ES Cells essays

Ideas for My Paper/ ES Cells essays Embryonic stem (ES) cells are considered the ultimate stem cell because of their dual ability to proliferate and to differentiate into all the cells and tissues of the body. But they are ethically contentious because five-day-old embryos have to be destroyed to derive them. Adult stem cells show promise as an ethically preferable alternative, but scientists have not been able to show that they are as versatile as ES cells. The two papers featured in this web focus highlight the promise of both avenues of research, one describing a kind of adult stem cell that may turn out to be just as versatile as ES cells, and the other showing that ES cells can generate neurons to effectively treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease in a rat model. Now, Catherine Verfaillie and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, have isolated an adult stem cell from cultured human, rat and mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, called MAPCs - for mesenchymal adult progenitor cells. Like ES cells, these cells multiply indefinitely in culture. Injected into mouse embryos, the mouse cells differentiate into most, if not all, of the cell types in the body. In a separate paper, Ron McKay and colleagues at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, show that mouse ES cells be used in cell replacement therapy in an animal model of Parkinson's disease. From cultured ES cells, the group generated a large supply of neurons that produce dopamine. The neurons functioned normally and gave clear behavioural responses when grafted into the brains of rats that model Parkinson's disease. Together the papers show two different approaches for isolating powerful, pluripotent stem cells with clear therapeutic potential. However many fundamental questions remain about how ES cells and MAPCs function in a biological context, and how they can best be harnessed for medical benefit. It will be exciting to watch the ans ...

3 Key Tips for How to Write an Argumentative Essay

3 Key Tips for How to Write an Argumentative Essay SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If there’s one writing skill you need to have in your toolkit for standardized tests, AP exams, and college-level writing, it’s the ability to make a persuasive argument. Effectively arguing for a position on a topic or issue isn’t just for the debate team- it’s for anyone who wants to ace the essay portion of an exam or make As in college courses. To give you everything you need to know about how to write an argumentative essay, we’re going to answer the following questions for you: What is an argumentative essay? How should an argumentative essay be structured? How do I write a strong argument? What’s an example of a strong argumentative essay? What are the top takeaways for writing argumentative papers? By the end of this article, you’ll be prepped and ready to write a great argumentative essay yourself! Now, let’s break this down. What Is an Argumentative Essay? An argumentative essay is a type of writing that presents the writer’s position or stance on a specific topic and uses evidence to support that position. The goal of an argumentative essay is to convince your reader that your position is logical, ethical, and, ultimately, right. In argumentative essays, writers accomplish this by writing: A clear, persuasive thesis statement in the introduction paragraph Body paragraphs that use evidence and explanations to support the thesis statement A paragraph addressing opposing positions on the topic- when appropriate A conclusion that gives the audience something meaningful to think about. Introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion: these are the main sections of an argumentative essay. Those probably sound familiar. Where does arguing come into all of this, though? It’s not like you’re having a shouting match with your little brother across the dinner table. You’re just writing words down on a page! ...or are you? Even though writing papers can feel like a lonely process, one of the most important things you can do to be successful in argumentative writing is to think about your argument as participating in a larger conversation. For one thing, you’re going to be responding to the ideas of others as you write your argument. And when you’re done writing, someone- a teacher, a professor, or exam scorer- is going to be reading and evaluating your argument. If you want to make a strong argument on any topic, you have to get informed about what’s already been said on that topic. That includes researching the different views and positions, figuring out what evidence has been produced, and learning the history of the topic. That means- you guessed it!- argumentative essays almost always require you to incorporate outside sources into your writing. Argumentative essays are unique(just like this umbrella)...which means you need to use specific techniques to write them! What Makes Argumentative Essays Unique? Argumentative essays are different from other types of essays for one main reason: in an argumentative essay, you decide what the argument will be. Some types of essays, like summaries or syntheses, don’t want you to show your stance on the topic- they want you to remain unbiased and neutral. In argumentative essays, you’re presenting your point of view as the writer and, sometimes, choosing the topic you’ll be arguing about. You just want to make sure that that point of view comes across as informed, well-reasoned, and persuasive. Another thing about argumentative essays: they’re often longer than other types of essays. Why, you ask? Because it takes time to develop an effective argument. If your argument is going to be persuasive to readers, you have to address multiple points that support your argument, acknowledge counterpoints, and provide enough evidence and explanations to convince your reader that your points are valid. Our 3 Best Tips for Picking a Great Argumentative Topic The first step to writing an argumentative essay deciding what to write about! Choosing a topic for your argumentative essay might seem daunting, though. It can feel like you could make an argument about anything under the sun. For example, you could write an argumentative essay about how cats are way cooler than dogs, right? It’s not quite that simple. Here are some strategies for choosing a topic that serves as a solid foundation for a strong argument. Choose a Topic That Can Be Supported With Evidence First, you want to make sure the topic you choose allows you to make a claim that can be supported by evidence that’s considered credible and appropriate for the subject matter...and, unfortunately, your personal opinions or that Buzzfeed quiz you took last week don’t quite make the cut. Some topics- like whether cats or dogs are cooler- can generate heated arguments, but at the end of the day, any argument you make on that topic is just going to be a matter of opinion. You have to pick a topic that allows you to take a position that can be supported by actual, researched evidence. (Quick note: you could write an argumentative paper over the general idea that dogs are better than cats- or visa versa!- if you’re a) more specific and b) choose an idea that has some scientific research behind it. For example, a strong argumentative topic could be proving that dogs make better assistance animals than cats do.) You also don’t want to make an argument about a topic that’s already a proven fact, like that drinking water is good for you. While some people might dislike the taste of water, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that proves- beyond the shadow of a doubt- that drinking water is a key part of good health. To avoid choosing a topic that’s either unprovable or already proven, try brainstorming some issues that have recently been discussed in the news, that you’ve seen people debating on social media, or that affect your local community. If you explore those outlets for potential topics, you’ll likely stumble upon something that piques your audience’s interest as well. Choose a Topic That You Find Interesting Topics that have local, national, or global relevance often also resonate with us on a personal level. Consider choosing a topic that holds a connection between something you know or care about and something that is relevant to the rest of society. These don’t have to be super serious issues, but they should be topics that are timely and significant. For example, if you are a huge football fan, a great argumentative topic for you might be arguing whether football leagues need to do more to prevent concussions. Is this as â€Å"important† an issue as climate change? No, but it’s still a timely topic that affects many people. And not only is this a great argumentative topic: you also get to write about one of your passions! Ultimately, if you’re working with a topic you enjoy, you’ll have more to say- and probably write a better essay. Choose a Topic That Doesn’t Get You Too Heated Another word of caution on choosing a topic for an argumentative paper: while it can be effective to choose a topic that matters to you personally, you also want to make sure you’re choosing a topic that you can keep your cool over. You’ve got to be able to stay unemotional, interpret the evidence persuasively, and, when appropriate, discuss opposing points of view without getting too salty. In some situations, choosing a topic for your argumentative paper won’t be an issue at all: the test or exam will choose it for you. In that case, you’ve got to do the best you can with what you’re given. In the next sections, we’re going to break down how to write any argumentative essay- regardless of whether you get to choose your own topic or have one assigned to you! Our expert tips and tricks will make sure that you’re knocking your paper out of the park. Think of your thesis as the trunk of a tree. Its job is to support your arguments- which are like the branches. The Thesis: The Argumentative Essay’s Backbone You’ve chosen a topic or, more likely, read the exam question telling you to defend, challenge, or qualify a claim on an assigned topic. What do you do now? You establish your position on the topic by writing a killer thesis statement! The thesis statement, sometimes just called â€Å"the thesis,† is the backbone of your argument, the north star that keeps you oriented as you develop your main points, the- well, you get the idea. In more concrete terms, a thesis statement conveys your point of view on your topic, usually in one sentence toward the end of your introduction paragraph. It’s very important that you state your point of view in your thesis statement in an argumentative way- in other words, it should state a point of view that is debatable. And since your thesis statement is going to present your argument on the topic, it’s the thing that you’ll spend the rest of your argumentative paper defending. That’s where persuasion comes in. Your thesis statement tells your reader what your argument is, then the rest of your essay shows and explains why your argument is logical. Why does an argumentative essay need a thesis, though? Well, the thesis statement- the sentence with your main claim- is actually the entire point of an argumentative essay. If you don’t clearly state an arguable claim at the beginning of your paper, then it’s not an argumentative essay. No thesis statement = no argumentative essay. Got it? Other types of essays that you’re familiar with might simply use a thesis statement to forecast what the rest of the essay is going to discuss or to communicate what the topic is. That’s not the case here. If your thesis statement doesn’t make a claim or establish your position, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board. Example Thesis Statements Here are a couple of examples of thesis statements that aren’t argumentative and thesis statements that are argumentative The sky is blue. The thesis statement above conveys a fact, not a claim, so it’s not argumentative. To keep the sky blue, governments must pass clean air legislation and regulate emissions. The second example states a position on a topic. What’s the topic in that second sentence? The best way to keep the sky blue. And what position is being conveyed? That the best way to keep the sky blue is by passing clean air legislation and regulating emissions. Some people would probably respond to that thesis statement with gusto: â€Å"No! Governments should not pass clean air legislation and regulate emissions! That infringes on my right to pollute the earth!† And there you have it: a thesis statement that presents a clear, debatable position on a topic. Here’s one more set of thesis statement examples, just to throw in a little variety: Spirituality and otherworldliness characterize A$AP Rocky’s portrayals of urban life and the American Dream in his rap songs and music videos. The statement above is another example that isn’t argumentative, but you could write a really interesting analytical essay with that thesis statement. Long live A$AP! Now here’s another one that is argumentative: To give students an understanding of the role of the American Dream in contemporary life, teachers should incorporate pop culture, like the music of A$AP Rocky, into their lessons and curriculum. The argument in this one? Teachers should incorporate more relevant pop culture texts into their curriculum. This thesis statement also gives a specific reason for making the argument above: To give students an understanding of the role of the American Dream in contemporary life. If you can let your reader know why you’re making your argument in your thesis statement, it will help them understand your argument better. An actual image of you killing your argumentative essay prompts after reading this article! Breaking Down the Sections of An Argumentative Essay Now that you know how to pick a topic for an argumentative essay and how to make a strong claim on your topic in a thesis statement, you’re ready to think about writing the other sections of an argumentative essay. These are the parts that will flesh out your argument and support the claim you made in your thesis statement. Like other types of essays, argumentative essays typically have three main sections: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Within those sections, there are some key elements that a reader- and especially an exam scorer or professor- is always going to expect you to include. Let’s look at a quick outline of those three sections with their essential pieces here: Introduction paragraph with a thesis statement (which we just talked about) New paragraph that starts with a topic sentence presenting Argumentative Point #1 Support Point #1 with evidence Explain/interpret the evidence with your own, original commentary (AKA, the fun part!) New paragraph that starts with a topic sentence presenting Argumentative Point #2 Support Point #2 with evidence Explain/interpret the evidence with your own, original commentary New paragraph that starts with a topic sentence presenting Argumentative Point #3 Support Point #3 with evidence Explain/interpret the evidence with your own, original commentary New paragraph addressing opposing viewpoints (more on this later!) Concluding paragraph Now, there are some key concepts in those sections that you’ve got to understand if you’re going to master how to write an argumentative essay. To make the most of the body section, you have to know how to support your claim (your thesis statement), what evidence and explanations are and when you should use them, and how and when to address opposing viewpoints. To finish strong, you’ve got to have a strategy for writing a stellar conclusion. This probably feels like a big deal! The body and conclusion make up most of the essay, right? Let’s get down to it, then. How to Write a Strong Argument Once you have your topic and thesis, you’re ready for the hard part: actually writing your argument. If you make strategic choices- like the ones we’re about to talk about- writing a strong argumentative essay won’t feel so difficult. There are three main areas where you want to focus your energy as you develop a strategy for how to write an argumentative essay: supporting your claim- your thesis statement- in your essay, addressing other viewpoints on your topic, and writing a solid conclusion. If you put thought and effort into these three things, you’re much more likely to write an argumentative essay that’s engaging, persuasive, and memorable...aka A+ material. Focus Area 1: Supporting Your Claim With Evidence and Explanations So you’ve chosen your topic, decided what your position will be, and written a thesis statement. But like we see in comment threads across the Internet, if you make a claim and don’t back it up with evidence, what do people say? â€Å"Where’s your proof?† â€Å"Show me the facts!† â€Å"Do you have any evidence to support that claim?† Of course you’ve done your research like we talked about. Supporting your claim in your thesis statement is where that research comes in handy. You can’t just use your research to state the facts, though. Remember your reader? They’re going to expect you to do some of the dirty work of interpreting the evidence for them. That’s why it’s important to know the difference between evidence and explanations, and how and when to use both in your argumentative essay. What Evidence Is and When You Should Use It Evidence can be material from any authoritative and credible outside source that supports your position on your topic. In some cases, evidence can come in the form of photos, video footage, or audio recordings. In other cases, you might be pulling reasons, facts, or statistics from news media articles, public policy, or scholarly books or journals. There are some clues you can look for that indicate whether or not a source is credible, such as whether: The website where you found the source ends in .edu, .gov, or .org The source was published by a university press The source was published in a peer-reviewed journal The authors did extensive research to support the claims they make in the source This is just a short list of some of the clues that a source is likely a credible one, but just because a source was published by a prestigious press or the authors all have PhDs doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best piece of evidence for you to use to support your argument. In addition to evaluating the source’s credibility, you’ve got to consider what types of evidence might come across as most persuasive in the context of the argument you’re making and who your readers are. In other words, stepping back and getting a bird’s eye view of the entire context of your argumentative paper is key to choosing evidence that will strengthen your argument. On some exams, like the AP exams, you may be given pretty strict parameters for what evidence to use and how to use it. You might be given six short readings that all address the same topic, have 15 minutes to read them, then be required to pull material from a minimum of three of the short readings to support your claim in an argumentative essay. When the sources are handed to you like that, be sure to take notes that will help you pick out evidence as you read. Highlight, underline, put checkmarks in the margins of your exam . . . do whatever you need to do to begin identifying the material that you find most helpful or relevant. Those highlights and check marks might just turn into your quotes, paraphrases, or summaries of evidence in your completed exam essay. What Explanations Are and When You Should Use Them Now you know that taking a strategic mindset toward evidence and explanations is critical to grasping how to write an argumentative essay. Unfortunately, evidence doesn’t speak for itself. While it may be obvious to you, the researcher and writer, how the pieces of evidence you’ve included are relevant to your audience, it might not be as obvious to your reader. That’s where explanations- or analysis, or interpretations- come in. You never want to just stick some quotes from an article into your paragraph and call it a day. You do want to interpret the evidence you’ve included to show your reader how that evidence supports your claim. Now, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be saying, â€Å"This piece of evidence supports my argument because...†. Instead, you want to comment on the evidence in a way that helps your reader see how it supports the position you stated in your thesis. We’ll talk more about how to do this when we show you an example of a strong body paragraph from an argumentative essay here in a bit. Understanding how to incorporate evidence and explanations to your advantage is really important. Here’s why: when you’re writing an argumentative essay, particularly on standardized tests or the AP exam, the exam scorers can’t penalize you for the position you take. Instead, their evaluation is going to focus on the way you incorporated evidence and explained it in your essay. Focus Area 2: How- and When- to Address Other Viewpoints Why would we be making arguments at all if there weren’t multiple views out there on a given topic? As you do research and consider the background surrounding your topic, you’ll probably come across arguments that stand in direct opposition to your position. Oftentimes, teachers will ask you to â€Å"address the opposition† in your argumentative essay. What does that mean, though, to â€Å"address the opposition?† Opposing viewpoints function kind of like an elephant in the room. Your audience knows they’re there. In fact, your audience might even buy into an opposing viewpoint and be waiting for you to show them why your viewpoint is better. If you don’t, it means that you’ll have a hard time convincing your audience to buy your argument. Addressing the opposition is a balancing act: you don’t want to undermine your own argument, but you don’t want to dismiss the validity of opposing viewpoints out-of-hand or ignore them altogether, which can also undermine your argument. This isn’t the only acceptable approach, but it’s common practice to wait to address the opposition until close to the end of an argumentative essay. But why? Well, waiting to present an opposing viewpoint until after you’ve thoroughly supported your own argument is strategic. You aren’t going to go into great detail discussing the opposing viewpoint: you’re going to explain what that viewpoint is fairly, but you’re also going to point out what’s wrong with it. It can also be effective to read the opposition through the lens of your own argument and the evidence you’ve used to support it. If the evidence you’ve already included supports your argument, it probably doesn’t support the opposing viewpoint. Without being too obvious, it might be worth pointing this out when you address the opposition. Great conclusions get your readers to check the "I Agree" box on your entire essay. Focus Area #3: Writing the Conclusion It’s common to conclude an argumentative essay by reiterating the thesis statement in some way, either by reminding the reader what the overarching argument was in the first place or by reviewing the main points and evidence that you covered. You don’t just want to restate your thesis statement and review your main points and call it a day, though. So much has happened since you stated your thesis in the introduction! And why waste a whole paragraph- the very last thing your audience is going to read- on just repeating yourself? Here’s an approach to the conclusion that can give your audience a fresh perspective on your argument: reinterpret your thesis statement for them in light of all the evidence and explanations you’ve provided. Think about how your readers might read your thesis statement in a new light now that they’ve heard your whole argument out. That’s what you want to leave your audience with as you conclude your argumentative paper: a brief explanation of why all that arguing mattered in the first place. If you can give your audience something to continue pondering after they’ve read your argument, that’s even better. One thing you want to avoid in your conclusion, though: presenting new supporting points or new evidence. That can just be confusing for your reader. Stick to telling your reader why the argument you’ve already made matters, and your argument will stick with your reader. A Strong Argumentative Essay: Examples For some aspiring argumentative essay writers, showing is better than telling. To show rather than tell you what makes a strong argumentative essay, we’ve provided three examples of possible body paragraphs for an argumentative essay below. Think of these example paragraphs as taking on the form of the â€Å"Argumentative Point #1 → Evidence - Explanation - Repeat† process we talked through earlier. It’s always nice to be able to compare examples, so we’ve included three paragraphs from an argumentative paper ranging from poor (or needs a lot of improvement, if you’re feeling generous), to better, to best. All of the exampleparagraphs are for an essay with this thesis statement: Thesis Statement: In order to most effectively protect user data and combat the spread of disinformation, the U.S. government should implement more stringent regulations of Facebook and other social media outlets. As you read the examples, think about what makes them different, and what makes the â€Å"best† paragraph more effective than the â€Å"better† and â€Å"poor† paragraphs. Here we go: A Poor Argument Example Body Paragraph: Data mining has affected a lot of people in recent years. Facebook has 2.23 billion users from around the world, and though it would take a huge amount of time and effort to make sure a company as big as Facebook was complying with privacy regulations in countries across the globe, adopting a common framework for privacy regulation in more countries would be the first step. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg himself supports adopting a global framework for privacy and data protection, which would protect more users than before. What’s Wrong With This Example? First, let’s look at the thesis statement. Ask yourself: does this make a claim that some people might agree with, but others might disagree with? The answer is yes. Some people probably think that Facebook should be regulated, while others might believe that’s too much government intervention. Also, there are definitely good, reliable sources out there that will help this writer prove their argument. So this paper is off to a strong start! Unfortunately, this writer doesn’t do a great job proving their thesis in their body paragraph. First, the topic sentence- aka the first sentence of the paragraph- doesn’t make a point that directly supports the position stated in the thesis. We’re trying to argue that government regulation will help protect user data and combat the spread of misinformation, remember? The topic sentence should make a point that gets right at that, instead of throwing out a random fact about data mining. Second, because the topic sentence isn’t focused on making a clear point, the rest of the paragraph doesn’t have much relevant information, and it fails to provide credible evidence that supports the claim made in the thesis statement. For example, it would be a great idea to include exactly what Mark Zuckerberg said! So while there’s definitely some relevant information in this paragraph, it needs to be presented with more evidence. A Better Argument Example Body Paragraph: Over the past several years, one of the biggest consequences of the lack of regulation of social media platforms has been the mining of Facebook user data, which has been exposed by the news media and the U.S. government. Investigations by the Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) have shown that Facebook allowed its data-sharing partners to mine user data without disclosing this information to Facebook users. Specifically, Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, to gather the personal information of tens of millions of people- information the firm then used to aid a particular 2016 presidential campaign. In the future, increased government regulation of Facebook’s data sharing partnerships could prevent such things from happening. What’s Wrong With This Example? This paragraph is a bit better than the first one, but it still needs some work. The topic sentence is a bit too long, and it doesn’t make a point that clearly supports the position laid out in the thesis statement. The reader already knows that mining user data is a big issue, so the topic sentence would be a great place to make a point about why more stringent government regulations would most effectively protect user data. There’s also a problem with how the evidence is incorporated in this example. While there is some relevant, persuasive evidence included in this paragraph, there’s no explanation of why or how it is relevant. Remember, you can’t assume that your evidence speaks for itself: you have to interpret its relevance for your reader. That means including at least a sentence that tells your reader why the evidence you’ve chosen proves your argument. A Best- But Not Perfect!- Argument Example Body Paragraph: Though Facebook claims to be implementing company policies that will protect user data and stop the spread of misinformation, its attempts have been unsuccessful compared to those made by the federal government. When PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a Federal Trade Commission-mandated assessment of Facebook’s partnerships with Microsoft and the makers of the Blackberry handset in 2013, the team found limited evidence that Facebook had monitored or even checked that its partners had complied with Facebook’s existing data use policies. In fact, Facebook’s own auditors confirmed the PricewaterhouseCoopers findings, despite the fact that Facebook claimed that the company was making greater attempts to safeguard users’ personal information. In contrast, bills written by Congress have been more successful in changing Facebook’s practices than Facebook’s own company policies have. According to The Washington Post, The Honest Ads Act of 2017 â€Å"created public demand for transparency and changed how social media companies disclose online political advertising.† These policy efforts, though thus far unsuccessful in passing legislation, have nevertheless pushed social media companies to change some of their practices by sparking public outrage and negative media attention. Why This Example Is The Best This paragraph isn’t perfect, but it is the most effective at doing some of the things that you want to do when you write an argumentative essay. First, the topic sentences get to the point . . . and it’s a point that supports and explains the claim made in the thesis statement! It gives a clear reason why our claim in favor of more stringent government regulations is a good claim: because Facebook has failed to self-regulate its practices. This paragraph also provides strong evidence and specific examples that support the point made in the topic sentence. The evidence presented shows specific instances in which Facebook has failed to self-regulate, and other examples where the federal government has successfully influenced regulation of Facebook’s practices for the better. Perhaps most importantly, though, this writer explains why the evidence is important. The bold sentence in the example is where the writer links the evidence back to their opinion. In this case, they explain that the pressure from Federal Trade Commission and Congress- and the threat of regulation- have helped change Facebook for the better. Why point out that this isn’t a perfect paragraph, though? Because you won’t be writing perfect paragraphs when you’re taking timed exams either. But get this: you don’t have to write perfect paragraphs to make a good score on AP exams or even on an essay you write for class. Like in this example paragraph, you just have to effectively develop your position by appropriately and convincingly relying on evidence from good sources. Top 3 Takeaways For Writing Argumentative Essays This is all great information, right? If (when) you have to write an argumentative essay, you’ll be ready. But when in doubt, remember these three things about how to write an argumentative essay, and you’ll emerge victorious: Takeaway #1: Read Closely and Carefully This tip applies to every aspect of writing an argumentative essay. From making sure you’re addressing your prompt, to really digging into your sources, to proofreading your final paper...you’ll need to actively and pay attention! This is especially true if you’re writing on the clock, like during an AP exam. Takeaway #2: Make Your Argument the Focus of the Essay Define your position clearly in your thesis statement and stick to that position! The thesis is the backbone of your paper, and every paragraph should help prove your thesis in one way or another. But sometimes you get to the end of your essay and realize that you’ve gotten off topic, or that your thesis doesn’t quite fit. Don’t worry- if that happens, you can always rewrite your thesis to fit your paper! Takeaway #3: Use Sources to Develop Your Argument- and Explain Them Nothing is as powerful as good, strong evidence. First, make sure you’re finding credible sources that support your argument. Then you can paraphrase, briefly summarize, or quote from your sources as you incorporate them into your paragraphs. But remember the most important part: you have to explain why you’ve chosen that evidence and why it proves your thesis. What's Next? Once you’re comfortable with how to write an argumentative essay, it’s time to learn some more advanced tips and tricks for putting together a killer argument. Keep in mind that argumentative essays are just one type of essay you might encounter. That’s why we’ve put together more specific guides on how to tackle IB essays, SAT essays, and ACT essays. But what about admissions essays? We’ve got you covered. Not only do we have comprehensive guides to the Coalition App and Common App essays, we also have tons of individual college application guides, too. You can search through all of our college-specific posts by clicking here. Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Ashley Robinson About the Author Ashley Sufflà © Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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American Literature- Book- The Virginian by Owen Wister Essay

American Literature- Book- The Virginian by Owen Wister - Essay Example The author has explained the differences between the settled east and the west through its characters. In the west, people do not give much respect to the lives of others and they are killed even at the smallest of matters. However, the morals of the main character can be understood when at one point he refrained from killing a person. Following is an excerpt from the third chapter; These lines suggest that the main character is different from other men in the west and he tries to follow his own code of conduct in life. He does not draw his gun at every smallest matter like most men in the west. The author explains that it is the cowards who shoot before it is even necessary. It is the brave men who rationalize their actions first. The passage also suggests that it is only cowards who may be dangerous when they draw weapons, however brave men do not use their weapons irrationally and unless it is absolutely necessary. Thus, the author explains the moral values of the Virginian. The author explains the differences between the west and the east through the differences between the characters of the Virginian and Molly Wood. Molly Wood is a schoolteacher who does not exactly understand the Virginian’s ways but still they find themselves liking each other. In chapter eleven, the relationship between the Virginian and Molly strengthens when after a party, Virginian takes Molly for a horse ride and they get into an argument. Afterwards, Molly gives Virginian some books to improve his education and the Virginian gives Molly riding lessons. The Virginian finds himself in love with Molly and tries to confess it to her but Molly does not feel the same way. They had to separate due to their jobs. This may be the factor that triggered a change in the Virginian’s life. Towards the end of the book, the author shows that the Virginian is a changed man. When

Irish Educational System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Irish Educational System - Essay Example This is a situation that could escalate unless dealt with. They also say though that the situation is so variable from place to place that it is difficult to generalize either as to the current situation or ways to deal with any problems. The Irish educational system is many ways very similar to that found in other western European countries. It provides primary, secondary, further and higher or tertiary education with children spending 6 hours a day or more in school 5 days a week, a high proportion of a child's waking hours, though they spend even more time out of school than in it. Nevertheless it has a massive influence upon the way children think and behave, especially if the values a child finds at school are reflected in their family and in the wider society. Education is compulsory for those between the ages of 6 and 15, though many 5 year olds attend school and further and higher education is on the increase, with some 50 per cent of students going on from school to further studies varying from adult literacy courses and those for the unemployed to formal university courses. Education in primary schools follows the 1999 Primary School Curriculum as described on the Irish Education web site. This curriculum document is unusual in educational circles in that it does not provide a religious curriculum, but leaves this to the churches that control the various schools. Its aim is to make the most of each individual's character:- as it is expressed in each child's personality, intelligence and potential for development. It is designed to nurture the child in all dimensions of his or her life -- spiritual, moral, cognitive, emotional, imaginative, aesthetic, social and physical... This idea of making the best of each child is contained within the Constitution of Ireland as laid down in 1937. In article 41 section 1 it states clearly that the people of Ireland feel that the family is 'the primary and natural educator of the child' and that it is both the right and the duty of parents to see that their child recieves an education religious, moral, intellectual, physical and social. There is provision for education at home, but rather oddly no minimum standards for this are laid down, though there is provision for the state to see that a child recieves education when , for whatever reason, the parents are unable to do this. If one looks at the curriculum in an Irish Primary School it is clear that social education is given its place alongside such traditional subjects as mathematics, languages and science. In fact it appears twice in the list provided on the Education Ireland web site. There are a number of different types of primary school - state-funded primary schools, special schools and private primary schools. State funded schools include religious schools, non-denominational schools, multi-denominational schools and Gaelscoileanna i.e schools which operate in the Irish language, but which are outside the usual Gaeltacht, i.e. the area where Gaelic is the first language. Social education is linked to environmental studies and science as well as to personal and health education. It is of course in the earliest years of a child's school life that correct behavior and values must be reinforced if a positive school career is

Egg Cell Essay Example for Free

Egg Cell Essay The egg cell is the female gamete used for sexual reproduction. The egg cell is responsible for providing half of the genetic material required for reproduction. When the egg cell joins with the sperm cell. The egg cell is large and bulky structure which allows the sperm cell to get in easily. WHAT ORGANELLES DOES AN EGG CELL HAVE AND THEIR FUNCTION? Mitochondria: Produces energy for the cell by a process called cell respiration. Cytoplasm: All organelles inside the cell are suspended in the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is mostly water which allows the organelle to move around. It fills the interior of the cell. Vacuole: Are storage bubbles they store food, nutrients and waste. They also maintain internal fluid pressure within the cell. Lysosomes: Contain digestive enzymes and break down nutrients, they digest excess or worn-out organelles, food particles, and engulfed viruses or bacteria. Rough ER: Are very important in the synthesis and packaging of proteins. Smooth ER: Acts as a storage organelle and is important in the creation of steroids and the storage of steroids and ion Ribosome: where proteins are made. Golgi Bodies: The main function is to package and process proteins and sends it to other parts. They also make and secret mucus. Chromosomes: Chromosomes are made up of DNA and contains genes. Nucleous: is where ribosomes are made. They disappear from the egg cell during reproduction. Haploid Nucleus: This nucleus contains only half of the normal somatic number of chromosomes. Zona Pellucida: Also known as viteline membrane it protects the ooccytes, eggs and embryos. Supports the cell and controls entry into and out of cell. The cell membrane allows the sperm cell in. Follicular Cells: Provides nutrients to the developing ovum for growth and maturation. WHAT MAKES THE EGG CELL SPECIAL? The egg cell has no centrioles. The egg cell has a lot of mitochondria because It has a haploid nucleuses because when the egg cell joins.. It has a zona pellucid which act as a cell membrane for the egg cell. It also has follicular cells. PICRTURES USED TO BUILD THE CELL MODEL: PICRTURES USED TO BUILD THE CELL MODEL. WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL? ABOUT THE EGG CELL: The egg cell is present in both animals and plants. In plants it is called the gametophyte and in animals it is called the ovum. This project is about the animal egg cell (or ovum). This cell is a gamete cell which means it is responsible for reproduction. It is also a haploid cell which means it has a single set of unpaired chromosomes. The egg cell is the largest size cell in a human body and it is visible to the naked eye. The egg cell has a large amount of cytoplasm. The egg cell life span is short. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? The egg cell has a very round shape and is the largest cell of living organism. The egg cell is bulky and solid.

Emotion and Intellect in the Works from Terezin Essays -- Holocaust Li

Emotion and Intellect in the Works from Terezin In the quote opening Art Speigelman’s Maus: A Survivor s Tale. I: My Father Bleeds History, Adolf Hitler expresses his urge to rob the Jewish people of their humanity: The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human (9D). Hitler’s quote begs for a response What makes one human? Many scholars and scient ist would argue that it is t he ability to think and reason t hat defines the human species. I would argue that it is a combination of the ability to reason with the ability to feel. In Elie Wiesel s Night, it is his passionate anger at his spirituality alongside his intellectual struggle with that spirituality that screams out his humanity: What are You, my God, I thought angrily, compared to this afflicted crowd proclaiming to You their faith [. . .] (63). In the range of Holocaust literature, there is a range of emotion mixed with intellect, and this combination creates a picture of human beauty. One can witness this range in Wiesel s anger and disillusionment (62, 63) and in Speigelman s father s love and frugality (157). It is the ability to think about and feel something towards one s situation that makes one human. In the painting Sailboat (56-57) and the poem Birdsong (80-81) fro m the collection I Never Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944, one can see how a range o f emotions combined with reason creat e an undeniable portrait of humanity. In Sailboat an anonymous child artist expresses both emotion and intellect through color choice and subject matter (56-57). The artist portrays night as a black abyss followed by a teal-gray sky dotted w... ...r Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s Drawings and Po ems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 56-57. Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor s Tale, I. My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Stargar, Nicholas. Children s Art of the Holocaust. Past & Present. Nov. 1998. Electronic. Expanded Academic Index ASAP. 10 February 2001. Weil, Jiri. Epilogue. I Never Saw Anot her Butterfly: Children s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 101-104. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1982. Weissova, Helga. Lights Out. I Never Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 22, 24.

The Death of My Grandpa

The sadest day in my life. When I was a child I lived with a important person for me. He was my grandfather, he was my best friend, with him I share the happinest moments of my life. Everything was hapiness and I lived in a beautiful world. But a horrible moment arrived and everything finished. When I recived the most confusing and sadest news in my life. One morning, my cousin arrived at my home and with her hesitant voice, she told me some news that I didn`t understand.In that moment my mom arrived and she told me that my grandfather had passed away, she said that with some sweet words, because she knew how important he was for me. I could only try understand all the things that people told me, so I went to my grandmother`s house and when I came in, the only thing I saw was the lonely bed of my grandfather; in that moment I felt a inmense sadness in my heart, that moment was when I could understand everything, that I never again my grandfather would be with me.After I had understoo d everything or tried to understand what had happended, my family and some friends of us met us at the church for offering emotive masss to give the last good bye to my best friend. It has been the most emotive mass that I had ever lived in my life and that I will never forget. When the mass finished, all people went together to the cementary, some men had already prepared everything. When we arrived, the men who carried to my grandfather, let us see him for last time, when I got close to my grandfather I couldn`t believe that the person that was always happy and laughing, nowwas quiet.In that moment , I felt a inmense confusion and loneliness. My parent, my grandfather and my best friend would never be with me again. That day was the sadest in my life. I know that now I have a new angel, but I lost a friend, since that moment until now, I only have memories of that friend whom I spent happy moments in my life. That day was the sadest in my life although I knew that in that moment i would have a great angel for the rest of my life

Lesson Plan – Pop Art

LESSON PLAN for 8F: Pop Art – Roy Lichtenstein P4&5| CLASS: 8F| DATE: 07/06/12| LEARNING OBJECTIVE/S: * To create a piece of pop art in the style of Roy Lichtenstein. * To be able to understand what pop art is and recall information about Roy Lichtenstein. * To be able to make positive comments on your own and others work to boost confidence and self-esteem. EXTENSION TASK: Begin to create your own piece of Pop Art representing something you enjoy or a person you idolise.Success Criteria: * Students will be able to show a basic attempt at producing a piece of work with some similarity to the original (Level 4) * Students will be able to show a satisfactory attempt at the task with good similarity to the original and appropriate choice of colour and technique (Level 5) * Students will show a strong attempt at the task with strong similarity and technique. A personal touch may be applied to the end product to improve it’s appearance. Level 6)| RESOURCES REQUIRED * PowerPo int on Roy Lichtenstein and his Pop Art (True or false quiz for starter) * White boards, pens, board rubbers * Working SmartBoard and remote * 3 sets of colour images of Roy Lichtenstein’s work for reference * Pre-outlined images on cartridge paper plus photocopies for other students. * Plain cartridge paper * Pencils, felt tips, rubbers, scissors (+2 left handed pairs for AB and JC) * Coloured paper| LESSON OUTLINE:| Structure| Groupings| Activities|Starter(10 – 15 mins)Introduction(5 mins)Main(first part)2nd partBreak(2 period lesson)1st part(5 mins)MainPlenary (20 mins at end of lesson)| Whole ClassWhole ClassIndividual workWhole ClassWhole classIndividual workingWhole class| True or false fact quiz on Roy Lichtenstein and Pop Art. Ask students to write their answer on their whiteboard and hold up in the air when prompted to compare with each other. Ask students to recall a fact for a merit. When starter completed ask LSA to collect equipment to avoid distraction du ring explanation of main task.Put pictures of Roy Lichtenstein’s work up on the board and ask students to tell me what is different about these pieces (composed of dots and lines). What do they like about them? What don’t they like? Discuss as a group. Show students example piece (created by me) to show what their end product may look like. Explain equipment used and techniques, varying ways to approach and variants in colour. Refer back to work on Andy Warhol and how the use of colour is reflective in the overall product. Offer outlines to students but discuss how to approach completing task from scratch also.Remind students to refer to colour copies for inspiration Answer any questions, begin task. Circulate the room, ask LSA to do this also so that any questions can be answered. Focus on SB and AB to ensure they are feeling confident and are aware of what they need to do. Monitor approaches and understanding by allowing students to discuss ideas. Line all students u p and allow time for quick toilet break Ask students if they have any questions regarding the task and remind them to ask if they need anything.Continue to circulate, spending extra time with SB and AB to ensure focus. Check on BE, CA and SS to make sure they are remaining focussed on the task. If any students are near completion, explain extension task. Bring focus back to front of the class by asking students to come up in twos and place their art work on the board in an exhibition for reviewing. Once all pieces up, ask the class to walk around and decide one thing they like about someone else’s work on the board. Once seated, ask each student to share their compliment with the rest of the class.Ask students if they can recall a fact from our earlier PowerPoint and finish by asking for a thumbs up/middle/down approach to the task they completed today. | ASSESSMENT/DIFFERENTIATION:Where does diff. occur? What learning, and whom, will be assessed? Differentiation will take pl ace in a number of ways throughout the lesson: * Teacher and TA interaction with pupils – helping those who are finding the work difficult, asking extension questions to more able pupils. * Teacher to take in to account some short term memory issues within the group and allow time to recall facts with hints where needed. Pre-drawn outlines for all students to access if they feel unable to complete a piece from scratch which several members will. Assessment will take place informally with the teacher noting how well the students can complete the task, and more formally through peer and self assessment. | Strategies to ensure effective learning takes place: * Ensure all students are aware of and understand the task in hand by asking the class on a whole and then walking around the room (LSA also) once the task is set to answer any questions one on one. Make sure students have correct equipment available for the task. * Refer back to the facts learned at the beginning of the les son by offering merits as reward for recollection of facts. * Allow time at the end of the lesson to see how students felt overall about the task. * Tackle any behavioural issues if they occur without disruption to the rest of the class. * Discuss the new technique with students and how they are finding it. |

Independence Day of India Essays

Independence Day of India Essays Independence Day of India Essay Independence Day of India Essay Independence Day of India Respected teachers and my friends, I wish you a happy Independence Day. India became independent on August 15, 1947 A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new†¦India discovers herself again. J. L. Nehru On the eve of India’s independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru famous speech â€Å"Tryst with Destiny† marked the beginning of a free India with words symbolizing hope and triumph. India got its independence from the clutches of British rule on 15th August 1947. It was this day when India’s tricolor flag was unfolded by Pandit Nehru on the barricades of the Red Fort at Delhi. Each and every patriotic soul watched with excitement and paid tribute to thousands of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for India’s freedom. The Independence Day of India is a moment of delight and grandeur but to achieve it the nation had to put up a long battle for over two centuries against the British Empire. At last on 3rd June 1947, the last British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, declared the separation of the British Empire in India into India and Pakistan. The announcement was made under the terms of the Indian Independence Act 1947. Significance of Independence Day The significance of the Independence Day in the existence of a nation is of greater value. The day is much more than merely celebrating the anniversary of India’s free statehood. On this day India attained a major part of Asian subcontinent’s 562 extensively spread territories besides British owned states. 5th August 1947 symbolizes the victory of Indian patriotism which the nation got after uncertain yet brutal struggle from the repression of the British colonialism. The British, who oppressed India for centuries had primarily arrived to initiate business but steadily captured the entire government of the nation. They educated the Indians and in the process generated enthusiasts who werenâ€⠄¢t hesitant in helping them expanding their regime. Men and women from all over India joined hands and fought for India’s freedom. Many were acclaimed while others contribution went unnoticed. However, praise wasn’t what they desired for. It was the dream of free and autonomous India which motivated them to walk the path of struggle unselfishly. Neither did they battle for their region nor for their natives, but for India and Indians. At the time of growing communal and caste conflicts, it becomes significant to remind us that the people who laid the foundation of free India has always dreamt of an integrated nation. Hence, it is our duty to live and sustain their dreams, the sole reason for which Independence Day in India is observed. It is a day to pay a mark of respect to our saviors because of whom we are breathing an air of freedom which does not have the elements of exploitation and repression. Independence Day celebrations in India Independence Day is considered as a national holiday in India. The arrangement begins a month before the D-day and the roads are embellished with ribbons and Indian flags. Flag-hoisting ceremonies are executed all over India by state governments. However, the chief event is conducted in the capital city of India, New Delhi where the Prime Minister of India unfurls the tricolor at the barricades of Red Fort which receives a salutation of 21 guns, and addresses the nation with his speech. The Prime Minister’s speech holds major importance as it pays tribute to the great souls who sacrificed their lives for nation’s independence and reveals the achievements of the nation during the past year beside discussing significant issues and proposing steps for further growth. A vibrant parade exhibiting India’s cultural multiplicity, emblematic portrayals of the nation’s developments in science and technology, a collaborative parade of India’s armed competencies by the three forces and patriotic skits and dramas by school children are an integral part of the Independence Day festivities. On this day the skyline of the capital city gets sprinkled with innumerable multicolored kites. People indulge in kite flying competitions and children cheer aloud elevating the spirit of the day.

Customer Journey Mapping How to Create One the Best Way (Template)

Customer Journey Mapping How to Create One the Best Way (Template) As a marketer, it would be helpful to be inside the heads of our customers for a little bit. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the answers to questions like: What are they feeling and thinking when they first start to search for a solution to their problem? What caused them to quit looking at a certain product before they purchased? What led them to choose one solution over another? While you can’t read minds, you can answer the questions above. Once you have that information you can create the right messages to send at the best time to capture your customer’s attention and encourage them to buy. How can you do all of this? With a customer journey map. Customer journey maps are detailed frameworks that give everyone (not just your marketing team) the information they need to put your customer at the forefront of what you do. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to gather the data you need. You’ll be able to see how your customers are moving while they shop for a product and how they feel about their experience. You’ll also be able to map high points and low points to see what portions of their journey are going well and ways your company can improve their overall shopping experience. At the end of this post, you’ll have a detailed journey map that will help guide your entire company to create the right content and experiences that leaves your customers loving your brand and coming back for more. How to Make an Effective Customer Journey Map The Best Way via @Download Your Free Customer Journey Mapping Template Before you continue reading download your customer journey mapping template. This spreadsheet will help you sort and organize the data that you’ve gathered about their experiences searching for a product. From there you can easily spot gaps in their experiences that your company can fill with the right information and attract the right customers to increase your conversions.Get Your Free Customer Journey Mapping Template Bundle via @What Is Customer Journey Mapping? Customer journey mapping is: An exercise that allows a brand to understand and improve a customer’s experience when they attempt to shop for their product. It tells the story of a person’s experience when they first start shopping for a product and continues through to the process of them purchasing a solution. What is customer journey mapping, and why do marketers need to understand it?6 Customer Journey Map Examples Each customer journey map is different depending on the organization or industry that creates it. Look at these seven industries and businesses and notice how different their maps are. Health Insurance Industry This health insurance customer journey map from Heart of the Customer  integrates goals that their customer wants to achieve during their shopping process. Preact Preact follows a more traditional path  for creating a customer journey map. Instead of focusing on a variety of different emotions, Preact focus on the frustrations their customers feel during their shopping experience. Online Travel Company This online travel company customer journey  is unique in the fact that it has broken down it’s stages into multiple parts instead of the standard four. Starbucks Starbucks’ customer journey map  follows a timeline style layout more than others. B2B Customer Journey This B2B customer journey map  is laid out like a designed infographic rather than a traditional customer journey map. Yahoo Yahoo’s customer journey map  is structured more like a flow chart, making it easy to track customer progress. Recommended Reading: How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel to Boost Conversions By 69.77% 11 Steps To Properly Map Your Customer Journey The following eleven steps will help you gather the data you need to create a customer journey map that summarizes their experiences shopping for a product. Each phase of your map will follow the marketing funnel and help guide you in creating the right message at the right time to encourage conversions. As a quick review, the stages in your map (and your marketing funnel) are: Discovery:  Your customers are just beginning to understand what your brand is about. They are experiencing some pain point in their life, and they aren’t sure how to fix it. Consideration:  They are now aware that there are solutions to the problem they are facing and that your brand offers one. What they don’t know is that your brand provides the best solution to their problems. Purchase:  They know about your solution and think you are the best option, but they need one last little shove over the line to buy your product. Retention: Your product has been bought by your customer, and you give them additional information to ensure they continue to love their products. Here are the 11 steps you’ll need to take to complete your map: Here's how to create a customer journey map in 11 steps via @Step One: Gather Any Existing Data On Your Audience The ultimate goal for you is to attract customers like your existing best customers.Therefore the first step is to gather any existing data the organization has on your target market. This is important because existing data can give you the information you need for who you have been or are currently targeting. By knowing who you’re targeting you’ll be able to learn more about their personality and how they handle their shopping experience. However, if your target audience has changed, you need to be able to see if any of the old information you have is useful. Look for old audience personas, surveys, or collections of data that may have been gathered. You may need to check in with upper management to find where that data has been stored. As you read through old data answer the following: Does the persona here still reflect our current potential buyer? Is our product or service still helping solve the problems these people were experiencing? When was the data collected? Action Items: Talk to upper management and find places where older audience data and personas may be stored. Look through data to see if it still applies to the customers you want to focus on now. Keep what is applicable and file away the rest. Step Two: Gather Data From Your Website And Social Media Once you have gone through research that has already been collected by your organization, you can move on to gathering data from your website and your social media channels to see the types of people you are attracting to your website. Your website analytics can give you information about where your audience is coming from and what kind of roadblocks they are running into while they search for information on your site. Your social media can show you more about who is following your organization and who is interested in your product. Collecting Website Data Using Google Analytics, you can collect data points on: Age Gender Location Interests Language And even the device that they’re browsing your website from. To access this information go to Audience Overview: As you pull your data look for trends and patterns that may indicate that people belonging to a particular age group, job category, or location are consistently visiting your site. Another section of your Google Analytics that will provide useful information for your customer journey map is your User Flows. This section of your analytics will show you the first and second touchpoints that your users are reaching when they first enter your site. You can access this data by going to Audience User Flow. This information can be vital to show you where users are getting hung up and exiting your site. By locating those hang-ups and finding what information you need to include, you can patch the leak and potentially raise conversions. Now each of your social media channels will gather its internal demographics that you can collect and record. Here is where to find that information on every social media channel. Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn On each channel that your organization is active on, pull the demographic data and see where the data from your Google Analytics and the data from your social media pages overlap. Action Items: Run a Google Analytics audience report for the past six months. Note demographic data in a separate data sheet. Run a User Flow for the past six months. Note which paths your audience is taking and where they are dropping off and leaving your website. Record those flows. Gather demographic data from your social media sites and record them. Look for trends and overlapping patterns. Step Three: Talk To Co-Workers In Customer-Facing Operations You have a lot of data on your hands by now, but you’re not done yet. Creating a customer journey map means that you need to know every detail about your customer’s experience to tell their story accurately. Next, you need to talk with co-workers who interact with your customers daily. Why would something like this be relevant? Because your co-workers in these roles are in front of your audience all the time. They are the first ones to hear when something has gone well or when something is a disaster. They hear about their shopping experience first hand. Start with the following questions to help gather qualitative data on your audience: What are common problems that our customers experience? What experiences have impressed our customers? What roadblocks have our customers ran into in the past? What questions come up as they search for a solution to their problem? What feelings have they experienced as they search for a product? Remember, that this is an initial list and you can always expand or change questions based on the information you need to gather about their experiences. Action Items: Create the questions you’d like your co-workers to answer. Set up brief 15-minute interviews. Send them the questions in advance. Chat and record answers. Look for recurring patterns. Step Four: Set Up In Person Interviews It’s easy to send out a survey and have your target audience respond to questions. However, are your customers going to divulge their shopping experiences with you over a survey? Probably not. Which is why taking the time to sit down with your customers one on one is so important. You’re more likely to get the honest, in-depth answers that can help you shape the story of your customer’s journey. What questions should you include in those interviews to get the answers you’re looking for? Start with these: What was your first thought when you realized you needed [Product]? If you didn’t buy [Product] what made you decide to seek another solution? What problem did you hope this product would solve? What information did you have trouble finding? How easy was it for you to find options? What would have made your purchase process easier? What would have made your shopping experience easier? Set up five to ten interviews and remember, your meeting should be a conversation, not a dull question and answer session. Action Items: Create your interview questions. Choose 10 to 15 customers you believe would be good interview candidates. Confirm five to ten interviews. Send your interview questions in advance. Attend the interview with a recording device (it’s easier than trying to take notes). Transcribe your interview and look for data or patterns. Step Five: Create A Survey To Gather Qualitative And Quantitative Data The last data gathering step in this process is creating a survey to send to customers. You can’t be everywhere at once and talking to five to ten customers alone won’t give you enough data to accurately recreate their shopping experiences. How can you ensure you’ll get the answers you need? Try adding these questions: Qualitative Questions: What is it like using [Product]? What was your experience with buying [product]? What information could have been that would have made your purchasing process easier? What would make you reconsider buying a product? What has your shopping experience been like? Quantitative Questions: How likely are you to purchase [Product] again? How did you hear about [Product]? How frequently do you use [Product]? What gender do you identify as? What nationality are you? Once you have your questions figured out, you can upload them to tools like  Survey Monkey, Google Forms  or Polldaddy. After that share your survey link with your customers via email or social media. Set a goal for the number of responses you want to get. Action Items: Create your questions. Run your questions by co-workers. Upload your questions into a survey tool. Share the link via email or social media. Set a time frame to establish how long you'll collect answers. Record your data and look for patterns. Step Six: Use Your Data To Build An Update Audience Persona Now you need to sort through the data you collected to create your audience persona. What is an audience persona? At we define them as: Your marketing persona is a document that details your target audience’s who, what, when, where, and why, in addition to understanding general demographic information such as gender, job title, job function, business size, team size, needs, pain points, and challenges. As you go through your data, look for recurring themes, like a typical job type, age range, location, etc. Note which qualities are overlapping and add them to your audience persona. You should also look for overlapping interests and common problems that your target audience is experiencing that would cause them to need your product. Use the following template to help get your persona started: {Insert your company} creates content to attract {insert target audience} so they can {insert desired outcome} better. Action Items: Gather all of your data into one document. Highlight recurring trends and qualities. Use the template to start formatting your persona. Add in frequent problems your audience’s experiences that would cause them to want to buy your product. Step Seven: Map Out The Discovery Phase Of Your Customer Journey Map Now that you have your audience persona and your customer data you can begin to develop your customer journey map. The first phase is centered around discovery. This phase of your map should include: The reason they are searching for a product. Their motivation for wanting to buy a product. How they are getting their information. The actions they take. The initial touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. So how does this look in practice? Let’s say that you wanted to create a customer journey map for online clothing subscription boxes. Our persona, Lisa is a 25-year-old marketing manager, who has an upcoming wedding. What is Lisa’s story? You can also pull out the customer journey mapping template that you downloaded earlier and see how to fill it in. The Reason They Are Buying A Product First, establish the reason behind why someone wants to buy a product. They are searching for a solution to the problem they are experiencing and can no longer fix it themselves. In the case of our example, a reason could be that Lisa has a wedding coming up and she doesn’t have enough time to go to the mall and shop for an outfit. Record the reason why your customers would be interested in your product in your template: The Motivation Behind Buying A Product There is always a reason for buying a product. In this case, Lisa needs an outfit for the wedding. However, there is also a motivating factor which in the case of our clothing example could be that Lisa wants an outfit that will make her stand out and look good at this wedding. In your template, motivations can go into one section: How Are They Getting Their Information Depending on your customers, they may prefer to get their information in different ways. This could be through newspapers, advertisements, blogs, social media, etc. You need to identify how they prefer to get their information in this phase of their journey. In this case, because Lisa doesn’t have time to go to the mall she’ll be getting her information from the websites of clothing stores she visits. Record how they are getting their information in your template: The Actions They Take Next, is outlining the actions they’ll take to get the information they need. What does your customer need to do to find the solution they are looking for? Lisa decides that going to the mall is too much work. Then again so is online shopping, she doesn’t have time to scroll, through every website to find the right dress. So she types â€Å"personal shopper† into Google and sees an ad for a clothing subscription company. Lisa decides to click on the ad which takes her to the website. List all the actions that your customer could take in your template: What Are The Initial Touchpoints A Customer Has With Your Company? Your initial touchpoints in a customer journey map revolve around the first time they interact with an organization that sells the product or service they are looking for. (Remember this is a generalized experience, not just the experience they have with your brand.) In Lisa’s case her initial touchpoints will be: She sees the ad in her Google results. She clicks on the ad. She sees the homepage (or landing page) for the first time. List out your customer’s touchpoints in your template. Document How Your Customer Is Feeling Part of telling your story involves explaining how your customer feels. You can’t leave out that kind of information because how the customer feels affects their entire experience. And it doesn’t begin once they click an ad and learn about your organization. This starts before they even begin to search for your product. In Lisa’s case, she was feeling stressed because she needed a great outfit for an upcoming wedding and was worried she didn’t have enough time to shop. She thought about online shopping, but that just made her frustrated because she didn’t have time to scroll through pages of dresses. But, she feels defeated because she doesn’t have a choice. She starts her search and becomes intrigued with an ad that talks about someone who could do her shopping for her. Record those emotional highs and lows in your template: Their Experience Thus Far Next, you need to document their experience. How are things going? For Lisa, it’s going pretty well; there’s a chance that someone will do all of the shopping for her! The Pain Points They’re Having At this point, you need to address any pain points that your potential customer may be having. Lisa’s pain points revolve around the fact that: She has a wedding that she doesn’t have time to shop for. She has to resort to online shopping, but she hates scrolling through page after page of dresses. What Questions Do They Currently Have You need to identify any questions they might have at this phase in their journey. Why? Because by anticipating questions that occur during their shopping experience, your organization can be proactive and already have them answered. For Lisa the following questions might come up in this phase of her journey: Is there a better way to shop online? Can someone do this for me? What is this site? What Recommendations Do You Have? Now that the discovery phase of this customer journey map is over you can list any recommendations that would help improve the shopping experience for your potential customers. For this example, we might suggest adding additional ad copy that explains how a clothing subscription box can do all of the shopping for their customers. So what does this look like formatted into an actual map? Something like this: Step Eight: Map Out The Consideration Phase Of Your Customer Journey. Now that your potential customers know that your product exists they are going to start to consider if they want to buy your product. You’ll need to outline the following information in your template: Their motivation for wanting to learn more about a product. The actions they take. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. Remember to include your answers in your spreadsheet under the Consideration column. What Is Motivating Them To Learn More About Your Product At this point, your customer knows you might have the solution to their problem. You need to identify what message they need to hear that would entice them learn more. If we go back to our example, Lisa’s motivation to learn more would be to see if someone really would do her clothes shopping for her. What Actions Do They Take You’ve got your customer hooked in and motivated to learn more. Identify what actions they will take to do this. For example, those actions could look like this. She clicks the about us page and sees that it’s a personalized box of clothing delivered straight to her door. She reads more about how the process works and learns that she needs to take a quiz before they send her clothes. She clicks the quiz and sees she needs to create an account to continue. She creates an account and starts the quiz. After about 20 questions, she realizes it’s extensive. She sees that the company needs her measurements and has to google what size she is. She is asked about her price range and is curious about how cheap the cheapest option is. She leaves the quiz and searches online for reviews. She finds a few blogs that have positive reviews about the boxes. From the reviews, she sees that the clothes are spendy, but she can swing it. She wants to continue the quiz again. She can’t find the quiz. She looks in the help docs to find where the quiz is. She continues the quiz. She asked how often she wants a box delivered, so she leaves the page to see if she can do the box once. She scrolls through four help documents before seeing that she can schedule a one time box. Now she has to deal with the hassle of finding the quiz again. She is warned about a service fee. She wants to find what the service fee is for. She can’t find anything on the website, so she goes back to the reviews. She finds out what the service fee is. She finishes the quiz and is asked for payment. That list is extensive. However, when it comes to mapping out your customer journey, you need to lay out every possible action they could take while they are shopping. The Touchpoints Your Potential Customers Have At this phase in your customer’s journey, they are going to have multiple touchpoints with an organization. It’s up to you to list out point they could come into contact with. For our example, that list could be: The homepage The account creation page Their â€Å"my account† page The quiz they take The help center The frequently asked questions page Articles that review the products a customer is looking for. How Are They Feeling? For each action that your customer takes they’re probably experiencing some emotional shift. For example: Lisa is excited because she learns that someone can do her shopping for her. However, after finding out she needs to create an account to take the quiz, she’s a little annoyed but optimistic. She becomes frustrated with how long the quiz is. Then she’s confused because she doesn’t know her measurements. Now she’s a little nervous because how expensive are these clothes? She’s on a budget after all. After a few reviews, she’s confident she can afford a box. And now she’s flustered again because she can’t find the quiz and will be angry if she has to fill out all those questions again. She’s hesitant now because she only wants to order the box once to try it. So she goes back to the review to see if they said anything about only ordering a box once. She’s happy again because she can schedule one box. After the service fee is introduced, she’s annoyed because now they want her to spend more money? Now, she’s angry because she can’t find out what the service fee is for and has to go back to the reviews again. Once she’s read a little more, she sees it can be applied towards her total. She’s relieved that she’s finally finished the quiz and is brought to the payment screen. What Is Their Experience? Documenting your customer’s experience during this phase is essential because it can show you the gaps you need to fill. Filling those gaps allows you get ahead of a problem before it begins. In our example, you can see that Lisa had to spend a lot of time going off the website to find the information she was looking for. Not to mention she was already caught off guard by how long the quiz was and frustrated when she couldn’t find it again right away. What Pain Points Are They Having? It’s important to identify pain points in the consideration phase of your customer journey because these are incidences that could potentially cause your customers to choose one business over another. If you can eliminate those pain points for them why wouldn’t they choose you? In Lisa’s case, had the information she was looking for been easily found on the website, she may not have gotten so frustrated trying to get answers. What Questions Do They Have? In the consideration phase knowing the questions that your customers will have when learning about your product will save you time in the long run. Why? Because you can anticipate those questions and have them answered before they even come up. Some questions that might come up in our example are: How many boxes can I order? Do I have to order more than one box? How much is the service fee and what is it for? What are my actual measurements? How can I find the quiz again if I left it in progress? How long is this quiz? Remember to include recommendations for changes your company can make to improve your customer’s experience. In this case, you could suggest a widget that contains answers to frequently asked questions. Here is what the consideration phase of your customer journey looks like mapped out. Step Nine: Map Out The Purchase Phase Of Your Customer Journey The next part of your customer journey involves making a purchase (hopefully from you). Tracking their journey through this process is crucial because you want their experience to be as hassle-free as possible. Here’s what you’ll need to outline in your template: Their motivation for buying a product. The actions they take. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. The Motivation To Buy A Product What caused your customer to take the plunge and buy a product? Was there a specific benefit that one choice provided over another? You need to identify what that final push was and see if you can create something better to compete with it. In our example, we could say that Lisa was motivated to choose Company A over Company B because they offered a free box for every five purchased. Recommended Reading: Why Should Startups Always Follow the Customer? The Actions They Take Now it may seem simple to track the actions they take during the purchase phase. They give their payment information, and they’re done. However, you want to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible, so they don’t leave the transaction halfway through. In our example, Lisa would take the following actions: Continue to the pricing page. Fill out her billing and shipping address. Enter her credit card information. Confirm the purchase. Receive an instant email with the estimated delivery time and tracking information. The Touchpoints They Have With The Company At this point, all the of the touchpoints are centered around one specific company. If you’re in the process of buying something it usually involves a touchpoint or two like: Proceeding to the billing page. Receiving an email with the invoice. Seeing the link to FAQ pages around product shipment. Their Experience Tracking how this process goes for your customers can let you see snags and get in front of them to make sure you don’t miss out. If other brands are missing out on customers, what is it about their process that is turning people away? How can you avoid that? In Lisa’s case, her experience was smooth because the website had code built in that automatically filled in her billing, shipping and payment information. If other brands are missing out on customers, what is it about their process that is turning people...The Pain Points They’re Experiencing At this phase in your customer’s journey, you need to make sure all the kinks are smoothed out. Does this process smoothly flow from point A to point B? If it doesn’t what can you do to make it easier? In our example, Lisa didn’t have too many problems in this step because the company she chose automatically filled in her forms, saving her time. Recommended Reading: How to Create Opt-In Forms: 5 Ways to Convert Traffic What Questions Do They Have? Once your customer is ready to convert, you should have all of their questions answered right? Wrong. They need to know when they’re getting their product and what to expect when it gets here. What if something goes wrong? How long do they have to return it? Anticipate those questions in advance and call them out in the purchasing process, so people don’t have to wonder. How do you know what questions they might have? By going through your customer interviews! Some example questions Lisa might have are: When will my box get here? Is shipping free? What if I don’t like what’s in the box? How do I pay for the items I like? How long do I have to return the items? Record your questions and your recommendations for improvement in your template. Your fully mapped out purchase phase should look like this. Step Ten: Map Out The Retention Phase Of Your Customer Journey The last phase of your journey is retention. This is how you create loyal customers and keep them coming back to buy your product. At this point, your customer has purchased your product, but you want to follow up to make sure their experience was as memorable as possible. And hopefully, convince them to buy from you again in the future. So what should be outlined in your customer journey map? Their motivation to order again. The actions they take after the product has been purchased. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. Any questions they have.

Coccidioidomycosis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Coccidioidomycosis - Research Paper Example In areas regarded as Coccidioidomycosis â€Å"hot spots†, statistics indicate that over 70% of the populations in those areas have suffered from the infection. Coccidioidomycosis is relatively mild or even asymptomatic, but it can turn to be severe when it affects the elderly or immunocompromised. Etiology Coccidioidomycosis is caused by dimorphic, soil-borne, ascomycete fungi Coccidioidesimmitis and C.posadasii, which are soil-borne microorganisms. The two species differ in characteristics such as tolerance to heat and salt, but there is no any significant difference in their pathogenicity. The two species are soil saprophytes that propagate in semiarid regions that have sandy, alkaline soils. In the mold stage, Coccidioides species can survive under extreme environmental conditions such as alkaline, temperatures and high salinity conditions. However, these organisms fail to thrive well in the presence of other soil fungi and bacteria in conditions that do not make up their u sual niche (Clemons, 2007). Growth of Coccidioides species is facilitated by two asexual reproductive structures, which are the arthrospore and endospores. The molds growing in the environment produce the arthrospore that are later dispersed by wind. In favorable environmental conditions, arthrospore germinate into new mycelia. ... Epidemics are highly likely to occur when periods of heavy rains, which promote the growth of mycelia, are succeeded by seasons of drought and winds. Fully developed arthrospore are extremely resistant to harsh environmental conditions and remain viable in the environment for years in the soil and dust (Clemons, 2007). The arthroconidia infects the lungs to become spherules. The spherules increase in size creating a room for endospores to develop. After the spherules attain maturity, they rapture to release the endospores which form new spherules. In some cases, endospores can spread to other body parts through blood and lymph fluid causing systemic infection (Acton, 2011). In extremely rare occasions, Coccidiodomycosis can be spread directly between persons or from animals to human beings. Studies have shown that infections spread from one person to another are systemic in nature, which increases the chances of spreading. In other occasions, Coccidioides species can be transmitted t hrough organ transplant (Clemons, 2007). Epidemiology Coccidioides species are endemic in certain regions of the Western Hemisphere. Nearly all the areas that are endemic lie between latitudes 400 North and 400 South (Friis & Sellers, 2009). The endemic areas have semiarid climates marked with hot summers and alkaline soils suitable for propagation of Coccidioides spores. Studies have found out that Coccidiodomycosis infections are not only affecting people living in the endemic regions, but have found their way to other non-endemic regions. This phenomenon is attributed to the increased travel of populations of people to the endemic regions. Persons from non-endemic regions get Coccidioidomycosis infections, but it becomes difficult to diagnose the condition in those areas since