Definition and Examples of a Writer

Definition and Examples of a Writer A writer is: (a) a person who writes (articles, stories, books, etc.); (b) an author: a person who writes professionally. In the words of author and editor Sol Stein, A writer is someone who cannot not write. Etymology:  From an Indo-European root, to cut, scratch, sketch an outline Examples and Observations Everyone is a writer. You are a writer. All over the world, in every culture, human beings have carved into stone, written on parchment, birch bark, or scraps of paper, and sealed into letterstheir words. Those who do not not write stories and poems on solid surfaces tell them, sing them, and, in so doing, write them on the air. Creating with words is our continuing passion.(Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others. Oxford University Press, 2003)A writer is someone who writes, its true, but a writer is also someone with a large capacity for adversity. Youll want to cultivate that capacity. Stamina is a writers first quality.(Bill Roorbach, Writing Life Stories. Writers Digest, 2000)We all know its hard work. Nobody asked any one of us to become a writer. No one will care if you dont become one.No one but you, that is.(George V. Higgins, On Writing. Henry Holt, 1990)Writers are sentenced to their sentences, which sometimes set them free.(Adam Gopnik, As Big as the Ritz. The New Yo rker, September 22, 2014) Gushers and TricklersIn regard to the work habits of professional authors, Robertson Davies insisted that there are just two kinds of writers, gushers and tricklers. Take a moment to consider which category you fall into.[James] Thurber  was a gusher; for one story which was 20,000 words when finished, he wrote a total of 240,000, and fifteen different versions. It is interesting that the torrential Thurber is the one who talked most about that dread of all writers - drying up. . . . Frank OConnor was also a gusher; he rewrote some of his stories even after they had been published.The tricklers may be represented by William Styron, who says: I cant turn out slews of stuff each day. I wish I could. I seem to have some neurotic need to perfect each paragrapheach sentence, evenas I go along.  Dorothy Parker, also a trickler, said: I cant write five words but I change seven!The industry of the gushers commands respect; Joyce Cary, Frank OConnor, and  [Truman] Capotewe see them writ ing and  revising, rejecting pages by the handful, and finally piecing their work together from the mass. But the tricklers have an agony of their own; they cannot continue until the last line written is as right as they can make it. Both methods seem to take about an equal amount of time.(Robertson Davies,   A Voice from the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading, rev. ed. Penguin, 1990) A Writing ExerciseBefore you begin writing about your life, I want you to think about how you feel about writing. We all have our personal mythology of what a writer is and does. I want you to write for fifteen minutes to complete the following sentence: A writer is someone who _______.Write for fifteen minutes without stopping, letting yourself explore the possibilities. Let go of all your inhibitions and enjoy yourself. Remember to be honest. When you are finished, take a look at what you have written. Did anything surprise you?If you are working with a partner, take turns reading what each of you has written and discuss the work.(Janet Lynn Roseman, The Way of the Woman Writer, 2nd ed. Haworth, 2003)Writers WriteIf you simply define a writer as someone who is writing, clarity sets in. Youre truly a writer when youre writing; and if you dont write regularly, dont pretend to give yourself that title. Start writing more, Ray Bradbury tells would-be writers at conferences, itll get ri d of all those moods youre having.(Kenneth John Atchity, A Writers Time: Making the Time to Write, rev. ed. W.W. Norton, 1995) You Are a WriterA writer is a writer. You care about writing. It isnt men or women. . . . You sit down, you write, you are not a woman, or an Italian. You are a writer.(Natalia Ginzburg, interviewed by Mary Gordon, Surviving History. The New York Times Magazine, Marc. 25, 1990)What Is a Writer Like?- A writer is like a bean plant: he has his little day, and then gets stringy.(attributed to E.B. White)- Being a writer is like being one of those riskily overbred pedigree dogsa French bulldog, for instancepoorly suited for survival despite their very special attributes. Being a writer is in defiance of Darwins observation that the more highly specialized a species, the more likelihood of extinction.(Joyce Carol Oates, A Widows Story: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2011)- A writer is like a Gypsy. He owes no allegiance to any government. If he is a good writer he will never like the government he lives under. His hand should be against it and its hand will always be against him.(Ernest Hemingw ay, letter to Ivan Kashkin, Aug. 19, 1935)- Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.(attributed to Lawrence Kasdan) The Downside of Being a WriterYou may have gathered from all this that I am not encouraging people to try to be writers. Well, I cant. You hate to see a nice young person run up to the edge of the cliff and jump off, you know. On the other hand, it is awfully nice to know that some other people are just as nutty and just as determined to jump off the cliff as you are. You just hope they realize what theyre in for.(Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. by Susan Wood. Ultramarine, 1980)On the whole, professional writers are a lot of whining bastards who wouldnt last a day in a real job. . . . The true mortification of being a writer is having to meet other writers from time to time, and listen to their mundane egotistical rantings.(Duncan McLean, quoted by Jim Fisher in The Writers Quotebook: 500 Authors on Creativity, Craft, and the Writing Life. Rutgers University Press, 2006) Pronunciation: RI-ter Writers on Writing Toni Morrison on WritingWhy Do Writers Write?​Writers on Writing: E.B. WhiteWriters on Writing: Overcoming Writers BlockWriters on Rewriting Also see: WritingCollaborative WritingCompositionWriters BlockWriting CenterWriting GroupWriting Process

Upgrading Windows XP Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Upgrading Windows XP - Term Paper Example Preparing Your PC for an Upgrade Before you start upgrading your PC, you need to know and record the existing hardware and software configuration of your PC and then perform the following tasks: 1. Know your upgrade path: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows NT 4 Workstation are the operating systems that can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional directly. 2. Know the hardware requirements: A Pentium processor with 233 MHz is required or 300 MHz or higher processor speed is recommended. Minimum 64 MB RAM or higher is recommended. Minimum hard disk required is 1.5 GB or higher. An SVGA monitor is good enough or you can get a higher resolution monitor as well. (Donald & Chellis, 2005, p. 96). Windows XP is very demanding. Hence, before an upgrade, the aforementioned hardware requirements should be met to facilitate the installation process plus to prevent any post installation hardware failures due to incompatibility. More details regarding the hardware requirements are discussed as follows: a. Processor: In today’s computers, a 2 to 3 GHz processor speed would be efficient to run Windows XP. On checking your current processor configuration and if it is not at least 233 MHz, you would need to buy a new processor and install it as an upgrade. b. Random access memory: Once you have upgraded your PC’s processor, you are required to upgrade the RAM as well. RAM is the volatile memory that allows your computer to execute current programs and processes. Increasing the RAM size of your computer, makes the computer run faster and better. For Windows XP, you need to have at least 64 MB of RAM. This is a minimum amount. Ideal would be to have a 128 MB of RAM. Today computers come with a 256 MB RAM; so this is perfect amount to run the Windows XP on your system. c. Hard disk space: During and after installation, the Windows XP requires some hard disk space for storage. Hard disk is the non-volatile memory in your computer. It is capable of storing data and information permanently. It saves the operating system in it also. In order to upgrade your PC, you need to be sure that you have 650 MB free hard disk space to allow Windows XP to store its files. If you do not have enough free hard disk space, you need to make free spac e by deleting files, application programs and the like which you no longer need in your PC. d. Other requirements: You need an SVGA or higher resolution monitor, CD-ROM or DVD –ROM drive, a keyboard, and a mouse. You can also upgrade your internet connectivity speed and upgrade to a faster internet connection. You need to have good sound card, video card and speakers. If you have chosen to connect to a LAN, you would need a network adapter card upgrade. Furthermore, you can also get a tuner card to be able to watch television on your computer. These are options that can be considered after the installation but pondering over these before installation is a better option. (Simmons, 2005, p. 379-381). Whenever you are upgrading your operating system, you need to be sure of your data which you do not intend to loose. If the upgrade takes place in a smooth manner, then your entire data is still safely residing on your hard disk memory. However; problems may arise during upgrade wh ich can cause your data to get lost. Therefore, in order to be safe and careful, make a back up copy of all the important data residing in the hard disk of your computer. Using the back-up

To what extent are there differences between the Tories and New Labour Essay

To what extent are there differences between the Tories and New Labour Discuss - Essay Example They believed in divine right and in traditional hereditary system. They also were also strong supporters of the Anglican Church being against the Catholics which served to bring the reign of King James II to an end since he pushed the country to Catholism. They also were against scientific advances claiming that they pushed people away from the church. They were not in support of change The New Labor or Labor Party came into formation in 1900 by a group of working people who felt that the Tory Government ignored them and thus was born under the name Labor Representation Committee. However it did not take root until the 1920s and 1930 they occupied most of the seats in the government. It served to improve the lives of the minority on the principles of equality within the society. They were supporters of change and believed that the country’s resources belonged to everyone. The party pledged to deal with issues like poverty, unemployment, diseases and ignorance in the country. Labor Party put their focus on economic and social factors with the advocating of social liberation achieved by the legalization of social vices like divorce and separation, homosexuality and the stopping of capital punishments. With 1the name change to New Labor, the party was taken over by a new leader, Tony Blair, the youngest leader the party had ever had. He was elected Labor Prime Minister for three terms.2 One of the differences between the two parties is the capitalism verses socialism. The Conservatives Party had more of capitalist ideologies while the Labor Party had the communist one. Communists relied on the market to allocate capital to different socially owned enterprises where we see Tony Blair actually relying on the business men to be in charge of the economic policies. The Conservative Party on the other had relied on markets to determine investments, production and distribution decisions. Leaders like Margaret Thatcher who were conservative in

Define plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Define plagiarism - Essay Example Instead of working hard in the library by reading books, or taking notes, one may get tempted to just search the Internet and copy information verbatim. This ‘cut and paste’ culture is to be condemned. Plagiarism can indeed be considered as "theft of intellectual property† because just like how the theft of physical property is an offence, borrowing a person’s work without acknowledgment is like theft. After all, a lot of mental effort and time would have gone into the original work. The least one can do is to properly acknowledge it. 1. Deliberate plagiarism is deliberately using another person’s work without any credit to the original work. It includes ‘cut and paste’ directly from a source, paying someone else to write the assignment etc (Study & Learning Centre, 2005). Deliberate plagiarism can be avoided by planning well ahead of the assignment, meticulously noting the sources, making rough drafts, having a proper communication with the tutor (Lehigh University, 2006), and avoiding the temptation of using another writer etc. 2. A citation is required whenever an â€Å"idea, quote (written or spoken), data, image or other content that is not yours unless it is common knowledge† (The Pennsylvania State University, 2007) is used. 3. If exact words or phrases are used, then they must be used within quotations. Only essential words or phrases must be quoted; entire paragraphs need not be quoted. The authors name must be mentioned in the quoted sentence (Stolley,

The Work, Roles and Skills of a Manager are the Same Worldwide Essay

The Work, Roles and Skills of a Manager are the Same Worldwide - Essay Example As the report declares the Eastern commercial world sparks unusual dynamics in the workplace and defines its managerial structure in significantly differing roles. Whereas Western workers tend to conceptualize their employment in terms of the organization which employs them, Eastern societies rely upon the personal relationship as a basic social structure. This paper stresses that traditional Chinese, Hui, et al. argue, relate in this fashion to a single individual rather than to an impersonal organization. Traditional behaviour emphasizes respect for authority; more-traditional Chinese would construe the activities of organizational citizenship as the actions expected of family members supporting a chief or father figure. In fact, Hui, et al., comment, â€Å"the psychological basis of this behaviour is the belief that this supervisor has offered trust, respect, protection, and support in the manner of one’s father. the role of the supervisor in Eastern countries where Confucian norms hold sway and traditionalism dictates position and activity based on wu lun will differ significantly from the role played in Western commerce where individualism is paramount and worker allegiance is to the organization as a whole, rather than to a specific individual. This is not to suggest that the Western manager has less need for interpersona l skills, nor that strong ties between supervisors and subordinates will not result in greater investment in organizational citizenship in the Western world; such skills are necessary regardless of location.

Ethics in Practice - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethics in Practice - - Case Study Example All expect one of the photos were accessible to other but only to a few friends. The paper is an attempt to get into the shoes of that reporter and help solve the ethical dilemma. The point, which is important here to note is that by not allowing that article to the published, one, would be upholding the principles of â€Å"liberty† and â€Å"freedom†. Analysis has indicated only a handful of prominent philosophers in the Western world that have not gone on to mention â€Å"liberty† as a value or virtue. Whether it is Karl Marx or John Stuart Mill, John Rawls or Kant, Nietzsche or Aristotle, they all believe that liberty and freedom is what makes the integral part of the human essence. In the absence of freedom and liberty, humans are very much similar to other animals. In fact, John Rawls, one of greatest philosophers of the 21st century has gone to elaborate the concept of liberty and its limits in a great manner, which says, â€Å"Liberty can only be restricted for liberty itself† (Corey, Corey & Callanan, pp. 64-67, 2010). Quite understandably, by posting those photos in the newspaper, Jane would be restricting the freedom of t hose teachers since those photos were not for the entire world but for a handful of friends. The only rational behind restricting the freedom of those teachers would be if their freedom had limiting someone else’s liberty of information, informed consent or others (Livingstone, pp. 85-89, 2009). However, this is not the case here. Their â€Å"lewd† photos are a matter of their personal life and not their public lives and whatever they do, after they are done teaching, should not be of any concern to others. Everyone has a right to live his or her private or personal lives with minimum interference from the outside (Gilliland, Steiner & Skarlicki, pp. 36-37, 2007). This article would be worth publishing and in fact, it would have become imperative to publish the articles if these photos

Appraising The Performance Of An Organizations Employees Essay

Appraising The Performance Of An Organizations Employees - Essay Example Indeed, making a business successful in a particular setting demands crucial and detailed studies and examination of the factors that will generate the best results that will serve the aims and objectives of the company. In this light, owners of big business organizations operating in a competitive business environment should be in constant look out with its competitors and the overall status and events in the industry. Taking advantage of the opportunities and intensifying the strengths while minimizing the risks and weaknesses of a business firm greatly helps in predicting the success in business enterprise. Graphic rating scale can be used in appraising the performance of an organization's employees. Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait, choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked. Another method is the Alternation ranking method - An appraisal method that aims at combining the benefits of narrative and quantified ratings by anchoring a quantified scale with specific narrative examples of good and poor performance. (bars) . Paired comparison method - Keeping a record of uncommonly good or undesirable examples of an employees work-related behavior and reviewing it with the employee at predetermined times. (critical incident). While in forced distribution method, uses a scale that lists a number of traits and a range of performance for each. The employee is then rated by identifying the score that best describes his or her performance for each trait. Similar to grading on a curve; predetermined percentages of rates are placed in various performance categories. (forced distribution) Management by objectives (MBO) - Involves setting specific measurable objectives with each employee and then periodically reviewing the progress made. Management By Objectives (MBO), is a traditional management approach to directing the efforts of managers and the organizational units for which they are responsible. It is intended to motivate stronger performance on the part of managers and employees through goal setting, participative decision-making, and objective feedback (Rodgers and Hunter, 1992). In its broadest construction, it is seen as a planning and control system which is designed to encourage self-control over an individual's work while assuring that managers' efforts are aligned with the organization's overall goals and priorities. According to Swiss (1991), the heart of a full-fledged MBO process is the negotiation between a higher level manager and a subordinate manager of a performance contract that has the components such as major objectives to be accomplished by the subordinate manager within specified completion dates, resource commitments to support these objectives, action plans and milestones for accomplishin g these objectives, periodic meetings of the manager and subordinate to review progress and make midcourse corrections if necessary, and an assessment at the end of the MBO cycle of the subordinate's performance, which should feed into both personnel appraisal processes and MBO planning for the next cycle. Swiss (1991) characterizes MBO as being particularly useful for providing direction and control over project oriented agencies where workloads shift and priorities tend to change frequently, as opposed to another major management approach, performance monitoring, which may be more appropriate for managing the continuing operations of organizations whose outputs are relatively stable. LearnInMotion.com: The Performance Appraisal Jennifer and Mel disagree over the importance of having performance appraisals. Mel says it's quite clear whether