Thursday, October 31, 2019

Reading reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Reading reflection - Essay Example This involves connecting the difference between the real and the imagined. In this respect, an individual is able to figure out what could be done in order to modify and correct the previous mistakes. Additionally it helps the writer to develop his or her intentions, draw relation with audience and set goals for revision. Furthermore reflection helps in organizing work to be written, that is, choosing topic which would attract readers, come up with ways to address readers appropriately. The reflective article provided, has an encouraging impressions. It gives details on reflection and encourages students to do reflections on their work. This improves the students writing skills and creativity. From the article it is learned that writing is not meant to please teachers or instructors. It should be done in a way that interests the writer. Additionally the article clearly show that reflection is not meant for students only but also for teacher in the process of helping their students. Furthermore the article gives encouragement for students not to give up as some perfect writers began as awkward

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The Meaning Of Family To The South Asian (Indian) Male Essay Example for Free

The Meaning Of Family To The South Asian (Indian) Male Essay The family is traditionally the core of all Asian societies. Decisions are often carried out while taking into consideration the immediate family, as well as the external family. But in the context of Asian society, the family â€Å"is not a particularly loving social unit.†[1] In most Asian societies, the family is used as a means of safeguarding property, continuing bloodlines and acquiring more wealth.[2] Indian society is one such example wherein this reality exists. Sons are granted preferential treatment over their sisters, because the former is expected to run the family business and continue the family name. In addition, customs such as the dowry system provide instant fortune to a groom’s family. The Indian male, therefore, views the family as a venue wherein he can exercise control and obtain material prosperity. This belief is not without cultural reinforcements. Friends and relatives exclaim congratulations whenever a baby boy is born to Indian parents. In Indian society, a son is regarded as insurance[3] – he will inherit his father’s property and will help support the family by getting a job. In sharp contrast, daughters are seen as additional expenses[4] – their only place is in the home. The bias against daughters is deeply ingrained in Indian culture that people in some parts of India use the expression â€Å"The servant of your household has been born†[5] when greeting a family with a newborn daughter. In the Indian family, the father is the provider and the dominant authority figure. He must treat his wife like a servant and be stern and aloof towards his children. The wife, on the other hand, must be loyal, obedient and subservient to her husband. She is supposed to tend to his needs like a faithful and devoted servant. Such a rigid and hierarchical family structure often leaves wives feeling neglected and abused. To get rid of these sentiments, they lavish all their attention to their sons.[6] In doing so, they become the provider and the dominant authority figures in their respective families.[7] The Indian mother gives her baby, especially if it is a boy, constant nurturing. The baby is constantly handled, overindulged and is responded to at every whimper. Growing up, male Indian children are made to believe that they deserve to be the center of attention simply because of their gender. Their mothers exempt them from chores, as the former regards housework as a girl’s job. Upon reaching adolescence, male Indians are encouraged to prove their masculinity by drinking, smoking, gambling and having sex with prostitutes. This societal expectation is not without support from the family – there are cases when fathers and uncles are the ones who bring their sons and nephews to the brothel for their first sexual experience. Because of its overemphasis on indulging sons, the aforementioned child-rearing technique produces very irresponsible males. Pampered from infancy, most Indian men end up as wastrels, misusing the resources first of their mothers and later of their wives. Worse, they marry women who were raised to tolerate the capriciousness of their husbands. The conjugal family, as a result, is transformed into an extension of the husband’s immediate family. The wife, meanwhile, becomes the husband’s replacement for his mother – a woman who will cater to his every whim and will overlook even his most serious transgressions The wife has no choice but to accept and live with this situation – society dictates that she shifts her loyalty to her conjugal family upon marriage. Not only is she to take care of her husband; she is also to look after her parents-in-law. Indian parents-in-law, especially mothers-in-law, take advantage of this societal obligation by ensuring that the marriage of their sons will provide their family with material benefits. The dowry system is one way of achieving this goal. Although it was already outlawed in India in 1961, the practice of paying and accepting dowry is still customary in the country. India’s illegal dowry system leaves women vulnerable to abuse and even murder. Every year, an estimated 25,000 women[8] in the country are maimed or killed over dowry disputes. Dowry-related crimes are often perpetuated by grooms and mothers-in-law who are not satisfied with the dowries that the bride’s family gave them. Victims of dowry murders are usually killed by being doused with kerosene and set aflame with a lighted match. The family of the groom will then say that the death was a â€Å"suicide† or a â€Å"kitchen accident.† Police are oftentimes bribed into corroborating the claim. Families who are able to afford very expensive dowries, on the other hand, are often left impoverished and with extremely heavy debts. In pre-colonial India, upper-caste families observed the dowry system in order to help defray marriage expenses and to enable the bride to live on her own should she leave an abusive marriage.[9] But the British introduced homogenized and codified laws into the country, resulting in male domination of the local economy.[10] Only men were allowed to own land and work outside the home. In the process, boys gained higher social worth than girls. These social, political and economic conditions led to the transformation of the dowry system from a wedding gift to a form of payment[11] to a man for marrying a woman. Because Indian women were no longer capable of owning land or working outside the home, parents wanted to do away with their daughters as early as possible. As a result, they lured potential husbands with expensive dowries. The families of these men, on the other hand, viewed the dowry system as an opportunity to pay off heavy land taxes that the British imposed on them.[12] Dowries took on a new form in the 20th century. During this period, families of prospective grooms demanded costly dowries in order to keep up with the consumerist lifestyle associated with capitalism.[13] To convince families of potential brides into paying, Indian men, particularly those from the upper classes, capitalize on their eligibility, social prowess and caste.[14] The higher the qualifications and the caste, the higher the dowry required. Indian families regard marriage to a higher caste as the fastest way to social advancement.[15]

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Boracay Tourist Attractions

Boracay Tourist Attractions According to Tourism Philippines, Boracay is famous for its long white sandy beaches, and is also a popular outlet for water sports activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, sailing etc. Other than the sandy beaches, Boracay is well known for the nightlife and party scene. There are numerous bars and clubs along the whole stretch of beach, mostly located at station 2 of Boracay. Spas are also readily at most places; you can even find freelance masseurs patrolling the beaches! (Tourism Philippines, 2008, Retrieved From: http://tourism-philippines.com/boracay-travel-guide/) According to corporate.mozcom.com, The best part of the island is its 4 km. White Beach, also called long beach by the locals. It is situated at the west coast between the villages of Angol and Balabag, and some experienced travellers claim it to be the finest beach of all Asia. The water is shallow here and its sand brighter and finer than most beaches in the archipelago. There are about 350 beach resorts with 2000 rooms to suit virtually everyones taste. There is accommodation of all types and price categories. Restaurants range form the native fastfood stalls to establishments that would satisfy even a gourmet. You can find beer joints as well as discos with amazing light and sound equipment. (corporate.mozcom.com, n.d, Retrieved From: http://corporate.mozcom.com/dot/r6/borfacts.html) Nestor P. Burgos Jr. of the Philippine Daily Inquirer states that, DISCERNING travelers and tourists prefer destinations off the beaten track. But many of them still end up in the world-famous beach of Boracay Island in Aklan. This is because of its white beach and fine white sand and crystal clear waters, according to Edwin Trompeta, regional director for Western Visayas of the Department of Tourism. The beach and waters combined with the islands nightlife make Boracay irresistible, he says. Despite controversies on land ownership and unregulated development, Boracay has drawn more tourists every year because of its famous white beach, consistently included in the lists of the best beaches in the world. Furthermore, the global economic slump has failed to dampen tourist arrivals with new foreign markets and local tourists making up for the slack in visitors from countries hit hard by the world recession. As a matter of fact, tourist arrivals on the island have been on the upswing for a decade. They are up from 554,181 tourists in 2006, 596,707 in 2007, 634,263 in 2008 and 649,559 last year. For the first five months of this year, tourist arrivals have grown by 12 percent, according to data from the tourism office of Malay town in Aklan. Boracays peak season usually begins in October and lasts until May the following year From January to May 2010, tourist arrivals reached 378,694, higher than the 337,664 tourists who visited the island in the same period last year and the 320,994 tourists who came in 2008. The highest number was recorded in May with tourist arrivals reaching 101,349, higher than the 92,813 tourists in the same month in 2009 and 83,731 in 2008. More than 600,000 local and foreign tourists visited the white sand beaches and various parts of Boracay during the period, more than 40 percent higher than the 2009 figure of around 470,000. DOT 6 said they have recorded more than 230,000 foreign tourists in the island as of early October. This is good news amid the various travel advisories issued by several countries against visiting in the Philippines, the DOT 6 said. The United States, Australia and United Kingdom had earlier issued advisories as precautions in traveling to the country in the wake of reported terror threats. The tourism of Boracay is continuing to grow in fact, The News Today states that, Boracays revenue, mainly due to tourism, has reached P 12.17 billion as of the third quarter, higher compared to last years figures. Income from tourism in Boracay from January to May reached P6,961,683.28. (Burgos, 2010, Retrieved From: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20100814-286677/Boracay-tourism-still-up-amid-woes) Tourist Attractions and Activities in Boracay According to travelnet.com, Boracay is famous for the following: Beaches / White Beach Boracay boasts of a sugary white sand beach and azure blue waters. The best part of the island is the four-kilometer White Beach known to be the finest beach in the world. The surrounding water is shallow and the sand is finer and brighter than most beaches in the archipelago. White Beach is so, soooo fine, it feels like treading on miles of baby powder! Aquasports The island paradise of Boracay is a perfect place for watersports. Here, you can partake in a smorgasbord of exhilirating aqua action from swimming and snorkeling to scuba diving, windsurfing, sailboating, kayaking, boardsailing, and boating. Nature Tripping / Eco-Adventure World-renowned Boracay is an adventure island ideal for island hopping, hiking, trekking, caving, mountain climbing, biking, and horseback riding. Trekking and mountain biking can bring even the intrepid to the islands quaint interior villages and to the edges scenic rocky cliffs, discovering along the way many hidden coves with isolated beaches far from the  tourist crowd. Boardsailing at Bulabog Beach On the eastern side of Boracay Island is Bulabog Beach. It is a boardsailors mecca that draws enthusiasts from all over the world, especially during the peak season from November to March. In January, it is the site of an International Funboard Cup. Paraw Regatta Sailboating and kayaking are popular sporting activities, with Boracay playing host to the annual Paraw Regatta, an international sailboat race that makes use of the native outrigger. Diving Dive sites surround the island and are learning venues to both novice and professional divers, guided by competent instructors of the many dive shops that operate in the area. For trueblue scuba diving enthusiasts, Yapak in Boracay is a great deep dive. Recreational Sports Laid-back Boracay is the perfect venue for golf, tennis, bowling, even beach volleyball. Top-of-class amenities for these activities are available in the island. For golf bugs, Fairways and Bluewater Resort Golf and Countryclub has an 18-hole championship course. Partyhopping The code in Boracay is strictly informal. Walking barefoot than shod is the rule rather than the exception. Swinging discos have the beach for a floor, giving dance a new twist. From dusk to dawn, the island turns into one big party place where everyone is welcome to join in. Mambo Number 5 For the adventure-driven, Mambo Number 5 is a little bit of boating and wind surfing, a little bit of scuba diving, a little bit of trekking, a little bit of mountain biking, and a little bit of golf. Shopping Bargain shopping is a joy of a diversion while in Boracay. Souvenir pieces provide endless possibilities, from trinkets and native accessories made of shells and semi-precious stones to exotic or contemporary beach wear and fashion artworks. Dining The taste of the 6th Region, to which Boracay belongs, is quite simple. Charbroiled chicken is common fare. Another favorite dish is raw fish marinated in spicy vinegar. Dining is no problem in Boracay, with most resorts having their own restaurants that serve both Filipino and international cuisines. Small snack bars line the island. Relaxation Diversions are not a problem in Boracay, with leisure activities calendared throughout the year and amenities offered by some 350 tourist establishments. The island is ideal for beachbumming, relaxing, and simply lazing around. At the end of the day, unwind with a relaxing massage. The island never runs out skilled masseurs offering massage services by the beach. For a more luxurious treat, visit the new Mandala Spa. Boracay Boardsailing The picture-perfect tropical island of Boracay offers flat-water speed sailing, wave jumping, and longboard cruising. White Beach, shielded from the amihan, or northeast monsoon, is for beginners. Bulabog Beach, on the other side of the island, has ideal conditions for speed, slalom, and high-wind shortboard sailing. It is also the site of the annual Boracay International Funboard Cup. Tabon Strait has superb high-performance sailing, but there is a real risk of being swept away, so this site is for skilled sailors only. Tibiao Whitewater River Rising near the peak of Mt. Madja-as, the Tibiao River descends almost 2000m on its short but tumultuous journey to the sea. The lower section of the river, known as the Chicken Run, is grade 3; the more difficult upper section reaches grade 4. The Tibiao has all the classic features of a tropical whitewater river, with rich vegetation hemming the banks, views of rice terraces, spectacular falls and clear water. The river is close to Boracay and easily accessible. Natural Formations Beaches / White Beach Boracay boasts of a sugary white sand beach and azure blue waters. The best part of the island is the four-kilometer White Beach known to be the finest beach in the world. The surrounding water is shallow and the sand is finer and brighter than most beaches in the archipelago. White Beach is so, soooo fine, it feels like treading on miles of baby powder! Festivals Ati-Atihan (second weekend of January) January is the time to hang loose in Kalibo, the Land of the Atis and the gateway to Boracay. For all of three days, it celebrates the Ati-Atihan Festival where frenzied streetdancing is performed by costumed and black-sooted tribes as they wend through the main streets from dawn until the witching hours. Ati-Atihan commemorates the 13th-century land deal between ten migrating Bornean chieftains and the aboriginal Ati King Marikudo. It also honors the town patron, the infant Santo Nià ±o. To the accompaniment of hundreds of lyres and drums, merrymakers throw all inhibitions to the wind as they join the tribes in a mad jig punctuated by rhythmic shouts of: Hala bira! Puera pasma! Hala bira! Viva Santo Nià ±o! (Loosely translated: Let go! Dont get sick! Let go! Hail the Holy Child!) Paraw Regatta Yearly, Boracay Island plays host to the Paraw Regatta, an international sailboat race that  makes use of the native outrigger. International Funboard Cup A music and dance festivity depicting the history, folklore, and traditions of the Lobocanons. Bolibong Kingking is a term applied to the drums and gongs and their rhythm used to accompany the supplication dance ritual in front of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the 2nd Patron of Loboc. Pana-ad sa Loboc (Holy Thursday Good Friday) Bulabog Beach, situated on the eastern side of Boracay Island, is a boardsailors mecca that draws enthusiasts from all over the world. Every January, it is the site of an International Funboard Cup. Marketing Boracay A study was undertaken for the International Finance Corp. (IFC) by a team of Filipino and German consultants  to improve and develop Boracay to make it a world-class tourist destination. According to this study, the plan is achievable and through this, the island of Boracay can compete with other world-renowned beaches like those in Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. The plan is to redesign the marketing strategy to make the island more visible and accessible to tourists from around the world, declared IFC Country Manager Vipul Bhagat. Boracay is presented as a haven of good investment opportunities, paying attention to strategic tourism marketing and promotion so as to invite and persuade more tourists into visiting the island. The study emphasizes the major changes which are intended to be done and implemented to develop, sustain and make Boracay a major destination for big-ticket tourism. These changes include the transfer of solid waste management facility from Boracay to Caticlan; the construction of low-cost mainland housing to ease migration and congestion in Boracay; improved transport facility between Boracay and Caticlan; development of Caticlans airport and marina; a Caticlan-based full service hospital to respond to emergencies, and; an agro-industrial center in Caticlan with ice and cold storage facilities and a public market. Issues like migration, zoning, lack of health facilities and medical personnel, visual and noise pollution, solid waste and water management, energy supply and intra- and inter-island transport are also addressed. In addition, the building of educational facilities offering tourism-related services, environmental management and eco-tourism in Caticlan was also recommended to raise the awareness of the locals to continue preserving, sustaining and developing the island that is considered as one of the Philippines most treasured and precious natural resources. .   To start with the marketing and strategic management development, the IFC conducted a web marketing seminar for local officials and businessmen to improve and hone their skills and utilize the use the Internet to market Boracay and improve and build-up its image. A separate forum for potential investors was also held in Manila.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Critical Analysis of War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy :: English Literature

Critical Analysis of War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy In his darkroom he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows, as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass. He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands which did not tremble then though seem to now. Rural England. Home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, to fields which don't explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat. Something is happening. A stranger's features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries of this man's wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust. A hundred agonies in black-and-white From which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively where he earns his living and they do not care. Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. She grew up in Staffordshire and went to university in Liverpool. Having spent some time in London as a freelance writer, she now lives in Manchester. She has won many prizes and several awards for her poetry. Her poems, she says, 'come from my everyday experience, my past/memory and my imagination. People and characters are fascinating to me'. Many of her poems are based on true experiences and real people. In the 1970s Carol Ann Duffy was friendly with Don McCullin, a famous photographer whose photographs of war were widely published and respected. Her poem, "War Photographer", (from Standing Female Nude, 1985), is based on conversations she had with him. The poem works on a very personal level - it is based on the authentic experience of a war photographer - and on a much wider level, saying something about the views and attitudes within our society concerning things that happen much further away. People are glad to distance themselves from the harsh realities of war whilst keeping themselves informed of, and superficially sympathetic to these real life situations. The structure of this poem supports this dichotomy in that there are two contrasting worlds: the world of war zones ("Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.") and the calmer world of "Rural England". The war photographer is the man who goes between these two worlds. The safe world of England is signified by the cliche of a typical Sunday: "The bath and pre-lunch beers" while the horror of war is expressed through

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Economics and monopoly introduction Essay

Characteristics: Single seller: One firm produces all the output of a particular product No close substitutes: Product is unique and if consumers want to buy it they must buy from the monopolist. Price maker: Since the monopolist is the sole supplier of the product, it can change the price by changing output. The firm faces a downward sloping demand curve, so increasing output lowers the price, decreasing output increases the price. The firm will set a price that maximizes its profits. Blocked entry: Entry to the market is totally blocked, meaning the firm has no immediate competitors. Barriers to entry may be economies of scale, legal, technological or another type. Nonprice competition: Since it has no competitors a monopolist cannot compete on price. Therefore, to attract new consumers the firm must engage in non-price competition such as advertising and public relations campaigns to promote its product’s attributes. Examples of Monopolies? www. welkerswikinomics. com 3 Unit 2. 3. 3 Pure Monopoly Monopoly Demand as seen by a Monopolist. Three assumptions: 1) Entry is totally blocked 2) The monopolist is unregulated by any government so can charge whatever price it wants. 3) The firm is a single price seller. It sells all units of output at the same price. †¢ A monopolist faces a downward sloping Demand curve. The firm D curve is the market D curve! †¢ A monopolist can sell additional output only by lowering its price (due to the law of demand). †¢ A monopolist must lower the price of all of its output, not just the marginal units, since it is a single-price seller. †¢ As a result, as output increases, the firm’s marginal revenue falls faster than the price. www. welkerswikinomics. com 4 Unit 2. 3. 3 Pure Monopoly Monopoly Demand as seen by a Monopolist Demand and Marginal Revenue Q 0 1 P1 2 3 4 5 P2 6 7 8 9 P3 10 P 172 162 152 142 132 122 112 102 92 82 72 TR=PxQ) 0 162 304 426 528 610 672 714 736 738 720 Demand and MR for a Monopolist P MR=? TR/? Q P1 P2 P3 D=AR=P Q1 Q2 Q3 Q MR Based on the above graph, over which range of output would a monopolist NEVER produce? Why? What information is needed to determine the profit maximizing level of output for this monopolist? www. welkerswikinomics. com 5 Unit 2. 3. 3 Pure Monopoly Monopoly Demand as seen by a Monopolist Elasticity and the monopoly Demand curve: †¢ Identify the elastic range of the demand curve. †¢ Identify the inelastic range of the demand curve. P Demand and MR PED>1 P1 PED=1 Question: Why won’t a monopolist ever produce at a level of output where it is in the inelastic range of its demand curve?

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Creative Photography Module

What makes a photographer influential? Photographers capture emotion, represent stories, and convey history. If you look at portraits of modern celebrities, you are likely to come across the name Annie Leibniz. She has taken portraits of everyone from John Lennox and Queen Elizabeth II to Michael Jackson and Bill Gates. Her photographs have appeared in a number of different fashion and music magazines over the course of her career. Leibniz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1949. Her father was a member of the UnitedStates Air Force, and the family moved frequently around the world. It was in the Philippines that Leibniz took some of her first photographs, and her interest in art and music flourished in high school. Returning to the United States after living in Israel, Leibniz took a Job with Rolling Stone magazine. Her first cover image appeared on January 12, 1971, and she became the chief photographer for the magazine in 1973. For the next ten years, her style of photographing celebrities helped to define not only the magazine that she worked for, but also the style of portraits that appeared in other magazines and mediums.In the sass, Leibniz left Rolling Stone and went to work for Vanity Fair, continuing to photograph celebrities for the magazine. Leibniz continues to photograph celebrities, producing often- talked-about portraits. 1 1. 2 Ansell Adams Ansell Adams is credited with moving photography into the realm of fine art. Known for his black and white photographs of the western United States, Adams took landscape photographs that brought remote places to people long before travel was possible and highlighted environmental concerns. Ansell Adams, born in February 1902 in San Francisco, California, was an only child.Drawn to nature at an early age, e explored the sea coast and collected insects. He was also trained as a concert pianist. During a family trip to Yosemite National Park, Adams' father gave him a Kodak Brownie camera, beginning his love for photography. Adams returned to the park the following year to do more photography. He learned darkroom techniques by working part time for a photo finisher. At seventeen, Adams Joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving natural spaces, and spent several summers as the caretaker for its lodge in the Yosemite Valley.In 1921, Adams sold his first photographs. Despite experimenting with different photograph techniques, Adams referred realism. In 1927, he completed his first portfolio and earned about $3,900, which led to commercial assignments for portraits. By 1931, Adams had his first solo museum exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution that featured sixty photographs he had taken of the Sierra Mountains. With Edward Weston, M. H. De Young Museum, and Imagine Cunningham, Adams formed Group f/64, with a commitment to â€Å"straight† photography instead of artistic interpretation.The name came from the small aperture setting (f/64) which gave the greatest depth of field for a photograph. Adams also opened his own photography gallery in San Francisco. One of Adams' contributions to photography was the development of his Zone System. The Zone System was a way of adjusting the exposure in a photograph to maximize shadows and highlights. It separated the tones between white and black into eleven different zones that corresponded to an f/stop, with middle gray at the center. The system helped to correctly expose a photograph to avoid being under- or overexposed.A photographer would choose an area of the photograph, meter the area, and then adjust the exposure using the system to put the area of the photograph into the exposure that best measures the area. For example, if you are photographing a mountain scene, bright snow might be metered at a zone V (5), but you want it at a zone IX (9). Using the system, you would know to increase the f/stop by four f/stops to get the exposure that you want for the photograph. The Zone System was later applie d to color film and with digital images. 1 1. Edward Weston Edward Weston emphasized the beauty of natural form. His photographs reveal and focus on the natural form of a single item, taken in sharp detail. His photographs are among the most expensive ever sold. Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois in 1886. He received his first camera, a Kodak Bulls-Eye No. 2, as a present for his sixteenth birthday. He took the camera on a family vacation in the Midwest before buying a 5 x 7 camera and beginning to learn darkroom techniques. Soon, he was photographing Chicago parks and the areas around his aunt's farm.In 1906, he submitted a photograph to Camera and Darkroom, which published the photograph in a full-page reproduction. In 1906, Weston moved to California, but moved back to Illinois a year later to attend the Illinois School of Photography. After finishing the coursework, Weston again moved to California and began work in several hoteliers' studios, learning the busines s. In 1911, he opened â€Å"The Little Studio† and took photographs of children and friends, gaining recognition for his work. In the sass, Weston attention shifted to the everyday objects such as seashells, fruits, and vegetables.Weston began the â€Å"Edward Weston Print of the Month† to create income. For five dollars a month, subscribers received a limited edition print from his work. Success was minimal with only about eleven subscribers to the program. In 1937, Weston received the first ever Guggenheim Foundation grant for a photographer, which allowed Weston to travel and photograph. The following year, he received another grant and published Seeing California with Edward Weston, another publication of his travels, in 1939. The following year, California and the West was published.In 1945, Weston began to exhibit signs of Parkinson disease. By 1948, he was no longer physically able to use a camera but continued to exhibit his work and publish some of the photogr aphs that he had taken earlier in his life. He died in 1958. One of his favorite beaches, and the subject of many photographs in Point Lobos, California, was later renamed Weston Beach in his honor. 1 1. 4 Throated Lange Best remembered for her images of the Southern poor and those starting over in the West, Throated Lange documented the hard times of the Depression era and revealed social difficulties.Her iconic images have come to be the face of the Depression. Lange was born in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. After a childhood marked by polio, Lange became an informal apprentice in several New York photography studios. She moved to San Francisco in 1918 and opened her own studio. When the Great Depression hit the United States in the late sass, Lange was moved to document the people hardest hit by the financial crisis. She was hired by the Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration. Lane's photographic focus was the unemployed and homeless.In 1941, L ange worked for the War Relocation Authority to document the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans on the West Coast to relocation camps. She photographed the relocation process and the lives of the Japanese Americans in the camps, focusing most of her attention on Manager, one of the first permanent relocation camps in California. The government considered the photographs too critical of the relocation and impounded them; they are now available for viewing through the National Archives. After WI, Lange continued her work in photography with a slightly different position than her earlier social commentary work.Ansell Adams offered Lange a faculty position at the California School of Fine Arts, which had the first fine arts photography department. Lange also helped to co-found the photography magazine Aperture. In 1965, at the age of 70, Throated Lange died of esophageal cancer. As a woman, Lange also served as an inspiration for other female photographers working in a field that w as at that time dominated by men. 11. 5 Alfred Assassinated Called the â€Å"father of photojournalism,† Alfred Assassinated is known for his candid hotplates and spontaneous moments.Essentialist's most famous image is of a United States sailor in uniform kissing a woman in a white dress, taken on the day that World War II ended. Assassinated was born in Germany in 1898. His interest in photography began when he was given a Kodak camera at the age of fourteen. After serving in the German army during World War l, Assassinated began working as a freelance photographer. He sold his first photograph in the sass and began taking photographs for the agency that would become the Associated Press in 1928. In 1935, Assassinated immigrated to the United States, as Germany became more oppressive awards Jews.He would reside in New York for the rest of his life and work for Life magazine for more than thirty-five years. During his career, Assassinated photographed musicians, politicians, writers, and royalty. But his candid photographs, often of unknown people, became his legacy and illustrated the need to be ready to capture spontaneous moments. Assassinated said, â€Å"l still use, most of the time, existing light and try not to push people around. I have to be as much a diplomat as a photographer. People often don't take me seriously because I carry so little equipment and make so little fuss. †

Monday, October 21, 2019

1984 Quotes Explained

1984 Quotes Explained George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was written as a response to what he saw as the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian thinking in the world both before and after World War II. Orwell foresaw how the combination of control over information (such as the constant editing of documents and photos under Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union) and constant efforts at thought control and indoctrination (such as that practiced under Chairman Mao’s ‛cultural revolution’ in China) could result in a surveillance state. He set out to demonstrate his fears with the novel that has permanently changed the way we discuss the subject of freedom, giving us words like ‛Thoughtcrime’ and phrases like ‛Big Brother is watching you.’ Quotes About Control of Information Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth, where he alters the historical record to match the Party’s propaganda. Orwell understood that control of information without the objective check on such power provided by a free press would allow governments to essentially change reality. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it ... And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable†¦what then? Orwell took inspiration from a real event in Russia where the communist party celebrated reaching a production goal in four years instead of five by proclaiming that the workers had made 225. In this quote he notes that we only ‛know’ things that have been taught to us, and thus our reality can be changed. In Newspeak there is no word for Science. Newspeak is the most crucial concept in the novel. It is a language designed to make disagreement with the Party impossible. This goal is achieved by eliminating all vocabulary and grammatical constructions that could be construed as critical or negative. For example, in Newspeak, the word bad does not exist; if you wanted to call something bad, you would have to use the word ungood. Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in ones mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. Doublethink is another important concept Orwell explores in the novel, because it makes the Party members complicit in their own oppression. When one is able to believe two conflicting things to be true, truth ceases to have any meaning outside what the state dictates. Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. People represent history through their own memories and identities. Orwell is careful to note the vast generation gap opening up in Oceania; the children are enthusiastic members of the Thought Police, but the older people like Winston Smith retain memories of the time before, and thus must be treated like all history- altered by force if possible, eliminated and erased if not. Quotes About Totalitarianism Orwell used Nineteen Eighty-Four to explore the dangers of authoritarianism and totalitarian forms of government. Orwell was deeply suspicious of the tendency of governments to become self-perpetuating oligarchies, and he saw how easily people’s worst tendencies could be subverted to the will of an authoritarian regime. â€Å"A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people ... turning one even against ones will like an electric current, turning one even against ones will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.† One technique Orwell explores is directing the unavoidable fear and anger experienced by the population away from the Party and the state. In the modern world, authoritarian demagogues often direct this anger towards immigrant groups and other ‛outsiders.’ â€Å"Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema. This again was never put into plain words, but in an indirect way it was rubbed into every Party member from childhood onwards.† This quote demonstrates how the state has invaded even the most private aspects of life, dictating sexual mores and controlling the most intimate aspects of daily life through misinformation, peer pressure, and direct thought control. â€Å"All beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterize our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived.† Orwell cleverly makes Emmanuel Goldstein’s book an accurate explanation of totalitarianism. Goldsteins book, Goldstein himself, and The Brotherhood may well be part of a ruse created by the Party to snare would-be rebels like Winston and Julia; nevertheless, the book lays out how a totalitarian government sustains its hold on power, in part by controlling outward expression, which has a direct effect on inward thought. Quotes About Destruction of the Self In the novel, Orwell is warning us about the ultimate goal of such governments: The absorption of the individual into the state. In democratic societies, or at least one which have a sincere respect for democratic ideals, the individual’s right to their beliefs and opinions is respected- indeed, it’s the foundation of the political process. In Orwell’s nightmare vision, therefore, the key goal of the Party is destruction of the individual. The thought police would get him just the same. He had committedwould have committed, even if he had never set pen to paperthe essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you. Thoughtcrime is the essential concept of the novel. The idea that simply thinking something contrary to what the Party has decreed to be true is a crime- and then convincing people that its revelation was inevitable- is a chilling, terrifying idea that requires people to self-edit their thoughts. This, combined with Newspeak, makes any sort of individual thought impossible. For an instant he was insane, a screaming animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an idea. There was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats. ... Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I dont care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me! Winston initially endures his torture with desolate resignation, and holds onto his feelings for Julia as a final, private, untouchable part of his inner self. The Party is uninterested in merely getting Winston to recant or confess- it wishes to completely destroy his sense of self. This final torture, based on a primal fear, accomplishes this by making Winston betray the one thing he had left of his private self.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How To Publish Remarkable Content Every Week With Limited Time

How To Publish Remarkable Content Every Week With Limited Time Do you know why top bloggers like Neil Patel, Ramit Sethi, or Tim Ferriss are so successful? It’s because they create remarkable content. Every single time. Focusing on creating high quality content will: Turn you into a respected expert, like it did for Neil Patel or Ramit Sethi. Help you build a loyal fan base, like it did for and their 100k subscribers. Open up huge opportunities for your business. In this article, I will walk you through a step-by-step system to write remarkable content, from beginning to end, even if your time is limited. How to Publish Remarkable Content Every Week (Even if Your Time is Limited)It has become common advice nowadays that you should publish at least once a week. Less than that, people will forget you, and so will Google. More than that, people will love you more, meaning they’ll buy more from you. It is not true. First, publishing more can actually be counter-productive, as this study from   showed. Second, your publication frequency won’t matter if you publish crap. You watch Neil Patel and notice he publishes about three times a week. But every time it’s a compelling article filled with a ton of research and data. Each article he publishes is incredibly valuable, so it’s no surprise he gets hundreds of comments. So, if you have a lot of time, definitely go for publishing more. But if your time is limited, focus on quality rather than quantity. Are you committed to publishing only high-quality articles? Table Of Contents Make the Best of Your Limited Time Your Step-by-Step System To Virtually Guarantee Top-Notch Content Decide On A Topic Explain Your Topic Write A Detailed Outline Do Research Write Your First Draft Edit Your First Draft Polish Everything Create Great Content Faster With These Free Resources Download these time-saving resources to create great content easily and efficiently, every time you write. A Time Management Strategies checklist to make the most of your time. A Daily Task Planning template to plan your work each day. A How to Plan a Blog Post in 10 Minutes checklist to prep your posts fast. A Blog Post Writing Process Checklist to make sure your content is exceptional, every time. Make the Best of Your Limited Time Before jumping into the details of creating remarkable content, you need to make sure that you make the best of your limited time. This section is about setting yourself up for success for the system you will learn in the rest of the article. Think of it as the foundations: If you get this right, nothing can stop you. Recommended Reading: The Top 101 Marketing Time Management Strategies You Need To Succeed Back To Table Of Contents Pick a Consistent Time Let’s face it: writing is hard. That’s something we tend to postpone time and time again just because we’d rather do easier stuff for our business. But at the end of the day, you need to write. And if you want to create good content on a consistent basis, you need to be serious about it and write every day. The best way to write every day is to pick a consistent time in your day. The best way to write every day is to pick a consistent time.Think of it as non-negotiable, as if it were an appointment to the doctor. For example, every day between 6:30 and 7:30, I write. That’s my consistent time. I make sure I never miss it by waking up early and by never allowing anyone to disturb me. Pick a Consistent Place To write every day, you need to build a writing habit. To write every day, you need to build a writing habit.Habits appear when you repeat the same behavior in the same context. That’s why I recommend you always write at the same place to build your writing habit. This will make you a lot more efficient and also increase your chances to actually do it and don’t get distracted by external factors. Build Your Own Writing Routine To help you stick to the habit, try to take a few steps before starting to make it more enjoyable. It could be: A special music playlist for writing. Making yourself a cup of tea or coffee before starting. Any specific set of actions you will always do and enjoy before writing. Make sure you enjoy doing it and that you can do it every day. This will act as the trigger of your writing habit. Doing it time and time again will help get in the mood for writing. After a while, it makes your brain switch in writing mode a lot faster. Set up a Robust Automated System I don’t know many habits that are harder to stick to than writing daily. While the previous points will help you do it more consistently, you need to build a solid system around them to make sure they won’t fail you. What does it mean? First, it means writing it down. For example, since I’m working during the day for my day job, I schedule my writing time in the morning, with the other tasks of my business: This is non-negotiable time that I will NEVER give to anyone. Second, I track my writing by writing every day how many words I wrote and about what. I do this in a Google Spreadsheet and then automatically create a simple chart to show how much I’m writing week after week. This helps to quickly see when you’re falling off your habit. For example, you can notice two weeks near the end of the graph where I was busy doing other stuff. Fortunately, I caught myself up and fixed it. I find this is a good way to stay motivated and create even more content. Get an Accountability Partner You could try to do by yourself, but there is nothing better than someone else to kick your a** when you’re slacking off. Slacking off? Get an accountability partner to kick your a**.With my accountability partner, we both fill up a spreadsheet with all our weekly tasks (including writing): For each day, we write whether the task is â€Å"TODO†, already â€Å"Done†, or has been â€Å"Failed†. It’s a great way to not only focus on the right tasks, but also to have someone else look at what you’re doing and give you honest feedback on how you could do better. Schedule Your Writing Tasks You know that creating a blog post is not just about writing. Creating a blog post is not just about writing.It’s also researching, editing, polishing, making pictures, brainstorming headlines, etc. But then, you may stop writing for a few days for those non-writing tasks. It breaks your habit and makes it harder to start another article then. There are two solutions for this problem. The first is to use a schedule that allows you to work on multiple articles simultaneously. When you edit your first article, start the second one at the same time. That’s exactly what they do at Buffer: The second solution is to write other things than blog posts: newsletters, sales pages, email funnels, video scripts, etc. This is a good way to not be overwhelmed by too many articles at the same time, and it breaks the routine of only writing blog posts. Recommended Reading: This Is The Ultimate Blog Writing Process To Create Killer Posts Make Sure You Never Run Out of Ideas Let’s say you’ve been writing every day for a while and never missed a day. What if, for tomorrow’s writing session†¦ You have nothing to write. No more blog post ideas. Not good ones, at least. Meeting such an issue could mess a lot with your writing habit and call it an end. You can anticipate this problem by generating enough ideas to never run out. There are two approaches. Generate enough ideas to never run out.The first one is to generate one idea per day. One idea. It’s easy, right? It takes 5 minutes, you do it every day, as a habit, for example right before you start writing. By doing so, you will generate more ideas than you can write about. James Altucher, the master of finding ideas, wrote that â€Å"Quality is a byproduct of Quantity†. From your list of ideas, you can extract only the best ones, and get rid of the rest. The second approach is to take one day per week (or per month, depending on how many ideas you find) to generate a huge list of ideas. Same principle. It depends if you’re better at batching your task all at once, or making small progress every day. These were the foundations for your writing habits. You have all your systems in place to make sure you never fail and make the best out of your limited time. What follows is how to create top-notch content ... the easy way! Recommended Reading: 150+ Blog Ideas That Will Absolutely Kill Writers' Block Back To Table Of Contents Your Step-by-Step System To Virtually Guarantee Top-Notch Content Writing top-notch content can take dozens of hours if you don’t systematize your approach. The most common mistake beginners do is to write, iterate, iterate again, and keep iterating again until satisfied. This leads to perfectionism and makes you waste hours. Perfectionism wastes hours.Instead, in this article, I will give you a step-by-step system that will: Make writing a lot easier  for you. Make writing a lot faster  for you. Make sure that at the end of the process you have an article that stands out from the competition. The big picture of the system looks like this: Decide on a topic. Explain your topic in simple words. Write a detailed outline for your topic. Make research. Write your first draft. Edit your first draft. Polish everything. Make a picture out of this? Notice how different it is than what most people are doing. Most bloggers decide for a topic, write the article, fix the grammar mistakes, and publish. With my system, you will take the time to front-load the work. This will not only make you gain a lot of time but also and also make sure you create really great content. I won’t make you wait longer, so let’s jump right in with step #1: Decide on a Topic Your first step is to decide on a broad topic. It might start with an idea of yours, a question from your readers, or an article you’ve read on another blog. You don’t know yet if this will be a really good article or not. It’s just a topic that popped in your mind, and you wonder whether it’ll be good or not. Here are some examples of topics I have in mind: How to use guest blogging to grow your email list from 0 to 1,000 subscribers. What cold showers and writing have in common? Why you don’t need to be a creative person to be a good writer. Notice they look like headlines, though I haven’t taken the time to optimize them. We’ll take care of that only when the article is done. By the way, I strongly recommend you keep a list of all your topic ideas somewhere in your computer. Ideas come and go, so you better write them down if you want to remember them and make sure you don’t run out of it. Recommended Reading: The Skyscraper Technique May Actually Improve Your Content Marketing Back To Table Of Contents Explain Your Topic Call a friend and explain to them what you want to write about. Explain it to them in plain English, with simple words. It should take about 5 to 10 minutes. Call a friend and explain to them what you want to write about.At the end of the discussion, they should have learned something valuable and know what to do to apply it in his business or life. What will this discussion do for you? First, you will quickly notice whether your idea is good or not. When the idea is still abstract, it’s hard to imagine what the article will look like exactly. But when you start putting words on the idea, you bring it to life. You may realize after two minutes of babbling that the content sounds bland, or that it looks like rehashed content. In this case, it’s better to move on and focus on a different idea. Second, it will give you a rough outline of the article. Record the discussion with friend, so that you can listen to yourself and take notes of what you said. These notes will be of a great help when it comes the time to write your outline. Finally, you will get a quick feedback from your friend. Ask him to be brutally honest with you and tell you what he thinks of this idea. If you don’t have any friends, you can just create an imaginary friend and still record yourself. Try to imagine questions they might have and reply to them. Back To Table Of Contents Write a Detailed Outline This step is the most important one of the system. If you take the time to write a long and detailed outline, you will gain a ton of time down the line. Not only will you gain time, but you’ll also make your life a lot easier. A good detailed outline allows you to: Write your first draft easily and quickly. No risk of writer’s block. Avoid wasting time  iterating again and again on your article. Make sure your article is compelling  before even starting to write it. I’m not talking about a short outline with five bullet points and you move on. For example, the outline I wrote for this article  is 1,500-word long and it took me about an hour to write it. More if you count previous failed attempts. I was really unhappy with my first outlines, I knew it would end up with a crappy article, so I restarted, until I was satisfied with it. I would rather waste one hour rewriting a good outline than crafting a poor article, or waste five hours on a bad first draft. I would rather waste one hour rewriting a good outline than crafting a poor article, or waste five...Once you get your outline right, all the rest is easier. Writing the first draft, which most writers dread to do, becomes automatic. I just open my outline, look at where I am, read a few lines, expand them for the draft, and that’s it. Simple. There are three steps to writing the perfect outline: Write down the structure. Explain what each subsection is about. Write down all the examples/stories/pictures you want to add. Getting your outline right makes writing easier.Step #1. Write Down the Structure. The first step is basically what everyone else do when they draw an outline. They write bullet points that look like headlines, and that’s it. It’s important to get it right because the structure is what your reader will try to identify right when they discover your article by skimming through it. Are there logical steps between the sections? What order are they in? Is this a step-by-step system, or are there chronological events? Are the sections balanced? Should you break them down into subsections? Most of the time, this step won’t be a problem, but don’t rush it. Step #2. Explain What Each Section Is About. Now we do the extra work that will make you gain a ton of time down the line. For each section, describe in a few paragraphs what it is about. What will you explain in it? What are the key pieces of information you need to write? Can you describe your solution in a few lines? What problem is it solving? How would you describe it to your friend? You’re basically putting on paper all the information that your article will contain. Someone reading your outline at this point should need precisely what you will talk about, and even what you will teach to your readers. But information alone is useless if you can’t get people to take action. That’s why you also need to †¦ Step #3. Write Down All the Examples/Stories/Pictures You Can Think Of. Each piece of information you give in your article needs to be illustrated by at least an example, a story, a picture, or at least an explanation in plain English. This will help you reader: To understand better what you’re talking about. To relate  to your writing thanks to the stories. To get inspired to take action. Think of yourself as an interior designer. You could spend hours describing a bedroom to your client without them really getting it. Or you could show him a picture and make a sale right away. As Michael Ellsberg put it, "Your competitive advantage is not information, it’s transformation."  And transformation happens with stories. I like to think of this of my articles as 20% information, 80% transformation. For each information you give, write down as many examples, stories and pictures ideas as possible. They might not all end up in your article, but for now, more is better. Once you have done these three steps, you have a structured and highly detailed outline of your article. In fact, you might feel the post is almost already done. All you need is to fill in the holes, but really, all the creative  part is done. That’s why you won’t have any issue with writer’s block. It’s now time to expand your outline and make it even better with some extra research. Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Back To Table Of Contents Do Research You may be surprised to see research appearing in step #4, after we draw the outline and already placed all the elements of our article. Here is the thing: Research is not supposed to help you know what to write in your article.  It is only supposed to help you enrich  what you have already written. When you draw your outline before doing any research, you make sure that what you write is from your unique perspective and that you bring something new to the internet. If you do the research before and start reading dozens of other related articles, chances are that your final article will be a mix of everything you just read. Say goodbye your personal experience and unique perspective, because it just got spoiled by everyone else’s wisdom. So, how to do your research without wasting hours browsing endlessly? To make research efficient, you need to have a specific question to answer. Before even starting the research, I will go through each section of my outline and ask naive questions out of curiosity. I put myself in the mind of my reader and try to imagine everything he could ask himself: â€Å"How can I do that concretely?† â€Å"Why is this true? I don’t understand.â€Å" â€Å"How many are there?† â€Å"Are there any tool to do that?† Of course, those questions are highly context-dependent. You need to have an open mind, like a curious child who wants to know everything. This is the first part of the research. A second part involves backing up your claims. Every time you claim something, you need data, research, or at least a reference that supports what you’re saying. Make a list of all your claims, and come back to Google to find research that supports them. At least, try to find another blog post from a recognized expert that says the same. This will also help you later to promote your post. By doing targeted research on a specific question or claim, you make sure not to browse the internet for ever. Save time researching by asking specific questions. Back To Table Of Contents Write Your First Draft This is normally the hardest step of the process for any common content marketer. But if you’re here, you’re not that common, especially if you start using this system. Because you wrote such a detailed and complete outline, writing your first draft will be one of the easiest step. You already have the structure and all the information written. The only thing that’s left is expanding on the list of stories and examples you already provided. Explaining a single example or telling a story is easy. You do it all the time all day long with your friends. Replicate the process and you’ll be done in no time. The only difficulty you might face is not succeeding in finding the right words to explain your point. It happens. But don’t worry about this too much. When you write your first draft, don’t try to be perfect right away. Simply write, expand, explain as much as possible, ramble, and just put your own words on things. The end result is not supposed to be your final version. When you write your first draft, don’t try to be perfect right away.We will edit the article in the next section. There are two essential rules for writing your first draft if you want to make it quick and easy: Write as much as possible without ever stopping. Don’t stop. Don’t hold yourself. Never edit. Never come back. Here is a tip: Never use the backspace key. When writing your first draft, focus exclusively on getting the writing done, no matter what. Don’t care about quality and don’t edit at the same time. If you apply this advice, not only will writing be a lot easier, but also a lot faster. Keep writing, don’t worry about grammar mistakes or rambling, just keep writing, until done. With this technique, you can easily write 1,000 words in 30 minutes. Once you get used to it, you can write even faster. Back To Table Of Contents Edit Your First Draft After finishing your first draft, your article will not be beautiful to see. Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, calls it the shitty first draft. That’s exactly what it is. You let your creativity shine and created everything you needed for the article. Maybe even a little bit too much. Here are the steps for editing: Open a new blank document. Filter out each paragraph with a set of questions and rewrite it better. Pass the article in an editing tool. Print the article and read it out loud. Step #1: Open a new blank document. This step as rather self-explanatory. I noticed that when I don’t do it, I start to get bored in the middle of the task and skip entire paragraphs to finish as fast as possible. So, now, I open a new document and make sure I go through everything. This is a bit longer, of course, but it’s worth taking the time, as the step is what will make your article flawless. Step #2: Filter out each paragraph and rewrite it better. The goal of the editing part is to remove any unessential part and to rewrite better what’s essential. You probably know that longer articles perform better in general, but it doesn’t mean you should look for writing the longest possible articles. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Your final article should be shorter than your first draft, not longer. Try to cut your article as much as possible, to make it dense, comprehensive, without any rambling or unessential explanation. Make your point, illustrate it, and move on quickly. For each paragraph I ask myself the following questions: Is this essential  in my article? What would happen if I remove this paragraph? Am I just rambling too much on this story? If it happens the paragraph is an essential one, then I try to improve it: How can I make myself clearer? Can I add a picture or an example to illustrate it? How could I tell this story in a shorter and more compelling way? Am I using simple words that normal people use? Once I have answered them, I can rewrite the paragraph. Notice that it looks like a long process, especially if you have hundreds of paragraphs. If you’re not used to it, it will take you some time at the beginning, but you will quickly learn to automatically ask these questions and decide in seconds if you need to remove the paragraph or improve it. Recommended Reading: 6 Super Easy Content Editing Tricks That Will Save You Oodles Of Time Step #3. Pass the article into an editing tool. In the previous step, you made the major work of editing. You rewrote everything and now the article is a lot better. If you want to go the extra mile, you can copy/paste your article into an editor such as Grammarly  (you will need to paid version to get access to the editing tools) or the Hemingway App. The goal of this step is to make edits you couldn’t easily notice before to improve the readability of your article: Are you writing too complex sentences? Are you using too many adverbs? Are you using passive voice too frequently? Are you repeating the same words too often? (Use WordCounter  for that) This step should be a lot quicker, mostly because the tool tells you exactly where to look at and what to do. Step #4. Print the article and read it out loud. Finally, the last step may surprise you: Print the article and read it out loud. Editing Tip: Print your articles and read them out loud.There are two reasons for this. The first is that when you read an article on paper, you have a different view on it that when reading on a screen. Especially, you can spot the grammar mistakes a lot more easily. The second is that by reading out loud, you will immediately spot the awkward or too complex phrasing. On the internet, we want to keep the writing simple and quick to read. Basically, you almost want to write as you’re speaking. So if it sounds weird when you say it out loud, it might just sound as weird for your readers. That’s it for the editing! I must admit I don’t do all four steps for every article. They’re a little bit long, so it’ll depend on how much time you want to invest in your article. Back To Table Of Contents Polish Everything The last step is for the last details. Improve your headline. When we started the article, we picked a headline and didn’t really work on it. I don’t recommend doing it before writing the article, as the content might change as you make progress on it. Now is the time to perfect it. I won’t go into details on how to write a good headline, but aim for a score of 70% or higher with the Headline Analyzer. Pick a feature image. You will need one to show up when people share your article on social media. It’s usually a good idea to put the title of your post on it to catch people’s attention. Build a content upgrade. A content upgrade is a lead magnet you offer as an incentive for people to subscribe to your email list. It is something built especially for the article and is a logical add-on to the article that people who liked the article will want to have. It could be a checklist, a cheat sheet, a spreadsheet, a system, a PDF version of the article, etc. There are many ways to build content upgrades. Craft your CTA. You will also need to craft a compelling CTA to sell  your content upgrade. It’s worth taking the time to write a really good one, as it can be the difference between a successful and a failed article. Recommended Reading: How To Write A Call To Action In A Template With 6 Examples Take care of SEO. I’m usually not highly focused on SEO, but before publishing an article, I try to get as many green lights as possible with the Yoast SEO plugin. Hit publish. And you’re done! We’ve now gone through the entire system to publish a top-notch article. The good thing about this system is that the simple fact of following it virtually guarantee that your article will stand out from the rest, as almost nobody else uses such a complete framework. How To Publish Remarkable Content Every Week With Limited Time Do you know why top bloggers like Neil Patel, Ramit Sethi, or Tim Ferriss are so successful? It’s because they create remarkable content. Every single time. Focusing on creating high quality content will: Turn you into a respected expert, like it did for Neil Patel or Ramit Sethi. Help you build a loyal fan base, like it did for and their 100k subscribers. Open up huge opportunities for your business. In this article, I will walk you through a step-by-step system to write remarkable content, from beginning to end, even if your time is limited. How to Publish Remarkable Content Every Week (Even if Your Time is Limited)It has become common advice nowadays that you should publish at least once a week. Less than that, people will forget you, and so will Google. More than that, people will love you more, meaning they’ll buy more from you. It is not true. First, publishing more can actually be counter-productive, as this study from   showed. Second, your publication frequency won’t matter if you publish crap. You watch Neil Patel and notice he publishes about three times a week. But every time it’s a compelling article filled with a ton of research and data. Each article he publishes is incredibly valuable, so it’s no surprise he gets hundreds of comments. So, if you have a lot of time, definitely go for publishing more. But if your time is limited, focus on quality rather than quantity. Are you committed to publishing only high-quality articles? Table Of Contents Make the Best of Your Limited Time Your Step-by-Step System To Virtually Guarantee Top-Notch Content Decide On A Topic Explain Your Topic Write A Detailed Outline Do Research Write Your First Draft Edit Your First Draft Polish Everything Create Great Content Faster With These Free Resources Download these time-saving resources to create great content easily and efficiently, every time you write. A Time Management Strategies checklist to make the most of your time. A Daily Task Planning template to plan your work each day. A How to Plan a Blog Post in 10 Minutes checklist to prep your posts fast. A Blog Post Writing Process Checklist to make sure your content is exceptional, every time. Make the Best of Your Limited Time Before jumping into the details of creating remarkable content, you need to make sure that you make the best of your limited time. This section is about setting yourself up for success for the system you will learn in the rest of the article. Think of it as the foundations: If you get this right, nothing can stop you. Recommended Reading: The Top 101 Marketing Time Management Strategies You Need To Succeed Back To Table Of Contents Pick a Consistent Time Let’s face it: writing is hard. That’s something we tend to postpone time and time again just because we’d rather do easier stuff for our business. But at the end of the day, you need to write. And if you want to create good content on a consistent basis, you need to be serious about it and write every day. The best way to write every day is to pick a consistent time in your day. The best way to write every day is to pick a consistent time.Think of it as non-negotiable, as if it were an appointment to the doctor. For example, every day between 6:30 and 7:30, I write. That’s my consistent time. I make sure I never miss it by waking up early and by never allowing anyone to disturb me. Pick a Consistent Place To write every day, you need to build a writing habit. To write every day, you need to build a writing habit.Habits appear when you repeat the same behavior in the same context. That’s why I recommend you always write at the same place to build your writing habit. This will make you a lot more efficient and also increase your chances to actually do it and don’t get distracted by external factors. Build Your Own Writing Routine To help you stick to the habit, try to take a few steps before starting to make it more enjoyable. It could be: A special music playlist for writing. Making yourself a cup of tea or coffee before starting. Any specific set of actions you will always do and enjoy before writing. Make sure you enjoy doing it and that you can do it every day. This will act as the trigger of your writing habit. Doing it time and time again will help get in the mood for writing. After a while, it makes your brain switch in writing mode a lot faster. Set up a Robust Automated System I don’t know many habits that are harder to stick to than writing daily. While the previous points will help you do it more consistently, you need to build a solid system around them to make sure they won’t fail you. What does it mean? First, it means writing it down. For example, since I’m working during the day for my day job, I schedule my writing time in the morning, with the other tasks of my business: This is non-negotiable time that I will NEVER give to anyone. Second, I track my writing by writing every day how many words I wrote and about what. I do this in a Google Spreadsheet and then automatically create a simple chart to show how much I’m writing week after week. This helps to quickly see when you’re falling off your habit. For example, you can notice two weeks near the end of the graph where I was busy doing other stuff. Fortunately, I caught myself up and fixed it. I find this is a good way to stay motivated and create even more content. Get an Accountability Partner You could try to do by yourself, but there is nothing better than someone else to kick your a** when you’re slacking off. Slacking off? Get an accountability partner to kick your a**.With my accountability partner, we both fill up a spreadsheet with all our weekly tasks (including writing): For each day, we write whether the task is â€Å"TODO†, already â€Å"Done†, or has been â€Å"Failed†. It’s a great way to not only focus on the right tasks, but also to have someone else look at what you’re doing and give you honest feedback on how you could do better. Schedule Your Writing Tasks You know that creating a blog post is not just about writing. Creating a blog post is not just about writing.It’s also researching, editing, polishing, making pictures, brainstorming headlines, etc. But then, you may stop writing for a few days for those non-writing tasks. It breaks your habit and makes it harder to start another article then. There are two solutions for this problem. The first is to use a schedule that allows you to work on multiple articles simultaneously. When you edit your first article, start the second one at the same time. That’s exactly what they do at Buffer: The second solution is to write other things than blog posts: newsletters, sales pages, email funnels, video scripts, etc. This is a good way to not be overwhelmed by too many articles at the same time, and it breaks the routine of only writing blog posts. Recommended Reading: This Is The Ultimate Blog Writing Process To Create Killer Posts Make Sure You Never Run Out of Ideas Let’s say you’ve been writing every day for a while and never missed a day. What if, for tomorrow’s writing session†¦ You have nothing to write. No more blog post ideas. Not good ones, at least. Meeting such an issue could mess a lot with your writing habit and call it an end. You can anticipate this problem by generating enough ideas to never run out. There are two approaches. Generate enough ideas to never run out.The first one is to generate one idea per day. One idea. It’s easy, right? It takes 5 minutes, you do it every day, as a habit, for example right before you start writing. By doing so, you will generate more ideas than you can write about. James Altucher, the master of finding ideas, wrote that â€Å"Quality is a byproduct of Quantity†. From your list of ideas, you can extract only the best ones, and get rid of the rest. The second approach is to take one day per week (or per month, depending on how many ideas you find) to generate a huge list of ideas. Same principle. It depends if you’re better at batching your task all at once, or making small progress every day. These were the foundations for your writing habits. You have all your systems in place to make sure you never fail and make the best out of your limited time. What follows is how to create top-notch content ... the easy way! Recommended Reading: 150+ Blog Ideas That Will Absolutely Kill Writers' Block Back To Table Of Contents Your Step-by-Step System To Virtually Guarantee Top-Notch Content Writing top-notch content can take dozens of hours if you don’t systematize your approach. The most common mistake beginners do is to write, iterate, iterate again, and keep iterating again until satisfied. This leads to perfectionism and makes you waste hours. Perfectionism wastes hours.Instead, in this article, I will give you a step-by-step system that will: Make writing a lot easier  for you. Make writing a lot faster  for you. Make sure that at the end of the process you have an article that stands out from the competition. The big picture of the system looks like this: Decide on a topic. Explain your topic in simple words. Write a detailed outline for your topic. Make research. Write your first draft. Edit your first draft. Polish everything. Make a picture out of this? Notice how different it is than what most people are doing. Most bloggers decide for a topic, write the article, fix the grammar mistakes, and publish. With my system, you will take the time to front-load the work. This will not only make you gain a lot of time but also and also make sure you create really great content. I won’t make you wait longer, so let’s jump right in with step #1: Decide on a Topic Your first step is to decide on a broad topic. It might start with an idea of yours, a question from your readers, or an article you’ve read on another blog. You don’t know yet if this will be a really good article or not. It’s just a topic that popped in your mind, and you wonder whether it’ll be good or not. Here are some examples of topics I have in mind: How to use guest blogging to grow your email list from 0 to 1,000 subscribers. What cold showers and writing have in common? Why you don’t need to be a creative person to be a good writer. Notice they look like headlines, though I haven’t taken the time to optimize them. We’ll take care of that only when the article is done. By the way, I strongly recommend you keep a list of all your topic ideas somewhere in your computer. Ideas come and go, so you better write them down if you want to remember them and make sure you don’t run out of it. Recommended Reading: The Skyscraper Technique May Actually Improve Your Content Marketing Back To Table Of Contents Explain Your Topic Call a friend and explain to them what you want to write about. Explain it to them in plain English, with simple words. It should take about 5 to 10 minutes. Call a friend and explain to them what you want to write about.At the end of the discussion, they should have learned something valuable and know what to do to apply it in his business or life. What will this discussion do for you? First, you will quickly notice whether your idea is good or not. When the idea is still abstract, it’s hard to imagine what the article will look like exactly. But when you start putting words on the idea, you bring it to life. You may realize after two minutes of babbling that the content sounds bland, or that it looks like rehashed content. In this case, it’s better to move on and focus on a different idea. Second, it will give you a rough outline of the article. Record the discussion with friend, so that you can listen to yourself and take notes of what you said. These notes will be of a great help when it comes the time to write your outline. Finally, you will get a quick feedback from your friend. Ask him to be brutally honest with you and tell you what he thinks of this idea. If you don’t have any friends, you can just create an imaginary friend and still record yourself. Try to imagine questions they might have and reply to them. Back To Table Of Contents Write a Detailed Outline This step is the most important one of the system. If you take the time to write a long and detailed outline, you will gain a ton of time down the line. Not only will you gain time, but you’ll also make your life a lot easier. A good detailed outline allows you to: Write your first draft easily and quickly. No risk of writer’s block. Avoid wasting time  iterating again and again on your article. Make sure your article is compelling  before even starting to write it. I’m not talking about a short outline with five bullet points and you move on. For example, the outline I wrote for this article  is 1,500-word long and it took me about an hour to write it. More if you count previous failed attempts. I was really unhappy with my first outlines, I knew it would end up with a crappy article, so I restarted, until I was satisfied with it. I would rather waste one hour rewriting a good outline than crafting a poor article, or waste five hours on a bad first draft. I would rather waste one hour rewriting a good outline than crafting a poor article, or waste five...Once you get your outline right, all the rest is easier. Writing the first draft, which most writers dread to do, becomes automatic. I just open my outline, look at where I am, read a few lines, expand them for the draft, and that’s it. Simple. There are three steps to writing the perfect outline: Write down the structure. Explain what each subsection is about. Write down all the examples/stories/pictures you want to add. Getting your outline right makes writing easier.Step #1. Write Down the Structure. The first step is basically what everyone else do when they draw an outline. They write bullet points that look like headlines, and that’s it. It’s important to get it right because the structure is what your reader will try to identify right when they discover your article by skimming through it. Are there logical steps between the sections? What order are they in? Is this a step-by-step system, or are there chronological events? Are the sections balanced? Should you break them down into subsections? Most of the time, this step won’t be a problem, but don’t rush it. Step #2. Explain What Each Section Is About. Now we do the extra work that will make you gain a ton of time down the line. For each section, describe in a few paragraphs what it is about. What will you explain in it? What are the key pieces of information you need to write? Can you describe your solution in a few lines? What problem is it solving? How would you describe it to your friend? You’re basically putting on paper all the information that your article will contain. Someone reading your outline at this point should need precisely what you will talk about, and even what you will teach to your readers. But information alone is useless if you can’t get people to take action. That’s why you also need to †¦ Step #3. Write Down All the Examples/Stories/Pictures You Can Think Of. Each piece of information you give in your article needs to be illustrated by at least an example, a story, a picture, or at least an explanation in plain English. This will help you reader: To understand better what you’re talking about. To relate  to your writing thanks to the stories. To get inspired to take action. Think of yourself as an interior designer. You could spend hours describing a bedroom to your client without them really getting it. Or you could show him a picture and make a sale right away. As Michael Ellsberg put it, "Your competitive advantage is not information, it’s transformation."  And transformation happens with stories. I like to think of this of my articles as 20% information, 80% transformation. For each information you give, write down as many examples, stories and pictures ideas as possible. They might not all end up in your article, but for now, more is better. Once you have done these three steps, you have a structured and highly detailed outline of your article. In fact, you might feel the post is almost already done. All you need is to fill in the holes, but really, all the creative  part is done. That’s why you won’t have any issue with writer’s block. It’s now time to expand your outline and make it even better with some extra research. Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Back To Table Of Contents Do Research You may be surprised to see research appearing in step #4, after we draw the outline and already placed all the elements of our article. Here is the thing: Research is not supposed to help you know what to write in your article.  It is only supposed to help you enrich  what you have already written. When you draw your outline before doing any research, you make sure that what you write is from your unique perspective and that you bring something new to the internet. If you do the research before and start reading dozens of other related articles, chances are that your final article will be a mix of everything you just read. Say goodbye your personal experience and unique perspective, because it just got spoiled by everyone else’s wisdom. So, how to do your research without wasting hours browsing endlessly? To make research efficient, you need to have a specific question to answer. Before even starting the research, I will go through each section of my outline and ask naive questions out of curiosity. I put myself in the mind of my reader and try to imagine everything he could ask himself: â€Å"How can I do that concretely?† â€Å"Why is this true? I don’t understand.â€Å" â€Å"How many are there?† â€Å"Are there any tool to do that?† Of course, those questions are highly context-dependent. You need to have an open mind, like a curious child who wants to know everything. This is the first part of the research. A second part involves backing up your claims. Every time you claim something, you need data, research, or at least a reference that supports what you’re saying. Make a list of all your claims, and come back to Google to find research that supports them. At least, try to find another blog post from a recognized expert that says the same. This will also help you later to promote your post. By doing targeted research on a specific question or claim, you make sure not to browse the internet for ever. Save time researching by asking specific questions. Back To Table Of Contents Write Your First Draft This is normally the hardest step of the process for any common content marketer. But if you’re here, you’re not that common, especially if you start using this system. Because you wrote such a detailed and complete outline, writing your first draft will be one of the easiest step. You already have the structure and all the information written. The only thing that’s left is expanding on the list of stories and examples you already provided. Explaining a single example or telling a story is easy. You do it all the time all day long with your friends. Replicate the process and you’ll be done in no time. The only difficulty you might face is not succeeding in finding the right words to explain your point. It happens. But don’t worry about this too much. When you write your first draft, don’t try to be perfect right away. Simply write, expand, explain as much as possible, ramble, and just put your own words on things. The end result is not supposed to be your final version. When you write your first draft, don’t try to be perfect right away.We will edit the article in the next section. There are two essential rules for writing your first draft if you want to make it quick and easy: Write as much as possible without ever stopping. Don’t stop. Don’t hold yourself. Never edit. Never come back. Here is a tip: Never use the backspace key. When writing your first draft, focus exclusively on getting the writing done, no matter what. Don’t care about quality and don’t edit at the same time. If you apply this advice, not only will writing be a lot easier, but also a lot faster. Keep writing, don’t worry about grammar mistakes or rambling, just keep writing, until done. With this technique, you can easily write 1,000 words in 30 minutes. Once you get used to it, you can write even faster. Back To Table Of Contents Edit Your First Draft After finishing your first draft, your article will not be beautiful to see. Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, calls it the shitty first draft. That’s exactly what it is. You let your creativity shine and created everything you needed for the article. Maybe even a little bit too much. Here are the steps for editing: Open a new blank document. Filter out each paragraph with a set of questions and rewrite it better. Pass the article in an editing tool. Print the article and read it out loud. Step #1: Open a new blank document. This step as rather self-explanatory. I noticed that when I don’t do it, I start to get bored in the middle of the task and skip entire paragraphs to finish as fast as possible. So, now, I open a new document and make sure I go through everything. This is a bit longer, of course, but it’s worth taking the time, as the step is what will make your article flawless. Step #2: Filter out each paragraph and rewrite it better. The goal of the editing part is to remove any unessential part and to rewrite better what’s essential. You probably know that longer articles perform better in general, but it doesn’t mean you should look for writing the longest possible articles. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Your final article should be shorter than your first draft, not longer. Try to cut your article as much as possible, to make it dense, comprehensive, without any rambling or unessential explanation. Make your point, illustrate it, and move on quickly. For each paragraph I ask myself the following questions: Is this essential  in my article? What would happen if I remove this paragraph? Am I just rambling too much on this story? If it happens the paragraph is an essential one, then I try to improve it: How can I make myself clearer? Can I add a picture or an example to illustrate it? How could I tell this story in a shorter and more compelling way? Am I using simple words that normal people use? Once I have answered them, I can rewrite the paragraph. Notice that it looks like a long process, especially if you have hundreds of paragraphs. If you’re not used to it, it will take you some time at the beginning, but you will quickly learn to automatically ask these questions and decide in seconds if you need to remove the paragraph or improve it. Recommended Reading: 6 Super Easy Content Editing Tricks That Will Save You Oodles Of Time Step #3. Pass the article into an editing tool. In the previous step, you made the major work of editing. You rewrote everything and now the article is a lot better. If you want to go the extra mile, you can copy/paste your article into an editor such as Grammarly  (you will need to paid version to get access to the editing tools) or the Hemingway App. The goal of this step is to make edits you couldn’t easily notice before to improve the readability of your article: Are you writing too complex sentences? Are you using too many adverbs? Are you using passive voice too frequently? Are you repeating the same words too often? (Use WordCounter  for that) This step should be a lot quicker, mostly because the tool tells you exactly where to look at and what to do. Step #4. Print the article and read it out loud. Finally, the last step may surprise you: Print the article and read it out loud. Editing Tip: Print your articles and read them out loud.There are two reasons for this. The first is that when you read an article on paper, you have a different view on it that when reading on a screen. Especially, you can spot the grammar mistakes a lot more easily. The second is that by reading out loud, you will immediately spot the awkward or too complex phrasing. On the internet, we want to keep the writing simple and quick to read. Basically, you almost want to write as you’re speaking. So if it sounds weird when you say it out loud, it might just sound as weird for your readers. That’s it for the editing! I must admit I don’t do all four steps for every article. They’re a little bit long, so it’ll depend on how much time you want to invest in your article. Back To Table Of Contents Polish Everything The last step is for the last details. Improve your headline. When we started the article, we picked a headline and didn’t really work on it. I don’t recommend doing it before writing the article, as the content might change as you make progress on it. Now is the time to perfect it. I won’t go into details on how to write a good headline, but aim for a score of 70% or higher with the Headline Analyzer. Pick a feature image. You will need one to show up when people share your article on social media. It’s usually a good idea to put the title of your post on it to catch people’s attention. Build a content upgrade. A content upgrade is a lead magnet you offer as an incentive for people to subscribe to your email list. It is something built especially for the article and is a logical add-on to the article that people who liked the article will want to have. It could be a checklist, a cheat sheet, a spreadsheet, a system, a PDF version of the article, etc. There are many ways to build content upgrades. Craft your CTA. You will also need to craft a compelling CTA to sell  your content upgrade. It’s worth taking the time to write a really good one, as it can be the difference between a successful and a failed article. Recommended Reading: How To Write A Call To Action In A Template With 6 Examples Take care of SEO. I’m usually not highly focused on SEO, but before publishing an article, I try to get as many green lights as possible with the Yoast SEO plugin. Hit publish. And you’re done! We’ve now gone through the entire system to publish a top-notch article. The good thing about this system is that the simple fact of following it virtually guarantee that your article will stand out from the rest, as almost nobody else uses such a complete framework.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

The Use of Recycled Materials in Pavement Construction Essay

The Use of Recycled Materials in Pavement Construction - Essay Example Another important aspect therefore is trainings for construction supervisors, engineers, local government construction staff, industries and state government agencies is important in matters of use of recycled wastes in construction of pavements. One of the key elements emphasized by engineers and construction supervisors in charge of pavement is the fact that the use of the recycled material should not in any way compromise the quality of the pavements being constructed (Shu et.al, 1323). It is with this in mind that there is need to carefully consider the material being used for the construction of pavement since different material differ in terms of properties and types and as such can be used for different purposes. There is also difference in terms of the knowledge, expertise and experience in terms of construction in different countries and hence the reason for use of different materials differently in the different countries. The success of using the recycled materials successfully in the construction of pavements lies in the ability of the different construction supervisors, engineers, regulators, generators and researchers to understand and comprehend the difference in the materials in terms of their properties, how best to use the material based on their properties and the limitations and challenges associated with the available materials and the choices they make from the available materials (Colins et. al, 123). It is therefore very important that the people dealing in such a field where recycled material is to be used to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of their choices and consequences. Legislation is also a critical part of the use of recycled material in construction of pavement owing to the sensitivity of this as a choice (Fitzsimons & Gibney, 192). Some of the issues that generally come up when