As an educational tool, Essay (Wikipedia)

In countries like the United States, essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants (see admissions essay). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. During some courses, university students will often be required to complete one or more essays that are prepared over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,^{[citation needed]} mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours.

In these countries, so-called academic essays, which may also be called "papers", are usually more formal than literary ones.^{[citation needed]} They may still allow the presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words)^{[citation needed]} are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review.^{[citation needed]}

Longer essays may also contain an introductory page in which words and phrases from the title are tightly defined. Most academic institutions^{[citation needed]} will require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other porting material used in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention allows others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of the facts and quotations used to support the essay's argument, and thereby help to evaluate to what extent the argument is supported by evidence, and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities.

One essay guide of a US university makes the distinction between research papers and discussion papers. The guide states that a "research paper is intended to uncover a wide variety of sources on a given topic". As such, research papers "tend to be longer and more inclusive in their scope and with the amount of information they deal with." While discussion papers "also include research, ...they tend to be shorter and more selective in their approach...and more analytical and critical". Whereas a research paper would typically quote "a wide variety of sources", a discussion paper aims to integrate the material in a broader fashion.^[5]

One of the challenges facing US universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays which have been purchased from an essay mill (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill" is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud, universities and colleges may investigate papers suspected to be from an essay mill by using Internet plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay#Film

Ensayo y Estructura (Wikipedia)

El ensayo¹ es un tipo de texto que brevemente analiza, interpreta o evalúa un tema de manera oficial o libre. Se considera un género literario, al igual que la poesía, la ficción y el drama.

Las características que debe tener un ensayo son las siguientes:

• Es un escrito serio y fundamentado que sintetiza un tema significativo.
• Posee un carácter preliminar, introductorio, de carácter propedéutico.
• Se expresa en un estilo denso y no se acostumbra la aplicación detallada.

Es un género literario dentro del más general de la didáctica.

Estructura

La estructura del ensayo es sumamente flexible, ya que toda sistematización es ajena a su propósito esencial, que es deleitar mediante la exposición de un punto de vista que no pretende agotar un tema, como sí haría (y sistemáticamente) el género literario meramente expositivo del tratado; por eso estas indicaciones son meramente orientativas.²

Introducción

Es la que expresa el tema y el objetivo del ensayo; explica el contenido y los subtemas o capítulos que abarca, así como los criterios que se aplican en el texto,y abarca más o menos 5 renglones.

Además, esta parte puede presentar el problema que plantea al tema al cual vamos a abocar nuestros conocimientos, reflexiones, lecturas y experiencias.

Desarrollo

Contiene la exposición y análisis del mismo tema, se plantean las ideas propias y se sustentan con información de las fuentes necesarias: libros, revistas, Internet , entrevistas y otras. Constituye el 75% del ensayo. En él va todo el tema desarrollado, utilizando la estructura interna: 50% de síntesis, 15% de resumen y 10% de comentario.

Se sostiene la tesis, ya probada en el contenido, y se profundiza más sobre la misma, ya sea ofreciendo contestaciones sobre algo o dejando preguntas finales que motiven al lector a reflexionar.

Conclusión

En este apartado el autor expresa sus propias ideas sobre el tema, se permite dar algunas sugerencias de solución, cerrar las ideas que se trabajaron en el desarrollo del tema y proponer líneas de análisis para posteriores escritos.

Esta última parte mantiene cierto paralelismo con la introducción por la referencia directa a la tesis del ensayista, con la diferencia de que en la conclusión la tesis debe ser profundizada, a la luz de los planteamientos expuestos en el desarrollo.

Fuente: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensayo

The Power of Baroque Music as Help for Anxiety

Baroque music i.e. music composed during the Baroque era (1600 - 1750) has been shown to have a calming effect on the brain. It is generally the slow movements of such music which has this effect.

It is believed to be it does this because the rhythm is around 60 beats per minute which is similar to a resting heartrate. The brain 'entrains' itself to rhythm. We have all noticed the tendency of our foot to tap when we hear certain types of music. This is the brain buying into the rhythm and going along with it.

We all have brainwaves which move at different frequencies depending what we are doing or thinking. An EEG recording is similar to the more familiar ECG for measuring the heart. With an EEG, however, the electrodes are placed on the head.

This is a painless procedure. The electrodes gives a readout of wiggly lines. These show the frequency of the brainwaves produced in the different areas.

What do the different brainwave frequencies mean?

Brainwaves in a human vary from beta waves (which are upwards of 15 cycles per second) and appear very spiky, through alpha waves, theta waves, and delta waves. 

Most of the time we are awake and participating in everyday life we have beta waves.

When we are deeply asleep we have a high percentage of delta waves which are like a gently rolling ocean.

So as we fall asleep our brainwaves gradually slow through all the stages to delta. Then they move back up again as we wake.

When we dream we are usually in theta and then if this is just one dream period we then go deeper again. There is a diagram of this on the page that explains nightmares.

Alpha waves are the daytime magic ones, when we are awake.

It is during alpha that we can access our unconscious thoughts. During hypnosis the client goes into the alpha state so that their issues may be accessed without the thinking and rationalising part of the brain getting in the way.

It is thought that it is during our dreams when we sleep that we resolve issues of the day and that is done during theta.

How do we know all this?

Research in Bulgaria have found that slow Baroque music entrains the brain into alpha waves. Studies have been done whereby such music, when played in the background during lessons in junior school classrooms, has a calming effect and enables children to concentrate on their lesson far better.

I have sometimes given patients suffering from PTSD or other severe anxieties which stopped them sleeping, or gave them constant nightmares, a CD of Baroque music with the instruction to just play it quietly in the background when they go to bed. In many cases this has had a significant effect and has enabled them to sleep better, often through the night, and to reduce the occurrence of nightmares.

To feel the calming effect of this music you don't have to consciously listen to it but to allow it to play softly in the background as you do everyday tasks. 

I have found some commercially available cds of this music which are available to buy should you wish. The most famous Baroque (1600-1760) composers are probably Bach, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Handel Telemann, Purcell, Scarlatti. It is the slow, largo, movements of their works which are relevant here. There are few CDs available at present which are made up exclusively of such tracks so you may have to put together your own. Some of the tracks can be purchased individually as mp3 downloads on Amazon and similar sites.

If you feel inclined to listen to largo music combined with the sounds of nature, then I can recommend the Solitudes series by Dan Gibson, which do just that. There are two CDs of music by Pachelbel, Forever by the Sea and In the Garden as well as Bach Forever by the Sea which incorporates his music with the sounds of the ocean. Further details of these can be found in my Amazon Store.

Source: http://www.what-to-do-about-anxiety.com/baroque_music.html#.U2LUkKIVf15

Comunismo (Vocabulario)

Comunismo

1. m. Doctrina de organización política y económica que propugna la abolición de la propiedad privada y el establecimiento de una comunidad de bienes.
2. Doctrina iniciada por Marx y Engels que interpreta la historia como una continua lucha de clases cuyo fin es el logro de una sociedad sin diferencias sociales ni propiedad privada, de la que haya desaparecido el Estado.
3. Movimiento político inspirado en esta doctrina:
   el comunismo ha perdido vigencia en la Europa actual.

Comunismo

• marxismo, leninismo, maoísmo, estalinismo
• Antónimos: capitalismo

 

Capitalismo (Vocabulario)

Capitalismo

1. m. Régimen económico basado en el predominio del capital como elemento de producción y creador de riqueza sin apenas intervención del Estado.
2. Conjunto de partidarios de esta doctrina:
   el capitalismo ha triunfado en Occidente.

Capitalismo

• liberalismo, librecambismo, industrialismo, plutocracia, mercantilismo
• Antónimos: socialismo, marxismo, cooperativismo