702 words

Saussure's semiotics model in stand-up comedy performance

Saussure's two-part model offers a solid framework with which to understand how semiotics permeates everyday human communication. The signifier (a word, an image, an act, or a sound) conveys a concept. Together the signifier and the signified create the signs we see, hear, or even smell and taste.

~4 min read

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902 words

Defining health and my personal health-promoting behaviors

In the past few decades, technological progress and economic growth have led to improvements in human health, causing a rise in the average age of the population in addition to population growth.

~5 min read

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2,819 words

Simon de Montfort's role in establishing medieval Parliament

According to J.S. Roskill, around the year 1265 during the Medieval Period in England, the sole institution "which soon came to be viewed as the co-protector of England and the Crown was parliament" (167).

~15 min read

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3,578 words

Fodor's folk psychology and behaviorism in language acquisition

Fodor (1987) offers a theory of psychology that avoids the problems of physical reductionism, implied by many psychological theories, and suggests that language can be approach as a far more intuitive and natural process -- he calls this folk psychology.

~18 min read

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1,321 words

Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer": discovery through translation

John Keats in his sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" celebrates the artistry of the poet and the way the pet can make the individual see even the familiar in a new way.

~7 min read

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610 words

Character and morality triumph over social class in Silas Marner

George Elliot's "Silas Marner" is considered one of the master's greatest works. It is a commentary upon 19th century England at the peak of its economic power and industrialization.

~4 min read

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694 words

Expeditionary learning curriculum in a district-mandated charter school

Curriculum in my school is based on expeditionary learning, as established by the Outward Bound Program. The school is a charter school for the arts and therefore has a focus on the arts, both visual and performing.

~4 min read

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614 words

The Dillingham Flaw and stereotypes of Colombian immigrants

The term Dillingham Flaw, "coined by social thinker Vincent Parrillo, refers to the erroneous way of comparing people from one time period with people living in the present" ("Dillingham Flaw," 2006, World Prout Assembly). The name originated from the study of Senator William P.

~4 min read

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1,323 words

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and the Dresden bombing

Kurt Vonnegut -- an Introduction to His Life, Works, Character, and Unique Contribution to American Fiction Kurt Vonnegut's novels such as Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five have a reputation both as great literary classics and great works of underground fiction.

~7 min read

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1,429 words

Mark Bowden's critical analysis of the Black Hawk Down mission

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden. Specifically it will contain a critical review of the book. This book gained notoriety when it was made into a film, with the author writing the screenplay. The book is a detailed and emotional look into an unsuccessful U.S.

~8 min read

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