Science Teachers and Professors Should Not Teach Creationism

Where do we come from? How did this world, this universe originate? Questions that philosophers probably first of all, and successively scientists, dogmatists, little children, and imaginably almost the whole population of the Earth have at least once asked themselves and tried to answer, sometimes with convincing or satisfactory results, but presumably more frequently with no different outcome than numerous new interrogations. However, today we do have several answers, different according to areas of the world, distinct cultures and various religions, and each individual can choose what to believe; so the actual question, which remains unsolved, is the following: what should public schools teach to their students? The answer to this query†¦show more content†¦America is not a theocracy; indeed, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants the freedom of religion and states that the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect â€Å"a wall of separation between church and State† (Establishment Clause). Since public schools are in fact â€Å"public† institutions, related undeniably to the states, it would be illegal and unconstitutional to have them not distinctly separated from any church. Different would be, obviously, talking about private religious schools; those are in fact called â€Å"independent schools† or, more commonly, â€Å"nonstate schools† – which means, literally, not administered by any government, local, state or national. According to the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), even if the percentage of students attending Catholic schools has declined since 1995, it still reaches 12 %, which is an extremely high number; while among the top five reasons for parents to home school their children – with a 36 % agreement, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics – appears â€Å"a desire to provide religious instruction.† This statement confirms that if parents do want their sons and daughters to learn about religion in a scholastic context, the only way to achieveShow MoreRelatedThe Theory Of Evolution, Introduced By Charles Darwin,1265 Words   |  6 PagesIn terms of evolution, science and religion are two separate topics. However, there are some who believe in theistic evolution, which is the study of religious teachings about God (also known as creationism) that are then intermingled with the modern understanding of evolution today. That being said, a commonly asked question is whether or not science such as evolution and religion should be taught together. The answer to this question is no; evolution and creationism should not be taught hand inRead MoreThe Big Bang Theory And Evolution1612 Words   |  7 PagesCreation Theory A young man who is a senior in college has the opportunity of a lifetime to conduct research with professors in Israel on geological fossils for his major in Earth Science. He had never been out of the United States before and only knew what he had been taught: the big bang theory and evolution. Israel is made up of a very strong Jewish community and, as this young man would soon find out, they did not view geological findings through the Big Bang theory, but through the BiblicalRead MorePolitics Of The Polarized Classroom Essay1666 Words   |  7 PagesPolitics of the Polarized Classroom A Popular Trope By now, one must have already heard or read about the story of a young man standing up to his professor in philosophy class, the latter being a self-professed atheist. Simply put, the professor claimed that it was stupid to believe in God because there was no empirical proof of God. The young man, however, wittily retorts that since the class really had no empirical proof of the professor’s brain, then they really had no business believing him.Read MoreUnderstanding Darwin s Theory Of Evolution1342 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science – in all of biology,† claims Bill Nye. Creation versus evolution is a controversial subject. Is creation a reliable model of origins to teach children in today’s scientific era? Where I stand on it is no it is not a reliable model. The reasons that evolution is a reliable model and creation is not a reliable model of origins are because the belief in religion is decreasing, cour t cases, and the possibility of teaching both in school. To giveRead MoreToday’S Lesson Will Be.... . The Class Takes Their Seats,1522 Words   |  7 Pages Today’s Lesson will be... The class takes their seats, shuffling slightly as they turn to the board, pulling paper from their bags and poising pencils. Their teacher greets them with a brittle smile, silently takes account who is present and turns his back to the class to write. The girl with perky pigtails and a scattering of freckles takes the liberty of writing down what she knows from the book of Genesis, internally smiling because she has already been taught this lesson. God createdRead More Evolution vs. Creation Essay915 Words   |  4 Pagesnaturalists, materialists, humanists, etc.—and, in more recent times, have led to court cases, heated arguments, and public debates. The major debate intended to be covered in this piece is that of whether or not evolution should be taught in classrooms. Also, if it is to be taught, should it be taught as fact or theory? It is also intended to present enough evidence to disprove evolution altogether and, as a result, make it much less than a theory, but act ually the vain opinions of a man who chose notRead MoreEssay on Should Intelligent Design be Taught in Public Schools?1665 Words   |  7 Pageslater, the majority of scientists have come to a consensus in agreement with this theory, citing evidence in newer scientific research. In an average high school biology classroom, one may imagine an instructor that has devoted much of his life to science and a predominantly Christian class of about twenty-five students. On the topic of evolution, one of the students might ask, â€Å"Why would God have taken the long route by creating us through billion years of evolution?† while another student may claimRead MoreEssay on Creation’s Contest with Evolution2006 Words   |  9 PagesDayton, Tennessee-1925. A high school teacher by the name of John Scopes was charged with teaching evolution, which was illegal at the time in Tennessee. The court found Scopes guilty, and he was fined one hundred dollars. However, the Scopes trial immediately sparked one of the largest controversies in todays public school systems: should creationism still be taught in public schools? In the trial, Clarence Darrow argued that teaching creationism in public schools defies the separationRead More Why Creationism Should Not Be Taught in Public Schools Essays1921 Words   |  8 PagesA hotly debated topic concerning public schools centers on the origin of life. Now more than ever, science and religion are butting heads. What should public schools teach to their students? Alex Rainert reasons that both â€Å"science and religion are engaged in the same project, to discover the origin of life† (141). In short, one could better describe the debate as a crusade between evolutionists and creationists; both sides have their well-founded arguments, but when one looks at the decisions ofRead MoreReligion and Science in the Classroom Essay1850 Words   |  8 PagesScience, in Albert Einstein’s words, â€Å"describes what is.† â€Å"Such a description consists of certain laws of nature, which summarize observed patterns, and theories† (Peshkin 46). Science and religion are the main comp onents of the ongoing national debate about the teaching of evolution in our public schools (Peshkin 46).Various religions reject or ignore the contributions of science, arguing that science displaces God, questions religious belief, and degrades morality (Molloy 547). Others disagree

Essay on Sula - Setting Analysis - 576 Words

Things can happen in some places and the tale of them will be interesting. The same story laid in another city would be ridiculous. Setting situates the story`s events, characters and mood through place, time and weather. Without the different dimensions of setting, a story would not have the diversity to introduce new or changed characters, define their true identities, compare societies and reveal hidden emotions. Through Morrison`s Sula, setting is used as the key factor behind every event that occurred. In order to introduce a changed character back to a story the author must first present the character to a new different environment. In Morrison`s novel we see that Shadrack, Plum and Sula go away from the Bottom and return completely†¦show more content†¦When characters are placed in different situations, they tend to reveal their true identities. In most cases setting is used to identify a characters true characteristics or intentions. The purpose of this is to entertain the plot of the story. As the story moves on, characters are not necessarily changed but more over presented in different characteristics that the reader had not seen them in before. â€Å"Helene Wright was an impressive woman, at least in Medallion she was.† (Morrison, 11) Respected by many in Medallion because of her physique, when presented in a new setting, Helene was stripped away by one word, â€Å"gal.† A simple change of place, proved that Helene was not different than the other wome n in Medallion. The highly admired woman was now lowering herself from the â€Å"lady† image she had obtained by being coquette to a white conductor. Writers use setting to reveal the hidden emotions of characters. Characters react differently when placed in particular environments. Morrison used this technique, when in a single chapter she portrayed Sula in two distinct moods. In chapter 1922, Sula is introduced as upfront and tough when â€Å"she slashed off only the tip of her finger† (Morrison, 54) to intimidate her bullies. A young girl who is not terrified, â€Å"if I can do that to myself, what you suppose ill do to you?† (Morrison, 55) is later on placed in an environment of comfort and viewed asShow MoreRelatedToni Morrisons Sula - The Judgment of Sula703 Words   |  3 Pages The Judgment of Sula nbsp; Toni Morrison first took the stage as a writer in 1970 with her book The Bluest Eye. In 1973 she published her second novel Sula, and she has been writing ever since. Sara Blackburn reviewed Sula for the New York Times when it first made its way onto the scene, and while she did offer a nice plot summary, her review seemed to carry a message addressed to Morrison rather than to the reader. nbsp; Blackburn begins her article by discussing Morrisons firstRead MoreThe Black Community : Sula1089 Words   |  5 PagesThe Black Community Sula further investigates the repressive white society s influence on the black community and examines the corruptive forces which compel the members of the black society to reject and alienate one of their own people. The life of Sula Peace, while growing up in the black community of Medallion in the 1920s, is shaped by her experiences with family and friends. A strong sense of feminine identity is displayed in this independent young woman and when she returns to MedallionRead MoreCritical Analysis Of Toni Morrisons Sula1464 Words   |  6 PagesMorrison’s novel Sula, takes place within a black community also referred to as the Bottom in Medallion, Ohio in the 1920’s. It’s a topsy turvy world. The once-useless land that a white man jeeringly provided for a dark man is currently being transformed into a socially attractive district for white individuals. However, this reversed request isnt only an amusing setting for the novel; it is a fundamental topic of the n ovel, for as Morrison has stated, Evil is as useful as good is although goodRead MoreGood And Evil : Nel And Sula1577 Words   |  7 PagesDespite being presented as opposites of good and evil, Nel and Sula are actually quite similar, as both Nel and Sula posses the traits that defined the other, effectively blurring the lines between good and evil. As young girls, Nel pushed herself to become friends with Sula in the first place as â€Å"Nel, who regarded the oppressive neatness of her home with dread, felt comfortable in t with Sula, who loved it and would sit on the red-velvet sofa for ten to twenty minutes at a time†¦ As for Nel, sheRead MoreI Have Learned About My Writing879 Words   |  4 PagesBaccalaureate level of English that my school offered a selected amount of students from beginning of my junior year to the end of my senior year. In those two years we focused really on analyzing poems, Shakespearian plays, and a few novels such as Sula, House of the Spirits, a nd The Scarlet Letter. We studied intensively how to analyze, annotate, break each part of the novel and ask â€Å"why, what if, how.† Everything I took out of IB help me to this very day when I am reading and examining a novel.Read MoreIs Uttarakhand A Good Marketing For Our Wine? Essay1770 Words   |  8 Pagesour company so we can be listed in one of the best winery of India. Strategy The startegy of our company is build our company with the other competitors and some well known vineyards in India so it will hep us to find out the right structure in setting up a vineyard. The main startegy of our business to hire people who have good knowledge of wine and customer oriented that will help to grow our business more that will benefit our company stakeholders ,ownersetc. It’s a long term business so itRead MoreEssay on Guajilote Case Study3153 Words   |  13 Pagesexamines the case study of the Guajilote co-operative, a co-operative with a licence to collect and sell fallen timber in the Honduras. The paper is in five sections; giving an impression of the co-operative as a business venture, conducting a SWOT analysis of the company, looking at any competitive advantage or strategy. Describing the value chain and considering strategic alternatives open to the co-operative. Solution 1. The business is certainly located in rural areas and considerationsRead MoreAnalysis of the Wine Industry3427 Words   |  14 Pagesï » ¿ PESTLE ANALYSIS OF INDIAN WINE INDUSTRY FOR MANUFACTURING AND LAUNCHING AUSTRALIAN WINE JACOB’S CREEK IN INDIA -Joohi Kamath Table of Contents Serial Number Topic Page Number 1 Abstract 2 Abstract The below mentioned report is a PESTLE analysis on the wine industry in India, which is a potential market for Australian Wine Jacob’s Creek owned and produced by Orlando Wines; currently a part of Pernod Ricard Pacific, a wholly owned subsidiaryRead MoreLiquor Industry in India4974 Words   |  20 Pages7655 * Website-  http://www.amberliquors.com * Email-  Ã‚  amberlimited@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diageo’s entry is a welcome change in setting a lot of things correct. K LAXMI NARASIMHAN DMD Tilaknagar Industries Diageo has made an   open offer to all public shareholders of United Spirits     (USL) to acquire an additional 26 percent stake in the company, which will increase Diageo’s holdingRead MoreIndian Beverage Industry Report15071 Words   |  61 PagesOpportunities-----------------------------14 12. Indian Beverage Market Perspectives-----------------------------------15 13. Indian Beverage Distribution Marketing Network--------------------15 14. Issues Related to Indian Beverage Market-----------------------------16 15. SWOT Analysis Of Indian Beverage Industry---------------------------18 16. The Leading Beverage Companies And Their Competitive Brands----19 †¢ Coca Cola Company-----------------------------------------------20 †¢ PepsiCO India------------------------------------------------------23

Engineering Notebook †How to Keep One Free Essays

That means, Write EVERYTHING Down, even include a dentist appointment; that’s what helps make it a believable Legal Document and suitable for assessment purposes (and believe it or not patent applications too! ). So, keep the notebook up to date and have it Witnessed often by those whom you, report to and understand your work. Also, it can jog the old memory and reduce the number of times you do the same tests. We will write a custom essay sample on Engineering Notebook – How to Keep One or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"†¦ mmmm I’m sure I’ve already done that?†¦ † Of course, It won’t Hurt when Final Reports are Due either! Here’s How: ) Use a Bound (stitched binding) notebook. DO NOT use a loose leaf or Spiral bound notebook! 2) Entries Should be in Permanent Ink–Not Pencil. 3) The Title, unit Number, date and Book Number (should you need more than one! ) should be accurately recorded when starting a New Page. 4) All data is to be recorded directly into the notebook. The inclusion of all elaborate details is preferable. Notes and calculations should be done in the notebook, NOT on loose paper. In the case of an error, draw a single line through the incorrect data. Do Not Erase or use correction fluid. All corrections should be initialled and dated. 5) In the case where you have used CAD or computer simulation to provide evidence then this should be stored in a folder BUT referred to and cross referenced (using consistent format of date / time / names etc. ) in your notebook 6) After entering your data / design ideas / calculations etc. , sign and date all entries. Witness or witnesses should sign and date each entry too. The witness must observe the work that is done, and have sufficient knowledge to understand what they read. Names of those present during any demonstration should also be recorded. 7) Use Both sides of a Page and Never leave any White Space: â€Å"X† out or Crosshatch all unused space, and don’t forget to initial date the crossing out!. 8) All contents of the notebook / folder should be kept secure safe. It should be kept in a SAFE place to safeguard against Loss. [The website shown below is full of ideas about design, electronics and tips – but done in an easy to read anecdotal and often humorous way] How to cite Engineering Notebook – How to Keep One, Papers

Conference on Marketing and Business Development

Question: Discuss about the Conference on Marketing and Business Development. Answer: Introduction: Exhibit 12 shows exceptional fluctuations that are really significant while considering the aggregate demand for pasta in the country of Italy. The instability in the weekly demands from the Northeast DC is resulted by various reasons. The first reason is the fluctuation in customers demand due to the seasonal changes (Morrone, Russo Calace, 2015). These fluctuations are quite predictable. Secondly, the demand from the distributors differs for various factors like volume discounts, transportation and promotions, long time for lead (10 days), packing design and sizes, various types of products, no specific quantities for minimum and maximum order. Moreover, the suppliers do not have the system or tools for forecasting. They take the benefit of transportation or volume discount during the promotional period to stock the order in advance for weeks and in future weeks they order very less amount or nothing and use the stocked inventory. Another reason for fluctuation is the poor communi cation among the sales and marketing team, distributors, manufacturers, retailers (Tan, Hilmola Binh, 2016). The nature of the supply chain is of complex type. The distributors have various kinds of customers like small shops and supermarkets and they have various strategies. Many stages are involved in the supply chain between the factories and the end-use-customers. The demand is not predictable or not possible to keep track of sales from the stores and from the distributors. The fluctuation in demand lead to the bullwhip effect that is the enlarged variation in the demand pattern and involvement of more stages in the supply chain. This is the most evidential in exhibit 12 and it can be seen that there are 4-6 point in the orders and that is followed by the exceptional low order immediately after that (Brinkhoff, zer Sargut, 2015). Barilla Spa is the largest manufacturer of pasta globally. The organization sells their pasta large number of retailers in Italy through the third party supplier and distributors towards the end of 1980 and they suffered cost penalties and growing inefficiencies in operations that caused due to the large variations in their week-to-week distribution pattern (Di Guardo Castriotta, 2013). Consumers demand pattern for pasta in Italy is as follows: the pattern for the demand of pasta in Italy is relatively flat and was growing at a rate of less than 1% annually. In distribution centres (DC) the demand pattern reveals a further big fluctuation The pattern is like this due to the dynamics and channel policies (Wieland Handfield, 2016). The fluctuation effect put Barilla in a circumstance where the production is not sufficient or the finished goods production is in excess. This outcome reveals that either the company is holding large stock of inventories or is stocked out. The expenses are directly related to the loss of revenue as the cost of holding the inventory and competition respectively. Owing to the fluctuations, the logistic manufacturing operations are pressurised. Al the end of the distributor, the effect of the fluctuation leads to set up additional capability to hold the excess production of purchase any kind of promotion. Stock outs are expensive as they lead to loss of sales because the customers are likely to buy the competitors product and it can be seen from exhibit 13 that the stock out level is around 5% or more than that. As the margins are diminishing, it would be advantageous for the operation to minimize the cost of the whole company. Moreover, the large scale of buffering in inventories requires cost expenses and is likely to conceal various issues in the procedures (Islam et al., 2013). Brando Vitalis JITD proposal as a measure of cost reduction: Brando Vitali, the ex-logistic director of Barilla suggested just-in-time distribution (JITD) tools for contradict the issues regarding the variation in demand. This tool needs the distributors to reveal the data with Barilla regarding sales and the company will forecast and supply exact quantity product at appropriate time to the distributors to meet the demand effectively. This was a drastic change from the traditional setup for the supply chain where the distributors were not used to share the data regarding sales with the company. However, the suggestion of Vital faces several criticisms from the distributors as well as from the own marketing and sales department of Barilla due to various reasons. As under the JITD approach the products are supplies as when the demand is raised from the distributor, there is no need to stock the product on the warehouse on a large scale. Thereby the cost of storing the product is minimised. On the other hand, there is no need for excess production. Therefore, the level of expired products will be minimised. Thus, the JITD approach can be used as a measure for cost reduction (Seuring, 2013). The system of JITD works through the cooperation between seller and distributor. The distributor must reveal their sales forecast to the seller and based on the forecast, the seller will provide the product to the distributor as and when the demand will be raised by the distributor. It is quite same like the collecting the point-of-sale information from the retailers, that is the seller will respond to the sell through data just one stage behind of the retailers. Actually, the seller will use the sell-through information from the retailer. Barilla must go ahead to implement the JITD approach. The reason behind this is the JITD implementation is aligned with the business objectives of Barilla. JITD will allow the company to theoretically reduce the uncertain demand, which in turn, will maximize the uses of their assets and minimize the level of inventories and will increase its revenue through removing the stock-outs (Koz?owski, Gola ?wi?, 2014). Resistance from the customers: From distributor: The distributors view is that they they require to reveal their sales figure or their warehouse to Barilla. Moreover, they can improve their service and inventory level on their own that will assist them to get the inventory faster as they prefer to place their order as and when necessary and Barilla is supposed to deliver the goods within 36 hours. From marketing and sales department: They think that the sales level of the company will be flatten if the JITD approach is introduced and without any incentive they will not force the retailers to buy the product of Barilla. Moreover, they feel that if the space in the distributors warehouse freed up then they will stock the competitors product. Further, they are in the view that the distribution channel not ready yet to handle the sophisticated relationship of JITD. Maggiali can persuade the customers to try the JITD approach through following: They can demonstrate that the JITD approach is beneficial to the customers through running the programme on experimental basis at some of the customers sites. Maggiali is required to focus at the JITD approach as a company-wide attempt rather than taking it as logistics programme (Wan et al., 2014). Before the implementation of the JITD tool, Barilla must obtain the acceptance from their internal bodies to smoothen the distribution channel. Various internal departments are there who will be affected by the JITD approach. The marketing and sale department feel that they spend significant time with the distributor to assist them in preparing the weekly demand pattern and incorporating discounts and promotion into their strategies for sales. They feel that the JITD approach will eliminate the need of sales representative, which in turn, lead to cutting of jobs for the sales staffs. The marketing strategy is also a crucial part of Barilla which will be affected with the implementation of the new procedure. The sales of the organization come from the promotional tools and discounts, on a large scale that are given as incentives to the distributor. However, without incentives they are less likely to take active part in the distribution. Another issue is that, if the JITD approach is implemented, it will leave a vacant space in the warehouse of the distributors and the company is in the view that the vacant space will be filled up by the competitors product which in turn, will reduce the sales level of Barilla. The total number of product that are dealt by Barilla is another factor of concern. With the SKU of 800 dry products, it is quite tough to adjust the distribution channel in accordance with the JITD approach (Lee Prabhu, 2016). The sales people of Barilla spend 90% of their time with the stores. They assist the company in setting up for the in-house promotions, merchandising the products of the company, taking note of the competitive data related to the stock outs, price, introduction of new product and the ordering approaches. Additionally, they spend half day for weekly meetings held with the retailers, distributors, buyers and assist the distributor for estimating their weekly order and incorporation of discounts and promotions into the plan. Moreover, they spend few times with the CDC to discuss about the new pricing strategies and new products, issues that were faced in the previous weeks deliveries and settlement if issues regarding the discount and deal structures. However, if the JITD system is incorporated, the sales peoples requirement will be decreased or there will be no need of the sales representatives. In such an circumstance, this is very obvious that the sales people will not be willing to accept the JITD approach (Khan, Khan Sohail, 2014). It is quite understandable that Barilla is only looking out for their own interest, however, they should not ignore the interest of the distributors completely. It is obvious that Barilla is not interested in allowing their distributors for taking the best possible decision for their organization as the present scenario costing them bigger hassle and money. One party must not control and take the decisions completely without taking consideration the view of other party. If Barilla is willing to offer the distributor the cost incentives like on bulk purchase, the distributors are more likely to accept the JTID approach (Zhong et al., 2013). References: Brinkhoff, A., zer, ., Sargut, G. (2015). All You Need Is Trust? An Examination of Inter?organizational Supply Chain Projects.Production and operations management,24(2), 181-200. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/poms.12234/full Di Guardo, M. C., Castriotta, M. (2013). The challenge and opportunities of crowdsourcing web communities: an Italian case study.International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies,4(1), 79. Available at https://search.proquest.com/openview/33ec8db3e8603c1890c7181a7ce1faa5/1?pq-origsite=gscholarcbl=2030559 Islam, D. M. Z., Meier, J. F., Aditjandra, P. T., Zunder, T. H., Pace, G. (2013). Logistics and supply chain management.Research in Transportation Economics,41(1), 3-16. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885912001606 Khan, S. N., Khan, M. A., Sohail, R. (2014). The Bullwhip Effect in Different Manufacturing Paradigm: An Analysis.Economia. Seria Management,17(1), 140-171. Available at https://mer.ase.ro/files/2014-1/11.pdf Koz?owski, E., Gola, A., ?wi?, A. (2014). Model of production control in just-in-time delivery system conditions.Advances in Manufacturing Science and Technology,38(1). Available at https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/baztech/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-48b4a37d-0b3b-4b36-8889-079fc81177bf Lee, S., Prabhu, V. V. (2016). Just-in-time delivery for green fleets: A feedback control approach.Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment,46, 229-245. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920916301833 Morrone, D., Russo, A., Calace, D. (2015, November). Family Firms CSR Actions: the Case of Barilla. InInternational Conference on Marketing and Business Development(Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 366-376). Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House. Available at https://www.mbd.ase.ro/?p=193 Seuring, S. (2013). A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management.Decision support systems,54(4), 1513-1520. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923612001741 Tan, A., Hilmola, O. P., Binh, D. H. (2016). Matching volatile demand with transportation services in Vietnam: A case study with Gemadept.Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics,28(1), 160-174. Available at https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/APJML-05-2015-0079 Wan, Y. L., Zhu, H. P., Mu, Y. P., Yu, H. C. (2014). Research on iot-based material delivery system of the mixed-model assembly workshop. InProceedings of 2013 4th International Asia Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management Innovation (IEMI2013)(pp. 581-593). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-40060-5_56 Wieland, A., Handfield, R. B. (2016). Supply Chain Management. In5th World Conference onProduction and Operations Management. POM 2016. Available at https://www.forskningsdatabasen.dk/en/catalog/2350919704 Zhong, R. Y., Dai, Q. Y., Qu, T., Hu, G. J., Huang, G. Q. (2013). RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing execution system for mass-customization production.Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing,29(2), 283-292. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736584512000956

Relative Roles of State and Ngos in Community Development with Respect to Housing as Service Delivery Essay Example

Relative Roles of State and Ngos in Community Development with Respect to Housing as Service Delivery Essay What are the developments options the state and the Non-governmental organisations have performed for the Peddie Extension area with regard to the housing delivery. Aims and Objectives of the study: Two aims and objectives have been identified for this study, namely to: * assess whether the stakeholders from the community are satisfied with the housing delivery process and how they have benefitted from the process. * Understand, and analyse the roles played by the state in housing delivery and Non-governmental organisations in service delivery for the rural poor in Peddie Extension.When a state attempts to employ strategies to reduce poverty, to provide necessary service delivery, to involve the poor in their communities in development decision making and resource allocation, it is probable to find its normal and suggested mechanisms inadequate. Additionally when the state endavours to develop the communities by providing with economic policy, basic services and infrastructure, but i s rarely targeted toward rural areas and people. Within the context, more is being asked whether the contribution of voluntarily sector to development provides more emphasis on poverty reduction, a community and participatory development.As the state endavours to develop communities, the social, economic and political environment created an operational environment for the NGOs. Literature on Non-governmental organizations indicates that NGOs have played a major role in an attempt to secure the protection of human rights nationally and internationally. Chakawarika (2011) argues that, the existence of NGOs is proving to be a necessity rather than a luxury in societies throughout the modern world. It is evident that in many developing countries, the role of NGOs has evolved in response to the market gaps left by the government (Gaist: 2009).Impelled by the inadequacies of the state and the market, citizens across the globe have developed NGOs to deal with a diversity of social needs. C onsequently, it could be argued that NGOs are increasingly identified as crucial role-players in community and people-centred development. Gaist (2009) indicates that the NGOs have frequently been regarded as very important for democracy since they have a strong support at grassroots level and their ability to develop and empower poor communities. This is a well-needed attribute in Zimbabwe as most of the communities are beyond being poor.Nzimakwe (2002) also supported this nature of NGOs saying they are enormously vital mechanisms in rural development as they benefit from the goodwill and reception of the community, consequently the NGOs have become very crucial players in the field of social development. There are other researchers who have conceptualized development such as Manuel Castells who was a sociologist who has theorised about the information age. His emphasis on development is mainly on the economic, political and cultural aspects.His major claim relevant to this study i s that, because of the rise of the information age, individual states are no longer able to do what is needed to develop the citizens of their individual countries. He is therefore very pessimistic about the role of the state as agent for development. 2. THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The issue of service delivery in Eastern Cape has become the point of interest in the past few years in South Africa. The Bill of Rights embodied in the South African Constitution (Act No. 108 of 1996) (RSA, 1996) states in section 24 that: ‘Everyone has the right to have adequate housing’.Consequently authorities are increasingly confronted with challenges to increase the delivery of houses to citizens. Scholars (Irurah and Boshoff, 2003) argue that, the delivery has not been followed through in implementation in various sectors of the economy. It is essential that these challenges be addressed by making use of correct implementation knowledge, proper analysis and evaluation policies of hous ing delivery. There is no public service can be rendered without suitable governing and administrative arrangements.Millions of historically disadvantaged South Africans, however, still live in rural communities or informal settlements that lack basic shelter and other services (Lawson, 1991). The Eastern Cape housing department provides the legislative and constitutional mandate to provide houses to the poor rural citizens of this province. It stands to reason that, citizens of this province would have access to decent and adequate houses. Rendering of housing services by government has resulted in uncompleted and defective houses due to inexperienced contractors providing poor workmanship and corruption in the housing programmes.Consequently, the state interventions of attempting to provide basic service delivery such as housing delivery in rural areas have been largely ineffective. Castell (2000:92) argues that some obstacles for development come from government bureaucracies. Ho wever, the latter, is only possible when the government policies are haphazard and an approach to community development is uncoordinated. Thus far, there are comprehensive national housing policies to really guide developments.After 1994 the ANC-led government embarked on housing delivery programme to rectify the past imbalances and this hampers the provision of housing in post-Apartheid South Africa. This provision enhanced human settlement development nationally, provincially and locally to meet the needs of South African citizens. These include, among others, expressing housing policies, confirming adequate access to relevant information so that citizens and civil society can mobilise around housing rights, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of housing progress and implementation (â€Å"Expanding Socio-Economic Rights and Access to Housing, 29 October 2003, p. ). African communities from urban areas benefited from housing delivery as they were entitled to have title deeds of the houses they lived in and some have their houses built. In contrast, black rural communities were not part of the planning and development decisions that affect the quality of their lives as a result, the state did not build houses for people from rural areas. Consequently, the government has been criticised by many dissatisfied South Africans, politicians and the media. Some criticisms were mainly from the media highlighting the corruption, mismanagement with regard to community projects as well as poor service delivery.According to the state which remains as the major protectors and abusers of human rights, NGOs have materialised as central players in the promotion of human rights around the world. Varona (2006) further argue that, citizens felt that there is a need for organising NGOs to develop alternative strategies and acquire new skills and capabilities in order to facilitate this access to housing, serviced land and basic services as lately, for informal settlements to ge t the attention of government in their bid for housing and land tenure, a presentation of concrete development plans, studies and options for housing development is needed.A year after 2006 local government elections, the Minister of Safety and Security reported some 5085 protests against unskilled and corrupt local government nationwide (Robert, 2007: 14). It stands to reason that, there is an escalation of corruption and squandering of resources by government officials and of which result on poor service delivery. In Philippines for instance Varona (2006) argue that inefficient government housing programs has aggravated and made poor communities lose confidence in an ability of the government to provide for basic services like housing and serviced land.Marie Huchzermeyer (2003) points out that, it is the lack of formal rights that allows for exploitation by politicians, by irresponsible or even repressive bureaucracies, and by informally operating groups or individuals in the cont rol over land, access to services, commercial activities, etc. Some researchers indicate that black rural communities have been excluded from participating in the conceptualisation process, planning and development decisions that affect the quality of their lives.Miraftab (2003) advocates that critics point out that viewed in this way, community participation may indeed ameliorate communities’ immediate problems but seldom then continues beyond the life of the specific projects and does not result in any greater community influence in decision making. As a result of that, the rural communities do not actively participate in local governance. 3. THE PROBLEM STATEMENT The purpose of this study is to show that the state has not been performing or has performed poorly in its role as provider of houses in the rural areas of Ngqushwa Local Municipality in Peddie Extension.Therefore, rural citizens are left with no other option than to make use of alternative building, their houses built with mud of which are sometimes not safe and secure. The absence of the decent houses has the risk involve to citizens namely, catching cold and storms outbreak. This problem is predominant in the remote rural areas. In some areas foundations of houses have been laid or walls are built for almost years but no roofs, windows or doors. But there are elected politicians, NGO officials and appointed officials who are supposed to be role-players for the benefit of the citizens.Theirs is to play the role of local government in terms of community development and service delivery as mandated by the constitution. They need to be able to deal with the challenges confronting the local government with regard to service delivery. It stands to reason that, community involvement in decision making is vital during planning. If community participation is neglected or limited then planning and delivery will experience implementation problem.Other problem that has been identified with regard to officials is a lack of understanding of the service delivery processes as well as lack in capability to administrative work. It is thus clear that there is a fundamental problem of rendering service delivery in Peddie Extenstion by incompetent local and non-government officials who do not play their essential roles in satisfying the demand for rural community development. It is thus evident that the municipal officials hamper the implementation processes of the housing delivery provided by the state policies.Consequently they fail to satisfy the demand for the sustainable housing service. 4. RESEARCH QUESTION What are the community development programmess the state and Non-governmental organisations have implemented for the Peddie Extension with regard to the housing delivery service? 5. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY * To assess whether the community members from the Peddie Extension are satisfied with the housing delivery process and how they have benefitted from the process. Un derstand, and analyse the roles played by the state and Non-governmental organisations in housing delivery for the rural poor in Peddie Extension. 6. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY The study will be limited to the Ngqushwa area particularly in Peddie Extension. The intention is to look at community with rural geographical location. Participants in this study will be voluntary. Thus, factors that may limit this study may include access to information, time, travelling funds, unwillingness of participant and insufficient literature on the specific study. 7. THE LITERATURE OF THE STUDYService delivery programmes played an important role in the development of South Africa. The housing sector this is particularly significant as the delivery of housing to low-income communities has been one of the key programmes of the South African government since 1994 (Irurah and Boshoff, 2003). Housing delivery in Eastern Cape in particular which is mostly rural, is forced by a various challenging issues. Pr imarily the Apartheid government has focused only to the white people, the African people in rural areas were almost forgotten, hence the backlog.As a result, this backlog and other challenges overlapped into the present state. Castells (1996) also wishes to demonstrate the role of information technology in transforming the whole economic, social and cultural environment of our times. Researchers such as (Cassier and Kesteloot, 2012) stress that in an information society, there are increasing inequalities that bring about intensifying processes of economic globalisation, capital and labour flexibility and welfare restructuring. Information society, however, is empowered by capital rules in financial form.It stands to reason that the information age comprises of unevenness of development, of the new inequalities and deprivations. Castells claims a new society has risen as a result of the information technology revolution, the economic crisis of capitalism and statism (communism) and the blooming of new social movements like environmentalism and feminism. He argues that more of the worldwide communication is happening through the electronic media, like social networks, electronic mails, cellular phone and so forth.And this network society is global, it is based on global networks and it manifests itself in many forms of production systems and new culture. Castells indicates that, together these three processes are causing a new social structure ‘ a network society’, a new economy ‘a global informational economy’ and a new culture ‘a culture of real virtuality ( in van Dijk, 2001). Harding (2006) argues that multifaceted virtual culture, enforces powerful economic decisions at every moment in the life of the network. Castells’ focus and ideas about development contradicts with those of neo-liberals and neo-Marxists.He focuses on the economic as well as the political and cultural aspects of development while neoliberalsâ€⠄¢ view of development as about the shift of control of the economy from the ‘public sector’ to the ‘private sector’. The philosophy behind neoliberalism is to maximise the role of the private sectors. In essence the aim of neoliberalism is to strive for national success in terms of the global market and that social life should be determined by the market which can be considered to be the best design for the society. Neoliberals also encourage the maximization of contract as well as the entrepreneurial precepts.It also resulted into the forms of work contracts, such as temporary, part-time, contract, and casual workers (Peck, 1996:119) Globalization and neoliberalism are sometimes used interchangeably, if one could argue under the notion of making the economic structure in an outline of a uniform, that is, interconnection of nations through trading. In addition, the keywords between globalization and the neoliberalism are, ‘global capitalism’ a nd ‘privatization’. Neo-liberal restructuring is central to the globalisation process which demands free-market, privatisation, externalisation, casualisation, and more.Conversely, Holm and Sorensen (1995:4) define globalization as the intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across borders. Globalisation is made to be valid and it is not seen as an economic aspect, however; one could argue that it is a new phase of capitalism. Harding (2006) adds on what Castells propounds on that the new flexibility offered to capital by information technology is intimately linked to the accelerating progress of globalization, permitting capitalists to keep down labour costs while exploiting emerging markets.Moreover, ideology serves as tool belief with a great political influence to make neoliberalism and globalization acceptable. On the other hand neo-Marxism focuses the most on the social inequalities and it shows the uprising of opposition that counter s inequalities. This theory arose from the work of Karl Marx and it is for the ideas of Max Weber who have theorized on social inequalities for example status and power. Neo-Marxism theory view class division as more important than gender or sex division or issues of race and ethnicity.Moreover Neo-Marxism theory seeks to reveal the hegemony of the dominant class which results to political power. Castells attributes that indeed, the vanguard social and cultural values are in the very design innovations that powered and shaped the oncoming technological revolution (Harding, 2006). There exists what is known as the policy making which is a large sector of elite control within government whereby the corporate community consisting of the upper class work hand in hand in overlapping spheres of economic and political entities (Domhoff,1990: 105).The economy is considered as a fundamental strong point of any society (Livingston, 1939: 53) as people are dependent on an income for basic surv ival necessities, thus if the government favours policies which inadvertently co-operate with the views of the corporate power then the needy are inevitably cared for and corporate elitist take on roles of leadership within the community (Domhoff 2006: 103). 8. FOCUS STUDY AREA The Ngqushwa Municipality is in the ex-homeland an area of the Ciskei. It has only one small town and the majority of the population live in rural areas.Consequently they live in traditional dwellings made of wattle and mud bricks. A large number of citizens build their own dwellings using their own labour and local materials. The most common houses or brick structure are on separate stand or yard, which applies to rural settings. High levels of poverty and difficulties prevails throughout the country, in urban and rural areas alike, due to high levels of unemployment and severe shortages of formal housing. Most members in rural community would not have access to credit for the construction of dwellings in co mmunal or informal tenure areas. 9.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This will provide an understanding in which the methodology will be used in this study. In this study, it will cover the essence of research design, data collection and data analysis. 9. 1 RESEARCH DESIGN Research design is concerned with defining the type of study to be assumed to produce the intended results. The research design is a key element in its success. Leedy (1997) states that the design process is the planning of the research and includes visualization of the data and problems associated with the use of those data in achieving the results of the research project.The study will make use of an empirical research design which will be informed by the literature review and analysis. Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures. According to Leedy (2001:191) descriptive survey involves distinguishing the characteristics of something. He further suggests that descriptive method is suitable for data obtained from observation. Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with process, rather than outcomes or products.Struwig and Stead (2001:12) identify that qualitative researchers are very interested in understanding the issues being researched from the perspective of the research participants. The quantitative principles are based on the view that the world is organised and bound by rules. Also quantitative research seeks to use the existing data to analyse the given data in order to validate the representations with regard to the role of state and NGOs in development. Quantitative research makes perfectly clear that seeks to employ mathematical and statistical models pertaining phenomenon.The reason for using quantitative research, intends to understand participants’ experience pertaining to challenges of housing delivery in Peddie Extension by describing housing project management which res ulted in poor or better quality of housing delivery service. It also brings about the broader understanding of the effectiveness of the state or NGOs in rural housing delivery to develop the community. 9. 2 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The data to be used in this paper will be developed from both primary and secondary sources.Primary data The primary data will come from in-depth interviews with grass-roots members of community and government officials. The reason to focus on government officials is that they have detailed information and knowledge on housing delivery. Representatives from non-governmental organisations could be interviewed so as to acquire a broader understanding of the social and political relations in Peddie Extension. Observations and photographs will be used to collect more primary data. Secondary dataThis information will be collected through quantitative approach by describing the state and NGOs’ effectiveness in the issues of service delivery in rural areas. A desk study and network research will be employed to review more additional data from archival documents, housing legislations, policies and programmes in government housing interventions. And from resource relevant databases, related case studies, researches, surveys and publications. The quantitative data on housing delivery will be obtained from the local state municipality offices.The other data will be attained through analysis of relevant sources focusing on housing delivery, statistics, housing policy, frameworks, process and practice and other official reports on housing programmes or projects. 10. TIME FRAMES AND BUDGET To make the study to have meaningful analysis with regard to the role of the non-governmental organisations and state, the study will be based on collaboration between NGOs, government officials and other participant in housing delivery projects during the period April to October 2013 in the Ngqushwa rural area.The rationale for this period will be a ffected by factors such as financial constraints and the nature of the study. 11. OUTLINES OF CHAPTERS Chapter one will be concerned with an introduction to the study which describes and explains the background, problem statement, research questions, objectives, necessity, study plan, limitations of the study, and the definition of words and terms used in the study. Chapter two will provide a literature review of study, framework, concepts and theories which are concerned with community development.Theories that describe the role of the state and NGOs in service deliver. The challenges of grow of homelessness of rural community members as revealed by poverty; lack of access to basic services, facilities and lack of participation of communities in decision-making in the poor communities. Chapter three will outline the research methodology; define the research techniques, data collecting instruments, and the analysis techniques. Chapter four will represent the data presentation, analy sis and interpretation and will provide the criteria for analysis and the actual analysis.Chapter five will deal with the conclusion and will summarise the findings and deductions made in the preceding chapters. Specific inadequacies and problem areas in the role of state and NGOs in community development services will be explained and recommendations to remedy such situation and future actions will be provided.

College Essay Prompts Complete List, Analysis, and Advice

College Essay Prompts Complete List, Analysis, and Advice SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When talking about college essays, wetend to focus on the Common Application prompts, and it's true that many students will need to write a Common App essay. However, there are actually quite a few schools, including both public and private universities,that don't use the Common App and instead ask applicants to respond to their own college essay prompts. Luckily, college essay prompts tend to be pretty similar to each other. In this guide, I'll list all the college essay questions for popular schools in the US (and a few abroad) and then break down the patterns to help you brainstorm topics and plan how to approach multiple essays efficiently. After reading this guide, you'll be able to strategize which essays you'll write for which colleges. Feature image: Mayr/Flickr Why Do Colleges Ask For an Essay? The short answer: the essay gives admissions committees a sense of your personality beyond the statistics on the rest of your application.The essay is your chance to show the committee your unique perspectiveand impress them with your maturity and insight. College application essay promptsarewritten with this goal in mind. Admissions officers want to give you the chance to share your interests, aspirations, and views on the world, so most prompts ask about how yourexperiences have shaped you or what you're excited about studying or doing in college. I've collecteda ton of examples below and provided some analysis to help you begin planning and crafting your own essays. Keep in mind that the personal statement alone won’t be enough to get you in- your grades and test scores are still the most important factors in your application. That being said, a stellar essaycan help bring a borderline applicantover the top or give an excellent but not extraordinary student the opportunity tostand out in a competitive applicant pool. As such, the essay tends to matter most for very competitive schools. Non-competitive schools generally don’t ask you to submit an essay. Complete List of College Essay Prompts This list collectsthe 2018 college essay prompts formajor state universities, top-50 schools, and other popular schools. They're divided by region, with all optional essays listed at the end. I left off the Common App supplements, as those often require a substantiallydifferent approach. I also stuck tofour-year schools, meaning Ididn't includespecial two-year programs, such as Deep Springs College or Miami Dade College’s Honors Program (both of which require essays). Finally, note that these prompts are for freshman applicants, so the requirements might be different for transfer students. General Applications There are three general applicationsyou can use to apply to many different schools at once: Common Application Universal College Application Coalition Application Each application has its own personal statement requirement. Some schools will ask for additional supplemental essays. Many more schools accept the Common App than they do the UCAor Coalition Application, though some will accept more than one of theseapplications. Common Application For the Common App essay, you pick one of the prompts and write 250-650 words about it. Here are the prompts for the 2018-19 school year: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. The lessons we take fromobstacles we encountercan be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced achallenge, setback, or failure.How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? Reflect on a time when youquestionedor challenged a belief or idea. What prompted yourthinking? Whatwas the outcome? Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma- anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. Discuss an accomplishment, event, orrealizationthatsparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. Universal College Application The UCA essay prompt is completely open ended and has a 650-word limit. Here is the 2018-19 prompt: Please write an essay that demonstrates your ability to develop and communicate your thoughts. Some ideas include: a person you admire; a life-changing experience; or your viewpoint on a particular current event. Coalition Application For the Coalition Application, you'll pick one of five prompts listed below. While there is no hard word limit, the range guidelines are 500-550 words. Here are the prompts for 2017-19: Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution. Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs? What is the hardest part of being a teenager now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)? Submit anessayon a topic of your choice. Northeast/Mid-Atlantic The Great Dome at MIT Georgetown University Georgetown asks applicants to writeone short essay (about half a single-spaced page)and two longer essays(approximately one single-spaced page each).Each applicant must respond to the first two prompts and can choose among the other four based on the specific program she's interested in. Short Essay:Briefly (approximately one-half page, single-spaced) discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which youhave been most involved. All Applicants: As Georgetown is a diverse community, the Admissions Committee would like to know more about you in yourown words. Please submit a brief essay, either personal or creative, which you feel best describes you. Applicants to Georgetown College: What does it mean to you to be educated? How might Georgetown College help you achievethis aim? (Applicants to the Sciences and Mathematics or the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics should address their chosencourse of study). Applicants to the School of Nursing Health Studies: Describe the factors that have influenced your interest in studyinghealthcare. Please specifically address your intended major (Global Health, Health Care Management Policy, Human Science,orNursing). Applicants to the Walsh School of Foreign Service: Briefly discuss a current global issue, indicating why you consider itimportant and what you suggest should be done to deal with it. Applicants to the McDonough School of Business: The McDonough School of Business is a national and global leader inproviding graduates with essential ethical, analytical, financial and global perspectives. Please discuss your motivations for studying business at Georgetown. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT doesn't ask for a single personal statement but rather asks applicants torespond to a series of questions with just aparagraph or two. We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (100 words or fewer) Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why? (100 words or fewer) At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words) Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (200-250 words) Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (200-250 words) Midwest University of Wisconsin, Madison Indiana University Bloomington IU asks for 200-400 words on your plans and interests. Describe your academic and career plans and any special interest (for example, undergraduate research, academic interests, leadership opportunities, etc.) that you are eager to pursue as an undergraduate at Indiana University. Also, if you encountered any unusual circumstances, challenges, or obstacles in pursuit of your education, share those experiences and how you overcame them. (200-400 words) This essay may be used in scholarship consideration. University of Illinois The University of Illinois asks for two essays only if you have selected a second-choice major other than what's noted on your application. Both responses should be 300-400 words. Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals. If you're applying to theDivision of General Studies, explain your academic interests and strengths or your future career goals. You may include any majors or areas of study you're currentlyconsidering. If you select a second-choice major other than the Division of General Studies on your application, write a second essay explaining your interest in this major, too. University of Wisconsin–Madison All applicants must complete two essays for UW–Madison. Theessays should be 300-500 words each (with a max of 650 words) and may be used for scholarship and campus program review.For the first essay, you may also use any of the Common Application prompts if you apply through the Common Application. Tell us about your academic and personal achievements. What have you learned from your success and/or challenges, and how will this influence you as you pursue your college education? Tell us why you would like to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: South Kyle Field at Texas AM (Ed Schipul/Flickr) ApplyTexas The ApplyTexas application is used by all Texas public universitiesand some private colleges. There are four ApplyTexas essay prompts. Which ones you need to respond to will depend on where you're applying.UT Austin, for example, requires applicants to submit one essay responding to Topic A and another on a topic of their choice. While there's no set word limit, the online application will cut off eachessay at 120 lines (~1000 words). Topic A: What was the environment in which you were raised? Describe your family, home, neighborhood, or community, and explain how it has shaped you as a person. Topic B: Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself. Topic C: You’ve got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there? Topic D: Please Note: The essay in this section is specific to certain college majors and is not required by all colleges/universities that accept the Apply Texas Application. If you are not applying for a major in Architecture, Art, Art History, Design, Studio Art, Visual Art Studies/Art Education, you are not required to write this essay. Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area? University of Georgia For UGA, applicants mustwrite two essays of 200-300 words each. One prompt is required. You may choose your other essay from among four options. Required: The college admissions process can create anxiety. In an attempt to make it less stressful, please tell us an interesting or amusing story about yourself from your high school years that you have not already shared in your application. Choose One: UGA’s 2017 Commencement speaker Ernie Johnson (Class of ’79) told a story from his youth about what he refers to as blackberry moments. He has described these asâ€Å"the sweet moments that are right there to be had but we’re just too focused on what we’re doing †¦ and we see things that are right there within our reach and we neglect them.Blackberry moments can be anything that makes somebody else’s day, that makes your day, that are just sweet moments that you always remember.† Tell us about one of your â€Å"blackberry moments† from the past five years. Creativity is found in many forms including artistic avenues, intellectual pursuits, social interactions, innovative solutions, et cetera. Tell us how you express your creativity. Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. Describe a problem, possibly related to your area of study, which you would like to solve. Explain its importance to you and what actions you would take to solve this issue. West The Campanile at UC Berkeley University of California Students applying to the UC system must respond to four out of eightshort personal insight questions.The maximum word count for each response is 350 words. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place? Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California? University of Oregon The UO is interested in learning more about you. Write an essay of 650 words or less that shares information that we cannot find elsewhere on your application. Any topic you choose is welcome. Some ideas you might consider include your future ambitions and goals, a special talent, extracurricular activity, or unusual interest that sets you apart from your peers, or a significant experience that influenced your life. If you are applying to the UO's Robert D. Clark Honors College, feel free to resubmit your honors college application essay. University of Washington As part of theCoalition for Access, Affordability, and Success, UW will accept an essay on any of the five Coalition prompts. This essay will ideally be around 300-400 words long.UW also requiresan answer to a short-response question, with a maximum of 300 words: Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the University of Washington. International Generally speaking, international schools are less likely to ask for an essay, since admission tends to be heavily focused on grades and test results. However, a few popular international schools do ask for a personal statement as part of their application. Universities and Colleges Admissions Service(UK Schools) UCAS is a general application for UK schools (similar to the Common App in the US). There's no specific prompt for the personal statement- instead, applicants are required to write an essay describing what they want to study, why they want to study it, and what they bring to the table. There is a 4,000-character limit. University of British Columbia UBC asks applicants to fill out a personal profile consisting of five to seven short-answer questions that vary depending on the program you're applying to. Answers should be 50-200 words. While UBC doesn't provide specific questions for your program until you start an application, they do advise that you think about the following questions as you prepare: What are the qualities you think make for a successful university student? How have you demonstrated such qualities in the past? Think about your first-choice UBC degree. What kinds of activities, accomplishments, and insights- learned in or outside of the classroom- do you think would be relevant to this degree? Think about your accomplishments and activities. What have you learned from these experiences? When have you taken on a leadership role? What do you excel in at school or outside of school?What do you enjoy learning in school? Or what do you enjoy doing outside of school that has influenced what you want to learn? Think about the role others have played in your accomplishments and experiences. Think about how your favourite teacher would describe you. Why would your teacher describe you this way? Be specific. Try to incorporate this information into your responses. Think about two or three adjectives that best describe you. For each, provide some evidence of why they describe. Be specific. Try to incorporate this information into your responses. Think about the challenges that you have had to overcome in your life. What have those experiences taught you about yourself and about your community? Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: University of Cambridge Optional Essays Some schools don't require an essay from all applicants but do recommend or require an essay for certain programs. I've listed a selection of those prompts below. Arizona State University Students applying to the Barrett Honors College at ASU must submit two essays of up to 300 words each on the following topics: How will your honors educational experience enrich you, both in relation to your chosen field of study and in relation to your broader education? How will you and your experiences contribute to the Barrett educational and residential community? City University of New York Applicants to MacaulayHonors College mustrespond to one of two "Personal Reflection" prompts and one of two "Social Issues" prompts. The maximum length is 500 words per response. Personal Reflection: Describe an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it. Reflecting on your experience and aspirations, discuss how your life will differ from your parents' lives. Provide concrete evidence to illustrate your position. Social Issues: Pick a story of local, national, or international importance from the front page of any newspaper. Identify your source and give the date the article appeared. Then use your sense of humor, sense of outrage, sense of justice- or just plain good sense- to explain why the story engages your attention. If someone gave you a $50 million grant, how would you use it to make New York City a better place? Florida International University Only applicants who don't meet the criteria for automatic admissions and whose applications undergo holistic review will need to submit a 500-word essay: Qualities such as motivation, drive, courage, perseverance, resolve and strength of character play an important role in students' ability to succeed at FIU and in life. Write a 500-word (one-page, single spaced) essay explaining which of these measures makes you a good candidate for admission to FIU and what strategies you will use to ensure your success in and out of the classroom. The Ohio State University Applicants to the University Honors program or the Ohio State Scholars program must respond to the following prompt: To what fictional character do you most relate, and why? You may select a character from animation, art, film, literature, television, theater or any other medium. Ohio University For theOhio University application, students who've been out of a school for more thana year must submit an essay explaining what they've done in their time off from school. If there is a period of three months or longer that you have not been enrolled in a high school, college, or university, please provide a statement documenting your activities for that period. Examples include language study, vacation, work experience, family responsibilities. Additionally, applicants to the journalism schoolare encouraged to write a 250- to 500-word essay "detailing how they want to help shape the future of journalism, advertising, or public relations." For all other applicants, submitting an essay here is optional. Finally, those interested inOhio University's Cutler Scholars Program must answer the following essay prompt (max 250 words): Reflect on a service activity or other efforts you've undertaken to contribute to your community or communities. Your actions might involve individual service, a group project, or substantial activities to support your family, such as employment or caring for a sick relative. What did you learn about yourself and your community? What did you learn about how society functions more generally? Ohio University in the 1970s (Sent From the Past/Flickr) Pennsylvania State University Penn State allows applicants to complete the two following optional essays, each withalimit of 500 words: Please use this space to discuss your activities (other than academic work) during the last several years (for example: school organizations, jobs, athletics, the arts, community service, religious groups, or other individual interests). Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. Additionally, applicants to the Schreyer Honors College must answer the following three essay prompts. There are no word count or formatting requirements. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution of the United States. What should be the 28th? Are China and India developing countries? Why or why not? The Seven Wonders of the World is a well-known list highlighting spectacular natural phenomena or human-made structures. Please describe some of the Seven Wonders ofyourworld: They could include people, places, events, or things that have significantly affected who you are. Lastly, if you took any time off before starting college, you'll need to explain what you did during this time and whyin the area of the application titled "Educational Gap Statement." University of Arizona Applicants to UA who do not meet the assured admission criteria will go through the comprehensive review process, which allows for an optional personal statement: The inclusion of anoptionalshort answer, personal narrative or statement to the UA application gives you the opportunity to include unique life experiences and personal achievements in your application University of Central Florida The essays for UCF are optional but recommended. Applicants are asked to pick two of the prompts and compose responses of no more than 500 words (or 7,000 characters) each. If there has been some obstacle or bump in the road in your academic or personal life, please explain the circumstances. How has your family history, culture, or environment influenced who you are? Why did you choose to apply to UCF? What qualities or unique characteristics do you possess that will allow you to contribute to the UCF community? University of Kansas Applicants to KU's honors program must answer one of the following three essay promptsin 500 words or fewer: Give us your top five. Elaborate Consider a time when you strongly held a position, then changed your mind. How did you come to your original stance and how did it change? The University of Kansas cultivates visionaries who contribute to local and global communities. Discuss your passion and why it’s important to you Applicants may also submit an "Extenuating Circumstances Statement." The word limit for this response is 150 words. Is there additional information about yourself, your family, your background, or any adversity (e.g. financial hardship, illness, etc.) you would like us to take into consideration while reviewing your application? University of Nebraska, Lincoln UNL doesn't require applicants to submit an essay, but you will need to write one to be considered for scholarships. There is a 500-word limit. Tell us about the experiences that have shaped you as person- the community circumstances you’ve overcome, your leadership experiences, your career goals, examples of your commitment to help under-served communities and experiences you’ve had with the global community. University of Utah Applicants to the Honors College must complete two essays. The first has a limit of 500 words, and the second has a limit of just 50 words: In 500 words: Keeping in mind that there are many ways to think about â€Å"justice† and a â€Å"just society†, what would YOU personally require of a society in order for YOU to consider it â€Å"just†? It might be helpful to explain what you believe is â€Å"just† or â€Å"justice† but please don’t incorporate a dictionary definition in your essay.Take a little risk, and have fun. In 50 words:... Please give us a hint about what makes you, YOU: a personality quirk, an unexpected interest, an unusual hobby or pursuit, how your earned your nickname, your most embarrassing moment, your wildest dream, the title of your autobiography, why your friends think you’re funny, what you’re doing to get into the Guinness Book of Records, your latest invention? This parrot has questions. Do you have answers? (Matthias Ripp/Flickr) Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: The 3 Main Types of College Essay Questions As you can see above, a few schools ask simply, â€Å"Tell us something about yourself,† but most have a more specific prompt. Still, many questionsare pretty similar to each other and can be grouped intothree general types. In this section, we'll break down each type of college essay question to see why colleges ask about it and how you can respond effectively. Type 1: QuestionsAbout a Meaningful Experience This type of college essay question is the most common. The exact focus of these prompts can vary quite a bit,but they all ask you to reflect on an important experience. Some questions specify atype of experience whereas others don't, simply opting to have applicants write about whatever matters to them. There are three basic sub-types that you'll see when dealing with these prompts. Let's look at an example of each. #1: Overcoming a Challenge These prompts ask about how you dealt with a particular challenge or solved a problem. Below is a typical example of this question type from the MITapplication: Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? To address a question like this, you need a topic that has real stakes- that is, something that you genuinely struggled with.Even though it can seem as though you should only discusspositive experiences and feelings in your college essay (you want to impress your readers with how awesome you are!), unwavering positivity actually hurts your essaybecause it makes you seem fake. Instead, be honest: if you're writing about a negative experience, acknowledge that it was unpleasant or hard and explain why.Doing so will just make your overcoming it that much more impressive. #2: Engaging WithDiversity Questions about diversity ask how you interact with those who are different from you. See an example below from the Common Application: Reflect on a time when youquestionedor challenged a belief or idea. What prompted yourthinking? Whatwas the outcome? When approaching this type of question, you need to showthat you're thoughtful about new ideas and perspectives.Colleges are full of students from all kinds of backgrounds, and admissions officers want to know that you'll be accepting of the diversity of other students, even if you don't necessarily agree with them. Also, make sure to pick aspecific instance to focus on. Writing a general essay about how you accept others won't impress admissions officers- you needto show them an example of a time that you did so. #3: Growing Up Finally, this type of prompt asks about a transitional experience or rite of passage that made you feel like an adult. I've reprinted another example from the Common App: Discuss an accomplishment, event, orrealizationthatsparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. For these types of prompts, you want to show personal growth. Explain to the reader not just who you are but also how you've changed. (Really, this is a good idea no matter which prompt you're addressing!) College can be challenging, soadmissions officers want to know that you have the maturity to deal with (likely) living on your own, managing your own life, and planning for your future. Regardless of the exact prompt, the key to this type of college essay is to show what you’ve learned from the experience.Admissions officersdon't care that much about what happened to you- they care about what you think and feel about that event. That's what will give them a sense of who you are and what kind of college student you'll make. How have you changed between graduating from kindergarten and graduating from high school? Type 2: Questions About How You Would Fit Into the Community Examples:UW–Madison, FIU, UCF When admissions committees evaluate applicants, they consider how a student will contributeto the college as a whole. These college essay questions ask you to explain what you would bring to the college’s community and how you'd fit in with its values. Here is an example fromUW–Madison: Tell us why you would like to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. To address this type of prompt, you’ll want to give specific examples of how you embody the traits they’re looking for or what benefits you’d provide to the school’s community. Some prompts will ask youto addressmore specific ideas about the school than others, but it's always a good idea to touch onthe individual school's values or philosophy. Balancing talking about your experiences and traits with describing what excites you about the school can be tricky, but it's vital that you touch on both. If you don't talk about yourself, you're missing your chance to give the admissions committee a sense of who you are and how you would fit in to their community. And if you don't discuss the school itself, you risk coming off as uninterested. So make sure to do both! Type 3: Questions About Your Goals Examples:MIT 2,University of Illinois,ApplyTexas C These college essay questions ask about your professional, personal, or academic goals and how you’ll pursue them.They also often ask you to outline how you’ve worked toward these goals so far. Take a look at an example from the University of Illinois application: Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals. If you're applying to theDivision of General Studies, explain your academic interests and strengths or your future career goals. You may include any majors or areas of study you're currentlyconsidering. When addressingthis type of question, you'll want to prove to admissions officers that you’re thoughtful about your future and excited about the opportunities college provides.Colleges want to admit students who will be successful, and a big part of finding success is having the drive to work toward it. As always, remember to use specific examples to illustrate your point.What relevant experiences have you had or interests have you pursued? What made you think this subject or career would be a good fit for you? Are there related classes or activities you're excited to participate in at the school? The more specific you can be in addressingthese questions, the stronger your essay will be. Of course, these three types of questions don't cover every essay prompt, and some questions will be more unusual (especially those for supplemental essays). Nonetheless, you should analyze any prompts you encounter in the same way. Ask yourself why the college is asking that question and what admissions officers are hoping to see- not in terms of specific topics but in terms of general trends and traits. Understanding what admissions officers are hoping to get out of your essay will help you pick a great topic that'll help you exhibit your unique personality and perspective in the most effective way possible. How to Plan Your College Essay Writing Now that you’ve seen the range of questions you might be asked to answer for your college apps, let’s discuss how you can plan your college essay writing process most efficiently. Make a Chart of All the Essays You Need to Write Depending on how many schoolsyou're applying to and what their requirements are, you might have to respond to10 or more college essay prompts. Therefore,you'll want to make sure that you're organized about what needs to get done. I recommend creating a chart with the school, its deadline, and its essay's word count in one column, and theprompt(s) in the other. Then, prioritize your essays by deadline and preference. In other words, focus first on essays for the schools with the earliest deadlines and the ones you’re mostexcited about. You’ll also want to consider whether you truly need to write a different essay for each school. If the prompts are similar enough, you might be able to reuse essays for more than one college. I'll go over how to make these calls in more depth below. When Writing Multiple Essays for OneSchool, Use DifferentTopics You probably noticed that many of the schools listed above ask for more than one essay. When completing one of these applications, make sure your essays aren’t repetitive.You want to take the opportunity to give admissions officers as fleshed out a sense of who you are as you can,so pick topics that show different sides of your personality. For example, let’s consider a student who’s hoping to become an engineer. If she writes her first essay about competing in a science fair, she’ll want to focus on something slightly different for her second essay- perhaps an unexpected interest, such as figure skating, or a time that she used her scientific skills to solve an unscientific problem. Be Careful About Reusing Essays A common question students have is whetheryou can just write one essay and submit it to every school. The answer is, unfortunately, no. As you can see,college essay questionsdiffer enough that there's no way you could use the same essay for every single one (not to mention the fact that many schools require two or more essays anyway!). However, it doessometimeswork to reusean essay for more than one school. The key is that the prompts have to be asking about basically the same type of thing. For example, you could use the same essay for two prompts that both ask about a time you solved a problem, but you probably wouldn't want to use the same essay for one prompt that asks about a problem you solved and one that asks about a time you interacted with someone different from yourself. You can also reuse an essay bysubmitting an essay originally written for a specific prompt for a more general prompt as well.For example, you couldsubmit your ApplyTexas topic B app (the one that's about overcoming a specific obstacle) for the Coalition essay prompt 1 (the one about a meaningful story from your life and what you learned). In that case, you might want to tweak the essay slightly to address the question of what you learned more explicitly, but you could likely use the same personal statement with minimal changes. The other reason thisinstance of essay recycling works is because the ApplyTexasand Coalition applications have compatibleword limits.In general, you can't reuse a 600-word essay for a prompt with a 250-word limit. Why? Because by the time you've cut out that many words, you'll usually be left with something that either doesn't make much sense or that doesn't show much about you (since you've only left enoughof the story to explainwhat happened). Although, technically, you could use a short essay (200-300 words) for an application with a higher word limit (say, 500-650 words), I strongly advise against doing this. If you have the space to tell a more in-depth story and explain your perspective and feelings in more detail, you should take it. Reusing a much shorter essay out of laziness is a waste of an important opportunity to impress the admissions committee.(You can, however, write a longer essay on the same topic.) Ultimately, whether you can use a recycled essay for a given prompt willdepend on the specific prompts involved and your chosen topic. However, I've outlined some general guidelines below. Essays About Experiences Arethe Most Easily TransferredBetween Schools There’s a reason the Common App promptsare all type 1: Because they ask about important experiences, these prompts are much more about you than they are about the school. As such, it’s much easier to use them for more than one school. That being said, as I described above, if the prompts are different sub-types or are otherwise clearly distinct from each other, you’ll still need to write unique essays. Essays About a Specific School Generally Can’t Be Recycled If a prompt asks about why you’re interested in a specific school or how you'd fit in, don't try to use it for more than one school. Admissions officers want to see that you're excited about their school and will bring something interesting or special to their community. It's impossible to show them this if you can't be bothered to write a unique essay for their application. Take the time to think about what appeals to you about the specific school or how you relate to its core values. Essays About Your Goals or Interests Might Need to Be Customized to Each School For questions that ask about your future, you might be able to keep the same basic structure- assuming you’re interested in studying the same subject- and simply tweak the section about your plans for the future to reflect eachschool's specific programs or activities. However, don’t lie to avoid having to write a new essay. If one school’s music program interests you while another school’s architecture program does, write a unique essay for each. How to Write a College Essay That Works: 3 Key Tips There's one key takeaway from looking at the many prompts above: colleges are looking for your essay to tell them something about you.This idea should be your guiding principle as you write and edit your essay. I've summarized our top three college essay writingtipsbelow, but for a more in-depth take on the writing process, check out our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay. #1: Pick a Topic You're Excited About A great essay requires a great topic, and a great topic is one that you really want to write about.Remember that admissions officers want to get to know you: you'll have to be honest about your interests and your perspectives if you want to impress them. For more guidance on picking a great topic, check out our guides to brainstorming college essay ideasand finding the besttopic for you. #2: Focus On Specific Details No matter how great your topic, your essay won't be compelling without detailed descriptions that put the reader in your shoes and let them see the world from your perspective. Details are what make an essay stand out because they're unique to you. For example, alot of people might have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, but only one could have stood outside in a pink hat listening to her high school history teacher drone on about the different types of screws for 25 minutes.In short, don't settle for telling readers what you did- show them with specific details. You also need to explain howthe experience affected you and/or whyyour topic is important to you. Students often get so wrapped up in telling astory that they forget to show why it matters, but your feelings arethe most important part of your essay. This aspectof the essay should also include plenty ofdetails. Otherwise, it's easy to fall into clichà ©s that bog down your storytelling. #3: Edit Carefully As you embark upon the college essay writing process, keep in mind thefamous Ernest Hemingway quote: "The only kind of writing is rewriting." It might be extremely tempting to just write a draft and call it a day, but revising is a vital step in crafting an engaging essay. Once you write a first draft, put it in a drawer for a week. Taking some time away from it will allow you to come back to it with fresh eyes. Then, try to read your essay from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about you.Would they be able to understand the story? Do you explain clearly what you learned? Does yourintro grab the reader's attention? It can also be helpful to ask someone you trust, such as a parent, teacher, or peer, to read your essay and give you feedback. Really listen to what they say and think about how you can improve your writing. Finally, try reading your essay aloud. This will help you catch any weird or awkward phrasings. What's Next? If you're struggling with how to approach your personal statement, consider looking at some college essay examples. The essay is just one part of the college application process. Check out our guide to applying to college for a step-by-step breakdown of what you'll need to do. Finally, if you're planning to take the SAT or ACT, consider taking a look at our expert test-prep guides for some helpful advice on whatever you might be struggling with. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: