The Ninja :: essays research papers

Master of the OrientTHE NINJABorn and raised in New York City, Eric Lustbader calibrated from Columbia University in 1969. Lustbader has had a number of fascinating best-selling novels, including Black Heart and Angel Eyes, he introduced Elton John to the American music scene. He fatigued fifteen years in the music industry in various capacities, including working for both Elektra and CBS Records. He is a former writer for Cash loge magazine where he wrote lead stories on new rock acts. In that capacity, he was the first person in the United States to predict the success of Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Satana, among more others.Lustbader has taught in the All-Day Neighbourhood School Division of the NYC Public School System and has also taught pre-schoolers in special(prenominal) early Childhood programmes.Eric Lustbader, who travels worldwide in researching his novels, lives in Southampton, New York, with his wife Victoria Lustbader, who works for the Nature Conservancy.Well, I dont want to give the whole story away in this report, so I am going to summarise the story very briefly.The book isnt really just about a few selected people, but instead the author tries to see it from a lot of different perspectives. Therefore the reader get to know a variety of personalities. The Ninja is a high-voltage novel of intrigue and sensuality, richly characterised, fuelled by uncompromising suspense, an extraordinary thriller, least to say.If theres a main character in the book I think it would be Nicholas Linnear, a man of half-English, half-Oriental origin. A quite special man I will tell you more about later in this report. Anyway, the story begins with a murder, a clean, silent and mysterious murder. The police dont prepare a clue, so they call in Nicholas, an expert on this type of murders. Nicholas doesnt want to tell the others in the beginning, but he has his thoughts. As the story continues he start to split up the problem and suddenly everything is cryst al clear. This isnt the usual type of murder, instead something even worse. An assassination, performed by a man bound by the blackest code of honour and skilled in the deadliest martial arts. This was the work of a ninja, a far remnant of the East. Nicholas must fight against a past he cant escape, trapped in a web of old lust and present passions, he uses all his skill and knowledge to survive.

American name David Birth name Huayi

My partner is a in truth dynamic Chinese guy named Hua Yi, merely is known by his Ameri back end name, David Birth. He is an only son and lives with his immediate family although he has other family members and relatives in South East China. His father works as a truck driver and his mother, as an airline inspector. He goes back to China to visit every two years or so. On assessment, he believes that their family belongs to the middle class economic strata. Davids parents moved to the United States nine years ago in 2000 in search of wider horizons and better earning opportunities.David believes that he left his cultural roots in China, but he has never forgotten this, and so, despite his beingness in the United States, he has retained his cultural identity and learned to incorporate American farming into it. He believes he has half of his heart in China and half in the United States. David is a very physical person and loves to indulge in sports and other physical activities like table tennis, club and local golfing, as salubrious as fishing. He values his leisure time and spends this mostly with his family and friends.He likes to find out movies and spend time learning new things and discovering new possibilities. He is also very outgoing and can handle his emotions quite well. David finished his secondary gentility from North Penn High School in Lansdale four years ago in 2005. He has consistently been a B student and decided to turn from nursing to international business during his college years. He plans to pursue this degree in international business and later transfer to a temple from his community college.He is flex on finding a job in the Philadelphia area so that he can use this job as a stepping stone to procure his dream of being able to travel all around the world and learn new things. In the next year, he has also made a resolve to work hard to acquire good grades to enable him to transfer to a better college. He also plans to invest in hearty dry land when he has the resources and buy a luxurious house for his parents. David can be very unsure at times and he also has difficulty in verbalizing his emotions. He is very close to his family and so fears that one day they ordain acquire health problems and eventually die.INFERENTIAL SECTION Based on the simplicity of David, and his very simple aspirations, I can easily secern that he only seeks very ordinary dreams for himself and for the people around him. I think that his foremost craving would be to able to meet the basic requirements of a dignified brio, hence, quite likely, in the next ten years he would be focused on building his own family, leading a good family life, maintaining a decent and good paying job, and being able to acquire residential property. Considering his Asian background, David has higher(prenominal) hopes of moving to America.Based on his past, I can say that moving to America is a very welcome change for him and that this significant event in his life has wedded him a more liberal and permissive view of things, enabling him to be more decisive, more open to risks, and change. His Asian background has also vown him the propensity to view things based on the oriental belief of Karma, which means that according to his own personal philosophy, he thinks that the energy you put out to the universe, which could any be good or bad, is the same kind of energy that the universe will send back to you.VALUE SECTION As a person, my partners strengths are being able to maintain an open mind in all things and seek opportunities to try innovations. This mindset of his could be considered a strength because this will enable him to explore many new things in life and try out more opportunities therefore making him a more rounded and more holistic person than he is now. David is very open to criticism and he believes that he can learn many new things from what other people say as a strength, this can contribute to self-impro vement as well as individual development.David, on the other hand, can be very shy at times. This prevents him from vocalizing his ideas and making his thoughts known to other people. This, as his weakness, can cause him to become less satisfied of certain situations because he cannot verbalize what he wants to do about these things. He may also acquit problems with indicating what he truly wants in many cases because not all people can read other peoples minds. Treated the other way, this shyness can be converted into a strength if it is based on the concept of being mild-mannered and composed.This particular attitude of his can work the other way and give other people the impression that he can control himself well and is not prone to stray and baseless reactions and emotions. SELF-REFLECTION SECTION As a interpersonal communicator, I believe that the most important skill that I have is the ability to listen and allow the other person to speak. Many things can be gleaned from h ow another person reacts to our straitss and I am confident that I give due attention to these subtle and discreet reactions.Another ability of mine that I consider a strength is my skill of being able to rephrase the question for clarity. This can be very helpful especially if the person I am talking to has difficulty in comprehension. I am also given to being lively and bubbly at times so this serves to keep the interest of the person I am talking to. I also hunt down to be very intimate when it comes to communication maintaining eye contact, physical contact, and contact on a mental level.I avoid being too emotional when communicating to maintain objectivity. In my conversation with David he found me to be very entertaining. On the other hand, my approach to communication can be very hostile at times and this can intimidate the person I am talking to and cause them to shrink into themselves. My being very vocal and verbal can sometimes come across as intimidating. I tend to be very precise at times, and this can work against me by making me blend in more like an investigator than a communicator.To improve on my interpersonal communication skills, I believe that I need to expose myself to more real life situations and not treat encounters like they are opportunities to earn a good grade in the classroom. I have to learn the entertainment and fellowship value of communication and the various benefits that it can present to social relationships. Perhaps, I need to attend personality development seminars and workshops to make me more effective in interpersonal communications. To add to this, I also need to develop a certain degree of rapport with myself to be able to reflect this rapport to whoever I am communicating with.

Reflection of Team Work

The team project determined to be an excellent showcase of team feat. Teamwork is essential in any type of career, and by doing team projects while still in school pull up stakes continue to help me prepare for my future. The toilette Deere Dealership Program that I helped work on proven to be a success. Not only did the team learn how to work as a team the team is leaving something at this university that will help students in the future. I feel that if this program is implemented, many students can benefit from this internship experience.I exclusively wish that this program had been implemented four years ago so my colleagues or I might have had a chance to participate in this program. The project itself turned out to be a great learning experience for every fellow member of my team, including myself. A students school and work schedule is tough enough to work out, tho when there are four different schedules to work around one must collaborate with the another(prenominal) th ree to work out meeting times.The team I participated with worked out meeting times the best we could. I believe that this is an experience that each member should remember in the future, especially when we have to form meetings with colleagues in our career. While working on this team project conflict arose, and we had to overcome these conflicts. Conflicts are a big part of any team because of the summation of people working as a team. Conflicts are bound to arise, and each person must discover that their idea is not always right.I believe that knowing ahead of time that conflicts will arise that team should run a lot smoother. conversation is also a key to a successful team. If a person is reluctant to communicate with the rest of the team, his of her ideas will not be expressed in a completed project. I feel that in small teams like we had, it helps a backward person set out involved due to the small amount of people in the group.I believe that every persons opinion is impor tant in running a team, and I will accent to get every persons input before a final decision is made. The presentations that each team gave in front of the class proved to be a good experience for every member of each group. Some people are more comfortable than others in public speaking, but through the presentations, a backward speaker gets experience in speaking in front of people. I believe that experience is the only way to become comfortable speaking in front of eople. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project. Each step of completion from the ground up was a great experience. I enjoy seeing our finished product, and enjoy people liking what our finished product looks like. I think all the hard work and conflicts pay bump off when I see a completed project. It has been a great team building experience for me, and I feel that the completion of this team project will help me in future team oriented projects.

Monday Morning

Monday Mornings It is give tongue to by many that on Mondays, it is the hardest day of the calendar week. After two old age of resting, Saturdays and sunshines, many dislike, Monday good mornings, nigh practic whollyy when they seduce to get up early to go to contribute for eight hours and or more. School I have assembly? OH I would exclaim with the most amount of disappointment. Now as a school we would all have to stand up and now for a little more than thirty (30) minutes, we would have to listen to the principle, Fr. Gregory Augustine, give the results or talk about the problems of what likewisek place that week in school.After, the rest of the day feels like an entire week at school. My mother, Lauretta, for one, dislikes Monday mornings, Period . She al panaches claimed that she only goes thought the process( working on Mondays) to get me thought my school years by that she means she goes to work on a Monday to put me thought school. Monday mornings for her is usually a tiring one. Laurettas saying of Mondays is that its the first working day of the week and usually its where you prepare for the week , getting up early ,then prepare meals for the children and ironing the childrens clothes.After she heads down to the office, picks up two colleagues on the way and drives, from Arima to Chaguanas . Boy, this must have been tiring for her. There are many things multitude around the world could tell you about their time/ experiences on Mondays. After Sundays resting, its always hard to get up early to go to work. * INTERVIEW Why go to work on a Monday if we vex it to be a problem? Some 89. 26 % of humans out there said that they do it for the money . Susan Espinoza, says that if she dont go to work she will be begging for a job.There are some people who are different, Sheila Richardson, is one who finds Thursday to be the hardest day of the week. Mondays and Fridays are, The easiest days of the work week She exclaimed. In Fatima College we will fin d that there are some people who adore Mondays, Greg, for one loves Mondays for he gets to tell his crew all what took place that weekend . He said in his interview that he will love his holidays unlike Sylvia on the Friday. To me weather a holiday waterfall on a Friday and or a Monday, I am glad for the holiday given and any way you ake it ,IT WILL STILL BE A LONG WEEKEND. Jelani said that his mother makes him come to school and if he got the chance he would stay home every Monday. This taught is of no good to anybody for his future I feel there is no good. In this essay, you will be able to see that not everyone is not the same. Some whitethorn like Mondays and others may not. A person once told me that if she could take a sick leave every Monday, she will be more than welcome too. Sylvia Espinoza doesnt like Mondays for it is too close to Sundays .She expresses that if she doesnt go to work she will lose her job and will be out of sick leave. She also said she wishes to change Mo ndays. into Sundays She doesnt like Mondays but will prefer holidays on Friday for three days of resting. The comparison was made that Sundays are red, composition Mondays are taught as Blue. This is because blue is seen as a sad colour for many. Regardless of if you like Mondays or not, the truth is it comes across like this. If I was to change or put three days of resting (Saturday.Sunday and Monday) as our weekends we will find that almost 90 percent of our population will and or nonplus to hate/dislike Tuesdays. This saying is something in our heads/minds which is not bad but yet not very healthy for us, for it is proven that some 0. 04 percent of people around the world lose their jobs for this taught and or act. The INTERVIEW FOR THIS TOPIC. Questions Do you like Monday mornings? Why do we find it so tiring? Do you find it to be the longest day of the work week? Why do we find it to be the longest day of the week?When would you prefer a holiday on a Friday or a Monday for th e LONG WEEKEND? Do you go to work on a Monday Morning? Why go to work on a Monday if we find it to be a problem? Why you think Monday is such a hated day? Interviews Susan Espinoza Sheila Richardson Patrice Espinoza Charleen Murphy Lydia Doolam. Greg felician Jelani Ellis Sylvia Espinoza Lauretta Espinoza Neil Espinoza admission I , Noel Neil Espinoza was not tired, but concerned why my mother(Lauretta Espinoza), always disliked Sunday Evenings because she knew that then next day was Monday and how she HATED Mondays .I took it upon myself to write a sextuplet hundred and eighty seven worded essay on why PEOPLE DISLIKED MONDAYS SO MUCH I took a little over a week to do this with some intense interviews and a lot of research, this story was born and discovered. We know that some people are different and feel different ways about different things. I interviewed my neighbourhood and my school Fatima College and we thank everyone who gave an input to make this story as beautiful as it is . This story is (? ) three, depicts, of facts and (1/4)one quarter fiction.

Death memoir of Emperor Constantine the great Essay

Death memoir of Emperor Constantine the greatIntroduction I was born on February 22nd 272 in a place cognize as Naissus in Serbia. My father was the roman type Emperor by then only if he later died. I was not the one who was supposed to slang the position of the Emperor because there was a hale- established system of succession but my soldiers declared me as their leader and I had no option but to take the seat of the Roman Emperor in 306. I ruled for many years where I accept many achievements and failures. My time has come to word of farewell this world and the leadership of this world to other people but I found it important to write this memoir for those who do not know me well and the generation to come. Political field was my area of dominance for the years that have been in this world, I have many achievements in this field of governance which have helped the Roman Empire to be in the position it is currently. When I took the seat of the Emperor of Roman, there were man y Emperors that were ruling different parts of Roman territory and thence it was not easy to administer the area well (Hartley, 2006). I decided to conquer all those empires and I united Roman Empire as one territory. This brought stability to the whole territory because all the operations of the Empire were controlled from the capital of the empire which was Rome. My second step in my leadership role was the entre of a new capital of the Roman Empire. I was a bright leader and I knew how to focus on the future, this is why I figured come forth that Rome was not strategically advantaged especially in the time of state of war and that is why I decided to build Constantinople city which became the capital of Roman Empire. When the war arose between Rome and Italy I was able to defend the territory through the new capital because it was strategically positioned and thus is was easy to defend. My political leadership helped Roman Empire to experience the best time of stability ever in its history Besides being a political leader, I also locate my concern to major issues in the society like art and architecture. My predecessors Emperors did not consider this issue with a lot of seriousness and as a pass of that, during my time the art and architecture of the territory had decreased at a very high rate. I decided to revive the art of the Empire and that is where I went to the city of Greece and robed them all their finest art. I took the finest work of art to the artist who had remained and the one who were coming up in my Empire. This became source of inspiration to many artists and thus the work of art was revived again. The city of Constantinople was one of the cities at that time which had the highest level of architecture this was as a result of my work of bringing architecture from the town of Greece to help in the building of the city. The arch of Constantine is also one of the greatest works that shows the level I took architecture during my reign (K ousoulas, 2007). If I am not wrong, people will remember me because of the role I did in religion much than the one I played in politics. Worship of perfection gods was the most common type of religion in the Empire but I overcame all the pressure of those religions and I introduced Christianity which I believe in come future will be the largest religion in the world. I also brought order in Christianity where I came with Sunday as the official day of worship instead of Saturday which was there before. I brought the idea of pope in the church and the respect of priest and bishops. I did a lot of work to harmonize Christianity and politics and it was also one of the reasons why the Empire was very peaceful during my time. I had put Christianity ahead of my army because I knew very well that Gods protection was more than millions of soldiers protection and that is why I introduced the revenue collection initiative in order to support the Christianity especially the clergy. However , despite all the acceptable things I deed during my time, I am sorry to say that there are some things that history will forecast me harshly for. I introduced Christianity in the Roman Empire because of my political gain but not because of the love of God. I measured the progress of other Emperors who ruled a head of me and a saw that the only way I could survive in the leadership position is by introducing Christianity in the territory (Holloway, 2007). Many people will judge me not because of introducing Christianity but because of my intentions. I persecuted many Protestants who were against the idea of Catholics and that will also be the harshest judgment I will receive. As I leave this world, I would like to advise my successor to continue with my achievements and to rectify my failures.ReferencesHartley, E., Hawkes, J., Henig, M., & Yorkshire Museum. (2006). Constantine the Great Yorks Roman emperor. York York Museums and Gallery Trust.Kousoulas, D. G. (2007). The life and times of Constantine the Great The first Christian emperor. S.l. Booksurge?.Holloway, R. (2007). R. Ross Holloway. look into of Constantine the Great Yorks Roman Emperor by Elizabeth Hartley, Jane Hawkes, and Martin Henig. Caa.Reviews. doi10.3202/caa.reviews.2007.46Source document

Describe an Experience That Influenced Your Career Choice

Having grown up in a country where the prevalence of the shadow economy is on par with the continual political problems due to the mismanagement by autocrats. Public administration has surrounded me for as long as I can remember. On graduating ,i went to possess insight into many issues such as the counsel people and businesses react to the fracturement and management of government programs by ordinary administrators.I had some practical experience working at a hospital in Nigeria with sometime spent in the accounting department, this enabled me come across a practical experience of how the laws/duties/decisions made by public administrators affects people/individuals in real life situations such as explaining why people in less developed countries are prepared to pay for healthcare with private hospitals rather than using the national institutions which usually have worse service and miserable equipments mainly due to mismanagement, wrong fiscal policies and corruption.The iss ues of customer satisfaction and equity were studied first hand and when comparing with the UK system, one would only praise the NHS(National health Service) for its equitable approach unlike many other countries were only those than can afford treatment get it. During my university years, I was a part of the committee through whom student members voiced their opinion in reviving the Osun State Student Association at Bowen university ,which had lost his finesse.I was appointed the Financial Secretary and was then a challenge, as we had to work hard as a squad creating and implementing programs and reforms, managing and allocating our own time and finances to ensure success, I was also part of the team that assisted the students to get there bursary from the State Government, and trust me it wasnt easy in the sense that we had to keep writing letters and going out of our way to ensure the students get paid because its part of their civil right. During my National Youth Service Co rps(NYSC) as a member of the Sports Community Development Group.Having acquired the silver award after the torment of hiking over double figure mileage distances to raise funds for the homeless children in Enugu State of Nigeria, it has enabled me to be more organized and helped me develop my ability to make quick, accurate and appropriate decisions in peril. Currently I am an accountant and a Guardian counselor in a immemorial and nursery school day in Nigeria which goes by the name Macro Nursery and Primary school, I assist the younger generations in making right,responsibe,reputable and reasonable decisions in life.Leadership is also an important quality at succeeding in most areas, hence my appointment as one of the prefects in my secondary school has definitely helped me develop as a young adult. These duties are very rewarding and will be vital skills in preparing for life after public administration, studying this course in your university will enable me further my interes t in economic issues as well as fulfilling my life time ambition.

English Language Varieties Essay

English has spread rapidly, even since independence, either as a first wrangle or as a medium of education for non-native treaters (Platt and Weber, 2002). The actual range of varieties of English is much greater than is found in the British Isles. On the bingle hand we can speak of an acrolect or high status variety, and on the other a basilect or low status variety, with the mesolect acquireing the talk terms position.These terms are usually descriptive of what is known as a post-creole continuumthat is the range of non-discrete varieties in a post-colonial situation ranging from the acrolect, which is generally very close to the example language of the colonial power, through to the basilect, which morphologicly resembles a creole. It is sufficient here to characterise a creole as a mixed language, resulting historically from touch on between speakers of different and mutually unintelligible languages.Creoles are usually associated with colonial situations and are general ly assigned a very low complaisant status. Basilectal speakers, who occupy the lowest position in a post-creole continuum, are often quite unintelligible to speakers of the acrolect. All speakers occupy a range on this acrolectbasilect continuum, which correlates closely with their social status, shifting along it according to social context in much the same way as British speakers manipulate lingual variables. Of course, the extent of lingual difference is much greater.Such continua fill been described in Jamaica by De Camp (2001) and in Guyana by Bickerton (1995), and it is likely, we should note, that these studies will be of increasing relevance to an understanding of the sociolinguistic structure of ethnic minority communities in Britain. A detailed account of the structure and function of pidgins and creoles is not directly relevant here, but provoke readers are referred to Todd (2000) for an introductory account of the social, political and linguistic issues involved.A lthough respectable Victorians were already reacting strongly against the prescriptive attitudes of the eighteenth century, the most extreme anti-prescriptive statements, as far as we know, are those made by some members of the American structuralist school of philology. Bloomfield (199322) felt that discovering why aint is considered bighearted and am not good is not a fundamental question in linguistics, and he thought it strange that people without linguistic training should devote a great deal of lawsuit to futile discussions of this topic.Bloomfield was certainly implying that the study of prescriptivism was not of central interest to linguistics he was at that placeby limiting the field of linguistics to a descriptive study of form and system in language which takes relatively little account of language as a social phenomenon. Some of Bloomfields chase have gone further than this and have attacked unscientific approaches to language with missionary zeal. C. C.Fries (1997) seems to have equated traditional school grammar with prescription (which was by definition bad and unscientific in the view of structural linguists of the time), and in his book on English syntax he went so far as to even protest traditional linguistic terms such as noun, verb and adjective. Friess work was directed towards the educational system at the ordinary consumer. sickish to assure all his readers that their use of language was just as good as that of anyone else, he pro contained that there is no such thing as good or bad, correct or incorrect, grammatical or ungrammatical, in language.English in Western Europe and America Although linguistic scholars would certainly gainsay the details of this pronouncement, they have continued (for the most part) to assert or assume that their discipline is descriptive and theoretical and that they do not deal in prescription. In Western Europe and America most theoretical linguists would still affirm that all forms of language are i n principle equal.As Hudson (2002191) has put it Linguists would claim that if they were simply shown the grammars of two different varieties, one with high and the other with low prestige, they could not tell which was which, any more than than they could predict the skin colour of those who speak the two varieties. Although some evidence from work by social psychologists (Giles et al. , 2000) lends some support to Hudsons point, we do not, in fact, know whether standardized languages can be conclusively shown to have no purely linguistic characteristics that differentiate them from non-standard forms of language (the matter has not really been investigated).It appears to be an article of faith at the arcminute that judgments evaluating differences between standard and non-standard varieties are always socially conditioned and never purely linguistic. However, we shall later suggest that the process of language standardisation involves the suppression of nonobligatory variabili ty in language and that, as a consequence, non-standard varieties can be observed to permit more variability than standard ones (e. g. in pronunciations of particular words). Thus, there may be one sense at least in which the linguistic characteristics of non-standard varieties differ from those of standards.Standard English UK Variety In the UK, one burning critic of the supposed malign influence of linguistics on English language article of faith is John Honey (1997-2003). He has named an array of linguistic scholars (including amazinglyNoam Chomsky, who has never been concerned with educational or social issues), as encouraging a neglect of Standard English teaching in schools. This is an entirely stupid claim. It is true that there has been some opposition to the teaching of English grammar, but in our experience this has arisen mainly from the preference of lecturers for literature teaching.Far from discouraging grammar, university linguists have been closely involved in mai ntaining and encouraging its teaching. No one has ever opposed the teaching of standard English, and many of those named by Honey as enemies of standard English have devoted much of their careers to teaching ittraining students to write clear and correct standard English. Experienced teachers will not take well-disposed to an attack that simply appears to them as ignorant, presumptuous and pointlessly offensive.The linguists academic interest in the human capacity to learn and use language is not a threat to the teaching of Standard English, and it can be a great benefit. It does not delineate from the educational necessity to focus on the standard that we should neglect to examine and explain the different norms and conventions of speech and writing, or that we should fail to acknowledge that standardised usage is most fully achieved in writing. Nor does it follow that we should neglect the fact that non-standard spoken vernaculars have grammars of their own.To investigate the st ructure of language varieties is an intellectual requirement that cannot be compromised, and which in no way contradicts the importance of the teaching of literacy in a standard language. Amongst other things, research on real language in use can help us to clarify and understand what standard English actually is and appreciate more exactly what its roles and functions are. We will not improve practical language teaching by ignoring such matters or by maligning those who study conversational speech and non-standard vernaculars as enemies of standard English.The authors of elementary books on linguistics, however, have usually been anxious to dissociate their account of the theater of operations from that of traditional handbooks of correctness. As we have seen they usually dismiss prescription routinely, and assert that linguistics is descriptive. Their general pointthat, if one is to study the nature of language objectively, one cannot make prior value-judgmentsis frequently misun derstood, and it has sometimes called forth splenetic and misinformed denunciations of linguistics as a whole.One example amongst many is Simon (2002). In an essay empower The Corruption of English (2002), Simon blames structural linguistics and literary structuralists for an alleged decline in language use and for permissive attitudes to language What this is, masquerading under the euphemism descriptive linguisticsis a benighted and despicable catering to mass ignorance under the supposed aegis of democracy. His essay is outspoken and full of emotive language (pseudoscientific mumbo big, rock-bottom illiteracy, barbarians, vandalism, etc.), and it betrays ignorance of what linguistics is roughly. To Simon, linguists are almost equated with some menace that is threatening Western (i. e. American) civilisation from outside. It is unfortunate that misunderstandings and misapplications of the American structural linguists teaching should have made it seem reasonable for anyone to write in this ignorant way. As many people still interpret descriptive linguistics as inimical to standards of usage, there has clearly been some failure of communication between linguistic scholars and the general public.One reason for this is that mainstream linguistics has concentrated more on the abstract and formal properties of language than on language in its social context. Bloomfield (1993), as we saw above, considered that prescription was irrelevant to linguistics as a science. Yet some linguists have been directly interested in prescription. Haas (2002), for example, has pointed out that prescription is an integral part of the life of language.By refusing to be interested in prescription, he adds linguists only ensure that every enterprise of linguistic planning will be dominated by ignorant enthusiasts and cumbersome pedants (Haas, 20023). Since Haas made these comments, some social and educational linguists have been very active in commenting on public attitudes and e ducational policies, and some have represented the discipline on advisory committees. A general linguist, R. A. Hudson, is responsible for the Language Workbooks series, published by Routledge.Several relevant books on language variation have appeared, and linguistic correctness was the topic of the 1996 BBC Reith Lectures, delivered by Jean Aitchison (1998). In the USA much of the interest in language differences has been driven by public concern about the language of ethnic minorities. In 1997, the Linguistic Society of America published a document inspired by a controversy about Ebonics (African American Vernacular English), which was recognised by the Oakland (California) School plank as a legitimate form of language.It ended with the following comments There is evidence from Sweden, the US, and other countries that speakers of other varieties can be aided in their learning of the standard variety by pedagogical approaches which recognize the legitimacy of other varieties of a language. From this perspective, the Oakland School Boards decision to recognize the vernacular of African American students in teaching them Standard English is linguistically and pedagogically sound.