Social Networking Websites Usage Towards Academic Performance Education Essay

Social Networking Websites Usage Towards Academic Performance Education Essay This chapter covers about the literature review on the Social Networking Sites (SNS) usage towards academic performance. The resources used in this chapter such as books and articles are from e-book available in the Internet and Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak (PTAR) collections. The collections used are primary and secondary sources which were obtained from the interviews, printed and online version of books and articles. The articles used are available in PTAR library databases such as Science Direct, Emerald Management Extra, H.W. Wilson, ProQuest and others. The journal titles that were referred to are Computers in Human Behavior, Computers Education, Computers and Composition and many more. The keywords used during the searching process such as Social Networking Sites (SNS), Facebook, Computer and Internet use, SNS and student performance. This chapter will cover five sections which are computer and Internet use, social networking use, SNS and academic performance, factors of usin g SNS and also usefulness of SNS towards student performance. 2.1 Academic performance In educational institutions, students usually being analyses and evaluate based on their performance in their academic. It refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers. Besides that, academic performance also can be analysed in term of the ability of the students to study and remember facts and the ability to communicate their knowledge verbally or in written form. Azizi Hj. Yahaya (2004) stated that there are four factors that influence students academic performance which are roles of teachers or schools, peers, parents and the students themselves. He stated that the roles of students covered the aspects of the nature of the learning process, the goals of the learning process, construction of knowledge, strategic thinking and finally on thinking about thinking. He then explained that the successful student should be an active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume personal responsibility for contributing to their own learning. It can be concluded that the academic performance was reflects by the factors that influence the outcomes of successful students during their learning process. However, the students themselves should determine their goals and lead their selves so that they can achieve successful results in their academic performance. Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) revealed that it is difficult to measure the academic performance especially in term of defining the academic performance itself. There are many ways to measure the academic performance either using the GPA or the grade such as A, B, C, D, and F). Other than that, the researcher should relate the academic performance with the amount of time spent studying such as daily, weekly or monthly. Based on Karpinski (2009), academic performance is conceptualized differently between schools, states and countries. Therefore, he stated that there is no accurate definition on the way to measure academic performance. 2.2 Computer and Internet use In the Information Age, Information Technology (IT) and Internet skills are becoming increasingly important, and those without these skills are at a disadvantage economically and educationally. Schumacher and Morahan-Martin (2001) in their research found that the students had more exposure to computers than to the Internet. The study found that males were more experienced and reported higher skill levels with the Internet than females, with the exception of e-mail. The students used email in order to have efficiently exchange digital information with classmates. Almost one third of the first-grade students do not have their own e-mail address at home yet. The research also identified that more than half of the first-grade students report that they use their computers at least once a week to look for information on the Internet while one third of them used e-mail or chat from home almost every day. The findings also shows that a quarter of the students used the computer for this purpo se every week and more than half use the computer every day for games or music. A research done by Tsai and Tsai (2010) found that there is no significant gender difference in students total Internet Self-Efficacy Scale (ISES) scores. However, a significant difference was found in the communicative Internet Self-Efficacy (ISE) scores between genders while further subscale. The female students had significantly higher scores than did the male students in the communication subscale. It can be concluded that the girls held significantly more confidence than the boys regarding Internet communication. The study also shows that Internet use experience both genders had a medium level of Internet using experience in average. Therefore, there is no significant gender difference found in students Internet using experience. However, a significant gender difference was found in students weekly time spent where it identified that boys spent significant more time on using the Internet than did the girls every week. The study also found that there was a different purpose of using Internet among the genders where most of the girls used the Internet for searching, mailing, music listening, homework and talking while the boys mostly accessed the Internet for game playing, searching and music listening. This result suggested that boys and girls might have different interests or motivations in utilizing the Internet. McCarthy (2000) stated in his article that in the early 2000s, schools at all levels in many countries began to prepare all students for Internet literacy and to promote Internet-based learning for life-long learning. The result from Tsai and Lins (2004) research done in Taiwan showed that the girls had significantly higher Internet self-efficacy than the boys while high school male students still had better Internet attitudes in some aspects. According to Hille (2009), the article mentioned that adolescent students may immersed in online gaming, chatting or other online entertainment, and even become addicted if there is no effective management and supervision from their parents and teachers. The students may also expose to pornographic and violent contents flooding the Internet. Wainer et al. (2008) found that from seven social economic classes, it shows that there is a decrease in test performance among the younger and the poorer students and their computer use is higher than other. Other than that, it also identified that there is a significant decrease in the grades of those who use computers more frequently when compared with those who never use computers for assignments. While the poorest socioeconomic class shows that there is a 15% reduction in test scores. The research done by Yang and Tung (2008) showed that 236 subjects from a total of 1708 were identified as addicts using the eight-item Internet addiction using Internet addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ) developed by Young (1996b) to distinguish addicts from non-addicts . The findings showed that there are significant different levels of influence of the Internet between the Internet addicts and non-addicts in five aspects of life other than peer relations. The Internet addicts believed that the Internet negatively influenced their school learning, daily routines, health, and parental relations as well as teacher relations while the Internet positively influenced all six aspects of the lives of non-addicts. In previous studies, high school students displayed problematic consequences of Internet dependence, for instance, skipping meals, losing sleep and study time, increasing financial costs for on-line activity, and rearranging daily routines or even neglecting studies to spend more time online (Brenner, 1996; Egger Rauterberg, 1996; Young, 1996b) as cited in Yang and Tung (2008). Based on Youngs study (1998) cited in Yang and Tung (2008), it was found that Internet dependents gradually reduced the time spent with family and friends while increasing time in front of their computers. This phenomenon may apply for some Taiwanese Internet users, but the data in this study demonstrated a negative influence on parents but no disruption of peer relationships for either addicts or non-addict. The findings of this study confirmed those of Kandell (1998), Lin and Tsai (2002) and Chou and Hsiao (2000) as quoted in Yang and Tung (2008), that both the addict and non-addict groups saw the Internet as positively influencing their relationships with friends and schoolmates. Statistical results pointed that Internet addicts spent approximately 21.2 hours per week on the Internet, while non-addicts spent around 12.1 hours per week. This study assumes that most college students, living away from parental monitoring and with fewer classes than high school students, have extensive freedom to explore risky activities that might lead to Internet addiction. This study finds a level of reported Internet usage among high school Internet addicts that is comparable to that for addicted college students. UÃ §aks (2007) study revealed that most of the students of the Department of Information Management in Hacettepe University, Ankara uses the Internet every day. Based on the results, the majority access the Internet from their departments computers followed by accessing from their home. However, the rate of access from Internet cafes and the library is low. The results show that a vast purposes of using the Internet such as for their courses, homework assignments followed by using the Internet for personal interest and for e-mails. Some of them used the Internet to listen for music, games, and entertainment option while chat comes in the last place. SNS The experiences and opinions of the social network influence contraceptive decisions in this population of young, minority women. The social network, including friends, family members, and media sources, is a key source of contraceptive information for many women. Comprehensive contraception counseling should explore the experiences and opinions of the patients social network to the extent possible. Lynn Yee, M.D., M.P.H.a, and Melissa Simon, M.D., M.P.H(2009) Results indicated that students use Facebook approximately 30 min throughout the day as part of their daily routine. Students communicated on Facebook using a one-to-many style, in which they were the creators disseminating content to their friends. Even so, they spent more time observing content on Facebook than actually posting content. Facebook was used most often for social interaction, primarily with friends with whom the students had a pre-established relationship offline. In addition to classic identity markers of emerging adulthood, such as religion, political ideology, and work, young adults also used media preferences to express their identity. Implications of social networking site use for the development of identity and peer relationships are discussed.Tiffany A. Pempek, Yevdokiya A. Yermolayeva, Sandra L. Calvert(2008) An individuals success in society depends on the shape and size of his/her social network and ability to network and form connections with other social groups. Organisations which can harness this innate human ability to manage knowledge will be able to lower transactions costs and become more profitable. Anria Sophia van Zyl (2008) Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction. Nicole B. Ellison Charles Steinfield Cliff Lampe(2007) 2.3 SNS use and academic performance According to Boyd Ellison (2008), Social-networking sites (hereafter SNS) are the latest online communication tool that allows users to create a public or private profile to interact with people in their networks. They then defined SNS as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system There are few studies that had been done in findings the significant of SNS with academic performance. Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) had conducted a research on the Facebook (FB) and academic performance. FB is a part of the examples of SNS that was recently being used by many people including the students. Barratt, Hendrickson, Stephens and Torres (2005) stated that the increased of FBs popularity has raises questions about its impact on college student life. The FB was firstly introduced by Mark Zuckerberg in 2005 to help residential college and university students identify students in other residence halls. The usage of FB than has been expanded to individuals outside the college and university system. It has been identified that the usage of FB covers all group of age with mostly the age between 25 to 34 year-olds (Lipsman, 2007). However, even though there was an increase growth in older age groups, FB remains primarily a college- age and emerging adult phenomenon. From the statistics collected by the FB administrative that showed in the website, http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics, it recorded that there are 500 million of active users registered and half of them log in any given day while 55 million updates post each day with more than 8 billion minutes spent on the website worldwide each. The statistic also identified that more than 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month, more than 14 million videos uploaded each month, more than 30 billion pieces of content, for instance web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos shared each week, more than 3.5 million events created each month, and more than 45 million active user groups existing. It can be concluded that Facebook is a popular time-consuming activity that undoubtedly has some impact on college student life. Based on study done by Espinosa, Laffey, Whittaker, and Sheng (2006), they investigated the role of technology in early childhood development using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. From the findings, it indicated that access contributed to the learning potential of the students, but the researchers concerned that parents should encourage the educational use of technology to improve academic achievement. Apart from that, according to Lei and Zhao (2005), it was explored that the specifics of access, acknowledging that quantity is not as important as quality when it comes to technology use and student achievement. Specifically, when the quality of technology use is not closely monitored or ensured, computer use may do more harm than good to student achievement in school. Hunley et al. (2005) identified that there is no relationship found between time spent on the computer at home and GPA in a sample of adolescents. Technology was found to have a positive impact on academic achievement, or technology with educational value. However, Kubey, Lavin and Barrows (2001), mentioned that other researchers have found that recreational Internet use is strongly correlated with impaired academic performance. The results showed that approximately 10-15% of study participants reported feeling not being in complete control of their Internet use, and that it has hurt their schoolwork. Furthermore, they also identified that students who reported Internet caused schoolwork problems were found to have spent five times more hours online than those who did not, and they were also significantly more likely to report that their Internet use caused them to stay up late, get less sleep, and miss classes. The researchers conclude that it is not so much the Internet that causes these problems as the new social opportunities of the Internet. Students who reported academic problems were more likely to use the Internet for real-time social activities such as IM and chat rooms which lead to them to sleep late at night. Karpinski and Duberstein (2009) on their exploratory survey study identified that there is a negative relationship between FB use and academic achievement as measured by self-reported GPA and hours spent studying per week. Hargittai (2009) stated that there is no evidence found to prove the relationship of Facebook usage with low academic performance. Banquil et al. (2009) in their research found that social networking sites do not indicate negative effects on a students performance in school. 2.4 Factors of using the social networking sites among the students Yang and Tung (2008) stated the Internet addicts usually used the websites and SNS because of lower self-esteem than non-addicts. They are more confident to communicate or socialize through the Internet rather than face to face with people. Yap (2008) identified that, the main factor of using the SNS is because the users need not pay any fees due to the free membership. Furthermore, it is easy to use the SNS whereby the users only need to sign up by filling the form and active the link sent via their email. The students and users also can post advertisements there in order to other members of an event that they are hosting. It is also an opportunity for them to make new friends, use them every day to chat, play games and connect with friends, family and strangers. 2.5 Usefulness of the social networking sites towards student performance The SNS function as a communication tools using the technology connection between people from different locations, for instance the existing of Facebook is to help residential college and university students identify students in other residence halls which also function as an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges and universities before it is largely used worldwide. According to Pineda (2010), the students and SNS users used it to keep in touch by maintaining a profile on these sites, their loved ones, friends and distant relatives which they do not have to call the users every time just to stay in touch with one another. Besides that, the students can take advantage to post their resume and credentials to the companies that advertise vacancy in the SNS. Dalsgaard (n.d.) discussed how the social networking may be utilized within university education by students sharing information and resources that are originally developed for themselves but made available to others such as using bookmarks, references, links, and notes. He stated that social networking sites are not the new Learning Management Systems. He mentioned that the SNs can be used as a discussion forums and other tools for direct communication and collaboration focus on direct sharing, social networking can support students indirect sharing of resources, thoughts, ideas, productions, writings, notes and others. It will provide the students with an increased consciousness and awareness of the activities of other students. Brady, Holcomb and Smith (2010) identified that education-based SNSs can be used most effectively in distance education courses as a technological tool to improve online communications among students in higher distance education courses. According to Barab and Duffy (2000) and DeSchryver, Mishra, Koehler and Francis (2009), they found that distance education courses are often more successful when they develop communities of practice while Anderson (2005) later added that it is also encourage high levels of online social presence among students. Brady, Holcomb and Smith (2010) stated that since the SNS facilitate the sharing of information, the technologies used in SNSs aid discussion and create intimacy among online students, as they have their ability to connect and build community in a socially and educationally constructed network. Besides, the article also stated that SNS created specifically for an educational audience provides a unique opportunity for educators to facilitate a strong sense of community among students and encourage personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence. Smith (2009) as cited in Brady, Holcomb and Smith (2010) stated that, course management systems (CMS) such as Blackboard and Moodle, tend to be much focused and lack the personal touch and networking capacity that SNSs offer. For instance, instructors using CMS may create a question in an online discussion board and each student posts a response. However, these student posts are really not interactions at all, but merely question and answer sessions. Using an SNS that is user centered compared to CMS, it has the potential to increase student engagement. SNSs can actively encourage online community building, extending learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Bai (2003), indicated that social presence leads to reduced feelings of loneliness and impassiveness while simultaneously encouraging student interaction and participation in online courses. 2.6 Conceptual Framework Ease of use Student performance SNS usage Usefulness Moderating Variable Dependent Variable Independent Variables Figure 1: Conceptual Framework Figure 1 shows the relationship on the effect of using the social networking sites (SNS) towards students performance. This conceptual framework is developed by the researcher herself based on the literature review done and gathered from previous studies. The figure shows that there are two factors that lead to the usage of the SNS which are the ease of use of the SNS itself and the usefulness the SNS bring to the SNS users. The first factor which is ease of use refers to several elements such as in them of the time response of the SNS, the simple rules and regulation apply and may be because of the attractive and simple design of the SNS itself. While, the usefulness can be defined as the benefits or advantages the users obtain in using the SNS. In this study it focuses more in the usefulness of SNS in the students performance. Besides that, it shows the relationship between the usage of the SNS with the students performance. The study wants to identify and determine whether there is any significant relationship on the usage of the SNS in the students performance. 2.7 Conclusion This literature review provides the brief ideas and information regarding the issues on whether there is any relationship between the usages of the SNS towards students performance. It provides findings done by the previous researchers on the similar topic and all the supports has been included and further revise in this chapter 2. The next chapter will discuss on the methodology that will be used in the study. The detailed information regarding the methodology will be further discussed in the Chapter 3.

FIN/370 Week 2 Team Essay

Starbucks’ Ethics and Compliance Paper Ethical behavior within a company is very important to its future and success. This type of behavior is not just important for the employees to follow, but for the entire company. In 2001, a failing company called Enron was involved in numerous unethical behaviors. For example, Enron’s Chief Financial Officer temporarily suspended their â€Å"code of ethics† not once, but twice in order to partake in personal financial gain. Enron’s actions eventually resulted in bankruptcy and assisted with the creation of a new set of guidelines for companies to follow. The so-called guidelines were called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Titman, S., Keown, A.J., & Martin, J.D. 2011). The SOX helped institute a set of rules for companies to follow, one being the creation and compliance of a code of ethics within every company. One company that seems to do a very good job with complying with the guidelines of SOX is Starbucks Corp. They have a strong program set in place to support their mission of making ethical decisions at work. The use of their program â€Å"Business Ethics and Compliance† might just be the very reason why their SEC filings show a relatively successful business. Financial Environment In regards to the finance environment, Starbucks plays an active role in ethics and compliance. Not only are their employees offered ways to voice concerns of unethical issues in the work place, but also Starbucks’ partners as well. Starbucks holds a meeting every year for their shareholders in order to review the yearly performance, vote on issues, and voice their concerns about the company. Starbucks’ ethics program is setup in a way that helps integrate and network ethical business practices on all levels of the company. For six years now, Starbucks has been named among the world’s most ethical companies and to this day is still going strong (Business Ethics and Compliance. 2012). Ethical Behavior Procedures * Starbucks vision and values business mission is to conduct themselves and strive to do what is ethically right for the business. The organization has a mission to protect its culture and help strive to keep a good reputation by providing resource programs to help its partners with making good ethical decisions. Starbucks organization has numerous procedures in place to ensure  ethical behavior in the work place. According to Starbucks (2011), â€Å"Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit~one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.† (para. 1). * When looking at Starbucks’ global responsibility report for 2011 on its goals and the process for the organization, it shows to be on track in several places. The report shows that to ensure ethical behaviors the company has implemented front-of-store recycling and developed an inclusive recycling solution on all paper products carried in their stores. Starbucks organization is also ensuring that their coffee is ethically sourced under the C.A.F.E at 100% by 2015 and reducing consumption of energy and water by 25% by 2015. Starbucks also ensures ethical behavior by purchasing renewable energy. Starbuck’s became a member of the Global Social Compliance Program in 2011. The program is Starbuck’s business motivation strength to promote on environmental improvement and help its working conditions of its global supply chains. The organizations goals and processes show behaviors for the company to be on track to be both ethically and environmental friendly. United States Financial Markets When operating a small business, running a large corporation, or when it comes to personal finance it is imperative to understand financial markets and how they operate within the United States. The term financial market is explained as a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell financial claims (Titman, Keown, & Martin, 2011) and there are many different ways to conduct these transactions within these markets. There are three principal sets of stakeholders within financial markets with the first being borrowers. Borrowers are individuals or companies that need money to better position themselves for example an individual getting a student loan or a small business getting a small business loan. Savers are the second of these three key stakeholders. Just like borrowers, savers can be either an individual or a company with the main point being that they have money to invest. Individuals who save typically save for a specific reason such as purchasing a new vehicle, a down payment on a house, or even to prepare for a difficult economy. When firms run a surplus and have extra cash they also save money and invest in things such as stocks and even other companies in a conglomerate merger. Financial institutions are the third key player  regarding financial markets. Financial institutions help bring borrowers and savers together in order to facilitate desired transactions. The most common financial institutions are banks and credit unions because while they accept deposits and credit an account for that deposit, they also provide services such as loans and that money has to come from somewhere (investors). The financial marketplace consists of commercial banks, finance companies, insurance companies, investment banks, and investment companies (Titman, Keown, & Martin, 2011). Within these entities another step is taken and can be broken down to be classified by the maturities of the securities traded in them. There are two main classifications with the first being the money market. Money markets are designed for short term debt instruments with the threshold period being one year or less. The second of these two classifications is the capitol market which is the exact opposite of the money market. Capitol markets are designed for long term debt instruments with a threshold period extending beyond one year. Complying With SEC Regulations The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a federal agency and was formed in 1934 to enforce federal securities laws and to regulate the securities industry. In order to effectively oversee and regulate the securities industry the SEC is broken down into five main divisions which are corporation finance, trading and markets, investment management, enforcement, and lastly risk, strategy, and financial innovation. The Starbucks Corporation falls into several of these categories and must implement and enforce their own set of controls and procedures within the company in order to be in compliance with the SEC. Starbucks Corporation has put in place disclosure procedures and controls in an effort to ensure that all reports that are filed and submitted are within SEC regulations. These controls and procedures were designed to â€Å"ensure that material information required to be disclosed in our periodic reports filed or submitted under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the â€Å"Exchange Act†), is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms (Starbucks, 2012). As with anything new an evaluation must occur and during the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year Starbucks did exactly that with the participation and  supervision of senior management and concluded that these controls were effective and worthy of SEC regulations. Another control implemented by Starbucks is financial reporting internal controls. Financial internal controls are a very crucial element within any company due to the severity of repercussions of inaccurate reporting. Starbucks put these controls in place to â€Å"provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (Starbucks, 2012). Some of the duties that go along with these controls include maintaining records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect transactions, providing reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary for preparation of financial statements, providing reasonable assurance that receipts and expenditures are made in accordance with management authorization, and providing reasonable assurance that unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of company assets that could have a material effect on financial statements would be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Overall the Starbucks Corporation has many different controls and procedures that allow the company to comply with SEC regulations and the two examples in this paper are just a snap shot of what Starbucks must do and maintain in order to stay clear of punishment handed down by the SEC. Starbucks financial performance The financial performance for Starbucks for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 fiscal years have increased. In the 2011 year, they had the reportable operating segments which are the United States, International and Global Consumer (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Sept). In percentage, Starbucks total net revenue for the fiscal year were United States 69%, International 22%, Global Consumer 7% and other was 2%. The total net revenue for the 2011 year was at 11.7 billion while the 2012 year was increased by 14% to 13.3 billion. By The total revenues increased by 14% driven by global comparable store sales growth of 7% and a 50% increase in channel development revenue. The total equity for 2010 was 3,682.3 and 2011 was 4,387.3. At the end of the 2011 year, the return of equity was 29.26% and the end of the 2010 year was 28.87%. (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Sept) Starbucks financial performance is increasing  from year to year. The following are ratios for 2010 and 2011 that shows Starbucks financial performance in 2010 and 2011. Current ratio: Current Assets/Current Liabilities 2011 3794.9million/2075.8 million = 1.83 times 2010 2756.4 million/1779.1 million = 1.55 times Debt ratio: Total Liabilities/Total Assets 2011 2973.1 million/7360.4 million = 40.4% 2010 2703.6 million/6385.9 million = 42.3% Return on equity: Net Income/Common Equity 2011 1245.7 million/4387.3 million = 29.26% 2010 945.6 million/3682.3 million = 28.87% Day’s receivable: Accounts Receivable/Annual Credit Sales/365 2011 386.5/ (11700.4/365) = 12.1 days 2010 302.7/ (10707.4/365) = 10.3 days Ratio Trends According to the trends of each financial ratio the Starbucks organization is in good health. Starting with the current ratio although it is a bit lower in 2011 the company is still doing well when it comes to current assets and liabilities. The debt ratio indicates how much assets were financed using current liabilities. (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Sept) From 2010 to 2011 the debt ratio decreased by 1.9% which means the company financed fewer assets with the current plus long-term liabilities. The Return on Equity increased 2.7% from 2010 to 2011 which means the company received a higher return on their equity which is good for the company. The last ratio which is the Average Collection Period ratio measures how many days it takes a firm to collect its receivables. In 2011 the number of days increased slightly but with increased sales from 2010 to 2011 leads to future investments. (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Sept) According to these tren ds, it appears that Starbucks is growing strong and the organizations financial health is good. References Business Ethics and Compliance. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/business-ethics-and-compliance Starbucks. (2012). Goals & Progress: Ethical Sourcing. Retrieved

Friendship Essay - 872 Words

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Everyone is affected by certain events or individuals that greatly change their life. Many people have influenced me during my 21 years of my life, but I believe that the person that has influenced my life the most is a wonderful girl by the name of Lindsay Schiller. In the year that I have known her, she has become one of my best friends, and has helped to transform me from a lonely computer nerd into a happy college student with a decent social life. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Popular wisdom has it that, quot;You judge a man by his friends.quot; Earlier in my life, that would have been difficult, because my father was a high school football coach, and it seemed as though every year I was moving to a†¦show more content†¦That idea quickly escaped my mind as I realized that college was going to be exactly like high school was and I was going to continue to be a loner. My second year in college, I transferred to Missouri Southern State College, in Joplin Missouri, I arrived to school here in the fall of 2001 and once again put up a shield hiding myself from others. I somehow found a group of guys, which like me did not have the greatest social lives. One of these guys introduced me to a girl named Lindsay Schiller. She just began to talk to me as though I was a friend she had known her entire life, we immediately began joking about teenagers working in 7-11s, and made fun of the way our professors dramatized certain aspects o f their classes, and satirized her professor’s methodology of hand-signals for facts, generalizations, and cause/effect. Finding common ground in our senses of humor, and love of the certain TV shows, we grew acquainted with each other. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Later in the year we started dating and began to hang out with each other on more of regular bases. 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They are there to comfort, to laugh with, and to create wonderful memories My Friendships have played an extremely important role in my life. I do not know where I would be without my friendships.   Friends to me are the people you know and enjoy being around and talking to. There are the best friends that are usually closer than the others and you are always with. What I find most important is being ableRead MoreFriendship1293 Words   |  6 Pagesscene and give me fake reasons as to why I should not be friends with so and so. That’s when I realized that she was manipulative and a compulsive liar. She would lie her guts off about anything and everything. After a while, I was done with that friendship. I wanted out, and fast too. Only there was one problem with this situation, she would guilt me. She would guilt me into sticking around! The worst part is that her own mother would be in on it too. 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A Literary Analysis On The Shall I Compare Thee Essay

A Literary Analysis on the â€Å"Shall I Compare Thee?† (Sonnet XVIII) by William Shakespeare and the â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† Poem by Andrew Marvell This article compares the poems â€Å"Shall I Compare Thee?† (Sonnet XVIII) with â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† and examines the purposes of the poems and their implemented poetry techniques to convey their poets ideas. On first look it seems both poems are sharing the common ideas of â€Å"Love† but by analyzing the poems, it becomes clear that the purposes of the two poems are not similar. The purpose of Shakespeare in writing his poem for a woman whom he loves is to praise her by comparing her to beautiful facts of life such as â€Å"Summer† and furthermore, to grant her immortality through his poem’s lines, meaning as long as his sonnet is being read and exists, his lady exists while he does not expect anything else from her. On the other side, the â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† by Marvell is about a man’s intent in having sex with a woman whom he likes and persuades her to lose her virginity by warning her that time is running out. In thi s regard, this paper by examining and comparing the poems languages, techniques and expressed themes will demonstrate that the â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† poem by Marvell is more argumentative in this comparison. In his poem â€Å"To his Coy Mistress,† Marvell persuades the girl to have sex with him by connecting â€Å"Death† to this issue and by using words such as â€Å"Grave,† â€Å"Dust,† â€Å"Marble,† â€Å"Vault,† â€Å"Ashes,† and â€Å"Worms.† An example of usingShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s A Summer s Day1230 Words   |  5 PagesAnalysis Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day Compared to the playwrights that came before and after him, William Shakespeare has always stood out as an outstanding example of creative genius. 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