...Wilson and Herrnstein's integrative theory attempts to identify the factors that work together to control individual behavior. Their theory is called "integrative" because it draws on several theoretical frameworks, including the sociobiological, psychological, and rational-opportunity perspectives. For example, from the rational-opportunity perspective, Wilson and Herrnstein's theory takes the notion that individuals are always considering the reward-cost ratio of various behaviors and choosing the behavior that appears most favorable, even if it is criminal. From sociobiology, their theory incorporates the concept of innate temperaments that account for way some people are exceptionally aggressive or impulsive. Finally, from psychology, their theory incorporates the behaviorist notion of conditioning, noting that individuals' perception of probable rewards and costs are based largely on past experiences. One major shortcoming of the integrative theory is that Wilson and Herrnstein only intended it to account for serious street crime like murder, robbery, and rape. A truly general theory should account for crimes of all types, and by this standard, Wilson and Herrnstein's theory fails. Critics of the theory also claim that it is too closely aligned with conservative criminology: it puts too much emphasis on an individual's "free will" to commit crime and too little emphasis on environmental factors (such as social disorganization) that influence the behavior of entire...
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...Integrated Essay: Value Chain Analysis Introduction The purpose of this essay is to analyze the strength and weakness of the value chain for the Department of Veteran Affairs Supply (Value) Chain. Core Concepts The objective of this analysis of the Department of Veteran Affairs Supply (Value) Chain is to provide clear and concise identification of strengths and weaknesses (internal) opposed to opportunities and threats (external) (SWOT) critical to the viability of the value (supply) chain. Porter’s Generic Value Chain is the model for the analysis that identifies information, value-adding activities, e.g., primary activities, inbound logistics, and outbound logistics within the larger value system. The value-added to the value chain is the support services increase the efficiency of current Veterans Affairs supply chain. The data captures analytics requirements for informed decision; the results will be propagated as research. Analysis Analyzing the Department of Veteran Affairs Supply (Value) Chain one must consider core concepts, the value chain, value-generating activities and feasibility of the supply chain. The management of key VA organizations and contractors are vital to sustainability of the integrated enterprise supply (value) chain. According to Porter (1985) “Value chain is the analysis of a business as a chain of activities that transform inputs into outputs that creates value for customers. For analyzing the sources of competitive...
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...attention they deserve. It also affirms that to provide adequate services to children starting from even before the birth, throughout the growth period of the child, to ensure holistic development in terms of physical growth, mental ability and social skills to their maximum potentiality would be the policy of the state (Mamata & Sarada: 2009) . The constitution of India has specific provisions relating to their welfare. During the first four five year plans, a large number of programmes were launched by the government for their welfare. These programmes are in the fields of health, nutrition and education of the children (Paladugu : 1994) INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (ICDS): One of the prodigious projects of Government of India to cater the basic needs, provide minimum and essential needs of children less than five years of age is The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) Programme. ICDS was introduced in October 1975 as a result of numerous researches and evaluation studies of over two decades. Through establishing a network of projects centres across the country this programme is given a holistic approach to the physical, psychological and social development of the child. Setting up ICDS for children and nursing mothers has been a major step by the Government of India to face the crucial challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the atrocious link between malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and sometimes mortality of...
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...Assessment 1 Business Study Skills and Methods Essay title 1: What are the main sources of information you should use when preparing to write an academic essay? How can you evaluate the different sources of information you find? An academic essay is basically an essay students at university level, write for their courses. Lecturers at different universities call academic essays a variety of names such as: An essay, paper, research paper, term paper, argumentative paper/ essay, analysis paper/essay, informative essay, position essay and so on. Even though lecturer and students have a variety of names to call an academic essay, it still entails the same goals. Academic writing is an assignment that entails you having to explore something that you as a student is most interested in, especially from your courses. You have the ability to freely express your thoughts, opinions and ideas from whatever topic you choose and have an audience that is interested in reading and is open to reading how you as a student feel about the topic. An academic essay involves to first choose a topic, research on the topic by finding different books, articles and blogs online. So that you can gather information from different sources, so you would be able to fully grasp the topic and put it into your own words and then give your best idea by writing a thesis statement. Which requires you to write the main point to your arguement, an academic essay also involves analysis where you would have to examine...
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...Analysis of an Agatha Christie’s Essay Effective essays are organized in a way that allows the reader to follow easily and stay engaged, and that is how I felt while reading The Enduring Appeal of Agatha Christie essay. By including just, the right amount of information (in most areas), the essay was very well written. I mentioned “in most areas” because in some instances, I felt like the author was leading readers into interesting stories but then abruptly the story would end or the essay would just transition to a different topic, which can leave the readers a bit confused. The essay was overall very well organized following the basic format of essay writing: starting with a short and precise introductory paragraph to grab the reader’s attention, then three body paragraphs with supporting details and a strong concluding paragraph to make the reader believe the thesis of the essay. To begin with the author started the essay by posing a question to the reader. This question was supposedly the hook of this essay. In my opinion the hook was not really effective because as the reader it did not grab my attention and make me want me to continue reading. I feel like this was one of the areas which would leave a reader confused. I personally did not like how it started with a question but it helped to set up the structure for rest of the introduction. The rest of the introduction revolved around the upside down pyramid by stating a vague idea and as it continues the content gradually...
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...what controversial (has more than one side / answer / opinion / etc) issues exist in your discipline / major and which are most interesting to you and/or relevant in your field today. To help you with that, you may want to move through the brainstorm / freewrite below to see if you can develop some of those ideas. You should use this to help you come up with ideas that you could discuss and develop on the DB. You may even want to post portions of what you came up with here on the DB. Thoughtful interaction could earn you some BONUS in the CE column and allow you to SPIN some ideas and nail down some solid topics. With that in mind, each student’s essay is to be unique with regards to its TOPIC / ISSUE / STANCE / ETC; therefore, the Board is meant to be a place to help shape ideas, not see one and “steal” it for your own essay. Topics will be reserved for those individuals who first bring them up and if similarities exist it will be the responsibility of the students to determine what different aspects of the issue will be explored by each (first poster gets first choice). I will NOT allow the “casual” student (one who is hanging around on the roster but not really submitting assignments and/or participating on the previous Boards) tell me at the last minute that “X” is his/her project when a conscientious student already articulated this on the Board. What you want to do is complicate the issue. Look at the issue from multiple perspectives and see what collaborations and...
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...of literature being analyzed and author interviews or essays. Secondary sources are foundational essays of the theoretical approach, contextual sources of the text’s and author’s time period and life, critical reviews and essays that vary in topics and approaches to reading the text and/or theory. Required Steps to Approaching this Essay: 1. You will include existing interpretations (minimum of 3 sources; must be from a peer-reviewed scholarly journal). There are many ways readers interpret text(s) in part or in whole, so one way to narrow the search is to find particular theoretical interpretations as a focus as well. For example, you may choose feminism as the theory and see how various feminists have interpreted your chosen text(s). POTENTIAL TRAP: focusing on another’s argument rather than your own. 2. You will include cultural/historical context for making the literature matter (minimum of 2 sources; these can be biographical, historical, or cultural sources depending on the paper’s focus). Not only is the author’s cultural/historical information a possibility to look into, but also the context presented within the text itself may prove useful. POTENTIAL TRAP: using the essay as merely an information dump rather than using the context to argue an interpretation. 3. You will include primary sources (that means the literature itself and any author interviews; minimum of 3 sources). Possible Approach to this Essay: 4. You may focus on using the literature as a springboard...
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...How to write an essay 1. An essay is about a text and should not include a summary of the text. 2. An essay consists of an introduction, an exposition(see below) and a conclusion. 3. The introduction is either * A statement which catches the reader’s attention and elegantly states the main point in your essay. * Or : a ‘funnel’ (tragt) introduction in which the reader is guided towards the main theme of your essay. * Or : A really striking quotation from the text with your comment, which also points to the main theme of the essay. 4. The exposition is the part where you write about 3 to 5 points (‘pinde’) in which you interpret the text. A point could be a characterization of the main character and his/her relationship to the other characters, the themes of the text, the ending, the title, point of view, the language, the setting or other issues. 5. The conclusion rounds off the essay. You may relate it to the introduction, but it is not a rule. 6. In your essay you should bring two to four quotations from the text and state which page and line they are from. (It may be done in a footnote or in the text). Your quotations must be integrated into the text. 7. In your exposition you should strive to write elegant transitions (overgange) from one point to the other. 8. You are allowed to express your own opinion in an essay. However, you should not write ‘I’ more than a couple of times. Use instead a passive: ‘Other opinions have been...
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...Essay Writing Introduction Essay writing involves expressing ones views and interpretations in relation to a specified subject area, and this clearly cannot be done in accordance with a fixed or universally applicable formula. Yet we would, I think, all agree that an essay can be judged in terms of what an informed reader can ‘get out of it’ and also that a ‘good’ essay is one which such a reader will find interesting, informative and easy to understand. If this is accepted it becomes possible to articulate some general features of an essay which will make it more interesting, informative and accessible. 1. Address the question or title; 2. Follow a structured and signposted sequence; 3. Demonstrate a familiarity with relevant literature; 4. Present an analysis and evaluation of the ideas and theories discussed; 5. Reveal internal integration and coherence; 6. Use references and examples to support its claims and arguments; 7. Detail references and sources and bibliography/referencing sections. Part 1: Writing an Essay 1. Addressing the Question/Title An essay should address what is meant by the title/question to which it refers. It should, in other words inform the reader of the issues of which are to be considered and the manner in which they are to be related. This may, for example, be achieved by describing previous definitions of, or approaches to, a problem and/of by offering the writers own interpretation of the issue/s. For Example, on...
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...Elements The basic elements of academic essay writing are two: a thesis and evidence, divided into three parts: an introduction, the systematic development of an argument, and a conclusion. All scholarly writing, from the most concise paper to the longest book, follows these basic guidlines. Thesis Historical essay writing is based upon the thesis. A thesis is a statement, an argument which will be presented by the writer. The thesis is in effect, your position, your particular interpretation, your way of seeing a problem. Resist the temptation, which many students have, to think of a thesis as simply "restating" an instructor's question. The writer should demonstrate originality and critical thinking by showing what the question is asking, and why it is important rather than merely repeating it. Your own informed perspective is what matters. Many first-year students ask whether the "thesis" is not just their "opinion" of a historical question. A thesis is indeed a "point of view," or "perspective," but of a particular sort: it is based not only on belief, but on a logical and systematic argument supported by evidence. The truism that we each have "our own" opinions misses the point. A good critical essay acknowledges that many perspectives are possible on any question, yet demonstrates the validity or correctness of the writer's own view. Thesis and Evidence To make a good argument you must have both a strong central thesis and plausible evidence; the two are interdependent...
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...Electronic Design Automation and the Design of Integrated Circuits Abstract A circuit, simply put, is defined as a complete path around which an electric current can flow in order to complete a predesigned task. Circuit design is the intermediate process by which electrical circuits are moved from the specification stage - where the circuit’s purpose is determined - to the production stage, where all of the information necessary to build a working circuit is ready for implementation. In order to keep up with demand for consumer electronics, a fast and efficient way to design and construct the myriad types of circuitry must be in place. This essay will illustrate the basics of circuit design and describe the automated circuit design process. Electronic Design Automation In a large part of the world, electronics are a mainstay of modern society. In the beginning, electronics were much more simple in design, but with the caveat of being much larger today: in the 1980s cellular phones weighed upwards of two pounds and were about three times the size of modern cell phones. Over time, as electronics became smaller and as demand for them increased, a way to design and construct smaller and more efficient circuits became necessary. Enter Electronic Design Automation. An electric circuit is an electrical path that provides a path for an electrical current to flow. While it may seem like a simple matter to design and construct a circuit, the process has become quite intensive...
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...“Farm Girl” Michelle Brown Van Hooks ENG 115 May 16, 2013 In reading the essay “Farm Girl” written by Jessica Hemauer, I find that her situation plays a common role in many lives today. Jessica had to give up most of her childhood to help her family with the farm. In doing so when she is finally able to participate in child like activities, she realizes how her hard work on the farm helped build her character. I find the main point of Jessica’s essay is she realizes how all of her hard work made her stand out from her peers. Jessica is describing how she was not fond of waking up early in the morning to help the chores on the farm before having to attend school. As Jessica explains “As we dress…”I hate this!” (pg.83) She wants us to know that her siblings as well hated that they had to participate in the house holdchores. She explains how she was never able to participate in any school activities with her friends. She also explains how depressing her conversations would be at lunch because she wasn’t relevant to the conversations. After years of sacrifice and pleading with her parents, they finally allowed her to join the basketball team as long as she continued to help with the chores around the house. Now Jessica has to manage her life as a farm girl and her new life as a kid. She continues to work on the farm and play basketball up until her freshman year. Her father is expanding the farm and he leaves it up to the children to decide if they want to continue...
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...The Intelligent Essay Assessor: Applications to Educational Technology Peter W. Foltz, New Mexico State University Darrell Laham, Knowledge Analysis Technologies Thomas K. Landauer, University of Colorado Abstract The Intelligent Essay Assessor (IEA) is a set of software tools for scoring the quality of essay content. The IEA uses Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), which is both a computational model of human knowledge representation and a method for extracting semantic similarity of words and passages from text. Simulations of psycholinguistic phenomena show that LSA reflects similarities of human meaning effectively. To assess essay quality, LSA is first trained on domain-representative text. Then student essays are characterized by LSA representations of the meaning of the words used, and they are compared with essays of known quality in regard to their degree of conceptual relevance and the amount of relevant content. Over many diverse topics, the IEA scores agreed with human experts as accurately as expert scores agreed with each other. Implications are discussed for incorporating automatic essay scoring in more general forms of educational technology. 1. Introduction While writing is an essential part of the educational process, many instructors find it difficult to incorporate large numbers of writing assignments in their courses due to the effort required to evaluate them. However, the ability to convey information verbally is an important educational achievement...
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...Journal of Information Technology Education Volume 2, 2003 An Overview of Current Research on Automated Essay Grading Salvatore Valenti, Francesca Neri and Alessandro Cucchiarelli DIIGA - Universita’ Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy valenti@inform.unian.it neri@inform.unian.it alex@inform.unian.it Executive Summary Essays are considered by many researchers as the most useful tool to assess learning outcomes, implying the ability to recall, organize and integrate ideas, the ability to express oneself in writing and the ability to supply merely than identify interpretation and application of data. It is in the measurement of such outcomes, corresponding to the evaluation and synthesis levels of the Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy that the essay questions serve their most useful purpose. One of the difficulties of grading essays is represented by the perceived subjectivity of the grading process. Many researchers claim that the subjective nature of essay assessment leads to variation in grades awarded by different human assessors, which is perceived by students as a great source of unfairness. This issue may be faced through the adoption of automated assessment tools for essays. A system for automated assessment would at least be consistent in the way it scores essays, and enormous cost and time savings could be achieved if the system can be shown to grade essays within the range of those awarded by human assessors. This paper presents an overview of current approaches to...
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...situations described in previous chapters can be used to organize essays. An essay arguing a decision is organized in a different way from one offering a problem diagnosis.The structure of problem, decision, and evaluation essays is described in chapters 10 through 12, respectively. The chapters also include cases and sample essays about them. The essays are based on the writing of MBA students. To convince a reader that a conclusion about a case is valid, the writer must offer credible evidence linked directly to the conclusion. This fact helps explain the characteristics case-based essays have in common: 1. Answers two questions—What? Why?—and often a third—How? 2. Makes a position statement (What?) OT C CHAR ACTERISTICS OF A PERSUA SIVE C A SE ESSAY OP riting about a case is very different from talking about it.You collaborate with others in a discussion, bringing to bear everyone’s background and case preparation along with the instructor’s knowledge and facilitation skills. But you usually work on your own when writing about a case.You have to perform the entire analysis yourself as well as organize and express your thinking for a reader. However, the difference between talking and writing about a case runs deeper still.Audiences have much more exacting expectations of a text than they do of spoken comments. Logical gaps and the back-and-fill tolerable in a discussion are a major problem in an essay, confusing readers and undermining the writer’s credibility. Audiences...
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