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The Representation Of Puritan Values - 2621 Words

Discuss the representation of Puritan values and beliefs represented in Anne Bradstreet’s poetry Anne Bradstreet’s poem, Upon the Burning of Our House depicts certain aspects of Puritan values and beliefs. The seventeenth century revolved solely around religion and was the age of religious literature, a theme that stands out in Bradstreet’s poetry. Bradstreet was aware of Puritan standards due to her surrounding family; her father being the Massachusetts Bay Company’s deputy governor and husband, chief administer. The elegy shows that it is personal by the word ‘Our’. In using the word the reader immediately assumes that this is her home. The message of this poem is that earthly possessions are only temporary and invaluable, in†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ËœIt is his own: it was not mine’ simply suggests that Bradstreet accepts that everything she owns belongs to ‘Him’. The use of the colon may display a separation between her being powerless and God being powerful. Bradstreet expresses that ‘it‘s purchased and paid for too by Him who hath enough to do’ putting across a covenant with God when she reassures herself that there is a place ‘permanent’ in Heaven where all her possessions lie. The lines refer to the Puritan belief that their followers had to earn an eternal life by redemption, seen as a gift given to those predestined to receive it. The punctuation at the end of each line in the poem could represent Bradstreet looking back on the event that happened, with the commas representing a halt in the poem as a thought process. The poem finishes with her reassurance in God that ‘my hope and treasure lies above’ referring to heaven and that God has a permanent home waiting for her above. Despite Bradstreet’s last words, it is suggested that her despair is manifest. Her emotions put across in the poem clearly show her home is important to her, not due to her possessions but it was a symbol of her life with her family, and during Puritanism, a home was known as the ‘seat of her role as a woman’ and family was known as the centre of

Types of Communication free essay sample

Report. Communication Forms: Written: Written communication is a way of two individuals to communicate. E. G. text messaging, email, letters, and reports. When writing an email to someone, It can make it easier for you and the person receiving the email because it is instant and do not have to wait for it to be received either through the post or finding the person to give It to them. An email can be useful because an email can be sent to many different people instead of just one person receiving it. Phones can receive emails hich is useful because if the person is out they can receive the email to their phones. Problems with emails Is that the emails can be sent to a trash folder which means you will not know that you have been sent the email. Not every email is received and having a crowded inbox can mistake you for a different email or you may not see the email. Another form of non-verbal communication is writing. Many people do not utilize this form as much as the others, but it can be one of the strongest and potent forms of communication available. Writing down your thoughts or ideas allows you to organize them and say exactly what you want in a concise orderly style. Many people do not even realize how often they do utilize writing to get their messages to others. Written letters have fallen out of style, but with the invention of the internet, many people have started using writing much more every day. Instant Messaging is one of the most popular forms of communication being utilized today. The skills that we develop in communications are vital in order for us to have more relations personally and professionally. The relations that we gain help us to grow while providing us a key resource for providing quality communications. Without efficient skills in communication our roles in life are restricted and the way people view us could be slighted. Proper communication processes inside an organization are important in order for individuals to collaborate with others. This also helps the business to grow. Successful communication needs to occur two ways. The communication method includes the following: †¢ Sender- Person that speaks first or kicks off the communication. †¢ Receiver- The listener or the person to whom the communication is intended. †¢ Message- What the sender wishes the listener to understand. Feedback- The grapevine of the communication. Interpersonal communication begins after a few seconds when two way communications begin. The senders will talk while receiving reactions from listeners. Proper communication will consist if the senders are able to read the listeners actions and adjust as needed. Case in point is if there is a change in tone, the speaker can speak louder or simpl ify the wording. Types of Communication Through the years, technology has significantly changed society’s methods of communicating. Communication methods began with body language and later developed into verbal language. Smoke signals, lanterns and drum beats were later used to communicate through short distances. This form of communication became cumbersome and the communication medium broadened and offered more challenges and innovations in the years to follow. The ability to communicate over larger distances was improved with such innovations as the Pony Express in the 19th century, and during World War I, carrier pigeons were used to send messages. The first real breakthrough in long distance communication was the Morse code, developed by Samuel Morse in 1844. Morse code was the language used with the telegraph, consisting of a series of dots and dashes which translated into the alphabet (L. A. Lievrouw, 2006). Alexander Graham Bell’s ingenious invention of the telephone in 1876 opened the door for Martin Cooper’s cell phone invention in 1973. This new technology gave people the freedom to communicate from any location, without being restricted by a telephone cord. The cell phone opened the door for the communication industry as well as to several challenges, opportunities and word-wide competitiveness because of the growing technology trend. The introduction of the cell phone altered and improved the way people communicated around the world and was a boost to the economy. There are numerous types of communication that help with transmitting information from one business function to other groups within the company. The information that is shared usually relates to specific topics or situations that need rectifying. The first type of communication is formal communication which is a statement that has been agreed upon. The second type is informal communication. This type of communication is when there are no agreed upon processes and items are received through a grapevine effect. Within the types of communication there are methods of communication. These methods of communication include face to face, writing, e-mail, presentations, phone calls, meetings, and reports. Interpersonal communication can be found in various aspects of life. How we communicate many times makes up what other people think and observe of us. Poor communication often times is the main problem in a troubled relationship. To better understand communication a person must acknowledge many different aspects, including speech, body language, and context. Context, the time place or occasion when communication is encoded, has a very large role in transmitting a message. With out the rite context, a message could be perceived as the opposite as it was intended. The best way to begin to understand the communication process is to understand the interactive communication model. First there is a sender who encodes a message to the receiver. The receiver then decodes this message depending on the context of the situation, and the speaker’s credibility. Perception and the knowledge of how we perceive our selves, as well as others, are important in understanding our communication style. Body language is one of the most expressive and universal forms of communication and probably the least thought about. Try to sit for one minute without speaking. Even if you are able to keep from moving you will still communicate rigidity and anxiety. Nonverbal communication involves those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the speaker and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or listener. Basically it is sending and receiving messages in a variety of ways without the use of verbal words. It is both intentional and unintentional. Most speakers / listeners are not conscious of this. (Poytatos, F. , 1988, P22) Theoretical writings and research break nonverbal communication into the seven main areas: body movement or kinesics, physical characteristics, touching behavior, vocal quality or paralanguage, the use of space or proximity, and the environment. A combination of these aspects makes up the nonverbal part of the total message. (Dwyer, J. , 2002) Body movement, or kinesics, includes movements of the hands, head, feet and legs; posture, eye movements and facial expressions. All these affect the message. (Dwyer, J. , 2002, p71) Physical characteristics such as body shape, general attractiveness, body and breath odors, weight, hair and skin color are important parts of nonverbal communication as well. Our physical appearance sends a message about our age, sex and occupation. (Dwyer, J. , 2002) Stroking, hitting, holding or guiding the movement of another person are examples of touch behavior that are used nonverbally. Each of these adds a different meaning to a message. (Dwyer, J. , 2002, p76). In most human relationships, touching can give encouragement, express tenderness, and show emotional support. For example, a handshake, can suggest dominance or equality. Paralanguage is that part of language associated with the use of language, but is not the word system. It comprises the voice qualities and vocalizations that affect how something is said rather than what is said. (Dwyer, J. , 2002, p77) For example, increased volume is generally associated with anger and decreased volume with confidentiality; high speed may be associated with impatience and low speed may be associated with pensiveness or uncertainty. Proximity refers to nearness in place. It is influenced by the nature of the encounter, the type of relationship and cultural factors such as gender or nationality. (Dwyer, J. , 2002, p77) Take for example students sitting on a heater on a cold day. Students who have a close, but not intimate, relationship and who would normally sit around 1m apart sit so close that they almost touch each other. It seems, however, that the fact that they are both facing in the same direction reduces any discomfort they may feel about being so close together. Gaze is also much reduced. Artifacts are objects used to convey nonverbal messages about self-concept, image, mood, feeling and style. (Dwyer, J. , 2002, p78) For example, perfume, clothes, lipstick, glasses and hairpieces project the style or mood of the wearer. Environmental factors can affect the outcome of a communication as well. For this reason, organizations spend time designing office space, factory layout and the sales area, and plan for conferences carefully to make an ideal environment that puts people at ease and matches their expectation; an unsuitable environment can produce ‘noise’ that acts as a barrier and interferes with communication. Dwyer, J. , 2002, p78) For example, some managers divide their offices into personal and impersonal areas because environment can affect the level of their comfort. This can improve the communication process if the areas are used for the purposes intended. Some of the problems that may occur if verbal and nonverbal messages disagree include; if the words do not match the nonverbal behavior, people tend to believe the nonverbal part of the message. Words can be contrived, while the nonverbal behavior will seem to reveal the sender’s feelings or thoughts more spontaneously and honestly. When you are in doubt about the meaning of nonverbal behavior check it out with the person sending the message rather than make assumptions or pass judgment. Gestures and body movements are nonverbal behaviors that contribute to the total message. The total message is understood more easily when you follow the four-step process below: hear the words, see the nonverbal behavior, check out their meaning with the sender when the verbal and nonverbal message are different, consider the context or setting. For example, you see someone in a meeting sit back and fold his arms. If you say, ‘I see you’re in a closed posture’, you are making an assumption in your interpretation of the nonverbal part of the message. It is more useful to check out the meaning by replacing your interpretation with a simple description: ‘You’ve just folded your arms. ’ This lets the person reply with ‘Yes, my shoulders are aching’ or ‘Yes, I feel uncomfortable, even threatened by the suggestion’. † (Dwyer, J. , 1997, p28) To most people, nonverbal communication may be treated more significant than verbal, as there are more truthful and honest. When it comes to making impressions, body language counts for 55% of the overall impression, the tone of voice counts for 38% and what you actually say carries a mere 7% of the weight. While the total message is made up of the spoken words and the nonverbal communication make the greatest impact. †(Lowe, S. , 1996) When we talk we rarely trust words alone to convey our messages. We shift our weight, stand close to the other person or far away, wave our arms, smile or frown, speak loudly or softly, touch or don’t touch, or use other nonverbal behaviors to emphasize or clarify what our word mean. (Johnson, D. , 1993, p. 157) Verbal and nonverbal messages communicate as a total message. They may be in agreement with each other, or they may disagree. If the verbal and nonverbal messages are inconsistent, the nonverbal part of the message has the stronger effect and is the more credible part of the total message. Another form of non-verbal communication is writing. Many peopl e do not utilize this form as much as the others, but it can be one of the strongest and potent forms of communication available. Writing down your thoughts or ideas allows you to organize them and say exactly what you want in a concise, orderly style. Many people do not even realize how often they do utilize writing to get their messages to others. Written letters have fallen out of style, but with the invention of the internet, many people have started using writing much more every day. AOL Instant Messenger is one of the most popular forms of communication these days. The ability to speak effectively is as crucial as the ability to write effectively, according to studies about kinds of communications most often required of employees. During a routine week, employees will actually spend more time speaking than writing; using the phone; conversing informally with colleagues, subordinates, and superiors on routine office topics; conducting meetings; working in problem solving groups; conducting employee evaluation sessions; participating in teleconferences and sales presentations; and frequently becoming involved in formal speaking situations before groups inside and outside the organization. Communication research also reveals that the higher an employee moves in an organization, the more important speaking skills become. Just as writing effectively depends on you understanding your reader as thoroughly as possible, effective speaking depends on you understanding your listener. You cannot speak or write effectively to people without first understanding their perspective. You must know how your audience will likely respond based on its members educational and cultural background, knowledge of the subject, technical expertise, and position in the organization. Oral presentations, like written presentations, can enhance an employees reputation within an organization. Therefore, consider every speaking opportunity an opportunity to sell not only your ideas but also your competence, and your value to the organization. Conclusion Successful communication is a needed skill that can be developed with practice. Without it, business would never get done. Successful business communication is needed in order for individuals to work together as a group. Developing and understanding the communication process individuals can build up their perceptions in order to properly share information. Communication is something that we all do every day of our lives. You can only get better at it by practicing and working on your weak points by doing them. Some people might feel that it is very difficult to deliver a speech in front of a group of people. . The only way to get better at it is by practicing. The same is true for all forms of communicating. Words can have astonishing power; Picture all the people you know who are dynamic, successful and self-confident, the ones who are the stars of every gathering, the people who are witty, intelligent and entertaining. These super confident people are never tongue-tied, never shy, and never afraid to express an opinion. You will never see them cowering in their seats too shy to express their views or sitting quietly in a corner while others are making all the important decisions. But, what is their secret? They have discovered the astonishing power of words. They always know what to say and how to say it. They use words to control and take command of every situation. Communication is the key!

Website Speed Optimization 6 Best Techniques for 2019

Website speed optimization can feel overwhelming. You just want your WordPress site to load faster, and people are talking to you about all this technical stuff like CSS minification, render-blocking JavaScript, and HTTP requests.In this post, were going to make website speed optimization a lot simpler by focusing on just the techniques that offer you the biggest bang for your buck.This is not every single tip to speed up WordPress, but by following the tips in this post, you should get a site thats plenty fast without needing to pull your hair out or become an expert developer. First:💠¡ Two big reasons why your websites speed mattersLets start with the big one, which really doesnt need explaining because you already know the feeling:Waiting for a website to load sucks.Making your website faster can have positive effects on everything from user experience to bounce rate, time on site, and other important metrics.Its not just about making your website better for humans, though. Your sites page load times also matter for search engines. Google uses page load times as a ranking factor in both its desktop and mobile indexes, and slow load times can also make it harder for Google to crawl your site.So whether you care about your human visitors or Google (or ideally both!), website speed optimization is important.📈 How to tell if you have a website speed optimization problemOk, so website speed optimization matters. Now, how do you tell where youre at?That is, is your site slow? Is it in the middle? Is it already lightning fast (congrats then, you can probably stop reading!).The only way to know is to test it. There are tons of great free tools that make it really easy to run website speed tests. Weve written about some of the best speed test tools already, but here are the two most accessible options:PingdomGTmetrixAll you do is plug in your sites URL and the tool will spit back how long it takes your site to load.While theres no hard rule about the c utoff for a fast vs a slow website, a good rule of thumb is that you want your site to load in under 2-3 seconds if possible thats what John Mueller of Google Search fame recommends.🚀 Six website speed optimization tips that make a real differenceIf you found that you have a slow website, nows when we show you how to speed it up.There are a lot of ways to speed up your website weve written about five quick speed tips here, and five more wins for page load times.However, like a lot of things in life, website speed optimization follows the Pareto principle (AKA the 80/20 rule). Thats just a fancy way of saying that a small number of tweaks are going to have the biggest effect on your sites load times.1. Use a caching pluginA caching plugin can make a big impact on your sites load times by serving up static HTML instead of dynamically building a page with PHP on each visit.You dont really need to understand the under-the-hood technical stuff long story short, its not uncommo n to see your page load times cut in half when you move to a caching plugin.Weve collected some of the best caching plugins. And if you want a really simple option to get you started, check out WP Super Cache from Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com: WP Super Cache Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 1.7.0Last Updated: August 16, 2019wp-super-cache.1.7.0.zip 86%Ratings 30,859,198Downloads WP 3.1+Requires 2. Optimize your imagesAccording to the HTTP Archive, the file size of an average website is comprised of about 50% images. So if you can shrink the size of the images you use on your site, you have a chance to make a meaningful dent in your sites file size.Thats important because:Smaller site file size = faster-loading websiteThe easiest way to optimize images on WordPress is with a WordPress image optimization plugin. For example, Optimole handles compressing your images and serving the proper size based on visitors devices: Image optimization Lazy Load by Optimole Author(s): OptimoleCurrent Version: 2.1.2Last Updated: September 25, 2019optimole-wp.zip 96%Ratings 211,971Downloads WP 4.7+Requires 3. Move to a faster hostSwitching hosts is never fun, but if your core hosting is slow, all of these other website speed optimization tips are just putting lipstick on a pig.So if youre currently using cheap hosting and you find that your site is loading slowly, that might be a sign that youve outgrown your current host.If thats the case, consider upgrading to managed WordPress hosting. While its a little pricier than cheap shared hosting, youll get better performance, and a good managed WordPress host will have implemented server-level configurations to make WordPress load faster.For example, most managed WordPress hosts implement caching for you, which means that you might be able to skip the caching plugin we mentioned in the first tip.To see some good options, check out our post on the best cheap managed WordPress hosting companie s.4. Pick a lightweight themeYour theme is your sites foundation. As such, it has a pretty big effect on your sites load times.On a personal note, moving from a regular theme to a lightweight theme once cut my already-optimized sites page load times by over 40%  by itself.Most lightweight themes are built to work well with page builders and still offer you a good amount of flexibility to design your site.Some good options to consider are:NeveGeneratePressAstraOceanWPThe Neve theme5. Limit WordPress plugin bloatLets first dispel with a myth more plugins does not automatically mean a slower site it depends on what each plugin is doing, and how well each plugin is coded.However, as a general rule of thumb, adding more plugins that are active/visible on the front-end of your site will probably start to have a negative effect on your sites page load times.Unless you have some technical skills, its hard to assess the exact impact of each plugin thats why we still recommend this as a rule of thumb.So if you absolutely need the plugin sure, go ahead and use it. But if you can take or leave a feature, consider leaving it and keeping your site more streamlined.6. Consider a CDN if you have global trafficIf you want to receive visitors from around the world, a content delivery network (CDN) is a great option to speed up your page load times for visitors who are located far away from your hosts datacenter.Why? Because the laws of physics exist! And as fast as the light in fiber optic cables travels, physical distance is still always going to play a role in how quickly your site loads for visitors.Cloudflare is a free CDN option thats pretty easy to get started with, and KeyCDN is another good option.The Optimole plugin we mentioned earlier also acts as a CDN for your websites images, which makes it one of the easiest ways to get started with a CDN on WordPress.Go to topConclusionOnce again, this isnt every single website speed optimization tip. But if you put these six tips into action, you should have a site thats plenty fast, and well under the 2-3 second limit.Remember, you need to:Use a caching pluginOptimize your imagesChoose a fast WordPress hostUse a lightweight WordPress themeBe judicious with the number of plugins you useConsider a CDN if you have global visitors Learn how to #speed up your #WordPress site with the 6 tips that really matter Click To Tweet Do you have any questions about how to speed up WordPress? Let us know in the comments!Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.