Woman Warrior By Kingston Essays - Personal Life, Brain

Woman Warrior By Kingston Food strengthens us, without it we are weak. Eating has always been an important factor with families living in poor conditions. Often, those who could not help to produce more food are considered inferior or unworthy to eat. Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior is no exception, due to the relation it creates between eating and the strength of people. This is shown through the tale of Fa-Mu-Lan, the story of the eaters, and the references to the fellow relatives left in China. In the tale of Fa-Mu-Lan, the narrator is given a survival test, where she has to survive a mountain trek without provisions. During that trek, the narrator finds herself weary from hunger. Hunger brings out her animal instincts, because she needs to stay strong to live. ?On the fourth and fifth days, my eyesight sharp with hunger, I saw deer and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where deer nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality? (25). The narrator is forced to search for her food to eat. The hungrier she becomes, the more feral she is. Meat also played a role in the connection between food and strength. During the beginning of her story she claimed she no longer needed meat. After she became starving, she breaks down and eats meat. I saw the rabbit had sacrificed itself for me. It had made me a gift of meat? (26). Her will was eroded by the hunger because as her hunger increased, she became weaker and her resolve was easier to destroy. When the narrator was not starving she was in control of her faculties. Hunger however, strips her even of vision, as she imagines things that do not exist. The narrator says, ?Hunger also changes the world when eating can't be habit, then neither can seeing. I saw two people made of gold dancing the earth's axis? (27). Viewing two gold dancers would be wonderful to witness, however the chances are very slim. The hunger had weakened her to the point of confusion, and possibly dilution. Just as hunger weakens a person so they cannot command themselves, eating will make a person powerful and the masters of others. The stories of the heroes who ate heaping amounts of food illustrate that those who can eat have extraordinary powers. The narrator says before, that her mother is powerfulbecause she can eat anything ? quick, pluck out the carp's eyes, one for Mother and one for Father. All heroes are bold towards food? (88). Her mother is master of the ghost because she can consume it. The story of Kao Chung also illustrates this point. This hero eats five chickens and drinks ten bottles of wine prior to slaying a sea-monster. The scholar-hunter Wei Pang was also a great eater; in fact, he was the most fantastic according to the narrator. He shoots a glowing sphere composed of flesh with eyes in it, and then eats it with his servant. Bye eating, these two heroes are able to conquer their foes. The story of Chen Luan-feng is another is another example of how eating makes a person powerful. By eating forbidden foods, Chen calls down an angry thunder god whose leg is chopped off by Chen, and the thunder god is then at the mercy of Chen. ?Big eaters win? (90) is the comment regarding an anonymous scholar from Hanchow. This scholar discovers some valuables on the side of the road; however, an evil frog guards them. He chases that frog off only to have two smaller frogs com that night. He proceeds to eat every frog that visits him, ?And at the end of the month the frogs stopped coming, leaving the scholar with the white silk and silver ingots? (90). These heroes are rewarded for their eating habits, but those who cannot eat are weak. The relatives of the narrator are always asking for money. They are weak characters because they are forced to rely on others to live. Unlike the heroes who command themselves and others, these relatives are not even in command of their own life, rather they have given up their life to the Communists. Because the Communists are cheating them out of food, they are starving and weak. The narrator says, ?What I will inherit someday is a green address book full of names. I'll send the relatives money, and they'll write me stories of their hunger? (206). The narrator describes the relatives very unflattering. They are considered lazy and unable to

Admissions Applications and the Parent Questionnaire

Admissions Applications and the Parent Questionnaire One aspect of the private school admission process is the completion of a formal  application, which includes both a student and a parent questionnaire. Many parents spend hours going over the student portion with their children, but the parent application needs ample attention, as well. This piece of information is a crucial part of the application, and is something that admission committees read  carefully. Heres what you need to know: The Purpose of the Parent Questionnaire This document may also be  known as the Parent Statement. The rationale for this series of questions is to have you, the parent or guardian, answer questions about your child. There is the understanding that you know your child better than any teacher or counselor, so your thoughts matter. Your answers should help the admissions staff get to know your child better. However, its important to be realistic about your child and remember that every child has both strengths and areas in which he or she can improve.   Answer the Questions Truthfully Dont paint a picture-perfect vision of your child. It important to be genuine and authentic. Some of the questions can be personal and probing. Be careful not to distort or avoid the facts. For example, when the school asks you to describe your childs character and personality, you need to do so succinctly yet honestly. If your child has been expelled or failed a year, you must address the issue forthrightly and honestly. The same goes for information related to educational accommodations, learning challenges, and emotional or physical challenges your child may experience. Just because you disclose information that may not be a glowing positive, doesnt mean that your child isnt a good fit for the school. At the same time, full explaining  the needs of your child can help the school to assess if they can provide the necessary accommodations to ensure success. The last thing you want to do is send your child to a school that cant meet your childs needs.   Make a Rough Draft of Your Answers Always print out a copy of the questionnaire or copy the questions into a document on your computer. Use this secondary place to write a rough draft of your answers to each question. Edit for coherence and clarity. Then put the document aside for twenty-four hours.  Look at it again a day or so later. Ask yourself how your answers will be interpreted by the admissions staff who do not know your child as you do. Have a trusted adviser or, if you have hired one, your educational consultant, review your answers. Then input your answers into the online portal (most schools require online applications these days) and submit along with the other documents. Write Your Own Answers Do not underestimate the importance of the Parent Questionnaire. Something that you may say in your answers could  resonate with the admissions staff and make them feel a connection to you and your family. Your answers might even tip the scale in your childs favor and help the school understand how they can play a primary role in your childs education, helping him or her succeed and achieve their best, both during the years attending the school and beyond. Take plenty of time to craft thoughtful, considered answers that accurately reflect you and your child. Do not have an assistant answer these questions for you. Even if you are a very busy CEO or a  single parent working full time and juggling multiple children, this one document is extremely important; make time to complete it. This is your childs future at stake. Things are not like they used to be decades ago when perhaps the mere fact that you were an important person would suffice to get your child admitted. The same is true for consultants. If you are working with a consultant, it is still important that your questionnaire, and your childs portion of the application (if he or she is old enough to complete one) should be genuine and from you. Most consultants would not write the responses for you, and you should question your consultant if he or she suggests this practice. The school will want to see evidence that you personally have tended to this questionnaire. It is one more indication to the school that you are a committed and involved partner with the school in your childs education. Many schools highly value the partnership with parents and family members, and investing your time in the parent questionnaire can show that youre dedicated to supporting your child and that you will be an involved parent.   Article edited by  Stacy Jagodowski

Attitude to Feminism in HoD

Attitude to Feminism in HoD In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s preconceived notion of the naà ¯ve and sheltered woman is revealed early in the novel: â€Å"It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are! They live in a world of their own and there had never been anything like it and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset.† (Conrad 10) However, it is because of the women’s purity and naivete that the female characters in the novel–Marlow’s aunt, knitters of black wool, the African mistress, and the Intended–possess a sense of mystery and wield power over the men. The women eventually lead the reader to the discovery of a new truth—not that of the stark reality of the Congo, but of the fact that men yield to women’s will as a way to discover and assert themselves. The women are powerful enough to present the men with a direction, a literal journey, and a sense of purpose. Though Marlow’s aunt and the wool knitters appear for only a short period, their presence precipitates and steers the course of the novel. Marlow’s aunt, who is presented as a disillusioned woman stubbornly adhering to the notion of â€Å"White Man’s Burden,† is the one who actually directs Marlow into his expedition of self-discovery and truth in the first place. This irony is compounded by the fact that it is Marlow’s aunt who comes to the rescue when his own efforts prove fruitless: â€Å"The men said ‘My dear fellow,’ and did nothing. Then–would you believe it?–I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work–to get a job.† (6) This passage implies that, regardless of Marlow’s condescending views of women, he too realizes (though without admitting it outright) the female influence and his and other men’s powerlessness. It is his aunt’s belief in the fundamental goodness of humanity that gives her power over men; she justifies male imperialistic goals and becomes the object onto which these men project wealth, power, and status. The women in the Belgian company office knit black wool, symbolizing and foreshadowing a sealed fate, dark and tragic. Their power rests in their possession of this fate, and their presence is so domineering that later in the journey, Marlow yields to their unquestionable authority: â€Å"The knitting old woman with the cat obtruded herself upon my memory as a most improper person to be sitting at the other end of such an affair.† (59-60) If Marlow’s aunt is the usher into Darkness, then the knitters are the Darkness’ gatekeepers, and Conrad’s representation of fate as two women is no concidence. The connection between the aunt and the knitters, and eventually the other female characters, binds them in a sisterhood, and their roles only complement their own respective goals in maneuvering the men. The ending of the book is shaped by the African mistress and the Intended. In physical contrast to the ailing Kurtz, the two women are towers (literally, by the descriptions of their height and outstretched arms) of strength, devotion, and purity. Throughout the book, Kurtz is the â€Å"remarkable person† (16), the â€Å"exceptional man† (19), and a quasi-Christ-like figure, but, to Marlow, the Intended is a god: â€Å"bowing my head before the faith that was in her† (70) and â€Å"silencing me into an appalled dumbness† (69). While Kurtz holds truth, the Intended holds illusion, and Marlow’s ultimate lie proves the world of women overcomes the world of truth. It is women’s illusion that shelters men and gives them strength and purpose. This protection can be clearly seen with the Intended: her depiction of Kurtz is drastically different from the reader’s observations, and her distorted image of Kurtz creates his pristine legacy by cle ansing him of his corruption. Her â€Å"inextinguishable light of belief and love† (69) manages to extinguish the darkness of humanity, of the man’s world. Marlow’s asserts women are â€Å"out of it† (44), that they exist in their own ideal space, void of vision and possibility and unbeknownst to truth and reality. Yet Marlow’s journey into the Congo places him into a dreamlike state in which he similarly cannot discern truth from fantasy. The implications of a thick, dark jungle signify a world where â€Å"the reality fades† and â€Å"the inner truth is hidden† (30). Thus, though both the female and male worlds are dark, the female characters dominate because they have not fallen into the male abyss—due to their purity and pledge of responsibility and faith. Marlow’s hazy journey into the Congo and hazy views of the female gender are similar, and this similarity is made even more apparent when he encounters the African mistress, who actually embodies the wilderness itself: â€Å"And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense darkness, the colossal bo dy of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, and though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.† (56) Ironically, he is strongly attracted to her powerful feminine force, the force of nature, of the female world, which he had once made an effort to avoid. With his travel down the Congo, he has been forced to immerse himself in the female realm, an image of the African mistress with receiving arms, which has similarly â€Å"caressed him [Kurtz]†¦taken him, loved, him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (44). Marlow’s confused view of women can be read in parallel with Conrad’s own struggle to overtly and covertly balance the strong female presences in his work. In the beginning of the novel, Marlow is disoriented by his aunt, who manages to throw his opinions of gender and power into question. Thereby, Marlow becomes uneasy about his own powerlessness and the fact that women might have an existence aside from his problematic interpretations. In order to adhere to his viewpoints, however, Marlow refuses to admit the nuances he himself allows the reader to observe (i.e. the unmistakable power of his aunt, the knitters, the African mistress, and the Intended beyond his own), and his omission reveals a fear which in turn imparts an independent and potent sphere to those women. It is with this sphere–and the mystery within–that Conrad is able to reveal female power beyond a literal portrayal. That power is deeply psychological and subconscious, and closely intertwi ned amongst the women–the aunt ushering, the knitters guiding, the African mistress embracing, and the Intended cleansing–to conform the male characters to the female will. Works Cited Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Sociology - Essay Example In this paper, the author presents Foucault’s ideas on the discourse of criminality vis-Ã  -vis other sociological theories, such as labelling theory, symbolic interactionism, and social imagination. Thereafter it will be argued that perhaps, such theories in fact fall within the relations of power that Foucault insists are components of discourse, demonstrating the extent of Foucault’s theory. Disciplinary institutions are, by and large, places where power is exercised and coursed through various mechanisms, but not merely for its own sake. The latter observation is made by subjecting the study of such institutions to a reversal: is it really the simple case that power is found only on one side, exerting its influence through restrictions and rules? The answer as per Foucault is ‘no.’ Not only can power be understood in the negative, it can also be seen in the positive, as a productive relationship. This is an aspect of power relations that is either overlooked or altogether dismissed. Without doubt, it is in Discipline and Punish (1977) that Foucault’s concern with discipline and surveillance becomes even more pronounced than his other genealogical works. Here he examines the progressive sophistication of disciplinary mechanisms such as punishments employed in prisons that are in fact, upon closer scrutiny, representative of the same progression of di sciplinary mechanisms in society. He undertook an examination of power relations using the penal institution as a take-off point, for the primary reason that it is here where the different disciplinary techniques used in the exercise of power are more evident. At the outset, he shows how torture and execution was made a public spectacle, with the condemned man being paraded in a manner deemed suited to the crime he committed. Interestingly however, public tortures and executions soon became a ‘hidden’ affair, with the condemned man being transferred

The Process of Banking Regulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Process of Banking Regulation - Essay Example The financial crisis exposed failures of banks to control financial meltdown. The case pointed out that banks directed their interest at the expense of the common good of the financial markets. Regulation in the sector is an issue that is quite complex because the UK has banks which handle domestic and international banking. This paper analyses banking regulation and its effects on the financial market. The argument for and against regulation The argument about the need for bank regulation has divided economists into two groups. The first group feels that the banking sector should institute policies, which regulate the operation of banks while the second group feels that banks are volatile to instability, hence less need for regulation. Economists have observed that unregulated actions lead to greater social marginal costs and less private marginal costs (Slaughter and May. 2011). The effects of social marginal costs influence the overall economy because banks form important units of making public payment. This contrasts to private marginal costs because it belongs to a clique of shareholders of the firm. Turner Review on banking regulation proposed interest policy that should be able to tone down macro stability as well as bubbles in the financial sector. However, during the financial spill, it was evident that central banks were unable to control the macro stability of the banks. Elaborate regulation influence practices, which influence lending, and borrowing. Complexity in the sector crops whenever banks failed to comply with the regulation because they tend to manipulate the markets to gain profit (Hoose, 2010:136). The challenge is to balance the financial market as well as doing business. Serving these interests have often thrown the market into crossroads where financial spiff off is inevitable. However, the mandate of the regulation is to promote common good among the market players in the financial sector (Hardy, 2006:6). Economists for regulation have argued that uninsured depositors would create a financial spill when they acquire information about the poor performance of the banks. For instance, Northern Rock bank was a victim of depositors run during the financial crisis in 2007. Many of its depositors were not certain that bank suffered liquidity problem. It means that a bank run would create an adverse effect on the economy because of loses that banks would incur in its attempt to meet the demands of its depositors. The idea is to equip the banks to handle unstable markets (Independent Commission on Banking. 2011: 23). During the 2008 crisis UK, government shielded the banks from falling because they did not have the capacity to absorb the risks. Early banks had demonstrated their ability to lend without evaluating their capacity to handle the risk. Erosion of bank equity destabilized the financial market because the banks lost the ability to bear loses. Proposal on banking regulation is an issue that committees such as the Basel committee have discussed reviewing macro-prudential methods of regulating operation in the banking sector. The report charged with reviewing stability in the banking sector identified three areas first, the minimum requirement of capital, second, supervisory on internal bank assessment and third, cushioning public from risks. Basel committee recommended that each loan should command its own capital requirement as opposed to portfolio the loan added.

Early Childhood School Essay Example for Free

Early Childhood School Essay Education To Be More was published last August. It was the report of the New Zealand Governments Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. The report argued for enhanced equity of access and better funding for childcare and early childhood education institutions. Unquestionably, thats a real need; but since parents dont normally send children to pre-schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important years of all? B A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school. Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world. C It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system. Thats observed not just in New Zealand, but also in Australia, Britain and America. In an attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement, a nationwide programme called Headstart was launched in the United States in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school. Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two explanations for this. First, the programme began too late. Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence. Second, the parents were not involved. At the end of each day, Headstart children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment. D As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a childs life and the disappointing results from Headstart, a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the childs first teachers. The Missouri programme was predicated on research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life. The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and families with either the mother or father at home. The programme involved trained parent ¬educators visiting the parents home and working with the parent, or parents, and the child. Information on child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the childs intellectual, language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the childs educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development. Medical problems were referred to professionals. Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with other new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest. Parent resource centres, Located in school buildings, offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care. E At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the Missouri programme were evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and Family situations, and also a random sample of children that age. The results were phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and were Further along in  social development. In fact, the average child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability. Most important of all, the traditional measures of risk, such as parents age and education, or whether they were a single parent, bore little or no relationship to the measures of achievement and language development. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of scio-economic disadvantages. Child abuse was virtually eliminated. The one factor that was found to affect the childs development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families. F These research findings are exciting. There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of disadvantage. The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their place of work, contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised early childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital, but without a similar Focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.

William Wallace :: essays research papers fc

William Wallace is considered to be â€Å"Scotland’s greatest hero† (McHale). In order to appreciate the true value of freedom one must understand the hardships and trials people faced in order to obtain that freedom. William Wallace was a freedom fighter. He went through many trials and tribulations during his life. William Wallace’s family came from Wales. William was not even Scottish (Fish). Yet he had the strength and courage to stand up for what he thought was right. William Wallace was born in a little town called Elerslie, in Scotland, around January 1272. â€Å"He was the second of three sons to Sir Malcolm Wallace† (Waters). His mother taught him his basic education, until he was six to seven years of age (Chung). At this time and age, the second male son of a family was obligated, by tradition, to obtain education by a clergy member of a monastery, and eventually become a clergy member himself. It is unknown, by historians, how William averted this tradition (Ewart). During this time the English king, Edward Plantagenet I, also called Edward de Longshanks (McHale), was taking over Scotland. The king of England issued all the people of Scotland to pay homage to him. Sir Malcolm Wallace was entirely against this. He made this widely known. He eventually became titled as an outlaw by King Edward, and was on the run from the English along with his oldest son Malcolm. Sir Reginald de Crauford, William’s grandfather, administered the homage to be paid to Edward I and noticed that his son-in-law’s name did not appear on the list that he compiled (Chung). He sent his daughter and grandsons to Cambuskenneth Abbey in Dunipace to live with Sir Malcolm’s younger brother who was a cleric there. This is where William received the remainder of his education. â€Å"His uncle instilled in him moral maxims compactly framed in Latin, and referred frequently to the great classic authors† (McHale). At the monastery he learned the passion a nd love of liberty he so frequently displayed as an adult. By the time William completed his education his father died. Sir Malcolm was murdered by an English knight, named Fenwick. The news of William’s father’s death spread quickly. A few months after, William was branded an outlaw, because he killed a man taunting him of his father’s death. This started whole slew of killings and Wallace’s rebellion against the English. Williams Wallace first appears in history early in 1297.

Comparing ‘The Crucible’ with ‘Macbeth’ Essay

My practical work in November 2002 was for option 2. it was a piece of scripted performance and was based on the theme of witches and the supernatural.  My contribution to the performance was a character called Marry Warren. I had to help a character called John Proctor; this is because Marry Warren is trying to get out of the group of girls. Marry Warren then betrays John Procter and joins the group of girls again, because of Abigail was making a fool out of Marry Warren. To help me in my work, I looked for information in the video. I also read a play called ‘Macbeth’, written by William Shakespeare.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœMacbeth’ was set in Scotland in the 17th centaury. The system of government at the time was that of a monarchy in which the king makes the laws and punishes people. The people would fight for the king. The culture at that time was one is which people believed in witches and the supernatural. Witches were seen as prophets, they were powerful symbols for soldiers. However, ‘The Crucible’ was set in Salem, Massachusetts, USA in the 17th centaury. The system of government at the time was that of theocracy in which people believed in the bible and followed it. Judges were called into decide punishments. Anyone accused of heretical beliefs could be punished. At that time people believed the devil could pass anyone and cause him or her to say or do anything. The genre for ‘Macbeth’ is gothic tragedy. The theme for the play is supernatural, deceiving appearances and prophecy. The supernatural was that the witches are more what we expect, conventional during those times. Sources of information did not shock Macbeth as we expected. The deceiving appearances of witches were the first main incident. The witches were trying to manipulate Macbeth. The prophecy of the play suggests people looking for signs to guide them. On the other hand, the genre for ‘The Crucible’ is a historical fiction melodrama. The theme for ‘The Crucible’ is deception, supernatural and hysteria. The deception in ‘The Crucible’ is that there were no actual witches which added to the hysteria. Supernatural in ‘The Crucible’ was that witches were seen as people working with the devil also the town people are afraid of what witches symbolised. The hysteria in ‘The Crucible’ was once accusations began people feared devil had arrived. This meant their right were ignored in order to find the cause of problem. The performance style for ‘Macbeth’ is partly classical. Macbeth is a war hero yet suddenly loves having powers. Facial expressions and body movement were very important. Elizabethian theatre did not have any dramatic lighting or sound effects. Therefore much of the acting and events are exaggerated.  However, ‘The Crucible’ performance style is classical. As the genre is mellow drama, the acting has to be exaggerated to capture the hysteria. In ‘The Crucible’ Abigail dramatically changes her acting style to meet her needs. Abigail often makes clear how she feels or over exaggerated her movement to make her aim clear.

Friedman Family Assessment

Friedman Family Assessment Friedman Family Assessment A nursing assessment of a family is the basis of nursing interventions. Stanhope And Lancaster (2008) state, â€Å"By using a systemic process, family problem areas are Identified and family strengths are emphasized as the building blocks for interventions, and to facilitate family resiliency. (p. 567). This assessment will describe a family that finds themselves alone, after the death of their wife and mother, six months ago. For ML his wife, for CL his mother.This small family of two graciously agreed to be a part of my assessment, they were interviewed together and separately, multiple times. â€Å"Family refers to two or more individuals who depend on one another for emotional, physical, and/or financial support. † (Stanhope & Lancaster, (2008) p. 554). Family Assessment Mode/Identifying Data This family is a small family of two. ML is the father, and CL is the son. They live in a three bedroom home, owned by ML IN Valrico, Florida. ML is a 46-year-old male, and CL is a 16-year-old male. ML and CL lost their wife and mother six months ago to breast cancer.They have both struggled ever since. ML is a welder and has worked for the same company for the past 20 years. After the death of his wife, he sold their home of twelve years and moved to Valrico, to â€Å"start over†. ML works from 7am to 7pm Monday through Friday. ML works hard and provides nicely for his son. He is gone most of the day, and into the evening. ML works as much over-time as possible. He stated â€Å"as long as I am working, I do not have to be home alone with my son, not because I do not love him, but because we both know what is missing†.ML drinks beer on the weekends, he admits it is getting heavier since his wife has passed away. Most evenings he does not cook at home, instead he brings home fast food or they eat frozen foods for dinner. Three months ago ML was diagnosed with Hypertension, Non-Insulin-Diabet es-Mellitus, Hyperlipidemia, Anxiety and Depression. He has started treatment just recently for Hypertension, Diabetes and Hyperlipidemia all with Po meds and diet. He stated, â€Å"I do not need medications for the depression, my wife just died, who wouldn’t be depressed nd anxious†. CL is a 15-year-old boy, an only child, and lives with his father. CL has had a difficult time since his mother has died. ML and CL have no other family that lives close to them. Both of his grandparents live in New York, and are much older. CL states â€Å"Dad is doing the best he can, I worry about him, and he just does not know what to do. He is sad all of the time, and I just try and stay away from him† CL is home alone a lot of the time, before and after school. His grades have suffered, he feels sad and depressed most of the time.He has few friends since moving to this new home, and he isolates in front of the television or his Xbox. His diet is less than optimal, living on f rozen and fast foods daily, other than the meals he gets at school, breakfast and lunch. CL has stated that â€Å"he is scared and lonely† he has stated â€Å"Dad and I do not talk, we both are too sad†. I believe that both ML and CL are afraid of their feelings, afraid of what will happen if they start to talk, and they may not know how to communicate with each other, especially about their feelings regarding the death of their wife and mother.Both ML and CL have agreed to be my family for this assessment, they both admitted they needed help and that they are aware they need the help. Better than that, they both want the help. Developmental Stage According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) Duvall’s Developmental stages of the families â€Å"are based on the age of the eldest child† (p. 560). This family would fit into stage five. â€Å"Families with teenagers, oldest child 13-20 years old. Teenagers balance freedom with responsibility, establishing paren t interests and careers.Adolescents Parents focus on midlife marital and career issues, shift toward concern for older generation. Environmental Data This family lives in a three bedroom home, owned by ML, with 2 bathrooms, a family room and dining room. The house is clean, all appliances in good working order, I see no safety hazards, waste and garbage disposal is adequate. They have a nice back yard with a built in pool and patio, but it looks as though it has not been used. The family has just moved into this home, has lived there now for 3 months.It looks like a house, not a home. They live in a modest neighborhood, nice area of Valrico, with good schools, and a strong community. The family does not know any neighbors nor have they tried to get to know their neighbors. They have no idea of community resources; basically, they go to work and school, and stay home the rest of the time. Complete social isolation. Family Structure There is a strong need for these two family members to communicate with each other about their feelings of grief; they need to support each other and to stop isolating.They do not spend any time together, and when they are both home, they are in separate rooms. ML is very emotional when speaking about his wife and son, he feels he has failed his son, but does not know how to talk to him. CL is completely lost, not only is he dealing with the death of his mother, but he feels he has lost his father as well, along with the normal feelings of being a teenage boy. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) â€Å"The two primary functions of families in the twenty first century are relationships and health care functions† (p. 555).This family is having difficulty with communicating, and sharing. They have lost a great deal and are not coping effectively Family Stress and Coping Currently the largest family stressor is anticipatory grieving on both family members. This leads to multiple stressors and ineffective coping mechanisms. T he strength and glue that held this family together is gone. ML has turned to alcohol to deal with his stress, and CL has isolated deeper. This beautiful family is in a downward spiral. Coping mechanisms need to be addressed, along with interventions to help this family. Family FunctionML believes all he can do right now is to provide for CL in monetary actions, house him, feed him, clothe him, and make sure he goes to school. He wants to be and do more, he is just unsure how at this time, he feels by providing financial survival, that is all he can do right now. This family is not functioning, there will be more dysfunction if this family cannot get the help that is needed, their issues are not chronic nor are they terminal. They need time and loving intervention, by friends, resources in their community, and by each other. Priority Family Nursing Diagnosis 1)The first nursing diagnosis for this family is; Ineffective, Individual Coping related to inadequate opportunity and time to prepare for the stressors of losing a loved one, and situational crisis as evidenced by using ineffective coping strategies, having physical symptoms of stress, and manifestations of negative behaviors to decrease stress. Family interventions will be to;* use effective coping strategies,* use behaviors toward self and others, *report decrease in physical symptoms of stress, *report increase in psychological and spiritual comfort,*seek help from a health care professional as appropriate.Within four months after seeking professional help. (2) The second nursing diagnoses for this family is; Anticipatory Grieving related to the death of a significant family member as evidenced by lack of communicating and discussing their feelings, ineffective feelings of expression with feelings of guilt, fear, anger, and sadness, anxiety, changes in appetite, decrease energy and isolation, for both family members.Family interventions will be to *Express appropriate feelings of guilt, fear, anger and sadness, with each other and self*Identify somatic distress associated with grief (anxiety, changes in appetite, insomnia, nightmares, decreased energy, and altered activity levels. Within four months of seeking professional treatment for both ML & CL. 3) The third nursing diagnosis for this family is; Altered Parenting related to deficient knowledge about parenting skills, poor communication skills, depression, and sadness, and changes in family unit as evidenced by inappropriate measures to maintain a safe, nurturing environment for the child, lack of attentive, supportive parenting behavior, and lack of child supervision. Interventions for this family would be*teach appropriate measures to develop a better, safer and nurturing home environment*acquire and display attentive, supportive parenting skills with positive adult behavior and positive and loving adult supervision.Conclusion This paper was developed to provide a family assessment and prioritized nursing diagnosis. Wit h the three main nursing diagnoses, nursing and family interventions were put in place. By using the Friedman Family Assessment, family challenges are recognized and the family strengths are highlighted as the ground work for interventions and foster family resilience. The assessment explored the family’s developmental stage, structure, composition and stressors. With this data, a nurse is able to prioritize family nursing diagnosis and analyze appropriate nursing interventions to assist with the progression of each diagnosis.According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) â€Å" Healthy and vital families are essential to the world’s future because all family members are affected by what their families have invested in them or failed to provide for their growth and well being. (p. 550).References Stanhope, M. , & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (8th ed. ). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier Mosby. . Turnitin Or iginality Report Processed on 17-Apr-2012 1:12 AM CDT ID: 242763557 Word Count: 1647 Similarity Index 5% Similarity by Source Internet Sources: 5% Publications: 0% Student Papers: N/A Friedman Family Assessment Friedman Family Assessment Friedman Family Assessment A nursing assessment of a family is the basis of nursing interventions. Stanhope And Lancaster (2008) state, â€Å"By using a systemic process, family problem areas are Identified and family strengths are emphasized as the building blocks for interventions, and to facilitate family resiliency. (p. 567). This assessment will describe a family that finds themselves alone, after the death of their wife and mother, six months ago. For ML his wife, for CL his mother.This small family of two graciously agreed to be a part of my assessment, they were interviewed together and separately, multiple times. â€Å"Family refers to two or more individuals who depend on one another for emotional, physical, and/or financial support. † (Stanhope & Lancaster, (2008) p. 554). Family Assessment Mode/Identifying Data This family is a small family of two. ML is the father, and CL is the son. They live in a three bedroom home, owned by ML IN Valrico, Florida. ML is a 46-year-old male, and CL is a 16-year-old male. ML and CL lost their wife and mother six months ago to breast cancer.They have both struggled ever since. ML is a welder and has worked for the same company for the past 20 years. After the death of his wife, he sold their home of twelve years and moved to Valrico, to â€Å"start over†. ML works from 7am to 7pm Monday through Friday. ML works hard and provides nicely for his son. He is gone most of the day, and into the evening. ML works as much over-time as possible. He stated â€Å"as long as I am working, I do not have to be home alone with my son, not because I do not love him, but because we both know what is missing†.ML drinks beer on the weekends, he admits it is getting heavier since his wife has passed away. Most evenings he does not cook at home, instead he brings home fast food or they eat frozen foods for dinner. Three months ago ML was diagnosed with Hypertension, Non-Insulin-Diabet es-Mellitus, Hyperlipidemia, Anxiety and Depression. He has started treatment just recently for Hypertension, Diabetes and Hyperlipidemia all with Po meds and diet. He stated, â€Å"I do not need medications for the depression, my wife just died, who wouldn’t be depressed nd anxious†. CL is a 15-year-old boy, an only child, and lives with his father. CL has had a difficult time since his mother has died. ML and CL have no other family that lives close to them. Both of his grandparents live in New York, and are much older. CL states â€Å"Dad is doing the best he can, I worry about him, and he just does not know what to do. He is sad all of the time, and I just try and stay away from him† CL is home alone a lot of the time, before and after school. His grades have suffered, he feels sad and depressed most of the time.He has few friends since moving to this new home, and he isolates in front of the television or his Xbox. His diet is less than optimal, living on f rozen and fast foods daily, other than the meals he gets at school, breakfast and lunch. CL has stated that â€Å"he is scared and lonely† he has stated â€Å"Dad and I do not talk, we both are too sad†. I believe that both ML and CL are afraid of their feelings, afraid of what will happen if they start to talk, and they may not know how to communicate with each other, especially about their feelings regarding the death of their wife and mother.Both ML and CL have agreed to be my family for this assessment, they both admitted they needed help and that they are aware they need the help. Better than that, they both want the help. Developmental Stage According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) Duvall’s Developmental stages of the families â€Å"are based on the age of the eldest child† (p. 560). This family would fit into stage five. â€Å"Families with teenagers, oldest child 13-20 years old. Teenagers balance freedom with responsibility, establishing paren t interests and careers.Adolescents Parents focus on midlife marital and career issues, shift toward concern for older generation. Environmental Data This family lives in a three bedroom home, owned by ML, with 2 bathrooms, a family room and dining room. The house is clean, all appliances in good working order, I see no safety hazards, waste and garbage disposal is adequate. They have a nice back yard with a built in pool and patio, but it looks as though it has not been used. The family has just moved into this home, has lived there now for 3 months.It looks like a house, not a home. They live in a modest neighborhood, nice area of Valrico, with good schools, and a strong community. The family does not know any neighbors nor have they tried to get to know their neighbors. They have no idea of community resources; basically, they go to work and school, and stay home the rest of the time. Complete social isolation. Family Structure There is a strong need for these two family members to communicate with each other about their feelings of grief; they need to support each other and to stop isolating.They do not spend any time together, and when they are both home, they are in separate rooms. ML is very emotional when speaking about his wife and son, he feels he has failed his son, but does not know how to talk to him. CL is completely lost, not only is he dealing with the death of his mother, but he feels he has lost his father as well, along with the normal feelings of being a teenage boy. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) â€Å"The two primary functions of families in the twenty first century are relationships and health care functions† (p. 555).This family is having difficulty with communicating, and sharing. They have lost a great deal and are not coping effectively Family Stress and Coping Currently the largest family stressor is anticipatory grieving on both family members. This leads to multiple stressors and ineffective coping mechanisms. T he strength and glue that held this family together is gone. ML has turned to alcohol to deal with his stress, and CL has isolated deeper. This beautiful family is in a downward spiral. Coping mechanisms need to be addressed, along with interventions to help this family. Family FunctionML believes all he can do right now is to provide for CL in monetary actions, house him, feed him, clothe him, and make sure he goes to school. He wants to be and do more, he is just unsure how at this time, he feels by providing financial survival, that is all he can do right now. This family is not functioning, there will be more dysfunction if this family cannot get the help that is needed, their issues are not chronic nor are they terminal. They need time and loving intervention, by friends, resources in their community, and by each other. Priority Family Nursing Diagnosis 1)The first nursing diagnosis for this family is; Ineffective, Individual Coping related to inadequate opportunity and time to prepare for the stressors of losing a loved one, and situational crisis as evidenced by using ineffective coping strategies, having physical symptoms of stress, and manifestations of negative behaviors to decrease stress. Family interventions will be to;* use effective coping strategies,* use behaviors toward self and others, *report decrease in physical symptoms of stress, *report increase in psychological and spiritual comfort,*seek help from a health care professional as appropriate.Within four months after seeking professional help. (2) The second nursing diagnoses for this family is; Anticipatory Grieving related to the death of a significant family member as evidenced by lack of communicating and discussing their feelings, ineffective feelings of expression with feelings of guilt, fear, anger, and sadness, anxiety, changes in appetite, decrease energy and isolation, for both family members.Family interventions will be to *Express appropriate feelings of guilt, fear, anger and sadness, with each other and self*Identify somatic distress associated with grief (anxiety, changes in appetite, insomnia, nightmares, decreased energy, and altered activity levels. Within four months of seeking professional treatment for both ML & CL. 3) The third nursing diagnosis for this family is; Altered Parenting related to deficient knowledge about parenting skills, poor communication skills, depression, and sadness, and changes in family unit as evidenced by inappropriate measures to maintain a safe, nurturing environment for the child, lack of attentive, supportive parenting behavior, and lack of child supervision. Interventions for this family would be*teach appropriate measures to develop a better, safer and nurturing home environment*acquire and display attentive, supportive parenting skills with positive adult behavior and positive and loving adult supervision.Conclusion This paper was developed to provide a family assessment and prioritized nursing diagnosis. Wit h the three main nursing diagnoses, nursing and family interventions were put in place. By using the Friedman Family Assessment, family challenges are recognized and the family strengths are highlighted as the ground work for interventions and foster family resilience. The assessment explored the family’s developmental stage, structure, composition and stressors. With this data, a nurse is able to prioritize family nursing diagnosis and analyze appropriate nursing interventions to assist with the progression of each diagnosis.According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) â€Å" Healthy and vital families are essential to the world’s future because all family members are affected by what their families have invested in them or failed to provide for their growth and well being. (p. 550).References Stanhope, M. , & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (8th ed. ). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier Mosby. . Turnitin Or iginality Report Processed on 17-Apr-2012 1:12 AM CDT ID: 242763557 Word Count: 1647 Similarity Index 5% Similarity by Source Internet Sources: 5% Publications: 0% Student Papers: N/A

How to Write Content Both Humans and Search Engines Love

How to Write Content Both Humans and Search Engines Love I’m a big fan of Google. That means that every single word that I write has the â€Å"mumbo jumbo† that appeals to search engines. In other words, each post that I write has at least some sort of keyword analysis to it. For example, this post itself is based around keywords like how to write for search engines and content writing. But, that’s not all. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m a fan of writing for humans too. Why? Because even if you get ranked at the top, at the end of the day, Google doesn’t pay you, nor do they subscribe to your website. Humans do. That being said, it is an age long debate between SEOs  who you should really write for: search engines, or humans? Well, today, I’m going to show you how you can actually do both. In this post, I’ll share with you a little about the history behind the conflict between search engines and humans, why there has been so much debate going on around it. I will also go super in depth into how, by the end of reading this post, you can have a good idea of how to write content that both search engines and humans love. Let’s begin! Download Your Free SEO Content Template and Guide Bundle Creating the best content possible that achieves high search engine rankings and inspires readers to click isnt easy. That is, of course, unless you have these 12 free downloadable resources. Apply the advice youll get in this post with these free templates and guides: On-Page SEO Checklist SEO Content Strategy Guide Latent Semantic Indexing Infographic Best Time to Publish Blog Posts Guide Keyword Research Template SEO Rank Tracking Template Blog Post Outline Template Blog Post Writing Checklist Catchy Blog Title Infographic How to Write a Blog Post Template Emotional Power Words Tear Sheet Content Calendar Excel Template How This Post is Written I was originally going to write this post in the manner of a listicle, when I decided that â€Å"’s readers don’t need this! They don’t need another list telling them what to do!† And that’s true. The Internet’s already full of this stuff. That got me the idea of writing this post to be as actionable as possible. At every step of the way, I will be listing down particular steps that you can take, and apply immediately to your own blog. Recommended Reading: How to Boost Traffic With 34 Important SEO Tips You Need to Know (+ Free Kit) The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts How to Make an SEO Content Strategy That Will Improve Your #1-3 Results By 248% The Test Bed In order for us to understand this post in detail, we’ll have to use a standard post for our study. In this case, we’ll be using my post on LinkedIn profiles: The Debate Between Search Engines and Humans If you want to understand the debate between Search Engines and Humans, first you’ll have to understand how different these two beings analyze the same chunk of text. For this case study, let’s use the best search engine word reader that every WordPress owner knows and love: the YOAST analyser. Should you write for search engines, or for humans? The answer: both.Your SEO Best Friend, The YOAST Analyzer The Yoast Analyzer is a plugin  that you can install easily from the WordPress Repository, and is totally free (though it comes with paid upgrades that you really don’t need). Downloading Yoast Installing Yoast is pretty straightforward. First, you’d want to go to Plugins on your WordPress Dashboard. Click on it. Then, click on Add new on the top left-hand corner. Next, on the left-hand corner of the screen, you should see a box that looks like this: Type in Yoast, and you should see the following option at the bottom: Click on the blue install button (my button says active because it has already been installed). Accessing Yoast To access the Yoast analyser, simply click on Posts on the left hand side of your WordPress Dashboard: Next, choose a post that you’re working on: Then, inside the Edit Post section, scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll see the Yoast Plugin. The Yoast Analyzer displays key SEO information on your post that looks something like this: Here’s what the colors mean: Orange: Meh†¦Your content is good...but not that good Green: Yay! Red: Change it. NOW. Here's how to make the most out of @yoast for your #WordPress blogAnalyzing your Content for Search Engine-Friendliness The first thing we have to understand in order to create search engine friendly words, is to understand that how Yoast breaks down your post. In this section, you will learn all about the different ranking points that Yoast identifies after years of being in the industry as the top plugin for SEO. Step 1: Enter Your Focus Keyword The focus keyword is what the Yoast plugin operates around with. It’s this section that helps Yoast to analyze your post, and give you all the useful information that you saw in the screenshot above. Naturally, it’s also the first step that you should take when you use this plugin to analyze your text for search engine friendliness. Now, you try it: Select a keyword that you want to rank for, depending on the topic that you’ve earlier decided. For example, in the case of my LinkedIn profile post, I naturally chose to rank for the keywords Linkedin profile. If you’re just starting with writing a blog, you might want to consider using long tail keywords (3 or more words as your focus keyword), but for the sake of this tutorial, we will just keep things basic. Once you’ve decided on the keyword that you want to rank for, input your keyword into the focus keyword section, and wait, as YOAST analyses your text, and churns out your report. Step 2: Keep Your Slug Short and to the Point Simply speaking, the slug is simply the end phrase that your post URL ends with. For example, this is the slug of my LinkedIn article: Take note that the slug cannot contain stop words, which we will cover in Step 3. Take note that the slug should be short, concise, and should not contain irrelevant information in regards to your keyword. If you’re wondering what irrelevant information looks like, it might include the following: The date of your post The category of your blog The time that you posted One general rule of thumb that you can steal from me is to simply use the objective of your article and effect that it brings for the user. For the sake of helping you to understand what objective and effect is, here’s a deeper explanation: Objective: What is the purpose of the article? What is the article based around? Effect: What end goal or effect does it bring the user? What benefits can the user expect out of the article? The first step is to go your headline, and identify what your objective and effect is. For example, going back to my LinkedIn article, my post title looks like this: As you can see, I’ve identified the objectives and the effect of the LinkedIn post, which then gives me a starting point for my slug. In this case, my objectives and effect look something like this: Objective: LinkedIn profiles. Obviously, since the entire article is dedicated to talking about LinkedIn profiles, this part is a no-brainer. Effect: Simple steps. It’s a list of simple things that readers can do to get their desired effect. Converts. What’s the point of writing up a LinkedIn profile if it doesn’t convert? This is a sure winner. When you piece together the Effect and Objective of your title, it becomes super easy for you to come up with a decent slug. Here are some examples that I came up with for my post: Powerful-linkedin-profile Highly-converting-linkedin-profile Simple-steps-linkedin-profile-converts As you can see, I chose the first one, because I felt that it was more direct, to the point, and more importantly, search engine friendly for that particular keyword. Now that you understand what a slug is, it's time to understand what stop words are. Quick #SEO tip: make your slugs search engine-friendly.Step 3: Inbound and Outbound links Links are at the heart of the internet. They help search engines understand website, and they also help humans to better reach and access information. In other words, every time you create a blog post, be sure to do your linking correctly, if you want both search engines and humans to love it. Links consists of two types: inbound and outbound. Inbound Links Inbound links are links that pointing internally within your site, and are also known as internal links. In other words, these are links that you point out to the other pages in your website. For example, if I were to do a post on content marketing, and the work that I have done as a Content Marketing Consultant, I could include a simple line in my post that says â€Å"after being in the Content Marketing field for 6 years...† I could then point a link from the sentence to a page where I talk more about my Consulting career, and how I can help my clients. Internal links help search engines to better understand where all the information is connected together, and how your site functions. This means that from a technical standpoint, it’s a bonus for the search engines, because they don’t have to run into walls every time they crawl your site. Also, internal links help your audience to stay on your site longer, because you are hopefully pointing them elsewhere with relevant information, which then helps them to understand what you do, and what your site is about. Needless to say, your bounce rate (the percentage of people who leave your site without any engagement with it) decreases because your visitors are now staying longer on your site, because they're more engaged with your content. For example, at Contentrific, I found that by increasing the number of internal links to my site by five, I found out that my bounce rate actually decreased by roughly 7%, which is not too bad for a start. How can adding internal links help decrease bounce rates?Outbound Links On the other hand, external links are links that are actually pointing out from your site. In other words, they are links that point search engines from your site to other websites. To really understand external links, it's best to use an example. Imagine that you have a new shoe company in town. You’re trying to tell the town hall to put up advertisements on their noticeboards, so that you can advertise your town. But imagine the town hall doesn’t really understand what you’re saying. â€Å"Is it an apparel shop?† â€Å"Do you sell food there?† Frustrated, you come up with a brilliant reference for them: â€Å"My shop is like a Nike of this town.† Now imagine the collective sigh that the town office gives you, when they finally understand it. If you haven’t guessed it yet, the town hall was Google in my example, and your shop was your website. By externally linking out to other authority sites like Nike (assuming your site sells shoes and sports apparel), it helps search engines like Google to better understand your site by referring your content and pointing them towards authority sites that have already been ranked highly. For example, if I were to do a post on content marketing, I’d make it a point to link out to other   learning resources on authoritative sites like Content Marketing Institute, Copyblogger, and any other sites that have been around for awhile. Think of Google as a learning baby,  and your objective is to teach this baby how to associate red with danger, green with go, and so on. Although it might not seem like a lot, these changes do contribute to an increased ranking when it all adds up. Don't worry that you might be pointing to your competitors, because in due time, you'll just rub the authority that they have, establishing yourself as the main voice in your industry as well. Step 4: Length of Text The length of your blog post plays a significant role in getting your posts to rank. Long-form blog posts are also increasingly becoming the most popular form of content of choice, because of the changes in Google’s algorithm in the recent years. So what exactly is long-form content? To put it simply, you can assume that you’re writing long form content when your blog posts go beyond 1,500 words. You’re writing long form content when your blog posts go beyond 1,500 wordsMy personal recommendation is to write content that goes above 2,500 words, since it has been proven extensively that this form of content is the ideal type of content that gets the most number of social shares and engagements  (assuming you don't have time to write mega posts of 8,000 words like I do). At every step of the way, you want to make sure that the content that you put out is not just there so that you can hit the word count, but actively works to elaborate and reinforce your main point. For example, if you're writing a post on LinkedIn profiles, you'd want to write extensively on the different aspects of a LinkedIn profile, instead of just the usual â€Å"create an account on LinkedIn and start filling it up†. A good start point for elaborating on your main topic is to find related topics and subtopics to write about. The key point is to fill up the meat of your content, so that it becomes an impressive hamburger that your readers will boast about to their friends. Step 5: Keyword Density Keyword density is simply technical jargon which basically means the number of times that particular Focus keyword appears in your content. For example, if my focus keyword is "linkedin profile," then the measure of my keyword density is the number of times the words â€Å"linkedin profile† appears in my entire blog post. In general, it is best to come up with keyword density of more than 1.5%; if you can't go higher than 2%, it would be best. Take note, however, that over-stuffing your posts with keywords is a bad thing. This gives a negative signal to Google that you're trying to flood your blog post with the key word, in an attempt to rank for it, instead of really providing information that shows value to the reader. Recommended Reading: Your Ultimate Content Marketer's Guide to Keyword Research Step 6: SEO title Your SEO title is something that you want to pay particular attention to, mainly because your headline is a key make or break factor that determines whether or not a reader clicks through to your article. Now, this is where it gets a little bit tricky. It's tricky because marketers and bloggers like you have to come up with SEO titles that are both human friendly, which means it intrigues, persuades, and excites, but it also has to be easy enough for search engines to understand it at a glance. Fortunately, Yoast makes this extremely easy for us. Just follow the green button! Kidding. Recommended Reading: Here Are the 101 Catchy Blog Title Formulas That Will Boost Traffic By 438% Step 7: Length of Page Title The next step that we have to take is to make sure that your page title isn't too Long. It's important for you to pay close attention to the length of the page title, since you wouldn't want your title to cut off mid way like so: Step 8: Focus Keyword Appears in URL Next, you have to make sure that the focus keyword that you've selected earlier is included in the URL. In other words, make sure that your focus keyword is included your slug as we've mentioned in step 2. This might actually get a little confusing, since we just covered the topic of effect and objective, but if you get your objective right, it’s a piece of cake. For example, if I were to do a blog post about tennis balls, and the main objective is tennis balls, why wouldn’t you place the words tennis balls in your URL? Chances are, you would. Step 9: First Paragraph of Copy Search engines tend to prioritize the words that you place in front of your copy, as opposed to the words at the back. More specifically, by placing your focus keyword in the first paragraph of your content, you’re telling Google â€Å"Hey! This keyword has been repeated in the page title, the URL, as well as the first paragraph!† What does that tell you? It tells you that the keyword is something that Google should pay extra attention to. For example, if I were to do a post on blogging, but I only mention the keyword â€Å"blogging† at last paragraph of my blog post, how relevant do you think my article is? Well, search engines work in roughly the same way as well. Recommended Reading: How to Maximize Your On-Page SEO in 2017 With One Awesome Checklist Step 10: Meta Description Although the meta description has been widely debated by SEOs whether it is a ranking factor, it is generally agreed that they are relevant for driving human interaction with a site. This is because when a searcher searches for information about a particular topic or question on Google, the queries come back to him/her looking like this: The shaded portion is where the meta description is located. Can you see why it is still considered important, even though most SEOs think that it’s not considered a ranking factor? Think of your meta description as an elevator pitch of sorts. Its job is to condense the information in the post into either a question or a sentence, to attract the attention of the reader, and convince them to click  through. The important points that you must have in your meta description are: A value proposition of the article Clear, concise summary of the article Create points of intrigue about your article, so that the prospective reader is incentivised to click through Make sure that your keyword is also included in the Meta Description. You don’t need to place your keyword at the front of your Meta Description. Step 11: Single Instance of Keyword This might come as a shock to you, but when I first started out in SEO, I initially thought that the way to rank for keywords on Google was to create a ton of content around the same keyword! Boy, was I an idiot. But, now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense why I would think this way. It’s because most gurus online didn’t explain it clearly, or didn’t bother to explain it at all. When they say â€Å"create more content around your keyword†, it doesn’t mean create more content that are around the same keyword. Instead, what you should do is to create content around related keywords to your main keywords. Create content around related keywords to your main keywords.For example, in my LinkedIn profile writing article, my main keyword is obviously on LinkedIn profiles, but the topic is about LinkedIn in general. If I want to â€Å"create content around the same keyword,† what I should instead do is to find related keywords around the general topic â€Å"LinkedIn†, and find other keywords that are related to it. In this case, I can create come up with keywords such as: LinkedIn Publishing LinkedIn Sales Emails LInkedin Groups You get the point. When you create related content around a certain set of keywords (or keyword groups), you are in fact re-emphasising to search engine that your blog and website is about those particular group of keywords. Just don’t make the same mistake I did by using the same keyword over and over again- that’s suicide! Recommended Reading: How to Improve Your Keyword Research With Latent Semantic Indexing Before We Proceed to the Human Side ... Whew! We just covered what it takes to write for search engines. That’s a lot to digest (I know, my content gets comments like that all the time), but it’s information worthy to know. But, since this post is also about writing for humans, let’s cover that in the next section. What About Human Readers? Obviously, since this post is about search engines and human readers, we can’t continue without defining what human reading is. For those of you who are experienced bloggers (as I know you are, because you use :P), you’ll know that YOAST provides another section that helps you to analyse your post, and see if it scores well in the human’s eye too. This section is called the Readability Section. Again, access your Yoast Analyzer in your Edit Posts page, then click on Readability. You should see the Analyzer display a completely different set of information on your post. Again, the colors green, orange and red mean the same thing as I’ve mentioned above. Understanding the Different Factors that Make Up Human-Friendly Words In the next section of our post, we're going to take a look at the different factors that give us an understanding of how to write persuasively toward human readers. But before we proceed, let's take a look at the objectives of writing for humans: We want readers to subscribe We want to persuade readers to take a specific action Readers of our content have to be convinced that the content has value They have to find that the information on the blog post is easy to consume Now that we've defined the objectives of writing for humans, let's see what Yoast gives us. Step 1: Subheadings Do you like to read chunks of messages that are lumped together? I didn’t think so. That’s where subheadings come in handy. Subheadings are headings other than the H1 tag in your blog post: Generally, you’d want to make sure that you follow these steps when you write content on your blog: Have a subheading every 300 words Include your focus keyword in your subheadings - this keeps things on track for the reader too Include only 1 H1 in your content Step 2: Write Sentences No More Than 20 Words Long This should be a no-brainer too. Generally speaking, when you write sentences that are short and concise, it's easier to read your content. Step 3: The Reading Test Recently, I started seeing plenty of bloggers and writers trying too hard to write like the â€Å"big boys†, where they staff a ton of technical jargon and hard to understand sentences into their posts. While it's important to show that you know your stuff, it can hurt readability in the Long run, and lose you more readers than you would otherwise. For example, this post could have been explained using terms like canonical keywords, technical on-audits, and so on, but I deliberately chose to right in a simple way. But why? Shouldn't we write to impress? No. You should instead write to achieve your blogging goals, which most of the time means getting new subscribers to your website. Think about it this way. How are you supposed to convince new visitors on your site, sign up for your newsletter when they don't have a clue what you're talking about? For that reason, I always make it a point to  write in a way that even a high school kid will be able to understand. As a rule of thumb, you should always assume the majority of your readers are total beginners. In fact, Copyblogger did a case study, and they found out the number of beginners visiting their site was a staggering 80%, while advanced users were at 20%. How much traffic did you just lose? In fact, total beginners are the people who are trying to search for information the most, and the most desperate for a solution. If you can put across a concept or technique easily, in a way that is able to relate to that pain point, why won't they subscribe to you? Recommended Reading: How to Build New Marketing Skills in 11 Simple Steps (Backed By Science) Step 4: Paragraph Length With the attention span of a reader significantly reducing, it becomes harder and harder for marketers and content creators to maintain the level of attention to the words that we are saying. This means that any small mistake with the formatting of your content will turn off your readers, and significantly increase your bounce rate. And when it comes to keeping the attention of your readers, one of the most important aspects of overall readability of your content is the length of your paragraphs. Why is it so important to have paragraphs done right? Because the length of your paragraph creates an overall look and feel of your content. Which would you rather choose to read? Chances are, you’d choose the one on the right. Tip: For best results, keep your lengths to 20 words per sentence and no more than three sentences per paragraph. Step 5: Transition Words/Phrases Transition words are words that help to guide readers along your content. They make reading your content easier, in short. When you write blog posts, especially blog posts that are actionable in nature, you’d want to use words like these: Step 6: Passive Voice If you take away one piece of advice today from this post, and it'd be to  never write in a passive voice. I say this again. Never write in a passive voice. But, what exactly is passive voice? I'll give you an example. Say for example we are writing a simple sentence describing an elephant in a forest. Can you guess which voice is passive, and which is not? â€Å"The elephant went through the forest and came out a teddy bear† Versus: â€Å"An elephant is the best companion that you can have when you go to the forest, because it’ll become a teddy bear† The first one is the passive voice. Passive voice makes your content dull, monotonous, and irritating to read, because the reader is not a part of the action. For example, Ramit Sethi, one of the world’s top bloggers, uses a ton of active voice in his content. This keeps his content engaging, and is the main reason why readers read to the last sentence. Why should you never write in passive voice?Four Additional Tips So†¦ the key idea is to follow whatever Yoast tells us, and we’ll be alright, right? Well, not quite. You see, much as Yoast is a great plugin, it can only do so much by analyzing our text. The truth is, there are many other ways that you can improve your content, so that both search engines and your readers will love it. Since there are an endless number of ways that you can go about doing it (maybe I should come up with a blog post about it in the future), I’ll just list down four simple steps in this post that you can take additionally to improve your content.

Marketing Analysis Of Dairy Milk Oreo Chocolate In The United Kingdom Essay

Marketing Analysis Of Dairy Milk Oreo Chocolate In The United Kingdom Market - Essay Example Launching a new product in a new market is a challenging affair. Entrepreneurs and business organizations are in most cases concerned about the reception of the product in the market. Various worries that companies and individuals suffer while trying to launch products in the new market relates to the reception of the product by the customers, the ability of the product to satisfy the needs of the customers and the availability of substitute products in the market targeted. Subsequently, organizations have to develop marketing and promotional strategies that are likely to help them succeed in the new market. With the understanding that different factors act on customers whenever making their purchases, an organization should ensure that it not only meet the needs of the customers but also portray a good image to the people. Products in most cases fail, because of their inferior quality, but lack of innovation and creativity in the development, packaging and promotion stages. An entre preneur could have a great idea, but due to poor implementation, could fail in selling that idea to the people. Food is one of the most sensitive businesses that whenever entrepreneurs consider investing in should get right. Understanding the needs of the target population is the best way of winning a new market. Dairy milk oreo chocolate, a new product launched in the United Kingdom so far has been a success.

Levine's Argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Levine's Argument - Essay Example of ethnicity varies across the world, depending upon the political context; despite its modern political definition of self-defined communities seeking their own political space, not necessarily statehood. For example tribalism in parts of Africa, or color in the Eurocentric view of ethnicity are entirely different concepts. A set of propositions have been provided as an inventory – focusing on consciousness of separateness that leads to an ethnic identity amongst various populations. However the relationship of such concepts to the sources of ethnic conflict is far less certain, particularly in view of economics and Marxian class struggle which is often inherent in such conflicts. The stages and paths of ethnic conflicts are described next, with the admission these factors often remain obscure and difficult to generalize. In most cases, if the roots and sources are analyzed retrospectively, a conflict goes through early stages when the respective parties take their position – to a final stage when the conflict has got out of control. What often complicates the situation are those instances where single incidents sparked off ethnic violence e.g. Ayodhya in India (1992) and the Rwandan plane crash (1994). Biological models of ontogeny and life paths are referred to, with incipient, plateau and open stages in an attempt to identify the best points to intervene as well as define a conflict in its evolutionary perspective rather than empirical models of causality. The third important point that has been raised is the fact that ethnicity and ethnic conflicts are often best defined during the phase of intervention by mediators in an attempt to solve it. Every such conflict has its unique features, whether governments are involved or not, whether the conflicting parties themselves want to resolve a dispute or aim for a disruption in their social and geographical ties, and critically who tries to intervene. The nature of the intervention also varies with the