How to Write Faster and More Effectively

Learning how to write effectively typically means slowing down to take your time, do the research and choose your words carefully. Although writing clearly and effectively is the goal for any writer, learning how to write faster can also be valuable skill. Here well take a look at 10 tips to help speed up your writing and make it more effective overall. 1. Write What You Know The best way to be able to write more quickly is to write on a topic you are already familiar with. Although this isnt always an option, seize the opportunity whenever it comes up. Even if your assignment is on something you know nothing about, conduct some initial research to see if you do have a connection to the subject somewhere. For example, if your assignment is writing about the origins of the civil rights movement, use your own experience with discrimination or the experiences of friends and family as a basis to draw parallels to the early days of the civil rights movement with current issues of today. An essay on the impact of team sports can easily be connected to the summer you spent playing ping-pong or your own elementary school T-Ball team. 2. Dictate When Possible There are a number of software packages that allow users to dictate directly into a word processing program. These programs can take some time to master and they adapt to your pattern of speech as you use them, so dont expect perfect results your first time out. Instead of cracking it open as youre beginning your big essay project for the mid-term exams, use it for a few weeks on other projects or just for fun in order to find out how to make it work more effectively. Once youve gotten the hang of it, you can use it to crank out essays, term papers and even your thesis in no time flat. 3. Dont Worry About Mistakes on the Rough Draft As you begin to write the rough draft, dont worry about proper word choices, grammatical tense agreement or whether or not to use a semi-colon. Instead, simply get the thoughts, ideas and concepts on paper. Ignore that inner critic hissing on your shoulder and keep your hands moving. Try to keep up with the narrative you have in your mind. You can go back to clean things up and tweak verbiage later – getting the ideas you have onto paper will help your paper to develop more quickly. 4. Develop an Outline System That Works For You Traditional outlines simply dont work for everyone, but that doesnt mean that outlines are worthless. Find a system that achieves the same goal but which fits your own writing or creative style. Writing a few sentences and using lists for each paragraph may be the best method for you, or simply jotting down ideas you can rearrange may be more your style. Find what works for you and use it. 5. Watch Your Adverbs Using adverbs may bulk up your essay, but it also makes your paper less effective. A person isnt very poor, theyre impoverished. Concentration camps werent very bad, they were horrific. The sun isnt very hot, its scorching. Find better descriptions for common adverbs of degree in order to polish your writing. 6. Set a Timer According to several studies, people work best with focused concentration for about 25 minutes at a time. Gab a kitchen timer, wind it to the 25 minute mark and GO. Write your heart out and dont stop typing for the full 25 minutes. If you get stumped or hit a wall, move on to another section of the paper or write What I really want to say is and then finish that sentence. Even if you end up scraping half of what youve written, this type of focused creativity will not only get you farther into your essay, it can even result in some surprising gems of inspiration. 7. Focus on Writing Alone When you write, do it alone. Dont try writing while your friends are over, or while youre watching a movie with someone. Make the time to sit alone and focus on your writing. Keeping clear of distractions will help you to focus more effectively and, in the end, getting it done will give you more free time. 8. Conduct Timed Research Research can be the downfall of many students when its time to sit down and write. They may start with the best intentions but when conducting research online, its easy to click from one page to the next and suddenly find yourself playing a Super Mario emulator. Set a timer for your research, separate from writing time, and stick to it. If you find yourself still gravitating towards pages of distraction, set up a list of blocked websites through parental control software or time management tools such as LeechBlock or Cold Turkey. 9. Set Small Goals Chopping your writing assignment up into smaller pieces can help boost productivity and speeds along the writing process. Dying for another cup of coffee? Finish this paragraph first. Want to get up and stretch your legs? Just pound out the rest of this outline so you know where to start when the break is over. Thinking of your assignment as a series of smaller milestones will help make it easier – and quicker – to finish. 10. Rewrite As You Edit Combine your rewriting and editing step into one and clean up your spelling and grammar as you revise your writing. The best way to do this is to read your essay out loud, as if you were simply trying to educate or persuade a friend. Combining this final revision step can easily shave time off your total writing time and reading the essay out loud also ensures everything flows seamlessly.

Atomic Energy for Peace essays

Atomic Energy for Peace essays When something new is produced by the Science if it has advantages then it also somehow disadvantages on some of its sides and so often we have seen throughout. Firstly, when atom has been produced it said that it is one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the past century and it can be used in many positive purposes. On the other side in the second world war the destruction caused by the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki it caused to a great extent of the wastage of the many precious crown lives of the innocent people it led to develop a feeling against the great scientific discovery, science which had always been regarded as an instrument of human attainment and material progress, had degraded in the eyes of the world, but this was only a timely thinking they were unaware of its tremendous constructive potentials. Later research on the atom proved that mankind had discovered a power which promises to be the most powerful instrument in future for the welfare of humanity. In the early 1950s the USA more or less enjoyed the monopoly of atomic knowledge, other nations had as yet not ever thought about it. Now many of the countries got this great invention of the modern age mostly the atomic energy brought into the positive uses. Today, it produces electricity for use on earth and in space; it is also used most successfully in agriculture. It has been found that plants and seed subjected to direct radiation of atomic energy give greater yield and better crops. In the field of medicine atomic energy promised to be of great benefits to the suffering humanity. Industry is also not far behind in utilizing this great source of power for better and greater production. In USA a large number of big and small firms are using atomic energy of securing cheaper production. As an intention of desire to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes the USA has offered to share her atomic knowledge and resources with other count ...

Botticelli, Birth of Venus and Venus De Milo Essay

Botticelli, Birth of Venus and Venus De Milo - Essay Example The well-mixed primary colors resulted in clearly defined secondary colors. The colors provided an outstanding emphasis on the beauty’s milky skin color. Artists illustrate Venus as one of the most beautiful and chaste goddesses who remained as a symbol of coming spring. Painters designed her nudity to depict some significance in itself because all artworks of Renaissance history revolved around the theme of Christianity at that time. At the time, it was not easy to portray a woman as nude (Siapkas & Sjogren, 2013). Most aspects of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus manipulate in motion. For instance, a succinct observation of the orange tree leaves in her background as well as her hair shows that Zephyrs had blown them away. They are floating behind her, the cloaks and the waves gently breaking. Further, the breeze also blows and lifts her drapery of the figures. Representative/Objective The Venus de Milo statue had a carved right arm that lay across the torso with a rested right hand on the left knee that remained raised. Meanwhile, the left arm held up an apple at an eye level. The statute comprises two blocks of marble that sculptured on separate occasions, then joined at the hips (Judovitz & Duchamp, 2010). The sculptors used tendon joints to fashion the left arm and foot, though as different pieces. Venus de Milo had some of its parts broken during transportation including right hip and three other pieces.

Percentage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Percentage - Essay Example Percentages are very popular in the sports world, especially in baseball. A recent sports article is entitled, â€Å"Brewers Play Percentages by Moving Infield.† The article explains that what the Brewers have done better so far than any other team is take away hits from opposing hitters (Haudricourt, 2011). The manager accomplishes this by shifting his infielders to one side of the field when a pull hitter comes up to bat. This and other similar strategies managers use is known as â€Å"playing the percentages.† As mentioned, percentages are very important in business. An example of a very important business percentage is gross profit percentage. This number is a key indicator of the current health of a business. Gross profit percentage is total revenue minus total costs divided by total revenue. This number is very useful because â€Å"comparing the company’s GPP at regular time intervals can determine how well the company is performing over time† (ehow, 2010). Percentages interest me because they can be used in virtually every facet of life.

Marketing Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Marketing - Literature review Example literature review will look at the effects of the product placement on the consumer behavior and how likely are the product placement to change consumers mode of buying a certain commodity. It is crucial for people to know how to use product placement positively (Johnson, 2009). Product placement is the use of diverse types of media to make people conscious of different products and services when they are entertained through watching. Its development dates back upto 1896, when it was used by Lumiere brothers in their short film â€Å"washing day in Switzerland† and they advertised soap. It was introduced by Henri Lavancy who was the film director and publicist for the soap company but, it became popular in the 1930’s when the sound movie was introduced. For example, in 1934 in the movie, â€Å"It happened One Night,† the star Clarke Gable featured bare chest and sale of men’s shirts reduced; therefore, use of the movie is a strong tool of product placement (Johnson, 2009). It gained popularity with the years, but in 1980’s, it became more successful when the movie â€Å"Extra Terrestrial† by Steven Spielberg advertised Reese Pieces and increased its sales by 65%. The 80’s was the turning point of product placement where there was a working partnership between the movies and the commercial sector. According to Mary-Lou, product placement is necessary because moviemakers need money for their movie production; therefore, they will turn to the commercial sector to provide the money and them to provide the services of product placement (Johnson, 2009). Product placement in Sweden developed in the 1990’s when the real first commercial commenced, this was due to strict government regulations on media operations. It has been embraced in the recent past, for example, where TV shows get sponsorship from the commercial sector in SVT. In Kanal 5, the home improvement show â€Å"Room Service† was sponsored Marlamastana which is the trading association of painters. To

How To Do Gram Staining

How To Do Gram Staining Observation of microorganism under microscope can be improved by using certain processes and techniques such as the staining. Staining is an important step to observe microorganisms more clearly, to differentiate between microorganisms as well as to differentiate parts in microorganism (Bagyaraj et al, 2005). The identification, morphology, some extracellular and intracellular components of microorganisms can be determined and detected through the staining. Many microorganisms difficult to be observed under microscope due to their colourless appearance and semitransparent properties as their refractive index almost same as surroundings (Patil et al, 2008). The stain improves contrast for visualizing microorganisms. Staining process can be explained either as physical, chemical reaction or combination of the both reaction. There are different types of staining such as the simple stain, differential stain and special stain. Simple stain can be used for observing certain basic structures as well as the shape of microorganisms. Differential stain while can be used in distinguishing between different types of microorganisms. Special stain on the other hand can be used for identifying specific structures in the microorganisms such as the flagella (Frey Price, 2003). Gram-stain is one of the commonly used differential stains. The Gram-staining process discovered in 1882 (published 1884) by Hans Christian Gram, a Danish bacteriologist and plays an important role in the classifying the bacteria. Gram-staining is usually the first step in identification bacteria and can be used in characterizing bacteria. Bacteria species can be separated into two large groups, which are the Gram-positive and Gram-negative groups through the Gram-staining (Sridhar Rao, n.d.). This process also important in clinical laboratory such as to examine and identify bacteria responsible for certain diseases. Staining process requires the preparation of smear that contains a thin layer of bacteria. The preparation of smear involves spreading and fixing of microorganisms on the microscope slide. Use of smear prevents microorganisms from being washing away with stain (Vasanthakumari, 2009). Besides the smear, there are four important components in the Gram stain process, which are the primary stain, mordant, decolourizing agent as well as the counterstain that used in sequences. The primary stains usually basic dye such as crystal violet that reacts with acidic component of cell and causes all the bacteria to be stained with the crystal violet or purple. The other dye like the methyl violet can also be used. The other component, mordant in the Gram stain refers to iodine. Mordant is chemical that increases affinity of the stain to the microorganisms and also their coating, making certain structures thicker for easier observation under microscope. The decolorizing agent decolorizes dye from cell that already being stained (Rajan, 2005). The degree of decolorization different in bacteria depends on their chemical components. Decolourization agent commonly refers to ethanol or other solution like acetone or mixture of acetone and ethyl alcohol. Counterstain while is another basic dye that important in giving new colour for cells that decolourized. Counterstain can be the safranin (used in this practical) or the carbon fuchsin. The Gram stain (differential stains) gives different colour for different types of bacteria. The colour is the one that determine whether the bacterium is Gram positive or Gram negative. The Gram positive bacteria resist decolourization and give result of crystal violet or purple colour (primary stain). Gram-negative bacteria decolorize and give red or pink colour as it takes up counterstain (Ananthanarayan Paniker, 2006). The difference in result is due to the differences in the cell wall structure or composition of bacteria that causes the different in the reaction with the series of reagents in Gram staining (Talaro, 2007). Preparation of Staining Reagents: Crystal violet Solution A: Crystal violet 2.0g Ethanol, 95% (v/v) 20 ml Solution B: Ammonium oxalate 0.8g Distilled water 80 ml Solution A and B mixed. Mordant Iodine 1.0 g Potassium iodide 2.0 g Distilled water 300 ml Iodine and potassium blended with mortar, distilled water added during blending until iodine dissolved. Decolorization solvent Ethanol, 95% (v/v) Counterstain Safranin 0.25 g [2.5 %(w/v)] Ethanol 10 ml [9.5% (v/v)] Distilled water 90 ml Materials: Glass slide Escherichia coli in broth culture Escherichia coli in agar culture Bacillus sp. in broth culture Bacillus sp. in agar culture Staphylococcus aureus in broth culture Actinomycetes sp. in broth culture Actinomycetes sp. in agar culture Kimwipe Bunsen burner Dropper Distilled water Inoculation loop Procedure: Preparation of smear: For culture taken from liquid medium (broth), 1 drop of culture to be examined was transferred by using inoculation loop onto a slide and spread to from circular smear. For culture taken from solid medium (agar), one drop of distilled water first dispensed on the slide. The single colony then spread on the water to form circular smear. The slide was heat-fixed with flame. Gram-staining The slide was placed on the rack. 1-2 drops of crystal violet was dropped on the smear and left for 2 minutes. The crystal violet was rinsed off with distilled water for 2 seconds. Iodine solution was dropped and left for 2 minutes. The iodine solution was rinsed off with distilled water for 2 seconds. The smear was decolorized by washing with ethanol (95%v/v) for less than 10 seconds. The ethanol then rinsed off with distilled water for 10 seconds. Safranin solution was dropped on the smear for 10 seconds. The red-coloured safranin was rinsed-off with distilled water. The side was dried using Kimwipe or air-dry. The slide was observed under the microscope. Results: (A)Escherichia coli G:DCIM101NIKONDSCN1773.JPG 1(a) Broth culture (zoom in). 1(b) Agar plate (zoom in). Figure 1: Microscopic image of Escherichia coli under total magnification of 400ÃÆ'- from different culture (B) Bacillus species G:DCIM101NIKONDSCN1745.JPG G:DCIM101NIKONDSCN1738.JPG 2(a) Broth culture (zoom in). 2(b) Agar plate (zoom in). Figure 2: Microscopic image of Bacillus sp. under total magnification of 400ÃÆ'- from different cultures. (C) Staphylococcus Aureus G:DCIM101NIKONDSCN1767.JPG Figure 3: Microscopic image of Staphylococcus aureus under total magnification of 400ÃÆ'- from broth culture (zoom in). (D) Actinomycetes species C:UsersmichelleDocumentsUMS MICROBIOLOGYPHOTOSS1.JPG G:DCIM101NIKONDSCN1760.JPG 4(a) Broth culture (zoom in) under total magnification of 400ÃÆ'-. 4(b) Agar plate (zoom in) under total magnification of 400ÃÆ'-. Figure 3: Microscopic image of Actinomycetes sp. under different magnification from different culture. Table 1: The result of Gram stain on different microorganism Type of microorganisms Shape of the microorganisms Colour stained on microorganisms Gram positive or Gram negative Escherichia coli (broth culture) Bacillus or Rod-shaped Pink Gram negative Escherichia coli (agar plate) Bacillus or Rod-shaped Pink Gram negative Bacillus sp. (broth culture) Bacillus or Rod-shaped Purple Gram positive Bacillus sp. (agar plate) Bacillus or Rod-shaped Purple Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus Coccus or round-shaped Purple Gram positive Actinomycetes sp. (broth culture) Mycelial Purple Gram positive Actinomycetes sp. (agar plate) Mycelial Purple Gram positive Discussion: For every bacterium studied, a smear is first prepared as the smear enables Gram staining to be done without washing away bacteria together with stain. The spreading process (for both broth and agar culture) enables the distribution of bacteria on slides so that suitable density of bacteria can be found on the slide. This increases chance of individual bacteria to be observed under microscope (Port, 2009). The microorganisms from agar first suspended in distilled water before spreading. Without spreading, bacteria may be too concentrated, crowded and overlapped (in clumps), making the observation to be difficult. The slide was heat fixed after drying. Heating enables coagulation and precipitation of protein of bacteria to occurs, hence fix the bacteria on slide. The bacteria killed and adhere to the surface. Fixation makes the bacteria rigid, immobile, increased permeability and affinity to staining. This also prevents the autolysis process of bacteria (Aneja, 2003). During the fixat ion process, slides not be placed directly above the heat or passed through too many times as overheat may causes changes in the shape and hence cause the distortion of the microorganisms. At the same time, less heat supplied may cause the microorganisms do not fix firmly. Before heat fix, the slide is allowed to dry completely as wet bacterial suspension may create aerosol (Shimeld, 1999).The presence of water may also cause over heating. The crystal violet added as the primary stain. Crystal violet is basic dye and has affinity for cell structures that are acidic such as the protoplasm. Crystal violet is added to stain everything on slide or to stain all bacteria (Gram positive or Gram negative). This is same for all the seven samples. Crystal violet dye enters the cells and stained with crystal violet colour. It was suggested that the aqueous dye dissociated into CV+ ion and chloride, Cl- ion (Hussey Smith, n.d.). The positively charged ion binds to the negatively charged components in cell after penetrating the cell wall and cell membrane, hence giving the purple colour. The extra crystal violet dye that not binds to cell is cleared by distilled water. Addition of iodine in next step enables the crystal violet dye to further fix and adhere to organisms (Medical Education Division, 2006). This is due to the formation of complex between iodine and dye ion (CV-I complex) as the negatively charged iodine ion (I- or I3 - ion) binds to the positively charged ion of dye (CV+ ion) in cytoplasm and hence bacteria appeared as violet colour (Vasanthakumari, 2009). The solubility of the dye decreased during the process as the ions bind to organisms. Iodine acts as mordant as it increases affinity of crystal violet stain to organisms. The addition of 95% ethanol as decolourizer enables the lipid to be extracted or dissolved from the cell wall for the Gram negative bacteria like the Escherichia coli. Gram negative bacteria have an outer membrane that constitutes most of the cell wall, also known as lipopolysaccharide layer (LPS) in cell wall (Clark et al, 2009). This is a lipid bilayer structure that differs from cytoplasmic membrane. This layer not only made up of phospholipids and protein, but also polysaccharides that not commonly found in cytoplasmic membrane. Polysaccharide portion made up of core polysaccharides and O-polysaccharides while the lipid portion made up of lipid A which then bind to the core polysaccharides. This LPS layer is located outside a thin layer of peptidoglycan. The outer membrane gives rises to high lipid composition in the cell wall. Decolourizer dissolve off lipid, hence increases the permeability of cell wall which eventually enables the crystal violet-iodine complex to be lost toget her with the lipid. The cell wall (murein layer) of Gram positive layer while has no outer membrane but have thick, cross-linked and multi-layered peptidoglycan. Teichoic acids, the phosphorylated polyalcohol can be found embedded in peptidoglycan layers. These acids can be found bonded to muramic acid residues in peptidoglycan. Lipoteichoic acid which refers to the teichoic acids that binds to the lipids of membrane can also be found in Gram positive bacterial cell wall. In certain actinobacteria, structure called mycolic acids also can be found. The lack of outer membrane gives rises to low lipid composition in cell wall. Hence, the action of decolorizer on Gram positive bacteria (Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Actinomycetes sp.) causes dehydration of cell wall due to the thick peptidoglycan and the composition of lipid available to be dissolved is low. This eventually decreases cell wall permeability, closing pores on cell wall and hence retain the crystal violet-iodine complex inside (Diffe rential staining: The Gram Stain, n.d.). As the cell shrinks, the complex trapped in the thick peptidoglycan and hence cells do not decolourized. After this process, E. coli is in colourless as the crystal-violet iodine complex loses while Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Actinomycetes sp. still in purple colour. Ethanol was not added for more than 30 seconds. Over decolourization can cause the stain of Gram positive bacteria to decolourize and appears as Gram negative (Betts et al, 2003). Under decolourization (too short) also avoided as it can cause dye to be removed incompletely from Gram negative bacteria. Both situations can give false results. After decolorization, smear was washed with distilled water for 15 second to completely stop the decolourization process. The counterstain, safranin solution then stained the E. coli that is colourless with the red colour. Safranin is basic dye (cationic ion) carry the positive dye ion, chromophore that attached to acidic cell structures (negatively charged) such as the protoplasm. Basic dye also attached to other negatively charged macromolecules like proteins and nucleic acid (Archunan, 2004). Both the Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria took up the counterstain but the colour of Gram Positive do not change much as it already stained with p urple. For every dye, there is different period of time for staining. This is to prevent over or under stain that may results in inaccurate result. From the observation, Escherichia coli stained red and give accurate result of Gram negative. The shape of E. coli can be observed as rod shape. Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Actinomycetes sp. while shows results of Gram positive as all are stained with purple colour. The shapes observed are respectively rod-shaped, round-shaped and in mycelial. For Staphylococcus aureus, the cocci shape is sticked together in clumps or amorphous sheet and not separated. For E. coli, bacillus sp. and staphylococcus aureus, two samples are taken, one from the broth and one from the agar. Both the samples show the same results. The difference is on the amount of microorganisms observed. Bacillus sp., for example, that taken from agar plate is very crowded. This is because the each colony taken contains a number of microorganisms. It is more difficult to be observed the shape of the organisms. However, the colour stained can be observed clearly. For the broth culture, individual organisms and the shape as well as the colour can be observed more clearly. Conclusion: Gram staining is important in differentiating Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria in which the Gram positive bacteria stained purple colour while Gram negative organisms stained pink. Escherichia coli is Gram negative while bacillus sp., staphylococcus aureus and actinomycetes are Gram positive bacteria.

Is the Notion of an Early Modern Military Revolution Tenable? Essays

Is the Notion of an Early Modern Military Revolution Tenable? The notion of an early modern military revolution is one which is a much debated subject among historians. Two historians who are very dominant in this field are Geoffrey Parker and Michael Roberts. Although they both agree that a military revolution occurred, they disagree on the timing of a revolution in war. Roberts argues that a military revolution started in 1560 and "by 1660, the modern art of war had come to birth." Parker, on the other hand, sees the military revolution as a "firmly sixteenth century phenomenon with antecedents in the fifteenth." Prior to the early modern period, warfare was based around castles and fortified towns and attempts to capture them. This changed very little in the middle ages. Armies had a maximum of forty thousand soldiers, many of whom were mercenaries (1550). Armies consisted of Pike men in square formations supported by cavalry and musketeers. Battles often ended in a stalemate and wars were very lengthy as a result of this. Through the military revolution emerged new tactics, technology and style of warfare. Michael Roberts acknowledged four revolutionary traits of what he called the military revolution. "First, the superiority of disciplined infantry - musketeers rather than pike men - armed and drilled to prosecute a field battle by the ordered application of firepower, not the hurly-burly of man-man combat; second, themanifestly greater size of these new-style, mostly musketeer armies; third, the emergence of bolder, more dramatic strategies designed to seek a decisive battle at the culmi nation of a sharp campaign; and fourth, a need for larger and more reliable and intrusive commissariats and military bureaucraci... ...tary revolution occurred is not tenable but the notion that the face of warfare, the order of the world and the way people perceived war changed in this period and has shaped the modern world definitely is tenable. Bibliography Jeremy Black Ed: European Warfare 1453 - 1815 (Problems in Focus) Macmillan Press Limited 1999 H. G. Koenigsberger: Early Modern Europe 1500 - 1789 (The Silver Library) Pearson Education Limited 1987 J. M. Roberts: The Penguin History of Europe Penguin Books 1997 Michael Roberts: The Military Revolution 1560 - 1660 Boulder, CO, 1995 G Parker: The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500 - 1800 Second Edition Cambridge University Press 1996 G Parker Ed: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare Cambridge University Press 1995 Stephen J. Lee: The Thirty Years War TJ Press (Padstow) 1991