Education - Gymnasium Essay Example for Free

Education Gymnasium Essay Title Education is everywhere in the world. Individuals are learning here and there. Everyone would agree that education is a fundamental way of life. Education is obtained learning from multiple people such as parents, friends, teachers and even other surroundings. Every individual is educated and taught differently. Education should be built not only on the text that lies within a book, but should also be base with everyday life. Agree on McCullough and Oliphant perspectives because grades and how life is not revolved around grades. | Grades should not be based on how smart an individual is. Although Oliphant â€Å"Letter to a B Student† wrote â€Å"Your performance is generally assumed to correspond to the knowledge you have acquired and will retain (137). † They could be really intelligent or ignorant, but the letter grade they receive defines who they are. The letter grade that most individuals want to receive is an A, but others settle for the best they can receive. In McCullough speech â€Å"You’re Not Special† he says â€Å"Where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and where the midlevel curriculum is called Advanced College Placement (McCullough). † Even the ones that try their hardest on something might have a difficult time trying to comprehend the material. They worry about the grade they might receive and it stresses them out. There are individuals that just brush off or brag about the grade they received to make the others feel bad about themselves. For example, one student might have taken an exam that they studied for and failed; the other student did not study and passed. Individuals like to brag about their grades that they probably do not deserve. | How life is not revolved around grades because it is more than that to life. Oliphant said â€Å"Your grade does not represent a judgment of your basic ability or of your character (137). † People think that individuals such as students that do not make a high grade that they are not trying their best at what they are doing. There are a lot of wealthy people that are wealthy without grades defining them. Some of them could have made low grades when they were younger and people said they would not be successful it because they are failing everything. There are a handful of successful individuals that did not make it far in school, but is doing something good with their life. Individuals should not judge people because of several failing grades they could be more intelligent than everyone thinks they are. McCullough talks about â€Å"You’re not special, because everyone is (McCullough). †In conclusion, grades should not define a person on what they make on a paper. People should not judge a person by a low grade or high grade. Agreeing with McCullough and Oliphant perspectives. People are more intelligent than individuals think they are. | Works CitedMcCullough, David. â€Å"You’re Not Special. † Myfoxboston. com. Fox Television Stations, Inc. 6 June 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2013. Oliphant, Robert. â€Å"Letter to a B Student. † Writing on the River: An Anthology. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 136-142. Print.

The Decisive Role Of Humour In Advertising English Language Essay

The Decisive Role Of Humour In Advertising English Language Essay Humour plays a decisive role in our daily life and it is also a subject of interest of numerous disciplines such as linguistics, popular culture, psychology, mass communications, marketing and some others. The discussion of what humour is can be traced back to Aristotle and Plato. The complexity of this phenomenon has been an intrigue for many researches. Humor is a universal human activity found among all cultures and throughout all of recorded history (Alden, Hoyer, and Lee 1993). Humour is widely used in advertising as a form of communication in order to persuade customers to purchase products and services since it is generally believed among advertisers that making us laugh will encourage positive thoughts and feelings toward their products and brands and put us in a receptive mood for their sales messages (Beard 2008: 2). Cook said that advertising is always a handy and useful mirror if we want to reflect on the way we behave socially (Cook 1992:5). However, the use of humour in advertising remains very controversial as its presence in advertising can cause both positive and negative effects. Response to a humorous ad can be different as individuals have different sense of humour. Therefore humour is very individual and subjective but at the same time it is universal. According to Raskin responding to humor is part of human behavior, ability, or competence, other parts of which comprise such important social and psychological manifestations of Homo sapiens as language, morality, logic, faith, etc. Just as all of those, humor may be described as partly natural and partly acquired (Raskin 1985: 2). Throughout its history there were many attempts to define humour but none of the definitions accounts for all its possible types thus underlying its complexity. Humour can be broadly identified as a form of communication in which a created stimulus may act to provide pleasure for an audience (Gulas and Weinberger 2006: 95). Attardo states that linguists, psychologists, and anthropologists have taken humor to be an all-encompassing category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses, or is felt to be funny (Attardo 1994:4). It is very important to distinguish between humour and laughter as humour has been often identified with laughter  [1]  which seems to be wrong as humour a mental phenomenon while laughter is rather a neurophysiological reaction to it. 1.2 Aim and scope The objective of this thesis is to contribute to further understanding of one of the numerous strategies employed by advertisers, namely humour. However, this thesis does not set out to provide a theoretical framework for humour in spite of the fact that the following chapters make frequent reference to the academic and scientific literature. The overall aim of the study is not only to provide a better understanding of humour in print advertising and give an insight into different linguistic theories of humour as well as its different types but also to describe different linguistic features which advertisers use to incorporate humour and illustrate this by means of empirical material gathered from a variety of sources. Under this point humour will be divided into two groups: pun-based humour and non-pun humour. We deal with pun humour when the advertiser uses elements of language to create new meanings that result in humour. My supposition is that this is the type of humour which mos t often occurs in print advertising. In this regard such linguistic devices will be described as polysemy, homonymy, idiomatic expressions, neologisms and nonce formations, and antonyms. However this would be just mere identification of a certain type of humour in advertising and its enabling factors. Therefore the extent of the study is to look how different types of humour vary across different products and services advertised in magazines. Since it is generally believed that the best media suited to the use of humour are radio and TV, lots of studies exploring the use of humour and its effectiveness were conducted mostly in this field. Therefore this thesis is focused on the advertisements presented in print media and does not feature ads that appear on the television, radio, internet, and cinema. There has always been a great debate over whether humorous print advertisements work and of course there is no need to say that they do. We just have to remember that humour print invol ves a more intimate relationship. Graham Warsop, the only creative director to have judged the big four international advertising awards, once said: Print humour gets someone to smile inwardly rather than outwardly (Aitchison 2004:). This states again that not everybody will laugh at the same things. It should be noted that headline and body copy of an advertisement will not be the crucial means of attraction since most advertisements are humorous only due to the interplay of text and image. The picture often functions as an eye-catcher in the ad whereas its meaning differs from the meaning of the text. Cook considers pictures to be a part of advertising discourse as they are used to convey a central idea in the ad (Cook 2003:6). Thus, both pictures and headlines will be seen as equivalent and will be considered together as their interplay contributes to the overall meaning of the text.  [2]  Advertising in its turn will be seen in the thesis as a communication process. 1.3 Outline As shown in the table of contents, this thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction in which the purpose and the research questions are stated. It starts by providing a background of the subject of the thesis, and then moves on to description of material and methods and ends by introducing the advertising terminology. Chapter Two is dedicated to a more detailed delimitation of the concept of humour, with an overview of the major humour theories which are necessary for introducing the operational definition of humour that will be used in this study. Chapter Three presents humour types. It discusses numerous existing taxonomies of humour types and offers a new classification which subdivides humour types into two main groups: pun based humour vs. non pun humour. The structure of this chapter is centered on this taxonomy with the corresponding analysis of the advertisements. Chapter Four is a research part of the thesis which analyzes the incidence of the identifie d humour types across various products and services and presents the collected empirical data as well as the results and findings. Chapter Five functions as a summing-up in which the research questions are answered and the conclusions are drawn. A bibliography and appendix will conclude the thesis. 1.4 Material and Method As stated above this thesis is focused on the advertisements presented in print media and does not feature ads that appear on the television, radio, internet, and cinema. The selected material consists of a total of sixty two humorous advertisements chosen from the range of around two hundred English-speaking magazines published between the years 2006 and 2010. Popular lifestyle magazines have been mainly used as they are directed toward a general audience and have a high content of ads which advertise a wide range of products and service. I used so wide range of magazines because one and the same ad have been found in numerous magazines as well as in different issues of one and the same magazine. For this thesis I have mainly used such glossy magazines as Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, In Touch, Chat, OK, In Style, Self, The Economist and some others. No gender issues will be put forward in this thesis as well as no differentiation will be made between humour in British and US magazine s as it would give this thesis a whole new dimension. As a first step in the selection procedure, I looked for any ads that displayed humorous context. The selection was relatively wide as this resulted in around 100 ads which I considered to be humorous. It should be noted that when browsing through numerous magazines it is very difficult to determine whether the ad is humorous or not as certain subjectivity is always involved into the process of decision making. That is why the subjectivity is inevitable. Despite the fact that such procedure of selection is often employed by many researches, I tried to avoid making decisions without consideration of opposing opinions and different points of view. For this purpose one interview was conducted the aim of which was to exclude prevailed subjectivity in my selective procedure and to explore two basic questions: which advertisements will be still considered as humorous according to the interviewees and how they will determine the type of humour in case the ad proves to be humorous. A remark should be made under this point that anyway it will be to a certain degree the so called unilateral decision as in the long run it is me who decided which ads would be included and which would be left out. It is also worth of mentioning that the interview is not the main purpose of this study and that is why its presence in the thesis will be limited by the short description of its procedure and results. Coming back to the interview procedure, it should be noted that the interview was conducted in a small group consisted of twelve participants. The length of the interview was two hours. Around one hundred fifty different ads were presented to the participants chosen on the assumption that all of them were humorous. In order to ensure that the results would not be biased, the participants were not informed about this fact as well they did not know what the study was exactly about. The participants were asked to have a look at each advertisement and to determine whether they consider it to be interesting or boring, creative or not creative and humorous or non-humorous. The two supplement questions besides the question about the presence or absence of humour in the ad were introduced only with the purpose of trying to avoid some potential disadvantages which are directly connected with an interview. This is the so called participant reflexivity, which means that the person being intervi ewed (interviewee) tells the interviewer only what s/he wants to hear. Then, since many people often expect from a humorous ad to make them burst into laughing and such an attitude would bias the results of the interview I decided to ask them to rate (in case they think the advertisement is humorous) how humorous it was on a five-point-scale. Rating an advertisement as 5 meant that they considered it to be very humorous, 3 indicated that it was a moderate representative of humorousness whereas 1 suggested that it was a very poor example of a humorous ad and should be probably excluded from the list. The results drawn after the evaluation of twelve questionnaires were surprisingly consistent. The agreement was particularly high for the identification of the given advertisements to be humorous or non-humorous. As for rating is concerned the results were not similar, better to say they were very inconsistent and that proves again that humour is always being judged individually and subj ectively. After that all the ads were sorted out to determine which ads would be fruitful for a qualitative analysis. The advertisements which were considered by most of the participants as not humorous at all were excluded from the list of candidates for future analysis. 1.5 Advertising terminology No need to say that advertising hat its own terminology. I am not going to list all the terms you can find in the field of advertising. Thus, the terminology will be limited to a few terms which are frequently used in this thesis. I will follow Cooks definitions which he presents in his Discourse of Advertising (2003). According to him Headline Phrase(s) found at the top of an ad. Caption Phrases (s) found in close proximity to an image. Body copy A piece of smaller text, often containing the main (or copy) information. . CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Introduction As was mentioned in the introduction, humour is by no means homogenous. Since there is no general acceptance in classifying humour, there is no ideal theory of humour which can cover all its factors and embrace all its peculiarities. Most of the existing humour theories are mixed and it seems to be impossible to incorporate such a huge phenomenon as humour into a single integrated theory. As a starting point it can be asserted that humour is triggered by particular mechanisms (Spotts, 1987). Spotts states that these mechanisms can be grouped into three main categories: the cognitive theory, superiority theory, and the relief theory (Spotts et al. 1997:20). The chapter that follows is dedicated to some of the main threads of the theories of humour that have emerged although it is important to notice that not all humour theories ever proposed will be presented in it and it will not be attempted to make a comprehensive survey of all these ideas. Only those theories will be discussed which play a significant role for working out an operational definition of humour for this thesis. 2.2 Incongruity and Incongruity-Resolution Theory Incongruity can be called in other words inconsistency or contradiction. The incongruity theory goes back to Francis Hutchesons Reflections Upon Laughter published in 1750. Later on it was revisited and represented by Kant, Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard. Incongruity theories are considered to be cognitive in their nature. This is the group of theories which dominates humour research. According to McGhee (1979) humour is as reaction to incongruity and he defined incongruity as the relationship between components of an object, event, idea, social expectation and so forth. When the arrangement for the constituent element of an event is incompatible with the normal or expected pattern, the event is perceived as incongruous. The existing theories of incongruity have a difference based on the question whether incongruity is a necessary condition for humour to be produced and if yes, whether it is sufficient or probably there are other conditions needed to cause humour. Based on this fact tw o schools of thought about incongruity theories appeared: the so called one-stage incongruity theories and two-stage incongruity-resolution theories. One-stage incongruity theorists like many representatives of some psychological theories propose that we often laugh when we see or hear something unexpected. In terms of this theory it can be said that we cognitively process (or think about) the message in a single stage that includes three parts interruption (whats that?), perceptual contrast (theres something incongruous and unexpected here!), and playful confusion (whats it mean) (Speck, 1987:7). Other theorists like Jerry Suls and Thomas Schultz, the opponents of the two-stage incongruity resolution theory, postulate that it is not sufficient for a message to be funny by itself and they insist on the overlapping of meanings of the incongruous parts and on the presence of a second stage, namely the resolution of the incongruity. Incongruity becomes stronger only when it follows a resolution process and is understood and accepted by its audience (Gulas and Weinberger 2006: 23à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ 26). Attardo considered incongruity theories to be cognitive in their nature and were often associated with linguistic theories of humour. To summarize the ideas, it can be added that incongruity theory is based on the idea of a contrast between two overlapping scripts whereas incongruity-resolution theory requires the presence of two stages: incongruity as derivation from expectation and incongruity understood in resolution which in its turn results in amusement. Incongruity is seen by many researches as a humour type. I prefer to see it as a condition needed to produce humour. 2.3 Superiority Theory The second branch of the main humour theories is presented by theories of superiority. These theories have gone by lots of names such as disparagement, criticism, hostility, aggression, malice, degradation, and derision. This group of humour theories is based on the ideas of Aristotle, Quintillian, Plato, and later Thomas Hobbes (seventeenth century) and it is directly connected with the social function of humour which cannot be said about the incongruity theories which consider humour as an individual phenomenon. Superiority theory is a theory of mockery. In terms of this theory humour is pointed against something or somebody thus making us to believe that something or somebody is superior to somebody else. In other words we laugh from feelings of superiority over other people, from suddaine Glory arising from suddaine Conception of some Eminency in our selves, by Comparison with the Infirmityes of others, or with our owne formerly (Critcheley, 2002: 3). It is suggested that people joke about things that make them feel unsure and/or uncomfortable as a way of releasing feelings of tensions (Gulas and Weinberger 2006: 28). 2.4 Release Theories Release theories as well as superiority theories have numerous names such as arousal theory  [3]  , freedom theory  [4]  , and tension-release theory  [5]  . This group of theories describes how people respond emotionally to humour. It was put forward by Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth century but it was better explained and thus it is better known from Freuds analysis of humorous utterances given in his book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905). Freud proposed that jokes provide us with a release from the constant need to repress our natural aggressive and sexual desires, and are thus experienced as pleasurable. Like dreams, jokes come from the unconscious, bur are first transformed into less explicit forms, thereby providing a socially acceptable way of breaking taboos (Ventola, Guijarro 2009: 79). The release theory has rather to do with the physiological function of humour. It is based on the notion of homeostasis, which means that humans regulate their inner environment on the physiological level in order to ensure certain stability in response to strain, tension, and anxiety. Morreall (1983) talks about the biological function of laughter and insists on the possibility of coexistence of relief theory with other theories discussed above: incongruity (relief through resolution) and superiority (relief through triumph.  [6]   2.5 Linguistic Theories of Humour Since all the existing theories of humour are based on the notion of incongruity there is no theory about which it can be definitely said that it is a purely linguistic one. Linguistic in this case is rather a conditional name. Nevertheless, the first step into this direction was put forward by Raskin, who suggested a script-based semantic theory developed for verbal humour. Viktor Raskins Script-Based Semantic Theory of Humour was presented in his book Semantic Mechanisms of Humor (1985) which was a great contribution to all of the humour theories ever proposed and a first attempt to describe humour from a linguistic perspective. Raskin set his goal as following: Ideally, a linguistic theory of humour should determine and formulate and the necessary and sufficient linguistic conditions for the text to be funny (Raskin, 1985: 47). The script-based semantic theory of humour was designed as a neutral theory which takes in account all the three theories discussed above. According to Raskins theory, verbal or written communication is considered to be a joke if the text is fully compatible with two different but at the same time opposite scripts. Script in this case presents a large chunk of semantic information. This is the main hypothesis of his theory: A text can be characterized as a single-joke-carrying text if both of the conditions are satisfied. i) Th e text is compatible, fully or in part, with two different scripts ii) The two scripts with which the text is compatible are opposite in a special sense (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦). The two scripts with which the text is compatible are said to overlap fully or in part on this text (Raskin 1985: 99). Raskin introduces the notion of the trigger or a punch-line, which switches the listener from one script to another thus creating the joke (Raskin, 1985: 36). Raskins theory can be interpreted within the terms of incongruity ­-resolution school of humour. Although his theory was primarily developed for verbal humour it proves to be effective for many types of humorous advertising, both for verbal and for visual. It should be noted that there is also a revisited version of the SSTH called The General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). This theory was a result of collaboration of Raskin and Attardo. The main aim of the GTVH was to broaden the scope of Raskins SSTH in order to apply it to any humorous text.  [7]  Attardo comments about it as following: Whereas the SSTH was a semantic theory of humor, the GTVH is a linguistic theory at large that is, it includes other areas of linguistics as well, including, most notably, textual linguistics, the theory of narrativity, and pragmatics (Attardo 1994: 222). Attardo postulates that resolution does not exclude the presence of incongruity; they coexist and accompany each other so that any humorous text will contain an element of incongruity and an element of resolution (Attardo 1994: 144). 2.5.2 Operational Definition An operational definition of humour will have to encompass all the above listed theories as all of them are important for the analysis of the advertisements in this thesis. Under this point I would fully agree with Raskin when he said that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the incongruity-based theories make a statement about the stimulus; the superiority theories characterize the relations or attitudes between the speaker and the hearer; and the release/relief theories comment on the feelings and psychology of the hearer only. (Raskin 1985: 40) The operational definition of a humorous advertisement will be worked out in terms of Raskins SSTH. The question arises why no I do not follow the GTVH. There are reasons for that. First, the GTVH adopted the main hypothesis of the SSTH. Second, the broadenings introduced, are not of much importance for a current analysis. The third reason is that the GTVH is still under development and not all the problematic issues have been resolved yet. So the advertisement will be considered to be humorous if it fulfills the following conditions: the advertisement has two overlapping scripts which cause the incongruity these two scripts are in the opposite relation to each other. The first condition alone would not be enough for the advertisement to be humorous as the overlapping of two scripts may have a non-funny text as a result as well. CHAPTER 3. HUMOUR TYPES 3.1 Introduction Since there is no universal definition of humour, there are many ways to classify it and there is no universally accepted classification of humour types. Taxonomies of humour types are very different and not homogeneous. There have been many attempts to classify humour according to different criteria. Kelly and Solomon (1975), for example, classified humour according to techniques used in order to produce humorous effect and presented seven types such as a pun, an understatement, a joke, something ludicrous, satire, irony and humorous intent whereas Goldstein and McGhee talked about three types: nonsense, sexual and aggressive. An overview of some main classifications is presented in Table 2  [8]  , which proves the fact that the typologies of humour types are diverse and mixed as well as terminology used for different types of humour: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Raskin) The classification of humour types presented in this thesis is based on the taxonomy offered by Catanescu and Tom (2001) which in its turn used Reicks practitioner-oriented classification system as a basis. Catanescu and Tom adopted five types from this classification and added two new types which resulted in seven following humour types: comparison, personification, exaggeration, pun, sarcasm, silliness, and surprise. As the study they conducted was not only devoted to homour in print advertising, not all humour types presented in their taxonomy could be included into classification for this thesis. Thus, such category as surprise had to be left out despite several examples of using this technique in a print advertisement which could be found during the analysis of selected material. The reason for that was the fact that the operational definition did not work with this humour type as some other mechanisms were involved in such advertisements which were beyond the current analysis. To avoid the mixture of devices, types and techniques about which Raskin spoke, all these types were divided into two main categories, namely pun humour and non-pun humour each of them was subdivided into several sub categories. In such a way polysemy, homonymy, nonce-formations and idiomatic expressions fell under the category of pun humour and such types as comparison, personification, exaggeration, sarcasm and silliness under the category of non-pun humour correspondently. The goals of this chapter are: a) to introduce some definitions of a pun to frame the discussion, b) to give an insight into some types of pun taxonomies, c) to develop pun taxonomy for the current analysis and to describe the nature of the linguistic phenomena involved in puns illustrating it with the help of gathered material, d) to offer a taxonomy of non-pun humour taking into account the occurrence of each type in the advertisements collected from the magazines. 3.2 Oh! Thats a pun and I didnt mean it  [9]   Before talking about pun-based humour it seems to be of great importance to determine what will be understood under pun. Puns are said to be the most common basis for humour.  [10]  The management of humorous language is largely a matter of devising transfers the transfer from set to set, from scale to scale, from layer to layer, until the happy conclusion of a double vision is achieved. At the heart of this process of continual and multiple transference, an important process aping the shiftiness of thought itself, is the apparently frivolous device of pun; word-play is the lure, the spinning toy that draws up the lurking and fishy meaning. We take punning for a tawdry and facetious thing, one of the less profound forms of humour, but that is the prejudice of our time; a pun may be profoundly serious, or charged with pathos (Nash 1985: 137). As mentioned in the introduction, my supposition is that pun is the type of humour which most often occurs in print advertising despite qui te the opposite points of view when puns were criticized for their frustrating ambiguity and for representing a simple and less sophisticated form of humour. That is why many advertisers prefer not to include puns into advertisements believing that they have a low intellectual status. Nash defends the pun against such accusations offering his own list of puns and insisting on the fact that puns are common in the language of journalism (Nash 1985: 137). Sherzer provides another argument in defense of puns in advertising stating that puns are higly appropriate for advertising as they deliver two meanings for the price of one (Sherzer 1985). The same opinion shares Redfern: Advertising space is costly. Economy is essential, and puns are highly economical (two meanings for the price of one word or phrase), and in fact much more of a labour-saving device than many of the products they seek to promote. (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Since the fundamental message of all advertising is known to everyone in advance, there is a need for diversification. Wordplay, with its distortions, bifurcations and re-creations, introduces variety and refreshment into saturation. Puns, the devious ones, are a way round those rather stuffy rules of the advertising watchdogs: adverts should be legal, decent and true. A recipe for mass-producted boredom. The words of adverts are double-talk, necessarily. If adverts told only the verifiable truth, they would be pedantic and tedious. And so they have to approximate; they have to say one thing and suggest another. Obliqueness is all. So why not make a virtue out of necessity, and a silk purse out of a sows ear? (Redfern 1982: 130-131). Redfern asserts that puns are well suited for advertising as they are usually delivered with the requisite ambivalent mixture of false apology and only too real aggression (Redfern 1982:275). Definitions of pun as well as definitions of humour vary greatly from researcher to researcher. Freud considered puns to be the lowest form calling them cheapest stating that they can be formed with the least effort.  [11]  Walter Redfern (1984) devoted a whole book to pun in which he said that pun can make an individual. (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) It can ruin lazy expectations; subvert the nature of language and thought (Redfern 1984: ). Sherzer defined it as a form of speech play in which a word or phrase unexpectedly and simultaneously combines two unrelated meanings (Sherzer 1978: 336). This the point (the presence of two senses) on which all linguistic and non-linguistic analyses agree. Following the rules of the incongruity-resolution theory a phenomenon of pun can be defined as two meanings incongruously combined in one and the same sentence. These two meanings cause ambiguity due to which a conflict arises between the two senses which is subsequently resolved by the surprising punchline (Ross 1998:8). Following the operational definition of a humorous advertisement, a pun-based humorous ad has to fulfill the following conditions: two meanings have to be semantically incompatible, i.e. opposed. This is the so called deliberate ambiguity in a pun which creates the incongruity. Then it must be followed by resolution leading to humorous interpretation. 3.3 Pun taxonomy There are numerous taxonomies of puns witch essentially differ from each other. Attardo criticized these taxonomies and attempts to explain the phenomenon of pun through its taxonomy. He tried to build the taxonomy of the taxonomies and distinguished four major types of pun classifications, namely: taxonomies by linguistic phenomenon, by linguistic structure, by phonemic distance, and eclectic (Attardo 1994: 112). Tanaka distinguished four categories of puns in advertising: nonsense puns, contextual puns, puns with sexual innuendo, and puns with two communicated meanings (Tanaka 1994: 64-80). I will keep to taxonomy based on linguistic phenomena as it is the most relevant one for this thesis. Taxonomies based o

Changing Role of Women in Archie Comics Essay -- Changing Gender Norms

Plan of Investigation The purpose of the essay is to answer the question: How has Archie Comics reflected changing gender norms in the United States of America from World War II to the present of women in contemporary American society, in its eventual challenge of the position of men as the dominant sex, and in its inclusion of previously marginalized sexual orientations? As entertainment primarily targeted to middle-class America, Archie is a helpful avenue by which to understand acceptable views. This paper will present gender roles portrayed in Archie Comics in three different time frames: the Forties, the Sixties, and the new millennium. It will analyze the establishment of traditional gender roles set forth in the earliest Archie Comic strips. Next it will critique the ways in which it responded to the challenges to these traditional norms and assess whether the comic incorporated these challenges or rebuffed them. Finally, this paper will evaluate the role of modern-day Archie Comics as a vanguard i n the new discussion of gender roles and sexual orientation in America. For the purpose of analysis, issues of Archie representative of the era will be examined in conjunction with larger historical developments. These include: the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the post-feminist world following the 1970s, and the rise of LGBT acceptance. Often changes in social norms move at a glacial pace. Particularly difficult in assessing social norms is the definition of what is normative to begin with. For that reason, most historians will look at what artifacts and documents signify popular culture. While these artifacts and documents may reveal what norms existed at a given time, tracking changes in norms relies upon the existence o... ...ItemClick=true&searchText=helen&searchText=mayer&searchText=hacker&searchText=WOMEN&searchText=AS&searchText=A&searchText=MINORITY&searchText=GROUP&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dhelen%2Bmayer%2Bhacker%2BWOMEN%2BAS%2BA%2BMINORITY%2BGROUP%26amp%3Bprq%3Dhelen%2Bmayer%2Bhacker%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bracc%3Doff. Paul Kupperberg. â€Å"Life With Archie #16.† In Archie The Married Life, 3:23–24, 2012. ———. â€Å"Life With Archie #20.† In Archie The Married Life, 4:20, 2012. ———. â€Å"Life With Archie #22.† In Archie The Married Life, 4:9, 2012. ———. â€Å"Life With Archie #23.† In Archie The Married Life, 4:20, 2012. Universe, Funding. â€Å"Archie Comics Publications, Inc. History.† History Of Archie Comics, n.d. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/archie-comics-publications-inc-history/. â€Æ'

The Mongolian Wedding :: essays research papers

Stanley Stewart’s â€Å"From the Empire of Genghis Khan† is a highly inspiring travel writing filled with hilarious plots vividly portrayed in chronological, fully-detailed, easily followed events. The extract is about a â€Å"Mongolian Wedding† which Stewart attended. The extract is very precise as Stewart uses time keywords in chronological order such as â€Å"Throughout the evening†, â€Å"In the morning†, â€Å"By mid afternoon† and â€Å"At four o’clock† at the beginning of each paragraph making it easy for readers to follow up and relate to the story effectively. He first shows the reader a hint about the Mongolian people he met with; they are â€Å"unpredictable†, â€Å"boisterous† and â€Å"could be as bad as the next fellow they warn him about†. He then mentions cultural traditions in Mongolian weddings such as the groom searching for his bride under a bed of one of the neighboring gers, the preparation of the bride’s family for the bridal breakfast and the groom’s family for the evening feast; that indicates that each family is both trying to show their excessive generosity, care and luxury to the other family. In addition to that, he shows that it was a custom for the sisters of the bride to serve both families with liquor and to make sure that everyone from the bride to the furthest guest are at their absolute comfort and satisfaction. Every Mongolian guest was supposed to give out a song related to weddings even the shyest of them all would have no problem in reciting as the others will accompany him/her later on in the following verses. Another tradition was that each guest had to drink as least three bowls of airag. Stewart successfully maintained the reader’s interest to the matter by using an immense method for ridiculing strange traditions or reactions or by the aid of thriving language devices no to mention in compare to the Western culture. As for his comedic tone and great sense of humour, Stewart described every incident in full-detailed ironic manner. First he gave a light hearted comment how the old Russian truck carrying hordes of wedding guests was the equivalent of the wedding Rolls Ricer back in his hometown. Then he ridiculed the idea behind letting the groom pretend he is searching for his bride when her hiding place is previously distinguished! He clearly expressed the extent of the uninviting and unappetising state the breakfast meal was; â€Å"slabs of white cheese†, â€Å"boiled sweets were arrayed in dizzy layers† and â€Å"a mountainous plate of sheep parts†.

Ghost Story of the Kingsville Haunted House Essay examples -- Ghost St

Kingsville Haunted House The teller is 24 years old, and works for the state department of education. Originally, he was from the Baltimore area where he attended an elementary Catholic school. He moved to Bell Air in second grade and grew up there. After his parents separated, he moved back to Baltimore to live with his grandparents, and has remained in Baltimore ever since. The sister he mentions in the story moved away to China years ago. A weekend or two ago, he, I, and a few other friends spent the evening in one of our favorite hang-out spots in Columbia, Pub Dog. It was there, sitting in our dimly lit booth, over some beers that I heard him tell this story from his childhood. He spoke in a strangely matter-of-fact tone, considering the weirdness of the story he was telling, and in a smooth, comfortable manner that seemed to indicate he had told the story many times before. Here is the story he told: Ok. One night my sister and I were at my father’s house. He lives in Kingsville on 10 maybe 9 acres of land in this [small pause, looks at ceiling] I wouldn’t really call it a farmhouse, just a kind of small house out there. The previous person who lived in the house was supposedly shipped to an asylum, for, you know, normal stuff [pause] schizophrenic or something. My sister and I were at the house one night and we were cleaning up the house while my dad was on some sort of job out of the state and my step mom was at work in the hospital. We were doing our stuff, and then the power flickered, and came back on. We didn’t think anything of it. Then, outside of the door, we heard a noise, kinda like a dog barking, but like, just enough not so that we knew it wasn’t. So, we hear this noise, and start to get fre... ...g age. â€Å"Young children idolize their parents and draw strength from closeness to them.† (Nichols, 190). As soon as my friend and his sister were near to their father, they felt safe, and things returned to normal. This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically. Works Cited Nichols, Michael P. Stop Arguing with Your Kids: How to Win the Battle of Wills by Making your Children feel Heard. New York: Guilford Press, 2004. Sceurman, Mark and Mark Moran. Weird Maryland: Your Travel Guide to Maryland’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. New York: Sterling Pub. Co., 2006. Spock, Benjamin. Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care 8th Edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.

Marketing Plan of a Waste Management Company

Executive Summary: Green Industry is an organization which will provide a complete solution for managing industrial liquid waste to large and medium sized companies. It will be a business to business service. In recent days environment pollution has become a concerning issue for everyone. Marketing Strategy: The marketing strategy is the core of the main strategy: 1. Emphasize high value, high quality products and services. 2. Build a relationship oriented business. 3. Focus on large and medium industries currently producing liquid wastes and polluting rivers severely as our initial markets. Products and Services: Our products and services offer needed solution to the selected industries. We will provide two types of product: 1. Liquid waste solidification service: This service is suitable for those industries that generate liquid wastes required a convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way to dispose of these substances. This solidification process involves mixing liquid waste with selected reagents and/or absorbents to create a substance hard and dry enough to be landfilled. Solidifying liquid waste in this manner allows companies to economically dispose of non-hazardous liquids in a Green Industry Subtitle â€Å"D† landfill while reducing its long-term contingent liability. Our consultant will evaluate the liquid waste to see if it qualifies for liquid waste solidification treatment and then determine the specific reagents needed to solidify it. The recommended treatment will be conducted in a safe and timely manner in full compliance with environmental regulations. 2. Recycling service: This is for those residues which can be recycled from waste to fertilizers and other soil enhancer. Recycling is biological decomposition of organic materials. Bacteria, fungi, protozoan, insects, worms and other organisms typically play a part in the decomposition process. Composting is nature’s means of recycling. It will turn grass clipping, leaves, vegetables, fruit and other organic materials into a very beneficial soil amendment. As a market pioneer we will offer certain services. They are: †¢ We have a well established website to inform our activities and services to our current and potential customers. Moreover, they can place order in our website and we will provide them their desired services within 3 days. †¢ In order to increase the value of waste, we will consult on different options of managing waste taking into consideration risk and cost/benefits and the present legislation of residues treatment and disposal. †¢ We will provide an exclusive service at a low cost to maintain our disposal system to our customer. There will be several teams consisting of technicians and workers who will go to the companies individually on a regular basis to check the system working properly. Product Description: †¢ Liquid waste solidification: A solidified liquid waste is a Six-Step Process. 1. Evaluation: Based on waste profile information provided by the customer or samples taken on site, Green Industry technicians test the samples at the nearest Green Industry landfill and select an appropriate mixture of reagents and/or absorbents for treatment. 2. Transportation: Green Industry transports the liquid waste to a designated Subtitle D landfill where it is weighed. Transport can be accomplished using tanker trucks, drums or roll-off containers. 3. Monitoring: The liquid waste is poured into a specially engineered liquid container basin. This basin is monitored regularly to ensure that its surface remains intact and that no liquids leach into the surrounding environment. 4. Introduction to Mixture: Reagents and/or absorbents are introduced to the mixture. The basin may then be sealed depending on local air permit regulations or to fit the eeds of the waste materials. 5. Tests: The liquid and reagents/absorbents are mechanically mixed. Once the liquid hardens, one or more paint filter tests are performed to confirm that the substance is no longer in a liquid state. 6. Landfill Disposal: Solidified waste is transferred from the engineered basin to a site vehicle and directed for disposal within the adjacent Subtitle D landfill. †¢ Recycling: The residues which can be recycled to fertilizers will be evaluated by our experienced technicians and then will be sent to our recycling department to process it. These recycling/composting units work as follows. The unit is 50 feet long. The sludge is placed into one end of the unit. To make compost, additional dry fibrous material such as sawdust, wood chips, or bark must be added. We will acquire a steady supply of these from International Paper Company. The unit turns slowly, making four revolutions per hour, to ensure that adequate oxygen gets to all of the composting material. Also, the unit is set on a very slight, 2 degree angle so that as the unit turns, the material slowly migrates toward the opposite end of the unit. During the composting process, the material heats up (due to the natural reaction) to temperatures of approximately 140 degrees Fahrenheit; this kills any harmful bacteria in the composting material. Temperature can be controlled to ensure optimum composting environment. Also, the moisture levels can be controlled to ensure optimum composting. After three days, the material has reached the opposite end of the unit where it is removed. Pricing: In Bangladesh most of the industry-owners are not willing to pay high cost to develop effluent management system in their industries. So our main goal will be to provide our service at minimum possible price in the first phase of the business. Place: To reduce our cost we will use direct distribution system which means all our services will be available in our regional office. Promotion: Our promotional strategy will be two-fold: first phase promotion will focus on before, during, and six months following our opening; the second phase of promotion will deal with the long term activities. The purposes of the first phase are to create market for our company and to ensure early and sustained profitability. The purpose of the second phase is to ensure long-term growth and helps boost us toward achieving our goal of expanding new market and sectors throughout Bangladesh. In this report we will describe the first phase of promotion. Personal Selling: Once face-to-face with our customer, we will be unique in our creative and flexible approach in order to solve our clients' waste problems. Our approach will be that of a consulting firm. We will visit the customer and investigate which residues the industry has. We will manage and collect whatever residues exist. The process begins with an evaluation meeting with our future client where our representative will analyze the scrap output and recommend the most efficient collection system. Pick-up will be scheduled on an as-needed basis or on a regular schedule, depending on the situation. The client's needs can be met by a variety of equipment, including special trucks. After the initial consultation, a comprehensive and customized proposal will be submitted to the customer. The result will be a program that fits neatly into an organization's day-to-day activities as well as its long-term planning. Arranging Campaigns: About 6,000 large and medium industries and 24,000 small industries are operating in Bangladesh which discharge effluents directly to the rivers or nearby canal or waterbed without any regard to environment. Green Industry will arrange a huge number of campaigns and seminars to aware people about the river pollution they are responsible of. We will focus mainly on the owners of textile, tannery, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, metal, food industry, fertilizers, cement, and chemical industries to attend these campaigns and seminars. According to an expert, ‘‘an average of 19 cubic liter water containing more than 300 different chemical compounds is being discharged daily from these industries. † So our main objective will be to protect our rivers from pollution by influencing industry-owners to adopt waste management system and for their convenience we will provide our technology. Advertisement: We will utilize direct mail and face-to-face promotional strategies to raise awareness about our products and services in the target markets. Newspaper advertising may also be used. All our advertisement will convey two messages: stop pollution and use our product because we are trustworthy. We will focus on our services in our advertisements. Some Billboards promoting Green Industry will include a statement referring to aware people against river pollution in the industrial areas. The statement could be, â€Å"Can you live without pure drinking water? If not, Save the Rivers and Adopt Waste Management†. Internet: We will have a content heavy website geared toward educating potential customers about the benefits of our products and services. All literature, business cards, etc. ill include our website and e-mail address information. Sales Promotion: We will offer special offers to promote our product in the beginning stage. For example, we will install the plant with no service charge for the first 100 customers. Besides, we will offer discounts and prizes on special occasions. We will also induce product trial but in a limited way. Second Phase Promotion s Publicity: As the business grows and expands we will continue to seek publicity through news media to tout our successes. Advertising: We will continue to make face-to-face contact with customers and potential customers. Mail-outs will be done again within a few months of start up. The second round of mail outs will be updated to reflect the benefits provided to customers thus far. Such mail-outs will be sent periodically. Internet: We will continue to have a comprehensive website. The website will be updated to provide responses to frequently asked questions. After the first six months, and certainly after the first year, we will evaluate the viability of having target clients advertise on our site, and conversely, we will evaluate viability of advertising on our target clients’ websites (if applicable). Product Life Cycle: Every product has a limited life and product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problem to the seller. Introduction Stage: At the introduction stage our sales growth will tend to be slow because it takes time to roll out a new product. Our profit will be low or negative. [pic] fig: Product Life Cycle In the introduction stage our marketing strategies will be: †¢ Product will be introduced to the target market with brand name and trust. †¢ Pricing will be low. We will maintain a lean cost structure. We will dispose of waste in large quantities, thus enjoying lower costs and economies of scale. †¢ Distribution will be selective until customers show acceptance of the product. †¢ Promotion is aimed to building awareness of the product as well as environmental pollution. Growth Stage: When our product will be accepted by the early adopters, we will tend to achieve the growth stage. In this stage, our strategies will be: †¢ Product quality will be maintained and our research and development department will try to add new product features. †¢ Pricing will be lower to encourage the medium and small industries to adopt our waste management system. Distribution coverage will be increased to other division of Bangladesh. We will provide our service in Khulna and Bogra outside Dhaka. †¢ Promotion will be for product preference advertising. We will focus more industries in our promotional activities. Situation Analysis: Dhaka city of ours is affected with various en vironmental problems staking the lives of its inhabitants. Because of highly dense population, lack of environmental consciousness among the inhabitants and absence of proper role of public agencies it is going to be one of the deadliest cities in world as well. At present river pollution in Bangladesh has become a headache for all environment concern people. In Bangladesh, industrial units are mostly located along the banks of the rivers. There are obvious reasons for this such as provision of transportation for incoming raw materials and outgoing finished products. Unfortunately, as a consequence, industrial units drain effluents directly into the rivers without any consideration of the environmental degradation. The most problematic industries for the water sector are textiles, tanneries, pulp and paper mills, fertilizer, industrial chemical production and refineries. A complex mixture of hazardous chemicals, both organic and inorganic, is discharged into the water bodies from all these industries usually without treatment. To improve the situation, the government has decided to make it mandatory for all industries to have effluent treatment plants. But in Bangladesh there is no such a company like us to provide the complete solution for managing liquid waste. Therefore it is the high time for us to enter the market and create consciousness among people against river pollution. Customer Analysis: Target Market: ILRM will target the industries which produce liquid and hazardous residues. We will use demographic and geographic segmentation so that we can reach the customer more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their different needs. Geographic Segmentation: Green Industry will focus on these areas which are being densely polluted by the industrial wastes. The major industrial locations of the country are concentrated in three metropolitan areas: †¢ Dhaka, which includes Tejgaon, Hazaribagh, Demra, Tongi, Savar, and Narayangonj. †¢ Khulna, which includes Shiromoni, Kalishpur, and Rupsha. †¢ Chittagong, which includes Kalurghat, Patenga, Bhatiary, Nasirabad, and Kaptai. Bogra is a rapidly growing industrial center in the northwestern part of the country where many of the machine tools and agro-based industries are located. In the first year of operation, GI will target only to Dhaka and Chittagong and after reaching the break even point in these locations we will expand our area coverage. Corporate/Professional Segmentatio n: As GI’s mission is to reduce water pollution by installing GI’s product in the selected industries, we will keep those industries which are mostly responsible for the pollution on our center of our attention. Estimated industrial pollution has summarized in Table 1 in the index. It shows the top-eleven most polluting industries, which we will focus on. They are- pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, metal, food industry, fertilizers, cement, tanneries, textiles, and industrial chemicals. Market Growth: This market growth is fueled by a more health conscious customer. By different campaigns and seminars we will induce industry owners to adopt waste management process which will enable us to grow our market. Again, our recycling process has a great potential market of selling fertilizers. After a certain period of time when our company reaches to maturity stage, we will introduce more ways of disposing hazardous and non-hazardous industrial residues. This will help us to continue our market growth smoothly through entering into new market segments in different stage. Market Trends: Current trends in the market greatly favor the start-up of our waste management business. Laws have been passed in Bangladesh placing greater emphasis on industrial waste management. These laws take effect in 2009. Large industries are already seeking a means of disposal their waste in an environment friendly way. So Green Industry solves their problem. Again our recycling department also has a great impact on organic fertilizer market. The demand for compost to use in organic farming and other applications is growing rapidly. Marketing Strategy for Small Industries: Some small industries will not have much space for implementing our liquid waste solidification process. Because they also produce toxic liquid wastes which pollute rivers at almost same rate as large industries do, we have special service to offer. We will provide them a special kind of containers to pour their liquid waste into these containers. Then we will collect the ontainers daily and dispose them safely in our company’s personal basin constructed in our factory area. The service charge and transportation cost will be paid by the customers. Level of Competition: In Bangladesh the level of competition for our company is low. There are no companies in the market that have a proposal like ours: to manage all liquid wast e released by a company, either with commercial value or not, in a safe way. The main competitors are the current companies that collect specific types of scrap. Most of these companies are small, offering unprofessional services with low scale economies in their operations. Risks: After evaluating the critical elements of the investment and business risk, we have come to the conclusion that there is an acceptable overall risk for the Green Industry concept for the following reasons: †¢ Industry: We will be a pioneer in a nascent industry. However, this industry has great potential. †¢ Demand assumptions: In our country most of the industry-owners are not willing to allocate their investment for waste management. Rather they will throw their wastes to a river which is cost free. Our main obstacle will be to pursue them to develop a waste management system. Again small industries do not have much space and investment to apply our waste management system. Though we have a different and convenient plan for these small industries, but convincing them will be much tougher than the pursuing big industries. †¢ Technological and operational obsolescence: New operational and technological processes will likely reduce the quantity of waste generated. However, this will not only be a slow process, but not all companies will be willing to pay for the changes required. Some industries will be very difficult and costly to change. We believe there will always be an industrial waste demand. Branding: As a new company brand value is important for the growth of our business. We will create our brand equity by stating the benefits and attributes of our products and services. Our brand will say our core value which is to save our river water from getting polluted. Moreover, our brand promises to provide all stated services to our customers. Benefits of liquid waste solidification: †¢ Cost-savings over alternative treatment and disposal solutions. †¢ Compliance with environmental regulations. †¢ Long-term indemnification. Advantages of this recycling/composting method are as follows: †¢ Recycling is completed rapidly in three days. Other methods take 90 plus days. †¢ Waste materials in the unit are isolated from the environment. †¢ The manager has precise control of moisture, temperature, and aeration during the process to ensure the most efficient composting possible. †¢ In-vessel composting can maintain a rapid decomposition process year-round regardless of external ambient conditions. The material can be used for improvement of organic matter content and fertility of soil.

A study of reading habits Essay

The theme of journeys is present in Philip Larkin’s poem, A Study of Reading Habits. However, it is not a physical journey that we see, but a metaphorical journey about the speaker’s life progression through his changing escapisms created by books. The title is a mock, serious title for it sounds like a piece of academic research Larkin uses first person persona to give expression to things he would prefer not to have attributed to himself. The structure of the poem divided into three stanzas; school years, adolescent years and the present. The tone is sarcastic and colloquial, that along with the shorter lines, creates a less serious poem from Larkin. In the first part of his journey, the persona is imaginative and loves to read, so much so that is it ‘ruining [his] eyes’. He imagines a fantasy world where he could be cool and ‘deal out the right hook to his bullies’. The alliteration of ‘dirty dogs’ is symbolism of the persona’s bullies, which portrays them as the villains. It is the stories, which makes him believe he is invincible, like that of the heroes he reads about. The stories provide an escapism to which he can be brave, hero, and not the bullied kid to which he is in reality. There is a smooth, harmonious quality in the beginning stanza due to Euphony. This underscored how easygoing and fantasy-like childhood can be. The second part of his journey represents his adolescent years. We now see him with ‘inch thick specs’, which is ironic to him previously stating his compassion for reading was ‘ruining [his] eyes’. We see the persona become more gothic and dark, with his new love of Horror Fiction. ‘Cloaks and fangs’ sounds dangerous and eerie, which is his new escapism. Some critics suggest that ‘ripping’ could be vampire vocabulary but it also can refer to being posh. Through his journey through stanza two, we see him move on to more lustrous novels, where his escapism is him being a womanizer. Larkin use borrowed language of ‘clubbed with sex’ and ‘broke them up like meringues’ to create the poet’s whimsical world. The similie refers to his lust for sexual encounters with women. The phrases are quite cheesy and some suggest it is bad writing on Larkin’s behalf, but some argue it is Larkin trying to sound like a bad guy. Larkin is trying too hard to sound like Raymond Chandler’s character, Marlowe, but it just doesn’t work. In the final part of the persona’s journey, which leads him up to the present tense, we see a completely conflicting view of reading. In the final stanza the speaker comes to terms with reality; he can no longer hide behind books. He realizes that his world is less fulfilling than the fantasies portrayed in books, and says ‘don’t read much now’. He feels betrayed by books and his tone becomes bitter. The ‘yellow’ figure evokes the sense of weakness and represents cowardly characteristics. This metaphor produces the effect of a cowardly character, which evidently relates to the persona. This means he can no longer fantasice for the characters he looked up to are weak. With no more escapism, the persona no longer wants to read. In the penultimate line of the poem Lark says ‘Get stewed’, which is said in a light hearted jokey way. Some suggest it refers to getting drunk, which may be his alternative escapism, but some argue it means get lost, referring to the disappointment. On the contrary, the final line represents the persona’s new feelings towards books. He believes they are a worthless â€Å"load of crap†. The theme of the poem is that escapism and ignoring reality only makes life less fulfilling, which is illustrated through the theme of a journey.