Effects of Caffeine on Cognitive Performance and Mood essays

Effects of Caffeine on Cognitive Performance and Mood essays There is a wealth of research demonstrating that caffeine can improve aspects of cognitive performance and mood, but few has concluded that caffeine could enhance working memory. This study measured the effects of caffeine on several measures of alertness and cognitive performance, while cognitive performance focused on tasks that need the use of working memory. Forty-eight undergraduates at the University of Hong Kong participated in the study. They were asked to perform in three tasks, i.e. the finger tapping task, forward digit span task and backward digit span task, and were also asked to fill out an alertness questionnaire. The level of alertness and psychomotor speed were significantly increased, but there were no significant differences in the performance of the working memory tasks. Discussion focuses on whether caffeine could really have an effect on cognitive performance or that it only induces effects on certain cognitive tasks. It has been suggested that glucose when comb ined with caffeine would enhance memory, but not when consuming caffeine alone, and this is the area which we find it beneficial to all and worth having further research on. Caffeine is present in many widely consumed drinks, such as coffee, tea or coke; but very few of us would stop and think about its effects on our alertness and cognitive performance. There is now a very large literature on the behavioural effects of caffeine, and it has remained the subject of debate despite the years of research. However, one difficulty faced by researchers trying to determine the effects of caffeine is that the research evidence is always far from consistent. For example, many studies found that consuming caffeine would reduce reaction time comparing with a placebo (e.g. Scholey and Kennedy 2004; Yeomans et al. 2002), but on the other hand, some studies failed to find any effect of caffeine on mood or performance (e.g. Foreman et al. 1989; Smith et al. 1997). T...

Crack Cocaine Facts

Crack Cocaine Facts Crack or crack cocaine is a form of cocaine. It has not been neutralized by an acid to make cocaine hydrochloride, the pure form of the chemical. Crack comes in a rock crystal form that can be heated and inhaled or smoked. It is called crack in reference to the cracking sound it makes when it is heated. Crack cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant. What Does Crack Look Like? Crack looks like irregularly-shaped off-white or white rocks. How Is Crack Cocaine Used? Crack cocaine is almost always smoked or freebased. Freebasing involves heating the crack until it liquefies and inhaling the vapors through a pipe. The vapors are absorbed by the lungs, producing an immediate euphoric high. Why Do People Use Crack Cocaine? Crack is a readily available form of cocaine. Cocaine is used because it produces euphoria, is a stimulant, suppresses appetite, and can be used as a pain reliever. What Are the Effects of Crack Cocaine Use? Users typically feel a rush followed by a sense of alertness and well-being. Cocaine increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and increased movement. The pleasant effects of crack wear off quickly (5-10 minutes), causing users to feel down or depressed, more than before taking the drug. Some users report being unable to duplicate the intensity of the first exposure with subsequent use. What Are the Risks of Using Crack? Crack is highly addictive, possibly even more than other forms of cocaine. Crack users are at risk for the usual effects of cocaine (dangerously elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature, as well as the risk of seizure and cardiac arrest). They are also at increased risk of  respiratory disorders, such as coughing, bleeding, shortness of breath, and lung trauma. Crack use can cause paranoia and aggressiveness. Where Does Crack Cocaine Come From? Crack cocaine is made by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or ammonia. This mixture is boiled, dried, and broken into rock-like chunks. The original cocaine comes from a paste made from the leaves of the South American coca plant. Street Names for Crack Cocaine 24-7BadrockBeat CandyChemical CloudCookies CrumbsCrunch MunchDevil Drug DiceElectric Kool-AidFat BagsFrench FriesGlo GravelGrit HailHardballHard RockHotcakesIce CubeJellybeansNuggetsPastePiecePrime Time ProductRaw Rock(s)ScrabbleSleetSnowCokeTornadoTroop

Leverage and capital structure chapter 13 solutions Essay

Leverage and capital structure chapter 13 solutions - Essay Example Total leverage reflects the combined impact of operating and financial leverage on the firm. High operating leverage and high financial leverage will lead to high total leverage. The following equation explains the relationship between the degree of total leverage and the degrees of both operating and financial leverage. Poor capital structure decisions can result in high cost of capital, thereby lowering the NPVs of projects. On the other hand, effective capital structure decisions can lower the cost of capital leading to higher NPVs thereby increasing the value of the firm. All the items on the right hand side of the balance sheet, excluding current liabilities are sources of capital. The firm’s capital structure directly affects its financial risk, which is the risk to the firm of being unable to cover required financial obligations. The more debt and preferred stock a firm has in its capital structure, the greater its financial leverage and risk. The penalty for not meeting financial obligations is bankruptcy. Managers of firms typically act as agents of owners. The owners give the managers the authority to manage the firm for the owners’ benefit. The agency problem created by this relationship extends to the relationship between owners and lenders. Lenders can control the firm’s risk and protect themselves against adverse effects of the agency problem by including appropriate provisions in loan agreements. On the other hand, firms benefit by obtaining funds at lower costs by agreeing to the financial and operating constraints placed by loan provisions. A signal is a financial action by management that is believed to reflect its view of the firm’s stock value. Generally, debt financing is viewed as a positive signal that management believes the stock is under-valued while a stock issue is viewed as a

American individualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American individualism - Essay Example Individualism becomes part of American culture as it is nurtured in the homes a children grew up. As a child, American children are taught to become independent, both emotionally and economically by their family. This kind of upbringing is observable on how American raise their children. For example, when an American child falls down, the child is encouraged to stand up by himself or herself as a way of teaching individualism. American children are also given their own rooms where they could do anything with it which nurtures individualism beginning at childhood. Individualism is also reinforced by society as the child grows up to become adult. Growing up, an American is often praised for doing things by himself or herself. Material success associated with the achievement of an individual is also glorified in American society. For example, individual success is featured in almost all of its media with all its material attachments making individualism a desirable trait because it is financially rewarding. American society also puts more credit on individual success than collective success. The long held American idealism of freedom which is present in America psyche also equates to individualism that further reinforces individualism. Individualism is continuously practiced in American’s everyday life that make it integral in its culture. Individualism permeates in every sphere of American life cementing it as a value among Americans. This is expressed in many ways in American society. For example, Americans respect individual effort more than collective effort compared to other cultures such as the Thai. American importance towards privacy and of leaving people alone to do their own business is also a manifestation of how individualism permeates and expressed in American’s everyday life. In sum, American individualism becomes part of American

Slackness and more slackness Essay Example for Free

Slackness and more slackness Essay Bob Marleys One Love is heralded as the song of the 20th century. Jamaicans are jubilant about this. We boast of the impact of such songs as Redemption Song in encouraging the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Millions across the world identify with the message in Bob Marleys songs. We agree that music has tremendous power and effect. Isnt this evident in how Jamaica has become known worldwide because of Bob Marleys music? How is it then that the same voices that acknowledge the powerful effect of Marleys music now seek to deny the effect of dancehall artistes such as Vybz Kartels lyrics on the minds and subsequent behaviour of those who listen to them? Dancehall has moved from the space that reggae occupies, in its promotion of social and political consciousness, to the elevation and advancement of slackness. This affects our youth in a negative fashion. Dancehall is not just the music, but it is a culture which impacts dress, fashion and body language; it influences attitude. Dancehall dress leaves little of the womens bodies to the imagination. It is this mindset that is now affecting so many of our young people in school. They are following the dancehall culture of badmanism, hottie girls, nuff girls, nuff skin and body parts exposed, nuff slackness, public wining and grinding, bling and more bling, and every thing else that the culture promotes. PARENTS ALSO MORE DULGING There are parents who are indulging in this dancehall lifestyle and who, therefore, cannot guide their children to lead moral, self-disciplined lives. The children and the parents are now both indulging in the dancehall slackness. We see the effect of this in our schools. We see it when little children are taken to Passa Passa and adults delight in watching them wining and grinding their undeveloped hips in imitation of their slackness. Before these children can begin to know what innocence is, they have lost it. Their innocence has been aborted. This exposure to unbridled slackness from an early age has ensured that we produce a generation whose morality has been warped from the beginning. They will now believe that this slack and loose behaviour is the norm. WOMEN AS SEX OBJECTS We add slackness to slackness when the songs played on the sound systems and the images portrayed in the music videos all promote women as sex machines. These women represent themselves merely as objects of sex as is made clear by how they dress and by the sex-simulating gyrations they indulge in, which are termed dancing, with bottoms bouncing and going round like gigs and pelvic thrusts emphasising their genital areas. With such a constant diet being fed to the senses of the young, how can their consciousness develop in an innocent, childlike way? Add to these stimuli, the images of upstanding Jamaicans wining and grinding on the roads during carnival; women sandwiched by men from behind and before; women and men of all shapes and sizes, some totally unknown to each other, wearing the barest of coverings, indulging in unrestrained sexual conduct on the streets with the media promoting and covering it, with hordes of police (including high-ranking police officers) guiding the train. What are we saying to our young? We are saying that slackness is acceptable, that sexual behaviour is not a private matter; that sex can be practised publicly with societys approval. Why, then, are we shocked when our schoolchildren display this same type of behaviour on the streets, at the transportation hubs, on the buses, on the school grounds? Why are we shocked when they want their sex acts to be video-taped and published? Children live what they learn. They have simply taken a step further what they have been taught by the big people, the adults, around them. We are simply reaping what we have sown. This is what some young teenagers say about the impact of dancehall on their behaviour: It makes me break out of my little shell. I am an innocent girl and dancehall music breaks that barrier. It makes you feel all gangsterish and cool. And the music teaches you how to dress. The lyrics are influential. They tell you to walk roun, smoke weed and buss gun. Many people, children in particular, look up to some of the artistes who feature these lyrics in their songs and they actually do some of these things because they feel that if their favourite artiste is doing it and they are hip and admired, then why not do it too. Hence, dancehall music is influential, not only to me, but to the wider society. I have stopped listening to dancehall music now and thats good because it had such a negative influence on me. At one point, I found myself acting in the way that the songs portray a hot girl should be.

First World War Poetry Essays -- The Great War Poems Poetry Literature

First World War Poetry ".......Above all I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity." -Wilfred Owen. The First World War, or The Great War, was fought over the period August 1914 to November 1918. Although this was fought in many locations, and on a number of continents, the Western Front was the scene of some of the most important and bloodiest battles of the War. The Western Front was a series of trenches running through Belgium and France that formed the front line between the Allied and German forces. Many of the WW1 poets saw action on the Western Front. The War was dehumanising and it brought home how quickly and easily mankind could be reduced to a state lower than animals. The First World War, with its mass volunteers and conscription of educated, non-professional soldiers, saw the appearance of a new phenomenon - the soldier-poet. For the first time, war poetry appeared designed to educate its audience to the horrors of war. The First World War provides a unique moment in the twentieth-century in which literate soldiers, plunged into inhuman conditions, reacted to their surroundings by writing poetry. In fact, as subsequent years have proved, those poems have gone on to give a vision of this historical event to the public which otherwise would probably have gone unknown since it was a period of time when there was no reporting as we know it, in terms of front line war correspondents for newspapers, radio or television. Rupert Brooke Brooke was born in 1887 at Rugby where his father was a housemaster. One of the many ironies of the war is that Rupert Brooke is remembered as a war poet because his actual war experience consis... ...because it only addresses the poet’s feelings of personal loss. It has similarities in tone to both The Soldier and In Flanders Fields because of its romantic nature. It is not at all alike Dulce et Decorum Est since that is purely relating to the horrors of War and Vera Brittain doesn’t directly discuss the issue of war in her poem at all and unless the reader knew she had lost someone in WW1 she might have been writing about the loss of anyone close to her who had died under any circumstance. My Favourite Poem I prefer Perhaps of all the poems because it is beautifully written and is very touching. When I read the poem for the first time I was genuinely affected by what she said and the way she said it. I could see the imagery in her words and feel her pain at the loss of her fiancà ©e. It is a sad poem but the words themselves are very beautiful. First World War Poetry Essays -- The Great War Poems Poetry Literature First World War Poetry ".......Above all I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity." -Wilfred Owen. The First World War, or The Great War, was fought over the period August 1914 to November 1918. Although this was fought in many locations, and on a number of continents, the Western Front was the scene of some of the most important and bloodiest battles of the War. The Western Front was a series of trenches running through Belgium and France that formed the front line between the Allied and German forces. Many of the WW1 poets saw action on the Western Front. The War was dehumanising and it brought home how quickly and easily mankind could be reduced to a state lower than animals. The First World War, with its mass volunteers and conscription of educated, non-professional soldiers, saw the appearance of a new phenomenon - the soldier-poet. For the first time, war poetry appeared designed to educate its audience to the horrors of war. The First World War provides a unique moment in the twentieth-century in which literate soldiers, plunged into inhuman conditions, reacted to their surroundings by writing poetry. In fact, as subsequent years have proved, those poems have gone on to give a vision of this historical event to the public which otherwise would probably have gone unknown since it was a period of time when there was no reporting as we know it, in terms of front line war correspondents for newspapers, radio or television. Rupert Brooke Brooke was born in 1887 at Rugby where his father was a housemaster. One of the many ironies of the war is that Rupert Brooke is remembered as a war poet because his actual war experience consis... ...because it only addresses the poet’s feelings of personal loss. It has similarities in tone to both The Soldier and In Flanders Fields because of its romantic nature. It is not at all alike Dulce et Decorum Est since that is purely relating to the horrors of War and Vera Brittain doesn’t directly discuss the issue of war in her poem at all and unless the reader knew she had lost someone in WW1 she might have been writing about the loss of anyone close to her who had died under any circumstance. My Favourite Poem I prefer Perhaps of all the poems because it is beautifully written and is very touching. When I read the poem for the first time I was genuinely affected by what she said and the way she said it. I could see the imagery in her words and feel her pain at the loss of her fiancà ©e. It is a sad poem but the words themselves are very beautiful.

First Day of High School Essay

Walking into a brand new school for the first time with a bundle of happiness and a twisted knot in your stomach indicating just how nervous you really are, sure is a way to start your first day of high school. It is natural on the part of every student to remember the first day at school. Recently, I just became a 9th grader. I remember the day as a unclear haze, that resembled a impossible puzzle to complete. The night before was spent with stories of high school back in the last couple decades or so. Ever so often was an, â€Å"Oh you’ll blend in,† â€Å"You’ve grown so much,† and â€Å"I cannot believe you’re already in high school.† Eventually the praise died down and it was time to climb into bed. The first thing I came to realize was a large building pacted tightly together within a compound wall. As small as I am, i couldn’t not seem to put the puzzle pieces together but luckily a map became my bestfriend. The schedule was confusing at first, since it was a long summertime before I had last read one. Nothing felt stable or ordered, everything seemed like it was going to be chaotic any minute. A few seconds later the bell rang, as I thought to myself how much I did not ever recall a harsh stop and ponder during the summer about miss the bell itself. The pattern went throughout the day as a class began, and after a long period a bell ended the period and began a new class. This went on for what felt like years. I walked through the halls and tried to categorize exactly what type of people I would be dealing with and I’ve realized the fact high school is anything but the type of events they describe in movies. Everyone seemed to fit each category perfectly, however it wasn’t quite the match. These faces appeared more normal and friendly. I remember my imagination of what high school was like when I was younger. I was just dying to experience all the new and exciting things that awaited me. From sports to boys to all the partying, I just wanted to know what everything was like and now that I’m finally here, I feel like I want to go back to when I was younger and not wish to grow up so much. As time goes on you find yourself getting to class earlier and earlier each day. Finding new routes, talking a little more, taking more time between  classes and the tension eases. The days do not get harder, but the work and study habits do. Later days of the school year are always easier then the first few. Some say that â€Å"high school was the best time of my life†, just like others say that high school was the worst time in their lives. To be honest, I am not sure which category I fall into yet. I’ve had a good start but I know high school won’t be picture perfect for me. The only thing I can say is that I am learning.

Female Foeticide: Death Before Birth Essay

It has been six long decades since India gained independence but many Indians are still trapped in age-old traditional beliefs. Here, ‘old beliefs’ imply the mindset of people who still find themselves in the trap of girl-boy inequality. The ‘liberal’ Indian society has failed to transform the other orthodox India. No doubt India is advancing at a fast pace in the field of science and technology, and also in aping of the western culture, but if we look at the grass root level, the picture is not so rosy; it is rather a dark, especially when it comes to how we treat the fairer sex. The status of females in India aptly symbolizes India’s status of being a developing nation – miles away from becoming a developed state. Of course, India deserves to be in this list because here, in this 21st century, the girl child continues to be murdered before she is born. Female foeticide is still prevalent in the Indian society, in fact, it has been a practice for hundreds of years. Narrow-minded people do not mind murdering their unborn daughters for the fear of giving huge amounts of dowry at the time of her marriage. Such people, whenever they discover they are going to have a girl child (through illegal sex selection tests), get the foetus aborted. Else they would continue to reproduce till they get a male heir. When price rise is already taking a toll on the standard of living, is it necessary to go in for more than two children irrespective of their gender? Many families put pressure on women to give birth to boy so that he can take family’s name forward, light the funeral pyre and be the bread earner of the family. But these days, are girls less competent than boys? Just look at the results of Board exams or any other competitive exams, girls mostly outshine boys. Women empowerment has led to inundation of females excelling in the corporate world, engineering and medical professions. Sadly, there have been numerous incidents of the foetus being found lying in farms, floating in rivers, wrapped up in jute bags etc. India’s major social problem is the intentional killing of the girl child. The struggle for a girl child starts the day her existence is known in her mother’s womb. The fear and struggle to survive swallow most of the girl’s life even if she is ‘allowed’ to live in this cruel world. In India, the girl child is considered a burden as huge amounts of money, gold and other items need to be given in the form of dowry when she gets married. Dowry is not the only reason for poor couple to abort their girl child. The ages old traditions, customs and beliefs of the Indian society are largely responsible for creating a negative mindset among the couples. More shocking is the fact that the sinful crime of female foeticide is not only common in rural areas where social discrimination against women, lack of proper education etc. ca n be considered as reasons behind carrying out such acts, but also the ultra modern, so-called ‘educated’ people living in urban areas and metropolitan cities who are a step ahead in killing the girl child in the womb. The truth behind this crime has been brought into light several times by the print and electronic media. But, it has failed to melt the hearts and minds of those who remain unaffected by the consequences of the grave sin they are committing. The matter was discussed in length and breadth in the inaugural episode of the show ‘Satyamave Jayate’ anchored by Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. The show has once again ignited the spirited discussion on the female foeticide in the country. That episode had mothers from different parts of rural and urban India talking about the pressure and the problems they faced for delivering a girl child. Although the show is doing really well and has already garnered positive reviews from the audiences, we will have to wait and see whether the impact will remain even after the programme stops beaming into our drawing rooms every Sunday. The emotional connect which the show has successfully created should be strong enough to stop the killing of the girl child before being born. If we look at the figures of sex ratio in India, according to the 2011 Census, the number of girls stands at 940 which is a marginal increase from 933 in 2001. Not surprisingly, Haryana has the lowest sex ratio among the states while Kerala remains at the top with the highest sex ratio. In the national capital Delhi, the statistics stand at 821 girls against 1000 boys in 2001 compared to 866 in 2011. According to the statistics, nearly 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in the country over the past two decades. Of the 12 million girls born in India, one million do not see their first birthdays. As a result, human trafficking has become common in various states of India where teenage girls are being sold for cheap money by poor families. The girls are treated as sex objects and more than half of such cases go unreported. The United Nations’ World Population Fund indicated that India has one of the highest sex imbalances in the world. Not surprisingly, demographers warn that there will be a shortage of brides in the next 20 years because of the adverse juvenile sex ratio, combined with an overall decline in fertility. With the advent of technology, ultrasound techniques gained widespread use in India during the 1990s. It resulted in the foetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by medical professionals. Recently, incidences of female foeticide were reported from Beed district in Maharashtra where women used to come to a doctor’s clinic to get their female child aborted for Rs 2000. Just think for a moment about the doctor’s connivance in this illegal act. Doctors, whose aim is to save the lives of people, happily kill the foetus for a meagre two thousand bucks! And more heart wrenching is the fact that the aborted foetuses were very often fed to dogs. The above mentioned case is not the only one of such heart wrenching heinous crimes. There are thousands of such clinics where illegal activities are carried out on a daily basis and in some cases, in connivance with politicians and police men. The life transition from a female foetus to a school going girl to a caring woman is never an easy task for the fairer sex. She has to face challenges at every step of her life. Daily, there is news related to rape, sexual harassment, molestation, verbal abuse, torture, exploitation. She has to fight against gender indiscrimination, inequality, and hundreds of social norms are tagged with her the day she puts her steps outside her home. In most of the cases, women abort their female child involuntarily when they succumb to family pressures. The in-laws’ illogical demand/ desire for a boy preference makes the life of women hell. Sometimes, she is left by her husband if she is unable to give birth to a child and worse happens when she conceives a girl child. Ironically, it all happens in a country where the girl is seen as an incarnation of Goddess ‘Laxmi’. True, many families are out of bounds in joy when a girl child is born in their family. They think she will bring luck, harmony, happiness and peace in their family. They even touch her feet to seek her blessings. Many childless couples even adopt a girl child irrespective of the worries of her future (mainly marriage). In such a grim scenario, it’s really difficult to digest the harsh reality of the differences between a boy and a girl. India has a deeply rooted patriarchal attitude to which even the doctors and the women, who in spite of being the victims, unthinkingly subscribe. There is an urgent need of undoing the historical and traditional wrongs of a gendered society; only then the hope of abolition of female infanticide and boy preference can positively adjust the figures in favour of the girl child in future. The skewed sex ratio has to find a balance in order to maintain the progress of the country.

Lester Beall essays

Lester Beall essays Lester Beall was one of the most prolific and influential designers of the early to mid-twentieth century. Philip Meggs in his A History of Graphic Design, credits Beall with "almost single-handedly launching the Modern movement in American design." He changed the way graphic design was perceived by people both involved in and outside of the profession. Beall felt that designing something simply to make it visually appealing was j ust not good enough; that design had the higher purpose of being a means to an end, an instrument of communication. He was quoted as saying that the designer "must work with one goal in mind-to integrate the elements in such a manner that they will combine to produce a result that will convey not merely a static commercial message, but an emotional reaction as well. If we can produce the kind of art which harnesses the power of the human instinct for that harmony of form, beauty and cleanness that seems inevitable when you see it... then I think we may be doing a job for our clients." He graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelors degree in Art History, but as a designer, he was mostly self taught. The influence of European Avant Garde and Bauhaus artists and designers such as Herbert Bayer, El Lissitzky, and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy is obvious in the bright, flat colors and dynamic placement of geometric elements seen in most of his work. This philosophy is most evident in the series of posters Beall did for the U. S. government between 1937 and 1941, especially those for the Rural Electrification Administration, which were designed to encourage rural residents to electrify their homes. The posters display examples of the basic needs of daily rural life, such as light, running water for laundry, farm work, and radio communication stated simply and quietly in slab typefaces and represented by a silhouetted graphic image. This would usually be depicted resting on a flat horizon with brigh...

Definition and Examples of Echo Utterances in English

Definition and Examples of Echo Utterances in English An echo utterance is  speech that repeats, in whole or in part, what has just been said by another speaker. Sometimes called simply echo. An  echo utterance, says  Ãƒâ€œscar Garcà ­a Agustà ­n, isnt necessarily an utterance attributable to a specific person; it can refer to a group of people or even to popular wisdom (Sociology of Discourse, 2015).  A direct question that repeats part or all of something which someone else has just said is called an echo question. Examples and Observations Claire Dunphy: All right, everybody back to work!Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: Everybody back to work!Claire Dunphy: I just said that.Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: And I co-said it.(Julie Bowen and Sofà ­a Vergara, Dance Dance Revelation. Modern Family, 2010) Olivia: If the temperature is dropping, this mess could freeze up. We got to get outta here.Cassie: We got to get out of here.Olivia: I just said that. Where are you going?Cassie: If the temperature is dropping, this mess could freeze up.Olivia: I just said that.Cassie: We got to get out of here.Olivia: I just said that!(Marsha A. Jackson, Sisters. The National Black Drama Anthology, ed. by Woodie King. Applause Theater Books, 1995) Echo Utterances and Meanings We repeat one another. This is how we learn to talk. We repeat one another, and we repeat ourselves. An  echo utterance is a type of spoken language that repeats, in whole or in part, whats just been said by another speaker, often with contrasting, ironic, or contradictory meaning. How old are you, Bob asks.Nineteen, Gigi says.He says nothing, as this does not deserve the courtesy of response.Seventeen, she says.Seventeen?Well, not quite, she says. Sixteen until I get to my next birthday.Sixteen? Bob asks. SIX-teen?Well, maybe not exactly, she says. (Jane Vandenburgh,  Architecture of the Novel: A Writers Handbook. Counterpoint, 2010) Echo Utterances and Attitudes Wolfram Bublitz, Neal R. Norrick,  A phenomenon that is not extra communicative and still represents hardly an instance of metacommunication is the so-called  echo-utterance, where the speaker echoes the preceding speaker by repeating some linguistic material yet giving a specific turn to it . . ..  Echo statements such as in the following example  usually just convey attitudes toward the propositional state of affairs quoted/echoed. He: Its a lovely day for a picnic.[They go for a picnic and it rains.]She: (sarcastically) Its a lovely day for a picnic, indeed.(Sperber and Wilson, 1986: 239) (Axel Hà ¼bler, Metapragmatics. Foundations of Pragmatics, ed. by  Wolfram Bublitz et al. Walter de Gruyter, 2011) The Fifth Type of Sentence The traditional classification of major sentences recognizes statements, questions, commands . . . and exclamations. But there is a fifth type of sentence, used only in dialogue, whose function is to confirm, question, or clarify what the previous speaker has just said. This is the echo utterance.Echo utterance structure reflects that of the preceding sentence, which it repeats in whole or in part. All types of sentences can be echoes. StatementsA: John didnt like the filmB: He didnt what?Questions:A: Have you got my knife?B: Have I got your wife?!Directives:A: Sit down here.B: Down there?Exclamations:A: What a lovely day!B: What a lovely day, indeed! Usage Echoes sometimes sound impolite unless accompanied by an apologetic softening phrase, such as Im sorry or I beg your pardon. This is most noticeable with the question What did you say?  often shortened to What? Dont say what, say pardon is a common parental plea to children.(David Crystal, Rediscover Grammar. Pearson Longman, 2004) Read More Broken-Record ResponseConversation AnalysisRepetitionSpeech ActUtterance

Apply Design Guidelines to Human-Computer Interaction Methods Essay - 1

Apply Design Guidelines to Human-Computer Interaction Methods - Essay Example The information herein is usually tipped on the interface through the use icons while others are contained in the menu among other features. Nonetheless, the contextual texts help in facilitating to explain controls, functions, and processes. Additionally, the web design shall employ the use of icon, menu, and tooltips to help the user interact effectively and conveniently with the user. Moreover, there will be the use of hyperlinks to link users to others related information. Finally, there will be the use of the system message to inform the user of the system state at any point of the work or the error conditions that may be made in the entry boxes. It should be noted that the design will employ the hypertext since the application and usability website to be designed will be used everywhere around the globe that will also engulf hypertext markup language. There are numerous online Documentations, and the commonly used online documentation is the online help. Regardless of the interface designing, some help facilities are often considered and incorporated into the design. The commonly used help methods that shall be incorporated in the web design include that contextual help, procedural help, referential help, and the conceptual help. Notably, these helper methods are top deployed since they are highly compatible with the Microsoft that may users are likely to use in using the website designed. In addition, each of these helpful resources has a distinct format that must be incorporated as well as spelling the how the text contained in each should be written. Furthermore, their formats often range from short phrases to lengthy explanation depending on the text help method in use. As had been mentioned, the Hypertext often serves two vital roles in defining the protocols that help in defining the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) (Heim, 2008) and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) both of which play significant roles  in the functionality and usability of the World Wide Web.