2-page rhetorical analysis on your visual argument Essay

2-page rhetorical analysis on your visual argument - Essay Example The video chosen reveals that the Government has taken stern measures promote the sufferings of the juveniles in the adult’s prisons (James, Dedel and Maria 34). The video discloses the violation of juvenile rights during and after trial. First, juveniles do not have the capacity to defend themselves in a court of law. The court is biased on the ruling against the juveniles. Second, the government put the juveniles in prisons where they can hardly protect themselves. They form easy targets for sex predators, and they become victims of the violation. The video provokes the society by recognizing a quote by Nelson Mandela the treatment made to children reveal the society sole. There before, the minor child said that he is willing to hang himself due to the sufferings in the prison. Equal punishment for children and adult is a punishment greater to the juveniles. The author promotes the thinking of the members of the society by making them question why court jail juveniles considering the same principles of law (James, Dedel and Maria34). When judges sentence both a juvenile and a minor to life without parole, who will serve more years in a jail? Who is prone to intimidation? The video provides the actual feelings based on real facts that occur in the society. The video makes them compare the risks of a free man to that of a juvenile. A juvenile has a probability five times higher to sexual abuse in an adult facility than in a juvenile facility. The video emphasizes sufferings of the juvenile using of images and sound. The author presents the innocent boy. A conceptual analysis reveals that he does not deserve a similar punishment to other inmates in the facility. He is greatly weaker than anybody else is in the prison to sustain the humiliations. The author wins the sympathy of the viewer by initiating a deep thinking of why a judge sentenced the bright boy to adult prison. The juveniles in adult prisons commit suicide

'Despite the extenxive advances in integration in the European Union, Essay

'Despite the extenxive advances in integration in the European Union, the member states remain in the driving seat'. How accura - Essay Example ember States are Seen to Remain in the Driving Seat.† How Accurate is this Description of Where Power Lies in the European Union? Introduction The European Union The European Union which is more formally referred to as the European Economic and Monetary Union is essentially an economic and political Union that that comprises of 28 different countries that are seen to primarily located in Europe. The European Union (EU) is seen to primarily operate through a number of institutions that variously include; the European Union Council, the EU court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the European Commission as well as the European Parliament. The Union essentially serves to establish a common market for use by its different member states, a factor that caused the Union to eliminate the restive border controls that existed between the member states. This has allowed for the relatively free flow of both people and goods although there are however, random checks that are normally conduc ted to prevent drug trafficking and crime between the different members states (Staab, 2013). The common market formed by the European Union is seen to allow for the legal sale of products that have been manufactured in one country in another different country without the restrictive influence of any duties or tariffs. Taxes across the Union’s different member countries are also seen to have been greatly standardized. The EU is also seen to allow service providers in various fields such as medicine, banking, law, tourism, and insurance to freely operate across all the different member countries of the Union. While the formulation of successive treaties is seen to have helped provide the EU with an extensively elaborate foreign policy making machinery, the various member states of the EU are seen to not collectively mobilize their strength to help the Union fully realize its power. It is this position that is seen to raise question surrounding power in the European Union and t he general postulation that â€Å"Despite the Extensive Advances in the Integration of the European Union, the Member States are Seen to Remain in the Driving Seat.† The History of The Formation of the European Union The idea behind the formation of a unified Union Europe is seen to not be a new one. During the 9th Century, the Frankish emperor is seen to have made efforts towards the unification of Europe and ended up dominating much of Europe. During the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte is seen to have led France in an attempt to try and attain this objective and also ended up conquering a large part of Europe. During the 1930’s, the dream of having a unified Europe is seen to have been borne by Adolph Hitler who sparked the second world war in his attempt to conquer all of Europe. Throughout history, numerous wars

2-page rhetorical analysis on your visual argument Essay

2-page rhetorical analysis on your visual argument - Essay Example The video chosen reveals that the Government has taken stern measures promote the sufferings of the juveniles in the adult’s prisons (James, Dedel and Maria 34). The video discloses the violation of juvenile rights during and after trial. First, juveniles do not have the capacity to defend themselves in a court of law. The court is biased on the ruling against the juveniles. Second, the government put the juveniles in prisons where they can hardly protect themselves. They form easy targets for sex predators, and they become victims of the violation. The video provokes the society by recognizing a quote by Nelson Mandela the treatment made to children reveal the society sole. There before, the minor child said that he is willing to hang himself due to the sufferings in the prison. Equal punishment for children and adult is a punishment greater to the juveniles. The author promotes the thinking of the members of the society by making them question why court jail juveniles considering the same principles of law (James, Dedel and Maria34). When judges sentence both a juvenile and a minor to life without parole, who will serve more years in a jail? Who is prone to intimidation? The video provides the actual feelings based on real facts that occur in the society. The video makes them compare the risks of a free man to that of a juvenile. A juvenile has a probability five times higher to sexual abuse in an adult facility than in a juvenile facility. The video emphasizes sufferings of the juvenile using of images and sound. The author presents the innocent boy. A conceptual analysis reveals that he does not deserve a similar punishment to other inmates in the facility. He is greatly weaker than anybody else is in the prison to sustain the humiliations. The author wins the sympathy of the viewer by initiating a deep thinking of why a judge sentenced the bright boy to adult prison. The juveniles in adult prisons commit suicide

Essay Questions from Reading Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Essay Questions from Reading - Case Study Example The path he takes is not as worn out as the other one, but they are same. The falling leaves on both paths look fresh.The speaker plans to take the road he did not take the other day and suspects that he may never come back. As an alternative, he will be talking of how his decision was ultimate and life changing, far off into his future. A lesson to learn from this story is that people are the opposite of what they appear to be. The people he thought were good actually took part in evils in the forest. Do not a judge a book by its cover. He gives a lesson of faith through his loss of faith and redemptive faith. He is tempted by the devil and gives in because of curiosity and his weak faith. Like Eve in Genesis, he cannot help himself knowing what is behind the forest’s mystery. â€Å"Happy is the man who wins her love! He could not find a better wife†. This was a quote used to describe the young girl. Her beauty and modesty were being praised by everyone and her gentle nature. They all thought she would make a good wife someday. â€Å"The rich, indeed, are happy. With money, it is possible to forget even the deepest sorrows. One can go where one pleases, and in travel find that distraction which is the surest cure for grief. Oh, if I were only rich!† This quote was describing the rich men slowly strolling around in the morning instead of being at work. In this poem, death is the principal subject. It describes the feeling of hollowness that is engulfing after the loss and describes the house after the loss of that dear person. It ,however, shows that life must go on and a recovery to normality. The priest mostly uses quotes to give a deeper and further meaning to his descriptions e.g. â€Å"only a man who knows nothing of reason talks of reasoning without strong, undisputed first principle.† It explains the deeper meaning the importance of reasoning. The Priest used three strategies to draw Valentin’s attention. One

Classical Managment Essay Example for Free

Classical Managment Essay Historical Foundations of management have been around for years and were first introduced by Fayol around the turn of the century . This essay will discuss three main points and questions around management, the first question will cover how modern management practices have evolved from the â€Å"classical approaches to management†. The second question will cover the challenges contemporary managers face in 2013 compared to managers in the era of the classical approaches and the third question will be around comparing and contrasting bureaucratic management to a style of management I have been faced with. This discussion will pay particular attention to Frederick Taylor’s scientific approach to management. How Modern Management Practices have evolved from the â€Å"Classical Approaches to Management†? The classical management approaches focus on developing universal principles for use in various management situations. There are 3 three major theories within the classical approaches. Scientific management, administrative principles and Bureaucratic organisations and these theories are still widely used in management today. Modern management approaches focus on the systems view of organisations and contingency thinking in a dynamic and complex environment. The modern management approaches to management grew directly from foundations established by the classical approaches. It has been proven in today’s working world you need to have a mix of the classical approaches and the modern management approaches to succeed in today’s environment. According to McDonalds case study the restaurants operate on classical management theory – there are elements of â€Å"scientific management from a former era (to maintain efficiency), as well as up-to-the minute human relations approaches to maintain the motivation of the â€Å"crew†. . Challenges contemporary mangers face in 2013 compared to mangers in the era of Classical approaches. A contemporary business environment refers to management trends in the 21st century – the year 2000 to now. . Globalisation plays a missive part in the changing challenges for contemporary mangers. Most companies move into international markets and by moving into different international markets there are different rules and regulations that need to be learned when doing business. It was Cited in that it is important for global organisations to employ people from other cultures who understand the customs and traditions of other countries and to deal appropriately with customers. This then brings different beliefs and cultural beliefs into the work place and contemporary mangers need to understand the needs of their employees. In today’s working environment multiculitlism is a growing factor and plays a big part in contemporary mangers needing to adapt to different management styles to help create the rights at work for its people, for example if your religion requires you to pray at certain times of the day, a manger would need to respect these religious beliefs and allow you to do so, back in the time if the classical era this would have not even been considered. It wasn’t until 1920s; an emphasis on the human side in the workplace began to establish its influence on management thinking . It was also cited in people are interacting with others who are different from themselves with biological, political, religious or cultural differences. This causes for the contemporary mangers to learn and adapted to new skills. If we look at the evolution of management practices over a period of time off from the era to now. It has changed dramatically and there are more practices to consider and adapt as a contemporary manger. Referring below outlines the evolution of management practices from the era to now and how much more a contemporary manger needs to consider then a manger in the era had to. Evolution of management practices Period /YearClassical Approaches 1890 Systemic Management 1900Bureaucratic Management 1920Administrative Management 1930Human Relations 1940Behavioural perspective Contemporary Approaches 1940Quantitative Management 1950Organisational Behaviour 1960System Theory 1970Contingency Theory 1990Total Quality Management 1990Learning Organisation 2000Business Reengineering CurrentStrategic Management Diversify in the workplace has also grown from the 1890’s to now. The amount of women workers in the work place has doubled over time; women in particular needs are diifernm It was cited in the journal article that Daft and Samson (2009) argued that rganisations are encountering new challenges to deal with diversity as more women and people from minority backgrounds are entering the workforce in the contemporary business environment PART B (some personal reflections) Scientific Management compared and contrast with current management style of what I have been faced with. Fredrick W. Taylor published the Scientific management emphasises careful selection and training of workers, and supervisory support. It has four guiding action principles: 1. if you check your presentation guidelines on page 7 of the Subject Outline and the extra information provided in Resources folder under Assignment Help in MGT100 Interact site you will see that subheadings are quite appropriate in business assessments. You could set you work out with meaningful headings to help guide the reader through your discussion. For example,  · INTRODUCTION (introducing both parts of the discussion)  · PART A (optional heading) SUBHEADING 1 SUBHEADING 2 SUBHEADING 3  · PART B (optional heading) SUBHEADING 4 (e.g. some personal reflections . . )  · CONCLUSION (concluding both parts of the discussion)  · REFERENCES If your writing is very clear then it may not be necessary to include the Part A B headings. Your primary responsibility is to make sure that your essay is clear and understandable to the reader. The best way to ensure this is to get someone else to read your work (preferably not a business student) before you submit. Question 2: I chose option two for the essay, Historical Foundations to Management. When considering ‘classical approaches to management’ is it suggestible that I mention (or cover) all theories, or just a select few which represent a cross section of the range of classical theories? Or, should I focus on only one or two theories? Suggestion: When in doubt put yourself in the reader’s position. The question asks about ‘classical approaches’, think about what you would want to know if you were reading a response to this question from a position of little or no knowledge of management theory. Also think about how many words you have available. That is, the more theories you include the less adequately they will be explained. It’s up to you to work out the balance between scope and detail. You can get away with most things if you explain to the reader in either the Introduction or very early on what your intended scope is (e.g ‘This discussion will pay particular attention to Fayol’s fourteen principles and Taylor’s four principles of management . . . etc). Then the reader doesnt get disappointed to find his or her favourite theory has been omitted. This is what I think I would be silently asking myself:  · What is meant by a ‘classical approach’? and by implication . . .  · How is a ‘classical approach’ different to other approaches?  · How is the writer (you) going to make his case that classical approaches are still/not relevant today? Asking these questions would lead you to the sort of answers you are looking for with regard to ‘required theoretical content’:  · You really need to mention at least briefly the three big names of Taylor, Fayol, and Weber  · You really need to give a nod to the other big approaches such as quantitative, HRM, contemporary  · This is your choice and will be determined by personal interest, the sorts of case examples you use and word limits. You need to include enough material to be convincing. You won’t have to look very far with any of those big names to make a case. I imagine you will only have space for about 2 specific theories Carroll, S. J Gillen D. J. (1984). The Classical Management Functions: Are They Really Outdated? P132-136. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.1984.4978715 Ambang, T, (2009). Challenges of contemporary management in Papua New Guinea, 10(2), p1-16.

The Role Of ICT In Teaching ESL

The Role Of ICT In Teaching ESL The association of ICT and English in last few years had made rapid changes in the presentation of curriculum in various aspects. Practitioners, theorists and researchers have started to pay serious attention to the challenges of the new technology and these challenges and opportunities that new technology presents have resulted English teachers into a new dimension. There are different issues related to the relationship of ICT and English which consists of complex implications for classroom teaching and initial teacher education. Student teachers who play a vital role in delivering ESL have wide range of experiences and level of expertise in ICT. My aim is to enable student teachers to be aware of these important issues and have the skills, knowledge and critical understanding to respond teaching of English through ICT. Initially, I perform analysis of the changing nature of ESL in the light of current technology advancement. Then, explore the interpretations of the role of ICT in teaching English, the provision made by ICT in college and policy and classroom practice in the area of the curriculum. Changing nature of ESL at present Recent years have seen a move from the predominance of the printed test to varied sites for textual production, including web-based environments, mobile phones and computers games. Screen based texts are characterized by varied and densely interrelation multimodal communication with an increasing emphasis on visual aspects of texts, such as layout use of font and images and the incorporation of sound, animation and hyperlinks. Digital technology has also made it easier to experiment the text production and to communicate rapidly with a range of familiar and unfamiliar audiences. ESL teachers have to consider how to teach language literacy and technological skills so that learners can make effective use of ICT. When teachers develop and implement an electronic literacy approach, they must address a number of questions: How should ESL teachers make the best use of new online opportunities to maximize language study and practice while also helping students develop computer-based communication and literacy skills? What strategies for communicating and networking should students be taught? What goals should language teacher aim for and what kinds of online projects could students carry out to accomplish those goals? Which are the most crucial electronic resources and tools that teachers should learn about so that they can teach them to their students? How can teachers encourage students to become autonomous learners who can continue to learn how to communicate, conduct research and present their ideas effectively using information communication technology beyond the confines of the class or semester? (cited in Shetzer Warschauer, 2000, 171-172) The purpose of this study was to explore the use of the Internet in vocational high-school English learning environments in a specific socio-cultural context including in the physical world and in cyberspace. The results of the in-depth study aim to shed light on the combinations of English language and ICT that can both enhance vocational high-school students technological competence as well as facilitate English language acquisition and applications in an authentic situation. Research questions Specific questions explored in the study include the following: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Can students learn the functions of the Internet via the English language and Significantly improve their English e-talk on the Internet? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ What are the benefits or difficulties with the use of Information Communication Technology in the teaching of English as a Second Language? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ What are the perceptions of both teacher and students regarding the use of the Internet in the class? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ What are the issues and challenges that arise in the integration of the Internet in English learning contexts? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Can students feel comfortable communicating in English on the Internet? Can the design of the Internet and English class improve their language proficiency and grammatical usage? The setting for the study The research study was conducted at a vocational high school________________ The course was named Internet and English; its major objective was to help vocational high school students learn English in a natural setting with the assistance of ICT. This course used various methods to facilitate students Internet usage by way of English writing. A ______-hour on-line lecture plus a computer session was held on Tuesdays in a computer lab where ______ Personal Computers were set-up and networked. In the lab the teacher lectured on some introductory aspects of the Internet and its functions and at the same time demonstrated its uses and gave students opportunities for practice using English and exploring the Internet. In addition to the weekly lecture and computer session, the after-class activities and assigned tasks were required of each student. To carry out the after-class projects and assignments, the students therefore needed to connect to the Internet and search for the required materials in response to the teachers weekly questions and, meanwhile, they were required to use English to communicate with the teachers as well as with the other classmates. Although ICT facilities and support were limited in the vocational school studied, the English teacher wanted to overcome the barrier by the inclusion of some outside-campus network resources in his class. A course syllabus, updated announcements, handouts, profiles of the teacher and the students, and class presentations, pictures and recommended relevant web resources were all converged in colourful words on the website. Contents of the project English was the main language used throughout class activities, which included English website information collection, topic-centred discussion, on-line communication, and email exchange. the course used four major tools-the World-wide web, Newsgroups, Chat-rooms, and email to cultivate students network accessibility and language expressions/utterances so that the course was given primarily in four segments. First, for the World-wide web section, Project A self introduction and Project B website recommendation were their assigned tasks. Second, in the Newsgroup section, the teacher asked students to subscribe to the newsgroups they were interested in and then used the chat messenger to post articles and questions and required students to either answer the questions or discuss the given topics in English. Third, in the Chat section, the students were allowed to freely e-talk about whatever interested them in the chat room in chat messanger. Through the different presentation formats of online tutoring, online discussion, and online debate, they were given different objectives each time. Finally, in the email section, students learned the basic commands by using Outlook and basic ideas about email user interface design and the system setup and some key functions (POP setup, web-mail, filtering, and so on). Participants The participants in this study were ______ students: ____22 females and _____7 male students plus the_______ young male teacher. To take the elective course Internet and English, certain prerequisites were required. For instance, the students needed to have previously taken Introduction to Computer Science and Applications of Computer Science, which were the first-year and second-year courses. Assessment For this course students were assessed as follows: 20% for class participation, 20% for homework exercises, 30% for the combined score on the 1st and 2nd midterm exams, and 30% for the final exam. Projects A and B were counted as the scores of the 1st midterm. The quality as well as the quantity of each students specific online utterances their portfolio was used as students 2nd midterm scores. The Chat performance in the chat messanger was used for the final exam grades. The Final exam consisted of an article on the topic How do I perceive Internet and English ; students were instructed to talk about the current semester only and to include three parts: my impression of this class ; what I have learned from this course and my suggestions . Methodology The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The researcher used a multi-method approach to document and evaluate the process of integration of the Internet in the English learning settings, including the collection of their electronic data from chats, discussions, dialogues and email exchanges on the Internet, observations of their online classroom activities, formal and informal interviews with the instructor. A post-class questionnaire was administered to the participants at the end of this class. In addition, a student who had a special need for remedial instruction had actively interacted with the English teacher via email communication throughout most of semester. The students email exchanges with the teacher were used as a case study. Data collection Data collected for the studies included authentic email messages, questionnaires, classroom observations, formal and informal interviews, and student logs. Descriptive statistical information was provided for cross-referencing. The study was conducted in a natural learning setting. None of the student subjects were aware of being observed and analysed during the data collection procedures. Overall results of the use of ICT in the class The teacher used an open-ended question to solicit student overall responses to the use of information communication technology in the class. This question was, Do you think Internet and English can really improve your English? Tell me why. Most students thought the Internet was an interesting and useful tool in their Internet and English class (Table 1). Table 1. Data from the open-ended question Positive reactions (19 out of 23 82.16%) Negative reactions 3 out of 23 (13%) Being able to practice typing 5 Not liking the Internet 1 Learning more English 4 Too much vocabulary resulting in Being more motivated in learning new vocabulary 4 learning pressure 1 Being able to learn more about computers 4 The fast-paced schedule of the class 1 Communicating with others using emails and making friends from other countries 4 Looking for information on the Internet and enhancing reading comprehension by materials on the Internet 3 Meeting people 2 Talking on line 1 Being able to correct mistakes instantly 1 The Tell me why self-report data were used for further analysis. The positive perception of Internet use could stem from two sources. First, due to the convenient access provided by the Internet, students were able to make foreign friends. Second, in the process of navigating the webpages, the chances of directly reading English and learning new vocabulary, sentence patterns, and grammatical patterns increased. Moreover, the immediacy of the online tutoring enabled the teacher to correct their mistakes quickly. The other advantages include the acquisition of relevant Online discourse data analysis The data for quantitative analysis were gathered from the Chat function in chatmessanger, which generally meant participating in online tutoring and online debates. Also, the data from both the midterm exam and final exam in the first semester were collected for analysis. In online tutoring and online debate, not every student wrote down his or her responses. Although five students were completely silent, the other 24 students had at least one sentence (here one sentence means an utterance with a period or a question mark at the end) in the online chatting. However, in online debate, which discussed the interesting topic of having a girl friend or a boy friend, the volume of discourse obviously increased by an average of six sentences, and that was five times as many as the very first time, when they were required to talk about a good teacher. Most students, who had already e- talked the first time, were more likely to write more than the second time. As for the 2nd midterm exam and final exam, since the written records were used for students grades, every student was mandated to express his or her opinions in order to gain points. Eventually the volume of the discourse resulted in an average of approximately 15 sentences in final exam. This was two and half times as many as in the midterm exam. When addressing the reasons for the increase in students discourse volume, the researcher found that students gradual increasing familiarity with the computer commands and the digital environment contributed to the increased number of their expressions. Moreover, the topics for discussion which appeared to be interesting, controversial or abundant in readily available online information also resulted in an increase in the number of sentences. Non-online discourse data analysis based on two projects In addition to the online data, non-online data were collected from Project A and Project B for analysis. For Project A, in order to encourage students to begin their English writing, the English teacher purposefully used self-introduction as an introductory and familiar topic. Thus each student was asked to use English to introduce himself/herself. For Project B, each student had to browse the English resources on the Internet and then recommended some websites as their favourites and to give reasons for their recommendation. Consequently, the average number of sentences produced in Project A was eight, and this was about four times as many as the number produced for Project B. Further analysis of the in-depth data revealed that Project A was a self-introduction and there were several basic items that the students could always include in their written presentations, such as blood type, sign of Zodiac, and favourite sports. On the other hand, Project B asked students to recommend a web site that they found interesting. This topic was of wide scope and more challenging than Project A. Student perceptions of the use of ICT in English learning In order to understand students perception of learning English by using the Internet and the impact of the Internet on English learning as well, a questionnaire was administered to the students shortly before the end of the first semester in order to collect their demographic information and their responses to the use of the Internet in this English class. The questionnaire was composed of three parts: personal data; experience in using a network computer; and ten 5-point-Likert-scale questions. A general question was given at the beginning of the questionnaire and 10 more corresponding statements followed with choices. A total of 26 questionnaires out of 29 were collected and used for analysis. The statistical results of this questionnaire are presented below (Table 5). Questionaire What do you think might be the reasons that the Internet could facilitate English learning? (1-Totally Disagree; 2-Strongly Disagree; 3-Agree; 4-Strongly Agree; and 5Totally Agree) Statements 1 2 3 4 5 Rank 1. The teacher interacted with students on the 0 3.8% 57.7% 15.4% 23.1% 1 Internet so that I feel less pressured in class. 3.8% 94.2% 2. I can learn new vocabulary, sentence patterns, 0 19.2% 57.7% 15.4% 7.7% 8 and grammar on the Internet. 19.2% 81.8% 3. Anonymous communication makes me less afraid 3.8% 3.8% 42.3% 15.4% 34.6% 2 of making mistakes in English chatting. 7.6% 92.4% 4. I could learn good English sentences from others. 3.8% 3.8% 30.8% 38.5% 23.1% 2 7.6% 92.4% 5. I dont need to speak English in front of my 7.7% 26.9% 26.9% 34.6% 3.8% 9 classmates. Instead, typing in front of the 34.6% 65.4% computer screen reduces my stress. 6. Learning English wont be that boring since I 3.8% 7.7% 38.5% 15.4% 34.6% 5 could find some intriguing English information 11.5% 88.5% on the Internet quickly 7. I could improve my English response speed since 7.7% 26.9% 30.8% 30.8% 3.8% 10 online chatting in English requires instantly 34.6% 63.8% answering in English. 8. I could make key/pen pals in foreign countries 3.8% 3.8% 23.1% 30.8% 38.5% 2 and practice English writing. 7.6% 92.4% 9. I could often practice English since English is 0 11.5% 26.9% 38.5% 23.1% 5 the common language on the Internet. 11.5% 88.5% 10. I could freely practice English because I could 3.8% 11.5% 34.6% 26.9% 23.1% 7 build up my little virtual world on the 15.3% 84.7% computer screen.

The United States is an Energy Hog :: Energy Environmental Issues Essays

The United States is an Energy Hog The Unites States consumes ninety-eight quadrillion Btu’s of energy annually, which is over one-fourth of the world’s total energy consumption. (â€Å"Country Analysis†) For me, this fact is startling, but not surprising. I grew up in a residential sector, an energy-consuming sector that consists of living quarters for private households (â€Å"Definitions†), and I have been taught to conserve as much energy as possible. My mother, a teacher with bachelor and master degrees in science, has always told, well, nagged, my brother and I to â€Å"turn out the lights every time† we leave a room. Many times I have entered the house to find my mother ironing or cooking dinner in a very dark room. Before I even greet her I automatically flip the light switch and ask, â€Å"Mum, why are you in the dark?† She always reminds me that electricity costs money. She also reminds me that my Grandma was eleven years old before her family even had el ectricity! Once in a while, mom will consider what it must have been like for Grandma to grow up without electricity. She always mentions that Grandma had to take cold baths and use the restroom outside. Of course, Grandma couldn’t grab a cold glass of milk out of the fridge or shoot her cousin an email. My mind wanders from Grandma’s life to my own when I think what an inconvenience it would be to be without energy, specifically electricity for lights. Without lights, my lifestyle would be entirely different. Lights enable me to study into the evening. Without lights driving would be impossible. It’s difficult to accept that, where I live, I would inevitably be trapped at home-sometimes when it’s only seven or eight o’clock at night! This would surely alter my hobbies, extracurricular activities and friends. When I was younger, I would think my mom just had trouble â€Å"keeping up with the times,† but, I now know that my mom was accurate when she encouraged me and my brother to conserve and appreciate energy. I can rest assured that another reason that my mother encouraged me to conserve energy was because of expenses. The ten month average of electricity costs, in 2004, was 8.