The Importance of Reading Essay Example for Free

The Importance of Reading Essay Reading is a necessity for some people and a hobby for others, but either way it is something that we start to take for granted as adults, forgetting that there was once a time when we couldnt read. The sad fact is that for many adults, this is still the case. They lose out on the joys and the benefits of being able to read, and quite often it stems from lack of commitment and time from the parents during childhood. In the Gulf countries alone there are approximetly 7. 5 million people who are illiterate (those aged 15 years or above who can not read or write). There are a great many reasons why reading with your child is so important. Of course, it is the sort of activity that will help you to bond with the child as well as help to form your childs imagination. But there are so many additional important factors ? ones that could help to shape the life of your child. Reading is the fundamental foundation required by children on which to base all learning. Without the ability to read effectively, every other subject taught at school is going to be difficult or impossible to grasp. Learning to read is no easy task for some children, and the most crucial years in terms of literacy development are from birth to the age of around eight. Taking the time to read with your pre-school child will help to really lay the foundations for success. Your child will start to recognise words, ask questions, and develop an interest as well as an eye for reading. Your child will start to make relevant connections between the words and their meanings. With your help, your child can enjoy the learning process, benefit from a firm foundation in literacy, and will be fully equipped to succeed when he or she starts school. Of course, you will need to change the methods you use to help with your childs reading as he or she grows older. As an infant, bright colours and noises are going to be attractive to your child. There are many interactive books available for infants to day, such as farm animal books with noises. Your infant will love helping you to press the button and then watching as you point out which animal the noise relates to. And pretty soon, your child will be doing it alone. Already, your child will have started associating sounds, words and pictures. As a toddler, your child will enjoy bedtime stories, and you can choose from a wide range of magical and colourful story books which will keep your toddler enthralled. You will find that you child develops an interest in pointing out pictures as you read, as well as wanting to try and read alone. If the story is one that you read regularly, you will be surprised at how the child will almost memorise that comes next, and may sometime jump in before you have a chance to finish the sentence. A couple of years on, and your child will be eager to start reading alone. You can encourage this by reading the first part of sentences in a book from which you have regularly read bedtime stories. You can then pass the book to your child to try and finish the sentence. A great deal of this may be done from memory, but the child will also be looking at the words, thus learning to associate the words with the story. Fun activities like picture games or stories with colouring in sections can also help to develop your childs interest at this age. Learning to read does not stem from learning the alphabet, which is a common misconception. A good reading foundation comes from interaction with a parent, who is able to make the art of reading and telling stories fun and magical for a child.

Politics, Power, and Purpose in Shakespeares Measure for Measure Essay

Politics, Power, and Purpose in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, observing that his Dukedom has fallen into licentiousness and chaos through his neglectful government, has pretended to leave Vienna and has turned over the government to Angelo, his upright and up-tight Deputy; and that the Duke has resolved to remain in Vienna, in disguise, so that he may observe how Angelo's character is revealed or transformed in the crucible of the power with which he has been invested. The Duke tells Friar Thomas, who is party to the plot: Lord Angelo is precise, Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses That his blood flows, or that his appetite Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see If power change purpose, what our seemers be. (1.3.5-54) My subject is how "power" changes--or at least influences--"purpose." But the "purpose" in question is not, as in the play, the government of a city or of a state, nor even (as in the case of Angelo) the government of one's psychological and physical appetites, but the creation of a work of art, of a theatrical performance. Talking about Angelo, the Duke poses his assertion as a conditional: he wishes to test "if power change purpose." My hypothesis is that, in the theatre, power does indeed change purpose. I base this hypothesis upon several premises: that the theatre, as a complex collaborative art form, depends upon the coordination of the talents and temperaments of a wide range of individuals; that, in the theatre, these individuals must be organized into a process which inescapably involves the establishment and articulation of power; that theatrical artists are, by their very nature, sensitive, e... ...ulates the other characters and, like a playwright, creates scenarios for them to play; etc., etc. I am, I believe, arguing something else altogether. The play is not alluding to its mode of performance to tell its story. The play and the performance are simply telling the same story: a story about the same power relationships that informed the process by which the performance was created. It's not that life is like the theatre. It's that the play and the performance and the theatre in general are built upon the raw materials of life: upon wayward human beings struggling to work together to live with one another in the world. The story that any production of Measure for Measure tells is that power, in the theatre as in life, changes purpose. Just as the Duke tests Angelo, when we go to the theatre, we go to see, "If power change purpose, what our seemers be."

Audience Analysis Essay Essay

Audience Analysis The target audience for this rhetorical analysis is my classmates. The audience can not be grouped by age, as there are those who just finished high school as well as people in their forties. The gender of the audience is composed of both men and women of all ages according to the information I found in our introduction to the class. To prepare this rhetoric analysis we will have to read the story and do some research about the author. This information will be presented in our analysis and it will be interesting to see what others have found and how they presented in their analysis. What the audience has in common is that we are all studying the same class, and therefore, we have all read, â€Å"I’m O.K., but You’re Not† by Robert Zoellner. Although the audience is diverse in age, gender, and background, we can all have an opinion of the reading material. Some of my classmates will be able to agree with my analysis/opinions and others will disagree. But that is the beauty of having an audience so different. Not only I will be able to express freely what I think, but I can also hear the point of view and opinions of my classmates. Two Sets of Rules Robert Zoellner is an American writer born in 1926 in Denver, Colorado. Among Zoellner’s interests we found that he likes hiking, backpacking, skiing, ecology, and preservation of environment. He was also a member of the Modern Language Association in America. He is the author of â€Å"I’m O.K., but You’re Not† where he talks about â€Å"The Floating Opera† by John Barth. In this novel Barth tells us how ordinary things that happen to people on a daily basis. Which was Zoellner’s inspiration to write â€Å"I’m O.K., and You’re Not.† This is short and personal story about Zoellner’s experience with an elderly snobbish couple in the restaurant. This story begins with the author is trying to have a happy and normal breakfast in a restaurant. He is a heavy-smoker so he requests the hostess to be seated in the smoker’s section of the restaurant, in order to be polite with other customers. The hostess gave him a t able â€Å"on the dividing line between the smoking and nonsmoking sections† (28). The author uses a very descriptive way to refer to an elderly couple, well dressed and kind of snobbish, who sat down five feet away from the author’s table, in the non-smoking area. The author was smoking and the gentleman with his magisterial white hair, as Zoellner described the old men, asked him to please stop smoking. The problem here was the way and the tone of how this old man asked Zoellner to stop smoking, it was â€Å"self-righteous and peremptory† (28). The old man requested him to stop smoking in a very imperative way that is why Zoellner’s response was that he was not going to stop smoking because he was in the non-smoking area of the restaurant. The author is aware that cigarette smoke is annoying for people who do not smoke, and even more if they are in a restaurant. In other circumstances he would have stop smoking out of simple courtesy. Robert Zoellner has a very exquisite selection of words that makes easy to the reader to see a perfect picture of what is happening in the story. The author uses just a few words to describe in details a scene like: â€Å"having breakfast in a lawn-bordered restaurant on College avenue† (Zoellner 28) or â€Å"at a little two-person table on the dividing line between the smoking and non-smoking section†(28). The author gives a specific geographic idea of where he is at. So far, the author has described how he started his day at the restaurant in time for breakfast. Briefly described where he was sitting, and also described the old couple sitting next to him.. After Zoellner’s negative response, the old couple â€Å"ate their eggs-over easy in hurried and sullen silence†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ they got up, paid their bill, and stalked out in an ambiance of affronted righteousness and affluent propriety† (29). At the time that the old couple came out of the restaurant, they went to their automobile, a white Mercedes Benz, where two â€Å"splendid matched pair of pedigreed poodles† (29) were waiting for them. When they opened the door of the car, the dogs went directly to the restaurant’s lawn to make their needs. After this scene, â€Å"the four of them marshalled their collective dignity and drove off in a dense cloud of blue smoke- that lovely white Mercedes was urgently in need of a valve-and-ring job† (29). The author, once again, described in detail what is happening at the moment. The authors’ intention is to take the reader to the scene of the incident to be part of the story and be able to make an opinion about what have just happened. So far, everything the author has narrated, makes the reader feel sympathy for him. The author achieves this reaction in the readers by using a sarcastic tone to avoid showing frustration or anger. The old man requested the author, in a very authoritarian way, to put out his cigarette, which was reason enough for Zoellner to deny his request. And after the old couple finished their breakfast in a rush, they went to their car, took the dogs out and allowed them to do their business right in lawn of the restaurant. So, for the old couple it is terrible to smoke in the restaurant’s smoking section, but it is not terrible at all not to clean after your dogs poop. Which is a clear example of double standards. Robert Zoellner, also goes further and lets his imagination fly. Wondering if the old man polluting the atmosphere by setting his fireplace with moss rock and also fertilizing his impeccable garden, but as the author stated this â€Å"is pure and unkindly speculation† (29). And not only that, Zoellner also described the way their old white Mercedes Benz polluted the air. The author also stated â€Å"as a chronic smokestack. I normally comply, out of simple courtesy, with such a request† (29), but in this case the old man manners made his request be rejected. The way the author give a lot of simple details, helps the reader to make a visual idea, giving the reader the sensation of watching a movie instead of reading a book. The author’s intention was not to judge the old couple he just gave us the facts of what happened that day at the restaurant. He uses a sarcastic tone and humor to gain the readers understanding and empathy. And in this ordinary day, with this not out of the ordinary story, he makes the reader think about double standards that everybody face in a daily basis. Works Cited â€Å"Robert Zoellner.† Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. Robert Zoellner. â€Å"I’m O.K., You’re Not.† The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers. Ed. Stephen Reid. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, 2011: 28-29. Print.

Is Iraq a Democracy

Democracy in Iraq bears the hallmarks of a political system born in foreign occupation and civil war. It is marked with deep divisions over the power of the executive, disputes between ethnic and religious groups, and between centralists and advocates of federalism. Yet for all its flaws, the democratic project in Iraq brought to an end more than four decades of dictatorship, and most Iraqis would probably prefer not to turn the clock back. System of Government The Republic of Iraq is a parliamentary democracy introduced gradually after the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. The most powerful political office—even more so than the president—is that of prime minister, who heads the Council of Ministers. Prime minister is nominated by the strongest parliamentary party, or a coalition of parties that hold the majority of seats. Elections to parliament are relatively free and fair, with a solid voter turn-out, though usually marked by violence. The parliament also chooses the president of the republic, who has few real powers but who can act as an informal mediator between rival political groups. This is in contrast to Saddam’s regime, where all institutional power was concentrated in the hands of the president. Regional and Sectarian Divisions Since the formation of the modern Iraqi state in the 1920s, its political elites were drawn largely from the Sunni Arab minority. The great historical significance of the 2003 US-led invasion is that it enabled the Shiite Arab majority to claim power for the first time while cementing special rights for the Kurdish ethnic minority. But foreign occupation also gave rise to a fierce Sunni insurgency which, in the following years, targeted US troops and the new Shiite-dominated government. The most extreme elements in the Sunni insurgency deliberately targeted Shiite civilians, provoking a civil war with Shiite militias which peaked in 2006–08. Sectarian tension remains one of the main obstacles to a stable democratic government. Here are some key features of Iraq’s political system: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG): Kurdish regions in Iraq’s north enjoy a high degree of autonomy, with their own government, parliament, and security forces. Kurdish-controlled territories are rich in oil, and division of profits from oil exports is a major stumbling block in relations between KRG and the central government in Baghdad.Coalition Governments: Since the first elections in 2005, no one party managed to establish a solid enough majority to form the government on its own. As a result, Iraq is normally ruled by a coalition of parties—including Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds—resulting in plenty of infighting and political instability.Provincial Authorities: Iraq is divided into 18 provinces, each with its own governor and a provincial council. Federalist calls are common in oil-rich Shiite regions in the south, which want greater proceeds from local resources, and in Sunni provinces in the north-west, which don’t trust the Shiite-dominated governm ent in Baghdad. Controversies These days it’s easy to forget that Iraq has its own tradition of democracy going back to the years of the Iraqi monarchy. Formed under British supervision, the monarchy was toppled in 1958 through a military coup that ushered in an era of authoritarian government. But the old democracy was far from perfect, as it was tightly controlled and manipulated by a coterie of king’s advisors. The system of government in Iraq today is far more pluralistic and open in comparison, but stymied by mutual mistrust between rival political groups: Power of the Prime Minister: The most powerful politician of the first decade of the post-Saddam era is Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite leader who first became prime minister in 2006. Credited with overseeing the end of the civil war and reasserting state authority, Maliki was often accused—by both Sunnis and Shiites—of shadowing Iraq’s authoritarian past by monopolizing power and installing personal loyalists in the security forces. Some observers fear this pattern of rule may continue under his successors.Shiite Domination: Iraq’s coalition governments include Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. However, the position of prime minister seems to have become reserved for the Shiites, due to their demographic advantage (est. at 60% of the population). There has yet to emerge a national, secular political force that could truly unite the country and overcome the divisions brought about by the post-2003 events.