5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Career in the New Year

5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Career in the New Year It’s a new year. This is the time when everybody takes stock of where they are in their life and career, which means a shockingly high percentage of American workers will decide to look for a new job this month. But†¦maybe we don’t need to be so hasty. It could be that your job is not the problem, there are just a few more things you could be doing to further your progress in your career. Try these five things before making any drastic changes. Who knows, you might realize you’re happier than you thought right where you are.1. Have coffee with your bossRather than wait for an annual appraisal, find time to grab a quick and casual cup of coffee with your manager or supervisor, or even the big boss- if appropriate- from time to time. You’ll express your keenness to develop and succeed, and get a better sense of what you could be doing to improve and grow. Plus you’ll be on the radar as someone sharp and hungry to move up the ladder, which no doub t will be remembered come review time.2. Stay in the familyMost companies prefer to promote from within. So why not keep an eye on positions up the ladder, or even in different departments, that might be suitable for you? If you’re not feeling challenged or rewarded enough, you can always approach your manager or HR rep about possibilities for moving within the company to a more mutually beneficial position.3. Ask about  trainingMost companies have programs for training their employees in new skills and software. If your current job isn’t giving you enough room to develop, why not ask your manager or supervisor if there are any training opportunities they could consider you for? It’s a win-win situation for you both. They get a better trained, more qualified employee; you get free education that will serve you throughout your whole career.4. Get mentoredDon’t just suck up to your boss. Find someone in the company whom you admire and ask if they might me ntor you. They’ll probably be flattered, and you’ll learn valuable things that can help you grow professionally, or even give you a boost up to the next rung of the ladder.5. Remain positiveSuccess begets success. If you want more recognition for the good work you are doing, consider noticing the good work of your co-workers and congratulating them on a job well done. At very least, you’ll build a positive, success-inducing work environment. At best, they will return the favor. Everybody wins.

The Rape and Murder of Sarah Goode

The Rape and Murder of Sarah Goode In the summer of 2014, petite, 21-year-old Long Island mother and medical technician Sarah P. Goode disappeared. Her partially decomposed body was found in a wooded area about a week later. The resulting autopsy and criminal investigation revealed Goode had been brutally raped and stabbed to death by a man whose sexual advances she had earlier rejected at a party.   Search for the Missing Mom On June 8, 2014, Goodes family called Suffolk County police Sunday to report her missing. She had not been seen for two days. The family began passing out fliers and neighbors pitched in to search. The next day, Goodes gray 1999 BMW was found parked in a wooded area in Medford, not far from the home Goode shared with her mother and 4-year-old daughter. Although the car had not been broken into, police said it was found under suspicious circumstances. Suffolk County Detective Michael Fitzharris would not comment on those circumstances, nor did he reveal whether or not Goodes personal belongings had been found in the car. This is a 21-year-old gainfully employed Long Island girl. Everyone has to have their vehicle out here, Fitzharris told reporters. For her family to not see her for a few days †¦ we take that very seriously. It was later learned that police had discovered clumps of hair and blood inside the vehicle. Using K-9 units, police swept the wooded area where Goodes car had been found. On June 12, 2014, almost a week after shed vanished, a group of searchers found her body in the woods within a mile of the site where  her  abandoned car had turned up the day after shed been reported missing.   Killer Charged   On July 12, 2014, Dante Taylor, a 19-year-old former Marine from Mastic, Long Island, whose advances Goode rejected at a party theyd both attended was arrested in connection with her murder. A bloody handprint in Goodes car and text messages between him and Goode on the night she went missing linked Taylor to the murder. Taylor was arrested but later released after it was learned that police had taken fingerprints, DNA, and cellphone evidence without probable cause and had questioned him without reading him his rights. He was arrested again a month later on unrelated charges in Vero Beach, Florida, and extradited for trial. Taylor was arraigned on murder charges in a Central Islip courtroom. As prosecutor Janet Albertson described the events surrounding Goodes death, about 50 of her family members were present in court, some responding to the horrific details in vocal anguish, others in verbal taunts. Goodes brother-in-law was removed from the courtroom. Albertson described the gory scene police found inside of Goodes blood-soaked car. She went on to present evidence that Taylor had brutally raped Goode and had subsequently beaten her so badly with a sharp metal object that a piece of metal had been found embedded in her skull. Goode had been stabbed more than 40 times. After she was dead, Taylor dumped Goodes body, nude from the waist down, in the woods. Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct Tarnish Conviction During the trial, the prosecution was sanctioned by state Supreme Court Justice John Collins for withholding evidence from the defense that included a series of Crime Stoppers tips pointing to other potential suspects. It was also learned that police destroyed a threatening message from a boyfriend with whom Goode had recently split up. Nevertheless, Taylor was found guilty of first- and second-degree murder, and attempted rape in the first degree in the death of Sarah Goode and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Convicted Killer Dies in Prison On October 2017, the 22-year-old convicted killer was found dead at the Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, where he was serving his life sentence. Goodes family responded to the news with a Facebook post, which read:   â€Å"The monster who so violently ended Sarah’s young life will no longer breathe another breath, will no longer see another day, will no longer have the privilege of living a life- something he made certain she could not do. Sarah’s beauty is eternal. Her laugh is unforgettable. Her memories are carved in the hearts of all whom she met.† However, Taylors trial attorney, John Lewis Jr., insisted that his clients conviction was a travesty and a perversion of justice, stating: â€Å"It’s a tragedy. His death is just another injustice in a string of injustices. I just hope someone is held accountable for his death. Now Suffolk County will not be held accountable for the injustices it committed in getting his conviction.† Sources Landau, Joel. Long Island Police Searching for Missing 21-Year-Old Mother of 4-Year-Old Girl. New York Daily News, June 9, 2014 Tracy, Thomas. Body Found in Long Island Woods Is the Missing Mom of 4-Year-Old Daughter. New York Daily News, June 13, 2014Nolan, Caitlin and Brown, Stephen Rex. Family of Murdered Long Island Mom Weep, Shout as Accused Killer Appears in Court.  New York Daily News, July 14, 2014Fuller, Nicole and Smith, Andrew. Dante Taylor, Convicted Killer, Dies in Prison, Officials Say. Newsday, October 9, 2017

Summary of the vice president debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary of the vice president debate - Essay Example He specifically mentioned about the killing of US ambassador in Libya. However, it was Bidden who assertively maneuvered the debate from one issue to another and also started a debate on foreign policy. During the debate it was quite clear that Bidden, due to his experience in Politics, was more mature and assertive in debating on certain issues. Though on economic issues, Ryan was able to highlight some of the weaknesses of the government however, he was clearly not been able to put in a full-fledged attack on Bidden regarding the overall economic performance of Obama regime. Bidden’s arguments for doing much more for the Middle Class of America, tax policies, Medicare and other issues have actually not allowed Ryan to plan a full-fledged attack on the overall policies of Obama government. Ryan also did not seem to be prepared much on the issues of taxes and was pressured by Bidden to go into details which he unfortunately was not able to and thus was clearly lacking a well thought out debate plan. Bidden was also specific about the issues on the Military and presented facts and figures which Ryan was not able to provide for. Bidden’s ability to actually dominate the debate and suggestion of increasing the military budget was something for which Ryan looked less prepared. Debate also touched upon the issue of Middle East and Bidden was able to put forward the arguments of having better relationships with Israel. Ryan actually attempted to suggest that relationships between Israel and US were deteriorating however, Bidden was convincing enough to actually highlight that the relationships between two countries have actually improved over the period of time. Bidden was also able to defend Afghan Issue and defended the policy of leaving Afghanistan and handing it over to Afghans with support from US. Ryan was however not been able to fully justify the

Exceptional Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exceptional - Essay Example In this book the authors have mentioned and discussed many important thing regarding creating and maintaining Inclusive classrooms, this also includes how families can deal with disable children’s and make they feel comfortable in the surroundings, identifying a student’s needs, the ways of special education process, teaching students who are gifted and ways & methods of teaching students with Emotional Disorder, Communication Disorder, Sensory Impairments, Learning Disabilities, Mental Retardation, Autism, Traumatic Brain injury, Hyperactivity Disorder, Attention Deficit and other low-Incidence disabilities. Most important of all that this book also includes some very important topic that are Teaching students who are gifted which is our topic, teaching those who are at Risk, with special needs in Elementary Schools and in Secondary School. These are the important Issues, Methods and other useful techniques mentioned in this book which make this book very different and special one. In this assignment we shall discuss about two important chapters in this book i.e. Effective Inclusion Practices and Professional Collaboration which deal with the concept of and teaching students who are gifted, who have extra talent and ways to teach them. We will start our assignment with what is inclusive, importance of inclusive education, effective inclusion practices, about Exceptional and importance of exceptional education. Inclusive means including everything mentioned with in a limit or without respect to a limit, accordingly it means teaching everyone in same classroom whether a student is a disable, normal or an elder person.

American football and sound Intellectual thinking Essay Example for Free

American football and sound Intellectual thinking Essay Ive always been told i was too small, Im not big enough, not fast enough and that i dont have what it takes. But to stay there for four years straight was necessary, blood was necessary and the occasional tear as necessary/ But on the field i prepare so no one can make up my mind but myself. And once my mind is made up NOBODY can stop me. You can try any move you want and even try to out run me but i can promise you one thing, that as long as Im on the field your only destination is the turf. Football is not something you take lightly its a Mans Game. The only thing that will get you hurt is playing stupid and being soft. Benefits of playing football: It is one of the most popular and widespread games in the world It is provin by sports specialists that football players are the ones with the strongest extremities and very sound intellectual thinking, to be successful on the field but also in life. You have to have discipline , passion and commitment with everything you do , and football will hep you with that. Concentration is also another thing mastered when you play football. Its also the top most vital element that we need in life. For Example: When we are preparing for a test When we are out on the field Football will not only help with competitive and efficiency as a player also teach you the right and appropriate attitude to have. Communication is a major benefit when playing football: No communication= Fail ! So if you dont communicate you will fail and if you fail that means your not hungry for greatness and if your not hungry for greatness it means your ok with being mediocre. And if that was the case for me.. i wouldnt be standing here with these trophies. This is what success looks like.

Hamlet: The Man behind the Madness Essay -- ophelia, shakespeare

What drives Hamlet to his madness? How does it relate to Ophelia’s madness? Are Hamlet and Ophelia both truly mad? These are some questions that I contemplated as I read Hamlet. The main character, Hamlet feigns madness after learning of his father’s murder; however, he becomes mad later on in the play. Is it possible that Hamlet became so wrapped up in his father’s murder that he was unable to distinguish fantasy from reality? At the beginning of the play, Hamlet has learned that his brother, the newly king, Claudius, murdered his father. In Christian Wertenbaker: What is the riddle in HAMLET? (Sirs.com, 2011) it is stated, â€Å"From then on, Hamlet has to find his own way. He has become a seeker of truth. Unless he verifies the facts for himself, he cannot do the act† (1). This shows that Hamlet can’t back away from what he is meant to do. In his eyes he sees himself as being chosen to avenge his father. In fact, Hamlet proclaims, â€Å"The time is out of joint. O, cursed sprit, That ever I was born to set it right† (I. V. 207-208)! Already Hamlet is stressed out by his misfortune. He sees no other option, but to kill his uncle. After his meeting with the ghost, Hamlet becomes obsessed with death. It is obvious that Hamlet is wrestling with the idea of whether or not he can commit the act. At this point he is capable of reasoning, but prior to this he was wily enough to invent his false madness. He has not lost his ability to discriminate right from wrong; therefore, he is not mad. To be mad a person loses total reasoning. Still he is determined to discover whether or not Claudius did really murder his father. So, Hamlet organizes a play that reveals the truth about his father’s death. This play serves as a strategy to force Claudi... ...f action have been eaten up by thought, he to whom the universe seems infinite, and himself nothing; whose bitterness [75] of soul makes him careless of consequences, and who goes to a play as his best resource is to shove off, to a second remove, the evils of life by a mock representation of them - this is the true Hamlet† (2). To me this means that Hamlet is what the audience or reader makes him to be. He is not mad, but a part of everyone. He is seen in the audience. This play contains a truth, the truth of life. Hamlet’s character contains many feelings that are shared such as sorrow, dread, and lonely. For Hamlet’s character lives through the reader. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. â€Å"The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print

Nisa Critique

While there have been many rich descriptions of the life of the !Kung of south central Africa, the account given by Marjorie Shostak in her analysis of the life of a woman of this clan appears to be a fascinating account at best but not entirely scholarly since it flouts major ethnographic guidelines.Introduction:The !Kung people are a tribe of hunter-gatherers who live as bushmen in the   southwestern part of Africa,   in isolated areas of Botswana (where they make up only 3 percent of the population), Angola, and Namibia, deep in the Kalahari desert. After gaining fluency in the language of the! Kung, Shostak returned to Botswana in 1975 for six months to complete the life histories of several women in the tribe.Marjorie Shostak manages to takes us into the oldest culture on earth by living with a hunter/gatherer tribe in southern Africa and manages to give us the details of there way of life through an interview with them, of course, before their way of life was further damage d by careless government administration policies. She reflexively collects interviews and anecdotes that enable her to explain their morals, architecture, tribal politics, spirituality, games, marriage rituals and subsistence lifestyle, giving us one of the best looks at how human society began all those thousands of years ago. Also read: My Problem With Her Anger SummaryOne of its major flaws especially for those with a strong understanding of anthropology is the fact that she concentrates her analysis from the report of one dominant character named NISA [the name is fictitious]. This results in a narrative of an idiosyncratic life, one that, as the !Kung woman Nisa once told Shostak, †I will break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out into the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away†; seems to imply that each woman’s life is unique and may not reflect the truth about women’s lives in the general community of the !Kung clan, even though it truly attempts to mirror the conventions and culture of the group as well.However, from the book we are able to determine Nisa’s character as a woman who is forthcoming in personality, and unabashed and expressive in her native tongue, although she also comes across as de manding and manipulative in behavior. This presented to Shostak great problems in gaining an objective analysis, a fact that generated early ambivalent feelings towards Nisa which as she reports, did not endear Nisa to her any bit. Although Shostak tried to interview more than a dozen other women of all ages; inviting recall, asking pertinent questions and seeking bio-graphical highlights she seems to finally have settled her choice on Nisa as informant because of her   particularly forceful, colorful language, and generally truthful replies.Secondly, although   the justification of Nisa as informant is reliable, it only serves to foster the concept of authenticity in ethnographic representation. The importance of authenticity in ethnographic representation is still in doubt as portrayed in James Clifford’s   review of Edward Said's Orientalism, Clifford asks, â€Å"Should criticism work to counter sets of culturally produced images like Orientalism with more â€Å"au thentic† or more â€Å"human† representations? Or, if criticism must struggle against the procedures of representation itself, how is it to begin?’The general consensus seems to be that authenticity is itself a representation which can be misused. For example, the purpose of the poet or novelist is creative self-expression. For the creative writer, representation is the vehicle for expression; the creative writer consciously chooses representations as representations. The writer of nonfiction, however, typically focuses on the substance of what she wishes to communicate, and often fails to realize that she uses representations when communicating her ideas hence giving rise to rhetoric. Rhetoric is the characteristic manner by which a text's language and organization convinces its readers of the truth, but is itself not truth.Thirdly is the issue of dialogue versus monologue in ethnographic presentation. It is very apparent that Shostak’s   focus moves aw ay from the central position of the ethnographer (implicit in ethnographic realism and explicit in Dumont’s example of the self-reflexive approach in his book The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalencein the Fieldworking Experience), and brings the importance of native informants to the foreground. â€Å"The other† is given the opportunity, albeit limited, to represent herself in Shostak's text. Shostak's text is also significant because it attempts to incorporate dialogue as a structural feature.Shostak demonstrates the potential usefulness of multiple voices although her ultimate control over the text makes it a monologue. The monological aspect is repeated within the text itself: there is no true discourse between Shostak's and Nisa's portions of the text, only alternating monologues.   However, according to Stephen A. Tyler this presents a problem in ethnographic presentation, one that is solved in a different approach which he suggest when he says, â€Å"A po st-modern ethnography is a cooperatively evolved text consisting of fragments of discourse intended to evoke in the minds of both reader and writer an emergent fantasy of a possible world of commonsense reality, and thus to provoke an aesthetic integration that will have a therapeutic effect.†Tyler's emphasizes the dialogical nature of ethnography [alternating monologues as is the case in Shostak’s work], were the discourse is between reader and writer rather than between the writer and the culture he studies. Tyler maintains that the experience which matters is not the fieldwork but the writing of the ethnography; the ethnographer does not attempt to represent another culture to the reader, but rather to evoke in the reader a recollection of his own culture. Ethnography is a way to make the familiar unfamiliar and then familiar again.Lastly is the authors choice of topics that evolve around the issue f sex and violence maybe justifiable if viewed from the perspective t hat narrative is highly charged with sex because sex is important in !Kung life. From Shostak’s   very provocative findings, such as a much more sexually egalitarian sensibility than our own, we see that in the !Kung culture, marriages are largely monogamous, with some sanction for a second wife; lovers are accepted for both husbands and wives, but discretion is made more important expressly because discovery can lead to mayhem and even murder. However, Shostak seems to get this information largely from Nisa’s own personal account.Personal accounts are   rarely written without particular motivation. Every account has some agenda. Scholars suggest that we need to always consider why the subject feels it is important to share his or her life either privately or with an anonymous public. This is because the narrator’s motivation will account for what parts of a life are discussed and what details are filtered out. What motivated the author of the personal accou nt?Whether written or oral, a personal account is a subjective, selective account of a life recorded for a specific purpose, ranging from personal catharsis to revisionist history. There are many motivations for the creation of personal accounts, including a focus on the self, on others, or on posterity. In this particular account, were Shostak seems to have solicited the story, rather than finding the account, the scholar’s reason for seeking the personal account will probably color the nature of the questions asked.In this case, the personal account will likely reflect the scholar’s interests more than those of the subject. Hence, it can be postulated that Shostak’s interests in giving Nisa’s account was to highlight the issue of women and not entirely for ethnographic purposes. This can be evidenced by the fact that in her time all the way to date, women’s stories in the West have been increasingly considered valid testimonies, along with accoun ts by people of color and those outside the highest strata of socio-political influence. Therefore, although it is impossible to view history from a wholly objective position, it is still helpful to be aware of such biases.In conclusion, I believe that what Shostak should have done was to strive to consider other sources that could offer insight about the !Kung people, such as official documents (marriage, divorce, and birth records, public notices), archived newspapers (human interest stories, political coverage), and glossy magazines (regional and national views reflecting social trends of the time, setting a context). Although her learning of the language is a great achievement enabling her to establish effective communication with the subject, it serves to tell us only a fragment of the whole picture.This fact takes on a deeper gravity when we consider that the question of truth may have many answers. Nisa’s portrayal of her life is indeed accurate in her own mind. Yet we know that, after all, memory is selective: people’s responses to experiences vary and people’s memories of experiences change with time and influence. Events that happen in a person’s life between lived experiences and recording those events can shape their telling, which only confirms that truth may have many answers.Reference:THE PROBLEM OF ETHNOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION http://home.pacbell.net/nicnic/ethnographic.html#14Shostak, Marjorie, Nisa: The Life and Words of a!Kung Woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press (1981). Nisa Critique Introduction:The Kung people are a tribe of hunter-gatherers who live as bushmen in the   southwestern part of Africa,   in isolated areas of Botswana (where they make up only 3 percent of the population), Angola, and Namibia, deep in the Kalahari desert. After gaining fluency in the language of the! Kung, Shostak returned to Botswana in 1975 for six months to complete the life histories of several women in the tribe.Marjorie Shostak manages to takes us into the oldest culture on earth by living with a hunter/gatherer tribe in southern Africa and manages to give us the details of there way of life through an interview with them, of course, before their way of life was further damaged by careless government administration policies. She reflexively collects interviews and anecdotes that enable her to explain their morals, architecture, tribal politics, spirituality, games, marriage rituals and subsistence lifestyle, giving us one of the best looks at how human society began all tho se thousands of years ago.One of its major flaws especially for those with a strong understanding of anthropology is the fact that she concentrates her analysis from the report of one dominant character named NISA [the name is fictitious]. This results in a narrative of an idiosyncratic life, one that, as the !Kung woman Nisa once told Shostak, †I will break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out into the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away†; seems to imply that each woman’s life is unique and may not reflect the truth about women’s lives in the general community of the !Kung clan, even though it truly attempts to mirror the conventions and culture of the group as well.However, from the book we are able to determine Nisa’s character as a woman who is forthcoming in personality, and unabashed and expressive in her native tongue, although she also comes across as demanding and manip ulative in behavior. This presented to Shostak great problems in gaining an objective analysis, a fact that generated early ambivalent feelings towards Nisa which as she reports, did not endear Nisa to her any bit. Although Shostak tried to interview more than a dozen other women of all ages; inviting recall, asking pertinent questions and seeking bio-graphical highlights she seems to finally have settled her choice on Nisa as informant because of her   particularly forceful, colorful language, and generally truthful replies.Secondly, although   the justification of Nisa as informant is reliable, it only serves to foster the concept of authenticity in ethnographic representation. The importance of authenticity in ethnographic representation is still in doubt as portrayed in James Clifford’s   review of Edward Said's Orientalism, Clifford asks, â€Å"Should criticism work to counter sets of culturally produced images like Orientalism with more â€Å"authentic† or more â€Å"human† representations?Or, if criticism must struggle against the procedures of representation itself, how is it to begin?’ The general consensus seems to be that authenticity is itself a representation which can be misused. For example, the purpose of the poet or novelist is creative self-expression. For the creative writer, representation is the vehicle for expression; the creative writer consciously chooses representations as representations. The writer of nonfiction, however, typically focuses on the substance of what she wishes to communicate, and often fails to realize that she uses representations when communicating her ideas hence giving rise to rhetoric. Rhetoric is the characteristic manner by which a text's language and organization convinces its readers of the truth, but is itself not truth.Thirdly is the issue of dialogue versus monologue in ethnographic presentation. It is very apparent that Shostak’s   focus moves away from the centr al position of the ethnographer (implicit in ethnographic realism and explicit in Dumont’s example of the self-reflexive approach in his book The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalencein the Fieldworking Experience), and brings the importance of native informants to the foreground. â€Å"The other† is given the opportunity, albeit limited, to represent herself in Shostak's text. Shostak's text is also significant because it attempts to incorporate dialogue as a structural feature. Shostak demonstrates the potential usefulness of multiple voices although her ultimate control over the text makes it a monologue.The monological aspect is repeated within the text itself: there is no true discourse between Shostak's and Nisa's portions of the text, only alternating monologues.   However, according to Stephen A. Tyler this presents a problem in ethnographic presentation, one that is solved in a different approach which he suggest when he says, â€Å"A post-modern ethnogr aphy is a cooperatively evolved text consisting of fragments of discourse intended to evoke in the minds of both reader and writer an emergent fantasy of a possible world of commonsense reality, and thus to provoke an aesthetic integration that will have a therapeutic effect.† Tyler's emphasizes the dialogical nature of ethnography [alternating monologues as is the case in Shostak’s work], were the discourse is between reader and writer rather than between the writer and the culture he studies. Tyler maintains that the experience which matters is not the fieldwork but the writing of the ethnography; the ethnographer does not attempt to represent another culture to the reader, but rather to evoke in the reader a recollection of his own culture. Ethnography is a way to make the familiar unfamiliar and then familiar again.Lastly is the authors choice of topics that evolve around the issue f sex and violence maybe justifiable if viewed from the perspective that narrative is highly charged with sex because sex is important in !Kung life. From Shostak’s   very provocative findings, such as a much more sexually egalitarian sensibility than our own, we see that in the !Kung culture, marriages are largely monogamous, with some sanction for a second wife; lovers are accepted for both husbands and wives, but discretion is made more important expressly because discovery can lead to mayhem and even murder. However, Shostak seems to get this information largely from Nisa’s own personal account. Personal accounts are   rarely written without particular motivation.Every account has some agenda. Scholars suggest that we need to always consider why the subject feels it is important to share his or her life either privately or with an anonymous public. This is because the narrator’s motivation will account for what parts of a life are discussed and what details are filtered out. What motivated the author of the personal account? Whether writ ten or oral, a personal account is a subjective, selective account of a life recorded for a specific purpose, ranging from personal catharsis to revisionist history. There are many motivations for the creation of personal accounts, including a focus on the self, on others, or on posterity.In this particular account, were Shostak seems to have solicited the story, rather than finding the account, the scholar’s reason for seeking the personal account will probably color the nature of the questions asked. In this case, the personal account will likely reflect the scholar’s interests more than those of the subject. Hence, it can be postulated that Shostak’s interests in giving Nisa’s account was to highlight the issue of women and not entirely for ethnographic purposes. This can be evidenced by the fact that in her time all the way to date, women’s stories in the West have been increasingly considered valid testimonies, along with accounts by people of color and those outside the highest strata of socio-political influence. Therefore, although it is impossible to view history from a wholly objective position, it is still helpful to be aware of such biases.In conclusion, I believe that what Shostak should have done was to strive to consider other sources that could offer insight about the !Kung people, such as official documents (marriage, divorce, and birth records, public notices), archived newspapers (human interest stories, political coverage), and glossy magazines (regional and national views reflecting social trends of the time, setting a context). Although her learning of the language is a great achievement enabling her to establish effective communication with the subject, it serves to tell us only a fragment of the whole picture. This fact takes on a deeper gravity when we consider that the question of truth may have many answers. Nisa’s portrayal of her life is indeed accurate in her own mind. Yet we know that, af ter all, memory is selective: people’s responses to experiences vary and people’s memories of experiences change with time and influence. Events that happen in a person’s life between lived experiences and recording those events can shape their telling, which only confirms that truth may have many answers.Reference:THE PROBLEM OF ETHNOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION http://home.pacbell.net/nicnic/ethnographic.html#14Shostak, Marjorie, Nisa: The Life and Words of a!Kung Woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press (1981).