Archives November 2012

Approaching the Essay As a student you will almost certainly have to produce essays during your course. Some will be written during term time and contribute to course work assessment, others will be answers to questions set in formal examinations. An essay is usually defined as a continuous piece of writing ranging in length from at least 500 words to about 5/000 words for a special or extended essay. But this booklet is not just about 'writing' essays, it's about the various stages you need to consider when producing an essay and about the ways in which producing an essay helps you to learn. The time given to each of these stages will of course vary according to the conditions surrounding any particular essay. Let's look at the first stage -which is approaching the essay. Why write essays? If we understand the value of doing something/ it usually helps to more...

Merriam Webster defines objectivity as expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations. Objectivity, as defined by the school of media ethics, means standing so far from the community that you see all events and all viewpoints as equally distant and important, or unimportant for that matter. It is employed by giving equal weight to all viewpoints—or, if not, giving all an interesting twists, within taste. The result is a presentation of facts in a true non-partisan manner, and then standing back to let the reader decide which view is true. By going about it this way, we are defining objectivity not by the way we go about gathering and interpreting the news, but by what we actually put in the paper. It can be measured out by allocating so many lines for this group, and so many lines for that more...

Between-class ability grouping, which is the practice of lumping children together in separate classes according to their talents and ability level/ is ineffective according to many research studies. Research findings claim that, although ability grouping may have slight benefits for students who are assigned to high track classes, these benefits are balanced by losses for students who are assigned to low-tracked classes. Putting students into low-tracked classes is damaging for a few reasons. First, these students are not or are only exposed to a few positive role models. Also, many teachers do not enjoy teaching low tracked classes and have low expectations of their students. Research has also found that lower track classes' quality of instruction is lower than that of middle or high tracked classes. Tracking therefore unfairly creates unequal opportunities for academic achievement. One of the most harmful effects of tracking is the label a student in a more...

Criminology has treated women's role in crime with a large measure of indifference. The intellectual tradition from which criminology derives its conception of these sexes maintains’ esteem for men's autonomy, intelligence and force of character while disdaining women for their weaknesses of compliance and passivity. Women who conform as pure, obedient daughters, wives and mothers benefit men and society. Those women who don't, that is are non-conforming, may simply be one who questions established beliefs or practices, or one who engages in activities associated with men, or one who commits a crime. These women are doubly damned and doubly deviant. They are seen as 'mad' not 'bad'.  These behaviours frequently lead to interpretations of being mentally abnormal and unstable. Those doing the defining, by the very act, are never defined as 'other', but are the norm.  As 'men' are the norm, women are deviant. Women are defined in reference to more...

In today's world, sport stars and other athletes are looked up to by all ages. Everyone loves them. They look great in the eyes of the everyday public. They appear on television; they perform like rock stars and do this with the entire world watching. No wonder we make heroes out of our favourites. They are seen as heroes because they can do hinges that most of us can't. They hit fastballs at 150 kmph, leap at balls in mid air or dely gravity and throw down a dunk. Their words are repeated and broadcasted throughout the world and their faces have appeared on the front of cereal boxes. But if you examine athletes while they're not on the court or on the field, you can see what they are like in every dimension. Athletes have many positive and negative sides that affect their public face and both benefit and more...

The right to live and exist, right to equality including equality before law, non-discrimination on grounds of' religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and equality of opportunity in matters of employment, right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly association movement, residence, right to practice any profession or occupation, right against  exploitation prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour and trafficking in human beings, right to freedom of conscience, practice and propagation of religion and right to legal remedies for enforcement of the above are the basic human rights. These rights and freedoms are the very foundation of democracy. Obviously, in a democracy the maximum number of the freedoms and rights are enjoyed by the people. Besides there are political rights which include to contest an election and to vote freely for a candidate of one's choice. Human rights are a benchmark of developed and civilized society. more...

The HIV virus poses one of the biggest viral threats to human society today. It is contracted through bodily fluids such as blood and semen, and sometimes even saliva and tears. AIDS kills 100% of its victims and puts them through agony before they die. It has been a threat for about 25 years, and it is not going to stop now. In fact, AIDS is just getting started: It consumes more people each year. There is no known treatment for it either, only antibiotics to slow the reproduction of the virus. HIV is passed from one person to another by bodily fluids only. It is usually gotten through sexual intercourse or other intimate contact, through the exchanging of unsterilized intravenous needles, or by the contact of HIV-infected bodily fluids and an open wound. It cannot permeate though intact skin; hence it cannot be spread through informal contact. AIDS has more...

Scout movement originated in Britain in 1908. Sir Baden Powell was its patron. Slowly the movement extended to every civilized country including India. It started as a trial experimental camp in 1907 but the movement spread with speed to almost every part of the world. In 1908, a handbook "Scouting for Boys", was published. Over 1,00,000 scouts served in His Majesty's forces during the First World War and 10,000 gave up their lives. These under age scouts performed public duties; it home like coast-watching. When the war broke out again in 1939 thousands of scouts once more joined the armed forces. During this war, too, those scouts who were under age for active service carried out work of national importance for the government departments and, civil authorities admitted that scouts had rendered particularly good service. Many of them were decorated for gallantry. The principle underlying the Boy Scout movement is more...

I live in Delhi. It has a big railway station. I went to the station to receive my friend. He was coming from Punjab. I bought a platform ticket and went in. My friend's train was late by forty minutes. So, I decided to take a look around. There was a huge crowd on the platform. At the windows of the booking office there were long queues of people. They were buying tickets for their journey. At enquiry window also there was big crowd. The hawkers were shouting at the top of their voice. They were selling food, tea, newspaper etc. Soon, I saw the train coming. My friend came out and he was very happy to see me. We came home in an autorickshaw.

Everybody has some ambition in life. Life without purpose is no life. I have chosen my profession as a doctor. Since my childhood, I was attracted to the medical profession. The profession of a doctor is very noble. In this profession, one feels very much nearer to God. A doctor knows that he only gives treatment; the curing is done by God. It provides great satisfaction, peace and pride to the soul when a doctor cures the patients who have no hope to survive. I shall be proud of my profession.