The Persuasive Essay Guide

There are many instructional aides available that claim they are the best when it comes to teaching literacy skills. However, perhaps there is no “best” program, but a combination of programs, such as a balanced approach that encourages teachers to make conscious decisions every day about the best way to help each child become a better reader and writer; specifically to “fine tune” what he or she is doing in order to meet the needs of each child. A balanced approach recognizes the contributions of many different perspectives.

A balanced literacy program is made up of several components, such as a teacher reading aloud as this provides an example of adult literacy while developing a sense of text and story. Reading aloud also helps to improve vocabulary and active listening skills, which then encourages a prediction. Shared reading by the teacher and student helps to improve reading skills, as it develops phrasing and fluency, and increases comprehension.

Other components of the balanced literacy programs may include guided reading. This is when the teacher introduces the reading selection that is at the student’s level. It is believed that this will help to expand their belief in their ability and encourages independent reading. The next step is independent reading to further improve, as it increases comprehension, develops fluency and provides opportunities to use mistakes as learning experiences.

Interactive writing is another portion of a balanced literacy program and involves the teacher and student writing portions of text together. In this instance, opportunities are provided to plan and construct the text, and it creates an opportunity to teach students how to apply what they have learned. It is also a great method for improving spelling and using resources that are available.

Once the above components have been introduced, the final stage of the balanced program is independent writing. Using these types of programs will strengthen the student’s text sequences, sentence structure, reading development, and will help to improve writing strategies, which in turn will help them to understand the abundant uses of reading and writing. Above all, this balanced literacy method helps children to develop active independence that improves their problem solving abilities, which of course will be needed throughout their adult life.

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For a non-technical person, the most boring article you can read in the world is a technical document.  Who wants to get bogged down with all that technical information?  This represents a major hurdle for any technical writer.  Just how do you make a technical essay interesting?  The answer is to apply that information and show the benefits of what you are discussing.  Here is an example of this strategy in a reader submitted article I recieved today -

The Advantages Of New Fibre Laser Welding Techniques

A fuel cell is an electro chemical energy conversion device, which produces electricity from external supplies of fuel (on the anode side) and oxidant (on the cathode side). These react in the presence of an electrolyte to produce energy.
Since a typical fuel cell produces less than one volt, in practical application cells are ‘stacked’ in parallel to create a useful voltage. Thus a typical fuel cell is made up of many thin sheets, usually of stainless steel, which must be welded together to form the fuel cell stack.

Welding of the plates is by far the most time consuming process involved in the manufacture of fuel cells – there is about one meter of welding required for every single plate in every single fuel cell stack – that is about 400m of welding for each eco-car. Optimising the welding process offers the opportunity to make significant savings in the cost of production of fuel cells.

The issues here are all related to the difficulty of achieving a small, clean, reliable weld at viable production speeds using traditional laser welding techniques. To solve these problems, the leading-edge manufacturers are now looking to fibre laser welding technology.

The key advantages of fibre lasers over other laser technologies are its high beam quality, energy & power stability, giving higher power density and a greater breadth of control, as well as its low total cost of ownership. The high beam quality of the fibre laser enables the beam to be focused to a small spot with a correspondingly high energy density. This enables very fast and efficient processing, yielding welds with a high aspect ratio. Compared with other laser sources, the fibre laser can produce welds with significantly lower heat input resulting in less distortion of the welded plates. The high energy stability, typically +/-0.5%, gives welds of consistent profile and penetration with extremely low levels of weld root porosity.

It is recognised that other laser technologies are capable of making such welds, but the fibre laser offers a solution that welds faster with higher quality at a lower operational running cost. “We believe that the cost-performance capability of a standard 200W fibre laser will act as an enabling technology in the battle to drive down production costs of tomorrows fuel cells” said John Tinson.

The fuel cell plate requires a high aspect ratio weld (typically 3:1 or 4:1) in order minimise heat input to the plate and keep distortion to an acceptable level. The beauty of the fibre laser is that it readily achieves this with spot sizes of less than 200 m. As a result, distortion of the plates, a potentially cumulative problem when the plates are stacked, can be minimised.

Metallographic analysis of ‘key-hole’ and high aspect ratio welds often reveals problems with weld porosity, particularly in the root of the weld. In the fuel cell application the integrity of the weld is vitally important and a fully hermetic seal is a prime requirement. A poor quality weld could lead to serious performance problems over the life of the fuel cell, or even leakage of hydrogen or other fluids. Experience has shown that the fibre laser, with its exceptionally high power density at the work-piece, is particularly good producing consistently reliable, non-porous welds.

Another problem noted by some manufacturers using YAG or CO2 lasers is the possibility of ‘humping’ of the weld, when the laser is operated at high production speeds. This is the phenomenon whereby the inherent fluid instability of the melt pool at high weld speed creates a ‘hump’. It is seen as a problem by some manufacturers because it can limit production speed, but it is not a problem with a standard 200W fibre laser, even at speeds of up to five or six metres / minute it can produce over 2,500km of weld per annum.

In a production environment fibre lasers have a reputation from extremely high up times and have no operational consumables, unlike other laser sources such as Nd:YAG lasers that require a periodic change of flash lamps or CO2 lasers which need supply of consumable gases. Additionally the high electrical efficiency of fibre lasers – up to ten times more efficient in power consumption than Nd:YAG equivalents mean that they offer significantly lower running costs. They can be used for welding ‘on demand’ unlike some other types of lasers with no need for warm-up, further reducing energy consumption and run through scrap. As fibre lasers are sealed units with no lamps that need changing or mirrors to realign, they have a very low maintenance overhead, yielding savings of thousands of £ per annum per laser.

Fibre lasers offer fuel cell manufacturers an attractive “green manufacturing” technology, providing high productivity/high integrity welding with low operating costs for this critical application.

Results from leading manufacturers in this field show that fibre laser welding will play a significant role in tipping the balance for fuel cell technology from a ‘promising idea’ to a serious commercial solution to the world’s energy-usage problems.

Technorati Tags: how to make a boring article interesting, technical writing

Image by J.C Rojas

If someone asks what makes a good teacher, you will more than likely have some pretty concrete ideas.

Naturally, good teachers have a wonderful ability to motivate students enough to want to learn and above average teachers show them the best way to learn by using methods that are relevant and memorable.

It is about being both devoted to and passionate about your career and possessing the ability to pass that passion on to your students.

Some instructors realize that you need to treat the students as “consumers of knowledge,” always being at the top of your game by using resources both inside and outside your particular area of education. But, it is not just about reading journals or manuals; it is more about leaving your comfort zone and immersing yourself in the entire community.

Questioning, being responsive, listening and remembering that each class and student is different are all skills needed to a good teacher. Eliciting responses and helping to develop the quieter students’ skills are equally important. You must be able to push the students to excel while still being human, remaining professional and always respecting each student’s individuality.

Keep in mind that good teaching is not necessarily about having a set agenda or being too rigid. Instead, teachers should remain flexible, not be afraid to experiment and be able to adjust to whatever the circumstances may be; remembering that while grades are important, many learning opportunities and experiences are not graded. You should be able to deviate from your scheduled lecture or other plans easily if there is a better way for students to learn.

Should teaching involve style and entertainment? Most say yes, but it should still have meaning and substance. A good teacher uses some imagination when it comes to helping their students grasp the fundamentals of literacy, science and math.

Imagine that the class is an orchestra where each student not only plays a different instrument but plays them at varying levels of proficiency and you are the conductor that brings it all together. If you ask teachers why they are educators, then you will likely hear that it is not for the money or because they have to; rather it is because they enjoy it and can’t imagine doing anything else.

Image by J.C Rojas shown under creative commons share alike distribution.  If you like the shot, go check out his work.

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Photo by Magnus Franklin

A good essay will often start with a single writing idea.  But getting that spark of inspiration can be difficult when you are under pressure from a deadline.  If checking out digg.com for some writing ideas has failed, then it is time to turn to some quotes about life.

How do you use a quote?  That’s the easy part.  Pick a line from below you like.  Perhaps it has made you think.  Perhaps it made you laugh.  Now what do you have to write about.  Can you make a connection between the two?  Let’s take a quote from John Mendoza – “You know you’re getting old when you can pinch an inch on your forehead”.  There is  world of scope just from these 14 words.  How about society’s attitude to beauty as we age?  Or the physical effects of ageing?  What else can you think of?  Here are a few quotes to give you some inspiration.

“A stockbroker urged me to buy a stock that would triple its value every year. I told him, ‘At my age, I don’t even buy green bananas’.” Claude D. Pepper

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. ” Mark Twain

“An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her. ” Agatha Christie

How about some funny life quotes -

“My husband and I didn’t sign a pre-nuptial agreement. We signed a mutual suicide pact.” Roseanne Barr

“If variety is the spice of life, marriage is the big can of leftover Spam.” Johnny Carson

“In my house I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.” Woody Allen

“In many instances, marriage vows would be more accurate if the phrase were changed to ‘Until debt do us part’. Sam Ewing

“Marriage is give and take. You’d better give it to her or she’ll take it anyway.” Joey Adams

“You can tell German wine from vinegar by the label.” Mark Twain

“I drink too much. The last time I gave a urine sample it had an olive in it.” Rodney Dangerfield

“Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.” Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC

“It’s the most important decision I’ve had to make since 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don’t understand, such as working for a living.” P. J. O’Rourke

“The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.” Will Durant

Technorati Tags: Essay Writing, inspirational quotes about life, Persuasive Essay, quotes about life, Writing Ideas

Image by Fletcher Prince

You might be thinking – once I finish my education I am never going have to write another $#@!! essay again!   If you have that opinion, and hey, after years of learning I can understand why you might think that way, then articles in this category are here to show you how to apply your writing skills to the real world.

In this first article, I am going to talk about Marketing.  As it’s the 21st century, lets talk specifically about internet marketing -

When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?

For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.

At its core, internet marketing is about these things:

• Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
• Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
• Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
• Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
• Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads

Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.

My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.

My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well.  Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine.   It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our client base.  When you have thousands of loyal subscribers  and you put a compelling offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.

However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers.  If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.

Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously.  This means emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is an exercise in trust and relationship building.

Technorati Tags: applied writing, email marketing, Essay Writing

Lots of web articles and specialist reports emphasize accreditation as the basis for a successful distance learning online degree. Recognized quality education and accreditation seem to be the one and the same given the possibility to transfer to other learning institutions and the chance to continue college studies on the basis of the diploma. The legal context for distance learning online degree offers is available with national or regional accreditors. Associate degrees are the most numerous online and many students choose the flexible distance education because of the possibility to work and learn at the same time. Computer repair, accounting, health care and technical jobs, all require a form of associate degree.

As opposed to traditional education, a degree distance learning master online leaves room for higher flexibility. This means that you can study at an individual pace, at any time of the day you choose. Consequently, your education will not be impaired by a full time job or the family duties. Not everyone qualifies for online degree programs. If you are not well motivated and cannot work according to deadlines, it will be pretty difficult to complete assignments and go through all the online coursework. Moreover, if you are not a native English speaker, you need perfect English fluency and proficient reading comprehension.

Do not enroll in a distance learning online degree program unless you are sure that the education will help you get a better job. If you want to apply for an associates degree in order to get a technical job you may have to inquire whether you wouldn’t qualify with a certificate too. As opposed to an associates degree, a certificate is less expensive and easier to get. In some cases, on-the-job training will be enough qualification, hence, it would be a waste to spend thousands of dollars on a coursework that will not help you much for career improvement.

Pay attention to the form of accreditation of the distance learning online degree institution. What institutions pass accreditation? The auditing is carried out by special companies which make the degrees credible on the market. Thus, it is advisable to choose institutions that have received the accreditation from regional boards or from the Distance Education Training Council. There could nevertheless be cases when you will not be able to transfer your credits to other schools. Therefore, look into this matter seriously particularly if you intend to continue with college studies.

Technorati Tags: college alternatives, distance education, online degree

Today’s essay example submission is on poker.  It nicely takes us on a historic journey on poker chips.  I liked it as an essay example as it was very easy to read.  Each new sentence introduced a different snippit of information that kept me reading until the end of the article.  It is a passive persuasive essay – instead of using benefits to get me interesting it has offered to teach me something new.

Brief History Of The Poker Chip

The poker chip has an old and interesting history, almost as interesting as the game itself. It wasn’t an original component of poker, but as the game became very popular and began to spread, the chips were created more out of necessity than anything else, sometime around the 1870s or 1880s. What prompted the introduction of the original clay chips was the need to standardize the way players placed bets and calculated their winnings. There was too much uncertainty when they were able to use random valuables like coins or gold flakes.

However, it wasn’t simply a matter of every player or gambling establishment changing to a uniform type of poker chips right away. Even though chips eventually became the recognized medium of exchange in poker games, they came in literally hundreds of designs and very different materials. Some might have been made of bone or ivory, for example. A player’s custom poker chips could have been as diverse and unique as the player they belonged to. Yet with nothing being uniform, players could sneak their own chips into a game and end up wealthier at the end than their play might have warranted.

Casinos soon took the new chips of clay to another level, custom designing them so that any specific set of chips could only belong to one casino. Before long, each establishment developed its own particular mix of clay and ceramic materials for the chips, and began adding other identifying patterns on the finished product. Casino poker chips became as individualized and specialized as the separate casinos themselves. For about fifty years, straddling the 19th and 20th centuries, the casino-specific poker chip made from these patented formulas held sway.

Ironically though, as the game has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, the poker chip has in some ways returned back to a more generic form. With the advent of chip sets for home use, creating individual sets with their own specific molds would be too expensive, so any individualization of these cheaper plastic sets is all done with surface decoration. As things stand now, there’s a branching in the history of poker chips, between home sets and the more custom designed and specialized casino chip. Where the history will go next is anyone’s guess.

This article comes courtesy of Rene Lacape is a seasoned insurance agent and poker lover.

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As the site owner for The Persuasive Essay Guide I revieve 5 or 6 essays a week from guest authors wanting me to publish their work.  They get links to their website and I get new content so we are both happy.  If you want to read one, go check out my Essay Examples category.

Sometimes however, I have to shake my head in disbelief at the quality of the work.  No, thats a lie.  The majority get assigned to the trash bin.  But instead of deleting today’s contribution,  I thought Iwould turn it into a test case on what to do if you like to fail.

Here is the article title I recieved -

Why BaByliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons is Good

First, lets chat about the obvious mistake.  Should you use a plural followed by “is”?  Which reads better – Why BaBliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons Is Good … or Why BaBliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons Are Good.

Now English is a language that will let you take many liberties in form and structure.  I know my article here will be packed with them.  But the title is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE in an article.  Get it wrong and your tutor will start warming up the FAIL pen.

What else can you pick up in the title?  I read it and thought – “was the author stoned when he wrote this?”.  Where are the catchy benefits to get me to read?  How about -

Hit 10 Yards Further With BaByliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons

Can BaByliss Nano Titanium Irons Improve Your Game?

After reading the title my mouse pointer was hovering over the delete button as I continued into the first paragraph.  Here it is -

“A flat iron, alternatively known as hair straightener and straightening iron, has come a long way since its start during the late 1800s. In fact, flat irons have now developed the concept of hair styling, and they are more than just a tool to make straight your hair and can be used to test a spectrum of hair styles such as curling, flipping, and creating waves. However, the good functioning of a flat iron depends upon the type of material used for the making of its plates. Best part of the top end flat irons are made from resources such as ceramic and tourmaline. Now there is an advance for ceramic and tourmaline flat irons in the form of Titanium Flat Irons.”

Why does this fail?  Think about it for a second.

Is the article about golfing products or hair straighteners?  I am not too sure as it lacks direction.  The words just aimlessly wander the page.  If the title is the slap in the face to get attention, then the first paragraph sets the scene.  As a reader I want to know what the article is about.  And importantly, what entices me to read the other 4 or 5 paragraphs.  The biggest mistake here is the hero of the article (titanium flat irons) is the last point to be mentioned in the article.  Make it the first.  Grab your readers and let them know what journey they are signing up for.  Sure, create intruige.  But don’t leave it until all your readers have left to do it.

Technorati Tags: essay structure, fail, grammar, Persuasive Essay

Is this you?  You’re broke, eating 2 minute noodles for 3 meals a day and suffering under an avalanche of assingments due next week?  Congratulations, you are the perfect sucker for a scam.  Our guest contributor today discusses one common work from home scam that targets people just like you – data entry.

Data entry is a very prolific sector for online activities, and therefore, lots of people are attracted by the simplicity of the tasks and the easy money its is supposed to bring.  Advertisers for these jobs are not that picky about the people they hire, they claim that you can be a complete computer newbie, type just ten words per minute and have not skills whatsoever, and you’d still qualify for their job offer. Well, behind such plethora of programs, hundreds of data entry scams lurk; yet, one has to admit that plenty of companies get a wrong or incorrect classification because of a misleading form of advertising. Many of the freelancers working online have difficulties in discerning scams from real jobs.

First of all, in order to make it clear what we could refer to by data entry scams, we need to admit that the concept can be used in relative contexts and pretty subjectively. For instance, lots of people think that data entry requires typing a few words here and there, and money will instantly start flowing into their pockets. When they realize a superior amount of work is required, they reevaluate the money-vs.-work situation and feel disappointed and even duped. This is one situation when the term scam is used loosely for situations that are not at all tricky.

From this perspective, data entry scams could be misleading. Lots of freelancers get discouraged and avoid contacting a certain company because of the ads formulation that seems to give the service a pretty bad look. A good idea to avoid such issues is to turn to programs that are totally dedicated to the data entry field of activity, as it is the case with the Survey Scout. Otherwise, the largest number of so-called data entry scams are connected with affiliate marketing. While some job advertisements hide scams others are really serious business offers. Only a closer investigation into the matter will tell the difference!

Here is one example from the many data entry scams you may encounter on the Internet. You read a common job ad for a typing position; no experience or skills are required. All you have to do is pay a $20 non-refundable fee in order to get a package with instructions; after document download you find out that you have to copy and paste the same ad onto all sorts of online board jobs and ask people to pay you $20 to get the document, and so on and so forth. This is surely a scam and you ought to know better than fall for it. Furthermore, the line between being scammed and becoming a scammer gets pretty thin under such circumstances!

Technorati Tags: college jobs, data entry scams

If you’re looking for the internship opportunity of your dreams, then you won’t have to go very far. Many students start on the Internet, perusing the “top internship programs” listings in magazines like Business Week or Campus Grotto. Finding a good internship program match is very important, particularly in the upper level years because it’s very likely you’ll be offered a position if you apply yourself and work diligently. For many employers, the internship process is a way to groom prospective employees and weave them into the fabric of the company. Choosing an internship that suits your personality, interests and strengths will help with job placement tremendously when you graduate. Here is a list of the best programs in the nation.

Gen-Y workers are looking for day-to-day fulfillment from their careers. Securing a student internship from the Microsoft internship program is a dream come true for many. There are free beverages all day long, loads of creative tasks, sports teams, theater troupes, puzzle days, zoo discounts, flexible hours and a casual dress code. Interns will play a part in every facet of the company, visiting think tanks and labs, and also working on games, mobile applications, developer tools, business solutions and operating systems. With opportunities across the globe, there’s no telling where you’ll end up!

For the creative filmmaker/animator minds, nothing beats the internship program at Pixar. You’ll have to spend your first two years assembling a demo reel to submit to the company, but in your junior year of college you’ll be eligible to apply for the internship opportunity to assist in the production of a feature film! Pixar’s interns work with technical directors and contribute as full members of their technical team! Students work in developing programs, modeling sets and props, shading and illustrating, manipulating lighting effects, dressing sets, storyboard layout, rigging characters for animation and rendering the final digital shots to scan onto film. Interested applicants must have some experience using Linux or UNIX, programming languages like C, C++ or scripting languages like Tcl, Sh, Python or Perl. They should have some familiarity using 3D graphic programs like Maya, XSI or Lightwave and education in computer science, math, engineering and art. If you make the cut, Pixar has an unforgettable and meaningful job internship for you.

Genentech, one of Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For,” offers an intensive internship program that runs for 10-12 weeks during the summer. Students will be placed into project teams related to research, development, manufacturing or business. Juniors majoring in physical sciences or chemical engineering are preferred. You will participate in an internship in San Francisco, Vacaville or Oceanside, California and you will also be paid. Eligible interns will even receive relocation assistance and jobs upon graduation. You will work on projects, career developing and networking in the field of your choice, such as Science, Medicine, Engineering, Computer Science, Law or Business. If biomarkers, genotypes, immune mediated diseases, molecules and cells are your thing, then Genentech is the place for you!

Thanks to Thomas Bronson for the article.

Technorati Tags: best internship programs, College, internship