Ursula K Le Guin Essay Example for Free

Ursula K Le Guin Essay Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, on October 21, 1929. Her mother, Theodora Krackaw Kroeber, had an advanced degree in psychology and was a well-known writer for her narratives: Ishi in Two Worlds in 1961 and Ishi, Last of His Tribe in 1964. Le Guin’s Father, Alfred Kroeber, was a distinguished anthropologist for his work with tribes of Native Americans indigenous to California (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Her father also taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Le Guin and her three older brothers Karl, Theodore, and Clifford were encouraged to read at a young age (Boon and Heller). During the academic year, the Kroebers lived at their home in Berkeley. When summer arrived, the family would move to their estate, Kishamish, in Napa Valley. There, the family enjoyed the company of many intellectuals: writers, scholars, graduate students, and American Indians. Also, Le Guin and her brother frequently explored their forty-acre summer home. This exploration would later influence many of her novels that are based on journeys by foot (Boon and Heller). Growing up in an environment that fostered intellectual pursuit and having unlimited access to books, sparked Le Guin’s creativity. Due to her parents’ dedication to other cultures, her fiction shows many different worldviews other than the usual Euro-American competitive materialism. Her multiple worldviews allow Le Guin’s writing to move smoothly across barriers of culture, language, gender, and ideology while exploring both dimensions of social and psychological identity (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Le Guin discovered science fiction while reading the works of Lord Dunsany, and remarkably, she produced her first fantasy when she was only nine years old. Thereafter, a magazine rejected her first science fiction story, written when she was eleven (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). In 1947, Le Guin was enrolled in Harvard University’s Radcliffe College and graduated in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in French and Italian with an emphasis in Renaissance literature (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). She then entered Columbia University and completed her master’s degree in 1952. Le Guin began  a doctoral program at Columbia, but in December of 1953 she decided to end her studies to marry Charles Le Guin, a history professor, in Paris, France. S he had met Charles while traveling to France as a Fulbright Fellow (Boon and Heller). After the wedding, the Le Guins lived in Georgia. While in Georgia, Ursula Le Guin taught French at Mercer University, and Charles Le Guin had successfully completed his Ph.D. in French history at Emory University. The Le Guins then moved to Idaho and had their first child, Elizabeth, in 1957, and their second child, Caroline, in 1959. In the same year, Charles Le Guin took a position at Portland State University and the family moved to Oregon permanently. The Le Guin’s third and final child, Theodore, was born in 1964 (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Ursula Le Guin began trying to publish her work in book form instead of magazines (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). She began writing poetry, later collected in Wild Angels in 1975, and a few novels after her marriage. Publishers rejected her early works for not fitting precisely into a genre (Boon and Heller). Her breakthrough in writing occurred in September 1962, when the publishing company, Fantastic, published â€Å"April in Paris.† The following year, the same publisher printed her first science fiction story, â€Å"The Masters† (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). Le Guin began to earn prestigious awards and achieve recognition fo r her trilogy: Rocannon’s World (1966), Planet of Exile (1996), and City of Illusions (1967). In 1968, Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and in 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. She became the first writer to win both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award twice for the novel The Dispossessed (1974, 1975). Since the 1970s, Le Guin has won many more awards, including several Hugos and Nebulas, Pen/USA, Locus Readers Awards, a Pushcart Prize, and a Gandalf award for achievement in fantasy (Boon and Heller). Additionally, she won the Kafka Award in 1986; a Hugo Award for â€Å"Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight?† (1988); a Nebula Award for Tehanu and â€Å"Solitude† (1995); and the Endeavor Award or both The Telling (2000) and Tales from Earthsea (2001); Lastly, Le Guin was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2001, and was named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2003 (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). While most of Le Guin’s time was devoted to writing, she was also known to be involved in political activities. As she gained popularity, she  became a strong advocate for improving the quality of fantasy and science fiction. She was also a firm advocate for feminism. Her early works lightly touched on gender i ssues; later works, such as Tehanu, addressed the absence of equality directly (Carmean, Williams, and Rich). While she placed an emphasis on science fiction and gender issues, the subject of Le Guin’s work is always humankind. She uses a descriptive technique while her mode is metaphoric. Drawing from the outlook of the Daoist philosopher Laozi, Le Guin’s characters seek unity and complete self-awareness and must be able to recognize the true natures of people or objects before they can truly understand their place in the world. The characters must learn the inevitable paradoxes in life and the ambiguous nature of creation (Carmean, Williams, and Rich).

A Background Of Argentina :: essays research papers

In the beginning of Argentina, we recall two major tribes; the Diaguita and the Gaurani who constituted the agricultural origins. During the 1500’s, Spain discovered Argentina, and quickly claimed it for its own. Spain reigned until the 1800’s when it was at war with Britain. In 1816 Argentina declared independence from Spain. After WWII there was a struggle for leadership of Argentina, eventually Juan Peron, a former dictator, was elected President. Peron represented himself as a leader for the common people, however his administration embezzled funds stole from the workers. With the help of his wife, Eva Peron, who became a spiritual symbol for the nation, he reigned over Argentina until his after her death and his government was overthrown by a military coup in 1955. He spent 18 years in exile, however, Perà ³n retained his labor support and influence in Argentine politics. He was finally allowed to return to Argentina in 1973 and was again elected president, with his third wife as vice president. He died in office on July 1, 1974. Democratic elections finally arrived in 1983, but the political environment is still shaky. Currently Argentina has a republican government that is very influenced by western nations. It is broken into 23 separate provinces and consists of three branches; judicial, legislative, and executive. President Carlos Saul Menem has been in office since 8 July 1989 and Vice President Carlos Ruckauf has been in office since 8 July 1995 although they also have 4 year terms. In Argentina the president is both the chief of state and head of government. Similar to many countries, Argentina is still trying to find a stable government. Argentina has a steady economy now, although when the republic began, Argentina was in heavy debt. Through the mass exports of oil, feed, and steel with major industries like food processing and agribusiness, they have a healthy, thriving system. Argentina‘s major trading partners consist of countries such as Brazil, the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Argentina is a relatively rich country; it has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of roughly US$283 billion, with about $6800 GDP per head. Argentina is 18th in world GDP ranking. Argentina is a wealthy country. There are many different types of people living in Argentina; 85% of European descent, 15% mestizo, with Indian and other minorities. Their religion is not as varied, 93% are Roman Catholic, 2.5% Protestant, 2% Jewish, 1. A Background Of Argentina :: essays research papers In the beginning of Argentina, we recall two major tribes; the Diaguita and the Gaurani who constituted the agricultural origins. During the 1500’s, Spain discovered Argentina, and quickly claimed it for its own. Spain reigned until the 1800’s when it was at war with Britain. In 1816 Argentina declared independence from Spain. After WWII there was a struggle for leadership of Argentina, eventually Juan Peron, a former dictator, was elected President. Peron represented himself as a leader for the common people, however his administration embezzled funds stole from the workers. With the help of his wife, Eva Peron, who became a spiritual symbol for the nation, he reigned over Argentina until his after her death and his government was overthrown by a military coup in 1955. He spent 18 years in exile, however, Perà ³n retained his labor support and influence in Argentine politics. He was finally allowed to return to Argentina in 1973 and was again elected president, with his third wife as vice president. He died in office on July 1, 1974. Democratic elections finally arrived in 1983, but the political environment is still shaky. Currently Argentina has a republican government that is very influenced by western nations. It is broken into 23 separate provinces and consists of three branches; judicial, legislative, and executive. President Carlos Saul Menem has been in office since 8 July 1989 and Vice President Carlos Ruckauf has been in office since 8 July 1995 although they also have 4 year terms. In Argentina the president is both the chief of state and head of government. Similar to many countries, Argentina is still trying to find a stable government. Argentina has a steady economy now, although when the republic began, Argentina was in heavy debt. Through the mass exports of oil, feed, and steel with major industries like food processing and agribusiness, they have a healthy, thriving system. Argentina‘s major trading partners consist of countries such as Brazil, the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Argentina is a relatively rich country; it has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of roughly US$283 billion, with about $6800 GDP per head. Argentina is 18th in world GDP ranking. Argentina is a wealthy country. There are many different types of people living in Argentina; 85% of European descent, 15% mestizo, with Indian and other minorities. Their religion is not as varied, 93% are Roman Catholic, 2.5% Protestant, 2% Jewish, 1.

Best Business Practices Essay

Best practices is referred to as the development and implementation of a standard way of doing things to improve productivity. New management of business requires the managers and supervisors to be prepared for change. Management skills is not the only task that is expected of these firms but multitasking and flexibility are key to keeping on in today’s fast-paced work environment where experienced supervisors are required. To effectively carry out a number of activities the supervisors of companies need to have a number of best practices required of them. These include good communication skills, determining effective orientation and training methods, improving team productivity, conducting performance appraisals, resolving conflict and improving employee relations. Best practices provide the supervisors with guidelines to follow in ensuring that all the information to be passed is very much effective. Supervisors generally have a difficult task to ensure that all issues are implemented. Therefore they need to utilize the following best practices to ensure that they maintain a successful and productive relationship with employees. Communication skills The supervisors of companies should ensure that the information that is communicated to the organization members is full, accurate, timely and understandable. This policy of good communication applies to different people and groups such as government authorities,’ regulators, employees, clients and the media. In business culture accountability is more important than diplomacy especially in U. S. The supervisors are also expected to do correction and pass judgment criticism in the way businesses are carried. The organization members should not take it as a personal issues but should be taken as away of improving performance in businesses. When correcting the employees the supervisors are expected to treat his employees well not only in pay and benefits but by respecting them and also treating then with a lot of personal care. Correction should be done with the utmost respect and the supervisor is expected to be alone when making correction. (Rue &Byars,2004). In every organization, employees comprise of different members with different cultural differences. This means that the supervisor has to cater for these differences when communicating to his employees. The cultural differences include culture, beliefs value and practices of the organization members. When communicating with the employees the culture should be put into consideration. Communication is just beyond words. The worst thing most supervisors make is failing to implement and demonstrate what they are preaching. For example a supervisor of a company might promise the workers of increase in salary at the end of the month but in the long run he might fail to implement this. This will make the workers or employees to lose trust and faith in their supervisors. The supervisor is thus expected to lead by example. This means taking your employees to the right direction where the firm should be. To stay competitive, companies must find ways to improve the performance and efficiency of all their employees and other members in the new environment inorder to prevent the new and unique challenges in the organization. Crossing the language bridge is another thing that the supervisor should have in mind. This is the biggest issue that supervisors should be aware of. In US, most company workers comprise of people from different cultural background, speaking different languages that all the employees are expected to know. The most commonly spoken language is English. The supervisor of the new company should therefore try to communicate in a language that is familiar and common to everybody. Things will automatically be easier if communication is done in English. However, when passing the information, the language used should be as simple as possible to avoid any complications that might arise. The supervisor should not use a lot of jargons when communicating because this will make the information to be passed to become more difficult to be understood by the employee. The risk of miscommunication will lead to decreased productivity therefore the supervisor should be aware of the language differences in their employees. New concepts should be communicated directly and accurately to the employees in time. It is always said that information liberates when passed at the right time. The channel which the information or message is to follow should be smooth to ensure that the massage passed is not interfered with. New changes should be introduced after effective communications has been done. The new concept introduced should aim at increasing profits and productivity in the company. The supervisor should inform the member on the benefits the new change is going to bring the company. The introduction of the new technology has brought a lot of changes in the business environment. Therefore the organization also needs to change in order to address these changes and stay competitive to the market. Critical thinking also plays a large part of communication especially when communicating with employees. Critical thinking entails asking and answering questions in order to use a thought process that is more easily or effectively remembered. (Rue, 2004) Determining effective orientation and training methods. All organization members need training to acquire new skills and knowledge required for the production to be increased and effective. The supervisor is supposed to hire qualified and competence staff to perform duties in their areas of specialization. Training should provide essential information on the department/programme. This includes policies and procedures on how the organization is run. If the company uses new technology, the supervisor needs to train the employees on how to use the computer soft ware in the company. The supervisor should also provide direction on how work is to be done. He should lead by example and he should also provide appropriate equipment in good working condition and training in how to use it. The supervisor should also do assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training equipment to be used in delivering the training. Methods of training may include use of computer, video, classroom or holding conference. When using these methods the supervisor needs to do assessment first to ensure effective training. Qualified staff needs to be recruited in a specific department. This is because each department has a specific responsibility to be carried. For example a company may have the department of public relations and department of information technology. Those working in the department of information technology need to have relevant skills in the computer database. Improving productivity for teams Team work has become a big part of today’s workforce. Productivity in team can be done through delegation and follow up for example in delegation the supervisors should be well informed about their team members. This should include their cultural background and experiences very well to help him in assigning the right duty to a proper person. By ensuring that delegation is done fairly will provide a positive work team is got which in turn will lead to increased productivity. The supervisor need to know the project he is dealing with and people in the team to find a suitable task for each member. While doing delegation, fairness should be observed as this will keep team morals. Team work productivity is also brought through follow up. This is supposed to be done to ensure that each team member is performing the task that is assigned to him or her. The supervisor therefore needs to check the job done by team members at individual levels and as a team. Follow up will ensure that each member feels satisfied, important and is performing his/her tasks effectively. These actions will help in ensuring that the morals of the team is kept high and therefore leading to happiness in the organization. Conflict resolution. Resolving conflict is another best practice expected of new supervisors. Conflicts are things that normally occur in our organizations. For example our workforce or workplace comprise of people with different cultural background, therefore such diverse cultures can bring conflict in the organization. Conflict that the supervisors therefore mostly faces vary from personality differences between employees to a small clash in attitude or belief. Dealing with conflict requires two things. These include listening and resolving. The supervisor needs to investigate the situation and actively listen to both sides of the situation. The means that he needs to listen to different people involved in the conflict. Listening to a problem requires the supervisors to take time and ensure that each employee has been given an opportunity to speak about the problem (Scenario). While listening, he should carefully take notes and carefully cross check the statements the parties involved are giving. This will enable him understand the root cause of the problem and possible solution to the problem. When coming up with resolution he should determine the one that will appease as many of the population as possible without going against the company policies or regulations (Brett, Behfar & Kern, 2006). All the information in the resolution should be communicated to the employees in a simple way. Follow up should also be done on the situation to confirm whether the resolution that was passed has worked or not. Should it fail to work then another possible solution need to be obtained to resolve the conflict. This will ensure that the whole process of conflict resolution is very successful. Improving employee relations. Improving employee relations is one of the best practices that the supervisor need to have in mind. In most organizations employees will want their presence to be recognized either by their leaders or by other members in the company. Good relationship should therefore be built to ensure that there is a positive contact between the supervisors and other company’s members. (McConnell, 2002). The supervisor should ensure that positive contact is made almost on a daily basis as this will increase the employees self esteem. They will feel that their interest is catered for thereby improving productivity. The supervisor can also create good relations with other members through carrying out regular meetings. During regular meeting the supervisors should address the employee’s problems and correct any area in which they need to improve on. It is also important to keep some records of attendance so that the supervisor can appraise to congratulate them for turning in large numbers. Anyway these minor things need not to be ignored by the supervisors. During meetings it is good and healthy to listen to employees decisions. This is because the employees themselves know where there is need for improvement since they are people carrying out the activities. They therefore know very well where specific improvement is to be made. This makes them feel that they are important in the organization. Even the supervisor himself will feel that he is working to the right direction of achieving the organizations objectives and goals. Improving the employees self esteem will also increase the efficiency and productivity of work done. (Robertson, 2007). The employees therefore should be allowed to take part in decision making process as this will build trust between the employees and their leaders including the supervisors. Performance Appraisal. Conducting performance appraisal is another best practice that the supervisors should not leave out. Performance appraisal is a gauging tool to measure the success and failure in the work done by both the supervisors and employees. In most cases performance appraisal is done yearly basis and include things like reinforcement and giving both positives and negative feed back. Positive feedback is given when the employee does an impressing job. The feedback should begin with positive accomplishment that the employees has since their last appraisal or since they were recruited. The positive not will ensure that the employees follow further direction given by supervisors. Positive feedback will also send a message to the employees that their supervisor is working with them meaning that they are not left alone to o the job without their supervision from their supervisors. This will increase their morale in performing their job. Negative feedback will provide failures that the employees have made and when this is communicated it will help them in making some adjustments. The negative feedback should be used as a teaching tool to guide and correct the employees on the areas they have failed in. These areas therefore need some improvement. If the failures are not communicated to the employees, they won’t know whether they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing. After giving direction on areas that need improvement the supervisor should be clear and concise in the measures that will be taken if a change or improvement is not shown. He will therefore have to check on the ways the task is performed looking into the improvements required or lack of it. When doing this he should continue giving guidance ion hoe the performance can be improved. (Buhler,2007) During performance appraisal the supervisor should give the employees time to ask questions and give their suggestion. This will make them understand more the area in which improvement is required to be done. The supervisors will also be able to know how the employees view the areas he is addressing. However, performance appraisal whether negative or positive feed back should end on a positive note. For example, this is a good work but you still need some improvement. The feedback should contain some goals that the employees need to meet within a stipulated period of time in the near future if the supervisor does the appraisal of performance in a good way then he will realize that his efforts are not thwarted. This will in turn ensure that there is efficiency among the employees and the overall production will increase. Conclusion Every organization needs to employ the principle of best practices to ensure that its goal is achieved. This means that the supervisor will need to consider all the elements making the organization for him to realize success in the company. He needs to work in collaboration with the members as a team and even with the managers to ensure that the policies passed are implemented properly. Keeping the members on toes should be done regularly to ensure that work is done smoothly. A supervisor therefore needs to work in a more professional in the way he handles his employees as this will determine whether job will effectively be done or will not be done. All activities that are to be done particular time should be completed as stated. This will only work upon supervision. The job is only left for the supervisor. Correction should be done in a fair way to avoid any problem arising. This can only be done by using best practices that is used in improving production in a company. The best practice has proved to work and has lead to creation of successful workforce and therefore increased productivity by the company. Reference: Brett, J, Behfar, K & Kern, M. C. (2006). Managing multicultural Teams. London: Harvard Business. Buhler, P. (2007) Managing in the new millennium, Journal of supervision, 68(3) 19-21 Mc Connell, C. (2002) Use positive contacts to improve employee relations. Retrieved July 20, 2007 http://www. nfib. com/object/3174032. htm/ Robertson, J. (2007). How to improve employee’s relations in the workplace. Retrieved July, 19, 2007 http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/17641/low-to-improve-employee-relations-in. htm/ Rue, L. W. & Byars, LL. (2004) Supervision: Key link to productivity: New York: Mc Graw-Hill

A.D. The Abbreviation Used in Dates for Anno Domini

Definition: A.D. is the Latin abbreviation for Anno Domini, which means in the year of our Lord, or, more fully, anno domini nostri Jesu Christi the year of our Lord Jesus Christ. A.D. is used with dates in the current era, which is considered the era since the birth of Christ. The counterpart to Anno Domini is B.C. for Before Christ. Because of A.D.s obvious Christian overtones, many prefer to use more secular abbreviations like C.E. for Common Era. However, many lay publications, like this one, still use A.D. Although unlike English, Latin is not a word-order language, it is conventional in English writing for A.D. to precede the year (A.D. 2010) so that the translation, read in word order, would mean in the year of our lord 2010. (In Latin, it wouldnt matter whether it was written A.D. 2010 or 2010 A.D.) Note: The abbreviation a.d. may also stand for ante diem meaning the number of days before the kalends, nones, or ides of a Roman month. The date a.d.XIX.Kal.Feb. means 19 days before the kalends of February. Dont count on the a.d. for ante diem to be lower case. Inscriptions in Latin often appear only in capital letters. Also Known As: Anno Domini Alternate Spellings: AD (without the periods) Examples: In A.D. 61 Boudicca led a rebellion against the Romans in Britain. If the terms A.D. and B.C. confuse you, think of a number line with A.D. on the plus () side and B.C. on minus (-) side. Unlike the number line, there is no year zero. More on Latin abbreviations in: Common Latin Abbreviations Used in English