Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Free Essays on Plato Ethics

Introduction to Ethics Plato’s Gorgias Analysis of Socrates Argument with Polus Socrates Main Thesis: If something is wanted (P) for oneself then one must think that it (P) would be good for oneself. So, wanting something [P] (for oneself) requires one to think that [P] will be good (for oneself). Thus, it is a necessary condition for wanting something [P] for oneself, that [P] is good for oneself. Using this as his main thesis Socrates shows that tyrants do not have great power since they do not do what they want. In addition, they do what they want because they do not know what is good, and so they frequently do what is bad for themselves. Socrates Main Premises and Conclusion Polus: Tyrants and Orators have great power. Socrates: Tyrants do not have great power since they do not do what they want. And they do what they want because they lack knowledge of their good, and so frequently do what is bad for themselves. P1 = If one does something [ Z ] for the sake of some other end[ J ], then it is that end [ J ] one wants, and not [ Z ] the doing of an act itself. Simply: if one does [Z] in order to get (or for the sake of) [ J ]then * one wants [J], not [Z]. P2 = However, one only does anything [ Z ] for the sake of [ J ]obtaining good things for oneself. If one does something, then he does it for the sake of obtaining a good thing for himself. P3 = Therefore, one only wants to obtain good things for oneself. P4 = If one can only wants what is good for oneself, then he cannot want things that are bad for oneself. [Negation of Premise 3] Conclusion: [1] Therefore it anyone who does something that is bad for himself or herself, may not be doing what they want. [2] One is not doing what one wants if one does things that are bad for oneself. So, tyrants or orators who do things that are bad for themselves, do not do what they want. A Closer Look at the Logical Procession of the Argu... Free Essays on Plato Ethics Free Essays on Plato Ethics Introduction to Ethics Plato’s Gorgias Analysis of Socrates Argument with Polus Socrates Main Thesis: If something is wanted (P) for oneself then one must think that it (P) would be good for oneself. So, wanting something [P] (for oneself) requires one to think that [P] will be good (for oneself). Thus, it is a necessary condition for wanting something [P] for oneself, that [P] is good for oneself. Using this as his main thesis Socrates shows that tyrants do not have great power since they do not do what they want. In addition, they do what they want because they do not know what is good, and so they frequently do what is bad for themselves. Socrates Main Premises and Conclusion Polus: Tyrants and Orators have great power. Socrates: Tyrants do not have great power since they do not do what they want. And they do what they want because they lack knowledge of their good, and so frequently do what is bad for themselves. P1 = If one does something [ Z ] for the sake of some other end[ J ], then it is that end [ J ] one wants, and not [ Z ] the doing of an act itself. Simply: if one does [Z] in order to get (or for the sake of) [ J ]then * one wants [J], not [Z]. P2 = However, one only does anything [ Z ] for the sake of [ J ]obtaining good things for oneself. If one does something, then he does it for the sake of obtaining a good thing for himself. P3 = Therefore, one only wants to obtain good things for oneself. P4 = If one can only wants what is good for oneself, then he cannot want things that are bad for oneself. [Negation of Premise 3] Conclusion: [1] Therefore it anyone who does something that is bad for himself or herself, may not be doing what they want. [2] One is not doing what one wants if one does things that are bad for oneself. So, tyrants or orators who do things that are bad for themselves, do not do what they want. A Closer Look at the Logical Procession of the Argu...

Friday, November 22, 2019

How To Write For Social Media To Create The Best Posts - CoSchedule

How To Write For Social Media To Create The Best Posts Social media success requires strong writing skills. However, not all social media managers consider themselves writers. Fortunately, writing great social media content doesn’t have to be difficult. Not every post needs to reinvent the copywriting wheel, after all. Still, taking the time to get your writing right is worth it. Lets  learn how to write for social media and start creating better content now. Why Does It Matter If You Write Well On Social Media? Every social post you publish reflects on your brand. If you’re sloppy, your company will look sloppy too. Even worse, it could undermine your success on social media. Thats why its important to write well on social media. Social media copywriting requires some unique skills.  You need to be able to cram as much value into as few words as possible. You also have to be consistent and engaging at all times. Plus, every network is unique. What works on Facebook might flop  on LinkedIn. This makes becoming a master social wordsmith even more difficult. And thats exactly why we wrote this post. How To Write For Social Media To Create The Best Posts Consistency Counts (So Build A Social Media Style Guide) Keeping your social copy clean and within brand standards can be a challenge. Developing a simple style guide can help with this. A basic style guide can be one or two pages long, and should include the following: Mission Statement: This can be twofold:  why does your business exist, and why are you on social media? Audience/Persona Summary: Briefly describe your core audience on social media. Who are you writing for, anyway? Social Media Brand Voice: Describe what your social brand voice should sound like (casual, serious, professional, irreverent, etc.). Tone: Describe your social tone (helpful, funny, authoritative, etc.) Branding: List requirements for brand spellings (and other copy-related branding elements). Message Types (By Network): Not all content needs to go on every network. Create some guidelines on which types of messaging are appropriate on which of your social networks. If you need help building a style guide, this guide from Hubspot  is a great primer. TIP: Use the Social Media Style Guide Template included in this post to build your own style guide. Put Together a Social Media Writing Toolbox The first thing you'll need is the Social Message  Optimizer! It's the latest FREE tool from your friends at .  Ã°Å¸Ëœâ€° The Social Message  Optimizer helps you nail the mechanics behind writing amazing social media messages. That means it analyzes your message type, character length, number of hashtags, emoji count, and more to help you optimize the perfect message for every social network! When you use the Social Message  Optimizer, you'll: Stop guessing what works (and what doesn't). Learning and then remembering all of the best practices for writing on every social network is super time-consuming and tedious. Now you have a clear place to start writing every social media message! Just write, review your score on each network, and optimize further based on real data. Get immediate feedback to improve quickly. Consider the Social Message  Optimizer your expert who is always there to answer your questions. You'll A/B test your messages before you publish them to get the most engagement on each network. Get even more engagement than ever before.  Capture more eyeballs with your messages! Get more likes, comments, shares, and link clicks by using the data from  6,399,322 social messages to refine yours to be among the top 10%. Use the Social Message  Optimizer now. Grammarly We've all published a social post with a typo before. And we've all felt like this as a result: This is where Grammarly's free browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) comes in handy. It's a life-saving spelling and grammar checking tool. Install it on your browser, and it'll check your spelling and grammar on everything you write, anywhere (including on social media). Hashtagify.me Looking for relevant hashtags to incorporate into your tweets? Hashtagify.me should fit the bill. It's an easy-to-use hashtag search engine to help you find hashtags people are actually using. 9 Basic Social Media Writing Tips Like we said earlier, every network has its own quirks and best practices. However, there are some standard best practices that generally apply to most networks, too. Let's review those now. Start writing better on social media now.Understand Active Vs. Passive Voice Using active voice helps produce more engaging copy. According to PlainLanguage.gov, Readers prefer active voice sentences, and we should try to use the active voice in most of our business writing to communicate our message most effectively. Active voice clearly identifies the action and who is performing that action. Most writers are familiar with active and passive voice. If you’re not sure what the difference is (and were afraid to ask) though, then never fear. There’s no shame here. Let’s walk through each one: Hear the difference? The first example puts the subject (â€Å"I†) in the driver’s seat. It’s more action-oriented. The second example, however, sounds a bit more flat, factual, and lacking action. Writing for social media? Use active voice.Put Your Audience First It's rude to only talk about yourself. So, write in a way that puts your audience at the center of the story instead. How do you do this? Simple. Say â€Å"you† more than you say â€Å"us.† Here’s a good example from Threadless’ Twitter bio: Write Stuff People Want To Share This requires understanding why people  share content. Let's  break this down into five major reasons: Delivering value to their audience. People want to share things their audience will find valuable. This could mean content that’s helpful, entertaining, or otherwise worth paying attention to. Try writing posts that convey a clear benefit. If you create how-to content, consider writing copy that hints at what the linked article will help readers do. You can also create unlinked social messages that include a useful tip in your post copy or image copy. Here’s an example from Bobcat Company: To  express and define themselves. When sharing posts, people often think, â€Å"How does sharing  this reinforce my identity?† Use surveys or create personas to understand your typical audience member. From there, figure out how they identify themselves. For example, if you sell construction equipment, your audience might see themselves as â€Å"tough† or â€Å"hard-working.† Pickup truck manufacturers know their customers connect their identities to what they drive. This post from Ram Trucks capitalizes on this: To feel connected to others. Social media is about building connections and relationships. People naturally want to share posts that shows they’re part of something bigger themselves. They also like to share posts likely to start a conversation (so they can converse with other people). One way to do this is to write messages that encourage tagging and sharing. Like this: To make themselves feel valued. People want to share posts that are likely to get likes, shares, and positive comments. It feels good to share something your friends like, right?  You might also consider writing messages showing appreciation for your audience. To express beliefs or support causes. People love sharing opinions on social media.  You probably don't need to be told that, either. If it’s appropriate, take a stance on something or show your support for a cause. You don’t have to get too controversial (although sometimes a little bit of controversy is okay). Here’s an example from the United Nations: This tweet does each of the following: It promotes a cause (gender equality). It incorporates a relevant hashtag in the middle of the tweet. It uses positive language. It links to a page where viewers can take action. It also achieves each of these goals without being offensive or inflammatory. Before writing social posts, ask 'Why would someone share this'?Make Sure You Have Clear  Message-Match Between Your Posts And Destination Pages If your post is linking to an external page, then your post messaging needs to match your landing page messaging. In short, your social media content needs to follow through on the promises your posts make. Here are a few tips to keep in mind: Double-check that links are accurate. Only link to substantive pages with good information. And make sure your post copy is relevant to your destination page. Check out this tweet from Esquire. It’s written to stoke curiosity and intrigue. What will  happen on season 2 of Stranger Things? Who knows? I don't, but the destination page here better tell me. Once I reach the page, it’s immediately clear that the post copy directed me to a relevant link. The destination page’s headline is well aligned with the tweet, too. That’s a good thing, because if this ended up being click bait, I would have thrown my keyword. Don’t make people want to throw their keyboards. Make sure your social messaging matches your  destination page.Make Sure Your Copy Matches Your Visual Content, Too If you’re writing image copy, consider connecting it with your post copy too. Here’s a great example from Gary Vaynerchuk: See how the post copy connects with the image copy? One leads into the other to communicate one clear message. Here’s another example from the NFL that creatively incorporates a player’s number (in this case, Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers, the greatest sports franchise in history*): *Your favorite team is great, too. This creative campaign counted down the days until kickoff, including a different player down to opening day. Be Clear And Concise Avoid complex language and use short sentences. People skim on social media, so punchy posts tend to work better than long-winded paragraphs. Try to limit yourself to just one or two sentences, if possible. This isn’t a firm rule, but it may be a useful guideline to keep yourself from rambling. Struggling to keep your posts short? Try working through this simple exercise. Start by reading  this example post: â€Å"Here is our latest blog post about a very awesome topic you’ll enjoy.† This isn’t that bad, right? Well, there are a lot of wasted words we could do without. Let’s try minimizing stop words (is, a, etc.) and see how it sounds. We could also make the end of the sentence more specific, focusing on one detail to use fewer words. â€Å"Here’s our latest blog post about blogging.† Hear the difference? The second example says essentially the same thing. It just does it with fewer but more specific words, and sounds much better as a result. Clarity and conciseness are key for writing well on social media.Avoid Pushy, Overly Sales-Driven Messaging At least when it comes to writing organic social media content. While social ads need to be written to sell, organic social posts should be written to inform, entertain, or otherwise make a connection with your audience. That doesn’t mean you can’t promote yourself. It just means it’s best to find a way to sell people on the idea of taking an action without directly sounding like you’re making a sales pitch. Here’s an example from music distribution platform Bandcamp: If you must write a sales message, focus on benefits to the consumer. This tweet from Threadless lets people know there’s a sale going on without forcefully saying, â€Å"Buy Now† or â€Å"Shop Here.† It also uses a nice, clear image. Invoke Curiosity Write in a way that makes people want to click through. If you’re linking to another article or blog post, you don’t need to tell the whole story in your social media update. Instead, leave some details unanswered while implying your linked articles will answer their questions. What is the mystery on "The Curse of Oak Island," anyway?  You don't have to care about construction equipment to want to find out. Recommended Reading: How To Use Social Media Analytics To Create The Best Content Social Media Writing Tips For Each Network Every social media network is different. Different audiences. Different purposes. Different expectations. Your writing and messaging should be adjusted accordingly. Instead of writing one message for every network, tailor your messaging to each one individually. To do this, it helps to understand the purpose of each network, and what works best on each one: Consider audience expectations for each network when writing social media posts.Facebook Writing Tips With declining Facebook organic reach, sharp copy is now more important than ever. Keep Posts Short There’s some wiggle room on this one. However, data shows short posts perform best. Avoid Promotional Calls-To-Action Facebook’s algorithm can detect overly promotional language. This means wording like, â€Å"Buy Now!† or â€Å"Sign up here!† Posts with a hard sales message get demoted in the newsfeed, and with organic reach already in decline, that’s something you can’t afford. Write Shareable Article Headlines If you’re writing blog posts or articles, keep Facebook in mind when crafting catchy headlines. Think short, punchy, and conversational. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (And How to Build It) Twitter Writing Tips You can do a surprising amount with just 140 characters. Here are some tips to make the most of your tweets. Do More Than Simply Reshare Headlines As Post Copy This one is okay in moderation. However, it’s better to write copy that adds to the story your article is telling.  Here’s an example of what we mean: Instead of reusing the article headline as a social post, the post outlines the story in the article. This helps build interest in clicking the link, and prevents wasting people’s time reading the same text twice. Incorporate Hashtags Directly In Tweet Copy It’s easy to add hashtags to the end of a post. However, consider cleverly incorporating them directly into your tweets instead. In this example from Electronic Arts, a single hashtag is the entire post. This creates a clean look for your hashtags, and ensures they get seen. Get creative and directly incorporate hashtags in your social posts.Go Easy On Hashtags, Though Make sure your message isn’t lost in a sea of hashtags. Aim to use two, or maybe three, at the most. Recommended Reading: How To Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying Be Mindful Of Your Character Limit You have 140 characters here. Stay under that limit without cutting corners. Conciseness is no excuse for lack of clarity. If you can’t use complete sentences, you need to rewrite your tweet. Try Adding URLs In The Middle Of Tweets (Instead Of At The End) This tip comes from Dan Zarrella at Hubspot. This data is a little old at this point, but in 2011, he discovered that â€Å"the best area for clicks is about 25% of the way through the Tweet.† As a writer, testing this requires you to consider writing in a way that would let you place a link after just two or three words. Try following this formula: [Short Intro] + [URL] + [Longer Explanation]. Have you tried putting URLs in the middle of tweets, instead of at the end?Tag Other Relevant Accounts Within Your Tweet Copy This helps alert other folks that you’re talking about them. In turn, they’ll be more likely to share your posts. It’s win-win. Be sure to write your posts with other accounts in mind. Incorporate Emojis Into Your Tweet Copy Like it or not, â€Å"emoji† is turning into a language all its own. Used creatively, they can add a splash of character to your tweets. Check out this example from Sporting Kansas City, a Major League Soccer team: Tell A Story In A Tweet It’s possible to tell a complete story in a tweet. Here’s an example from Microsoft: This tweet outlines the entire article in under 140 characters. Recommended Reading: 15 Tactics to Boost Twitter Engagement (Backed By Research) Google+ Writing Tips Google+ is different from other social networks and allows for some interesting formatting options. Use that to your advantage. Write Compelling Post Headlines Google+ is unique in that it allows you to write bolded headlines. General best practices for writing headlines applies here. Don’t Be Afraid To Tell A Whole Story Google+ posts can run a bit longer than on other networks. Take advantage of that. Go into more detail than normal if you feel you need to. LinkedIn Writing Tips LinkedIn is a professional network. Here's how to make sure your writing reflects that. Be Clear Avoid using professional lingo if it won’t be understood by your audience. Be Concise Get to the point. Don’t ramble. Busy professionals don’t have time to waste. Stay Professional LinkedIn is a professional network. Don’t forget this when writing your posts. Stick to a professional tone. Instagram Writing Tips Instagram is a visual-driven network. However, the written word still has its place there. Think About Alignment Between Your Image Copy And Post Copy Instagram is a visual network, but the written word still has a place there. Write image copy that hooks people’s attention while connecting with your post text. Don’t Forget Hashtags Instagram likes hashtags. Don’t be afraid to use them liberally at the end of your posts. Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Visual Marketing On Pinterest And Instagram Pinterest Writing Tips Pinterest is a highly visual network, but that doesn't mean you can neglect your writing chops here. Write Longer Pin Descriptions According to a study from Dan Zarrella, descriptions over 200 characters long received more repins. That could be thanks to those pins having more detailed context around what they're about to entice people to click and share. Include Links in Pin Descriptions If people like the images you pin, they'll probably want to learn more about where they came from. Adding a link helps, and don't be afraid to add a call to action, either. Include Relevant Keywords in Your Pin Descriptions Including keywords in pin descriptions can help them show up in searches on Pinterest. How To Define And Develop Your Voice And Tone People expect social media accounts to have a consistent voice. Your presence needs personality, even if you’re representing a brand. Social media is about generating conversation. No one wants to talk to someone boring. This means you’ll need to develop a consistent voice. One that’s both true to your brand or personality, while fitting for each social network you’re on. What Does Your Social Media Voice Sound Like? Your voice is essentially your personality on social media. Are you fun? Serious? Creative? What's The Difference Between Voice And Tone? Voice and tone are often used interchangeably. However, there is a difference, and it's important to understand them both. Your tone is the inflection you apply to your voice. Depending on the context, you could sound happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion that's appropriate. Buffer's Kevan Lee may have put it best: Essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that refine that voice.  Voice is a mission statement. Tone is the application of that mission. How To Develop  Your Brand's Social Media Personality Start by asking these questions: What is my/our mission or purpose? What are our values? What kind of language and tone does our audience use? Then, try filling in the blanks here a few different ways: â€Å"We are ________ , but we’re not __________ .† An example answer here could be, â€Å"We are funny, but we’re not offensive.† Or, â€Å"We are professional, but we’re not stuffy.† The idea is to narrow down who you are, and who you’re not. Recommended Reading: This Is The Social Media Posting Schedule That Will Boost Your Traffic By 192% Are You Personable? Professional? Or Both? Social media is often used to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. That means your social media content has to compete against updates from people users are close with. It's a simple fact that most people don’t log into a social network to see content from brands, companies, or bloggers. There are exceptions, of course. In any case, you need to write to stand out and hook people’s attention. This requires understanding what your audience expects to see from you. And that might be hard if your brand isn’t inherently â€Å"fun.† So, what can you do? Know Your Audience Who are your customers? What are their values, concerns, and interests? It’s important to figure this out if you don’t already know. Survey your audience if you have to. You need to know who you’re writing for before you can understand what they want from you. Creating a social media audience persona might help. This essentially entails creating a character description of your average target audience member. Building personas takes a little bit of work, but it can help you get a clear idea of who you’re writing for. TIP: Know who you’re writing for on social media. Do this by running surveys, building personas, or even just listening to what they say on social media. Know Your Competition Seeing what kind of content your competition is writing can help inspire your own approach. Check out some of your competitor’s social profiles and make note of the following: What does their brand voice sound like? Does their content appear to drive engagement? If this company were a person, would I want to talk to them? This can give you an idea of what works in your industry. TIP: Pay attention to competitors in your space on social media. Note their writing style. Take inspiration from what works, and then do it better yourself. Know Yourself. Cat videos, memes, and other distractions dominate on social media. Those things might work for your brand. They could also be totally inappropriate. The key is to find the right balance between personable and professional content and tone for your audience. Start by defining yourself under one of these three categories: Personable. Your brand is fun, warm, and inviting. Professional. Your brand is serious, authoritative, and orderly. Both. Your brand bridges both of the above, tying fun content into more professional themes. How do you know which is best for your brand? One answer is to use common sense. If you’re a legal firm, for example, you probably don’t want to sound lighthearted. If you run a pet adoption center, however, you’d likely want to sound fun and inviting to get people in the door. What do you do if it isn’t immediately obvious which of these three categories best fits your brand? Try working through these three exercises to figure it out. Exercise 1: Determine Who You Are (By Determining Who You’re Not) One way to help understand your brand voice is to ask â€Å"We are ______ , but we are not ______ â€Å" questions. This can help you know who you are, and just as importantly, who you’re not. As an exercise, fill in those blanks a few different ways. Here are some examples: â€Å"We're fun, but we’re not goofy.† â€Å"We're informative, but we’re not boring.† â€Å"We're authoritative, but we’re not arrogant.† Exercise 2: Try Summarizing Your Brand In Just Three Adjectives Another idea is to simply think of three adjectives that describe your brand. In traditional advertising parlance, this could be thought of as a â€Å"tag line.† According to The Balance, A variant of a branding slogan, a tagline can be used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create  a memorable dramatic phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of an audio/visual product, or to reinforce and strengthen the audience's memory of a literary product. Your mission (should you choose to accept it), is to do one of the following: Keep your company’s existing tag line in mind when writing on social media. Ask yourself, â€Å"How does this messaging support or reflect what we’re about?† Come up with a new tagline. It doesn’t have to be one you use publicly. It could even just a short phrase you use internally to guide your copy. Let’s try developing a simple tagline using three adjectives. Taglines can be short phrases (typically no longer than five to seven words), but we’ll make this easy. The goal is to help you summarize who you are, in order to inform your social media voice. Start by choosing three adjectives that fall into one or all of the categories below: An adjective describing what you do. Another addressing how you do it. One more pertaining to why you do it. Let’s say you run a car dealership. What are some things you might value? Honesty Experience Quality service Put that together, and you could come up with a tagline like: Honest. Experience. Quality. How To Write For Social Media To Create The Best Posts Social media success requires strong writing skills. However, not all social media managers consider themselves writers. Fortunately, writing great social media content doesn’t have to be difficult. Not every post needs to reinvent the copywriting wheel, after all. Still, taking the time to get your writing right is worth it. Lets  learn how to write for social media and start creating better content now. Why Does It Matter If You Write Well On Social Media? Every social post you publish reflects on your brand. If you’re sloppy, your company will look sloppy too. Even worse, it could undermine your success on social media. Thats why its important to write well on social media. Social media copywriting requires some unique skills.  You need to be able to cram as much value into as few words as possible. You also have to be consistent and engaging at all times. Plus, every network is unique. What works on Facebook might flop  on LinkedIn. This makes becoming a master social wordsmith even more difficult. And thats exactly why we wrote this post. How To Write For Social Media To Create The Best Posts Consistency Counts (So Build A Social Media Style Guide) Keeping your social copy clean and within brand standards can be a challenge. Developing a simple style guide can help with this. A basic style guide can be one or two pages long, and should include the following: Mission Statement: This can be twofold:  why does your business exist, and why are you on social media? Audience/Persona Summary: Briefly describe your core audience on social media. Who are you writing for, anyway? Social Media Brand Voice: Describe what your social brand voice should sound like (casual, serious, professional, irreverent, etc.). Tone: Describe your social tone (helpful, funny, authoritative, etc.) Branding: List requirements for brand spellings (and other copy-related branding elements). Message Types (By Network): Not all content needs to go on every network. Create some guidelines on which types of messaging are appropriate on which of your social networks. If you need help building a style guide, this guide from Hubspot  is a great primer. TIP: Use the Social Media Style Guide Template included in this post to build your own style guide. Put Together a Social Media Writing Toolbox The first thing you'll need is the Social Message  Optimizer! It's the latest FREE tool from your friends at .  Ã°Å¸Ëœâ€° The Social Message  Optimizer helps you nail the mechanics behind writing amazing social media messages. That means it analyzes your message type, character length, number of hashtags, emoji count, and more to help you optimize the perfect message for every social network! When you use the Social Message  Optimizer, you'll: Stop guessing what works (and what doesn't). Learning and then remembering all of the best practices for writing on every social network is super time-consuming and tedious. Now you have a clear place to start writing every social media message! Just write, review your score on each network, and optimize further based on real data. Get immediate feedback to improve quickly. Consider the Social Message  Optimizer your expert who is always there to answer your questions. You'll A/B test your messages before you publish them to get the most engagement on each network. Get even more engagement than ever before.  Capture more eyeballs with your messages! Get more likes, comments, shares, and link clicks by using the data from  6,399,322 social messages to refine yours to be among the top 10%. Use the Social Message  Optimizer now. Grammarly We've all published a social post with a typo before. And we've all felt like this as a result: This is where Grammarly's free browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) comes in handy. It's a life-saving spelling and grammar checking tool. Install it on your browser, and it'll check your spelling and grammar on everything you write, anywhere (including on social media). Hashtagify.me Looking for relevant hashtags to incorporate into your tweets? Hashtagify.me should fit the bill. It's an easy-to-use hashtag search engine to help you find hashtags people are actually using. 9 Basic Social Media Writing Tips Like we said earlier, every network has its own quirks and best practices. However, there are some standard best practices that generally apply to most networks, too. Let's review those now. Start writing better on social media now.Understand Active Vs. Passive Voice Using active voice helps produce more engaging copy. According to PlainLanguage.gov, Readers prefer active voice sentences, and we should try to use the active voice in most of our business writing to communicate our message most effectively. Active voice clearly identifies the action and who is performing that action. Most writers are familiar with active and passive voice. If you’re not sure what the difference is (and were afraid to ask) though, then never fear. There’s no shame here. Let’s walk through each one: Hear the difference? The first example puts the subject (â€Å"I†) in the driver’s seat. It’s more action-oriented. The second example, however, sounds a bit more flat, factual, and lacking action. Writing for social media? Use active voice.Put Your Audience First It's rude to only talk about yourself. So, write in a way that puts your audience at the center of the story instead. How do you do this? Simple. Say â€Å"you† more than you say â€Å"us.† Here’s a good example from Threadless’ Twitter bio: Write Stuff People Want To Share This requires understanding why people  share content. Let's  break this down into five major reasons: Delivering value to their audience. People want to share things their audience will find valuable. This could mean content that’s helpful, entertaining, or otherwise worth paying attention to. Try writing posts that convey a clear benefit. If you create how-to content, consider writing copy that hints at what the linked article will help readers do. You can also create unlinked social messages that include a useful tip in your post copy or image copy. Here’s an example from Bobcat Company: To  express and define themselves. When sharing posts, people often think, â€Å"How does sharing  this reinforce my identity?† Use surveys or create personas to understand your typical audience member. From there, figure out how they identify themselves. For example, if you sell construction equipment, your audience might see themselves as â€Å"tough† or â€Å"hard-working.† Pickup truck manufacturers know their customers connect their identities to what they drive. This post from Ram Trucks capitalizes on this: To feel connected to others. Social media is about building connections and relationships. People naturally want to share posts that shows they’re part of something bigger themselves. They also like to share posts likely to start a conversation (so they can converse with other people). One way to do this is to write messages that encourage tagging and sharing. Like this: To make themselves feel valued. People want to share posts that are likely to get likes, shares, and positive comments. It feels good to share something your friends like, right?  You might also consider writing messages showing appreciation for your audience. To express beliefs or support causes. People love sharing opinions on social media.  You probably don't need to be told that, either. If it’s appropriate, take a stance on something or show your support for a cause. You don’t have to get too controversial (although sometimes a little bit of controversy is okay). Here’s an example from the United Nations: This tweet does each of the following: It promotes a cause (gender equality). It incorporates a relevant hashtag in the middle of the tweet. It uses positive language. It links to a page where viewers can take action. It also achieves each of these goals without being offensive or inflammatory. Before writing social posts, ask 'Why would someone share this'?Make Sure You Have Clear  Message-Match Between Your Posts And Destination Pages If your post is linking to an external page, then your post messaging needs to match your landing page messaging. In short, your social media content needs to follow through on the promises your posts make. Here are a few tips to keep in mind: Double-check that links are accurate. Only link to substantive pages with good information. And make sure your post copy is relevant to your destination page. Check out this tweet from Esquire. It’s written to stoke curiosity and intrigue. What will  happen on season 2 of Stranger Things? Who knows? I don't, but the destination page here better tell me. Once I reach the page, it’s immediately clear that the post copy directed me to a relevant link. The destination page’s headline is well aligned with the tweet, too. That’s a good thing, because if this ended up being click bait, I would have thrown my keyword. Don’t make people want to throw their keyboards. Make sure your social messaging matches your  destination page.Make Sure Your Copy Matches Your Visual Content, Too If you’re writing image copy, consider connecting it with your post copy too. Here’s a great example from Gary Vaynerchuk: See how the post copy connects with the image copy? One leads into the other to communicate one clear message. Here’s another example from the NFL that creatively incorporates a player’s number (in this case, Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers, the greatest sports franchise in history*): *Your favorite team is great, too. This creative campaign counted down the days until kickoff, including a different player down to opening day. Be Clear And Concise Avoid complex language and use short sentences. People skim on social media, so punchy posts tend to work better than long-winded paragraphs. Try to limit yourself to just one or two sentences, if possible. This isn’t a firm rule, but it may be a useful guideline to keep yourself from rambling. Struggling to keep your posts short? Try working through this simple exercise. Start by reading  this example post: â€Å"Here is our latest blog post about a very awesome topic you’ll enjoy.† This isn’t that bad, right? Well, there are a lot of wasted words we could do without. Let’s try minimizing stop words (is, a, etc.) and see how it sounds. We could also make the end of the sentence more specific, focusing on one detail to use fewer words. â€Å"Here’s our latest blog post about blogging.† Hear the difference? The second example says essentially the same thing. It just does it with fewer but more specific words, and sounds much better as a result. Clarity and conciseness are key for writing well on social media.Avoid Pushy, Overly Sales-Driven Messaging At least when it comes to writing organic social media content. While social ads need to be written to sell, organic social posts should be written to inform, entertain, or otherwise make a connection with your audience. That doesn’t mean you can’t promote yourself. It just means it’s best to find a way to sell people on the idea of taking an action without directly sounding like you’re making a sales pitch. Here’s an example from music distribution platform Bandcamp: If you must write a sales message, focus on benefits to the consumer. This tweet from Threadless lets people know there’s a sale going on without forcefully saying, â€Å"Buy Now† or â€Å"Shop Here.† It also uses a nice, clear image. Invoke Curiosity Write in a way that makes people want to click through. If you’re linking to another article or blog post, you don’t need to tell the whole story in your social media update. Instead, leave some details unanswered while implying your linked articles will answer their questions. What is the mystery on "The Curse of Oak Island," anyway?  You don't have to care about construction equipment to want to find out. Recommended Reading: How To Use Social Media Analytics To Create The Best Content Social Media Writing Tips For Each Network Every social media network is different. Different audiences. Different purposes. Different expectations. Your writing and messaging should be adjusted accordingly. Instead of writing one message for every network, tailor your messaging to each one individually. To do this, it helps to understand the purpose of each network, and what works best on each one: Consider audience expectations for each network when writing social media posts.Facebook Writing Tips With declining Facebook organic reach, sharp copy is now more important than ever. Keep Posts Short There’s some wiggle room on this one. However, data shows short posts perform best. Avoid Promotional Calls-To-Action Facebook’s algorithm can detect overly promotional language. This means wording like, â€Å"Buy Now!† or â€Å"Sign up here!† Posts with a hard sales message get demoted in the newsfeed, and with organic reach already in decline, that’s something you can’t afford. Write Shareable Article Headlines If you’re writing blog posts or articles, keep Facebook in mind when crafting catchy headlines. Think short, punchy, and conversational. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (And How to Build It) Twitter Writing Tips You can do a surprising amount with just 140 characters. Here are some tips to make the most of your tweets. Do More Than Simply Reshare Headlines As Post Copy This one is okay in moderation. However, it’s better to write copy that adds to the story your article is telling.  Here’s an example of what we mean: Instead of reusing the article headline as a social post, the post outlines the story in the article. This helps build interest in clicking the link, and prevents wasting people’s time reading the same text twice. Incorporate Hashtags Directly In Tweet Copy It’s easy to add hashtags to the end of a post. However, consider cleverly incorporating them directly into your tweets instead. In this example from Electronic Arts, a single hashtag is the entire post. This creates a clean look for your hashtags, and ensures they get seen. Get creative and directly incorporate hashtags in your social posts.Go Easy On Hashtags, Though Make sure your message isn’t lost in a sea of hashtags. Aim to use two, or maybe three, at the most. Recommended Reading: How To Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying Be Mindful Of Your Character Limit You have 140 characters here. Stay under that limit without cutting corners. Conciseness is no excuse for lack of clarity. If you can’t use complete sentences, you need to rewrite your tweet. Try Adding URLs In The Middle Of Tweets (Instead Of At The End) This tip comes from Dan Zarrella at Hubspot. This data is a little old at this point, but in 2011, he discovered that â€Å"the best area for clicks is about 25% of the way through the Tweet.† As a writer, testing this requires you to consider writing in a way that would let you place a link after just two or three words. Try following this formula: [Short Intro] + [URL] + [Longer Explanation]. Have you tried putting URLs in the middle of tweets, instead of at the end?Tag Other Relevant Accounts Within Your Tweet Copy This helps alert other folks that you’re talking about them. In turn, they’ll be more likely to share your posts. It’s win-win. Be sure to write your posts with other accounts in mind. Incorporate Emojis Into Your Tweet Copy Like it or not, â€Å"emoji† is turning into a language all its own. Used creatively, they can add a splash of character to your tweets. Check out this example from Sporting Kansas City, a Major League Soccer team: Tell A Story In A Tweet It’s possible to tell a complete story in a tweet. Here’s an example from Microsoft: This tweet outlines the entire article in under 140 characters. Recommended Reading: 15 Tactics to Boost Twitter Engagement (Backed By Research) Google+ Writing Tips Google+ is different from other social networks and allows for some interesting formatting options. Use that to your advantage. Write Compelling Post Headlines Google+ is unique in that it allows you to write bolded headlines. General best practices for writing headlines applies here. Don’t Be Afraid To Tell A Whole Story Google+ posts can run a bit longer than on other networks. Take advantage of that. Go into more detail than normal if you feel you need to. LinkedIn Writing Tips LinkedIn is a professional network. Here's how to make sure your writing reflects that. Be Clear Avoid using professional lingo if it won’t be understood by your audience. Be Concise Get to the point. Don’t ramble. Busy professionals don’t have time to waste. Stay Professional LinkedIn is a professional network. Don’t forget this when writing your posts. Stick to a professional tone. Instagram Writing Tips Instagram is a visual-driven network. However, the written word still has its place there. Think About Alignment Between Your Image Copy And Post Copy Instagram is a visual network, but the written word still has a place there. Write image copy that hooks people’s attention while connecting with your post text. Don’t Forget Hashtags Instagram likes hashtags. Don’t be afraid to use them liberally at the end of your posts. Recommended Reading: How To Improve Your Visual Marketing On Pinterest And Instagram Pinterest Writing Tips Pinterest is a highly visual network, but that doesn't mean you can neglect your writing chops here. Write Longer Pin Descriptions According to a study from Dan Zarrella, descriptions over 200 characters long received more repins. That could be thanks to those pins having more detailed context around what they're about to entice people to click and share. Include Links in Pin Descriptions If people like the images you pin, they'll probably want to learn more about where they came from. Adding a link helps, and don't be afraid to add a call to action, either. Include Relevant Keywords in Your Pin Descriptions Including keywords in pin descriptions can help them show up in searches on Pinterest. How To Define And Develop Your Voice And Tone People expect social media accounts to have a consistent voice. Your presence needs personality, even if you’re representing a brand. Social media is about generating conversation. No one wants to talk to someone boring. This means you’ll need to develop a consistent voice. One that’s both true to your brand or personality, while fitting for each social network you’re on. What Does Your Social Media Voice Sound Like? Your voice is essentially your personality on social media. Are you fun? Serious? Creative? What's The Difference Between Voice And Tone? Voice and tone are often used interchangeably. However, there is a difference, and it's important to understand them both. Your tone is the inflection you apply to your voice. Depending on the context, you could sound happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion that's appropriate. Buffer's Kevan Lee may have put it best: Essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that refine that voice.  Voice is a mission statement. Tone is the application of that mission. How To Develop  Your Brand's Social Media Personality Start by asking these questions: What is my/our mission or purpose? What are our values? What kind of language and tone does our audience use? Then, try filling in the blanks here a few different ways: â€Å"We are ________ , but we’re not __________ .† An example answer here could be, â€Å"We are funny, but we’re not offensive.† Or, â€Å"We are professional, but we’re not stuffy.† The idea is to narrow down who you are, and who you’re not. Recommended Reading: This Is The Social Media Posting Schedule That Will Boost Your Traffic By 192% Are You Personable? Professional? Or Both? Social media is often used to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. That means your social media content has to compete against updates from people users are close with. It's a simple fact that most people don’t log into a social network to see content from brands, companies, or bloggers. There are exceptions, of course. In any case, you need to write to stand out and hook people’s attention. This requires understanding what your audience expects to see from you. And that might be hard if your brand isn’t inherently â€Å"fun.† So, what can you do? Know Your Audience Who are your customers? What are their values, concerns, and interests? It’s important to figure this out if you don’t already know. Survey your audience if you have to. You need to know who you’re writing for before you can understand what they want from you. Creating a social media audience persona might help. This essentially entails creating a character description of your average target audience member. Building personas takes a little bit of work, but it can help you get a clear idea of who you’re writing for. TIP: Know who you’re writing for on social media. Do this by running surveys, building personas, or even just listening to what they say on social media. Know Your Competition Seeing what kind of content your competition is writing can help inspire your own approach. Check out some of your competitor’s social profiles and make note of the following: What does their brand voice sound like? Does their content appear to drive engagement? If this company were a person, would I want to talk to them? This can give you an idea of what works in your industry. TIP: Pay attention to competitors in your space on social media. Note their writing style. Take inspiration from what works, and then do it better yourself. Know Yourself. Cat videos, memes, and other distractions dominate on social media. Those things might work for your brand. They could also be totally inappropriate. The key is to find the right balance between personable and professional content and tone for your audience. Start by defining yourself under one of these three categories: Personable. Your brand is fun, warm, and inviting. Professional. Your brand is serious, authoritative, and orderly. Both. Your brand bridges both of the above, tying fun content into more professional themes. How do you know which is best for your brand? One answer is to use common sense. If you’re a legal firm, for example, you probably don’t want to sound lighthearted. If you run a pet adoption center, however, you’d likely want to sound fun and inviting to get people in the door. What do you do if it isn’t immediately obvious which of these three categories best fits your brand? Try working through these three exercises to figure it out. Exercise 1: Determine Who You Are (By Determining Who You’re Not) One way to help understand your brand voice is to ask â€Å"We are ______ , but we are not ______ â€Å" questions. This can help you know who you are, and just as importantly, who you’re not. As an exercise, fill in those blanks a few different ways. Here are some examples: â€Å"We're fun, but we’re not goofy.† â€Å"We're informative, but we’re not boring.† â€Å"We're authoritative, but we’re not arrogant.† Exercise 2: Try Summarizing Your Brand In Just Three Adjectives Another idea is to simply think of three adjectives that describe your brand. In traditional advertising parlance, this could be thought of as a â€Å"tag line.† According to The Balance, A variant of a branding slogan, a tagline can be used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create  a memorable dramatic phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of an audio/visual product, or to reinforce and strengthen the audience's memory of a literary product. Your mission (should you choose to accept it), is to do one of the following: Keep your company’s existing tag line in mind when writing on social media. Ask yourself, â€Å"How does this messaging support or reflect what we’re about?† Come up with a new tagline. It doesn’t have to be one you use publicly. It could even just a short phrase you use internally to guide your copy. Let’s try developing a simple tagline using three adjectives. Taglines can be short phrases (typically no longer than five to seven words), but we’ll make this easy. The goal is to help you summarize who you are, in order to inform your social media voice. Start by choosing three adjectives that fall into one or all of the categories below: An adjective describing what you do. Another addressing how you do it. One more pertaining to why you do it. Let’s say you run a car dealership. What are some things you might value? Honesty Experience Quality service Put that together, and you could come up with a tagline like: Honest. Experience. Quality.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The Third Way Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Third Way - Essay Example And so governments have to decide which programs will best reward the investment of tax dollars (Merkhofer 1987). One of the most controversial areas of public policy involves health care for that part of the population least able to pay for their own care. Socioeconomic status has been identified as a powerful factor in one's health (Bloomberg, Meyers and Braverman 1994). The more health problems that those citizens at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum have, the greater the tax burden will be on the rest of the citizenry. However, while the politics of money should play a significant part in the development of social policy, there is also the idea of social justice to consider. Social justice takes on many definitions, depending on the political leanings of the definer, but the general idea involves the creation of a sense of fairness or equality of opportunity to members at all socioeconomic levels of a society (Jordan 1998; Marshal, Swift, and Roberts 2002). Under the Thatcher administration, inequalities in access to quality health care began to widen in British society (Wagstaff, Paci, and van Doorslaer 1991). When Prime Minister Blair took office, one of his first moves was to establish improved access to health care as a top priority. There are at least three schools of thought as to how to engineer social change. The "laissez-faire" line of thinking - which basically involves allowing society to shake itself into the desired state - might argue that education alone would awaken the British public to the plight of the poor, particularly with regard to health care. The transition in the health habits of the Indian state of Kerala, between 1961 and 1974, could serve as a strong example for the laissez-faire viewpoint. Over that period of time, the birth rate fell from 39 to 26.5, while levels of literacy, life expectancy, female education, and age of marriage became the highest in all of India (Ratcliffe 1978). The cause of this change is not massive social expenditure for contraceptives, not an infrastructure of free clinics, but simply public education about the benefits of family planning, and about the importance of equitable distribution of opportunities (Ratcliffe 1978). Near the other end of the spectrum stand the Social Democrats, who believe that social justice can be achieved, if government planners can only find the right level of taxation to put into place sufficient programs and infrastructure. The natural sympathy that rightly extends to those who need medical treatment that goes beyond what they can afford has made social justice one of the central ethical principles of public health nursing. Programs that do not ultimately result in a change of behavior, however, are only short-term solutions that will not change societal patterns over time (Drevdahl, Kneipp, Canales, and Dorcy 2001). Also, programs that do not accurately address the factors that connect socioeconomic status and health will, ultimately, waste taxpayers' money and will solve nothing (Marmot and Feeney, 1997). The New Labour way of thinking sits somewhere, at least in its own mind, between the

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Art of War by Sun Tzu Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Assignment Example Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting† (p. 8) In fact, The Art of War has survived the test of times and it is amazing that the book is still contemporary and considered one of the finest accounts of strategic management. Although, it was meant to strengthen the military forces of ancient China, the doctrines and the policies of war present in this book are compatible with the lives of people in the modern day world. Thus, business entities and their owners peruse through various chapters of the book for implementing these principles for the success of business. War symbolizes competition and rivalry, which is synonymous with the antagonism that exists in the corporate world. The incessant struggle of business owners often lead to war like situations that are to be managed by applying different strategies with precision, aided by the conceptions of Sun Tzu. According to Sun Tzu, there are various ways of conquering battles even without destroying the spirit of the situation or causing any harm to the opponent; in short, destruc tion of the enemy is not the ultimate goal of fighting a battle rather the motto should be to weaken the forces of the opponent as expressed in the quoted lines. During the ancient ages, the armed forces of one nation used to attack another nation in order to establish their supremacy and control; in the modern age, such tactics are used by businesses, and companies appoint strategic advisors for envisaging and forecasting the future of a business. Nevertheless, the lines of attack that are planned by these people have been delivered by Sun Tzu long back when sophisticated approaches were not prevalent. For instance, Sun Tzu has asserted very significant facts about the ways in which the ruler can bring devastation on the armed forces of nation and surprisingly

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Final Exam Blue Print Essay Example for Free

Final Exam Blue Print Essay Gowns: prevent soiling clothing during contact with patient Masks: should be worn when you anticipate splash or spray of blood or body fluid and satisfy droplet/airborne precautions. Protective eyewear: should be worn for procedures that generate splashes or splatters Gloves: prevent the transmission of pathogens by direct/indirect contact. This equipment protects you from waste materials such as wounds, blood, stool, and urine. Indwelling urinary catheters causes of risk for infections An indwelling urinary catheter obstructs the normal flushing action of urine flow. The presence of a catheter in the urethra breaches the natural defenses of the body. Reflux of microorganisms up the catheter lumen from the drainage bag or backflow of urine in the tubing increases the risk of infection. Surgical asepsis uses verse medical asepsis Surgical asepsis is used during procedures that require intentional perforation of patient’s skin, when skin’s integrity is broken, or during procedures that involve insertion of catheters. * Sterile objects remains sterile only when touched by another sterile object * Place only sterile objects on sterile field * Sterile object/field out of the range of vision or held below waist is contaminated * Sterile object/field becomes contaminated by prolonged exposure to air. * When sterile surface comes in contact with a wet, contaminated surface, the sterile object/field becomes contaminated by capillary action * Sterile object becomes contaminated if gravity causes contaminated fluid to flow over the objects surface * The edges of sterile field/container are considered to be contaminated. Medical asepsis, or clean technique, includes procedures for reducing the number of organisms present and preventing the transfer of organisms. Hand hygiene, barrier techniques, and routine environmental cleaning are examples of medical asepsis. Nursing intervention when assessing bradycardia radial pulse Can cause pulse deficit. To assess a pulse deficit 2 nurses are needed to assess radial and apical pulse simultaneously and compare rates. The difference between apical and radial pulse is the pulse deficit. Assess the ability of the heart to meet the demands of body tissue for nutrients by palpation a peripheral pulse or using a stethoscope to listen to heart sounds (apical rate) Pulse sites Temporal, carotid, apical, brachial, radial, ulnar, femoral, popliteal, posterior tibial, Dorsalis pedis Critical Thinking- chapter 15 Examples of application of critical thinking (you may have to scan the chapter, no specific section to apply to the question) Know what would be considered critical thinking * Critical thinking involves recognizing that an issue exists, analyzing information about the issue, evaluating information, and making conclusions. * Critical thinking is a continuous process characterized by open-mindedness, continual inquiry, and perseverance. * Diagnostic reasoning: determining a patient’s health status after you have assigned meaning to the behaviors and symptoms presented. * Inference: process of drawing conclusions from related pieces of evidence. * Clinical decision making: careful reasoning so the best options are chosen for the best outcomes. * Nursing process: five-step clinical decision-making approach. Five components of critical thinking. * Knowledge base * Experience * Critical thinking competencies * Attitudes * Standards Professional standard for critical thinking * Intellectual: the intellectual standard is a guideline or principle for rational thought. * Professional: the professional standard refers to evidence-based ethical criteria for nursing judgments used for evaluation and criteria for professional responsibility. Patient Safety- chapter 27 Patient safety during seizures * Seizure precautions encompass all nursing interventions to protect the patient from traumatic injury, position for adequate ventilation and drainage of oral secretions, and provide privacy and support following the seizure. * Seizure precautions are nursing interventions to protect patient from traumatic injury, positioning for adequate ventilation and drainage/oral secretions, and providing privacy and support after event. Fall risk prevention and interventions The plan for a patient who has high risk for falls. 1. Select nursing interventions to promote safety according to patient’s developmental and health care needs. 2. Consult with OT and PT for assistive devices 3. Select interventions that will improve the safety of patients home environment Interventions * Nursing interventions for promoting safety are individualized for patients’ developmental stage, lifestyle, and environment. * Note the safety locks and anti-tip bars on the wheelchair. * Nurses contribute to a safer environment by helping patients meet basic needs related to oxygen, nutrition, and temperature. * Adequate lighting and security measures in and around the home, including the use of nightlights, exterior lighting, and locks on windows and doors, enable patients to reduce the risk of injury from crime. * Modifications in the environment will easily reduce the risk of falls. To reduce the risk of injury in the home, remove all obstacles from halls and other heavily traveled areas. * Prevention of accidental fires and poisons requires awareness of precautions such as not smoking in bed and keeping hazardous substances out of reach of children. * Safety bars provide excellent prevention against falls. Safety risk-Risk at developmental stages * Children younger than 5 years of age are at greatest risk for home accidents that result in severe injury and death. * The school-aged child is at risk for injury at home, at school, and while traveling to and from school. * Adolescents are at risk for injury from automobile accidents, suicide, and substance abuse. * Threats to an adult’s safety are frequently associated with lifestyle habits (smoking, drinking, hazardous work, etc.). * Risks for injury for older patients are directly related to the physiological changes of the aging process. Risk * 16-19 : car accident * 75 and up: falls and car accident * Older adults have decreased vision acuity and hearing loss making them at risk for MVA and hearing sirens or horns. Decrease reflexes occur with aging. * Lead can be in paint, soil, water and can be inhaled or swallowed. * 64 years and older; decreased vision, orthostatic hypotension, gait and balance problems, urinary incontinence, use of walking aids, effects of various medications (sedatives, anticonvulsants, hypnotics, analgesics. * Falls occur due to inadequate lighting, barriers along walk paths and stairways, and lack of safety devices in home. * Patients most at risk of injury are those with bleeding tendencies (disease or medications), and osteoporosis (results in fractures). Every developmental age involves specific safety risks: * Children younger than 5 years of age are at greatest risk for home accidents that result in severe injury and death. * The school-aged child is at risk for injury at home, at school, and while traveling to and from school. * Adolescents are at risk for injury from automobile accidents, suicide, and substance abuse. * Threats to an adult’s safety are frequently associated with lifestyle habits (smoking, drinking, hazardous work, etc.). * Risks for injury for older patients are directly related to the physiological changes of the aging process. Priority planning patient care (this is using your critical thinking skills and wouldn’t be found in a section of the book) * In many situations, patients present with multiple nursing diagnoses. Use a concept map to visualize how nursing diagnoses interrelate. * Establish goals with the patient’s self-care abilities and resources in mind, and focus on maintaining or improving the condition of the skin and oral cavity. * Patient’s skin is clean, dry, and intact without signs of inflammation. * Patient’s skin remains elastic and well hydrated. * Patient’s skin is free from areas of pressure. * Timing is also important in planning hygiene care. * In hospital or extended care settings, work closely with nursing assistive personnel, who often provide hygiene care. * Collaborate with other health team members as indicated (e.g., work with physical therapy and occupational therapy to enhance the patient’s independence with self-care activities). * When a patient needs assistance as a result of a self-care limitation, the family often becomes a valuable resource to the nurse an d helps with hygiene measures.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Socrates :: essays research papers

Socrates   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socrates was accused of many things in the Athens market. Socrates was accused of being a man who makes the worse argument into the stronger argument. A man who knows about the heavens and earth and therefore any one who believe this must not believe in the gods. Socrates was accused of being an atheist. Most of the people that followed him around his quest were inquisitive. Where as most adults would walk by Socrates with his â€Å"annoying question† the youth stopped to see what he had to say. The youth became his followers when he went out to ask questions that undermined society. Therefore, Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth. I do not believe that Socrates was guilty. For the fact that he was not responsible for the way, other people used what he said. Socrates is the seeker of self-knowledge. He poses the question, â€Å"how can I know about the world if I do not know who I’m†. Then the society says, â€Å"know thyself†. These two sayings sound alike but society has something else in mind, know thyself means that you must know your place in society. Socrates wanted people to find out who they were by themselves and not let society tell them who they were. You have to know how you think and act in certain situation to know yourself. Knowing yourself in a sense helps you in fact know the world. Socrates might have believed it takes time to know yourself rather than just saying you know who you are. Therefore, Socrates went out to find an answer to the question â€Å"What is X?† Socrates asks the question what is piety to man named Euthyphro. Socrates is looking for the universal meaning of what piety is. Euthyphro thought he knew the answer but no such answer was found for that question. Thus in many effo rts like these to find answers to similar question Socrates, began to be disliked by many. In this process, he was undermining society's laws of what was to be true. Socrates wanted people to unlearn what they were previously taught. In the process, he obtains many followers mostly the youth. One man be himself can not corrupt the youth. Socrates did not corrupt the youth. He was just a man searching for the answer to the question of who he was. People decided, of there own free will that they would come and listen to his conversation.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Enabling various

It has brought people closer together by enabling various forms f interpersonal communication, notably e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, and social networking. And it has allowed consumers to purchase virtually anything at any time, while providing producers with direct access to a wide range of markets. Furthermore, the Internet Is a bustling industry, spurred by entrepreneurship and supported by a variety of Industries and large enterprises. Online productivity tools and communications advancements provide benefits to almost all enterprises and governments.The Internet has helped governments to broaden their services to citizens and improve their delivery. In a very short period, it has become difficult for most of us to imagine a world without instant and continuous access to the Internet. Series in which we examined the Internet's impact on a group of developing countries that have both the scale and the dynamism to become significant players on the global stage in t he near future (see Online and upcoming: The Internet's impact on aspiring countries, McKinney & Company, January 2012).It also builds on our earlier assessment of the impact of the Internet on the advanced economies and several large developing economies, such as China, Brazil, Russia and India (see McKinney Global Institute, Internet matters: The Net's sweeping impact on growth, Jobs, and prosperity, May 2011). As an ongoing body of work, our view of the Internet's impact on India is evolving. The insights and conclusions presented in this report are refinements of our earlier multi-country work, based on an in-depth assessment of India-specific data and multiple expert interviews in India.As data sources improve and the body of knowledge relating to the Internet expands in India, we look forward to continue to evolve our perspectives. Our research focuses on the way the Internet affects Indian's economy currently, and TTS potential to do so in future. In our attempt to understand the impact of the Internet, we focus on how economic growth and prosperity have been affected; we also seek to discover how individuals, entrepreneurs, enterprises, and public sector entities have been transformed.In addition to assessing the Internet landscape and its impact on the various groups of participants, we examine the potential for India to utilize the particular strengths of its economy to enable businesses and individuals to derive greater benefits from the Internet. We do not offer prescriptive policies, but Ochs on opportunities and possibilities for India to accelerate its efforts to capture the Internet's benefits.This is an independent McKinney & Company report that draws on various sources: research from Muckiness's Technology, Media, and Telecoms Practice; information from academic and public sources; research conducted with Google; and work from the McKinney Global Institute (MGM'), the business and economics research arm of McKinney & Company. Without the cont ributions of the academics and researchers who are cited throughout the report, our effort would not have been possible.To understand the trends in Internet activity in India versus other countries, we relied on several analytical approaches: (1) we constructed macroeconomic analyses for India, taking into account data related to Internet expenditure, Internet usage, the infrastructure, and various other environmental enablers of the Internet; (2) we conducted microanalyses of various Internet ecosystem participants and user groups, using publicly available data and interviews with company chief technology officers (Cots); (3) we surveyed about 550 small and medium-sized enterprises (Seems) inIndia; (4) we utilized data from Muckiness's proprietary Digital Consumer surveys in India in 2010 and 2012; (5) we constructed a forward-looking view on the potential size of the Internet user base in India; and (6) we conducted thought experiments to behavior could shape the Internet landscap e. To test our conclusions, we interviewed industry experts in India and asked academics to review our findings. As a result, we are confident that the findings are directionally robust, despite the challenges of limited data availability.However, there is a clear need to conduct further research ND analysis on the basis of enriched sets of data, given the growing importance of the Internet and its transformational impact. The project was led by Chanced Misbranding, a McKinney principal in Bangor, and Ann. Mammogram, a senior fellow at MGM' in Iambi, along with Noshing Kaka, managing director of McKinney in India, James Monika, a McKinney and MGM' director in San Francisco, Michael Chug, a senior fellow at MGM' in San Francisco and Jacques Bugging, a McKinney director in Brussels.Malcolm Gomes managed the project team of Chums Gain, Million Speaker, and Emmanuel Thomas. We are grateful for the review, challenge and advice provided by our academic advisers for this research: we thank Martin N. Bally, the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development at the Brooking Institution, and Rakes Moan, professor in the Practice of International Economics of Finance, School of Management, Yale University.We are also grateful for the insights of Raja Amanda, Betsy Massively, and Armament Sings at Google. The authors would like to acknowledge Muckiness's researchers who made significant contributions to the fact base: Shirr Guppy from MGM' Economics and Durum Vary from Muckiness research and information network. Finally, we offer special thanks to the industry experts we interviewed during this project.For their perspectives on the evolution of the Internet landscape in India we thank Sunnis Abraham, Director of the Centre for Internet and Society; Raja Katharine, Director and Chief Executive of ‘CRIER; Some Imitate, President of MASCOT; and Sub Ray, President of the Internet & Mobile Association of India. For their insights into the Internet-related inves tments of their enterprises and the prospects for Internet innovation in India, we thank the many Cots and technology company executives we interviewed. All references to specific companies in this report come from public sources.Our aspiration is to provide facts and analyses to better understand some of the most important trends that are shaping the Internet in India. We hope our findings will enrich the dialogue about the ways that businesses, policy makers, and innovators can accelerate Indian's Internet transformation. Principal, McKinney & Company Bangor Senior Fellow, McKinney Global Institute Iambi Managing Director, India, McKinney & Company Director, McKinney & Company, and Director, McKinney Global Institute San Francisco San FranciscoJacques Bugging Director, McKinney & Company Brussels 1 billion Internet users in 30 aspiring countries? half of the global tally of Internet users 120 million Internet users in India: the third largest user base in the world Across seven as piring countries the average number of Internet users for every 100 people is 3410 compared to in India The average number of fixed broadband subscribers for every 100 people across the seven aspiring countries is 7 1 Our illustrative subset of seven of the â€Å"aspiring† countries, I. E. , Argentina, Brazil, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, and Vietnam. 1. % average contribution of the Internet to GAP across all aspiring countries, versus in developed countries 3. 4% contribution of the Internet to Indian's GAP, amounting to $30 billion $12 billion average estimated consumer surplus associated with Internet usage across the seven aspiring countries, versus $9 billion Average international bandwidth capacity for every 10,000 people across the seven aspiring 28 Mbps 6 Mbps Contents Executive summary Indian's Internet landscape Economic impact of the Internet 18 Indian's Internet ecosystem 25 Impact on principal user groups 29 A vision for broad-based Internet i nclusionAppendix: Methodology and approaches Bibliography 53 The Internet today connects more than two billion people worldwide. The Internet already has immense impact on the global economy, contributing an estimated $1. 7 trillion, or Just under 3 percent, of global GAP in 2010. 1 Yet half the number of Internet users lives outside the advanced economies, often in countries that are quickly developing, have significant economic potential and are socially and culturally diverse.India has about 120 million people online today and offers a striking example of the Internet's growth potential. India is adopting the Internet at a much more rapid pace than advanced economies and even many developing economies, yet 90 percent of its population is currently not connected. This report assesses the impact of the Internet on Indian's economy, estimating its impact on GAP. Looking beyond that, we measure the Internet's broader impact in terms of consumer surplus and the development of Internet ecosystems.We also look at the ways in which various participants have benefited from the Internet already. We measure Indian's environment for e-commerce and entrepreneurship, and we analyze in detail the impact of the Internet on its small and medium-sized enterprises (Seems). Finally, we assess the potential for the future impact of the Internet and what it would take for India to bring this potential into being.As a basis for comparison, we use a set of 57 middle-income developing nations, and some populous but less-developed nations; these collectively constitute 91 percent of world GAP. Thirty of these countries are what we call â€Å"aspiring countries,† defined as having the scale and dynamism to fuel economic performance in the global economy while driving significant domestic Roth and offering prosperity to their own citizens. These aspiring countries have a collective GAP of $19 trillion, or 30 percent of global GAP.We focus our comparisons with India more closely on an illustrative subset of seven of the aspiring countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam. Of the set of more than 20 developed countries in our database, we focus our comparisons on five: Germany, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our report offers seven key findings concerning the impact of and outlook for the Internet in India: 1.Indian's base of about 120 million Internet users is currently the third-largest in the world. Though Indian's users spend less time online per capita than users in developed countries, their pattern of online behavior is rapidly converging. The Internet's role in communication, social networking, and informing and influencing Indian's consumers in categories such as apparel, books, financial services, and travel is already comparable with that of developed countries. 2.India is likely to have the second-largest user base in the world, and the largest in arms of incremental growth, with 330 million to 370 million Internet users in 2015. Given current downward trends in the costs of Internet access and mobile devices, India is on the verge of an Internet boom. In an evolution pattern unique to India, users who access the Internet only through a mobile or tablet device will constitute around 75 percent of new users and 55 percent of the aggregate user base in 201 5, leading to increasing demand for content that is optimized for a small screen. . India has the potential to double its economic contribution from the Internet in the ext three years, from 1. 6 percent of GAP at present to 2. 8 to 3. 3 percent by 2015. Despite the large current base of users, the Internet currently contributes a modest 1. 6 percent to Indian's GAP, in line with 1 For a detailed account of the Internet's contribution to GAP in several developed and aspiring countries, see Internet matters: The Net's sweeping impact on growth, Jobs, and prosperity, McKinney Global Institute, May 2011. Most aspiring countries. This could grow to 2. 8 to 3. 3 percent by 201 5 if India achieves its potential for growth in the number of Internet users and Internet genealogy-related consumption and investment over this period, increasing the Internet's contribution to GAP from $30 billion today to nearly $100 billion in 2015. This would make the Internet-related economy larger than the education sector and as large as the health care sector, in terms of share of GAP at present.Currently, Indian's information and communication technology (ACT) exports are the most significant component of the Internet's impact on GAP. But private consumption, 4. The impact of the Internet in India is constrained by current gaps and obstacles in the Internet ecosystem. While India scores well on the availability of human and financial capital, it rates poorly on Internet infrastructure, Internet engagement, the e-commerce platform, the ease of Internet entrepreneurship, and the impact of e-govern ance.On most indicators of the strength of the Internet ecosystem, India ranks in the bottom quartile of our comparison set of 57 countries. 5. Although the Internet ecosystem is becoming more vibrant, the benefits have been relatively concentrated. Indian's Internet start-ups are scaling up through creative adaptations to overcome infrastructural and systemic bottlenecks. Yet, while large enterprises have gained from their early adoption of the Internet, there is scope among individual consumers, Seems and the government sector to significantly increase engagement.Today, Indian's measurable consumer surplus from the Internet is estimated at $9 per user per month, at the low end of the range for aspiring countries ($9 to $26) and well below the range for developed countries ($18 to $28). Even by 201 5, with overall Internet penetration likely to reach 28 percent, rural penetration is likely to be Just 9 percent. 6. India can achieve broad-based Internet impact by aiming for the digi tal inclusion of nearly 40 percent of its population, to reach a user base of 500 million by 2015, rather than the likely target of 330 million to 370 million.Most of the additional 150 million to 160 million users would be individuals and small businesses in semi-urban and rural parts of the country. Extending Internet access to these segments of the population, and promoting the usage of many more online services, would enable India to derive much more of the intended benefits from government programs of inclusive growth in employment, education, health care, nutrition, and financial services. Concerted actions by policy makers and businesses in five areas can help India achieve an inclusive Internet transformation: reduce the cost of Internet access across devices, content and applications; increase access to low-cost, high-speed connectivity in rural and semi-urban India beyond the top cities; promote widespread digital literacy through the introduction of devices and content ta ilored to the local context; devise Internet applications in new areas such as agriculture, health care, education, energy, utilities, and public information; and create a more favorable business environment forInternet entrepreneurs to support rapid innovation. 1. Indian's base of about 120 million Internet users is currently the third-largest in the world, and the pattern of online behavior is rapidly converging with that of users in more developed countries Indian's large economy, with its young and increasingly urbanize consumer base, offers strong growth potential for Internet usage.Weak infrastructure has kept Indian's Internet penetration low; at 10 percent, it is much lower than the average of 40 percent across aspiring countries. Even so, with about 120 million people online in 2011, India is the third-largest Internet user base in the oral. Internet users in India spend 20 to 25 hours online per month, about the same as their counterparts in Latin America, but only a quart er of the amount spent by those in Asia Pacific countries such as China and Malaysia.However, the time spent on the Internet per user in India rose 24 percent from 2010 to 2012; more online transactions and entertainment, grew more rapidly than reading and browsing. The share of Indian digital consumers who use online media for search, awareness, and research to purchase products is already high across multiple categories: in apparel (26 percent), travel (51 percent), books (36 percent), and uncial services (30 percent), the proportions are comparable with those in Germany, Japan and the United States. 2. India is on the verge of an Internet boom with a projected user base of 330 million to 370 million by 201 5, which will be the second largest in the world, and the largest in terms of incremental growth Indian's current Internet user base of about 120 million is likely to nearly treble by 201 5, and will thereby account for approximately 12 percent of the global total (Exhibit El). The projected growth in Indian's Internet users, an additional 230 million or so between 2011 and 2015, is likely to be the sights incremental growth in the world. In recent years, Indian's rate of growth of Internet users has been faster than that of many aspiring countries?for example, Malaysia's Internet user base grew 1. 8 times from 2005 to 2011, and South Africans grew 1. 9 times, while Indian's grew more than 5 times. Indian's Internet revolution is being shaped by telecoms players' strategies to reduce cost of access.Smartened costs are falling rapidly as players achieve scale economies, while the proliferation of G/G services in India is likely to reduce connectivity costs and overcome the challenge of limited fixed-line connections. As a result, nearly 75 percent of new users and more than half of Indian's base of Internet users in 2015 is likely to be mobile-only subscribers who will use Internet-enabled devices. By contrast, mobile-only users are likely to constitute a m ere 10 to 15 percent of the market in Indian's regional counterparts, China and Malaysia.Indian's Internet market is therefore likely to require a unique approach to content and application design. Mobile-based users will demand limited textual content and more audio-visual content because of the small screen size of their devices. Furthermore, it will become essential for entrepreneurs and innovators to make their applications or services compatible for users with a basic mobile device, in order to target those in the rural population who might not be able to afford a sophisticated smartened.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

The Prince vs. Henry V

The Prince vs. Henry V A comparison of attributes After reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and watching Shakespeare’s Henry V in class, one begins to notice similarities between the authors’ idea of what a â€Å"perfect king† should be. The patterns between the ideal ruler of Shakespeare and the ideal ruler of Machiavelli can be seen in numerous instances throughout this story. For the duration of this essay, I will compare the similarities in both pieces to give the reader a better understanding of how Shakespeare devised his view of what a â€Å"perfect king† should be.One can see an example while looking back on Henry’s youthful experiences. Before taking oath as king, Henry was involved with some scrupulous characters. He would party, stay out all night, and defile his father’s wishes. But after becoming king, Henry shunned this former lifestyle and become the individual of greatness we know today. As Machiavelli stated, â€Å"So a prince should be so prudent that he knows how to escape the evil reputation attached to those vices which could lose him his state, and how to avoid those vices which are not so dangerous, if he possibly can; but, if he cannot, he need not worry so much about the latter.And then, he must not flinch from being blamed for vices which are necessary for safeguarding the state. This is because, taking everything into account, he will find that some of the things that appear to be virtues will, if he practices them, ruin him, and some of the things that appear wicked will bring him security and prosperity. † (Machiavelli) If looked at closely, this is exactly what Henry had done. He used this youthful expression to gain favor with the layperson and look even better when he took the throne.This act of â€Å"smoke and mirrors† worked to his advantage and backs up Machiavelli’s claims. As Machiavelli says, â€Å"From this arises the following question: Whether it is bett er to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both. † (Machiavelli) During Henry’s speech at Harfleur, one can see this point in action.While speaking to the governor, Henry literally scares the people of Harfleur into submission and gains entry to the city without further fighting. This shows a definite similarity in what Machiavelli and Shakespeare view in their leader. As a king, Henry becomes known for being a man of resilience, strategy, and combat. These traits, according to Machiavelli, are necessary to become the â€Å"ideal king. † As stated by Machiavelli, â€Å"†¦a prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules. (Machiavelli) This can be seen when th e Dauphin presents Henry with a gift of tennis balls and an insulting speech practically telling him to stay out of grown men’s affairs. This gives Henry the leverage he needs to start a war with France without looking like the instigator. He can now put the blame of war on the Dauphin and the many lives of whom will be killed. Henry uses this to move toward his strength and show his full potential. Another example can be seen when Henry has to hang Bardolph for plundering during the invasion of France.Years earlier, while drinking in the tavern, Bardolph had asked Prince Henry this question, â€Å"Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief? † Prince Henry replied, â€Å"No, thou shalt. † (Branagh, Scofield and Holm) In this instance, one can see Henry is following his Machiavellian ways. This can be shown in the following passage. Machiavelli states, â€Å"The prince should nonetheless make himself feared in such a way that, if he is not loved, at least he escapes being hated; and the prince can always avoid hatred if he abstains from the property of his subjects and citizens and from their women.If, even so, it proves necessary to execute someone, this should be done only when there is proper justification and manifest reason for it. But above all, a prince should abstain from the property of others; because men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. † (Machiavelli) Bardolph had been warned of this many years earlier. Henry was just following up on this promise. For this last example, I will quote Machiavelli for almost the last time.He states, â€Å"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore, if a prince wants to maintain his rule, he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need. † (Machiavelli) This can be seen on the night before the last battle. Henry disguises himself as a common soldier by borrowing Erpingham’s cloak and spying on his troops. Henry does this to ensure his troops are mentally prepared and in high morale.What he finds is a mixed morale within his troops and makes him prepare even harder for the upcoming battle. Henry uses this â€Å"cloak† as a tool to find the weaknesses in his army and then exploits them with his inspiring speech before the battle begins. This Machiavellian act could have been the turning point and major reason they won against an outnumbering, French army. As seen throughout the film, the similarities between Machiavelli’s â€Å"ideal prince† and Shakespeare’s â€Å"perfect king† are too many to count.A blend of old and new attributes created this timeless character in which we are still learning from today. One can only hope the few examples given will give the reader a better understanding of were Shakespeare derives his perfect, Machiavellian king f rom. To finish, a famous quote from Machiavelli, â€Å"The end justifies the means. † (Machiavelli) Works Cited Henry V. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, et al. 1989. Machiavelli, Niccolo. â€Å"Selections from The Prince. † Matthews, Roy T and F DeWitt Platt. Readings in the Western Humanities. Vol. II. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 18-21.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

A Letter to My Future Self Essays

A Letter to My Future Self Essays A Letter to My Future Self Essay A Letter to My Future Self Essay After lunch and sitting in English class. Wondering why I have to write this letter to my future self. I dislike the fact that I cant think of anything to write about myself. It is very frustrating because. Who cant write about themselves? This is one of the things that bother me the most. I am a eighth grade student for Tazewell middle school. Very quite on the inside of class. But on the outside, I dont shut up. I dont know what my goals are but, I either want to be a professional basketball player or go into the marines. I dont like school whatsoever but, thats the only way Im going to make something of myself. I dont know if its school or the people I go to school with. Hate to say it but some days I would rather be at school than at home. I am concerned about passing because in some classes we take a lot of test and thats a serious problem. A few reasons I really like myself is I can get along with anyone. No matter what as long as your cool towards me an d a good person. Then youre alright. Some things I dont like about myself is I get mad very easily. I have a temper and I really dont like being upset. I enjoy playing basketball for JV because, I got to play a lot and in really good at it. Another reason why I really liked it is because I am only in the eighth grade and started Junior Varsity. My world is great, I have everything a teenager could ask for. I live with my mom and my older brother. I live in a 3 bedroom house. Got a big room to myself but I sleep in the living room. Because our couch is so comfortable. I go to a school with people I know and like. Some of the techies are cool, some can be mean for no good reason. I live in a pretty good neighborhood but there is just one down fall about it. The name of my street is Elm street. When I first moved here I was creeped out. But now Im use to it. Its not just the street name that creeps me out. Its the fact that it is right next to a grave yard. I guess th

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

High-stepping Stepchildren

High-stepping Stepchildren High-stepping Stepchildren High-stepping Stepchildren By Maeve Maddox English has several idioms that employ the words step and stepping. As a verb, step means to lift the foot and set it down again on the ground in a new position. As a noun, step is the act of stepping. baby steps and giant steps A â€Å"baby step† is a step that covers a very narrow distance: Still, a year after Mr. Shumlin’s call to arms, progress can be measured only in baby steps. A â€Å"giant step† is one that covers a wide distance, either forward or backward: One of those amendments would address Citizens United which, [Stevens] wrote, was a giant step in the wrong direction. goose-stepping To goose step is to march in such a way that the legs swing sharply from the hips, and the knees are locked. Soldiers marching in this way resemble mechanical toys. Because this type of marching was a feature of Nazi military display, it is associated with fascist power. Goose-stepping in unison may have been used by the Nazis to help brainwash people into following their cause, a new study suggests. India and Pakistans aggressive border closing ceremony has been stopped after soldiers complained the high goose-stepping was wrecking their knee joints and causing foot injuries. Confess that guns hold absolutely no interest or appeal for you, and youre a leftist, a radical who wont be happy until the jackbooted thugs of The New World Order are goose-stepping down Main Street, trampling Our Sacred Freedoms. â€Å"Goose-stepping† always has a negative connotation, but another idiom, â€Å"high-stepping,† can be positive or negative. Literally, â€Å"high-stepping† describes the act of lifting the legs high while walking. Because horse fanciers admired the gait of a high-stepping horse, a fashionable or attractive person came to be known as â€Å"a high-stepper.† Sometimes the term is used in a negative sense to refer to someone who lives extravagantly, or who aspires to a higher social status: Dona had come to town as a schoolteacher.   She was pretty, vivacious, and in the parlance of the time, a â€Å"high-stepper.† Leo Donnelly, always at his peak in silk-lined, low-comedy, high-stepping crook roles, is here at his best. The following sentence spoken by an NPR regular seems to confuse high-stepping and goose-stepping: Nazi soldiers’ high stepping casts a fog over the event. Note: The word fog is also jarring; perhaps the announcer was reaching for pall. Two more idioms that have literal and figurative meanings are â€Å"to sidestep† and â€Å"to step up to the plate.† The literal meaning of sidestep is to step aside, as if to avoid some physical obstacle: Climbing from the carriage, she held her bag against her chest and  tried to sidestep  a puddle  the size of a small lake. Figuratively, â€Å"to sidestep† is to avoid involvement or responsibility: Jefferson Township Sewer Authority  hopes to sidestep  big expense with grant money. â€Å"Step up to the plate† comes from the game of baseball. Note: Home plate is a 5-sided rubber slab at one corner of a baseball diamond at which a batter stands when batting and which must be touched by a base runner in order to score. When it’s a player’s turn to bat, he â€Å"steps up to the plate.† Figuratively, the expression means to come forward and accept responsibility for something that must be done: Community members stepped up to the plate and raised more than $2,700 for the Harmon Killebrew Miracle Field at a recent fundraiser. Unrelated to the verb step in the sense of moving the feet is the affix step- as in stepchild. This step derives from an ancient Germanic word element that was placed before the word for a family member â€Å"to form designations for the degrees of affinity resulting from the remarriage of a widowed parent.† For example, a widow who married a widower would become the stepmother of the widower’s children. They in turn would be her stepchildren. Stepmothers in all the fairy tales I’ve read are notorious for their ill treatment of their stepchildren. Consider, for example, the stories of Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Because of the stereotype of the wicked stepmother, the word stepchild has acquired the figurative meaning of â€Å"someone or something that is neglected, undervalued, or abused.† Here are some examples: â€Å"Its a sad fact that P.E. is  educations  ugly  stepchild,† said Goldstein. Rarely is open space seen as more than an afterthought. It truly is a stepchild of planning when it should be a catalyst and spatial organizer for development.   A fairly recent embellishment of stepchild in the sense of an object of abuse and neglect is the expression â€Å"redheaded stepchild.† The earliest evidence of the phrase in the Ngram Viewer is dated 1923. An article at World Wide Words references an example from 1910. Like stepmothers, redheaded people do not fare well in folklore. If a stepchild is undervalued, then a redheaded stepchild is the object of special negative attention: We then learned that Waukegan is apparently  the North  Shores  red headed stepchild.   The South is the  red-headed stepchild  in the American story.   Note: The adjective is hyphenated in the OED, but spelled as one word in Merriam-Webster. 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 Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:35 Synonyms for â€Å"Look†Driver License vs. Driver’s LicenseTypes of Ignorance