Bilingual Education vs English Immersion Programs :: essays research papers

Bilingual Education vs English Immersion Programs Bilingual Education is defined as any school program that uses two languages. In a more theoretical sense it is any educational program whose ultimate goal is for the participants to be fully versed in all facets of both languages (i.e., able to listen, speak , read, and write in both languages). The definition of a coordinated, developmental bilingual approach has emphasized the goal of being equally fluid in both languages. Realistically, this has not been the goal for most K-12 bilingual schools in the United States. More commonly in the United States we are using the words â€Å"bilingual program† to describe a program that will provide literacy and content in the primary language, while building English fluency, to the point where all instruction will occur in English. These programs are label transitional bilingual programs as their ultimate goal is to transition all students into an English only learning arena. One of the down sides of these programs is that they are no t maintenance (development)bilingual programs which are designed to preserve and develop student’s primary language while they acquire English as a second language. Bilingual Program Models All bilingual program models use the students' home language, in addition to English, for instruction. These programs are most easily implemented in districts with a large number of students from the same language background. Students in bilingual programs are grouped according to their first language, and teachers must be proficient in both English and the students' home language. Early-exit bilingual programs are designed to help children acquire the English skills required to succeed in an English-only mainstream classroom. These programs provide some initial instruction in the students' first language, primarily for the introduction of reading, but also for clarification. Instruction in the first language is phased out rapidly, with most students mainstreamed by the end of first or sec ond grade. The choice of an early-exit model may reflect community or parental preference, or it may be the only bilingual program option available in districts with a limited number of bilingual teachers. Late-exit programs differ from early-exit programs primarily in the amount and duration that English is used for instruction as well as the length of time students are to participate in each program (Ramirez, Yuen, & Ramey, 1991). Students remain in late-exit programs throughout elementary school and continue to receive 40% or more of their instruction in their first language, even when they have been reclassified as fluent-English-proficient.

Plato & Medea :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In ancient Greece women were viewed as many things. They were not viewed as equivalent to males by any means. Women were portrayed usually as submissive domestic, and controlled. They played supporting or secondary roles in life to men, who tended to be demanding of their wives, but expected them to adhere to their wishes. In the tragedy Medea, written by Euripides, Medea plays the major role in this story, unlike most Greek stories with women playing only minor roles, but she also demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any other Greek women. In Euripides’ Medea the main character, Medea, Displays many traits that breakdown traditional Athenian misogyny by displaying her as proactive in taking her revenge, having cruel and savage passions, and being a very manipulative women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Medea shows herself to be a proactive, determined woman who is ready to do what she has been planning throughout the story. In the begging of the book she starts to threaten revenge on her husband, Jason, â€Å"If I can find the means or devise to pay my husband back for what he has done to me†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (pg 9). Medea is just touching on her anger that she has built up within her for her husband. The traditional Athenian women would be mourning the loss of her husband, and may feel angry with him but would never swear to revenge him for his doings, and lastly actually do them. Women are usually portrayed in this situation being so dependent on their husbands that they will still do anything for him as so he will continue to help support the children and possibly his ex-wife.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Medea when she decides it is time for her to kill her children struggles with the idea for a minute, â€Å"†¦do not be a coward, do not think of them, and how you are their mother†¦Oh I am an unhappy women.†(Pg 40). This is how a traditional Athenian woman would think, but she would be unable to commit to her plans and kill her own children. Medea on the other hand lets her passion and hatred for Jason take over her reasonable and straight thinking self, as she kills her own children while listening to them pray to God for help.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Medea’s cruel and savage passions take overtake her reasoning as the story proceeds. Medea’s views differ of that of the traditional Athenian women in that, Medea believes that â€Å"†¦women, though most helpless in doing good deeds, are of every evil the cleverest contrives.

Should Divorced Parents Remarry?

OUTLINE I. Introduction Thesis statement: divorced parents should not remarry for the following reasons. II. Body A. Divorced parents remarry which will have negative impacts on their children 1. Children will be placed in a complex situation. 2. Parents’ remarriage will give children pernicious influences on their behavior and study. B. Divorced parents will face complex relationships when they remarry 1. Stepparents will get into troubles with stepchildren. 2. Stepparents have to face unresolved issues related to the first marriage. C.Counterargument and refutation. 1. Counterargument. a. Children might have a perfect family with both mother and father which help them mature. b. New spouses in stepfamilies may have strong and harmonious marital relationship. 2. Refutation. a. Remarriage has negative effects on children. b. There are many conflicts happening in stepfamily. III. Conclusion Because of the above reasons, it is better for divorced parents not to remarry. Should d ivorced parents remarry? Remarriage of divorced parents is always a controversial issue in our modern society.Some of divorced parents choose remarriage as another chance or hope with a new family while many others decide to become a single parent. As making the decision to remarry, divorced parents have to choose a new partner who is suitable not only for them but for their children as well. Havemann and Lehtinen (1990) quoted a sociologist, ‘the difficulty which remarried family must wrestle may be tremendous’ (p. 280). Divorced parents can get into big troubles which people in first marriages will never foresee.In our opinion, divorced parent should not remarry for some rationales. Firstly, divorced parent remarriage is mainly responsible for children’s stress, depression, severe behaviors and bad schoolwork. Children not only can be the unwitting victim of a network of jealous and angry people but also suffer from conflict of loyalty. A study cited by Lutz (a s cited in Strong, Devault & Sayad, 1998) showed that many children felt stressful and worried because they were put in difficult predicaments. For example, a teenage girl felt heavily stressed.Although she lived with her mother and stepfather, she had to spend her weekends with her maternal grandparents and her paternal grandparents. She was always asked to report what happened at the other place and guard secret about it (R. H. Lauer & J. C. Lauer, 2007). Moreover, Visher and Visher (as cited in Devault et al. , 1998) see that many children in the stepfamilies who suffer the conflict of loyalties and loss of love from their parents can be in a state of great anxiety, confusion and they could behave unpredictably.In addition, according to Wallerstein and Kelly (as cited in Schwartz & Scott, 1994), remarriages of divorced parents not only cause children’s tension but also affect their study. The boys, for instance, had negative attitudes and did not concentrate on study in sc hool because their father and stepmother refused to send their biological mother money (Havemann & Letinen, 1990). Secondly, remarried parents will face stepchildren’s disputation and unresolved issues related to the first marriage.Children at any age tend to oppose and begrudge their stepparent, a newcomer in their family (Lauer & Lauer, 2007). In fact, they usually show their distrust, suspect, and resentment toward their stepparent. Even when stepmother try her best to be closed to stepchildren and satisfy their needs, the stepchildren still do not accept her as their real mother since they think that she is trying to replace their biological mother (DeVault, Sayad & Strong, 1998). By any cost, children try to â€Å"drive a stepparent out of the home† (Havemann & Lehtinen, 1990, p. 82). As a result, remarriages indeed have been devastated and disrupted by teenage stepchildren (Havemann & Lehtinen, 1990). Besides, not only stepchildren but also ex-spouses can be a co mplicated problem with remarried couples. Especially, former marital habits have a negative impact on the rapport between new spouses (Schwartz & Scott, 1994). A woman in her 30s, for example, told some troubles about her remarriage. Her husband bought her a nice nightgown, however he had a ritual of buying small size which fit his ex-wife but it did not fit her.Similarly, she also had a mistake that she called her current husband by her ex-partner’s name (Havemann & Letinen, 1990). In addition, keeping in touch with ex-spouses is inevitable. For instance, Sager and his associates reported that Mrs. Prince was annoyed because her husband has some calls continuously with his ex-wife many times a day for problems involving his biological children (Lauer & Lauer, 2007). Opposing people may claim that divorced parent remarriages may help the children to recover from emotional trauma of their parent’s divorce.Furthermore, on account of becoming older and more experienced th an in the first marriages, new spouses in stepfamilies might have strong and harmonious marital relationship. However, as stated previously, parent remarriages put the children in a problematic position and cause their emotional troubles. For stepdaughters, both Hetherington and Joshua Fischman (as cited in Schwartz & Scott, 1994) found that they experience more depression and have more negative behaviors.Besides, there are many conflicts happening in a stepfamily, which affects new spouses’ harmony like stepchildren’s disagreement and relationships with ex-spouses. Children’s behaviors have negative effects on the marital rapport, namely they act against stepparents and make a resentful atmosphere (Schwartz & Scott, 1994). Furthermore, stepsibling relationship is also one of the biggest problems in stepfamily because it can lead to stepsibling rivalry (Schwartz & Scott, 1994).As a result of such disharmony, â€Å"it is often difficult for remarried family to f eel like a real family† (Schwartz & Scott, 1994, p. 389). In conclusion, complicated problems with stepchildren and ex-spouse and negative impacts on children are two most severe issues in remarriage. Both the quality of the marital relationship and the stability in remarriage are poor. The statistics indicate that divorce people who remarry have a higher divorce rate than those in first marriages (Schwartz & Scott, 1994).Therefore, to our view, it is better for divorced parents not to remarry, which benefits both them and their children. Words: 852 * References DeVault, C. , Sayad, B. W. , & Strong, B. (1998). The marriage and family experience (7th ed. ). Belmont, Wadsworth publishing company. Havemann, E. & Lehtinen, M. (1990). Marriages and families (2nd ed. ). Englewood cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lauer, R. H. & Lauer, J. C. (2007). Marriage & family (6th ed. ). New York: Phillip A. Butcher. Schwartz, M. A. & Scott, B. M. (1994). Marriages & families. Englewood cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Need Motivation Enter a Writing Contest

Need Motivation Enter a Writing Contest The most assiduous writer comes face to face with writers block occasionally. The hand tires of embellishing the 59th promotional copy for Kirks Paving and Tiling Solutions Ltd, the soul wearies of deconstructing the 16th time Joe Hero battles sundry demons. Creative juices dry up, creative muses leave the building, inspiration imitates a certain 1985 DeLorean and vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving behind only the dusty smoldering ashes of a burned-out freelancer or novelist. So you seek a jump-start. Because you are a writer, and write you must. Disregard everything vague youve ever heard about writing competitions. Oh, tts just a lottery . . . mumble . . . Â  mumble . . . What? Dont let the fear of scams and swindlers hold you back. Not all contests are created the same. As long as youve done your homework Here are seven solid reasons why participating in a writing contest could be the smartest move you make for your freelance career this year: 1. That winning feeling . . . is such a confidence booster! The high you get when your work is acknowledged to be better than others is a kick like no other. Drugs couldnt do it justice. Its like orgasming on words. Reluctant to approach that high-profile agent with your debut manuscript? To hell with hesitation! Drunk on your contest success, you can achieve anything. 2. The tangible benefits . . . include cold hard cash, certificates, trophies and merchandise. That fresh brew definitely smells and tastes better in your new winners coffee mug. 3. The reverberations . . . can range from a hooked agent and a baited publisher, to a public reading, a slew of interested offers of representation, an invitation to a residency, a place on a coveted workshop or course program, an interview on the local radio show, and ultimately a shiny new book on the shelf with your name on it. The effects of winning a contest can be far-reaching and long-lasting. That writers conference youve been requested to attend as a finalist? Guess who will be first in line to pitch their new book to a host of agents and publishers also in attendance? You, thats who. 4. The street cred . . . establishes your bonafides irrevocably. Call it platform or portfolio, you earn the title of serious writer. You increase readership, build relationships, gain prestige. A glowing testimonial from an impressed editor can add stars to your limelight. An eager advertiser keen to give you his dollars can raise your game to a whole new business stratosphere. More exposure equals more sales. 5. The practical advantages . . . are not far behind. Submitting exclusively to a contest at a time allows you to rest a piece, and review it with fresh eyes later and make improvements. Working under a tight deadline, to a strict word limit, can hone your self-editing skills to a fine razor-edge, allowing you to cull words and cauterize verbiage at a moments notice. Â  All that practice makes perfect. Save on hiring editing services much? 6. The feedback . . . from judges can be invaluable. You can revise a short story all the way into a novel. A well-analyzed critique from a respected and experienced doyen of the literary industry is worth its weight in entry fees. 7. The motivation . . . obligingly returns. Ideas come flocking back in droves when youre presented with a theme, prompt or topical challenge. Writers block, begone! So the next time you feel like putting up an Out of Order sign on your minds doorstep and fleeing the whole sorry scene, stop writing. Start competing instead.

Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store

Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store Some writers find that producing authentic-sounding dialogue comes naturally to them. For a much larger majority, however, mastering the art of dialogue is something that takes a lot of time, effort and experimentation. Even if you find it easy to write passages of dialogue, that doesn’t mean that you’re getting it right. There’s more to mastering dialogue than being able to fill page after page with your characters’ conversations. That’s a lesson that I learned the hard way. I wasn’t fazed by writing dialogue - in fact, I actually enjoyed it - but I didn’t get the balance right, and my writing suffered as a result. My first novels and short stories were full of long passages of, well, meaningless dialogue that didn’t really move the story along. When I went back, several years later, to rewrite those initial books, I cut one manuscript from 120,000 words to 89,000 words, just by tightening up my dialogue. In this article, part of a series on developing and strengthening your writing techniques, we’re going to be looking at 3 of the common dialogue mistakes that writers make and discovering how you can master the art of dialogue by practicing 3 (relatively) simple methods. I can’t promise to make you love writing dialogue, but I can help you to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles in a productive way. Why is it So Important to Get Your Dialogue Right? Dialogue plays a huge role in your writing, so if you’re not getting it right, then you’re less likely to be succeeding as an author. Readers are picky creatures, and they notice things like badly-written dialogue or dialogue that isn’t effective. As writers, we’re slaves to the wants, needs, and desires of our readers, so it’s not like we can just expect them to accept that we have our own way of writing dialogue. If they don’t like our dialogue, they won’t be back - and they’ll probably leave scathing reviews about how disappointed they are. That’s the worst-case scenario, of course, and there are different degrees of bad dialogue (which cause anything from mild annoyance to outright outrage in our readers). The thing you need to understand is that dialogue serves so many functions in a novel that getting it wrong can have a huge impact. In a novel dialogue: Reveals emotion Breaks up the narrative Moves the story along Reveals character traits Do You Make These 3 Dialogue-Writing Mistakes? There are more than three dialogue-writing mistakes that you can make, but these are both the most common and the most problematic. Try to be hyperaware of these mistakes, so you can catch yourself in the act of making them and avoid a lot of editing later. #1 Letting Grammar Rules Rob Your Dialogue of Authenticity When I was in school, I didn’t learn grammar rules. I was born in the United Kingdom, and at the time there was a theory that children didn’t need to be taught the rules of grammar. I’ve no idea why that was the case, but my earliest stories weren’t hindered by worries about grammar. Then I studied English Language and grammar made its bold entrance into my writing. It wasn’t all bad. Some things improved. Unfortunately, my dialogue wasn’t one of them. I’ve discovered that being a stickler for grammar rules only leads to one thing in dialogue: inauthenticity. When I was shackled by grammar rules, my dialogue became formal and unnatural. Like this: Ashley set her handbag down on the dresser. â€Å"Good evening, Martin,† she said. â€Å"Good evening, Ashley,† Martin replied. â€Å"I must inform you that Mrs. Edmundson telephoned during your absence. It was requested that you return the call at your earliest convenience.† Now, there may be instances when it’s okay to use this kind of dialogue - if it portrays character traits, for example, but as a rule of thumb, in dialogue, you don’t need to stick to grammar rules 100%. Your sentences still need to make sense, but people don’t strictly adhere to grammar rules when they talk, so neither should your dialogue. Ashley dumped her bag on the dresser. â€Å"Hey, Martin,’ she called as she walked into the kitchen. ‘Hi, honey,† Martin said, looking up from his laptop. â€Å"Your Mom called while you were out; said can you give her a call back?† Doesn’t this sound way more realistic? #2 Using Dialogue to Explain Back Story in an Obvious Way Every time I see this in a novel, I cringe. I get why authors make this mistake, and I’m probably guilty of doing it myself. Using dialogue to explain back story or offer important facts that the reader needs to know is really common, but for readers, it’s just, well, wrong.Let’s look at an example: â€Å"As you know, Matt, we’ve been researching this aspect of our family history for ten years now,† Theo began. â€Å"Yes, that’s right, Theo. We got started when we had to do a project when we were at high school, didn’t we? It’s been quite an adventure! We’ve discovered some really scandalous things back in the 1700s.† â€Å"I know!† Theo replied, chuckling. â€Å"But, now we can do the Ancestry DNA and find out even more. I sent for the kit last week and it arrived this morning.† There’s nothing natural about this exchange. The characters clearly know all these things so there’s no reason why they’d need to tell each other the details - it’s purely for the readers’ benefit, and that is quite jarring. If you really must convey some backstory in dialogue (though there are lots of other ways to explain your backstory in a creative fashion), then you need to ensure that the conversation sounds more natural. Like this: Theo grabbed the Ancestry DNA kit off the counter and spun round to face his brother. â€Å"Hey, Matt, what’s your favorite thing that we’ve found out about the family history?† he asked. Matt thought for a moment. â€Å"I dunno. There’s so much scandal to choose from,† he replied. â€Å"But I guess it’d be the baby being left on the steps of the church. I mean, that’s what got us hooked on the whole family history stuff.† â€Å"Yeah,† Theo agreed. â€Å"I can’t believe we’ve been investigating this stuff for ten years! It’s like some weird addiction.† â€Å"Better to be addicted to research than the kind of stuff that the other kids who did the same project in high school got addicted to,† Matt said, sighing. â€Å"You heard that Johnny OD’d last week?† Conveying backstory in this way makes the conversation sound more natural and authentic, and it’s not an obvious dump of back story into a dialogue exchange between characters. #3 Overusing Character Names This is one of my pet peeves when I’m reading a novel. It interrupts the flow and makes dialogue sound really unnatural. Take this for an example: â€Å"Hey Dominic, how're things going?† â€Å"Not bad, Alex. How about you?† â€Å"Oh, everything’s going fine, Dominic. Are you still working at the same place?† â€Å"Yes, Alex. I’ve been working there for ten years now. I heard you’d moved up the career ladder.† â€Å"You heard right, Dominic! Got myself a promotion last year, and I’m in the running for another one this year, too.† Think about the conversations you have on a daily basis. Do you use the other person’s name in every question you ask or response you make? I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you don’t. It’s not natural. Once, maybe, but not in every turn as this example shows. It just sounds weird - and although I get that you might try this technique to avoid overusing dialogue tags, just don’t do it. Please. There are much better ways of structuring your dialogue without dialogue tags that don’t make you resort to writing such artificial dialogue. Make Dialogue-Writing Your Superpower: 3 Methods You Need to Deploy Becoming a dialogue-writing superstar isn’t tremendously difficult. It just requires that you change the way you approach writing scenes of dialogue. These 3 methods have helped me improve my dialogue skills - and they can help you, too. #1 Record Real-Life Conversations As a Reference We have conversations with people all the time, but unless you’ve got some kind of memory superpower, it’s unlikely that you remember exactly how the conversations pan out. We remember the gist of conversations, and maybe certain phrases, but conversation is so common that it’s not something we’re likely to remember verbatim. It can be really helpful to have recordings of real-life conversations that you can refer to when you’re writing. This can help make your dialogue sound natural, and can also help with working with dialogue styles and how the way people speak can convey aspects of their character. A word of warning, though. Never, ever record a conversation with someone without asking their permission first. Tell them why you’re recording, and if they’ve got reservations, just don’t record the conversation. Recording your interactions with people without their knowledge can get you into trouble, and it’s really not worth the risk. It’s likely that you’ll have plenty of people who won’t have issues with you recording - it’s just important to be transparent about it. #2 Don’t Strive to Be 100% Realistic I started out trying to make my dialogue realistic, and while I pretty much succeeded in doing that, it wasn’t the best way to approach dialogue. You see, realistic dialogue is full of†¦ well, fluff. We have conversations with people that go off on tangents, are packed with small talk and sentences that kind of trail off. Humans interrupt each other, don’t always use the most concise means of explaining themselves, and often stammer or spend time searching for the right word. If you put all of that in your novel, you’ll absolutely be creating 100% realistic dialogue, but you’ll leave your readers confused, frustrated, or simply running for the hills and vowing never to read anything you write ever again. Okay, that last one is a bit over-dramatic, but it’s how I feel when I read books with â€Å"realistic† dialogue (even though I’m guilty of doing it myself!). Of course, while your dialogue shouldn’t be 100% realistic, you need to get the right amount of realism into your dialogue. It’s a delicate balancing act between too much realism and too little. You still need to incorporate a certain amount of aspects of real human speech, or your dialogue won’t sound natural. If that sounds like trying to navigate a minefield while blindfolded, here are some tips to help you get the balance right in your dialogue: Read your dialogue aloud as you write it. This enables you to notice how the exchanges sound, and you’ll notice if it sounds stilted, contrived or unnatural in any way. You can identify passages of dialogue that don’t flow well, and you may also find yourself tripping over words - which is a big indicator that your dialogue is not as natural as you’d like it to be (or, maybe, if it’s a thick dialect, too realistic). Give your characters different speech patterns - and don’t be afraid to steal these from people you know. Having your characters speak in a certain way - using certain words, dialect aspects and so on - that you’re familiar with makes it easier to create the right amount of realism. Have your characters interrupt each other or trail off in what they’re saying.Be cautious with this one, and use it sparingly. It creates realism, but if you use it too much, you’re going to start annoying your readers. Be careful with accents and dialects. While accents and dialects play a big part in creating distinctive speech patterns for your characters, don’t go overboard with this. It’s okay to have your characters to use some dialect words, but if you have a character with a thick accent, and you convey this in dialogue, it can get†¦ messy. Establish that your character has an accent or dialect, but don’t let this make your dialogue passages confusing or unreadable. #3 Working With Dialogue Tags and Action Beats Dialogue tags (he said, she said and so on) can become intrusive in passages of dialogue if they’re not used in the right way, but they’re also necessary to help readers know who’s saying what. Beginners to the craft of writing often fall into the trap of trying to avoid using ‘said’ all the time, by coming up with all kinds of creative ways of using dialogue tags. There’s nothing wrong with ‘said’, and, in fact, it’s one of the least intrusive of all dialogue tags. You can use other dialogue tags, of course, and it’s a good idea to use other verbs to attribute dialogue occasionally. Readers are so familiar with the word ‘said’ that actually they don’t really pay it much attention - like words such as ‘the’ and ‘and’. One thing that you should avoid when you’re writing dialogue is using adverb dialogue tags. Adverb dialogue tags are those such as ‘she said angrily’, or ‘he muttered grumpily’. Adverb tags are all too common in fiction - and while readers don’t particularly hate them, they’re actually a sign of a lazy writer. What I mean is that using a tag like ‘she said angrily’ is a cheat - you’re telling your readers that your character is angry without taking the effort to use your character’s words to show that they’re angry. You can show it in their actions, too. Just don’t cheat by resorting to the adverb tag. That brings us onto action beats. Action beats are the parts in your sections of dialogue where you describe things like facial expressions, gestures and (sparingly) your characters’ thoughts. It’s good practice to use action beats in your dialogue to avoid having monotonous ‘he said/she said’ tags. Let’s look at an example: Without action beats: â€Å"The hospital called me today,† Becca said. â€Å"What did they say?† Michael said. â€Å"The results came back,† Becca said. â€Å"My counts are back to normal!† â€Å"That’s wonderful news!† Michael said. With action beats: Becca took a deep breath and turned to face her husband. â€Å"The hospital called.† â€Å"And?† Michael froze with a glass of water halfway to his lips. â€Å"The results are in - and my counts are back to normal!† â€Å"Oh, thank God!† Michael set the glass down on the counter and threw his arms around his wife. Action beats give much more impact to your passages of dialogue and can be used to convey all kinds of emotions, responses and so on. Try it out on some existing passages of dialogue and see for yourself what a difference it makes. Becoming a Master of the Art of Dialogue You won’t always get your dialogue right. Even when you’re a master of dialogue-writing, you’re still going to slip up sometimes. Even the biggest names in the fiction-writing world do that sometimes. You can, however, continue to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles so that you don’t have to think so hard about structuring and constructing your dialogue as you’re writing. Over time, it will become more natural to write authentic and effective dialogue. You’ll make fewer mistakes, use dialogue tags in the right way, and your readers will appreciate the effort that you’ve put into honing your craft as a writer. What are you waiting for? Start practicing the art of writing kick-ass dialogue! Mastering the Art of Dialogue - Freewrite Store Some writers find that producing authentic-sounding dialogue comes naturally to them. For a much larger majority, however, mastering the art of dialogue is something that takes a lot of time, effort and experimentation. Even if you find it easy to write passages of dialogue, that doesn’t mean that you’re getting it right. There’s more to mastering dialogue than being able to fill page after page with your characters’ conversations. That’s a lesson that I learned the hard way. I wasn’t fazed by writing dialogue - in fact, I actually enjoyed it - but I didn’t get the balance right, and my writing suffered as a result. My first novels and short stories were full of long passages of, well, meaningless dialogue that didn’t really move the story along. When I went back, several years later, to rewrite those initial books, I cut one manuscript from 120,000 words to 89,000 words, just by tightening up my dialogue. In this article, part of a series on developing and strengthening your writing techniques, we’re going to be looking at 3 of the common dialogue mistakes that writers make and discovering how you can master the art of dialogue by practicing 3 (relatively) simple methods. I can’t promise to make you love writing dialogue, but I can help you to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles in a productive way. Why is it So Important to Get Your Dialogue Right? Dialogue plays a huge role in your writing, so if you’re not getting it right, then you’re less likely to be succeeding as an author. Readers are picky creatures, and they notice things like badly-written dialogue or dialogue that isn’t effective. As writers, we’re slaves to the wants, needs, and desires of our readers, so it’s not like we can just expect them to accept that we have our own way of writing dialogue. If they don’t like our dialogue, they won’t be back - and they’ll probably leave scathing reviews about how disappointed they are. That’s the worst-case scenario, of course, and there are different degrees of bad dialogue (which cause anything from mild annoyance to outright outrage in our readers). The thing you need to understand is that dialogue serves so many functions in a novel that getting it wrong can have a huge impact. In a novel dialogue: Reveals emotion Breaks up the narrative Moves the story along Reveals character traits Do You Make These 3 Dialogue-Writing Mistakes? There are more than three dialogue-writing mistakes that you can make, but these are both the most common and the most problematic. Try to be hyperaware of these mistakes, so you can catch yourself in the act of making them and avoid a lot of editing later. #1 Letting Grammar Rules Rob Your Dialogue of Authenticity When I was in school, I didn’t learn grammar rules. I was born in the United Kingdom, and at the time there was a theory that children didn’t need to be taught the rules of grammar. I’ve no idea why that was the case, but my earliest stories weren’t hindered by worries about grammar. Then I studied English Language and grammar made its bold entrance into my writing. It wasn’t all bad. Some things improved. Unfortunately, my dialogue wasn’t one of them. I’ve discovered that being a stickler for grammar rules only leads to one thing in dialogue: inauthenticity. When I was shackled by grammar rules, my dialogue became formal and unnatural. Like this: Ashley set her handbag down on the dresser. â€Å"Good evening, Martin,† she said. â€Å"Good evening, Ashley,† Martin replied. â€Å"I must inform you that Mrs. Edmundson telephoned during your absence. It was requested that you return the call at your earliest convenience.† Now, there may be instances when it’s okay to use this kind of dialogue - if it portrays character traits, for example, but as a rule of thumb, in dialogue, you don’t need to stick to grammar rules 100%. Your sentences still need to make sense, but people don’t strictly adhere to grammar rules when they talk, so neither should your dialogue. Ashley dumped her bag on the dresser. â€Å"Hey, Martin,’ she called as she walked into the kitchen. ‘Hi, honey,† Martin said, looking up from his laptop. â€Å"Your Mom called while you were out; said can you give her a call back?† Doesn’t this sound way more realistic? #2 Using Dialogue to Explain Back Story in an Obvious Way Every time I see this in a novel, I cringe. I get why authors make this mistake, and I’m probably guilty of doing it myself. Using dialogue to explain back story or offer important facts that the reader needs to know is really common, but for readers, it’s just, well, wrong.Let’s look at an example: â€Å"As you know, Matt, we’ve been researching this aspect of our family history for ten years now,† Theo began. â€Å"Yes, that’s right, Theo. We got started when we had to do a project when we were at high school, didn’t we? It’s been quite an adventure! We’ve discovered some really scandalous things back in the 1700s.† â€Å"I know!† Theo replied, chuckling. â€Å"But, now we can do the Ancestry DNA and find out even more. I sent for the kit last week and it arrived this morning.† There’s nothing natural about this exchange. The characters clearly know all these things so there’s no reason why they’d need to tell each other the details - it’s purely for the readers’ benefit, and that is quite jarring. If you really must convey some backstory in dialogue (though there are lots of other ways to explain your backstory in a creative fashion), then you need to ensure that the conversation sounds more natural. Like this: Theo grabbed the Ancestry DNA kit off the counter and spun round to face his brother. â€Å"Hey, Matt, what’s your favorite thing that we’ve found out about the family history?† he asked. Matt thought for a moment. â€Å"I dunno. There’s so much scandal to choose from,† he replied. â€Å"But I guess it’d be the baby being left on the steps of the church. I mean, that’s what got us hooked on the whole family history stuff.† â€Å"Yeah,† Theo agreed. â€Å"I can’t believe we’ve been investigating this stuff for ten years! It’s like some weird addiction.† â€Å"Better to be addicted to research than the kind of stuff that the other kids who did the same project in high school got addicted to,† Matt said, sighing. â€Å"You heard that Johnny OD’d last week?† Conveying backstory in this way makes the conversation sound more natural and authentic, and it’s not an obvious dump of back story into a dialogue exchange between characters. #3 Overusing Character Names This is one of my pet peeves when I’m reading a novel. It interrupts the flow and makes dialogue sound really unnatural. Take this for an example: â€Å"Hey Dominic, how're things going?† â€Å"Not bad, Alex. How about you?† â€Å"Oh, everything’s going fine, Dominic. Are you still working at the same place?† â€Å"Yes, Alex. I’ve been working there for ten years now. I heard you’d moved up the career ladder.† â€Å"You heard right, Dominic! Got myself a promotion last year, and I’m in the running for another one this year, too.† Think about the conversations you have on a daily basis. Do you use the other person’s name in every question you ask or response you make? I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you don’t. It’s not natural. Once, maybe, but not in every turn as this example shows. It just sounds weird - and although I get that you might try this technique to avoid overusing dialogue tags, just don’t do it. Please. There are much better ways of structuring your dialogue without dialogue tags that don’t make you resort to writing such artificial dialogue. Make Dialogue-Writing Your Superpower: 3 Methods You Need to Deploy Becoming a dialogue-writing superstar isn’t tremendously difficult. It just requires that you change the way you approach writing scenes of dialogue. These 3 methods have helped me improve my dialogue skills - and they can help you, too. #1 Record Real-Life Conversations As a Reference We have conversations with people all the time, but unless you’ve got some kind of memory superpower, it’s unlikely that you remember exactly how the conversations pan out. We remember the gist of conversations, and maybe certain phrases, but conversation is so common that it’s not something we’re likely to remember verbatim. It can be really helpful to have recordings of real-life conversations that you can refer to when you’re writing. This can help make your dialogue sound natural, and can also help with working with dialogue styles and how the way people speak can convey aspects of their character. A word of warning, though. Never, ever record a conversation with someone without asking their permission first. Tell them why you’re recording, and if they’ve got reservations, just don’t record the conversation. Recording your interactions with people without their knowledge can get you into trouble, and it’s really not worth the risk. It’s likely that you’ll have plenty of people who won’t have issues with you recording - it’s just important to be transparent about it. #2 Don’t Strive to Be 100% Realistic I started out trying to make my dialogue realistic, and while I pretty much succeeded in doing that, it wasn’t the best way to approach dialogue. You see, realistic dialogue is full of†¦ well, fluff. We have conversations with people that go off on tangents, are packed with small talk and sentences that kind of trail off. Humans interrupt each other, don’t always use the most concise means of explaining themselves, and often stammer or spend time searching for the right word. If you put all of that in your novel, you’ll absolutely be creating 100% realistic dialogue, but you’ll leave your readers confused, frustrated, or simply running for the hills and vowing never to read anything you write ever again. Okay, that last one is a bit over-dramatic, but it’s how I feel when I read books with â€Å"realistic† dialogue (even though I’m guilty of doing it myself!). Of course, while your dialogue shouldn’t be 100% realistic, you need to get the right amount of realism into your dialogue. It’s a delicate balancing act between too much realism and too little. You still need to incorporate a certain amount of aspects of real human speech, or your dialogue won’t sound natural. If that sounds like trying to navigate a minefield while blindfolded, here are some tips to help you get the balance right in your dialogue: Read your dialogue aloud as you write it. This enables you to notice how the exchanges sound, and you’ll notice if it sounds stilted, contrived or unnatural in any way. You can identify passages of dialogue that don’t flow well, and you may also find yourself tripping over words - which is a big indicator that your dialogue is not as natural as you’d like it to be (or, maybe, if it’s a thick dialect, too realistic). Give your characters different speech patterns - and don’t be afraid to steal these from people you know. Having your characters speak in a certain way - using certain words, dialect aspects and so on - that you’re familiar with makes it easier to create the right amount of realism. Have your characters interrupt each other or trail off in what they’re saying.Be cautious with this one, and use it sparingly. It creates realism, but if you use it too much, you’re going to start annoying your readers. Be careful with accents and dialects. While accents and dialects play a big part in creating distinctive speech patterns for your characters, don’t go overboard with this. It’s okay to have your characters to use some dialect words, but if you have a character with a thick accent, and you convey this in dialogue, it can get†¦ messy. Establish that your character has an accent or dialect, but don’t let this make your dialogue passages confusing or unreadable. #3 Working With Dialogue Tags and Action Beats Dialogue tags (he said, she said and so on) can become intrusive in passages of dialogue if they’re not used in the right way, but they’re also necessary to help readers know who’s saying what. Beginners to the craft of writing often fall into the trap of trying to avoid using ‘said’ all the time, by coming up with all kinds of creative ways of using dialogue tags. There’s nothing wrong with ‘said’, and, in fact, it’s one of the least intrusive of all dialogue tags. You can use other dialogue tags, of course, and it’s a good idea to use other verbs to attribute dialogue occasionally. Readers are so familiar with the word ‘said’ that actually they don’t really pay it much attention - like words such as ‘the’ and ‘and’. One thing that you should avoid when you’re writing dialogue is using adverb dialogue tags. Adverb dialogue tags are those such as ‘she said angrily’, or ‘he muttered grumpily’. Adverb tags are all too common in fiction - and while readers don’t particularly hate them, they’re actually a sign of a lazy writer. What I mean is that using a tag like ‘she said angrily’ is a cheat - you’re telling your readers that your character is angry without taking the effort to use your character’s words to show that they’re angry. You can show it in their actions, too. Just don’t cheat by resorting to the adverb tag. That brings us onto action beats. Action beats are the parts in your sections of dialogue where you describe things like facial expressions, gestures and (sparingly) your characters’ thoughts. It’s good practice to use action beats in your dialogue to avoid having monotonous ‘he said/she said’ tags. Let’s look at an example: Without action beats: â€Å"The hospital called me today,† Becca said. â€Å"What did they say?† Michael said. â€Å"The results came back,† Becca said. â€Å"My counts are back to normal!† â€Å"That’s wonderful news!† Michael said. With action beats: Becca took a deep breath and turned to face her husband. â€Å"The hospital called.† â€Å"And?† Michael froze with a glass of water halfway to his lips. â€Å"The results are in - and my counts are back to normal!† â€Å"Oh, thank God!† Michael set the glass down on the counter and threw his arms around his wife. Action beats give much more impact to your passages of dialogue and can be used to convey all kinds of emotions, responses and so on. Try it out on some existing passages of dialogue and see for yourself what a difference it makes. Becoming a Master of the Art of Dialogue You won’t always get your dialogue right. Even when you’re a master of dialogue-writing, you’re still going to slip up sometimes. Even the biggest names in the fiction-writing world do that sometimes. You can, however, continue to exercise your dialogue-writing muscles so that you don’t have to think so hard about structuring and constructing your dialogue as you’re writing. Over time, it will become more natural to write authentic and effective dialogue. You’ll make fewer mistakes, use dialogue tags in the right way, and your readers will appreciate the effort that you’ve put into honing your craft as a writer. What are you waiting for? Start practicing the art of writing kick-ass dialogue!

Putting grammar in its place - Emphasis

Putting grammar in its place Putting grammar in its place For a writing-training company, we run surprisingly few grammar and punctuation courses. To be more precise, we run few courses that focus solely on grammar and punctuation even though more people come to us asking for training in just this area than in any other. And why? Are we phasing the subjects out? Do we not think them important? Has everyone, including us, given up caring? Goodness, no. The fact that our clients often dont end up taking a grammar and punctuation course is not because were keeping it all for ourselves. Rather, its that when they describe their needs in more detail, it often turns out that theyre looking for something broader than just grammar and punctuation. Grammar can be a red herring Most people have a clear idea of what punctuation is, but grammars a little tougher to define. Putting it broadly, grammar is the structure of language: things such as different word classes (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) and how words relate to each other or change to show different inflections (such as number, tense and case). However, thanks to the promulgation of so-called rules such as dont start a sentence with a conjunction or dont split infinitives, grammar can seem like a narrow set of procedures that you have to master in order to write well. Peevish articles that get passed around online only add to the misapprehensions (many have cited this one, to which writer and editor Stan Carey has written this comprehensive reply). Such articles tend to further muddy already murky waters by confusing personal preferences or long-standing superstitions (which are usually just extremely old personal preferences) with genuine guidance on rules that will give your writing real clarity. For example, contrast the rule about misplaced modifiers, where the writer inadvertently modifies the wrong part of the sentence, with the superstition that its wrong to put prepositions at the end of a sentence. It does make sense to avoid misplaced modifiers, such as: Showing strong growth, the chief executive presented an impressive set of results. These can bewilder your reader or undermine your writing (not to mention anger chief executives who dont care to have attention drawn to their waistlines). Ending on a preposition, however, is no barrier to clarity. When people approach us with grammar and punctuation on their minds, it may be that theyve noticed errant apostrophes in their teams work, that the writing isnt following a logical structure, or simply that theyre not getting the results they want. Improving writing skills can make a great difference, but theres more to it than blindly following prescriptive mandates. The bigger picture On her academic writing blog, Explorations of style, English language lecturer Rachael Cayley points out that fretting about grammar in isolation, as if it were some loose screw that needed tightening, misses the point and can actually be counterproductive. Improving your writing isnt just fiddling with technicalities and arcane rules, she says. It is a matter of thinking deeply about your ideas and your communicative intent. Theres plenty more to think about when it comes to good writing: planning; structuring (yes, sentences, but also your entire document); drawing the reader in and keeping them hooked; building your argument; picking the best word for the job; and always (always!) considering the needs of the reader. So were not saying grammar isnt important. Of course it is. Its just not the whole story. If you want to have a chat about where grammar fits into your companys story, or how you can get the results youre looking for, call us on +44 (0)1273 732 888. Or take a look online at the courses we offer.

XBox versus Playstation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

XBox versus Playstation - Essay Example The availability of these games in the market have provided people with the opportunity to make a choice between the two depending on an individual’s tastes and preferences. Naturally, people shall have different opinions as to which one of the two is better that the other and why (Plunkett, 2009). This paper shall compare XBox and Playstation and attempt to make out which of the two is preferable. Determining which one of the two is better than the other is a rather difficult or an impossible task. This is because it all depends on the individual using it the console since each game console provides a broad range of varied features. Some people will love one console, while others could hate it. Generally, it has been agreed that the Play station and the Xbox are roughly comparable (Cheat, 2011). However, people will always hold different opinions as far as this matter is concerned. The Xbox was set to the market in North America on 15th November 2001. It offered a stiff compe tition with Sony’s PlayStation. During the early years of its development, the marketing department in Microsoft argued against the name Xbox with the argument that it would be very unpopular in the market. This, therefore, called for alternative names being suggested. However, testing from consumers revealed that the name was more preferable than all the other suggested names (Plunkett, 2009). This led to Xbox becoming the official name for the game. Xbox has been documented as the first video game console built using a hard disk drive, which was primarily used to store games. This development did away with the need to have separate memory cards that had been in the market for long. Over the years, these two games have developed to superiority, while at the same time maintaining significant differences among themselves than ever before. Each of the industries Sony and Microsoft is keen to avoid lagging behind the other. As soon as Sony began enjoying the success of the PlayS tation 3 slim, Microsoft came in with the thinned edition of Xbox 360. Sources from industries have claimed that both Sony and Microsoft are intending to extend the consoles generation with the aim of maximizing their investment (Navarro, 2009). Currently, both games have competitive prices and provide very related functions. These progresses are making it more complicated to make a decision on which of the two is better. The comparison between Microsoft Xbox 360 S and Sony PlayStation 3 slim is one mission that has left many people exhausted. Even the game fans have had difficulties telling which of the two is better. PlayStation 3 slim is an overhauled version of the seventh generation form Sony’s video game console launched in 2009. This PlayStation has developments such as a new sleek design, a potent mix of old and new features such as online gaming, Blu-ray Disc technology, high optical disc format, and a removable hard drive (Beyazitoglu, 2010). All these developments have made gaming more interesting and easier. In addition to this, the PlayStation Move facilitating motion games has made it more popular. A year after the introduction of PlayStation 3 slim by Sony, Microsoft introduced its seventh generation the Xbox 360 S. this was 17 percent slimmer than the previous version. Some of the most common games with Xbox 360 S currently include Gears of War, Fable, Call of Duty, and Halo among others. Additionally, Xbox 360 S is easily well-matched to the motion gaming system introduced by Microsoft (Navarro, 2009). In determining which of the two games is better, there is a need to take into consideration a variety of features such as price, size, weight, and speed among