A Knight’s Tale Essay

One important character in the film ‘A knight’s tale’ directed by Brian Helgeland is William Thatcher. William helped me understand the idea of following your dreams. William dreams of one day becoming a knight. He grew up in a place called Cheapside London with his father John Thatcher until he was sent away to work for Sir Ector. Sir Ector said that he had a spirit. When Sir Ector died, William thought that he could ‘change his stars’ at that point so he jousted in his place. He then decided that with some training he could win money to feed all his friends. As he did this he followed his dream of becoming a Knight. One Visual technique used to help me see that William is important is ‘close up’. Brian uses a close up in the first joust when William says ‘I have waited my whole life for this moment’. This shows me that he has followed his dreams and he is doing what he has wanted to do his whole life. Another technique used in this film is lighting. This technique is effective to show he is an important character because he is never in the shadows. William is always dressed in light clothing and has fair hair giving the impression that he was a good person, unlike Adhemar who always wore darker clothes and was more in the shadows than William. An example of this is when William was in the jail room and Adhemar walked in, William was standing in the only light in the room and Adhemar was in the shadows. In conclusion, the character of William Thatcher was important because he teaches us to follow our dreams no matter how big they are and that anything is possible. The techniques that helped me to understand this idea were ‘lighting’ and ‘close up’s’. A Knights Tale Essay In the movie A Knights Tale the main character William Thatcher has dreamed of being a Knight ever sense he was a boy. The one overlying problem this tale is that â€Å"A man can’t change his stars†, other wise saying that William was not born of noble birth. This story takes place in the middle ages where to compete in jousting tournaments you had to be born of noble birth. William overcomes this with his hard work, his loyalty and perseverance. In the beginning of the movie, William is only a squire to a Knight. He helps tend to Sir Olrick Vonlictensteins needs and wants. But soon he dies and with no other way to get money decides that he should step up and joust for him under his name. William ends up winning his joust and gets the gold needed for him and the other squires. After the first win he convinces his squires that they could keep doing this at other tournaments to make money for themselves. So after a long debate and a little fighting they decide to help train William. There is a scene in the movie that shows them all working together to help train William to become a better knight. This shows his hard working ethic because even though what they are doing is quite trying, he still manages to pull through and become sucsessful. After they have won they’ve first tournament William had damaged his armor in the joust. As they make it to the next joust they don’t have enough money to fix his armor so he has to joust with his damaged armor on. Even though his arms are almost immoveable because of the damage he still takes the risk to joust so that he can win more gold for them to get new armor made. This shows his willingness to work harder to make the money he needs to fix his armor. Near the end of the movie in his last joust he is against his enemy, Count Adimar. Count Adimar was using pointed lances and ends up wounding William by showing a pointed lance deep in his shoulder. But through his hard work he choose to take all of his armor off and joust, putting himself at great risk. But in the end he ends up knocking Count Adimar off of his horse and winning the joust. William showed his perserveence when he was following his dream of becoming a knight. When his Knight died at the beginning of the movie he ricked everything when he stepped in as a knight. If he were to get caught he would have suffered great consequences. By doing this I believe he showed his perseverance to purse his dreams. William shows his perseverance when, even after he is injured while jousting he chooses to take off all of his armor to joust even though it is a great risk to himself. This shows that William is persevering because he takes the risk of injuring or killing himself to defeat Count Adimar and achieve his dream. He is also persevering when, as a young boy his father sent him away to be a squire. Even sense William was a boy he was working towards becoming a knight by getting as close to the lifestyle as he could. Throughout the movie William shows a lot of loyalty to him men. This helped him to achieve his dream very much so. When Jeff, his announcer and the man who helped him forge documents to make him appear to be of noble birth, gambles and looses, William had to pay to get him free. If it were not for William and his loyalty to him men he would have been stripped of his clothes, beaten and been paraded around the village, but William pays his debt for him to get him free. He also showed his loyalty when his girlfriend tells him that in order for him to prove his love for her she must loose the joust. So he takes a brutal beating for her by deliberately loosing and hurting himself in the process. But then after she has seen enough, she tells him that if he really did love her than he would win all of his tournaments. So even after he had fallen so far behind for her in the tournament he strives to win for her and ends up doing so. This proves his loyalty to her because he is willing to even endanger himself for her. His loyalty is also shown when the Prince of Wales is jousting and everyone else is withdrawing because he is of royal blood and is technically not allowed to joust in tournaments, but William still jousts him because he realizes they are both in the same boat. They both want to be jousting, but they are both now allowed to do so according to their birthrights. In the end of the movie, after everyone finds out about William, knowing that he isn’t born of noble birth he is cast out and let out to be stoned. The Prince of Wales Knights him because of his loyalty. He says, â€Å"even if I were not to have known you well, I could tell you were a good men because of how loyal your friends are to you. But I would know better now wouldn’t I? Because even when you knew who I was you still jousted with me and that is knightly too†. In the end William ends up changing his stars and becomes the knight he has always wanted to be. In this movie point of view played a great roll. If we wouldn’t have had the â€Å"flashbacks† of William and his childhood we wouldn’t have know the depth of his want to be a knight. We also wouldn’t have known that his father has sent him off as a boy to become a squire, which also helped in leading him to his dream of becoming a knight. If we didn’t have the various points of view that a movie can deliver to us this movie would have been flat and would have lost some of its meaning. The point of view gives this movie depth. A Knights Tale Essay Describe a character or individual in the text whom you found interesting. Explain how the director used oral/or visual features to make the character or individual interesting to you. An interesting character or individual in the film A Knights Tale (2001) directed by Brian Helgeland is (Sir) William Thatcher. William is interesting because he is not a typical peasant, he has much more drive and ambition than normal peasants. Helgeland uses oral and visual features to support the points that make William interesting. He uses lots of close-ups and high-angle shots when needed to show Williams enthusiasm and leadership towards what he does. First, William is interesting because he is a brave character and is motivated by ambition. William first starts to bravery when Sir Ector dies, he declares â€Å"I’ll ride in his place.† When the director has a close-up on Williams face, he shows the determination and drive that William feels. It is his desire to rise above is position in the social status, he makes his decision, â€Å"We are the champions†. Helgeland choses this dialogue to show that William is different from most peasants and that makes him an individual. Another interesting part about Williams’s character is that for most of the film he is someone who he is not, ‘Sir Ector and Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein’. This brings tension into the audience. The audience thinks when will his true identity be revealed? When William shows up to the jousting match as Sir Ulrich, the spectators of the match think of him as anybody. But through on the matches, he turns into a celebrity. William was unbeatable in the sport of jousting. It was difficult for William to hide the fact that his real name was not Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein. Finally, William’s tone and oral features are strong, powerful and brave for a peasant. He is straight up with what he says and is a good leader to others. Helgeland uses great visual techniques for William, in the beginning of the film William is an untidy, poor, unshaved, immature, he had dread locked hair and dirty clothes. In the middle of the film, he is cleaner he is more clean and tidy; he is properly shaved, strong, healthy, excited, calm, supportive and enthusiastic person. His looks change, his attitude changes and he becomes a little responsible. In conclusion, William is an interesting, enthusiastic and brave guy, he is also a great leader. He is motivated by ambition. Is also unbeatable in the sport of jousting. Helgeland uses oral and visual features to support the points that make William interesting. William is a role model for the people in society today.

What is positivism

Positivism Is a well established philosophy wealth the natural sciences. In the early nineteenth century It became an integral aspect of social science methodology. In Bacon tradition, positivism is the precise and objective observation of an object from a scientifically detached position. Though its definition is broad, there are fundamentally six assumptions in positivistic philosophy and three distinct generations that negotiate with these assumptions. Naturalism; positivists are committed to the implication of the natural scientific teeth in social science.The natural scientific method creates a ‘closed system' in which a limited number of discrete variables are identified, influences are excluded, cause and effect Is established, and excellently law or authoritative knowledge Is constructed. No acknowledgement of open systems as a feature of both natural and social science Is made. Phenomenal; only knowledge gained from physical experience Is considered valid. Otherwise It Is metaphysical and meaningless. If It cannot be subject to empirical tests and corroborated, it does not exist. Happiness, for example, by this criterion, is meaningless.Nominal; again concepts must be rooted in physical actuality. Words are mere reflections of things, semantics are dismissed. Scientific concepts are regarded as true reflections of the world instead. Atomics; attempts definition of discrete irreducible objects. An individual would by this criterion, be the smallest unit of society. 19th century utilitarian maxim ‘greater good for greater number' placed special emphasis on this assumption. Scientific laws; a sequence of regularities in objects are sought and named a constant conjunction of events.A general statement Is then devised citing one variable as the cause, the other as the effect. E. G. : Ill health as the cause for poverty. The problematic, Internal structure of these objects Is not examined. Universal law Is established. Facts and Values: facts onl y are scientific, distinct then from subjective and relative values which cannot be verified by empirical measurement. The first generation of positivists, in response to European chaos, devised a confident Sino of knowledge as human made, not divine construction and so open to critical enquiry.Augusta Comet directed early positivist thought in the social sciences. He made a naturalist assumption that through social physics, social cohesion could be attained which would then lead to civic harmony. With positivist philosophy intent, he meant to serve the needs of humanity through objective intellectual enquiry. Comet believed that all knowledge could be reconstructed and a better world created. Human reason could subject social phenomena to natural laws and achieve regress. The method of Induction I. E. He construction of knowledge through the collection of empirical evidence from observed regular instances, would play a early positivistic claim to objective knowledge was very ambiti ous and modified by the next generation of logical positivists. Prominent in the Vienna Circle, these philosophers placed greater emphasis on the sensory world as automatically composed of separate irreducible objects. Conscious of previous translation of value into fact and failure to separate theories from observation they had a more acute awareness of language and its tendency to, even in simple statements, have normative assumptions.Logical positivists were careful to make distinctions between statements. Two connected types were identified: analytic and synthetic. An analytic statement such as ‘all bachelors are unmarried' is a tautological truth whereas the synthetic there are more bachelors in London than anywhere else' tells us something about the world. It can be empirically tested and refuted. Logical positivists' favoring of the induction method, with its assumption of rabbles' passivity posed a difficulty for the next generation of philosophers, the standard positi vists.Nominal was the prominent assumption for this school of thought. Hempen, acknowledging the role of meaning, championed the idea of deduction over induction. Deduction involves abstract reasoning. It sees thought processes, not a general law as initial in devising empirical research. These positivists see empirical regularity as sufficient in creating a causal law. They see symmetry in explanation and prediction. These causal laws can be empirically tested and verified. Popper on the other hand saw verification as leading to stagnation.In mid 20th century he proposed instead the idea of falsification which encourages systematic skepticism of all knowledge claims. Moving away from induction's ‘common sense' science, Popper begins with an assumption of uncertainty. Truth to Popper is a matter of degree, of verisimilitude, not an absolute. Popper shifts the demarcation criteria of science and non-science. He adopts naturalism but challenges the logical positivist view of the meta-physical as meaningless. To Popper, there is no true or false, but testability.He held that a search for truth was a search for the end of knowledge, which was contrary to his view of knowledge as continual. He saw the practice of refuting evidence as integral to progress. Popper understood research's vulnerability to false claims, the complexity of the fact/ value distinction. Our awareness of the power of social construction over our perceptions is more astute these days but it is imperative that we situate ourselves and know that we are as shaped by context as ever.

Administration management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Administration management - Essay Example Brendan Murphy has a list of requirements, which he wants us to finish. The total budget for the project is US $60,000. The plan is to fit the scope and the schedule of the work. 2. Scope The scope of the project is to conduct two major tasks, to landscape the garden, and to fence. Apart from the core objectives, there are other tasks involved in the project such as installing electric lines and construction fishponds. The water pipes also have to be fitted in order to provide constant supply of water through all the seasons. All the tasks and processes that the company can garden have to fit within the budget of US $ 60,000. 3. Change Management Process Change management process is a very critical factor to consider because once the changes are executed, some of them are irreversible. The change management process considers the present condition of the garden and the expected results after its completion. This requires engagement of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy in a detailed interview. The i nformation they provide will be the guideline for the scope of the project. During the review of the change process, there will be need to assess the inherent risks involved and how to mitigate the risks before the change initiative can begin. If certain processes are attached to high-risk activities, then, there will be need to decline the processes and seek alternative actions (Chudley & Greeno, 2008). 4. Change Request After the interview and the risk assessment process, our company presents the request for change to our client with a summary of all the factors to consider and the expected results. As we do the request, we are mindful of the presence of our competitors who may present lower cost bids. Upon approval of the change request, we proceed to prepare the work schedule for the project (Diaz, 2013). It clear from the problem definition, that not all aspects of the garden need a change. Chang request feasibility has to be determined, and only when the change request feasibi lity has been ascertained can it move to the implementation of the activity schedule (McIntyre & Strischek, 2005). Similarly, there are areas that are completely new, including the fishpond project. The desire of our company is to encounter changes that can add value without necessarily having to attract legal challenges. The complete work schedule 5. Risk Management Risk assessment and control procedure will be required to consider the effects of these tasks on the environment and third party entities. Some of the risks to assess in this plan include: Legal Risks The processes have to be documented in a standard that complies with the regulations and policies of the government (Wood, 2012). For example, the fencing plan must coincide with the map from the government authorities in charge of planning. This is in observation that violation of legal regulations has heavy penalties. Risks of Insecurity The fencing of the garden is based on the survey of the environmental security. If t he risk is highly rated, then the control of having stronger fencing will be necessary. Additionally, there will be need to install live electric fence, and to employ security guards. Weather Changes The possibility of rainfall shortage is critical risk to the projects in the garden. The management for this is the plan for irrigation through the water pipe connections. 6. Communication The infrastructure in this environment has to support communication between the workers in the garden and between the owners and external service providers. Transport network will also be a vital factor to consider in this project (Chudley & Greeno,

Child Behavior and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Child Behavior and Development - Essay Example He was able to distinguish between a â€Å"cookie† and a â€Å"cake†. The child had asked for a cookie and his brother gave him a cake instead which he refused and insisted he gets a cookie. The child displayed his language and communication ability by answering all the people around him. Kyle was rather a sweet child who got along better with older children and adults. He always wanted to be the center of attraction while he bossed and gave instructions to his older brother and sister. He was a rather friendly kid as he laughed and joked pulling at his brother’s coat and ran around the table as he sat on each one's lap. He seemed to be an egocentric kid as he was always trying to grab the attention of others. According to Erickson, a child’s psycho-social behavior can be judged by observing how well he interacts with people in his environment. He displayed an emotional attachment as he went in search of his grandfather and when he missed his mother he called out, â€Å"Mommy where are you?† I found Kyle to be a healthy kid who was very active and strong. He had excellent motor skills as he tried to hop, jump, twist and run around the whole place. He banged several times on the glass table and laughed louder as he banged harder. While sitting at the table he tried pushing it using both his feet. His brother assisted him to drink from a juice box, but he pulled it from him and began drinking it by himself. According to Piaget’s theory, a child uses his five senses when interacting with people and things in his environment. This is very true in Kyle’s case as he used his senses to interpret and deal with things around him. The child was a keen observer while playing at the sand table. He watched all the others around him and even answered his teacher while she asked him a few questions. He was capable of recognizing which object to use for scooping up the sand.

Choose one of the 5 questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Choose one of the 5 questions - Essay Example The purpose of this research paper is to summarize the company’s strategic plan for the next three to five years. In discussing, this document will describe the company’s overall business strategy and IT department strategic plan in ensuring that it align with the business priorities and financial justifications. Further, the researcher will be looking at some of the current strategic issues the company is facing. Business Strategy and Capabilities Medtronic is a global company whose headquarter is located in Minneapolis Minnesota. Historically, the company started developing their facilities in 1967 when the first service center was created in Amsterdam’s Schipohl followed by Kerkrade located in Netherlands. Today, the company has expanded so much that there are facilities all over in the world. It is important to understand how the company has been progressing for the past years and the main challenges that need to be met to achieve their strategic plan. Accord ing to Medtronic, Inc, for the past five years, the company has shown a remarkable growth in sales and revenue (Ford, 2013 B). Despite the noted progress, the company has identified a number of challenges that needed to be solved. ... In this case, the IT cost drivers should be considered when establishing the company’s strategies and objectives as discussed in the following section. Establishing Priorities Studies show that, Medtronic IT department provides the company with excellent products and services across the globe (Michelson, 2013). To fully succeed in the competitive world, IT departments needs to understand the functional team required and how they can utilize their services to solve the challenges identified. For instance, the IT department needs to develop software that tracks the clinical trial data; the company needs to look into China or India since these countries have a high number of graduates’ students each year who are competent and experienced and they would cost the company one quarter of the salaries they would earn in the United States (DeRosa, 2013). Furthermore, this report makes the following suggestion, for the IT department, as a means of solving their challenges. First, the department needs to create a strong IT team that would support and implement the goals and objectives set by the strategy team. There is a need to have a team that would conduct analysis that would enhance positive growth in the company and ensure that there is a small group of IT staff that facilitate daily activities (Oppenheimer, 2013). The IT standardization would help the Company to lower costs and provide opportunities to innovate new products. Overall, the IT department’s information of the business world would help the company achieve its missions and values. Background Medtronic is headquartered in Minneapolis and was founded in the year 1949. It is an international supplier of

Hitler's Rise to Power Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hitler's Rise to Power - Research Paper Example This loss of focus also made him lose the support of other students, who always elected him in leadership positions and to compensate this, he formed a tendency of creating friendship with younger pupils, whom he could command and influence (Kershaw 18). However, his time in school was limited as he managed to convince his mother at the age of fifteen to quit school instead of repeating, after which he moved to Vienna, at the age of 18, to pursue his career interest, which was in artistic work with the money he had received as his father’s pension, who had died in 1903 when Hitler was 13 years old (Hant 16). This ended up frustrating him as no institution was ready and willing to receive him owing to the fact that he had no academic certificates to prove that he had completed secondary education. Despite being an Austrian, Hitler disliked his country of birth to the extent of refusing to enroll into the military service, which was compulsory for every youth and according to re ports, it took the authorities close to 4 years to track him so he can fulfill his obligations but by then, his poor health could not meet the minimum standards required to join the military. During his early life, Hitler had shown a lot of admiration for Germany and indeed, he held his history teacher, who was a German, and the then German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, with high regard and as some of his role models (Hant 20). The start of the First World War opened a new opportunity for Hitler to enter Germany, his country of choice, after he made a choice to join and fight for the German army instead of the Austro-Hungarian forces, which he despised. This also gave him the chance to prove his worthiness as a fearless fighter, especially in his position as a dispatch-runner, which was one of the most dangerous positions as it involved acquiring and delivering messages from the command center to the forces on the frontline and which earned him the Iron cross rewards in 1924 and 191 8 (Kershaw 45). According to reports, it is during this time of the war that Hitler began his hatred towards the Jews and Marxists, whom he always described as cowards and a liability to German’s quest for victory. However, in 1918 just before Germany conceded defeat, Hitler suffered injuries in a mustard gas attack orchestrated by the British forces after which he was hospitalized in a German military hospital. With the war gone, Hitler suffered from severe cases of depression whereby it is reported that he spent most of his time crying, mostly because he could not accept the fact that Germany had lost the war. In addition, he had no academic papers to help him acquire formal employment and this meant that his future in Germany hanged in the balance and this was definitely more than he could bear (Kershaw 56). As stated earlier, Hitler was an outspoken person and he always made it clear that he was a strong proponent of anti-Semitism, anticommunism and Pan-Germanism (Toland 37). In addition to this, he never believed or subscribed to the school of thought that everyone was equal and as such, he was against any group or organization, which was trying to promote socialism. These qualities attracted the attention of German leaders, who shared the same opinions and they gave

Strategic planning within organizations Dissertation

Strategic planning within organizations - Dissertation Example The paper tells that strategic planning within organizations is one of the most essential aspects of both sustainability and growth. Without the ability to meet the needs of strategic planning, there is the inability to move forward with specific needs and to reach the full potential of the organization. While strategic planning is required for the development of a company, the implementation and the end goals are often not met. The problems which arise are based on the various aspects of the organization and how it associates with the needs of each of the goals. Leadership capacities, communication tools, participation and the ability to reach smaller and larger goals through various initiatives are some of the several areas in which strategic planning is not implemented in the correct manner. This is followed with complexities which arise from the organizational culture and the expectations which are associated with meeting change or resistance to the workforce that is a part of th e organization. Defining the specific problems and understanding why end goals and implementation is not met is then shown as one which identifies levels and dimensions of difficulties that are within the work force. The approach which is taken toward strategic planning and implementation is one which is based on the understanding of taking action within a corporation. Without the correct strategies, there is the inability to provide higher amounts of sustainability and growth within a company. However, there are often problems and difficulties with creating the required changes. This literature review will examine the various aspects of strategic planning and implementation as well as how it alters according to the difficulties which are in the organizational culture. The review will examine the various dimensions that are associated with strategic planning. It will further define the obstacles that do not allow the plans to be implemented at various levels within an organization. There will also be reference to theories which are created to alter the strategic planning so it becomes one that is associated with constructive results with businesses that work in creating new plans within the organization. Dynamics of Strategic Planning There are specific dynamics with strategic planning as well as obstacles which stop the goals from being met. Defining the obstacles is the first step to altering the performance as well as the ability to finalize the strategies into action. According to a current study (Mollaoseini, Ahmadhkhani, 2012), there are diverse obstacles which create the resistance and stop the dynamics of change and strategic development. The study showed that the problem with the final strategy and implementation is inclusive of 68.09% planning consequences, 65.48% organizational obstacles, 60.40% managerial obstacles, 72% staff obstacles and 63.99% environmental obstacles. The indications of this are based on showing that the dynamics within an organ izational structure carry diverse obstacles that create resistance and which lead to a lack of implementation with