When Jargon Fails

When Jargon Fails When Jargon Fails When Jargon Fails By Mark Nichol Jargon has its purposes. In content pertaining to popular culture, when employing slang to engage readers and other consumers of entertaining information, concise and/or colorful slang enlivens the experience. But in writing about business and technology, jargon can encumber rather than enhance comprehension, and writers should take care to use it judiciously. Consider this sentence: â€Å"What ‘black boxes’ for validation and/or testing exist in the organization?† This sentence has a couple of problems. First, why is â€Å"black boxes† enclosed in quotation marks? Evidently, the writer erroneously believes that doing so helps signal to the reader that the phrase â€Å"black boxes† is jargon being used figuratively; unless youre referring to those little plastic cubes that hold paper clips, no object that can be described as an actual black box exists in the organization, and these marks supposedly serve as a disclaimer. But quotation marks are superfluous for this purpose; they are useful for calling out ironic or specious wording, like pacification in the context of war, but not for emphasizing metaphoric usage of words and phrases. Furthermore, however, is the phrase even useful? Think about various examples of figurative jargon employed in business contexts: Talk about planting a seed, or restraining a loose cannon, or starting over with a clean slate, and colleagues will know what you’re talking about- its clear from the context that gardening, artillery, and chalkboards are not under discussion. But what is a black box? The term alludes here to a device- which is no longer black nor shaped like a box- used in aircraft to make an audio recording of the actions taking place in the cockpit during flight; a black box can be retrieved from a plane after a crash to determine the cause of the accident. This is a pertinent metaphor for a mechanism for documenting validation and/or testing of organizational processes or systems, but because â€Å"black box,† though familiar to readers, is not as transparent in meaning as many other examples of figurative jargon, the reader will have to pause and analyze the analogy, which distracts from the reading experience. Would it be helpful to provide a gloss, or a brief definition of the jargon? That would be useful if the entire article were about a documentation mechanism. But in the context from which the sentence about black boxes was extracted, it is simply a passing reference, and defining the phrase would be merely a further distraction. In this case, the best solution is to replace the jargon with a phrase that clearly expresses the intended idea: â€Å"What mechanisms for documenting validation and/or testing exist in the organization?† When writing or editing in any context, evaluate whether jargon or other slang serves communication or itself (or, worse yet, the writer’s ego), and retain or revise accordingly. 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 Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Meaning of "To a T"The Parts of a Word5 Examples of Misplaced Modifiers

How Delphi Uses Resource Files

How Delphi Uses Resource Files From bitmaps to icons to cursors to string tables, every Windows program uses resources.  Resources  are those elements of a program that support the program but are not executable code. In this article, we will walk through some examples of the use of bitmaps, icons, and cursors from resources. Location of Resources Placing resources in the .exe file has two main  advantages: The resources can be accessed more quickly because it takes less time to locate a resource in the executable file than it does to load it from a disk file.The program file and resources can be contained in a single unit (the .exe file) without the need for a lot of supporting files. The Image Editor First of  all, we need to create a resource file. The default extension for resource files is  .RES. Resource files can be created with  Delphis Image Editor. You can name the resource file anything you want, as long as it has the extension .RES and the filename without the extension is not the same as any unit or project filename. This is important, because, by default, each Delphi project that compiles into an application has a resource file with the same name as the project file, but with the extension .RES. Its best to save the file to the same directory as your project file. Including Resources in Applications In order to access our own resource file, we have to tell Delphi to link our resource file in with our application. This is accomplished by adding a compiler directive to the source code. This directive needs to immediately follow the form directive, like the following: {$R *.DFM} {$R DPABOUT.RES} Do not accidentally erase {$R *.DFM} part, as this is the line of code that tells Delphi to link in the forms visual part. When you choose bitmaps for speed buttons, Image components or Button components, Delphi includes the bitmap file you chose as part of the forms resource. Delphi isolates your user interface elements into the .DFM file. To actually use the resource, you must make a few Windows API calls. Bitmaps, cursors, and icons stored in RES files can be retrieved by using the API functions LoadBitmap, LoadCursor, and LoadIcon respectively. Pictures in Resources The first example shows how to load a bitmap stored as a resource and display it in a TImage component. procedure TfrMain.btnCanvasPic(Sender: TObject);var bBitmap : TBitmap;begin bBitmap : TBitmap.Create; try bBitmap.Handle : LoadBitmap(hInstance, ATHENA); Image1.Width : bBitmap.Width; Image1.Height : bBitmap.Height; Image1.Canvas.Draw(0,0,bBitmap); finally bBitmap.Free; end;end; Note: If the bitmap that is to be loaded is not in the resource file, the program will still run, it just wont display the bitmap. This situation can be avoided by testing to see if the  bBitmap.Handle  is zero after a call to  LoadBitmap()  and taking the appropriate steps. The  try/finally  part in the previous code doesnt solve this problem, it is just here to make sure that the bBitmap is destroyed and its associated memory is freed. Another way we can use to display a bitmap from a  resource is as follows: procedure TfrMain.btnLoadPicClick(Sender: TObject);begin Image1.Picture.Bitmap. LoadFromResourceName(hInstance,EARTH);end; Cursors in Resources Screen.Cursors[]  is an array of cursors supplied by Delphi. By using resource files, we can add custom cursors to the Cursors property. Unless we wish to replace any of the  defaults, the best strategy is to use cursor numbers starting from 1. procedure TfrMain.btnUseCursorClick(Sender: TObject); const NewCursor 1;begin Screen.Cursors[NewCursor] : LoadCursor(hInstance,CURHAND); Image1.Cursor : NewCursor;end; Icons in Resources If we look at Delphis  Project-Options-Application  settings, we can find that Delphi supplies the default icon for a project. This icon represents the application in the Windows Explorer and when the application is minimized. We can easily change this by clicking the Load Icon button. If we want, for example, to animate the programs icon when the program is minimized, then the following code will do the job. For the animation, we need a  TTimer  component on a form. The code loads two icons from resource file into an array of  TIcon  objects; this array needs to be declared in the public part of the main form. Well also need  NrIco, that is an Integer type variable, declared in the  public  part. The  NrIco  is used to keep track of the next icon to show. public nrIco : Integer; MinIcon : array[0..1] of TIcon;...procedure TfrMain.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);begin MinIcon[0]:TIcon.Create; MinIcon[1]:TIcon.Create; MinIcon[0].Handle:LoadIcon(hInstance,ICOOK); MinIcon[1].Handle:LoadIcon(hInstance,ICOFOLD); NrIco:0; Timer1.Interval:200;end;...procedure TfrMain.Timer1Timer(Sender: TObject);beginif IsIconic(Application.Handle) then begin NrIco:(NrIco1) mod 2; Application.Icon:MinIcon[NrIco]; end;end;...procedure TfrMain.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);begin MinIcon[0].Free; MinIcon[1].Free;end; In the Timer1.OnTimer event handler, IsMinimized function is used to see whether we need to animate our main icon or not. A better way of accomplishing this would be to capture the maximize/minimize buttons and than act. Final Words We can place anything (well, not everything) in resource files. This article has shown you how to use resources to use/display bitmap, cursor or an icon in your Delphi application. Note: When we save a Delphi project to the disk, Delphi automatically creates one .RES file that has the same name as the project (if nothing else, the main icon of the project is inside). Although we can alter this resource file, this is not advisable.

Protest Movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Protest Movements - Essay Example People usually relate protests with a lot of negativity, however, protest movement is a form of negotiation tactic that most people adapt to air out their views and makes their voices be heard. The most frequently used protest tactics during protest movements are strikes and mass demonstrations, and most states allow individuals to demonstrate more so they encourage peaceful demonstration as opposed to chaotic protests. The street protest participants should not involve themselves in activities like looting, steal, of commit other forms of crime. Peaceful demonstrations are in most cases successful. In most cases, inequality and discrimination in the society are some of the leading factors that trigger protest movements. Protest movements are very useful in the society and they enable people to talk about their feelings and address issues affecting them. However, protest movements can as well be very destructive especially chaotic demonstrations and interfere with the wellbeing of in dividuals in the society. Today, many states offer individuals with the freedom to protest or engage in protest movements as a way of sharing their views and feeling on certain issues affecting them and the society at large. Truly, freedom of expression is a constitutional right of every one in many nations today. This includes freedom of protest and demonstration among other social movements. For instance, In the United States, individuals’ right to free speech is outlined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution and so every American has the freedom to protest but without arms. Apart from being a constitutional right, protests are like democracy in action. In democratic nations, citizens have a right to share their opinions peacefully without any chaos involved. They are free to protest on different issues including unemployment and some government policies among others. Democracy does not only involving casting votes but also

Human Resources Administration Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Human Resources Administration - Assignment Example The third step is in the wake of understanding that more efforts would be needed to move things from one place to another if unions are formed, and hence it would be a good idea to do away with the same, right from the outset of such understandings. The fourth step is in making the employees comprehend that if they avoid unions, they will reap the rewards themselves because more work will be done in a lesser amount of time, and hence their benefits would be ensured easily. The fifth and last step is in the form of gaining an idea that unions leave a very negative perspective of the company and no employee would like to be seen as a hindrance within the smooth working tenets of an organization. Hence forming unions needs to be avoided at all costs. The reason for choosing these five points is because they give an overall view of how the unions need to be avoided at all costs. It also makes one realize where the negativity creeps in and what needs to be done to make sure that the employees remain steadfast with their respective domains. The cost, time and effort factors are pertinent for any business and should always be thought out of as such. If these aspects are not properly covered, then unions will come in and hence the focus of the organization would shift as a result of the same. Employees would ask for more favors from the organizational tenets and there would be more instances of collective demonstrations and upheaval for all the wrong reasons (Ferris, 2012). From an organizational standpoint, this cannot be tolerated at all because these document how improper the standards of the individuals working within the organizations are at the end of the day. It also dictates the anomaly that comes about for an organization be cause it has to see which employees are loyal to the core, and which ones are creating problems for its business operations,

Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 Essay Example for Free

Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 Essay Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924, also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, was one of the federal laws of the United States that limited the quantity of immigrants to United States from any country to a certain percentage of the total number of people from that country who were already living in the United States based on the 1890 Census. As for the case of Immigration Act of 1924, only two percent f the total number of people already living in United States from other country since 1890 can only be admitted (Historicaldocuments. com 1). In fact, the Immigration Act of 1924 superseded the Emergency Quota of 1921, which required three percent of the total number of people already leaving in United States from other countries in 1910, in order to further intensify the lowering down of the total number of immigrants to the United States from other country. Specifically, the said law aimed to restrict Europeans especially those coming from the Eastern and Southern part of the said region including East Asians and Asian Indians among those regions that were restricted by the federal government of the United States from immigrating into their country. Furthermore, this act also barred all immigrants that were considered by the federal government as ineligible for citizenship based on the race, the region where a certain foreigner came from. Like for the case of those people from Eastern and Southern Europe as well as those people from the East Asia and Asian Indians was being prohibited by the federal government from naturalizing themselves into being an American citizen. Among of those countries that were greatly affected by the promulgation of the said law, it is Japan who showed great protest and actually requested the United States to move the said laws on the case of the Japanese. But at the end of the day, the federal government stick to their stand and continued the implementation of Immigration Act of 1924. Furthermore, the main argument of the Japanese why they were protesting on the said act was the clear violation of United States on the Gentleman’s Agreement. Now, it was deemed that this clash between United States and Japan caused great tension between the two countries and this served as the ground for Japan to become an ally of Germans during World War II. Now as for the scope of this paper, chains of events will be discussed and revealed on how the passing of Immigration Act of 1924 led Japan towards their collaboration with the Germans on the Second World War (UShistory. com 1). Early Years of Immigration to United States In the 1860s and 1870s the Chinese, most of them were men, made up of some 10 to 15 percent of the population of many western states. After the Chinese Exclusion Act as well as the filling of the West by pioneers, that the percentage must be dropped rapidly. Still, the Chinese population in the country continues to grow mainly because of the high birth rates and Chinese immigration to Canada. From 1870 to 1920 around 25 million immigrants entered the United States wherein the Southeastern Europe provided nearly 3,500,000 immigrants between 1900 and1920. While Italy on the other hand, contributed to around 3,100,000 immigrants to the United States and Russia as well as Poland contributed to around 2,500,000 immigrants. Moreover, there were more Japanese immigrants as compared to Mexico and France. In 1882, around 30,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States brining the total of number of Chinese in US to 150,000. This is also the year where the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the government that limits the number of Chinese that can enter the United States based on a certain percentage. This Chinese Exclusion Act is effective after 10 years and will deem to be permanent until the twentieth century. By 1908 to 1914, federal officials recorded 6,800,000 arrivals of foreign immigrants to the United States while on the other hand only 2,000,000 departures were accounted. Moreover, ninety two percent of the total number of people arrived to United States on 1910 said that they were about to join their friends and relatives that had been living in the United States plus the fact that almost ninety percent of all the immigrants settled either North or West while leaving a small percentage to drop into the South. By 1910, foreign-born men and women comprised about 53 percent of the national industrial labor force and 75 percent of the populations in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Boston were made up of immigrants and their children. By 1916 in San Francisco, 75 percent of the total population regarded a foreign language as a primary tongue. Japanese Immigration to United States Japanese Immigrants to United States Started in 1880s when large number of farmers from Southern Japan moved to United States. There were no legislations that prohibited or regulate the number of immigrants to United States during those times regardless of from what country an immigrant came from. What caused the Japanese people to migrate to United States was the disenfranchisement of the regions of Japan from the industrial and land reforms during the â€Å"Meiji Restoration† thinking that they can improve their status of living from moving to another country. With the booming of sugar plantations in Hawaii, a lot of Japanese workers migrated on the said state of US and then later on moved forward to California. By the early 1900’s, Pres. Roosevelt mandated the San Francisco School Board to withdraw the order regarding the segregation of Japanese school children in exchange of Japan’s rein in on emigration of peasants and laborers to the United States. After this event, the Japanese government entered an agreement with the federal government of the United States agreeing upon to regulate the number and type of Japanese that can only be allowed to immigrate to United States which was widely known as the Gentleman’s Agreement (State. gov 1). Moreover, the Japanese government only permitted those educated Japanese citizens to immigrate to United States and restricting the immigration of laborers regardless if they were skilled or unskilled.

Analysis of a Story in the Newspaper -- Media Publication

Introduction ‘News media investigate, analyze, and report to stakeholder publics on issues and event s that occur around the globe in a twenty-four-hour, 365-day news cycle’ (Richard,2007:98). Because of the way news media works, we know what is happening in the world and we can have ‘connection’ to other places. With new media arising, the information transmission process become even faster. Though new media is getting more prevalent, still, a considerable amount of people rely on one of the traditional news media – newspaper. Facing the competition, the way news reported may change as newspapers ‘need to maintain large circulation figures to stay profitable’ (Bignell 1997:83). This directly affects how news is presented. To make news appeal to readers, information may under ‘design’ as mentioned by Thorne (2008), the function of newspapers in the 21st century is not only ‘referential’, ‘ entertainment has become equally important in the battle to win readers’(P.262). In this paper, a piece of news was taken from WiseNews for analysis. It was an event occupied a large coverage in newspaper and caught lots of public attention – The Manila Hostage Incident. I would like to see how journalist presents the story to their readers through looking at its structure and the use of language. Information Flow In reporting the news, journalist adopts the story-telling approach. ‘Journalists are professional story-teller of our age’ (Bell,1991:147). When reporting an incident. Journalists tend not to simply report the fact in each paragraph without linking the information together. Instead, they tend to make the piece of text into a story. Headline Te headline is considered as ‘an abstract of the abstract’ (Bell, 1991:149)... ...authority. Appraisal elements are used to align readers including concession, modality and appreciation. Echoing Bell (2004), journalists are ‘story teller’. When presenting news to readers, they do not simply report facts but tell a story by the use of certain format and lexical choices. Works Cited Bell, A. (1991). The Language of News Media. UK: Blackwell Publishers Bignell, J. (1997). Media semiotics. New York: Manchester University Press Kessler, L. and MnDonald, D. (1989). Mastering Writing with Substance and Style. USA: Wadsworth, Inc. Martin, J.R. and Rose, D. (2007). Working with Discourse. London: Continuum. Reah, D. (2002). The Language of Newspapers. NY: Routledge Richard, S. (2007). Media Relations. Australia: Oxford University Press. Thorne,S.(2008). Mastering Advanced English Language. Great Britain: Cromwell Press Ltd.

How far was Lloyd Georges fall from grace in 1922 the result of his own mistakes after 1918? Essay

A general election held in 1918 gave Lloyd George and the Conservative coalition a very comfortable majority in parliament, but it also left Lloyd George in an untenable position. The coalition consisted overwhelmingly of Conservatives, meaning that Lloyd George’s hold on power was extremely weak. He could not do many of the things he would have liked to do in a purely Liberal government, simply because he did not have the support of the Conservatives. After the war, Lloyd George faced some very serious domestic problems. Firstly was the issue of the German reparations and punishments. There was a strong feeling in Britain that Germany was fully responsible for the war, and therefore should be punished severely. Lloyd George did not subscribe to this opinion. He felt that Germany should be punished, but not to the extent that it ceased to exist. He came to the conclusion that if Germany was effectively destroyed by war payments, it would leave a large power vacuum in the centre of Europe. Lloyd George was worried that this gap would be filled by the Communist ideals of the Bolsheviks. Along with this, the post-war depression that was consuming Britain resulted in a loss of popularity for Lloyd George. The new markets Britain were relying after the war had not materialized, and several of Britain’s old markets had found cheaper suppliers. This resulted in a large scale closing of many industries. The failure of both France and Russia to pay back their war loans meant that Britain in turn was not able to pay back the loans borrowed from America. This in turn resulted in a dramatic increase in unemployment, going far beyond the ‘intractable million’. In both of these situations, the Conservatives in the coalition were more than happy to sit back and let Lloyd George take the blame for these domestic problems. They began to notice his dwindling popularity and made no effort to halt it. The Conservatives were more than aware that they had a large enough amount of MP’s to have an overall majority in parliament, so for the time being they were content to sit back and allow Lloyd George to try and work Britain out of it’s economical mess. After the war, the vast gap in Liberal and Conservative policy became overwhelmingly apparent. The pressing issue of the continuing nationalisation of the coal mines caused many problems for Lloyd George. As a liberal, George was in favour of public ownership of the mines. Knowing that it would be impossible to convince the Conservatives to carry on with the nationalisation, he ordered an independent commission into the matter. He told the trade unions that he would abide by whatever was decided by the commission. Lloyd George assumed he had averted the matter by appointing a top judge, Mr. Justice Sankey. Lloyd George felt that Sankey was bound to want privatisation of the mines. When Sankey found in favour of continuing nationalisation, Lloyd George was in a compromising situation. He had already promised to carry out whatever Mr. Sankey decided, but he did not want to upset the Conservative majority. In the end, Lloyd George decided to do nothing. This greatly upset the trade unions, and resulted in a lasting distrust in him. The Chanak incident resulted in a similar situation for Lloyd George. Firstly, it widened the chasm between the two factions of the coalition further, with Lloyd George supporting the Greeks, and the Conservatives continuing their support of Turkey. More importantly, the Conservatives were worried with Lloyd George putting Britain at military risk so soon after WWII. This is the clearest sign of Conservative disillusionment with continuing the coalition. Lloyd George was also plagued by external factors he had no control over. An example of this is the change in leadership of the Conservative party. Bonar Law was an extremely influential figure within his party. He was good at persuading people to his point of view. His successor Austen Chamberlain lacked the finesse of Bonar Law. He spoke to his party about continuing the coalition only days after two coalition Conservative MPs had been defeated in by elections. This meant that at the time the Conservatives had very little patient with the coalition. The growing disenchantment with Lloyd George was only elevated by his style of government. During the war, George formed a small war cabinet that had the power to make changes in any area of the government. After the war, this continued. Rather than consulting his cabinet on important matters, he preferred to consult a small group of advisors. This obviously upset the Conservative cabinet, as their influence over Lloyd George was falling. Another source of discontent from the Conservatives toward Lloyd George was the so called ‘honours scandal’. After his split from Asquith and the original Liberal party, Lloyd George’s liberals needed a secure source of funding. To aid this, he allowed honours to be sold to wealthy people for a great deal of money. This was certainly not the first example of this happening, but it was the first example of it happening on such a wide scale. To further contribute to the problem, several less than savoury business bought themselves titles. The press caught hold of these affairs and made it commonly known, much to the Conservatives dismay. Examples like these show clearly that Lloyd George contributed significantly to his own downfall, but it’s likely that the Conservative decline in support played a larger part in his fall from grace. While Lloyd George was popular with the public, he was an electoral asset, but as his popularity among the electorate decreased, so did his support from the Conservatives. Backbench Conservative MPs were particularly upset with continuing the coalition as it meant they had less promotion opportunities as a number of cabinet places had to be filled by Liberal MPs. Even if Lloyd George’s popularity among the electorate had remained high, it is hard to imagine the Conservatives wanting to continue the coalition past 1922. The 1918 election had given the Conservatives the confidence they needed after having several years out of power. They realised they would have had a majority in Parliament without the Liberals in the coalition. While it is impossible to ignore Lloyd George’s shortcoming as Prime Minster in peace time, it is clear that Conservative disillusionment was the main cause of his downfall. Bibliography: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk http://www.llgc.org.uk â€Å"David Lloyd George – A Biography† Peter Rowland