Essay about Christianity and Popular Culture - 2609 Words

Christianity and Popular Culture In his classic work Christ and Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr asserts that the relationship between earnest followers of Jesus Christ and human culture has been an enduring problem.1 How should believers who are disciplining themselves for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7) relate to a world whose culture is dominated by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2: 16)? Culture is Gods gift and task for human beings created in His image and likeness. At creation humanity received a cultural mandate from the sovereign Creator to have dominion over the earth and to cultivate and keep it (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:15). But sins effects are total, and†¦show more content†¦The first group promotes Christ but tends to denigrate culture, while the second group promotes culture but tends to denigrate Christ. Both are unbalanced and are corrected by Churches of the Center that seek to do justice to both Christ and culture, though they articulate the relationship between them in different ways. Roman Catholics tend to view the gospel as the completion of culture. Despite positive contributions, human cultural enterprises always fall short of divine intentions and must be fulfilled by Gods gracious work of redemption in Christ and through the Church. Grace, according to this tradition, perfects nature. Christ is above culture and completes it. Lutherans, on the other hand, prefer to emphasize how the gospel creates remarkable tensions with culture. Christians are citizens of two kingdoms—Gods and the worlds—and faithfully fulfilling responsibilities to both realms creates enormous, if not impossible, challenges. How difficult it is to render simultaneously the things that are Caesars and the things that are Gods! Christ and culture stand in a relation of paradox. Finally, those who adhere to the Reformed tradition have enthusiastically promoted a vision of the transformation of culture. According to this viewpoint, the various cultural and social structures in this life can be renewed in Christ. No aspect of reality is alienShow MoreRelatedThe Dual Inheritance Within Christianity Of Greek And Jewish Thought1424 Words   |  6 Pages(1) Describe the dual inheritance within Christianity of Greek and Jewish thought. How were these traditions similar? How were they distinct? How did each contribute to the formation of Christian life and belief? Cite MacCulloch in your answer. Christianity has been heavily influenced by both Greek and Judaic traditions. 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Childhood Obesity Essay - 1717 Words

â€Å"At present approximately 9 million children over 6 years of age are considered obese† (Mahshid Dehghan). Childhood obesity continues to increase every year. Childhood obesity has a lot of causes centering on an imbalance of energy taken in and the amount of energy used. Factors of childhood obesity include children having obese parents; low energy expenditure which is a low amount of physical activity is a factor and too much television which is a cause for low physical activity time. Another factor that influences childhood obesity is heredity. Infants born to overweight mothers are found to be less active than other infants. Parents are the primary contributors of childhood obesity based on statistics, obesity risks, and government†¦show more content†¦Continued obesity after childhood will lead to many complications as an adult â€Å"Research shows that if a child is obese before the age of 8 and not treated, Adult obesity is likely to be severe.† (Bel lows and J. Roach, 2010) Children that are obese are likely to be obese as they grow up even before their thirties. â€Å"One study found that approximately 80 percent of children who were overweight at 10 to 15 years old were obese at 25.† (Bellows and Roach, 2010) This would affect the future of the United States because as time went on and eventually be completely out of control. Research today shows â€Å"As of today the United States is one of the most obese countries on the planet. 66.7% of the population in the United States is obese.† (CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health) The reason the United States is considered one of the most obese countries is due to all the fast food locations across the country. There are over 160,000 fast food restaurants across the United States that serve over 50 million Americans daily. While the food itself is unhealthy combined with lack of physical activity can lead to being overweight and eventually obesity. â€Å"Unhea lthy weight gain due to poor diet and lack of exercise is already responsible for over 300,000 deaths each year.†(New England Medical Journal. 2011) So with the rate of childhood obesity increasing, the number of deaths would increase. $100 billion dollars is the estimated cost to society forShow MoreRelatedChildhood Obesity : A Obesity1247 Words   |  5 PagesChildhood Obesity: A Review to Prevent the Risk Factors of Childhood Obesity in Our Community. The rates of childhood obesity Worldwide are alarmingly high! Obesity is a global nutritional concern and leads to horrible consequences on our children and becomes a worldwide pandemic. Worldwide estimates of obesity are as high as 43 million, and rates continue to increase each year. 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Twelve men Free Essays

Try and link views and values to the themes in the text where you can! Identifying views and values 1 . Identify three core views that you believe are expressed throughout ‘Twelve Angry Men’ 2. Write three sentences about these views using the sample below as a model Egg: Rose’s play challenges the audience to examine their own prejudice, exposing the dangers of prejudging, particularly in the court room. We will write a custom essay sample on Twelve men or any similar topic only for you Order Now 3. What does Rose value / condemn? Identify three qualities/concepts/ideas that you believe Reginald Rose endorses, challenges or leaves unquestioned in ‘Twelve Angry Men’. Justify your response. 2. Setting: Rose’s play is all acted on the same set: Analyses the imagery created by the stage directions at the beginning of the play (Para) Analyses the scenes that take place in the washroom. What is the purpose of this separate section of the stage? In what way(s) does it enable Rose to develop his characters (for example, what is revealed about their motives, attitudes and values etc) as well as our perceptions and responses to them? How does Rose use the New York skyline to reflect his views on the indifference humans can have to serious situations? (p. -4) What is the effect of the way that Rose confines the action of the play to the Jury room? How does it enable Rose to develop dramatic tensions throughout the play? 3. Characters: 1 . Provide character details for each of the twelve Jurors. You can choose to present your details in a comprehensive paragraph on each character, a character map or a chart. You should include: any biographical information: experiences such as: occupation, where they live / grew up the character’s personality and role(s) in the play: how they feel about the task, their reasons for feeling the boy is guilty (or innocent); their relationships, attitudes and values 3 – 5 relevant quotations for each character 2. Create a table detailing each Juror’s views on the guilt of the defendant. Chart how / why these change over the course of the play: Juror When swayed How swayed Evidence (look at stage directions in particular) 3. Now, discuss Rose’s view of each character. Is he sympathetic or unsympathetic? Admiring or critical? Affectionate or hostile? How do you know? Explain using quotes. Characterization: Characters views and values can be revealed through: Authorial comments e. G. Hat Rose reveals in the stage directions What the character says themselves How the character speaks – think specifically about the language the character uses and the tone they use What others say or think about them What the character does How their personalities and attitudes are revealed in their relationships How the characters attitudes and beliefs are challenged by others 1 . Choose three key moments in the text where Rose’s portrayal of the character reveals something about their or his own views and values. Outline this. 2. Find 5 stage directions relating to your character and explain their relevance – choose stage erections that reveal varied aspects of the character (egg: growth over time) 3. Create a word bank for this character 4. Write a succinct paragraph on how views and values are aligned with characters in the text. Remember to begin with a clear contention, provide explanation (about how the views and values are presented) and support with evidence from the text. (see example below to help get you started) For example: Rose depicts the Juror as a forceful and extremely opinionated man within whom can be detected a streak of sadism. He is hammerless and intolerant, and indeed, his lack of compassion is strongly contrasted to the humanity ND sense of moral obligation we find in Juror . This reflects Rose’s criticism of 4. Themes Complete a 200 word analysis of each of the themes below for the text as whole. Ensure you utilizes the TEE structure in your analysis: Topic: Introduce the theme and discuss the development of it throughout the text Explain and Explore: Give one or more strong examples from the text to discuss the overall theme e. G. Key events, reflections from Rose etc Evidence: Finally, use quotes throughout your analysis to strengthen your discussion. Racial prejudice justice and the Jury rationality and subjectivity ere pressure: the power of conformity civic duty(qualities such as honor, compassion, empathy†¦ ND the flip side of this: insensitivity, ignorance †¦ ) 5. Structure and language 1. Rose said: No one anywhere ever knows what goes on inside a Jury room but the Jurors, and I thought then that a play taking place entirely within a Jury room might be an exciting and possible moving experience for an audience. Discuss in detail the choices Rose makes to engage the audience in the drama of his play; to encourage them to reflect on their own prejudices as wel l as using the court mom to present his views on the importance of integrity and active citizenship. . Plot the tensions’ of the drama. What are the turning points? Where do they occur? Why? 3. Choose 2 Jurors and study the language patterns and choices. How do they speak to others? What tone(s) do they use? Are their word choices negatively or positively contacted? How does use Rose use their language to influence our reactions to them? Use examples to support your discussions. 4. Make a list of 10 stage directions, presented in sequential order, that show what is happening in terms of the physical action of the play. Explain their significance. 5. Make a list of 10 stage directions, presented in sequential order, that show what is happening in terms of the emotional states of the characters in the play. You could choose 1 character or various characters. If you choose one character, do not choose the character that you worked on in the group task. Explain their significance. 6. One of the key skills of this outcome is the ability to analyses the ways in which textual meaning is created. This means being able to identify narrative devices used by authors and the way structural and language elements contribute to a readers understanding of the key textual concerns. Some of the devices include: Narrative viewpoint Imagery (similes, metaphors, personification etc) Symbolism / Motif Tone / Mood – consider here Rose’s use of the storm, interactions / tension between characters Setting Colloquial Language Writers use these devices to shape our perceptions of and attitudes towards characters and textual ideas / themes. Find 10 literary devices Rose utilizes throughout the text and explain their meaning. Language / Literary Device (for example, symbol, imagery – simile / metaphor, use of setting etc. Textual Example (Quote) Meaning Created (for egg, how do we perceive character, what does it add to our understanding of theme, social context etc. ) 6. Differing interpretations 1 . For each of the following statements, find examples from the text that challenge or endorse the ideas presented – discuss why you chose them â€Å"[Twelve Angry Men] points up the fact, which too many of us have not taken seriously, of what it means to serve on a Jury when a man’s life is at stake. † â€Å"Numbered but not named, [the Jurors] comprise a cross section of American society†¦ Eire value for Rose is as social representatives rather than as individuals. † â€Å"What is uplifting is that Rose’s narrative shows the ugliness of racial prejudice, and then rational men turning their backs on this ugliness. The racist views do not hold sway for long. † Using the themes in the text, develop interpretative statements about the text that link two or more o f these ideas in one sentence. For example: Throughout his play, Rose critiques the oppressive and discriminative environment of McCarthy America, exploring the way some Jurors use the power of their rationality to attempt to sway others to share their point of view. Indeed, the 8th juror is aware of the effects and dangers of peer pressure and this is illustrated through his request to have the second (and possibly the most important vote) taken as an anonymous ballot (p. 18) At various moments in the play, the 10th, 3rd and 7th jurors do try to sway the vote to ‘guilty through the use of intimidation rather than argument. What can be interpreted is another clear message conveyed by Rose through his play is that this type of intimidation will ultimately be unsuccessful. Logic and reason do win out over endemic prejudice, but what the play also illustrates is that for this to occur, there must be voices who are prepared to hold true to their convictions. This is clearly portrayed through the contrast between the â€Å"[interrupting]† and â€Å"[shouting]† of Jurors 10 and 3 and the â€Å"[calm]† and reflective â€Å"[pauses]† of Juror 8. 2. What â€Å"truths† are revealed throughout the play? 3. Identify one character in the text that you are sympathetic towards and one you are critical of. Explain your reactions using evidence from the text. How to cite Twelve men, Papers

The Birth of the Swatch free essay sample

What changes in the production and marketing of watches led to Swatch? ?Before 1950s â€Å"home-made† effect Starting from 1950s watches were considered as very precious goods that only few people could afford. The production of watches was a craft that required accurate skills and mastery of jewels making techniques. Watches were considered as a luxury good as well as a â€Å"financial investment†. People spent a lot on them, had great care of them and used to hand them down from generation to generation. In this period the watch industry was dominated by Swiss producer, watch craftsmanship was developed especially in Switzerland; the country had a great â€Å"home-made† effect on consumers: people looked at Swiss watches as the best on the market and trusted the quality and value of such products. Although after the World War II many Swiss watch firms were forced to close because of the recession, almost the 80% of the world’s total production was Swiss: Switzerland was watch’s home country. ?From 1950s to 1970s low-price and new technology After 1950s the overall industry landscape changed, after-war time companies evolved into the development of low-cost watches. Such watches still used mechanical movements but were made by metals in place of jewels, so they were less expensive but still very precise. In this period Timex was introduced; it is a U. S. company that produces simply designed watches with cheap exterior, but durable and precise. Later, other Japanese companies entered this arena, selling low-price watches with good quality and they started to compete directly with Swiss manufacturers. Swiss watch producers started to fear competition coming from low-cost producers, and they felt this competition becoming stronger when Quartz technology was introduced. This new technologies created space in the market for Japanese and Hong Kong firms; such firms provided modern, precise and multifunctional watches that appeal customers of all over the world. Switzerland begun to be uncompetitive in the market, Swiss manufacturers refused to embraced the quarts technology because they believed that their wn watches were more sophisticated, more luxurious and more valuable than the Japanese ones; they believed that customers would have perceived the more value provided by their watch and felt like they were competing in an upper segment than other producers. But this was not the story; customers liked the new watches, they did not care anymore whether the watch was Swiss or Japanese, they wanted a nice- precise watch that could be provided by other than Swiss manufacturers. The new watches could also include jewels or fake jewels and this really appeal customers. From 1970s to 1983 – the newly born Swatch Looking at this situation Swiss watch manufacturers understood that something had to be done. First of all the two biggest companies of the industry- ASUAG and SSIH- merged and fought together against this new environment. It was perceived that a change was needed, not only a change in the product but also a change in strategy, in structure and in management. The new company’s objective was to have a wide presence all over the market, not only in the upper segment. At this point Swatch was born: to be present in the low end segment the company had to provide a new product that could be produced at low cost and that embraced the quartz technology, and Swatch was the right answer to all this needs. Basically three changes were carried on through Swatch: firstly the production was vertically integrated. In order to drive production costs down, the company had to rely a little on labor force and try to make the most of things automatic. Secondly, the material used was a cheap one: plastic; thirdly this new product had to have a new image, perceived as unique by all customers. Understanding these needs, and working on such changes Swatch started its way through the success. 2. Why was the swatch so successful? The success of swatch can be summarized from three perspectives, the first one is from Marco perspective, the second one is from industry perspective and the last is from the company perspective. ?From Macro perspective: When we talk about the success of swatch, the world’s economic development and the baby boom after the World War II can not be ignored. The following charts show that from 1950s the world’s population kept going up and the world’s GDP growth rate maintained around 4% annually. With the joint effect of the big population base and the increasing of personal incomes, the consumption goods industry got big step in its development. As case mentioned, some brand like Timex, Citizen and Seiko etc. , they segmented the watch market and threw the watch which had been considered as luxury goods into normal peoples’ life. Millions of thousands people can afford cheaper watches. It is the precondition of the success of Swatch. ?From Industry Perspective Referring to the industrial environment, the technology innovation and the stronger competitors pushed forward the Swatch’s success. First is the technology innovation. The new technology made SMH to bring its production costs down to Asian levels, so it became true that low price watch can be produced in Switzerland. People look at Swiss made watch as the best on the market in the same price level and trust the quality and value of such products. Most people chose to pay 10% more comparing with other low price level brand for Swiss made watch, so the new technology in watch industry help Swatch to succeed. Meanwhile, the emergence of some strong competitors such as Timex, Citizen and Seiko etc changed the traditional watch industry. By producing low price watch, those competitors segmented the watch market and created huge demand for watch as well as contributed to the technology innovation. As a giant in watch industry, Swiss watch companies may be just waiting to see what will happen and once they found the trend or real situation, they will try their best to win. The new technology and the stronger competitors, in some extent, gave the birth to the Swatch also contributed to the success of Swatch. ?From Company Perspective: As a later comer in low price watch market, Swatch got a big success and the management level’s wisdom is the key reason for its success. Followings are several main strategies which had been adopted by Swatch management level. a. Designs and Collections: Swatch got an immediate success when it gave birth in 1983 in most of countries where it began business. Dozens and dozens of models and several different collections which had been produced every year can be chosen by customers. When people especially for those who were born after the war stepped in to later 1980s, they were the biggest potential customers, and also the designs and collections were fit to their tastes. Swatch’s management level must find such kind of trend and made a right decision in the right time and finally got a big success in low price watch market. b. Conveying Swatch messages: By advertising, promoting and also setting up distribution channels, Swatch built its brand imagine to the world which made it different from other competitors’ brand. Through this strategy, Swatch offers its own culture to its customers and boosted the customers’ loyalty. Besides, there are other smart strategies we may dig further in the following section. All these mentioned are made by the excellent managers in SMH. The management level’s wisdom is the key reason for its success. 3. In what ways was the Swatch different than any watch the industry had ever seen? And how does its marketing mix serve this new image? The image of Swatch is high quality, low cost, personal culture, provocative and joy of life. All these messages conveyed to customers are strongly supported by its marketing mix. ?Price Revolution a. How low the price is? How much is the intended customer willing to pay for Swatch? As Swatch has is own loyal and stable buying groups, one of the main reasons for the success is its low price, just $40 in USA and SFr50 in Switzerland. The low price matches the groups’ buying habit, which refers to buying the favor on impulse without any hesitate. b. How can Swatch achieve this goal? Drastically reduce a watch’s number of components, cut costs by more than 30% in the competition, launch one of the cheapest watches on the market and position it as a fashion accessory. c. No discount There are no discounts about Swatch as the price is already low enough. There was no model for cheap watches as great sellers. Perhaps someone would come along and make cheap watches which looked very similar to the expensive ones and so take over the cheap watch market. However, the compensation is accessed: some sales activities, some little gift. ?Product a. Allowance Each pattern of Swatch has very limited numbers which make sure that each person wears different Swatch. b. Quality Although it has plastic shell, the quality is good. The good examples are anti-water, anti-heat and anti pressure watches. c. Function Recently Swatch begins to expand its market to more functional areas, such as sports, accouterments. d. Appearance and design Decorated by jewelry, it is one of the reasons that it is so popular. Nicolas Hayek, founder of the current Swatch Group, was convinced that the solution lay in a double-impact response: transform the watch into a fashion accessory, in such a way that each consumer can have more than one. It was clear to Hayek that the market was prepared to change its concept of the watch and pay little for a new aesthetic. With the born of the first line of Swatch watches in 1983, there was more than one and fulfill Hayek’s visionary idea: transform the watch into a fashion accessory. . Strong brand The idea has proved to be a powerful one. There was still another value to the Swatch concept. This was part of the strong branding. If Swatches were known to have a strong design element, then this became part of the branding. Swatches were recognizable both on the wrists and in stores. Others have tried to imitate the concept, but with less success. ?Promotion a. Swiss combination Could the Swatch have success if it had not been known to be from Swiss? The answer to this question is obvious. If a Korean company had started to produce Swatch-type watches, would there have been the same success? The combination of esteemed Swiss watch man-ship and the low price was needed for success. b. Confidence-high technology used If there is confidence at the value level then the other risks are reduced. Can values, as such, be pre-tested? This is not usually easy. There can be comparisons with similar values in other fields (like cheap airline flights) but the comparison may not be valid. You may want a cheaper holiday, but not a cheaper watch. With the Swatch the key point was the quartz accuracy. Without this high-tech ingredient, the cheap concept would never have worked. c. Advertisements In order to make more people know more about Swatch and match its fashionable concept, Swatch has the local and special ads in different areas in which all hires the big stars. For example, Li Yuchun was nominated as the first celebrity in Asia in 2006. ?Place a. Mono-brand store, the design of which can catch the customers’ attention at the first sight. b. Big cities, fashionable cities. Swatch chose location deliberately where they can target more potential customers. Trough a whole combination of marketing strategies, the Swiss company rescued an entire sector from disaster and invented a new concept of the watch as a fashion accessory, using a Pricing Strategy that was a precursor to the classic â€Å"good, pretty, and cheap†. 4. ZIPPO as another example as successful as Swatch Zippo, the famous lighter brand, is just doing the same thing as Swatch. ?Zippo’s History Zippo was created in 1932 by â€Å"Mr. Zippo†, George Blaisdell in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Since 1932 Zippo has produced over 400 million windproof lighters till September 3, 2003. And now Zippo produces about 12 million lighters a year. Zippo is similar to Swatch in many aspects a. High quality In many people’s mind, Zippo is a reliable fellow forever. World War II mostly increased the popularity of Zippo. US soldiers used Zippos to heat food in a helmet, light campfires, spark fuses for explosives, hammer nails, and also as the signal to fellow soldiers with the famous Zippo click and even save a life by deflecting bullets. High quality made Zippo experience tough test and acquired very high prestige. Nowadays, with modern technology and careful monitoring, it has achieved a very low reject rate of one in 50,000. b. Low price The original price for Zippo lighter was $1. 95. Zippo is mostly made up of brass or other cheap alloys. Some high-end models are made of gold, silver, titanium, or copper. Now the mainstream products of Zippo are sold at $15 to $80 each unit. Zippo is affordable especially for young men. c. Designs Collections Just like Swatch, Zippo delivers special message and distinguishes from their competitors by its provocative design. Many of their customers are attracted by the fantasy message. Zippo is also an emotional product. Each year Zippo designers create over 100 new and different case designs. Especially geared towards collectors, these are produced for a limited time or quantity only, and are generally replaced by newer designs the next year. A new design generally sells about 20,000 units, but with so many designs available there provides room for variety. d. Promotion Distribution As a kind of young fad, Zippo always adopts similar style of promotion campaigns with Swatch. Zippo has very similar distribution channel as Swatch. It is often pushed for shop-in-shop systems or mini-boutiques that exclusively on the Zippo brand in department stores. e. Collectors’ Club In 1990, SMH created a Swatch Collectors Club for its most ardent fans. Similarly, Zippo also formed the Zippo Click Collectors Club to better service these customers. 15 Clubs for lighter collectors have been organized in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and the United States. In 2003 Zippo founded the Zippo Click Collectors Club for Zippo lighter enthusiasts worldwide. Swatch is more than a watch. Zippo is more than a lighter. The most important elements of their message are the hardest for others to copy—they are offering their personal culture. That is the most similar and shining point of the two brands.

Islamic Law an Example of the Topic Government and Law Essays by

Islamic Law Introduction: Need essay sample on "Islamic Law" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Every country or nation has its rules and regulations to keep order in society. The United States laws are form through the common and basic laws of the British in 1776 after it gained its independence. Let me not forget to mention that those laws are in some variations are based on mosaic laws from the Judaic culture. However, the Middle East including Arab nations has the majority of their ruling through the Shariah law or Islamic Law. Most Arab countries have the system of combining both the religious and the basic law incorporated into their system of government. Through the course of the paper, first I will introduce a brief history of the Islamic Law in the Middle East and Muslim countries, and then a comparison of the punishments in the United States and then the same case in an Arab country. History of Islamic Jurisprudence: During the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad religion and politics were not apart, the political development was what encourage the spread of Islam. The forming of politics went alongside with the formation of the Ummah (Muslim Community). After the death of the prophet the separation is unthinkable and most Muslim states have their legitimacy through the law of Allah (God in Arabic). Religion is the foundation of the state and therefore, the state is a religious institution, so there cannot be a separation between the state and religion. The Quran has few legislative regulations against unfair business practices, and punishments for theft, murder and adultery but the passages are mostly for the inpidual in specific cases (Nasr, 1997). Islamic jurisprudence is assumed to have began in the circles of discussions. Where court decisions of early Islamic times were analyzed and discussed the regulations of the Quran and the Hadith to solve new problems. These discussions by scholars were the beginnings of the first schools of law. Under the rule of the Umayyads (661-750), the first Muslim Dynasty, studied the Hadith and considered it to also be of pine origin. This is why the Hadith has the same level of the Quran to be pine. Therefore, their beliefs is that if Muhammad really is the role model of the Muslim Community, than not only is his revelation but his behavior must be binding for all of the believers. The regulations of the Quran were interpreted together with Muhammads behavior as the local customary law. This had to be binding regulations to be found in the interest of unity for the growing Islamic empire (Tahir, 1999). College Students Very Often Tell Us: How much do I have to pay someone to make my assignment in time? Professional writers advise: Get Your Essay Before The Deadline Interpretation of Islamic Law: For Westerners, Islamic law may seem to be strict, but the main purpose is to guide people in a direction to live their lives in a pure and clean fashion. In the perspective of Westerners they may seem the punishments of those violating Islamic law to be brutal and cruel. But for many Muslims, these punishments are just and minor compared to the ultimate punishment that is in the hands of God in the Day of Judgment. As a result, Islamic law has a positive impact on the society by helping others through required charitable donations known as the Zakat. The law extends itself to every aspect of life from the usage of water from how to do banking (Seestani, 1994). Shariah Law or Islamic law is based on the holy scriptures of Islam, the Quran (Koran). The Quran is the primary source for Islamic law and is the foundation for Muslim scholars to achieved guidelines for different interpretations. Muslims believed that the Quran is the word of Allah (God) and what is written is considered to be sacred and it must be obeyed. However, the Quran is elastic giving people guidelines as to how to live their lives without any specifics (Surayya, 2000). For the clearance of confusion of the Holy Scripture, scholars began using the Hadith (narrations of the actions and sayings of the prophet Muhammad) to make specifics in Islamic law. Another source for Islamic law is the lijitihad meaning reasonable deduction, these allows for Islamic law to be adapt progressively and applicable in modern times. For instance, the Quran forbids the consumption of alcohol but did not include the usage of illegal substances such as heroine. The Lijitihad suggests that the reason that alcohol is forbidden is due to its negative effect on the human senses and society, therefore, heroine has the same effect and is also forbidden (Hathout, 1998). Considered to be one of the strictest codes of law ever written Islamic law touches on every aspect of life. The law dictates how to conduct business transactions, how to kill animals and marriage. The reason why this law is so tough is because it is a guideline of how people should live without being disrespectful, harmful or immortal. It clearly differentiates the line between right and wrong and has laws for the prevention of the person not to place themselves in wrongful situations (Mithani, 1994). Islamic laws are not made in vain and have good reasoning for their issuance, there just and for this it might seem strict (Crane, 1999). Those who are not part of the religion of Islam may perceive the punishments of offenders as medieval and to be cruel and barbaric. This view is due to the news reports about people in countries such as Nigeria and Afghanistan being stoned and having their hands amputated for committing crimes for theft or consuming alcohol. In Islamic law, punishments acts as deterrents to discourage people from breaking the laws, however, since most people who follow the law fear Allah (God) and these punishments are just and minor compared to the ultimate punishment sent to them by Allah (God in Arabic) on the Day of Judgment (Nizami, 1999). Compare and Contrast Islamic Law VS U.S. Criminal Law: Since the United States is considered to be a secular country which is the separation of state and religion. However, the criminal laws of the U.S are somewhat based on the Hebrew laws of Moses named Mosaic laws. One thing is certain considering both styles of laws that the systems in western countries have higher crime rates than those of the Muslim world. In the United States, since the culture of society is based on the inpidual, human rights, and the spread of democracy, it allows for the justice system to have laws that can slow down the procedures of courts. Judges have to be concern with no violating the right of the inpidual. However, because of this it allows for offenders to repeat the same crimes continuing to fill the correction facilities (English, 2006) . The difference in both systems is where does the legal codes reflects, the western society it is based on the human rights and in dignity of the inpidual, however, there are some judges who are going back through time to use punishments of public shame having an effect and lowering the rates of return (Taboo, 2004). Cultural and Social structures are the guide of the legal system in the United States, since there is no official religion it allows for the law to be less cruel because it is frown up in the western society. However, that is not the same in all cultures, the community is more valuable than the inpidual. Not all societies, believe in our same values and their laws are stricter preserving more their values, this is the reasoning for the Islamic Law in the Muslim world. On the other hand, the values of the Muslim world are different than those is the United States, their values are more towards the unity of society and the inpiduals behavior is a reflection of the ummah. The punishments are done to stop the inpidual from embarrassing the family and society as a whole. The purpose of their legal system is the preservation of moral and social codes that unifies the community. The community is the reflection of the inpidual and vice versa. Human rights and inpiduality are not important, as it is the status of the entire community. Islamic law enforces these values that are so important for the existence of their culture and values. (Nasr, 1997). Conclusion: Comparing both of the systems of laws, it comes to the realization that lower crime rate are shown in countries who have used Islamic law as a way to rule. The negative images we associate with the punishments of Islamic law make this countries less civilize and cruel but in reality these countries end up being safer than many places in the United States. On thing that Islamic law allows for compassion, unity and to help the less fortunate. This in some way makes the society responsible for everyone and not just those who have the money or the goods. Under Islamic law everyone must give a 2.5% of your earnings to charities and social services. The United States difference is culture and social structures values the inpidual instead of the groups and so its laws tend to be less cruel and more tolerant to the offenders. However, the laws become soft in controlling the behavior of the inpidual making it irresponsible towards the society. The monies it receives from tax prayers to maintain inpiduals in prisons should be place for recreation centers and for the improvement of education. This would allowed for preventative measures to control the inpiduals behavior among society. If the United States would try to create harder laws in it system people would stop coming crimes and respecting the state more. Our justice system could learn a lot from Islam and its law for the better of the government system in general. What it is clear is that Islamic law does have much of a compassionate aspect to it and has concern for those less fortunate, something that is not attributed to Western society. It is apparent that the negative feelings towards Islamic law by the West is due to ignorance and a fear for anything associated with the religion of Islam. The reasoning supporting these punishments under Islamic law is rational and collectively thought to be just by the Muslim Community. References: Chaudhry, Rashid Ahmad. (1989) Stories From Early Islam. Surrey, UK: Islam International PublicationsLtd. Crane, Robert D. (1999) The Essence of Islamic Law; Retrieved February 4, 2007 English Legal History Materials (2006) Rules of Law University of Houston, Department of History; Accessed on January 29, 2007 Hathout, Dr. Hassan. (1998)Basics of Sharia Retrieved February 4, 2007 Mithani, Abbas. (1994) Islamic Wills. Stanmore, Middx, UK: The World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. (1997) Islam; The 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Vers. 9.01M. Danbury, CT:Grolier, 1997. Nizami, Ahmed Mahmood. (1999) Islamic Law, Retrieved February 5, 2007: http://members.tripod.com/myislam/sources.html Seestani, Ayatullah. (1994) Islamic Laws. Stanmore Middx, UK: The World Federation of Khoja Ithna-Asher Muslim Communities Surayya (2000) Sources of Islamic Law [Discussion], [Online]: Available USENET Newsgroup: alt.religion.islam. Tahir-ul-Qadri, Dr. Muhammad. (1999) Islamic Concept of Law Retrieved February 5, 2007 from the Internet: http://www.minhaj.org/publications/Preview/islamic_penal_system/part_one/chap ter_three.htm Taboo (2004) Taboo Series DVD, Season 2, Episode 4 Justice National Geographic Explorer, Copyrighted 2004 Warner Brothers Video

How to Get 36 on ACT English 10 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 36 on ACT English 10 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring in the 26–34 range on ACT English? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible- to a perfect 36? Getting to a 36 ACT English score isn't easy. It'll require near perfection and mastery of both grammar rules and rhetorical skills. But with hard work and my ACT English strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 36 on English on my real ACTs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you'll get a perfect score- or get very close. Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 26 on ACT English or above. If you're below this range, my "How to Improve your ACT English Score to a 26" article is more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you've reached a 26. Overview Most guides on the internet on how to get a 36 on ACT English are of pretty bad quality. They're often written by people who never scored a 36 themselves. You can tell because their advice is usually vague and not very pragmatic. In contrast, I've written what I believe to be the best guide on getting a 36 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score a perfect ACT English score consistently. They've also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring a 36 is a good idea and what it takes to score a 36. Then I'll go into the 10 critical ACT English strategies you need to get a perfect ACT English score. Stick with me- as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it's important to know why a 36 English score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. In this guide, I'm going to talk about doing well on ACT English, rather than about raising your combined English/Language Arts score. The reason is that schools typically care much more about your ACT composite score rather than your subscores and ELA score. However, I'll still touch upon how to raise your essay score at the end. Final note: In this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 36. But if your goal is a 34, these strategies still equally apply. Understand the Stakes: Why a 36 ACT English? Let's make something clear: for all intents and purposes, a 34 on an ACT is equivalent to a perfect 36. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 36 than a 34. You've already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application. So if you're already scoring a 34, don't waste your time studying trying to get a 36. You're already set for the top colleges, and it's time to work on the rest of your application. But if you're scoring a 33 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it's worth your time to push your score up to a 34 or above. There's a big difference between a 32 and a 34, largely because it's easy to get a 32 (and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 34. A 33 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. So why get a 36 on ACT English? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your ACT composite score more than your individual section scores. If you can get a 36 in ACT English, that gives you more flexibility in your Math, Reading, and Science scores. It can compensate for a 32 in one other section, for example, and bring your average back up to 34. Princeton's 75th percentile score for ACT English is likely 36. Even though schools don't typically release their ACT scores by section, they do release SAT section scores. As a stand-in for ACT English, we can take a look at SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores at top schools. (I know ACT English and SAT EBRW don't totally overlap, but you do need to be good at reading and writing to score highly on ACT English.) Here are a few examples. For Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, the 75th percentile SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score is an 800 or 790. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have a 790 in SAT EBRW, or a 36 on ACT English. But if you can work your way to a 36, you show that you're at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end. Know That You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a milk carton. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a 36 on ACT English. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if language isn't your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in AP English, you're capable of this. Because I know that more than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how smartly you study. ACT English Is Designed to Trick You - You Need to Learn How Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? You've learned grammar before in school. You know some basic grammar rules. But the ACT questions just seem so much weirder. It's purposely designed this way. The ACT can't test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP English. It can't ask you to decompose Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. The ACT is a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. So it has to test concepts that all high school students will cover, like subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, pronoun choice, etc. You've learned all of this throughout school. But the ACT still has to make the test difficult, so it needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don't prepare, but it rewards students who understand the test well. Tricky ACT English Example Question Here's an example: find the grammar error in this sentence: The commissioner, along with his 20 staff members, run a tight campaign against the incumbent. This is a classic ACT English problem. The error is in subject/verb agreement. The subject of the sentence is commissioner, which is singular. The verb is "run," but because the subject is singular, it should really be "runs." At your level, you probably saw the error. But if you didn't, you fell for a classic ACT English trap. It purposely confused you with the interrupting phrase, "along with his 20 staff members." You're now picturing 20 people in a campaign- which suggests a plural verb! The ACT English section is full of examples like this, and they get trickier. Nearly every grammar rule is tested in specific ways, and if you don't prepare for these, you're going to do a lot worse than you should. Here's the good news: this might have been confusing the first time, but the next time you see a question like this, you'll know exactly what to do: find the subject and the verb, and get rid of the interrupting phrase. So to improve your ACT English score, you just need to: Learn the grammar rules that the ACT tests. Study how the ACT tests these grammar rules and learn how to detect which grammar rule you need in a question. Practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes. I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let's see how many questions you need to get right to get a perfect score. What It Takes to Get a 36 in English If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. As you probably know, writing combines your raw score on the multiple choice section with your essay score to give your final English score out of 36. Here's a sample raw score to ACT English Score conversion table. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Scaled Score English Raw Score 36 75 35 72–74 34 71 33 70 32 68–69 31 67 30 66 29 65 28 63–64 27 62 Source: ACT In this grading scale, you can earn a 36 only if you get a perfect raw score of 75. In fact, I've never seen a grading scale where you can earn a 36 after missing one question. The curve is also typically quite unforgiving. If you miss one question, you drop down to a 35. Miss two, and sometimes you drop down to a 34. Thus, perfection is really important for ACT English. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for a 36. It's pretty clear then that you need to try to answer every question. You can't guess on too many questions and get a 36, which means you need to get to a level of mastery where you're confident answering each question. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 36. For example, if you're scoring a 30 now, you need to answer nine more questions right to get to a 36. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my ACT test, showing that I scored a perfect raw score and a 36 on ACT English. OK- so we've covered why scoring a higher English score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Now we'll get into the meat of the article: actionable strategies that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Strategies to Get a 36 on ACT English What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness - Content or Time Management? Every student has different flaws in ACT English. Some people aren't comfortable with the underlying grammarmaterial. Others know the grammar ruleswell, but can't solve questions quickly enough in the harsh time limit. (As we'll discuss, the ACT English section applies VERY heavy time pressure. So you likely do suffer from some time pressure- we're trying to figure out how much) Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Take only the Englishsection of a practice test. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For that section, use a timer for 45 minutes. Treat it like a real test. If time runs out and you're not done yet, keep working for as long as you need. But starting now, for every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as "Extra Time." Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time. Get what we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie. If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score. Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out: Was your Extra Time score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of subjects, or a deep weakness in only a few subjects. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with all ACT English subjects. If YES (Extra Time score 32), then: Was your Realistic score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32, Realistic 32), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than two points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow at Englishacross most questions? Or did particular passages or types of questionsslow you down? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient solutions will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores 32), then you have a really good shot at getting a 36. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score- if they differed by more than one point, then you would benefit from learning how to answer questionsmore quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later). Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get a 36 with extra time, but score a 32 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get a 36. Strategy 2: Comprehensively Learn the Grammar Rules There's just no way around it. You need to know all the grammar rules tested on the test and how they work. In addition, you'll also need to know rhetorical skills that test you in your writing logic. You'll be asked to decide how to organize sentences and paragraphs together. Certain grammar rules, like punctuation, appear far more often than other rules. But because we're going for perfection, you'll need to know even the less common rules. In our PrepScholar program, we've identified the following as the grammar and rhetorical skills you need to know: Grammar Rules Punctuation: Commas, Apostrophes, Semicolons, Dashes Number Agreement: Subject/Verb Agreement, Pronoun Number Agreement Idioms and Wrong Word (Examples: affect/effect, neither...nor, there/their/they're) Parallel Construction Verb Forms: Tense, Conjugation Conciseness: Eliminating waste from sentence phrasings Sentence Fragments, Run-on Sentences Pronouns: Pronoun Choice, Pronoun Case Faulty Modifier Comparison/Description Rhetorical Skills Macro Logic: How sentences and paragraphs fit together Transitional Logic: How to connect different thoughts together Relevance: Determine whether a sentence is extraneous or fits in Author Intent: Understand the point of the author and writing techniques Formality and Tone There are a lot of rules, but they differ from each other in how commonly they appear on the test, and how hard they are to study. For example, Punctuation is the most common grammar rule on ACT English, but it only uses a few separate concepts. The Idioms skill is also very common, but it uses a wide range of idioms, such that each unique idiom appears no more than once on each test. It's therefore important for you to focus your time on studying the highest impact grammar rules. Our PrepScholar program, for example, quizzes you in relation to how common each grammar rule is, so that you focus your efforts on the rules that make the biggest difference to your score. Strategy 3: Do a Ton of Practice and Understand Every Single Mistake On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even one mistake on all of ACT English will knock you down from a 36. The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,200 ACT questions customized to each skill. The second step- and the more important part- is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes. Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason.If you don't understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again. I've seen students who completed 15 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but they're still nowhere near a 36 on ACT English. Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again. Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one- and find the source of each one- or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down. Here'swhat you need to do: On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you're even 20% unsure about When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you marked, and every incorrect question. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you'll make sure to review it. In a notebook, write down the gist of the question, why you missed it, and what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by grammar skill (eg Number Agreement, Idioms, Sentence Fragments) It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question. By taking this structured approach to your mistakes,you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Always Go Deeper- WHY Did You Miss an English Question? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't get this question right." That's a cop out. Always take it one step further- what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future? Take the Subject/Verb Agreement example I gave above (with the Interrupting Phrase trick). You likely already know how Subject/Verb Agreement works. But if you missed that question, you'd need to think about why you missed it (because the interrupting phrase made you confuse the subject and verb). Then you need to write down a strategy for noticing this in the future. Here are some examples of common reasons you miss an English question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Content:I didn't learn the grammar rule needed to answer this question. One step further:What specific rule do I need to learn, and what resources will I use to learn this grammar rule? Overlooked Rule:I knew the grammar rule, but the ACT question was written in a way that made me miss it. One step further:How do I solve the question now? Is there a strategy I can use to notice this grammar rule in the future? Careless Error:I knew the grammar rule and normally would get this right, but I slipped up for some reason. One step further:Why did I make this careless mistake? Was I rushing? Did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing questions. Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who study ineffectively don't improve. But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you'll improve more than other students too. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work.When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty ACT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: Strategy 4: Justify Every Answer and Point Out Specific Grammar Errors Many top students take a "soft approach" to ACT English. They learn the grammar rules when studying, but on the test they go "by ear": if a sentence sounds off, they'll assume it's wrong without thinking too hard about why. When you've mastered grammar rules, this can serve you well. For example, if I said, "The bee fly to the hive," you'd know this was wrong instantly- it just feels wrong. You know simple subject/verb agreement so well that you can tell something is wrong before you can articulate what exactly it is. However, most students never get to this level of familiarity with all ACT grammar rules. This makes trusting your ear unreliable for many rules. This is especially true for wrong word choice, like "Its a good day to be an American." Because "its" sounds the same as "it's," your ear is of no help here! What's the strategy to counter this? Point out the specific error, and justify it to yourself. Let's run through an example. This is a grammar question that needs only one line from the passage to answer: Here's what I'm thinking as I read the question (a stream of consciousness): " 'The Sun sets gradually the images of a winged horse'...this doesn't seem right. I know 'sets' can take an object, like 'Tom sets the bowl down slowly,' but the Sun can't set anything down, and especially not images of a winged horse. This has got to be a run-on sentence, but let me keep reading. 'the images of a winged horse, a drinking gourd, a heartbroken hero appear in lights overhead.' Yep- the second part of this sentence is an independent clause, and it's a run-on because it's improperly connected to the first clause, 'The Sun sets gradually.' So I need an answer choice that fixes this:" F: no change, which is wrong G: this has a comma splice error- you can't connect two independent clauses with just a comma. H: this looks good. It joins two independent clauses properly- with a comma and a conjunction ('and'). J: 'The Sun setting gradually' is now a dependent clause, but to join a dependent clause with an independent clause, you need a comma that's missing here. For example, 'The Sun setting gradually, we drove down the highway.' would be correct. Thus answer J is wrong. Now, I'm not literally thinking all these words in my head, but it matches my thinking process as I go through the question and evaluate each answer choice. You can see how I first identified the run-on sentence error in the original sentence. That made it very clear to me how I could find an answer choice that fixed this error. As you learn the different grammar skills and how they appear on the test, you'll start evaluating answer choices for common ways that the ACT tries to trick you. Is a verb underlined? I'm going to check the subject to see if it follows subject/verb agreement. Then I'll check the verb tense. Is a pronoun underlined? I'm going to check the antecedent to see if it matches. Does an underline come right after a comma? I'm going to check if there's a faulty modifier error. I can justify every one of my answers because I know the grammar rules. This makes my answering more robust, not just based on whether something 'feels' right or wrong. Note as well that in these questions, the ACT often fixes the original error in an answer choice- but then introduces another error. You need to make sure the answer you choose is 100% correct, in terms of both grammar and logic. Don't be intimidated if you can't do this right now. With practice and reflection, you will get to this point. Once again, it's like "the bee fly to the hive." You want to get to a point where all ACT grammar rules automatically sound as wrong as that sentence. Find patterns to your mistakes, and make sense of the chaos. Strategy 5: Find Patterns to Your Weaknesses and Drill Them Remember Strategy 3 above about keeping a list of every mistake? You need to take this even one step further. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in ACT English than others. You might know pronouns really well, but you'll be weak in sentence constructions and fragments. Or maybe you really like parallel construction, but have no idea what faulty modifiers are. This is especially true in grammar and ACT English, because some grammar mistakes likely sound obvious to you, but others are completely foreign. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. You have a lot of schoolwork, you might be an athlete or have intense extracurriculars, and you have friends to hang out with. This means for every hour you study for the ACT, it needs to be the most effective hour possible. In concrete terms,you need to find your greatest areas of improvement and work on those. Too many students study the 'dumb' way. They just buy a book and read it cover to cover. When they don't improve, they're shocked. I'm not. Studying effectively for the ACT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to cover your bases with a very thin layer of understanding. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew well, and they didn't spend enough time improving their weak spots. Instead, studying effectively for the ACT is like plugging up the holes of a leaky boat. You need to find the biggest hole, and fill it. Then you find the next biggest hole, and you fix that. Soon you'll find that your boat isn't sinking at all. How does this relate to ACT English? In this analogy, your knowledge of English grammar is the leaky boat, and the holes are the gaps in your knowledge. You need to find the grammar rules you're struggling with the most, then do enough practice questions until they're no longer a weakness. For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is and why you missed it. Once you discover patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this grammar rule. Let's say you analyze your past practice tests and questions and find that you're missing a lot of misplaced modifier questions. After you identify this pattern, the next step is to find good lesson material to teach yourself the main concepts behind what misplaced modifiers are and how to fix or avoid them. You'll also need to find more practice questions that test you on misplaced modifiers and drill until you're making few, if any, mistakes. This is the best way for you to improve your English score. Once again, this is exactly how I designed our PrepScholar online ACT prep program to work. It automatically figures out your greatest weaknesses so you don't have to. We use advanced statistics with data from our thousands of students. With PrepScholar, you don't need to worry about what to study- you just need to focus on learning. Because it's worked for thousands of students, I'm pretty sure it'll work for you too. Click here to learn more. Strategy 6: Be Careful With "No Change" Answers In ACT English, most questions have a NO CHANGE option. The ACT loves tricking students using these answer choices, because it knows that students who don't know grammar rules won't see anything wrong with the sentence. No Change is a really easy answer to choose. No changes are one of the most common careless mistakes- make sure you don't fall for them. Be very careful whenever you choose one of these No Change answer choices. Typically, these are correct answers around 25% of the time- not much more. (We actually went through and counted this in real tests). If you find that you're choosing No Change 40% of the time, you're definitely not detecting grammar errors well enough. Every time you choose No Change, try to double-check the other answer choices to make sure you're not missing a grammar error. Especially take note of grammar rules that you tend to ignore mistakenly. Like I mentioned in Strategy 2 above, if you write down your mistakes and study your weaknesses, you'll be able to know which grammar rules you're weak at, and pay special attention to. Personally, this was my most common careless mistake on ACT English. When I could see the error, I got the question correct nearly 100% of the time. The only times I missed questions were when I accidentally ignored an error. I solved this by double-checking each of the answer choices to make sure I wasn't leaving any stone unturned. Strategy 7: Think About Grammar in Everyday Life Among all subjects, English on the ACT is special because it appears in your everyday life. For school, you have to read a lot and you have to write a lot. Use these experiences as opportunities to notice grammar rules and sentence constructions. This is unique to ACT English. ACT Math is so bizarre compared to everyday life that you won't just naturally find ways to apply the Pythagorean theorem at breakfast. ACT Reading and Science similarly require very specific skills when reading a passage or chart. But you can practice your grammar skills throughout the day. Here are some ideas: Proofread your friends' essays. Challenge yourself to uncover every grammatical error. Read high quality, formal publications, like the New York Times or the Economist. These articles go through editors, so they rarely have grammar errors. You'll develop that ear for language I mentioned. Notice common errors around you. A lot of people comma splice, for example. Hold yourself to a higher standard in texting and messaging. (I know this isn't that cool- you don't have to capitalize every sentence and use periods, but at least use its/it's and their/there/they're correctly.) The more you think about grammar as a fundamental skill rather than something specialized for ACT, the more natural it will feel to you. Strategy 8: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at ACT English that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work. In high school and even now, I can finish a 45 minute English section in 30 minutes or less. I then have 15 minutes left over to recheck my answers two times over. As I've explained above, the best way to get faster is to get so fluent with ACT grammar that you rapidly zero in on the grammar mistakes without having to think hard about it. Try to aim for a target of spending 40 seconds on average for each question. This gives you enough time to double-check comfortably. What's the best way to double-check your work? I have a reliable method that I follow: Double-check any questions you marked that you're unsure of. Try hard to eliminate those answer choices. If it's a No Change question, double-check that you're not missing any grammar mistakes. If I'm 100% sure I'm right on a question, I mark it as such and never look at it again. If I'm not sure, I'll come back to it on the third pass. At least two minutes before time's up, I rapidly double-check that I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go five at a time ("A G C F B") for more speed. If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren't clear how you'll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a perfect raw score for a 36, don't be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and for now it's more important to get as many points as possible. Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers Here's a bubbling tip that will save you two minutes per section. When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct tasks- solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test. Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once. This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot. By saving just four seconds per question, you get back 300 seconds on a section that has 75 questions. This is huge. Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. Strategy 9: Read the Whole Sentence Most of the questions ACT English ask you the underlined part of a sentence should be changed. When you answer these questions, don't just read the underlined portion. To correctly answer the questions, you must read the whole sentence (or sentences, if the underlined section overlaps across two different sentences). Phrases not included in the underlined portion of the sentence often provide information that's essential for deciding whether or not the underlined portion should be changed. Let's go through another example from the ACT to see this strategy in action. If you only read the underlined word, you probably won't think there's anything wrong with it. "Consecutively" is an adverb modifying the verb "to speak"- nothing to change there. When you read the whole sentence, however, you're able to notice that because of the phrase "for twelve hours straight", "consecutively" is redundant. In the context of the full sentence, consecutively means "without stopping," and the phrase "for twelve hours straight" implies that she could speak that long without stopping. Therefore, the word "consecutively" is unnecessary and should be omitted. If you didn't read the whole sentence, you might not notice the redundancy error and would most likely select A. However, since the word "consecutively" is unnecessary, the correct answer is D. In addition, certain types of questions on the ACT require reading not just the sentence with the underlined section, but sentences before and after it as well. For example, you need the context provided by multiple sentences to answer some verb tense and paragraph order questions as well. Strategy 10: Experiment with Passage Strategies and Find the Best One for You The format of ACT English is unlike any high school English test most students have seen before. As a result, many students don't intuitively know which method of approaching the passages will be the most effective for them. Because you're already scoring at a high level, I can't say with 100% accuracy which approach will work best for you. You're aiming for a perfect English score, which means that if your strategy doesn't perfectly line up with your strengths and weaknesses, you'll make mistakes or run out of time. Rather than prescribing you one strategy that you must use for ACT English passages, then, I'll instead go through what ways of approaching the passage are the most effective. You can then try the different strategies out and see which one leads to the highest score for you. Passage Method 1: Graf-by-Graf Though every student is different, this is the one strategy that we recommend everyone at least tries. Here it is: Read through the passage one paragraph at a time. After each paragraph, answer the questions referring to that paragraph. Skip if you can't answer a question within 30 seconds. Repeat for each succeeding paragraph. The great part about this strategy is that it both gives you a clear sense of the passage and forces you to read through whole sentences before answering questions about them. The only drawback is that going graf-by-graf can be a little time-consuming, so if you struggle with running out of time on ACT English, you might want to consider one of the other passage methods. Definitely try going graf-by-graf first, though- you might be pleasantly surprised by how well it works for you! Passage Method 2: Answer as You Go Many students gravitate to this method by default because it's both straightforward and quick. We don't recommend it as our top method, however, because of its potential pitfalls. Here's the method: Start reading through the passage. When you come to an underlined word, phrase, or sentence, continue reading past it to the end of the sentence. Answer the question about the underlined word, phrase, or sentence, then move on. The answer-as-you-go method is great if you're using the graf-by-graf approach but keep running out of time with just a few questions left or if you find yourself distracted or overwhelmed by multiple hops back and forth between the same paragraph and different questions. Unfortunately, this method does have one major drawback: you won't get as thorough a perspective on a question's context, which makes answering questions about transitions or the paragraph as a whole more challenging. It can also fail completely if you don't always read to the end of the sentence (for the importance of this, see Strategy 9). Passage Method 3: Sentence-by-Sentence In this approach, you only read the sentences of the passage that include underlined words, phrases, or sentences. If you're running out of time with a lot of questions left over when you use the graf-by-graf method, this strategy might be a good option for you. The key to using this method is that you always have to read the entire sentence. Even if you do execute this method perfectly, however, it suffers from the same drawbacks as answering as you go: if you read through the passage a sentence at a time, you won't get as clear an understanding of the overall structure and context of the passage, which makes answering rhetorical skills questions more difficult. We don't recommend using this method if you're aiming for a score higher than a 25. Passage Method 4: Read the Passage First The final ACT English passage approach we recommend is skimming the entire passage first, then going back through sentence-by-sentence to answer the questions. Of all the approaches to the ACT English passage, this is the most thorough. If you find yourself missing most of the macro logic or big picture questions because you didn't really understand the passage as a whole, this strategy could be a good fit for you. For most students, however, this approach is more trouble (and time) than it's worth- the graf-by-graf method is usually sufficient for answering macro logic questions and is much more time effective. Choose Which Method Works Best for You While we do recommend the graf-by-graf method as a starting point for most students, we can't predict which method will be most effective for you. To figure this out for yourself, you need some cold, hard data about your ACT English performance. Try out each method on at least one (and preferably two) sample passages each, then compare your performance on each. If one method is a clear winner for you, go with it; if not, choose the method that's the most comfortable for you. Once you've tried out all the passage approach strategies and figured out which one works best for you, you must use it consistently with every ACT English practice passage and test. These strategies all depend on teaching you to approach passages methodically, which means that they will only be effective if you use them every single time. In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT English score to a 36. If you're scoring above a 26 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect English score. Even though we covered a lot of strategies, the main point is still this: you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. One last tip: try to keep a steady head while you're taking the test. It's really easy to start doubting yourself because you know you need a near-perfect raw score. Even if you're unsure about two questions in a row, try to treat every question as its own independent test. If you start doubting yourself, you'll perform worse, and the worse you perform, the more you doubt yourself. Avoid this negative spiral of doubt and concentrate on being confident. You'll have studied a lot, and you'll do great on this test. Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your ACT score. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read our accompanying guides on how to get a 36 on ACT Math and how to get a 36 on ACT Reading. Better yet, read my high-level guide on how to score a perfect 36 on the entire test. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 ACT essay, step by step. We also have a rough index to all ACT Prep info here. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Nitrogen or Azote Facts

Nitrogen or Azote Facts Nitrogen (Azote) is an important nonmetal and the most abundant gas in the Earths atmosphere. Nitrogen Facts Nitrogen Atomic Number: 7 Nitrogen Symbol: N (Az, French) Nitrogen Atomic Weight: 14.00674 Nitrogen Discovery: Daniel Rutherford 1772 (Scotland): Rutherford removed oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air and showed that the residual gas would not support combustion or living organisms. Electron Configuration: [He]2s22p3 Word Origin: Latin: nitrum, Greek: nitron and genes; native soda, forming. Nitrogen was sometimes referred to as burnt or dephlogisticated air. The French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier named nitrogen azote, meaning without life. Properties: Nitrogen gas is colorless, odorless, and relatively inert. Liquid nitrogen is also colorless and odorless and is similar in appearance to water. There are two allotropic forms of solid nitrogen, a and b, with a transition between the two forms at -237 ° C. Nitrogens melting point is -209.86 ° C, boiling point is -195.8 ° C, density is 1.2506 g/l, specific gravity is 0.0808 (-195.8 ° C) for the liquid and 1.026 (-252 ° C) for the solid. Nitrogen has a valence of 3 or 5. Uses: Nitrogen compounds are found in foods, fertilizers, poisons, and explosives. Nitrogen gas is used as a blanketing medium during the production of electronic components. Nitrogen is also used in annealing stainless steels and other steel products. Liquid nitrogen is used as a refrigerant. Although nitrogen gas is fairly inert, soil bacteria can fix nitrogen into a usable form, which plants and animals can then utilize. Nitrogen is a component of all proteins. Nitrogen is responsible for the orange-red, blue-green, blue-violet, and deep violet colors of the aurora. Sources: Nitrogen gas (N2) makes up 78.1% of the volume of the Earth’s air. Nitrogen gas is obtained by liquefaction and fractional distillation from the atmosphere. Nitrogen gas also can be prepared by heating a water solution of ammonium nitrite (NH4NO3). Nitrogen is found in all living organisms. Ammonia (NH3), an important commercial nitrogen compound, is often the starting compound for many other nitrogen compounds. Ammonia may be produced using the Haber process. Element Classification: Non-Metal Density (g/cc): 0.808 ( -195.8 °C) Isotopes: There are 16 known isotopes of nitrogen ranging from N-10 to N-25. There are two stable isotopes: N-14 and N-15. N-14 is the most common isotope accounting for 99.6% of natural nitrogen. Appearance: Colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mainly inert gas. Atomic Radius (pm): 92 Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 17.3 Covalent Radius (pm): 75 Ionic Radius: 13 (5e) 171 (-3e) Specific Heat (20 °C J/g mol): 1.042 (N-N) Pauling Negativity Number: 3.04 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 1401.5 Oxidation States: 5, 4, 3, 2, -3 Lattice Structure: Hexagonal Lattice Constant (Ã…): 4.039 Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.651 Magnetic Ordering: diamagnetic Thermal Conductivity (300 K): 25.83 m W ·m−1 ·K−1 Speed of Sound (gas, 27  °C): 353 m/s CAS Registry Number: 7727-37-9 References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001), Crescent Chemical Company (2001), Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952) International Atomic Energy Agency ENSDF database (Oct 2010)Return to the Periodic Table  of the Elements.