The evolution of rape to sexual assault legislation and its impact on Essay

The evolution of rape to sexual assault legislation and its impact on sentencing - Essay Example This is because; married women were considered to be the property of their husbands and, therefore, forced coitus by one’s spouse was not considered a crime. In this instance, it was only considered a crime if the female was an unmarried virgin. Over time, these laws have evolved so as to ensure fairness in the way such cases are handled. However, there is still inconsistency among various states in regards to the laws that relate to sexual assault. Despite all these factors, what is evident is that presently, forced penetration of both genders is a serious offence under the law. There are still some grey areas in regards to the actual definition and understanding of terms such as consent and force. It has now been widely established that forced penetration of an individual is known as rape. Recently, the definition of rape has been enhanced to include penetration without force but also without consent. Rape is a sensitive matter and these varying opinions make it difficult for one to really know if they are indeed victims of such assaults (Caringella, 2009). This will also influence their decisions to seek legal redress and report the crime to the relevant authorities. Much of this change is due to feminist groups in the United States who struggled to ensure that the rights of women were protected in regards to rape. They have been at the front line in coming up with the correct definitions and the laws that are used to prosecute offenders. It is the same group which has been at the forefront in lobbying for laws that protect women from violence. They also pushed for the adoption of rape shield laws. These laws protect a victim of sexual assault such that in case of a trial, the victim’s sexual history will not be questioned. Such questions are used to intimidate victims and try to insinuate that they had somehow attracted the rapists. By adoption of the laws, it is now easier for rape victims to report such incidences due to the fact that their

What the Number of Cars Will Be in the Future Essay Example for Free

What the Number of Cars Will Be in the Future Essay With the development of society and improvement of economic conditions, more and more families have the ability to afford cars. But what the number of cars will be in the future? Is it safe to reach the conclusion that there will be fewer cars in use than there are today in 20 years? In my opinion, its possible and the reasons are as follows. Just imagine which of the following two worlds you would prefer: Option one is that you are living in a place where the sky is grey and the river is yellow. Every day you have to breathe the air with many harmful fumes. Option two is that the environment you live is beautiful. There are many trees and flowers around the lake. You can listen to the birds singing in the sky and watch fish swimming in the lake. Wouldnt you feel more comfortable and more enjoyable if you choose option two? Nowadays, more and more people begin to realize that the waste fume from the car exert bad influence on the environment and thus take many actions to limit the number of cars, such as taking subway instead of driving a car. Therefore, there will be fewer cars in use in the near future. Besides the improving concern of environmental protection, the reduction of the number of cars is also from the increasing number of old people. For instance, my family had 2 cars in the past, one belonged to my dad and one belonged to my grandpa. As the increasing of age, my grandpa felt that he could no long have the energy to drive a car. So he sold his car and now my family share one car. Nowadays, the entire world is entering an aging era. Hence, more and more old people will not be able to drive a car and the number of cars will come down. Whats more, the government may also play a role in assistance to the reduction of cars. Because of the frequency happening of the traffic jam. To sum up, because of the improvement concern of environmental protection and the becoming older of the population, I believe that there will be fewer cars in use in 20 years.

The Concept Of Linguistic Variation

The Concept Of Linguistic Variation The ability of spoken language is believed (by many) to be attributed uniquely to humanity. Despite this evidently phenomenal existence the exact date of languages birth remains unknown and yet it continues to evolve. (Klein, 2009) The study of this ever mutable method of communication has come to be known as linguistics. However due to the communal and social nature of the human race the study of sociolinguistics could be said to more accurately represent language within human societies. Furthermore Linguists have known for some time that differences in language are tied to social class (Ross, 1954) Sociolinguistics is the study of the way in which language varies and changes in social groups (communities) of speakers, focusing primarily on the impacts of linguistic structures (such as sounds, grammatical forms, intonation features, words, etc) and social factors (such as a speakers gender, ethnicity, age, degree of integration into their community, etc). (Reference) The study of sociolinguistics has ancestry in dialectology, beginning in the 1960s (reference) partly due to the existence of inadequate methods associated with previous approaches to the study of dialect. Sociolinguistics uses recordings of informal conversations as its data; taking a significantly more scientific approach relying on quantitative analysis to highlighting dialect differences. How language changes (meme Theory) One possible reason for this change and transition of language through social groups may be attributed to a unit of cultural evolution, the Meme. A meme is defined as an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. (Dawkins,) By this definition a Meme acts as an evolutionary/replicatory unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, allowing transmission from one mind to another through an act of imitation such as writing, speech, gestures or rituals. This description of the Meme and its transmission can be applied to the Learning of language. Such learning requires, at its foundation, the ability to imitate sounds (Tomasello, Kruger, Ratner, 1993). One may be uncomfortable in describing something as complex as language as imitation, however, language clearly fit the evolutionary theory in regards to Memes. Information is copied from person to person, variation is introduced both by degradation (due to failures of human memory and communication) and by the creative recombination of different memes. Selection of this variation is then a potential result of limitations on time, memory, transmission rates and other kinds of storage space. Variation between Social Classes As described sociolinguistics is built on the foundations the presence dialect variation is from random, but are determined by what Weinreich, Labov and Herzog (1968) defined as orderly heterogeneity structured variation. This structure can be shown in a number of ways, particularly interesting from the sociolinguist perspective is the correlation often exhibited between linguistic structure and social status. Varieties of English can be identified into two groups referring to the changes of the variable (Figure 1). The variable (t) refers to the use of a glottal stop instead of [t], such as in the word bottle, which can be written botle to represent the changed pronunciation of the medial (middle) [t]. Most English speakers appear to glottalise final [t] in words such as cat, with no/little correlation to social class. This is not the case however for the use of glottal stops in the medial position, e.g., bottle (botle), butter (buter). This variant is associated with a social stigma. Table 1 shows the occurrence of glottal stops corresponding to social class in Glasgow for all positions within a word (including the final [t]) compared with that occurring only in medial position (Macaulay 1977). Upper class (Professionals) is represented by Class I whilst the working class is represented by Class III (unskilled workers). When considering the glottal stop in the medial position, the highes t social class show zero occurrences, while the lowest class uses 68.8%. The above linguistic variation is not isolated in its relation to social classes; there are of course many other variables in English which show similar sociolinguistically significant distributions. Trudgill (1974) showed the relationship for variables (ing) and (h) in a Norwich based urban dialect study (Table 2). Once gain the values show the percentage of variant forms used by different classes. The variable (ing) refers to variations of alveolar [n] and a velar nasal [ng] in words ending with -ing for example breeding and cooling. Once again a lower social status is associated a higher percentage of nonstandard variation (alveolar) rather than standard (velar nasal) endings. In common terms this variants is known as `dropping ones gs, and is a commonly recognised marker of social status over the English-speaking world. The variable (h) refers to the presence between [h] and lack of [h] at the beginning of for example heart (eart) and hand (and). This particular variation is slightly more complicated as most urban accents in England do not have initial [h]and as such no variable of it. However in regions that do represent both variants (present of and lack of initial [h]) a similar pattern is shown. The lower the individuals social status, the more likely he/she is to drop hs. As shown in all the examples above a common pattern appears to form (these cases have dealt with stable linguistic features) this can be plotted affectively as an s-shape curve. Figure 2 shows the correlation for the absence of present tense markers (she play rather than she plays) with social classes (Trudgill 1974) once again the lower the social class, the higher the variation from standard. As shown in figure 2 the data represents a continuum (s-shaped curve) despite differences between classes, this can be consider once again in a broadly evolutionary sense. Just as the transmission of linguistic features (memes) may be stopped by physical geographical barriers (i.e. mountain ranges, oceans), it may also be hindered by social class. This limitation results in boundaries between social dialects that tend not to be perfect. As such sociolinguistics has should be considered a quantitative approach not a qualitative method. Future Developments The above approach outlined for analysing language variation has been popular, being used across many speaking communities worldwide. However, whilst these studies have accepted the basic guidance (the linguistic variable), some have suggested (reference) that sociolinguistic studies have been naive by correlating social facts about the subject in isolation (gender, ethnicity and social class), rather than observing how social groups come to be and change over time, and subsequently analysing the variants that emerge as a result. As a result some studies have become to approach studies form a bottom up perspective, examining self-forming social groups and see linguistic structure reflect these grouping rather than starting with a broad social category, and look at the language use within it (a top-down approach). Research

Jane Eyre, Hamlet And Keats :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To convey a sense of argument, imagery and perspective, authors use various types of language, syntax and vocabulary to achieve this. An extract from Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, a soliloquy from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare and Ode to Autumn, by John Keats all have a number of striking similarities between them, as well as a few differences, which will be analysed to show.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unlike Hamlet and Autumn, the extract from Jane Eyre, doesn’t have any particular argument, but the use of language is similar to that of Keats and to some extent Hamlet. Jane Eyre is a character existing in a narrative in the first person, as is Hamlet in his soliloquy. This brings a sense of identification and realism to the reader, â€Å"I did not feel the cold, though it froze keenly† (Bronte, p143) indicated the narrator’s feelings and experience. The narration is written in the past tense, â€Å"in those days I was young† (p143) to add to the affect of a recollection and to bring the sense of an autobiography.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jane is not an omniscient narrator, like Hamlet, therefore the reader can see things she does not, such as the gloomy significance of the extract and how it is an indication of her future relationship with Mr Rochester, and Thornfield. The whole of the novel is written in elaborate, complex sentences, which perhaps is the author’s way of demonstrating Jane’s intelligence and eloquence. The style of language and it usage is similar to that of Keats. Bronte uses active verbs such as â€Å"rising moon† and â€Å"blended clouds† (p143) and â€Å"noise† breaking out, and integrates them into the elegant prose to bring a sense of movement to Jane’s surroundings. An idea of sound is also achieved by the use of onomatopoeic words such as â€Å"tinkle of the nearest stream† and â€Å"whispering† (p143) this brings a sensuous aspect to the prose, something that Keats also manages to achieve in his Ode to Autumn. There is even a small degree of alliteration â€Å"wave wanderings† (p143) something, which Keats also uses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The imagery in Jane Eyre is plentiful, for instance the moon is personified as female, â€Å"The rising moon . . . she looked over Hay† (p143) the images are conjured up through pictorial descriptions used by Jane, as with Keats. We get the impression that Thornfield is slightly intimidating, we know the hall is â€Å"grey and battlemented† (p143) and that the woods are â€Å"dark†.

Characteristics of at Risk Students

Pregnant Teens Janet Riley AED/201-Teaching as a Profession December 23, 2012 Mary Ortiz Pregnant Teens In 2010 data was presented by Voices for Virginia’s Children showing a pregnancy rate for school aged children in Virginia Beach to be 106. 7 per 1000 teens (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012). Teenage pregnancy is an issue for many and causes problems for students (University of Phoenix, 2005). The Virginia Beach school district offers programs for pregnant teens to help them become less â€Å"at risk†. Once the teens are in the situation of becoming pregnant, many believe they do not have a choice to continue their education.There are programs such as night classes and centers for pregnant teens available in Virginia Beach for these students. The centers offer free childcare while the parents are in class. This way they do not have to miss school because they have no one to watch the children. The night school has an advanced curriculum to help the students gradua te faster. Both programs are good for the teenage parents because it puts them together with others in the same situation. Not only does this put them in a setting with others that can understand what they are going through, it also puts them in an environment where they won’t feel judged by others.Teenage parents may often drop out due to self-esteem issues or lack of help from others. It is very important to both the parents and children that the teens receive a proper education. That is why the programs mentioned are beneficial. They help the teens get past the problems associated with teen pregnancy. They also offer special classes on parenting to help the teens ease into the role of parents. This way they can better handle the transition into parenthood and manage to stay on track. Another great thing about the programs is that they do not cost anything.Many teen parents do not have a lot of money; and any money they have probably goes to doctors and items for the babies /children. The centers and special schools do not charge for admission or childcare. With this burden lifted, teens may feel they do not have to quit school. Just having the childcare is a big plus. Some teens do not get help from others and could not afford an independent daycare. So having a way to have their children being taken care of in a trusted environment is a big deal. There are programs offered by the state that are beneficial to these students as well.Medical programs and supplemental needs programs are offered. The state makes sure the teens and their children have access to doctors, mental health services, family planning services, and drug abuse services (Council on Virginia's Future, 2012). There are also programs to make sure nutritional needs are met. This is beneficial to students because they can stay healthy and well-nourished enough to remain in school. They also make sure that teens have counseling so they are not overwhelmed by the idea of parenting and finis hing school.The programs offered for pregnant teens by Virginia as a state and the city of Virginia Beach are great programs. This is something I actually have personal experience with. I used the night classes to finish school. The night school gave me a chance to graduate. And since the classes did not take up my whole day, I was still able to care for my son. The school years were only as long as an average semester, so it did not take as long to finish school. This way I was able to start a full time job sooner and did not have to sacrifice my education. There is one problem I have found with teen pregnancy programs.The issue of teen pregnancy is something many would rather not mention. People are afraid of bringing attention to the issue or creating influence. Therefore, the programs are not well known. Many only know of them through having to thoroughly research or by hearing from counselors or even peers after they have had time to give up. If the programs were more widely kn own, the teens would have the advantage to decide to go before completely dropping out. Teen pregnancy does cause a lot of issues when it comes to education. With the help of the schools and centers offered by the city, educational goals can be met.Though it should not be encouraged, the students do not have to be so â€Å"at-risk†. References Council on Virginia's Future. (2012). Teen Pregnancy. Retrieved from http://vaperforms. virginia. gov/indicators/healthfamily/teenpregnancy. php The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2012). Teen Pregnancy Rate per 1,000 by Age Group (Rate) – 2010. Retrieved from http://datacenter. kidscount. org/data/bystate/Rankings. aspx? state=VA&ind=6393 University of Phoenix. (2005). Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional, Second Edition. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, AED/201- Teaching as a Profession website.

The 8 ACT English Tips You Must Use in Your Prep

The 8 ACT English Tips You Must Use in Your Prep SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The ACT English section can feel a bit overwhelming. You have to answer 75 questions in 45 minutes. You have to know and understand grammar rules. You have to analyze phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and whole passages. It can be scary stuff. If you can focus on a few basic tips, you can simplify the ACT English section and feel more confident when attempting to slay the ACT English beast. Whether you spend ample time diligently studying for the ACT or start your ACT preparation the night before the test, remembering these tips for the ACT English section will be beneficial on test day. In this article, I'll give you the top 8 tips for ACT English success. Using these tips willraise your score and prevent you from making careless mistakes: Read the Whole Sentence Don't Be Afraid to Pick NO CHANGE Don't Rush Rely on Rules, Not Your Ear BeSure You Know the Easy, Common Rules Eliminate Identical Answers Pick the Clearest Answer Answer the Question that You're Asked General ACT English Tips Let's start with some strategies that apply to the ACT English section as a whole. #1: Read the Whole Sentence This tip is vital for the ACT English section. Most of the questions will ask you how to change the underlined portion of a sentence. Don't just read the underlined portion. Reading the whole sentence is imperative to correctly answering the questions. The phrases that are not underlined in the sentence often provide essential information to determine whether there is an error in the underlined portion. Here is an example question from a real ACT to illustrate this point: If you just look at the underlined portion, you probably won't think there is anything wrong with the word "consecutively." It's an adverb and it modifies the verb "speak." However, when you read the whole sentence, you should notice that "consecutively" is redundant due to the phrase "for twelve hours straight." In this context, consecutively means without stopping, and the phrase "for twelve hours straight" implies that she could speak that long without stopping. Therefore, the word "consecutively" is superfluous. If you don't read the whole sentence, you might not notice the error and most likely select A. However, because the word "consecutively" is unnecessary, the correct answer is D. Additionally, some questions require you to read multiple sentences to correctly answer the questions. For example, you need the context provided by multiple sentences to answer some verb tense and paragraph order questions. Remember to do enough reading. #2: Don't Assume That There Must Be an Error Do not fear the "NO CHANGE" option. If a sentence seems fine, look at the differences between the answer choices to understand what concept the question is testing and determine whether that error is present in the original sentence. The NO CHANGE answer tends to be more common than expected if all answer choices were distributed evenly. #3: Don't Rush This tip may seem obvious, but it's important to think about as you're taking the test. Make sure you read and understand the relevant sentences and questions before marking your answer. It's better to have to guess at the end or skip the more time consuming big picture questions than to rush through questions and make careless mistakes. Check out this question that you could easily miss if you were to rush: If you're going too quickly, you may miss this relatively easy question. Perhaps you won't notice that the apostrophe comes before the "s" in "girl's" and select NO CHANGE, or you may not recognize that we're dealing with a plural possessive noun. The plural noun "faces" suggests that we're talking about more than one girl, and if you read the passage carefully, you'll know that the sentence is referring to the faces of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. Therefore, the apostrophe should come after the "s" to indicate plural possession. The answer is G. This question is testing a somewhat basic rule, but if you're not paying close enough attention, you can miss a question like this that you should be getting right. Make sure you identify the type of question you're being asked, and go through all the necessary steps to find the correct answer. Refer to our ACT English articles in this blog for strategies for answering every type of question that appears on the ACT English section. Grammar Tips Here are some tips that focus exclusively on the grammar questions. #4: Rely on Grammar Rules to Answer Grammar Questions On the ACT English section, you should primarily use your knowledge of grammar rules to answer the grammar questions. Don't rely on your ear for what sounds right, except on idiom questions. Many correct sentences may sound wrong to you, and the ACT tests rules that are often broken in spoken and written English. Take a look at this official ACT example: If you attempt to answer this question by relying on what sounds right, you probably won't notice the error. The sentence sounds fine (at least it did to me when I first read it). However, if you rely on grammar rules to answer this question, you should first identify the underlined word as a pronoun. Whenever you see a pronoun underlined, you should check to see if there is an error in pronoun agreement. In the sentence, the pronoun "them" doesn't have a clear antecedent. The only answer choice that corrects the error is G. Here's an overview of all of the grammar rules that are tested on the ACT. #5: Some Common Errors Are Relatively Simple to Fix Some of the most common grammar errors on the ACT English section are fairly easy to fix. If you're able to identify these errors, often you can correct them with simple changes. Redundancy/Wordiness Redundancy and wordiness errors can be fixed by eliminating words or by making a sentence more concise. If a sentence makes sense without some of the underlined words, get rid of them. Here is an example: I think maybe I might possibly have met them all. F. NO CHANGE G. perhaps I've H. I've possibly J. I've By just looking at the underlined phrase, you should be able to determine that this is a redundancy question because "might" and "possibly" are synonyms, and therefore, both words aren't necessary. Additionally, the word "maybe" makes both "might" and "possibly" superfluous. All you have to do to eliminate the error is to get rid of "might" and "possibly." The correct answer is J. Unnecessary Commas Some of the comma questions on the ACT can be a little tricky and require you to know your comma rules well, but many comma questions simply require you to get rid of unnecessary commas. If you're unsure if a comma is needed, the general rule is to go with no comma. Take a look at this question: The sentence works just fine without the comma. On the ACT, if the sentence doesn't require a comma, there shouldn't be one. All you have to do to fix the error is get rid of the comma after "value." The correct answer is H. Dangling Modifiers If you start a sentence with a descriptive phrase, the word following the comma has to be the noun the phrase is describing. Any time you see an introductory phrase that describes a noun, the described noun should come right after the comma. This is an example of a dangling modifier: A writer for PrepScholar, Justin's goal is to help prepare students for ACT success. The introductory phrase is describing "Justin," not his goal. This sentence would fix the dangling modifier: A writer for PrepScholar, Justin hopes to prepare students for ACT success. #6: Eliminate Identical Errors If two answers are functionally identical, they must both be wrong. For example, if there is a question about transitions and two of the answer choices are "furthermore" and "moreover," you can determine that both are wrong because there is no way to differentiate between the two options. If you notice that more than two options are functionally identical, it will be a "Which of the following would not be acceptable?" question. Let's take a look at one of our previous examples: I think maybe I might possibly have met them all. F. NO CHANGE G. perhaps I've H. I've possibly J. I've If you didn't initially notice the redundancy error, you could have started going through the answer choices. Look at choices G and H. There is no real difference between the phrases "perhaps I've met them all" and "I've possibly met them all." Therefore, you would be able to determine that they must both be incorrect, and you can eliminate them. Then, you can compare the two remaining choices. Answer choice J is more concise, maintains the meaning of the original sentence, and it's grammatically correct, so it's the right answer. Rhetorical Skills Tips Now, here are some tips to use for the rhetorical skills questions. #7: All Prose Should Be as Clear as Possible Focus on picking the answer choice that provides all the necessary information and nothing more, in the most straightforward way possible. Here is an actual ACT example for you: While the phrase "being the place in which" doesn't contain a specific grammatical error, it's unnecessarily wordy. Every word or phrase in the passages on the ACT English should serve an essential purpose. This sentence can be more straightforward and concise. The correct answer is C. If we change "being the place in which" to "in which," none of the information in the sentence has changed, but the prose is more clear. #8: You Must Answer the Question You're Being Asked This tip may seem fairly obvious, but thinking about it is helpful when answering rhetorical skills questions. Each question asks you for specific things. Focus on selecting the answer choice that best answers the question instead of picking an answer choice that just seems plausible or sounds right. Here is an example for you: Many students will be stumped on questions like these. Since all the answer choices are true, they'll just randomly pick the choice that sounds formal and complex. Focus on the wording of the question. The correct answer should be the most specific and vivid. The answer choice that paints the clearest image of the underwater terrain will be the right answer. By focusing on what the question is specifically asking, you should be able to determine that the correct answer is A. None of the other answer choices vividly describes the underwater terrain. What's Next? Review the posts on the five critical concepts you must understand to ace ACT English and formality on ACT English. Both offer some helpful insight into the English section of the ACT. Also, read the article on how to approach ACT English passages. Make sure you have a systematic approach to these passages that works for you and will enable you to reach your target score. Aiming forthat elusive perfect 36? Tryour guide to getting a 36 on the ACT Englishfrom a perfect scorer. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this English lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial: