Exxon Moblie Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exxon Moblie Company - Essay Example The company had stored over 72 billion equivalent of oil barrels by the end of 2007. The company also has 37 oil refineries in 21 different nations. This makes Exxon Mobil Corporation the world’s leading refiner (Vassiliou 54). This paper will look at the Exxon Mobil Corporation. Exxon Mobil Corporation is the leading of the largest oil producers in the world. The company boasts of an everyday oil production of 3.921 million barrels of equivalent. This was almost 3% of the globes oil production, in 2008. Nonetheless, when Exxon Mobil Corporation is categorized by gas and oil assets, it is placed 14th in the globe. The Daily Telegraph wrote an article in 2012. This article asserts that Exxon Mobil Corporation has become one of the most despised companies in the world, with the ability to influence the fate of many countries and American foreign law. In addition, Exxon Mobil Corporation drills oil in areas leased to them by countries controlled by dictators, for example, Equator ial Guinea and Chad. The company also has little regard for the environment. The company’s chief executive, Lee Raymond, until 2005, opposed the administration’s interference at any stage and was cynical about global warming and climate change (Vassiliou 57). The corporation was condemned for its sluggish reaction to handling the Alaska oil spill. The headquarters of Exxon Mobil Corporation is in Texas, Irvin. The corporation sells products all over the globe under the trade names of Esso, Mobil, and Exxon. In addition, the company owns a number of businesses, for example, SeaRiver Maritime, an oil shipping corporation, and Imperial Oil Limited, located in Canada. It owns 69.6% of the Imperial Oil Limited. The upstream division of Exxon Mobil Corporation leads the corporation’s cash flow. It contributes almost 70% of returns. The Exxon Mobil Corporation’s corporate citizen report in 2006 indicated the company offers 82,000 employment opportunities all ove r the world (Vassiliou 62). The report also asserts that 27,000 workers are located in the company’s Houston upstream headquarters and almost 4,000 workers are in the company’s Fairfax downstream headquarters. Exxon Mobil Corporation is structured functionally into several functioning sections. These sections are subdivided into three groupings. Nonetheless, Exxon Mobil Corporation has a number of supplementary sections, for example, Coal and Minerals, which are separated from the main divisions. The upstream division is located in Houston, Texas. It is concerned with wholesale operations, shipping, oil exploration, and extraction. The downstream division is located in Fairfax, Virginia and is concerned with retail operations, refining, and marketing (Vassiliou 64). Also, the downstream division comprises SeaRiver Maritime, International Marine Transportation, ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company, and Engineering Company ExxonMobil Research, and ExxonMobil Fuels, Lub ricants and Specialties Marketing Company. In addition, the chemical division is found in Texas. Exxon Corporation’s chief executive officer had a meeting with Mobil Corporation’s chief executive officer in 1998. Both these chief executive officers had initial talks of the probability of a merger between the two corporations. Later on, management proceeded with negotiations and gave the board the results of the discussions. In 1998, the chief

Advertising Victorias Secret Essay Example for Free

Advertising Victorias Secret Essay Victorias Secret is a retail seller of womens clothing and beauty goods, but is most familiar as a dealer of lingerie. Victorias Secret had retailing of more than US$ 2.6 billion through their over 900 retail stores in the U.S. in 2005. In Joseph Jaffes Life After the 30-Second Spot,† he looks at how the mode that most companies and organizations believe is the best way to get their point crosswise to customers and projection television advertisements. It is significant to note that its not that the ads arent imaginative, inventive, or are not talking the verbal communication of the spectator no less than for the most part that has sourced the need for a life after this type of marketing, its the empowerment of all of us in the marketplace, letting the people call the shots for maybe the first time in a long, long while. Victorias Secret was six money losing lingerie stores and a successful catalog when Wexner bought the company in 1982. It was a business aimed at making men comfortable buying lingerie. But what Wexner saw was an essential appeal to women. From its inception, Victorias Secrets telephone operators were trained to be soothingly supportive when embarrassed males called. You dont know your ladys bra size? No problem. Do you know where she keeps them? Okay, look on the edge of the strap and it will tell you the size. Today almost exclusively women for women who are mainly buying to please themselves run Victoria’s Secret. Doing only $7 million when Wexner bought it, the business grossed nearly $1.8 billion in 2003, two-thirds from the stores. Wexner was at his best, grasping the potential of Victorias Secret and then realizing that potential. He created stores that enhanced a mood: pretty but not overtly sexy, with satin nightgowns hung on the walls, a color-coordinated spread of undergarments on tables and plenty of room to mill about on thick carpeting. Thus coddled, the Victorias Secret customer buys eight to ten bras a year; the typical American woman buys two. Weve made women consider the bra and panty part of their fashion wardrobe, says Grace Nichols, 48, chief executive of Victorias Secret stores. A woman buys an aqua satin bra from Victorias Secret in the same way she buys a new lipstick color, to cheer up, to feel better or to indulge herself. Narcissism is real, says Wexner. Its the key to the business. The stores and catalog arc now run separately and carry mostly different goods, with only about 5% overlap. But they reinforce each other. FORBES estimates between 200 million and 240 million catalogs are mailed to 10 million peoplewith some getting as many as 45 catalogs a year. As much as generating mail-order and 800-number business, the catalogs stimulate women to visit the stores. Were in the customers face on a regular basis, Nichols says. She has plans to go from 600 Victorias Secret stores to as many as 1,000 stores, adding 50 a year, even without expanding abroad. Six years ago Victorias Secret introduced a line of scented bath gels, soaps and lotions. These products are indulgence-oriented, so we saw a great emotional marriage between the two products, says Nichols. The line now constitutes $180 million in revenues and 15% of sales, with better than 50% gross margins. Not rock music but Vivaldi and Beethoven pour softly from the loud-speakers in Victorias Secret stores. Customers started requesting tapes and CDs. Why not? Since 1989 the stores have sold more than 10 million tapes and CDs, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra for the Victorias Secret label. Cynthia Fedus, chief executive of the catalog operation since 1988, also made major changes. Out went the steamy shots of scantily dad males and females grappling, ogling or embracing each other that were common under her male predecessor. In came a mannered, aristocratic look with British affectations. Though headquartered in New York, the catalog first listed a London address on the cover. But when people started showing up at that address, an administrative office, it was dropped. The catalog still states a price in pounds. It became aspirational, with older models posing in rich-looking, lovely settings, she says. Sales doubled her first year, to more than $100 million. Fedus also added to the lingerie a line of sportswear and evening wear, which has become 60% of sales. A supplemental swimwear issue debuted, bringing in $12 million in sales. There followed a country issue with rustic clothing and Timberland shoes. Leslie Wexner has always understood that retailing and show business are first cousins. Victorias Secret has become a powerful mainstream retailing brand image. Why. Those with a taste for pop psychology speculate that professional women, denied highly feminine clothes at the office, want to wear ultra-feminine garments underneath. Such talk bores pragmatic Nichols. I could tell you any bullshit you want to hear, she snaps, but youll find the [lingerie] category hasnt grown; weve just grabbed market share. Victorias Secret has aided; perchance more than any other product attract notice to the lingerie industry. Their advertising operations, together with the Victorias Secret Lingerie Catalog and Victorias Secret Fashion Show are visually attractive and contentious. The notice received by Victorias Secret for their violent advertising campaigns has produced invaluable rumor and media bytes to further augment the Victorias Secret brand. References Joseph Jaffe, 2005, Life After the 30-Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional, Publisher: John Wiley ; Sons Inc

Marion Pritchard :: essays research papers

MARION PRITCHARD Marion Pritchard was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1920. Her father was a judge who treated her with love, respect and caring. Her mother lived in Britain. Marion would visit her mother who resided there. Marion watched the German invasion on May 10, 1940, and as anti-Semitic laws were passed, she told her Jewish friends to escape or to hide. Her father was not Jewish; however, he was disappointed that the Dutch government did not do more to help Jewish refugees. As Hitler rose to power she watched many children being thrown into trucks which encouraged her assist in the rescue effort. Marion remembered two soldiers joking about picking up small children by the arms, legs, and hair, and tossing them around. In 1942 she took in the Polak family and hid them in a tiny space under her living room. Her friends would give her milk and other healthy foods to feed the Jews. One night a Dutch police officer acting for the Nazi regime knocked on her door very early in the morning. A neighbor had reported that she was hiding a Jewish family. She knew she would be sent to a concentration camp along with the Polak family if they were found. Marion believed that it was either the officer or the children, and so she shot the officer. Afterwards, a gay Jew ballet teacher took the dead body out of Marion’s house at night and took it in a cart to the undertaker. The undertaker put the officer’s body in a coffin which was soon to be buried. Marion was lucky that the police officer was not missed. She hid over 150 people from the Nazis but some Jews were found and killed. The Nazi army murdered about 110,000 of the Netherlands’ 140,000 Jewish citizens. After the war was over the Polaks came out of hiding. The mother who had been separated from the Polak family was reunited with them. Marion decided to work for the United Nations relief and Rehabilitation Administration’s Displaced Persons camps to find her Jewish friends.

Art as Nazi Propaganda

Abby Hutt HUM 324 1 December 2008 Art as Propaganda in Nazi Germany Having been an artist himself, Hitler understood the potential power of imagery in moving the masses. â€Å"We shall discover and encourage the artists who are able to impress upon the State of the German people the cultural stamp of the Germanic race . . . in their origin and in the picture which they present, they are the expressions of the soul and the ideals of the community† (Hitler, Party Day speech, 1935, qtd. Nazi Approved Art).It is true that, with every culture throughout history, art represents â€Å"the ideals of the community,† but it is clear that during the Third Reich, these â€Å"ideals† were controlled by the Nazi Party. Hitler transformed the role of the artist to promote Germany and glorify the nation and his own ideals. Artists who did not comply with Hitler’s ideals risked their life, and therefore, there is an absence of social realism in German art during this time. The artists of Nazi Germany commonly depicted beautiful pastoral scenes, the heroism of German soldiers, the â€Å"volk† (common folk) as Aryans in peaceful settings, and the evils of the Jewish people.These kinds of stereotypes were useful in art, in that they were extremely simplistic, and therefore easily interpreted by the masses. Even the uneducated, the people who couldn’t read, could view these kinds of paintings and sculptures and understand them, but more importantly, could be moved by them. In the early twentieth century, there were radical changes being made in the art world. Modern movements such as Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Expressionism were not easily understood by the masses. They were not universally appreciated, and in fact, seen as â€Å"elitist† by many, or even â€Å"degenerate† by others.Max Nordau, a physician and social critic, wrote Degeneration, in which he attacks â€Å"degenerate† modern art. â€Å"Such a style of painting may be compared to the disconnected speech of a weak mind, who chatters according to the current of the association of ideas, wanders in his talk, and neither knows himself, what he wishes to arrive at, nor is able to make it clear to us† (Nordau 84). Nordau presents several case studies of artists and writers, his main point being that society is degenerating and that it is both partially caused by and reflected in modern art.Despite being Jewish, and using anti-semitism as an example of degeneration, Nordau’s â€Å"scientific† attack against modern art, and the phrase â€Å"degenerate† was recycled by the German Nationalist Socialists in order to promote their own style of art as propaganda. It is clear that the artists of the Third Reich did not â€Å"wander† in their message, and knew precisely what they wanted to make clear to the public. Hitler expressed his disgust with modern â€Å"degenerate† art, â€Å"As for the degene rate artists, I forbid them to force their so-called experiences upon the public.If they do see fields blue, they are deranged, and should go to an asylum. If they only pretend to see them blue, they are criminals, and should go to prison. I will purge the nation of them† (Hitler, qtd. Gardner 110). This is a perfect example of the way in which Hitler adjusted the intellectual level of his message in order to appeal to the masses. Yourman identifies one of the major propaganda techniques of the Nazi party as â€Å"name-calling. † â€Å"’Name calling’ is a device to make us form a judgement without examining the evidence on which it should be based. Here, the propagandist appeals to our hate and fear† (Yourman 149).Hitler calls modern artists deranged, degenerate, criminals. It seems that, during this time, modern art was not widely understood by the public, and it is for this reason that Hitler was easily able to persuade the masses into both fearin g and hating this type of art, as well as accepting the more realistic and simplistic Nazi propaganda. In September of 1933, Reichskulturkammer (Reich Culture Chamber) was established. Within the chamber, subgroups were established for music, film, literature, and visual arts, consisting of racially pure artists who would promote the Third Reich.In 1937, the Haus der Kunst (â€Å"House of Art†) was erected by the Third Reich, in order to showcase the finest German art approved by the Third Reich. It was to hold two annual juried art shows, called â€Å"The Great German Art Exhibition† and â€Å"The German Architecture and Crafts Exhibiton. † July 16th was declared the â€Å"Day of German Art,† an annual holiday to coincide with the exhibitions (Kasher 53). At the opening of the Huas der Kunst, Hitler gave a speech in which he declared, â€Å"†¦the artist does not produce for the artist, he produces for the people, just as everybody else does! And we are going to take care that it will be the people who from ow on will again be called upon as judges over its art†¦. For an art that cannot count on the most joyful and most heartfelt assent of the healthy, broad masses of the people, but relies on small, partly interested, partly disingenuous cliques, is intolerable† (Hitler, qtd. Werckmeister 337) Again, Hitler was appealing to the masses by portraying Nazi propaganda as the art of the people. He convinces them that they are the true judges of art, instead of the â€Å"elitist† modern artists. The Reich Culture Chamber held a Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich at the same time as The Great German Art Exhibition.After seizing about 17,000 works of art from German museums, they displayed about 600 of them in their famous in the exhibition. â€Å"Exhibition organizers surrounded the paintings and sculpture with mocking graffiti and quotations from Hitler's speeches, designed to inflame public opinion against this â€Å"decadent† avant-garde art. Ironically, the exhibition attracted five times as many visitors (36,000 on one Sunday alone) as the equally large â€Å"Great German Art Exhibition† of Nazi-approved art that opened in Munich at the same time† (Philadelphia Museum of Art).Arno Breker was â€Å"the official state sculptor† of the Third Reich. He had studied sculpture in Paris and Berlin, and he was discovered by the Nazi Party, when his sculpture Decathlete came in second in the sculpture competition for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. After being appointed by Hitler as official state sculptor, he was given a studio and assistants. The majority of Breker’s works consist of muscular male nudes that were meant to symbolize a nation young, natural, healthy, and moral†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Kasher 10). One of Breker’s most famous works is Die Partei, a statue meant to represent the spirit of the Nazi party.Heinrich Hoffman was considered the leading Nazi ph otographer. He was a friend of Hitler’s and he documented the rise of the Nazi party. He was eventually appointed by Hitler as a national photojournalist, with the â€Å"exclusive right to issue photographs of Hitler† (Kasher 17). He ran his own business, hired other photographers, published several photobooks glorifying the Nazi party, and distributed photographs to the press, which did the same. One of the most successful forms of Nazi propaganda, however, seemed to be the Nazi Party posers, which exhibited â€Å"volkisch† thought, appealing to the â€Å"common people. Hitler was shown in posters, as somewhat of a mystical figure, guiding the destiny of the people of Germany. â€Å"The essentially negative anti-parliamentarianism of Nazi propaganda led to the projection of the ‘Fuhrer-myth', which depicted Hitler as both charismatic superman and man of the people† (Welch). Many paintings and posters portrayed Hitler in the ‘renaissance pose ', with one knee up, with the slogan â€Å"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer† (â€Å"One People, One Nation, One Leader†).Beginning in the late 1930s, the tone of Nazi propaganda reflected the increasingly radical view of anti-semitism. â€Å"The Jewish stereotypes shown in such propaganda served to reinforce anxieties about modern developments in political and economic life, without bothering to question the reality of the Jewish role in German society† (Welch). The transition from the popularity of avant-garde visual arts in Germany to the art of the Third Reich, is somewhat symbolic of the entire manner in which Hitler gained control over Germany.His words from Mein Kampf foreshadow this, â€Å"The greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be† (Hitler, qtd. Asheville 464). Hitler understood the power of imagery in persuading the German people, especially the uneducated. The uneducated could understand the simplistic style and subject matter of the art of the Third Reich. The Nazi Party played off of the fears of the German people, which was why the demoralization of modern art and the glorification of the Nazi Party was so successful in Nazi Germany.Works Cited â€Å"Degenerate Art. † Philadelphia Museum of Art. 2008. . Forster, E. M. Commonplace Book. Standford: Stanford University Press, 1985. Heskett, John. â€Å"Art and Design in Nazi Germany. † History Workshop, No. 6 (1978), pp. 139-153. Oxford University Press Stable. Ramsey Library University of North Carolina. (Nov. 26, 2008) . Kasher, Steven. â€Å"The Art of Hitler. † October, Vol. 59, (Winter, 1992), pp. 48-85. The MIT Press. Ramsey Library University of North Carolina. (Nov. 26 2008) . Nordau, Max. Degeneration. New York City: D.Appleton and Company, 1895. Welch, David. â€Å"Nazi Propaganda. † World War II. BBC. . Werckmeister, O. K. â€Å"‘Degenerate Art': The Fate of the Avant-Ga rde in Nazi Germany. † The Art Bulletin 79. n2 (June 1997): 337(5). Academic OneFile. Gale. Univ of North Carolina Asheville. 26 Nov. 2008. . Yourman, Julius. â€Å"Propaganda Techniques Within Nazi Germany. † Journal of Educational Sociology. Vol. 13, No. 3, Education Under Nazism (Nov. , 1939), pp. 148-163. American Sociological Association. Ramsey Library University of North Carolina. (Nov. 26 2008) .

HIPAA and Information Technology

A â€Å"standardized medical records database† can offer providers promptness in receiving pertinent materials from the patient’s chart. This documentation may entail access to the patient’s medical, family history, contact numbers, and any other relative to notify in case of an emergency. Electronic prescribing, and sharing of reports, test results, and public health alerts with other entities promotes coordination of care. Diagnostics and readings, such as blood pressure, and sugar, are just examples of the data that is immediately available through the â€Å"health information exchange (HIE).Physicians, hospitals, and clinics will enter these facts and figures into â€Å"patient vault,† the central database for the patient. Along with these recordings, patients can leave messages for the physician, and request medication refills. With the convenience of the automated charting format, the doctor, and patient does not have to wait while paper reports are sorted through because of misfiles, disorganized records, poor communication with staff, or typographical errors. The electronic system ensures that records are in chronological order, and that all reports are current, adequately preparing the provider for the appointment.The Detroit Medical Center, which purchased the equipment to convert its paper record format into electronic, as has been developing the process since, has produced some promising statistics. Chief Nursing Officer Patricia Natale, credits the automated application for reducing the length of prolonged admissions, and misjudgments in administering medications through the â€Å"EMR-enabled medication scanning† feature. The hospital’s management team affirms that the electronic filing â€Å"system† has already generated nearly $5 in â€Å"savings† for the facility, and has been upgrading security for â€Å"patients.†This feat is accomplished by effectively supervising imperative acti vities conducted daily, and diminishing the occurrences of prescription inaccuracies by â€Å"75 percent,† as per the current assessments, observes DMC Chief Medical Information Officer Leland Babitch, MD. Findings by The United States Institute of Medicine indicate that hospital blunders are responsible for approximately 100,000 of patient deaths a year. DMC Vice President for Quality and Safety Michelle Schreiber, MD claims that the automated charting format has proven to greatly assist providers with treating patients throughout the day.The HIPAA issues that could arise are as follows. In the article in GreenvilleOnline. com website, â€Å"Growing Medical Identity Theft Puts Patients at Risk,† Osby, (2013) cites a report issued by The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2010). As a concern, health care â€Å"identity theft,† is in competition with the â€Å"other† most prominent national â€Å"identity† crimes, claiming over â€Å"5 million â€Å" victims in the year Osby (2013) apprises. Mark Savage, a senior attorney for Consumers Union, announced that breaking into patient’s â€Å"personal information† via automated databases is a problem that is worsening in the medical office.He recognizes that â€Å"electronic medical records† are capable of offering advantages to the health care industry, and its patrons. However, he adds that quandary lies in the assurance of safeguarding patient’s sensitive materials (2012). Individually identifiable information, such as â€Å"birthdates,† demographics, â€Å"social security,† and contact numbers, provide an abundance of facts which prospective felons find extremely attractive to when attempting to extort funds from â€Å"hospitals, or for other monetary rewards.These illicit activities wreak havoc on the patient, in the form of erroneous invoices, which can compromise â€Å"their credit,† their employment, and even s ubject them to improper â€Å"treatments,† stemming from inaccurate â€Å"medical† documentation (Osby, 2013). The author also alerts that â€Å"security† measures fail to match the demand for electronic records, data sharing, and social media and mobile technology to manage patient data, or the new uses for digital health information.†Stealing is the primary offender in the â€Å"medical† field, impacting over â€Å"500 patients,† trailed only by â€Å"authorized â€Å"disclosure â€Å"to,† or with â€Å"health information,† and staff oversights, and misplacing automated, or â€Å"paper† files (The Department Health and Human Services, 2010) GreenvilleOnline interviewed Chad Lawson, a spokesman for â€Å"Spartanburg Regional,† (where an information security council was comprised in 2012, to guarantee that regulations put in place to shield â€Å"patient information are† resilient, and dependable).During t his conversation, Lawson advised that â€Å"as technology grows and changes and becomes even more vital to the continuing development of improved quality, we must promise that our efforts to keep information safe are adaptable to the fast growth of electronic medical records and other portals for speed and efficiency in patient care† (2012).I believe technology in the medical records management industry is so far behind other industries primarily because of affordability, and that the perception of cost can outweigh the value. Although the president has allocated nearly â€Å"$3 million Medicare/Medicaid bonuses† to various health care establishments, including â€Å"clinics,† and hospitals,† to aid in the transition, the expense of purchasing, and operations still hinder progress.Despite the positive reviews from current customers of the electronic system, less than â€Å"4 percent† of facilities have followed through with conversion, having alread y limiting funding of many IT projects, The University of Michigan School Of Medicine reported. A quarter of American â€Å"hospitals,† â€Å"already† fiscally impaired by the down-spiraling economy, have upgraded only partially to automated â€Å"records,† or have remained with paper. Healthcare reform in general has been a political â€Å"hotbed† of controversy throughout several presidencies.The nation’s failing economy, rising unemployment, terrorism, natural disasters are already on the forefront of many debates. The fiscal budget â€Å"puts the squeeze† on any other programs, particularly those which would most likely require enormous funding to proceed. I am of the opinion that these are some of the reasons that the push to incorporate a universal electronic records format has been delayed, and still continues lagging behind other industries.

Poverty is not a choice essays

Poverty is not a choice essays Recently, I had read an article in The New City newspaper entitled, Poverty is really a matter of choice. I found the article to be quite deceptive. Actually, I was dazed at the editors justification concerning that poverty was a matter of choice. Solomon, in his brief anecdotes about his poor deprived friends was in fact, far from living in poverty. Also, in his next argument using the U.S and Canadas statistics, were found by me to be misleading to the reader. One last thing I would like to mention is on his statement that, Lifestyle choices dictate income levels, not the other way around. But we dont choose to be poor. Solomons explanations on choosing to live in poverty were very ludicrous and very unconvincing. His antidotes and statistics didnt help in convincing, but did a great job of trying to mislead the reader. We human beings, without a doubt, make decisions to our advantage, and never the other way around. So why would we want choose to live a life of poverty w hen we can live a pleasant life of wealth? Since I do not agree with Solomons theory, I would not believe that people would choose to live in poverty. Rather, I believe that poverty is in some way controlled by the persons living environment, education, or maybe perhaps its in their genes ever since the day they were born. Hillary, a hotel chambermaid, was described as middle aged woman living in poverty, in the opinion of editor Solomon. Hillary is a woman who desires a life of simplicity, although not earning much as a chambermaid; she does live a stable and enjoyable life in one of British Columbias picture book valleys. She may not have money for restaurants and VCRs. But despite of those facts, she is not living in poverty. The correct definition of someone living in poverty would be that one does not have enough money for their basic necessitie...

Three Fairly New British Language References

Three Fairly New British Language References Three Fairly New British Language References Three Fairly New British Language References By Maeve Maddox Motivated by the lively debates about where to put commas, and the controversy over â€Å"gone missing,† I’ve added some up-to-date British references to my print reference library. The three newcomers to my shelves are: Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar by R. L. Trask, 2000. As the title implies, this guide arranges topics and terms in alphabetical order. It includes every permutation of terminology from the traditional ones I grew up with to the innovations born of transformational grammar and Quirk Grammar. Here one can find definitions of subject raising, subjuncts, adjuncts and conjuncts, along with more immediately useful terms as double negative, paradigm, relative pronoun and usage. A lot of the terms are, however, a bit esoteric. While it’s a great resource for me in my line of work, there’s probably nothing here you can’t find online at OWL or any of the other free references mentioned in Online Style Guides. Penguin Guide to Punctuation by R. L. Trask, 1997. Trask does more than present rules and made-up textbook examples. His personality comes through as he discusses badly punctuated passages, often speculating as to why certain errors are made. It’s extremely readable, whatever page you open to. Of the ten chapters, seven deal with specific punctuation marks: 2: The Full Stop, the Question Mark and the Exclamation Mark 3: The Comma 4: The Colon and the Semicolon 5: The Apostrophe 6: The Hyphen and the Dash 7 Capital Letters and Abbreviations 8 Quotation Marks Chapter 1 explains the practical importance of punctuation. Chapter 7 gives rules for capitalizing and abbreviating. Chapter 9 deals with typographical considerations and Chapter 10 discusses the punctuation of essays and letters. I’m still in the process of getting acquainted with it, but this punctuation guide promises to be a treasure. Having British usage all in one place will be a great help as I write future posts. Penguin Writer’s Manual by Martin H. Manser and Stephen Curtis, 2002. As might be expected, there’s some overlap with the other two books. This one book has everything a writer needs in a basic reference. Part One deals with the mechanics of writing: 1 Grammar 2 Usage 3 Vocabulary 4 Spelling 5 Punctuation 6 Abbreviations. Part Two gets into the specifics of style, revision, and types of writing. There’s also a generous glossary of grammatical terms. In case youre wondering: Quirk grammars: A series of grammars of English written by Randolph Quirk and his colleagues. Though rather traditional in orientation, these grammars are informed by contemporary linguistic research. They introduce a certain amount of novel terminology. 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 Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"75 Synonyms for â€Å"Talk†How to Style Titles of Print and Online Publications