Case study report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Case study report - Essay Example Demands from the society surpass the educational requirements. The society relies on the services on higher educational institutions to develop future generations of responsible persons. Minus the services of higher educational institutions, the society would be filled with persons with low professional and social portfolios (Brown & Katz, 2009). For this reason, governments have put in place strategies that make the access of the services of higher education much easier. Over the years, the ease of access of higher educational have been made easier. These can be analyzed in terms of the number of higher educational institutions created and the reduced prices of servicing the institutions for educational purposes. In the United Kingdom, the situation is the same. The number of educational institutions in the U.K has increased significantly to cater for the rising demand (Howell, 2012). Additionally, the institutions have made it easier for the public to access the services. Governmen t and educational bodies have also played a major role in creating a more accessible higher education sector. There have been measures in the United Kingdom that have ensured that higher educational institutions quote reasonable prices as fees (Andy, Jon & Robert, 2010). II. Thesis This paper will analyze the major changes, opportunities and difficulties faced by higher education institutions. The paper will also highlight major barriers that limit change in these institutions. Additionally, the paper will provide change management tips that should be embraced by university leaders in order to ensure smooth transitions of changes. For this paper the main focus will be made in regards to the changes experienced by the Higher education Institutions in the United Kingdom. The major change in the U.K. is the mandatory requirement by the institutions to reduce their charges on the tuition fees. III. The case From September, 2012 universities across the United Kingdom are allowed to raise their tuition fees up to ?9,000 annually. This change was protested by many educational bodies and stakeholder but at the gain of higher educational institutions. However, after the creation of these changes challenges started to arise on how this change could be managed. This is because students would aim to go to schools with the cheapest offering. In an argument by Levin (2012) the high demand on education limits the way in which institutions price their tuition fees. The author further points out that tuition fees in the United Kingdom would be fluctuated differently in each institution in order to maintain the competitiveness in the market (Levin, 2012). Additionally, due to the high fees the government will offer bursaries to students. For this reason, institution with the lowest fee quoted will be required to expand to cater for students who could not afford expensive institution. Institutions would also be required to quote cheaper tuition fees in order to capture the atten tion of the government in enabling them to acquire students benefiting from bursaries. Many institutions are now aiming at expanding their institutions by putting place mechanisms that would please both the government and the student population. However, other institution in the United Kingdom remain reluctant to quote cheaper

Smoking ban laws in public places Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Smoking ban laws in public places - Essay Example Thus, a ban on smoking would fail (Proctor). However, if smoke-free laws are enforced, premature deaths can be reduced because many people would refrain from the habit. Indeed, intensive smoking that is associated with severe health consequences can be avoided if strict smoking laws are enforced (ACS CAN 5). Smoke-free laws are also appropriate because they reduce the number of smokers in a country. This can happen in two ways. First, smokers will have limited places where they can smoke freely. Since comprehensive smoking laws prohibit smoking in public places, many smokers will be forced to quit the habit. As a result, there will be a decrease in the number of active smokers in within a country. Second, young people who would otherwise become smokers will not have the opportunity to do so. Normally, when young people start smoking, they do so in places where there are no family members. Public places provide an ideal environment for starting the smoking habit (Guilfoyle). Opponents of smoke-free laws argue that tough smoking rules would encourage smoking in hazardous environments, potentially endangering the lives of smokers (Proctor). However, with smoke-free laws, prospective smokers will not have anywhere to start the habit (Guilfoyle). In addition, smoke-free laws are appropriate because they decrease health costs. Health costs are incurred by smokers and nonsmokers. Smokers are at a higher risk of developing smoking-related illnesses. Smoking can also worsen other chronic conditions such as asthma. Nonsmokers can develop health complications such as chest pain, stroke, and asthma from secondhand smoking. They can also increase their chances of contracting lung cancer. Opponents of smoke-free laws argue that although there may be a decrease in health costs, there will still be severe economic consequences. For instance, several multi-billion dollar cigarette industries would close down

Language Learning Styles And Strategies English Language Essay

Language Learning Styles And Strategies English Language Essay Dr Georgi Lazanov, a Bulgarian proponent of the accelerated learning affirmed that human learning is the basic and natual function-easier than breathing and walking (as cited in Prashnig, 2004). This seems to be right to learning a language as a mother tongue because we were born with the same ability of learning our first language so most of us acquire and learn our first language easily and naturally. However, the expectation is not the same to acquiring and learning a second or foreign language. In my career of English language teaching, I have witnessed a number of students who make very little progress in their language learning whereas the others get improved quickly and conspicuously. Althought most students have received generally equivalent language education at schools or universities, they show differences in proficency and competence in using the target language. So, why are some successful and the others fail to get good achievement in their learning? Why do those studen ts can speak well in the target language but the others can not communicate fluenctly and confidently? Is it because some are smarter than the others? what makes the differences among these students? A number of researches on these matters have indicated that each student prefers different learning styles and their learning styles impact on the trategies they apply to their learning. This results in learning styles as well as learning strategies affecting the students learning achievement (Ehrman Oxford, 1988). This discovery confirms Georgi Lazanovs belief that learning is a matter of attidude not apptitude. The importance of learning styles and stategies have been widely recognized in language learning and more and more research has been done on them . Definitions of terms. According to Brown (2000, p. 113). Style is the term used to refer consistent and rather enduring tendencies and preferences an individual has. Styles are characteristics of intellectual functioning that make an individual unique. Styles characterized an individuals typical way of thingking and feeling Strategy is the term used to refer a method of approaching a prolem and an operation used to achieve a particular goal. Different people employed varied strategies to solve their own problems and the strategies they use might not be the same time by time. A good language learner to Joan Rubin ( 1975, pp. 46-48): is a willing and accurate guesser. He employs appropriate ways to perceive and process information. He accepts uncertainty and he is flexible and comfortable in applying his ability of guessing to explore for and get the meaning of the communication from the clues that he is offerd in the setting in combination with using his social and linguistic schemata. has strong motivation to communicate. He is willing to involve himself in communicating by using any means such as circumlocution, gestures, spelling, paraphrasing, creatively forming new words from the original ones.to express his meaning or to get his message across. is not inhibited. He is willing to make mistake because he believes mistakes are part of language learning process. He learns from his own mistakes by trying to understand them and avoid repeating them. is prepared to attend to form. While a normal learner tends to percieve what they are taught in the textbooks or lessons in the classroom, a good language learner seeks for something else beyond them. He is constantly looking for patterns in the language by analyzing, categorizing and synthesizing it. practices what he has learned or acquired. He find the opportunities to use the language as soon as possiple not only in class but also outside the classroom. monitors his own speech and the speech of others. He evaluates his performance by mornitoring his own speech and getting feedback from the listeners. He also mornitors the others to see how they use the language in comparision with the standards he has been taught. attends to meaning. He pays attention to not only the forms of speech or grammar but also the meaning of the language by negotiating the meaning of the message in differenct contexts. Statement about the background of the learners in the research and the research questions The learners are recent graduates or experienced engineers from different parts of Vietnam recruited to work for projects of Petrovietnam. They have received nearly equivalent English language education at school and at university. However, after graduation they are at different English proficiency levels. Like most of the other Vietnamese students, they can hardly speak English. Some of them even can not read aloud an English reading text fluently. This is the most common problem for English language learners in Vietnam. They are sent to PVMTC to take a special course to improve their technical knowledge and English skills, especially speaking skill, to perform their job together with foreign experts in their field at industrial facilities or in offices. They have five classes a week and each class lasts for four hours. They are extremely motivated because after the course, they are expected to achieve at least 650 marks on TOIEC and to be good at communication in all circumstances in order to be appointed to different appropriate positions at their working place. The learning objectives of the course are obvious and CLT approach is chosen to apply in teaching the students so that they can improve their communicative skills in English. Before doing the course, the school give them a placement test to categorize their English proficiency levels and put them in the diffirent appropriate classes accordingly. The students have different attitudes and behaviuor to their language learning and so is their learning effectiveness. The high proficiency students usually appear to make better progress, their learning outcome appears better than the low proficiency students, and especially, their speaking skills get improved obviously. So, my study serves to find out the answers to the following questions: What makes the difference between the students of low and high language proficiency level? What is the difference of language learning strategy use between EFL students of high and low proficiency levels in learning English speaking in Petrovietnam Manpower Training College (PVMTC) in Vietnam? What can a teacher do to help these leaners of diffirent learning styles use and combine different types of strategies in their English speaking learning? Being different from learning styles, language learning strategies can be probably trained to the learners. Hopefully, the finding of the study and its practical implication could help language teachers in their teaching. Liturature Review Language learning styles Learning styles are prefered approaches to learning, the environment of a learner and the ways he or she perceives and processes information, the specific ways that an individual acquires, retains, and retrieves information (Felder Henriques, 1995), inherent and pervasive characteristics of a particular individual or a group of people (Willing, 1988), preferred or habital patterns of mental functioning and dealing with new information (Ehrman and Oxford, 1990), means of acquiring knowdlege and skills, habits, strategies, regular mental behaviours concerning learning an individual displays (Pritchard, 2008). Or according to Keefe (as cited in Griggs, 1991), learning styles are the composite of characteristic cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment. Different researchers have got different definitions of the learening styles depending on their perception of learning and education psychology. So there are also different dimension of learning styles and more than twenty dimentions of learning styles have been known so far focusing on social, physical, environtmental preference, personality type, cognitive ability. In this paper, I would like mention the two models of learning styles that are relatively related to language learning. VARK- Visual, Aural, Read-Write and Kinethetic Neil Fleming (1987) classified learners according to their preference in the ways of getting, retaining and processing the input as well as performing the output. Visual learners learn through seeing and like using the words that they can visualize their images. In the classroom, they are usually impatient. They tend to interupt the others while they are talking but they are good at talking and persuading. Auditory learners are really good listeners. They like verbal explanation and information in spoken words. They think in a linear way and they speak slowly. Read-write learners enjoy writing and reading. They feel more comfortable with any input or output in form of texts. Kinethetic learners learn through manual operation using senses. They try new things and they learn from the errors they make. They tend to like dealing with real life problems but they are not very risky in making decision. The Index of Learning Styles The famous model of Learning Styles developed by Richard Felder and Linda Silverman 1988 devived the learning styles into four dimensions indicating the ways in which the learners perceive the world. Sensing and intuitive (Perception dimension): Sensing learners prefer learning the facts. They learn best with certain and real information. They tend to solve problems in a common way and they hate complications. Intuitive learners prefer discovering posibilities and relationships. They tend to like finding the meaning. Information of conception, creation and theory attract them most. They do not like repeatition. Active and reflective (Processing dimension) Active learners prefer doing. They understand well and keep in their mind the given information for long if they are allowed to act, learning. They learn best with the others. Reflective learners prefer to think, evaluate, analysis the input. They feel more comfortable with learning quietly and individually. Visual and verbal (Input dimension) Visual learners deal well with graphs, pictures, and diagrams. They prefer visual representations of information. Â   Verbal learners get inforamation most if it is in both spoken and written words. Sequential and Global (Understanding dimension) Sequential learners get the understanding of the information in a linear way and they get the whole input by connecting logically and orderly the segments of it with one another. Global learners look at the input as the big picture to understand them. They usually work with the whole then its details. Language learning strategies Learning strategies are operations, steps, plans, thoughts or behaviors that learners use to help themselves to acquire, retain, regain and use information (Wenden Rubin, 1987; OMalley and Chamot, 1990; Weinstein Mayer, 1986). In other words, learning strategies are characterized as specific actions that learners take to make their languge learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations (Oxford, 1989, 1990). Among the strategy taxonomies developed by varied researchers such as Stern, O Malley and Oxford, as a teacher, I am particularly interested in the Stratey Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) which was developed by Oxford in 1990 for its importance as a effective tool to determine the strategies that a learner uses in learning English. In her system, Oxford separates language learning strategies into two general classes direct strategies and indirect strategies. These two classes are divided into six groups: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Direct Strategies are employed by learners to deal with the new language. Memory strategies used for information storage and retention included in four sets: creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviweing well and employing actions.These strategies helps learners remember what they have learned better by putting them together in a logical order, retain and retrieve them by associating them with images and sounds and act them out if it is possible. At the early stage of the language learning or for the learners who are young children, memory strategies are applied most frequently to learn vocabulary. Cognitive strategies used for analyzing, classifying and combining new information with the learnerss prior knowledge comprise of four sets: Practising, receiving and sending messages strategies, analizing, reasoning and creating structure for input and output. Learners employ these strategies as tools to achieve the target language by reapeating verbally or in words to get new information, to complete a complex task needing a lot of thinking like reading comprehension which is closely related to the learners prior knowlege, to summarize and restructure the target language in useful forms. Compensation strategies used for reducing the effects of lacking knowledge of the target language included in two sets: guessing intelligently and overcoming limitations in speaking and writing. The learners insufficiency of vocabulary and grammar can be overcome by guessing, using gestures, adjusting the message. Indirect Strategies used for genaral management of learning can be used in combination with Direct Strategies to regulate the learning. Metacognitive strategies used by the learners for the sefl-reflection. They embrace three sets: centering your learning, arranging and planning your learning, evaluating your learning. The strategies aim to drive the learners attention to particular skill areas of the language to improve, set the goals and objectives, organize their learning by dealing well with tasks to get the best achievement, seek opportunities to prastise and self-evaluate by monioring their learning progress to make sure that they get benefit from their effort. Affective strategies used for controling learnersemotions, attitudes and motivations. They fall into four sets: lowering your anxiety, encouraging yourself and taking your emotonal temperature. The learners have both positive and negative feelings that may slow down or speed up their learning process. The strategies help them to control their negative feelings to overcome the psychologic difficulty, self-encourage to have themselves engage fully in learning the language and command themselve by sharing their feelings in different ways. Social strategies used for co-operating with others in learning. These strategies contain three sets: asking questions, co-operating with orthers, empathizing with others. Asking question is the most useful way to get imformation and its meaning. Learning language occurs mostly in communicating with others. So co-operation gives learners the best chance to get involved in the learning environment to learn the language. The trategies help learners enhance cultural understanding and sharing others feelings and learn the language. Overview of research on learning styles and strategies Many researcherss findings have implied the effect of learning strategies and indicate that most language learners unconciously use learning stratergies to enhence their learning and they sometimes may not really realize that they have chosen the most appropriate strategies to utilize and (Chamot Kupper, 1989). It is also stated that the good learners know well the strategies they use and tend to apply varied but appropriate language strategies and are able to explain the reasons why they use them for different tasks, learning needs and different stages of their learning and that the learning strategy use of the high proficiency learners appear more frequent and wide-ranging (OMalley Chamot, 1990). Ming Nuan Yang (2008) finds the same result in her study of language learning strategies used by the students in Chang Gung Institute of Technology in Taiwan. In her study of language learning strategies used by students at different proficiency levels in a university in Taiwan, Ya Ling Wu (2008) confirms that the higher proficency students use more and varied learning strategies, especially cognitive, metacognigive and social strategies than the lower proficiency students do. However, Vann and Abraham (cited in Sawani) found the opposite results in their study of strategy use of ecademic English learners in the USA which showed that the strategy use of the unsuccessful learners are the same as the successful learners As we know, language learning strategies can help learners to be more autonomous. Language learning strategies also assisst learners in making choices, initiating learning activities and taking responsibility for their learning. Each strategy have its own significant effect on different language skills. To deal well with English language speaking learning, the learner , as a good language learner, is required to be a risk-taker, to make good use of paraphrasing and circumlocution, to be aware the importance of self-monitoring, and self-evaluation (Chamot Kupper, 1989). Therefore speaking skills in partcular are usually effected most by compensation, cognitive, metacognitive, social and affective strategies. One of the biggest problems that the L2 learners face to is the deficiency in vocabulary and grammar of the target language. In the English language speaking classroom, the highly proficient students usuall usually apply compensation strategies which to Oxford (1990) can help learners comprehend and produce messages in the new langguage making up their deficiency in vocabulary and grammar. Applying compensation strategies , the learners appear to become a better language learner because they are getting willing to take risk. For example, they are willing to take risk to learn to speak the language at their expense. They are not afraid of being a fool when making mistakes or using gestures as they are speaking. They become good guessers to understand what people say and become very creative in using the target by paraphrasing or using circumlocution to express their intended messages to get themselves understood. In his study in 2009, Chandra Bose found that the compensation strategie s were adopted by engineering students of Tamil Nadu in India while speaking English to make up for the inability to speak fluently and Goh and Foongs study on language learning strategy use of Chinese students shows similar results but Yang (2007) found that both high and low proficiency Chinese students in his uninersity used compensation strategies more than other strategies. Most learners are very cognitive when they deal with learning the second language esspecially aldult learners. They love using their mind, cognitive strategies to solve problems. However, OMalley Chamot (1990) beleive that cognitive and metacognitive strategies are often used together to support each other and that the appropriate combinations of using these strategies often bring more effectiveness. Cognitive strategies help learners analyse, classify and associate the new information with the prior knowledge and mentally restructure them to make the new one for their own. They provide language functions and structures whereas metacognitve stratergies help learners manage their learning by self reflecting. Rubin (1975) states that a good language learner always look for opportunities to involve in communication and highly aware of their learning. So does a language learner with metacognitive strategies. They monitor their own speaking to learn from the mistake they have made, plan their learning to achieve the goal they have established. These learners are usually reflective learners. Metacognitive strategies are claimed to be used more often by Taiwanese university students ( Yang, 2007) and Chinese students (Bedell, cited in Yang, 2007) than by Puerto Rican, Egyptian, Indonesian and Korean students (Yang, as cited in Yang, 2007). The affective filter hypothesis of Krashen (1982) concerns the factor of emotions that effect the learners second language acquisition. It means that the learners with high affective filter will receive less input than the ones with lower affective filter. This is consictent with Oxford (1990) belief that affective strategies can help learners to lower their anxiety, encourage themselves and take their emotional temperature. Affective strategies enable learners to control their emotions and attitude to language learning because the learners can be encourage or decourage in learning a foreign language by being intersed or anxious or bored. Affective strategies are asserted to have sigficient impacts on learners since they assist learners to overcome the anxiety they may have when speaking. That is the reason why the results found in Yangs study of Chinese (Yang, 1993 cited in Yang, 2007) and Taiwanese students use of learning strategies show that affective strategies were used the lea st (Yang, 2007). This is explained that Chinese and Taiwanese students in a traiditional English class have few chances to speak. Learners tend to use social strategies look for oppotunities to engage themseves in communication by asking questions, asking for help, practising the new things they have learn with others and sharing their feelings about learning the target language with others. Learners with social strategies make use of asking questions to achieve understanding, cooperating to increase confidence and to be in competition to expose their better performence than othersand to develop cultural understanding. Social strategies help learners learn the target language through interacting with others. This is extremely significant in learning speaking. However, the choice of social strategies depends a lot on learners characteristics and learning styles. The learners with social strategies are usally active learners who are extroverts who tend to open up with others to learn the language (Ehrman and Oxford, 1990). Conclusion Most of the studies on language learning styles and strategies in recent decades have stated that learning styles effect the seclection of language learning strategies the learners apply to their language learning. In the other hand, research also indicates that the levels of success and proficiency the learners reach and the frequency and variation of learning strategy use of the learners increase accordingly. These findings are vitally important to language teachers who play a very significant role in part of the successes that their students may enjoy or part of the failure that their students learning may end in. Learning about the diference of language learning strategy use between the successful, high proficiency learners and unsuccessful, low proficiency learners is necessary to teachers so that they can adapt their teaching styles to match their students learning styles, train their students the language learning strategies that the successful, high proficiency students utili ze in their learning to help them to enhence their learnings effectiveness in the ways that the good language learner does.

Euthanasia Essay: The Correct Choice for Many -- Euthanasia Physician

Euthanasia - The Correct Choice for Many    Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are words to live by despite any obstacles that any person might endure. A person should live in a constant understanding that life will always have struggles, but one should feel as though their life is worth living. A person has the right to believe that life should always be composed of the capability to be spiritual, physical, emotional, and to be a social being all at the same time, therefore the quality of life is far more valuable than the length of time under any circumstances. Euthanasia is acceptable under the impression that a person will never again, and does not have the ability to live a quality of life. A life filled with quality means a different thing for each individual. For some people as long as they are able to make money, live in a great house, are able to walk, talk, see, and hear, their life is filled with everything they need to live richly. For others, as long as they can be free, be happy and function with a little help from technology (such as pills, or an artificial limb), they are living life that incorporates high quality into their life. For example, Robert Powell, who has permanent paraplegia once said Physician-assisted suicide is contrary to the concept of equality for everyone. Very often the group most targeted by physician-assisted suicide is the disabled community because the "quality of life" of its members is deemed to be "poor" by people outside the community. Robert once said, As a disabled person, I enjoy life just as much as anybody else does. I can do things that just about anybody else can do. It is a matter of [how you] perceive "quality of life." You ask one person about his definiti... ...rdin, Joseph C. A Moral Vision For America. Ed. John P. Langan. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. Higginson, Richard. Dilemmas: A Christian Approach To Moral Decision Making. Louisville: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1988. Hilton, Bruce. First Do Not Harm: Wrestling With The New Medicine's Life And Death Dilemmas. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991. O'Rourke, Kevin D., and Dennis Brodeur, PhD. Medical Ethics: Common Ground For Understanding. St. Louis: The Catholic Health Association Of The United States, 1986. Rogers, John, ed. Medical Ethics, Human Choices: A Christian Perspective. Scottdale: Herald Press,1988. author unknown. "It"s OK- isn't it?". Euthanasia: killing the dying. 30 Nov. 1999. http://www.euthanasia.com/case3.html author unknown. "Euthanasia Facts." Euthanasia.com. 5 Jun. 1996. http://www.iaetf.org/mm.html

“9” by E.E. Cummings Analysis Essay

Edward Estlin Cummings was a unique poet with an equally unique writing style. E. E. Cummings was born on October 14th, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1916, Cummings graduated with a master’s degree from Harvard University. During his studies, he was subject to many great writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. After working for five months as a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I, he was captured by French authorities. He was accused on accounts of espionage. After the war, he settled into a life in which he bounced around from houses in rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village. He also traveled through Europe meeting various poets and artists, including Pablo Picasso. During his life, Cummings won a number of awards for his unique style of writing. At the time of his death in 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, only behind Robert Frost. In this essay, we will discuss three distinct features of his writing that made it so unique. These features included literary devices, imagery, and symbolism. One of the most prominent poetic devices in E. E. Cummings poem, â€Å"9†, is alliteration. This literary device is obvious throughout the poem. For example, in the first stanza, â€Å"There are so many tic-toc clocks everywhere telling people what tic-toc time it is, for tic-toc instance, five toc minutes toc past six tic† (Cummings Web). Cummings uses the phrase tic-toc, and other variations of that to create a sense of repetition. This fits nicely into what the major theme of the poem is. Cummings believes that watching and keeping track of time gets repetitive. Through alliteration, Cummings creates a sense of repetition while summarizing the overwhelming theme of the poem. Another major poetic device Cummings uses in his poem â€Å"9† is imagery. Cummings makes use of descriptive phrases that practically paint a picture in the reader’s mind. For example, â€Å"Spring is not regulated and does not get out of order, nor do its hands a little jerking move over numbers slowly† (Cummings Web). The section â€Å"Its hand a little jerking move over numbers slowly,† instantly gives the reader the image of a clock. In the way he conveys this, it’s clear that he feels time is moving very slowly. In the third stanza, â€Å"We do not wind it up, it has no weights, spring wheels inside of its slender self, no indeed dear nothing of the kind† (Cummings Web), Cummings creates vivid imagery. This shows that Cummings is relating how he has no use for a clock and doesn’t care for the principle of keeping time. He would rather live life time free, without having to worry about being on time or being late. The third and final poetic device that shows up in the poem, â€Å"9†, is symbolism. To begin the poem Cummings uses symbolism. The number â€Å"9† refers to the number of times he uses the words, â€Å"tic-toc†, â€Å"toc-tic†, â€Å"tic-tic†, â€Å"toc†, and â€Å"tic†. Also, as seen in the fourth stanza, â€Å"So when kiss spring comes, we’ll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss lips because the tic clocks toc don’t make a toc-tic difference to kiss kiss you and to kiss me† (Cummings Web). Cummings uses the word â€Å"kiss† to complicate and clutter the verse. If you remove those words, he simply summarizes all of his thoughts in the last stanza. He says when spring comes; we can kiss because the clocks don’t make a difference to you and me. This symbolizes that Cummings can’t wait for the spring and summer months when the clocks don’t play a role in his life. In conclusion, Cummings uses his poem â€Å"9† to relay his feeling to time. He feels that clocks are constantly telling people what time it is, that they are too late or too early. He believes they should be allowed freedom, which the clocks don’t seem to give. In the summer, however, the clocks don’t matter because it’s a time for relaxation and fun. He could really care less about the clocks.

Gender Equality in Beowulf

Woman had political power over the Danes, were used as peace weavers, and were very violent, and strong. The importance of women in Beowulf can be seen through the political power that the women had on the Danes. In the poem, the author introduces two queens, named Wealthiest and High. Both of them developed an important role of being the hostesses. Although, they pleased and served men whenever they needed, Wealthiest and High had enough power to establish a hierarchy in the hall. Having to carry the cups around in order to give it to the king, and his warriors was not a simple task for women.When Whole-wheat first appeared in the poem, â€Å"she graciously saluted the men in hall, then handed the cup]first to Warthogs, their homeland's guardian, urging him to drink deep and enjoy desiccates he was dear to them† (43), the queen is making it clear that Warthogs is the most powerful king in the hall, by handing him the first feasting cup. High tries to convince Beowulf to take the position as king, because she â€Å"had no belief in her son's ability;to defend their homeland against foreign invaders.Yet there was no way the weakened nation Could get Beowulf to give in and agree Tot be elevated over Heard s his lord† (161), women had power when it came to politics, because they were aware of what was going on. High began to make important decisions of who will become the next king, and her decisions could change everyone's lives. Women were highly significant through their role of being peace weavers, because men were able to use them as a form of possession.The author introduces Hilbert, and Freeware, both women who had to marry a man from a rival group in order for peace to be established between the tribes. Hilbert, and Freeware did not marry because they were in love, but simply or convenience, since the tribes believed this would help them gain amity. Hilbert was the first woman that was introduced as a peace weaver, â€Å"a Danish princess ma rried to the Frisian King Finn, loses her son and her brother Hanna in a fight at Fin's hall† (71), Hilbert was first mentioned in a story that was performed by the kings poet after Grenade's death.Then, Freeware was introduced through a story that was told by Beowulf. â€Å"Most often after the fall of a prince in any nation the deadly spear rests but a little while, even thought the bride is good† (35), Beowulf is predicting that Freeware will marry in order to create peace, and believes that peace- weavers will soon create hardships and war. Women can behave just as violently, and can be just as strong as any men they have encountered. Grenade's mother and Motherly are the perfect representation of powerful women in Beowulf.Grenade's mother was very fearless, because she â€Å"had been forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths, after Cain had shellfish father's son, felled his ownÃ'Å¡brother with a sword† (89). After the assassination of her son, she de cided to seek vengeance, rather than forgetting the incident ever happened. Grenade's mother died while fighting with Beowulf, because she wanted to gain back her sons honor. Then there was the Great Queen Motherly, the one that was capable of anything. If any retainer ever made blotto look her in the face, if an eye not her lord's;stared at her directly during daylight,;the outcome was sealed: he was kept abounding hand-tightened shackles† (1 33), many people were afraid of her because she was known for murdering many innocent man who have entered her hall, or even looked her in the eye. Even though they were both physically different, they were very powerful and strong women. In conclusion, women have always been an important part of society even though they are not vastly appreciated.