Persuasive Essay The Importance of Literacy

Literacy is a skill that is never late to acquire because it is essential for education, employment, belonging to the community, and ability to help one’s children. Those people, who cannot read, are deprived of many opportunities for professional or personal growth. Unwillingness to become literate can be partly explained by lack of resources and sometimes shame; yet, these obstacles can and should be overcome.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Persuasive Essay: The Importance of Literacy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More First, one can say that literacy is crucial for every person who wants to understand the life of a society. It is also essential for ability to critically evaluate the world and other people. In his book, Frederick Douglass describes his experiences of learning to read. Being a slave, he had very few opportunities for education. Moreover, planters were unwilling to teach their sl aves any reading skills because they believed that literacy would lead to free thinking and slaves’ aspirations for freedom (Douglass, 96). Overall, they were quite right in their assumption because literacy gives people access to information, and they understand that they can achieve much more than they have. This can be one of the reasons for learning to read. Yet, literary is essential for many other areas of life, for example, employment. Statistical data show that low-literate adults remain unemployed for approximately six months of the year (Fisher, 211). This problem becomes particularly serious during the time when economy is in the state of recession. It is particularly difficult for such people to retain their jobs especially when businesses try to cut their expenses on workforce. One should take into account that modern companies try to adapt new technologies or tools, and the task of a worker is to adjust to these changes. Thus, literacy and language proficiency a re important for remaining competitive. Furthermore, many companies try to provide training programs to their employees, but participation in such programs is hardly possible with basic reading skills. Thus, these skills enable a person to take advantage of many opportunities. Additionally, one has to remember that without literacy skills people cannot help their children who may struggle with their homework assignments. Moreover, ability to read enables a person to be a part of the community in which he or she lives. In his essay The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, Jonathan Kozol eloquently describes the helplessness of illiterate people. This helplessness manifests itself in a variety of ways; for example, one can mention inability to read medicine prescriptions, contracts, ballot papers, official documents, and so forth (Kozol, unpaged). While speaking about these people, Jonathan Kozol uses the expression â€Å"an uninsured existence† which means that they are unawar e of their rights, and others can easily exploit them (Kozol, unpaged). To a great extent, illiterate individuals can just be treated as second-class citizens.Advertising Looking for critical writing on languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is a danger that people should be aware of. To be an active member of a community, one has to have access to a variety of informational resources, especially, books, official documents, newspapers, printed announcements, and so forth. For illiterate people, these sources are inaccessible, and as a result, they do not know much about the life of a village, town, city, or even a country in which they live. In some cases, adults are unwilling to acquire literacy skills, because they believe that it is too late for them to do it. Again, one has to remember that there should always be time for learning, especially learning to read. Secondly, sometimes people are simply ashamed of ackno wledging that they cannot read. In their opinion, such an acknowledgment will result in their stigmatization. Yet, by acting in such a way, they only further marginalize themselves. Sooner or later they will admit that ability to read is important for them, and it is better to do it sooner. Apart from that, people should remember that there are many education programs throughout the country that are specifically intended for people with low literacy skills (Fisher, 214). Certainly, such programs can and should be improved, but they still remain a chance that illiterate adults should not miss. If these people decide to seek help with this problem, they will be assisted by professional educators who will teach them the reading skills that are considered to be mandatory for an adult person. Although it may seem a far-fetched argument, participation in such programs can open the way to further education. As it has been said by Frederick Douglass learning can be very absorbing and learni ng to read is only the first step that a person may take (Douglass, 96). This is another consideration that one should not overlook. Overall, these examples demonstrate that ability to read can open up many opportunities for adults. Employment, education, and ability to uphold one’s rights are probably the main reasons why people should learn to read. Nonetheless, one should not forget that professional growth and self-development can also be very strong stimuli for acquiring or improving literacy skills. Therefore, people with poor literacy skills should actively seek help in order to have a more fulfilling life. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. â€Å"Learning to Read.† Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Persuasive Essay: The Importance of Literacy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Frederick Douglass. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print. Fisher , Nancy. â€Å"Literacy Education and the Workforce: bridging the gap.† Journal of  Jewish Communal Service 82. 3 (2007): 210-215. Print. Kozol, Jonathan. The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society. Vanderbilt Students of Nonviolence, 2008. Web.https://vandynonviolence.com/ This critical writing on Persuasive Essay: The Importance of Literacy was written and submitted by user Bryant B. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Critical Thinking Application Essays

Critical Thinking Application Essays Critical Thinking Application Essays Critical Thinking Critical thinking is a very important tool to use in any situation that occurs in life, whether it is while you are at home, work, or out with friends and family. By using critical thinking one can have a better understanding of what outcomes certain decisions will have and how to make the best decision. This can definitely benefit everyone in their lives especially when it comes to work decisions. If the goal at work is to advance and work up the corporate ladder then critical thinking is a must. Personal Experience There are several different personal experiences I have had of using critical thinking in the work place and how it still today helps me progress. The one that sticks out in my mind the most is a problem that I was able to solve at my current job. I am now working at MINI of Murray as a Service Advisor and at the moment we have had tremendous growth which has made it so that we are under staffed for all of the work that we need to get done. Do to this the communication with our customers has suffered a bit since many of the service advisors do not feel like they have the time to call all of their customers and let them know what is going on in the shop. This in turn puts out bad surveys on the service advisor which affects their pay. Now when this problem came up for me the first thing I realized was that since I have so much work the most important thing I can do is manage my time properly so that I can fit everything into the day. To do so I wrote down everything that I would need to get done each day and took into account any problems that may arise such as cars not being finished on time. I then came up with the idea of setting up certain times each day that I would touch base with my customers and let them know the status on their cars. Then I started writing down any information that I knew I would have to use several times throughout the day. By doing this I did not have to waste time looking up the information every time I needed it. I then set up a plan on how I would react if a car was not finished on time and how to best approach the customer about it. By fully laying out a plan that I could follow day to day I now save a lot of time not having to decide what should be done next whenever I finish a task. Due to this I am able to get everything that I need done every day finished and can even help other advisors. I am now getting great surveys because I understood that even if when I call the custom at 11 a.m. and tell them that their car has gone into the shop yet they still appreciate the heads up so they know what is going on with their car. This is just a small example of how

Detailed Review of Pricing and R&D Strategy of X5, X6, X7 Research Paper

Detailed Review of Pricing and R&D Strategy of X5, X6, X7 - Research Paper Example In a recent survey, ChangeWave found that out of 3,043 survey respondents from North America, 14% gave positive response to purchase a mobile tablet in the next 3 months (Epstein, 2011). This rise in the consumer adoption of new technology determines the extent of future changes in the pricing and budget allocation for Research and Development (R&D) of its products. Tablet Development is focused on providing high quality and custom designed applications for tablets manufacturers and operating system providers. Its core products are X5, X6 and X7 that have been in the market for the last 6 years. However, there are major drawbacks in the existing price and R&D budget allocation strategies that have undermined the new product development cycle in the organization. 1.1 Aim: The aim of this report is to highlight the drawbacks of the existing pricing and R&D budget allocation strategy on a period of 6 years for the core products of Tablet Development and to recommend an alternative strat egy that should have been adopted to achieve the organizational goals. 1.2 Objectives: To critically review the strategy of pricing and R&D budget allocation for each core product, namely: X5, X6 and X7. ... The customer base also experienced 61% new customers, 94% repeat sales and 103% profitability. However, the R&D costs deteriorated by -33%. In 2011-12, the product X5 experienced 21% increase in its sales and revenue. The customer base experienced only 15% new customers, 72% repeat sales and 12% profit.ability However, the R&D costs remained stable with 0% change from the previous year. In 2012-13, the product X5 observed a severe decline as its sales dropped with a 23% change from the previous year. The customer base also declined by 36% of new customers. The losses increased to 17%. In 2013-14, the sales declined by another 51%, new customers by 81% and profitability by 88%. In 2014-15, the sales declined by 26%, new customers by 100% and profitability by 500%. In the entire life cycle, the product X5 remained at same price of $265 and R&D cost of USD 7,20,000 with nil change. As a result, the product market saturation declined from 84% in 2010 to 3% in 2015. The repeat sales also declined from 94% in 2010 to only 3% in 2015. 2.2 Product X6: In the period 2010-11, the product X6 the price was $420 and experienced a growth of 126% in its overall sales and revenue. The customer base also experienced 124% new customers and 81% profitability. However, the R&D costs deteriorated by -33%. In 2011-12, the product X6 experienced 60% increase in its sales and revenue and 53% increase in total costs. The customer base experienced only 56% new customers and 14% profitability. However, the R&D costs remained stable with 0% change from the previous year. In 2012-13, the product X6 observed a severe low increase as its sales dropped to 3% increase