Boston tea party Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Boston tea party - Research Paper Example Protests may be successful because it awakens the government to revise its rule, as in Congress can amend legislations. In the history, Americans found their protests for exorbitant taxes for tea effective. Their protest actions led to recall of the 25% tax on tea leaves by the parliament. Finding that a protest is a significant weapon, nationalism among the Americans became a widespread action that eventually led to a revolt for a cry of independence. How this transpired will be the topic of this paper. The Boston Tea Party The love for tea of the Europeans started importation, competition and monopoly. Since the tea leaves are not grown in the West, Europeans had to import it from the East Indies.1 Seeing fortune opportunities, many companies sought to compete and started importing tea leaves to the West. The costly war between France and India was just over and British storehouses were nearly empty. In subsequent events, the action of King George III was a fiscal monetary policy, because he imposed taxes to the American colonies. He had two economic visions at that time. One was to regain money lost, and the other is to reinstate their authority to the American colonies which they have neglected because of war.2 Taxes and monopoly When the monarchy started to tax products sold to America, people began to despise the rule. People became angrier when the royalty declared the tea a monopoly of the East India Company. And this was seen by historians as the biggest mistake of the King because this sparked nationalism that started the revolution. As a protest, the Boston Tea Party began. It was not really a party in the real sense, but a nomenclature given to protests to the levy imposition. On December 16, 1773, the first protest was done by a group of Boston patriots who posed themselves as Indians to gain access to the three English ships that held tea cargoes3. Protesters split open every chest and dumped its contents to the sea. Overall, the protesters in the first Boston Tea Party threw to the sea, three hundred fort-two chests of tea4. Similar protest actions followed in several seaports. On the Second tea party, done on March 7, 1774, 16 chests of tea were again thrown off to the sea. Of course, throwing of the tea into the sea is a only symbolic gesture that is a lead up to revolt for independence and a sign of protest. Shown below is a manifesto urging the citizens to protest, posted all over Boston on November 29, 1773, shortly after the arrival of 3 ships carrying tea owned by the East India Company5 Since tea has grown to be of much importance to the Americans and they found English tea to be very expensive because of taxes, Bostonians looked for alternatives such as smuggling. They found cheaper source from Holland thus evading the 25% tax slapped on them. Smuggling resulted to about half a million pounds and reduction of the English’ income6 This loss resulted to another economic policy from the parliament. To address t hese losses another fiscal policy repealed the 25% tax imposition on tea thus making the Dutch leaves much affordable.7 The Act further strengthened campaign for anti-smuggling. Seeing that Tea Law aroused more protests and was not very effective, The Stamp Act of was put into effect on March 22, 1765. This required every Americans to â€Å"pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the

Understand The Role Of The Social Care Worker Essay Example for Free

Understand The Role Of The Social Care Worker Essay 1.1 A working relationship is different from a personal relationship. In a working relationship there are set boundaries which can never be crossed and must remain professional at all times. You do not share personal information about yourself or your family. You should always treat everyone equally regardless of your personal opinions and never force your opinions onto anyone, follow your works policies and procedures at all times. A personal relationship is the opposite you don’t have policy and procedures to follow, a personal relationship is much more relaxed and you show each other affection tell each other private things, you share personal information like mobile numbers with family and friends they also know your address. There are no risk assessments or care plans to complete. 1.2 There are lots of different roles which lead to lots of different working relationships. These can differ greatly, when speaking to care workers or other support workers is professional it is a lot less formal than when you speak with a manager, or a doctor that comes to visit a service user the way you address them is much more formal, again when service users family or friends visit it is much more informal but you should always be professional. Understand the importance of working in ways that are agreed with the employer 2.1 It is important to adhere to the scope of the job role because when an employee first starts working they have agreed to adhere to it, and it is a legal responsibility to stay within your job role. This creates a good and effective working environment. By being accountable for your own actions and being respectful of others job roles; it makes an effective working environment to work in. 2.2 Agreed ways of working means following policies and procedures, following individual care plans accordingly, this will also include risk  assessments that are in place and following any codes of conduct. An agreed way of working is working to the standard that was agreed at the beginning of the employer contract. This enables you to work effectively and helps to protect and care for the service users. 2.3 The importance of full and up to date agreed ways of working is the first thing that is put into place before anyone is put into a social care environment. You have a job description which you should read fully. It means that you agree to follow the agreed ways of working to the policies and procedure standards; you should also know that you have the skills and experience to be able to do that job. It is very important to keep up to date with service users care plans and risk assessments also company policies and procedures. Without up to date information the safety and well being of the service users are put at risk and you could be breaking the law. If there were no agreed ways of working put in place it would be impossible to know what was expected of the individual and make it more difficult to care for the vulnerable in our care. Understand the importance of working in partnership with others 3.1 Working in partnership with others can help you with tasks that would be difficult to do on your own. This could be another colleague helping to make checks on medication and booking them in. Other people you can benefit from working in a partnership could be the families of service users, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, care workers, advocates, and other health care workers and professionals. These people could help with information that will help you to do your job better by supporting you with any problems you might have, for instance if you have a problem communicating with a service user, by talking to their family or a friend and working together can help you by making suggestions of methods of communication for the service user, or even communicating with the service user themselves to help to reach a solution. With help from others it will make it easier to reach a level of work that you aim for, this makes it possible to care for service users a s fully as possible. 3.2 You can improve partnership working by attending training sessions, and by knowing your roles and responsibilities, and everyone knowing the policies and procedures. It is also a good thing to have good communication between everyone involved. This can make working much easier and efficient. Another way could be by giving honest and unbiased information and opinions to people you work with, this will help to build a bond of trust, and would encourage them to act in the same manner towards you. By doing this it can help provide the best possible care for the service user. 3.3 Try to handle conflict situations by remaining calm, ending the conflict before it starts to escalate and gets worse. Remain respectful of others be open minded don’t be judgemental. There may be times when this is not possible and the following are required. Avoid rising challenges or suggestions you are incorrect. Ask colleagues to listen to you and respect your opinions, but you should be respectful to theirs too. If there is conflict with a colleague and you cannot resolve it then you need to speak to your manager. Always be professional and use your listening skills acknowledge what they are saying by nodding your head, repeat what the other person has said to you, this shows that you are listening to them and not ignoring them which could make matters worse, and show understanding. You should ask your manager for support and guidance if you need it. You should not let your personal feelings affect your professional manner or judgement. This is important as remaining calm can often defuse a conflict situation. 3.4 You can access support and advice about the partnership working to help resolve conflicts from either colleagues, manager, and other social care bodies. The advice is invaluable because of their experience and knowledge in offering ways and methods when dealing with conflicts or partnership working. The manager could help you with the legal side of things and offer professional solutions to conflicts with higher bodies, such as social services or outside agencies. Anytime you have a concern regarding partnership working speaking to any of the above will help to resolve the conflict.

Conducting Forensic Assessments

Conducting Forensic Assessments This study discusses different aspects of forensic psychology in relation to juvenile suspects by assessing an individual in the case study portrayed in the documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning. This paper provides the brief descriptions of the following: The case study in the documentary, including a description of the individual and his forensic population. The potential role(s) of a forensic psychologist in relation to the case study. The forensic assessment principles that apply to the case study. Any third party information that may be necessary to collect for the forensic assessment of the case study. Ethical and/or multicultural issues and/or considerations related to the case study. An analysis of how a forensic psychologist might best address each of the ethical and/or multicultural issues and/or considerations that are described. What a forensic psychologist might think important to consider and/or determine when conducting a forensic assessment of the individual in this case study. What the courts might think important to consider and/or determine from a forensic assessment of the individual in this case study. At least two forensic assessment instruments and/or tools that might be used in relation to this case study, with an explanation of why. The elements that would be included in a forensic assessment report based on this case study. Which elements from a forensic assessment report based on this case study would be relevant for testimony, and why. The implications that the assessment may have for the outcome of the case Murder on a Sunday Morning This case study is based upon the forensic assessment of the accused individual in the documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001). The crime scene in the documentary portrays Mr. James Stevens witnessing his wife being shot and murdered by a young black male who was robbing her at the gun point. The assailant committing this crime has been characterized as a six feet tall skinny black male of age in between 20 and 25 years. The police arrested Brenton Butler as a suspect who is a 15 year old black male although he is much shorter and younger than the actual assailant that the police was looking for. Nevertheless, Butler was suspected of the murder as he was the only black found near the crime scene at that time and being identified by the victims husband as the assailant who attacked his wife. He was then interrogated in the police station in the absence of his parents and was even denied of getting any legal help. Detective Glover interrogated the young man and attempted to make him confess the crime and pressurized him to locate the murder weapon. The detective took Butler to an area of woods close to the crime scene and hit him once on the face and twice in the stomach as he was unable to extract any information from the suspect. After which, another detective with the name Dwayne Darnell came to work on this case who made Butler sign a pre-written confession that became a prime evidence for the trial. The case was then picked up by Ann Finnell and Patrick Mc Guinness as public defenders against the state of Florida, who systematically proved the prosecution wrong on account of insufficient evidence produced for the trial. They proved that the police tortured Butler both psychologically and physically to obtain the written confession from him and that Butler had no motive for the crime, no forensic evidence and no murder weapon were found and neither do Butler have any criminal record in the past nor he had any history of risk factors such as poor parenting, poverty, mental disorders, etc., normally observed in criminals (Bartol Bartol, 2011 Burkhead, 2006). Hence, the jury set Butler free as he was not found guilty of the crime after just 45 minutes of discussion although Butler had already spent 6 months of imprisonment during the proceedings of the trial. Butler and his family settled for a compensation of 7.75 million dollars when they actually sued for 8.5 million dollars on account of civil rights violations while the lawyer was punished by the District Judge John H, Moore for not pleading the case appropriately (Schoettler Pinkham, 2002). Later, the real criminal was arrested, trialed and convicted for the crime. Although Butler received justice in the end, however, he would have not passed 6 months in prison if some aspects of forensic psychology had been considered earlier in the trial. Forensic psychological assessment would have been done to determine Butlers competency to stand trial. Moreover, Butler should have been given the instruments of Dr. Grisso to understand, assess and appreciate Miranda Rights so that he would have understood the meaning of waiving his rights and possibly would not have made the false confession under pressure (Goldstein, Condie, Kalbeitzer, Osman Geier, 2003). Role of a Forensic Psychologists There are just two aspects of forensic psychology that are applicable to the Butler case, which are: first to assess the ability of the young suspect (Butler) to waive his Miranda rights and the second to determine Butlers competency to stand trial. Assessment Principles The important question is that whether or not to apply different standards to assess the competency of a juvenile? Numerous studies along with this documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning have deduced that juveniles should better be assessed and trialed on the basis of their maturity level rather than just following the Dusky Standard for their assessment since their cognitive and reasoning abilities have not been fully developed as compared to those of the adults. Nevertheless, this issue is still in debate in the circles of the legal system (Ryba, Cooper Zapf, 2003, p500). The forensic psychologists should assess the juvenile suspect irrespective of the standards being followed such that his/her level of understanding the legal proceedings and his/her cognitive mental abilities are measured accurately. I consider that in this case study of the documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning if Butler was found incompetent to stand trial earlier in the proceedings then this would not have been much in favor of Butler since such a person is usually sent for treatment until he/she is able to stand trial which may even take several years. As, generally, the court proceedings would still hold while the suspected juvenile is treated through an outpatient method in order to gain competency to stand trial. Since Butler was innocent in the first place therefore keeping the trial on hold until he becomes competent to stand trial after treatment would have been a great injustice to him (Viljoen Roesch, 2008), perhaps the competency analysis was not done in the documentary due to this reason. Another problematic element of forensic psychology is the issue that who is the client. In general, the person whom the psychologist is treating or assessing is his/her client. Nevertheless, in legal matters as the one portrayed in the documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning, the psychologist is working in collaboration with the legal team to find out the mental level of the suspect and not for the diagnosis or treatment of the suspects problem. Hence, the final report written by the psychologist in this regard could be greatly biased depending upon the legal-team with which he/she is working and the type of the assessment being conducted. This further signifies that if the psychologist is working with the prosecution then he/she would emphasize over the violent behavior of the suspect in his/her assessment report and thereby, would recommend moving the juvenile suspect to the adult court so that the concentration is applied only to the punishment aspects of the law. On the other hand , if the psychologist is working with the defense counsel then he/she would like to keep the juvenile suspect in the juvenile court system so as to assure the provision of proper assistance and treatment for him/her. Third Party Information The third party information is also very important for a forensic psychologist although most of the information will be acquired from the individual under assessment. The public defenders in the case of Butler used his mother as a source for determining the personality and habits of her son due to which, the prosecution case was weakened. As for instance, Butlers mother refuted the statement of Glover (the primary interrogator) that Butler stood up to hug him and said he was glad to see him when he (the detective) entered in to the room, as she reveals that her son is very reserved and normally never hugs strangers. Although this information could have also been acquired from a psychologist however its impact was more when the mother herself presented it in front of the jury (de Lestrade, 2001). This further indicates that often vital information can be acquired from the third party instead of being available from the client. As the mother pointed out that Butler was very quiet and r eserved, hence his short replies to the questions allowed the forensic examiner to extract very little information from him to present to the court. Further, a doctor certified in front of the jury that the wounds on Butlers body were caused while he was in police custody. Although a forensic psychologist could report this information to the jury as third party information however, in accordance to the 4 Cs of testimony, a psychologist does not have a clinical knowledge about the wounds where as a medical doctor does, therefore the testimony of a medical doctor in this regard would be considered as the stronger evidence. Moreover, a medical doctor could testify that how the wounds were acquired by Butler while a forensic psychologist could not. Thus, the testimony of a medical doctor would pose a better impact on the trial along with ensuring adherence to the 4 Cs of testimony: Clarity, Certainty, Case Specificity and Clinical Knowledge (Kwartner Boccaccini, 2008). Multicultural Since Butler became the victim of racial profiling being the only young black male spotted in the area near to the crime scene, this point can be accounted as the only multicultural issue in this forensic study. Although Butler was younger and shorter than the prime suspect of the case but still the police picked him up for scrutiny. This point could be best utilized by the defense attorney but the forensic psychologist could endorse it, by ensuring that this sort of racial profiling is happening quite commonly across the United States, through various case studies. Forensic Considerations According to the juvenile court rules, the juveniles caught for committing violent crimes can be easily transferred to an adult court for prosecution, after which they will be confined in adult prisons if found guilty (Brannen et al., 2006). However, there is no provision for trialing a juvenile directly in to the adult court system. In the case of Butler, he was automatically prosecuted in an adult court without being prosecuted in and referred by the juvenile court. It is ambiguous that whether or not the necessary measures were followed for transferring him to the adult court system. Court Considerations In this case, the court has to take in to account the age of the accused and the outcome of his interrogation. At the age of 15 years, Butler does not possess the cognitive abilities of a mature person. He was also unaware of the interrogation procedures of the police and his rights in this regard. Since Butler got involved in a legal problem for the first time, he was totally unfamiliar with the Miranda rights due to which the police took advantage of him. Moreover, the medical testimony proving that the police physically abused Butler in order to make him sign the pre-written confession which was actually written by the police instead of Butler. The court would have to look in to the details of all the above considerations prior to affirming to Butlers confession. Forensic Assessments In this case study of Butler, the following forensic assessments would be considered to make a strong case against the prosecution counsel of Butler: Butlers ability to waive Miranda rights. Butlers direct trial in the adult court system. Butlers competency to stand the trial. Butlers psychological evaluation for any deviant behavior or mental problem. Forensic Elements The most important element that the forensic psychologist assigned in this case should consider is that the accused is a juvenile and not all analytical methods are designed for juveniles. Moreover, there is considerable ambiguity in the rights that are given to a juvenile in the proceedings of an adult court system. It is assumed that a juvenile being transferred to the adult court has the same rights and rules as those of an adult provided that such a juvenile bears the same cognitive abilities and understanding of the legal system as those possessed by an adult, which is usually negative. Since the eye witness testimony constitutes a vital evidence in this case, the forensic psychologist would have to prove that how and why testimony of the eye witness (victims husband) was inaccurate as Hugo Munsterberg (1908) showed in his book On the Witness Stand that the testimony of the eye witness can be often deceiving in the proceedings of the court. Ability to waive Miranda rights The Instruments of Dr. Grisso to assess, understand and appreciate Miranda Rights would have been extremely beneficial for Butlers defense in this case. The forensic psychologist should utilize this assessment in analyzing the ability of a juvenile in understanding and waiving his/her Miranda rights in a legal matter (Oberlander Goldstein, 2001). This assessment instrument was developed in the 1970s and then amended in the year 2003 to cater the changes made in the legal systems. The most important characteristic of this assessment instrument that is applicable to the Butlers case is the right of a person arrested to not give answers to the police interrogation until he/she is provided legal assistance of the lawyer by the police (Goldstein, et al., 2003). If this assessment was utilized in the Butlers case then he would not have been exposed to police torture and never would have agreed to the false confession under duress. In this case, the police mislead Butler by assuring him th at they would try to get an attorney for him but never clarified that he had the right to demand for an attorney and remain silent until he has been provided with his legal help. Forensic Report Although the law is absolutely clear in the elements to be included in a forensic report presented in the courts however no standards have been set as yet to carry out a competency analysis on juvenile. Various studies have investigated different methods to evaluate competency and those methods have been used extensively in practice which have been found to be most effective and accurate (Christy, Douglas, Otto Petrila, 2004). Since no standards have been set for assessing competency, hence the studies have observed vast discrepancies in forensic reports. There has been no indication of requesting or completing any forensic reports in the Butlers case. The proceedings of this case should have included an assessment of Butlers competency to stand trial and his ability as a juvenile to waive off his Miranda rights. Implications of the Report In case of the forensic report being completed and presented to the court in relation to Butlers ability to waive off his Miranda rights being a juvenile and his competency to stand trial, the court would have taken Butlers age and unawareness of the legal system in to account before trialing him in the adult court system on charge of a murder. The forensic report would have also enabled the court to assess Butlers understanding of his Miranda rights and his signing to the false confession under duress and thereby, affirming his innocence in this case. Conclusion The Butlers case properly illustrates that why a forensic psychologist should be included in the proceedings of the court, particularly in those involving a juvenile since the juveniles being immature and unaware require more legal protection and different assessment methods than those applicable to adults. In case of being trialed in the adult system, it should be ensured that the system does not exploit the juvenile on trial. Butler was saved from a severe punishment by the public defense attorneys who managed to point out the loopholes in the prosecution case and the violations made by the police interrogators.

Essay on Gender and School Violence -- Argumentative Persuasive Topics

  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most recent acts of violence by children have prompted us as a nation to look at the causes and possible solutions to this crisis in our schools. In fact, according to Public Agenda, a national organization that conducts public opinion research on educational issues, school safety was identified as the most important issue affecting schools by those surveyed (Johnson & Immerwahr, 1994/1995). Yet school violence does not exist in a vacuum. It is directly related to the violence in our society. And for many children, particularly those who experience family violence early in their lives, school can often be their only safe haven. In 1992, over three million youngsters were reported to child protection advocates as possible abuse victims (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Thus, for many children in our society, schools are often safer than the environment where they live.    Aggression and violence are the direct result of learned behavior. Our society is full of examples of violence and aggression that unfortunately have become a part of our daily lives regardless of where we live, work, or play.    Our children are both the victims and, as seen from last year's headlines, the perpetrators of violent crimes. Although there is a sharp increase in violence among girls and women, females continue to be more often victims than perpetrators of crime in our society. In a Harvard University Violence Against Women class presentation, Nancy Issac and Deborah Prothrow-Stith reported that four million women in the U.S. are severely abused every year by their spouse or partner. And 26 percent of all females who were victims of murder were slain by husbands or boyfriends, while three percent of male victims were killed... ...rns of aggression against children in general, and girls specifically in our society.    Works Cited and Consulted Bachman, R. (1994, January). Violence against women: A national crime victimization survey report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Giroux, H. (1992). Border Crossings. New York: Routledge. Isaac, N., & Prothrow-Stith, D. Violence Against Women class presentation. Harvard University: Harvard School of Public Health. Johnson, J., & Immerwahr, J. (1994/1995, Winter). What Americans expect from the public schools. American Educator, 4-13. Noguera, P. A. (1995, Summer). Preventing and producing violence: A critical analysis of responses to school violence. Harvard Educational Review. 65(2), U.S. Department of Justice. (1992, October). The cycles of violence. Washington, DC: Author. Essay on Gender and School Violence -- Argumentative Persuasive Topics   Ã‚  Ã‚   The most recent acts of violence by children have prompted us as a nation to look at the causes and possible solutions to this crisis in our schools. In fact, according to Public Agenda, a national organization that conducts public opinion research on educational issues, school safety was identified as the most important issue affecting schools by those surveyed (Johnson & Immerwahr, 1994/1995). Yet school violence does not exist in a vacuum. It is directly related to the violence in our society. And for many children, particularly those who experience family violence early in their lives, school can often be their only safe haven. In 1992, over three million youngsters were reported to child protection advocates as possible abuse victims (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Thus, for many children in our society, schools are often safer than the environment where they live.    Aggression and violence are the direct result of learned behavior. Our society is full of examples of violence and aggression that unfortunately have become a part of our daily lives regardless of where we live, work, or play.    Our children are both the victims and, as seen from last year's headlines, the perpetrators of violent crimes. Although there is a sharp increase in violence among girls and women, females continue to be more often victims than perpetrators of crime in our society. In a Harvard University Violence Against Women class presentation, Nancy Issac and Deborah Prothrow-Stith reported that four million women in the U.S. are severely abused every year by their spouse or partner. And 26 percent of all females who were victims of murder were slain by husbands or boyfriends, while three percent of male victims were killed... ...rns of aggression against children in general, and girls specifically in our society.    Works Cited and Consulted Bachman, R. (1994, January). Violence against women: A national crime victimization survey report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Giroux, H. (1992). Border Crossings. New York: Routledge. Isaac, N., & Prothrow-Stith, D. Violence Against Women class presentation. Harvard University: Harvard School of Public Health. Johnson, J., & Immerwahr, J. (1994/1995, Winter). What Americans expect from the public schools. American Educator, 4-13. Noguera, P. A. (1995, Summer). Preventing and producing violence: A critical analysis of responses to school violence. Harvard Educational Review. 65(2), U.S. Department of Justice. (1992, October). The cycles of violence. Washington, DC: Author.

Informal Essay

I received an education from elementary school through college in Shanghai, China. As Shanghai is an international city, its education authorities greatly value the importance of English learning and English is thus one of the mandatory subjects taught beginning in elementary school. Chinese students can score high marks and even outscore native English speakers on tests such as the GRE and GMAT, but on writing sections, Chinese students’ performance lags far behind the average. Why does this happen?What should be the proper teaching strategy in an ESL/EFL writing classroom? This paper shares my perspectives on English writing, teaching, and learning, based on my own experiences. My English writing classes started in middle school. Before that, my English classes mostly emphasized the teaching of vocabulary and grammar. However, even though I was now a middle school student, English writing was still not treated as an important part of English learning. There was no separate E nglish writing class.Once or twice every month, my English teacher would give us a 40-minute English writing lecture. The ironic thing is, as I see it today, this lecture was still more of a reading class than a writing class, because most of the time my teacher would assign us a certain amount of reading, ask us to underline the sentences we thought were â€Å"good† and write them into our notebooks. Although I agree that reading is the foundation of writing, I disapprove of this way of teaching writing.In my second year of middle school, teachers started to â€Å"formally† teach writing. We would be given certain simple topics to write about such as â€Å"The most unforgettable thing in your life† or â€Å"My family†. To begin the writing task, my teacher would first read several examples and carefully help the class analyze why each composition was excellent and explain what we should be aware of when writing about this topic. Another thing worth menti oning is that these examples were usually assigned as rote learning.The only criteria for a composition included length, absence of spelling or grammar mistakes, and the use of new vocabulary. As we can see, the content of the compositions was completely overlooked; instead, grammar and vocabulary alone still played the key roles in our writing education. Limiting the scope of this paper, I will not continue on with a summary of my high school and college English writing education, because I believe these early xperiences already suffice to represent the usual methods of teaching writing in China. Today, whenever I reflect on my past learning experiences in writing, I meet with some difficult emotions. I can say I am a skilled writer in my native language, but I still lack confidence in English writing. I feel I am a victim of English education in China because I always have a hard time outputting what is in my mind with decent English. Whenever that difficulty arises, I feel awful, as if I am linguistically and cognitively deficient.Also, having been educated for so long in China, where repeatedly writing model compositions is the fundamental approach in improving writing, another weakness of my writing is its lack of creativity and critical thinking. My thoughts are restricted into a limited space and I am just accustomed to recalling whatever is already filed in my repertoire of writing expressions, drawn from those model compositions. One year ago, I enrolled in a GRE writing course in Shanghai to prepare for my GRE test in which the only materials handed out were two books.One was a 28-page book with all kinds of model sentences this organization had arranged in a list, and the second was a thick book covering all the likely topics (about 130 topics in all) to be tested in the GRE writing section with sample compositions. Although the instructor offered some insightful writing skills, the implication was obvious to everyone—for those unable to writ e a composition themselves, just repeat the sample sentences and compositions; hopefully, the topic you are tested on happens to be the one you have learned by rote.Having undergone these frustrations and confusions in English writing, I realized that good English writing skills do not come from popular writing instruction books, no matter how appealing the titles—whether â€Å"Learn to Write in 10 Minutes,† or â€Å"Be a Writing King,† one cannot develop into a skilled writer by simply memorizing the tips they offer or memorizing the sentences they list. You can never become a skilled writer by only recalling sample compositions, or even by focusing only on correct grammar and spelling.From my own experience, I do benefit from reading books and newspapers written by native English speakers and recording the brilliant sentences or ideas from these resources. This might be the only aspect of the Chinese English education system I applaud, and I still keep this ha bit today. However, it should never be the sole method of learning. The second strategy I recommend to ESL writing students is to reject whatever appears first in their mind when searching for writing resources, because this might also be another’s first choice.Seven out of ten students might choose Marie Curie for the topic â€Å"Female Scientists;† erase the thought of Marie Curie and instead choose Ada Byron or Rosalind Franklin. You need to think carefully in order to make your compositions outstanding from others’ and leave your readers with a lasting impression. In my opinion, not everyone can produce the superior sentences or command the vast vocabulary of Mark Twain, but we can certainly distinguish ourselves by our content.Having practiced English writing for several years, I think the two most salient differences from my Chinese writing style and English writing style are the writing tone and the method of organizing a composition. Chinese writing styl es are typically reserved while American styles are more often straightforward. Chinese people pursue collectivism while Americans value individualism. To most Chinese, maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships is vitally important.Moreover, the Chinese government exerts invisible power over people through words, so people are cautious in expressing their opinions in order to avoid unnecessary trouble. As a result, My Chinese writing style is relatively more tactful than my English writing. I tend to call for the collective good in the last sentence of my Chinese compositions. In contrast, when I write in English, I prefer to express my voice without worrying about breaking harmony with others because I know individual rights are highly recognized in Western society.The second difference between my Chinese writing and English writing is the method of organizing compositions. The basic English composition structure follows the pattern of introduction-body-conclusion while th e Chinese structure is characterized as beginning-following-turning-concluding, which is the same as the Japanese style. The turning section is expected to be surprising, and the whole composition reaches its climax at this point. This also is related to what I have mentioned above—collectivism and individualism.When writing in Chinese, I like to make my writing beautiful, lively and ornate for my readers. In other words, I feel I have responsibility for my readers and hope they will regard reading my writings as an enjoyment. However, when writing in English, all I think about is how to make my ideas clear to my readers. From my personal experiences of learning and writing in English, I can see what an influential role culture plays in writing in a second language. My students might come from different cultural backgrounds and hold different beliefs.These all have a great influence over both what they write and how they write. As an ESL instructor, I think my job is not simp ly to teach them to comply with the Western way of writing and tell them to reject their original ways of writing. Instead, I think what is valuable for ESL instructors to know is how to guide our students toward writing truly excellent compositions. Their writing must be clear enough to be appreciated by the Western world, but should also maintain the cultural characteristics of their native language writing, because multiculturalism enriches our writing, bringing it color and vibrancy.

Film maker Essay

Kenneth Anger is a well known American underground avant-garde film maker and author who is well known not only for his films but also for this novels. Born in Santa Monica, California as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, Kenneth Anger first became well known in 1959 for his publication of the French version of Hollywood Babylon in Paris. While this drove him to certain fame, it also brought him notoriety because it was a tell all book on the scandals of the A-list crowd of Hollywood. He started his career at a very early age. Commentaries place his silver screen beginnings at the age of nine but it was not until 1947 that he became well known for his first film, Fireworks. In 1949, he expanded his repertoire to include The Love That Whirls and also a documentary of the ruins of Crowley’s Thelema Abbey. While most of his films only spanned 3. 5 minutes to 30 minutes, his works were considered works of arts, capturing the essence in such a short span of time. The influence that Kenneth Anger had on the avant garde scene during his time was so profound. There is no denying that fact that his films greatly influenced many other film makers in his genre but there is also the fact that some of his works were considered as controversial. As one magazine puts it, Anger was known to insert certain â€Å"artistic† twists on his works that were either offensive or brash, resorting to trickery on certain occasions. One such occasion was the filming of Lucifer Rising, which was supposed to star Bobby Beausoleil, which was a critical film that arguably started his fascination with the occult and eventually led to his association with the Church of Satan. Anger was also associated with the Ordo Templi Orientis and other such groups. While later on in life he decided to return to his films, there is no denying that Kenneth Anger was ahead of his time and widely misunderstood by his peers. Bibliography: Cohen. M eds. (1985) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings Oxford University Press, Oxford. Pray, M(2007) Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions Wallflower, London. Sitney, A(1979) Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-78 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford