Kathleen Parker’s Article, First Three Years Aren’t That Critical Essay

Kathleen Parker’s Article, â€Å"First Three Years Aren’t That Critical†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did your mother read to you when you were six weeks old? Did she teach you how to do math problems when you were two? Recently, I read an issue of Parenting Magazine and found an article on child development. Kathleen Parker’s article, â€Å"First Three Years Aren’t That Critical† tells us that parents today are putting to much emphasis on what the media and medical journals are saying, instead of using common sense. The article emphasizes that parents are going overboard on these new studies using good argumentative techniques. Although I found not all of what she said was accurate, I still felt she got her point across. Parker uses evidence from scientists and medical books, to further persuade the reader to side with her opinion. Parker uses good persuasive techniques by showing that not everything you read in the media about child development is true or factual. Parker also shows that she is not one-sided on the issue and gives a personal comment about the opposing viewpoint. I feel the author proved her point that parents are being ridiculous in how they are raising their child these days.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first few paragraphs, author attracts the attention of the reader and explains the main point of the article. The author begins the article saying that she â€Å"Pity[s] today’s parents who want to do the right thing.† The sentence attracts the audience to continue reading the article because the sentence sparks curiosity in why the author pities today’s parents. The article continues, â€Å"They [parents] buy child-rearing books, explore over psychology articles, play Mozart in nurseries festooned with alphabet cards and the periodic table.† Parker shows good persuasive technique by describing an exaggerated scenario of what parents are doing these days to try to develop their child’s mind. Although the scenario is not believable, the exaggeration helps to prove that parents are being excessive in the way they develop their children. Parker states her position clearly when she comments that parenting should not be that challenging nor as ridiculous as parents are making it. She states that by buying books and playing Mozart to children would be going overboard. This argument could offend people who believe that reading and teaching kids early is a better way to develop their minds or peo... ...ly years is ridiculous. Parker effectively gave evidence to her argument by quoting from scientists and medical literature. Using evidence to support Parker’s overall point made the article more persuasive and convincing. Although she gave some information without evidence, such as in the Jefferson story, she still makes a point in the argument. I felt that Kathleen Parker was persuasive in showing that parents are believing too much what the media and what new medical findings are saying and not using common sense during the first few years of a child’s life. As a parent you should be concentrating on loving and nourishing your child rather than trying to teach it algebra. Parents have been raising their children for thousands of years and I do not believe that these news articles should change the way people are raising their children now. How did your mother raise you? I am sure she did not have a periodic table on hand when she was rocking you to sleep. Parents have other things to worry about rather than trying to change their parental habits because what some controversial news article said. Let parents use what their mother and father used when raising them: common sense.

Geography Reflection

This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them.Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the p resentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation.However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper.Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I w ould have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end.I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions.I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly. If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went.We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning. We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around.Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’ t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had t heir own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of th e paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper . Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however w e did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. How ever I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sou rces and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper s hould go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to s tructure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the o ther members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help and we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited o ur work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper. This project was challenging from the beginning.We had difficulty identifying what we were going to center our project around. Once we got going however we did get a lot of productive work done. I didn’t contribute a large direct contribution to the paper, but I did the introduction and conclusion portions. I also worked closely with Yibo and Bobby to structure their arguments in their portions of the paper. Bobby found my assistance very helpful and him and I constantly worked on revising portions of the paper as we were writing them. Yibo asked for help a nd we gave him help as well as outlined how his paper should go, but he was unable to structure his part of the paper accordingly.If I were to re-do the project I would have liked to work more closely with Yibo on his part of the paper, and ensured we all cited our work as we went. We got mixed up in a few of our sources and it was a headache to fit them at the end, but we were able to crunch it out at the end. I felt the presentation fell upon my lap for the most part and I would have liked more contributions from the other members as far as setting up the presentation. However I was very grateful that each of the members had their own knowledge about their sections of the paper.

What Is Grammar

Hear the word  glamour  and what comes to mind? Celebrities, most likely—limousines and red carpets, swarms of paparazzi and more money than sense. But, odd as it may sound,  glamour  comes directly from a decidedly less glamorous word—grammar. During the Middle Ages,  grammar  was often used to describe learning in general, including the magical, occult practices popularly associated with the scholars of the day. People in Scotland pronounced  grammar  as glam-our, and extended the association to mean magical beauty or enchantment. In the 19th century, the two versions of the word went their separate ways, so that our study of English grammar today may not be  quite  as glamorous as it used to be. But the question remains: what  is  grammar? Descriptive Grammar and Prescriptive Grammar There are two common definitions of grammar: The systematic study and description of a language.A set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and word structures of a language, usually intended as an aid to the learning of that language. Descriptive grammar (definition #1) refers to the structure of a language as its actually used by speakers and writers. Prescriptive grammar (definition #2) refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used. Both kinds of grammar are concerned with rules—but in different ways. Specialists in descriptive grammar (called linguists) study the rules or patterns that underlie our use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. On the other hand, prescriptive grammarians (such as most editors and teachers) lay out rules about what they believe to be the â€Å"correct† or â€Å"incorrect† use of language. (See What Is a SNOOT?) Interfacing With Grammar To illustrate these different approaches, lets consider the word interface. The descriptive grammarian would note, among other things, that the word is made up of a common prefix (inter-) and a root word (face) and that it’s currently used as both a noun and a verb. The prescriptive grammarian, however, would be more interested in deciding whether or not it is â€Å"correct† to use interface as a verb. Heres how the prescriptive Usage Panel at The American Heritage Dictionary passes judgment on interface: The Usage Panel has been unable to muster much enthusiasm for the verb. Thirty-seven percent of Panelists accept it when it designates the interaction between people in the sentence The managing editor must interface with a variety of freelance editors and proofreaders. But the percentage drops to 22 when the interaction is between a corporation and the public or between various communities in a city. Many Panelists complain that interface is pretentious and jargony. Similarly, Bryan A. Garner, author of The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, dismisses interface as jargonmongers talk. By their nature, all popular style and usage guides are prescriptive, though to varying degrees: some are fairly tolerant of deviations from standard English; others can be downright cranky. The most irascible critics are sometimes called the Grammar Police. Though certainly different in their approaches to language, both kinds of grammar--descriptive and prescriptive—are useful to students. The Value of Studying Grammar The study of grammar all by itself wont necessarily make you a better writer. But by gaining a clearer understanding of how our language works, you should also gain greater control over the way you shape words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. In short, studying grammar may help you become a more effective writer. Descriptive grammarians generally advise us not to be overly concerned with matters of correctness: language, they say, isnt good or bad; it simply is. As the history of the glamorous word grammar demonstrates, the English language is a living system of communication, a continually evolving affair. Within a generation or two, words and phrases come into fashion and fall out again. Over centuries, word endings and entire sentence structures can change or disappear. Prescriptive grammarians prefer giving practical advice about using language: straightforward rules to help us avoid making errors. The rules may be over-simplified at times, but they are meant to keep us out of trouble—the kind of trouble that may distract or even confuse our readers. Quotes About Grammar ​Grammar  is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves. The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language. It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available in English. And it can help everyone—not only teachers of English, but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning.  (David Crystal, In Word and Deed. TES Teacher, April 30, 2004) It is necessary to know grammar, and it is better to write grammatically than not, but it is well to remember that grammar is common  speech  formulated.  Usage  is the only test.  (William Somerset Maugham,  The Summing Up, 1938)