties such as anger, appetites for food and drink, lust and greed. It is possible for the bodily faculties to overcome the soul’s faculty of reason, a condition described in the Qura n as the ‘self that incites to evil’ (Quran 12:53).Conversely, reason can be used to control bodily faculties, and by doing this achieve the ‘serene soul’ (Quran 89:27). A third self is the middle one between the two, the reproachful self (Quran 75:2), which is in constant struggle with temptations of the evil self. The integrated divine and animal souls form the nafs, which is the human’s true self or identity. The coexistence of soul and body is volatile; the soul wishes to know God, while the body desires temporal sensory pleasure.The bifurcation of the human into these two opposing components indicates the necessity for a method of achieving equilibrium, for the solution to the struggle between the divine and animal forces is not a simple separation of soul and body, as this renders void the Creator’s wisdom in creating the worldly human. A more complex method assumes the human comprises other entities integral to the nafs. Here al-Ghazali ’s ethical theory assumes a view of the human imparted by Sufis before him; in addition to the soul and body, there is the ruh (spirit), qalb (spiritual heart), and ‘aql (intellect) (Moosa 2005, p. 24). The qalb is an abstract entity directly linked with the physical heart that contributes to the human experience, the faculties of perception, knowing, and spiritual experience (Moosa 2005, p. 225). The level of integration of the faculties of the qalb determines the success of the soul’s goal in knowing God. Thus, the qalb’s condition is vital to the outcome of the soul’s journey through this temporal life. Hourani (1976) describes Ghazali’s ethical concern as ‘right conduct and the purification of the soul by the individual . . ’ (p. 1). To this end, the method of equilibrium that al-Ghazali promoted, like Sufis after him, is tazkiyat al-qalb, or purification of the spiritual heart. Ameur (2009) notes three aspects of the process of purification: good action; virtues; and knowledge (p. 3). Good action refers to the following of ritual and social behaviour as prescribed by the shariah. Ghazali’s categorises actions in a five-fold system: fardh (commanded), sunnah (recommended), mubah (permitted), makruh (disapproved), or haram (forbidden).The significance of external acts lies in both their being rewarded as obedience, and their contribution to cultivation of virtues (Hourani 1976, p. 77). Good action cultivating virtues indicates a key agenda in Ghazali’s ethics: the restoration of balance between the outward and the inward states of people (Murad 2002). He realised that this balance could be best pursued in the purification of the inward, which requires first the elimination of vices. Vices are spiritual ailments of the qalb and include harmful traits such anger, envy, lust, and riya (ostentation). They form impediments to spiritual progress.The method of removing these impediments is mujahad a (Ameur 2009, p. 4) or what is commonly described by Sufis as jihad al-nafs (struggle against the self). Mujahada is a concept covering a broad array of practices used in tasawwuf to purify the nafs including: tafakkur (introspection); muraqaba (self-awareness); dhikr (meditation); and zuhd (asceticism). The previous two aspects of purification are not possible without knowledge. For al-Ghazali, knowledge is of two types: (a) one that is learnt in tenets of faith and rules of Islamic law; (b) one that is known through the qalb (Ameur 2009, p. ). The first type is all knowledge required to perform good action. This includes the basic tenets of faith, and worldly and religious activities including social dealings and private worship. The sources of these knowledges are – in accordance with Ghazali’s tradition-based approach to theology and jurisprudence – the Quran, Sunnah, ijma (consensus of ulama), and qiyas (analogical deduction from the Sunnah). The second ty pe of knowledge is abstract in nature as its locus is the qalb. This knowledge can be described as insight.One Prophetic tradition warns ‘beware the firasa of the believer, for he sees with the light of God’ (Tirmidhi, cited in Gulen). This knowledge is a set of experiences, or insights, impressed upon the heart through good action and Godly disposition. Such knowledge, Ameur (2009) states, â€Å"is a disposition deeply rooted in the soul, from which actions flow naturally and easily without need of reflection or judgement† (p. 4). This state is described in a hadith Qudsi reported in Sahih Bukhari:My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him, and My slave keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him , and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him (cited in Keller 1995). In this way a reciprocal relationship emerges between action, virtue and knowledge; each reinforcing the other.The successful integration of them leads to the soul’s objective of knowledge of God. Here the veil of the human’s limited ‘sight’ is lifted; the result is the realisation of truths (Gardener, p. 136). The culmination of Ghazali’s ethical purification is wilaya (intimacy). For the wali (an intimate) of God, the inner and outer are harmonised in realising tawheed. Here, tawhid (the unity of God) is not merely knowledge of theological principles, but rather it is ‘an inbuilt attribute’, the product of repetitive good acts and strengthening of virtues (Ameur 2009, p. ). For al-Ghazali, like other Sufis, knowledge of tawheed signifies the ultimate ethical goal of attaining happiness, which is experiencing as the nafs al-mutma’inna (the serene s oul). The scope of al-Ghazali’s ethical theory, incorporating shari’ah knowledge, theology, philosophy, and Sufism, ensure its relevance to contemporary Muslims is multifaceted. It holds special relevance to laymen, scholar and umma in general, as illsutrated in the title of the work that is a summary of Ghazali’s ethics: the Ihya Ulum id-Deen (Revival of the Religous Sciences)For the lay Muslim, al-Ghazali’s tripartite system of purification provides a practical guide to living Islam as a whole; hence, the Ihya covers all activities falling under iman, islam, and ihsan (Ormsby 2008, pp. 111-119). It explains the relationship between ritual devotion, social dealings, belief, vices, and virtues. Nofal (1993) uses a specific example from the Ihya that shows the relevance of the latter’s ethics to contemporary Muslims in the area of children’s education. Al-Ghazali says about children that:They must be trained to obey their parents, teachers an d elders, and to behave well towards their classmates’; ‘should be taught modesty, generosity and civility’; ‘[their] tutors must devote attention to religious education (cited in Nofal 1993, p. 5). A noticeable lesson here for Muslim parents and educators is that education ‘is not limited to training the mind and filling it with information, but involves all aspects—intellectual, religious, moral and physical—of the personality of the learner’ (Nafal 1993, p. 5).More broadly, the raising of children described by al-Ghazali facilitates adab, or Islamic culture, which in light of the modern culture of individualism and selfishness, is vital for cultivating Islamic personality. The scholarly class also may benefit from al-Ghazali’s Ihya. Ebrahim Moosa (2005) describes him as an exemplar for ‘critical traditionalism’ (p. 264). His scholarly legacy vis-a-vis ethics, Moosa (2005) comments, is that revival of traditi on entails fostering understanding of the ethical imperatives and practices in tradition (p. 278).This idea promotes juridical ethics over legal scientism, indicating the primacy of the implicit moral code of Quran and Sunnah over its text. In outlining this ethical system, al-Ghazali resuscitated the discursive sciences. The importance of his accomplishment is understood by reflection on his environment. To resuscitate the religious sciences, al-Ghazali effectively bridged the Arabicate and Persianate modes of thought prevalent at that time. Muslim scholars and students today, even moreso than al-Ghazali, face a dilemma of multiple matrices of cultures and politics.Within Islamic thought, Saeed notes eight main trends (ref), which can be characterised as varieties of traditionalism, modernism, and fundamentalism. Al-Ghazali’s approach to ethics could indeed be the bridge allowing crossing of ideas between the three main strands. Julia Day Howell (2001), commenting on Sufismà ¢â‚¬â„¢s role in the Indonesian Islamic revival, says that ‘as part of the broader revival, it has been subject to reinterpretations that have helped break down distinctions between ‘‘Traditionalists’’ and ‘‘Modernists’’’ (p. 710).Finally, the umma at large is also in need of the tasawwuf aspect of al-Ghazali’s ethics. The vagueness of the term within modern society notwithstanding, historical Muslim communities understood its importance, as noted by ibn Kaldun, who says about tasawwuf: This knowledge is a branch of the sciences of Sacred Law that originated within the Umma. From the first, the way of such people had also been considered the path of truth and guidance by the early Muslim community and its notables (cited in Keller 1993). Keller (1995) notes that for the early communities, tasawwuf signified ikhlas (sincerity).Ikhlas is a state of the qalb, and like other states of the qalb such as love, mercy, f ear is obligatory for Muslims hoping for felicity in the afterlife. The Quran says: ‘a day when wealth will not avail, nor sons, but only him who brings Allah a sound heart’ (26:88). Thus tasawwuf, Keller notes, is necessary for ‘fully realising the Shariah in one’s life, to attain the states of the heart demanded by the Quran and Sunnah’. Al-Ghazali’s ethics, as practical tasawwuf, becomes a means of addressing the spiritual aspect of religious life.The broader implications of Ghazali’s tasawwuf lie in negotiating the modern world. Murad (2002) notes that the failure of the ‘Enlightenment paradigm, as invoked by the secular elites in the Muslim world, to deliver moral and efficient government and cultural guidance, indicates that the solution must be religious’. To this end he suggests traditional Islam; it is the middle path between two extreme responses elicited by secularisation: liberalism and fundamentalism. Moosa (20 05) notes that one of the challenges to contemporary Muslim society is epistemicide, the destruction of a social-group’s knowledge (p. 65). The need to stem this epistemicide surely cannot be done by zealots or modernist liberals as the former cannot relate its scripture to changing circumstances and the latter decide to change its basic meanings. Here Ghazali’s ‘critical traditionalism’ may be utilised. Its moderate tradition-based ethics provides an antithesis to the ‘contemporary positivist and scientist ethics of dos and donts’ (Murad 2002). A critique of the relevance of al-Ghazali’s tasawwuf-laden ethics is that it may alienate many contemporary Muslims.The more advanced stages of his ethics involving knowledge of God are ungraspable for the non-initiated ‘purifier’. However, the beginning of his ethics, practice of daily rituals and pursing good character, remains accessible to all people. Therefore, in view of conte mporary society’s focus on materialism, and the lax attitude elicited by modernity towards religious life, al-Ghazali’s tasawwuf-laden ethics, at various levels, provides a robust cognitive-behavioural ethical methodology that can facilitate religious living in contemporary society. In summary, al-Ghazali’s ethics provides a successful method of attaining the ‘serene soul’.He framework of purification of the self involving action, virtue, and knowledge culminates in the state of wilaya wherein one witnesses realities of tawheed. The implications of his holistic ethics are daily application in worldly and religious living, resuscitation and mediation of Islamic scholarship, and a tasawwuf-based spiritual revival of the umma. References Ameur, R 2009, 101466 Ethical Traditions in Islam, The Ritual of the Law: lecture transcript, University of Western Sydney, Milperra. Gardener, RWR 1917, ‘al-Ghazali as Sufi’, The Muslim World, vol. 7, no. 2, 131-143.Hourani, G 1976, ‘Ghazali on the ethics of action’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 69-88, University of Western Sydney Resources Online ( 101466). Gulen, F n. d. , Basira and insight. http://www. fethullahgulenchair. com/index. php? option=com_content&view=article&id=626:basira-and-firasa-insight-and-discernment-&catid=69:key-concepts-in-the-practice-of-sufism-&Itemid=210>. Howell, JD 2001, ‘Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic Revival’, The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 701–729. Keller, NHM 1995, The place of tasawwuf in traditional Islam, viewed 8 June 2011, .Keller, NHM 1995, How would you respond to the Claim that Sufism is bid'a? , viewed 8 June 2011, . Moosa, E 2005, Ghazali: The poetics of imagination, The University of North Caroline Press, Chapel Hill. Murad, AH 2002, The Faith in the future: Islam after the Enlightenment, viewed 9 June 2011, . Nofal, N 1993, Ghazali, Prospects: The qua rterly review of comparative education vol. 23, no. 3/4, pp. 519-542. Ormsby, E 2008, ‘The revival of Islam’, in Ghazali: The revival of Islam, Oneworld, Oxford. Saeed, A 2007, ‘Trends in contemporary Islam’, The Muslim World, vol. 97, pp. 397-404.

How do I know anything?

The Film The Matrix was a Box Office hit due to the idea it presented to the audience. Even though Descartes' Meditations inspired the film, the idea of living in a computer simulated environment was an interesting, original concept that had been created recently. It opened up a question, how do I know anything? It is possible that we may be living in a computer-simulated environment, or in a big dream of some sort. We are unable to prove any of this at the moment, which could then possibly lead to scepticism about this theory. The only real argument to support the theory is to use the fact that our government keeps information confidential from the public, for a number of reasons. This demonstrates that there are things that we do not know; therefore, we should not totally doubt what we do not know, and that we may be living in a simulated environment. There is also the problem of perception. It is easy for us to perceive something to be different to what it really is. Magicians use optical illusions to fool us. If we are living in a simulated environment, then how can we break ourselves away from the perception that we are in, to separate ourselves from the simulation, and find out what the other reality is like? The closest technology has come to simulating environments is virtual reality. The environment is simulated, allowing humans to interact, although they may be elsewhere. The graphics within virtual reality are still basic, and this is one of the reasons why we are able to recognise virtual reality as being different to reality. Another reason is that virtual reality does not cause you to feel pain. Whether Virtual Reality is comparable to the neural-simulated environment in The Matrix, VR is the closest thing we have to relate to the theory. However, VR could be as real as reality if it had realistic models of physics (e.g. feather and coin fall at the same rate in a vacuum), better graphics, and the ability to stimulate the body into experiencing physical feelings of pain, heat and cold, etc. Another problem with doing this is having a computer powerful enough to process all this information via calculations. IBM have developed a supercomputer that can calculate the force of nuclear explosions. Does a computer exist powerful enough to simulate the reality we live in exactly? If it does, then the theory proposed by the film could be right. Another concern brought up by the film was about A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). In the film, A.I. developments created intelligent, living computers. Machines are physically better than man in many ways. They do not excrete, need tea breaks at work, sleep, be lazy, require wages, things that humans do. They are more efficient than humans. However, Humans have consciences, imaginations, and the ability to think. Computers do not have this. If computers did have this, they may be worth more than human life. Once recognising their status and power, it is possible that they may consider the human race to be inefficient, and may then start to eliminate humanity, like in The Matrix and The Terminator. This is something we have to be wary about when we decide to improve A.I., whether it be in industrial machines, home appliances, or computer games. If AI started to have a mind of its own, would anyone be willing to corrupt it, and turn it against others? It could be something terrorists would do to disrupt the activities of Governments around the globe? It may not be possible for machines to be a living, independent-thinking species. Computers work by calculations. Let us take an example. Home appliance in the future; greets person as they get in the door. A sensor will detect that the door is opening. It activates another smart sensor to identify that person. It is the house-owner. It greets with ‘hello'. The house-owner says ‘hello' back. The appliance uses a sensor to detect the reply, and assesses it not only for vocal identification, but to determine what mood the person is in. It will then choose a speech passage suited to the mood of the person. E.g. the person has a cold, so the computer tells the person that they are making a warm glass of Lemon and Honey for them, and ordering for a prescription of medicine to the doctor. Another sensor in the house will scan the person and send the details of the cold to the doctor, allowing the doctor to prescribe the right medication. The person will say ‘thanks', and the appliance will say ‘your welcome'. All this could happen just by entering the door and saying hello. The computer can display signs of compassion, but will not actually feel them. This will be a major mountain to conquer in the development of Artificial Intelligent Life. Commercially, Artificial Intelligence is still under development, and will take some time before it can resemble anything human. Overall, Technology will get better, and maybe we will discover if the simulated neural environment theory is right.

Definition Examples of Collage Essays

Definition Examples of Collage Essays In composition studies, a collage is a  discontinuous essay form made up of discrete bits of discourse- description, dialogue, narrative, explanation, and the like.   A collage essay (also known as a patchwork essay, a discontinuous essay, and segmented writing) generally forgoes conventional transitions, leaving it up to the reader to locate or impose connections between the fragmented observations. In his book Reality Hunger (2010), David Shields defines collage as the art of reassembling fragments of preexisting images in such a way as to form a new image. Collage, he notes, was the most important innovation in the art of the twentieth century. To use  collage as a writer, says Shara McCallum, is to map onto your essay . . . the semblance of continuities and discontinuities associated with the art form (in Now Write! ed. by  Sherry Ellis). Examples of Collage Essays Lying Awake by Charles DickensA Now: Descriptive of a Hot Day by Leigh HuntSuite Amà ©ricaine by H.L. Mencken Examples and Observations What Is a Collage?Collage is a term derived from art and refers to a picture made up of pieces of found objects: scraps of newspaper, bits of old cane backing, a gum wrapper, lengths of string, tin cans. A collage can be made entirely of found objects, or it can be a combination of the objects and the artistss own drawing. [Writers] perform a similar act. But instead of gathering scraps of newspaper and string, they arrange scattered pieces of language: clichà ©s, phrases they have heard, or quotations.(David Bergman and Daniel Mark Epstein, The Heath Guide to Literature. D.C. Heath, 1984)The Collage in ProseMany feature stories in daily and especially Sunday newspapers drift into the collage form- or example, a neighborhood in Brooklyn written up in a series of bits that present rather than explain: portraits of people and of terrain, street corner scenes, mini-narratives, dialogues, and reminiscent monologues. . . .You might make a collage essay on the causes of the French Revolut ion that consists entirely of stories, portraits, and scenes. You would have to choose and arrange your fragments in such a way that they tell why the French Revolution happened as it did. Or you might have one that consists entirely of dialogues: between nobles, peasants, middle-class city dwellers, and thinkers of the period; between people who came before and those who came afterwards. Of course you may have to revise and polish some of these fragments to make them as good as possible- perhaps even write some more bits to give at least a minimal coherence.(Peter Elbow, Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1998) Collage: E.B. Whites Essay Hot WeatherMorning is so closely associated with brisk affairs, music with evening and days end, that when I hear a three-year-old dance tune crooned upon the early air while shadows still point west and the day is erect in the saddle, I feel faintly decadent, at loose ends, as though I were in the South Seas- a beachcomber waiting for a piece of fruit to fall, or for a brown girl to appear naked from a pool.* * *Asterisks? So soon?* * *It is a hot-weather sign, the asterisk. The cicada of the typewriter, telling the long steaming noons. Don Marquis was one of the great exponents of the asterisk. The heavy pauses between his paragraphs, could they find a translator, would make a book for the ages.* * *Don knew how lonely everybody is. Always the struggle of the human soul is to break through the barriers of silence and distance into companionship. Friendship, lust, love, art, religionwe rush into them pleading, fighting, clamoring for the touch of spirit la id against our spirit. Why else would you be reading this fragmentary page- you with the book in your lap? Youre not out to learn anything, certainly. You just want the healing action of some chance corroboration, the soporific of spirit laid against spirit. Even if you had read only to crab about everything I say, your letter of complaint is a dead give-away: you are unutterably lonely or you wouldnt have taken the trouble to write it. . . .(E.B. White, Hot Weather. One Mans Meat. Harper Row, 1944) Collage in Joan Didions Essay Slouching Towards BethlehemAt three-thirty that afternoon Max, Tom, and Sharon placed tabs under their tongues and sat down together in the living room to wait for the flash. Barbara stayed in the bedroom, smoking hash. During the next four hours a window banged once in Barbaras room and about five-thirty some children had a fight on the street. A curtain billowed in the afternoon wind. A cat scratched a beagle in Sharons lap. Except for the sitar music on the stereo there was no other sound or movement until seven-thirty, when Max said, Wow.(Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968)Discontinuous or Paratactic Essays[T]he serial arrangement of pieces in a discontinuous essay results in a composition the whole of which can only be taken in gradually and therefore can only be held entirely in mind by a special act of will. Indeed, the fragmented mode of presentation tacitly invites one to consid er each segment in and of itself, in relation to every other segment and in relation to the entire set of pieces, resulting in a complex network of understandings gradually arrived at rather than a whole work immediately perceived. . . .Discontinuous- it works so well to denote the visible and substantive breaks in a segmented piece that it seems to be the most accurate descriptive term. But it might have negative connotations- like many words beginning with disso Ive been pondering a more neutral term, such as paratactic, from the Greek parataxis, which refers to the placement of clauses or phrases side by side without any type of conjunction. . . . Though its hardly so chic and culturally relevant a term as collage, parataxis is certainly more akin to what happens in essays such as [George] Orwells Marrakech, [E.B.] Whites Spring, [Annie] Dillards Living Like Weasels, and [Joyce Carol] Oatess My Father, My Fiction, all of which contain discrete sentences, paragraphs, or longer uni ts of discourse placed side by side without any connective or transitional material between them.(Carl H. Klaus, The Made-Up Self: Impersonation in the Personal Essay. Univ. of Iowa Press, 2010) Winston Weathers on Collage Methods of ComposingIn extreme form, collage/montage can mean something as radical as William Burroughss famous cut-up method, whereby texts written in traditional grammar are arbitrarily cut up, horizontally and vertically, and converted into near-unintelligible scraps of text. The scraps are then shuffled (or folded in) and joined randomly. . . .Less radical, and more usable, are methods of collage that use larger and more intelligible units of composition, each unit- like the crot- communicative within itself simply being joined in the collage to other communication units, perhaps from different time periods, perhaps dealing with different subject matter, perhaps even containing different sentence/dictional style, texture, tone. Collage at its best actually countermands much of the discontinuity and fragmentation of the alternate style by revealing, by the time a composition ends, a synthesis and wholeness that might not have been suspected at any stati on along the way.(Winston Weathers, Grammars of Style: New Options in Composition, 1976. Rpt. in Style in Rhetoric and Composition: A Critical Sourcebook, ed. by Paul Butler. Bedford/St. Martins, 2010) David Shields on Collage314Collage is a demonstration of the many becoming the one, with the one never fully resolved because of the many that continue to impinge upon it. . . .328Im not interested in collage as the refuge of the compositionally disabled. Im interested in collage as (to be honest) an evolution beyond narrative. . . .330Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data. . . .339Collage is pieces of other things. Their edges dont meet. . . .349The very nature of collage demands fragmented materials, or at least materials yanked out of context. Collage is, in a way, only an accentuated act of editing: picking through options and presenting a new arrangement . . .. The act of editing may be the key postmodern artistic instrument. . . .354In collage, writing is stripped of the pretense of originality and appears as a practice of mediation, of selection and contextualization, a practice, almost, of rea ding.(David Shields, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. Knopf, 2010)

Friends With Benefits Survey Report Example

Friends With Benefits Survey Report Example Friends With Benefits Survey Report – Book Report/Review Example Friends with Benefits Survey Report Background Many people believe that sexual promiscuity is increasing among the younger generations. It cannot be denied that younger people are exposed to more sexual content now than their parents were, but the real question is what effect this change has had on the average youngster’s lifestyle. However, the question of young people’s sexual habits is too vague for this particular study, so this area needs to be narrowed down. The study will focus on sexual habits in terms of friends with benefits. To put it more simply, the emphasis will be on young people’s sexual exploits with people who they consider to be friends and nothing more. The research question for this study will be as follows: How prevalent is the concept of friends with benefits among young people aged between 16 and 21? The hypothesis for this survey is that the practice is common among more than half of young people and males have more experience with it tha n females do. The survey will consist of 24 people, made up of 11 females and 13 males. The following questions will be asked as part of the survey:Survey Questions1. Have you ever had friends with benefits?2. If you have/haven’t had friends with benefits, have you ever had sex before?ResultsOf the 13 males that were surveyed for this report, 8 admitted that they had previously had friends with benefits. Expressed as a percentage, this means that 61.5 percent of male respondents were positive towards the first question. For the 11 females that were surveyed, 5 females said that they had previously had friends with benefits. Expressed as a percentage, this means that 45.5 percent of female respondents were positive towards the first question. For both genders, the second question received the same number of respondents as the first; all those who did have friends with benefits also admitted to experiencing sex before while all of those who gave a negative response for the firs t question also proclaimed to never having sex before.ConclusionThe results of the survey were largely predictable because all the data fitted with the hypothesis. It was discovered than males engaged in the practice of friends with benefits more often than females and also it was used by over half of the respondents. Our survey shows that the practice is more common than first thought, but there would need to be some comparable data available in order to prove that friends with benefits is becoming more popular. This could either be from a previous study, but most likely a future study would need to be conducted in a certain amount of time in order to gauge the reliability of the results.Graphs

Learn More About Conjugations for the Italian Verb Sposarsi

Learn More About Conjugations for the Italian Verb Sposarsi sposarsi: to get married; go well together; match Regular  first-conjugation Italian verbReciprocal verb  (requires a  reflexive pronoun) INDICATIVE/INDICATIVO Presente io mi sposo tu ti sposi lui, lei, Lei si sposa noi ci sposiamo voi vi sposate loro, Loro si sposano Imperfetto io mi sposavo tu ti sposavi lui, lei, Lei si sposava noi ci sposavamo voi vi sposavate loro, Loro si sposavano Passato remoto io mi sposai tu ti sposasti lui, lei, Lei si spos noi ci sposammo voi vi sposaste loro, Loro si sposarono Futuro semplice io mi sposer tu ti sposerai lui, lei, Lei si sposer noi ci sposeremo voi vi sposerete loro, Loro si sposeranno Passato prossimo io mi sono sposato/a tu ti sei sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si sposato/a noi ci siamo sposati/e voi vi siete sposati/e loro, Loro si sono sposati/e Trapassato prossimo io mi ero sposato/a tu ti eri sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si era sposato/a noi ci eravamo sposati/e voi vi eravate sposati/e loro, Loro si erano sposati/e Trapassato remoto io mi fui sposato/a tu ti fosti sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si fu sposato/a noi ci fummo sposati/e voi vi foste sposati/e loro, Loro si furono sposati/e Future anteriore io mi sar sposato/a tu ti sarai sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si sar sposato/a noi ci saremo sposati/e voi vi sarete sposati/e loro, Loro si saranno sposati/e SUBJUNCTIVE/CONGIUNTIVO Presente io mi sposi tu ti sposi lui, lei, Lei si sposi noi ci sposiamo voi vi sposiate loro, Loro si sposino Imperfetto io mi sposassi tu ti sposassi lui, lei, Lei si sposasse noi ci sposassimo voi vi sposaste loro, Loro si sposassero Passato io mi sia sposato/a tu ti sia sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si sia sposato/a noi ci siamo sposati/e voi vi siate sposati/e loro, Loro si siano sposati/e Trapassato io mi fossi sposato/a tu ti fossi sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si fosse sposato/a noi ci fossimo sposati/e voi vi foste sposati/e loro, Loro si fossero sposati/e CONDITIONAL/CONDIZIONALE Presente io mi sposerei tu ti sposeresti lui, lei, Lei si sposerebbe noi ci sposeremmo voi vi sposereste loro, Loro si sposerebbero Passato io mi sarei sposato/a tu ti saresti sposato/a lui, lei, Lei si sarebbe sposato/a noi ci saremmo sposati/e voi vi sareste sposati/e loro, Loro si sarebbero sposati/e IMPERATIVE/IMPERATIVO Presente - ​ sposatisi sposisposiamocisposatevisi sposino INFINITIVE/INFINITO Presente: sposarsi Passato: essersi sposato PARTICIPLE/PARTICIPIO Presente: sposantesi Passato: sposatosi GERUND/GERUNDIO Presente: sposandosi Passato: essendosi sposato 1001 Italian Verbs:  A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  | H |  I  | JK |  L  |  M  |  N  |  O  |  P  |  Q  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  U  |  V  | W | X | Y |  Z

Revising and Editing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Revising and Editing - Essay Example When revising a paper, one needs to focus beyond the simple grammar issues such as punctuation, spellings, and vocabulary use. Instead, revision must involve revisiting the paper and working on the weaknesses in the paper. First, one should ensure that the structure and organization of the paper is correct, with no component missing. The introduction, thesis statement, and conclusion must all be in place. Bearing the assignment topic in mind, one must read the paper to ensure the content of the writing marries the assignment topic. This is important to avoid irrelevance. The flow of ideas from topic to topic in the paper is also paramount during revision. One may also focus on the transitioning between paragraphs as an aspect that enhances flow of work. In addition, one must check that their ideas in the paper, as well as their arguments are in line with their thesis statement. Since revision is an involving process, one may need to re-write paragraphs to bring them to right desired standards.Revising mainly serves the function of ensuring that the presentation of the writing to the audience is effective. This is why revision focuses on the readability of the writing, the clarity of the work, as well as the logic of the paper. Failure to focus on these during revision may lead to misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the ideas, irrelevance in the work, and generally a poor quality paper. Editing, on the other hand takes a different focus on the paper. It mainly entails proofreading the work.

Interpersonal Conflict in Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interpersonal Conflict in Film - Essay Example Based on the movie presented, there were two identified sources of conflict. One of these conflicts is the people-focused conflicts and the other one is the informational deficiencies. People-focused conflicts were based on emotions and feelings and present an argument by means of personal attack (Hammond, 2011, n.p.). People-focused conflict was demonstrated on the film when Sarah attacked the personal integrity of Hitch as a date doctor, seeing Hitch’s job as a scam. People-focused conflict does not only center on the main characters since it is a movie dealing with emotions. In fact, people-focused conflicts were also observed on Albert’s confrontation with Hitch telling him that love was not Hitch’s life but his job; on Sarah’s best friend attacking the integrity of the unknown date doctor; on a newspaper vendor judging Albert as Allegra’s boyfriend; and on people in the story who judged Hitch’s personality. Actually, the movie projected a predominantly people-focused conflict against the main actor, making him the person to blame for all of the related conflicts.  On the other hand, informational deficiencies such as misinterpretation from different conclusions were observed. This was demonstrated on judging Hitch unfairly as a date doctor. His viewpoints about his work have been different from the understanding of society and interpersonal conflict arises because of misunderstanding.Effective Handling of Conflict  

Summary of September 11, 2001 Attacks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary of September 11, 2001 Attacks - Essay Example 9/11 was therefore an attack in the running conflict between faiths. According to al Qaeda, Koran teaches that giving ones life when killing infidel enemies, the Americans is a holy act. Therefore, they committed the attack because it is what their god destined them to do. The attack was also committed because of the fact that Americans are not living as Islamists do and they are therefore sinners in whatever endeavor they undertake. The al Qaeda stated that their attacks on Americans will continue until specific foreign policies on the Middle East are stopped. On the day of the attack, four planes were hijacked by terrorists and later two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. This led to huge fires that after a short while led to the crumbling of the towers. One of the remaining two planes crashed in the Pentagon in Washington D.C and the last crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The terrorists had planned that the planes crash in buildings an d landmarks but this efforts were thwarted by passengers who were on board (Lloyd 45-58). Most of the passengers were mainly sailors and solders. Due to the negative devastating effects of September 11, 2001, it is believed to be the worst terrorist attack ever to be experienced by the Americans. Some of the direct horrific outcomes were the death of about 3000 Americans and massive destruction of property. The broader vision of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 however shows different consequences including political, economic and social problems. The immediate economic effect of the attack was a sharp drop in performance of global stock markets. It was the largest insured event leading to about 40 billion dollars of insurance losses. The opening of the New York Stock Exchange had been delayed since the first plane had crashed on the north tower of the World Trade Center. The subsequent attacks led to the closure of the NYSE. Trading on the bond market also ceased as a re sult of the attacks. The Federal Reserve acted fast by introducing the discount window that was put in place to meet liquidity needs. This helped to stabilize the economy and reduce disruptions that arose in the financial system as a result of the attacks. Prices of several commodities escalated to extremely high levels. Travel and entertainment stocks experienced immediate shake up including online travel agencies while tourism plunged in New York. This led to massive losses that included sharp decline in the tourism earnings as a result of fall in hotel occupancy. This was because of lack of tourists who were reluctant to fly due to fear of repeat attacks. All these direct impacts on the economic position of USA show the elementary correlation between a country’s ability to generate wealth and the ability to defend itself. Several issues therefore came up including the worst effects of threats of terror to an economic superpower and use of economic tools to curb devastating effects of terrorist attacks. The attacks came at a time when the US economy was in the process of recovery. The costs of the attacks were devastating; the mostly affected was the infrastructure and the rescue and clean up operations. The insurance losses were due to the increased insurance rates that made insurance premium too high

I dont have one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

I dont have one - Essay Example The current tagline for this product is, ‘Clean you can see. Softness you can feel’. The 100 oz of Tide has a huge market share and demand for 214 oz is low (Tide). Quantity Sales Price 50 oz $8.00 100 oz $15.00 214 oz $23.99 Goals and objectives of the Company: The Goals of the company is to provide the World with the branded and superior quality products that would improve the lives of the consumers for the future generation to come. This will result in the increase in sales and it will create the value for the shareholders (Tide). Goals of Promotional campaign strategy: The goals of promotional campaign strategy would be to integrate all the characteristics that are found in the different brands of tide detergent and merge them into a single product and communicate that this particular brand holds every features that are found in various product lines of Tide which would fulfill the desires of the customers. This promotional campaign would synchronize with the company ’s goals which say that we have to improve the lives of future generation. Tide Perfect Secondary Analysis of Competition: Competitors: Tide is far ahead dominating the detergent industry in United States with a major market share of 41.3 percent. The market share is more than four times than the second number brand exists in the market. There are so many brands that are trailing behind the competition that does not deserved to be called a number 2 brand. Snow white, All, Purex, Arm & Hammer, Etra and Wisk are the detergents with no more than 9 percent of market share each (Packaged facts). Procter & Gamble is the leading company in terms of sales in the United States and the total products of Tide detergent makes up to $2000 Million dollar sales which is far ahead than its competitors (Packaged facts). Particularly in Liquid detergents, Tide still leads with a handful of margin than its competitors but there have been reported a -2.16 percent decrease in the sales. One of th e reasons of this decrease in the sale percentage is because other brands have spent much more in the advertising sector than Tide (Branna). Customers: The product will be targeted to the group of customers that wants all of the features of a detergent in a single product. These are the customers who would want to clean their clothes in a perfectly manner. They would want to get rid of the tough stains, dingy white and would want to eliminate the odor as well. The price of the product would remain slightly higher than the rest of the products of Tide, so the customers that have a slightly higher standard of living would be able to purchase it. Promotional Strategy: There are various promotional strategies to promote the brand ‘Tide Perfect’. The product is to be communicated to the right people and with a suitable strategy to make a product a success. ‘All in one’ strategy: The promotional strategy would be based on the integration of the elements present i n the different brands of Tide detergent. To come up with a product ‘Tide Perfect’ that would have all the ingredients that is useful for all family members. It is to portray that this brand is complete in various aspects. It will also be conveyed in the message that Tide removes stains specifically better than its competitors because many people are attracted towards a detergent if it has better cleaning.

STRATEGIC MARKETING & PLANNING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

STRATEGIC MARKETING & PLANNING - Essay Example Furthermore, the company operates with the motive of enhancing growth of the company as well as to be determined as an innovative company. Tesco majorly values customers’ needs as well as satisfaction. Furthermore, the company has devised strategies for performing business operations as one of the best retailers worldwide as well as to excel in every sector of business as in food [1] (Tesco, 2013). Strategies are formulated by companies with the motive of performing activities or operations in order to accomplish objectives as well as goals in a successful manner. Moreover, strategies enable companies to develop competency as well as competitiveness in the market. Strategic marketing is the process through which companies provide or offer products as well as services in markets with better competitiveness in comparison to their rivals (Proctor, 2000). Strategic planning is a process through which companies formulate plans and also executes those plans into actions as well as resources in an effective manner. Moreover, strategic plan assists a company in determining policies as well as procedures to perform activities in order to improve profitability and ensure sustained development (CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, 2012). The discussion will emphasize on the strategic marketing as well as planning process of Tesco. Moreover, the discussion will also emphasize on the utilisation of strategic plan method in order to determine changes which are required to be adopted by the company to improve performance as well as to enhance development. Tesco has been performing business operations in an effective manner due to better customer services as well as for performing business operations with best practices in individual markets. The company has performed business operations with different strategies with the motive of performing businesses in local as well as in international markets successfully. Tesco performs business operations in

Compare and contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 11

Compare and contrast - Essay Example This article includes two of the famous speeches delivered by prolific individuals taking part in the debate, highlighting the comparison, context and writers’ overall views on slavery and the country. Abraham Lincoln and James Henry were key figures in the slavery debate and through their contributions that included public speeches on their positions; they made much impact that shaped the direction of the debate. The striking similarity is the importance with which these two gentlemen introduced into the debate that was very important to the American society. Lincoln’s â€Å"Speech in Peoria† deeply expressed slavery issues in a passionate way just as Henry’s â€Å"Letter to English Abolitionists† did. The reader is able to extract the strong character of the two personalities that these gentlemen were from their documents1. However, there are a few contrasting issues that emerge from an analysis of the two documents. On one hand, it appears that Lincoln advocates for the abolition of slavery which defines his historical engagement with the American political scenes. Lincoln delivered his speech in reiteration of the repealing of the Missouri Compromise that was powerful in prohibiting slavery in some parts of the United States2. This powerful document acted as a conflict resolving compromise agreed by the two sides of the debate on slavery in the United States. By delivering the Speech in Peoria, Lincoln was delivering his opinion and that of the antislavery campaigners who obviously stood disadvantaged from the unfortunate repeal decision that meant verification and authentication of slavery (Lincoln Institute, 1). On the other hand, the Letter to English Abolitionists prepared by Henry was delivered at a time when the standoff on slavery was still fresh. Henry contributions, unlike those contained in Lincoln’s speech seemed to favour slavery

STRATEGIC MARKETING & PLANNING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

STRATEGIC MARKETING & PLANNING - Essay Example Furthermore, the company operates with the motive of enhancing growth of the company as well as to be determined as an innovative company. Tesco majorly values customers’ needs as well as satisfaction. Furthermore, the company has devised strategies for performing business operations as one of the best retailers worldwide as well as to excel in every sector of business as in food [1] (Tesco, 2013). Strategies are formulated by companies with the motive of performing activities or operations in order to accomplish objectives as well as goals in a successful manner. Moreover, strategies enable companies to develop competency as well as competitiveness in the market. Strategic marketing is the process through which companies provide or offer products as well as services in markets with better competitiveness in comparison to their rivals (Proctor, 2000). Strategic planning is a process through which companies formulate plans and also executes those plans into actions as well as resources in an effective manner. Moreover, strategic plan assists a company in determining policies as well as procedures to perform activities in order to improve profitability and ensure sustained development (CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, 2012). The discussion will emphasize on the strategic marketing as well as planning process of Tesco. Moreover, the discussion will also emphasize on the utilisation of strategic plan method in order to determine changes which are required to be adopted by the company to improve performance as well as to enhance development. Tesco has been performing business operations in an effective manner due to better customer services as well as for performing business operations with best practices in individual markets. The company has performed business operations with different strategies with the motive of performing businesses in local as well as in international markets successfully. Tesco performs business operations in

Leadership Development Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership Development Report - Essay Example 134). Leadership development entails the entire process of expanding the capability of an organization to generate potential leaders in an organization to accomplish the set goals and objectives (Tichy and Devanna, 2007, p. 79). Leadership development entails the complete leaders’ interaction with political, social, and cultural environment within their area of jurisdiction (Avolio, and Gardner 2005, p.315). Leadership development models forms a key pillar for professional development in various manufacturing organizations (Northouse 2007, p. 91). Models expound on the standards prerequisite for an effective leader in an organization. Leadership development models defines some of the universal behavioural expectation of effective leaders including the leaders ability to develop external focus, the capability to achieve the expected results with people, implementation of the organizational plans with quality value and speed, prediction and execution of changes in an organizatio n as well as enhancement of quality evaluation and action. Leadership competency models are ideal for availing the three basic leadership requirements, connectivity, consistency, and clarity. Competencies aid in the formation of comprehensible and most effective expectations on the type of capabilities, behaviours, values, and mindsets that are fundamental in the organization leadership role (Jay and Douglas 2004, p. 2). In its consistency role, competency models offer an exceptional language and framework for communication and implementation of an organization’s leadership development plans. In its connectivity responsibility, competency models offer basic metric in organizations leadership development process. It is the driving force for performance management, feedback procedure, identification, rewards, and successful management Competency Model The study will focus on the competency model of core competencies for self management. Referring to this model, an effective lea der should understand their weaknesses, values, and strengths. Productive leaders should as well develop the capability of managing their weaknesses and strengths through engaging in consistent learning. They should also be committed and willing to seek aid from other professionals (George and Morgan 2006, p. 399). Leaders should be enthusiastic in accepting their mistakes and make the needed rectifications. Effective leaders should also have the capability of adapting with dynamic and stressful situations as well as having the ability of enhancing a practical balance between their social and working lives. However, the model is criticized for over relying on individual traits in describing the development and effectiveness of an excellent leader. The model is also condemned for overlying on a single personality in the success of an organization. The model also faces criticism for disregarding the issues of role overload, consistent errors, increasing frustrating situations, and rol e conflict. My Personal Strengths and Weaknesses as A Leader Current Strength In the course of my involvement in broad range of organizational situation, I have developed the leadership strength of a valuable and reliable leader in criticism situations. I have the capability of relishing the emerging challenges and standing strong for what I believe is correct and right. I have also developed a considerable degree of self awareness. As a

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations Abstract Regarding the ever increasing issue of water scarcity in different countries, the current study plans to apply support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) methods to assess groundwater potential by spring locations. To this end, 14 effective variables including DEM-derived, river-based, fault-based, land use, and lithology factors were provided. Of 842 spring locations found, 70% (589) were implemented for model training, and the rest of them were used to evaluate the models. The mentioned models were run and groundwater potential maps (GPMs) were produced. At last, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the efficiency of the methods. The results of the current study denoted that RFGA, and RF methods had better efficacy than different kernels of SVM model. Area under curve (AUC) of ROC value for RF and RFGA was estimated as 84.6, and 85.6%, respectively. AUC of ROC was computed as SVM- linear ( 78.6%), SVM-polynomial (76.8%), SVM-sigmoid (77.1%), and SVM- radial based function (77%). Furthermore, the results represented higher importance of altitude, TWI, and slope angle in groundwater potential. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred to other places with water scarcity issues for groundwater potential assessment and management. Key words: Geographic information system, Ardebil, Iran, Support vector machine, Random forest, Genetic algorithm Introduction Water scarcity is regarded as one of the most substantial soicio-environmental challenges in different countries. The demand on groundwater is increasing, and the overexploitation of this valuable resource is threatening future generations (Todd and Mays 2005; Rekha and Thomas 2007); Thus, its management is believed to be vital. A better water resources management plan would be possible when there is enough knowledge about the resources (i.e. high potential and susceptible zones). In recent years, researchers have made use of a variety of models to map groundwater potential such as frequency ratio (FR), weight of evidence (WofE), logistic regression (LR), index of entropy, evidential belief function (Oh et al. 2011; Ozdemir 2011a, b; Pourtaghi and Pourghasemi 2014; Davoodi Moghaddam et al. 2015; Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Naghibi et al. 2015). Also, some researchers used machine learning methods including boosted regression tree (BRT), classification and regression (CART), general linear model (GLM), and RF algorithms in this field of study (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). Lee et al (2012) employed artificial neural network (ANN) to assess groundwater productivity. Their results showed satisfactory performance of ANN. Recently [M1]Naghibi et al. (2017) used four recently developed data mining models including AdaBoost, Bagging generalized additive model, and naÃÆ' ¯ve bayes for groundwater potential mapping. They have also introduced a novel ensemble method from combination of the mentioned models and FR. In addition, Magaji et al. (2016) used geographic information system and evidential belief function model to produce groundwater recharge potential zones map. Theodossiou (2004) investigated how climate change influences the sustainability of groundwater in watershed-scale in Greece. Furthermore, Thivya et al. (2016) conducted a study to identify recharge mechanisms of groundwater in hard rock aquifers implementing stable isotopes. Support vector machine (SVM) algorithm has been employed in different fields of study such as flood susceptibility assessment (Tehrany et al. 2014; Tehrany et al. 2015), and landslide susceptibility investigation (Brenning 2005; Kavzogluetal 2014; Tien Bui et al. 2012; Yao et al. 2008; Yilmaz 2010; Tien Bui et al. 2015; Chen et al. 2017) with suitable efficacy. Genetic algorithm is one of the most advanced and pervasive developed heuristic search techniques in artificial intelligence and its application has been done in many fields of study including urban planning, ecological, climatic modelling, and remote sensing studies (Hasegava et al. 2013; Termansen et al. 2006; Chang et al. 2006; Chen et al. 2009). In the current study, we aim to investigate the performance of a novel method for optimization of random forest and its results are compared with RF and SVM models in groundwater potential mapping. Based on the literature review, application of different kernels of SVM and RFGA in groundwater potential mapping are two main novelties of this study. Also, the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential is discussed. The results of the current study could determine high potential and susceptible groundwater potential zones and be used by water resource managers. Material and Methods Figure 1 shows the methods and the flowchart implemented in the current study. Study Area: The study area lies from 48 ° 18à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 48 ° 53à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 16à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ eastern longitudes and from 37 ° 41à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 23à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 37 ° 09à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ northern latitudes in Ardebil Province, Iran (Fig. 2). It covers an area of 1,524 km2. The elevation in the study area ranges from 840 to 3,320 m above sea level with an average of 1,930 m. The mean annual precipitation of Khalkhal region is measured as 345 mm. The mean annual temperature of Khalkhal region is 12 degrees Centigrade. In the respect of land use, 89.69% of Khalkhal region is covered by rangeland, and other land use classes are forest, agriculture, orchard, and residential areas. In the respect of lithology, Khalkhal region comprises of 14 lithological categories. Eav class (andesitic volcanic) covers most of the study area. Khalkhal region is located in Ardebil province of Iran which includes 14 hydrological watersheds. The se watersheds are located in three main parts including central part, Khoresh Rostam, and Shahrood areas. In this area people exploit water resources by wells (42%), springs (47%), and qanats (11%); therefore, it can be seen that a high percent of the water requirement is obtained by springs. Data preparation Spring characteristics The springs location map was prepared for the study area using national reports (Iranian Department of Water Resources Management) and extensive field surveys in 1:50,000 scale. From 842 springs identified in the study area, 70% (589 springs) were considered for training purpose, and 30% (253 springs) were used as validation dataset (Fig. 2). Approximately ninety percent of the springs are permanent and ten percent of them are seasonal. Discharge of the springs in Khalkhal region alters between 0.1 and 100 liters per second having an average of 1 liter per second. It can be seen that there are different kinds of spring in the study area such as contrast, drainage, and fracture springs with 5.34%, 29.81%, 58.08%, and 6.77% of the springs, respectively. The average pH of the springs is measured as 6.68. The average electric conductivity (EC) of the springs is measured as 470 . Groundwater effective factors In this study, based on the literature review (Ozdemir 2011a, b; Oh et al. 2011; Naghibi et al. 2017), fourteen groundwater effective factors such as altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, slope length (LS), SPI, TWI, distance from rivers, river density, distance from faults, fault density, land use, and lithology were provided and mapped. The digital elevation model (DEM) of the Khalkhal region was created using the 1:50,000-scale topographic maps in 20 m resolution. Groundwater effective-factors such as altitude, slope angle, and slope aspect were prepared using DEM in ArcGIS 9.3 and represented in Fig. 3a-c. Plan curvature describes the divergence and convergence of flow and discriminates among basins (Fig. 3d). Profile curvature shows the rate at which the slope gradient alters in the direction of maximum slope (Catani et al. 2013) (Fig. 3e). Slope length is the combination of the slope length and slope steepness that shows soil loss potential from the combined slope features (Fig. 3f). SPI is a measure of the erosive power of flowing water based on the assumption that discharge is relative to specific catchment area (Moore et al. 1991) (Fig. 3g). The TWI affects accumulation and movement of surface runoff over the land surface (Elmahdy and Mostafa Mohamed 2014) (Fig. 3h). Distance from rivers and river density were created using topographical map of Khalkhal region (Fig. 3i, j). Also, distance from fault and fault density layers were produced using geological map (Fig. 3k, l). The land use map was created using Landsat images (Fig 3m). There are five land use classes in the study area such as agriculture, forest, orchard, rangeland, and residential area. Most of the study area is covered by the rangeland land use class. The lithology map was acquired using a 1:100,000-scale geological map and the lithological units were grouped into fourteen classes (GSI 1997, Fig. 3n, Table 1). Support vector machines (SVM) SVM is known as a supervised machine learning technique that is performed based on the (SRM: structural risk minimization) principle and statistical learning theory (Tien Bui et al. 2012). SVM transforms original input space into a higher-dimensional feature space to find an optimum separating hyper plane. Marjanovic ´ et al (2011) affirmed that separating hyper-plane is built in the original space of n coordinates between the points of two distinct classes. If the point is situated over the hyper-plane it will be classified as positive 1, if not, it will be classified as negative 1. Penalty (C) controls the trade-off between margin and training errors, which assists to prevent the models over-fitting (Marjanovic ´ et al. 2011). The kernel width (É ¤) controls the degree of nonlinearity of the model (Tien Bui et al. 2012). Parameter (d) is the polynomial degree in the PL kernel function and (r) is the bias term in the kernel function for two kernels of SVM including PL and SIG kernels (Tehrany et al. 2014). In the current study, the 10-fold cross-validation was used to select the optimal kernel parameters of SVM (Pradhan 2013; Zhuang and Dai 2006). Random forest (RF) model Random forests (RFs) are very flexible and powerful ensemble classifiers based on decision trees which were firstly developed by Breiman (2001). RF constructs multiple trees based on random bootstrapped samples of the training dataset (Breiman 2001). The algorithm runs random binary trees that implement a subset of the observations over bootstrapping approach, of the initial dataset a random choice of the training data is selected and implement to create the model, the data which is not included are described as out of bag (OOB) (Catani et al. 2013). The RF predicts the importance of a variables by looking at how much the error of prediction increases when out of bag data for that variable is permuted while all others are left fixed (Liaw and Wiener 2002; Catani et al. 2013). Random forests need two parameters to be tuned including the number of trees (ntree), and the number of variables (mtry). Genetic algorithm (GA) model A genetic algorithm (GA) is a search heuristic which mimics the natural selection process in the field of artificial intelligence. GA beings with a population of presented random solutions in some structure series. Then, a number of operators are repeatedly implemented, until convergence is obtained. As a matter of fact, the optimization strategy in GA could be described as a global optimization procedure with the benefit of not being dependent on the initial value to gain the convergence. Crossover and mutation are implemented to produce newer and better chromosomes populations (Yetilmezsoy and Demirel 2008). Random forest optimization methods In this study, we used two different methods for RF parameter optimization including caret package and genetic algorithm. Both of the models were applied in the R software. At first, we presented a hybrid RFGA model to predict groundwater potential which was firstly introduced by Hasegawa et al (2013) in the field of commute mode choice analysis. A simple method is trial and error, but there are many mixtures of parameters, and it needs much iteration to evaluate the options. Another method for optimization of these parameters is to use caret package. So, we proposed a practical method for optimizing the parameters of RF by meta- heuristic optimization using GAs. The rgenoud package of the R program (R Core Team 2012); Mebane and Sekhon (2011) were used to implement the optimizing process of RF parameters ntree and mtry. Input parameters of the RFGA model are subject to the GA-based parameter optimization process. Only that pair of parameters that minimizes the OOB error rate in this step is used as input to the RFGA model. For running RFGA, maximum number of generations was considered as 100, the population size was 300 and the domain of allowable valu es for each parameter of the function being optimized (mtry values between 1 and 14, ntree values between 1 and 2000). The run time of this process till the calculation is complete was approximately 2 h 20 min. Validation of groundwater potential maps (GPM) In the current study, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine the performance of the GPMs produced using the implemented models. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) shows the quality of a forecast system by representing the ability of the system to predict correctly the occurrence or nonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ occurrence of specific events (Negnevitsky 2002). The area under the curve of ROC ranges from 0 to 1. The qualitative relationship between AUC and prediction accuracy could be classified as excellent (0.9-1), very good (0.8-0.9), good (0.7-0.8), average (0.6-0.7), and poor (0.5-0.6). Based on the reviewer comment, and in order to consider the discharge values of the springs, two weights were assigned to the springs to take their discharge into account in the evaluation process. For conducting this idea, median was calculated for discharge values of the springs. Then, weight 2 was assigned to the springs with greater discharge than the median value, while othe r springs were assigned to a weight of 1. Finally, for calculating ROC values, values of the springs with weight 2 were considered twice in the analysis, while other springs were considered once. This procedure enhances the influence of the springs with higher discharges in the evaluation process. Results Support vector machine In the current study, four kernels of the SVM model were optimized by cross-validation and GPMs were plotted in ArcGIS 9.3. Based on the results, the best SVM with LN kernel had a cost value of 0.001. The results of PL kernel showed that gamma=0.5, cost= 0.1, and degree= 2 had the best performance. In the case of SVM-SIG, best performance was gained by gamma= 1, and c= 0.01. The results of SVM-RBF showed that gamma= 0.5, c= 10 had the best performance. The resultant GPMs produced using different kernels of the SVM are represented in Fig. 5 and Table 2. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by SVM-LN occupy 15.88, 36.05, 33.75, and 14.32% of the study area, respectively. Low, moderate, high, and very high classes in SVM-PL cover 3.38, 22.12, 47.52, and 26.98% of the study area, respectively. In the case of SVM-SIG, 22.87, 32.98, 30.50, and 13.64% of the study area were designated to the low, moderate, high, and very high classes, respectively. The results of SVM-RBF showed that low, moderate, high, and very high classes cover 22.01, 45.85, 22.39, and 9.74% of the study area, respectively. Random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) As mentioned in the methods section, two methods were used to optimize RF model including caret and genetic algorithm. Final model by RF-caret had ntree= 1600, and mtry= 2, while final model by RFGA had ntree= 1744, and mtry= 2. The results showed that out of bag error for RFGA (0.316) was lower than its value for RF-caret (0.35%). Also, the results of the ROC analysis showed better performance of RFGA than RF-caret by area under the curve of ROC values of 86.5, and 85.6, respectively. Considering the better performance of the RFGA model, its results about the importance of effective factors and final GPM were represented and the results of RF-caret were ignored. Figure 4 represents the mean decrease accuracy, and mean decrease Gini obtained by RFGA. According to the mean decrease accuracy, altitude had the highest importance, followed by TWI, slope angle, and aspect, while the profile curvature, and plan curvature had lowest importance. On the other hand, results of the mean decrease Gini depicted that land use, and lithology were the least important factors in groundwater potential mapping. The GPM produced using RFGA is represented in Fig. 5. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by RFGA occupy 27.2, 32.4, 25.5, and 14.8% of the study area, respectively. Validation of the GPMs The ROC was calculated for all GPMs with springs validation dataset. The results of AUC-ROC are represented in Fig. 6. AUC-ROC for GPMs produced by the implemented methods in the current study ranges from 76.9 to 85.5%. AUC-ROC values for RF and RFGA were estimated as 84.6, and 85.5%, respectively. AUC-ROC values were estimated for SVM- LN, SVM-PL, SVM-SIG, and SVM- RBF as 79.3, 77, 77.7, and 76.9%, respectively. Discussion In this section, the results are discussed by three parts including (i) the performance of the models, (ii) the importance of the effective factors, and (iii) the precision of the GPMs. The performance of the models: The results showed that RFGA represented better performance than RF-caret. One of the advantages of GA is the capability to solve any optimization problem based on chromosome approach; another important characteristic of GA is its capability to handle multiple solution search spaces and solve the problem in such an environment (Tabassum and Mathew 2014). These advantages may have caused RFGAs better performance in the current study. Also, it can be seen that both RFs (i.e. RF-caret and RFGA) had better performance than different kernels of SVM model. The results of different SVM kernels showed that SVM-LN had the best performance, followed by SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL; However, their performance was similar. Based on the results, it is evident that SVM could be used as an efficient machine learning model in groundwater potential mapping. One of the drawbacks of the SVM relates to the needed time for the analysis. In addition, several criteria should be tested in order to find the optimum values for the modeling process (Tehrany et al. 2015). However, the efficiency of the SVM could be increased by making ensemble models. In a research, Tehrany et al (2015) used an ensemble weights of evidence and SVM model in flood mapping. Their results proved the efficiency and strength of the ensemble method over the individual methods. There are several potential reasons for error in the datasets implemented for groundwat er modeling, including measurement errors, limitations in field data collection, sampling bias, etc. The mentioned errors could affect the overall accuracy of the SVM models (Moisen et al. 2006). The importance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping The importance of effective factors was determined using RFGA as the best model in the current study. Based on the results, in total, altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors on groundwater potential. On the other hand, plan curvature, profile curvature, land use, and lithology were the least effective factors on groundwater potential. A growing body of literature investigates the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential mapping (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). The results of Naghibi and Pourghasemi (2015) showed that altitude, distance from faults, SPI, and fault density had the highest importance in groundwater potential mapping. In another research, Rahmati et al (2016) depicted that altitude, drainage density, lithology, and land use were the most influence factors on groundwater potential. Comparing the results of the current study and the results of the two mentioned researches shows that the impo rtance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping is dependent on the indicator, methods, and hydrological, geological, and climatic conditions of the target area. The precision of the GPMs: With this assumption that a better model is the one which determines the high and very high classes more precisely, a model with lower percent of high and very high classes area could be more helpful in water resources planning and management. A more precise GPM could help water resources managers to make better and more accurate decisions about areas for exploitation and even water conservation techniques. According to the results, SVM-RBF, and RFGA models had the lowest percent of the high and very high classes with 32.1, and 40.3% of the study area, respectively. Conclusion In general, the water crisis in the 21th century is much more related to management and planning than to a real crisis of scarcity and drought stress. Lack of knowledge of water resources and inappropriate water resources management plans and strategies have made water crisis worse in arid and semi- arid regions. Therefore, the first step in appropriate planning of water resources is to know and gain knowledge of these vital resources. Groundwater is one of the most important water resource supplies, especially in arid and semi- arid countries with extreme lack of water, growing population, and successive droughts. Considering the mentioned problems and issues, in the current study, we evaluated the performance of different kernels of SVM model and two strategies for optimization of RF (i.e. caret and GA). The results of the current study showed that RFGA had the best performance, followed by SVM-LN, SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL. The RFGA was successfully implemented in the current s tudy. Also, different kernels of the SVM were used for producing GPMs with acceptable performances. However, their result was not as well as RFs performance. Furthermore, it can be seen that altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors in groundwater potential assessment. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred and tested in other areas for producing GPMs. As a final conclusion, GPMs could significantly help water resources managers and planners for better understanding of water resources conditions, exploitation, and conservation plans.