Critical Analysis of Looking for Alibrandi and Swashbuckler Essay

Imagine, you are a 12-year-old boy, just about to make the transition from primary to high school, and your father is dying from cancer. Would you want to face the dragon or run away†¦? In everyone’s lives, there are challenges that alter peoples view on themselves and their world. This may or may not have positive outcomes, for one or two of the people involved, but we must all understand the consequences, whether good or bad, of changing perspectives. Josephine as a character in Kate Woods’ film â€Å"Looking for Alibrandi† highlights the ups and downs of being a teenage girl in turmoil, trying to find her own way in a community where she â€Å"doesn’t belong†, to find a positive outcome in what she feels is a world not made for people like her, especially with her Father trying to participate in her life again, when she has never really known him by anything other than name. See more: how to write a critical analysis essay step by step Similarly, in James Moloney’s short story â€Å"Swashbuckler†, after the protagonist, Anton’s father has cancer and he is fearful of â€Å"the dragonâ€Å" and refuses to visit his father, but towards the end of the story his friend makes him realise that his dad is not the dragon, the cancer is, and Anton’s father is the prince trapped in his cave, so Anton finally agrees to see his father in hospital, and watches him â€Å"wither away† In both of these texts, a range of visual and language techniques are used to present these changes in perspective to their audiences successfully. A change in perspective can be tough, but there is always some small light at the end of the tunnel. For Josie, her change in perspective towards her father, Michael Andretti, has a positive impact, as this changing relationship allows her to grow in her understanding of herself and her cultural identity. This change allows Josie to grow and mature, and realise that her father was not the monster she created him as when she was growing up, and display to the viewer how much she really needed her father in her life so she felt complete. Kate Woods creates the initial hatred of Michael Andretti through the use of diegetic sound as a plane flew over Nonna’s house when the small family were yelling at each other. This scene was a clear point about how much Josie resented her father for leaving her and her mother on their own, and because of all the horrible names she had been called her whole life because the schools she always went to were â€Å"all about what your father does for a living†. Josie’s catalyst for her change in perspective was when she broke Carly’s nose after getting sick of being called names. Michael showed her that he cared about her by taking time away from his work to â€Å"rescue† her from getting kicked out of school. Once she had accepted her father, Josie’s character was happier and more forgiving. Through the use of pleonastic music in the scene where Josie is staying for the weekend at her father’s house, and the repetition of the lyrics â€Å"in an unguarded moment† both highlight the raw happy emotion that she has finally come to terms with the fact that her father is in her life now. The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of 2 chemical substances: if there is a reaction, both are transformed. † – A quote from psychologist Carl Jung. James Moloney portrays this notion perfectly in his short story â€Å"Swashbuckler†. The narrator, peter, meets the protagonist Anton at the beginning of the story as he is being bullied by the thugs at their school, when Anton rescues peter from â€Å"imminent death† The use of a cliche â€Å"Ask not my name, but whether my cause be just. Highlights Anton’s attitude to life and wanting to help other people rather than face his own harsh troubles. Anton’s initiator for his change in perspective was when his newfound friend, peter, forced him to face the thought of his dad and the possibility of not having one anymore, and tries to persuade him to visit his dad. The use of confronting emotional language â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ it was your father. He was the dragon. † – Peter â€Å"Yes. Yes, yes, yes. My father’s turned into a dragon and I don’t know what to do about it. I’m so afraid and I’m ashamed that I’m afraid† – Anton† evokes a strong feeling of empathy towards the young boys, and their situations. When Peter finally convinces Anton that his father is a prince trapped in a dragon’s lair, and they go and visit him in the hospital. The use of thought-provoking emotional language† â€Å"But what’s going to happen†¦after? † –Anton† â€Å"you’ll manage Anton, I know you will† – Anton’s Father â€Å"what if I haven’t dad? How can I know whether I’m brave enough? – Anton â€Å"outlines Anton’s raw emotion and fear for his father no longer being in his life, and the fear of this being his last memory of his father, but also has the innocence of a child just wanting the â€Å"sickness† to â€Å"get better†. The notion that a difference in perception can either be a positive or negative transformati on is a very true statement. In both situations, positive and negative feelings are experiences on the long road of a change in perspective.

High School and School Valedictorian Competition Essay

In the essay, â€Å"The Joy of Graduating† by Kate Stone Lombardi, describes the traditional high school valedictorian competition with the most prestigious students. The fight for the position of valedictorian has intensified over the years. Danielle Gorman, an elected valedictorian at Moorestown High School in New Jersey, was quoted by Lombardi of the qualifications and standards it took to become valedictorian. The traits Gorman describes common to valedictorians were taking on too much and are unwilling to fail. I think that Gorman’s assessment is reasonable because many people who strive to become valedictorian take on â€Å"more than they can chew† by taking multiple advanced placement classes to extracurricular activities in and outside of school. My senior class in high school had very competitive students when it came down to ASB or any student elections. Each student who participated was usually the overachiever; they took multiple AP classes, team captains of the sports’ teams, and public speakers for all school events. Each student tried to work harder and prove that he or she could attempt to accomplish more than one another. The students knew that having the title in high school would set them apart from everyone else so that they could have a higher ranking along with using their popularity to their advantage in gaining that title. The idea of getting this title would overwhelm students so much that it would cause more stress on themselves on top of the classes they were already taking. Because of our school’s competitiveness it was difficult to decide one individual for valedictorian. When it was time to decide who would become the valedictorian, there were two top students whom our class thought would fit the winning spot. One of the students was a girl named Asal, who was elected senior class president for ASB. The other student was a boy named Henock, who was also elected in ASB but for the school president. Both students had superb grades close to a 5. 0 gpa and they both participated in every on and off campus school event. Each of them had many responsibilities. They each would do their part to help the school community when it came to any projects or tutoring. They set a great example for the student body to look up to. They wounded up the crowds during athletic games and pep rallies with incredible school spirit. They each would help come up with ideas and themes for dances, along with helping our school clubs with fundraisers and events such as blood drives. They would help put up flyers and make announcements to make the students aware of fundraisers and activities that were constantly going on at school. They would try to help get the whole school more involved by creating fun games and contests going on during lunch to make sure that everyone felt like they were a part of something no matter what grade level they were in. They had all this pressure coming down on them with all these school activities, along with their school work. They felt the need to accomplish these tasks in order to get into their dream college so this would help them feel a little more secure that they would be accepted. It was incredible that they were able to complete these tasks as full time students and it must have been mentally and physically exhausting. Our student body recognized their hard work and accomplishments so we naturally put them on a pedestal. The senior class knew that one of these remarkable scholars could be elected valedictorian. I personally encountered experiences with them both on how stressful it was for them to undertake so many duties. I had a couple of classes with each of the presidents, and I started to witness each of them become more stressed out as more and more talk went around the school about who would become the valedictorian. They took the initiative to work ten times harder in class and pushed to receive perfect scores on tests and projects to raise their overall grade, so their percentage would help raise their gpa. They took on so many extracurricular activities that they had no social life outside of school and struggled to keep up with everything going on. They were pushing themselves to the limit to be the best they could be. This soon turned into a chaotic competition between the two most prestigious students in our senior class. Once graduation day had finally arrived, we were anxious to see whose hard work and commitment had paid off. Everyone was sitting in their assigned seats, clothed in their cap and gown anxiously waiting for the speeches to be presented. I was looking around the stage to see who was chosen for the class valedictorian, but I couldn’t seem to spot out Henock or Asal anywhere. The principal was the first to give out the welcome speech. He presented a few awards and gave out some words of wisdom to the present senior class. Finally, at the end of his speech he announced that it was time to name our senior class’ valedictorian. Everyone moved around their seats anxiously trying to see who would be honored with this great achievement. The principal then surprised us with a statement none of us expected. There were to be two valedictorians honored this year because of their outstanding gpa and wide variety of extracurricular activities. Henock and Asal both gained the winning spot that they were each competing for. These two candidates spent their high school career taking various AP courses and being active participants in the school community in order to set themselves apart from the crowd and gained the honorable title of valedictorian. Little did they know that apparently their gpa’s were only a hundredth of a point apart. The principal explained that Henock actually had the overall higher gpa, but he felt that because of Asal’s hard work and effort she should deserve the same recognition. Needless to say our whole senior class was pretty shocked. We noticed how hard working and competitive these two had gotten to try to be valedictorian and yet both of them received the winning spot. Our school traditionally only had one valedictorian chosen each year so it caught us off guard that there were two valedictorians. It was ironic that they were both competing so hard against one another when all this hard work they accomplished still got them the credit they deserved. When the speeches were to be given out by our two valedictorians, I was expecting for Henock and Asal to compete for a better speech as well because I thought that since there is traditionally one valedictorian, they would still try to go head to head at who could give a better and more inspiring speech. But to my surprise they each gave out their congratulatory response to one another within their speech. In Henock’s speech, he acknowledged that Asal was a great inspiration and motivation for him to try harder in his classes and to exceed even his own expectations because that was how he perceived how she was in her classes. He admitted that he looked up to her with great respect and that she definitely deserved to be valedictorian whether or not he was chosen with her. Asal was very grateful and said a few great admiring words about him to show her appreciation towards him and his hard work. The fact that my high  school had two valedictorians did seem to be out of the ordinary for my senior class, but it certainly was deserved to the right people. Danielle Gorman describes the traits of a valedictorian to take one more tasks and harder classes with the drive to not fail. My classmates Henock and Asal indeed had that drive and it paid off well for the both of them and they each were appreciative that they got to share that number one spot with each other. Although they went head to head with each other trying to achieve the same goal, they were in it to win it and they did.

How to Send AP Score Reports to Colleges

Many high school students are eager to report their accomplishments to colleges when it comes time for college applications. For some achievements, this is easier done than others. There are places on the Common Application to report your academics recognitions and awards earned in extracurriculars. Not all achievements can be so easily reported, though. Reporting official test scores is a little more involved. Official score reports for tests like the SAT, the ACT, and even AP exams must be sent directly from the testing agency. In the case of the AP exams, this means that in order to have an official score report sent, you will need to request one from the College Board. In this post, we’ll outline the three ways in which you can have an official AP score report sent, and how to self-report your AP scores as well. The simplest and most efficient way of requesting a score report sent to your college of choice is by selecting this option on the AP answer sheet at the time of your AP exam. This is not only the easiest way to report scores, but also the cheapest way. When you take the test, you are given one free score report, but only if you request it on your answer sheet. Simply fill in the four-digit code for the school of your choice and your official score report will be sent to that college. Keep in mind that your score report is cumulative. This means that the college will receive not only the score for your most recent exam, but also your scores on any previous exams (unless you have deleted or withheld them, which we’ll discuss later). You should also know that you will have an opportunity to cancel your score report if you receive your score and decide you don’t want it sent, but you will have to pay for this service. You can also send score reports after the fact by logging into your College Board account. Simply visit the College Board login and follow the prompts to select score reports. Unlike the single score report you select on your answer sheet, online you can request multiple score reports to be sent to colleges, universities, and scholarships. Also unlike the score report option on your answer sheet, the online score report request is not free. You will pay $15 per score report for regular delivery, or $25 per report for rush delivery. Regular delivery takes 7-15 business days, while rush delivery takes 5-9 business days. Exact delivery dates will depend on the location of the score report recipient and when exactly your request is received. Our Early Advising Program helps students in 9th and 10th grade discover their passions and build strong academic and extracurricular profiles to succeed in high school. If you’re not able to request scores online or you prefer to do it by mail or fax, this option is also available to you. Simply send a signed, written request with payment to the College Board address based on your payment method. Send your requests to the address below based on your payment method: Check/money order made payable to AP Exams: The College Board, P.O. Box 21535, New York, NY 10087-1535 Credit Card payments: AP Services, P.O. Box 6671, Princeton, NJ 08541-6671 or fax 610-290-8979 Requests that don’t require payment: AP Services, P.O. Box 6671, Princeton, NJ 08541-6671 or fax 610-290-8979 Standard delivery of reports, which takes about 7-14 business days, costs $15 per report. Rushed delivery, which takes about 5-9 business days, costs $25 per report. According to the AP score reporting website , you will need to include the following information in your written request: If you receive a score that you do not want reported, there are two options available to you. You can either withhold your score, or delete it. Withholding a score is done on a college-by-college basis. This means that when you request to withhold a specific exam score, it is withheld only from the college specified. You can request to withhold an AP exam score by following the directions on the College Board’s AP score reporting site . Your other option is to delete your score entirely. This is the better choice if you score poorly and know that you will never want to share that score with a school. Deleting a score is permanent and irreversible, so think carefully before doing so. You can request to delete a specific AP exam score on the College Board’s AP score reporting site . Official AP score reports are most commonly used by colleges when they are considered for placement purposes or for granting college credit. More commonly, colleges will learn your AP scores through self-reporting or through your official high school transcript. Many high school transcripts now include scores on AP exams. If you aren’t sure whether yours does, you can check with your guidance counselor or request a copy of your transcript from the registrar office. If your scores are prominently displayed on your official high school transcript, it’s unlikely that a college will review an additional College Board score report, except for placement or credit purposes. In addition, there is a section on the Common Application for self-reporting AP exam scores. This section allows you to list your scores on each exam taken on a honor basis. Double-check your score for accuracy before doing so. If you misrepresent them, there are a multitude of ways in which you could be caught, and some admissions committees may assume that you misrepresented your scores with malicious intent. Some colleges actually prefer for you to self report AP exam scores rather than sending official reports or including them on a transcript. For example, at Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, official score reports are only requested for the SAT or ACT. AP scores can be self-reported on the Common Application itself. If you are accepted, you can then send one official score report for placement or credit purposes at the completion of your senior year. This should be sent to the college you’ll be attending. Ultimately, you need to know the policy at each school you apply to. If testing is optional or flexible, AP exams might be accepted in lieu of SATs or ACTs. If this is the case, you’ll likely need to submit an official score report with your application. Be sure to learn what the testing policy is at each college on your list well before applications are due.

Credit crunch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Credit crunch - Essay Example The people have started to understand the real issues behind this credit crunch because it has impacted their lives in a very negative way. It has turned the rich into poor very quickly and the poor have no where to hide as well (Author Unknown 2008). In essence, the credit crunch has played absolute havoc with the people of this world and there seems to be no stopping on this premise at all. Much needs to be done and for that to happen, the world’s biggest financial and economic bodies need to sit down together and devise a way for further progress and resilience within these areas. The historic basis of this credit crunch started when some of the world’s leading banks and financial institutions came down crashing some 2 years back. It brought with it a plethora of issues and troubles for the people, be them within the small sized markets or within the big institutions that played with the economic issues of the people. The move destroyed the basis of any economic activity within the world and hence these activities came to a standstill all of a sudden. American and British companies started to see downsizing and job cuts, which meant that more people started to lose their jobs and they had to bear the direct consequences due to this credit crunch. What was worse was the fact that the established companies which were doing pretty well within the global contexts also came down crashing (Anderson 2007). The liquidity basis was therefore hit very badly and the people within the financial groups were blamed for such a situation that had arisen in the first p lace. The historic basis of credit crunch has resulted due to a number of reasons apart from these as well. The dependence of one money regime over the other has also been the root cause behind such debacle in the first place and therefore the blame must be shared amongst all concerned. What is worst is the fact that people have been at the mercy of such financial

PetMeds Feedback Loops Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PetMeds Feedback Loops - Case Study Example In order to understand the applicability of feedback loops in an organization, one must consider the organizational structure of the company and identify the different feedback loops executed within. The organizational structure of the company is composed of four core departments - customer care, warehouse, pharmacy and corporate departments. The structure is designed in a way to provide direct business processes for the success of the company. Several systems practiced by the company such as customer relationship management and performance management provide a complete loop in the operations of a department as well as the overall process of its business. This paper focuses on two types of feedback loops that is currently practiced in the organization. The two types identified are balancing loop and reinforcing loop. A balancing loop contains a current state, action and desired state. The action attempts to bring two things, the current state and the desired state, into an agreement. On the other hand, the reinforcing loop composes of an action and the result. The action produces a result. The result then promotes more of the same action. (Bellinger, 2004) PetMeds implements a customer relationship management system in the customer care department. The customer relationship management practice of the company is an example of the reinforcing feedback loop. ... It involves several functions, processes and results. However, for purposes of this paper, a simple loop is identified. An example of such loop is how the marketers of the company promote the products in order to generate sales for the company. The marketers publicize the products through advertising in the tri-media such as television, print and radio as well as through the Internet. Their aim is to attract new customers as well as encourage existing customers into buying more of the company's products. The strategies implemented by the marketers are examples of actions in the reinforcing loop. Below is a simplified feedback loop that illustrates the customer relationship management system. Figure . Customer Relationship Management System As a result of the different marketing strategies of the company, customers choose PetMeds products and ultimately generate sales and revenue for the company. Satisfied customers reorder the products. As for new customers, the different promotions of the marketers will influence their buying preference and behavior. The satisfaction levels of the customers are measured in the customer relationship management system. The measurements are then feedback to the customer care department as well as the marketers in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. The evaluation then becomes the basis for the next marketing strategies that would be implemented and promoted. Performance Management System The performance management system is another type of feedback loop that is being utilized by PetMeds. This type of loop can be considered as a balancing loop. Every year, the company identifies critical success factors for their overall business as well as each department. These factors become the

Population density Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Population density - Dissertation Example Though the two theories tend to be in discordance, in unison they reflect the importance of the links that exist between the different existing scope modifiers like various institutional variables and the prevalent economy type of that community, to the population growth rate. Thus, there are no doubts that population density and growth rate has signi?cant in?uence over the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of any community (rural and urban). †¢ Higher population density and a high population growth rate subsequently results in increased demands for natural resources like water, food, fuel, agricultural land, an others from the natural resource pool. Rapidly expanding population thus results in over exploitation of natural resources, owing to the persistently rising demands. †¢ High population densities or rising population growth rate leads to elevation in agricultural activities that in turn intensifies deforestation, promoting urbanisation and greater land u se conflicts. †¢ Population growth expansion leads to higher energy demands and use (especially fuel oil and its derivatives, since they form the common energy sources both for urban and rural communities). †¢ population growth and density also ascertains the need for various essential public services like health, water, food, education, housing, transport, etc. thus, affecting the process of governmental budgetary allocation. The significant influence yielded by population on the natural resources, and socio-economic characteristics of a community, makes it necessary to study the orientation in population density and distribution, in order to plan and implement any program associated with growth and development of a State. To under the trends in population density and distribution it is necessary to study and analyse periodically the available standardised data (presently the data from census is used for analysis) on size and spatial distribution of population over a spec ific length of time. However, on studying the various available literatures on population density and its effects on the socioeconomic characteristics of a community, it is seen that very little research has been conducted in this regards. A closer look revealed that it was primarily owing to the complex nature of the term, ‘population density,’ not much work has been done on it (Fonseca and Wong, 2000). Thus, it makes it difficult for the researcher to differentiate between the cause and effect, while analyzing the multidimensional aspects of human density, and its relationship with socio-economic aspects. The intricate nature of the population density is also reflected in the association of various other factors, besides the socio-economic one, like historical or environmental factors, that assist in the formation a specific density range like clustered, linear, or randomly distributed, as regards any urban or rural population (Argent, Smailes, & Grif?n, 2006). 1.2 De nsity The term density forms to be one of the most important dimensions within the geographical aspects of development, and is seen as the economic output that is generated from a unit of land. The term, â€Å"refers to the economic mass per unit of land area, or the

Credit cards can be a blessing and curse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Credit cards can be a blessing and curse - Essay Example The monthly statement of your expenditures can allow individuals to keep a record about their expenditures. It allows one to trace that where he is spending more. In addition, credit cards are also a quick source of emerging cash at the times of need but are dependent on the credit line of the customer. If the individual makes monthly payment on time it can build credit rating. On the contrary, credit card has enormous of disadvantages. In the contemporary times, high inflation rates and strict monetary policies have made credits expensive. A certain amount of interest is charged on every purchase, which eventually increases the price of the commodity more. In addition, the easy excess to borrowing allows one to spend more than his or her limits. This shows that individuals spend more than their capacity and this eventually lead people to face credit issues that can also influence reputation. In case of the monthly payments being delayed, a penalty fee is charged on the late payment. This penalty becomes burden for the person who is already facing issues to pay off his or her pervious debts. Moreover, the interest rate that is being charged on the credit card is a lot, the lowest interest card rate is about 11.18 percent, which goes up to a high of 23.95 percent in current times. This means that purchases on credit cards are far expensive than purchases ma de with cash or debit cards. In case, if your credit card is lost or stolen the others can misuse it. The misuse of the credit card can lead an individual to face certain legal issues till they are cleared. Furthermore, banks charge additional amount of about $50 for the lost or stolen of the credit card. As monthly payments on time can improve your credit rating, contrarily in case of late payments credit bureaus reduce your credit rating that can be a major obstacle for the approvals of future loans. Credit cards