The History Of The Uncertainty Avoidance Sociology Essay

The History Of The Uncertainty Avoidance Sociology Essay In many international countries such as Britain, intercultural communication takes place. This is all about the interpersonal interaction between members of different groups, which differ from each other in respect of the knowledge shared by their members and in respect of their linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour'(Karlfried Knapp 1978). It can be analysed to prove that there are many different ways in which the world works, in order to show how intercultural communication happens in day-to-day life. Although this report is going to be evaluating four of them which are, high context/low context, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity. High context/low context is a type of cultural coordination that can be understood in various ways. This image shows the majority of the countries on a scale ranging from high to low context. Whatever the situation may be at hand, high context cultures depends on their speech and behaviour. This is explained as a theory from Hofstede (1980) stating that, high context conversations consist of the sender pre-planning what they have to say, in order for the receiver to understand. There is evidence in China of this, because before they meet up, all of their discussions take place beforehand. Once they have met, which is officially known as a ceremony; they would make whatever they spoke about beforehand approved. On the other hand, in low context conversations, the sender may say there dialogue in short-form, although the receiver would still understand. In contrast to China, America and Germany dont have a discussion beforehand, but inform the participants in the meeting. Generally in high context cultures, information is carried out through body language. From this, people are likely to understand the discussion without much explanation. In some cultures, looking at people in the eye is normally used for people to have a straight forward dialogue. A good example of a high-context experience would be the Japanese tea ceremony. As shown in this image (Copyright  © 1990 by Japan National Tourist Organisation), this is a traditional cultural activity; therefore everybody who takes part knows what to do. Also the shared experience shows that every citizen would know what is included i.e. the tea house, the flower arrangement, the calligraphy scroll, and the ceramics. (F.E. Jandt, 2001).context.gif (550ÃÆ'-185)http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/japan/tea.jpg Also, individuals in the Arab culture feel that if they use too little eye-contact in their conversations, they may find it impolite. Conversely in the USA, the best way to bond with people is to have eye-contact with them. Even in the English culture, a certain amount of eye contact is essential, but too much makes people uncomfortable. Problems often occur when workers from high and low context cultures, have a work-related conversation with each other. This may happen as citizens from high-context cultures familiarise themselves to their families, friends and close colleagues. In this group, everyone knows what is going on, as they regularly communicate and exchange information about everything. On the other hand, in low-context cultures the people do not get along with others in their daily life. So therefore they do not get a chance, to go out and meet new people like citizens from high-context cultures. Also, they are never able to create a close relationship with the people they meet, as their conversations happen in a long-winded way. In professional situations they only talk about the necessary information that is needed in order to complete the job; this doesnt happen constantly. When dealing with people from a high or low-context culture, each person has to notice the origin culture of the speaker. This is to be able to avoid any confusion, and it allows everybody to have longer or future conversations. Individualism/Collectivism Individualism/Collectivism is the concept of how people make important and useful decisions. A decision can be made in two ways, either as a group (collectivism) or as an individual (individualism). The main difference between the two would be that, in an individualistic cultures, people are supposed to look after themselves and their immediate family only, while in collectivistic cultures, people belong to in groups or collectivities which are supposed to look after them in exchange for loyalty (Hofstede Bond, 1984, p.419). Although nowadays, Masakazu (1994) defines modern individualism as a view of humanities that justifies inner beliefs and unilateral self-assertion, as well as competition based on these. An example of an individualistic culture would be people in the USA; they are likely to only take care of themselves and their direct family. Normally to be able to create a close relationship, you would like to know more about the persons personal life i.e.: their occupation, their achievements in life, where they live etc. Although, this doesnt occur in individualist cultures, as surveys show that the most unique and everlasting characteristics of the United States character are independence and individuality. The country also allows citizens in the country to have the freedom to be an individual, which is what their passion is. In theory Patterson (1991) has believed that this passion is related to the countrys history of slavery. In contrast, collectivistic cultures mainly look after other people and understand their characteristics (Gudykunst, Gao, Nishida, et al., 1992). They also try to avoid situations where they hurt people, either physically or mentally (Kim, 1994). This may be because in collectivist cultures, they expect people to fit into groups. http://www.watchmesavetheworld.com/wp-content/themes/Nomad/timthumb.php?src=http://www.watchmesavetheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/P1040042-1024768.jpgh=300w=720zc=1 Lets start by unpacking the concept of collectivism and its ideological counterpoint individualism. In simplest terms collectivist societies place the primacy of the group over the primacy of the individual, vice-versa for individualist societies. Archetypal examples of collectivist societies include communist China and Russia, and Scandinavian countries with strong social services programs. Examples of archetypal individualist societies include the United States, Japan, and Germany. Of course, this is all a massive oversimplification of a complex concept. In reality, levels collectivism break down over political, social, educational, and even technological dimensions. A country might be highly collectivist in one dimension, and not at all in another, or it might comprise various sub-cultures that are far more or less collectivist that the country taken as a whole. Notwithstanding the breadth and depth of this subject, I want to focus on a few particular facets of Moroccan culture th at most powerfully indicate the presence of a collectivist mentality: meal consumption, the educational system, and received wisdom. Examples of collectivism in social interactions abound, but one of the most obvious is in food preparation and consumption. With very few exceptions, meals are eaten out of a large common dish, using bread as utensils. Vegetables and sauce are eaten first, and meat is eaten last, often divided up by the person who cooked the meal to ensure an equitable share for each participant. This is an easy contrast to western eating, where individual portions, utensils, and ever increasingly, individual meals are the norm. Moroccan families will almost always wait for all members of the family to arrive before eating. If you are anywhere in the  vicinity  of a meal as it starts, you will inevitably be invited to eat. Every invitation that you get to join a person or a family for a meal is absolutely sincere, and they will expect you to come. These examples point to the prevalence of collectivism on a the level of an individual or a family, but collectivism in Morocco is equally prevalent in the aggregate, and sometimes with less copacetic results. An example of this culture would be in Japan. In this society people are dependent on one another, which is the main indication that shows that Japan is a collectivistic culture. Groups are formed in which citizens will hold onto all the way through their lives. It would also be their back-up and protection for whenever they are in need for unquestioning dependability. This brings a joy to the group, as well as the need to connect with others. This has a great importance as the difference can be defined with what is said in public and the truth. wrong Nevertheless, people in individualistic cultures apply the same standards to everything whilst relating to everything and everybody. This is compared to collectivistic culture citizens, who treat member of their in and out groups with different value standards. Individualistic culture members are more worried with the simplicity of their conversations (Kim, 1994) and view this as an important issue for effective communication (Kim Wilson, 1994) compared to collectivistic cultures. Another comparison between both types of cultures, is that individualistic people notice direct requests as their most effective strategy in order to complete their goals, while members of collective cultures are the opposite (Kim Wilson, 1994). In completion, it can be understood that the stress in individualistic societies is based on the individuals personal goals and achievements, whereas the complete opposite is the where the stress is based on belonging to groups in collectivistic cultures. Uncertainty avoidance Uncertainty avoidance looks at a degree to which cultures feel defenceless due to doubtful situations, also the point to which they try to avoid these. It shows that to a certain point a culture pushes their members out of their comfort zone, to be able to see how they deal in situations which are unknown, surprising and different from usual. Uncertainty avoidance can either be high or low. The main difference is that, citizens normally show their emotions more in high compared to low uncertainty avoidance cultures. This may be because in low uncertainty avoidance cultures, people have lower stress levels as well as they dont mind either disagreeing or taking risks compared to people in high uncertainty avoidance cultures. Uncertainty avoiding cultures have a chance of reducing the chance of any risky situations happening. This is by having strict laws and rules, which have safety and secure measures. An example of high-uncertainty avoidance country would be France. This is because their organisations approve having strong establishments and in general discourage risk taking activities taking place. On the other hand, Britain and Norway are countries which have low-uncertainty avoidance. They will follow a more flexible structure and encourage people to have diverse views. In the Uncertainty avoidance by Country graph (Appendix 1), it shows 12 countries and how much uncertainty avoidance there is in each country. It can be analysed, to be able work out that U.S.A is known to be highly debateable so that is why they have a low rank of 46 on uncertainty avoidance. Even though India is less avoidant of uncertainty compared to U.S.A, they still have scored a reasonably high score of 52. Interestingly, of the G-8 countries, only Canada (48) and the U.K. (35) had relatively low scores like the U.S.A. On the other hand, Russia (95), Japan (92), and France (86) were out of the range, when comparing to other countries as they have scored extremely high for uncertainty avoidance. Masculinity/femininity In all of the countries around the world, everybody has an opinion about gender inequality. Always questioning themselves as to why there may be more masculine or feminine. Therefore it can always be identified, that in every culture and society around the world there is a gender disproportion. In general, it is normally specified that some responsibilities or jobs are assigned to women. Even in religious ways, allocation of different social responsibilities goes to men and women. Not just in family households, the whole social system becomes a characteristic, as it leads to unequal distribution of control, respect and properties. It shows that in principals, everybody cares about this situation compared to showing their concern for individuals and their quality of life. In other words, Masculinity is the opposite of femininity; together, they form one of the dimensions of national cultures. Masculinity stands for a society which social gender roles are dearly distinct: men are suppo sed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. (Source: Hofstede, page 262). A main example would be India and Malaysia. Between these two countries, India has a high male portion of citizens in their society, compared to Malaysia who has a high female portion. In these cultures, one gender is normally controlled by the other. There is known to be six types of gender inequality which are; mortality, natality, basic facilities, ownership, household and special opportunity. One of the main types of gender inequality is to do with basic facilities. In India, boys have a greater opportunity of having an education compared to girls. Girls are also unable to showcase their talent and also take part in social events that take place within the community. Not just in these sorts of situations, parents also favour their sons to enter higher education. In their opinion, this may because they believe their sons need to earn a good education to be able to take care of their future families. Also for future families, ladies are expected to be a good housewife, but this doesnt need a lot of knowledge, as they are able to study this information from their mother. Even if women try to finish their studies, they are only able to continue on, with the condition that they must come from a rich family. Alternatively, in Malaysia their cultures are more caring. As in their education system, women and men are allowed to have an education, yet anybody can be defeated in the act. This shows that based on Malaysian culture, gender unfairness does not exist.http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3815/3529/320/basic%20facilities.0.jpg Another type of gender inequality is to do with household work. As in India, it is mainly known for men to go to work and earn a living, and then for women to stay at home looking after their children and do the housework. This is a disadvantage, as women will never get the chance to be able to experience the outside world. This links from the fact that, they are unable to have an education as well. Then again in femininity countries such as Malaysia, women have the freedom to be able to choose the jobs that they favour. Also, they are capable to gain more experience, by furthering their studies whilst overseas. Elsewhere, when it comes to housework, men also share the load. This helps the family a lot, as both parents are able to work and help with the financial matters.http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3815/3529/320/Household%20inequality.0.jpg Conclusion Overall, it is essential to understand that there are many differences in people who come from other cultures. The main difference is that in all the countries around the world, there may be an issue with cultural coordination, how people make important and useful decisions in their life, how people may feel doubtful in various situations and the way gender inequality occurs. It can be understood that a role of individualism-collectivism is low-and high-context communication. (Gudykunst Ting-Toomey, 1988). Also when looking at gender inequality, pain is more familiar for people in masculine cultures compared to feminine cultures (Gudykunst Ting-Toomey, 1988). Therefore, everybody must be careful whilst having a gathering with people. This is because by not knowing what culture they come from, problems may occur easily due to the way the person communicates, their attitude towards conflict, the way they make decisions and the how they approach to knowing about life. Appendices http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/uncertainty.gif

Ethical Issues in Secured Communications Essay -- Communication Ethics

Ethical Issues in Secured Communications 1. Introduction The outstanding growth of network technologies in the past decade have contributed to millions of new applications and industries. Literally millions of companies around the world were created to serve this huge growth. Even though many of those companies did not survive until the present time, most of the applications did survive and they are still widely used among consumers of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. Most of the widely used applications are not secured. I will define what is meant by a secured communication later in the paper. However, this paper is more concerned in the way people use these applications in terms of identity. Many applications allow users to participate in specific discussion groups or web activities as anonymous. Anonymity might not be a problem in open chatting rooms for example, but what about banking applications or email or even instant messaging. Email and instant messaging software are free to use and provided by respective companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo. Those services do not require a real identity to be used and many people use these services as anonymous. The opposite of being anonymous is to be verified, and in order for someone to be verified on the internet, he/she has to be authenticated. Authentication ensures that the person using a specific application is whomever he/she claims to be. This paper will look in detail on how authentication can be achieved on the web and why it is necessary. Then I will focus on the notion of anonymity and identity. Then we will see who supports anonymity on the web and why. Then we will see who stands against it and why. A controversial example will be given and ... ... [2] 2000 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 041901 - Herman T. Tavani, â€Å"Privacy and the Internet† [3] 1999 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 060506 - Dr. Ronald J. Kizior, â€Å"Lurking on the Internet† [4] 1999 B.C. Intell. Prop. & Tech. F. 060507 - Adam White Scoville, â€Å"Text is Self: The Merger of Property and Identity† [5] W. Stallings, "Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice", Prentice Hall, 2002, Ch. 14 [6] E. Shaefer, "MATH 178/196 class notes", Santa Clara University, Computer Science and Mathematics department [7] http://www.penet.fi/press-english.html [8] http://legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/privacy/anonymity/ [9] http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~eklund/Opinnot/netsec.html [10] N. Ling," Data Compression 1 class notes", Santa Clara University, Computer Engineering Department [11] Anonymity on the web FAQ

Effective Intervention Essay

This paper tends to serve as a research towards school programs that aims to avoid or stop the bullying attitude in school. In explanation to this the research will identify, whether or not, if the said policies or programs are effective. The data includes the school name as well as their total effort on the particular topic which is about bullying and programs that tend to prevent such an attitude. What is Bullying? Parents should know the importance of this act towards their child because the bullying act’s impact might affect the child’s social, psychological, and mental processes. Through the bullying experience, the child will gain a sense of fear from those who tend to be stronger than her or him which will definitely lead to anxiety, depression, and inferiority complex. Bullying is defined as the power of a certain person or the authority of a certain person over another. This act can be classified in three categories which are physical bullying, verbal bullying, and exclusion from activities (Stopbullyingnow, 2007). Physical Bullying This category of bullying act includes hitting, kicking, pushing, and even choking and punching of a certain student to another he or she feels inferior to him or her (Stopbullyingnow, 2007). Verbal Bullying This category is different from the first because this act of bullying includes threatening, taunting, even teasing, making gossips and/or rumors, and stating hate speeches (Stopbullyingnow, 2007). Exclusion from Activities This act of bullying wherein a certain child commands another child not to play or not to communicate with the child that the â€Å"boss† doesn’t like. Like for example; don’t you dare play with her or else†¦ Central City Cyberschool’s Anti-bullying Strategy Bullying Intervention Strategy is what every school such as the Central City Cyberschool learns and executes in order to reduce or prevent the bullying practices in their school. This strategy starts on a School level which tends to educate the teachers as well as the administrators, the staffs of the school, every parents, and individual students about the bullying behavior and certain response tactics to prevent or avoid it. A curriculum is set into the school in every classroom level in order to effectively promote the intervention strategy. Curriculum 1. Promotes kindness (Starr, 2005) 2. Promotes Communication (Starr, 2005) 3. Promotes Cooperation (Starr, 2005) 4. Promotes Friendship (Starr, 2005) This curriculum tends to enhance anger management and conflict resolution skills on the children in order to avoid possible conflicts in the school environment. On the contrary, children are hardheaded and that what is told to them goes inside their ears and comes out after. Other strategy/individual level 1. Manages serious talks with bullies and their victims (Starr, 2005) 2. Serious talk with the parents of the bullies and their victims (Starr, 2005) Principles of Teaching with Regards to the Intervention  · Respect young people’s autonomy (Davis, 2005)  · Maintain young people’s sense of belonging (Davis, 2005)  · Teaching how to learn cause and effect thinking as well as to promote conscience development (Davis, 2005) Since children are expected to be hardheaded and ego dragged, the said three principles should be considered before making any action against the bully children. These three principles will help develop discipline towards a certain child who has a bad attitude to the other children. Conclusion The discussed programs and strategy not only in the Central City School but also in other schools are said to be effective because the school staffs, teacher, parents, and administration joined efforts together and strictly execute their implementation towards the prevention of bullying without making a violent act against the bullies. They only tend to alter the negative behavior of the bully students and at the same time prevent the bully victims from having fear and any psychological disorder that the act might cause them.

Product Design at Regal Marine

VIDEO CASE STUDY PRODUCT DESIGN AT REGAL MARINE The 7-minute video available from Prentice Hall, filmed specifically for this text, supplements the written case. 1.? The concept of product life cycle applies to Regal Marine because Regal is constantly under pressure to introduce new prod-ucts—and those products have life cycles of relatively few years. As the video suggests, it is a matter of typically less than five years before a boat is out of style and its life cycle terminated. This is a long life cycle compared to a newspaper or magazine, but if you are the production manager it seems rather short. 2.? Regal Marine uses a strategy of product differentiation, which constantly introduces new products with new innovations and new styling to stay competitive in the luxury performance boat market. 3.? The cost and time saving at Regal Marine through use of CAD is typical of the use of CAD everywhere. It allows a variety of designs and styles to be tested very economically. The ratio of savings of engineering talent is about four to one. Most important-ly, it allows them to be creative economically and rapidly. 4.? The payoff from CAD is not only evident in efficiency, crea-tive designs, and styling but by production of the code necessary for the numerical machines, such as the machines used to make the plugs in Washington state and for those applications of the numerical control machines at Regal Marine. CAD also provides, as a by-product, very effective and comprehensive documentation of design variables.

Electricity from Chemicals †Physics Essay

Electricity from Chemicals – Physics Essay Free Online Research Papers Electricity from Chemicals Physics Essay Electricity is energy found in nature, or is artificially created. The simplest way to make electricity is called a cell. Not a living cell, but a container, with an electrolyte, and electrodes, creating electricity. A good example of a cell is a battery. Batteries are cans, that is full of chemicals to make electricity. There are four types of batteries, and a few early model batteries. The first battery made, was founded by count Allessandro Volta, in 1800. He discovered, two different metals, copper and zinc, which was separated by two disks soaked in a salt solution, created a current of electricity. This new creation of artificial electricity, called the voltaic model started a bunch or new inventions. The most common type of battery used today, is the dry cell battery, or the alkaline battery. The dry cell battery contained an electrolyte paste, unlike the voltaic model, which had a liquid electrolyte. The dry cell battery contained a positive electrode, an anode, and en electrolyte paste, combined. Another type of battery cell, is the mercury-zinc â€Å"button† battery. This button sized cell’s anode is zinc powder, while the cathode, the negative electrode, is mercuric oxide. Most button cells can only create 1.4 volts. A NiCad or rechargeable battery cell is based on the chemicals Nickel, and Cadmium, making up its name NiCad. A rechargeable battery, well recharges, but if over charged, or under charged might not work properly. How is a battery able to recharge? It is simple, because oxidation, the process to combine with oxygen, which occurs at the negative electrode, equals the oxidation reduction at the positive electrode, creating power. Car batteries, like NiCad batteries, can be recharged. To do that, the chemical reaction that was used to make electricity, can be reversed to put it back. Electricity is an invisible form of energy. It is used to power up cell phones, radios, and more stuff. Electricity can be man made or natural made. A battery is just another way to create electricity, a simpler way. The Voltaic model was a simple way. And over time batteries grew to what we know today. Research Papers on Electricity from Chemicals - Physics EssayBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfGenetic EngineeringPETSTEL analysis of IndiaIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBringing Democracy to AfricaLifes What IfsCapital PunishmentThree Concepts of PsychodynamicResearch Process Part OneAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 Europe

How to Put Together a Poetry Manuscript for Publication

How to Put Together a Poetry Manuscript for Publication Putting together a poetry manuscript to submit to contests or publishers is not a walk in the park. Expect it to take an hour or two a day over the span of a week, month, or even a year, depending on how much work you have, how polished the pieces are, and how much time you can afford to spend on the project.   Despite that, creating a poetry manuscript for publication is an important next step in a writers career. Heres a step-by-step guide on how to make this goal a reality. Step 1: Choose Your Poems Begin by typing (or printing from your computer files) all the poems you want to consider putting into your book, one per page (unless of course, the poem is longer than a single page). This is a chance to make any small revisions you want to make to individual poems so that you can concentrate on the shape of the book as a whole. Step 2: Plan the Book Size To get started, decide how big of a book you want to create- 20 to 30 pages for a typical chapbook, 50 or more for a full-length collection (more on exact page amounts later). You may well change your mind about this when you are actually selecting and ordering the poems, but this will give you a starting point. Step 3: Organize the Poems With the length of your book in mind, sift through all the pages you have typed or printed up, and put the poems into piles that you feel belong together in some way- a series of poems on related themes, a group of poems written using a particular form, or a chronological sequence of poems written in the voice of a single character. Step 4: Take a Step Back Let your piles sit at least overnight without thinking about them. Then pick up each pile and read through the poems, trying to see them as a reader and not as their author. If you know your poems well and find your eyes skipping ahead, read them out loud to yourself to make sure you take the time to listen to them. Step 5: Be Selective When you’ve read through a stack of poems, pull out any poems that no longer seem to fit in that particular pile or seem redundant, and put the poems you want to keep together in the order you want your readers to experience them. You may find yourself doing lots of reshuffling over time, moving poems from one stack into another, melding whole groups of poems together by combining stacks, or discovering new groupings that need to be separate and on their own. Don’t worry about it. You will likely come across new ideas for books or chapbooks and also change your mind a number of times before the poems settle into the shape of a finished book manuscript. Step 6: Take a Breather After you’ve pared down and reordered each pile of poems, let them sit again at least overnight. You can use this time to mull over your reading, listening for the poems that stand out in each stack and how they sound together. Pay attention to other poems that may have popped into your mind when you were reading a certain stack to see if you should add them or replace similar poems. Step 7: Reevaluate Book Length Think again about the length of the book you want to create. You may decide that one stack of related poems would make a good short chapbook. You may have a really large pile of poems that will all go together into a long collection. Or you may want to combine several of your piles to create sections within a full-length book. Step 8: Create an Actual Book Next, try actually making the manuscript into a book that you can live with and leaf through. Staple or tape your pages together put them into a three-ring notebook, or use your computer to print them out in book format. If you’re preparing an email or online submission, you may still want to print up the poems you’re considering- shuffling paper pages is easier than editing a computer file. If you have several long pieces, you may wish to lay everything out in a word processing document with the correct margins for the completed book size, to see how more exactly how many pages the collection will consume. For a typical 6-by-9-inch printed book, youll want the final page count to be divisible by four (include room for a title page, dedication page, table of contents, copyright page, and acknowledgments page in your count as well). For ebooks, the page count can be any number. If you want your document to look like a finished book when printed out, use your software to make mirror image pages when setting up your page size so that the left and right pages will face each other as they would when professionally bound, and add page numbers in a footer or header. That said, don’t think too much about typography or design at this point. You want simply to put the poems together so that you can read through the book and see how they interact in that order. Step 9: Choose a Title After you’ve decided on the length and general shape of your manuscript, choose a title for your collection. A title may have suggested itself during your sifting and ordering of the poems, or you may want to read through them again to find one- perhaps the title of a central poem, a phrase taken from one of the poems, or something completely different. Step 10: Proofread Carefully proofread your entire manuscript from beginning to end after you’ve put it in order. If you’ve spent a lot of time with the book, you may be tempted to give it only a cursory read-through. In this case, you need to set it aside for a few days or weeks so that when you come back to it you can pay close attention to each poem, each title, each line break, and each punctuation mark. You will likely find yourself making additional revisions to the poems at this point- don’t hold back, as this final reading may be your last chance to make changes before you send the book out into the world. Proofreading your own work is difficult- ask a friend, or two, to proofread the manuscript for you, and go through all their notes carefully. Fresh eyes will likely spot some errors that slid right by you but do not feel that you must accept every editorial change they may suggest. When in doubt about punctuation or line breaks, read the poem aloud. Step 11: Research Venues for Submission Next, it’s time to seek appropriate venues for submission. Use a list of poetry publishers or links to poetry contests to identify places you want to submit your manuscript. It’s important to read the poetry books they’ve published or the previous winners of their competitions in order to decide if you want them to publish your work. Targeting your submissions to publishers of like works can also save you time and money on submissions that would have been rejected for not being appropriate to their current catalog. Publishing is a business, and if a manuscript wouldnt fit in with others in the companys catalog, its marketing department wouldnt know what to do with it, regardless of its quality. Weed those publishers out before sending the manuscript anywhere. Keep notes on why a publisher is a good fit, to mention in your submission cover letter. Step 12: Apply! After you have selected a publisher or a contest, reread its guidelines and follow them exactly. Print a fresh copy of your manuscript in the format requested, use the submission form if there is one, and enclose the applicable reading fee. Try to let go of your manuscript after you’ve mailed it off- it may take a long time for you to get a response, and obsessing over one manuscript submission will only set you up for disappointment. It never hurts, however, to keep thinking about the order and title of your book and to submit it to other contests and publishers in the meantime (so long as the companies you’ve sent it to accept simultaneous submissions).

Make Your Own Magic Rocks in a Chemical Garden

Make Your Own Magic Rocks in a Chemical Garden Magic Rocks, sometimes called Chemical Garden or Crystal Garden, are a product that includes a small packet of multicolored rocks and some magic solution. You scatter the rocks at the bottom of a glass container, add the magic solution, and the rocks grow into magical-looking chemical towers within a day. Its crystal-growing at its finest for people who prefer not to wait days/weeks for results. After the chemical garden has grown, the magic solution is (carefully) poured off and replaced with water. At this point, the garden can be maintained as a decoration almost indefinitely. Magic rocks tend to be recommended for ages 10 because the rocks and solution are not edible! However, younger children will also enjoy growing magic rocks, providing they have close adult supervision. How Magic Rocks Work The Magic Rocks are chunks of metal salts that have been stabilized by being dispersed in aluminum hydroxide or alum. The magic solution is a solution of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) in water. The metal salts react with the sodium silicate to form the characteristic colored precipitant (chemical towers about 4 high). Grow Your Own Chemical Garden Magic rocks are available on the Internet and are quite inexpensive, but you can make them yourself. These are the salts used to make magic rocks. Some of the colorants are readily available; most require access to a general chemistry lab. White: calcium chloride (found on the laundry aisle of some stores)White: lead (II) nitratePurple: manganese (II) chlorideBlue: copper (II) sulfate (common chemistry lab chemical, also used for aquaria and as an algicide for pools)Red: cobalt (II) chloridePink: manganese (II) chlorideOrange: iron (III) chlorideYellow: iron (III) chlorideGreen: nickel (II) nitrate Make the garden by placing a thin layer of sand on the bottom of a 600-ml beaker (or equivalent glass container). Add a mixture consisting of 100-ml sodium silicate solution with 400 ml distilled water. Add crystals or chunks of the metal salts. If you add too many rocks the solution will turn cloudy and immediate precipitation will occur. A slower precipitation rate will give you a nice chemical garden. Once the garden has grown, you can replace the sodium silicate solution with pure water.