Tips for Writing a PhD Dissertation

Tips for Writing a PhD Dissertation Tips for Writing a PhD Dissertation Before writing their dissertation, PhD students should take a number of measures to ensure that they are writing the correct things. There are different sources of tips for writing a PhD dissertation. These tips give a guideline of how to write a good thesis, listing the steps that need to be followed. One of the aspects that should not be forgotten is the methodology. This is where the student gives an in depth analysis of the topic of the dissertation. Depending on the subject of discipline, this should cover the biggest part of the introduction section. The student should choose the methodology that they feel comfortable with. This decreases any chances of getting short of writing materials on the way. There are times when a student starts to write the methodology section only to find that they have exhausted all the knowledge that they had. Getting these tips helps the students choose the best methodology for their dissertation topics. Another way of getting help is obtaining, from a reliable source, an example of a dissertation that was perfectly done. This could be an example written by a student from the same institution, their lecturer or a different institution. Care should be taken to ensure that the student gets the example from a reliable source. To spare as much time as possible, PhD students should not include footnotes while writing their PhD dissertations. This should however not be confused with leaving out the references of the sources. It only means that the student should minimize on the contents of the paper that do not add to the word count as expected. For instance, if a student is writing a brief dissertation, including words that do not add content to the dissertation limits the points that they will discuss in their dissertation. For this reason, the student will be forced to include the main point s only so that they get the full mark as compared to filling the paper with content that will instead lower their grade. When a student chooses a topic, they need to be sure that they will populate it to the latter. One of the tips of assisting the student to do so is writing down the main points. Here, the student writes down the key words that will guide them in elaborating the entire point. It reduces any probability of forgetting important sections of the PhD thesis. The student is at the advantage of finishing the paper in good time because they have somewhere to refer their main points and that research will be an easier task. Students should form a habit of researching from different sources to ensure that they get the opinions of different writers. The student should visit different writers to get some of the important tip of writing their thesis. When you need professional academic assistance in writing a PhD paper visit our custom dissertation writing service .

Why School Attendance Matters and Strategies to Improve It

Why School Attendance Matters and Strategies to Improve It School attendance matters. It is arguably one of the most important indicators of school success. You cannot learn what you are not there to learn. Students who attend school regularly improve their chances of being academically successful. There are obvious exceptions to both sides of the rule. There are a few students deemed academically successful who also have attendance issues and a few students who struggle academically who are always present. However, in most cases, strong attendance correlates with academic success, and poor attendance correlates with academic struggles. To understand the importance of attendance and the influence the lack thereof has, we must first define what constitutes both satisfactory and poor attendance.   Attendance Works, a non-profit dedicated to improving school attendance, has categorized school attendance into three distinct categories. Students who have 9 or fewer absences are satisfactory. Those with 10-17 absences are exhibiting warning signs for potential attendance issues.   Students with 18 or more absences have a clear cut chronic attendance issue. These numbers are based on the traditional 180-day school calendar. Teachers and administrators will agree that the students who need to be at school the most are the ones that are seemingly seldom there. Poor attendance creates significant learning gaps. Even if students complete the make-up work, they most likely will not learn and retain the information as well as if they had been there. Make-up work can pile up very quickly. When students return from an extended hiatus, they not only have to complete the make-up work, but they also have to contend with their regular classroom assignments. Students often make the decision to rush through or completely ignore the make-up work so that they can keep pace with their regular class studies.   Doing this naturally creates a learning gap and causes the student’s grades to drop. Over time, this learning gap increases to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to close. Chronic absenteeism will lead to frustration for the student. The more they miss, the more difficult it becomes to catch up. Eventually, the student gives up altogether putting them on a path towards being a high school dropout. Chronic absenteeism is a key indicator that a student will drop out. This makes it even more critical to find early intervention strategies to prevent attendance from ever becoming an issue. The amount of schooling missed can quickly add up. Students who enter school at kindergarten and miss an average of 10 days per year until they graduate high school will miss 140 days. According to the definition above, this student would not have an attendance problem. However, all together that student would miss nearly an entire year of school when you add everything together. Now compare that student with another student who has a chronic attendance issue and misses an average of 25 days a year. The student with a chronic attendance issue has 350 missed days or almost two entire years. It is no wonder that those who have attendance issues are almost always further behind academically than their peers who have satisfactory attendance. Strategies to Improve School Attendance Improving school attendance can prove to be a difficult endeavor.   Schools often have very little direct control in this area. Most of the responsibility falls on the student’s parents or guardians, especially the elementary aged ones.   Many parents simply do not understand how important attendance is. They do not realize how quickly missing even a day a week can add up. Furthermore, they do not understand the unspoken message that they are relaying to their children by allowing them to miss school regularly.   Finally, they do not understand that they are not only setting their children up to fail in school, but also in life. For these reasons, it is essential that elementary schools in particular focus on educating parents on the value of attendance.   Unfortunately, most schools operate under the assumption that all parents already understand how important attendance is, but that those whose children have a chronic attendance issue are simply ignoring it or do not value education. The truth is that most parents want what is best for their children, but have not learned or been taught what that is. Schools must invest a significant amount of their resources to educate their local community adequately on the importance of attendance. Regular attendance should play a part in the daily anthem of a school and a critical role in defining the culture of a school. The fact is that every school has an attendance policy. In most cases, that policy is only punitive in nature meaning that it simply provides parents with an ultimatum that essentially says â€Å"get your child to school or else.†Ã‚   Those policies, while effective for a few, will not deter many for whom it has become easier to skip school than it is to attend. For those, you have to show them and prove to them that attending school on a regular basis will help lead to a brighter future. Schools should be challenged to develop attendance policies and programs that are more preventive in nature than they are punitive. This begins with getting to the root of the attendance issues on an individualized level. School officials must be willing to sit down with parents and listen to their reasons for why their children are absent without being judgmental. This allows the school to form a partnership with the parent wherein they can develop an individualized plan for improving attendance, a support system for follow through, and a connection to outside resources if necessary. This approach will not be easy. It will take a lot of time and resources. However, it is an investment that we should be willing to make based on how important we know attendance to be.   Our goal should be to get every child to school so that the effective teachers we have in place can do their jobs. When that happens, the quality of our school systems will improve significantly.

Feudalism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Feudalism - Assignment Example According to Nathan (2001 p. 3), it also had a highly trained military force (warriors) who were very expensive to maintain. On the other hand, the origin of feudalism can be linked with the expansion of the Roman Empire. It is believed that during the expansion, the Empire decentralized its reign and allocated land, power and authority to a group of people in exchange of military and slave services. Economic system According to Karl Marx, agriculture was the main pillar of economic development of feudalism. During the 12th century, most of the land was owned by dioceses, senior people and monasteries making the feudal system to be a way of ruling and communicating to the whole population. The land owners (landlords) gave out land as gifts to the less fortunate class people to cultivate. They peasants were supposed to cultivate it and give a certain amount of their harvest to the landlords in exchange of economic benefits, military services and of course public services. Just like the economic system, the social system of feudalism was hierarchical too. Every person had his or her own allegiance any person who was higher than him or her. The highest man was the King, followed by the lord (owner of the land also known as â€Å"Vassal† and â€Å"Caballero† in Spanish), Barons, knights and lastly the peasants. In order to maintain control, law, order and power, the medieval King was the one ranked highest who was above everything else and a warrior (Burn 1994 p. 234) The king owned a vast land which he gave out to any person who wanted to be part of his army as compensation; and that was the only way he could maintain a retinue of knights. Lands ownership laws were invoked again and again in order to reclaim property for the purpose recruitment of soldiers. Actually, the loyalty was basically a slavery type since the vassals knew they could not free themselves from his lord (Burn 1994 p. 251). The role of women: Feudalism did not consider women

Chinese Popular Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chinese Popular Culture - Essay Example This has lead to the turn of events among the citizens of the country whereby the workers have been laid off from their duties in various state owned companies. The presence of unemployment in the People’s Republic of China has led brought about the growth of personal challenges for unemployed workers and human resource policy challenges for the government. The unemployed population must find a way to cope up with the sudden change of their livelihood by searching for a similar means of making a living. In this paper, will focus on how college graduates deal with unemployment and how crime and corruption, along with social stability and mobility play a role in the PRC today. Furthermore, a detailed explanation of how unemployment creates serious problems with access to housing, education, and basic social services in the People’s Republic of China (Latham, 1-35). The employment situation in China for new college and university graduates seems to be unusual compared to t he present working group. The presence of the graduate unemployment crisis in China portrays the possibility of the wasteful investment of scarce resources. This is due to the factor that plenty of capital has been invested in educating unemployed graduates, which could or else have been invested in job-creating productive programs in the country. The presence of a large population of unemployed graduates makes the job market be very competitive. Furthermore, the graduates are also to be blamed in this issue because they always have negative expectations under the pressure of seeking jobs. According, to surveys done by various research houses in the People’s Republic of China most of the graduating students prefer to get an employment contract first, then they would later reflect on pursuing a new job position which is what they really desire to be employed for an average of two years. This assumption by the graduating students makes it possible for the emergency of the under employment and high turnover in the job market. In addition to this, the students will have lower levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, work commitment, and internal work motivation. Therefore, these issues will also bring the issue to the employers at the long run (Sato, 40-45). The People’s Republic of China seems to be experiencing the extreme increase of college graduates has outpaced the structural transition and rashly shifted the labor supply from semi-skilled manufacturing workers to more knowledge- intensive service professionals. This makes it the main reason for experts in the field and various scholars to emphasize that China requires extensive vocational training and industry engineering skills, which will help the country in solving its need for having manufacturing workers. Recently, a debate has emerged that economists say that the current situation of unemployment in China seems to portray that the country is running out of surplus labor. The presence of the unemployment population among the youth is a very complex social problem whereby it must be solved urgently. In the People’s Republic of China, the youthful population is termed to be highly educated because most of the youth are graduates. According to the nature of the economic status of the People’s Republic of China, the graduates are unwilling to choice factory work whereby they opt to compete for office-based positions. It is evident that graduates are four

Ariel Dorfmans Death and the Maiden 40 lines analysis Essay Example for Free

Ariel Dorfmans Death and the Maiden 40 lines analysis Essay The following forty lines from Ariel Dorfmans Death and the Maiden (1990), take place in scene 1 of Act 3, after Roberto has been tied up by Paulina and threatened with being tortured the same way as she had been, and then shot. In response to Paulinaà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s threats, Roberto begins confessing the brutality of his actions and his motives. This confession may be true; however, Gerardo has advised Roberto to indulge Paulina, to confess as this would save his life. Whatever the case, the extract is important because it portrays how a man can slide into brutality, without initially meaning to. Second, the extract is important because it helps expose the iniquities of dictatorial military governments. Finally, it is also important because it gives us an idea of Robertos character and personality. In this extract we clearly see the stages by which a respectable doctor became a brutal sadistic torturer. Though Robertos brother told him that helping the torturers could be a way to pay the communists back for what they did to [his] dad, Roberto stresses that he accepted the job for humanitarian reasons. Firstly, he wanted to help the prisoners who were dying from the tortures as someone to help care for them, someone they could trust. Later on, however, Roberto became involved in more delicate operations and was asked to sit in on sessions where [his] role was to determine if the prisoners could take that much torture. This indicates that he was there while the prisoners were tortured, watching these brutal scenes. Roberto thought this was a way of saving peoples lives, as he ordered them to stop or the prisoner would die; however, watching brutalized him, and slowly the virtue [he] was feeling turned into excitement. Soon, brutalization took over [his] life and he began to truly like what [he] was doing, so much so that, from an observer, he became a participant. Torture became a game for him, a game that was partly morbid, partly scientific, as he tortured women to find out things like How much can this woman take? More than the other one? Hows her sex? Does her sex dry up when you put the current through her? Can she have an orgasm under those circumstances? By the end, Roberto had become a sadist totally obsessed with carry[ing] out all [his] fantasies of sexually torturing women who were entirely in his power, women with whom he could do whatever [he] want[ed]. So, stage by stage, we see in the example of Roberto how men can slide from positions of respectability and motives of kindness and compassion to becoming human monsters, men who delight in the sufferings of others. The tragedy of Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s slide from being a humanitarian to being a torturer is emphasized by the style of his speech, which reveals that he is an intelligent, educated, insightful man. Firstly we see how Robertos diction indicates his intelligence and level of education. Words such as brutalization and morbid, and phrases such as he lost his capacity for speech, humanitarian reasons and install a totalitarian dictatorship clearly manifest his ability to speak articulately and in a high register. We also see how analytically capable Roberto is, as he does not just describe his own actions but explains why they occurred, carefully dissecting his his motives for working with the torturers, not to pay the communists back but for humanitarian reasons. He can organize his account in clear, logical stages, with phrases like It was slowly, almost without realizing how, At first, But afterwards, By the time, I began to, and It became. Additionally, even in the circumstances in which he is giving this confession, in fear of his life, Roberto uses figurative language, suggesting that he has good rhetorical abilities. He uses euphemism, for example, in calling torture sessions delicate operations, and he uses metaphors when he refers to his brutalization as the mask of virtue fell off, and to his descent into sadistic torture as the swamp. So, we see how Robertos use of language clearly reveals his high level of education and intelligence, and this makes us even more horrified at how such a sophisticated man could have become a brutal torturer of women. More than exposing the degeneration of individual men, exemplified in Roberto, however, this extract also exposes the iniquities of military dictatorships, like the Pinochet regime in Chile, which Dorfman himself had to flee from. We see how military governments divided families: though Roberto became a doctor devoted to saving lives, his brother, determined to pay the communists back for what they did to [their] father, took another path, joining the military dictatorship and becoming a member of the secret services.à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ We also are given the impression of how military dictatorships can convince people to support them by manipulating their sufferings under previous governments, promising some kind of compensation, as Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s brother joined the dictatorship to pay the communists back for what they didà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to his father à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½the day the peasants took over his land at Las Toltecas. Such governments also persuade people to support them, as Roberto did, by deceit and lies, getting Roberto involved in torture by saying the prisoners needed someone they could help care for them, but actually slowing criminalizing Roberto as a torturer. The fact that they have had such an enormous influence on Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s personality shows just how psychologically manipulative such regimes can be. Finally, the fact that, throughout his speech, Roberto refers to the government only as they evokes the way in which such governments work in the shadows, secretly and anonymously, to torture and terrorize. Thus this extract does not only show how Roberto and men like him deteriorate when they become involved in torture; it also shows how dictatorial regimes can manipulate such men, facilitating and enabling this deterioration to occur. In conclusion, this extract is very important as, whether Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s confession is true or feigned, it reveals how even the best of men may slide into such brutality and how military governments can create vile monsters out of exemplary human beings. Through the details of Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s confession, Dorfman is inviting his audience to consider how a man becomes sub-human. If a respectable doctor, a benefactor to the community, could turn into such a monster because of the effects of such a regime, then what would happen to the rest of society? Dorfman tries to make the reader consider that this incident that has turned Robertos life into a monster might happen to anybody in our society; especially in a switch of regime.

Beethoven :: essays research papers

BEETHOVEN   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ludwig van Beethoven was born 1770 in Bonn Germany. His mother was a singer in the service; his father was a court musician that had little motivation and a drinking problem. His father noticed that Beethoven had a gift at a young age, and began teaching him piano and violin. But Beethoven was a hard learner, he was self-involved and impatient. This probably led to why he was a loner and why he only went to academic school for three years. Beethoven’s father wasn’t the only one who saw Beethoven’s talent, Gottlob Neefe (a German Organist) become young Beethoven’s mentor. Gottlob thought Beethoven was the next Mozart, so he sent him to Vienna to meet him. But Beethoven’s mother got sick so he had to come back home before he met him formally. By the time he came back to Vienna, Mozart had died so Beethoven sought help from Hadyn, another German composer. He became Beethoven’s second mentor and taught him new styles of music. Beethoven did his first shows in Vienna in 1795. He was the first composer that was not supported by wealthy persons; instead Beethoven supported himself with money from selling his music. By 1778, Beethoven started hearing humming and whistling sound in his ears, and it got worse. A few years later, he became completely deaf. Although he was deaf he could still write music. He finished his first symphony in 1800. In 1802, Beethoven became depressed and thought a lot about suicide. He went to a small village in Germany where he stayed for a few years. The next couple of years Beethoven created his most impressing masterpieces. In 1812 he had completed over twelve of his best works and he was known worldwide. But after this Beethoven did not release any music for awhile and he got in trouble with the law over some royalties to songs. But in 1817 he began composing again and he did through 1824. In 1824 Beethoven composed two of his most memorable pieces, the Ninth Symphony, and Ode to Joy, these were two of Beethoven’s best compositions. The first time Beethoven conducted the Ninth Symphony, the crowd, at the end of it was at a tremendous applause. And Beethoven was still with his back turned on the podium until one of the â€Å"soloists† turned him around. In 1820 Beethoven won custody of his nephew Karl since his brother had

Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 11

The following morning, I clutched the soft linen sheets up to my neck, as I had when I was a child. With my eyes squeezed shut, I could almost pretend I was home again. That Damon and I were still human and having our usual brotherly quarrels. That our father was somewhere on the plantation, working. That Katherine was alive. No – wait. That we had never met Katherine. Or†¦ maybe I was in bed at Lexi's house, unsure about my new life, but accepted in this new home of fellow vampires. I slowly came fully awake, and my fantasies crumbled against reality. I was in the Sutherlands' house, still a captive of their generosity and my brother's threats, an uneager groom being run quickly into an unwanted wedding. The Sutherlands weren't terribly formal but nevertheless expected everyone to show up at breakfast. My dressing went perhaps slower than it might have normally, as I adjusted my sock garters until they were perfect, fiddled with my cuffs, and ran my hands through my hair. I didn't much like looking in mirrors in those days. I hated who I saw there. By the time I finally made it downstairs to breakfast, the entire family was well into their meal. Mrs. Sutherland greeted me with a warm maternal smile that tore at my insides. Though I felt genuinely fond toward her, she was compelled to accept me. â€Å"Good morning,† I mumbled, slinking into my place. â€Å"Is there any coffee?† â€Å"You seem a bit down today, m'boy,† Winfield said, tucking his watch into his breast pocket. â€Å"And a bit thin, may I add. You definitely need fattening up before the wedding – I think I'll take you to the club today. They do a wonderful lamb and pudding.† Lydia gave me an apologetic smile. With a shock I realized that a pretty rose-pink scarf encircled her neck, neatly covering the usual spot for a vampire bite. Damon had fed on her. I turned my head from the coffee that had been placed before me, my stomach churning. Unconsciously, I touched my neck where Katherine used to bite me, remembering the pain and pleasure all wound up together so sickly. Was it a message to me? To remind me of what would happen if I failed to marry Bridget? â€Å"Stefan! Don't go to the club until later! We have a full day today,† Bridget warned. â€Å"We absolutely must, must, must go visit Bram's family. They just love Damon – Brammy's been taking him to all of the latest places, like that bar that serves real English-style Pimm's Cups! I'll have to wear my new blue muslin. To their house, not to the bar, naturally. It isn't a suitable place for ladies. Fanny wanted blue muslin for her trousseau, but her engagement didn't work out, poor thing†¦.† The door to the kitchen opened, and Damon stepped through. â€Å"Good morning, all,† he crowed, bright-eyed and chipper. He looked rested and sated as he gave Lydia a flirty bow and me a nasty wink. My shoulders clenched. â€Å"What are you doing here, Damon?† I asked in as innocent a tone as I could muster. â€Å"You didn't hear?† He sat down at the table and unfolded his napkin with a flourish. â€Å"Winfield begged me to move in.† â€Å"Oh.† I pushed my chair back from the table, plastering a wobbly smile on my face to mask my anger. â€Å"Er, Damon, would you mind joining me in the foyer for a moment?† Damon grinned at me. â€Å"But I just sat down and I'm ever so hungry.† â€Å"It will take but a minute,† I said through clenched teeth. Lydia looked at me curiously, but after a beat, Damon scraped his chair back and followed me to the foyer. â€Å"Milady, I'll return shortly.† The second we were out of earshot, I turned to my brother. â€Å"You are unbelievable. You're moving in now?† â€Å"Why thank you,† Damon said with a facetious bow. â€Å"And yes. Were you not listening last night when I talked about all the amazing†¦ amenities the Sutherland abode has to offer?† The room began to spin around me as rage overtook me. My patience with Damon's game was over. â€Å"Why bother with all of†¦ this?† I demanded. â€Å"These shenanigans? If you're so powerful, why not just go into a bank and make them give you all of the gold in their vaults?† â€Å"I suppose I could, but where's the fun in that?† â€Å"The fun?† I echoed in disbelief. â€Å"You're doing this for fun?† Damon's eyes hardened. â€Å"Tracks, brother. You're not thinking ahead.† He frowned and brushed some imaginary lint off my jacket. â€Å"Yes, I could just steal the money and leave town. But we're going to be around forever. Or at least I am. And compulsion doesn't always take. In case you didn't notice, Margaret remains quite stubborn, and having her or Winfield, should he ever shake my Power, go around waving my picture and calling me a thief†¦ well, I can't have that. It's much easier – and more fun – just to inherit it.† I gazed at the door that separated us from the happily dining Sutherlands. â€Å"Inherit it? As in, upon death?† â€Å"What? Why, brother, what exactly are you implying?† he asked, pretending to be hurt. â€Å"You keep your half of the bargain, and I don't go on a killing spree. Remember? I gave you my word.† â€Å"No, Damon,† I said. â€Å"You said if I didn't marry Bridget you would start killing everyone in that room. You specifically did not say anything about what would happen after we were married.† â€Å"Good point,† Damon said, nodding. â€Å"I'd like to kill a few people in their circle. Starting with that sycophant Bram. I think he has a thing for my Lydia, you know,† he added with mock anger. â€Å"Damon,† I growled. His eyes narrowed. â€Å"You take care of your wife. I'll take care of mine.† I looked at my brother sharply. â€Å"So then you do plan to kill Winfield after he signs over his fortune?† â€Å"For that, you will just have to stick around and see.† â€Å"I won't let you hurt any of them,† I promised through a clenched jaw. â€Å"You can't stop me. Whatever I choose to do,† Damon hissed back. We glared at each other. My hands curled into fists. He shifted his stance, ready for a fight. At that moment Mrs. Sutherland poked her head into the foyer. â€Å"Boys? Everything okay out here?† â€Å"Yes, ma'am,† Damon answered graciously. â€Å"We were just acquainting ourselves.† He pointed the door to the kitchen and gave a slight bow. â€Å"After you, Stefan.† Reluctantly, I passed back into the kitchen, Damon close on my heels. â€Å"So tomorrow we pick out our suits,† Damon said. He was acting as though we were continuing a mundane discussion from the foyer, rather than just having ended an argument over the fates of everyone in the room. â€Å"Stefan, we should match! Why, Bridget, weren't you just saying last night how someone, I forget who, matched her sister at another wedding? Silk or something?† He knew. He was my brother and he knew precisely how to torment me. Eternally. â€Å"Yes, of course, Damon,† Bridget said with a gratified smile, turning to me. â€Å"Stefan, you have to hear this. I thought about matching me and Lydia, but I'm not sure the effect would be as dramatic, what with Lydia's figure†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I slowly sank down at the table, drowning in her words – and the knowledge that Damon was right. I had never been able to stop my brother, especially not when it mattered most.