The last line of this shows that he is making a mockery of the only serious point he puts into the paper. He continues his sardonic view throughout the rest of the long and abnormal poem. “The Long Marriage” by Kumin is more of a plot for her dream wedding. She talks about the “sweet jazz” and the “sexual thrill of Peewee Russell’s clarinet.” Her romantic atmosphere emits a type of longing for the perfect wedding. She continues to name famous trombonists and pianists as she schemes what an ideal marriage should be. Kumin’s poem is shorter and more to the point while Corso’s poem seems to last forever while he shoots out idea after idea on why marriage is such a bad thing. His view stays the same throughout the whole paper while Kumin’s changes.
The two poems also have similarities that are visible. Even though Kumin’s poem is mostly about the elegancy of marriage, the second stanza is where it all changes drastically. She gives metaphoric reference that makes you feel as though she sees marriage the same way as Corso sees marriage: a giving in to the world’s thoughts. She refers to marriage “as the clattering horse hooves near.” She believes it to be something horrific. These thoughts lean more to Corso’s than to her original idea. Her drastic change in the second stanza makes you believe that she does not want to get married. She makes it clear by giving examples like “the shutting of the door.” Both the poems also give direct examples to certain people, places and things. Kumin’s poem talks about Jack Teagarden, Erroll Garner, and Glenn Miller while Corso’s poem has specific examples that include Tannu Tuva, Rimbaud, Della Trancesca, and Ingrid Bergman. They both show that marriage is something that is not in their future and they would both not want to induce something so terrible.
Both poems focus on marriage but can both be taken very different. They both give vivid examples of what marriage means to them and both are very opinionated. Both can be taken in many ways, but both remain strong on with their own views of marriage.

        

Firstly, we will study the development and trends of the British and American newspapers. Secondly, our objective is to explain the main differences between the two countries as television is concerned. Lastly, we will try to give some background information and through e-commerce exemplify, Internet’s position in the US and UK.

BRITISH AND US NEWSPAPERS

The newspaper is still an important medium, but there can be no doubt that its role in the lives of people has been diminished by the growing impact of radio, television and the Internet. The newspaper has been through tough times over the last years. Strong competitions from other medium, especially the Internet, have been a big challenge. Questions like: What message does a newspaper medium send to consumers? What consumer messages do the Internet, radio, and television media send? Should we stick to what we’re good at, publishing newspapers, or must we migrate our focus to multi-media? These are problems British and US newspapers have to deal with nowadays. In the last years, after the 11th of September and the IT-bubble crack, newspapers have again gained more popularity. A trend reversal is occurring in the content business: print-based newspapers are becoming interesting again while on-line magazines and newspapers have lost a lot of their users and advertising market. Still newspapers remain a major source of information on matters ranging from details of important news events to human-interest items, after competing with radio broadcasting in the 1920s, the television in the 1940s and the Internet in the early 21th century.

British newspapers
Britain’s first newspapers appeared over 350 years ago. The earliest newspapers printed mostly foreign news, but later the papers published domestic news. Clerks who reported the debates of the English Parliament started papers. Unlike in some European countries, the Britain’s newspapers now as then received no government subsidy. And the vital income has always been advertising. In Britain newspapers are the largest advertising medium, and that’s pretty unique compared to the rest of the world.

Today there are approximately 130 daily and weekly newspapers in Britain. More newspapers, proportionately, are sold in Britain than in almost any other country. Even though they have suffered a reduction in the number of readers in recent years, on average two out of three people over the age of 15 read a national morning newspaper. Examples of national daily newspapers are: The Sun, Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Express, The Daily Telegraph and The Times. All these newspapers, which are the six largest daily newspapers in Britain, have a circulation of over 11 million. Compared to this, are the Sunday newspapers more popular to read. The six largest weekly newspapers are: News of the World, The Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, The Sunday Times, and Express on Sunday. These newspapers have a circulation of about 14 million.

In Britain, as almost anywhere else in the world today, a few large publishing groups own nearly all the national newspapers. The most significant of these are News International, owned by Rupert Murdoch. He is born in Australia and he is called the press tycoon. This concentration of ownership has caused some concern as to whether the public are guaranteed an objective view in the newspapers. The first sign of this trend were noticeable in the early 1980s when News International purchased The Times. It marked a shift in that paper from a right of centre but independent to a more openly right-wing position. And this took place when there was a right-wing flavour of the Conservative governments in the 1980s. Another example is that Murdoch and News International owns the TV channel Sky Television. In their newspapers you can read about TV programs and there are proved that for example a movie has been better mentioned in the Newspaper from Murdoch than in other Newspapers owned by other companies. That’s so worrying is that News International owns the papers read by over one third of the newspaper-reading public.

In Britain we have an obvious distinction between tabloids, often called popular, and quality newspapers. Here we have a main difference in content and lay out. The tabloids have less news and more focus on gossip, emotion and scandal. They are also smaller with large illustrations, bold captions and a sensational prose style. Often are these newspapers filled with a lot of advertisements, sometimes covering 80% of the newspaper. By contrast we have the quality papers that are often called “broadsheets.” They emphasise news coverage, political and economic analysis together with social and cultural issues.

US newspapers
The first American daily newspaper came out in 1783 after the Revolution. It was called the Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser. A rising trend was about to happen from now. By 1800, there were about 20 daily newspapers. By 1900, there were over 2000 daily newspapers in the United States, but this was also a peak. In the middle of the 19th century six New York City newspapers joined together and created Associated Press, the country’s first news agency. After the Civil War, American Press expanded rapidly because they served newspapers with many different political views.

In the US, there are about 1700 daily newspapers printing a total of 63 million copies, and almost every copy is read by at least two persons. In addition to this about 7000 weekly newspapers are also published, with a combined publication of approximately 40 million. Compared to Britain, daily newspapers are more popular to read than the weekly newspapers. Newspaper publishers in the US estimate that nearly 8 out of 10 adult Americans read a newspaper every day. Examples of the top six dailies in US are: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post and New York Daily News.

In US there is the same trend about ownership. The 20 largest newspaper chains, account for more than 80 percent of total daily circulation. The leading publishing and printing companies are: R.R Donelly & Sons and the second largest are Gannet. “Freedom of expression is important to Americans, and freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution.” This means that individual states/communities cannot decide what their citizens can or cannot write or say. American newspapers are all very similar in profile and content. They are basically independent in their politics and they are more issue oriented than party oriented. Not as in Britain where there is much more resemblance between newspapers and partys. One characteristic of American newspapers are their editorials and comment pages. The editorials reflect the views of the publisher or owner on public issue, and other writers are selected to provide a balance of political and social views. Another important characteristic of American newspapers has to do with their tradition of investigative journalism. Newspapers have a tradition of being watchdogs for the government. One example here is from 1971 when the New York Times began publishin the Pentagon Papers. When the government tried to prevent their publication, the US Supreme court upheld the right of the newspaper to print this material, stating how much Americans value the freedom of expression.

We can say that American newspapers have a high standard of journalism and they are more interested in “news” than “sensation.” In Britain there is a distinction between quality and tabloid newspapers. In America the weekly newspapers have more tabloids content and lay out. Reporting news in more condensed or shortened versions and offering many more illustrations. One good example is the National Enquirer and it is a weekly newspaper that is primarily sold at supermarket checkouts. The journalistic community also know that scandals and tabloids sell very well, but they are more responsible compared to Britain. They have a public morality agreed that somewhere a line must be drawn.

TELEVISION IN THE US AND UK

US
In the United States there are no government-sponsored television channels, like BBC in Britain. American television is a result of the markets demand. As a result of this, it is more important to entertain than to deliver quality. Television is very important for the Americans. According to Nielsen Media Research statistics Americans are watching TV about 30 hours a week. It is no wonder the TV-Guide is one of the top selling magazines in the country.

Today there are over 1200 TV-stations in the US, about 280 of these are from the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service network). PBS is a network of non-profit stations, the channels in the network share programs that embrace national and international news, cultural events, entertainment and education. PBS is devoted to quality programs. An example of this is the well-known children’s program Sesame Street. The program has been a trendsetter in educational programming.

In the US there are three major commercial networks, ABC, NBS and CBS. These networks have emerged from the early radio networks. A fourth network that began to capture significant share of young adult audiences in the late 1980s, is Fox Broadcasting Co. Fox is owned by the Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch and have among others, broadcasted the heavily discussed reality TV-show Temptation Island.

During the past two decades the popularity of cable television has grown in the US, a number of cable networks came to prominence. Among these networks are the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Turner Network Television (TNT and Cable News Network (CNN), all owned by the American entrepreneur Ted Turner. CNN has reporters all around the world and have a 24-hour news service. Disney owns both ABC and the popular cable sports network ESPN. NBC have ties to the cable channels CNBC and MSNBC, MSNBC is an alliance between NBC and Microsoft.

All together the United States is the world’s biggest exporter of TV-shows. Most people in the western world have watched TV-shows like: Seinfeld, Mash, Friends, Ally McBeal, Fraiser, X-Files, and the list go on and on. Most of the shows are produced in Los Angeles. Even shows like Friends, which takes place in New York, are filmed in a Hollywood studio.

Since the US has no government-sponsored television channels, commercials are the main source of income for the channels. The commercials are slotted into the programs at moments that should leave the viewer hanging on to see what comes next. The term “soap-opera” actually comes from the commercial used in the first American TV series in the 1950s that were targeted for women.

In the US news should be entertaining, additional to general news they include sports and a weather forecast. The news programs are fast-paced, and have an anchormen or anchor women. Although they do nothing more than read the news, the “anchors” enjoy great celebrity status and have a salary to match. The weather is also an important part of the news programs. It is most likely an attractive woman standing in front of the weather map.

One of the top 10 prime time programs in the states is CBS’s Sixty Minutes, which is a documentary program. Sixty Minutes has managed to be popular, but at the same it is a program that represents quality and integrity.

UK
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was established in 1936 by the government to provide a public radio service. The same year it was established, BBC began broadcasting television. BBC gets its income from an annual licence fee for television; this is normal for most government-controlled broadcasters.

The establishment of independent and commercial television removed the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly in 1955. The channel established was the Independent Television Commission (ITV). Many in Britain feared that the establishment of ITV would erode the high standards set by the BBC, but ITV has shown to be competitive with BBC in production of high quality programs. In 1982 Channel 4 was established, the channel specialises in minority interest programmes. Until 1997 there where four terrestrial channels to choose from; BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4.

In 1991 BBC established a commercial 24-hour news channel called Worldwide Television. Before BBC World was established CNN had almost a monopoly in worldwide news broadcasting. CNN has almost three times as many camera crews as BBC World, but BBC has almost twice as many correspondents.

Satellite TV has been available since 1989. The major provider of satellite programs is BSkyB that is controlled by the media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Cable television was introduced in 1993, now cable television has about 1, 5 million subscribers.

John Major, the former prime minister and leader of the Conservative government, questioned the financing of BBC. The Conservative government argued that BBC had to prove its ability to operate with commercial efficiency to continue to enjoy public funding. Because of this BBC underwent a radical restructuring process during the mid-1990, and are today divided into six separate components.

Sport is a very popular and an important part of the culture both in Britain and in the United States. Sporting events attracts an enormous number of viewers and therefore have an extreme commercial value. The largest British sport channel is Sky Sports. BBC can’t afford to broadcast the most popular sporting events, because of the extreme commercial value these events have for the private channels. The largest sport channel in the United States is, as mentioned earlier, ESPN.

When comparing the television in the United States and Britain, the most significant difference is that Britain has a government owned broadcaster while in the states there are only commercial networks. We can argue that BBC producers have much more freedom than their American colleges, to develop their own ideas. In the US it is important to make programs that generate profit for the channel. On the other hand, what is quality? Is a program that attracts many viewers quality, or is it a program that educates, inspire, investigate and enlighten its viewers. A fact is that British television is known for their high quality programs, but the biggest exporter of programs is the United States.

THE INTERNET

Background
The Internet is, as we are all aware of, becoming more and more popular and useful to people around the globe. Over the last 30-40 years the Internet has developed from being a network which was built by the US defence department in order to survive a cold war nuclear attack into a World Wide Web of networks enabling all kinds of people to communicate with each other. In this section we will take a closer look at the reasons why the Internet has become so successful, which trends that are currently affecting the further development of the Net and what the predictions are for the future. We will especially emphasise the importance and development of e-commerce. This, because e-commerce probably is the best example on Internets ability and potential to literally change the world.

Let us first take a closer look at some general figures, which may give a better perspective of the huge scale of the Net. As we have already mentioned the Internet was designed and created around 40 years ago for military purposes. In 1972 40 computers were linked to the Internet and by 1984 the number of host computers had increased to 1000. With the emergence of a new type of transmitting technology (TCP/IP) in 1986, 10,000 machines got connected to the Net. And from then on the number of computers connected to the Net increased immensely from one year to the next. The number of connected machines crossed the one million mark in 1992, the ten million mark in 1996 and the hundred million mark in 2000. Today there are over 110,000,000 host computers and it is predicted that there will be over one billion machines connected to the Internet by 2005.

If one takes a look at the Internet from another perspective, one can also see how appealing the Internet is for people. In the United States it took 38 years until 50 millions Americans had got themselves a radio and 14 years until they had gotten themselves a TV. With an Internet connection it took only 4 years for the Internet to reach 50 million Americans. Even if you take the differences of buying power and number of peoples of the different periods into consideration, these figures speak for them self. The Internet has developed into being almost a necessity.

If we narrow the perspective a bit and take a closer look at the roles that the US and the UK play on the Internet, one can clearly see that the US has a huge domination over the rest of the world as both hosts and Internet sites are concerned. 60% of all the Internet host machines are in the US and US-based domains have a worldwide dominance. The main reasons for this dominance are the combination of the US being one the richest countries in the world and the simple fact that there are over 280 million Americans. But the UK and the rest of the world are catching up. In the process of expanding the Internet further, e-commerce is playing a vital part.

E-commerce
Let us first define e-commerce. E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web.
As a place for direct retail shopping, with its 24-hour availability, a global reach and the ability to interact and provide custom information and ordering, the Web is rapidly becoming a multibillion dollar source of revenue for businesses around the globe. In the following we will take a closer look at the British and American e-commerce.

Also in e-commerce, and generally within e-business, the United States is the dominating actor. Over the last five years, the American retailers have been the dominant actors in e-business. The e-commerce trade was previously known for being unprofitable, and as the “IT-bubble” burst, many people lost their belief in e-commerce. But recently, the companies using the Internet as their storefront have been experiencing profits. The main contributors to this trend are Amazon.com and Ebay.com. These two American companies did in 2001 make strong earnings and the main reason for this is their gains in overseas sales. Amazon.com has managed to capture shares from far-flung markets mainly because of their globalised corporate structure. This way of organising across country borders may very well be the new trend for internet retailing and especially for American companies which has such a huge overtake on the market. Research has actually proved that US buyers usually find little incentive to buy from foreign retailers, but still foreigners tend to buy from the American retailers. And if this trend is a trend that will continue into the future, the US-e-commerce will be very likely to sustain growth also in the future.

One country that is doing its best to prove this trend wrong is Great Britain. The UK Government has set itself the target of becoming “the best environment in the world to do e-commerce”. This governmental goal reflects how high the British government recognises the significance e-commerce has in the future performance of the economy. One of the actions they have done in order to improve the Brits internet literacy and access, which is the main condition for any Internet activity, is to invest heavily in improving the connection infrastructure. This effort has already shown results: according to the internet monitoring company “Net Value”, only during the summer of 2001, the number of home internet users connected to an e-commerce web-site increased with over half a million people in the UK. This growth is well above the rest of Europe. Another result of this effort is that during 2001 the number of permanent Internet connections in the UK increased with 269%. To have a permanent connection to the Internet is important because it is believed that people tend to use more time on searching for goods and shopping online when they are permanently connected to the Net and only paying a fixed monthly subscription fee to the ISP (Internet Service Provider).

As the large British e-commerce companies are concerned, they have not yet started to make money. But, the predictions for the near future are good. Most of the companies and many Internet analysts are expecting good figures for the year to come. One company is the high-profile online retailer Lastminute.com. Although they have experienced huge losses the last couple of years, they are now expecting to break even later this year.

The Future
In general, the future for e-commerce and the Internet-medium is quite bright. Revenues from e-commerce are expected to reach the $5 trillion mark by 2005 and many experts are predicting the pattern of e-commerce to be more widespread in the years to come. During the next four years the US market share is expected to decrease from 50% to 35%. The utilisation of the Net will explode. The Internet will be used more and more as a place for advertising, information and so on in addition to the mentioned retailing. It is also expected that the Internet will bring more efficiency into government markets.

But, there are also great deals of obstacles that one must overcome in order to experience the predicted future development. The governments across the world must create and adjust the environment as law and legislations are concerned. They must also promote full access for everyone to the Internet, on the same level as they do for power, water and mail.

We have in this section tried to give an insight in the past development, current trends and future predictions of the Internet as a medium and exemplified it through e-commerce. So now it is left to see what the future will bring of new technology and e-business niches. But one thing is sure: The Internet is here to stay.

CONCLUSION
In an age of digitisation, it seems the last subject in the world we want to talk about is the power and the value of print. For today, we’re busy talking about multi-media, and how the value proposition for newspaper companies is the quality of our journalism across many media platforms. But the last exploration of the media trends shows still the importance of newspapers. In the last couple of years we have been watching a trend reversal which occurre in the content business: print-based publications are becoming interesting again while on-line magazines and newspapers have lost a lot of their luster. This trend reflects the importance of the Internet and of the content market as a whole. Users are becoming increasingly aware that various media have different strong points. They all supply each other. People still want to read their newspaper in the morning, watching TV in the afternoon and surfing around on the web during the day. But the developments of the IT and the Internet have still a long way to go. This age will create new economic and creative opportunities for companies already active in the Newspaper and Television ages. It will engender new types of consumers and consumption patterns and will enable the development of new kinds of content and services.

        

There were many different Russian authors who did not like the concept of communism in their country. They decided to get their ideas and experiences down on paper so they could get their point across. One of these novels was entitled We, by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin. This book is a science-fiction adventure, which accurately portrays the horrors of Stalinism, and looks at everything as a place where everything is bad, an anti-utopia. Another book is Kolyma Tales, written by Varlam Shalamov. This book takes you inside of Stalin’s forced labor system which killed millions of people. It goes into more detail about the horror of the gulag than One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The gulag was the network of prison camps in the former Soviet Union. One more author named Andrei Platonov, was an anti-communist who wrote about the effect that communism had on peoples lives. In his book, Foundation Pit, he describes how communism is the reason for having a meaningless life and causing such turmoil in Russia (WayToRussia). All of these books helped the people realize the truth about the Soviet Union and communism, focusing on the labor camps more than anything.

To be specific, there was a more famous author by the name of Boris Leonidovich Pasternak. Pasternak was a Soviet author and poet whose poetry often did not follow the preferred patterns of socialist realism. Therefore, only two of his collections of poetry were published: On Early Trains and The Terrestrial Expanse which were both written during WWII (“Russian L”). He only wrote one novel, titled Doctor Zhivago which was completed in 1956. This book presents a detailed view of the Russian society at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. However, Doctor Zhivago was not published because of the way he criticizes Soviet communism. In 1958, Pasternak won and accepted the Nobel Prize but had to reject it because he was accused of being a traitor by Soviet Communist groups. If he did not reject the prize, then Pasternak would be kicked out of the country (“Russia”). This shows that because of his poetry, he was accused of being a traitor. Therefore, Pasternaks writings had to have, or would have if published, influenced the Soviet society given the fact that he was about to get kicked out of the country for these writings.

Another famous and more brilliant author in Russian literature was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. His writings also contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism. His first novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was based off of his experiences in one of the prison camps. Solzhenitsyn described the realities of life in prison camps. For example, “Apart from sleep, the only time a prisoner lives for himself is ten minutes in the morning at breakfast, five minutes over dinner, and five at supper”(Solzhenitsyn 14). He was sent there because of some anti-Stalinist comments he had written in a letter to a friend. In 1970, Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize. From here, Solzhenitsyn wrote more and more which ultimately led to his deportation to West Germany, depriving him of his Soviet citizenship in 1974 (“Alexander”). He settled in the United States where he wrote The Gulag Archipelago, volumes 1, 2, and 3. This series of books talks about how people were arrested, convicted, transported, and imprisoned into forced labor camps. In 1991, the charges of treason against Solzhenitsyn were dropped and he returned to live in Russia in 1994 when communism was over. The use of his own experiences and emotions in these works, let his audiences feel what he felt during his years of imprisonment.
All of the authors in the Soviet Union who criticized, made fun of, and/or just talked about the government in the wrong way, were punished. One way of punishing the writers was to not publish their works. This happened a lot to the writers and it was not until the late 1980’s when books, written as far back as the 1920’s, were published. However, in the 1950’s, many of these writers got lucky and were able to publish their works through samizdat, or “self-publishing.” “Typically, samizdat literature was typewritten on thin paper (to facilitate the making of as many carbon copies as possible) and circulated by hand, initially to a group of trusted friends”(“Samizdat”). Other than samizdat, there was no way of getting your works published, and released to the public. Another way these writers were punished was by taking away prizes they had won because of their writings. The Russian government and communists would take away these prizes if the writers work was satirical, critical or proposed a threat to the Soviet Union. For example, Pasternak’s Nobel Prize was taken away because his writings caused communist groups to believe he was a traitor. Then again, some leaders such as Stalin would kick people out of his country. In particular, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was kicked out of the Soviet Union and he was deprived of his citizenship because of his works. It was not until the late 1980’s when President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his policy of glasnost, or “openness,” when writers could publish their works freely. Before Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet leaders would not let these writers to be heard because they were scared the writings would have an influence on the people.

Given these facts, the writings of many authors such as Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, and Platanov, had an influence on the destruction of the Soviet Union. At first, it was hard for these writers to be heard because their works were rarely published. Because of this, many citizens were not exactly sure about what was actually going on in their country. For instance, the truth about forced labor camps was kept hidden from the Soviet people. However, Gorbachev then created the policy of glasnost and many writings and poems were finally published and released into the public. With people finally reading these books, they began realizing what had been going on. Not many Soviets knew that people like Solzhenitsyn were being kicked out of the country because of the truth contained inside his books. They also realized how brutal these labor camps were, just for citizens who “had a big mouth.” While more and more citizens of the USSR began to get upset, President Gorbachev began to believe this system of government was falling apart. Because of numerous reasons, some of which were these brilliant writings, the Soviet Union collapsed on December 31st, 1991. Boris Yeltsin was elected the new president of Russia shortly before the breakup of the USSR (“Union”). No one would ever see the sickle and the hammer blowing in the wind again.

        

First of all, when examining how religion and the ethical values of society are in constant disagreement with each other, an important topic to analyse is that of abortion. In modern North American culture, abortion is a legal and widely accepted practise. It is considered ethical according to societies criteria, to kill an unborn child.

“Legislative action in the 20th century has been aimed at permitting the termination of unwanted pregnancies for medical, social, or private reasons. Abortions at the woman’s request were first allowed in post-revolutionary Russia in 1920, followed by Japan and several East European nations after World War II (1939-1945). In the late 1960′s liberalized abortion regulations became widespread.”

Specifically in Canada, abortion first became legal in 1967 when the Minister of Justice at that time, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, passed a bill which permitted the act. Abortions also became legal in the United States of America in the early 1970′s. This was, in large part, the result of a high rate of illegal abortions, and a feminist movement that swept through North America. Currently abortion rates are also on the rise. In 1975 for example, statistics revealed that only a mere 4.5 per cent of the women in Canada had had an abortion. Statistics in 1993 however, uncovered that by the early 1990′s, almost 17 per cent of Canadian women had had an abortion at least once. Currently, statistics show that that number is still increasing. As time has passed, more and more people have turned to abortion, and abortion has become more and more of a socially-accepted, and ethical practise.

In sharp contrast to society however, when looking at religion, abortion is not an accepted practise by any means. First of all, Buddhism does not accept or sanction abortion. In fact, “…abortion has been severely disapproved of in the Buddhist tradition.” Buddhism is a religion that teaches that all forms of life must be respected, and places the act of killing a fetus “under the general heading of intentional killing.” Therefore, Buddhism ultimately looks down on abortion as criminal.

Hinduism is no different from Buddhism, as Hinduism also disapproves of abortion. In modern-day Hinduism, abortion is also considered a seriously wrongful action. While there are no Hindu scriptures that clearly prohibit the act of abortion, countless Hindu scholars around the world feel that abortion is an immoral act that is contrary to the values of Hinduism. This perception has much to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was an extremely important figure in Hinduism throughout the 20th century who spoke out against abortion. In fact, one of Gandhi’s most memorable quotes was: “It seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.” This statement is exceptionally powerful, as Gandhi is widely accepted among Hindu’s today, as the “father of the nation.” Many Hindu’s even consider Gandhi an avatar (a re-incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu). Therefore, Gandhi’s thoughts and values play an important role in modern-day Hinduism, and have become the basis through which Hindu people are taught about the wickedness of abortion. Thus, the act of abortion is not considered obedient to the teachings of Hinduism.

Another religion which disagrees with the ethics of society, and proves that religion and ethics have completely different views concerning abortion, is Judaism. Abortion is considered a vice in Judaism. “Jewish law expressly and sharply condemns any effort to cut off the life of a person by even minutes, considering all such efforts acts of murder.” In fact, Judaism teaches Jews to have many children. It teaches Jews to love these children before and after birth. Most importantly, Jewish scripture commands that Jews “be fruitful and multiply.” “True Judaism is in complete contrast to acceptance of abortion.” Jews believe that God “does not need to seek any person’s opinion or approval about anything in His creation. This includes the unborn.” Therefore, Judaism strongly disagrees with the ethical values of society.

The last important view on abortion that should be covered, when learning how religion and ethics disagree, is the Islamic perception concerning this argument. Like most other religions, Islam is also a religion that is against aborting the life of an unborn child. In the holy book of Islam, the Qur’an, it is said (in Surah 25: Al-Furqan: 74) that fertility is a highly prized blessing and that children are a gift of God to bring “joy to our eyes.” Another popular quote from the Qur’an which proves Islam’s resistance to abortion (which is found in Surah 6: At-Talaqa: 2-3) is the quotation which commands to Muslims: “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty, for it is He who shall provide sustenance for you as well as for them.” While this quote can be interpreted in a variety of ways, many Muslim followers today view this quotation as a law against the killing of not only living children, but a law against killing the unborn as well. Therefore, through discovering how, in accordance with the ethical values of society, abortion is considered a normative practise which is a human right, and learning how the major religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam feel strongly against the practise of abortion, it seems very clear and obvious that the ethical values of society and the values of religion do not coincide with each other at all concerning this topic.

Another crucial theme to investigate when looking at how religion and societies’ ethics are two very separate value systems, is the theme of war. In the world today, war is most definitely an ethical and socially-accepted form of diplomacy. War is not necessarily something that most people of the world hope for, but it is unquestionably seen as an accepted way to deal with problems between nations. Governments are constantly sending their countries troops to war to fight for things such as land, freedom, and sometimes because of hatred. In fact, there have been several wars in the last one hundred years. War is constantly an issue in the world. In fact, countries have even created rules for war in the form of the Geneva Convention. Now, why would countries create rules for war? Well, many people believe that countries create these rules to make war more ethical and accepted within society. It is obvious that this works, not only evident in the fact that war is constantly being re-created in heroic fashion in hundreds of movies, novels and video games, but because war is promoted by society. Countries encourage men to go to war in the form of propaganda. In truth, during some wars, especially World War I and World War II, countries went as far as to promote their cause with posters and newspaper advertisements. Countries portrayed soldiers as hero’s, and loyal servants of their countries. So, because war is promoted by society, it must be considered ethical. However, war is not seen as a such a righteous and virtuous occasion by all facets of the human race.

Most religions do not agree with societies views of war. In Judaism, unlike societies ethics, war is looked down upon. For instance, Jewish people believe that war is a crime, and that humans need to maintain peace by all means necessary.

“Peace, and the pursuit of peace, ranks high in the scale of Jewish values. War is held to be an abomination permissible only in defence of life. Moreover, not only is the word Shalom (‘peace’) always used in greetings, but the rabbi of the Talmud declare Shalom to be one of the names of God. All the more important prayers conclude with a prayer for peace on earth.”

War is considered a wrongdoing on the highest level in Judaism. “The basis of Jewish ethics is the doctrine of Imitatio Dei. Man, created in God’s image, is obliged to be God-like in showing compassion and mercy, practising justice and performing acts of charity and benevolence to all God’s creatures.” Killing, which is obviously an element of war, goes against this doctrine.

Secondly, when understanding how different societies ethics and religious beliefs are through analysing war, it is important to study the important religion of Buddhism. Unlike societies ethical values, Buddhism does not encourage or promote war. In fact, war is strongly discouraged in Buddhism. This is evident in many ways. First of all, Buddhism is based on the five Precepts of Buddha. The first, and most important Precept commands people “to refrain from taking life.” Buddha (the founder of Buddhism) taught that killing (a consequence of war) was sinful and morally wrong. Many of Buddha’s rules in fact, are contained within the most widespread Buddhist scripture, known as the Way of Righteousness. In this scripture, a direct quotation from Buddha himself reads: “All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.” It is widely believed that this quotation is a warning to those who want to initiate war. This quote commands men to drop their arms, and stop their fighting.

However, the most important evidence which proves that Buddhism prohibits war comes in the Buddhist story, “The Peacemaker.” This story, which is found in Buddhist scripture, tells of a time when Buddha stood between two kings whose kingdoms were ready to go to war over land. The story explains how Buddha questioned both kings, and asked them if a piece of land was worth dying for. He then lectured them about the evils of war, and the scripture explains that Buddha convinced the two men to come to a peaceful agreement. Buddhist people feel that this story demonstrates that Buddha was a great adversary of peace. Buddha taught his followers that war is useless, and a sin in Buddhism. Therefore, it is noticeable that Buddhist values are not at all like the ethics of society.

Now, it is also valuable, when studying religious values versus ethical values, to realize the Islamic ideas of war. Contrary to popular belief, Islam is a religion that does not promote war. While it is widely believed that Muslims are taught to spread their religion through war and conquering, there is a very important Islamic belief of Sufism that suggests otherwise. “Sufism is Islam’s tolerant, mystical and universal philosophy. Its message of sulh-I-kul, peace with all, has been endeared it to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.” Through this universal code of Sufism which Muslims believe in, it is taught that all men must learn to accept each others differences, and have patience with others who are different. Sufism’s main message is to have compassion for your fellow man, to have humility, and to be part of a universal love. Wars have nothing to do with this universal love. All wars are based on hatred and anger. This is not Sufism’s message to Islamic followers at all. Islam is a religion which does not support war.

Lastly, it is of great importance when discussing religion and ethics to understand that war is something that is also frowned upon in the Roman Catholic Church. Recently, the United States government (a government which portrays war as an ethical practise) has been preparing for a war on Iraq. In response to a suggested first military strike on Iraq, Archbishop Renato Martino of the Vatican (the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church), expressed the Churches position on the matter. “Everyone knows the way (the Persian Gulf War) turned out. War doesn’t resolve problems,” the Archbishop told an Italian newspaper, “besides being bloody, it’s useless.” Archbishop Martino also warned that war would have “unacceptable human costs and grave destabilizing effects,” and that the Vatican is completely opposed to the concept of war. So, in the end, it seems undeniable that Roman Catholics also are opposed to warfare and all of the negative effects of war. Therefore, through analysing how moralistic and patriotic war is considered by society’s standards, and observing the extreme disapproval that religions such as Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Roman Catholicism give against war, it becomes clear just how conflicting societies ethical values, and religious values are, based on war and the state of war.

The final topic that is important to explore when studying the differences in values between the ethics of society and religion, is homosexuality. While it is not the most popular aspect of modern society to some people, homosexuality is absolutely something that is allowed and mostly accepted within society. The acceptance of homosexuals is also constantly growing. Homosexuality in the world today is generally considered ethical. In all first world nations in fact, homosexuals are permitted to live together, show signs of affection towards each other in public places, and in some areas, such as Denmark, homosexual partners are even allowed to be legally married to one another. In the United States, homosexual couples are allowed to legally adopt children. This is something that was never allowed before, but has recently been allowed to accommodate the ever-growing acceptance of homosexuals. Confirmation that society is surely beginning to accept homosexuality was proven in the early 1990′s when two American researchers, an anthropologist named Clellan Ford and a psychologist by the name of Frank A. Beach, did a study of several communities in various countries around the world. They found that “during modern times, ambivalent attitudes (had) prevailed.” Ford’s and Beach’s studies led them to conclude that, at the time of their study “two-thirds (of the 76 societies they studied) consider homosexual activities normal and socially acceptable.” In fact, since their study, more societies have begun to accept homosexuality. This toleration of homosexuality first began in the 1970′s when a large group of homosexuals stormed the American Psychiatric Association conference on successive years and demanded that “homosexuality” be removed from the international list of mental illnesses. Since then, people’s perceptions of homosexuals have changed. Currently, there are television shows which feature homosexual characters, homosexual-rights groups, and countless public figures, such as movie stars, writers, and singers, that openly admit to being gay, and proud of it. In fact, current research shows that about 1-2% of the people in North America are gay. This number is still growing, as public opinion is slowly swaying more and more towards accepting homosexuality.

At any rate, while society has begun to adopt homosexuality as a way of life and legalize it, religions do not agree with this newfound public acceptance of homosexuality. Firstly, it is critical to take a look at the Anglican church’s position on the matter. The Anglican religion does not allow homosexuality. Actually, this point was highlighted in June of 2002, after the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, British Columbia decided to give their blessing to those in their community who wanted to join in same-sex relationships. In response to the Diocese’s decision to give permission for homosexuals to express their homosexuality, a backlash erupted in the Anglican community across Canada. The day after this occurred, thirteen Anglican bishops issued a statement of regret over the decision that read: “We regret the decision of the Diocese of New Westminster to move independently toward the blessing of same-sex unions.” The statement expressed that the decision that the Diocese made was in complete conflict with the “moral teachings of the Holy Scripture and the tradition of the universal church.” There was also a call by these Anglican bishops of Canada not to implement the New Westminster decision because they felt that all it would do was prove that their religion was weak, and could easily be influenced by a far too liberal society. This Anglican outrage is a true example of a religion showing their disapproval of homosexuality.

The Roman Catholic Church is no different either because, while homosexuality is not considered a disease or an illness by the ethics of society any more, Roman Catholicism’s view of homosexuality is completely opposite to the ethical views of society. The Roman Catholic Church first spoke out against homosexuality in 1975 with the publication of the Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual ethics. This declaration clearly made it known that homosexuality was strictly prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church. This created a great debate in society at the time. Then, in 1986, the Roman Catholic Church issued the publication of the Letter on Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. This letter made it clear, once again, that homosexuality was a sin by saying: “Genital acts between members of the same sex are labelled intrinsically disordered.” In paragraph 7 of the letter it stated that homosexuality was an “intrinsic moral evil,” and that “homosexual activity prevent one’s own fulfilment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God.” Therefore, it becomes clear that the Roman Catholic Church is against societies acceptance of homosexuality.
Similarly, in Judaism, just as is this case in the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church, societies acceptance of homosexuality is condemned. Dating from biblical times, Jews have always looked to the law in Leviticus that states that a homosexual relationship between two men is “an abomination,” and it commands that these men “be put to death.” In modern Judaism, while a homosexual will not be put to death, Jews still follow their tradition and forbid homosexuality because Jewish tradition has always warned “against two males sleeping together.” Therefore, it is warranted to say that Judaism does not have nearly the same view on homosexuality as the ethics of society do.

Finally, the last important religion to recognize, when studying the differences between religion and ethics concerning homosexualism, is Islam. Islam is no different than most other religions when it comes to the discussion of homosexuality, in that it is also prohibited. “Islam teaches that homosexuality is a violation of the will of Allah (God) and also that it is unnatural. It is thus a serious violation of Islamic law.” There is even direct proof of this in the book of Islam. In the Qur’an, there is a parable that tells the story of the nation of Laut. In this nation, the Qur’an explains that many people were lost “deep into homosexuality.” Hazrat Laut (the Muslim prophet), warned the people to stop their evil ways and to stop performing these unnatural and sickening actions, but the people would not listen. The Qur’an then resolves the story by explaining that Hazrat Laut took his family and followers, and left the evil nation. The story then concludes by saying that God then “sent stones and inverted the land on (the homosexuals) as a severe punishment.” Therefore, the teachings of the Qur’an prove that Islam is definitely a religion that does not condone homosexual behaviour at all. Consequently, through observing how the ethics of society view homosexuals as normal, average people that are allowed to do whatever they like in terms of sexuality, and observing how the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism and Islam prohibit anything but heterosexual activity between a man and a woman, it is certain that the ethical values of society, and the moral values of religion do not correspond concerning this subject at all.

Religion and ethics cannot, and will not agree with each other. This becomes obvious when re-examining the difference in values between ethics and religion concerning the three main topics, beginning with abortion. Societies ethics allow for abortion, claiming that abortion is a person’s legal right, and a normal process. On the other hand, the majority of religions feel that abortion is a crime, and an act of murder. Also, religion and ethics have conflicting views when it comes to the topic of war as well. Society promotes and encourages war, while most religions feel that war is a devastating and tragic event that is classified as sinful. Religion and ethics also firmly disagree concerning homosexuality. According to society, homosexuality is becoming more and more of an ethical and accepted form of love in modern culture, while religions still completely prohibit homosexual behaviour and activity, claiming that it is unnatural and disgusting. Therefore, it is indisputable that the ethical values of modern society, and the moral values and teachings of religion are very different and have drastically opposing views of life. In fact, religious values and societies values are constantly moving in opposite directions of each other, and they will continue to do so for the remainder of eternity. While ethics and society have always had problems and disagreements between each other based on their extremely different values and moral codes, these disagreements will only get worse in the future as their values become progressively more different. Ethics and society will always be fighting against each other in a never-ending battle of what is right and what is wrong. The struggle between the two will never end, and could possibly result in the downfall of mankind.

The writing process is something that has been pounded into my head since I was in Elementary School. Even over the years, with many refinements, the same basic process kept its shape. In the beginning, one has to think of ideas or topics in which to write about. This is also called brainstorming. I was taught to just sit down and collectively think about anything, then capture those thoughts on paper. This, to me, works as brainstorming. I think what you’re thinking about currently is obviously interesting to you so why not write on it? When this type of technique is used I believe that writing comes off as enjoyable and exciting. Many students consider writing a bore and even a huge task. I have used this method of brainstorming for years and I’ve rarely been bored.

The next step involves a different type of thinking. Outlining creates a preview for the reader as to what is included in a paper. I have never liked this step because it is restraining. What I mean by that, is an outline is predictable and I enjoy just writing on a topic with a general direction in mind, but no path paved in stone. To me, writing has always had freedom. I write with the will of a child. Bouncing off different objects until I have exhausted all outcomes. Writing has to be fun for the writer, otherwise the final outcome may have structure but lack a voice.

I came up with seven steps to writing a paper in this class. They are as follows: Brainstorming, Outline, Pre-write (Rough Draft), Edit, Revise, Peer Editing, and Produce Final Draft.. Of these tasks the easiest for me would be the rough draft stage. Once I have a clear idea of the topics and material needing to be covered 1 can produce a paper of any length. For me a blank piece of paper is an opportunity to explore. 1 can captivate the audience and have fun. I am also good at peer editing. Critiquing another’s paper is challenging and exciting. I enjoy helping people and this I do well.

The tasks left are ones I do poorly. Brainstorming is usually lengthy and time consuming, yet a step that can not be left out. I realize there are many methods to do this but I, more often than not, have trouble doing it the way I want to. Coming up with ideas for topics is never easy for me. Outlining a paper has always been done in a formal manner and I prefer to be informal, at least until the final is produced. As far as being easy, yes, writing the outline is very easy and consists of my organized thoughts on paper. Editing my own work is not my best quality. I enjoy correcting someone else’s paper rather than my own. If I edit mine, I have to let it sit for a day or two then come back to it again.

Writing anything is a must have when concluding that one is literate. To be literate one must know and be able to read and write. If one of these qualities is left out it is hard to find that individual literate. To communicate effectively, writing is a required skill.

My method for pre-writing for a paper consists of me reading and taking thorough notes. I was taught this way and I prefer it. Creating all these bubbles and diagrams, that just doesn’t float my boat. I just write as I think of ideas.

Why is progress better than perfection in writing? I believe that perfection is first of all never achieved with writing. Progress is the method through which we move mountains. Without error how can we become better? Learning is all about progress and achievement. To demand perfection is foolish because no one learns from that. Writing then turns into memorization with lack of character and feeling. That is what dictionaries are for; dictionaries is the place for perfection not writing papers.

Thesis: Through experience, my misconceptions of writing have shaped the way that I feel about writing today.

Introduction
I.) Do you remember your earliest childhood experiences with writing? Writing was a piece of cake, right?
II.) Writing is a difficult task. There are so many things to be aware of before becoming an effective writer.
III.) Through experience, my misconceptions of writing have shaped the way I feel about writing today.

Body
I.) My misconception of writing led me through horrifying experiences in the past, which initially make me dislike it.
A) I remember when my teacher first talked about writing.
B) Then my teacher speaks of the writing process, and confuses me.
C) I asked, “Why is she making writing so difficult?”
D) From this point on I was through with writing; it just wasn’t for me.

II.) Over the years I have been able to experience writing in all sorts of forms.
A) Reading allowed me to open up the way I feel about writing.
B) Some different types of writing include novels, short stories, ballads, essays, plays, and poems.
C) I think poems are my favorite types of writing.
D) I am grateful for being able to experience various writing styles.

III.) Writing and reading has been very beneficial to my mental process.
A) Writing has forced me to think a lot.
B) I am now able to appreciate writings of all kinds.
C) Writing makes me more knowledgeable of the wonderful world writing creates.
Conclusion
I.) Through my experiences in writing, I have learned a lot.
II.) I guess it has taken the worst experiences in writing for me to finally unlock the mystery of it.
III.) I have finally retrieved the key!

The war and its effect on Ireland was always a key concern for Joyce. He did not support it and Tom Stoppard once remarked, What did you do in the Great War, Mr Joyce? I wrote Ulysses. What did you do? He was unconcerned about the politics of the war, in that he did not care for the Empire, but the casualties and the human suffering that the war caused distressed Joyce immensely. He highlights this suffering at a number of points in his great work Ulysses. One of the most effective is when he has his character Simon Dedalus lecturing to a class of young boys at school, Pyrrhusa disappointed bridge. This is his description of the Greek hero, Pyrrhus, holding a bridge where many died. The fact that he calls it a disappointed bridge shows how unworthy he considers it for the amount of lives that it took. Earlier Dedalus thinks on ancient battles and uses the terms, I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry, and time one livid flame. Although Joyce uses these terms as a description of the destruction that was reaped during the great battles of history the image that is portrayed is that of modern warfare. Again he is highlighting these tragedies of warfare, it is as if he is pleading with the children in the class so that it will not happen again.

Joyce also uses the recurrent theme of a one legged sailor in the streets of Dublin. The sailor has been wounded in battle and Joyce uses him as a portrayal of the human agony that war causes. A onelegged sailor crutched himself round MacConnells cornerhe growled unamiably for Englandhome and beauty. This character appears at various points throughout the novel. Joyce never lets the reader forget these victims of war. Joyce uses the character of Father Conmee to voice his worries about how people reacted to this generation If I had served my God as I had served my king He would not have abandoned me in my old days. Again Joyce bothers that these people have been wounded fighting for an Empire that was not really theirs. The character of the citizen voices these sentiments in the Cyclopes chapter. He appears at a couple of points through the novel, he is a staunchly nationalistic element in the novel, as his name hints. He voices many of Joyces sentiments on war, Bloody wars, says I. . Sometimes he does seem to be ridiculed by the author for his overly nationalistic sentiments, but this is because Joyce also does not believe that a revolution would free Ireland from its colonial ties to Britain. He highlights this point with the statue of Parnell in the square in Dublin. Parnell is a symbol of the failure of Irish nationalism. In some ways the whole novel can be seen as an outcry against the deeply routed ideals of epic warfare. The novel ridicules the ideas of heroes and great victories. Its title, Ulysses, reminiscent of these ideals, is used to describe a novel about non-epic everyday lives. This turns the idea of the epic on its head. Also the images that the novel opens and closes with are in the same vein. It opens with Dedalus, Haines and Mulligan in a tower that was used as a lookout by the English during the Napoleonic wars, a reminder of previous wars. The novel closes with a quote from Joyce Trieste-Zurich-Paris, 1914-1921. This was Joyces travel, trying to avoid the war. The fact that the book is contained by two images of war, and is labelled with a title that summons up the idea of epic battles shows Joyces concern about war.

Joyce was not only concerned about Irish soldiers being sent off to Europe to fight. The idea of Ireland being colonised by the English was also a concern for Joyce. He alludes to this throughout Ulysses. Joyces main device to show this colonisation and its forms is the character of Haines. He shows him to be a representation of the Empire and colonisation from the outset of the novel. He was raving all night about a black panther, Where is his gun case? Here Joyce shows the Englishman having his dreams of Empire, of far off colonies and hunting. Haines acts like a coloniser, or an anthropologist. Haines conforms to the stereotype of a Frazer-like anthropologist. He first captures the Irish language, I thought it was Irish, she said, by the sound of it. Are you from the west sir? I am an Englishman. He thinks we should speak Irish in Ireland. He also tries to capture their culture; I intend to make a collection of your sayings if you will let me. These have been some of the most effective uses of language to attain Empire since Rome, and here Haines can be seen using them in Ireland. This capture of culture by a colonising nature takes away the sense of national identity from the natives. Haines symbolises this, as he is the only character in the novel that speaks fluent Gaelic, and Mulligan cannot remember Irish folklore, which Haines has been collecting for his book. Joyce even goes so far as to suggest that Dedalus is like Caliban from Shakespeares Tempest, the classical colonised native character. Joyce highlights the theme of colonisation at various points throughout the novel. On page 324, lieutenant colonel Hessaltine and some other dignitaries are driving through the streets of Dublin, in a parade in front of all the Irish. At one point they encounter John Howard Parnell, the brother of the Irish revolutionary, John Howard Parnell translated a white bishop quietly and his grey claw went up again to his forehead whereat it rested. Parnell tries to ignore this parade of English power through the streets of his native town. Joyce also alludes to Dublin not being the centre of Ireland. He points out that London is now the seat of government in Ireland. He uses the character of Father Conmee to illustrate this point, when he meets an Irish MPs wife in the street, And Mr. Sheehy himself? Still in London A wonderful man really. He begged to be remembered to Mr. David Sheehy M.P. Father Conmee is a social climber, and he considers that this man who has parliamentary contacts in London is the most important man in his parish. Here can be seen the influence that London wielded over Ireland. The fact that Dublin is no longer the most important place in Ireland, but London, is what Joyce is hinting towards. The idea of Ireland being a colony of England, with its men conscripted to fight in a war that did not really concern them. Joyce saw the inhabitants of Dublin like a group of Calibans, colonised and forced into labour.

Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness is a very different case from Joyces Ulysses. Obviously it is not based in his native country, as he was Polish, but he travelled on merchant vessels, first from Marseilles and then from Britain. He saw Empire in action on these voyages, what he saw concerned him. He approves of the idea of empire but he questions the methods and acts that occur in the colonies, We all read Conrads Heart of Darkness for its ambiguity, not for its call for a more authentic, manly, and violent imperialism. Conrad compares the Empires to the Roman Empire in its glory, Imagine the feelings of a commander of a finetrireme in the Mediterraneanor think of a decent young citizen in a toga. to mend his fortunes. Conrad uses Marlow to put forward the ideas that the Empire is glorious, that it is a piece of the Roman world that has been passed down as their inheritance. Marlow expresses the sentiments that colonies can make man money and can supply adventure, and for these reasons, the basic idea behind Empire, he supports it. Conrads dialectic, the language that he uses, cannot be considered as racist, as he is only using the terms that were in common use at that time. But Marlow also highlights something else for Conrad, Conrads use of an internal narrator in Heart of Darkness creates an irony in the story of imperialism. Conrad uses Marlows narration as a literary device to highlight his own mixed feelings on the colonies. Although he feels that the money that the colonies bring in is a good thing, he also feels that it attracts the wrong people, I couldnt help asking him once what he meant by coming there at all. To make money, of course. What do you think? he said scornfully. The mentality that Marlow encounters in Africa is similar to the Englishman in Defoes Captain Singleton; he is hell bent on extracting gold at any cost, just as the colonists are extracting as much ivory from the natives as possible. Conrads main concern is the methods and lawlessness of the colonies. But look how precarious the position is and why? Because the method is unsound. The methods that concern him in the colonies are the senseless killing of the natives, the bribery of tribes for ivory and the corruption of the managers and the European workers in these colonies. As he travels to the camp, Marlow sees examples of the brutish authority that was used by the colonisers. One white man in an unbuttoned uniform Was looking after the upkeep of the road Cant say I saw any road or upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged Negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead may be considered as a permanent improvement. Conrad disproves of these acts of senseless brutality in the colonies. It is ambiguous whether he is worried about the natives or just that the killing is a waste of resources. Conrads novel does not have a definite conclusion; he does not say whether the white man has brought this darkness to the colonies, or whether the darkness is a reference to the natives. It can be argued either way; he highlights the corruption of these Europeans in the colonies. When the manager talks of one of Kurtzs men, of whom he does not approve, says, Get him hanged! Why not? Anything- anything can be done in this country. Conrad does not just light on this particular incident, at various points he sees the managers trying to claw for more influence in the colony. Marlow hears in a discussion that the most responsible people are not in charge here, but instead those that have the constitution to survive the climate and other dangers. Thus Conrad shows the darkness to be something that the Europeans have brought with them to the colony. Their civilizing mission to bring enlightenment to the natives actually only shows the darkness at the heart of the colonising movement. When Marlow first goes for an interview with the company he is to work for he says that he felt as if he was being let in on some conspiracy, there was something ominous in the atmosphereMorturi te salutant. Even at the top of the ladder this company seems to be corrupt, again he hearkens back to the Roman Empire, but this time he highlights some of their more brutal practices of the Empire. Conrad does not have any certain conclusion, he does not give enough away to bias the reading either way. It is entirely possible that he has an ambiguous view on Empire, that the idea behind Empire is good, but that in practice it has failed and has become corrupt.

The ideas of Empire vary in writers of this period, from James George Frazers almost fascist anthropological study of cultures asking for a harsher attitude to be taken towards the natives. To Joyces damnation of the current practices of the colonisers towards the colonised. His passionate dislike of the greed of those that are controlling the Empire. Conrad takes the middle ground but could fall either way; he could be condemned as a racist, or he could be seen as supporting the natives. No, they were not inhuman. The thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Conrad leaves his final conclusion on Empire unspoken, as Africa was once a blank space on the map so Conrads conclusion is left blank.

Writing has been an aid for me in many ways. I am able to fully and intelligently express my feelings and beliefs much better in writing than in actually speech. There have been times when I expressed my feelings toward a person, either it be in anger or love, only in writing. I was unable to say those certain feelings that made me uncomfortable in speech, where I would began to lose my train of thought and begin to mumble incoherently. I have realized that my point of view is better expressed in writing. I have also realized that I tend to sound more intelligent and mature in writing than in verbal communication, which results in I being taken more seriously and professionally.

Writing has also been an aid of venting for me. When I get to the point that I can no longer bottle up my feelings any longer, I pour them out on paper. It is almost like writing is a form of communication even when it is not shared with anyone. Writing out my feelings creates a sense of relief, as in if I have actually released my emotions on the paper and no longer feel as stressed as before.

I considered journalism as a major once. In writing for the media, I dreamed of writing something that would have a big impact in the world. Writing is a powerful tool not taken seriously enough. I dreamed of writing stories that would change the way people thought and maybe even in a small way change the world in a positive way; however, I chose photography, because a picture is worth a thousand words.

Writing has many advantages for people. It allows us to be heard in a form different than in speaking. Many people suffer from the fear of speaking in front of large groups. In writing, they can express their opinions and beliefs freely without worry of their beliefs not being interpreted correctly, or even at all. Writing also educates and informs us, something the public likes. This would explain the popularity of the newspaper mass media.

I noticed it was a cold and dark night as I slowly headed up the broken antique stairs. A flash of lightening made me jump in fear, almost causing me to lose my balance. As it began to rain, I realized the place smelled of mildew and the stairs were covered in paint chippings from the wall. There was a door slightly open at the top of the stairs. I noticed the door knob was broken off as I reached for it. All of a sudden, it slammed shut! Writing is the key to the door of the world of fantasy. It entertains us and allows us to escape reality one chapter at a time. It creates characters that we fall in love with because we can identify with them so well. They feel what we feel, and this allows us to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones in the world that feel that certain way.

I believed I have expressed my reasons for writing in this letter. I could go on naming the many benefits of writing, like trying to get an A in your writing class; however, I feel as if I have explained the more important reasons of writing for me personally. Some people claim they have no talent for writing. Is this a possibility? Like in art, does one have to be born of the talent? I don’t know the answer to those questions. I do not even know if I would label myself a good writer. I usually write for myself. If it sounds good to me, then I think it is good, and that is all that matters to me. In most my writing, my style may not be proper, and I may not follow the writing rules correctly, but I tend to like the sense of feeling I get from it more.

Web writing may be very difficult to do because it is such a new form of media. One thing that needs to be done to be affective is the article(s) brevity. This means that items written need to get to the points. People do not want to have to search for the importance of an article. Information should be stated so that readers know the important and main facts of what is being written.

For the broadcast media the most important thing that should be focused on is clarity. Clarity is so important because unlike other types of media the audience usually only gets one chance to hear what is being stated. If a news castor does not have good clarity and messes up the audience is most likely not going to get the information that was intended.

2. When discussing news values there are six different ones that are important. Three that are most interesting to me and keep me keyed in to the news are timeliness, conflict, and interest. A perfect story that would display all three of these would be the fight that occurred during the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. It is good to discuss this because the World Series is coming up, many people are interested in baseball right now, and fights usually get the attention and interest most people. The fight that occurred has been a hot news topic and the main reason is because it has great news value.

3. The inverted pyramid style is a way of writing in which you place the most important information at the top or beginning of your story. The inverted pyramid usually starts with a lead, describes what happened, and finally moves on to not so important facts. Two advantages of inverted pyramid would be that most people only read the first few lines of an article and by writing like this it allows you to get the main parts of the story across. Also the inverted pyramid style gets the attention of the reader quickly by telling them exactly what is happening in the story. Two disadvantages to this style would be that some stories are meant to be told in a story form. You don’t want to tell the results before you explain what happened. Another thing that this style does is sometimes makes the reader not want to go further since they already know what happened.

4. A delayed identification lead is usually the first sentence of in the first paragraph where you discuss what has happened but do not tell who was involved. This is done because it grabs the reader’s attention and makes them what to what happened to whom. If you state exactly who they are talking about it may have no interest to the reader and stop them from continuing on.

5. This sentence is not an effective lead because it does not follow the guidelines for writing. A good news lead in order to gain the attention of the reader should describe “what did what to whom”. The verb in this sentence used does not do that and it does not explain what has happened. This sentence also sounds very awkward when it is read and is a result from not following the guidelines.

6. Quotes to be used in a news story should be selected very carefully. There are a many things that could go wrong when choosing a quote. The first and most important thing is to make sure that the quote goes along with the story that you’re talking about. By having a quote that is not related to your story can cause a lot of confusion. Another thing is make sure that the quote is from a credible source. It would not be the best idea to have a middle school student’s quote in a story about college lifestyles. Also quotes should be brief and inform you on who is saying it and what their feelings are about the topic. Usually quotes that are written correctly give credibility to your article and allow people to read emotions.

7. There are three major writing styles and most of them have similar things in common. However there are also many differences that occur between these three styles. Some differences between broadcasting media and print media would be that in broadcast media you need to emphasis on when things will occur. This must occur because on television times must be written down when it is your turn to speak. In broadcast you are also allowed to give the audience video footage of what is occurring and this allows you a better chance in gaining the audiences attention. Print media can only use pictures to help with this part of their writing. Print on the other hand is very different from online media. Print is unable to produce something and go back and change it like online media can. Once something is printed and sent out it is hard to change. Print media is also different because online media because of the space restraints. In print media you are only allowed so much space on a page. On the other hand with online media you boundaries for writing are unlimited. Last broadcasting media is different from online media in the fact that broadcast is only shown once or twice. Once it occurs it is harder to get a copy of what happened in the news. With online media you can usually go to an archives page and find past information.

8. Television news scripts use two columns because of the way broadcast media is set up. The left column for television scripts will inform the anchor or telecaster at what specific times events will occur. Such as when video footage of the story discussed will come on. This column allows the reader to know when it is their turn to speak. The right hand column is used for the scripts on what is to be said. This is the section where the reader will be reading on camera. Most likely the first part on this column would be the lead of a story. By having two columns it makes it easier for the reader to know what needs to be done and at what time.

9. When rewriting a story for an online medium there are a few things that writers should be careful about. One thing the writers should do is to make sure that the story is dated so the reader knows when it occurred. Online media also should try to gain the interest of the reader. Some ways to do this would be to have short paragraphs, bullet listings, subheadings, relevant pictures, links, hotspots, and many more. Readers do not want to read things that are clustered and look very intimidating to read. When people go online it is important that facts are stated clear and you use the technology of the internet to get the readers attention. This can be done by adding links and other relevant items so the reader can learn more about what is written. Credibility is another thing that is difficult to prove with the internet. These writers should make sure that they establish credibility by posting previous stories or have a biography link for the writers that are doing the stories. There are probably a lot more things that need to be done for online media but since it is newer medium it is hard to know everything that should be done.

Rebecca Kruse :time
Can binge drinking really be reduced at universities? One would hope so; however, 80 percent of college freshmen believe that drinking will be a part of their weekend activities. College students also annually consume about ten percent of the domestic beer market, which equals about four billion cans. With these statistics, it would be difficult to reduce the number of regular drinkers, but local universities are taking action in attempting to do so. At Illinois State University, alcohol is prohibited during Greek rush week, and the college suggests that all fraternities and sororities participate in risk management training programs. All incoming freshmen at Illinois Wesleyan University are required to take an online training course in alcohol education. ISU student, Melissa Maxwell, comments on why it is impossible to reduce the number of students drinking on a regular basis.

Maxwell :time outcue: “will not change.”
“It doesn’t matter what the university does to reduce drinkers on campus. Drinking is what happens on weekends; going out to parties is what most students do for fun, and that will not change.” (I am thinking about using a different sound bite.)

Rebecca Kruse :time
Binge drinking is a high-risk activity, with one long-term effect being sclerosis of the liver. According to alcohol treatment centers, alcohol education needs to begin long before college to ensure a lower number of drinkers.

I think the articles by Fanny Fern were some of the most entertaining we have read so far this semester. I found her voice and tone to be very powerful and think this is why Hawthorne had no problem with her as a writer. Most other female writers only complain and wretch over how unfair life is, even when they themselves, have had a wonderful education and live a decent life. Here, the author experiences much grief, her first husband dying and the second one being a hypocrite who deserted her, and is still able to find humor in life. I think is she was still writing today, it would be as columnist for a hip magazine or news paper. The advice she gives in Hints to Young Wives is similar to the advice found in Cosmo or other female magazines. She writes Just so long as a man isnt quite as sure as if he knew for certain, whether nothing on earth could ever disturb your affection for him, he is your humble servant, but the very second he finds out (or thinks he does) that he has possession of every inch of your heart, and no neutral territory- he will turn on his heel and march of whistling Yankee Doodle! In todays words, come one strong and show your feelings, the guys gone, hide them and play the game and youve got him.

Stanton was raised in a home, and a country, where men are valued more then women, and some think we still are today. However, she did not just sit back and accept this fact. I think had she not been raised in a home like this, she would not have been so vocal and strong in the womens rights movement. The way she was brought up gave her enough anger, and then courage, to stand up for what she believed in. It is true that it is hard for a person to grow mentally when only surrounded by people of less intelligence, children and servants. This was not the life for Stanton so she, and others, did something about it. She says the first convention was a success but after word got out, members began to dwindle. All the journals from Maine to Texas seemed to strive with each other to see which could make our movement appear the most ridiculous. Men across the country used this convention to laugh and ridicule women, and many backed out as a cause of the mens actions. I think this upset Stanton even more because now it was even more apparent that women acted on the beliefs of men. In her Declaration of Sentiments Stanton lists practically every injustice man has done to woman over time. I think she uses all these withheld rights, civilly dead, submit to laws, taken property/wages, etc. to ignite the fire in women. It is like a call to action and an invitation to join the womens rights movement.

Stoddards narrative
I think that Stoddards writing challenges traditional values as well as the institution of marriage. It also discusses different classes. I think that this story is humorous in a sense because it is exaggerated and discusses love in an unrealistic sense. There are horseback rides and this kind of fablelike love. I think the story also portrays men in a negative light. The men are shown to be deceiving and intent on tricking the women. My husband is a scoundrel is one of the best statements that reflects how the men act and how they treat the women in the story. Often women are tricked by men into relationships and in this story Margaret finds out that her husband is not the man who she thought he was. On a personal noteЧI enjoyed reading Stoddard and liked her portrayal of the characters.