Hurrah for the Index Card!

Hurrah for the Index Card! Hurrah for the Index Card! Hurrah for the Index Card! By Maeve Maddox If I were to make a list of the 10 greatest inventions of human history, index cards would be right there along with the alphabet and the stuff you put on the back of your pets neck to kill fleas. I dont know how Id get along with out them. Not counting their other household applications, index cards are the mainstay of my writing projects. Writing about language I keep a stack of index cards by my chair to make notes of language peculiarities I encounter in my reading or TV watching. This is a more useful method of note-taking than my former practice of recording such notes on the backs of envelopes or even in a dedicated notebook. The cards can then be separated into categories such as grammar, vocabulary, and the like. Novel planning I hate to outline, but I have learned that writing a novel requires outliningif not at the beginning, then at some point down the line. Using index cards makes the process more pleasant. Once you have your plot in mind, deal yourself a deck of index cards equal to the number of chapters. Using one card for each chapter, write a one sentence description of what happens in the chapter. As your novel progresses, you will almost certainly want to add or to rearrange chapters. Having your outline on index cards makes rearranging easy. Another set of cards can help you keep the characters and their identifying tags straight. You dont want to give Bruce Bigpecs piercing blue eyes in Chapter One and smouldering black eyes in Chapter Twenty. Record-keeping Something I hate more than outlining is keeping track of important records. I should have known better, but when I began acquiring WordPress accounts and GoDaddy domains, and doing things on line that require usernames and passwords, I wrote the information down in a little notebook next to my computer. Now its a big deal to find a password or an ID. This stuff is going onto index cards. Plenty of computer programs exist for doing the kinds of things Ive described here, but the fact remains that some of us require tactile re-enforcement. Its a psychological delight to be able to hold the stack of chapter cards in your hand and visualize the wonderful novel that is to come of them. And when the computer program crashes or is lost, that box of cards is still going to be there. Low-tech or not, the index card belongs in every writers toolbox. NOTE: We can thank American librarian and efficiency freak Melvil Dewey for the modern cardstock index card. Christened Melville, he dropped the inefficient letters. He experimented with spelling his surname Dui, but apparently that was too exotic to be practical. Heres a writer who shares my addiction to index cards: Lela Davidsons tribute to the index card And heres a brief bio of Melvil Dewey. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Passed vs Past"Replacement for" and "replacement of"1,462 Basic Plot Types

Challenges administrative assistants face and how to deal with it

Challenges administrative assistants face and how to deal with it Administrative assistants are the office superheroes. Their job includes  making sure the office is running effectively and as smooth as possible while still juggling their other duties. Great administrative assistants are an invaluable asset to any company. But sometimes they face challenges from their coworkers  whether is it being taken for granted or even being taken as a personal assistant; administrative assistants constantly have to fight these challenges in the office. Here are 5 common challenges administrative assistants face and how to deal with it effectively.Source [Quill]

Before and After School Care Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Before and After School Care Program - Essay Example Before and After School Care Program At present, many parents are able to give care to their children before going to school and after coming home from school. However, due to the financial crises that have been hitting the country for a long time, the number of children whose parents are both working to fulfill financial needs of the family, including single parents that also work, has increased up to 62% (Theobald, 2000). This shift also caused the changes in the people who interact and care for children, and mostly these are non-family members such as nannies or baby-sitters, school teachers, child care center workers and before- and after-school care providers (Sonenstein, Gates, Schmidt, & Bolshun, 2002). The before- and after-school programs provided education and care for children in an effective way so that parents would be able to work and add to the financial stability of the family, and for the children to have an enhanced development of their social and academic statuses (Blau & Currie, 2006). It was also reported that such programs that were designed to provide adult supervision to children by as much as two hours a day on average, depending on the age of the child. These activities are seen as extra-curricular activities that provide enrichment to a child’s development (Kleiner, Nolin, & Chapman, 2004). While most young and preschool children are sent to public day care centers or made prior arrangements to schools for extra-curricular activities by their parents, some companies also started offering child day care centers and other before- and after-school programs for working parents’ children, for their peace of mind during work hours (Working Mother, 2003). Companies are also able to assist working parents of school-aged children by providing flexible work hours and even working at home in order for them to be able to both work for financial stability as well as to be able to supervise their children’s growth and developme nt. Another example on how companies are able to help working parents is by providing parental leave privileges for those who just had a baby either by birth or through adoption. Such benefits offered by the employers not only increase the morale of their employees, but also gives the company a good public image, which in turn could increase their workforce and decrease worker turnover (US Department of Labor, 1994). An example of a company that gives its parent employees a chance to work for longer hours with less hassle is Intermedics Co., whom in 1979 built and opened a high-quality child care center in Freeport, TX. Even if there is a charge of $15 a week for full-time child care, the job turnover rates decreased up to 37% and the reduced absenteeism resulted in the company saving more than $2 million for the first two years (US Department of Labor, 1994). Some companies do not provide child care services, but are able to assist their working parent- employees through other mean s. A center for mildly ill children named Chicken Soup collaborated with employers in such a way that employees who brought in their children to the center instead of letting them stay at home were still able to go to work due to the proximity of the center to the workplace. Absenteeism was reduced and the employers were able to save up to 85% of the cost of having an absent employee (US Department of

Concept Analysis Paper on Nursing Advocacy Essay

Concept Analysis Paper on Nursing Advocacy - Essay Example Historically, patient advocacy has been a moral obligation for nurses. During recent years, nursing literature has been focused on the advocacy role and nursing professions has adopted the term 'patient advocacy' to denote an ideal of the practice. Nurses assume that they have an ethical obligation to advocate for their patients. They also frequently describe their judgments and actions on behalf of a patient as "being a patient advocate. An examination of advocacy in the nursing literature reflects broad and at times different perspectives. Advocacy has been described in ethical and legal frameworks and, more recently, as a philosophical foundation for practice. It has also been described in terms of specific actions such as helping the patient to obtain needed healthcare, assuring quality of care, defending the patient's rights, and serving as a liaison between the patient and the health care system. Although multiple factors influence the need for advocacy, it is generally true that someone in the healthcare environment must assume the role of client advocate, particularly for the client whose self-advocacy is impaired. Generally, advocacy aims to promote or reinforce a change in one's life or environment, in program or service, and in policy or legislation. In healthcare delivery, these activities focus on health conditions, healthcare resources, and the needs of patients and the public. When nurses advocate for patients, they face certain risks and obstacles associated with the settings within which they work. Therefore, there is always the possibility that attempts to advocate for a patient can fail, and that nurses can experience many barriers when addressing the rights, choices, or welfare of their patients (Negarandeh 2006). The term "advocacy" has been used in nursing literature to denote a variety of nursing roles, each derived from a specific set of beliefs and values. The changing forms of advocacy may actually reflect the metamorphosis of nursing from the role of loyal, subservient handmaiden to autonomous health care provider. Strong yet diverse feelings regarding the appropriateness of nurses to be advocates are evident in the nursing literature and may stem from the use of one word label, "advocate," to represent several related and sometimes conflicting concepts. These concepts are defined as follows: beneficence-the principle of doing good; nonmaleficence-the principle of do ing no harm; unitary-transformative paradigm-a perspective that views human beings as unitary, self-organizing energy fields interacting with a larger environmental energy field; and utilitarianism-an ethical doctrine in which actions are focused on accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Simplistic advocacy Mitty (1991) defined an advocate as one "who pleads the cause of another. She asserted that this role is implicit in the social contract between society and a profession such as nursing. She noted that although advocacy may occur at the individual or sociopolitical level, the underlying ethics guiding it varies from nurse to nurse. Ethics of justice might lead one nurse to advocate for a client's right to certain health care procedures, for example, whereas a nurse guided by an ethics of utilitarianism

Dilemma of Immigrants in America Essay -- Literary Analysis, Bharati M

In the essay, â€Å"American Dreamer† by Bharati Mukherjee, Mukherjee writes about the problems of immigrants nowadays. Because of her families religious tradition, Mukherjee is confined by her permanent identity in her own culture, â€Å"a Hindu Indian’s last name announced his or her forefathers’ caste and place of origin†¦a Mukherjee could only be Brahmin from Bengal†¦my identity was viscerally connected with ancestral soil and genealogy† (Mukherjee 1). From her attitude towards her identity, Mukherjee does not want to confine by the Hindu tradition. She is rebellious against her own culture even though she understands Hindu tradition forbids any assimilation with any other culture. After her marriage with an American of Canadian origin, she had hard time adopting the new environment in Canada. People in Canada see her as a â€Å"visible minority† because of her race that she is not white. She remarked America as promising nation o f democracy and equality; however, America still has many flaws on the clash of ethnic issues. No matter how hard the immigrants try to assimilate into American culture, the society treats them as minority, subordinate citizens. Because they are not white, they are categorized as being â€Å"Asian-American†. She pointed out that immigrants are trapped in the† identity crisis†: a person not knowing who he or she is in the foreign culture, and some of the first-generation Indo-Americans are even â€Å"more-Indian-than-Indians-in-India† (Mukherjee 3). Similarly, in Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine, the protagonist is an immigrant from India and she has created different identities for every place she stays. Jasmine aspires to forget her past memories and identities, while some immigrants in the novel are seeking to reta... ...l group. Although they are U.S. citizen, they lose their sense of belonging in America. Nirrmala is living in her own little world while Professorji is disguising himself from the lost of dream. They do not know who they are and where they belong to. A wife who still keeps her Indian name and culture and a husband who attempts to fit into the American society but his ego is still drowning in his past. Mukherjee who has deserted her biological identity, she would exclaim to the immigrants that to follow the Jasmine’s belief, â€Å"to bunker oneself inside nostalgia, sheathe the heart in a bulletproof vest, was to be a coward† (Mukherjee 185). Immigrants should suppress their cultural memory, â€Å"let the past make you wary, by all means. But do not let it deform you† (Mukherjee 131). Mukherjee conveys that let the American culture to transmogrify them, but not their past.

Early and Middle Adulthood Paper Essay

In this paper, I will discus two theories that are related to early and middle adulthood. Also, I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of the theories. The two theories that I have selected are Erikson’s Intimacy versus isolation to explain the early adulthood stage, and the Life Events Approach theory. In the Erikson’s psychosocial developmental theory (intimacy versus isolation stage), Intimacy can be explained as â€Å"is the ability to fuse ones identity with that of another person without fear of loosing it† (Feist, 2008, 258). It further means an ability and willingness to share a mutual trust. It involves sacrifice, compassion, commitment and so on. Isolation on the other hand, is the psychosocial counterpart of intimacy. It is defined as â€Å"the incapacity to take chances with ones identity by sharing true intimacy† (Feist, 2008, 259). Erikson believed that there should be a fine ratio between the intimacy and isolation; as too much isolation can further cause problems such as depression. Love is the basic strength that is gained as a result from the crisis of intimacy versus isolation). According to Erikson, love includes intimacy but it also contains some degree of isolation, because each partner is permitted to retain a separate identity (Feist, 2008). Strengths†¢His theory gave a life span developmental process. †¢His theory explains each stage in detail including the time frame, and the changes involved. †¢He addressed it is important to move through the stages in order or it could causes crisis. †¢Extended Freud’s theory into different developmental stages such as adolescence, adulthood and old age. †¢Claimed that growth occurs across the life span. †¢Places emphasis on social and historical influences on development in his theory†¢Conflict between the opposing elements of each phase produces an ego strength or basic strength. Weaknesses†¢His theory is not based on scientific evidence. †¢His psychosocial developmental theory does not take into consideration different cultures of the world. †¢The age groups with the developmental stages do not sound consistent. †¢Generalizes that everyone goes through the same psychosocial developmental stages. The Life-Events ApproachIn the earlier version, some events such as a death of a spouse, divorce and marriage could be life changing and could influence an individual’s development. In other words, such events could force the individual to change their personality as they bring along lot of stress. However, contemporary life-events approach emphasizes that individuals personality development does not only depend on the life events itself but also on mediating factors (physical health, family supports, for example), the individual’s adaptation to the life event (appraisal of the threat, coping strategies, for example), the life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context (Santrock, 2008). Strengths†¢Helpful addition to understanding adult development. †¢Takes into perspective life stressors and other mediating variables that could influence ones development. Weakness †¢The life-events approach places too much emphasis on change. †¢It does not adequately recognize the stability characterizes adult  development. †¢It overlooks daily events that could be very stressful as well for individuals. Therefore, in this paper, I have discussed two theories related to early and middle adulthood in detail. The two theories are Erikson’s and the life events approach theory. Also, I have discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each theory. References Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2008) Theories of Personality (7th edition). New York: McGraw-HillSantrock, J. W. (2008). Essentials of life-span development. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Cold By Na Lin Introduction The Cold War Is The Relationship

Cold By: Na Lin Introduction The Cold War is the relationship between the US and the USSR after WWII.Different views were clashing. Both sides struggle for dominance. They took every chance they can get to expand in the world.It was a rivalry that was open yet restricted.George Orwell was the first person to use the term â€Å"Cold War† in an article in England in 1945.The first person to used the term in the United States was by Bernard Baruch in a speech in 1947.The Cold War had solidified by 1947-1948.Introduction cont.It was part of international affairs for years. The Cold War was a dispute over Europe’s future.Many events and confrontations happened around the world during this time such as the Cuban Missile Crisis,Vietnam,Hungary,the†¦show more content†¦The Bay of PigsFidel Castro came to power in 1959 by overthrowing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista with an armed revolt.The US did not trust Castro and was wary with his relationship with the leader of t he Soviet Union,Nikita Khrushchev.The Bay of Pigs was an invasion of Cuba with Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro’s communist government and establish a non-communist government in Cuba.It failed.The Arms Race President John F.Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev in June 1961 in Vienna,Austria.During the summit,Khrushchev used a combative tone. He threatened to cut off allied access toShow MoreRelatedAr 670-1117328 Words   |  470 Pagesthroughout the regulation (chap 28). 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