Teaching Process Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Teaching Process - Research Paper Example The researchers chose this problem because they have observed that the constant reminding and disruptions caused by talking out of turn interrupt and often deviates the flow of the lesson. It is time-consuming on the part of the teacher as s/he must focus on discipline rather than teaching the class. This constant reminding also depletes the energy levels of the teacher, which could be used for teaching instead. The researchers’ observations are reinforced by research from Fred Jones who found that 80% of the misbehavior in the classroom is comprised of talking out of turn. This proves that this particular behavior is a problem in the classroom and that there is a need to address it. Using the clip system created by the researchers will enable the teacher to remind and praise the student for raising his or her hand without disrupting the class or deviating from the lesson, thus encouraging decorous behavior and reducing out of turn talking.The study is significant because it p rovides teachers with a tool to teach students better classroom behavior through self-regulation without the need for constant reminders from The respondents of the study are the morning students of the preparatory class of the Raya School. For the scope of the study, the students will only be given clips during storytelling time. Storytelling time includes Genuine Love for Reading (GLR) and Critical Thinking (CT) time. GLR is the introduction of the book, the storytelling proper, and questions asked by the students before, during and after storytelling.

Impact of Branding on Consumer Purchasing Decision

Impact of Branding on Consumer Purchasing Decision An Empirical Study in the Technological product sector More and more organizations have come to realize that brand is the most valuable asset associated with their products or services and are using branding as a strategic tool in todays dynamic business environment (Chernatony and MacDonald, 1998; Rooney, 1995). Some extremely successful examples in brand management include Microsoft, IBM, Sony, Nike and Coca-Cola (BusinessWeek, 2002[1]). Their brands resonate with the general public and affect the consumers buying decision-making. The power of the brands has contributed substantially to the continuing success in the future (Davis, 2002). Brand acts as a strategic marketing tool to attract and keep customers by promoting value, image, prestige or lifestyle (Rooney, 1995). Furthermore, it is a powerful technique to develop a stable, sustainable and distinct relation with customers by playing number of associations, so marketers must account for all of them in making marketing decisions (Aaker, 1992). Hence this study will try to find out the impact of branding on consumer purchase decision, specifically in the technological product market. The main aim of this project is to find out the impact, branding has on the consumer purchase decision in general and especially in the technological product sector. The focus of this study will be on the consumer’s viewpoint about brands and how it affects their purchasing decisions. Hence the objectives of the study will be to: Review the current literature regarding brands, branding and consumer purchase decision Based on the literature review and secondary data identify branding factors that supposedly impact the consumer purchase decision Find out consumers perception regarding the impact of brands on their purchasing decisions specifically in the technological product sector To bring out the implications of the research Research Methodology: An appropriate research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have (access to data, time, location and money, etc). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy/method has been employed. Data intended for almost any study can be obtained from two sources: Primary Data and Secondary Data. In order to complete the research project from a theoretical as well as a practical point of view, this research will make use of both types of data. This study will be carried in three phases. The first phase will involve literature review and secondary data collection. Primary data will be collected in the second phase. The last phase will comprise of analysing the primary data and drawing suitable conclusions from the study. Phase 1: The first phase of the research will comprise of reviewing the literature and collecting secondary data. This will involve an investigation of brands and different types of branding options that are availed by manufacturers. Further to this the consumer decision process will also be reviewed to find the factors that affect the consumer’s decision making process in general. According to Sharp and Howard (1996), two major reasons exist for reviewing the literature. First, the preliminary search helps to generate and refine the research ideas. And secondly, a critical review is a part of the research process. Like most research projects, literature review will be an early activity in this research. After the initial literature search, the researcher will be able to redefine the parameters more precisely and undertake further searches, keeping in mind the research objective and goal. The literature review will help in developing a good understanding and insight into the p revious research done on this topic and the trends that have emerged. Secondary data sources Secondary data will be collected from a varied number of sources. Books published books generally considered as one of the most reliable and valid source of information will be used for the basic content of the literature review. Electronic sources – will provide a large amount of information relevant to the subject Magazines a good source of getting data and report of recent and relevant articles Newspapers latest updates on brands and other information Advantages of using secondary data Saves cost and time Wide variety of information available Availability of vast amount of information Disadvantages of using secondary data are Most of the magazines or journals require Subscription, which is not feasible when lots of journals and materials have to be analysed. Shortage of time limits the scope of the research to a great extent. Most of the articles, research papers, and survey results found on various web sites or lacks the proof of the accuracy of their results. Phase 2: In phase 2 primary data will be collected which refers to the data obtained via the researcher’s direct experience. The need for employing more than one method of research stems from the fact that various methods contain their own set of assumptions of the nature of the real world and the kind of data produced (Denscombe, 1998). The author has selected survey strategy for the purpose of collecting primary data. It is a common and popular strategy in business and management research. Through this a large amount of data can be collected in an economical way. Bell (1993) says that surveys can provide answers to questions like What, Where, When, And How. It tries to elaborate the problems of ‘representativeness’ from other approaches like case studies or most of the qualitative approaches. This approach can be termed as fact finding mission and may contribute little towards the development of a hypotheses or shaping theory. The results from the survey can def initely be used to test a hypotheses or theory. The data here is primarily quantitative but may also be qualitative in nature as it represents peoples view about an issue. Questionnaires are generally used for the purpose of data collection followed by few interviews to increase the validity of the data. Using multi-methods produces various kinds of data on the same topic improving the quality of research. Hence, this research will make use of more than one research method (questionnaire and interview) to enable the researcher to present the topic in a more complete fashion from different perspectives. Hence the primary data collection methods used for this research will be- Questionnaires Interviews Questionnaires provide the easiest known way of assembling a mass of information (Burroughs, 1971:106). The author decided to use online questionnaires for the purpose of the study. Online questionnaires are very economical, the costs faced were nearly negligible, since once the form was loaded on the server, and all entries came in the form of e-mail. They are easier to administer and manage and supply standardised answers from all recipients. But a lot of care will be taken in order to construct questionnaires to maximise response rate. Due to its length or complexity in the questionnaire, it may yield a response rate so low that the data may not be adequate to make any kind of generalisation or even a reliable statement. Keeping this in mind, for the purpose of this research, due care will be taken to avoid hypothetical questions, dual meaning questions, presuming questions and any form of ambiguity or imprecision in questions. Also, an attempt will be made to keep the length of the questionnaire very precise, with to the point questions consisting mainly of multiple-choice questions enabling the reader to be comfortable to fill the questionnaire without much loss of time, thereby increasing the questionnaires response rate as well as making data analysis simple. The author also decided to include another method in the form of interviews as part of the research due to the need for more detailed qualitative information. Through the use of questionnaires the research will only able to gather quantitative data, which in itself will be quite useful for the project in order to gain a general view and knowledge about the impact of branding on consumers in general. However, in order to gain better depth in the analysis, the questionnaire data will also be supplemented by few follow up interviews. As an information gathering tool, the interview lends itself to being used alongside other methods as a way of supplementing their data adding detail and depth. (Denscombe, 1998; pi 12) As part of this research project, interviews will be used as a follow-up to the questionnaire. The attempt is to complement the questionnaire data with the interview data, pursuing the interesting lines of enquiry in greater detail. Simply stated, it can yield rich material or put flesh on the bones of the questionnaire (Bell, 1987). Sampling Process In order to collect appropriate information on the views of the consumers on impact of branding on their purchasing decisions, a very large portion of the general population would be an eligible target, but due to various practical problems of time and cost involved in such a process, a restricted sample of the population was considered for this research. The sample population involved in this project was carried out on a small scale due to the time and resources available. The survey polled a population of primarily Internet users including professionals as well as students situated in various parts of UK in order to get their perspective on the effect branding has on their buying behavior. Approximately, 200 emails will be sent. The population of respondents comprised of general Internet users ranging from computer professionals to lecturers to university students. By the means of this survey, we are investigating the general considerations of the users towards brands while purchasing a technological product. Objective Timeframe Task[2] 1. Phase 1 : Literature Survey/Secondary data Client should put the time frame according to his/her requirements Phase 1 will involve an investigation of brands and different types of branding options that are availed by manufacturers. Further to this the consumer decision process will also be reviewed to find the factors that affect the decision making process. The first stage of the research will comprise of reviewing the literature and collecting secondary data. 2. Phase 2 : Interviews/Surveys Client should put the time frame according to his requirements Phase 2 will involve the primary data collection phase in which the online questionnaire will be used to collect consumer opinion regarding brand implication on their purchasing decisions. 3. Phase 3: Analysis of data from Interviews/surveys and drawing conclusions Client should put the time frame according to his requirements After taking the interviews and surveys, a large quantity of interview notes, questionnaire results and other records will be generated all of which will be analyzed. The survey data will be analysed using the SPSS software. A brief thematic analysis will be done for the data collected from the interviews. Following this, conclusions will be drawn based on the findings. References Aaker, A. D. (1992), The Value of Brand Equity. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol.13 (4), p.p.27-32. Bell, J. (1987). Doing your Research Project. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bell, J. (1993) Doing your research project: a guide for first-time researchers in education and social science, Open University press Burroughs, G.E.R. (1971). Design and Analysis in Educational Research, Oxford: Educational Review. Davis, S. (2002), Brand Asset Management: how businesses can profit from the power of brand, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19, No. 4, p.p.351 -358. de Chernatony, L. McDonald, M. (1998), Creating Powerful Brands in Consumer, service and Industrial Markets, 2nd Edition, UK: Reed Eductional and Professional Publishing Ltd. Denscombe, M. (1998). The Good Research Guide. Buckingham: Open University Press Hussey, J. and Hussey, R. (1997), Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students, Macmillan Press, London. Research, http://www.allbusiness.com/articles/content/19671.asp Rooney, J. A. (1995), Branding: a trend for today and tomorrow, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 4, No. 4, p.p.48 55. Schutz (1972). The Phenomenology of the Social World (London: Heinemann). Sharp, J.A. and Howard, K. (1996) The Management of a Student Research Project. Aldershot, Gower. 1 [1] http://bwnt.businessweek.com/brand/2002/index.asp [2] The tasks will be further divided into sub tasks to give a detailed insight of the plan as it develops.

Mirror by Sylvia Plath, 789-790. :: English Literature

Mirror by Sylvia Plath, 789-790. Why Silvia Plath wrote a poem about a mirror? Sylvia Plath was born on 27 October 1932, at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. She was an excellent student in high school. Her first poem appeared when she was eight. Once graduated from high school, She entered Smith College in 1950 on a scholarship. On 24 August 1953, she attempted suicide swallowing sleeping pills. Sylvia was readmitted to Smith College for the spring-semester 1954 after receiving electro shock therapy treatment for her recovery. She graduated with honors from Smith College winning a Fulbright scholarship at Cambridge, England. There she found Ted Hughes and got married with him on 16 June 1956. The year of 1958 was very stressful for their relationship. On the last day of school she found her husband cheating on her with a young student. In April1960, Frieda Rebecca (their first child) was born. Later that year Plath became pregnant again and in February she had a miscarriage. She also had an appendectomy, which left her stitched & hospitalized for a number of weeks. On 17 January 1962 Plath Nicholas Farrar (their second child) was born. Late in September the married couple decided for a legal separation. In October Plath wrote over 25 poems and they were the best. In November she and her children moved to London where they had no telephone and the heat was no enough for the cold. Plath spent most of her time in London very lonely. The winter from 1962 to 1963 was recorded as one of the coldest in London ever. Sewer pipes froze and there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground. She and her children got sick leading her to a depression. On 11 February 1963, Plath took her own life. She placed her head in a gas oven and died of gas intoxication. Why Silvia wrote a poem about a mirror? Silvia wrote this poem the same year she committed suicide. The reason why she wrote a poem about a mirror is because at that time she was doing a deep introspection and she did not like what she saw, she was afraid of growing older. She also mentioned her fear of growing older in another journal that she wrote. Quotations for support: When Plath was young she looked at the mirror and see herself superficially; she did not look deep into herself: "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike" (789). But as Plath ages, She begins to look into herself deeper than just

Plant Imagery Throughout the Scarlet Letter

Honors American Lit. B The Scarlet Letter Pathway Paper – 694 wordsApril 23, 2013 Throughout The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne uses vegetation imagery in correlation with his ideas about sinful nature and god. When describing the prison in the very beginning of the novel, Hawthorne writes, â€Å"a grass-plot, much overgrown with†¦ such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison† (45-46).Hawthorne uses the imagery of a black flower to depict the sinful nature of humans as it was inevitable that even in this new flourishing society the people there saw the need to build a prison. This vivid image also relates to the Puritan’s harsh view on sin in the community. Throughout the novel Hawthorne frequently criticizes the Puritan society, this being another example, â€Å"but the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished, as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening† (97).The description of the Governor’s ornamental garden shows the garden failing, as if the person caring for it had given up and realized that it was impossible to have the ornamental garden in Boston the way it was in England. This parallels Hawthorne’s beliefs about Puritan society in that their abstruse beliefs would not sustain in the new world they were creating, for god is depicted through nature demonstrating how Hawthorne feels god is looking down on the materialistic and frivolous ways of the Puritans.Later in the novel Chillingworth says, â€Å"wherefore not, since all the powers of nature call so earnestly for the confession of sin, that these black weeds have sprung up out of a buried heart, to make manifest an unspoken crime? † (119). Nature is being associated with god in this passage theref ore Hawthorne is saying that god calls for the confession of sin and goes on to say that god disapproves of a person that does not confess, thus the black weeds, mirroring sin, grow on the graves of those who cling to secrets.This idea is also repeated later in the novel, â€Å"and all this time, perchance, when poor Mr. Dimmesdale was thinking of his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must there be buried! † (130). Sin is again depicted as lifelessness in this passage, for Dimmesdale has sinned, and not confessed; therefore he is concerned that god will reject him. Hawthorne clearly writes with a style of dark romanticism epitomized through his description of sin in the beginning of the novel as inexorable in every society.Hawthorne also reflects his religious views and those of his times period in the way he sees god and nature as one, similar to the ideas of Pantheism, a belief in the manifestation of god th rough nature. Hawthorne frequently links god to nature as seen when Hester calls to nature, as if calling to god, for forgiveness, â€Å"’Thou shalt forgive me! ’ cried Hester, flinging herself on the fallen leaves beside him† (175). While nature symbolizes sin, it also symbolizes the comforting and forgiving appearance of god.In relation to the bible, â€Å"†¦the yellow leaves will show no vestige of the white man’s tread† (178), the yellow leaves reference the scripture Isaiah 43:25, which reads, â€Å"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more† displaying the tie between nature and god both covering and forgetting sins; also tying into Hawthorne’s religious perspective in his writing. Nathaniel Hawthorne articulates his views on sin and god through his use of vegetation imagery throughout the scarlet letter; he continually uses dead and â€Å"black† imagery to al lude to sin and secrets.His use of dead vegetation implies that he believes confession is the relief of the burden of sin and the necessary action to obtain god’s approval and forgiveness. Hawthorne also represents god’s forgiveness through plant imagery; connecting god’s washing away of sin to the forest and nature washing away of sin. Fundamentally Hawthorne uses vegetation to convey his ideas on divinity and human sinful nature in The Scarlet Letter.

Car sales Solution Essay

My task is to imagine my friend is setting up a car locating business and wants to install a computer system. The system must have the power to store different car information and have the function to search for desired car information be stored and searched for easily .The system must also be easy to use and I have been asked to find a solution to carry this out. Two ways that I could solve the problem is by (1). Putting the information in a table using Microsoft Word, information would be easy to store, but a disadvantage would be that it is, hard and time consuming to search for a desired car. Another way would be storing the information in Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is a program that contains databases. I think this would be the most efficient method to solve the problem, because information could be stored and searched for easily, using fields. To do this you need to use a query. Firstly you must make a query table, to it you need to add as many field options as you need such as type model, below each field type what you are looking. Save the table, open it and you should have some results. The car data type I need to put into the databases to solve the problem are Model, Make, Year, Type, Mileage, Mot, Colour, Extra features and history of owners. These will become the titles of the fields (fields are the tables in which you add all the information in the databases. I need to collect each of these items of data because this will give easy access to search for the customers desired feature of a car. For example if a customer wanted a red car I could just type red next to colour when searching. I have designed a data capture form, which shows all the details of a certain car. The car information I have entered comes from an ad in the local paper Herald and Post. The car information is taken from a Stanground Autos ad. I have decided to create a way of validating data. The data type that needed validating was Mileage and Price. For the Price field the validation rule is; >0 and 0 and

Definition and Examples of a Polar Bond in Chemistry

Definition and Examples of a Polar Bond in Chemistry Chemical bonds may be classified as being either polar or nonpolar. The difference is how the electrons in the bond are arranged. Polar Bond Definition A polar bond is a covalent bond between two atoms where the electrons forming the bond are unequally distributed. This causes the molecule to have a slight electrical dipole moment where one end is slightly positive and the other is slightly negative. The charge of the electric dipoles is less than a full unit charge, so they are considered partial charges and denoted by delta plus (ÃŽ ´) and delta minus (ÃŽ ´-). Because positive and negative charges are separated in the bond, molecules with polar covalent bonds interact with dipoles in other molecules. This produces dipole-dipole intermolecular forces between the molecules.Polar bonds are the dividing line between pure covalent bonding and pure ionic bonding. Pure covalent bonds (nonpolar covalent bonds) share electron pairs equally between atoms. Technically, nonpolar bonding only occurs when the atoms are identical to each other (e.g., H2 gas), but chemists consider any bond between atoms with a difference in electronegativity les s than 0.4 to be a nonpolar covalent bond. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are nonpolar molecules. In ionic bonds, the electrons in the bond are essentially donated to one atom by the other (e.g., NaCl). Ionic bonds form between atoms when the electronegativity difference between them is greater than 1.7. Technically ionic bonds are completely polar bonds, so the terminology can be confusing. Just remember a polar bond refers to a type of covalent bond where electrons arent equally shared and electronegativity values are slightly different. Polar covalent bonds form between atoms with an electronegativity difference between 0.4 and 1.7. Examples of Molecules with Polar Covalent Bonds Water (H2O) is a polar bonded molecule. The electronegativity value of oxygen is 3.44, while the electronegativity of hydrogen is 2.20. The inequality in electron distribution accounts for the bent shape of the molecule. The oxygen side of the molecule has a net negative charge, while the two hydrogen atoms (on the other side) have a net positive charge. Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is another example of a molecule that has a polar covalent bond. Fluorine is the more electronegative atom, so the electrons in the bond are more closely associated with the fluorine atom than with the hydrogen atom. A dipole forms with the fluorine side having a net negative charge and the hydrogen side having a net positive charge. Hydrogen fluoride is a linear molecule because there are only two atoms, so no other geometry is possible. The ammonia molecule (NH3) has polar covalent bonds between the nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. The dipole is such that the nitrogen atom is more negatively charged, with the three hydrogen atoms all on one side of the nitrogen atom with a positive charge. Which Elements Form Polar Bonds? Polar covalent bonds form between two nonmetal atoms that have sufficiently different electronegativities from each other. Because the electronegativity values are slightly different, the bonding electron pair isnt equally shared between the atoms. For example, polar covalent bonds typically form between hydrogen and any other nonmetal. The electronegativity value between metals and nonmetals is large, so they form ionic bonds with each other.

English 1302 Poetry Analysis Essay Example

English 1302 Poetry Analysis Essay Example English 1302 Poetry Analysis Paper English 1302 Poetry Analysis Paper Page 957, Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel 1. What is the significance and effect of the allusions to classical literature/myth in general? To these myths in particular? How do they individually and collectively help characterize the speaker’s situation? Through the use of metaphor and allusion, Cullen allows the readers to put themselves in his shoes. Through his poetry, the reader is presented with the struggle and the underlying true message- the harshness and cruelty towards the African Americans- the reality of racism. 2. Does the speaker’s attitude toward God or our sense of that attitude shift or change over the course of the poem? If so, how so? Where does he (and/or do we) end up? The first twelve lines of the sonnet portray the paradoxical nature of a good and kind God. Cullen remarks that if God were really good and kind then why did he create the mole as a blind animal? Why should we all die? Why do our best efforts often end in frustration and failure and unhappiness? Cullen answers these rhetorical questions by stating that Gods ways are mysterious and can never be fully understood by ordinary human beings. The final couplet, however, reveals his anger and frustration at the plight of talented and sensitive black poets like him who are suppressed and oppressed by the white majority, making him to doubt gods goodness and kindness. Page 959, Langston Hughes, â€Å"Harlem† 1. According to this poem, is there an answer to the question asked in the first line: â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred? † Yes, there is an answer; the question, â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred? † appears to be answered with nothing but more questions. But if we analyze each question we get an idea of what the speaker really believes about dreams being postponed. The â€Å"dream† is a goal in life, not just dreams experienced during sleep. The dream is important to the dreamer’s life. Nevertheless, the speaker’s position is clear that any important dream or goal that must be delayed can have serious negative affects. 2. This poem was written in 1951, approximately twenty years after the end of the Harlem Renaissance. It is the only poem in this chapter on the Harlem Renaissance that was written years after its end. How is the content of the poem possibly related to Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance within a post-Renaissance perspective? In 1951, frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. However, continuing prejudice against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship. Consequently, blacks had to attend poorly equipped segregated schools and settle for menial jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys, and so on. In many states, blacks could not use the same public facilities as whites, including restrooms, restaurants, theaters, and parks. Access to other facilities, such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with inferior status became a powder keg, and the fuse was burning. Hughes well understood what the future held, as he indicates in the last line of the poem. Pages 959-960, Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues 1. Who is the narrator of this poem? Is the narrator different from the piano player in the poem? Is there a difference in the style of the poem as it shifts between the voice of the narrator and the voice of the singer? The singer and song become united in the same way that the speaker of the poem becomes not only a first-person narrator, but a third-person omniscient storyteller. The central narrative voice describes an African American in Harlem, who is observed singing and playing the  blues. 2. Are there any clues in the poem about the life of the singer? Why might the singer have the blues? Yes, there are clues, such as, Down on Lenox Avenue: Lenox Avenue is a main street in  Harlem, which in terms of the geography of New York, is North, or uptown. We might wonder why Hughes has written down on Lenox Avenue rather than up on Lenox Avenue. Lets think, then, about the identity of the speaker of the poem. Because Harlem was home mainly to African Americans and the parts of New York City south of Harlem (referred to as downtown) were populated mainly by whites, if the speaker were to perceive Lenox Avenue as up from his place of origin, we might assume that he is white. All the singer seems to have is his moaning blues, the revelation of a black mans soul, and those blues are what helps keep him alive. Part of that ability to sustain is apparently the way the blues help him keep his identity. Even in  singing the blue, he is singing about his life, about the way that he and other blacks have to deal with white society. As his black hands touch the white keys, the accepted Western sound of the piano and the form of Western music are changed. The piano itself comes to life as an extension of the singer, and moans, transformed by the black tradition to a mirror of black sorrow that also reflects the transforming power and beauty of the black tradition. . What do you make of the last line of the poem? Why does Hughes choose the word â€Å"dead† here? The poem works out Hughess apprehension, his feeling that his ability to understand the emotions that generated this form of artistic expression was not on a par with the expression itself This is indicated by the last line of the poem, where the speaker notes that the piano player slept like a rock or a man thats dead.   The po ems last line, then, ignores the blues performers ability to articulate pain and likewise to subsume it. That the speaker and the piano player never meet, or as Tracy asserts, strike up a conversation, share a drink, or anything else, suggests that the experience does not rupture the speakers externality. He never enters that space whereby the piano player is speaking for him, giving utterance to his loneliness. Finally, at no point in time does the speaker in the poem insert himself into the lyrics. In this respect, the last line calls our attention to the slippage that occurs when an understanding of the blues is lacking. That the speaker utters the possibility that the piano player has killed himself illustrates his failure to realize that the blues is performed reflection and not a preface to suicidal behavior. Pages 963-964, Claude McKay, â€Å"The Harlem Dancer† 1. This poem is an English (or Shakespearean) Sonnet with three quatrains and an ending couplet. What â€Å"celebration† seems to be made in the three quatrains? How is this â€Å"celebration† deflated in the ending couplet? In the first quatrain, McKay begins by expressing his disdain for America; however, he also expresses his dependence on the country as well. When he states â€Å"Although she feeds me bread of bitterness†, the speaker is telling the reader that he or she depends on America for his or her bread as a child depends on its mother. This leads the reader to believe that the speaker in McKay’s poem recognizes the fact that America is the source of his or her provision, although the food that is being provided is that of bitterness. This particular statement also might lend itself to the underlying feeling that many black Americans were experiencing at this time regarding their limited rights in the South. The country was responsible for seeing that blacks were given equal rights, but these rights were restricted unless the man could reach very unreal expectations. This led to bitterness among the Southern blacks. The second quatrain takes on a more positive focus, seemingly leading the reader to see some of the reasons that the speaker does, in fact, have positive feelings for America. â€Å"Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, / Giving me strength erect against her hate†. These lines indicate that the strength of the burgeoning country was the energy that fueled the speaker’s life. The most interesting interaction within this piece of text is the insurgence that the speaker brings out within the conflicting nature of the prose. While the speaker is boldly proclaiming that America is the source of his or her strength, he or she is rebelling against the provider of that strength and using it to stand up against the racial hate that was prevalent during this time period in America. Although the speaker is standing in strength against the bigotry and injustice within America, he or she seems to feel as if his or her personal stand might be insignificant within the larger picture of the struggle for equality. â€Å"Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood†. It is impossible for a single person to resist the mighty rushing waters of a flood as it rolls over the land. Perhaps, the speaker is expressing the futility of one person standing against the bigoted history of a nation alone. However, just because the speaker stands alone in futility, it does not preclude him from taking that stand. Pages 964- 966, James Weldon Johnson, â€Å"From the preface to The Book of American Negro Poetry† 1. According to Johnson, what are the contributions that can be made by Negro poets? I believe he wanted to let us know that Black or African literature has a rich history or tradition, which is largely due to the effects of the tragedies well documented in the recorded history of the African people, of dislocation, deprivation and degradation. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the propagation of Black culture including its literary achievements is a much recent phenomenon when compared to other races. Also the artistic style and dialect of the Negro is uniquely art in and of itself. 2. Do you think that Johnson’s statement â€Å"the richest contribution the Negro poet can make to the American literature of the future will be the fusion into it of his own individual artistic gifts† has been realized from 1921, the year the preface was written, to today? Why or why not? Explain your answer thoroughly. Yes, I believe the value of the Negro poet has been realized. The renaissance allowed for the flowering of a new consciousness, the emergence of great writers, masterful musicians, the celebration of one’s cultural roots, and the development of self-confidence and consciousness. It is without a doubt that the Harlem Renaissance was like an eternal spring of inspiration in the soul of African-Americans. That spring has provided nourishment and inner drive for sustainment into the eras beyond. That spring has fertilized the earth and has allowed the population of African-Americans to move into new and diverse dimensions regarding their self-worth, marvelous accomplishments, and diverse cultural successes. That spring of life in African-Americans which move them from slavery to freedom, is still watering the garden for future exponential growth economically, politically, philosophically, psychologically, and sociologically in directions beyond our human comprehension. Pages 975-977, Zora Neale Hurston, â€Å"How It Feels to Be Colored Me† 1. How does Hurston define and feel about her â€Å"color†? Explain your answer thoroughly. The majority of Hurston’s characters, though represented as black, could just as easily be of any race. Their lives, loves, humors, troubles and travails appear in Hurston’s writing as universal constants, soothing or afflicting without regard to either skin color or gender. Hurston approached the question of her apparent unconcern over racial issues more directly when she said, I have ceased to think in terms of race; I think only in terms of individuals. I am interested in you now not as a Negro man but as a man. In am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones. †