Hebrews The Genre Of Hebrews - 805 Words

Hebrews 6:1-8 #1 – The Genre The genre of Hebrews is an epistle to the Hebrews. #2 – Generic or Intrinsic conception The generic conception of Hebrews 6:1-8 is that Christians should spiritually mature and go unto perfection, not falling away from God because of persecutions. #3 – Observations - Literary: o In Hebrews 6:1-8, there are proportion and illustration present. Chapter 6 is proportioned because the chapters around it are talking about Melchisedec, but there is nothing mentioned about Melchisedec in Chapter 6. This chapter is to emphasize spiritual maturity and God’s faithfulness to the saints so that they can persevere through persecutions. The author also uses an illustration to assert how Christians can be mature. He uses the illustration of how the earth bears herbs after receiving rain, which can be hardships. However, those who do bears nothing are to be burned, possibly referring to hell. - Grammar: o Hebrews 6:1-8 is beginning with the word â€Å"therefore.† In order to understand why the author is starting Chapter 6 with therefore, it is important to read from last half of Chapter 5 and rest of Chapter 6. The author of Hebrews talks about the order of Melchisedec in Chapter 5. However, he interrupts that by mentioning that â€Å"[they] are dull of hearing (Rom 5:11).† He continues the order of Melchisedec in Rom 6:20. Thus, the author is starting Chapter 6 with an interruption so that more can be explained to those that are dull of hearing for a betterShow MoreRelatedAuthorship, Audience And Genre Of The Gospel Of Matthew1467 Words   |  6 Pages1. Authorship, audience and genre of the Gospel of Matthew Authorship: Most scholars, but not R.T. France (2007, pp14-22), believe that Matthew’s Gospel was written by a scribe, not the Apostle Matthew and that it was written approximately between AD 80- 90. France states that if the book was written at this time- it was within Matthew’s lifetime, and thus authorship cannot be proven. A key reason pointing to the Gospel being written by a scribe is that the Gospel was written in Greek and thatRead MoreHebrews, No, One Really Knows Who Is Or Are?868 Words   |  4 PagesHebrews In the book of Hebrews, no, one really knows who is or are the authors. However, it is inclined that due to the references it makes to the letters that Apostle Paul that he was the author. Jesus preexistence and creatorship (Hebrews 1:1–4; Colossians 1:15–17). The giving of gifts by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 2:4; 1 Corinthians 12:11). The humiliation of Christ (Hebrews 2:14–17; Philippians 2:5–8). The new covenant (Hebrews 8:6; 2 Corinthians 3:4–11). Later it would be challenged becauseRead MoreThe Three Paradigms of Biblical Studies Essay852 Words   |  4 PagesThe academic study of the Hebrew Bible encompasses thousands of scholars from around the world. These scholars use various methods developed by other disciplines in order to study ancient texts along with other approaches that are distinctive to the biblical studies. Biblical scholars have recently divided the profession into three paradigms which are commonly referred to as the three worlds. Particularly, some scholars focus on the world within the text; others explore the world in front of theRead MoreEssay on The Bible Story: The Old Testament2039 Words   |  9 PagesTo speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundationalRead MoreAnalysis Of Daniel 7 : 1-141249 Words   |  5 Pages as it is widely considered within the literary category of apocalyptic literature which the subsequent sections of this pa per will explore further. Daniel can be divided into three sections, based on language: a Hebrew introduction (Ch. 1); an Aramaic section (Ch. 2-7); and a Hebrew section (Ch. 8-12). Within these three language divisions exist two literary sections, first, the Tales (Ch. 1-6) followed by the Visions (Ch. 7-12). These two sections, though existing within the language divisionsRead MoreThemes from Genesis 1-111238 Words   |  5 PagesTHE PENTATEUCH IS A RICH COLLECTION OF GENRES. DISCUSS WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ITS LEGAL CATEGORIES. 1. Introduction. The Pentateuch consists of the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; called Torah in Hebrew. The term Pentateuch is from the Greek for Penta (five) teuchos (books). Both Jewish and Christian traditions view these five books as a single unit, forming the backbone of the rest of the Bible. Both traditions placeRead MoreThe Word of God as Used in the Old Testament1508 Words   |  7 Pagesas writers of sacred texts. â€Å"Somehow they were a people who learned how to listen to and hear the Word of God† (Rohr Martos, 2011, p. 23). In this process of listening and hearing, God’s work of self-revelation became a lived experience for the Hebrew people that is reflected in the OT. As such, the OT becomes a ‘record of God’s self-revelation† (Rohr Martos, 2011, p. 22). The bible itself is not divinely written (as it appears that some fundamentalist Christians may believe). Nor were any ofRead MoreThe Greek And Roman Religion943 Words   |  4 Pagesthe nature of reality and the place of human beings and human behavior in the greater scheme of things.† And lastly, it is critical thinking. â€Å"The Hebrews believed that God created heaven and earth.† They believed that their doings are their accountability and if wrong doings occur, it is their responsibility to correct or improve themselves. The Hebrews recorded their beliefs in bibles, which can be summarized as the history of their association with their gods. The bible summarizes the world andRead MoreMeaning Of Psalm 119934 Words   |  4 Pagesthe Psalter and the longest chapter in Scripture. It is also the most intricate with regard to structure. The format of Psalm 119 is an alphabetic acrostic, meaning that the first letters of each line in Hebrew follow through the alphabet, 8 lines per letter, thus 8 lines x 22 letters in Hebrew = 176 lines. One message of this psalm is that we are to live a lifestyle that demonstrates obedience to the Lord, who is a God of order that is the acrostic structure not of chaos. The psalm opens with twoRead MoreSlavery : The Old Testament4666 Words   |  19 Pagesand s ources? - Does the passage merge into the claimed context? The aforementioned questions will be used as a guide throughout the study. The Passage Exodus 21: 2-11 1 Now these are the judgments, which thou shalt set before them. 2If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.4If his master have given him a wife, and she have

Three Theories of Cognitive Development Free Essays

Three Theories of Cognitive Development The Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is well-known for his work towards the cognitive sciences. Arguably one of his most important contributions involves his theory of cognitive development. In this theory, thinking progresses through four distinct stages between infancy and adulthood. We will write a custom essay sample on Three Theories of Cognitive Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now Similar in scope to Piaget’s theory is Information Processing, in which human thinking is based on both mental hardware and mental software (Kail, Cavanaugh). A final theory on cognitive development was established by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). Vygotsky proposed that development is a collaborative effort between child and partner. While these three theories attempt to explain a similar topic in different manners, each can be considered an important aspect to cognitive development in infancy and early childhood. Through analyzing and comparing these theories, scientists are able to better understand how child development occurs and the process it takes in creating a functional human being. Piaget’s Theory Children are naturally curious: this is the claim Piaget proposed when explaining that children of all ages create theories about how the world around them works. They accomplish this through the use of â€Å"schemes,† referring to mental structures that organize information and regulate behavior. Infants group objects based on the actions they can perform on them. Later in development, schemes become based on functional or conceptual relationships, not action. This means that schemes of related objects, events, and ideas are present throughout development (Kail, Cavanaugh). Schemes change constantly, adapting to children’s experiences. Intellectual adaptation involves two key processes that work together: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of taking in new information into previously existing schemes. Accommodation involves altering existing schemes in light of new information. Assimilation and accommodation are usually in equilibrium. But when disequilibrium occurs, children reorganize their schemes to return to a state of equilibrium, a process Piaget called â€Å"equilibration. † According to Piaget, revolutionary changes in thought occur three times over the life span, which are divided into four stages. Sensorimotor period (0-2 years): Infants adapt and explore their environment. Reflexes are first modified by experience. At 8 months, intentional behavior occurs. Soon, infants become active experimenters, and repeat actions with different objects for the purpose of seeing what will happen. An important aspect of the first stage is object permanence- the understanding that objects exist even if they cannot be seen. Not until at about 18 months do infants have a full understanding of object permanence. Soon after, the onset of symbols, including words and gestures, become apparent. Preoperational thinking (2-7 years): Children do not understand others’ different ideas and emotions (egocentrism). They also have trouble focusing on multiple features. A child in the preoperational stage has a narrowly focused type of thought (a term Piaget called centration). For example, in what is known as a conservation problem, children tend to focus on only one aspect of the problem. In conservation of length, they concentrate on the fact that, after the transformation, the end of one stick is farther to the right than the end of the other, when in fact each stick is similar in length. Concrete operational period (7-11 years): This stage is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. A child is able to sort objects according to its size, shape, etc. Also, children will now take into account multiple aspects of a problem. For example, a child will no longer perceive a wide and short cup to contain more liquid than a normal, tall cup. Egocentrism begins to disappear: the child can now view things from another’s perspective (even though that person may be wrong). Formal operational period (11 years and up): Individuals move beyond concrete experiences and begin to think more abstractly, reason logically, and draw conclusions from information available. Also changing is the way an adolescent thinks about social matters. The future is beginning to be thought of in relation to what he or she can become. Information Processing In this view, human thinking is based on mental hardware (allows the mind to operate) and mental software (basis for performing particular tasks). There are several different aspects to this theory. Learning and cognitive development can happen through habituation, classical and operant conditioning, and imitation. Habituation is the diminished response to a stimulus as it becomes more familiar. Constantly responding to insignificant stimuli is wasteful, so habituation keeps infants from devoting too much energy to non-important events. In classical conditioning, a stimulus elicits a response that was originally produced by another stimulus. No new behaviors are learned, but an association is developed (Huitt, W. and Hummel, J). For example, a toddler may frown when he hears water running in the bathroom because he realizes that it is time for a bath. Operant conditioning emphasizes reward and punishment. This helps children form expectations about what will happen in their environment. Imitation is important in older children and adolescents. This process entails a â€Å"watch and learn† kind of approach. A boy can learn how to play basketball by watching a professional athlete, and an infant may imitate an adult waving her finger back and forth. A special kind of memory, â€Å"autobiographical memory,† emerges in the preschool years. These are memories of significant events and experiences in one’s own life. Infants have basic memory skills that enable them to remember past events. In addition to these skills are the language skills and sense of self obtained during the preschool years. Vygotsky’s Theory Lev Vygotsky incorporated the role that society and culture have on an individual throughout cognitive development. According to Vygostky, children rarely grow cognitively by themselves; they learn and progress when they have others by their side. This is contrasting to Piaget’s theory and Information Processing, where the individual growth takes place mostly alone. In his theory, Vygotsky developed the idea of the zone of proximal development. This refers to the â€Å"zone† between the level of performance a child can achieve when working independently and a higher level of performance that is possible when working under the guidance of more skilled adults or peers. This follows the idea that cognition develops first in a social setting and slowly comes under the child’s control. A factor that aids this shift is known as scaffolding. This is a style of teaching in which the teacher decides the amount of assistance given to match what the child actually needs. Scaffolding is based off the premise that children do not learn readily when they are constantly told what to do or when they are left to struggle through a problem. Finally, Vygotsky viewed private speech as an â€Å"intermediate step toward self-regulation of cognitive skills. Private speech can be defined as comments that are not intended for anyone else but the child to hear, and are designed to help children regulate their behavior. This theory holds that cognitive development is not characterized as a solitary undertaking, but a collaboration between expert and novice. Compare and Contrast All of these theories attempt to measure the biological and psychological changes appare nt in child development. They look to categorize specific behaviors, and associate them with current stages in growth. However, each theory is different in that it looks for different behavior patterns. Also, Piaget’s Theory and the Information Processing Theory can be grouped together due to the fact that they look at a child as an independent being, not cognitively dependent on its environment. However, Vygotsky views a child’s development as being reliable upon its surroundings (e. g. its peers, parents, teachers etc). Disputes These three theories are just that; theories. None of them have been scientifically proven and accepted by all scientists. Instead, they have formed the basis by which we conduct study and research of cognitive development today. Theories will always be open to criticism and review, and Piaget’s theory has specifically been scrutinized by scientists and researchers. Some believe that Piaget underestimated the cognitive competence in infants and young children. A main theme of modern child development is that of an extremely competent infant. Also, many scientists have found that certain components of Piaget’s theory are not testable. For example, accommodation and assimilation prove to be too vague to test scientifically. In Vygosky’s Theory, some critics point out the overemphasizing of the role of language. Also, his â€Å"emphasis on collaboration and guidance has potential pitfalls if facilitators are too helpful in some cases. An example of that would be an overbearing and controlling parent. † Criticism is not meant to diminish the importance of these theories, but to foster more research in the field of cognitive development and improve our understanding of how children grow. Conclusion These three theories of cognitive development are meant to measure something that is physically not able to be measured. They take a look at how children behave, and attempt to classify each behavior accordingly. How to cite Three Theories of Cognitive Development, Papers

Towards Introducing and Implementation of Soa Design Antipatterns free essay sample

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural practice followed by organizations to reduce total cost of ownership, ease of maintenance in software development implementing various SOC principles. Dissatisfactory performance of SOA projects has stimulated the developers to analyze the SOA worst practices or antipatterns. Our research aimed at identifying these wrong practices in implementation of SOA, i. e. antipatterns. In this paper, four antipatterns SOA==SOAP, using plain WSDL, web service discovery only through UDDI, and service for an application have been identified and presented in SOA antipattern template. These antipatterns are related to the use of SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and basic service definition, which initially seemed to be correct but later resulted into reduced performance benefits. Keywords- Service, Service Oriented Computing, SOA, Design patterns, Antipatterns. Introduction Service Oriented Computing (SOC) is the latest design paradigm used to implement distributed systems. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implements various service orientation principles, which are designed for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. It comprises of a set of components as services that can be invoked and whose interface descriptions are published and discovered [1-3]. The popularity of SOA has motivated designers to document its applications and implementations. Many best practices in the form of design patterns have been defined for SOA. They capture expert knowledge about best practices in software design, in a form that allows that knowledge to be reused and applied in the design of many different types of software. Some of the solutions have stood the test of time while others have not. These blemishing design patterns lead to the concept of Antipatterns. Antipatterns are specific repeated practices that appear initially to be beneficial but ultimately result in undesirable consequences Documentation of antipatterns helps the programmer to be aware of the common wrong practices, and hence improves the project statistics. There are various problems in adaptation of SOA, which result into the dissatisfactory performance of SOA projects. These problems are to be seriously catered; hence practitioners have started addressing different bad or worst practices of SOA implementation in form of antipatterns. SOA is a logical way of designing a software system to provide services either to end-user applications or other services distributed in a network via published and discoverable interfaces. There are several available SOA best practices and design patterns, which are currently used in the implementation of SOA based projects [14, 15, 22, 26, 29, 32]. Antipatterns have been addressed by practitioners after year’s long experience in the field. A survey on different antipatterns was performed exploring various worst practices and the causes of the failure of SOA projects [9, 14, 23, 28]. Antipatterns for SOA have already been documented [16-20, 25, 28, 31], but our major concern was on the SOA design antipatterns. Moreover, they have been described at different levels of abstraction, which makes them appear independent and isolated. After studying various SOA implementations, case studies [9, 12, 18, 32], News agency Service project of Signett IT enabled services, Travel Portal project [20] and few others [28-32] , it has been observed that there are some flaws in implementation of SOA. Since SOA is still in its nascent stage. Its success and importance still needs to be proved. Four antipatterns have been identified in this research work. They concentrate mainly on SOA design. These are SOA==SOAP, Using Plain WSDL, Web service discovery only through UDDI and Service for application. The first antipatterns SOA==SOAP focuses on ignorance of other parallel approaches to SOA. Second antipattern focuses on improper representation of service using WSDL. Third antipattern recommends the use of REST services which do not require any service registry to be discovered and prefers using customized registries. The fourth antipattern highlights the wrongly implemented concept of service forgetting the basic service design principles. The proposed antipatterns focus on SOA design and would definitely reduce certain overheads and result into a successful SOA implementation. It is sincerely hoped that these antipatterns would help the programmers to design a successful strategy for SOA implementation in their project. Some of the domain areas such as request change, data handling have been left unexplored and few more antipatterns can be identified. A framework for building SOA applications could also be developed which would integrate various features necessary features for SOA implementations. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II of the paper briefly explains the antipattern template that will be used to describe the proposed antipatterns. Section III explains each of these proposed antipatterns along with their implementation and re-factored solutions. The fourth section provides future work in this direction of research and the conclusion of the paper followed by the references used. SOA Antipattern Template Antipatterns describe a commonly occurring solution to a problem that generates negative results i. e. seemingly well but in fact, wrong solutions. Design patterns and antipatterns are closely related. Former defines commonly applied solutions to well known problems, while later are the specific repeated practices that initially appear to be beneficial but ultimately result in undesirable consequences. An essence of antipattern is two solutions. First is the commonly occurring problematic solution that generates wrong results, another is the re-factored solution i. e. the esolved, reengineered and beneficial form of antipatterns. Those that describe only the negative solution are called pseudo antipatterns [31]. There are various problems in the adaptation of SOA, which result into the failure of SOA projects. These problems are to be seriously catered; hence practitioners have started addressing different bad or worst practices of SOA implementation in form of antipatterns. Antipatt erns proposed by different organizations have been fragmented and have been focusing on the complete SOA life cycle i. e. from the origin of concept to realization. The pioneer work on the subject focused primarily on object oriented antipatterns. It should be known that object oriented patterns and service oriented patterns have a subtle difference between them. Some of the object oriented design patterns form the major antipatterns for SOA such as No legacy Antipattern and vice versa. The SOA antipatterns discussed in the next section utilize the following SOA antipattern template to document the common dysfunctional practices in the adaptation of SOA. It specifies the name, root cause, primal forces, description and the name of the antipattern to which the current antipattern is similar to. Patterns have a problem and a solution while antipatterns have two solutions (instead of a problem and a solution). The first solution generates negative consequences (forces that must be resolved). The second solution is a migration (or refactoring) from the first solution that provides dramatically improved benefits and much reduced consequences. Like design patterns, antipatterns should also follow a general profile format for their representation [9]. Following is the antipattern template used to describe SOA design antipatterns. It comprises of a number of required and optional sections. The core sections are the general form of the antipattern and the re-factored solution. ? Antipattern Name: The Antipattern name is a unique noun phrase. The name is used for future reference to the principles contained in the antipattern. They form the basis for an organization’s terminology when members discuss and document software and architectures. ? Also Known As: This identifies additional popular or descriptive names and phrases for this Antipattern. ? Root Causes: These are the general causes for the antipattern. They can be one or more of the following values: Haste: It is popularly said ‘Haste makes waste’. Hasty decisions lead to compromises in software quality. As successive project deadlines are missed, anything that appears to work is considered acceptable, regardless of quality. Apathy: It refers to not caring about solving known problems. It is a basic unwillingness to attempt a solution. Narrow-mindedness: It is the refusal to practice solutions that are otherwise widely known to be effective. Sloth: Automatically generated interface stubs and skeletons make the task of constructing a distributed system relatively easy. The ease of creating and changing interfaces leads to the deadly sin of sloth—lack of configuration control. Avarice: Architectural avarice means the modeling of excessive details, which results in excessive complexity due to insufficient abstraction. Ignorance: It is the result of failing to seek understanding. The problem of ignorance (implementation dependency) often occurs in the migration of applications to distributed architectures. Pride or resp onsibility: Often, developers unnecessarily invent new designs when knowledge from preexisting systems, products, and standards are readily applied through architecture mining. Reinvention involves many unnecessary risks and costs. Primal Forces: Forces are concerns or issues that exist within a decision-making context. In a design solution, forces that are successfully addressed (or resolved) lead to benefits, and forces that are unresolved lead to consequences. The choices include any of the following: -Management of functionality i. e. meeting the requirements. -Management of performance refers to meeting the required speed of operation. -Management of complexity means defining abstractions. -Management of change controlling the evolution of software. -Management of IT resources refers to controlling use and implementation of people and IT artifacts. Management of technology transfer refers to controlling the change in technology. ? Re-factored Solutions. This section explains a re-factored solution that is structured in terms of solution steps. Proposed SOA Antipatterns Design patterns are proven solutions to a task presented in a standard format and antipattern are the wrong ways of doing a task which initially seemed to be correct. Here, certain domain areas were identified as most error prone areas of SOA implementation, hence probable areas of finding new antipatterns. This was on the basis of the implemented module, case studies and study of the subject. SOA comprises of different architectures as shown in Fig1. Based on these designing of a service oriented application can be further broken up as service design, service composition design and service inventory design. [pic] Figure1: Layered architectures. SOA design is further categorized as Service Design (SD), Service Composition Design (SCD), Service Inventory Design (SID), and Service Oriented Enterprise Design (SOED). The identified domain areas prove to be the weaker links of SOA and need to be implemented correctly and carefully. Few of these domain areas are concept of service, service scalability/load balancing, service discovery, service composition, data sources, security and request change. In this paper, SOA==SOA, using plain WSDL, web service discovery only through UDDI and service for an application are identified as antipatterns and these are discussed in the following subsections. 1 SOA==SOAP Practitioners implementing SOA often consider that, the three standards required for implementing web services are the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). SOAP is an XML-based protocol to support communication between a Web service, its clients, and UDDI registry. WSDL is an XML-based standardized interface definition language used to describe what a web service can do, where it resides, and how it can be invoked. A WSDL file associated with a Web service contains important details about the Web-service interface for client-service interaction. UDDI standard is used to publish, discover, and manage Web services in an UDDI registry. Although it is a good and most preferred way to implement web services, the other ways to create light weight services should also be preferred. A REST (Representational State Transfer) web service is basically a simplified model where everything is wrapped around the HTTP send/receive protocol. Using services based on SOAP envelop always, may be an overhead, whereas that same work could be done using lightweight approach like REST using traditional methods. The main responsibility of accessing the service in the SOAP-WSDL process lies on the consumer. He will have to programmatically extract the Web service SOAP message in order to do something useful with it in the application. Although core services holding logic should be bind in an SOAP envelop but simple data handling services , CRUD operations should be implemented using traditional Http methods viz. GET, PUT, POST, DELETE i. e. through RESTful way. REST emphasizes resources with a uniform interface for addressing them, while SOAP based RPC emphasizes processes with a uniform interface for invoking them. With a RPC-based architecture, there is no limit to the number of processes. In REST we can everything get by only four basic methods GET, POST, PUT and DELETE of the Http standard, and make the resource addressing handle the variability. For services representing basic CRUD operations, REST way of implementing services is simpler and lightweight. 1 Re-factored Solution In the development of Web service based SOA applications, the designing of services should not be adamant to a traditional style but other approaches should equally be used when and where required. Both the approaches SOAP based and REST based have been compared in the following paragraphs and depending on the requirement, appropriate method for implementing services could be selected. Both these approaches are not the counterparts and can be used together in the same application. 1 Approach REST and SOAP are parallel ways of implementing web services. Let us first discuss these two different approaches of implementing web services. REST is an architectural style that prescribes the use of standards such as Http, URL, Resource representations (XML, HTML, Gif etc. ), MIME Types etc. [11]. The RESTful web service makes available URL to a resource and it may allow the client to specify the format of the returned resource i. e. HTML or an XML document. The service itself may be described using WSDL (Web Service Description Language) or WRDL (Web Resource Description Language) and can be accessed either as a resource or using JSON (Java Script Object Notation). RESTful services are stateless; each request from client to server must contain all necessary information. All resources are accessed with generic interface (Http GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). These resources are named using URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). The client may progress from one state to another using interconnected URL representation. In SOAP method, provider creates and implements a web service interface on an existing application. He has to create a XSD (XML Schema Document) and WSDL contract in order to distribute the web service details to potential consumers. Consumer obtains WSDL contract for consumption through UDDI registry. Then the consumer implements the WSDL in a specific platform Java, C#, PHP, Perl and creates a caller application. Client sends multiple requests using the same URL for all transactions. It is the responsibility of the SOAP server to a parse the SOAP message and determines which method to invoke. The returned data would not contain any URL, since a URL that points to a SOAP service is just to the SOAP server. In REST all decisions are made based upon the URL and the Http method selected while in SOAP, server receives all messages, peeks into the SOAP envelop and then distributes each message to the appropriate application for processing. 2 Proxy servers Proxy servers play a major role as web intermediaries for a web application. Below we briefly discuss their functionality for a web service. In the REST approach, the URL identifies the resource that is desired. The Http method identifies the desired operation. The Proxy server decides based upon the identified resource and the Http method whether or not to allow the operation. Using XLink (the XML hyperlink technology) in addition to providing a URL to the target resource, data about the resource could also be provided using Xlink:role. The application can dynamically make decision about what resource is to be accessed next. In SOAP based approach, proxy server cannot directly allow or disallow the message since it is unaware of the desired contents or resources. Either the proxy server should understand the semantics of each SOAP application that a client will access, but for that the proxy server will need to be updated for each new SOAP application. 3 Caching It refers to the ability to maintain a copy of the desired resources in order to improve the performance. In the REST approach, The response of a resource contains an indication in the Http header of whether the results are cacheable or not. If it is, cache servers make a local copy, which can be returned for the same request if repeated. A SOAP message is always with a POST method, which makes the cache server unaware of the actual intention of the request type (GET or POST). Moreover the SOAP URI is always to the SOAP server which prohibits the cache server again from knowing the actual resource requested. Hence no caching is possible with SOAP. 4 Generic Interface Generic interfaces imply generalized functionality and hence support scalability whereas application specific or custom interface interfaces may need some additional functionality to be called in a generic context. In REST, every resource has a generic interface namely Http GET, PUT POST, and DELETE which enable caching and proxy servers to do their work. Whereas in SOAP, There is no defined standard set of methods. Any type of methods could be defined which makes customization on application basis and reduces scalability. 5 Interoperability Interoperability means sharing the data amongst multiple applications. The more interoperable software programs are, the easier it is for them to exchange information. In REST, Interoperability is based on standardization. REST relies on standards of addressing and naming resources (URI), resource interfaces (GET, POST, PUT etc. ), representations (HTML, XML etc. ), and media types (MIME types). In SOAP, each SOAP message provides its own unique method of naming a resource. Each SOAP application defines its own interface hence interoperability is possible only for closed systems where all participants are known prior. REST and SOAP do not replace each other, each of them have their uses but when making high performance and client rich websites REST can provide a significant improvement. Traditional way of implementing SOA only through SOAP also leads to other antipatterns. REST style needs no registry and makes resources directly available hence it also helps in overcoming the following two antipatterns viz. Discovery of web service through UDDI and Using plain WSDL to define service interface. 2 Standard Representation Following the Standard Antipattern Template [14] and SOA Antipattern Template [31], the above proposed antipatterns can be described as follows: Antipattern Name: SOA==SOAP Also known as/ similar to: Not Applicable Root Cause: The common and fundamental reasons for the problem can be coined as haste, apathy, ignorance. Primal Forces: These are certain architecture and development related concerns or issues present in most decision making context. They greatly affect the design and development process and in this case it can be management of functionality and management of technology transfer. Misuse of these above mentioned forces leads to the development of this antipattern. Description: SOAP-WSDL is considered to be the only way of implementing SOA by companies implementing SOA for the first time. Solution: Although SOAP-WSDL is the established way of SOA implementation through web services but other alternative ways like REST should be equally considered. For CRUD applications RESTful services should be preferred and for application specific services holding core logic SOAP based services should be preferred. 3 Implementation The above antipatterns were derived after final implementation of both the ways of implementing web services i. e. SOAP and REST. Following are few screenshots of their implementation i. e. SOAP-WSDL based web service in . Net hrough Visual Studio 2008 and REST Based web service in java through Netbeans7. 0. 1 Fig. 2 represents a structure of SOAP based service. It shows various methods which are application specific and need not have a generic structure. Figure2: Structure of SOAP based service Fig. 3 shows the structure of REST based service. It reflects certain methods like getJSON() to retrieve java script object notation form of data, getXML() to re trieve its XML format. [pic] Figure3: Structure of REST based service. The Fig. 4 below shows the interface of the REST based web service. In it the resources are available in the form of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) in the returned page. User can access these web services by simple clicking on the URL shown, the getXML() or getJSON() methods are called accordingly. [pic] Figure4: REST based web service. 2 Using Plain WSDL WSDL (Web Service Description Language) is used to define service interfaces. It describes two different aspects of a service: its signature (name and parameters) and its binding and deployment details (protocol and location). WSDL describes services in three layers: Layer 1: It describes the interface of a service. Layer 2, describing the binding of a web service i. e. protocol and format for which web operations are provided. Layer 3 defines the physical location i. e. address URL where service is available. WSDL does not contain full interface of a service, it does not have any semantic information. A WSDL file does not specify how to access next desired service, how long a service usually runs, who is allowed to call it, how much a service call cost and many other non functional attributes. All these aspects must usually be known in order to manage a service in a large SOA landscape. With future WSDL versions this might change. 1 Re-factored Solution Service Description should be provided in a separate format and WSDL should be generated from it when required. WSDL files can be extended internally with additional XML elements and attributes or externally with supplementary files [20]. WSDL allows elements representing a specific technology under various elements defined by WSDL. These elements are known as extensibility elements. Extensibility elements allow vendors to expose their Web Services as EJB’s, Remote Java Objects and . NET objects without having to write SOAP bindings for them. Currently, the WSDL specification introduces specific binding extensions for the SOAP, HTTP GET/POST, MIME protocols and message formats. Using the extensibility mechanism a service developer can describe commonly used services such as EJB, . NET and Java Objects. The consumer of the service can use the WSDL and generate the necessary client side stubs to invoke the endpoints in the native protocol. This approach has a several advantages. The service developer does not have to spend time in exposing his service with SOAP bindings. Also, invocation of the service will be faster since the call will occur over the native protocol, and less time will be spent for SOAP marshalling and un-marshalling. A service can have multiple bindings associated with it and the consumer of the service will have the choice of selecting one binding or the other. Implementation The Fig. 5 below shows the standard WSDL file for a simple web service in java. [pic] Figure5: Standard WSDL representing a service. In the Fig. 6 code segment the information for locating the EJB is stored in lt;ejb:portgt; section of the WSDL definition and the information for invoking the EJB is stored in the lt;wsdl:bindinggt; section. [pic] Figure6: WSDL extensions using WSDL4J. 2 Standard Representation According to SOA Antipattern Template [31], the above proposed antipatterns can be described as follows: Antipattern Name: Using Plain WSDL to define all service interfaces. Also known as/ similar to: Not Applicable. Root Cause: It can be the result of h aste, sloth and ignorance. Primal Forces: Management of change, management of complexity and management of technology transfer. Description: Simple WSDL describes only two different aspects of a service: its signature (name and parameters) and its binding and deployment details (protocol and location). This does not describe various non functional attributes like how to access next desired service, cost of service etc. Solution: WSDL files can be extended internally with additional XML elements and attributes or externally with supplementary files. Certain extensibility mechanisms have been defined for specific purposes like, those supported by WSDL4J for ejb’s. Techniques for defining WSDL extensions have been proposed [12] and are one of the major research areas in WSDL. 3 Web service discovery only through UDDI In a real SOA enterprise infrastructure with hundreds of services, it is safe to assume that service endpoints are going to constantly be subjected to changes in areas such as location (URL), policy (security, etc) or contract (WSDL, operations). A common practice to accomplish that is to have client application to resolve service metadata such as endpoints or policies against a service repository. In order to address these challenges, the big SOA vendors  (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc. ) created a standard that with the purpose of modeling service metadata information that could be used to enable service discovery capabilities. The standard was known as Universal Data Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and, unfortunately, it became the cornerstone of SOA governance products. UDDI has proven to be an incredibly ineffective mechanism to enable service publishing and discovery. The SOA models created with UDDI are incredibly complex to implement and use. They end up becoming another bottleneck of SOA. 1 Re-factored Solution While building SOA application, the complexities of UDDI should be avoided and instead use a simpler mechanism to facilitate the discovery and query of services. This can be achieved by implementing a 100% RESTful API that allows querying the entire service registry using plain HTTP GETs methods. There is no requirement of centralized registry. More advantages of REST are discussed in previous section. User defined or application specific registries can also be defined like Oracle’s OSR (Oracle service registry), But these application specific registries are very complex and far from the reach of a simple programmer. Standard Representation According to SOA Antipattern Template [31], the above proposed antipatterns can be described as follows: Antipattern Name: Discovery of web service through UDDI. Also known as/ similar to: Not Applicable. Root Cause: It can be haste, sloth and ignorance. Primal Forces: Management of performance, management of IT resources and management of technology transfer. Description: Since SOA literatures and previous implementation of the technology, effectively present the usage of UDDI as the central registry for SOA services, the new small projects consider it to be an un-detachable component of SOA. The truth lies behind the fact that UDDI is incredibly complex and difficult to implement. Even and Microsoft have refrain from their UDDI registries. In such case, adhering to UDDI seems to be right but in fact not the perfect way of service discovery. Solution: Customized registries according to the application should be created. Various other registries using JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface), OSR (Oracle Service Registry) can also be used in an SOA application. REST based services should be preferred for data access services. They are directly accessed through URI’s hence require no central registry. Service for an application In the development phase of the module it has been observed that the first step in implementation of SOA, if taken mistakenly can prove to be a useless investment. Services are supposed to be designed for achieving main goals of SOA viz. reusability, interoperability, increasing organizational agility etc. Many IT developers with object orie nted experience implement SOA in the way they started Object oriented software. Services are designed application specific. No enterprise level service classification is involved. Service just become another way of creating an application, hence, provides no business benefits. Large numbers of services are designed, leading to another antipattern: Service Silos. These services have little or no reuse across applications. 1 Refactored Solution Proper training and education of basic SOA goals and principles should be given to the involved members before the actual work begins on the project. The service design should also follow basic SOA design principles [12]: 1) Standardized Service Contract: Services in the same inventory should follow same design contract. ) Service Loose Coupling: Services should be loosely coupled with customer requirements and their own surrounding environments. 3) Service Abstraction: Service contract should contain only the essential generic information. 4)Service Reusability: Services should have reusable enterprise logic. 5) Service Autonomy: Services should be autonomous i. e. their runtime environment should be under their control. 6) Service Statelessness: State information should not be maintained with service itself. 7) Service Discoverability: Services should be effectively discovered and interpreted through suitable mechanisms. 2 Standard Representation According to SOA Antipattern Template [31], the above proposed antipatterns can be described as follows: Antipattern Name: Service for an Application. Also known as/ similar to: Not Applicable. Root Cause: It can be haste, apathy, sloth and ignorance. Primal Forces: Management of functionality, management of change, management of complexity and management of technology transfer Description: Services are built for use within an application forgetting the basic service design principles. Solution: The services should be classified as intra application and inter application. Inter application services should be designed for interoperability. Application specific services if required should be at the lowest level and callable only by the generic services providing interface to the service consumer. Services at lowest level should further be properly identified as entity services, task services and utility services [15]. Services should essentially follow basic design principles for a successful SOA implementation. Conclusion and Future Work It has been observed that amongst the large number of addressed SOA antipatterns, failures are mainly due to limited number of interrelated antipatterns focusing mainly on the SOA design. Four antipatterns SOA==SOAP, Discovery of web service through UDDI, Using Plain WSDL to define all service interfaces, Service for an application were identified and represented. The above conclusions and derivations were based on the case studies and SOA implementation, using both, SOAP based and REST based services. In this paper we mainly emphasized SOA design antipatterns. Some of the domain areas such as request change, data handling have been left unexplored and few more antipatterns can be identified.

Summary of “The Boston Photographs” Sample Essay Example For Students

Summary of â€Å"The Boston Photographs† Sample Essay In â€Å"The Boston Photographs. † author Nora Ephron writes about three really controversial images taken of a deliverance effort that failed. The exposure were taken by Stanley Forman of the Boston Herald American. He was utilizing a motor driven camera. which allowed him to take three frames per second. The first shooting showed a fireman that was delivering a adult female and a kid. The following image showed the fire flight interrupting off the edifice. The 3rd image showed the adult female and her kid in the air falling toward the land. The adult female died on impact. but the kid landed on the woman’s organic structure and lived. We will write a custom essay on Summary of â€Å"The Boston Photographs† Sample specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The images were in more than 400 newspapers across the United States. Reader reaction across the state was about all negative. The newspapers received many negative letters from its readers. They all repeated the same thing. â€Å"Invading the privateness of decease. † â€Å"Cheap sensationalism. † â€Å"I idea I was reading the National Enquirer. † Many editors wrote and defended the images. One newspaper responded by stating they printed the article to demo the dangers of fire flights and about the slumlords. Charles Seib. the former managing editor of the Washington Star believed that the editors should hold censored what they published. Seib stated that the editors were non taking the readers into consideration when they show images of decease. Ephron does non hold with Seib and writes. â€Å"It is irresponsible–and more than that. inaccurate–for newspapers to neglect to demo it. or to demo it merely when an astonishing set of exposures comes in over the Associated Press wire. Most documents covering fatal car accidents will publish images of lacerate autos. But the significance of fatal car accidents is non that a great trade of steel is twisted but that people die. † Ephron besides states that the images should hold been printed because they are â€Å"great images. breathtaking images of something that happened. † She thinks that the fact that the images disturb readers merely goes to demo that photojournalism is frequently more powerful that written news m edia. Response to â€Å"The Boston Photographs† In Nora Ephron’s â€Å"The Boston Photographs. † it was instead simple to understand each side of the ethical issue. Ephron did a great occupation exemplifying all sides of the issue. First she told about the event. but so went on and showed us the readers’ reaction to the exposure. Following. she went on to state us about the newspaper editors and how they felt about the state of affairs. She besides gave us an illustration. She told us about Charles Seib. the former managing editor of the Washington Star. She explained how Seib felt about printing the images and showed us his point of position. Finally. after covering the whole narrative and doing certain that each side was heard. she explained her point of position. In her sentiment. she backs it up by explicating why she feels the manner she does. She describes how it’s irrelevant as to where it happened. why it happened. or who it happened to. but that it did go on. In the terminal. she concludes really nicely by stating the images deserved to be printed because they were â€Å"great images. breathtaking images of something that happened. That they disturb readers is precisely as it should be: that’s why photojournalism is frequently more powerful than written news media. †

Ten Tips for Coding Excel VBA Macros

Ten Tips for Coding Excel VBA Macros Ten commonsense suggestions to make coding Excel VBA faster and easier. These tips are based on Excel 2010 (but they work in nearly all versions) and many were inspired by the OReilly book Excel 2010 - The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald. 1 - Always test your macros in a throwaway test spreadsheet, usually a copy of one that its designed to work with. Undo doesnt work with macros, so if you code a macro that folds, spindles, and mutilates your spreadsheet, youre outta luck unless you have followed this tip. 2 - Using shortcut keys can be dangerous because Excel doesn’t warn you if you choose a shortcut key that Excel is already using. If this happens, Excel uses the shortcut key for the macro, not the built-in shortcut key. Think about how surprised your boss will be when he loads your macro and then Ctrl-C adds a random number to half the cells in his spreadsheet. Matthew MacDonald makes this suggestion in Excel 2010 - The Missing Manual. Here are some common key combinations that you should never assign to macro shortcuts because people use them too frequently: CtrlS (Save)CtrlP (Print)CtrlO (Open)CtrlN (New)CtrlX (Exit)CtrlZ (Undo)CtrlY (Redo/Repeat)CtrlC (Copy)CtrlX (Cut)CtrlV (Paste) To avoid problems, always use CtrlShiftletter macro key combinations, because these combinations are much less common than the Ctrlletter shortcut keys. And if you’re in doubt, don’t assign a shortcut key when you create a new, untested macro. 3 - Cant remember Alt-F8 (the default macro shortcut)? Do the names mean nothing to you? Since Excel will make macros in any opened workbook available to every other workbook that’s currently open, the easy way is to build your own macro library with all of your macros in a separate workbook. Open that workbook along with your other spreadsheets. As Matthew puts it, Imagine you’re editing a workbook named SalesReport.xlsx, and you open another workbook named MyMacroCollection.xlsm, which contains a few useful macros. You can use the macros contained in MyMacroCollection.xlsm with SalesReport.xlsx without a hitch. Matthew says this design makes it easy to share and reuse macros across workbooks (and between different people). 4 - And consider adding buttons to link to the macros in the worksheet that contains your macro library. You can arrange the buttons in any functional groupings that make sense to you and add text to the worksheet to explain what they do. Youll never wonder what a cryptically named macro actually does again. 5 - Microsofts new macro security architecture has been improved a lot, but its even more convenient to tell Excel to trust the files in certain folders on your computer (or on other computers). Pick a specific folder on your hard drive as a trusted location. If you open a workbook stored in this location, it’s automatically trusted. 6 - When youre coding a macro, dont try to build cell selection into the macro. Instead, assume that the cells that the macro will use have been pre-selected. Its easy for you to drag the mouse over the cells to select them. Coding a macro that is flexible enough to do the same thing is likely to be full of bugs and hard to program. If you want to program anything, try to figure out how to write validation code to check whether an appropriate selection has been made in the macro instead. 7 - You might think that Excel runs a macro against the workbook that contains the macro code, but this isn’t always true. Excel runs the macro in the active workbook. Thats the workbook that you looked at most recently. As Matthew explains it, If you have two workbooks open and you use the Windows taskbar to switch to the second workbook, and then back to the Visual Basic editor, Excel runs the macro on the second workbook. 8 - Matthew suggests that, For easier macro coding, try to arrange your windows so you can see the Excel window and the Visual Basic editor window at the same time, side-by-side. But Excel wont do it, (Arrange All on the View menu only arranges the Workbooks. Visual Basic is considered a different application window by Excel.) But Windows will. In Vista, close all but the two you want to arrange and right-click the Taskbar; select Show Windows Side by Side. In Windows 7, use the Snap feature. (Search online for Windows 7 features Snap for instructions.) 9 - Matthews top tip: Many programmers find long walks on the beach or guzzling a jug of Mountain Dew a helpful way to clear their heads. And of course, the mother of all VBA tips: 10 - The first thing to try when you cant think of the statements or keywords you need in your program code is to turn on the macro recorder and do a bunch of operations that seem to be similar. Then examine the generated code. It wont always point you to the right thing, but it often does. At a minimum, it will give you a place to start looking. Source MacDonald, Matthew. Excel 2010: The Missing Manual. 1 edition, OReilly Media, July 4, 2010.

These 2 Recommendation Letters Got Me Into Harvard and the Ivy League

These 2 Recommendation Letters Got Me Into Harvard and the Ivy League SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When I applied to college, I was accepted into every school I applied to, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, the Ivy League, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and more.While I had a strong overall application, the two teacher letters of recommendation were CRITICAL in getting me admitted. Why? Both teacherssaid I was one of the top students they had ever taught. Both enthusiastically advocated for my personality, leadership skills, and energy. How can YOUearn recommendation letters that will get you into your top choicecolleges?I'll show you how in this article. For the first time, I'm sharing my FULL, UNEDITED letters of recommendation as examples for you. These are the exact letters submitted when I applied to college. Even better, you'll see exactly what my Harvard admissions officer underlined - what really stood out as important and noteworthy. First Things First Quick question - how confident are you in knowingwhat colleges are looking for in your recommendation letters? Do you have a strong understanding of what an effective letter consists of, and what a bad letter looks like? Manystudents have the totally wrong idea of what colleges are looking for in recommendation letters. This, naturally, leads to subpar letters for students. Before I show you my letters, I first want to explainWHYrecommendation letters from teachers are such an important part of your college application, and then WHAT makes effective letters so effective. If you're chomping at the bit and really want to jump directly to my letters, here's Recommendation Letter Example #1, and here's Recommendation Letter Example #2. BUT I highly recommend that you stick with me for the next two sections - you'll get a lot more out of this guide and get much stronger rec letters as a result. Why Teacher Recommendation Letters Are So Important for College The goal of your overall college application is to communicate who you are as a person, in an easily digestible package that can take 20 minutes to understand (or less). From this package, colleges will decide whether they want you to join their community or not. Yeah, it doesn't feel great to have your 18 years of existence compressed into a web form. But that's the best system colleges have come up with so far to deal with the tens of thousands ofcollege applications they receive every year. (UCLA with a record 112,000+ applications) What do colleges care most about? Ultimately, it boils down to two things: how likely you are to succeed in college and in your career how much you'll benefit the school community as a student and beyond These are the ultimate goals of colleges when selecting their next class of students. Your application must convince the college that you will succeed in both goals. Of course, these are complex ideas -success is not only hard to predict, but different people also have different ideas of what success means. But there are a few general principles that hold true for most colleges: previous academic success is a great predictor of future academic success, which in turn predicts career success. certain personality traits are preferred: integrity, leadership, curiosity, creativity, empathy, perseverance, motivation, ambition, collaboration, confidence, and others. You don't need to be perfect in all dimensions, but some of these should apply strongly to you. you also generally want to avoid the opposite of these traits. These are all bad adjectives: unethical,narrow-minded, unmotivated, self-centered, arrogant, rude. For the first admissions requirement of academic success, your coursework and test scores play the biggest role. If you took a rigorous courseload and got a high GPA, and you got a high SAT/ACT score, you have shown that you can handle high school academics. This means you're in a great position to succeed academically in college. Feel like your SAT/ACT scores aren't high enough to impress your top choice colleges?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your SAT/ACT score. Download it for free now: How do you show the second requirement - personality traits? Part of this is in your personal essays and extracurriculars, where you'll show what you're interested in and give voice to your personality. But of courseyou'll describe yourself as curious, creative, collaborative, kind, and so forth. Who would describe themselves as unethical and mean? This is why colleges need objective, third-party observers to comment on who you are. This is where your teacher recommendations come in, and why they're so important. The role of the rec letter is to show who you are as a person.Your teachers haveengaged with you throughout at least a year of class. They've seen you in class with other students, and possibly out of class too. There are hundreds of small interactions that piece together to form your teacher's impression of you. How do you interact with students? How do you interact with teachers? How creative was your work? How much did you participate in class discussions? How motivated were you to excel in school? Are you a jerk nobody wants to be around? Or are you someone the teacher entrusts with the future? A greatteacher recommendation tells the college all of the above. Let's Hear From Harvard's Dean of Admissions What if you don't fully believe me yet? I'm just one guy with his own admissions experiences. So I'm going to call on William Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions at Harvard College: Recommendations from secondary school teachers and counselors are extremely important at Harvard and at many other colleges, particularly those with selective admissions processes. Faced with more academically qualified applicants than places in the freshman class, our admission officers review the two required teacher recommendations and the counselor report with great care, often commenting on them in writing on â€Å"reader sheets† in each application.We often project the recommendations themselves onto large screens so that all members of the Admissions Committee can see them during the subcommittee and full committee review processes in February and March.Recommendations can help us to see well beyond test scores and grades and other credentials and can illuminate such personal qualities as character and leadership as well as intellectual curiosity, creativity, and love of learning. Along with essays, interviews, and other materials in the application, recommendations can offer evidence of an applicant’s potential to make a significant difference to a college community and beyond. Source Notice how he says Harvard is "faced with more academically qualified applicants than places." What does this imply? "Among a pool of students with the same academic qualifications, we use personality traits to decide who to admit or reject."And letters of recommendation for students describe those personality traits. To beat a dead horse: your teacher recommendations add more color to your academic achievements, your test scores, and your GPA. The best recommendation letters for colleges rave about your personality and personal qualities. This is why my two letters below are so effective. You do NOT want your recommendation letters to just be repeats of your resume. This gives the admissions officer ZERO extra information about who you are a person. You do NOT want your recommendation letters to just say, "Johnny got an A and turned in his homework on time." This makes it very obvious that the teacher has no idea who you are as a person, which means it adds ZERO to your application. Great recommendations talk about more than your class performance. They discuss your personal qualities, how interacting with you feels like, and why you're likely to succeed in the future. First, I'm going to show my letters to you, with analysis of why they were so effective. You'll see the highlights made by my Harvard admissions officer, which will tell you what things she found important. Then I'll give you advice on how to build relationships with your teachers so you can get letters like this on your own. My Letter of Recommendation Samples Usually you don’t get to read letters of recommendation for students because you sign the FERPA waiver, waiving away your rights to read your application. But I was able to retrieve my full Common App and Harvard applicationfrom Harvard, complete with my original letters of recommendation. Most colleges require you to have two letters from teachers in different subjects.The two teachers I asked for letters were my favorite two teachers in all of high school. Personally, I vibed most strongly with teachers who actually cared about teaching. They gave engaged studentswith energy, treated us kindly and empathetically, and went above expectations to help students succeed. Not only did I have the most fun with these teachers, but they were also more likely to advocate for me enthusiastically in their letter. You might not vibe with teachers for the same reasons, but it's important you choose teachers you get along with and who you feel will write you very strong letters. My first letter comes from my AP Chemistry teacher from 10th grade. My second comes from my AP English Language teacher from 11th grade. As you read these letters, remember - these letters didn't come instantly. They take hundreds of small interactions over a year or more to build an impression of who you are. You can't trick a teacher into writing a great recommendation letter for you. If you honestly like learning and are an enthusiastic, responsible, engaging student, a great recommendation letter will follow naturally. The horse should lead the cart. Teacher Letter #1: AP Chemistry Teacher I took AP Chemistry in 10th grade and had Miss Cherryl Vorak (now Mynster). She was one of our younger teachers, having taught for just a few years before I had her. She was my favorite teacher throughout high school for these reasons: She clearly took pride in her work. She wasvery caring, spent a lot of time helping struggling students, and seemed to consider teaching her craft. She was universally well liked by her students, even if they weren’t doing so well. This is pretty rare. She was fair in her policies and grading, and she was kind. This was the kind of teacher where if you weren't doing well, you felt like it was your fault, not the teacher's. I participated in the US National Chemistry Olympiad (this was the major academic honor I earned) and she was my advocate and a great resource for this.She provided me a lot of training materials and helped me figure out college chemistry. By the time I applied to college in senior year,I had known her for two full years and engaged with her continuously, even when I wasn't taking a class with her in junior year. We’d build up a strong relationship over the course of hundreds of small interactions. All of this flowed down to the recommendation you see here.The horse leads the cart. First, we’ll look at the teacher evaluation page. The Common Application now has 16 qualities to rate, rather than the 10 here. But they’re largely the same. If the images are hard to read, keep scrolling down - I provide the recommendation in text form. How long have you known this student and in what context? I've known Allen as a student inside the classroom and outside the classroom in extracurricular academic activities since he was in the 10th grade.What are the first words that come to your mind to describe this student? Intelligent, motivated critical thinker; Charasmatic, well rounded, talented individual; Independent, mature, responsible student. List the courses you have taught this student, noting for each the student's year in school (10th, 11th, 12th) and the level of course difficulty (AP, accelerated, honors, IB, elective, etc.) As a 10th grader, Allen was one of the top students in my AP Chemistry class. Please write whatever you think is important about this student, including a description of academic and personal characteristics.We are particularly interested in the candidate’s intellectual promise, motivation, maturity, integrity, independence, originality, initiative, leadershippotential, capacity for growth, special talents, enthusiasm, concern for others, respect accorded by faculty, and reaction to setbacks. We welcomeinformation that will help us to differentiate this student from others. See enclosed letter. Ratings Compared to other college-bound students in his or her secondary school class, how do you rate this student in terms of: Below Average Average Good (above average) Very Good (well above average) Excellent (top 10%) Outstanding (top 5%) One of the top few encountered in my career Creative, original thought âÅ"“ Motivation âÅ"“ Self-confidence âÅ"“ Independence, initiative âÅ"“ Intellectual ability âÅ"“ Academic achievement âÅ"“ Written expression of ideas âÅ"“ Effective class discussion âÅ"“ Disciplined work habits âÅ"“ Potential for growth âÅ"“ This was the Common Application from 2004-05, over 10 years ago. In today’s Common Application, all of these ratings are retained, aside from â€Å"Potential for Growth.† Today's Common Appalso now includes Faculty Respect, Maturity, Leadership, Integrity, Reaction to Setbacks, Concern for Others, and TE Overall. You can tell that Common App teacher evaluations placea strongemphasis on personality. From Miss Vorak, you can seea very strong evaluation. First she says she's known me for over 2 years and has had interactions inside and outside the classroom. Then she's very enthusiastic with her "first words" answer, listing off a lot of strong personal traits.Finally, she gives me the highest ratings possible for all qualities. The Ratings section is really important. In one go, you're compared to all the students your teacher has ever taught. The better your ratings here, the more competitive you are relative to your classmates. What makes for good enough ratings for you? That depends on your personal college goals and your school's competitiveness. The more competitive the colleges are, the higher up your ratings need to be. If you're applying to your state school, where the admissions rate is 30%, and your high school is pretty competitve, simply being Very Good or Excellent can be a strong rating for you. On the other hand, if you're applying to the most selective colleges like Harvard, Stanford, or the other Ivy League schools,it is important to be ranked â€Å"One of the top few encountered in my career† for as many ratings as possible. If you’re part of a big school, this is CRITICAL to distinguish yourself from other students. The more experienced and trustworthy the teacher, the more meaningful this is.You really want to make sure you’re one of the best in your school class, if not one of the best the teacher has ever encountered. Next, let’s look at her letter. As you read this, think – what are the interactions that would prompt the teacher to write a recommendation like this? This was a relationship built up in a period of over 2 years, with every small interaction adding to an overall larger impression. Again, if the images are too small to read, I'll have the exact text below, so scroll down. And here's the letter in text form. I've bolded the sections that were underlined by my Harvard admissions officer: To Whom It May Concern: It is with very great pleasure that I write this recommendation for Allen Cheng to support his application for admission into Harvard. Allen has a deep passion for science and has been one of the few exceptionally gifted students that I have encountered in my career as an Advanced Placement Chemistry teacher. Among his many achievements and accomplishments, Allen’s performance on a battery of Chemistry Olympiad exams taken by approximately 11,000 students nationwide recently secured him the position as the second alternate for the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad team, ranking 6th in the country for a team which represented our nation in the International Chemistry Olympiad competition in Germany this past spring. As a senior, Allen hopes to surpass his performance once more in hopes of securing a solid position as one of the four members on the 2005 U.S. Chemistry Olympiad team this coming spring. I first encountered Allen when he was a sophomore in my AP Chemistry class. He was the youngest student in the class of upper classmen, but he was the top excelling student among the two sections of AP Chemistry classes that I taught during the 2002-2003 academic year. As a sophomore, he worked very well with others, mastered laboratory techniques, earned the top score on the AP Chemistry Exam, and was one of the top performers on the National Chemistry Olympiad Exam that year. As one of the top performers on the National Chemistry Olympiad Exam in 2003, Allen was one of twenty students in the nation who qualified to be a participant in the United States National Chemistry Olympiad National Team in the spring that year. He spent an extensive amount of time studying independently in order to ensure that he would cover all of the topics that our class did not yet study and often sought additional instruction during lunch and after school during which he asked questions and performed labs from previous Chemistry Olympiad competitions for practice. When results were published, Allen was ecstatic to have qualified as one of the twenty participants in the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad Study Camp and he enjoyed the experience training for the International Chemistry Olympiad during which he was exposed to Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, etc., branches of science typically encountered at the college level. As a member of my Advanced Placement Chemistry class, I have found Allen to be an intelligent, conscientious, motivated and responsible student who masters theory-and applies it well. He academically excelled among his peers, often explained concepts to confused classmates, actively participated during discussion, asked questions to ensure that he had a firm understanding of concepts, and sought additional sources for supplementary problem solving exercises. As a scientist, he was always meticulous when performing experiments, he led his lab group to successfully complete experiments, he wrote great detailed analytical lab reports, and he worked well with others. Allen is a self motivated, dedicated, hardworking student of high intelligence who can grasp difficult concepts, think critically and handle the rigor of a competitive college environment. He exhibits the qualities of a leader and promising scientist who truly loves science. Allen truly impresses me as a student who actively seeks new experiences which support his love for science. This past summer, Allen was a participant at the Research Science Institute at MIT where he conducted research in the field of neuroscience. In addition, Allen has been conducting research with the Jisan Research Institute under the guidance of a professor for two years and has recently coauthored a paper which was published and presented in the LASTED International Conference on Robotics and Applications in Hawaii this year. In addition to conducting research, Allen has also been volunteering at Methodist Hospital and in an immunology lab at the City of Hope National Medical Center where he has been able to strengthen his general laboratory skills. He is clearly an independent, active member of society who pursues personal interests. Beyond his academic excellence, Allen is a charismatic individual who is respected and liked by faculty and peers. Throughout his high school career, Allen often stopped by my room during lunch to take my AP Chemistry tests to review his general chemistry, but he also often stopped by during lunch or after school to chat about his latest developments, events in school, or other various topics. His maturity and charisma are qualities that are quite rare among high school students. He interacts well with his peers be it in the classroom setting or with the broader diverse student population where he is well known as a balanced individual with a warm personality and sense of humor. He balances his time well by excelling in a heavy course load filled with advanced placement classes and he also participates in various school and community activities, including our school’s academic teams which provide a structured yet fun forum for competition and learning. Allen is a well rounded individual who clearly enjoys a challenge. Overall, Allen exhibits the qualities of a leader as well as a great scientist who has had ample research experience and excels academically in challenging, college level courses. He is an intelligent, well-rounded, and grounded individual who challenges himself and actively seeks new opportunities and experiences. He has the determination, maturity, and intelligence to succeed in any endeavor and always maintains a positive attitude. His academic and personal achievements show that he is committed to his education and will work hard to achieve his goals. He exudes confidence and has a vivid, outgoing, and friendly personality that allows him to get along with others very well in any setting. I admire him for his intelligence, sincerity, honesty, and integrity and am impressed by his discipline as an independent learner. He is a highly motivated individual with a thirst for knowledge. Allen Cheng would truly be a superior addition to the student body at Harvard. Sincerely, Cherryl Vorak AP Chemistry, Chemistry Honors Teacher The letter here is very strong for a multitude of reasons. First, the length is notable – most letters are just a page long, but this is nearly two full pages, single spaced.This is pretty rare, since teachers often have to write dozens of letters a year. It's clear she's interacted with me a lot, cares a lot about supporting me, and is willing to put in the work to do so. The structure is effective: first Miss Vorak talks about my academic accomplishments, then about my personal qualities and interactions, then a summary to the future. This is a perfect blend of what effective letters contain.She highlights my most important extracurricular activities and awards (you can read more about it here in my Complete college application). At the detail level, her diction and phrasing are specific and supportive. She makes my standing clear with precisestatements: â€Å"youngest student†¦top excelling student among the two sections† and â€Å"one of twenty students in the nation.† She’s clear about describing the effort I put in, like studying college-level chemistry and studying independently. When describing my personality, she’s exuberant and fleshes out a range of dimensions: â€Å"conscientious, motivated and responsible,† â€Å"exhibits the qualities of a leader,† â€Å"actively seeks new experiences,† â€Å"charismatic,† â€Å"balanced individual with a warm personality and sense of humor.† You can see how she's really checking off all the qualities colleges care about and corroborating her ratings. Overall, Miss Vorak’s letter perfectly supports my application– my love for science, my overall academic performance, and my personality. The last part is especially important - she adds much more color beyond my A in AP Chemistry.This letter was important to complement the overall academic performance and achievements shown on the rest of my application. Let's go to my second Common App teacher recommendation. Curious about what my college application looked like, including personal essays, grades, test scores, and extracurriculars? You're in luck - I've published my ENTIRE college application here. This includes my complete Common Application, teacher recommendations, counselor recommendation, and Harvard supplement. This application got me into every school I applied to, including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and more. Check out how Miss Vorak's letter complemented my entire college application and my Personal Narrative. Teacher Letter #2: AP English Language Teacher My second teacher Mrs. Swift was another favorite. A middle-aged, experiencedEnglish teacher, I would describe her as â€Å"fiery,† in a good way. She was passionate, always trying to get a rise out of students in class discussions. She was challenging as a teacher and grader, and I always wanted to impress her. Emotionally she was a reliable source of support for students. First, the teacher evaluation from the Common App: How long have you known this student and in what context? 2 years, AP student. What are the first words that come to your mind to describe this student? (blank) List the courses you have taught this student, noting for each the student's year in school (10th, 11th, 12th) and the level of course difficulty (AP, accelerated, honors, IB, elective, etc.) 11th Grade AP English Please write whatever you think is important about this student, including a description of academic and personal characteristics.We are particularly interested in the candidate’s intellectual promise, motivation, maturity, integrity, independence, originality, initiative, leadershippotential, capacity for growth, special talents, enthusiasm, concern for others, respect accorded by faculty, and reaction to setbacks. We welcomeinformation that will help us to differentiate this student from others. (blank) Ratings Compared to other college-bound students in his or her secondary school class, how do you rate this student in terms of: Below Average Average Good (above average) Very Good (well above average) Excellent (top 10%) Outstanding (top 5%) One of the top few encountered in my career Creative, original thought âÅ"“ Motivation âÅ"“ Self-confidence âÅ"“ Independence, initiative âÅ"“ Intellectual ability âÅ"“ Academic achievement âÅ"“ Written expression of ideas âÅ"“ Effective class discussion âÅ"“ Disciplined work habits âÅ"“ Potential for growth âÅ"“ You can see right away that her remarks are terser. She didn’t even fill out the section about â€Å"first words that come to mind to describe this student.† You might chalk this up to my not being as standout of a student in her mind, or her just getting tired of recommendation letter requests every year. In ratings, I earned three of the â€Å"one of the top in my career† for "Motivation," "Independence, initiative," and "Intellectual ability." The rest are marked as Outstanding (top 5%). These are overall great ratings, but not as universally "top ever" compared to my AP Chemistry teacher. There are a few explanations for this. As a teacher’s career lengthens, it gets increasingly hard to earn this mark. Since Mrs. Swift was a lot older than Miss Vorak, she had run through a ton of students already, which makes it harder to be one of the top few ever encountered. I probably also didn’t stand out as much as I did to my Chemistry teacher – most of my achievement was in science (which she wasn’t closely connected to), and I had talented classmates. Regardless, I did appreciate the 3 marks she gave me. Now, the letter. Once again, as you read this letter, think: what are the hundreds of interactions, in the classroom and outside, that would have led to a letter like this? To Whom It May Concern: It is with great pleasure that I recommend Allen Cheng for admission to your school. In my three years of working with him, he has demonstrated the qualities necessary for high success in the demanding academic atmosphere of a high caliber university as well as the social skills needed to be successful in college. Academically, he is an extremely strong student, earning an A both semesters in AP Junior English (a feat few accomplish), and A’s throughout his high school career. He consistently exhibits dedication and vigor in all that he approaches. He is a member of the National Honor Society, the California Scholarship Federation, and an integral part of the Jisan Research Institute. He is a vital member of all that he is a part of. Outside of the classroom, Allen’s passion is for research. He has a brilliant and lightning quick mind; he is a fantastic scientist, one with great charisma and leadership skills. Though he is a year younger than the rest of his class, he is heads and shoulders above them. He has been more than ready for all that a major university has to offer for quite some time. Perhaps one of Allen’s most outstanding characteristics is his independence of thought and his willingness to express those thoughts. In other situations where students-would never speak their minds, he showed no hesitation to voice questions, thoughts, and ideas. He was always an active participant in class discussions, his animated character and controversial positions often being the spark that set off the entire class to an impassioned and heated period of arguing, often with him at the focal point of one side or another. His other qualities are of equal magnitude – his leadership skills came to forefront in group projects where he took charge, assuming the majority of the work and responsibility, ensuring that everything was completed in a timely manner and to his extremely high standards. He also has the ability to take the quiet and shy student and actively engage him or her, transforming that student into an active member of the class. I went out of my way to partner him with other students who needed this kind of attention and encouragement. Another quality that sets him apart from other student leaders is his strength of conviction. He will argue on any topic that has touched a nerve. He breathes with raw, unbridled passion. It is a rare gift in a person of any age; in someone just 16, it is breathtaking. He is honest, never stooping to cheat; he is entertaining, relying on wit, knowledge, and intelligence to persuade. Friends rely on him; he is attentive to their true needs. Teachers enjoy him in their classes. I recommend Allen completely, with no hesitation. He will make his mark and be known. Judith Swift Overall, this letter is very strong. It’s only one page long, but she spends a lot more time on my personal qualities. She writes with her characteristic flair: â€Å"In other situations where students would never speak their minds, he showed no hesitation to voice questions, thoughts, and ideas.† â€Å"controversial positions often being the spark that set off the entire class† â€Å"ability to take the quiet and shy student and actively engage†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ went out of my way to partner him with other students who needed† â€Å"strength of conviction†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ raw, unbridled passion†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ He will argue on any topic that has touched a nerve.† These comments support my personality strongly. I lean more towards an irreverent, straightforwardpersonality, not being afraid to speakmy mind.While this came across in my personal essays and application, an experienced teacher vouching for this adds so much more weight than just my writing it about myself. Again, this impression was built up over a year of her teaching me. It wasn't just one time I stopped by after class. It was continuous participation in class discussions, strong performance throughout the year, and likely observations of me when I didn't know she was even looking. With my two letters in mind, let's end with advice for how you can get the best college rec letters possible. How You Can Get the Best Recommendation Letters from Your Teachers By now, I've repeated my most important advice for you a few times. The important thing is that the advice sticks in, and that you actually practice it. The best recommendation letters for students gush about your personal qualities and why that makes you the promising beacon of the future. You can't trick a teacher into writing a strong letter for you. This is the wrong attitude to have, and most teachers will be able to sniff out insincerity. Don't think that you can just stop by after class three times and get the teacher to be your buddy. Instead, your teacher's impression of you is built up over hundreds of interactions - in class discussions, in group projects, in your homework, during presentations, when arguing about test scores, and even when you think she's not listening. If you honestly like learning and are an enthusiastic, responsible, engaging student, a great recommendation letter will follow naturally. The horse should lead the cart. With all this in mind, here are strategies for how you can build great relationships with your teachers and get super strong letters along the way: Starting sophomore year, identify 2-3 teachers each year you get along with. Have at least one in math/sciences, and another in the other subjects. You won't get letters from all of them, but you do want backups in case your top choice writers don't work out. Prepare well for class discussions, and don't be afraid of sounding dumb. Speak your mind and your teacher will remember it. As a teaching assistantin college and grad school, I can tell you firsthand how annoying it is to ask the class a question and have no one respond. Prep beforehand and show that you're one of the few students who actually cares about learning. In your interactions with teachers, focus on improving yourself and learning, not on getting a better grade.This applies to talking about grading, group projects, and learning what's on a test. Students who grovel for extra points on a test are really annoying. In contrast, students who try to figure out where their weaknesses are and how to improve for the future are really fun to work with. Try to make the teacher's life easier.If you can help the teacher save time, she'll love you for it. This might mean helping out classmates who are struggling, sharing notes with the class, or noticing problems she's having and trying to fix them. This will take sustained effort and energy, but it's the most reliable way to get very strong recommendation letters. Even more, you'll likely have a lot more fun in school, and you'll build a strong relationship with an adult mentor who can teach you a lot. For a lot more detailed advice like this on how to interact with teachers earnestly, check out my How to Get a 4.0 GPA and Better Grades guide. Keep Reading to Build Your College Application Do you like my advice in this guide? Great - I've written a lot more to help you build the strongest college app possible. Want more recommendation letter samples? Check out 4 more excellent recommendation letters from teachers. How to Get a Perfect SAT Score/How to Get a Perfect ACT Score Do you feel like your SAT/ACT score is lower than what your top colleges are looking for? As someone who got a perfect score on the SAT and ACT, I learned important strategies to notice your weaknesses and drill to improve them. Read these guides to boost your SAT/ACT scores. Also, check out my series on getting perfect scores in each of the sections on the SAT/ACT: SAT 800 Series: Reading | Math | Writing ACT 36 Series: English | Math | Reading | Science How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League Aiming for a top school like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or Ivy League-level schools? Your impression of what they're looking for might be COMPLETELYwrong. In this guide, you'll learn: why collegesexist, and what that means for what students they're looking for why being well-rounded is the path to rejection what an application Spike is, and why it'll get you into every college you apply to how to develop a Spike of your own If you're aiming for top tier colleges, this is a must read for you. How to Get a 4.0 GPA and Better Grades Do you feel like you're struggling to balance a rigorous courseload with good grades? You're not alone - this is a challenge for many high school students nationwide. In this guide, I'll tell you everything I know about how to get good grades. This includes mindset and psychology; study habits you need to have; and individual subject strategies. Even if you're not aiming for a 4.0 GPA, this is well worth the read - you'll learn something that can save you hundreds of hours of study time. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The Role of Safeguards in Strengthening Independence Essay - 1

The Role of Safeguards in Strengthening Independence - Essay Example While this is so, manipulation of the auditing bodies is completely inevitable as these bodies are appointed and paid by the client. However, it is possible to optimize independence by neutralizing the threats that put independence at stake. Some threats that affect independence include self interest threats, self review threat, management threats, advocacy threats, familiarity threats and intimidation threats. In this light, designing and deploying effective safeguards will increase the level of auditor independence to and ensure integrity in their work. This can be achieved through the mandatory auditor rotation, peer review, independent auditor appointing, free setting and formulation of effective audit committees. Mandatory Auditor Rotation Mandatory auditor rotation is the act of compelling all financial organizations to adopt and engage a different auditor each financial year to avoid the preference of a single auditor. Often, the management prefers to hire the same auditors every year to ensure that they are able to manipulate them to provide audit results that conform to the will of the management (Chung 2004, p. 8). This inclination of the audit results to the management's opinion undermines independence and reduces the integrity of the end results. In this view, mandatory auditor rotation will ensure that the familiarity and the management threats are suppressed and the audit bodies have a better chance to provide results that reflects the true image of the organization (Chung 2004, p. 8). According to Forbes (2013, Para. 2), the US House of Representatives voted for mandatory auditor rotation as one way of setting the audit bodies free from manipulation. Peer Review In a peer review audit, after the principal au ditor completes the audit process, other qualified professionals evaluate the work to verify its integrity and ensure that the financial statements are in accordance with those of the financial investors. This is a quality assurance process that aims at reducing any errors that may have occurred during the initial accounting process. In addition, this helps to reduce any form of data manipulation that may have been done intentionally under the influence of any independence threat (Allen and Siegel, 2002). Although this process may be quite expensive, it ensures that independence threats are neutralized and more credible results are attained. Independent Auditor appointing and free setting In this process, the role of appointing a professional auditor is withdrawn from the financial investor or client and dedicated to another body. The International Organization of the security commission (2002) states that the role of client in appointing the auditor provides a weakness in the indep endence of the audit results. Often, organizations will choose those auditors that they feel are easy to manipulate or threaten to ensure that they are able to cover up or pursue personal interests by imposing their own opinions on these professionals. To reduce this threat, an independent appointing body should be constituted to ensure that familiarity threats are eliminated by selecting professionals that are least affiliated to the firms. For instance, the government agencies can be chosen to appoint audit bodies for financial investors. Alternatively, shareholder committees should be formulated to take up this role of appointing a credible professional audit body that can provide credible results. In essence, giving this role to an