Individual Week 9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual Week 9 - Essay Example They make the participants go through activities that train them to think and act with purpose. Moreover, the programs also teach the participants the importance of teamwork. They try to show the participants that the latter should be excellent team members to make an effective team. A look at the statement shows that the Boeing development of teams and leaders program, in my opinion, is also lacking in try to establish companywide criteria for ethics education and awareness programs. 3. I have worked in a team that can be classified under three of the types of teams according to Hellriegel and Slocum (2010). These three types are functional as well as problem-solving and global. The team I belonged to was in charge of delivering online English classes to non-native speakers. It was functional because each member was responsible for their online lessons, but everyone had to do well to be the best team. The best team was recognized monthly and received rewards. The team could also be a problem-solving one because each member was involved in discussing and finding solutions to a problematic lesson (i.e. unresponsive student, technical issues, etc.) We were in contact with each other through Skype and we had our problem-solving sessions through chat. We also had to be global team because each member was located in different parts of the world, but we were all doing individual tasks to achieve one common goal. 4. Based on my answers, the team I belonged is very empowered for meaningfulness and impact. They know they working to help people speak better and they know a successful lesson will mean a lot to their students’ lives. However, additional training is needed to empower them for potency because some teachers find it hard to teach non-native speakers. They do not have the patience at times or the proper technique to address specific needs of the students. 8. There are five stages of team

Are organizations rational Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Are organizations rational - Essay Example A rational organization is characterized by the desire of the organizational personnel to be efficient to their optimal tendency. The theory of rational organization considers the organization as a multipart mechanism (Sarfin, 2014). Managers need to regularly monitor the progress of work as well as the organizational culture and tweak any part whose functionality is lesser than maximum in order to increase the efficiency. An organization’s long-term development can be controlled and modified to achieve the goals. Two major elements that help characterize the rational systems include goal specificity and formalization (Monappa and Saiyadain, 1996, p. 5; Simon, 2001, p. 27). Goal specificity promotes the display of rational behavior in the organizations because specific goals guide the structural design so that the management can delineate the activities that need to be executed and the resources that have to be arranged (Triplett, 2007, p. 4). The attempt to increase the predictability of behavior through regulation and standardization is called as formulation. Formalization makes the organizational culture conducive for stable expectation that is rationality’s precondition. Rational system perspectives are related to four organizational theories’ schools, including Taylor’s Scientific Management, Fayol’s Administrative Theory, Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy, and Simon’s Theory of Administrative Behavior. â€Å"Rational models are best thought of as d escriptions of actions that will usually be compelling for most organizational audiences†¦but they are not necessarily the best basis for determining what managing actually consists of† (Clegg, Kornberger, and Pitsis, 2011, p. 30). Through the scientific analysis of the activities executed by the organizational personnel on individual level, Taylor (2007) realized the best method that can be

Theories of Personality | Essay

Theories of Personality | Essay Psychologists have long been interested in the study of personality because it is useful for understanding and predicting human behaviour. Even laypersons in day to day life, on an intuitive basis, make personality judgements about individuals they meet based on social characteristics, intellectual quality and appearance. Moreover, one seeks to understand oneself by identifying and developing personality. Personality determines the way in which individuals think and behave, it affects the way one would conduct oneself in day to day actions. Individuals possess unique patterns of behaviour varying from the way one walks, talks, or eats to the way one spends free time. The vast array of forms that personality takes accounts for why individuals are different from one another. The reason why it is important to understand such individual differences of personality is because job performance, academic performance, political and social attitudes, social relationships and health are all affe cted by one’s personality. Personality psychology seeks to bring scientific rigor to the process of understanding different personalities. Apparent qualities and behaviours may differ from the real inner personality of an individual. Consequently defining and understanding personality is a difficult task. A significant amount of definitions of personality have been introduced by various psychologists. Among such definitions was a comprehensive definition put forward by Burger. Burger (2011) defined personality as consistent behaviour patterns and intrapersonal processes that originate from within the individual. Due to the complexity of understanding and identifying human personality, various theories of personality have been introduced over the years by various psychologists. Sigmund Freud, devised what is today a popular theory, known as the structural theory of personality (Freud 1923 cited in McLeod 2013). The theory was devised based on the psychodynamic perspective which emphasises the influence that forces and drives within the unconscious mind have on human behaviour. Freud portrayed the human mind as an iceberg (Freud 1900, 1905 cited in McLeod 2013). The tip of the iceberg, which is the small section visible above the surface, symbolises the conscious mind. Just beneath the conscious mind is the preconscious mind which is outside one’s awareness but is easily accessible. The bottom of the iceberg which takes up the majority of its volume is the unconscious mind. The structural theory of personality assembles personality into 3 systems; the id, ego and superego. The balance of these 3 structures results in one’s personality. The id, which is in the unconscious mind, is the instinctive and primitive component of personality. Life instincts (Eros) and death instincts (Thanatos) are the basic instincts that are constituent of the id (Freud 1920, 1925 cited in McLeod 2013). The id operate on the pleasure principle in which basic instincts, specifically the desire for food and sex, require immediate gratification, regardless of any consequences (Freud 1920 cited in McLeod 2008). The id, similar to the way of an infant crying in order to get what it wants, has no regard for social norms. In order to mediate between the external world and the selfish desires of id, the ego develops. The ego, abiding in the conscious mind, is the component of personality that makes decisions and finds realistic and reasonable ways to satisfy the desires of id. The ego’s essentiality is to make compromises and exercise social etiquette in order to avoid disapproval or consequences of society. There is a third influential a nd largely unconscious set of forces which dictates one’s beliefs and morals, called the superego. One’s beliefs of what is right and wrong is acquired through childhood experiences and nurturing. When one behaves in a way that one believes is morally incorrect, the superego causes one to feel guilty. Superego’s goal unlike the id and ego is moral perfection. According to the manner in which the id, ego and superego interact, Freud suggested that there are 3 personalities; the psychotic personality, neurotic personality and healthy personality. A healthy psyche is one of which the ego’s role is dominant over superego and id. When the conflict between superego and id become overwhelming the unconscious processes of ego use defence mechanisms (repression being one of the most common defence mechanisms) in order to protect the self from anxiety. The psychotic psyche is one in which id is dominant and causes the individual to act in an impulsive and asocial m anner. The neurotic psyche is one in which superego is governing and causes the individual to be a perfectionist, unreasonably guilty and neurotic if any moral code is broken to obtain pleasure. The structural theory of personality is a highly comprehensive theory. The theoretical system explicitly explains and interprets an exceptional range of human behaviour and experiences, which is essential in understanding the different types of personalities. Contemporary psychology engages certain concepts of the psychodynamic theory and heuristic value of the theory has been appreciated (Shaver and Mikulincer 2005). Freud’s controversial ideas – that unconscious forces exist and influence behaviour, that early experiences play a large role in development of personality, that individuals resist threats by using defence mechanisms and that conflicting feelings often result in compromise – are accepted now by many psychologists and research conducted has given evidence to the validity of Freud’s views (Westen 1998; Baumeister, Dale and Sommer 1998). While other perspectives, particularly social and cognitive perspectives, emphasise typically on proximal cau ses, the psychodynamic perspective emphasise on distal causes of behavioural processes as well. The use of case studies as a research method to study personality esteems the complexity of personality and resulting behaviour by investigating in depth as opposed to a brief, snapshot laboratory study. However critics assert that there are several problems with the case study method that Freud used in constructing the structural theory of personality. Patients’ observations were not recorded immediately upon hearing them, therefore Freud’s memory of such detailed and extensive accounts of participants may have been distorted, and/or later recorded in a biased manner (Sulloway 1991). Furthermore the subjects of Freud’s case studies, on most occasions, were wealthy European individuals making the meagre sample unrepresentative and too illusive to draw universal conclusions about human behaviour. Consequently, the precision of the structural theory of personality is impaired. The testability of the structural theory is a major problem because propositions and concepts are ambiguous. The ambiguity results in difficulty in deriving a clear hypothesis that can be put to test and proven. Much of the theory is presented in metaphors – life and death instincts, and the mind depicted as an iceberg – which complicates any attempt to scientifically test and prove the theory. In addition, the structural theory of personality helps in explaining behaviour after observation but does not contribute substantially to predicting behaviour, which essentially, is a main purpose of studying personality in the first place. The theory can further be criticised because it is deterministic. It gives a degrading and pessimistic view of human nature because one is thought to be irrational and controlled by sex and aggressive tendencies. While numerous assumptions come into play, the explanation is still restricted to biological forces, and ignores other influences on personal development that may include altruism, competence, exploration and freewill. The scientific validity of Freud’s theory has been challenged by Eysenck. After a review of clinical literature, Eysenck found that out of 7,000 case histories of neurotic patients, 66% of patients treated by means of psychoanalysis improved, however 72% of patients who were not treated by means of any therapy improved within 2 years after the onset of their illness (Eysenck 1952). These findings oppose the validity of the concepts of the psychoanalytical approach and the structural theory of personality. A contemporary theory of personality proposed by Mischel and Shoda takes into account the cognitive and affective processes that have an influence on behaviour and gives more focus to situationism. Situationism is the assumption that individuals’ behaviour is directed by the situation the individual is in rather than dispositional traits. The cognitive-affective system theory of personality was proposed to resolve the contradictory findings on the consistency of personality and the inconsistency of behaviour across situations (Mischel and Shoda 1995). According to the cognitive-affective systems theory, there are 2 important concepts that must be combined. The first is that in order to understand an individual, the individual’s thoughts must be understood. Therefore the individual’s representation of the world is a significant factor to consider. The second is that thought proceeds concurrently on multiple tracks which intersect occasionally. The theory conceptua lises personality as ‘a stable system that mediates how the individual selects, construes, and processes social information and generates social behaviours’ (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Essentially, the interaction between cognition and personality affects behaviour in different situations. The reason why there are inconsistencies in behaviour is not due to the situation alone or random error; it stems from patterns of variation within the individual which are called behavioural signatures of personality (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Stable variations of behaviour take place in the form of contingencies: if X, then A but if Y then B. Behaviour occurs as a result of personal dispositions and cognitive and affective qualities (particularly thinking, planning, evaluating and feeling) interacting with the situation. Cognitive-affective units are represented by 5 stable person variables (Mischel and Shoda 1995). The first is encoding strategies, or individuals’ unique way of categorising information from stimuli. The second is competencies and self-regulatory strategies, particularly intelligence, the individual’s goals and self-produced consequences. Third is one’s expectancies and beliefs, or one’s predictions of the outcome of each of the behavioural possibilities in the situation. Fourth is one’s goals and values and finally, affective responses including feelings, emotions and affects caused by physiological reactions. The cognitive-affective personality systems theory is a comprehensive theory that accounts for both situational and dispositional attributes, bringing a balance between the two attributes. Freud’s psychoanalytical theory overlooks situations and attributes individuals’ personality and behavioural traits largely to dispositions. Thus the cognitive-affective personality systems theory can be better applied to a variety of different situations. It offers a stable personality system while maintaining that there may be patterns of variations in behaviour, without resulting in controversy. Unlike Freud’s theory, the cognitive affective personality systems theory gives highlight to conscious rather than unconscious drives. Individuals are regarded as being able to set their own goals, plan and evaluate their actions, and even to think about thinking. Therefore Mischel’s theory is less deterministic and considers freewill. The cognitive-affective systems theory has a more positive outlook on humankind, perceiving individuals as unified, affective, purposive and social beings, as opposed to the negative outlook of the structural theory of personality. Both the structural theory and the cognitive-affective systems theory of personality are idiographic and appreciate the uniqueness of individuals. The theories do not seek to establish generalizations of personality types. The cognitive-affective systems theory suggests that every individual has his/her own unique behaviour signature and unique pattern of variation (Mischel and Shoda 1995). Freud used case stud ies because each client had unique experiences and unique configurations of defence mechanisms. However when concentrating on the psychic energies, id, ego and superego, that are allegedly common to all individuals the structural theory of personality may arguably be nomothetic to a certain extent. In addition, the cognitive-affective systems theory must be commended for being idiographic because it also maintains its scientific nature. The cognitive-affective systems theory, unlike the structural theory, is scientific and pragmatic. Its propositions are unambiguous and testable hypotheses can be derived. The theory is based on the findings of experiments, including an experiment that was conducted in 1965 to investigate the effect situational and generalised expectancies for success have on on choices of immediate, less valuable non-contingent rewards as opposed to delayed, more valuable contingent rewards (Mischel and Staub 1965). In addition another study was conducted to test whether individuals are able to voluntarily delay gratification in await for a preferred reward (Mischel and Ebbesen 1970). Both studies reveal how individuals examine the situation and and make a cognitive decision about the reward they decide to settle for, thereby giving sound evidence for the cognitive-affective personality theory. Furthermore, a study revealed that 4 year old children who were able to delay gratification were significa ntly different from their peers as adolescents; they were more intelligent, exhibited more self-control, less distractible and more resistant to temptation than the adolescents who were less able to delay gratification as 4 year olds (Shoda, Mischel and Peake 1990). The finding from that study shows a similarity between psychoanalytic and cognitive-affective concepts of personality. Both perspectives suggest that personality characteristics emerge from childhood and is considerably consistent over time. However a limitation of the cognitive-affective personality system is that it emphasises mainly on the effect of nurture while overlooking the effect that nature might have on human behaviour. The theory overlooks biological and unconscious influences that may affect personality. Contrastingly, the structural theory of personality takes into account that both the effect of nurture and nature influence personality and its development. A further problem with the cognitive-affective personality theory is that defining a situation is difficult therefore the number of interactions that come into play when determining behaviour are too complex to study clearly. Moreover, it is difficult to take the complexity of the relationship between the situation, personality and behaviour into account when in extreme positions. The field of personality psychology has witnessed many theories being brought into the spotlight with each theory contributing more or less to understanding human behaviour. The contribution that Freud and Mischel have provided are indeed valuable. Freud made the first attempt to explain human personality and is considered a legacy for his work. Psychologists that followed in attempt to explain personality either improved upon Freud’s ideas or opposed it and provided alternate theories. However, due to the lack of empiricism of the psychoanalytic approach, Mischel’s cognitive-affective personality systems theory surpasses the structural theory of personality and can be better applied to predicting and explaining human behaviour. The theory does not oversimplify the complex processes behind personality; it takes a holistic view and considers that one behaves according to the situation one is in and that the course of action that one takes is not taken passively but activ ely. The cognitive-affective theory has minimal loopholes and is one of the most useful theories that has been developed to understand the multifaceted human personality. List of References Baumeister, R. F., Dale, K. and Sommer, K. L. (1998) ‘Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement, Undoing, Isolation, Sublimation, and Denial’. Journal of Personality 66 (6), 1081-1124 Burger, J. M. (2011) Personality. 8th edn. USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Eysenck, H. J. (1952) ‘The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation’. Journal of Consulting Psychology 16 (5), 319-324 McLeod, S. (2008) Id, Ego and Superego [online] available from www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html> [18 June 2015] McLeod, S. (2013) Sigmund Freud [online] available from www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html> [18 June 2015] Mischel, W. and Ebbesen, E. B. (1970) ‘Attention in Delay of Gratification’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 16 (2), 329-337 Mischel, W. and Shoda, Y. (1995) ‘A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Dispositions, Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure’ Psychological Review 102 (2), 246-268 Mischel, W. and Staub, E. (1965) ‘Effects of Expectancy on Working and Waiting for Larger Reward’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2 (5), 625-633 Shaver, R. P. and Mikulincer, M. (2005) ‘Attachment Theory and Research: Resurrection of the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality’. Journal of Research in Personality 39 (1), 22-45 Shoda, Y, Mischel, W., and Peake, P. K. (1990) ‘Predicting Adolescent Cognitive and Self-Regulatory Competencies from Preschool delay of Gratification: Identifying Diagnostic Conditions’. Developmental Psychology 26 (6), 978-986 Sulloway, F. J. (1991) ‘Reassessing Freud’s Case Histories: The Social Construction of Psychoanalysis’. Isis 82 (2), 245-275 Westen, D. (1998) ‘The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science’. Psychological Bulletin 124 (3), 333-371

Romantic Poets and Their Response to Nature Essay -- Romantic Poets Po

Romantic Poets and Their Response to Nature Consider how the romantic poets have responded to the subject of nature with close references to at least three poems studied. Consider how the romantic poets have responded to the subject of nature with close references to at least three poems studied, comment in detail on: 1. Imagery (e.g. simile, metaphor, personification.) 2. Subject matter/theme 3. Characteristics of the romantic movement Romanticism was a poetic movement of the 19th century, during The French Revolution. The poetry reflected on feelings of everyday events. It was written in a simplistic language so that everyone could understand and appreciate poetry because earlier poetry was written formally with a complex language, which only the well educated could understand fully. Romantic poems had strong characteristics, which stand out, these are: pantheism, the importance of childhood and memories, a simplistic style, an informal and everyday language, emotional and political. From studying Keats, Coleridge and Wordsworth Nature has been the most influential characteristic, and has inspired them to write personal poems reflecting on God, permanence, education, childhood and memory. The poem 'To Autumn' written by Keats (1795-1821) is a typical romantic poem and in the first sentence 'Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness,' we already have a sense of calmness because the words 'mist' and 'mellow' are very soft and gentle sounding words. Keats has used 'm' and 's' words like these because he wants to get across the calmness of autumn and how relaxed it is, he does this by using words which are almost impossible to be said in a harsh and vicious way. Keats strongly worships na... ... to visualise a supreme, perfect scene of exactly what Westminster looks like in the morning. 'All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautiful steep In his first splendor,' is building up a feeling of warmth because it is a very colourful passage. The word 'steep' increases the reader's sense of touch. To add nature into the poem Wordsworth has commented on 'open unto the fields, and the sky,' this has set a very peaceful tone to the poem and has demonstrated that nature can live together in harmony with man. This image really takes hold of Wordsworth and in a state of passion because of the perfection he cries out to God 'Dear God.' This has added vigour to the poem and to get back to the peacefulness and silent perfection he has added about how still London is in the morning, which means his 'almighty heart is lying still.

Creative Writing Workshop for Public High Schools

Creativeness is a natural gift that one possesses even from his or her birth and which requires constant use or exercise and continued development for it to remain spirited and change for the better. Organizing and implementing an effective workshop on creative writing will be beneficial to a particular group of people targeted to be well-informed on how to write short and long stories as well as narratives. This Creative Writing Workshop was specifically designed and programmed for public high school students across the country because of the small involvement and appreciation of creative writing. This activity also aims to make writing and reading a beneficial act, if not a force habit, for the said students and eventually make creating writing and reading a requirement in public high schools' curriculum. This Creative Writing Workshop and Activities in United Kingdom is for public high school students with various interests such as intellectual institutions, commercial enterprise, the arts, natural and social sciences and other services which will suit one's preference. Whether the high school student is just beginning or already a seasoned writer and just like to extend his or her creative writing in new perspective, this practical workshop is programmed to offer a sense and appreciation of different genres. We are in charge of a broad scope of creative writing and literature. Our yearly programme and production of publications that includes a website, a range of modern creative writing references, and internet sites showcase creative writing versions, details on modern creative writers and an online reading associations. Our latest preference and the focus of areas of activities are the promotion and development of creative writing for young people such as high school students in public high schools. This is because these soon-to-be creative writing students, when properly groomed and guided, will definitely represent an advance level in the evolution of their group. This new breed of creative writers may replace coffee and computer houses with conference venues and will expect regular and above average paychecks in the future. Furthermore, this workshop intends that participants from public secondary institutions will eventually turn to be more advantageous in their writing development compared with their counterparts in the private high schools. Patterned from the Brighton, England's THE SOUTH, a writer's network and literary arts agency whose service includes creative writing, this Creative Writing Workshop was proposed for the use of public high school students. This particular program will be spearheaded by professional creative and literary writer who are seasoned in dealing with young people. Types of Workshop The literary genre of Poetry, creative writing and reading or skill workshops and activities that will help a public high school student is the composition of this type of workshop. The workshop will concentrate on particular writers, or specific literary genres, or about genres, or on various topics or demands which include the natural science, the aspect of safe reproduction practice, family aspect, teachers (or the manner of teaching), substance abuse, neighborhood crime and racialism. In particular, the workshop will deal with specific or single workshops or a scope of actions as part of the Creative Writing Week as well as a combination of a media and transverse art form workshops to arouse one's creativeness utilizing one's literary or expressed statements celebration. One's writing techniques and skill will be developed and improved by employing a curriculum which will focus on creative reading and writing workshops and where every public high school student’s needs can be addressed. Additionally, the workshop will touch on creative writing classes for faculty members, study-support personnel and specific public school rooms associates. Meanwhile, the plan study includes the Writers-in-Residence Project which will give the participants effective creative writing skills and techniques, the pleasure of discovering oneself, and a memorable and fruitful experience with the writing procedures. The said project is a five-month program immersing public high school students in the reasoning, imagining, and creation of thoughts that composes a powerful creative writing work. The project is open to concerned and interested secondary students who have presented a unique ability and skill and interested in advancing them to create a full-length and published works. This Writer-in-Residence programme eases the work of a creative writer both in practical and financial aspects. The position can be practiced from 6 months up to a year. During this time the writer is inspired to create another creative writing that may be presented when the residency ends. The residency in a way helps or returns something to the society where he or she stayed such as workshop activities, writers associations, and conception of creative work invigorated by the community. The residency invites all creative writers, published or not, regardless of race, religion, nationality, age, professional experience, sexual preference, are of residence, or economic status. All residents are chosen primarily on the aspect of the anonymous details and writing samples provided in their applications. For more information on the selection process, please see ____. Workshop schedule (day and venue) The group is glad to work in a manner that best fits one's preference and according to the day, time, and venue that work for the high school participant. The various activities within the workshop can be done in one's school venue, secondary institution or centre. It can also be conducted at a different place such as a depository area, art gallery, historic dwelling, or place for travelers. The workshop's theme can be developed according to the preference of the venue. This can be scheduled during the period when high school students are on their term paper or project processing, during holidays, and in time of normal or off school and office hours. The workshop can also gather functions for little group (maximum of 10 high school students) in a designated Workshop Room at any public high school. Participants including the faculty members can engage in our regular programme of open workshops and may join our socialization plan. Rationale of the workshop Generally, people are conscious of the fact that communication, particularly that is intended for print, is personally owned by a specific person. However, others regard books and print materials as unrealistic to ignite one's creativity or they fail to capture one's vision. This is because they find that they do not have the time to attest to their own precept of creative writing. Purpose of the workshop Through this workshop, we aim that any public high school student, regardless of his or her age and heritage, could have the opportunity to be endowed and enriched by creative writing. For them to be able to show their real personalities, either verbally or in print, and deal with their ideas and emotion. We intend that the participants will have the expertise to claim language and own their own works and to build and search their respective attributes. We make a harmless area where high school students' expressions get a boost for them to enjoy the written and verbal creative writings and for the said participants to get out of their comfort zones and emerge as expert creative writers. Effect of the workshop Dealing and being into a work place with professional and seasoned creative writers will definitely have a compelling effect on the participants, both the high school students and their teachers. Getting away from the traditional method of learning, the participants will have the chance to experience and search for examples of good and effective creative writing. The workshop will open an opportunity and lead the participants to the force of creative writing as well as reading and make himself or herself as someone with authority who can excite others about the beauty of creative writing without antagonizing the audience. Aside from the high school students, their teachers can also benefit as they will emerge renewed with fresh thoughts on the process of creative writing. Procedure For this workshop, we propose a procedure that will assure that students will get maximum benefits from the activities in terms of creative arousal, self-manifestation, mentoring, learning details, self-esteem and publication productions. We will invite practitioners in the field of creative writing as the resource speakers or facilitators of the workshop. The speakers will conduct theoretical discussions to be followed by open forum where the participants and the speakers can discuss the merits of the activities. The participants will also be given time to apply the workshop's principles and theories. Requirement and result The workshop will necessitate careful study of particular requirement and result and will request participants to accomplish a survey/report paper. Then, we will eventually give an acceptable and flexible workshop proposal with appropriate recommendations. Since seeing a creative work put into print means accomplishment and boost to one's ability, the workshop proposes the provision of all required assistance for actual performance in the activities and eventual publication of the works. These may include the plan and publication of participants’ collection of creative writing papers and their video presentation. Similar successful workshops Successful workshops with similar programs involving creative writing, literary/poetry recital, video productions of dance and street arts workshops as well as in museums and galleries at different public high schools and communities are found in Hove, Sussex and the south of England and those creative writing and drawing workshops at Brighton. Price of the workshop The workshop charges a minimum of ?500. However, for the specific requirement of a particular group of high school students, we will request them to contact us for a detailed costing so that the financial proposal will fit into your project. For inquiries, you can reach us at (proposed name, contact numbers and online information about the organization facilitating the creative writing workshop).

Expressing Teen Identity by Using Slang: Attitudes and Opinions Towards the Slang of Teenagers

Expressing teen identity by using slang:attitudes and opinions towards the slang of teenagers Introduction One of the most significant elements which people notice while meeting with someone is the person’s language. As Trudge (2000:2) points out, the manner in which we use our language has a great importance while â€Å"establishing social relationship and while conveying information about the speaker†. Ethnic background, gender, education, social class, age and many other aspects may influence the way we talk.And the way we talk may influence other people’s perception about us. Language in the society also differs in the formality levels. When talking about any specific kind of a language we use the term language variety. The variety of the language which is used in a particular situation is called style. Styles are mainly characterized by the vocabulary differences, but also by syntactic ones. Styles range on the scale from very formal to extremely informal. V ocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the continuum is known as slang. 1] Some people might think that slang is only a young people issue. However the truth is that all of us use some kind of slang, and this usage is influenced by many factors. It is obvious that slang creates barriers between people or groups of people. So if you do not want someone, who is not a member of your group, understand what are you saying, you may use a particular slang, which is inherent only for your group. Using slang may also be part of a person’s identity.Therefore the main task handled in this paper is to examine the use of slang among teenagers and the sources they are influenced by. This essay presents a view on teenage slang as a means of expressing their identity. It also includes society perspective and opinions on the adolescent use of slang. The teenage language was for a long period under-represented in language corpora. In order to repair this, a very comprehensive teen age language corpus, the Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Language (COLT, 2002), was created.This large material is focusing on the spoken language of teenagers between 13 to 17 years in London. It consists of five hundred thousand words and it is a part of the British National Corpus. [2] As a basis for my arguments I will be mainly using corpus compilation, analysis and findings named Trends in Teenage Talk published in 2002 by Anna-Brita Stenstrom, Gisle Andersen and Ingrid Kristine Hasund, because as it consider the teenage slang language, it is the most relevant corpus for this essay. Slang and teenage languageIt is hard to give a definition of slang, because there is a difficulty of distinguishing it from jargon (special vocabulary used by particular profession), colloquialisms (special use of vocabulary according to geographical region), usage of vague terms (statements with unclear message) or neologism (new coinages or senses of words or phrases). Definitions do, however, ex ist, and the online Oxford English dictionary (2012) classifies slang into the three types: The first type consider slang as the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type.Another definition is that it is the special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession; the cant or jargon of a certain class or period. And finally the last one says that it is the language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense. Slang is natural part of each language. It is the non-standard vocabulary usually connected with particular group of people. When discussing slang, we should consider its history and development.Slang has its origin in the middle of the 18th century. In that time slang was seen as a low level language, since it was used primarily by criminals, revelers and drunk en people in pubs. Later on slang became regarded as a specific vocabulary of certain professions, like printers, poets and even lawyers or doctors. During the beginning of the nineteen century slang begins to be seen as a highly colloquial part of almost any language. [3] Moreover as the online Oxford English dictionary demonstrates, the word slang appeared in the connection with the language of youngsters for the very first time in 1818, when Sir J. T.Coleridge was recorded to have stated the following: †Two of the best [students] come to me as a peculiar grinder (I must have a little slang)†. [4] This connection appeared as well in William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair: â€Å"He was too old to listen to the banter of the assistant-surgeon and the slang of the youngsters. †[5] This fact proves that the importance of the adolescent talk has been seen as an important variety of language for a relatively long period. As well as human language also slang is continuously changing its form and vocabulary and not all of the expressions have to disappear as its generation grew up.On the one hand there are new slang words springing up and on the other hand old ones are dying. This means that the slang expressions used by teenagers may sometimes overlap the barriers of a particular group and become more widely used. Some of the slang expressions may absorb into the English language and become part of Standard English. Types of slang As I stated previously it is hard to distinguish slang from other types of informal language. Linguists therefore tend to use different terms when describing types of slang.Slang is generally divided into general slang and specific slang. While general slang is used among all people without the need to be a member of an exact group, mainly to avoid conventions; specific slang is used with a purpose to show that a person belongs to a specific group and has a loyalty with other members of this group. It se ems obvious that teenager's slang belongs to the specific one. In the Norwegian study Trends in teenage talk Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 65) stated that adolescent talk do not include only general slang, but also vague (E. . â€Å"stuff like that†, â€Å"lots of†), vogue (words which already exists in the language, but become fashionable for a short period of time[6]), proxy (the usage of a verb â€Å"go† or â€Å"be like† instead of the quotation), small words (E. g. â€Å"you know†, â€Å"sort of†, â€Å"yeah†, â€Å"like†), taboo and swear words; which he described with a term â€Å"slanguage†. In the next section I will look at these features of â€Å"slanguage†. Teenage talk Before we start to talk about teenage language in depth, we must define the word teenager. The word teenager firstly appeared in 1941.Earlier on expressions like puber, adolescent, teen, farrow or teener were used to refer to a young person between the ages of 13 and 19. [7] The teenage years might be viewed by some as the most difficult period in a person’s life. It is typical that society views them as rebellious, sloppy, messy and imprecise. And this view is also reflected on their language. The rebellion might be seen in a use of slang words and new expressions in order to shock, the imprecision in the lack of grammar, sloppiness in amount of fillers like â€Å"like† or â€Å"um† and messiness in their handwriting.They are to some extent expected to act like adults, however, they might still be treated as children. Sometimes even parents may not understand their children language, so that their attitude towards their slang use might be negative. However, the present generation of teenagers is not the first to have these kinds of informal expressions. Each generation uses a language composed of informal words and phrases or a special own way of using a standard vocabulary. Everyone use different kind of language in different situations, so that adolescents will not use the same language while speaking with their parents as they do with their friends.The only reason of using this slang in front of their parents might be to keep them out of the loop. And this generally happens while they are talking about sex, drug or ethnic issues. Although many of these slang expressions are harmless and teenagers are using them just to be on the same boat as they peers, parents should be aware of this slang, so they can avoid some unpleasant situation. Teenage age is the part of life when most people do not yet know what to do with their life.That is one of the reasons why many teenagers are trying to find their place and identity by joining some social groups, which they can feel connected with. They usually feel a need to become members of some subcultures that relate to their own attitudes and interests. Some subcultures have their own private language code, which helps it s members to support their values, attitudes and uniqueness even more; in other words slang language. As already mentioned, apart from general slang, teenagers also use other characteristic linguistic features known as â€Å"slanguage†.One part of the teenage slanguage is vogue expressions. Vogue words are already existing words like â€Å"massive†, â€Å"paranoid† or â€Å"reckon†, which have become trendy in teenage talk, but they tend to lose their popularity in a short time. It might also be words like â€Å"wicked† or â€Å"sad† used in a different new way: a) Sad drinking habits = secret drinking in a boarding school[8], and b) A wicked pair of ragamuffin trousers, wicked rap, wicked music[9]. As Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 86-89) states another fashionable feature in teenage language is the usage of vague words.Some classic examples of vague words are: lots of, stuff like that, kind of, for ages, and so on, and whatever. Vag ue words are used instead of the adequate words in talk. The reason for using them is to take up the talk to a more colloquial level and fill the gaps in a sentence. These words occur in adults talk as well. The example of vagueness we can see in this conversation: Tommy: and they like wanna see like how we talk and all that. [You know] Regina: [Yeah] Tommy: rastafarian style and all[10] According to Chanell (1994: 197) vague words do not have a function of fillers without meaning.They are used for purpose to contribute the communicative message. Vague words are discussed with two interesting features in COLT (2012: 105;106): a) The research showed that usage of vague words is more frequent among adults than teenagers. However this finding might be quite inaccurate, because adults in COLT conversations mainly appear in the position of teachers and they might adopt the language means of their students to get more closed to them; and b) COLT study find that it is not possible to assoc iate the use of vague words with a specific gender or social background.Another trend in present teenage language is the usage of proxy phrases. It is the way of using verbs such as â€Å"go†, â€Å"say†, â€Å"be like† to substitute verbs of quotation. By using these verbs they can report to some situation or conversation and meaning can be also influenced by the tone or mimicry. In the corpus I have found following exmples: a) It was like sort of, she just went (banging noise), and just fell over and I just†¦ [11], and b) Well what I tried last weekend, not quite crying but I did a sort of moody sort of thing, I di= I was really quiet and I just gnored everyone and I was like really like, you know, didn't say a word. [12] According to Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 165) other typical feature of teenage talk are small words, which can be divided into hedges, empathizers and tags. The usage of invariant tags namely â€Å"yeah†, â€Å"eh†, â€Å"okay†, â€Å"right†, and â€Å"innit† is one of the most frequent feature in teenage slang. Empathizers are used to evoke sympathy between speaker and listener. An example of this is â€Å"you know†. By hedges are considered expressions like â€Å"just like† or â€Å"sort of†. Their purpose is to make speech sounds more or less unclear or fuzzier.Another feature of slanguage is a vocabulary which is considered as forbidden because of its offensive character known as taboo words. Taboo words are usually connected with sex, death, excretion or the human body. Slang taboos are used to replace the regular synonyms. Examples of these might be â€Å"take the piss out of† (make fun of), â€Å"screw up† (ruin), â€Å"to be pissed† (to be drunk). Teenage age is generally seen as an age of rebellion. Adolescents want to shock not only with their style of music, clothing, entertainment, but also with the talk style.That is the reason why they have favored the use of taboos. Just like taboos swear words are also considered as a part of forbidden language, which should not be spoken out loud. Although what sets them apart from taboos, might be their acceptance. If person use a swear word in some relevant situation, for example hurting oneself, as a relief, than it might be more acceptable. For example in the Czech republic is not forbidden to curse â€Å"kurva† if you hurt yourself. The purpose of swearing is quite obvious, it can come out of surprise, or anger or it may be used when people want to upset someone.Teenagers usually use some swear words when talking to their friends to look â€Å"cool†. In a recent study by Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002:64), it has been found that swearwords can be used as intensifiers to put more emphasis on adjective or adverb (extremely, fucking crap), abusives to refer to a person you are talking with (you dickhead/sod/motherfucker) or expletives expressing strong feelings, or serving as an oath or curse (for fuck’s sake, shit). Reasons for using slang British lexicographer Partridge (1993) pointed out a good deal of reasons for using slang.These were: to have fun by using playful expressions; to be different by using new expressions; to make your talk seems more witty, inventive and humorous; to be picturesque; to draw attention; to escape from cliches, or to be brief and concise; to enrich the language; to be solid, concrete or abstract; to strengthen or reduce your statement; to soften unpleasant situations; to reduce or disperse the seriousness of a conversation; to entertain the audience; for a social purposes to induce either friendliness or intimacy; to show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, profession or social class; to not be understood by others; to show someone that he or she is not a part of a group. For instance Stenstrom (2002:16) provides an example that shows how someone is not a part of a group. He gave a tape recorder to few teenagers, so they could record their daily conversations. The following is a transcription of one of these conversations: Johnny: We can’t have a squeak in this room. Get out. Brett: I’m not a fucking squeak, I’m just in a choir. Bradley: /laughing/ Yeah, precisely Rick: /laugh/ Ah that just shows your ignorance dunnit really? Yeah I’m a member of that one. Johnny: Shows my ignorance?Brett: Yeah if you weren’t ignorant you’d know there’s four parts to a choir and not just one castrate section. Johnny: And you’re in the Castro section? Brett: /laugh/ No I’m not. Johnny: With a laugh like that you’ve gotta be. Rick: Actually I tell you one good thing about being in this choir yeah, I’m in this little choir tonight, chamber choir yeah, which is only about, which is only about like eight or nine people yeah? Bradley: Oh so you’re the creme de la choir As we can see Johnny is using the slang word â€Å"squeak† when speaking about Brett and, who are members of the school choir. By this he means that they have mutating voice, while singing in the choir and he is also making a fun, that they are castrated.An important aspect of adolescence is to be perceived as â€Å"cool† or accepted by one’s peers. Because being â€Å"cool† also usually means being popular, and popularity is connected with higher social status. Teenager’s desire for being part of a group, and also being a popular member of a group, may by many be considered one of the most important matters in this point of their life. Teenagers have a tendency to favor unique styles of music or clothes. They choose own friends and places where they like to spend their free time. And they also tend to use specific language. So that the usage of particular phrases, words and slang expressions might be seen as an identity marker for them.The aims of young people are to be independent and free, so that they may use rather informal language than formal, to express their positive or negative attitudes towards other people or situations. Nevertheless at the same time they should be aware about choosing right language, while talking with different people. If they are not capable to choose right way to talk for example with older people, then there is no surprise they might be perceived cheeky, rude or less intelligent. Sources and factors influencing teenage speech Compared with the past days, when the society was not influenced by the mass media, the talk of teenagers is very different today. It is mainly affected by the pop-culture. Most teenagers have access to the same music, films, TV shows, and advertisements and especially they have the connection to the internet.Before the introduction of mass media such as internet, television or radio, slang varied mostly according to the regions you lived in. However in present days as there is a poss ibility to access the world via these electronic medias, adolescents share same or very similar culture. The reason why are these sources included to this essay is that they are influencing adolescent’s language and at the same time they help to spread this language quickly and easily. According to editor of the Oxford English Dictionary Jesse Shaidlower, technology has been one of the biggest drivers of new vocabulary for centuries. [13] There is no doubt that the internet is a great source of influence on the English language.In 2010 there were made an experiment by Salzburg academy about the addiction on media including internet. They asked students in ten universities around the world not to use internet, phone, email or any media for 24 hours. The results were comparable with withdrawal symptoms from drugs or alcohol. [14] We can see that most of the adolescents are addicted to the social pages like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, therefore their language is influenced by these social networks. Abbreviations like â€Å"LOL† (laughing out loud), â€Å"OMG† (Oh my God), â€Å"FB† (Facebook) or â€Å"BTW† (By the way) appear on internet pages every day and sometimes you can hear them in a normal spoken language as well.Also there is a grammar issue, because while chatting in the internet grammar is usually missing so the message like this can easily appear: â€Å"BTW hope u r F9 2day. † (By the way hope you are fine today. ) Teenagers tend to save time by reducing proper words to acronyms or symbols. We may say that Net Lingua is slang used among the internet at emails, social networks, online games, etc. We can also find many slang expressions which comes from TV shows, films or advertisements. For example according to Tagliamonte (2005) TV-show Friends popularized the usage of intensifiers such as â€Å"so† and â€Å"very as a means to emphasize some point of view. Another example is the popularization of th e greeting â€Å"Wassup? which is the colloquial pronunciation of the phrase â€Å"What's up? †. It became popular after the screening of the commercial campaign for Budweiser beer in 1999. [15] This phrase was also used in one of the episodes of a popular TV show How I Met Your Mother named Trilogy Time. Another element which influences the adolescent talk is the music they listen to. Most of them prefer main-stream music like pop, pop-rap or pop-rock or hip-hop music. And mainly hip-hop music is the one which has been influencing the English language already for some time. Hip hop renew and usurped already existing words like â€Å"cool†, â€Å"soul†, â€Å"chill†, â€Å"swing† and many other. ConclusionThis assignment has given the overview of lifestyle and speech among today's teenagers and it has find out why teenagers tend to use particular slang to express their identity. Moreover it served the main sources, which influences adolescentsâ₠¬â„¢ language like internet, television or music. It also mentioned the question if the use of slang may leave a bad impression on people they talk with. It was not easy to write about slang, because there are so many sources considering this topic. So that I chose to write about the group I thought uses slang the most, about teenagers. Firstly I tried to explain the term slang, show its origins and development.I have found that for the first time slang appeared in connection with teenagers in 1818. This work showed that above the general slang, adolescents’ talk also include vague, vogue, proxy, small words, taboo and swear words. According to Stenstrom, Andersen and Hasund (2002: 65) this typical vocabulary can be described with a term â€Å"slanguage†. This essay has shown teenagers use the slang to express positive or negative attitudes towards people or situations. On the one hand they use it to support their values, attitudes, and uniqueness and to show their sym pathy for someone. On the other hand they use it to draw the attention, shock, to show the rebellion or antipathy.Perhaps the most important aspect in the life of a teenager is to be perceived as cool. This essay showed that the way teenagers use their language can make them either popular for their peers or outsiders. References: ABC News (2011). OMG! The OED [Hearts] A Few New Words. [ONLINE] Available at: http://abcnews. go. com/US/omg-oed-words/story? id=13220816#. UIgSOsVrit8. 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