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Lessons Learned from WRTG 101
Lessons Learned from WRTG 101
Assignments normally come with different levels of difficulty, and no doubt different objectives. My experiences in handling assignments during the course, have been of immense help, not just in improving my language proficiency, but also improving my writing skills. In particular, I feel that my work on the recent research essay assignment “Computer Animation and Technology,” was not only a learning experience, but the culmination of many lessons learnt during the course. I feel that I selected a very interesting and informative topic, which made the research easy to carry out and allowed me to complete the assignment quite well. My research essay turned out successfully because I was able to incorporate lessons learnt during the course quite well.
Although I initially thought that I did not have much to learn from a writing class, I have found that my writing has improved considerably and become more concise. This has no doubt been as a result of a number of new insights gained due to my enrollment in WRTG 101. The areas of improvement include formatting, paragraph and sentence structure, identification and usage of sources, referencing and citation as well as the elimination of pointless and run on sentences. As a result, my writing in the research essay assignment was more objective and to the point, not to mention authoritative and factual.
The choice of topic was mainly due to prior experiences with video games, as well as a keen interest in the raging debate over the benefits and drawbacks of video gaming. In addition to interest, I was also aware that such a controversial topic would provide me with the materials necessary to argue either way, making for an interesting and meaningful research paper. Taking the position that video games are not bad definitely posed a challenge to prove, which made the task even more interesting.
Completing the assignment successfully required that I utilize the lessons I had learnt in the course of WRTG 101, which I did. One of the first skills I learned in the class was how to format and structure academic papers. I opted to use a structure that included an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Operating using this structure ensured that the writing was organized and easy to follow. Such organization also made it possible to develop an outline prior to writing the essay, which ensured that any ideas were not lost due to confusion. Proper initial planning of the essay allowed me to develop a skeleton to which points could be added, with each statement in the outline forming a topic sentence for the body paragraphs. The effective use of a thesis statement ensured that my essay content was easy to follow, as well as write.
One of the most important lessons of any writing class, more so in academic writing, is no doubt learning to look for articles or sources and citing them properly. But before citation, one must learn to identify credible sources. An academic paper is only as authentic as its sources. A paper is considered factual only if the sources used are peer reviewed and the content is confirmed as factual, rather than simple opinion. In the research essay assignment, the sources that I opted to incorporate were only those that not only added considerable value and ideas, but were peer reviewed, hence credible. The important insights regarding where to look for sources, especially online using the UMUC Information and Library Services interface, ensured that my sources were from credible databases such as justor, proquest and other journal databases. Having identified key words such as “computer animation exposure,” and “academic achievement,” I was able to use search engines and identify credible websites, which I then incorporated in the paper. Learning how to distinguish between referencing styles and how to use them was a fundamental lesson to me, and it is my belief that the research essay demonstrated my grasp of the APA referencing style. In academic writing, being able to acknowledge another person’s work, helps avoid one of the cardinal and unforgivable mistakes: plagiarism. Plagiarism in academic writing is an equivalent of suicide. That is why all students must possess this skill in order to avoid plagiarism if they are to complete their studies successfully. Learning how to create in text citations and a reference list through the numerous assignments completed in WRTG 101 will serve me well in my undergraduate studies as well as any further studies I may want to pursue.
Overall, WRTG 101 has had a positive effect on my writing, as the skills gained will be of great importance in my future studies. The skills that I gained fulfilling the assigned tasks are not only applicable to the course alone, but will come in handy in future studies, more so when it comes to tackling academic assignments. As a result of my participation in WRTG 101, my writing is now clear, organized, and factual, as can be observed by how I was able to complete the recent research essay. Although my knowledge of the rules of academic writing has also improved and I am now a better writer than I was at the beginning of the course, the recent research essay assignment on computer animations made me realize that I am yet to completely eliminate grammatical mistakes and run-on sentences from my writing.
Lessons from Lehman Brothers
Lessons from Lehman Brothers
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Lessons from Lehman Brothers
The unethical culture that that was practiced by the top executive of Lehman Brothers Company that contributed to its downfall, is still being practiced by several organizations globally. The company encouraged risk oriented culture for financial gain and questionable characters were overlooked. The professional ethics came behind profit with the employees who made questionable deals hailed. This affected the morale of the employees and eventually bred misconduct. The Lehman brothers are reported to have used excessive accounting manipulations (Dillian, 2011). Just like Lehman’s CEO’s negligence or simply willful blindness, the top management of the several organizations globally has increasingly encouraged the filing of financial reports that are very misleading and thereby abusing the accounting procedures.
In the context of Lehman Brothers Company, it is significant to note that the unethical culture is still rampant since the management of several organizations is corrupt and the driving force is the appetite for money (Shirkhedkar, 2007). Just like the company in this case study, organizations have become greedy and this has subsequently motivated them to falsify the information that provides the true financial health of the organizations. Indeed, organizations are increasingly concerned with their image to the stakeholders and are willing to engage in riskier and bigger deals to maintain this. In a nutshell, the unethical practices such as the one seen in the company in this case study continues due to unrealistic plans of the company management and subsequently making money the ideal objective.
Businesses are expected to act ethically and there is nothing unreasonable with this school of thought. The organizational culture should be that which encourage responsibility, accountability and good behaviors. The companies should not just be concerned with the profits or financial gains but rather there must be social responsibility and adherence to ethical standards. It can be seen that the unethical practices within Lehman Brothers Company led to its collapse. Therefore, it is realistic for the organizations to act ethically not just for the sake of stakeholders but also the company.
References
Dillian, J. (September 13, 2011). Street Freak: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers: A Memoir, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Shirkhedkar, J. (2007). Saving Lehman, One person at a time. McGraw-Hill,
Dieting makes people fat
Dieting Makes People Fat
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Dieting Makes People Fat
Dieting refers to the practice of regulating food intake to increase, or maintain body weight. It goes hand in hand with physical exercises aimed at losing weight. Some people normally follow a certain diet plan to gain weight. The Same diet plan can sustain and maintain a stable health if followed properly. Dieting prescriptions such as bland diets, sodium free diets, and soft foodstuff is a prescription designed to achieve a certain medical objective. Other dieting plans increase muscle weight gain or body fat. Majority of the people who start dieting in their lives often continue to do so for the rest of their lives. If a certain diet is forbidden from them, dieters normally feel guilty of themselves, and if they transgress, they feel worse. Dieting in most cases makes people have an idea that food is an enemy, and not a source of sustaining live. Therefore, the act of losing weight, regaining it back, and losing it again is bad for one’s health.
According to Williams (2012), dieting makes one eat the foods they do not like, because a diet plan demands so. In the process, it creates a feeling of resentment and deprivation that later on result in the release of stress hormones that intensify the craving for the same foods. Therefore, one will look forward to eating the same food that might make him or her be at the risk of obesity.
Dieting can be so disastrous with time, if one suddenly reduces the food intake meant to sustain life. Body metabolic rate slows down to reduce the energy used in daily activities, while the rest is stored in the form of fats for sustenance of well-being. Therefore, people dieting often crave for snacks to obtain more energy for the body. During the weight loss process, the body uses unwanted fats stored in certain parts such as the muscles and liver in form of glycogen. In the whole process, the body utilizes less energy and others are stored in form of fats, and one ends up gaining weight (William, 2012).
According to Frank (2008), obesity is an epidemic in most developed nations. This comes about because of the adoption of unhealthy eating habits. Most people pay no attention to the amount of food intake, and they end up taking more food and become more obese. Technology has influenced more on the feeding habitats. Many people watch entertainment at meals time and end up consuming more food. The same developed nations have many industries that cater for the needs of the obese. These industries normally have diet plans to offer their clients, but these plans do not work because a considerable number of people from the same countries are not unhealthy. These industries are in a business plan because the profits gained from the industry are from those who are miserable and unhealthy. Therefore, dieting industries in these nations and their diet plans seem to have an impact on the population since it does not make the population healthier. Instead, they make them prone to obesity in order to gain profits for the industry from the same people.
Another irony that happens in people’s lives is that, most of the people starve for nutrition. Their bodies are deficient of vitamin B, D, and magnesium due to the depletion of these minerals and vitamins by synthetic fertilizers they use. This has made the foods to be nutritionally deficient that people normally eat more, and feel the urge to eat frequently. This is in an attempt to increase energy to sustain a living. Storage of extra energy in forms of fats in the body makes one at risk of becoming fat. This is like the case of the early American colonialists who used corn diets .A large number of them perished due to illness and starvation, and a considerable number became more obese since they consumed more without getting satisfied (Sarah, 2013).
The People that lose weight and remain healthy do dieting in most cases, but most of them use diet products meant to advocate for continual usage of bad diets. These products cause weight loss through a process of chemically induced starvation. Weight gain is inevitable because when real food is introduced once again to the diet, the body will keep it in form of fat, because body starvation triggers a state of an emergency famine. Hence, release of emergency hormones that last longer time in the body. The body will respond to an emergency starvation by storing fats, making one overweight or obese. That is why most people advocate for small meals rather than fewer meals (Cynthia, 2013).
According to Melinda and Maya (2013), dieting and diets are the main causes of obesity. Eating well habitually is enjoyable than having a diet plan .This is because conditioning oneself to a certain programme makes their mind be programmed, and set to attain a certain goal. programmed mind on a certain diet makes many people become obese without their prior knowledge, because they act out of control. This creates a certain behavior of compulsive and impulsive eating habits making them overweight and even obese. Instead of solving the problem, the person becomes an overeater due to programming by dieting.
The on and off dieting process is unsustainable because one can follow a certain diet plan and after getting the results, he or she quits and starts the unhealthy habits. Once person starts the unhealthy eating habits they tend to consume the same food products that make them gain more weight, since they believe once they lose weight the body would remain healthy. This has been a challenge and most of them become victims of obesity without prior knowledge that strict diet plan and maintenance is the solution of obesity (cited by Melinda & Maya, 2013).
Diets and dieting can bring trouble in people’s lives because some diet plans are so strict hence altering the body metabolism. Others result in a body imbalance. An example being use of diets low in fat makes the body remain with carbs that the body cannot manage to burn to produce energy hence socked away from ones fat cells. A diet permitting unlimited eating of allowed foods normally stops one from overeating. This makes one to eat more than the body’s needs excess foods making one more fat due to excess food being broken down and stored in form of fats.
The dieting myths of not taking breakfast so that the body can burn the fat to lose weight leads one to eat more food later in the day. This is because blood sugars drop after some time making one have a compulsive feeling of overeating and less resistant. One is likely to eat more at night since the body is trying to compensate on missed energy, making one have large stores of calories in form of fats.
The myth of weekend blowout, that if one eats healthier foods during the week, then it is good to treat oneself during weekends. But the fact is that even restraining for five days without consuming parricides makes one even gain more weight. Restraining from carbohydrates for five days of the week then consuming it over the weekends makes one gain up to five kilograms. Reason being carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and later on to fats if it is not used as energy by the body. So one needs to do extraneous exercises to use the glucose from carbohydrates failure to which it is stored in form of fats making one gain more weight, which is the case to most people (Melinda & Maya 2013).
Diet drinks make one fatter compared to those who do not consume. Consuming sweet drinks without calories triggers the body’s cravings for sweet diet making one to consume more. Sweet diets have been shown to have an effect on blood glucose,insulin levels and sugars .When blood sugars fluctuates in the body, it drives one to have a craving for sweet diet products when blood sugars drops. The same study showed that taking more diet drinks increases the chances of one getting type 2 diabetes (Melinda & Maya 2013).
According to Mary and Gavin (2013), Eating too much of healthier foods can lead to overeating. Such healthy foodstuff as peanuts has fat contents with high calories. The caloric content in it triggers one to overeat hence consumption should be minimal. Also some food products used for weight loss dieting programme may be high in artificial sweeteners and sugar that makes one have increased appetite leading to more consumption of food leading to one being at a risk of gaining more weight
The idea of dieters avoiding fat diet makes them feel hungrier at all times. The obsession by dieters to consume diet low in fat triggers cravings of fatty foods and most of these people end up consuming all kinds of fats their bodies needs. Diet low in fat content does not help people undergoing weight loss programme because the real fat is removed .And to retain texture and taste flour and sugar that are nutritionally poor, but provide calories is normally added. Eating plenty of omega 3 fatty acids helps the body to burn fat and is good for those undergoing weight loss programme. Low fat diet increases the appetite and a craving for fatty foods that causes one to gain weight (cited by Mary & Gavin, 2013)
In conclusion, dieting and losing weight might be a challenge but to realize the objective of maintaining optimal health, one needs to eat a balanced diet full of nutrients. This helps prevent illnesses,maintain psychological well-being and optimal energy.
References
William, A. (2012).How dieting makes people obese, Journal of healthy diet.83 (2), 33-37.
Frank, H. (2008).Obesity Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press
Sarah. (2013) . Dieting right and why most diets makes people fatter: Health wyze
Report. United States. Oxford UP.
Cynthia, S. (2013). Reasons your diet is making you fat: Health .com. United States. Nerd Press Melinda, S. & Maya, P. (2013). Healthy weight loss and dieting tips, Retrieved on November
2013 from m.helpguide.org/…/ healthy weight loss.
Mary, L. & Gavin, M. (2013).The deal with diets. Journal of teen’s health. 4(6), 10-13.