Principles of Economics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Principles of Economics - Research Paper Example Based on this research economics is about scarcity and choice. It is assumed that all human beings are rational thinkers hence would always choose to consume products that would give them maximum satisfaction or utility. Mankiw argues that rational people ‘systematically and purposefully do the best to achieve objectives given available opportunity.’ Given a choice among alternatives and with scarce resources, one would evaluate the benefits and costs of consuming an extra unit of a product and would only take a decision only if marginal benefit is greater than marginal cost. In this case, to solve the alcohol abuse problem, one has to consider marginal benefits and marginal costs derived from consuming an extra unit of alcohol and since excessive drinking has more costs than benefits, one would refrain from alcohol. The opportunity cost foregone by choosing to abuse alcohol is too high compared to satisfaction derived; money spent on alcohol can do many other things suc h as feeding the family, education for children, and investments among others. Besides, the person may have health problems thus adding to the costs. By considering all these factors, a rational person would refrain from alcohol abuse. Heyne acknowledges the role played by incentives in directing behavior. For him, rational people usually respond to incentives or are induced to act by them. Assuming alcohol abusers are rational, imposing taxes on alcohol substances would eliminate the problem. This would follow the law of demand which states that other things being constant, if the price of a good increase, the quantity demanded of the good decreases. Taxes have the effect of increasing alcohol prices and this would automatically mean that the abusers would desist from alcohol consumption or cut their consumption. Prescription Drug Effects on Demand and Supply of Other Products and Services Prescription drugs are drugs prescribed by a medical officer to a patient and are regulated b y legislation unlike the over-the-counter drugs which can be old to anyone. If a patient is under prescription drugs, he/she buys the drugs despite the price of the drugs. An increase or decrease in price of the drugs therefore has little or no effect on the quantity demanded by an individual (McCarthy & Schafermeyer, 2007). The drugs are provided by the National Health Insurance and have no close substitutes. The increase in price of the drugs thus affects all the sectors of healthcare industry such as patients and private insurers. Due to increased costs, the private insurers are forced to increase the cost of their services in case they have to offer such drugs and this may lead to low demand for their services. The patients are also required to get medical prescriptions before obtaining the drugs thus the demand for the medicine may be low compared to over-the-counter drugs. Use of prescription drugs also has an effect on demand for other healthcare services such as hospitalizat ion. The prescription drugs also affect supply of generic products as manufacturers have patents to supply the new drugs for some years. Elasticity of Demand and Supply The price elasticity of demanded which is percentage change in quantity demanded over percentage change in price shows consumers responsiveness to price changes. (McKenzie & Lee, 2006). It is an important consideration when analyzing the impact of a shift in supply and in determining if the firm should raise or lower its price. The supply curve is upward sloping showing a positive relationship between price and quantity supplied other things held constant. However, in long-run, those factors do change causing a shift in supply curve. Such factors include; input prices, technology, expectations and number of sellers in the market. For example, an increase in input prices such as labor would lead to a decrease in supply thus shifting the supply curve to the left. This

Asian American and Asian communities in U.S Essay

Asian American and Asian communities in U.S - Essay Example One of the very important reasons is that of something called as â€Å"Asian parents Syndrome† (Online Education Articles, n.p). It has been an observation that Asian parents generally have higher expectations of their children. It is because of these expectations that many college students feel the need to achieve greater success. Asian parents cannot simply compromise that their children are not the best among everyone, and therefore, this drives the children to work harder (Online Education Articles, n.p). Asian culture and its expectations therefore enable the Asian students to work harder. Another factor, which plays a very important role, is that of maternal expectations of children. The study conducted by Stevenson group was based on Japanese and American students and mothers. When children did not perform well in school, almost 42 percent of American mothers were satisfied with their child’s performance. Contrary to that, only five percent of Japanese mothers ra ted the performance to be satisfactory. American mothers were also willing to accept a child’s low performance. Therefore, the study concluded that such American attitudes provided an excuse for the children for not working very hard. Such attitudes continue throughout life, therefore, American students might not perform better in colleges. Asian students are very adaptable to levels of hard work (Wray, pp. 57). Historically, Asian students have been driven to work harder. Educational achievements had become very important, especially in the case of Japanese and Chinese students. A study done by Suzuki in 1977 (Nakanishi & Nishida, pp.140) showed that Asian Americans came to pursue education because they were considered a ‘minority’ group. This led them to strive harder. During the 1940s, Asians were discriminated by the trade unions. They were refused membership. After the Second World War, there was a need for white-collar employees because of technological adv ancements. Thus, education became the prime goal for Asian individuals in order to achieve success. In addition, Connor in 1975 gave the explanation that Asian students had been denied in social and extra curricular activities before the First World War. This had emphasized educational values. Therefore, studies have proved that historically, Asian students have had the motive to pursue education with full zeal (Nakanishi & Nishida, pp.140). A study conducted on Japanese students and teachers showed that teachers expected a greater level from their students. They are taught that education is difficult, not always exciting, and it also requires a great amount of hard work. Responsibility and perseverance is also taught. Hence, Japanese students have been socialized to achieve success through education. Therefore, this attitude remains with them throughout life, and therefore when they go to study in colleges in US, they will tend to perform better. Therefore, values of culture also p lay a significant role (Wray, pp. 54). Generally, Asian immigrants also have spent more amount of time in school. On average, Asian students in their countries spent an average of 240 days in school per year, while the American students spent around 178 days in school every year. Therefore, this increases the performance of the Asian students (Santrock, pp. 626). Some other cultural reasons, which might also form part of religious values, attempt to explain why Asians generally do better in colleges. There are certain cultural values, which are common

Antebellum Period Essay Example for Free

Antebellum Period Essay During the time period between 1825-1850, known as the Antebellum Period, the series of reform movements that emerged sought to democratic ideals of equality, liberty, the right to vote, and a more centralized government. The Second Great Awakening, one of many religious reforms, expanded equality through the belief that everyone could attain salvation through hard work and faith. The Second Great Awakening was the spark for many of the other reform movements, such as Temperance, Womens Rights, and Abolition. These movements along with reforms of prisons and mental facilities, and education attempted to craft America into a more utopian society. The Second Great Awakening had started after the Revolutionary War, gained momentum around the turn of the century, and was at its strongest during the Antebellum Period. It was driven by the idea that everyone could be saved through revivals. Revivals were especially prevalent in upstate New York, which was nicknamed the â€Å"burned-over district† by Charles Finney, a prominent Presbyterian leader of The Second Great Awakening. Because there were so many revivals there, it seemed like there couldnt possibly be anyone left to convert. Social activism became the main method of revival in the North. Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist denominations made huge gains in membership in the South and on the frontier were â€Å"camp meeting† revivals took place. As in Document B where Finney said the reforms awakened and converted even the â€Å"most abandoned profligates†, the protestant ministers in the South preached to people of all classes and races, including free blacks, slaves, and slaveholders. Free blacks began to start their own churches on the belief that everyone needed to hear messages of salvation and personal freedom. Due to prejudices against them, many free blacks separated from the Methodist church. One such man named Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. Blacks had more freedom within the Baptist church, as they could become ministers, and many black Baptist congregations were formed. Also during this time, groups such as the Mormons, Shakers and Baptists deve loped due to desires to restore primitive forms of Christianity, known as the Restoration Movement. In the late 1820s, Joseph Smith claimed to receive visions of a new sacred text/supplement to the Bible, the Book of Mormon. He founded a primitivist church called the Church of Christ on the teachings of this book and other revelations. Mormons established their first community in western New York. They then moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where Mormons faced persecution and Joseph Smith was assassinated. The first split in the church came surrounding the question of the next leader, but most Mormons migrated to Utah, spreading their message and gaining followers on the way, under the leadership of Brigham Young. Other popular groups that rose were the Unitarians and Universalists. Unitarianism is named for its understanding of God as one person, unlike the traditional Christian doctrine of Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) coexisting as one in being. It teaches that Jesus was a prophet and in some sense the â€Å"son† of God, but not God himself. Universalists believe that all humans either may or will be saved through Jesus Christ and eventually go to heaven. Teachings of the Second Great Awakening endorsed a strong work ethic, frugality and temperance within the expanding middle class. The Temperance Movement sprung from the social activism of the Second Great Awakening. Alcoholism was a growing problem in the United States: spousal abuse, family neglect and chronic unemployment were on the rise, issues which are shown in The Drunkards Progress (Document H). It was an area that social activists felt needed addressing. Lyman Beecher, a leading Presbyterian minister of the Second Great Awakening, lectured against the use of alcohol and co-founded the American Temperance Society, the first U.S. social movement organization to mobilize massive and national support for a specific reform cause. Within 12 years, it claimed more than 8000 local groups and 1,500,000 members. Many other Temperance societies popped up, such as the American Temperance Union and the States Delevan Union Temperance Society of Colored People, a temperance society headed by free blacks. The Temperance Movement first saw statewide success in Maine, where a total ban was placed on the manufacturing and sale of liquor. The Maine Law, as it became known as, was the work of Portland mayor Neal Dow, who gained the nicknames the â€Å"Father of Prohibition† and the â€Å"Napoleon of Temperance†. Dow was very involved in the temperance movement, having traveled much of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada speaking against intemperance. His Maine Law spawned other prohibition laws in the country. The Temperance Movement expanded democratic ideals by asking the government to govern the sale of alcohol, making the government more centralized. The Second Great Awakenings emphasis on t he ability of individuals to amend their lives caused many reform movements aimed at redressing injustice and alleviating suffering in society—a democratizing effect. Abolitionism was one such movement, and it to was led in part by leaders of the Second Great Awakening. It called the immediate ending of slavery, as opposed to the other anti-slavery positions of the time, Gradualism; which called for an end to slavery over time; and colonization; which relied on the manumission of slaves who would then be taken back to Africa. Lyman Beecher was also an Abolitionist, and more importantly the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Toms Cabin. The novel was the most influential piece of abolitionist literature and spread the Abolitionist message to millions of Americans. Charles Finney often spoke out against slavery from the pulpit and was involved in the abolitionist movement. Neal Dow was also a known abolitionist, his house was a stop on The Underground Railroad. Just like with the Temperance Movement, many Abolitionist societies formed, the most prominent being the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS). The AAS was founded by William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. Garrison was in support of immediate emancipation of the slaves and their integration into American society. He also believed that slave owners should not be reimbursed for their â€Å"lost property†. Wendell Phillips became a frequent speaker at AAS conventions after witnessing the attempted lynching of Garrison by a pro-slavery mob in 1835. He went on to write many pamphlets and essays against slavery. Sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimke became well known anti-slavery speakers and writers. They came from a slave-owning white family in the South and spoke from experience on the evils of slavery. Angelina married fellow abolitionist and mentor Theodore Weld. Weld spoke out against slavery until he lost his voice in 1837. He then focused on writing for the AAS. In 1839, he and the Grimkà © sisters co-wrote the pivotal book American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witn esses. Many historians regard Weld as the most important figure in the abolitionist movement. Escaped slave Frederick Douglass went around the country speaking at AASS conventions and at other events about the things he personally experienced as a slave. He published the North Star, an aboltionist newspaper that got its name from the North Star which guided slaves to freedom in the North. Escaped slaves Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth also became speakers and leaders in the Abolitionist Movement. Tubman helped over 300 slaves escape from the South on the Underground Railroad and became friends with Douglass. Truth also became friends with Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. The abolitionist movement promoted democratic ideals as it tried expand freedom and equality to the slaves. Women were heavily involved with the Temperance and Abolitionist movements, and many of them went on to work with the Womens Rights Movement. For many women, and as shown in Document C, the two causes were intertwined because they work for their own liberty as well. The role of women in the household had begun to change with the ongoing Industrial Revolution. A group of young single women known as Lowell girls worked in factories. In the middle and upper classes, women became the moral and spiritual leaders of their households, known as the Cult of Domesticity. Along with speaking on temperance and abolition, some women began speaking on womens rights at conventions. One such woman was Lucretia Mott. She was focused mostly on womens rights, publishing her influential Discourse on Woman and founding Swarthmore College. She became a Quaker minister, and was noted for her speaking ability. She advocated the boycotting the products of slave labor. She was an early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society. She worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the two women organized the first womens rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. At the convention, Stanton stated that they were assembled to â€Å"declare our right to be free as man is free† (Document I) and presented the Declaration of Sentiments, a document written by Stanton and based on the form of the Declaration of Independence. It declared that men and women were equal and that women had no representation since they couldnt vote. Frederick Douglass, who was in attendance at the convention and helped pass the resolutions in the Declaration of Sentiments called the document the â€Å"grand basis for attaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women†. The Grimke sisters, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth were also suffragists. The Womens Rights Movement expanded democratic ideals because it pushed for equality and the right to vote for women. Another reform started during this period was an education reform. The education reform was pushed by increasing interest in public education because the growing number of voters and immigrants and a desire to maintain social order. It was largely the works of Massachusetts School Board Secretary Horace Mann. Most states adopted one version or another of the system he established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers. He pushed for more public support of public schools arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nations unruly children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens. He has been called the â€Å"Father of the Common School Movement and the â€Å"Father of American Public Education†. His schools and other schools around the country used McGuffey Readers; document e is a selection from one; as textbooks. There were different books for each learning level.

Cosmetic products

Cosmetic products 1. Introduction Cosmetic products are very important in human life due to the improvement of the living standards. And by bringing the products to potential customers, cosmetic advertisements are quite popular in all means of media. Actually, cosmetic advertisers bring the products to customers in different ways which depend mostly on who the customers are. In other words, they design different advertisements of the same product to target different groups of viewers, namely men and women. The differences among such advertisements motivate me to do a small-scaled research on one of the factors that lead to such different features: the languages used in those advertisements. In more details, this essay aims to examine if any gender-based linguistic differences can be utilized in cosmetic advertisements with the purpose of targeting and influencing viewers of different genders by answering the following research questions: Why do advertisers need more than one advertisement for ONE same product? Is language one of the most important differences (among other differences like characters, language, other advertising techniques †¦) between the two kinds of advertisements? Then why and how important is it in making such difference? 2.Theoretical background In this section, a general view of advertising and gender differences will be introduced in order to provide a basic background to answer the very first research question before the main focus of the essay is discussed about further details of language use in advertisements. A special attention is paid on the theory of gender differences in language use in advertisements, which will be examined in seven different advertisements for Clear Shampoo in the later part of the essay. 2.1. An overview of advertising Nowadays, businesses and manufacturers are actually aware of the great importance of advertising their products or services since a successful advertisement can bring them great profits whereas an unfortunate commercial can lead them to bankruptcy (Sadek-Endrawes, 2008). Thus, businesses and manufactures always try their best to find out ways to design the best advertisements for their products and services with the utilization of effective techniques. Those techniques then are used as tools to attract attention, â€Å"engage minds, trigger emotions and change what people think† (adcracker.com a famous website for tips, tools and techniques to create world-class advertising ideas). Among them are special metaphors (a symbolic representation for the product), promises of benefit or problem solving, offers of free samples, features of human-like and life-like, features of â€Å"eye candy†, etc. Writers from adcracker.com also believe that it might be useful to choose or create their own characters who are put in some special situations, for example conflicts, which can be exaggerated. But the most and foremost important techniques that all advertisement designers need to know are the techniques of choosing the target viewers and language wisely and correspondingly. That is the reason why there are sometimes more than one advertisements designed for only one single product. 2.1.1. Language use as a powerful advertising technique It is obvious that language plays a vital role in the society in general and in everyones life in particular. We use language of all kinds every day, if it is not to say, every moment to communicate with other people, to get ourselves and our own opinions expressed and vice versa to get the same things from others (Gyllgard, 2006). Mastering that communicative power of language, sensible advertisers seem to always try their best to utilize language as a powerful tool to influence the viewers. More specifically, they often try to use language quite distinctively in order to catch viewers attention (adcracker.com). For example, they sometimes play with words, use them out of context, and create new ones in order to help viewers remember a certain brand. Sometimes, those words become the famous slogan for the brand like Moving Forward for Toyota cars or Malaysia Truly Asia for Tourism in Malaysia. Language in advertisements is also used as internationalized (Sadek-Endrawes, 2008), which is expected to be beneficial in order to create same response from viewers of different countries in case the product comes into the global market. Another observation which is recorded by French researchers about language use in advertisements is that 50 percent of all words are supposed to be nouns and verbs. In conclusion, with the wise choice of language, advertisers can make outstanding effects on advertisement viewers. 2.1.2. Viewers targeted as an influential advertising technique Most advertisers know that advertising techniques have persuasive energy and that the strength of such persuasive energy is measured in several ways, but most importantly in relation to a target audience (adkracker.com). It is explained by adcracker.com that different target audience have different lifestyles, different attitudes, different feelings and emotions, which is consequently resulted in different behaviors. Thus, successful advertisers are often sensible in building adverts that can get people to take action or plant a belief in the minds of their prospective buyers by closely associating their adverts with the targeted viewers. It is also agreed by itvdictionary.com that the â€Å"personalization† to a group of target audience can lead to â€Å"greater awareness†. More specifically, in a ChoiceStream survey, they noted that 38% of respondents say that they are more willing to pay attention pay attention to such individually focused advertising. 2.2. An overview of gender difference 2.2.1. Gender difference in general Men and women are different in various aspects which can mainly be categorized into biological and social factors. Consequently, different terms are coined to show such differences, for example â€Å"sex† and â€Å"gender†. Sex is defined by Eckert and McConnell-Ginnet (2003:10) as a â€Å"biological categorization† which is based primarily on â€Å"reproductive potential† and â€Å"gender† is the â€Å"social elaboration† of biological sex. This means that â€Å"sex† is something fixed before birth (Thomas, 2004) with while â€Å"gender† is something that the social life shapes on us continuously in every pace of our life (Graddol and Swann, 1994:8). And it is believed and proved by many researches (Coates, 1993; Tannen, 1993; and Trudgill, 2000) that gender has a major influence on language use by a process named â€Å"socialization† (Tannen 1993:84) 2.2.2. Gender difference in language use As afore-mentioned, language is an important part of an individuals life which helps to form his/ her â€Å"social identity† (Gyllgard, 2006:1) by different â€Å"linguistic habits† which reflect different â€Å"individual biographies and experiences† (Graddol and Swann, 1994:5). Coates (1993:144) also claims that â€Å"when children adopt linguistic behavior considered appropriate to their gender they perpetuate the social order which creates gender distinctions† This means that language is among the most significant factors, bedsides social roles and social positions, that make great distinctions between men and women. Actually, it is observed that men and women use language differently in a â€Å"gender-appropriate† manner (Tannen, 1993:85) since they are small. In the following part of the paper, that different use of language by different genders will be discussed in three main aspects: (1) topic choices, (2) word choices and (3) manner of speaking Topic choices In terms of topic choices, men are believed to talk more about sports or other physical activities when they are small (Poynton, 1989) and about current concerns, about their strength and their dominance (Coulmas, 2005) when they grow up. Meanwhile, women are believed to spend time talking more on home activities, romance and fantasy worlds. Later in their life, they are considered to choose to talk about â€Å"nonsense† and â€Å"unimportant† personal topics (Gyllgard, 2006). Consequently, mens language is often considered as serious and important while womens is seen as trivial and easy to ignore (Coates, 1993). Word choices It is believed that women seem to be more careful about choosing words than men. And it is explained that this results from the different roles of the two genders in the society. Women are considered to have their first and foremost roles as caring the families and bringing up children. Consequently, they need to be careful with the words they use or otherwise they may set bad examples for their children. Also regarding word choices, in their works (Poyton, 1989 and Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 2003), researchers find that women use more intensifies (such as so and very), words of approximation (such as about and around), or inessential qualifiers (like really or so) than men. Women are also claimed to use more adjectives (including â€Å"empty† adjectives like cute and evaluative adjectives like wonderful) and adverbs. Furthermore, hedges and tag questions are found more in women language rather than mens in order to require confirmation or signal uncertainty respectively (Lak off, 1989). Manner of speaking With the same reasons of different social roles, in terms of manner of speaking, women seem to be more polite in speaking. Therefore, it seems that taboo language like slang or swear words are likely to be created and used by men rather than by women (Poyton, 1989). Lakoff (1989) also agrees with this by giving an example that women choose to use weaker expletives like oh dear or goodness instead of words like shit or damn. Meanwhile, Coates (1993) believes that the language used by women is collaboration-oriented with supportive comments to create and maintain relationship of â€Å"closeness† and â€Å"equality† while that used by men is competition-oriented in order to assert their positions of dominance. There are differences between men and womens language in other aspects, however, due to the limit of this essay, only three above-mentioned are chosen to be discussed in this section and to be examined in the later one. 3. Methodology and Data This study focuses on the difference between the languages used by men and women in different advertisements for one same product, namely Clear Shampoo, a very popular shampoo in Vietnam. Secondly, it will test whether the advertisers are successful in utilizing the difference between men and women language in order to target viewers of different genders by checking whether viewers of different genders can recognize which advertisement is for them or not. First of all, English versions of seven Clear Shampoo advertisements are selected to be the data for analyzing and those advertisements are chosen for several reasons. Firstly, shampoo is now an essential cosmetic product that people, regardless of their age, their social or financial status and certainly their gender, have to use in their daily life. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate the advertisements of such product. Secondly, it is found that there are several different advertisements of Clear Shampoo on television as well as on Youtube at the same time and it is presumed by the author that it may result from the advertisers purpose of targeting viewers of different genders. Consequently, with the help of Google search and Youtube website, seven advertisements of Clear Shampoo are collected and transcribed in the appendices of this essay for being analyzed. Differences among those advertisements will then be figured out by checking the above-mentioned theory and later used to group the seven advertisements into 3 groups: for men, for women and for both men and women. To make the research more reliable, the seven selected advertisements for Clear Shampoo are shown to 20 viewers of both genders who are non-native speakers of English but gain sufficient proficiency to understand the advertisements. Actually, they are Vietnamese teachers of English and students of some M.A. programs for English Linguistics or English Teaching Methodology. The viewers are asked to watch the seven advertisements and answer four following questions: Who does each advertisement target, men or women? What features of the advertisement tell you about its target viewers? Does language used in the advertisement one of those features? How does language tell you about the target viewers? 4. Data analysis and results The results of the interviews surprise the author when most of interviewees, after answering the first two questions, claim the features that inform them about the target viewers of the advertisements are mainly the models and images of the ads. Most of them only pay attention to the language of the advertisement after the third question.   However, they all realize the difference in the language used in the adverts and agree that the language used in adverts by men and women partly tell us about the target viewers. Thus, firstly, this section presents the gender differences in language used in seven Clear Shampoo advertisements which are grouped in differences in (1) choice of topic, (2) choice of word and (3) manner of speaking. Such differences are resulted from the data analysis which is based on the above-mentioned background and the opinions of the interviewees. 4.1 Choice of topic It is revealed by the advertisement analysis that male models talk about their confidence and show their strength as well as their dominance to others by facing the problems: †¦ Black is confident†¦. Confidence means no dandruff. (Appendix 1) †¦ Face it. †¦ Cover it. †¦ I deal with dandruff like man. (Appendix 4) or †¦Rage. Rage against her breath of fear. (Appendix 5) Meanwhile, female models talk about beautyas in: †¦ some beauty shampoos(Appendix 3) about their daily activities such as â€Å"combing† in appendix 3 or about their emotion and their perception as in: †¦ I love my hair. †¦ Im convinced. (Appendix 2) †¦ Convinced. I am. (Appendix 3) They also mention one fact that they often try to avoid the troubles they encounter: †¦ Hide it†¦ Cover it†¦ I keep it secret as any woman should. (Appendix 4) 4.2 Choice of words 4.2.1 Verb choice As male models choose to talk about their confidence, their strength as well as their dominance, they use words that help to express perfectly what they mean. Actually, they use strong verbs as â€Å"breath†, â€Å"move† and â€Å"sweat† in appendix 1 or â€Å"face†, â€Å"solve†, and â€Å"deal with† in appendix 4 or verbs that show their activeness as in †¦ I trust Clear. (Appendix 1) The verbs spoken by male voiceovers also have the same feature: â€Å"remove† and â€Å"prevent† the dandruff (appendix 5), or make the dandruff â€Å"go away† and â€Å"stay away† (appendix 7) so that â€Å"its all settled† (appendix 4). All those verbs bring to the audience the active position of the speakers, and thus, reveal their dominant positions. On the other hand, the verbs used by female models are quite different when they seem to display the defensive positions of the women †¦ Im convinced. (Appendix 2) †¦ Convinced. I am. (Appendix 3) or their avoidance solutions for dandruff by hiding it, covering it or keeping it secret (appendix 4). 4.2.2 Adjective choice As their concerns are different, female and male models choose different adjectives when they speak about their hair. For example, most male models and voiceovers use â€Å"black† to talk about their hair or the hair they want to have: †¦ I like black. Black is confident. Black looks good. (Appendix 1) †¦ From black into darkness †¦ and into the dark, the icy blackness follows. (Appendix 5) †¦ the seduction of black, the temptation of black. Its the closeness of black that you can only have†¦ Be black. (Appendix 6) At the same time, female models talk about the features of â€Å"soft†, â€Å"clean† and â€Å"beautiful† which are just suitable to describe female hair. †¦ Clear makes my hair soft and beautiful†¦.Just soft hair. (Appendix 2) †¦ Can your shampoo leave your hair soft and clean †¦ Clear takes it soft. †¦Just soft hair. (Appendix 3) 4.3 Manner of speaking The last but not least feature that 20 viewers and the author realize as the difference between the two genders is the way they speak. Female models talk with a collaborative orientation. They talk as if they want to share their experience with the audience whereas male models and voiceovers try to assert their positions of dominance by a competitive orientation. They talk about their dealing with dandruff (appendix 4), the collision of â€Å"sparks† and dandruff (appendix 5), their black â€Å"seduction† and â€Å"temptation† when they are dandruff free (appendix 6). The tendency of dominance is also expressed by their short imperative sentences which can be found more frequently in male models or voiceovers speech: †¦ Face it †¦ Solve it (Appendix 4) †¦ Rage, rage against her breath of fear. (Appendix 5) †¦ Make the season more seductive. Make it a Clear Black Valentines. Be board. Be Black. Move closer anytime. Have Clear Black Valentines. (Appendix 6) The first advertisement with the male model, Bi Rain, also offers another feature of male speech. That is the logic in thinking and speaking: †¦ Black is confident. Black looks good. Looking good means no dandruff. Confidence means no dandruff. Clear means no dandruff. With his logical speech, Bi Rain tries to convince the audience the close relationship among Clear, black, confident and looking good. And he seems successful with my interviewees. All in all, from the above analysis of the language used in seven adverts, it comes to a conclusion that advertisement No 1, 5 and 6 are targeted at men (although by what the author and the interviewees get from the adverts, 5 and 6 target at both men and women); advertisement No 2 and 3 are for women and the rest are targeted at both men and women. 5. Conclusion It can be seen from the results that the female language and male language used in seven Clear Shampoo advertisements follow tightly the theory that are presented in other researches on gender differences in language. However, the interviews with Vietnamese viewers who are non-native speakers of English reveal that what lead such viewers to the conclusion of target audience are not the language but the models and the images of the advertisements. The study also come to another conclusion that the advertisers, who are expected to pay attention to the language of advertising, an effective tool of persuasion, do not actually do so. And the results are the wrong target of the two advertisements number 5 and 6, which advertisers tend to target at both men and women (which can be understood by the images of â€Å"white Clear† for women and â€Å"black Clear† for men) but actually target only at men if only language of the advertisements is analyzed.

On the Road to New York :: Personal Narrative Traveling Essays

On the Road to New York There is a funny thing that happens when you travel. The people are all the same. Sure they may talk with a slightly different accent, and they may dress just slightly differently, and may think just slightly differently. In the end they are basically the same thing, a human being. I recently took a trip. I was going to a conference in Ithaca NY. Round trip is approximately 3000 miles. Driving time is 20 hours one way. I drove it all by myself in as little time as possible. I ended up taking 24 hours to do it. It is quite a rigorous challenge to do it all in one shot. I can classify the terrain into basically three things that you see: plains, woods, and hills. Sometimes you would see an area that combined woods and hills, but that was usually in a mountainous area. Along the whole route you would switch back and forth between these three characteristics. ND and eastern MN are plains. Central and Western MN and Wisconsin are mostly heavy woods with some lakes. On the plains the highway was pretty straight. Once you got to the woody areas, curves like no ones business. In Wisconsin the trees were son think that they had to cut a swath out just for the interstate crossovers that the HP use to change directions. This patch that was cut out was about fifty meter long. There was a patch of asphalt that was thrown down between the two highways which were about 30 meters apart. The green tops of the evergreens contrasted with the light brown tree trunks which extended up at least 60 feet. There were some small patches of green grass that filled in betwee n the trees and the concrete of the highway. Every fifth exchange a brown Highway Patrol car with a pale yellow stripe down the middle and a low profile light bar would be sitting waiting for the next speeder. Maybe this helps them to blend in? Oddly enough my radar detector never went off. Were they just there to present the threat of being stopped? When I got out of Wisconsin Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania pretty much look like ND. When you get to Chicago however things take a very different turn. Everything turns into an industrial style. Concrete everywhere, toll booths every 25 miles or so, no seemingly familiar sites other than a slightly wider patch of concrete called the interstate.

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Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States whom represented the women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced military equipment and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military. The symbol of feminism and women's economic power was often amplified through Rosie the Riveter. "Rosie the Riveter" was a popular phrase first used in 1942 in a song of the same name written by Redd Evans. Auto factories were converted to build airplanes, shipyards were expanded, and new factories were built, and all these facilities needed workers. While the men were busy fighting in war, women were dominant in assistance. Companies took the idea of hiring women seriously. Eventually, women were needed because companies were signing large, lucrative contracts with the government just as all the men were leaving for the service. The various elements or figures of Rosie was based on a group of women, m ost of whom were named Rose. Many of these women named "Rose" varied in class, ethnicity, geography, and background diversity. One specially, who's had the biggest impact of all Rosie's was Rose Will Monroe. Rose Will Monroe, the most influential "Rosie" at the time, represented women during World War II by working most of her time in a Michigan factory. Primarily, in December 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and was the time span with full integration of the United States. As a result, the U.S military proliferated male work force to accumulate ranks. America was in desperation for factory out out and military equipment increased. Many adversities agencies, one specifically J.Walter Thompson, assisted the United States government with c... ...n everywhere. The song truly hit how America was at the time. The pain verse of the song goes,"that little frail girl can do/more than a man can do." Long before she was a sensational Hollywood star, Marilyn "Rose" Monroe served as a "Rosie" at just the age of nineteen. Marilyn Monroe worked at a Radioplane Munition factory. A famous photographer named David Conover had a job of capturing pictures of women working on the workforce. Conover came across Marilyn Monroe and was captured by her beauty. Eventually as time escalated, Marilyn Monroe began modeling as a military work woman and soon her fame began to arise. Marilyn Monroe helped expose the need for women in the workfare at the time. In light of Rosie the Riveter, Rose Will Monroe, the most influential "Rosie" at the time, represented women during World War II by working most of her time in a Michigan factory.

Is the Importance of Being Earnest a Satirical Play? Essay

With the definition of a satire being, ‘the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity’, it is ludicrous to even propose that The Importance of Being Earnest is anything other than a satirical play, as the characters relishing in the upper class of the Victorian period unknowingly mock their own habits acquired to them due to the luxury they are spoilt with. Despite this, it is evident that the use of satire is feckless and lacks a moral point of view, in contrast with the moral point expressed through satire in other Victorian plays such as Mrs Warren’s Profession, which ‘exposes the corruption and hypocrisy of the ‘‘genteel’’ class’. Ergo, we acknowledge that the play is an ‘invention of a truly serious work of triviality has neither ancestors nor descendants’ and was unique to its genre at that period of time, yet the frivolousness of the plot results in à ¢â‚¬Ëœthe audience freely and genuinely laughs without quite being sure what it is laughing at’ – hence The Importance of Being Earnest is indisputably satirical, but a satire that has lost its sting. Lady Bracknell’s view of marriage is expressed through her account of visiting Lady Harbury, ‘I hadn’t been there since her poor husband’s death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger’; she implies marriage is a burden and that life is only regained once freedom from marriage is embraced. Such opinions are heavily satirical and ironic as Lady Bracknell is herself married, and so by praising the widower she mocks herself. It is evident from this that Wilde is ridiculing the epitomes of the upper class and their absurd attitudes to marriage, however the ‘ridiculousness of portrayed by Wilde in the play, especially when the arranged marriage idea is summed up by Lady Bracknell, ‘An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be’’ illustrates how deficit the satire is of a moral point of view, as Lady Bracknell continues to protest that Gwendolen will proceed with an arranged marriage despite the cruelness of her intentions. ‘The women are portrayed as sheltered, uneducated, and some as dominating figures over the men in their lives’ Jamie Crawford’s interpretation of the role of women in The Importance of Being Earnest alludes that the behaviour of the female characters is exceedingly antipodal to what would be expected in the Victorian era, ‘A wife’s duties to tend to her husband were considered crucial cornerstones of social stability by the Victorians’. There is strength to this argument as conveyed by Cecily’s language when addressing Algernon, ‘‘Oh don’t cough Earnest. When one is dictating one should speak fluently and not cough. Besides, I don’t know how to spell a cough†. The juxtaposition of Cecily instructing Algernon in order to appear domineering â€Å"Oh don’t cough Earnest† and her rebellion against receiving an education â€Å"I don’t know how to spell a cough† elaborates the unortho dox nature of the female characters Wilde has incorporated. Thereupon, Wilde’s portrayal of the relationships between men and women in The Importance of Being Earnest is majorly satirical of the conventional, as by reversing the roles of authority it derides the power men traditionally uphold over women. On the contrary, Robert J. Jordan implies Wilde’s use of satire when illustrating social differences between men and women has ‘lost it’s sting’ as the question suggests, by reason of ‘even if this satiric device is structural in the play it can hardly be a satire of great power, as the attitudes to women were modernising significantly at the period the play was written’. Consequently we observe Wilde’s failing in presenting a satirical view of women’s role in Victorian society – he was simply delineating the changes he perceived around him, thus supporting Eduoard Roditi’s interpretation and questioning whet her The Importance of Being Earnest belongs to a different genre of comedy. Previous to Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Victorian comedies consisted mostly of high and low comedy and of ‘dirty or vulgar jokes, dirty gestures, and sex’. Hence, it is possible to suggest that contradictory to Edouard Roditi’s interpretation, the Importance of Being Earnest carries a moral point of view in the fact it does not exploit sex or sexual preferences to effectuate drollery; Wilde provokes laughter through mistaken identities and the consequences of ‘bunburying’ perhaps to allude that his opinions it that sexuality is not a laughing matter. Providing this interpretation is true, it is acceptable to assume that the reasoning behind the negative criticisms the drama received when first written were due to the fact critics felt appalled that a piece of writing could prove successful without it consisting of any sexual nature and hence deemed The Imp ortance of Being Earnest as, ‘dull in comparison to other plays read over the years’. Howbeit, some critics state that ‘the word â€Å"earnest† became a code-word for homosexual, as in: â€Å"Is he earnest?†, in the same way that â€Å"Is he so?† and â€Å"Is he musical?† were also employed’, suggesting that The Importance of Being Earnest is an expression of Wilde’s hatred for marriage and his fondness of homosexuality as he praises the idea of being Earnest’. This undoubtedly contradicts the idea that the drama is unique from other plays of it’s time in the fact it lacks sexual content, and indicates that whilst The Importance of Being Earnest may carry the ‘tone of satire’ as Roditi’s argument suggests, it incontrovertibly is a form of Blue Comedy, as the moral tone traditionally associated with satirical comedy is not present, Wilde is forcing his opinions on the reader without a sufficient moral behind his beliefs. The fact the Importance of Being Earnest consists of 3 acts implies a significant beginning, middle and ending where previous feuds have been resolved and each character is content. If we are to consider the drama as conforming to a ‘traditional’ Victorian play which ‘tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart’, what is evidently untraditional of The Importance of Being Earnest is the rewarding of characters that have committed wrong doings –supporting Edouard Roditi’s interpretation that the drama ‘lacks a moral point of view’. If we analogize The Importance of Being Earnest with An Ideal Husband, we note the significance of the final act of An Ideal Husband in delivering the moral that that the principles of Mabel and Goring’s relationship demand that they defy society and revolt against what is traditionally expected of a marriage in order to achieve happiness, a final act which The Importance of Being Earnest lacks. Accordingly, it was perhaps Wilde’ s intention to ensure that The Importance of Being Earnest was unique by refusing to incorporate morality in order to suggest that ‘true virtue is either dead, or is confined to the lower classes’, as supported by Algernon’s satirical comment, â€Å"They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility†. The relationship between Algernon and his servant Lane is a further example of Wilde dismantling social norms by ridiculing potent characters in their own domiciles. Lane ignorantly mimics Algernon when they are discussing marriage, as despite Algernon’s evident refusal to discuss the matter Lane continues to revive the conversation, â€Å"Is marriage so demoralizing?†¦I have only been married once†¦ I don’t know that I’m interested in your family life.. No, Sir. It is not a very interesting subject†, a witty satire of the traditional relationship of servant and master. Nevertheless the idea that satire throughout The Importance of Being Earnest has effectively ‘lost it’s sting’ is still prevalent in the persiflage of Algernon and Lane, as Algernon is a character that severely lacks depth; he is regularly mentioned as eating in the drama, â€Å"Eating as usual I see, Algy!† which infers that he yearns for something to fill a chimerical emptiness, possibly the lack of permanent company in his life as supported by Adam Ruhland’s interpretation, ‘Algernon’s readiness to lie about his food consumption reveals that he is well aware that he eats other people’s food when he feels cornered, stressed, or sad’. The fact Algernon is ‘well aware’ of his reliance on food to provide comfort delineates his ignorant attitude towards love and marriage. It is Lane’s willingness to provide Algernon with food that brings about the lack of a moral point of view to their satirical relationship and supports Edouard Roditi’s interpretation, as he is perceptive and observes Algernon’s piteous behaviour yet refuses to encourage a change in him. ‘The Importance of Being Earnest is above all an exercise in wit. There is nothing to be learned from it, no moral, no message’ defines Wilde’s play perfectly; it is a pointless facade that attempts to provide a satirical view of Victorian society, yet due to the willingness of characters to obey the restrictions accompanied with belonging to the upper class, fails miserably. Characters such as Miss Prism and Chasuble suggest the existence of another life beneath Victorian correctness through their flirtatious mannerisms, â€Å"I shall see you both no doubt at Evensong?† yet their refusal to further the ir relationship due to evident class differences, â€Å"I think, dear Doctor† depicts how Wilde’s satirical element has most definitely ‘lost its sting due to lack of moral point of view’; as the characters adhere to the conventions mocked by the satire, diminishing its efficacity. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Oxford University Press Definitions – http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/satire [ 2 ]. http://www.enotes.com/mrs-warrens-profession [ 3 ]. Roger Sale – The Hudson Review, Vol.56, No.3– Being Earnest. Published Autumn 2003 [ 4 ]. Roger Sale – The Hudson Review, Vol.56, No.3– Being Earnest. Published Autumn 2003 [ 5 ]. Satire & Wit in Oscar Wilde – by Danielle N.Baxley, published 28th March 2010 [ 6 ]. Point, Counterpoint, Thrust: Wilde’s Pun Burying in The Importance of Being Earnest by Jamie Crawford. [ 7 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Victorian_era [ 8 ]. Satire and Fantasy in Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Robert J. Jordan [ 9 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_in_the_Victorian_era – Theatre in the Victorian era published 18th February 2013. [ 10 ]. Samantha (Bookworms and Tea) – published March 29th 2011. [ 11 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest – Theo Aronson, Published 23rd Feb 2013. [ 12 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_literature – [ 13 ]. http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/earnest/background.htm – The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age, 2008. [ 14 ]. Adam Ruhland – The Role of Food in The Importance of Being Earnest [ 15 ]. The Importance of Being Earnest Review- Roger Ebert, May 24th 2002