Summary of the reading Rhetoric of the Image essays

Summary of the reading Rhetoric of the Image essays Roland Barthes Rhetoric of Image analyzes image, an illustration or a representation of something, and in what ways do meanings are associated with particular images. He examines images, observes the messages it entails, and how these messages are extracted from these images. In the article, the author restricts his study in the realm of advertising images wherein a specific example is given and investigated. He concentrates on this branch since in advertising, as he clearly states, the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional. The message in an advertising image is pre-conceived and is therefore graspable. An advertising image then has a purpose; it is to convey a message. Because in an advertising image, there is a definite message, an intended meaning, Roland Barthes confines his article in this dimension. He gives one example of an advertisement of Panzani and looks at the different messages it contains. The advertisement displays a slightly opened string bag, falling from which packets of pasta noodles, a tin can of pasta sauce, tomatoes, peppers, and onions to name a few. The contents of the ad are painted with yellow and green in a background of red. The advertisement generates a linguistic message characterized by the words and texts that are scattered throughout the ad. The iconic message is displayed by the pure image, a series of signifiers pertaining to an intended signified. As one example demonstrates, the advertisement suggests that Panzanis products are everything that is necessary for a carefully balanced dish. The presence of freshly picked vegetables coming from a string bag implies that the product is a complete cooking ingredient. The author proceeds to exploring the overview of the different types of messages, linguistic, denoted, and connoted. Although the connoted message is touched, Barthes mainly focuses on the denoted message. ...

Muhammad essays

Muhammad essays The basic creed of the more than a billion Muslims in the world is La ilaha illa Allah . . . Muhammad rasul Allah. This translates to There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah (Marston 7). Because Muhammad lived recently, compared to the founders of the other major religions, quite a bit is known about his life. Historians cannot figure out the exact date of Muhammads birth, but the common consensus puts it around 570 AD (Phipps 34). His death, on the other hand, is well known to have occurred in 632 AD (Cook 14). Muhammads father died shortly before his birth, so Muhammads mother took him to live with husbands father (Marston 12). Muhammads name means worthy of praise or often praised and was an unfamiliar name in Arabia (Salahi 23). He lived on the Arabian Peninsula, near the Red Sea (Martson 7). He was from the Quraysh. The Quraysh are an Arab tribe said to descend from a nobleman, Fihr ibn Malik, who lived eleven generations before Muhammad (Cook 12). As was common for young children, Muhammad was sent to live with a bedouin, or nomad, woman named Halima (Martson 14). Halima was from one of the poorest tribes, she had no milk for her own child and even her camels were dried up. But when she took in Muhammad both her and her camels began to produce milk (Martson 14). It is also said that one day when Muhammad and one of Halimas children were playing out side, Halimas boy came running up to his mother in terror. Halima went and found Muhammad lying on the ground. And when he came to, he told them that two men in white had taken his heart from his body, washed it clean in a bowl of snow, and replaced it in his body, purified. Then, blessing him, the angelic creatures told him of his future greatness, and then they vanished (Martson 15). Shortly after returning to Mecca Muhammads mother died and then ...

Critique or Develop a Policy Involving Collaborative Practices in Essay

Critique or Develop a Policy Involving Collaborative Practices in Special Education Needs - Essay Example As the report declares the rationale for the present policy is to allow the faster development of students who are gifted and talented as compared to those with normal intelligence and talents. It is an accepted fact that gifted and talented children may find their classes boring if they are treated similarly with the normal children. Moreover, said normal children may not find themselves at par with the gifted and talented thereby resulting to unnecessary conflict which may develop to some psychological disorder like inferiority complex. This paper stresses that a major finding from the study was that third and fourth grade teachers make only minor modifications in the regular curriculum to meet the needs of their high ability/gifted students. This result was the same regardless of the geographic region of the teachers or the type of communities in which they taught. Based on the above it was found out that only minor modifications are made in the regular curriculum to meet the needs of the high ability/gifted students. There appears to be a lack of implementation of the policy. The study is conducted in 2003 & has a copyright up to 2005, which means that although there exists a policy, there is a problem in the implementation of the same as revealed in the study. The advantages of having a collaborative policy is the manifest joint responsibility of the students, the parents, the school authorities and the government through regulation of the schools systems which implements the collaborative policy.

The Glass Ceiling is gone for women Research Paper

The Glass Ceiling is gone for women - Research Paper Example Of course, examples of favoritism in the workplace of some form will likely always take place but suggesting that somehow there has been a secretive, concerted, global conspiracy by immoral companies directed against women is ludicrous. This essay discredits the glass ceiling myth by exploring the arguments by the faction who would support the premise and by introduce perspective and context into the discussion. Before examining the multiple aspects of the imagined wage gap in the workplace between women and men, one undeniable facet should be addressed. This country functions on a capitalistic system. Companies small and large, in every service and industry, have one central objective which is to make money, the more the merrier. Consequently, it is an economic certainty that if a corporation could employ women who would agree to 25 percent less salary than a man to do the same task, as is commonly claimed, they would only hire women. Since this hasn’t occurred either nationa lly or locally, it can be assumed that there exists no gender-based discrepancies in wages, no unspoken scheme to discriminate against females, no glass ceiling. A study which surveyed almost 900 companies of assorted sizes found that approximately half said that it was at least somewhat probable its next CEO would be a woman. Forty years ago this would not have been the case when women, motivated by economic need, began entering the workforce in greater numbers. However, forty years later, after women gradually became more career oriented, they are just as likely to assume the top position in businesses as men, right on schedule. It is only realistic to assume that there was a discrepancy among the genders in holding the upper echelon positions in the early years of the historic role redefinition that began in the early 1970’s. However, â€Å"the rhetoric of the feminist movement in those early years decrying the gap in pay and position has not changed since that time even though that gap has been all but eradicated as a result of the natural evolutionary assimilation process.† (McNutt, 2002). In spite of all evidence to the contrary, the glass ceiling myth continues and has advanced to the point of being broadly thought of and accepted as true, but the circumstances have evolved over the past four decades. According to a national survey, today, a women’s paycheck is about 97 percent the rate their male colleagues receive. The statistic that is usually cited when comparing women’s earnings is they earn only 75 percent of what men are paid. This was ‘substantiated’ by the Women’s Policy Research in conjunction with the AFL-CIO. The cooperative study only included woman aged 50 and older, most of which were not as highly educated as their male colleagues. When today’s young women are in their 50’s, this circumstance will not be the case, in fact, and the opposite will be. â€Å"As opposed to the â⠂¬Ëœdisco era,’ now, the majority of associate, bachelor and master degrees are awarded to women. Forty percent of doctorate degrees are accepted by women. This illustrates again how the times have changed but the arguments supporting the existence of glass ceiling have not† (McNutt, 2002). Other research has shown that women, universally, earn about three-quarters what men receive. Assuming this information is up to date, which

Round Rock High School Essay Example for Free

Round Rock High School Essay A school that has history, this school was established in 1867 and went public in 1888. Looking at RRHS when you first pull up seems like a descent size school with a modest old look. When you drive around the school it is expanded out much like a junior college and has a college feeling. There are 11 buildings on this campus not including their football field, track, marching band pad, baseball field and the amount of parking for both students and staff. Parking is amazing at this school. Plenty of parking for staff and faculty in front of the main building as well as plenty in the back of the building. Student parking is separated from the staff and faculty parking and plenty of it to go around for the students. All parking lots are nicely paved, with proper markings for all cars to park in with no confusion. Neighborhood around the school is a safe environment, no 2nd or 3rd tier living conditions around this school. Sanitation around the school is well kept and no loitering of strangers around the school. Security precautions are pretty normal throughout the school, teachers keeping eyes on the hallways, local police car parked in staff parking lot. However there was no sign of any Police officers on campus. There are security cameras mounted on top of the buildings leading in and out of each building. Outside of new buildings on this campus are all surrounded by windows so it’s pretty easy to see who is coming and going. The vegetation around the school is very lush green and lots of it in every open area there is available. Inside the main campus there is even a patch of green grass in the middle for students to sit on and study if so desire. As for students most students dress pretty casually and up to style, not so much of the sagging pants or hiked up skirts. Pretty decently respectful clothing, however there are a few students that are a little rebellious here and there and wear shirts that show there midriff or holes through out there pants. Most students seem to be very respectful to one another when passing in the hall ways. There isn’t any loitering before school starts in front of the school. Interior of school is very nice and open in main building.  Admissions office is separate from Principle/Administration office. Not very user friendly to navigate around at first and as an observer you blend in with the students so most faculty or staff don’t even notice you, or offer to help. Assistant Principal extremely nice and warm welcoming to visitors, students, staff and faculty, not really up to date on what day the school is on â€Å"A† or â€Å"B† day. RRHS is one of many schools that works off of block scheduling so students are not crammed with so many classes in one day but have longer classes to obtain more information from. The main building is the oldest building on the campus and will probably be the next building to be torn down to be rebuilt for more classes and faculty. The other 10 buildings are pretty well kept and if not new to the school such as buildings 1100, 1000, 500, 700 and maybe another building or two. Windows in all buildings were extremely clean and made you have that nice warm fuzzy feeling of walking into a building that seems to be well taken care of. All hallways from observation seemed to be clutter free, minus the 100’s of students passing by. Decorations were inside protected cases built in the wall mostly for organization and observation appearance. Each building had 2 – 3 sets of bathrooms in them minus the ROTC building who had one set due to the building being strictly for ROTC. Bathroom quality of the male’s latrine was clean, graffiti free and ammonia smelling free. Overall great quality of the interior of the building very impressed with cleanliness. Spanish III AP Stacy Dam/Teacher and Bethany Taylor/Student Teacher was the first class to be observed and from walking in the class seemed well organize d and students seem to know the routine of the class. Upon arrival most students were already in their desks doing their morning exercise for the class. The students were seated in traditional classroom format†¦rows. By the time the tardy bell rang there were two stragglers that walked in from the hallways talking with their friends. These were the guys that were to cool for school, you know the type hats on backwards, sagging pants no books and pretty much unprepared for class. When students walked into class they picked up there hand outs before sitting down along with pens if needed. After about 15 minutes into class everyone stood up for Pledge of Allegiance and Honor Texas Flag. Honor Texas Flag is new since 9/11 and believe Texas is the only state that does this for its public education system. After the Pledge of Allegiance the students were given 30 minutes  to prepare for class to which most students had already done the work or some just wasted time. The teachers did nothing and just spoke to one another not paying any attention to the students. Pretty disappointing to observe, after 30 min. had passed by, the teacher spoke to the class in Spanish and English explaining what they were going to do next. She then wrote a sentence on the board and spent another 15 minutes explaining word by word, grammar and sentence structure. She was very monotone and showed no sense of interest in making the class environment exciting, the students seemed very bored in class. The fluent speakers in class continued on with their gossip as if the teacher didn’t even exist. After observing this class I found it to be a low control low warmth climate due to the lack of rules and discipline in the classroom as well as the lack of teacher involvement in class with the students. The teacher ignored most of what was going on and mostly focused on teaching what she was obligated to do for the day with no disregard to the students that wanted to lea rn. I found that there was a lack of classroom management for the same reasons as the climate. No assertion in rules, no discipline, no rewards, and not trying to get the class out of there cliques to work with others. What I learned from observing this class is to make sure there is always classroom involvement and to communicate with the students. I observed a second Spanish (class level 1) and was blown away from the differences. I did however walk into this class by mislead information from the Assistant Principal telling me this class room was a German class. This class was taught by a Mr. Castillo who had transferred there from Spain. The classroom was very well organized with additional books as extras to those who forgot there materials. Spanish alphabet on the wall, posters from Spanish speaking countries around the room, random vocabulary around the room to catch the student’s interest. Mr. Castillo was yet another monotone teacher, however he had an upbeat attitude at t he same time. He was a very patient teacher with the freshman and there remarks to everything that was taught to them. Most of the students were attentive to the teacher, there were however a few that I saw reading books that had nothing pertaining to their subject. Others were listening to Ipods and lastly there was a food cart that would come by and students would get up in the middle of his lecture to get food. The teacher continued on with his lecture as if  nothing happened and the students that left to buy food would miss out on what he had to say. During the question session of what he had just taught them, most students seem to answer his questions and were praised lightly regardless of their answer. He was very positive with them but had a lack of rules and boundaries for the students. I felt the students took advantage of this and used it to their advantage. When a student had given a wrong answer all students would call this student out and let them know there mistake. The teacher did nothing to stop the students and let the verbal bashing continue. While this continued he continued on with his questioning I believe to bypass the issue and stay on topic or to just ignore the issue still not sure yet. I found this class to be low control high warmth climate due to the praise he would give but lack of rules he would have. The classroom management was better than the previous Spanish class I had attended but could definitely be improved. What I found interesting about this class was no matter how many interruptions the teacher had he seemed to care about the students that were really trying in the class and found ways to continue the motivation. An example of this would be walking up to the student that was paying attention and giving them a smile or a quick pat on the back to show his appreciation. This showed me how much the students responded to these little interactions and learned that if I do this with all students maybe I could have the same outcome for all the students. In conclusion I found this school to be more concerned about appearances than the education that is given to the students. I did observe three other classes but unfortunately don’t have the space to write about them. However they did all pretty much fall in the same manners as the first two.

Watcher Essay -- essays research papers

The Watcher   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This incredible short story is about a little boy named Charlie Bradley, who isn't like all the other kids his age. He was a very sick boy. Charlie had a loving mother who cared for him when he was sick. They seemed to have both one terrible thing in common, a bad chest. The Bradleys did not own a television set, so Charlie had to find different means of entertainment on his long sick days at home. He learned that if he kept quiet and still, the adults would have labeled him to be part of the furniture. On his days home, Charlie received glimpses into the adult world of common topics like misery and scandals. These relations and encounters with the adults had drastically matured Charlie before his time. Later on that year, Mabel Bradley, his mother, was sent to the hospital because the condition of her chest had worsened.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When Charlie's mother got sick, his father took charge of the chores in the house. Charlie did not like his father very much, he described him as '…a desolate, lanky, drooping weed of a man who married late in his life but nevertheless had been easily domesticated.';(3) His mother's sickness and departure seriously afflicted his father. In spite of the fact that Charlie portrays of his father, he was a soft and sentimental man who loved his wife. Once he had the chance to dispose of Charlie, he went to visit his wife in the hospital. Although they are father and son, Charlie does not seem to appreciate the time he spends with him. At the end of the school year, Charlie was shipped off to his grandmother's, Grandma Bradley.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Grandma Bradley was a striking woman. She was six feet tall, strong, hefty and in terrific shape for he age. Charlie's grandmother loved to spend her free time in town playing bridge, canasta or whist. She did not care much for her health and smoked sixty, thin individually rolled cigarettes a day. Grandma Bradley lived on a farm in a two-story house, with two mountainous piles of manure in the abandoned barn out back. She took care of all the families problems. Charlie's cousin Criselda was sent there when she became pregnant and his uncles Ernie and Ed stayed at their mother's to hide from people. His grandmother is not very open-minded and says what's on her mind at any time. For example as soon as Char... ...ft and returned with the police and asked Charlie to tell them what he saw, and replied ' I don't know what he's talking about… I didn't see anybody.'; Charlie was finally in the game and was good at it. No longer a watcher he was a player but Robert Thompson could not appreciate that.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This was an exciting and moving story, which shows us the different characteristics of a young boy. I found Charlie to be dramatic and inspiring in many ways. All the characters played a specific role in the development of the surprise ending. It was a great short story that got me thinking about everyday life and the dilemmas that we would face in the future. 33 s…l belt you. Is that understood?'; (6). She acted like a military officer from the Second World War. Charlie did not like staying on the farm there was never anything fun to do. The one thing Charlie enjoyed doing was, hiding in the corn patches spying on people and eating corn on the hottest days. On her farm she did not have any animals except for chickens. Grandma Bradley openly admitted she enjoyed slaughtering them when the time came. Charlie was fascinated by Stanley the rooster.22

Film “Crash” Essay

The inclusion of the 2006 film â€Å"Crash† in a multicultural psychology class is an interesting way to show that prejudices within certain cultures can develop because they are based on the reality of the situation and that prejudices develop equally within all racial groups. No one group is more or less prone to racial prejudice than any other. â€Å"Crash† is also a study is extremes as virtually every character in the movie presents a view of other races that is based on biases, anger and misconceptions. Unfortunately, two of the scenes in the movie seem to reinforce stereotypes and that was a bit disappointing. The initial scene with Anthony and Peter discussing the stereotypes of being black men in an all white neighborhood and other people shying away from them was impacting and disappointing when it turned out that they two of them were in fact there for nefarious reasons. And, when we discover that Kim Lee’s husband was trafficking in Chinese slaves was also a sad stereotype that made the movie more impacting, but also was a disappointment that the writer resorted to that stereotype. The movie is so full of examples of prejudice that it is hard to determine where the commentary on the racism begins and where it ends. For example, in an early scene, Farhad and Dorri are attempting to buy a handgun from a local gun shop and the store owner immediately assumes that they are Arabs, based on skin color and accent. In a later scene, Dorri is talking with her mother who says, in response to â€Å"raghead† and other slurs spray painted on their store walls, â€Å"they assume we are Muslims when we are Christian†. (Haggis, 2006). The gun store owner reacts with anger assuming that Farhad is a terrorist and attacks him with any number of racial slurs based on his broken English. Farhad assumes that the Caucasian gun store owner was attempting to cheat him and continues with that prejudice later when Daniel arrives to fix the broken lock on the door of his store. One of the saddest commentaries the movie makes on the affects of racism is the scene between Daniel and Farhad, resulting in Farhad’s accusation that Daniel is trying to cheat him. Daniel is one of two characters in the movie who generally is shown as treating people the same regardless of how they treat him. When Jean Cabot has a screaming fit about the fact that she has been robbed at gunpoint by African Americans and that her locksmith is Hispanic, Daniel says nothing, just slams the key on the counter and leaves. He does instigate the attack on Farhad’s store, but that is motivated by the fact that Farhad will not pay him, not by any racial animosity, or at least no animosity that is demonstrated in the movie. Farhad’s daughter Dorri is the only other character whose racial behavior is not offensive. Dorri expressed disappointment at other’s actions towards her father and her father’s actions towards others, but she herself does not exhibit racism. Another interesting study in racism in the movie is in the conversations between Anthony and Peter. At one point, Anthony lectures Peter on the difference between stealing from people outside of the African American community and within the community. He also argues that gangsta rap is a government conspiracy to make the black community fight within itself. Peter shows his racism in his assumption that all country music is a racist plot against African Americans. Later, Peter’s inability to let go of his own joke about the country music costs him his life. In the scene when he is killed, Peter is laughing about the music and virtually picking a fight with the police officer played by Ryan Phillipe who picks him up on a cold night while he is hitchhiking. The officer, Tom Hansen, who has objected to racism over and over throughout the movie to this point, shows his prejudice when Peter says that he wanted to play ice hockey and then get irritated with the way that Peter mocks his music. When Peter finally finds the common ground that could bring them together, a statue of St. Christopher on the dashboard, he fails to come right out and say so. Instead he pulls his own statute out of his pocket. Had he simply spoken instead of taking action, his death could have been avoided. Again, the death is a sad commentary on the way that prejudices develop. When Hansen first encounters racism on the police force, he is offended and wants to be removed from the partner, John Ryan, who was openly racist. Later, Ryan tells him, â€Å"Wait until you lived a little longer† (Haggis, 2006). Ryan’s character is a blatant racist, pulling over the Thayers, a 40-something black couple for no reason other than to screw with them and molest Christine Thayer under the pretense of a search for weapons. Hansen is offended by the way Ryan treats the Thayers and then a night later shoots and kills a black teen, dumps the body and torches his own car to cover the crim. Even the â€Å"good† character is racist in this movie. Ryan explains to the HMO representative Shaniqua why he has developed his racist attitude but does so only after insinuationg that she received her job only because she was a black woman and after insulting her. For her part, Shaniqua could have overcome Ryan’s racism by doing the right thing herself, but because she encountered so much racism over the course of her lifetime, she perpetuated the racism by not doing the right thing and approving additional care for Ryan’s father. Ryan later sort of redeems himself by going into Christine Thayer’s burning car to rescue her after an accident, proving that even a bigot can do the right thing sometimes. In many ways the most disturbing form of racism shown in the movie is that of Jean and Rick Cabot. Jean Cabot explodes in anger after being robbed, attacking her housekeeper for not putting away the dishes from the dishwasher and assuming that her locksmith will sell her house key to gang bangers who will then rob her. By the end of the movie, her attitude is changed when the only one who will come to her rescue is her housekeeper. After getting treatment, she tells her husband that her friend of 10 years wouldn’t come take her to the hospital because she was getting a massage. Her husband and his staff were unavailable and only the housekeeper, whom she had yelled at earlier in the day and was, contemplating firing for no apparent reason, would take care of her. At least her reactions to other races were genuine. More disturbing were the actions of Rick Cabot. He treated all the races as equal stepping stones to his political career. His only question about a hero firefighter was â€Å"Does he look black? † until he learned that the man’s name was Saddam. Then he spent the time yelling at his publicist to find a better way to spin things for him. He allowed his people to offer to fail to prosecute a black detective’s younger brother, peter, for car theft in an effort to add an investigator of color to his inner circle. He ignored evidence that a white cop killed a black cop because the black cop was corrupt, not because the white cop was a racist, which he might have been. The examples of racism in the movie are too frequent to list in a paper. There’s the Puerto Rican/Guatemalan police woman who mocks a Chinese driver for not seeing her â€Å"blake lights† and not being able to see over the steering wheel. Her African American boyfriend tells his mother he’s sleeping with a white woman, explaining to her that it will upset his mother more than saying he’s sleeping with a Mexican. The Chinese woman, Kim Lee, says with authority that Mexicans don’t know how to drive. In a bit part, Tony Danza argues with an African-American television director that his co-star â€Å"sounds less Black† and that his character is supposed to be the smart one. All in all, â€Å"Crash† is an interesting commentary on racism across the culture, showing that many races share the same wrong perceptions of the other races. The movie is one stereotype after another, both coming out of the mouths of the characters, and in the characterization of the people within the movie. However, it is in fact a good way to learn that all cultures make the same mistakes and that they all need to stop making such biased assumptions. WORKS CITED Haggis, Paul. (Writer/Director), 2006, â€Å"Crash† USA: Bull’s Eye Entertainment.