Good Usage and Good Judgement
You are in charge of hiring one person for a business and you have in front of you 1,000 applications. How do you go about choosing the right person for the job? It is impractical to call all 1,000 people in for an interview in order to get a better idea of the type of worker they might be. First things first, you look through the applications. If one of the applications has a mis-spelled word- in the circular file it goes. That's life. If you don't care enough about this job to spell things correctly, then you don't have what it takes for the job. According to some of our "experts" on good usage, this is considered lazy. That is nonsense. When confronted with this great task, efficiency is the key. You are not necessarily looking for the best person for the job. You are looking for your idea of the best person for the job. So what if it's unfair. That's life.
Anyone who disagrees with this assessment already has a job. You can afford to be high and mighty when you aren't the one making the decisions or under a time crunch. We brought up the example of a person misspelling coffee on an application. The manager decided that this person was not going to be hired. The point was made that spelling has nothing to do with the ability of the applicant to serve coffee. This point may be correct in an ideal world. But imagine that you were the owner of the coffee shop and your profits depended on the competency of the people you hired. Without having prior knowledge of the caliber of the worker, are you going to hire this person? Of course not. You are going to hire someone who has presented themselves, through language, as someone worthy of the job.
In the employment world, language is our appeara...
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...uck. You file the thought away and wait to make that decision when your head has cleared.
You've had a rough day. How can anyone come up with a clear-cut decision on good usage when you are constantly forced to change it? If you don't change your usage, you won't be conforming to the normal framework of what is appropriate in a given situation. But what is the "normal framework?" If there was only a "god of good usage" in the sky, you could consult him/her and find out what is appropriate. Maybe this god could be an English professor. You realize this would be impossible- they can't seem to agree on the issue of good usage either. You resolve to just use your best judgement considering the circumstances with which you are presented. You don't have any more time to ponder on the point anyway. You've got another stack of applications waiting for you in the morning.
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. You know Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was misperceived at first. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, but after he led Santa’s sleigh, they loved him. Misperceptions like this happen all throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. As you read the novel you see original judgments made about characters transform into new conceptions and new understandings. Some characters twist your views of them on purpose, others do it involuntarily. To Kill a Mockingbird shows this happening over and over again. All you have to do is look for it.
We could quit here, but it is also worthwhile to address the point that critics of affirmative action thought they were making with this example. And that is that it's wrong to deny top jobs to the most qualified in the name of racial fairness.
illiterate and unqualified to advance their career with only a kind, encouraging word from a
attempt to justify the hiring of a person of race over that of a truly qualified person is
Ficklin, Darren L., Iris T. Stewart, and Edwin P. Maurer. "Climate Change Impacts On Streamflow And Subbasin-Scale Hydrology In The Upper Colorado River Basin." Plos ONE 8.8 (2013): 1-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Little do these parents know having a cell phone is hurting their social skills. Parents are worried about if their children are doing inappropriate things online or going to get hurt by cyberbullying,t when really they are worrying about the wrongs things. Bindley says,“But what about a more basic question like, Will they be able to hold their own in conversation!” (Katherine Bindley) Always staring at their phones texting their friends and peers is making it harder for them to be able to speak in person.Child psychologist Melissa Ortega notices the problems with high schoolers today from simply talking to them for a couple minutes. They avoid conversation by looking at their phones every two minutes to see if they received a text back. Binldey then says, “Another thing I’m noticing is they may have trouble initiating interactions, those small talk situations” (Katherine Bindley). They use text messages for small talk now to avoid the in person conversations. Just making small talk with a stranger when on an elevator is something of the past because of cell phones. There are no awkward situations when people can be scrolling on their phone instead of making conversation. Gary Small said, “We all know the story of kids breaking up with each other through text message. When you have to fire someone or give them bad news, it’s uncomfortable. In facetoface conversation, you’ve
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
The rise in temperature is having a significant impact on levels of rainfall, which in turn effects water run-off. Satellite observations since 1987 have shown that, as global temperatures have increased, global mean precipitation has increased in parallel at a rate of 7.4 ± 2.6% per ◦C ...
Meritocracy, unlike aristocracy, is the system in which talented people are rewarded and promoted to leadership positions based on their merit. According to James Whitehurst, meritocracy “now refers to organizations where the best people and ideas win.” However, as true as it may sound, meritocracy in America is still a myth and is not a certainty. In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” McIntosh’s disdain of meritocracy when she described as “I must give up the myth of meritocracy.” She mentioned the meritocracy myth because in reality, many people who lack talents and experience can still climb the upward mobility ladder and become wealthier while the rest of
Managers should understand an employee’s skills and abilities to make an informed decision on whether or not to hire him. Once hired a manager uses skills and abilities as a deciding factor for an employee’s job placement within the corporation. Secondly, an evaluation of an employee’s personality helps the manager in his leadership approach of that employee. Thirdly, perceptions can be the deciding factor of whether or not a candidate is hired and or promoted. An individual perceived as fitting in may be hired to negotiate business deals. Particularly, if the individual shows a favorable attitude through actions and deeds and has strong values and behaves
According to Noe (2012), most experts believe that the most important human resource decision makes by a leader is deciding who to hire. Manager manages the recruitment and selection process. Selection for the best candidates for the job is very important in an organization because the performance always depends on employees, the recruiting and hiring is costly and the legal obligations like mismanaging hiring has legal consequence. The main aim of employee selection is to achieve person-job fit which is identifying the knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and competencies that are central to performing the job. The objective of effective selection is to decide who the right people are, by matching individual characteristics (ability, experience, and training) with the requirements of the job (DeRue & Morgeson, 2007; Kristof -Brown, Zimmermam, & Johnson, 2005). The manager will do checking for reliability and validity of the interviewer. In PPNJ Poultry & Meat Sdn Bhd, the people who manage the recruitment and selection process is the Human Resource department or staffs.
Step onto any college campus and take a look around. You will find clumps of students standing around in circles, phones in hand, typing away. What is it they are doing? Texting. Ever since the first text message was sent in 1993, the use of text messaging as a means of communication has spread like wild fire, especially amongst the adolescent generation. And with this new form of communication a new language has appeared; text-speak, the shortening of common words into abbreviations and acronyms (Drouin 49). While texting and the text-speak language seem to have been welcomed by many, what affect is this new technology having on the way we communicate? Is it possible that texting is negatively affecting our ability to use formal written communication, or is this idea just a myth perpetuated by negative media attention? And what changes has texting brought to the way we communicate person-to person? Are these changes positive, negative, or perhaps a mixture of both?
Text messaging is damaging our literacy and communication skills as a society. Calling someone on the phone or writing them a letter is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. There is a new language that is being learned and not taught across the globe. It is the language of Textese, and it has quickly consumed the lives of millions across the world. There will always be the protector of language arts. These are the shrinking number of people everyone knows, that will continue to handwrite letters and sign them with proper English and etiquette. It may be as simple as picking up the phone and calling a friend or relative. It may be even simpler than that, in that people put forth an effort to talk to the person sitting next to or across from you and engage them in a conversation. Texting and textisms have become so common and widespread that using proper English, correct spelling, and full sentences is also becoming a thing of the past. People that constantly use text and instant messaging may have difficulty with literacy and expressing themselves in writing form. The research shows that text messaging has deteriorated how we communicate and express ourselves because textisms have become an easier and quicker form of communication that has affected literacy in children and adults.
...ionships. “Effectively maintain and enhance (and sometimes end) social relationships.” (Ira Hyman) Ira explains that cell phones and more specifically texting, for teenagers at least, is a great way to be in touch with your close friends. But these friendships cannot be solely over text message. They must be in real life as well. Cell phones, and more specifically texting, have created a lack of patience. We have started to expect responses immediately. “Young adults texts more, use texts to contact friends, and expect quicker responses” (Ira Hyman). This expectancy of instantaneous responses along with a lack of patience can cause teenagers to get angry quicker as well. This also creates a lack of focus when interacting with other people in real life. They feel the constant need to check their phones. All of these combined is not a good way to interact with others.
I have yet to not see one of my peers walking with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They quickly type the day’s events on a tiny screen that they use almost all day, every day. Teenagers today use texting as a primary source of communication. Although texting is an efficient and quick way of communication, texting is reducing teen literacy due to lack of face to face communication, abbreviated spelling, and meaningless conversation. Teen literacy today is at a low. According to author Anne Lewis, “more than eight million students in grades 4-12 are reading at "below basic" levels” (Education Digest 51). Because of the simplicity of most ways of communication, it deprives the teens of communicating effectively. They become so used to