Using the Oxford Comma (Or Serial Comma)

Using the Oxford Comma (Or Serial Comma) Using the Serial (or Oxford) Comma The band Vampire Weekend once memorably sang words to the effect of who gives a monkey’s about an Oxford comma? Well, we do, and the person reading and grading your paper will too! What Is the Oxford (or Serial) Comma? Overlooked by many, the Oxford (or serial) comma is a useful tool in writing. It is so-called because it is recommended by the Oxford University Press style guide. We use the Oxford comma primarily to avoid ambiguity in lists. To be specific, an Oxford comma is a comma used before the final and or or in a list of three or more items. We would thus use it like this: The American flag is red, white, and blue. Although a final comma is not strictly necessary here, you should still add it if your colleges style guide specifies using Oxford/serial commas. Why Use the Oxford Comma? To see why the Oxford comma is sometimes necessary for clarity, we can take a look at a list where the final item is potentially ambiguous: The most important things in my life are my friends, God and Michael Jordon. Here, for example, it is unclear whether the speaker is referring to three distinct things or simply identifying God and Michael Jordan as her friends. Adding the serial comma removes this ambiguity by showing that each one is a separate item in the list: The most important things in my life are my friends, God, and Michael Jordon. The Oxford comma is also useful when one item in a list includes and or or already, as it can clarify the divisions. For instance, take the sentence: My favorite activities are basketball, singing and dancing and acrobatics. We know from the repeated and here that either singing and dancing or dancing and acrobatics are meant to be taken together. But the list doesnt make clear which. Adding the Oxford comma solves this: My favorite activities are basketball, singing and dancing, and acrobatics. Be sure to check your style guide, too, as some institutions have specific rules regarding use of the Oxford comma. And if you would like more grammar advice, or someone to look over your writing, get in touch with the professionals at Proofed today!

Qué es ICE y qué puedes hacer en caso de una redada

Quà © es ICE y quà © puedes hacer en caso de una redada ICE es la agencia del gobierno de Estados Unidos encargada de hacer cumplir las leyes federales sobre aduanas, comercio, control de las fronteras e inmigracià ³n. El nombre completo de esta agencia es Ejecucià ³n de Aduanas e Inmigracià ³n y se le  conoce como ICE por sus siglas en inglà ©s. Es parte del Departamento de Seguridad Interna (DHS) y, en la actualidad, cuenta con ms de 20.000 agentes repartidos en ms de 400 oficinas por todo el territorio de Estados Unidos y 46 ubicadas en otros paà ­ses. Su presupuesto anual ronda los $5  billones. Este artà ­culo informa sobre cules son las actividades propias de ICE, quà © se puede hacer en los casos de redadas, y quà © esperar y cà ³mo proceder en el caso de arresto de un familiar o amigo. Quà © hace ICE ICE se identifica con redadas y deportaciones, pero, en realidad, sus competencias son mucho ms amplias y las ejecuta a travà ©s de cuatro departamentos. En primer lugar, la divisià ³n de Operaciones de Ejecucià ³n y Remocià ³n, conocido como ERO por sus siglas en inglà ©s. Este departamento se ocupa de arrestos administrativos y de deportaciones internas, es decir, las de inmigrantes que no son agarrados en el momento de cruzar ilegalmente la frontera o en los dà ­as posteriores al cruce.   En el à ºltimo aà ±o fiscal, ERO fue el responsable de 81.000 deportaciones internas. La mayorà ­a de esos migrantes, segà ºn datos oficiales, estaban comprendidos en una de las siguientes categorà ­as: condenados por una felonà ­a, pendientes de juzgar pero con cargo criminal, migrantes que regresaron a Estados Unidos ilegalmente despuà ©s de una deportacià ³n y fugitivos migratorios, como por ejemplo, los que no se presentaron a una cita en la corte y fueron condenados a ser deportados en ausencia. En segundo lugar,  la divisià ³n  de Investigacià ³n de Seguridad Interna, conocido como HSI por sus siglas en inglà ©s.  Esta es la divisià ³n del DHS con ms empleados, con 8.500, de los cuales 6.000 son agentes. Adems, es la divisià ³n de ese departamento con ms presencia internacional.   HSI se ocupa de seguridad interna, seguridad pà ºblica y seguridad fronteriza, lo que se traduce en actividades de lucha contra el trfico humano y pandillas, anti-narcà ³ticos, contrabando de productos, incluido el de dinero, cibercrimen, delitos financieros y proteccià ³n de las infraestructuras vitales para Estados Unidos, entre otras. En tercer lugar, la Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales, conocida como OIA. Dentro de sus competencias destacan la investigacià ³n de actividades criminales transnacionales, la colaboracià ³n en la repatriacià ³n de inmigrantes y el entrenamiento de agencias policiales de otros paà ­ses. Y, por à ºltimo, HSI-Intel,  es la encargada de dar apoyo a las otras divisiones de ICE en la forma de tecnologà ­a e informacià ³n. Tambià ©n se ocupa de coordinar agencias en los casos de desastres nacionales, como ataques terroristas, pandemias o catstrofes naturales. Tus derechos frente a las redadas de ICE Son frecuentes las noticias de las redadas de ICE, incluso de arrestos en lugares donde hasta hace poco eran realmente raras, como por ejemplo, las cortes de trfico, civiles o penales, en las afueras de escuelas o, incluso, en autobuses y trenes. En Estados Unidos, todas las personas, incluidos los migrantes indocumentados, tienen derechos bsicos que estn protegidos por la Constitucià ³n y que conviene que todos los inmigrantes conozcan. Uno de los ms importantes, en este contexto de las redadas, es que ninguna agencia policial puede ingresar en una vivienda sin el consentimiento de quienes viven  allà ­, excepto si tiene sospecha razonable de que se est cometiendo un crimen o tienen una orden judicial que asà ­ lo autoriza. Tampoco se est obligado en ningà ºn caso a mostrar documentos que pueden indicar presencia indocumentada, como por ejemplo, pasaportes extranjeros o matrà ­culas consulares. Las redadas de ICE estn ocasionando angustia y miedo, por lo que algunas comunidades de migrantes han creado sistemas de alerta para saber dà ³nde se estn produciendo y cundo. Quà © hacer cuando ICE arresta a un inmigrante o se sospecha de una detencià ³n El primer paso es intentar confirmar que el amigo o familiar del que no se sabe est efectivamente arrestado por ICE. A los pocos dà ­as de producirse el arresto suelen aparecer datos bsicos sobre el detenido en la base de datos oficial. Si no aparece, es posible contactar directamente con ERO. En cuanto a quà © puede pasar con un migrante detenido por ICE, hay muchas posibilidades, dependiendo de las particularidades del caso. Asà ­, es posible que se proceda inmediatamente a su deportacià ³n, lo cual puede hacerse en cuestià ³n de horas o dà ­as, o que se determine que el migrante quede detenido hasta que pase por la corte. Finalmente, tambià ©n es posible que a un detenido por el ICE se le deje en libertad bajo fianza, con control electrà ³nico, bajo palabra o sin cargos. Respecto a las fianzas, pueden ser fijadas por ICE pero  muchas veces se niegan. En estos casos, el detenido puede pedir una vista ante un juez para que sea este quien determine si tiene derecho a quedar libre bajo depà ³sito previo de una fianza. En este punto es importante contar con un abogado de inmigracià ³n con buena reputacià ³n. Tambià ©n la labor de un profesional es fundamental para estudiar con objetividad si existe algà ºn camino para regularizar la situacià ³n del migrante arrestado y evitar asà ­ su deportacià ³n. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Trends in contemporary society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Trends in contemporary society - Essay Example The study found that some ethnic minorities such as Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men enjoyed increased employment rates. This is attributed to improvement made in their educational attainment. However, the study finds that there remains a wide gap in the employment of Black Africans, Black Caribbeans, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men. Additionally the women from minority ethnic groups also faced an employment gap when compared with white women. The study shows that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women’s employment rates remained considerably low at less than 30%. The relationship between high educational attainment and job opportunities has elicited more investment in education for ethnic minorities, thus promising a high return in the terms of employment. The study also found that living in deprived areas reduced employment prospects for ethnic minorities more than it did for whites. Another finding is that the self-employment rates fell for Chinese and Indians. However, self-employment remained unchanged for Bangladeshi and Pakistani men. The study finds that there was general improvement in terms of paid work, where ethnic minorities had a higher occupational attainment. ... In 2001, the Minority ethnic community in the UK comprised about 8% of the country’s entire population. The factors that characterise ethnic minorities include: geographical areas of residence, younger age structures and specific group traits. Most Black Africans, Black Caribbean’s and Bangladeshis live in London. The Pakistan are the most evenly dispersed ethnic minority group in the UK (Gregg and Wardsworth, 2011). As of 2001, Indians make up most of the minorities population (2% of the entire population) or one fourth of the minority population. The Pakistanis accounted for 16% of the ethnic minority population and Black Caribbean minorities accounted for 12% of the same. Black Africans representation among the UK minority population was at 10% while that of Bangladeshis and Chinese was 6% and 5% respectively (Li, 2008). People from each of these minority groups came into Britain with different cultures, economic backgrounds and different educational backgrounds. All these combined to shape how the different communities fitted into the British employment environment. Labour statistics show that various ethnic communities living in Britain all have different employment data. For instance, a higher percentage of Black Africans are in employment than either Bangladeshi or Pakistani. The employment situation of ethnic groups in the UK is characterised by high levels of unemployment and low pay (Dex and Lindley, 2007). A study by Li (2008) shows that White British men have a higher probability (80%) of being employed than men from minority groups. Indians followed closely on the probability scale with 78%. Chinese had the lowest probability of being employed with a score of slightly less than 59%. Pakistani and Bangladeshi men also scored lowly on the

Research Study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Study - Assignment Example It was found that segmentation depends on a number of factors ranging from age, sexual orientation, education to even age. The benefits also spread far and wide from helping in identification of the most and least profitable customers, enabling grouping of consumers by factors like type and size of organization, category and lifestyle of consumers, geographical location, attitudes and behavior, enhancing customer service, helping a business build loyal relationships and so forth. Successful segmentation research, it was found, minimizes the number of segments only giving rise to a small number of big segments. Good research will enable classification of these groups through economic data and other essential information on how these segments change and develop over time. Both Bloomindale and Nordstrom offer high quality products and services though Nordstrom also serves customers of more modest means. Nordstrom Inc. is an upmarket American fashion department store, founded by Carl F. Wallin and John W. Nordstrom currently having its headquarters in Washington’s Seattle. Shoe retail was the company’s beginning and has since grown their catalog to incorporate cosmetics, clothing fragrances, accessories, jewelry and handbags. Some select Nordstrom stores also stock home furnishing and wedding sections. Asof March 16, 2012 it had 225 stores in the United States stores situated in 30 states. There about 245 stores effective in 35 states, which include about 140 Nordstrom Racks and approximately117 Full-Line stores. As of the year 2012, it is the 5th largest department store company in the U.S. by retail sales and the thirty-fourth largest Store in the US in 2013 in terms of revenue. Presently, Nordstrom has distribution centers in, Maryland, California, Oregon, Gainesville, Iowa, Ontario, Upper Marlboro, Dubuque, Florida and Portland (Businessweek.com.

Mass media Essay Example for Free

Mass media Essay From my point of view, I agree that the mass media, including TV, radio and newspaper have a great influence in shaping people ideas . Nowdays mass media is a form of progress of information and communication technology. Through the mass media that the more developed allows information spread easily in the community. Information in any form can be disseminated quickly and easily so that it affects the viewpoints, lifestyles, and culture of a nation. The rapid flow of information causes us not to be able to filter the messages. As a result subconsciously it little by little have been affecting pattern of behavior and culture in society. Long-standing culture and become a benchmark in society behave are now almost gone and escapes the attention of the community. As a result, the longer the social changes in the community began to surface a raised. The influence of the mass media on contemporary theory of the influence of media on society has been fostering the rapid reforms in society. The influence of the media with regard to other aspects such as the nature of the communicators, the content, information from the media itself, as well as the response from the community. Rapid development of information and communication technologies such as mass media, led to rapid changes everywhere. The Mass Media have gradually brought the community into a new cultural patterns and begin to determine the mindset and culture of community behavior. The Media tells people how decent standards of living for a human, thus indirectly causing the Community judge whether their neighborhoods have been worth or whether he has met the standard and this heavily influenced picture of what is seen, heard and read from the media. Message or information conveyed by the media could be a support community for the better, making the public feel happy to be themselves, feel quite deflating or otherwise trust him or feeling low than others. Existence of other behaviour pattern changes of lifestyle. Usually someone will imitate everything related to his idols are good in terms of dress, look, or how to speak her piece that reflects themselves his idols. The above are likely to be more influential on a generation. A socio-psychological, information flows that continue to hit our lives will give rise to various influences on the development of the soul, especially for children and teens. Their behavior patterns, little by little is affected by what they receive may be deviated from the stage of development of the soul as well as the norms in force. The positive effects of mass media on society is the society would gain something more news worthy. For example, news bombing of WTC and the war in Iraq, despite being in a different country but with proper information and information through the mass media. This will cause people to be more sensitive to the issues at. In addition, through the use of internet and telephone bimbit allow community out of its cocoon. For the conclusion, am agree that the mass media, including TV, radio and newspaper have a great influence in shaping people ideas.

Point of View in Porphyrias Lover :: Porphyrias Lover Essays

The Point of View in Porphyria's Lover      Ã‚  Ã‚   "Porphyria's Lover" is an exhilarating love story given from a lunatic's point of view.   It is the story of   a man who is so obsessed with Porphyria that he decides to keep her for himself.   The only way he feels he can keep her, though, is by killing her.   Robert Browning's poem depicts the separation of social classes and describes the "triumph" of one man over an unjust society.   As is often the case in fiction, the speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" does not give accurate information in the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The speaker is a deranged man who will stop at nothing to keep his dear Porphyria.   Although the introduction refers to the weather, it also does an effective job in describing the speaker.   In this case, it is nighttime, and the thunder is roaring.   The speaker starts by saying: "The rain set early in tonight,/The sullen wind was soon awake,/ It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/ And did its worst to vex the lake(Barnet 567):"   This description gives the reader the first glimpse of what is yet to come.   These turbulent words help give the poem a gloomy feeling.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When Porphyria arrives at the speaker's cottage, she is dripping wet.   The speaker makes it an important point to describe her after her arrival.   The description of the articles of clothing that Porphyria is wearing helps the reader know that Porphyria is from an upper-class family.   She was wearing a cloak and shawl, a hat, and gloves.   It is apparent that the speaker works for Porphyria's family.   He lives in a cottage, somewhat distant from the main house.   The cottage is cold until Porphyria warms up the room with her presence and by stirring up the fire.   The way the speaker introduces Porphyria is very unique.   He states that Porphyria "glided" into the room.   With this description, the lover insinuates to the reader that the he sees Porphyria as some kind of angel who moves swiftly and gracefully across the floor.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The speaker is upset about the party going on in the main house.   Porphyria will be married soon, and he feels that if he were an upper-class citizen, Porphyria would be able to marry him.

Kfc Pizzahut Supply Chain

KFC/Pizza Hut makes efficiency gains with Zap Business Intelligence Businesses become more agile, responsive and performance-focused Situation There are over 120 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in Singapore, employing about 5,000 staff. Both brands also offer Singapore-wide delivery services. In the face of rapid business growth, KFC/Pizza Hut found that their business intelligence (BI) system was unable to cope. It fared badly when meeting corporate reporting requirements, benchmarking store performance, and reducing the time and costs spent on day-to-day reporting across multiple business systems. We faced daily challenges in producing timely reports and complex analysis across our many restaurants and product lines to make informed decisions,† said Mr Tan Teng Sern, System Analyst with KFC/ Pizza Hut in Singapore. For example, day-to-day operational reporting is required to calculate the pay to daily-rated workers like delivery staff. Using the old BI system, it could take restaur ant managers hours at the end of each day to tally the number of deliveries that each rider had made, resulting in restaurant managers working overtime, and riders waiting for their payment.The system was also difficult to use and rigid in design. Work which could take up to a few days every month also went into generating reports to meet corporate requirements. The problem in generating timely reports also hindered KFC/ Pizza Hut’s ability to respond quickly to changes in the business environment. What they needed was a solution that would let them set different objectives for different departments, and monitor each department’s performance. Case Study Name: KFC & Pizza Hut Overview: KFC and Pizza Hut are major players in the local food and beverage market.Since establishing the first KFC outlet in Singapore in 1977, the chain has grown to over 120 outlets employing about 5,000 staff. KFC/Pizza Hut faced difficulties when meeting corporate reporting requirements, benc hmarking store performance, and reducing the time and costs spent on reporting across multiple business systems. Products Used: Zap Business Intelligence â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused. Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza Hut Solution KFC/Pizza Hut embarked on a search for an affordable, high-performance and easy to maintain business intelligence and data warehousing solution. â€Å"We could not afford to have a data warehouse project that would take months or years to implement,† said Mr Tan. â€Å"With the scale of hundreds of users, it would have been very costly for us to adopt most of the available solutions in the market. † These requirements led KFC/Pizza Hut to Zap and its solution, Zap Business Intelligence. We chose Zap Business Intelligence because it offers powerful functionali ty and proven scalability, and yet is easy to install, maintain, and use,† said Mr Tan. The deployment aced its test with KFC/Pizza Hut when Zap was rolled out in the production environment. Here, users wanted to incorporate other data sources to complete the corporate data warehouse, including Pointof-Sale, Marketing, HR/Payroll, and Supply Chain Management. â€Å"With Zap’s help, we built the data warehouse, OLAP cubes and business analytics content for the delivery service business in 10 days.After two months of parallel run and testing, we went live with the Zap Business Intelligence in September 2009,† said Mr Tan. The Zap solution supports close to 400 users, including restaurant managers, operations managers, and back office directors. It brings together key BI capabilities including dashboards, analysis, reporting, KPIs and scorecards, all in a user-friendly web portal. â€Å"We chose Zap Business Intelligence because it offers powerful functionality and proven scalability, and yet is easy to install, maintain, and use,† Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza HutBenefits Zap’s Business Intelligence has resulted in many significant benefits for KFC/Pizza Hut. â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused,† said Mr Tan. The BI system contributes to greater business agility in several ways: 1) Optimizing marketing spend: The system allows KFC/Pizza Hut to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, enabling immediate adjustment of these campaigns to target them more effectively. ) Enabling strategic restaurant planning: By analyzing sales and demand, KFC/Pizza Hut can conduct more effective strategic planning to open the right restaurant at the right location at the right time. 3) Enhancing customer service: The system analyzes delivery punctualit y, and correlates it with parameters such as restaurant and rider, allowing management to make decisions to fine-tune operations, and improve customer service. 4) Improving sales: The analysis of point-of-sale data enables KFC/Pizza Hut to measure the effectiveness of their package deals in order to improve sales.Cost savings Mr Tan estimated that KFC/Pizza Hut will gain a return on investment from Zap Business Intelligence within 12 months, particularly in reducing the amount of staff time spent on daily reporting. The Zap solution has resulted in cost savings in several areas, including improving labor efficiency. With Zap, the time taken for restaurant managers to check reports has been reduced from 30 minutes to about five minutes, and while operation managers and administrators used to spend about an hour a day retrieving reports, this can now be done almost instantly.This has resulted in significant labor cost savings. Another cost saving measure has been reducing the reliance on IT. â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused,† Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza Hut www. zaptechnology. com  © 2010 Zap Technology – v0510