A Writers Voice Is All About Choice

A Writers Voice Is All About Choice A Writer’s Voice Is All About Choice A Writer’s Voice Is All About Choice By Mark Nichol Every masterful writer has a unique voice: Think James Joyce’s avant garde stream of consciousness, Mark Twain’s just-folks dissection of the human condition, Ray Bradbury’s nostalgic haze of poetic reverie, Bill Bryson’s mirthful menageries of adjectives and adverbs. Great writers, whether literary giants or popular favorites, are the soloists of the writing choir. Most people, however, do not have, or have not yet developed, voice (otherwise referred to as mood, style, or tone), and are as yet relegated to the chorus. But it doesn’t take all that much to develop a distinctive writing voice other than practice, practice, practice and by paying attention to the components of voice, you might get a shot at a solo now and then after all. Voice is all about the choices you make: the topic, the story structure, the phrasing, the vocabulary, the details. But there’s more to it than that; there’s also the passion for the subject matter, and the fortitude of opinion. Think of the works you’ve read from the writers I named above, or your own favorites. A certain way to lose a debate is to charge any one of them with apathy about the stories they tell, or a lack of investment in their ruminations about the decadence of society, bigotry and hypocrisy, small-town idylls and ideals, or the head-shaking absurdity of the human race. This force of personality is manifested in details. Pick up a novel or a nonfiction work you admire and pick out any passage: Joyce’s intimate portraits of quotidian life in Dublin, Twain’s comic set pieces that reveal much more than is on the surface, Bradbury’s close-ups on canvases of endless, magical rural summer days, and Bryson’s apt, adept observations about eccentrics are all steeped in mesmerizing particulars that make reading about them the next best thing to being there. Ways with words and sentences, too, are a prime marker of voice: Think of Bryson’s dense descriptive sentences punctuated with hyperbole or Bradbury’s odes to halcyon days of yore, Twain’s rich, subtly sarcastic regionalisms or Joyce’s offbeat observations. These are all reflections of the writer’s personality. So many books are published today, especially with the explosion of self-published print books and e-books, that it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. One way is to come up with a unique perspective: the narrator is dead, and is observing events with a nebulous omniscience, or is from another planet, and is puzzled by the most basic of human habits and customs. But even the cleverest narrative conceit is of little use if a writer fails to inundate a story with original, authentic, individual thoughts and feelings. Many writers are inspired by an established author who they model their own style after, but the key to success not fame and fortune, but the satisfaction of having crafted a distinctive work is to discover your own storytelling style, whether you write fact, fiction, or poetry. To do so, you must understand yourself, your personality, the building materials that have gone into the construction of the edifice you are today. What joys, sorrows, triumphs, and defeats have you celebrated or suffered? How have relationships with family and friends shaped your approach to interpersonal interactions? What is your philosophy of life, and what is your answer to â€Å"What is the meaning of life?† (Mine is, â€Å"To live.† You’re welcome to copy my answer onto your paper.) A writer who fails at introspection fails at writing. To find your voice, you must sing to yourself about yourself, and transcribe the song. 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 Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Spelling Test 1Homogeneous vs. HeterogeneousThrew and Through

Dwight Waldo Essays

Dwight Waldo Essays Dwight Waldo Essay Dwight Waldo Essay The reasons for including the works of Dwight Waldo in this collection differ from those for the other authors chosen. Waldo is included as much for his observations on the contributions of others as for his own contributions to the field. Waldo is recognized as an astute critic and a knowledgeable chronicler of the history of the study of public adminis- tration. He is also representative of an approach to public administra- tionthe Administration-as-Politics approachthat, combined with the Behavioral approach, constituted a devastating critique of the Clas- sical paradigm of public administration. Waldo is thus included both because of his views on the development and current state of the field of public administration and as a representative of a particular perspec- tive on the field. As a commentator on, and critic of, public administration, Waldo came to his task with reservations, and he has approached his subject with a certain wariness ever since. Waldos intellectual interests while a student centered on political philosophy, not public administration. His dissertation dealt with public administration, but was intended as an expose. His intent was to expose the political theory he believed to be implicit in the Classical approach to public administration. Waldo argued that by concentrating on the technical aspects of public admin- istration, the Classical approach embodied a philosophy and consti- tuted an ideology that effectively supported the existing political order. The publication of The Administrative State, a book based on his dissertation, earned for Waldo, by his own estimation, the status of a pariah in the field. Waldos views have softened over time, but there is still an element of the skeptic in him. He denies the possibility of con- structing a science of public administration. He doubts the existence of principles of administration. He questions the plausibility of a uni- fied theory of organizations. He is skeptical of those who would indis- criminately intermingle politics and administration. He even despairs of reaching common agreement on a definition of the field of public ad- ministration. Nonetheless, he believes that the fate of civilization may well rest on our ability to master the functions of administration.

Information Systems for Managment Accounting Essay

Information Systems for Managment Accounting - Essay Example Budgeted sales in unit $2200 Add desired ending inventory $0 = total needs $2200 Less beginning inventory $0 Required Production $ 2200 The production budget is calculated on March 2009 Budgeted sales in unit $1400 Add desired ending inventory $0 = total needs $1400 Less beginning inventory $0 Required Production $ 1400 The production budget is calculated on April 2009 Budgeted sales in unit $2500 Add desired ending inventory $0 = total needs $2500 Less beginning inventory $ 0 Required Production $ 2500 Sales Budget for Hope Ltd. Material Purchase Budget for the Hope Limited Units material cost per unit material purchase budget 2008 May 1,100 40 44000 June 1,300 40 52000 July 1,500 40 60000 August 1,700 40 68000 September 1,900 40 76000 October 2,100 40 84000 November 2,300 40 92000 December 2,500 40 100000 2009 January 2,300 40 92000 February 2,200 40 88000 March 1,400 40 56000 April 2,500 40 100000 Total for year 22,800 40 912000 Direct Labor Budget for the Hope Ltd. Units 2008 labor hour per unit total labor hour Direct labor cost Direct Labor Budgets May 1,100 2 2200 8 17600 June 1,300 2 2600 8 20800 July 1,500 2 3000 8 24000 August 1,700 2 3400 8 27200 September 1,900 2 3800 8 30400 October 2,100 2 4200 8 33600 November 2,300 2 4600 8 36800 December 2,500 2 5000 8 40000 2 8 2009 2 8 January 2,300 2 4600 8 36800 February 2,200 2 4400 8 35200 March 1,400 2 2800 8 22400 April 2,500 2 5000 8 40000 Total for year 22,800 2 45600 8 364800 Production Overhead Total Fixed Production Overhead 91200 Total Fixed Admin. And Distribution Overhead 36000 Total Fixed Overhead 127200 Variable Overhead 5 per labour hour(5) (45600) 228000 Total... Description: the overall company efficiency was increased later due to the credit sale for two months that causes loss. Therefore, the company must decrease its credit sale. On the other hand its distribution and administrative cost is also huge which is also required to minimize. Over all company goes in profit with time but its efficiency can be increased by lowering its cost.

Cancer Spotting Googles by Dr. Samuel Achilefu Essay

Cancer Spotting Googles by Dr. Samuel Achilefu - Essay Example He has helped in creating over 41 US issued patents that mainly relate to applications of imaging and he has authored many scientific publications. With his knowledge in different molecular imaging aspects and experiences in both industry and academia, Dr. Achilefu has offered a different aspect to the management of the Molecular Imaging centers excellence. With this overview, this article will centralize on the profile of Dr. Samuel Achilefu, and touch on the role he has played in applying change strategies that have introduced positive change in the medical field especially with the Cancer Spotting Goggles. Dr. Samuel Achilefu grew up in Ida, Nigeria. While he was still a child, his parents advised him that it was only through the pursuit of a higher education that he could possibly be able to make any visible impact on the world. Since his childhood he was attracted towards the more practical aspects of science, mainly how things worked. For a while, he actually believed that solving equations could actually address all the global problems. However, it was not until he studied biology and chemistry while in college that he realized that to have a chance of actually helping people, it was necessary for him to enter the laboratory. Currently, Dr. Achilefu manages a team of 35 researchers in his laboratory that are mainly devoted to extending the optical imaging boundaries to address the needs of molecular medicine in the current world. The broad definition of optical imaging can be described as the usage of light to be able to visualize an object. A simple microscope often used in laboratories in high school classes is an example of this optical imaging technique. The modern digital imaging system is also another example since it can detect a single molecule or cell that is within the cells. Even with the extensive availability of non-optical techniques like the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed

Collection Scandal - Strategy Memo Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Collection Scandal - Strategy Memo - Coursework Example uck & Company to make repayments each month worth $28 for TV, an auto battery, and other merchandise bought using a Sears, Roebuck & Company card before his bankruptcy (ORourke, 2013). On the investigation, it emerged that Sears, Roebuck & Company did not comply with the requirement of filling a reaffirmation in court for the payment. In this regard, legal policy and requirements were ignored. Judge Kenner ordered for further and in mid-March revealed that 2,800 legal violations on reaffirmations had been committed in MA alone. The unlawful business led to the collection of $160 million (ORourke, 2013). The memo aims at stating the critical stakeholders and the concerns that emerge from the case. The meaning of the critical concerns and why the understanding and action being taken matter are the other areas that will be dealt with in the memo. The specific recommendations and the best way to communicate with the different stakeholders affected by the concerns raised in the case are the final areas that the memo will address. The concerns include understanding the legal requirement, determining how the scandal happened, developing mechanisms for evaluating credit provision and approval, retraining of staff tasked with collecting credit and accepting wrongdoing and take full responsibility. The critical concerns mean that the company has a lot of problems with some of its major stakeholders starting with the government, customers, shareholders, and the general public. The critical concerns matter because depending on the outcome and measures undertaken by the company, a lot of revenue, customers, money, and sales will be lost. The concerns matter also because the reputation of the CEO, management of the company, employees, and board of management is on the line. There are a number of ways that Sears, Roebuck & Company can take in solving the scandal that affected the company in the case. Recommendations include: Engaging with law enforcement agencies through

Sustainable Land Development

Sustainable Land Development The increasing demand of the land for housing due to different push and pull factors like: rural-urban migration, population growth and natural disaster, expectation of job and urban facilities, most of the cities and the governments are facing many challenges to relocate the urban poor and low income groups in planned and environmentally safe areas (Paudyal, 2006). On the other hand, the people who are living in squatter settlements are deprived from the security of land tenure, land development rights and land use rights (Pugh, 2000). Therefore, they are far from the facilities provided by the government and consequently suffering from the poor environmental conditions such as lack of water, sanitation, health facilities and education (Atterhà ¶g, 1995). However, land is one of the single un renewal natural resource and it is related to basic necessity such as food and shelter for living beings (Palmer et al., 2009). Therefore, sustainable land development to meet the basic need f or shelter in urban area of developing and under developed counties cannot be achieved without change in the land rights and condition of the land ownership such as change in geometry, area, land use, location (Muller, 2004). The government and the private organizations are the main land developing agencies to facilitate developed land plots in the land market through the urban management methods, process and techniques (Larsson, 1997). These methods might be compulsory or voluntary depending upon the legislation of the government (Hebbert, 1994; Turk et al., 2010). One of the non-compulsory or voluntary urban land development method is the Land Readjustment (LR) and LR is based on self-financing project and win –win strategy (Archer, 1986; Muller, 2004). It is used to readjust the irregular boundaries of the land plots with infrastructure and utility facilities (Doebele, 1982; Hong et al., 2007; Lemmen et al., 2012; Muller, 2004). LR projects are introduced by the central government, local governments, municipalities, private organizations and public agency with the participation of land owners and tenants. In 1902, Germany had initiated LR as a method for converting agricultural land to urban lan d with the enactment of land transfer law called Lex Adickes. Later on from 1954, LR technique has been adopted for disaster recovery in Japan under the Land Readjustment Acts 1954 and about 30% of the urban land were developed using this technique. Besides land use conversion and disaster recovery, LR has been used in Europe, Asia and America as urban renewal, development of new urban cities and prevention of spotted settlements (Atterhà ¶g, 1995; Yomralioglu, 1993). In spite of the popularity and advantages of the LR technique, there exist several problems that relates to the principles of land governance such as security, equity and participation (Turk, 2008). Therefore, the assessment of the governance principles in different aspects of the governance such as policy, process and structure is necessary for efficient and sustainable urban LR. Moreover, it is important to review the LR in the case of squatters to find out whether it is possible to relocate the squatters in developed and environmentally safe area based on participatory approach (UN-HABITAT, 2013a). Principally, LR projects are fully dependent on the consent of users (land owners) to use their land for infrastructure development and for cost recovery of the project. For instance, almost 30 % of Japanese urban land has been developed by LR technique but there was considerable disagreement by the small land owners with argument that the LR technique has favoured large landowners. The refore, about half of the municipalities have not used it at all (Atterhà ¶g, 1995). Similarly, the study on consensus among the land owners and multi-sectorial involvement in LR reveals that LR projects are fully dependent on the participation among the land owners, private sector and with the government (Hong et al., 2007). In addition to the participation, equity is other significant principle of the land governance for sustainable LR. Inequity in the distribution of the land resources causes different difficulties in building consensus and finally convert into violence, thus equity is measured by the value of the needs (Yomralioglu, 1993). Equity can be described in terms of input equity, process equity and output equity (Doebele, 1982). Input equity means the involvement of users (stakeholder; landowners are the entire users in LR project) in the policy formulation and planning. Process equity such as land contribution ratio and inclusive participation of users should be fair (Karki, 2004a; Turk, 2008). Output equity can be measured in terms of the benefit returned from the LR project through land value and urban facilities (Turk et al., 2010). Unfortunately, in Nepal, the Lands Act 1963 has made the restriction to maintain minimum parcel size to 80 m2. Because of this the land owner who are unable t o maintain the minimum parcel size as mentioned in the acts are forced to sell their land to the LR project and consequently they lose the sentimental value attached with their land and social relationship. However, good land governance is always supportive against the forced eviction (Karki, 2004a). Besides the equity, land tenure security is another principle to be assessed in LR. Land tenure security strengthens the relation between people and land (Simbizi et al., 2014). Insecurity in land tenure discourages the land owners to participate in land readjustment process. During the LR process temporary land owner is the land developer, who can restrict the transaction of the parcel by subdivision and physical changes on the land. On the other hand due to delay of the LR projects, land owners might be prevented from the land use rights. In Nepal, land ownership certificate and restriction free letter from the Land Revenue office are essential to get the financial credit from the bank but when land ownership certificate are submitted to the LR project it creates the problem to get the credit from the bank. Security of land tenure, in the case of the project handled by the private organizations is another challenge to convince the land owners about security of the land tenure and other use rights (Turk, 2007). To face these problems the network among inter-organizational and multi-sectorial stakeholder is necessary for sustainable LR (Mattingly, 1996). Acc ording to Sorensen (2005), when the governance actors are participated in a horizontal integration to meet common societal goal then such a network is called governance network. In the governance network the power among the governance actors is shared for sustainable urban development. On the other hand, for the case of the squatter settlers who are deprived from land tenure, equitable access to land for shelter; participatory LR with the application of good land governance is essential. Relocation of the squatters into land readjusted area can be possible by constructing social houses by the government, private sector and civil society groups through acquisition of the cost recovery land from LR project. PILaR- Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment approach could address many challenges of conventional LR through incorporating participation among the government, internal users (land owners), external users(squatter people), civil society groups, academia and private sector to support the squatters providing secure shelter (UN-HABITAT, 2012, 2013a; World-Bank, 2002). These aforementioned problems are closely related to the land governance. Thus, it is essential to assess the land governance principles such as land tenure security, participation and equity in different aspects of the governance such as policy process and structure for sustainable implementation of LR. It is also important to review the LR for the relocation of squatters into LR area to meet the need of basic shelter.

Comparing Mores Utopia, Machiavellis The Discourses, and Hobbes The

Relationship Between the Sovereign and the Subjects in  More's Utopia, Machiavelli's The Discourses, and Hobbes' The Leviathan  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes offer models for the relationship between the sovereign and the people in their works Utopia, The Discourses, and The Leviathan. Each argues that ensuring the common good of the people should be the primary goal of the sovereign. However, they differ in the specifics of their descriptions of this relationship and in their explanations of the sovereign’s motivation for valuing the prosperity of the people. An examination of the specified passages in each of these works will clarify the comparison of their models for this relationship. More’s discussion of the sovereign occurs in the context of the discussion of a monarch as the trustee of the welfare of the people. The king is a common citizen who has been invested with the authority or "majesty" of sovereignty. He is then distinguished from the rest of the population by the responsibilities he has to them and the powers that are inherent in these responsibilities. He is bound to fulfill these responsibilities and not to abuse the privileges by the threat of rebellion from the poor and, therefore, discontented people that would result from incompetent or misused sovereignty. He is also constrained by his own natural desire for prestige, and his prestige is dependent on his subjects’ wealth and well being. To desire this kind of prestige, he must be a virtuous man. Without this virtue, his vices of pride and laziness are likely to reduce him to taking his subjects’ property in order to serve his greed and to attempt their pacification by reducing them to abject poverty. If his own prid... ...larly influenced by the monarch’s level of incompetence or corruption. All three sovereigns rely upon "virtu," that is, effectiveness in ensuring the common good of their subjects; however, all three have different definitions of what constitutes "virtu." In More’s sovereignty, it is controlling human nature and channeling it into promoting the general prosperity. For Machiavelli’s sovereignty, it is the result of the pursuit of self-interested goals, both on the part of the ruler and the ruled. In Hobbes’ sovereignty, it is the logical result of fear and of human, peace seeking, nature. Works Cited Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994. More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. Clarence H. Miller. 2nd ed. Yale University Press. 2001 Walker, Leslie J. The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli Routledge, 2013