How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews

How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon Our Method for Free Book Reviews How to Get Book Reviews on Amazon: Our Method for Free Book Reviews Book reviews are what make or break you as an author and since Amazon is the leader in book retailers, getting reviews on Amazon is even more important.As scary as it can be to leave your own fate in the hands of others, its true especially if you publish through Amazon.As a self-published author, having a portfolio of authentic positive Amazon reviews, right from the beginning, can skyrocket your book launch and make your book stand out in your market. And yet it is one of the hardest things to get.For any Amazon product, positive or negative product reviews can be the difference between success and failure.Heres how to get amazon book reviews:Learn Amazon book review guidelinesBuild a launch team for book reviewsContact Amazon top reviewersApply to book review sitesInclude a reminder in your bookRelaunch your bookDeal with negative reviewsGo through the Amazon book review checklistTheres nothing more painful after going through the blood, sweat, and tears of writing, publishing, a nd launching your book, to get very few to no sales because of your lack of reviews.But where do we start to get Amazon reviews? Who do we ask? How do we get reviews that our audience will respect? How many people should we have on our launch team to guarantee a certain number of reviews for setting up promotional sites?How many reviews is enough?We will look at the ways to get legitimate Amazon reviews for your book so that you can reap the benefits of turning your book into a thriving long-term business.NOTE: We cover everything in this blog post and much more about the writing, marketing, and publishing process in our VIP Self-Publishing Program. Learn more about it hereHow to Get Amazon Reviews and the Review ProcessWhen you publish a book, there are essentially 6 things that score at making your book a bestseller. They are:A great book cover design.An irresistible book title.An amazing book description.Stealthy keywords.Targeted book categories.And†¦ Book Reviews.When Amaz on ranks your book, the ranking is based on the volume of downloads your book gets and, the amount of reviews stacked on the book’s review page.Amazon’s system is designed to take notice of books that are getting steady traction when reviews get posted.This is why it is critical that when you launch your book you set everything up to get as many reviews as possible to get momentum going, increase organic traffic, and drive your rankings in the search engines. This means a higher percentage of people writing reviews for your book, not just at launch, but for months (and years) down the road.The bottom line is, reviews carry big weight in the form of social proof that can drive your book to a bestseller and continue to bring in healthy passive income every month.Why do book reviews matter?Because of Amazons algorithm, maintaining a steady income of new book reviews is vital for your book to rise in the rankings. Meaning that if you want your book to continue to sell, you need to obtain real and fresh book reviews.This is a breakdown of why book reviews matter:The more reviews you get, the more visibility your book gets. This means more sales and potential organic reviews.You create a stronger relationship with your readersA boatload of reviews adds credibility to your book and brand.Book reviews for your book on Amazon are one of the defining factors that determine if a potential reader will click the BUY NOW button or not. In fact, if your book has less than 10 reviews, there is a strong chance that your book will get passed over.People want validation before purchasing, and the best way to make that decision is on the front of the product page: reviews. Amazon Reviewer GuidelinesYou can find everything you need to know about posting reviews on Amazon right here under the Community Guidelines.Amazon has tightened the ropes on reviews and as an author, you have to be aware of the tactics that are prohibited.Here is what not to do when it comes to g etting book reviews on Amazon:Pay someone to leave a review. This not only goes against Amazons terms, but it could get your book removed from the shelf and your account banned.Offer a free ‘gift’ in exchange for a review. No gifts allowed. This is still considered payment for a review.Join Facebook groups offering book review swaps. These sites are bad news. Amazon prohibits review swapping and is considered gaming the system. The Amazon algorithm can easily trace reviews back to these sources.Offer an Amazon gift card after a review has been published. It works like this: â€Å"You download the book and leave a review, and I will send you a gift card.† Again, this is against policy and is considered paying for a review.Leave a review for an author, then contact that person requesting they leave a review in return. This would be a form blackmail or trapping the other author into guilt. But this doesn’t work and if you receive any such email, inform the ot her author that you don’t work that way. I did this once and they just removed their review.Most of these fall under the label of incentivized reviews, as there is a form of compensation in exchange for a review by Amazon sellers. Amazon has made it their mission to crack down on these on their platform.Whats the Difference Between Verified and Unverified Book Reviews?According to Amazon,an â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† review means theyve verified that the person writing the review purchased the product at Amazon and didn’t receive the product at a deep discountProduct reviews that are not marked â€Å"Amazon Verified Purchase† are valuable as well, but we either can’t confirm that the product was purchased at Amazon or the customer did not pay a price available to most Amazon shoppers.Verified reviews are favorable and are social proof that the reader did in fact buy the book and has potentially read through it before posting a review. A verifi ed review shows up as a yellow banner that says â€Å"Verified Purchase, as seen in the example below:For unverified reviews, in most cases, the reviewer received an advance copy of the book and was possibly on a launch team to support the book’s release.While this is still a legit practice for garnering reviews for your book, if the majority of reviews are non-verified, this could affect your potential customer’s decision to buy or not.HowtoGetMoreAmazonBookReviewsThere are many ways to get reviews but searching for reviewers to review your book is a time-consuming process. You could waste precious time chasing bad leads and end up with nothing for your effort.So where do you get reviews without spending hordes of time?No matter how you do it, remember that it isn’t just about quantity but quality as well. While we can’t control what reviewers will say about our work, we can stay focused on writing great content that adds value in order to increase our chances of getting positive reviews.To get Amazon reviews for your next book launch, or to add reviews to an existing book, consider taking action on these following strategies:#1 Build a launch teamThere are many ways to hunt down reviewers for your book. As we have seen, you can contact the top reviewers, target free book review sites, or reach out to book bloggers.These methods, while they may get you a handful of reviews, is time intensive and a lot of work. I have found, after running over two dozen book launches, that the most effective way to get reviews fast on launch is through setting up a launch team.Your launch team is a group of people who have agreed to read your book in advance and follow up with a review immediately after the book is live.When it comes to building a launch team, it is about building relationships over the long term. This is why, in order to run an effective launch team, you should focus on the relationship with your early-bird reviewers.Here is a st ep-by-step process for organizing your team:How to Set Up a Launch Team1. Start building your relationships early. Launch teams don’t just happen. They take work, months of outreaching, and asking the right people if they want to help launch your book when the time is right. You can generate interest by posting snippets of the book on Social media, sharing chapters of your work with your list, and promoting your cover to people.Share your content and advertise your brand. Communicate with people in person and through online channels about your writing. Keep in mind the purpose for this is to make genuine relationships with people and not to just add them to your launch. And most importantly, to make friends with people who read in your niche, so that your book gets recommended alongside the other books they’re reading.2. Create your list of potential reviewers. As you build these relationships with your fanbase, start making a list of people who express interest in joi ning your launch. If you have multiple books and have been through the publishing process already, take note of the readers who have left reviews already.Contact them closer to the launch of your next book to get them on board. Set up an excel spreadsheet and keep track of the names of people who sign up.Action Step:Contact people directly and invite them to the launch team. Keep track of early-bird reviewers in excel.3. Set up an email template through your email server. Add everyone to the list. If you aren’t using an email server yet you can check out Mailchimp, Convert Kit or Mailerlite. Make it as easy as possible so you aren’t wasting time searching for contact information.Send out a welcome email with a link to your book in PDF or/and Mobi form. You can create a folder in Dropbox and just include the link to a shared folder. Make it easy for them to access the material.Action Step: Import your list of emails onto an email server list.4. Send out the Welcome emai l. Ideally you want to send out your book at least two weeks before launch. This gives people enough time to read it through. In the welcome email I include details for the launch date and any other expectations. At this stage the book isn’t live yet so you will send another email on that day with the link.For the book delivery, you can upload a PDF version as well as a Mobi version of the book. To create a MOBI, PDF or EPUB file you can check out the Calibre ebook management software.Heres the difference between EPUB vs MOBI vs PDF so you can choose which to use.After you have all the files ready, you can create a shared folder in Dropbox and share the link with your team.If any top reviewers agreed to leave a review, you absolutely want to message them to follow up.Action Step:Create a welcome email template. Send out your welcome message to the team. Include a link to your book content.5. Send out your ‘Take Action’ email on launch day. Your book is live and i t is time for people to step up. Contact the team on launch day as soon as the book is live. After publishing a book it should take 12-24 hours for Amazon to get it posted. In the email, include a link to your book. More specifically, a link to the review page so that team members can go straight to the page with one click.6. Day 3: Reminder email. I wait 3 days and send out a reminder email. In this email I thank everyone who has left a review and thank people in advance who are still working on the book and haven’t posted yet.7. Final Call: This is the last email I will send out. Similar to the previous email, reminding people the book is live and is ready for a review whenever you are. You can remind your team that book is at a special discounted price if you are launching it at 0.99 or it’s free.8. Contact Your List: If you have a list, this is gold for getting paid downloads and possible reviews. You should contact your list on the first day the book is live and l et people know that the book has just launched. Then, several days later, email them again asking if they had a chance to get into the material. You could add something of value here just to show subscribers how much you value their support. This is the email where I include a ‘leave a review’ invite.These are the steps I use to communicate with my launch team. Generally speaking, if you want 100 reviews for your book, you should aim for at least 200 people.That is a lot of emails but, what I have experienced is that, on average, you are batting a 50% success rate. What happens to those other 50% who don’t review?Heres why some people wont review your book:They didn’t like the book.They forgot to review altogether.They didn’t read the book.They couldn’t be bothered to review.If you can get 20+ reviews on launch after one week you are looking very good. This is enough to get momentum moving and the Amazon algorithm will see that your book is d oing well.#2 Contact Amazon Top ReviewersThere is a list of top 1000 reviewers on Amazon. These people review everything via the Amazon vine program, although certain reviewers target books specifically. If you can get an Amazon Top Reviewer to look at your book, this is well worth it.Check out the Amazon Top Customer Reviewers list. This is a time-consuming process but, if you can get 2-3 reviewers to agree to a book review, you’re all set.Heres how to get more reviews on Amazon with top reviewers:Go into the reviewer’s profile and check the books they have reviewed. To be specific, you want to check for books in your genre. If you wrote a book on weight loss and the reviewer has written most of their reviews for romance novels, it’s a good indication of what they favor. Target the reviewers interested in your topic.Check for contact information. Due to the large volume of spam and requests for reviews, most top reviewers have removed their personal email. If they have a website set up, you can send a direct email to request a review.Wait for a reply. Most reviewers, from my own experience, did not reply. I would recommend targeting 20 reviewers and wait one week. You can then resend the request again.This is a time-consuming process but, if you get a top reviewer to agree to a review, keep that person’s contact information in an excel file. Then, when you launch your next book, you can reach out to them again and again.#3 Book Review SitesThere are a number of sites out there that will find reviewers for your book. This is not the same as buying reviews for your book which, I’ll restate again, goes against Amazon’s review policy and should be avoided.In fact, Amazon has taken action against over 1000 sites on Fiverr that were selling incentivized reviews and fake review services. Yes, avoid.Review services, however, can speed up the process and find reviewers for your book. One of my favorites is BookRazor. It is a paid site but they promote a system of honest reviewers for your book by providing a contact list of potential readers.There are many other sites you can check out as well, and many of them are free while some are paid:Kindle Book ReviewRainbow Book ReviewsKO’s Stuffed ShelfThe Kindle Book Review#4 Include a reminder in your bookHere is a tactic that works well. Did you know that you can include insert a request in your book for readers to leave a review? It’s a great way to invite people to review your book.I have a page at the back of my books that looks like this:What Did You Think of [Your Book Title Here]?First of all, thank you for purchasing this book [Your Book Title Here]. I know you could have picked any number of books to read, but you picked this book and for that I am extremely grateful.I hope that it added at value and quality to your everyday life. If so, it would be really nice if you could share this book with your friends and family by posting to Fa cebook and Twitter.If you enjoyed this book and found some benefit in reading this, I’d like to hear from you and hope that you could take some time to post a review on Amazon. Your feedback and support will help this author to greatly improve his writing craft for future projects and make this book even better.You can follow this link to [Book link here] now.I want you, the reader, to know that your review is very important and so, if you’d like to leave a review, all you have to do is click here and away you go. I wish you all the best in your future success!When you do this, you want to have a link directing customers right back to the review page on Amazon. Make it so easy for them that it requires as little effort as possible.Many authors will include a cute ‘cat photo’ or even pictures of their kids begging asking for a review. This strategy can work well if you sell a large volume of books during the initial launch phase.But remember it takes reader s time to go through your book and so, if you don’t see the reviews appear in the first week, you might get them trickling in weeks or even months later.#5 Relaunch Your BookYou can relaunch your book if book sales drop and the reviews stop coming in. When you relaunch your book, you can put together a new launch team, and even add a new chapter to the book to generate a renewed interest in your book.I have tried this strategy several times in the past year and, by relaunching the book, adding new value to the content, I put together another small launch team of 30-40 people. This brought in another 20+ reviews for a book that was suffering from lack of sales and poor rankings.It happens, so we have to stay on top of keeping the book active.How to Deal with Negative ReviewsGetting positive reviews on your book is a great feeling. In a perfect world, we all want to have just the good stuff when it comes to our review platform. But alas, there will always be that dissatisfied reader that was expecting something much different than what your book was offering.Readers will leave a negative review for various reasons, and in most cases, there is nothing we can do.But first of all, receiving a negative review isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it can lend to a book’s credibility. Look at it from a reader’s perspective. If a book has 100 positive 5-star reviews, although the reviews may be legitimate, we know that not every book is perfect.Having a load of good reviews and nothing that is under three stars could create doubt for the browser, just as having a book with only a handful of reviews turns browsers the other way.While negative reviews aren’t all bad, there are steps we can take to reduce the amount.So how can we prevent our book from getting a lot of negative reviews and turning away potential book sales?Here are four areas to pay attention to:Book quality: the single biggest reason a book will get panned by negative re views is poor quality. This is credited to sloppy editing. A book that is not up to the quality expected by readers will get hit with a high amount of bad reviews. Then, it could get pulled off the shelf by Amazon until the author upgrades to better quality. Make sure your book is up the high standards people expect. Always respect your readers. The book business is like any other business, make good products, and your customers will love you.Inaccurate description of the book: make sure that your book description, title and cover all point towards the theme of the book. If your book is titled, â€Å"How to become rich in 21 days† and, after reading through the book the reader isn’t rich, well, they bought the book because of the promise you made. So, if reading a book delivers a negative outcome for your audience, someone is going to shout about it in a review.Your book is a sales pitch for your other products. If there is one thing that readers don’t like, it is being hit up with offers and the push to check out other services or products in the book. This could come across as spammy and devalues the content that the readers paid for. While your goal may be to use the book to attract customers for your online business, you want to avoid any sales pitches in the book.How to Write and Submit a ReviewWriting a review for a book you like is a great way to drive potential readers to the title. If you read a great book recently and you want to tell people about it, you can take a few minutes to write up a positive review.Writing a review is easy. Just go to the book’s front page and, under the heading Customer Reviews, you will see a button for write a customer review. Click on that and you will be taken to a page set up for ‘Your Reviews’ where you can write reviews for your purchases.What you do is:Select the rating of the book from 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best score.Write your book description in the box provided. Ke ep in mind that if you leave this page before submitting your review, you’ll have to start over again. I would recommend writing the review first in Word or Evernote and then copy and paste.Create a headline for the review.Hit submit. Your review will go live within a couple of hours, although it could take up to 24 hours.One point to note here is that, with Amazon’s policy for posting reviews, you have to have an account that has made a purchase of at least $50 using a valid credit or debit card.Checklist for Getting Amazon Book ReviewsIf you follow these steps, youll be able to get more book reviews and in turn, sell more books.Set up a launch team for your book. Send your team a PDF/MOBI/EPUB file and follow up with email right up until launch. Follow up with several reminders after the launch.Include a ‘Review Request’ page at the back of your book. Insert the link taking customers directly to the review page. Make it so easy they don’t have to search around for the book on Amazon.Contact Amazon Top Reviewers. Send a personalized email to each, targeting the people who review books similar to your genre. Wait at least two weeks before following up.Contact people in your business. This doesn’t include friends and family. Contact professionals in your field who would be willing to read the book with the possibility of leaving an honest review.Hire a site that specializes in finding honest reviewers for your book. I recommend BookRazor.Relaunch your book. Add more content, a new book cover, or make it appealing for people to join your relaunch of an existing book. You can relaunch a book as many times as you want.There are a lot of strategies out there to get reviews for your books, most are legit, and some are not. As an author, make sure you are aware of what Amazon considers to be authentic reviews when it comes to gathering reviews for your next book, and steer clear of anything it considers to be incentivized revi ews.If a site promises to get you positive reviews in return for cash, stay away. It isnt worth it, trust me. Keep hunting and adding reviews to your book.Book reviews are the secret sauce to adding value and credibility to your work, boosting sales and making your book stick on the bestseller lists. Dont skimp out on them.Its Time for Your FREE TrainingOne of the easiest and most natural ways to get good book reviews is to write a book worthy of them.Heres how you can learn to do that.

Free Essays on Assessment

According to the glossary in the class textbook assessment is, â€Å"the process of gathering information related to how much students have learned.† (Parkay and Stanford, 1998 p.477) The most commonly used form of assessment is the written test. Many variations of the written test exist. Some examples include the multiple-choice test, a.k.a. the multiple-guess test, the short response or â€Å"fill-in-the-blank† test and the essay test. While I feel that all of these methods can be useful, there is a dangerous tendency to rely on written tests alone or, even worse, on only one type of written test. In order to gain the most comprehensive picture of the amount of learning occurring for a given student, a number of additional factors should be taken into consideration. These include observation of classroom participation, verbal communication, and â€Å"hands-on† performance when applicable. It is by broadening the basis for assessment that we can hope to avoid the error of wrongly evaluating a student. Since assessment is only one step in a cycle of teaching and learning, changes made in the assessment process will also affect the other stages in the process. Decisions as to the nature of the instruction regarding whether to use lecture, demonstration, discussion, or debate will be changed in part due to the type of assessment to be used. Also, the results of assessments will be important in deciding on the next steps to be taken. In many instances, mastery of one skill is a prerequisite for learning the next. Thus, a new extension of a subject may be delayed while an earlier lesson is reviewed so that the student will have the tools necessary for the next stage. One concrete example of assessment from my own past experience involved testing of students at the Pathfinder school in Ft. Benning GA. The assigned task was to assist a lost aircraft in locating itself. The assessment consisted of having the student communicate via r... Free Essays on Assessment Free Essays on Assessment According to the glossary in the class textbook assessment is, â€Å"the process of gathering information related to how much students have learned.† (Parkay and Stanford, 1998 p.477) The most commonly used form of assessment is the written test. Many variations of the written test exist. Some examples include the multiple-choice test, a.k.a. the multiple-guess test, the short response or â€Å"fill-in-the-blank† test and the essay test. While I feel that all of these methods can be useful, there is a dangerous tendency to rely on written tests alone or, even worse, on only one type of written test. In order to gain the most comprehensive picture of the amount of learning occurring for a given student, a number of additional factors should be taken into consideration. These include observation of classroom participation, verbal communication, and â€Å"hands-on† performance when applicable. It is by broadening the basis for assessment that we can hope to avoid the error of wrongly evaluating a student. Since assessment is only one step in a cycle of teaching and learning, changes made in the assessment process will also affect the other stages in the process. Decisions as to the nature of the instruction regarding whether to use lecture, demonstration, discussion, or debate will be changed in part due to the type of assessment to be used. Also, the results of assessments will be important in deciding on the next steps to be taken. In many instances, mastery of one skill is a prerequisite for learning the next. Thus, a new extension of a subject may be delayed while an earlier lesson is reviewed so that the student will have the tools necessary for the next stage. One concrete example of assessment from my own past experience involved testing of students at the Pathfinder school in Ft. Benning GA. The assigned task was to assist a lost aircraft in locating itself. The assessment consisted of having the student communicate via r...

Pacifism and violence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pacifism and violence - Assignment Example Alice Hertz’s sacrifice, like many others who did as she did, was meant for a noble cause. This noble cause was to save more lives from being wasted in the Vietnam war. Whether, that worked or not is a different issue altogether. In this reading, Gould (2010) is evaluating the question of pacifists who believe that disputes can be settled peacefully. The reading suggests that pacifists’ virtues occur in their rejection of war and their affirmation of nonviolent communication and conflict resolution. That pacifists seek lifelong nonviolent moral commitment is a proactive moral commitment. To their opposites, they are cowards because they necessitate no moral commitment. Pacifists may not be heroes per se, but they embody no cowardice. Where cowardice saves life and brings about peaceful coexistence, pacifism becomes a virtue. Pacifists emphasize their value for life by endeavoring to end violent ways of seeking peace. This effort works to support a moral commitment to preserve life. Therefore, the question of whether pacifists are cowards or brave lies in ones moral

Should undocumented students qualify for federal student financial aid Term Paper

Should undocumented students qualify for federal student financial aid - Term Paper Example These students face legal uncertainties and limitations in the United States lawful system. In this essay, I will examine whether the Undocumented students should be qualify for federal student financial aid. Undocumented students are not denied from applying or being admitted to colleges; however, unlike other students who are citizens of the United States they face federal financial limitation. First, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 Sec. 1623(a) states â€Å"a foreigner who is illegally existent in the United States is not authorized on the basis of dwelling within a state for postsecondary educational welfares†. Except a national or citizen of the United States is qualified for the benefit without the regards as to whether the national or citizen is such as resident. Therefore, with such a law it is clear that undocumented students cannot be given students loans. However, I think this clause is unfair because if the student are allowed to get secondary education I do not see the reason of denying them loans that would help them in advancing their careers. Additionally, about 73% of the Undocumented students are born in the United States m eaning that they acquire citizenship by birth but the federal government does not recognize this fact as they see their parents as illegal immigrants. The Fourteenth Amendment is Vague in relation to the equality clause that relates to education. The Constitution requires that every child in the United States be given equal education opportunity regardless of their race, religion, sex, ethnic background, whether poor or rich or whether the child is a citizen or non-citizen of the United States. Therefore, if the constitution allows students to study in the United States regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented then the students should also be provided with financial aid to help them pursue

Comments and suggestions Essay Example for Free

Comments and suggestions Essay People at authorities from different branches may need to meet on a regular period. Travel cost for representatives is an additional expense which could be controlled by implementing an internet based intranet. This intranet must have chatting capability which can facilitate online conferences. Authorities no longer need to travel to the main office; instead they can set down in front of their computers, log on to the website and talk to each other like what they do in conventional conferences or meetings. This not only eliminates travel expense, but it also promotes confidence for each person participating the meeting or conferences. Because he is at the same location where he is assigned, he’ll be able to produce situational reports at real time when necessary, and seek previous documents that was not initially told to prepare but was necessary in the meeting proceedings. People who travel might accidentally leave some important documents behind which will only result to unsuccessful participation. File sharing through File Transfer Protocol (FTP) An FTP system included in the internet based intranet can address the problem to achieve fast and reliable file and information sharing among different branches. This is very beneficial in file sharing and retrieval. Company-specific reports generated by the different information management systems installed in different departments can be directed to its FTP system. In this manner, FYC can achieve an organized information storage system. A person authorized to collect reports from different branches no longer need to call all branches simultaneously because the reports can already be retrieved through the FTP system attached to the intranet. Plus, retrieval of these reports can be accessible within a matter of seconds depending on the speed of the internet connection and the size of the files to be retrieved. This type of collection of reports ensures consistency of shared information especially in situations where one form of data or information is required to be disseminated to all branches. All in all, this is an effective time management and communication system for FYC. The ability to post Schedules and Messages This will achieve standardized calendar systems for all branches of FYC. Messages and schedules posted on the site is 99% accurate and safe since you can be sure that this information comes from those persons who are authorized to post it. Posting of messages and schedules once is more reliable than disseminating information through phone calls since an information officer might not consistently disseminate the information at all times. All you have to do is just key-in the information that needs to be posted. Comments and suggestions from different addressee can be posted as a forum thread which will help the top management to address problems that had arising in connection with any communication.

Comparing Hap by Thomas Hardy and The Second Coming by Yeats Essay

Comparing Hap by Thomas Hardy and The Second Coming by Yeats      Ã‚   Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was one of the great writers of the Late Victorian era. One of his great works out of the many that he produced was his poem Hap, which he wrote in 1866, but did not publish until 1898 in his collection of poems called Wessex Poems. This poem seems to typify the sense of alienation that he and other writers were experiencing at the time, as they "saw their times as marked by accelerating social and technological change and by the burden of a worldwide empire" (Longman p. 2165). The poem also reveals Hardy's own "abiding sense of a universe ruled by a blind or hostile fate, a world whose landscapes are etched with traces of the fleeting stories of their inhabitants" (Longman p. 2254).    The poem's major theme seems to be this sense of the world being ruled by a hostile and blind fate, not by a benevolent God pushing all of the buttons. This is clearly stated within the poem itself as Hardy writes "If but some vengeful god would call to me / From up the sky, and laugh: 'Thou suffering thing, / Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, / That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!' / Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die, / Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited; / Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I / Had willed and meted me the tears I shed. / But not so." (Hardy, Longman p. 2255: ll. 1-9). As you can see, this poem shows that Hardy has indeed lost all faith in a benevolent God that deals out suffering and joy to his creations as he willfully deems they deserve and need. Instead of this idea of a benevolent God up above pulling all of the strings of the world and dealing out everyone's personal fate, Hardy believes fate is... ...and present as a sign that the 'Beast' is about to be born and rule the next 2000 years just like Jesus was born and resurrected to rule the last 2000 years, while Hardy just relates the evils and pain that is inflicted on man as a sign that there is no benevolent God, but not that there is an evil God staking his claim to our lives now enstead. He leaves our fate up to mere chance and the passage of time, while Yeats leaves our fate up to the beast (also known as Satan).    Works Cited Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism. New Jersey. Prentice Hall, 1999. Damrosch, David, et al., ed.   The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B.   Compact ed.   New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. Yeats, William, Butler. "The Second Coming." The Longman Anthology British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch. Longman. New York. 2000. 2329.   

Automatic Speech Recognition Systems

In addition, the author will evaluate his level of inform in speaking the contents of term paper as opposed to typing one. And lastly, the level of organization required to use speech recognition as opposed to typing. The first automated speech recognition system the author will analyze is produced by a company called Application Technology, or Pupate. Pupate is located in McLean, Virginia, and has been in the Human Language Technology field for over 20 years. Appetites CARS product is called Plainspoken, and is used for speech dictation, broadcast and telephony.This program can do anything from a simple chain of numbers to vocabularies of up to 100,000 words. Plainspoken recognizes continuous speech, offers gender-independent speech recognition, as well as speaker dependent and speaker Independent modes. Opalescence also offers a scalable vocabulary as well as a scalable number of recognized languages. At this time however, the author of this paper was unable to locate a price for t his product on the manufacturers also known as Dragon Naturally Speaking.Nuance offers several different versions from the basic to a more advanced version for legal professionals. Nuance offers several different accent features from Spanish to Southern as well as several vocabulary options. Nuance allows for custom creation of text-to-graphics commands. This software works with PC's as well as multiple types of mobile devices, and is compatible with a multitude of applications. The price range of this product varies from $99 to $1199. (nuance. Com, 2009) The final company and product the author will review is Namespace.Namespace was established in 1996, when Andrew Taylor realized that the Macintosh platform was losing ground in the speech recognition software arena. Like the product from Nuance, Namespace offers several different versions. Their versions vary from a standard dictation version up to a legal reflections version. What is unique about Namespace is that it offers an In ternational version, which supports English, French, German and Italian. The price range is from $195 to $595 for the Namespace program.The drawback here is that this program is primarily written for the Mac computer. (namespace. Com, 2009) Unfortunately, the author was unable to find as much information as he would have liked about the companies and products. If the author had to use this type of product to produce a term paper, I would feel very uncomfortable. I feel I would have lost some aspect of control if I were to use an CARS to produce a term paper. In addition, it would be difficult to Judge the effectiveness and accuracy of an CARS.

Northern Victory in the Civil War Essay

This essay will analyze the varied factor that led to Northern victory in the Civil War between 1861-1864. The central reasons for this Union success can be categorized in economic, political, and military factors; some of these elements would include the southern focus on cotton monoculture, the union naval blockade, the confederate doctrine of State’s Rights, and the strength of union generals and their military tactics, between others. Overall, the north achieved dominance due to a combination of these reasons. Economic factors led to Northern victory as although both sides had great military potential, neither side had few methods to actually realize that potential. According to the Millennial edition of The Historical Statistics of the united states, during the time of the civil war the Union owned 71% of all the rail roads of the USA while the CSA only had a 29%. Also the Union had 90% of the manufactured items and a 97% of the firearms produced, while the CSA only had a 70% of the exports. Regarding the rail roads, this were of main importance, as the Union transported weapons, soldiers, ammo, and raw materials through this, so the fact that the northern states owned 21. 788 miles of rail roads didn’t only mean that they could transport all the machinery across the country but also, that the south was terribly limited in their transport, therefore the CSA had the disadvantage that the Union controlled rail roads across the country meaning, that they weren’t able to use their full potential on industry (cotton etc. or militarily as most of railroads were used for the moving of troops, while the north kept their industry stable and was able to move troops across the territory. More over, coming back to the production, and exports facts, although the southern states had most of the exports before the war (selling enormous amounts of cotton), as soon the war started their relations with Britain (who bought cotton to the south) broke out, so they had no econom ic strength behind their forces, as all their economy was based on agriculture, and had no industries. On the other side the Union had a totally industrialized economy where they were able to auto-sustain their states, therefore their economy before and during the war never changed, meaning that they were in perfect conditions as firearm production was extremely overwhelming over the one of the CSA and, they had money enough to go over a war and support their army with food, clothes, and weapons. In this way the North was highly superior to the south as they were financial base strong, so they could borrow internationally and purchase weapons and supplies abroad. Finally the fact that the Union had a population of 22. 000. 000 and the CSA of 9. 000. 000, which 5. 500. 000 of them were slaves, was also important because the north had enough people, so that factories never stop working, and still they had lots of soldiers and a big army, on the other side the south with a little population did not had enough for both activities, therefore some people had to stop working for going to the war. Between the southern statistics, we can find that the economic ones, are ridiculously overwhelmed by the ones of the Union, and this was mainly because their focus on monoculture, therefore if the cotton declined, then the confederate economy would be devastated, as they had a closed market, were almost most of their work was dedicated to one product. Unfortunately for the confederate states cotton trade rapidly declined during the civil war as many southerner believed that without the south’s cotton exports, Britain’s textile industry would collapse, causing terrible problems for the British Empire, and as a result England would join the war to fight the Union, however it did not work, and Britain started to buy cotton to other nations. As a result, the confederacy suffered crucially from under–industrialization as its only manufacturing plant The Tredegar Ironworks at Richmond, while the North had innumerable factories of the kind. This meant that the Confederates States weren’t able to maintain their railways, armies, and troops in the frontier, therefore the north had and advantage as southerners soldiers were unprepared for fighting and there railroads where in terrible conditions, so their little possession of railroads became even smaller, while the northern states were perfect due to their economic stability. In a civil war control of the oceans and rivers is often a critical point. The union had grater naval end industrial facilities, and decided to blockade the south to strangle its trade and wealth. The idea came from a commanding general, called Winfield Scott who designed this plan to win the war with as little violence as possible. The plan consisted in closing the main confederate ports; so in May 1861 when the blockade started the south was cut from almost all international trade. Therefore, the CSA’s economy was even worse than it was before, southern economy was now basically based in one factory, which was not even near to the production needed by the southerners to fight a war, and as a result the confederacy’s wealth didn’t resisted much war, so lines wouldn’t hold for much longer, and finally the northern forces would overthrow them one way or another, as southerners’’ railroads where getting each time worst, they had almost no weapons or fighting equipment as there trade was cut off, and they only had one factory so provide with ammo, weapons, clothes for all of the south. Overall, we can see clearly that the war totally destroyed the Confederacy’s economy. Firstly, cotton production was dripping quickly as the south tried to force Britain to join the war, this was devastating to the south as they almost had no income, and they where in the middle of a war. As a result that cotton production was not needed any more, the slaves had now much less work to do, and this meant that there were also men who had to look after them, as they were â€Å"dangerous†, therefore, there where less soldiers to fight against the north. At the same time, the war had a direct effect on the plantations as â€Å"It did not seem to matter whether a Union or confederate army crossed a plantation, either way the result was devastation, crops were trampled down, stock was stolen [†¦]†[1], this clearly shows the state of desperation of the south army, and the situation they were in. also the fact that some planters escaped from war-zone with their slaves, brought disruption, as the bad news of defeat was spread by planters and slaves into new areas. Therefore, planters had to run away because their property was being destroyed, this provoked even more decay in their production, agricultural farms, that could be used for feeding soldiers, weren’t worked any more by their owners, therefore the south had no way of getting food, as they couldn’t buy to any other country due to the blockade, and the local productions was getting destroy rapidly by the war, giving in this way a great advantage to the north, as southerners soldiers conditions were in some cases deplorable. Concluding, the fact that the south bet to a future, which slavery was supposed to guarantee, after the breaking of relations with the exterior, slavery was a thing of the past after only a year of war. Therefore, the confederacy who had spent a lot of money in bringing them from Africa and buying them, making slaves the column of their economy, was just a waste of time and money as they were useless, as they couldent fight, because if they were given a weapon the would use it to kill their owners and free themselves, and they were also a waste of soldiers as it required many whites to control them. Therefore, slaves who were the future of the CSA, ended up being a weight in the shoulders of southerners, as they created deficit, and this affected also, the confederacy’s economy. However, while economic reasons were clearly important in the northern victory, political factors, also played a mayor role. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, faced two challenges; one was to fight a war against the north and the second, to create a new nation. Therefore the south itself saw themselfeves in a bad position for fighting a war, because they had to care about to important things at the same time, and also they weren’t prepared to fight a war with another country like USA. Therefore, the lack of political organization, from the south, regarding to powers, was also an important issue, as the north was enormously superior, and had a better, and more organized political structure. As a result, the north fought a corporate war, while the south still had problems internally. Also confederate doctrine of state’s rights weakened the south as it created political disunity in the Confederacy. President Jefferson Davis, had to struggle with states governors, like Joe Brown, from Georgia or Zebulon Vance, from North Carolina, to get conscription approved, and even for basic military supplies. This disunity meant that the eastern and western fronts fought for resources, as most went to the east while the war was lost in the west. Firstly, this shows that states from the south did no believe they were going to win the war, as they started to withheld supplies to defend their own area, and this lead to Union victory, as they were separated, therefore, this didn’t just meant that they where more vulnerable as they were disunity, but also that they were weaker as states did not work together, each other to fight the north. Therefore the Union, saw the isolation of the southern states, and took advantage of it by attacking from different points, specially the west, and finally penetrating in this way through the North/south frontier, into the confederacy’s heart. Moreover, the role of foreign powers during the war was of main importance. Since the very beginning of the war, the Union made it clear that recognition of the Confederacy meant war to the Unites States. As a result, no nation appointed any diplomat officially to the confederacy; this meant that they received no diplomatic recognition. This was crucial, and one of the main aims of the North, because recognition to the south meant, a lot of income due to the cotton industry, and also weapons and machines to fight the war. Although the Union relied on its blockade to ensure victory, if the confederacy achieved recognition from Britain and France, this would have been much more difficult. Therefore, the fact that the CSA was not a recognized country before war, made things much more easier to the Union, as this meat no international support, and they were now isolated, clearly showing that they had no chances of wining the war without external help. Therefore this created conditions for the Union to win the war, as the fact that cotton trade was going down, and the only had one factory in the whole confederacy, made it clear that, they weren’t able to make it on their own, so the north clearly overwhelmed the south, as they had many factories to produce weapons, clothes etc. and also the support of European forces who sell weapons and machines to them; that’s why, it is so important that the CSA did not had a government, and a reason, of why they were so hurried up to become a nation. From the start of the war that Lincoln had a problem, which was how to unite the North sufficiently to make them want to fight and keep fighting. He needed an initiative, something that would give the northerners a reason to fight for. One way of doing this was through attacking slavery , and if we go back, some years before the war we could see that these really moved people (Uncle’s Tom Cabin), and although the civil war began over the secession of the South, and not over slavery, it was a fact which grew tensions between the Union and CSA before the war. Lincoln had to wait until Northern opinion was ready for the announcement of emancipation, where slaves would be set free. In 1862 the Atlantic slave trade was banned by the congress, but still people wanted more progress towards slavery destruction. Lincoln’s main reasons for this where: slavery had been already an important spark in the causes for the civil war, so to make sure war did not happen again. Free black were trying to enlist the Union’s army, and internationally the North would gain much support from the rest of the world, especially Europe, if the promised to crush slavery, and finally, in the same way the Declaration of Independence said, he thought that â€Å"all men are equal†. However, Lincoln suffered a resistance from his own cabinet, as they said that were private property, and under the constitution, it was not correct to do that. However, in July 1862, finally Lincoln’s cabinet agreed, and after the win of Antietam, the 17th of September, Lincoln decide that it was the right moment, son the 22nd of September of 1862 the preliminary proclamation was announced. It said that all slave owner who refused to make peace, all slaves in that territory would be freed on 1st of January 1863. Then, in January 1863 Lincoln put forward plans for gradual, compensated emancipation. After these, celebrations started all over the north. Rapidly runaway slaves joined the Union armies fighting the south, carrying wood, making roads and bridges between other things. On the other hand the confederacy tried to suppress all knowledge of the proclamation, but word spread around the south. Therefore, the proclamation strengthened the north as, people were encourage to fight, and were more enthusiastic, taking more participation and a major role in the war. Also, the fact that the Union was against slavery made international relations much easier to them, as other countries started to sympathize with the northerner’s actions, giving as a result a positive effect on the Unions economy. Also, the fact that slaves joined the army (178. 975, actually the 12. 5% of the whole army) was also of major help to the Northerners as they also started working at factories or scouting and searching for confederates or spying in the south. Therefore this led to Northern victory, as a huge amount of soldiers joined the army, internationals relations grew up, meaning more weapons and machines to fight the war, and finally, soldiers and people from the north had found the motivation to keep fighting. On the other hand, the proclamation weakened the Confederacy, slaves stop working at their plantations, or farms, therefore the had no workers, and that place was to be replace by the white, meaning in this way less men to fight the war. Slaves started rescuing Union soldier in the south, so they even started working against the confederacy, and as a result weakening their forces. Also, south’s international picture was terribly affected, as although eople already new the Southern states of the USA, worked a lot with slaves, with the proclamations, the Union was rapidly portrayed as heroes while the south became the villains of the story, and in this affected directly to the south’s relations with exterior, especially Europe. Therefore we can say that the effects of this proclamation led to northern victory, as 178. 975 new soldiers entered to the United States army to fight against the Confederacy. After proclamation, the North’s international view grew up in a positive way, while the southern one didn’t. This meant more exports and imports to the Union, which as a direct result made a huge significance in their trade and economy, and on the other side the Confederacy was left more isolated than it was before, meaning no weapons at all, and almost no income. The north had had found, an incentive to fight the war and give a quick finish to it, and the proclamation was the right push. Furthermore, workers were needed in the south to replace the place of the slaves, this meant less soldiers and less production for the confederacy.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny Free Online Research Papers Though the actual term â€Å"Manifest Destiny† was coined in 1845 by John O’Sullivan a democrat leader and the editior of â€Å"The Morning Post†. It was a concept going back to when the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. From the very first settlements in America the pilgrims, the settlers at Jamestown and all along the eastern seaboard, they began expanding litttle by little into the interior. Certainly from the 18th century Americans had come to believe that is was their right, and in fact their duty to bring Christianity and republicanism into the uninhabited western areas of the United States. Of course what these expanisionists did not take into consideration, was that the regions they were expanding into were inhabited by Indians, French, and Spanish speaking peoples. The land was only ‘uninhabited† by English-speaking white people. Manifest Destiny is not a specific time, date, or event in American history. It is more an ideaology, a movement that spans many years. It really created American history, it is what drove its people from coast to coast. Expanding the continent and bringing America’s ideals, government, religion from coast to coast. Though Manifest Destiny was officially coined in 1845, it really existed throughout American history. From the French and Indian war the colonists began pushing the French off the continent. In 1754 America began the contest for control of the American continent. It took a war to remove the French from the Ohio valley. Now with the removal of the French danger, the stage was set for the colonies to expand and eventually unite against England itself. In fact one grievance against Britian was the mother country’s attempt to prevent the colonists from settling beyond the Appalachians, â€Å"Proclamation of 1763† 1 On July 4, 1776 America declared her independence from Britian. This was only the beginning of seven long years of war, costing many lives and leaving the country’s economy in a shambles. However, it was truly the beginning of America as a continental, independent nation. Finally with peace and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britian ceded to the United States all the lands to the Mississippi River. Now the war was over and by 1789 our Constitution was ratified. The government, under the leadership of President Washington, came into its own. The country was now poised on the threshold of growth, prosperity and expansion. With Thomas Jefferson, our second president the United States through him had a vision of a power that would stretch to the Pacific coast, in an â€Å"Empire of Liberty†.2 The Louisiana Purchase was a â€Å"direct result† of Jefferson’s true vision of an America that would go from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Even before Jefferson purchased the Louisianna territory, thousands of land hungry Americans had already migrated to the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. This mass migration displaced many Indian tribes. Jefferson knew that whoever controlled the port of New Orleans, owned the Mississippi River and had the power to open or close the port to commerce at will, as he phrased it â€Å" a hand on the throat of the American economy†.3 He knew the Mississipi would draw the country together. The Louisiana Territory brought 828,000 sq. miles for 15 million dollars (about 3 cents an acre) to the United States. Jefferson’s dream of an â€Å"Empire for Liberty† had come to pass. The nation had been more than doubled in size. President Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore this vast new territory. From 1804-1805, Lewis and Clark journeyed with the Corps of Discovery to map out the newly purchased territory. Lewis and Clark with 33 individuals began their journey from St. Louis up the Missouri River through the â€Å"Stoney Mountains† now the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. With this exploration came the realization that there was no easy all water route to the Pacific. That dream which had persisted for centuries had died. However, it would do little to stop the westward expansion. The American west was opened. Americans began moving into the Louisana Purchase lands at a much faster pace and in such large numbers that no one could have predicted this mass influx of people. The Louisiana Purchase began a shift toward the west away from the eastern seaboard. The next decades saw Americans rush in to settle this new land in the west. Manifest Destiny continued with the United States possession of Florida from Spain in 1819. In return for Florida, the United States renounced its claim to Texas, but not for long. Within two years Moses Austin brought 300 families in to settle Texas and the American continent began its march westward. This large migration of people started three major conflicts. First the Indian tribes of the trans-Mississippi, second problems with Mexico over emigration into the province of Texas and third with the admission of slavery into the Louisiana Territiory. The Indian conflicts caused border wars with a myriad of Indian tirbes that lasted into the 1890’s. The second led to the Texas uprising in 1835 which culminated with the Mexican War in 1845 and the annexation of Texas along with all of the Southwest, including California by the United States. Finally the third which was temporarily solved by the Compromise of 1820 (Missouri Compromise). The â€Å"Great Compromise† brought about by Henry Clay the â€Å"Great Compromiser†. This compromise was supposed to solve the questrion of where slavery could expand. This satisfied both sides for the time being. 4 With the election of President Polk in 1845, there was a renewal of â€Å"Jacksonian expansionism† 5 Polk was aggressive in instituting America’s claims to territory along its southern border with Mexico, as well as along the Canadian border with Great Britian. The dispute with Great Britian was resolved peacefully and diplomatically, while the argument with Mexico resulted in armed border clashes. This gave Polk reason to declare war with Mexico. The American Army consisting of regulars and volunteers was finally victorious. United States battle deaths in the Mexican war was not heavy by modern standards, about 2% killed in combat with the greatest taken by diseases, about 14%, totaling 16% casualties. Under the command of Zachery Taylor and Winfield Scott, forays into Mexico ensued with the capture of Mexico City. This forced Mexico to sue for peace. In the Treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo Mexico ceded all of what is America’s southwest from the Rio Grande River westward to the Pacific to America. This was America’s first war waged primarily as an aggresive war. Mexico was forced to give up California, Arizona, and New Mexico and recognize the RioGrande as the United States southern border. The United States also paid Mexico 15 million dollars for all this land. While this gained some 850,000 square miles for the United States, it also gained the United States a legacy of distrust of â€Å"los yanquis† 6 Also during the time of Polk’s presidency, there were approximately 3,000-4,000 Americans living in the Oregon country who wanted union with the United States. Americans in the Oregon country were also filtering into the interior valleys of California by the mid 1840’s. Polk avoided conflict with England over the Oregon Canadian border by accepting the 49 parallel as the boundry of the United States. He ignored some American cries for the United States to push north to â€Å"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight†. 7 With the peaceful settlement of the Oregon border, the overland trails, the most important being the â€Å"Oregon Trail†8 took on a new importance. Much to the calamity of the Indians. These trails carried thousands of Americans into Indian country, displacing the Indian tribes as had been done all across the nation. So this term â€Å"Manifest Destiny† first coined by John O’Sullivan an American newspaper editor in 1845 came to pass. This term described the westward expansion from the fledgling 13 colonies hugging America’s Atlantic coast to her expansion clear to the Pacific Ocean. Through purchase, war, annexation, removal of native peoples and just true grit of an American people deterrminded to use the full potential of a people and country rich in land, resources and pure ambition. The true surprise was that such an seemingly never ending amount of land would have taken a very long time to conquer. It had taken approximately 200 years to reach the Mississippi, but in a mere 40 years, America now had reached the Pacific Ocean. While America can be looked on as an aggresser in its push against whatever, and whoever stood in her way toward the dream of Manifest Destiny, it can also be looked on in a more positive light. Manifest Destiny was a fulfillment of a dream of ordinary Americans, farmers, missionaries, soldiers, simple pioneers (men, women and children) pushing themselves, their faith, and their beliefs ackross the continental United States. In looking back this expansion seems to be a very adventurous and romantic time. However, it was a massive undertaking, and certainly not easily won. For the ultimate prize of a continental United States many paid the highest price, they paid with their blood. Endnotes 1. R. A. Guisepi, Manifest Destiny, 2004, http://history-world.org/westward_movement.htm (4 April 2008) 2. Amborse, Stephen E. Brinkley, Douglas G. The Mississsippi and The Making of A Natiion From The Louisiana Purchase to Today, Page 11 3. Amborse, Stephen E. Brinkley, Douglas G. The Mississsippi and The Making of A Natiion From The Louisiana Purchase to Today, Page 12 4. The Great Courses, Taught by Professor Allan C. Guelzo Eastern University; Professor Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia; Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University, The History Of The United States 2nd Edition, Course Guide Book., Page 111 5. The Great Courses, Taught by Professor Allan C. Guelzo Eastern University; Professor Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia; Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University, The History Of The United States 2nd Edition, Course Guide Book., Page 115 6. Manaifest Destiny and Expansion in the Americas, , (4 April 2008) 7. PBS, US Mexican war Prelude to War, (4 April 2008) 8. R. A. Guisepi, Manifest Destiny, 2004, (4 April 2008) Bibliography Amborse, Stephen E. Brinkley, Douglas G. The Mississsippi and The Making of A Natiion From The Louisiana Purchase to Today. National Geographic Society, 1145 17th St. N.W., Washington D.C. 200036-46888 Copyright 2002 Bennet, William J. America The Last Best Hope Volume I From the Age Of Discovery To A World War. Nelson Current Copyright 2006 ISBN I-59555-055-0 The Great Courses, The History Of The United States 2nd Edition, Course Guide Book. Taught by Professor Allan C. Guelzo Eastern University; Professor Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia; Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University Copyright The Teaching Company 2003 R. A. Guisepi, Manifest Destiny, History World International, 2004, (4 April 2008) Manifest Destiny and Expansion in the Americas, January 2006, (4 April 2008) Our American History Textbook, Manifest Destiny Period 1820 – 1860, 4 April 2008,(4 April 2008) PBS, US Mexican war Prelude to War,1995-2006 (4 April 2008) Research Papers on Manifest DestinyQuebec and CanadaAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeBringing Democracy to Africa19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Canaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceWhere Wild and West MeetPETSTEL analysis of India

Stories about Great Thinkers and Inventors

Stories about Great Thinkers and Inventors The following stories about great thinkers and inventors will help to motivate your students and enhance their appreciation of the contributions of inventors. As students read these stories, they will also realize the inventors are male, female, old, young, minority, and majority. They are ordinary people who follow through with their creative ideas to make their dreams a reality. FRISBEE  ® The term FRISBEE did not always refer to the familiar plastic disks we visualize flying through the air. Over 100 years ago, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, William Russell Frisbie owned the Frisbie Pie Company and delivered his pies locally. All of his pies were baked in the same type of 10 round tin with a raised edge, wide brim, six small holes in the bottom, and Frisbie Pies on the bottom. Playing catch with the  tins  soon became a popular local sport. However, the tins were slightly dangerous when a  toss  was missed. It became the Yale custom to yell Frisbie when throwing a pie tin. In the 40s when plastic emerged, the pie-tin game was recognized as a manufacturable and marketable product. Note:  FRISBEE  Ã‚ ® is a registered trademark of Wham-O Mfg. Co. Earmuffs Baby, Its Cold Outside Baby, Its Cold Outside may have been the song running through 13-year-old Chester Greenwoods head one cold December day in 1873. To protect his ears while ice skating, he found a piece of wire, and with his grandmothers help, padded the ends. In the beginning, his friends laughed at him. However, when they realized that he was able to stay outside skating long after they had gone inside freezing, they stopped laughing. Instead, they began to ask Chester to make ear covers for them, too. At age 17 Chester applied for a patent. For the next 60 years, Chesters factory made earmuffs, and earmuffs made Chester rich. BAND-AID  ® At the turn of the century, Mrs. Earl Dickson, an inexperienced cook, often burned and cut herself. Mr. Dickson, a Johnson and Johnson employee, got plenty of practice in hand bandaging. Out of concern for his wifes safety, he began to prepare bandages ahead of time so that his wife could apply them by herself. By combining a piece of surgical tape and a piece of gauze, he fashioned the first crude adhesive strip bandage. LIFE-SAVERS  ® Candy During the hot summer of 1913, Clarence Crane, a chocolate candy manufacturer, found himself facing a dilemma. When he tried to ship his chocolates to candy shops in other cities they melted into gooey blobs. To avoid dealing with the mess, his customers were deferring their orders until cool weather. In order to retain his customers, Mr. Crane needed to find a substitute for the melted chocolates. He experimented with hard candy which wouldnt melt during shipment. Using a machine designed for making medicine pills, Crane produced small, circular candies with a hole in the middle. The birth of LIFE SAVERS! Note on Trademarks  ® is the symbol for a registered trademark. The trademarks on this page are words used to name the inventions. Thomas Alva Edison If I were to tell you that  Thomas Alva Edison  had shown signs of inventive genius at an early age, you probably would not be surprised. Mr. Edison achieved enormous fame with his lifelong contributions of volumes of inventive technology. He received the first of his 1,093 U.S. patents by age 22. In the book, Fire of Genius, Ernest Heyn reported on a remarkable resourceful young Edison, though some of his earliest  tinkering  clearly lacked merit. Age 6 By the age of six, Thomas Edisons experiments with fire were said to have cost his father a barn. Soon after that, it is reported that young Edison tried to launch the first human balloon by persuading another youth to swallow large quantities of effervescing powders to inflate himself with gas. Of course, the experiments brought quite unexpected results! Chemistry and electricity held great fascination for this child,  Thomas Edison. By his early teens, he had designed and perfected his first real invention, an electrical cockroach control system. He glued parallel strips of tinfoil to a wall and wired the strips to the poles of a powerful battery, a deadly shock for the unsuspecting insect. As a dynamo of  creativity, Mr. Edison stood as decidedly unique; but as a child with a curious, problem-solving nature, he was not alone. Here are some more inventive children to know and appreciate. Age 14 At age 14, one schoolboy invented a rotary brush device to remove husks from wheat in the flour mill run by his friends father. The young inventors name?  Alexander Graham Bell. Age 16 At 16, another of our junior achievers saved pennies to buy materials for his chemistry experiments. While still a teenager, he set his mind on developing a commercially viable aluminum refining process. By age 25,  Charles Hall  received a patent on his revolutionary electrolytic process. Age 19 While only 19 years old, another imaginative young person designed and built his first  helicopter. In the summer of 1909, it very nearly flew. Years later,  Igor Sikorsky  perfected his design and saw his early dreams change aviation history.  Silorsky  was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1987. The are more childhood problem-solvers that we can mention. Perhaps youve heard about: Samuel Colts  childhood experience with underwater explosives;Fourteen-year-old Robert Fultons manually operated paddlewheel; andGuglielmo Marconis early mechanical/electrical tinkering.Even television tinker,  Philo T. Farnsworth, conceived his optical scanning idea at the tender age of 14. Inventions Inventions tell something about the inventors place in the society in which they live, a closeness to certain kinds of problems, and possession of certain skills. It is not surprising that up until the mid 20th Century, womens inventions were often related to childcare, housework, and healthcare, all traditional female occupations. In recent years, with access to specialized training and broader job opportunities, women are applying their creativity to many new kinds of problems, including those requiring high technology. While women have frequently come up with new ways to make their work easier, they have not always received credit for their ideas. Some stories about early women inventors show that women often recognized that they were entering a mans world, and shielded their work from the public eye by allowing men to patent their inventions. Catherine Greene Although  Eli Whitney  received a  patent for a cotton gin, Catherine Greene is said to have posed both the problem and the basic idea to Whitney. Furthermore, according to Matilda Gage, (, 1883), his first model, fitted with wooden teeth, did not do the work well, and Whitney was about to throw the work aside when Mrs. Greene proposed the substitution of wire to catch the cotton seeds. Margaret Knight Margaret Knight, remembered as the female Edison, received some 26 patents for such diverse items as a window frame and sash, machinery for cutting shoe soles, and improvements to internal combustion engines. Her most significant patent was for machinery that would automatically fold and glue paper bags to create square bottoms, an invention which dramatically changed shopping habits. Workmen reportedly refused her advice when first installing the equipment because, after all, what does a woman know about machines? More about  Margaret Knight Sarah Breedlove Walker Sarah Breedlove Walker, the daughter of former slaves, was orphaned at seven and widowed by 20.  Madame Walker  is credited with inventing hair lotions, creams, and an improved hair styling hot comb. But her greatest achievement may be the development of the Walker System, which included a broad offering of cosmetics, licensed Walker Agents, and Walker Schools, which offered meaningful employment and personal growth to thousands of Walker Agents, mostly Black women. Sarah Walker was the first American woman  self-made millionaire. More about  Sarah Breedlove Walker Bette Graham Bette Graham hoped to be an artist, but circumstances led her into secretarial work. Bette, however, was not an accurate typist. Fortunately, she recalled that artists could correct their mistakes by painting over them with gesso, so she invented a quick drying paint to cover her typing mistakes. Bette first prepared the secret formula in her kitchen using a hand mixer, and her young son helped to pour the mixture into little bottles. In 1980, the Liquid Paper Corporation, which Bette Graham built, was sold for over $47 million. More about   Bette  GRaham Ann Moore Ann Moore, a Peace Corps volunteer, saw how African women carried babies on their backs by tying cloth around their bodies, leaving both hands free for other work. When she returned to the United States, she designed a carrier which became the popular SNUGLI. Recently Ms. Moore received another patent for a carrier to conveniently transport oxygen cylinders. People needing oxygen for breathing assistance, who were previously confined to stationary oxygen tanks, can now move about more freely. Her company now sells several versions including lightweight backpacks, handbags, shoulder bags, and wheelchair/walker carriers for portable cylinders. Stephanie Kwolek Stephanie Kwolek, one of Duponts leading chemists, discovered the miracle fiber, Kevlar, which has five times the strength of steel by weight. Uses for Kevlar are seemingly endless, including ropes and cables for oil drilling rigs, canoe hulls, boat sails, automobile bodies and tires, and military and motorcycle helmets. Many Viet Nam veterans and police officers are alive today because of protection provided by bullet-proof vests made from Kevlar. Because of its strength and lightness, Kevlar was chosen as the material for the Gossamer Albatross, a pedal airplane flown across the English Channel. Kwolek was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995. More on  Stephanie Kwolek Gertrude B. Elion Gertrude B. Elion, 1988 Nobel laureate in Medicine, and Scientist Emeritus with Burroughs Wellcome Company, is credited with the synthesis of two of the first successful drugs for Leukemia, as well as Imuron, an agent to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants, and Zovirax, the first selective antiviral agent against herpes virus infections. Researchers who discovered AZT, a breakthrough treatment for AIDS, used Elions protocols. Elion was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991, the first woman inductee. More on Gertrude B. Elion Did you Know That.. windshield wipers were patented by  Mary Anderson  in 1903?dandruff shampoo was patented by Josie Stuart in 1903?a dishwasher was patented by  Josephine Cochrane  in 1914?the first disposable diaper was patented by Marion Donovan in 1951?a compact portable hair dryer was patented by Harriet J. Stern in 1962?a dough product for frozen pizza was patented by Rose Totino in 1979?the Melitta Automatic Drip Coffee Maker was patented by Melitta Benz in Germany in 1908? Between 1863 and 1913, approximately 1,200 inventions were patented by minority  inventors.  Many  more were unidentified because they hid their race to avoid discrimination or sold their inventions to others. The following stories are about a few of the  great minority  inventors. Elijah McCoy Elijah McCoy  earned  about 50 patents, however, his most  famous one  was for a metal or glass cup that fed oil to bearings through a small-bore tube. Elijah McCoy was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1843, the son of slaves who had fled Kentucky. He died in Michigan in 1929. More about  Elijah McCoy Benjamin Banneker Benjamin Banneker created the first striking clock made of wood in America. He became known as the Afro-American Astronomer. He published an almanac and with his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, he assisted in the surveying and planning of the new city of Washington, D.C. More about  Benjamin Banneker Granville Woods Granville Woods  had more than 60  patents. Known as the Black Edison, he improved Bells telegraph and created an electrical motor that made the underground subway possible. He also improved the airbrake. More about  Granville Woods Garrett Morgan Garrett Morgan  invented an improved  traffic signal. He also invented a safety hood for firefighters. More about  Garrett Morgan George Washington Carver George Washington Carver aided the Southern states with his  many inventions. He discovered over 300 different products made from the peanut which, until Carver, was considered a lowly food fit for hogs. He dedicated himself to teaching others, learning and working with nature. He created over 125 new products with the sweet potato and taught poor farmers how to rotate crops to  improve  their soil and their cotton.  George Washington Carver  was a great scientist and inventor who learned to be a careful observer and who was honored throughout the world for his creation of new things. More about  George Washington Carver

Group Dynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Group Dynamics - Essay Example On then other hand, Jung & Sosik (2002) indicate that group dynamics ahs been beneficial to the organization since it aids the management in devising problem solving skills in the workplace. Through group dynamics, the management has been able to create team work among its employees; thus, creativity and cooperation in the workplace. A group is inclusive of several people who come together with the aim of achieving a common objective. Group dynamics refers attitudinal and characteristics in behaviour of a given group (Robbins, 2007). Group dynamics are relevant to the organization in the HS engineering firm where there are several group dynamics in the Leeds firm that work together with the aim of achieving organizational objectives. The study of group dynamics within an organization will enable one understand the status of an organization (Cheringtan, 2004). However, group dynamics can only be successful if the management organizes the various aspects of groups in the workplace (Lov elace, Shapiro & Weingart, 2001). Among these attributes include the size of the groups, the characteristics of the members of these groups, their norms beliefs, and finally, the nature of tasks that they perform so as to be successful in their quest to create team work. Through categorization of these attributes in the organization gives the management an opportunity to strategies the kind of activities that ought to be performed in the workplace ands at what pace. From the HS engineering firm case study, group dynamics has not been alienated from the functioning of the organization. In the Leeds firm for instance, several aspects of group dynamics have been put in place to see to the success of the organization. Through analysis of the group dynamics of the organization, the management has been able to clearly understand what aspects to apply so as to understand the entire organization (Marcus, 1998). With the HS engineering company having other branches in other parts of the coun try, there was dire need by the company to understand the functionality of all the branches in the workplace. A closer scrutiny of the case also indicates that the company has gone through massive changes all in attempt to survive in the market. In the long run, the company has experienced massive losses in some of its branches that led to the closure of the same. This indicates that the management has dedicated a lot of efforts in understanding the operations of the company. Social identify theory states that individual group dynamics help to obtain a sense of identity and acquire self actualization. This reduces the rate of conflict within the organization. As an illustration from the HS engineering sample the major conflicts that arise due to the change taking place within the organization include; loss in manufacturing industries, there is an expectation of 30% reduction in the financial status of the company. The different group dynamics established had their own needs that lea d to the closure of some of them due to poor management. Mangold & Miles (2002) and Moritz &Watson (1998) indicate that leaders of organizations can only implement the aspects of group dynamics if the management of the organization is well conversant with the occurrences in the organization, no matter how minute they may seem. All organizations

The Population in the United Kingdom Research Paper

The Population in the United Kingdom - Research Paper Example The frequency and percentage distribution turned that out of 60,975, there were 37,904 frequency or 62.16% lies within 16 to 64 male and 16 - 59 female age group bracket. This means that majority of the total population are not on the retirement age. However, there were 11,509 frequency or 18.87% lies along Under 16 age group bracket, and lastly 11,562 or 18.96% lies on 65m/60f/over age group bracket. This means that only twenty percent were on retiring age in Untied Kingdom and it also reveals that there is almost twenty percent of the United Kingdom population who are young. Figure 1, or the first line graph presented in the appendix, 11728 out of 60975 belong to 45-59 age group bracket. This implies that this population though is quite near the retirement age. This is alarming, and may signal that something must be done in preparation for the coming year. Also, notable is that this is followed by age group bracket of 35-44 with 9248 which is very near the highest age group (45-59). On the other hand, the population distribution from 5-59 is very huge as compared to the age group 60 -94 which is very minimal. This implies that there was an increase in population, but there must be continuity to avoid having periods where most people are within or near to retirement. It can be seen in table 3 the comparison of male and female population in United Kingdom using analysis of variance (ANOVA) that there is a significant difference between the male to the female population in United Kingdom. This is because the result of the "Analysis of Variance" (ANOVA) shows that the computed F (1244.796) is greater than the tabular values of F-statistics (239) at 0.05 degree of freedom (1, 8). This was formulated by simply using 0.05 level of significance, F-statistics, and an Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, it was established that the df num value is k-1, or 2 -1, or 1 and the df den value is T-k, or 10 - 2, or 8. So, with = 0.05, the critical value of F in this analysis of variance test was F0.05 (1, 8) = 239. Since computed F (FC) is greater than Tabulated F (FT), Ho is rejected. Table 4 in the appendix shows the correlation of the male and female population in United Kingdom using coefficient of determination (R2) which reveals that the resultant R Square 0.993614286 is very close to 1 which means that the correlation is near normal curve distribution, so, it is interpreted as very high correlation. Thus, in percentile (%), 99.3614286 is an indicator of significant relationship between the male and female population in United Kingdom. Finally, the R square of 0.993614286 is very close to the adjusted R square 0.8686121286. This means that the regression model fits the data very well. Furthermore, figure 2 which also in the appendix show the correlation between males and females in 2006. It is been found that this is almost along perfect positive correlation which means the proportionality of the males and females in the United Kingdom 2006 has significant effect on each other. This also means that in every increase in female population there was also an increase in male population. This means that the population by gender is of the same age group distribution in the United Kingdom. Part C These data which was sourced from the National Statistics Office of the United Kingdom