Narrative, Plot, and Story

Narrative, Plot, and Story Narrative, Plot, and Story Narrative, Plot, and Story By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between narrative, plot, and story? Not much, but enough that it matters. Here are the distinctions, explained with aids of analogy, plus some details: Narrative is the structure of events the architecture of the story, comparable to the design of a building. Story is the sequence of events, the order in which the narrative occurs the tour through the building. Plot is the sum of the events, told not necessarily in sequential order, but generally consistent with the story and often considered synonymous with the narrative the building itself. But these similar and even overlapping components of composition are further affected by the narrative mode the techniques the author employs to tell the story. Among these strategies are narrative point of view and narrative voice. Narrative Point of View A first-person narrator relates the story by using the pronoun I (or, rarely, if two or more narrators are telling the story simultaneously, we). This device enables the reader to know the narrator’s internal thoughts and feelings as well. This narrative style may indicate that the narrator may or may not consciously be aware of a reading audience. Also, the first-person narrator is not necessarily the main character, or even central to the story. Second-person narrative, rare in literature, is that in which the narrator refers to a character as â€Å"you.† The most frequent mode, third-person narrative, involves reference to characters as â€Å"he,† â€Å"she,† â€Å"they,† or â€Å"it.† Variety is achieved by the author’s decision to narrate subjectively, revealing characters’ thoughts and feelings, or objectively, without internal insight into any of the characters, as well as choice of omniscient or limited point of view: The author either knows all that is occurring in the story or is restricted to sharing only what is known to the focal character. Narrative point of view can vary within the same story, either by section or chapter or even within the same passage. Narrative Voice Narrative voice is the style in which the narrative is presented for example, a character’s recounting of events, or a privileged window into the character’s thoughts and feelings. A narrator may be a participant, a character in the story who describes events, or a nonparticipant, an objective (but not necessarily accurate) observer who is not integrated into the story. Another technique is to feature an unreliable narrator, one whose narrative is initially or ultimately suspect because it contradicts what the reader learns from nonnarrated exposition or other points of view. For instance, in the Japanese film Rashomon, based on two short stories, four characters give conflicting accounts of an event. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the title character’s naivetà ©, a plot device enabling author Mark Twain to demonstrate his gift for social satire, makes him an unreliable narrator. Note that narrative applies to nonfiction as well as fiction, and even plot and story have a place in nonfiction, as reporters and authors often manipulate an account by constructing a narrative more sophisticated than the who, what, when, where, and why formula of traditional journalism. There’s even a term for this approach: creative nonfiction. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Types of LanguagePeace of Mind and A Piece of One's MindDozen: Singular or Plural?

Relational Databases, Normalization, and SQL

Relational Databases, Normalization, and SQL A database is an application that can store and retrieve data very rapidly. The relational bit refers to how the data is stored in the database and how it is organized. When we talk about a database, we mean a relational database, in fact, an RDBMS: Relational Database Management System. In a relational database, all data is stored in tables. These have the same structure repeated in each row (like a spreadsheet) and it is the relations between the tables that make it a relational table. Before relational databases were invented (in the 1970s), other types of database such as hierarchical databases were used. However relational databases have been very successful for companies like Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. The open source world also has RDBMS. Commercial Databases OracleIBM DB 2Microsoft SQL Server Ingres. The first commercial RDBMS. Free/Open Source Databases MySQLPostgresSQLSQLite Strictly these are not relational databases but RDBMS. They provide security, encryption, user access and can process SQL queries. Who Was Ted Codd? Codd was a computer scientist who devised the laws of normalization in 1970. This was a mathematical way of describing the properties of a relational database using tables. He came up with 12 laws that describe what a relational database and an RDBMS does and several laws of normalization that describe the properties of relational data. Only data that had been normalized could be considered relational. What Is Normalization? Consider a spreadsheet of client records that is to be put into a relational database. Some clients have the same information, say different branches of the same company with the same billing address. In a spreadsheet, this address is on multiple rows. In turning the spreadsheet into a table, all the clients text addresses must be moved into another table and each assigned a unique ID- say the values 0,1,2. These values are stored in the main client table so all rows use the ID, not the text. A SQL statement can extract the text for a given ID. What Is a Table? Think of it as being like a rectangular spreadsheet made up of rows and columns. Each column specifies the type of data stored (numbers, strings or binary data - such as images). Unlike a spreadsheet where the user is free to have different data on each row, in a database table, every row can only contain the types of data that were specified. In C and C, this is like an array of structs, where one struct holds the data for one row. For more information see Normalizing a database in the Database Design part of databases.about.com. What Are the Different Ways of Storing Data in a Database? There are two ways: Via a Database Server.Via a Database File. Using a database file is the older method, more suited to desktop applications. E.G. Microsoft Access, though that is being phased out in favor of Microsoft SQL Server. SQLite is an excellent public domain database written in C that holds data in one file. There are wrappers for C, C, C# and other languages. A database server is a server application running locally or on a networked PC. Most of the big databases are server based. These take more administration but are usually faster and more robust. How Does an Application Communicate With Database Servers? Generally, these require the following details. IP or Domain name of the server. If it is the on the same PC as you, use 127.0.0.1 or localhost as the dns name. Server Port For MySQL this is usually 3306, 1433 for Microsoft SQL Server.User Name and PasswordName of the Database There are many client applications that can talk to a database server. Microsoft SQL Server has Enterprise Manager to create databases, set security, run maintenance jobs, queries and of course design and modify database tables. What Is SQL?: SQL is short for Structured Query Language and is a simple language that provides instructions for building and modifying the structure of databases and for modifying the data stored in the tables. The main commands used to modify and retrieve data are: Select - Fetches data. Insert - Inserts one or more rows of data. Update - Modifies existing row(s) of data Delete - Deletes rows of data. There are several ANSI/ISO standards such as ANSI 92, one of the most popular. This defines a minimum subset of supported statements. Most compiler vendors support these standards. Conclusion Any nontrivial application can use a database and a SQL-based database is a good place to start. Once you have mastered the configuration and administering of the database then you have to learn SQL to make it work well. The speed at which a database can retrieve data is astonishing and modern RDBMS are complex and highly optimized applications. Open source databases like MySQL are fast approaching the power and usability of the commercial rivals and drive many databases on websites. How to Connect to a Database in Windows using ADO Programmatically, there are various APIs that provide access to database servers. Under Windows, these include ODBC and Microsoft ADO. [h3[Using ADO So long as there is a provider- software that interfaces a database to ADO, then the database can be accessed. Windows from 2000 has this built in. Try the following. It should work on Windows XP, and on Windows 2000 if youve ever installed MDAC. If you havent and want to try this, visit Microsoft.com, do a search for MDAC Download and download any version, 2.6 or higher. Create an empty file called test.udl. Right click in Windows Explorer on the file and do open with, you should see Microsoft Data Access - OLE DB Core Services. This dialog lets you connect to any database with an installed provider, even excel spreadsheets! Select the first tab (Provider) as opens by default at the the Connection tab. Select a provider then click Next. The data source name shows the different types of device available. After filling in username and password, click the Test Connection button. After you press the ok button, you can open the test.udl with file with Wordpad. It should contain text like this. [oledb] ; Everything after this line is an OLE DB initstring ProviderSQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security InfoFalse;User IDsa;Initial Catalogdhbtest;Data Source127.0.0.1 The third line is the important one, it contains the configuration details. If your database has a password, it will be shown here, so this is not a secure method! This string can be built into applications that use ADO and will let them connect to the specified database. Using ODBC ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) provides an API based interface to databases. There are ODBC drivers available for just about every database in existence. However, ODBC provides another layer of communication between an application and the database and this can cause performance penalties.

Careers Management in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Careers Management in Business - Essay Example It also seeks to analyse how graduates aim to get over some of the challenges going to be discussed below. An analysis of the volatile economy will also be undertaken and the last part of the paper sums up the main points discussed. Basically, a career can be defined as a pattern of work and work related to activities that people develop throughout a lifetime (World Book Encyclopedia, 2008). It includes a job or a series of jobs a person has until retirement. In most cases, it can be observed that careers vary greatly in the type of work involved and in the ways they influence a person’s life. Many careers are based on work for pay and they usually shape the type of lifestyle a person can lead. Of notable concern is the fact that tertiary qualifications usually obtained by graduates often shape their lifetime careers. However, it may not be very easy for the graduates to easily get their dream jobs as they often face numerous challenges during their studies like failing to get places to do their internship or to secure permanent employment after completion of their respective degrees. In as far as the aspects of internship and employment are concerned, it can be noted that the employer plays a significant role in creating the opportunity and climate for full development of the student such that his or her capabilities are optimally utilised (Nelson, 2002). The main advantage of this aspect of internship or in-service training is that the student is given the opportunity to experience the actual environment of their chosen careers before entering into them. This allows for a realistic assessment of the expectations and understanding of the employer’s requirements. It can be noted that the volatility of the economy has a bearing on the students’ endeavours to pursue their careers as a result of different factors going to be analysed below. Due to the emergence of the borderless economy as a result of globalisation, it can be observed that tre nds in the global economy have a bearing on the performance of economies of different countries as well as the respective organizations operating in such environments. Over the past two decades, it can be noted that the size of the global village has rapidly shrunk as a result of the massive advances in information and technology (Venter, 2003). Investors are often seen moving to developing countries given that globalisation sought to liberalise trade and investment opportunities in different countries by various multinational companies as a result of the emergency of the borderless economies. However, the extent of employment creation through globalisation strongly hinges on the competitive edge of the economic policies of the host countries. If these are not in tandem with the dictates of globalization, the host country can fail to attract investors which results in limited chances of employment creation for new graduates. Given such a scenario, competition among the graduates can be seen to lead to shortages of employment as well as internship vacancies for these people. The volatility of the global economy can also pose serious challenges to organizations which may be forced to retrench rather that employ new workers. For instance, the global economic crisis that recently gripped the world resulted in many multinational com

History of Management in Criminal Justice Agencies Essay

History of Management in Criminal Justice Agencies - Essay Example e way the United States criminal justice system has been managed over the past few decades, with former English customs and laws playing a significant role in influencing the contemporary system (Randolph, 2005). The criminal justice system includes parole and probation officers, correction officers, court officers, investigators and line officers. In the early days of the English law enforcement instituted by Alfred the Great, police forces were formed by loyal families who patrolled their regions. They appointed their own leaders, known as reeves, to oversee and coordinate the wider alliances (Friedman, 1993). The reeves later came to be known as sheriffs. To ensure the loyalty of the sheriffs, the power of appointing them was taken over by William the conqueror when he came into power. In the early 18th century, the system established by William the conqueror was borrowed by Philadelphia, Boston and New York with each having 10 official patrol areas (Randolph, 2005). The 19th cent ury industrialization and population growth brought about the need for police departments in municipals. Although New York and Philadelphia had 24 hour police force in service by 1830, some counties still operate under the sheriff system today. The difference is that the sheriffs are not appointed through local governments, but rather elected by citizens. Today, managers within the criminal justice system are knowledgeable in security, police and disaster management fields. Within the judiciary, before the revolution, American courts followed laws that Great Britain had handed down to them. However, the settlers and colonists later rejected the English laws because they did not grant them equal rights as Englishmen under The Great Charter of the Liberties of England (Friedman, 1993). They rejected attempts to be governed by the English Parliament from overseas yet they were not accorded representation. The subsequent rebellion ended in the American Revolution. With the adoption of the

The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens Essay Example for Free

The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens Essay â€Å"The Eruption of Mount St. Helens† On May 18th, 1980, in Washington State, the volcano, Mount St. Helens erupted. This eruption caused widespread terror throughout the towns surrounding the mountain. The magma from the volcano burned up the forest and killed most of the animals in the area. It affected the wildlife greatly because, after the eruption, the ecosystem was burned and smoldered thus killing thousands of animals in the region. This eruption was the deadliest of all the volcanic activity in the United States, and the people who live near the mountain are still affected by what the eruption did to this day. There were many warning signs that preceded the nine-hour eruption of Mount St. Helens. After being dormant for 123 years, the volcano showed her first sign of life on Thursday, March 20th. There was a 4. 1 magnitude earthquake that centered directly underneath of the volcano. A week later, the snow on the mountain smudged because of the ash. On March 30th, 79 earthquakes were recorded on the mountain! A few days later, on April 3rd, tremors were recorded signaling movement of magma deep within the volcano. By that time, ash, rocks, and ice chunks were daily occurrences and the slopes were ash-covered. A few days before the eruption, it all stopped. But on May 18th, it all went wrong †¦ On May 18th, 1980, the worse volcanic eruption in United States history occurred. Mount St. Helens, in Washington States, violently erupted. At 8:32 A. M. a 5. 1 magnitude earthquake struck about one mile below the mountain, causing the largest landslide in history. The snow and ice moved at speeds of more than 175 miles per hour and removed over 1300 feet from the summit, sweeping away almost the entire North side of the mountain. The landslide raised temperatures about 60 degrees higher than usual. There was a lot of ash that came out of the volcano when it erupted as well. The ash caused a major problem to the townspeople because it contaminated the oil systems, clogged air filters, and scratched any moving surfaces, like cars and other vehicles. Particularly small, finer ash particles caused electrical shorts in transformers. This caused town wide blackouts. Also, the elevation of the mountain dropped from 9677 feet to 8363 feet. It decreased more than 1300 feet! This famous eruption had many affects on the wildlife and the people in the region. Thousands of small game, fish, insects and birds were killed along with black-tailed deer, elk, bears, and goats. All life in Spirit Lake was slain as well. The residents and visiting tourist of the area were affected too. There were a lot of architectural damages. For example, about 250 houses were obliterated. Roads and railways were destroyed. Also, 27 bridges were demolished. 57 people died and 36 more were rescued from being trapped underneath of debris or in their cars. There was significant crop loss in the area, about $100 million. The logging industry was hit hardest. About 25% of the forest had been wiped out, enough to build 300,000 two-bedroom homes! This eruption did not take it easy on the area. Despite how much damage it did, people still came together to try to help out. Their efforts have really paid off. Most of the houses have been rebuilt. But some still suffer from the flood damage. A significant number of trees have grown back, too. However, the timber industry isn’t back to the rate it was before the eruption, but it is still recovering steadily. It has been a pretty long time since this occurrence, but Spirit Lake still is inhabitable for fish. Only small creatures and bacteria can survive. Many people wonder â€Å"When can we expect it erupt again? † No one can really tell for sure. The eruption of 1980 wasn’t predicted, and future eruptions will probably also be unpredictable. But before the eruption of 1980, the volcano had been dormant for well over 100 years. The volcano can erupt whenever it wishes, whether it be tomorrow or another hundred years from now! Well then when will it erupt? Only time will tell.

Things Fall Apart: An Analysis :: essays research papers

Things Fall Apart: An Analysis The culture of the Umuofia society before the colonial infiltration, may be hard to understand but we are forced by Achebe to realize it has traditions and customs that make it work. Although, looking at it from our Judaeo-Christian point of view we may be appalled by some of their practices. We also have to realize that they have strengths. Things Fall apart is the idea of balance and interdependence, earth and sky, individual and community, man and woman or different perspectives on the same situation. The central image of this balance is contained in the Ibo concept of "chi," which occurs throughout the novel. A persons "chi" is their destiny, his inner self, "you wouldn't challenge your "chi" to a wrestling match," as did Okonkwo when he assisted in the killing of Ikemefuna, whom he loved and who called him father. Okonkwo sins not only against the earth goddess, protector of family relations, but also against his inner most feelings or his "chi." Any bad luck that occurs, people of this culture would say that you have a bad "chi." Okonkwo's destiny is marked by bad luck, one reason may be that he is so driven by the fear of resembling his father that he struggles to repress part of his personality with predictably afflicted results. This was a society where a man was judged by his own achievement and not that of his fathers. Yams were the primary crop of Umuofia. A sign of manliness was if you could farm yams to feed your family. Okonkwo is respected because of his hard work. The complex patterns of Umuofia's economic and social customs materialize throughout this novel as we see Okonkwo compelled to rid himself of any similarities that his father had. Unoka had no titles, was lazy and when he died was greatly in debt. Some may wonder how a society like the Ibo's functioned, how they enforce

Greco-Roman influence on Mediterranean Society Essay

Mediterranean society, a name manifesting proximity to Mediterranean Sea, flourished around 6th century BC and was dominated in its early years by Greek and Roman influence. Greek and Roman periods came sequentially and at times are collectively referred as Greco-Roman. This influence not only defined characteristics of Mediterranean society for many centuries that follow but also had articulate influences on contemporary societies in western world. Similarities between Greeks and Romans Both Greeks and Romans developed art with their own peculiarities. Forms of art like poetry, drama, mythology, philosophy and architecture defined these civilizations. These contributions are now also known as â€Å"classical antiquity† in history which Mediterranean society enjoyed during Greco-Roman period. Greeks and Romans also had strong military legacies. They both military might to counter any threat against their way of life. Romans also developed a strong naval legion which helped them strengthen their empires. Both Greeks and Romans developed agriculture with a focus on its commercial side and promoted trade. In religion, both did not enforce a universal religion instead promoted concept of tolerating other religious beliefs. Differences between Greeks and Romans Although historians at times refer to Greek and Roman periods in Mediterranean society’s history collectively, both have some clear differences in approach to society and governance. Greek culture is more towards lifestyle and seems to be more focused on development of a society. On the other hand, Roman civilization was oriented towards creating an empire of which Mediterranean region and society was a part. So, while Greeks had more cultural impact on Mediterranean society, Roman influence was more towards developing governance and systems. Politically, Greeks had a decentralized form of government with many city-states flourishing during their period. On the contrary, Romans developed an empire while developing less independent cities and more focus on creating specialized regions. Romans also were more focused on enhancing their empire while maintaining a strong linkage with developed transportation networks and administrative control. While Greeks gave Mediterranean society the philosophical works of Plato and Socrates, it was Romans who gave concept of governance, including civil service, public administration and tax collection. Greco-Roman influence on Western world Modern day politics has always been influenced by Greco-Roman influence on Mediterranean society. A broader case in point would be that modern political systems prevailing in many western countries mirror key elements from Greco-Roman period of Mediterranean. Roman concept of senate and Greek idea of city-state is sprawled around the globe as political systems. Further, concept of constitution and republic instigated in thoughts of Greek philosophers and was later materialized in Roman Empire. So much so, there is an intriguing presence of various elements in modern constitutions, which arguably were formulated by Greco-Roman. For instance, in United States constitution, President can only be a citizen born on American soil. This is akin to Roman concept of citizenship in which citizens having full rights were free, naturally-born, land-owning individuals. In art, contemporary art has genesis in Greco-Roman influence on Mediterranean world. For instance, architectural concept of Corinthian, Ionic or Doric columns which was developed in Greco-Roman period is basis of classical architecture in Western world. In order to govern a vast empire, Romans developed concept of public administration not known to human civilization and also created an extensive civil service and formalized methods of tax collection. These innovative concepts can still be found in Western world. Conclusion Greco-Roman influence on Mediterranean society had strong impact on human civilization. Both had differences but of lesser depth compared to strong similarities which existed in both civilizations. This is one of the reasons that for common understanding Greeks and Roman civilizations exist collectively in history under the label â€Å"Greco-Roman†. Bibliography Bentley, J. H. , Ziegler, H. F. , & Salter, H. S. (2010). Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History (2nd Edition ed. ). Virginia, United States of America: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. Pomeroy, S. B. , Burstein, S. M. , Donlan, W. , & Roberts, J. T. (2007). Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History. USA: Oxford University Press. Stearns, P. N. , Adas, M. B. , Gilbert, M. J. , & Schwartz, S. B. (2010). World Civilizations: The Global Experience. Prentice Hall.