3 Cases of Sentence-Composition Confusion

3 Cases of Sentence-Composition Confusion 3 Cases of Sentence-Composition Confusion 3 Cases of Sentence-Composition Confusion By Mark Nichol It’s not only quite possible but also quite common for what initially appears to be a well-written sentence to turn out to fail to express what the writer intended. Readers may be able to understand that intent, and may not even notice the error, but confusion is likely. Here are three sentences that don’t quite say what the writer thinks they say, followed by discussions and revisions. 1. Jones teamed up with another future Hall of Famer named John Smith. This sentence literally states that Jones’s name is actually John Smith; â€Å"another future Hall of Famer named John Smith† implies that the previously mentioned person shares that name. To eliminate this distraction, simply replace name with a comma: â€Å"Jones teamed up with another future Hall of Famer, John Smith. (Alternatively, change another to fellow and delete named: â€Å"Jones teamed up with fellow future Hall of Famer John Smith.†) 2. Gillian Anderson was offered half of David Duchovny’s salary for the return of The X-Files. Here, the take-away is that half of David Duchovny’s salary was taken away and offered to Gillian Anderson- obviously not the intended meaning, which is that Duchovny was paid twice as much as Anderson to return to the television series. The fact that Duchovny’s salary is mentioned only for comparative purposes should be emphasized: â€Å"Gillian Anderson was offered half of what David Duchovny was paid to return to The X-Files.† (Alternatively, write â€Å"Gillian Anderson was offered half as much as David Duchovny was paid to return to The X-Files.†) Note, too, the rewording in each case of the end of the sentence, which originally was written as if to suggest that she gave the series back in exchange for taking half of Duchovny’s salary, rather than that in exchange for reprising her role in a new edition of the series, she is earning half of what her male co-star is being paid. 3. I managed to pinpoint the location of his first housing development, but finding the first house he built was about as easy as locating men who worked on his construction crews. To compare one difficult task (finding the first house a housing developer built) with another (tracking down his contractors) by writing that one was as easy as the other could confuse readers. (As it is, only the counterpoint conjunction but provides a clue that the second and third objectives were a challenge to achieve.). For clarity, replace â€Å"as easy as† with â€Å"as difficult as†: â€Å"I managed to pinpoint the location of his first housing development, but finding the first house he built was about as difficult as locating men who worked on his construction crews.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Wether, Weather, WhetherThe Writing ProcessDrama vs. Melodrama

Upside-Down Question and Exclamation Marks in Spanish

Upside-Down Question and Exclamation Marks in Spanish The upside-down or inverted question marks and exclamation points of Spanish are unique to the languages of Spain. But they make a lot of sense: When youre reading in Spanish, you can tell long before the end of a sentence whether youre dealing with a question, something that isnt always obvious when a sentence doesnt start with a question word such as quà © (what) or quià ©n (who).   Upside-Down Question Marks Not Always at Start of Sentence The important thing to remember  is that the inverted question mark (or exclamation) goes at the beginning part of the question (or exclamation), not at the beginning of the sentence if the two are different. See these examples: Pablo,  ¿adà ³nde vas? (Pablo, where are you going?)Quiero saber,  ¿cundo es tu cumpleaà ±os?  (I want to know, when is your birthday?)Estoy cansado,  ¿y tà º? (Im tired, are you?)Eso,  ¿es verdad? (That, is it true?)Sin embargo,  ¡tengo frà ­o! (Nevertheless, Im cold!)Pues,  ¡llegà ³ la hora! (Well, its about time!) Note that the question or exclamation part does not begin with a capitalized letter unless its a word that would normally be capitalized, such as a persons name. Note also that if words not part of the question come after the question, then the closing question mark still comes at the end:  ¿Adà ³nde vas, Pablo?  (Where are you going, Pablo?)Pablo,  ¿adà ³nde vas, mi amigo?  (Pablo, where are you going, my friend?) ¡Eres la mejor, Angelina! (Youre the best, Angelina!) If a sentence is a question and an exclamation at the same time, something for which the English language has no good written equivalent, it is possible to combine the question and exclamation marks in ways shown below. The Royal Spanish Academy prefers the usage in the third and fourth items:  ¿Cà ³mo lo hace! How does she do it? (To translate the Spanish well, this might be said in an incredulous tone. An alternate translation might be I dont see how she does it!) ¡Me quieres? You love me? (The punctuation may indicate a lack of belief in what is being responded to.) ¡Ã‚ ¿Quà © veste?! What are you seeing? (The tone of voice may suggest What in the world do you see?) ¿Ã‚ ¡Quà © ests diciendo!? What are you saying? (The tone of voice may indicate disbelief.) To indicate an extremely strong exclamation, it is acceptable to use two or three exclamation points but not more:  ¡Ã‚ ¡Ã‚ ¡Idiota!!! (Idiot!)Es imposible.  ¡Ã‚ ¡Ã‚ ¡No lo creo.!!! (Its impossible. I cant believe it! Word Order in Questions Most questions begin with an  interrogative pronoun  such as  quà ©Ã‚  or on interrogative adverb such as  cà ³mo. In nearly all such cases, the opening question word is followed by the verb and then the subject, which will be a noun or pronoun. Of course, it is common to omit the subject if it isnt needed for clarity.  ¿Dà ³nde jugarà ­an los nià ±os? (Where would the children play? Dà ³nde is the interrogative adverb, jugarà ­an is the verb, and the subject is nià ±os.) ¿Quà © significa tu nombre? (What does your name mean?) ¿Cà ³mo comen los insectos? (How do insects eat?) If the verb has an direct object and the subject is not stated, the object typically comes before the verb if it would in the equivalent English sentence:  ¿Cuntos insectos comià ³ la araà ±a? (How many insects did the spider eat? Insectos is the direct object of comià ³.) ¿Quà © tipo de celular prefieres? (Which type of cellphone do you prefer? Tipo de celular is the direct object of prefieres.) ¿Dà ³nde venden ropa guatemalteca? (Where do they sell Guatemalan clothing. Ropa guatemalteca is the direct object of venden.) If the question has a stated subject and an object, it is common to use a verb-object-subject word order if the object is shorter than the subject and a verb-subject-object order if the subject is shorter. If theyre of similar length, either order is acceptable.  ¿Dà ³nde venden ropa los mejores diseà ±adores de moda? (Do the best fashion designers sell clothing? The subject, los mejores disenà ±adores de moda, is much longer than the object, ropa.) ¿Dà ³nde compran los estudiantes los libros de quà ­mica farmacà ©utica? (Where do the students buy the pharmaceutical chemistry books? The subject, los estudiantes, is shorter than the object, los libros de quà ­mica farmacà ©utica.)

Endometrial cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Endometrial cancer - Essay Example The most common type of endometrial cancer is endometrioid adenocarcinoma. It is developed in cells that form glands of the endometrium and shows specific features under the microscope. Endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) is the most common type of endometrial cancer, which compromises about 75% to 80% of endometrial cancer and usually occurs at the time of, or one to two decades after menopause, and shows most common symptoms with vaginal bleeding. Its clinical behaviour and grade depend on the degree of differentiation. High grade of tumour development are associated with more advanced stage of disease. Endometrial subtype of endometrial cancer (EEC) is estrogen related. It is already well defined that high level of estrogen in patients lead to increase the risk of endometrial adenocarcinoma as estrogen hormone sustains to promote the growth of endometrial cancer cells. That is, the risk of tumour development is associated with an increase in uncontrolled estrogen activity. According to the study of classic model regarding endometrial cancer and breast cancer, estrogen modulates the expression of estrogen responsive downstream effectors by binding to estrogen receptor and induces subsequent reactions through the action of estrogen receptor at the transcriptional level. The second most common form is papillary serous adenocarcinoma, which is composed of about 10% of all endometrial cancers and another form is clear cell adenocarcinoma, which compromises about 4-5% of all endometrial carcinomas. Both papillary serous and clear cell adenocarcinomas show more aggressiveness than endo metrioid adenocarcinomas, and can be often detected at advanced stages. Estrogen hormone functions on cell growth and differentiation, mainly in tissues of reproductive system including mammary glands, uterus, vagina and ovaries in female and testis,

An Assessment of the Need for Worker Representation in the 21st Essay

An Assessment of the Need for Worker Representation in the 21st Century - Essay Example ship: Aggregate union density: No union members: Union density of 50% or more: Recognised unions: (% employees) (% workplaces) (% workplaces) (% workplaces) All workplaces 34 64 48 30 Sector of ownership: Private 22 77 8 16 Public 64 7 62 90 Management attitudes towards union membership: In favour 60 8 58 84 Neutral 22 76 9 17 Not in favour 5 93 1 4 Table 2: Union Presence, by Sector of Ownership and Management Attitudes (Source: Marchington and Wilkinson 2008 p.390) The importance of management attitudes is discussed later in this paper. Employee Relations The latest ideas to involve workers more in the workplace are employee engagement and employee involvement and participation (EIP). These follow changes from collective and multi-employer bargaining brought about by international competition and globalisation. Increasingly, although employees have various rights enshrined in law, employers are dictating terms and, in some cases, unilaterally attempting to change contracts of emplo yment to the detriment of employees (Curtis 2010b). Heery (2009 p.334) discusses the representation gap, restating key themes of â€Å"union revitalisation, non-union representation and the effectiveness of public policy† as needing further research. Szell (2010 p.184) describes â€Å"the neo-liberal economic system† as having â€Å"declared war on the trade unions and workers’ participation† when considering the impact of the global financial crisis on the trade union movement and labour policies, specifically in the EU. This is even more important with the austerity drive being pursued by the current UK coalition government as, following the announcements of substantial budget cuts for the public sector, unions have advised that they intend striking to protect both their members’ jobs... An Assessment of the Need for Worker Representation in the 21st Century Hutton believes that the employment relations culture in 2010 resembles that of the 1970s and this causes many employees to take employers to employment tribunals to obtain justice. He highlights that â€Å"around a third of all people at work have experienced some form of unfair treatment in the past year†, the gender pay gap and low pay as evidence that there is a need for â€Å"a more effective collective worker voice in the workplace†. Employment relations are as difficult an area as ever, with workers still requiring protection within the working context, whether through legislation or union representation. Employers seem determined to exclude workers from decision making and regard them as simply resources, like fixtures and fittings, with no opinions, attitudes or voices of their own once they enter the workplace. Representation is still required, and will continue to be so until employers realise that employees’ full participation in organisational decision making improves the bottom line. One area that organisations might like to explore in this respect, is stakeholder theory. Although most organisations pay lip service to stakeholders other than shareholders, adopting such an approach would generate many positive benefits, including within the employee relations arena. The key issue to be addressed is the power differential between employer and employed. Until this is resolved, employees will still be treated poorly and still require representation, both as individuals and collectively.

Jane Lewsi Case study Essay -- essays research papers

The Situational Leadership Model and the Jeanne Simmons Case Introduction: The Situational Leadership Model   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The situational leadership model is based on certain assumptions. One of these assumptions is that there are different levels (or situations) in which a leadership style is played out. In the same way that there are four different levels of readiness on the part of staff or â€Å"followers†, there are also four leadership styles. On the whole it is the level that the followers are to be found that is most important element in the equation when a leadership style is seen to be to be the appropriate style and is chosen from among four possible styles. According to this idea leaders can choose to lead in any one of four styles and within that style can operate through directive behavior (strong leadership) or supportive behavior (employee developing leadership). The four levels of â€Å"followership† can be listed and annotated as follows: D1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Low competence / high commitment D2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some competence /low commitment D3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High competence / variable commitment D4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High competence /high commitment The essence of the situational leadership idea is that each different â€Å"situation† of employee readiness to follow calls for a different type of leadership. For example, if we are talking about a Walmart â€Å"associate† training class we might be talking a...

The AXE Man

Advertisement, itself, is a creative genre in these post-modern days of ideas. If people in the future were to search for artifacts of our culture, in hopes of finding something that gives them insight into our culture and our life, they will be able to see what we leave behind in this consumer-driven world. Our ancestors left behind arrow heads and pottery, and we will leave behind a lot more that can easily communicate about who we are and what is important to us. Commercials and the products they advertise are some of the most important cultural artifacts in our society. They communicate what is important to or influences our culture, the good and the bad, because within any culture it is natural for the many different aspects of that culture to be portrayed on the screen or the page, from our stereotypes and biases, to what makes us proud and what makes us ashamed. One commercial that seems to represent an artifact of American culture is the recent AXE commercial, where a young man on a beach begins to spray AXE cologne, attracting literally hundreds of buxom beauties in bikinis, with the slogan being â€Å"Spray more, Get more†. The implications here about the way our culture stereotypes gender and what types of images we find to be suitable becomes part of the artifact and what it stands for in our culture. The first part of the advert shows a woman running in a wilderness. The first question that comes to mind is if this is a spoof of the new Mel Gibson movie â€Å"Apocalypto†? The theme of said movie is the hunter-hunted type of thriller where the protagonist is always on the run (from an AXE man perhaps? ). This is further implied by the choice of music – â€Å"Deus Irae† by Karl Jenkins which appears on his album â€Å"Requiem†. But then the video shows something else. There are many more than women running and therefore this is something else. The women are all focused with the task of reaching the goal first. They are single-minded indeed, to the point of being obsessed with whatever it is that made them run in the first place. All are jockeying for position and intense shoving and pushing is seen in the first few seconds. The second thing that hits the viewer is the fact that the women are not properly clad. If they are indeed going for a late afternoon jog then where is the sports wear needed to do the job? It is not usually normal to run with skimpy clothing! Then the next thing that hits the viewer is the fact that these are not only a group of young women running but it is actually a swarm. The multitude running together indicates mass hysteria. At this point the audience is becoming interested to know what this anarchy is all about; are they hunting for something? Again similarities can be drawn with â€Å"Apocalypto†. The next scene makes the video a bit confusing as a shot is taken from the other side of the terrain – a shot of the ocean where a similar number of horde of women are swimming frantically towards the shore. For a minute there one thinks that this may be something about the â€Å"Iron Woman† competition. But then it becomes clear as the video gives a top shot that shows where all the women are heading. The swarm is converging on the shore where a solitary male figure was spraying AXE cologne, specifically AXE Lynx. And the text flashed in the end saying, â€Å"Spray more. Get more. † If the AXE commercials are to be marked as anything of immediate interest, the popular tags that come to mind immediately are â€Å"pornographic advert† or â€Å"advert with sexual overtones. † Such terms are quite befitting as we find the women who are running from different topographical extremes have svelte, well-maintained physiques with sexual appeal, and the man on the beach stands armed with AXE cologne to attract more such women by spraying more of the heart-smashing fragrance. Commercials stand as an important artifact that can be used to understand a culture, and this commercial in particular says a lot about certain gender-related issues. Commercials such as this are not only for entertainment value, they are subconsciously sending messages to a population of people that view what they see on television as truth and fact. Someday, people will study such commercials in search of something historically or culturally important to our generation and will quickly realize that for all of our advances in our way of thinking and our technology, we were still submitting ourselves to the humiliation of gender-related stereotypes and sexually explicit material. If sexual excesses are not used deliberately, then why has such a slogan been floated in the air: Spray more, Get more? Is it not somewhat pornographic, tickling the fancy of men with the promise of winning an armful of femme fatales at one sprinkle of AXE? Why again a horde of belles are needed with immense sexual charms if no sexual implications are intended? When a condom, a bra or lingerie is advertised, the same types of images are blatantly paraded across the television screen, the sexual overtones not even subtle anymore. Even in odd places do we see such use of sexuality to sell a product, like the commercials that are for car insurance but are cartoons, using the cartoon character of a cute, busty girl to try and sell insurance for someone’s automobile. Even Pizza Hut commercials use Jessica Simpson’s sexuality to sell pizza, and Pepsi has been notorious for using stars such as Madonna to sell their product. The fact is that sex sells. Thus, if categorically the artifact is to be judged, then it is a piece of advertisement in the first place and then it is pornographic i. e. an advert with sexual overtones. In my view, whatever nomenclature may be piled on the term â€Å"advertisement†, it is a creative way of presenting an object or a commodity. So I would like to call it innovative advertisement. If we move a step further we will be able to see that innovative and sexually-exploitive adverts apply to all sorts of business tricks to catch the consumer youth. There is yet another genre that this advert falls into, and that is humorous. Despite its sexual overtones, the commercial is filmed in such a way that, at first glance, it appears to be harmless, comedic tone and all. The public seems to be very forgiving of any images or messages that are not politically correct when there is humor involved, as in this case. There is no complaining from the public even if a salacious picture or video clipping is used in order to make a commodity attractive to the target audience. It may appear denigrating in the eye of a few thoughtful, conservative people, but to hit the bull’s eye of consumerism, it is a weapon, a necessity, the need of the hour. In fact, this advert was shown only once on British television prior to a World Cup football game where it has reached near cult status. I never considered myself to be a conservative person, not even a little bit. I really thought the AXE commercial to be a great one with a sense of humor, but after I observed it many times closely, there were several things really bothering me. While it is common knowledge that marketers are using sex to sell their products, the issue that arises with this commercial is that it tried to hide the sexual content behind the product itself. The text did not imply anything sexual and therefore no one can accuse AXE of intentionally telling men of the benefits of using their cologne in terms of their becoming attractive sexually, but the imagery is enough to convince the viewer that it is selling the product through sex. In other words, AXE is using the fantasies of young men to bring them in as consumers of their product by promising them, visually, that there is something about their product that attracts women. If there is a law regulating sexual themes in advertising then it seems that the AXE advert is trying to beat the system. Those who do not agree with the blatant use of sex in advertising, be it implied or explicit, must heed the words of Tom Reichert when he wrote, â€Å"†¦other forms of sexual information is woven into ads [†¦] sexual content can vary in form and meaning, it is important to provide an overview of recurring representations of sex in advertising† (Reichert, 2003). The bone of contention here is how to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not. J. Sivulka had warned that â€Å"when scholars have explained the changing nature of sex in advertising, they have often viewed this shift as an evolution from a relatively innocent representation of a sexually alluring woman to a new type of image, in which sex is explicit† (Sivulka, 2003). The world it seems is divided over what kind of judgment to give this sort of TV commercial, but fo r those who are looking for substance there is only one verdict. For those who are tired of being given information that is not based on truth but rather on assumptions and pop culture, the verdict is not positive. In the AXE commercial the first thing that does not escape the viewer is the stereotyping of the female. Geral Tellis observed that, â€Å"One of the most common criticisms of advertising is the gender stereotyping [†¦] endorsers are typically presented as young, beautiful, and sexually attractive†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Tellis, 2004). As a female watching this commercial I felt it not only was the dreaded stereotyping being used but also the fact that women were depicted as not having the intellect to comprehend what was going on and furthermore, that women were not valued for their intellect at all, but for their appearance. The women were portrayed like buffoons, parading themselves with no regard for their self-worth, with no obvious intelligence (in direct contrast with the ‘Iron Woman’ comparison). Instead of showing a commercial where the images show an intelligent, well-mannered male using AXE cologne and attracting an intellectual and strong woman, we are bombarded with yet more images of the stereotypical buxom bimbo and in my opinion, that is an insult to the feminists out there who are championing woman’s equal rights, access to power and control. The AXE commercial made them look like they have no ability whatsoever to control their destiny, much alone their lives and they are purely driven by instincts. Lorraine Code asserts that this kind of reaction is not new and she wrote that in fact, â€Å"In the 1970s feminists criticized advertisements for portraying stereotypical images of women†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Code, 2000). Forget about the feminist stereotype, what is disturbing about the way women were depicted in the AXE ad is the fact that there is no truth to what was being communicated. Granting that commercials are not supposed to be whole truths, still the fact that something can be created wholly out of imagination is a bit of a stretch. Adding another aspect of then forcing people to accept it or maybe worse, manipulating people to behave in a certain way are actions not acceptable for a highly influential medium. A casual survey of the real world will immediately inform the observer that women do not behave like those in the said commercial. If the producer of the AXE commercial would come back and say that this is the whole point; that making fantastic claims and using pure creative imagination to sell something is the reality of advertising, then it is going to be hard to argue that line of reasoning. Even if this were the case, not everybody will agree with the producer. Many believe that advertising is no longer a neutral medium but that it is an artifact that has the capacity to transform society, especially how people think, and therefore it is a medium to be regulated. If one allows the producer of the AXE commercial the benefit of the doubt, that there was no intention to demean women and to insult their intelligence, then the problem keeps on compounding because the next group that would be insulted by this commercial is the male population, because while it is common to hear women being exploited, more and more men are being devalued by the media as well. There is a movement out there that forces the world to recognize the place of women in society. It is almost a normal experience to constantly hear of women being abused and misrepresented, but it may be taken for granted that men can also be stereotyped. That there is a whole assumption out there that men are savages and no smarter than wild beasts who are being controlled by their carnal instincts would be insulting to me if I was male, and I cannot believe that the media can stereotype both genders in such simple terms. To be honest, however, no man would stand up and say that his reputation is on the line because of such media exploitation. For them, it is somewhat absurd, but if truth can be told and truth be the standard of knowing what must be done in this society then someone has to point out the problem with the AXE commercial. What exactly is wrong about it in terms of the male image is that this time men are not depicted as buffoons in the same way that the ladies were depicted running around half-naked and half-crazed when a potent brew aroused their senses and they could not control themselves. This time men were assumed to be buffoons, period. This assumption is basically a belief that when men will see the commercial then they will not stop to think and evaluate what is being projected on screen. They will simply instinctively pick up their wallets, head for the store and buy a crate full of AXE cologne – and â€Å"spray more†. It is interesting to note that marketers are well aware of what they are doing to the male stereotype and the projection of an image that will make men want to buy the cologne. As suggested by Stephen Fox in his study of the history of American advertising, marketers in the past made the generalization that, â€Å"†¦all men are fools† (Fox, 1997). They have expanded this theory into something more useful, â€Å"†¦that while men may be fools and sinners, they are everlastingly on the search for that which is good† (Fox, 1997). Advertising is the guide that leads them to the path of bliss and truth; yet, there is one more weakness of the male psyche that is being exploited here, but it must first be understood that this commercial was not created with the general public in mind. It is quite probable that the target-segment are young men between puberty and their twenties. It is possible that the target-market are adolescent males who lack the confidence to take their place in the world and establish relationships with the opposite sex and therefore need a touch of courage, in this case in the form of AXE cologne. There is evidence pointing to the fact that the target market is indeed the teenager segment of the population. Buddenberg pointed out that, â€Å"†¦despite being more knowledgeable about advertising, teens are still very susceptible to it† (Buddenberg, 2004). Fox enumerated the common behaviors considered normal for teens: a) struggle with sense of identity; b) feeling awkward or strange about one’s self and one’s body; c) concerns regarding physical and sexual attractiveness to others; and, d) worries about being normal (Fox, 1997). If Fox’s theory proves right then what a powerful effect the AXE commercial must be having on the minds of the teenage males that watch it. The video suggests achieving power and control where there is none – by simply spraying more AXE. To be fair, however, I must say that the humorous nature of the commercial was, even to me, funny at the beginning and I did not take it serious on first glance. The women, making funny faces and rushing this geeky-looking young man whose eyes are huge as he watches the scene unfold before him was more of a comedic event than anything. In this way, the producer of this commercial was not, perhaps, trying to use stereotypes about men and women to influence our culture, but perhaps just trying to make an impression, something that is hard to do in a society filled with a flood of advertisements at every turn. Despite my misgivings about the commercial, I do not remember any other cologne commercials vividly, only AXE, and perhaps that was the point all along. The advertisement used in this study can make people react in many different ways. The more important issue to address is the potential offensive effect of the commercial to both men and women, at least to those who are sensitive enough to really analyze the content of the video. The problem with the video is that it depicts women as stupid and at the same time assumes that young men are stupid enough to believe what they are seeing and will not take the time to verify it. Moreover, the commercial is trying to hide its sexual content and that is not acceptable for those who are shielding children and the rest of the public from too much exposure to indecency. Still, at the core of the problem is the unceasing evolution of advertising. This time what is perceived to be improper will soon change in a few years time. This will continue until one day, parents and concerned citizens will one day wake up to see sex in advertising being shown explicitly without shame. At some point, American advertising will turn the corner and, just as now, we will simply sit back, watch, hence evolving as viewers too, and let the images convince us of something just as ridiculous as the assumptions made in the AXE cologne commercial. Having said that, however, the public is not as taken in by adverts as we once were and so advertisers may be responding accordingly by making adverts more humorous, shocking and ridiculous in order to capture our attention and remember the product in question which is being advertised. Then just as the advert may be mocking women and/or men it may just as easily be merely ‘tongue in cheek’ and using the satirical content to try and get the consumer to simply buy a product which makes you smell nice! So, whether it be gender stereotyped, intellectually backward or in direct contrast, intellectually superior in order to be able to appreciate the humor in the AXE advert and not take it too seriously, the artifacts our commercial culture is leaving behind are, sadly, not a representation of who we really are, but who were are told to be.

Watching Tv Makes You Smarter -Steven Johnson Essay

Watching TV Makes You Smarter By STEVEN JOHNSON The Sleeper Curve SCIENTIST A: Has he asked for anything special? SCIENTIST B: Yes, this morning for breakfast . . . he requested something called wheat germ, organic honey and tigers milk. SCIENTIST A: Oh, yes. Those were the charmed substances that some years ago were felt to contain life-preserving properties. SCIENTIST B: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or . . . hot fudge? SCIENTIST A: Those were thought to be unhealthy. — From Woody Allens Sleeper n Jan. 24, the Fox network showed an episode of its hit drama 24, the real-time thriller known for its cliffhanger tension and often- gruesome violence. Over the preceding weeks, a number†¦show more content†¦I happen to be sympathetic to that argument, but its not the one I want to make here. I think there is another way to assess the social virtue of pop culture, one that looks at media as a kind of cognitive workout, not as a series of life lessons. There may indeed be more negative messages in the mediasphere today. But thats not the only way to evaluate whether our television shows or video games are having a positive impact. Just as important -- if not more important -- is the kind of thinking you have to do to make sense of a cultural experience. That is where the Sleeper Curve becomes visible. Televised Intelligence Consider the cognitive demands that televised narratives place on their viewers. With many shows that we associate with quality entertainment -- The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown, Frasier -- the intelligence arrives fully formed in the words and actions of the characters on-screen. They say witty things to one another and avoid lapsing into tired sitcom cliches, and we smile along in our living rooms, enjoying the company of these smart people. But assuming were bright enough to understand the sentences theyre saying, theres no intellectual labor involved in enjoying the show as a viewer. You no more challenge your mind by watching these intelligent shows than you challenge your body watching Monday Night Football. The intellectual work isShow MoreRelatedWatching Tv Makes You Smarter, By Steven Johnson898 Words   |  4 Pagesothers do not for many different reasons. In the first article â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson argues why and how television can mak e you smarter. In another article, â€Å"Thinking Outside the Idiot Box, Dana Stevens contradicts everything Steven Johnson said in his article about television making people more intelligent. Steven Johnson s argument is that television can actually make you smarter because when you watch a show, you are trying to understand everything that is happening. Today’sRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter, By Steven Johnson872 Words   |  4 PagesIn the article â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson argues why and how television can make you smarter. In another article, â€Å"Thinking Outside the Idiot Box, Dana Stevens contradicts everything Steven Johnson said in his article about television making people more intelligent. Steven Johnson s argument is that television can actually make you smarter because when you watch a show, you are trying to understand everything that is happening. Today’s shows have a lot of action and scenesRead MoreThinking Outside the Idiot Box by Dana Stevens vs. â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† by Steven Johnson1125 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish Comp I Kayal 11/5/13 TV Does Not Make You Smarter There is no doubt that television holds a purpose in our society today, but is that purpose brain-numbing or actually beneficial to our brain development? The television, also known as: TV, the boob tube, the idiot box, as well as many other nicknames, has been around for almost a hundred years. Ever since cable TV became popular in the 1950’s, there has always been a worry that people watch too much TV. Most people believe that with exorbitantRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smart Essay1218 Words   |  5 PagesIn the article  Watching TV Makes You Smarter  by Steven Johnson, the author argues that by watching television shows various television shows, people actually become smarter and how it has a big impact in our lives. He feels that watching TV makes us smarter because why we view things we might have never heard of before. He also uses dialogs to explain for example he used dialogs from the show ER to break down what’s happening between the characters, what words and sentences there using. On responseRead MoreEssay on A TV Education1326 Words   |  6 PagesA TV Education â€Å"For decades, we’ve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest common-denominator standards, presumably because the â€Å"masses† want dumb† (Johnson 214).But do the masses actually want to get the opposite out of their TV programming? Steven Johnson author of Mind Wide Open: Your brain and the neuroscience of everyday life and five other books thinks that they do and has done much research to try and prove that watching TV may actuallyRead MoreDoes Television Make Use Dumber? Essay535 Words   |  3 Pagestelevision and blame it for problems we have in society along with making viewers dumber. Johnson’s Watching TV Makes You Smarter and Stevens’s Thinking Outside The Idiot Box have near opposite positions on the issue of television, both describing what they feel is the right answer when it comes to television and society. Throughout Steven Johnson’s Watching TV Makes You Smarter, he compares hit TV shows like Dragnet and Starsky and Hutch to that of more recent shows like The Sopranos. He explainsRead MoreTelevision : An Important Aspect For People s Life1276 Words   |  6 Pagestoday’s society has taken up a vast amount of time in people’s life. People can spend hours in a day just watching t.v. mindlessly, however, is this time spent watching t.v. making a person smarter? The television shows that people watch today are a primary form of entertainment for a majority of America, along with conveying information to viewers. For years now people have wanted dumb, simple tv, but as the culture began to develop more cognitively people want complex and intelligent television. IRead MoreAre Tv Makes You Smarter?971 Words   |  4 PagesAre TV’s actually bad for you In the book They say I say, is an article called â€Å"Thinking outside the idiot box.† This essay was written by Dana Stevens and was first published in slates march 25, 2005 in a direct response to â€Å"Watching TV makes you smarter.† Within this article Stevens is completely disagreeing with Steven Johnson in the that she believes his entire article was a joke. Stevens opinion is that watching television does more harm than it could possibly do good for people. During DanaRead MoreEssay Television and Its Impacts on Society 1171 Words   |  5 Pagesbeen a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the â€Å"idiot box† and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the developmentRead MoreDoes Watching TV Make You Stupid?923 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿The Role and Value of Television Introduction In Watching TV makes you smarter, published in The New York Times on April 24, 2005, Steven Johnson argues for the multiple threads, fewer flashing arrows and social networking that make modern Television nourishing cognitive food. In answer to Johnsons article, Carrie posted Does watching TV make you stupid? on May 1, 2005. Carrie presents further blogs on May 3rd and May 7th, 2005; however, the gist of her arguments are contained in her first