President Trump: Anthropocentric and Post-Modern

Many people muse about President Trump and often have difficulty in making sense of the man. He appears to be someone of contradiction in that he is both anthropocentric and post-modern in his thinking. For example, under modernity the dominant ideas were anthropocentric ones in that economic growth, rising living standards and the exploitation of the environment and other living things were legitimate in all circumstances. Biocentric equality and the belief that we are dependent on the environment had not yet come to be accepted. Today, many of us believe that to champion the interests of Mr Trumps donors in the polluting fossil fuel industry is something reactionary and against the interests of future generations. The President appears unconcerned with the long term future and only seems interested in the here and now. As a populist, with a working class constituency to please he also seems uninterested in the effects of green house gases or the opportunities in renewable sources of energy and the great technological opportunities and challenges ahead. Mr Trump also seems post-modern in his approach to language and evidentiary too. When the low numbers of attendees at his inauguration were noted he simply said this was media lies. For the post-modernist, language is not something which necessarily needs to be predicated upon truth but upon usefulness and plausibility. Such thinking was offered by the White House today when they employed the term 'alternative facts.' Someone rightly noted that alternatives to facts are fiction. Former President Obama noted Trumps lack of intellectual curiosity but if self promotion is the only real objective then facts actually become unimportant. One simply deals with inconvenient fact or criticism through the use of denial or personal attack via social media. The reality of individual achievement, scientific or social standing become irrelevant if the message or facts do not happen to support Mr Trump's views. Bankers who pondered what action to take with regard to Mr Trump's plurality of huge business disasters decided he was a great promoter of his own brand and little else. In terms of the future, we are likely to see a Presidency which will be ego centric and divisive and one which will be unconcerned about fact, truth or the rationalism that accompanied the modernist anthropocentric age. Emotive language rather than evidence will be the key tool of rebuttal and the strategy of argumentum ad hominem.   

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University Rankings

I sometimes wonder what the league tables or rankings for Universities really mean. I don’t mean that I am confused as notions like student satisfaction or research output are all pretty clear. What I am getting at is that giving a University 99th place like the University of Central Lancashire or 46th place for Keele University really doesn’t mean that much in my experience. As a qualitative researcher perhaps I am biased against such quantitative benchmarks. I didn’t choose these two examples at random although I have attended many Universities over the last 20 years. My point is that having attended UCLAN back in 1992-1995 I found the Government programme to be second to none. Studying politics, international relations and public administration prepared me to compete successfully against others far more privileged in their academic pedigree when it came to post-graduate study. Conversely, although Keele University at position 46 would suggest a far better experience this was not the case. Although I completed a very successful Ph.D which attracted international media coverage and has been widely cited in academic journals, what you get out of a University course is really dependent on what you put into it. Often academics have very little time for you or if you are a post-graduate they might not be an authority on your specific research area. This was not to say I had a poor experience at Keele but to say that the institution itself was marginal in terms of determining success or failure. At D.Phil you really are pretty much alone and that’s the way it should be. So basic things like getting the reading done, putting effort into seminar papers, attending lectures and doing the ‘donkey-work’ where getting hold of the right journal articles is concerned makes all the difference. My central argument here is that once you are accepted onto a University course the ‘quality’ benchmarks mean little but self-discipline, determination, thirst for knowledge and keenness where attention to detail is concerned makes the world of difference. So what’s my advice? Go somewhere which enriches your social and academic life and that broadens your horizons. Leave rankings and league tables to football clubs!

For more information contact Julian here

University Assessments: Policy Memo

Students often find writing policy memo’s difficult or at least something unfamiliar. One of the main priorities should be to think about the style of writing and the needs of the audience. The style needs to show technical competence and precision where the identification and application of concepts are concerned. You are unlikely to be asked to write for a generalist audience so theoretical and conceptual competence is important. Avoid emotive language such as massacre or brutality and select terms like direct violence or disproportionate use of force. Try to avoid bias in the writing because this will only offer a one sided account which seldom helps in the drafting of a rigorous policy memo. Never lose sight of the key instructions of the remit and when you write about background or historical context try to take any opportunities to link your prose back to the needs of the assessment. If your document is quite lengthy, ensure your executive summary reflects this and is not something of a token affair. Show evidence of serious background reading and do not merely rely on media reports in the formation of your ideas and understanding. Finally, ensure that you are up to date with the situation on the ground or in the theatre of conflict. Offering recommendations for action based on a military situation which no longer exists will not come across well.

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A young entrepreneur from Hull

Student Katie Norman set up the independent business in 2013 after conducting research into her idea of science parties for children aged between 5-14 at the University of Hull, and now successfully hosts a number of workshops across schools in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

Katie had been shortlisted from hundreds of applications from the top student and graduate entrepreneurs in the country in order to compete for a share of £50,000 cash investment and two year mentoring programme. See link

Dissertation Tips: Sources for your literature review

Although most of you will have remote access to your University library when working from home and the various premium data-bases they pay for, there are other places to look too. When searching for quality academic sources on Google I have found a way to cut through quite a lot of the blogs and magazine articles that won’t really impress your examiners. Simply type in the search data and add PDF on the end and it will generally deliver results which come from academic peer reviewed journals. This improves the quality of the search results and saves you a lot of time.

Furthermore, DOAJ or the Directory of Open Access Journals is something which I have found really helpful. As the title suggests, it’s something which is free and you can simply read the abstracts to get a feel for the work and hit the ‘get this in PDF’ and the whole article will pop-up for you. OK, the downside, some are not as free as you think and may not be written in English. However, you may not have to pay because if you are a registered HE student your Uni will be able to facilitate access to the article or get you a hard copy on loan. Happy Hunting doctorthesis.co.uk  

Rewriting

The process of rewriting might be motivated by a desire for greater clarity, to improve the flow or because the discourse is weak. Clients may indicate which areas need rewriting and or the document might benefit from a review which would identify where a rewrite might improve the argument.
Where a rewrite has been completed it is really important that the student or client understands what’s been written and why. As such, may students benefit from Skype tutorials where complex issues can be explained and justified so they become second nature and truly become part of your academic understanding and not just mine. This ensures that the student is confident with the content of their thesis or dissertation and would be able to defend the work as and when necessary.
The quality of service here is far higher than the competition because I am a published author who writes for Nelson Thornes and Philip Alan Updates and this provides the sort of competency or gravitas clients should look for.

See more here: http://doctorthesis.co.uk/

Committed to your success

Try these free downloads first, then just select the others you need. This will ensure that you develop
an excellent level of knowledge and understanding for that subtopic and it will also ensure that you are aware of how to demonstrate the higher order evaluative and analytical skills too.

Take a look here

Julian Salisbury AKA Doctor Thesis

We don’t seek to be ‘all things to all men.’ We only seek to offer services where we have demonstrable expertise and we provide our support to you directly, not on an agency basis. This means that we view ourselves as stakeholders in your success. You’ll find us friendly, reliable and always willing to help in any way we can.

After filling in an enquiry form, we’ll confirm we received your message. Once we know which of our services you are interested in and we have discussed your needs, we can arrange to get started. The PayPal system on our website is easy to use and universally recognised as secure.

If our online tuition service is chosen, initially we ask that it is booked at least three days in advance so we can do the necessary preparation. This ensures that we are giving value for money and offering the standard of service you deserve.

For online tutorials, this is done through instant messaging via a Skype account. Skype also allows you to communicate with your subject specialist verbally in much the same way as you would if your tutor was in the room. This technology is easy to use and is free of charge. Our Skype contact name is marburyeducation. A date and time is arranged for the tutorial to take place and we keep a record of the time spent online because most students take advantage of the discounts available for block booking sessions.

In order to benefit from detailed suggestions on how to improve your written work, simply send the document to us as an e-mail attachment, making it clear who it is from. We will then add specific comments on how you can improve the content. This might involve making suggestions about useful concepts, studies, planning and logical order, or it may simply be about how to make the English flow better. We then send it back to your e-mail address. Our aim to get this back to you at the earliest opportunity but this kind of work, if done properly and with care, takes time.
Finally, if our learning resources are required, we simply place them in a zipped folder and send them via e-mail.

Prices for online tuition

Prices for doctor thesis time can be found here: http://doctorthesis.co.uk/prices/

Need help with your Thesis or Dissertation?

Many clients, especially those are more confident about their theme or writing often benefit from an evaluative criticism. This is something which involves a process of analysis where improvement opportunities can be identified. This might be something related to the academic content, referring to a piece of secondary literature or sentence building. It might relate to the internal consistency of the contention, the logical order of the sentences in a paragraph or the register used.

This feedback is then inserted down the helping hand side of your paper employing Word Comment. Then, as the writer or student being assessed it then becomes your decision whether to take the advice offered and induce the necessary changes. This service can be day eating because it is done professionally and the different levels of detail provided is second to none.

GRUESOME SCIENCE

GRUESOME SCIENCE PARTY- 60 MINUTES.

The children will get all gooey by making two different coloured jelly worms followed by making slime.
GRUESOME SCIENCE ULTIMATE PARTY – 90 MINUTES

(120 minutes including a break after the first hour)

The children will complete four different hands-on experiments including making coloured jelly worms, slime, expanding nappy gel and quicksand.
WE ALLOW ALL CHILDREN TO TAKE THE SLIME HOME AT THE END OF THE PARTY.

Contact Labrascals

Sociology Crime & Deviance, Race/Ethnicity Revision Quiz

A2 Sociology, Crime & Deviance, Race/Ethnicity Revision Quiz

Evaluative Critique

Many clients, especially those are more confident about their subject or writing often benefit from an evaluative critique. This is something which involves a process of analysis where improvement opportunities can be identified. This might be something related to the academic content, referring to a piece of secondary literature or sentence construction. It might relate to the internal consistency of the argument, the logical order of the sentences in a paragraph or the register used.

This feedback is then inserted down the right hand side of your paper using Word Comment. Then, as the writer or student being assessed it then becomes your decision whether to take the advice offered and make the necessary changes. This service can be time consuming because it is done professionally and the level of detail provided is second to none.

AS Sociology, Unit 2 Functionalism Durkheim

Useful for those taking AS Sociology Education and Methods paper. This explains the Functionalist perspective on the Role and Purpose of Education.

School Workshops

We found a great local company who provide School Workshops take a look here ..

School Workshops

Crime and Deviance Functionalism: Durkheim

Functionalism: Durkheim; Rules of Sociolgical Method and The Division of Labour in Society. Both of these studies are really useful for getting a better understanding of this perspective on Crime and Deviance.

AS Sociology, Unit 2, Education & Methods, Subcultures

Paul Willis Learning to Labour 1977 for those taking AS Sociology Education and Methods.

A few do's and don'ts where literature reviews are concerned

So you've chosen your question, your hypothesis or at least your topic and now it's time to start your literature review. Common mistakes I see is where students simply offer a sort of random list of arguments
or findings from a plurality of authors. This comes across as if the process of writing a literature review is irksome or just something one has to ensure and not something which has real purpose. OK, well if that's
the wrong thing to do, what's the right thing? You should be looking to establish some commonalities and differences in the literature. One needs to have the confidence to identify arguments which share the same normative viewpoint, the same sort of explanation or criticism. By doing this you become empowered and far more confident in completing your research and finding your own 'voice.' This will then provide a sort of topographical
landscape where the literature makes far more sense and where one can see the 'wood for the trees.' Whilst not comprehensive advice, at least it offers the basics and a frame of reference to start the process. Good luck!

This looks like fun - School Workshops for kids

Lab Rrascal's provide fun science work shops for schools. what a great way to get the kids engaged in Science. 

More information can be found here:  http://www.labrascals.co.uk/school-workshops.html 

If you are looking for SEN children's workshops or can’t find a topic you would like covering please contact us and we will design a workshop to suit your school’s needs.

Top 5 Mistakes Teachers make when they become an Online Tutor