Answers to Questions About Writing Fiction

Answers to Questions About Writing Fiction Answers to Questions About Writing Fiction Answers to Questions About Writing Fiction By Mark Nichol Here are three questions from DailyWritingTips.com readers about aspects of fiction writing, each followed by my response. 1. When it comes to fiction dialogue, do any grammatical rules apply? Generally, dialogue in fiction should be consistent with the speech patterns and habits of the individual characters; that’s one way to convey their personalities, and such idiosyncrasy provides a note of authenticity. Search DailyWritingTips.com for â€Å"dialogue† to find numerous posts on the topic. 2. I have always thought that when writing dialogue and a character’s speech runs into multiple paragraphs, each paragraph should begin and end with quotation marks. However, recently I’ve seen it published where the first paragraph ends with no quotes but the second one begins and ends with them. Which is the correct way? The way you’ve seen it recently is standard: â€Å"First, second, and all other paragraphs except for the final one. â€Å"Final paragraph.† All paragraphs but the final one are left open because including a close quotation mark might lead a reader to believe that the quotation is final and that the next paragraph consists of a different character’s speech. The lack of a closing mark at the end of one paragraph and the use of an opening mark in the subsequent paragraph signals that the speech is continuing. It’s a good idea, however, to toss in an attribution or some stage business to identify the speaker now and then in an extended speech or in a conversation involving more than two speakers. 3. Why is it a crime to use a clichà © in a novel? We all use clichà ©s in talking with people, so why the big no-no when writing? In social situations and other informal environments, â€Å"lazy† language is acceptable it’s a lot of work to keep up careful discourse. The same is true with casual writing. But novels should be written with the utmost care, even if the tone is colloquial, with language that is as fresh and original as possible. Occasional idioms are acceptable, but strive to find your own way of expressing a thought or conjuring an image. Ultimately, the choice is up to you, but reader response (or lack thereof) may change your mind. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Bare or Bear With Me?15 Words for Household Rooms, and Their Synonyms25 Idioms with Clean

Jurisprudence (Ethics and Morality) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Jurisprudence (Ethics and Morality) - Essay Example Kautilya2 an ancient Indian scholar who's Arthasastra is famous for its depiction of instructions and advices to a king clearly required the state to provide for the maintenance of childless women. In his view moral considerations were not to occupy the politics, which should simply concentrate on victory only. The magnum opus Arthasastra fulfils the requirements of twentieth century international law for the recognition of a state. In ancient Rome, pontiffs and their sons were alone empowered to deliver judgements. Only in third century BC some eminent groups like Proculians and Sabinians produced a relevant literature. In the cultural movement during Byzantine Empire in 5th century only Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis was born.3 Feminist jurisprudence is a philosophy based on political, economic and social equality of sexes. This theory is believed to have sprung up in 1960s. Feminists strongly believe that gender is created not by biological difference but by social interpretations. Physical appearances and capacity of reproduction of women, according to them, should be considered as identity factors only. In other areas like psychological, social and moral traits, women are to be treated at par with men. Although feminists have a common ideology of women rights, they are divided among themselves in some basic thoughts. Liberal feminists are staunch in their endeavour of erasing gender-based discriminations in recognised laws against women. Cultural feminists aspire for the recognition of women's moral voice of caring and communal values. Radical feminists strongly object to simply accommodating the physiological and emotional differences of women, but they require a society to construct an equality of sex based on these differences. The practicability of feminist jurisprudence lies in accepting the fact that people live in a patriarchal society. Researchers derive at a conclusion that patriarchy emerged since the advent of agrarian societies; they are of the view that women were enjoying relatively high status in pre-agrarian societies. The role of women in this period is something more than childbearing and caring the family as they shared the production related works with males. (Patrie, 1923) Agrarian production brought importance to ploughs and consequently to males who became the breadwinners of the family and began to posses control over resources. During this era, the might of women in their family administration was tactfully recognised by men within the walls of the family making them feel 'moron' outside their family. First-wave feminism prevailed from nineteenth century up to late 1960,during when abortion and contraception were not the issues handled by the feminists, who involved in political power games behind policy making in the UK and France; they were campaigning in favour of education, employment, marital rights and rights to vote only. They began to think of contraception followed by abortion only after First World War. Feminists in France happened to realise the need for abortion after the Second World War. Technological developments in the aftermath of World War II threw light on use of contraceptives and non-surgical abortion. France still under the strong

Report - classroom observation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Report - classroom observation - Essay Example It is significant for both parties to identify these things. Hopkins (2002, 10) explains that the setting of a class makes an observer to preconceive what he/she will expect when the class commences. Since the topic was about the television, the students would have to listen to the television. Since s and videos are almost inseparable, there was the inclusion of the video. It also made the class more interesting. The television was placed before the class while the instructor stood between the students and the screen. However, she made sure that she did not obstruct the students from viewing the screen. By standing between these two subjects, the teacher was able to monitor both sides thus she could manage the class better. If she stood at the back of the class, the students would be distracted by having to look at the rear of the course group and then at the front in order to follow up on both the teacher and the screen. The teacher started by pronouncing some words to be expected when viewing the video or television. The students first listened to the pronounced words, then they repeated these words and then they tried to spell them out so that they could have a better understanding of them. The teacher encouraged the students to ask questions regarding the areas they did not understand. Additionally, the teacher encouraged the participation of the students before, after and during the watching of the video. At one point, all the three students were not attentive to what was on the screen. The teacher encouraged the students to be attentive by showing the video once more. The teacher’s language and actions were also strategic in enabling the students to understand the content they were taught. Ollerton (2004, 14) states that the language used by a teacher when teaching plays a major role in enabling a student to understand a given topic. The teacher was constantly praising

In the Mood for Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

In the Mood for Love - Essay Example Chow suggests Su to try to imagine and act in roles what occurs between their spouses and their lovers, and soon the border between a game and reality starts blurring. Su suggests Chow to help him with the book about martial arts. At the same time, as Chow and Su become closer trying to convince each other that they do not have to end like their spouses. Their relationships remain platonic. Nevertheless, the end of the movie is sad, Chow passes his days in trips across the Southeast Asia, but shortly before the end of the movie he comes back to Hong Kong, to the place where he met Su only to realize that everything had passed already and would never repeat. After that he goes to Cambodia to stay there and to leave his secret love to Su there. This movie made a serious impression on me because it raises a number of important and complicated topics. The plot is built around the adultery of the main heroes` spouses but the director deliberately avoids judging others and tagging adultery as a sin. He tries to explore how love and affection appear between man and a woman and what sexual relationships bring to both of them. Having understood that their spouses cheat on him, Su and Chaw try avoiding their destiny and decide to stay â€Å"clean†. They want their love to be honest, however it seems that they are just afraid of taking actions. In this purity Chaw and Su see their difference: their spouses are cheaters and lovers, while they have love. Though the topic of adultery is rather unpleasant the director makes all possible to show it as a background paying attention to the main scene full of delicate talks and symbols. The title of the film is very accurate: the movie shows how love evolves in people without turning into real love. The main hero at some point falls in love with the heroine, and she falls in love with him, but they do not stay together. Perhaps, it will seem absurd but Kar-wai shows that this absurd is mundane in our

A Research on Case Study of ARM Holdings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A Research on Case Study of ARM Holdings - Essay Example It operates in a moderately high competitive industry with strong players such as Intel, Toshiba, Samsung, and others (Tibken, 2011). The Industry Life cycle indicates that it is still enjoying growth and would continue to do so for the next decade or so. ARM Holdings tends to follow a market penetration strategy in order to increase the number of ARM chips in most of the consumer electronics items. The company has appeared to be following a narrow differentiation strategy but it is not trying to appeal to broader segments. Its intelligent positioning in the market with its unique business model has allowed ARM to generate a stable stream of cash flows with royalties and remain at an advantage in the future of economic uncertainty. Furthermore, its competitive advantage of being designing energy efficient chips is most likely to provide ARM much advantage as energy efficiency and ethical consumerism become topics that are more prominent (Crossan, et al., 2011, p. 241). Introduction S ince the year 1990, the year in which it was founded, ARM Holdings has shipped over 25 billion chips to companies and customers all over the world with the help of its 250 partners. ARM has licensed them its chips over 750 times. With design centers in India, US, UK, Sweden, Norway, Japan, France and other countries, the company now distinguishes itself as the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier (ARM Holdings, 2012a). This paper is an attempt to conduct a strategic analysis of ARM Holdings by looking at its industry structure and strategies employed. The paper would do the same with the help of different tools and frameworks such as Porter Five Forces Model, Industry Lifecycle Model, Porter Generic Strategies, and others. This section of the paper introduced ARM Holdings and explained the rationale of the paper. The second section of the paper would conduct a brief analysis of the semi conductor industry in order to capture a glance of the industry en vironment. The third section or chapter would aim to explore the strategy or strategies employed by ARM Holdings and the degree to which they are a perfect match. Furthermore, the section would also present a few recommendations for future strategies that could be employed by ARM Holdings. The paper would conclude by commenting on the sustainability and viability of ARM Holdings’ strategy and business model in the future. Analysis of the Industry structure of Semiconductor Industry The semiconductor industry enjoys an interesting industry life cycle, which has been going back and forth between the growth and maturity stage. The semiconductor industry is such that new chips, designs, and models become obsolete or out of demand very quickly, sometimes that is only a few weeks (Kipley and Lewis, 2011, p. 36). Therefore, whenever companies launch a new model, they attain quick growth however; the model soon dies in terms of demand pushing the industry to maturity. However, just w hen the industry is about to be pushed towards decline, the players would come up with new designs or models in order to bring back

Higher Education and the Promotion of Health Essay

Higher Education and the Promotion of Health - Essay Example â€Å"Some illnesses are highly transmittable and can be passed on by touching an infected person or by getting in contact with the body fluids of the infected person† (Eddy, 1994). When the fluids of an infected person comes in contact with another the disease causing micro-organisms get transmitted to the other person. The other individual gets infected by the micro-organisms and becomes ill. Most of the causes of diseases are related directly to the environment where the individual lives or has visited. Environmental factors that cause diseases include the air that one breathes, food that one eats and the water than one drink. The air that one breathes may be contaminated by viruses that are airborne and may lead to the individual becoming ill. An example of an airborne disease is tuberculosis which is easily spread by air especially in crowded areas. Some individuals are allergic to specific foods, and if they take them by mistake, they become ill. Some diseases are waterborne, and if individuals take water that is contaminated they are a high risk of becoming ill. An example of a waterborne disease is cholera which greatly affects young children. Some diseases are caused by certain individual lifestyles such as eating habits. Eating foods that have high cholesterol levels and not engaging oneself in activities that help burn the cholesterol may lead to obesity and cardiac complications. Eating foods that have high sugar content may lead to high blood pressure and other related diseases. Some individuals have a lifestyle where they engage themselves in unprotected sex. Having unprotected sex is a very risky behavior as it makes one highly susceptible to contract sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Individuals who drink too much alcohol put themselves at a risk of getting a liver cirrhosis, and they need to reduce greatly or stop the intake of alcohol. â€Å"One needs to have a lifestyle that does not affect one’s health† (Naido

McDonald and the Stella Liebeck Scalding Case Study

McDonald and the Stella Liebeck Scalding - Case Study Example McDonalds further maintained that this temperature was essential in maintaining optimum taste in the coffee, a feature most customers â€Å"prefer† to their safety. The court, while holding that McDonalds was largely responsible for the burns Stella Liebeck received from the scalding coffee moved to acknowledge that the plaintiff was partly responsible for her injuries. They based this decision on comparative negligence and the fact that the warning on the coffee was not sufficient. A company should be responsible for most but not all of the consequences of consumers using its products. The first reason why any company should be ware of consumers’ affairs is the fact that consumers are also stakeholders. In the realm of business, in most cases, consumers are secondary stakeholders. However, consumer’s intermittent ability to affect the running of a company (Gibson 245) should not be underestimated, case in point, the Stella Liebeck law suit. As such, accepting th e consequences of its goods and services, a company builds a foundation on which it can make profits while satisfying its customers. Secondly, accepting liability in regard to consumers ensures that the company gains the trust of its consumers. Gaining trust is instrumental when a business seeks a market niche and also to apply strategies such as cost leadership. From the actions of McDonald’s one can see that there is a clear need to fulfill customer needs for profit maximization. An excellent example is keeping the coffee extremely hot to maintain its taste. However, an intriguing concept is the aspect of duty and fiduciary relationship. Scholars hold that the interactions between a consumer and company should not reflect â€Å"a means to an end† character. Therefore, a company should pursue a fiduciary relationship rather than a duty oriented strategy. Fear of lawsuits and a dwindling market position should not be the only reason why a company strives to accept liab ility for its actions. Scholars such as Goodpaster argue that strategic thinking favors prudence rather than moral obligation. Society today is ablaze with ethical debates ranging from euthanasia to the rights of terrorists. The business world is not dormant on issues of ethics. A company by law and social stratification should consider the welfare of all its consumers regardless of the monetary ramifications. Philosophical ethics will argue against the actions of businesses with the claim that the self interest that causes them to pursue moral acts renders the act immoral. Gibson postulates that a company should treat its consumers as more than profit maximization tools thus the deontological approach. At this point, it is imperative to examine a moral act by the company Johnson & Johnson. In 1982, cyanide contaminated batch of its capsules killing more than half a dozen individuals. This led them to acknowledge fault, pull out 32 million bottles of the presumed contaminated produc t from the market and face crippling loses. However, after a while the company built its name again and regained its market position. This is what Gibson christens the bottom line. Despite the motive behind an action, the result is that both stakeholders were happy. McDonald fails in that it fails to accept rightful responsibility especially when the plaintiff requested medical