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Revision Test-1 Results 11.12.2010 Diploma in Business Economics/Business Communication

A -Distinction 85-100
A -Merit 75-84
B 60-74
C 40-59
D 25-39
E 00-24

1-C
2-Merit
3-C
4--
5-E
6-B
7--
8-B
9-D
10-B
11--
12-C
13-C
14-D
15--
16--
17-C
18-D
19-Merit
20-B
21-C
22--
23-D
24-B
25-B
26-Distinction
27--
28-B
29--
30-Distinction
31--
32-B
33-B
34-B

D.N. Aloysius
11.12.2010 -11.30.p.m.

Revision Test-1 Results 11.12.2010 Diploma in Business Economics/Business Communication

Revision Test-1 (11.12.2010)
Business Communication


A -Distinction 85-100
A -Merit 75-84
B 60-74
C 40-59
D 25-39
E 00-24

Revision Test-1 Results 11.12.2010 Diploma in Business Economics/Business Communication

1-C
2-Merit
3-C
4--
5-E
6-B
7--
8-B
9-D
10-B
11--
12-C
13-C
14-D
15--
16--
17-C
18-D
19-Merit
20-B
21-C
22--
23-D
24-B
25-B
26-Distinction
27--
28-B
29--
30-Distinction
31--
32-B
33-B
34-B

D.N. Aloysius
11.12.2010

Rajarata University of Sri Lanka/Diploma in Business Economics/Business Communication

Oral communication

Interviews-1

Interviewee: Good morning Sir!
Interviewer: Good morning! Mr. Ranaweera. Be seated please.
Interviewee: Thank you, Sir.
Interviewer: You are welcome. Where are you from?
Interviewee: I am from Anuradhapura.
Interviewer: Anuradhapura, whereabouts?
Interviewee: New Town
Interviewer: OK, Mr. Ranaweera. Can you tell me something about your family?

Interviewee: I am married. My wife is Saroja Ranaweera. She is employed as a nurse. She works at Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital. We have only one child. He is two years old.

Interviewer: What about your parents?
Interviewee: They are retired teachers. They live with us.
Interviewer: Do you have brothers and sisters?

Interviewee: Yes, of course. I have two brothers and one sister. They are all employed and married. They also live at Anuradhapura.

Interviewer: What do they do?
Interviewee: My two brothers are teachers. My sister is a nurse.
Interviewer: O.K. Mr. Ranaweera. Where did you study?
Interviewee: I studied at Anuradhapura Central College.
Interviewer: Could you please tell me about your educational qualifications?
Interviewee: Yes, sir. I passed my G.C.E A/L Examination in 2005.
Interviewer: What subjects did you offer for your G.C.E A/L Examination?

Interviewee: I offered Arts subjects. They are Sinhala, Economics and Political Science.

Interviewer: What about your English and IT knowledge? Can you manage to work in English in the office?

Interviewee: Yes, of course. I have followed two Diploma Courses in English and It. Therefore, I think I can manage to work in English.

Interviewer: Do you have any working experience regarding this field?

Interviewee: Yes, sir. I have worked in the same field for two years on a project. It is related to the economic development.

Interviewer: O.K. Mr. Ranaweera. If you are selected for this post, would you like to work in our branch at Matale? We have a vacancy there for a Development Assistant.

Interviewee: Yes, certainly. Since I am from Kandy, I can easily travel there.
Interviewer: Thank you, Mr. Ranaweera. We will inform you the result.
Interviewee: O.K. Sir. Thank you very much.
Interviewer: You are welcome.

D.N. Aloysius
Lecturer in English
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Rajarata University of Sri Lanka/Diploma in Business Economics/Business Communication

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction to Business communication
Business communication means the communication between the people in the organization for the purpose of carrying out the business activities. It may be oral or written etc.
A business can flourish when all the targets of the organization are achieved effectively. For efficiency in an organization all the people within and outside of the organization must be able to convey their message properly. The exchange of ideas, understanding, within and outside the organization to achieve the business goals is known as business communication.

Building the business communication infrastructure
In business communication the use of emails, memos and letters should be written in a way that produces the best results. You should use the tone and level of formality that fits the objectives and the reader, and convey you thoughts in a concise and intelligent way.

Holding Regular Meetings
In addition to emails and letters, meetings also play a vital role in business communication. In any organization, meetings are vital part of the organization of work and the flow of information. They act as a mechanism for gathering together resources from many sources and pooling then towards a common objective. Employees generally dislike this type of get-together because they are usually futile, boring, time wasting, dull, and inconvenient.
Your challenge is to break this attitude and to make your meetings effective. As with every other managed activity, meetings should be planned beforehand, monitored during for effectiveness, and reviewed afterwards for improvement. A meeting is the ultimate form of business communication. One can organize the information and structure of the meeting to support the effective communication of the participants.
No manager can be effective in his job unless he is able to communicate. It is the most essential single skill.
Business communication is a tool that allows you to improve the performance of your employees, it allows you to improve the performance of the teams within your company, and it allows you to improve the performance of your entire organization, all with the common purpose to execute the organization’s strategy, reach its vision, and fulfill its mission.
Business communication is used to promote a product, service, or organization; relay information within the business; or deal with legal and similar issues. It is also a means of relaying between a supply chain, for example the consumer and manufacturer.
Business Communication encompasses a variety of topics, including Marketing, Branding, Customer relations, Consumer behavior, Advertising, Public relations, Corporate communication, Community engagement, Research & Measurement, Reputation management, Interpersonal communication, Employee engagement, Online communication, and Event management. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication.
In business, the term communication encompasses various channels of communication, including the Internet, Print (Publications), Radio, Television, Outdoor, and Word of mouth.
Business Communication can also refer to internal communication. A communications director will typically manage internal communication and craft messages sent to employees. It is vital that internal communications are managed properly because a poorly crafted or managed message could foster distrust or hostility from employees.
There are several methods of business communication, including:
• Web-based communication - for better and improved communication, anytime anywhere ...
• Video conferencing which allow people in different locations to hold interactive meetings;
• e-mails, which provide an instantaneous medium of written communication worldwide;
• Reports - important in documenting the activities of any department;
• Presentations - very popular method of communication in all types of organizations, usually involving audiovisual material, like copies of reports, or material prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe Flash;
• T meetings, which allow for long distance speech;
• Forum boards, which allow people to instantly post information at a centralized location; and
• Face-to-face meetings, which are personal and should be succeeded by a written follow-up.
Business communication is somewhat different and unique rather from other type of communication since the purpose of business is to get profit. Thus, to make good way for profit the communicator should develop good communication skills. Everyone knows that in the present day trends the knowledge alone won’t be a fruitful one to have sustainable development. By knowing the importance of communication many organizations started training their employees in betterment of communication techniques.
Essentially due to globalization the world has become a global village. Thus, here the importance of cross cultural communication plays a vital role. Since each and every nation has their own meaning for each and every non verbal actions.
The way we appear speaks a lot about us in business communication. A neat appearance is half done verbal communication. But, developing communication is not a day’s work, it needs constant yearly practice. There are several ways to get trained in excelling business communication:
 by our own
 by practicing from trainers
 by internet contents
 by books





Other aspects discussed under Business communication

• Business Ethics
• Business and Workplace Etiquette
• Business Writing Skills
• Communication in the Workplace
• Conflict Resolution
• Creative Thinking
• Crisis Management
• Cross Cultural Communication
• Customer Relations
• Effective Meetings
• Job-hunting Skills
• Management Strategies
• Marketing Communication
• Negotiating Skills
• Networking in Business
• Presentation Skills
• Team Building
• Technology and Human Communication: The Interface
• Telephone Marketing and Skills



References:
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_communication-18.11.2010
2. www.hodu.com/business-communication-menu.html-18.11.2010
3. Web site-1 dnaloysius.blogspot.com
4. Web site-2 www.aloysiusdn.com


D.N. Aloysius
Lecturer in English
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

10.12.2010

Bhiksu University-Anuradhapura/Preliminary/Set of rules for different situations

Read the following set of rules and do the activities given below.

1. Speak and write about it in your own words.
2. Create a different situation and write the set of rules for it. You can use the following situation as a model.

Withdrawing money from the bank
First, go to the relevant bank and meet the receptionist. You should tell her about your need. Then, she will give you a withdrawal form. You have to fill in the form with required information. You should write your name and Account Number there. You are also required to write the amount of money you are going to withdraw from your account. After completing the form, you should sign it and go to the counter. If there is a queue, you should be there and when your turn comes, you can submit your pass book to the cashier with the completed withdrawal form. After that you will get money through the counter. You should count it and take it from the cashier.

Activity -2
1. Write the set of rules for the following situation.
2. How do you tell your friend to do so?

Obtaining the Inland Revenue license for your motor bike
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------See the following web sites for the relevant lesson.
1. dnaloysius.blogspot.com
2. www.aloysiusdn.com

D.N. Aloysius
Lecturer in English
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
08.12.2010

Bhiksu University-Anuradhapura/Diploma/The Necklace/By Guy de Maupassant

The short story, The Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant, follows the life of a woman and her husband living in France in the early 1880’s. The woman, Mathilde, is a very materialistic person who is never content with anything in her life. Her husband, a lowly clerk in the Ministry of Education, is not a rich man, but he brings home enough to get by. He enjoys the simpler things in life, yet his wife, Mathilde, cannot. Nothing is good enough for her. Her selfish ways are evident in her attitude toward the material things in her home environment and in the way she treats her husband.
Mathilde’s materialistic attitude is primarily shown by how unhappy she is with her surroundings and her home environment in general. One night, Mathilde’s husband brings home, from work, an invitation to a dinner party. When he mentions the invitation, Mathilde’s first thought is of what she is going to wear to the party. She does not worry about her husband, his feelings regarding the invitation, or how much fun they may have at the dinner party. She only worries about how she will look and what other people will think of her. Mathilde is unhappy with her darkened rooms and furniture and desires better things:
She imagined large drawing rooms draped in the most expensive silks, with fine end tables on which were placed knickknacks of inimitable value. She dreamed of the perfume of dainty private rooms, which were designed only for intimate tête-à-têtes with the closest friends, who because of their achievements and fame would make her the envy of all other women.
These dreams and aspirations demonstrate that Mathilde’s thoughts are in the wrong place; and go to show how materialistic she really is. Mathilde first rejects the invitation. She only agrees to go to the party after her husband painstakingly bargains with her, and ends up having to buy her a new dress to get her to come. Even after getting a new dress, Mathilde still wants more. She complains to her husband that she, “[doesn’t] have any jewels to wear, not a single gem, nothing to dress up [her] outfit.” She whines to her husband that she would rather stay home than go to the party looking like a vagabond. But finally, after more griping, she is persuaded by her husband to borrow some jewels from Mrs. Forrestier, and they go to the party. Mathilde’s materialistic view is also seen in the way she acts after the dinner party. When leaving the party at four o’clock in the morning, Mathilde’s husband goes to put, “a modest everyday wrap which contrasted with the elegance of her evening gown” over her shoulders, and she runs from him. She runs so that none of the other women, draped in elegant furs will see her and look down upon her for wearing such a thing. Both of these incidents emphasize the fact that Mathilde is a very selfish and materialistic person both in her actions and in her thoughts and daydreams.
Another way that Mathilde’s selfish character is portrayed is through the way she treats her husband. She treats him as if he is a slave, who exists for no other reason, but to be blamed for things gone wrong in her life, and for her to order around. Mathilde gives her husband no love, praise, or thanks for any of the sacrifices he makes for her. An example of this occurs in the beginning of the story when Mathilde basically blames her husband because she is not living the life she dreams of. While her husband has adjusted himself to the plain life that they live, Mathilde has not, and she resents him for that. Another example of the materialistic and selfish way that Mathilde treats her husband is when her husband brings home the invitation. Even though her husband is ecstatic at the thought of going to this extravagant dinner, Mathilde basically throws the invitation back into his face:
She looked at him angrily and stated impatiently: “What do you expect me to wear to go there?” He had not thought of that. He stammered: “But your theater dress. That seems nice to me . . .” He stopped, amazed and bewildered, as his wife began to cry . . . He said falteringly: “What’s wrong? What’s the matter?” . . . “Nothing, except that I have nothing to wear and therefore can’t go to the party. Give your invitation to someone else at the office whose wife will have nicer clothes than mine.
Mathilde is so self-centered that she would make her husband, who wants to go to this party so badly, give up the invitation because she has nothing to wear. She again displays her materialistic and selfish ways when, after the party, she discovers that she has lost her borrowed necklace and makes her husband go out at four o’clock in the morning to look for it. He looks for hours and finds nothing, but doesn’t give up there. He goes to the police and cab services, while Mathilde, “waited the entire day, in the same enervated state,”(8). She does nothing while her husband is doing everything he possibly can to save her neck. Finally, after all hope is lost of finding the vanished necklace, the couple bought a new one for thirty-six thousand francs. They had to work and save for ten years, and the husband gave up his inheritance to pay for the necklace his wife lost. And after all he did, Mathilde offers not one bit of thanks or praise to her husband. This emphasizes just how evident her characteristic flaws really are.

Throughout the story, Mathilde is portrayed as selfish and materialistic. These traits are shown through her unhappy manner towards her middle class life and through the awful way she treats her husband after all he does for her. Maybe after such a long, tiresome ten years of scrounging up money to buy a new necklace to replace the lost one, Mathilde will change her ways. Perhaps she will realize how much she really has in life, may it be material things or love from her husband, and stop constantly worrying about what she does not have. Maybe she will even recognize how much her husband gives to her and how little he receives in return.

Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5, 1850, in Normandy France where he spent most of his early life. The oldest child of wealthy parents who eventually separated, Maupassant was not allowed to attend school until he was thirteen years old. Before then, the local parish priest acted as his tutor.
After being expelled from a Catholic seminary school, Maupassant finished his schooling at a boarding school before studying law at the University of Paris. His studies were soon interrupted by the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, and Maupassant became a soldier in Normandy. After the war, Maupassant did not return to the university and instead entered the civil service, working as a clerk in the Naval and Education Ministries.
Resigning from the Ministry of Education in 1880, Maupassant became a full-time writer. He began by imitating the style of Gustave Flaubert, a prominent French novelist who had been a close friend of Maupassant's mother for decades. Unsubstantiated rumors circulated at the time that Flaubert was Maupassant's true father.
During the 1880s, Maupassant's health declined, largely as a result of syphilis, which he had contracted in the 1870s but which physicians had not diagnosed. Following an unsuccessful suicide attempt on January 2, 1892, Maupassant was placed in a sanitarium. He died a year and a half later of complications from the disease.
Guy de Maupassant is generally considered being the greatest French writer of short stories. Maupassant took the subjects for his pessimistic stories and novels chiefly from the Norman peasant life, the Franco-Prussian War, the behavior of the bourgeoisie, and the fashionable life of Paris. His short stories are characterized by their economy of style and the efficient way in which the various threads within them are neatly resolved.
During his last years of life, Maupassant suffered from mental illness.
His parents separated when he was 11 years old. Maupassant grew up in his native Normandy. He first entered a seminary, but deliberately managed to have himself expelled. From his early religious education he retained a marked hostility to religion.
In 1869 Maupassant started to study law in Paris, but soon, at age 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during Franco-Prussian War.
He hated to work and spent much of his free time in pursuit of women. During the 1880s Maupassant created some 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of verse.
On January 2, 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat and was committed to the celebrated private asylum in Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893.

Some of his Short Stories are as follows.

The Beggar
The Blind Man
A Coward
The Cripple
The Diamond Necklace
The Donkey
The False Gems
A Family Affair
Farewell
The Father
Friend Joseph
The Gamekeeper
The Hand
The Impolite Sex
In the spring
In the Wood
The Inn
The Kiss
A Meeting
Miss Harriet
Moonlight
Mother and Son
My Wife
The Orphan
The Prisoners
The Thief
A Wedding Gift


Sources
1. www.bookrags.com/The_Necklace - United States -05.12.2010
2. www.enotes.com/necklace/author-biography -05.12.2010
3. www.booksfactory.com/writers/maupassant.htm 05.12.2010
4. Web site-1 www.aloysiusdn.com
5. Web site-2 dnaloysius.blogspot.com

D.N. Aloysius
Lecturer in English
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Bhiksu University- Anuradhapura/Cetificate/Personal Experience

The purpose of a personal experience essay is to share and elaborate on an appealing experience from your life. A personal essay is sometimes even called a life experience essay and can be difficult to write for many students.
A personal experience essay focuses on your experience and the importance of that experience and impact that it has on you.
The outline of a personal experience essay follows the common structure for all the essays. Your essay on experience starts with an introduction, then the main body and finally summing up the ideas in the conclusion. Try and describe the events and experiences in the chronological order in, as it allows you to present experiences as they happened.
To make your personal experience essay exciting you should start with choosing the relevant experience to base your essay upon. Describe a situation that you consider to be crucial in your development.
You may think that you have no appropriate event or experience to share, but everyone has something that shaped who they are. Whatever topic you decide on, keep in mind that your aim is to convey its importance to the audience. Your narration should give a deep insight into the details of the event and the readers must gain some meaning why this specific experience is so remarkable to you.
Writing a personal experience essay gives you the freedom of style in composing the essay. The main thing about the style is that it must help communicate the story to the readers most efficiently.
Don't open your essay with too general statements, make it as close to the situation as possible. Then quickly jump to developing your story in the body. The main part of the
Activity-1
1. Read the above instructions and speak about one of your personal experiences.
2. After speaking about it, you can write about it.
Activity-2
Imagine such a personal experience and develop the following sentence into an interesting story.
Suddenly, a tall, fat and dark man began to run behind me. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
1. www.bestessays.com/personal_experienc-02.12.2010
2. Web site-1 www.aloysiusdn.com
3. Web site-2 dnaloysius.blogspot.com


D.N. Aloysius
05.12.2010

Bhiksu University- Anuradhapura/Diploma/Stench of Kerosene/Amrita Pritam

"Stench of Kerosene’, authored by Amrita Pritam, is a tale of suffering and injustice in the rural areas of India. The author tries to relate the life of a young Indian wife to the reader in such a way that it leaves them feeling pity and remorse for her. Within it, there are elements of superstition, superiority, sexism and ancient traditions. Evidently, the portrayal of Indian culture is not one that may be easily accepted by most western societies as it reveals the actuality of Hindu culture in its extreme. It illustrates how harsh it can be, especially towards the gentler sex.

The story opens with Guleri heeding to the call of a horse; ' The mare was from her parents' village. She put her neck against its neck as if it were the door to her parents' house.' In this line the mare metaphorically represents her parents and her love for them, therefore as soon as she hears it coming she ' ran out of the house.

The story ends with the suicide of Guleri and the last time Manak saw her was on the day she left. The story ending for Manak is unfortunate as he loses his first wife and then disowns his new son with his second wife, of whom we do not know the name. The story ended as it did because of three main complications, the introduction of the second wife, the death of Guleri, and most importantly, when Manak stayed quiet when arguing with his mother. This was crucial and also show the importance of tradition in India, as children should never under any circumstances reply angrily to their parents.

Amrita Pritam (1919-2005)




Born in Gujranwala in a part of India which later became Pakistan. She was the only child of a school teacher and a poet. Her mother died when she was eleven and she grew up with adult responsibilities. She began to write at an early age, and her first collection was published when she was only sixteen years old, the year she married an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood.
In 1947 at the time of the Partition she moved to New Delhi, where she began to write in Hindi as opposed to Punjabi, her mother tongue. She worked until 1961 for All India Radio. She was divorced in 1960 and since then her work has become more explicitly feminist, drawing on her unhappy marriage in many of her stories and poems.
She had the rare gift of ability to give tender expression to human sorrow and alienation. She wrote with courage and without any inhibitions. She witnessed the human tragedy of Partition of India and aftermath, and portrayed its pathos the degradation of human spirit it caused in her literary works. A number of her works have been translated into English, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp, bears a stamp of her creativity sensitivity, and the transparency.
Amrita Pritam was awarded the prestigious Jnanapeeth in 1982. Her other works include "Pinjar", "Village No. 36", and "Stench of Kerosene" (translated by Khushwant Singh).
Sources
1. www.123helpme.com/preview
2. www.coursework.info/GCSE/English
3. Web site-1 www.aloysiusdn.com
4. Web site-2 dnaloysius.blogspot.com

D.N. Aloysius
05.12.2010

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University-Anuradhapura/Preliminary Course in English

Activity-1
1. Read the following daily routine. It is incomplete. Complete it.
My Daily Routine
I am a student. So I spend the day in a simple way. I get up from bed early in the morning. First, I do my morning duties. I wash my face and brush my teeth. I take great care of my teeth, because bad teeth are a sign of bad health. Then, I take a little physical exercise. After taking exercise, I go out for a walk in the open field. There, I breathe pure morning air. My mind and body are both refreshed. Then, I return home.
After breakfast, I sit down to prepare my school tasks. I have no tutor. My father teaches me now and then. My elder brother also helps me if he finds time. I finish my studies at about 6.00 a.m. Then, I get ready for bath. I rub my body well with oil. This is good for health. I bathe in a pond near our house. I can swim well. But, my time is short. So, I swim only for a short time. I rub my body with a towel. I enjoy the bath very much. Finishing my bath, I dress myself and sit down to my meal. When the meal is over, I take a little rest and then start for school with my books. On the way, I often meet some of my classmates and together we go to school.
The classes begin at7.30a.m. I am never late in attending school. We have got eight periods. Different subjects are taught during these periods. I always try to listen to my teachers in the class. After the fourth period, we get half an hour for recreation and tea. I take some tea and play with my friends. The school closes at 1.30 p.m. I do not wait a minute after school hours. I come back home quickly without stopping on the way.
Returning home, I put my books in the proper place. After that, I put off my school dress. After washing my hands and feet, I take my lunch. I do not read in the afternoon. So after taking my meals, I go out to play. I am very fond of playing football. I also play cricket. Usually, I return home before it is dark. Sometimes, I am late and my father blames me for that. On returning------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity-2
Write about your daily routine and speak about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
www.oppapers.com/subjects/students-da...22.11.210

D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
23.11.2010

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University-Anuradhapura/Certificate Course in English

Giving simple instructions
There are two parts in giving instructions. They are sequencers and actions.
Sequencers are the words that help order your instructions
It is like the 1, 2, 3, and 4 of your actions.
The most common are
First(ly)... Then... Next... After that... Finally...Thereafter
How to make a cup of coffee
First, you need to buy some coffee and a coffee maker.
Then, you have to put the water into the bottom of the coffee maker.
You needn't boil water. Cold water is fine.
Next, you have to put the coffee in the coffee compartment and screw the top of coffee maker on.
After that, you need to put the coffee pot onto the stove.
Then, turn the stove high and wait. You don't have to move the coffee pot.
When the water boils and goes into the upper part of the pot, you then have to remove the pot from the heat.
Finally, you pour some coffee into a cup, add sugar and milk and enjoy.

Giving directions
(First,) go down this street (for ____100 meters).
(Then,) turn left/right at the traffic light.
(After that,) go straight on _____ Street until you get to the ______.
(When you get to the _____,) turn left/right again.
(Then,) stay on_______Avenue for about _______ yards/meters.
It's on your left, next to the __________. You can't miss it!

1. Excuse me. Is there a grocery store around here?
2. Can you tell me how to go there?
3. Where's William Leather Shop?
4. How do you get to the bank? Yes, there’s one right across the street./
I am Sorry. I don't live around here.
It's on the corner of Bank Town, next to the library.
Go straight down this street for 100 meters. Turn left when you get to Main Street. It's on the left hand side.
Activity-1
Give instructions for preparing milk rice.

Activity-2
Give directions to a person, who wants to go to the post office from the old bus stand, Anuradhapura.

D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
23.11.2010

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University-Anuradhapura/Diploma Course in English/Diploma

What is a short story?
A short story is a fictional work of prose that is shorter in length than a novel. Edgar Allan Poe, in his essay The Philosophy of Composition, said that a short story should be read in one sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. In contemporary fiction, a short story can range from 1,000 to 20,000 words.
Because of the shorter length, a short story usually focuses on one plot, one main character (with a few additional minor characters), and one central theme, whereas a novel can tackle multiple plots and themes, with a variety of prominent characters. Short stories also lend themselves more to experimentation — that is, using uncommon prose styles or literary devices to tell the story. Such uncommon styles or devices might get tedious and downright annoying, in a novel, but they may work well in a short story.
Definition of the short story
Definition-1
A short story is a “short piece of fiction aiming at unity of characterization, theme and effect.
Definition-2
The authors of the modern English short story, no longer attempt to make daily life more entertaining by inventing exotic plots. Instead, modern short story writers have tended to base their narratives on their own experience; here the focus is much more on the less spectacular aspects of life, on the significance underlying what is apparently trivial. The result of such perceptive writing is perfection of form, harmony of theme and structure, and precision of style to reveal the subtleties of the human mind and of human behaviour.
Definition-3
Many attempts have been made to define the short story. But, on a few points at least, the opinion of most critics is unanimous. This does not imply that the literary form of the American short story can be set up in a rigid way. It has undergone and will probably still undergo many changes as the literary taste and demands of the reading public also change in the course of time with new outlooks on life.
What are some of the elements that make up a good story?
• A short story is a piece of prose fiction which can be read at a single sitting.
• It ought to combine matter-of-fact description with poetic atmosphere.
• It ought to present a unified impression of temper, tone, colour, and effect.
• It mostly shows a decisive moment of life (which can entail a fatal blow).
• There is often little action, hardly any character development, but we get a snapshot of life.
• Its plot is not very complex (in contrast to the novel), but it creates a unified impression and leaves us with a vivid sensation rather than a number of remembered facts.
• There is a close connection between the short story and the poem as there is both a unique union of idea and structure.
• The short story is a piece of art that tries to give us a specified impression of the world we live in. It aims to produce a single narrative effect with the greatest economy of means and utmost emphasis.
• Anton Chekhov
Short story is a slice of life.
• Invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few characters and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot.


Activity-1
• Write your own short story.
• Find more information about the short story.
• Develop the following sentence into a short story.
I never expected her arrival, but …
• Read the short story, The Stench of Kerosene by Amrita Pritam and comment on it.
• Collection of Short Stories (Group Activity) (Written by the students of the Diploma Course-2010)- Assignment for the students

D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Do this activities and email them to aloysiusrjt@mail.com

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University Anuradhapura-Certificate Course in English-2010

Read the following daily routine and write your one. Before writing, you should speak about it with your friend.

It seems my life is always full of activities and obligations. So, I never have much time for myself. During the week, it is the worst. I usually have to get up at half past six even though I would really prefer to sleep much later. After I get up, I perform my morning routine of washing my face, brushing my teeth, and then deciding what to wear. After I get dressed, I brush my hair. I usually don’t have time for breakfast in the morning because I have to catch a bus at seven o’clock to go to school. The bus is usually completely packed and it really makes me uncomfortable. Classes at school start at a quarter to eight except on Tuesdays when they start at seven. Each class has its own timetable. Classes are forty-five minutes long with ten minute breaks, except for one long break between the third and the fourth classes, which is twenty minutes long.
My classes take place either in our classroom or in various labs or a gym. After our classes, the students usually go for lunch to the canteen. Some students in their third and fourth year have afternoon classes, seminars, optional after-school activities or driving lessons.
After school, I sometimes go shopping or just walk around the town for a while. When I get home, I like to relax for some time; I listen to the radio and watch television. Then, I start my homework or help with some housework.
In my family, we usually eat dinner at about eight o’clock. At dinner, we discuss what happened during the day. After that, I help clean up the dinner dishes and have a shower or have a bath myself. Then, I have some time to watch the TV news. Sometimes, I watch an interesting film or music program on TV. Sometimes, I like to go downtown to see a movie or to go to a concert with my friends. About every other day, I have a date with my boyfriend. Sometimes, he comes to watch TV at my home or we might go out for a walk. I usually manage to go to bed around eleven p.m.
So this is my daily routine during the week. During the weekend, it is a different story. I like to sleep late and do whatever I wish with my free time. I am still expected to help my parents out around the house, but I still have most of the time for myself and my interests. I can go for a trip with my friends, I can visit my relatives or I can devote more time to my hobbies. I think everyone will agree that weekends are much better than weekdays.

Activity-2

Write a dialogue about your daily routine. Before writing, you should speak.
A Hello! Good morning. I would like to know about your daily routine.
B Good morning! I usually get up at 5.00 a.m.
A After that, what do you do?
B -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

B -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

B -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

B -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University- External English Courses-2010/Preliminary /Writing

Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University
Anuradhapura
Preliminary Course in English
2010

28.11.2010
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-________________________________________________________________________________
Activity-1

Read the following daily routine. It is incomplete. Complete it.

My Daily Routine

I am a student. So I spend the day in a simple way. I get up from bed early in the morning. First, I do my morning duties. I wash my face and brush my teeth. I take great care of my teeth, because bad teeth are a sign of bad health. Then, I take a little physical exercise. After taking exercise, I go out for a walk in the open field. There, I breathe pure morning air. My mind and body are both refreshed. Then, I return home. I say my short prayer.
After breakfast, I sit down to prepare my school tasks. I have no tutor. My father teaches me now and then. My elder brother also helps me if he finds time. I finish my studies at about 6.00 a.m. Then, I get ready for bath. I rub my body well with oil. This is good for health. I bathe in a pond near our house. I can swim well. But, my time is short. So, I swim only for a short time. I rub my body with a towel. I enjoy the bath very much. Finishing my bath, I dress myself and sit down to my meal. When the meal is over, I take a little rest and then start for school with my books. On the way, I often meet some of my classmates and together we go to school.
The classes begin at eleven. I am never late in attending school. We have got eight periods. Different subjects are taught during these periods. I always try to listen to my teachers in the class. After the fourth period, we get half an hour for recreation and tea. I take some tea and play with my friends. The school closes at 1.30 p.m. I do not wait a minute after school hours. I come back home quickly without stopping on the way.
Returning home, I put my books in the proper place. After that, I put off my school dress. After washing my hands and feet, I take my lunch. I do not read in the afternoon. So after taking my meals, I go out to play. I am very fond of playing football. I also play cricket. Usually, I return home before it is dark. Sometimes, I am late and my father blames me for that. On returning------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity-2
Write about your daily routine. Then speak about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
www.oppapers.com/subjects/students-da...22.11.210
D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Do the above activities and email to aloysiusrjt@gmail.com

General English- Jimmy and Joni

Jimmy please say you wait for me
I grow up someday you see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love forever true.

Joni was the girl who lived next door
I've known her I guess ten years or more.
Joni wrote me a note one day.
And this is what she had to say.

Jimmy please say you wait for me
I grow up someday you see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love forever true.

Slowly I read her note once more
I went over to the house next door
Her tear-drops fell like rain that day
When I told Joni what I had to say.

Joni, Joni please don't cry
You forget me by and by
You're just fifteen and I'm twenty two,
and Joni I just can’t wait for you.

Soon I left our little home town,
Got me a job and tried to settle down
But these words kept haunting my memory,
the words that Joni said to me.

Jimmy please say you wait for me
I grow up some day you see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love forever true.

I packed my clothes and I caught a plane
and I had to see Joni. I had to explain,
how my heart was filled with her memory
and ask my Joni if she'd marry me

I ran all the way to the house next door
but things weren't like they were before
My tear-drops fell like rain that day
When I heard what Joni had to say.

Jimmy, Jimmy please don't cry
You forget me by and by.
It's been five years since you've been gone
Jimmy, I - (married) - your best friend John.


D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
22.11.2010

Activity

Read the above song and speak and write about it.

General English -Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Naval Pay Office. He had a poor head for finances, and in 1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren's Blacking Factory, joined him in the Marshal Sea Prison. When the family finances were put at least partly to rights and his father was released, the twelve-year-old Dickens, already scarred psychologically by the experience, was further wounded by his mother's insistence that he continue to work at the factory. His father, however, rescued him from that fate, and between 1824 and 1827 Dickens was a day pupil at a school in London. At fifteen, he found employment as an office boy at an attorney's, while he studied shorthand at night. His brief stint at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life — he spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster — but the dark secret became a source both of creative energy and of the preoccupation with the themes of alienation and betrayal which would emerge, most notably, in David Copperfield and in Great Expectations.
In 1829 he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper.
In 1833 his relationship with Maria Beadnell ended, probably because her parents did not think him a good match (a not very flattering version of her would appear years later in Little Dorrit). In the same year his first published story appeared, and was followed, very shortly thereafter, by a number of other stories and sketches. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter; he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym "Boz." His impecunious father (who was the original of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield, as Dickens's mother was the original for the querulous Mrs. Nickleby) was once again arrested for debt, and Charles, much to his chagrin, was forced to come to his aid. Later in his life both of his parents (and his brothers) were frequently after him for money. In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth.
The first series of Sketches by Boz was published in 1836, and that same year Dickens was hired to write short texts to accompany a series of humorous sporting illustrations by Robert Seymour, a popular artist. Seymour committed suicide after the second number, however, and under these peculiar circumstances Dickens altered the initial conception of The Pickwick Papers , which became a novel (illustrated by Hablot K. Browne, "Phiz," whose association with Dickens would continue for many years). The Pickwick Papers continued in monthly parts through November 1837, and, to everyone's surprise, it became an enormous popular success. Dickens proceeded to marry Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836, and during the same year he became editor of Bentley's Miscellany, published (in December) the second series of Sketches by Boz, and met John Forster, who would become his closest friend and confidant as well as his first biographer.
After the success of Pickwick, Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist, producing work of increasing complexity at an incredible rate, although he continued, as well, his journalistic and editorial activities. Oliver Twist was begun in 1837, and continued in monthly parts until April 1839. It was in 1837, too, that Catherine's younger sister Mary, whom Dickens idolized, died. She too would appear, in various guises, in Dickens's later fiction. A son, Charles, the first of ten children, was born in the same year.
Nicholas Nickleby got underway in 1838, and continued through October 1839, in which year Dickens resigned as editor of Bentley's Miscellany. The first number of Master Humphrey's Clock appeared in 1840, and The Old Curiosity Shop, begun in Master Humphrey, continued through February 1841, when Dickens commenced Barnaby Rudge, which continued through November of that year. In 1842 he embarked on a visit to Canada and the United States in which he advocated international copyright (unscrupulous American publishers, in particular, were pirating his works) and the abolition of slavery. His American Notes, which created a furor in America (he commented unfavorably, for one thing, on the apparently universal — and, so far as Dickens was concerned, highly distasteful — American predilection for chewing tobacco and spitting the juice), appeared in October of that year. Martin Chuzzlewit, part of which was set in a not very flatteringly portrayed America, was begun in 1843, and ran through July 1844. A Christmas Carol, the first of Dickens's enormously successful Christmas books — each, though they grew progressively darker, intended as "a whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forbearing thoughts" — appeared in December 1844.
In that same year, Dickens and his family toured Italy, and were much abroad, in Italy, Switzerland, and France, until 1847. Dickens returned to London in December 1844, when The Chimes was published, and then went back to Italy, not to return to England until July of 1845. 1845 also brought the debut of Dickens's amateur theatrical company, which would occupy a great deal of his time from then on. The Cricket and the Hearth, a third Christmas book, was published in December, and his Pictures From Italy appeared in 1846 in the "Daily News," a paper which Dickens founded and of which, for a short time, he was the editor.
In 1847, in Switzerland, Dickens began Dombey and Son, which ran until April 1848. The Battle of Life appeared in December of that year. In 1848 Dickens also wrote an autobiographical fragment, directed and acted in a number of amateur theatricals, and published what would be his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man, in December. 1849 saw the birth of David Copperfield, which would run through November 1850. In that year, too, Dickens founded and installed himself as editor of the weekly Household Words, which would be succeeded, in 1859, by All the Year Round, which he edited until his death. 1851 found him at work on Bleak House, which appeared monthly from 1852 until September 1853.
In 1853 he toured Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, and gave, upon his return to England, the first of many public readings from his own works. Hard Times began to appear weekly in Household Words in 1854, and continued until August. Dickens's family spent the summer and the fall in Boulogne. In 1855 they arrived in Paris in October, and Dickens began Little Dorrit, which continued in monthly parts until June 1857. In 1856 Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on a play, The Frozen Deep, and Dickens purchased Gad's Hill, an estate he had admired since childhood.
The Dickens family spent the summer of 1857 at a renovated Gad's Hill. Hans Christian Anderson, whose fairy tales Dickens admired greatly, visited them there and quickly wore out his welcome. Dickens's theatrical company performed The Frozen Deep for the Queen, and when a young actress named Ellen Ternan joined the cast in August, Dickens fell in love with her. In 1858, in London, Dickens undertook his first public readings for pay, and quarreled with his old friend and rival, the great novelist Thackeray. More importantly, it was in that year that, after a long period of difficulties, he separated from his wife. They had been for many years "temperamentally unsuited" to each other. Dickens, charming and brilliant though he was, was also fundamentally insecure emotionally, and must have been extraordinarily difficult to live with.
In 1859 his London readings continued, and he began a new weekly, All the Year Round. The first installment of A Tale of Two Cities appeared in the opening number, and the novel continued through November. By 1860, the Dickens family had taken up residence at Gad's Hill. Dickens, during a period of retrospection, burned many personal letters, and re-read his own David Copperfield, the most autobiographical of his novels, before beginning Great Expectations, which appeared weekly until August 1861.
1861 found Dickens embarking upon another series of public readings in London, readings which would continue through the next year. In 1863, he did public readings both in Paris and London, and reconciled with Thackeray just before the latter's death. Our Mutual Friend was begun in 1864, and appeared monthly until November 1865. Dickens was in poor health, due largely to consistent overwork.
In 1865, an incident which occurred disturbed Dickens greatly, both psychologically and physically: Dickens and Ellen Ternan, returning from a Paris holiday, were badly shaken up in a railway accident in which a number of people were injured.
1866 brought another series of public readings, this time in various locations in England and Scotland, and still more public readings, in England and Ireland, were undertaken in 1867. Dickens was now really unwell but carried on, compulsively, against his doctor's advice. Late in the year he embarked on an American reading tour, which continued into 1868. Dickens's health was worsening, but he took over still another physically and mentally exhausting task, editorial duties at All the Year Round.
During 1869, his readings continued, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, until at last he collapsed, showing symptoms of mild stroke. Further provincial readings were cancelled, but he began upon The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Dickens's final public readings took place in London in 1870. He suffered another stroke on June 8 at Gad's Hill, after a full day's work on Edwin Drood, and died the next day. He was buried at Westminster Abbey on June 14, and the last episode of the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood appeared in September.
Sources
www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens

D.N. Aloysius
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
22.11.2010

Activity
Read the above article on Charles Dickens and speak and write about him.

Road Accidents-External Degree (English) University of Sri Jayawardenepura

You are required to conduct a research to find out the reasons for the increase in road accidents. Write a report based on your findings including your recommendations on how to reduce the number of road accidents.

Many road accidents are reported to have occurred in the island during the past few months. According to the recent police reports, the number of road accidents has increased in comparison to the previous year. It is found that many reasons contribute to this situation. We should, therefore, initiate effective measures to reduce the number of road accidents.
As pointed out earlier, there are many reasons for road accidents. Some of them are recklessness, drunkenness, lack of knowledge of the Highway Code and violating it, using mobile phones, poor condition of the roads and vehicles, ignorance of safety methods such as wearing helmets and using seat belts, unprotected railway gates and inexperienced driving.
In accordance with the research, it is apparent that immediate measures should be taken to minimize the number of road accidents. Hence, it is recommended that the prevalent traffic law should be properly implemented. Penalty and punishment should also be increased. It is the duty of the relevant authorities to check the conditions of the vehicles and recommend them for running. It is also recommended that the Highway Code should be revised.
In conclusion, it is now obvious that there are many reasons for the increasing number of road accidents in the country. It is, therefore, necessary for the authorities concerned to implement the above recommendations immediately in order to prevent the road accidents.

D.N. Aloysius

Avarice By George Herbert-GCE-A/L

MONEY, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe,
Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine?
I know thy parentage is base and low:
Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine.

Surely thou didst so little contribute
To this great kingdom, which thou now hast got,
That he was fain, when thou wert destitute,
To dig thee out of thy dark cave and grot.

Then forcing thee, by fire he made thee bright :
Nay, thou hast got the face of man; for we
Have with our stamp and seal transferr'd our right :
Thou art the man, and man but dross to thee.

Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich ;
And while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch.

Avarice is a poem composed by George Herbert, who is a metaphysical poet. It is about money. Here, money means gold.The process whereby metal is transferred from its 'cave or grot' and hammered into coins and then there is a process by which money is hammered with man's face. According to George Herbert money is given a face, a stamp, a right to command the labor of men and the produce of the earth. We make money both physically and through our consent- we turn it into something that has value. When we possess money, we think that we are wealthy, but as Herbert points out in his ironic last line, the value of money is perpetual and our possession of it is ephemeral.
Herbert draws our attention to it because he wants us to see that the consent and contract upheld by the state can become a competitor to his own view that humanity is a God driven and purposed entity. If our priorities are only heavenly- and if you strictly believe the words of the Bible how else can they be- then money and the whole apparatus that protects earthly happiness (the state itself) is a disguise- a disguise that may lead to doom. Christ of course turned down the kingdoms of the world and Herbert is suggesting that we too should turn down money that cannot accompany us when we drop into our ditch and that is a 'bane of bliss and source of woe'. Money and government are the insignia of sin: not merely in the sense for Herbert that they perpetuate sin (the Rousseauian and Marxist point) but that merely by existing they are the definition of sin, they create a goal, a God to worship over God.
Money in Herbert's vision is only valued as an expression of man's intentions- his earthly desires. Herbert of course believes that fallen man can never achieve any happiness- money is thus a source of woe and bane of bliss because it is created by man and not by God. Herbert's title is crucial to interpreting the poem- by calling this Avarice he wants us to analyze the poem in the Augustinian way that I have done. What Herbert offers us as a definition of Avarice is a poetic definition of money and that poetic definition of money ties money right into the political acts of consent that create it. You don't have to endorse Herbert's view of the world- Augustinian and profoundly Christian- to understand the power of his point. His argument is that Caesar and Christ can never be followed together: render unto Caesar what is Caesar's- the coin of the empire (and remember at this point England is an 'empire entire to itself') and render unto God what is God's (the soul). Too much preoccupation with the former leads to a neglect of the latter and consequently what Herbert argues for here is both quietist and revolutionary: he does not argue for a new kind of politics or economics, he argues against politics and economics as ways of thinking about human kind.
It is worth considering this, even if you disagree with Herbert's line of thinking, because what it reminds us is how secular modern politics actually is. Everyone today is a secularist in Herbert's view. Herbert did not see a political system as evil- he saw political systems in themselves as a perversion of the higher aims that we all should have. Money for him is a part of the political world- it is created by consent after all- raised to become a King. But his argument is that as soon as we care about money, we lose the ability to care about God. I do not agree with this position- but it is worth understanding that it exists. Herbert's world view is more foreign from that of Newt Gingrich than Karl Marx's world view is, because it denies the very legitimacy of any argument about political systems or political entities save as a pathway to heaven. This radical Christian impulse- and it is shared in other religions- is an important strand in the theology of politics: in a sense it goes back to Augustine for whom the civitate mundi was filled with conflict and destruction, the civitate dei was the only refuge. Herbert would have endorsed that.
Sources
gracchii.blogspot.com/2009/03/avarice-21.11.2010

Diploma in Business Economics-Business Communication

Hi, Students of Diploma in Business Economics,
You will be able to visit my web site and get information regarding my subject, Business Communication after each lecture. Once you complete 30 hours with me, you will get all information. Please note that you won’t be able to get all notes at once. You have to wait till the lessons are completed. At the end of the lecture series, you will be able to purchase my book on Business Communication.

Wish you all the best!
D.N. Aloysius

Diploma in Business Economics-Business Communication

Business Communication
Presented
by
D.N. Aloysius
Introduction to Business communication
Oral communication
Written communication
Oral communication
Interviews
Telephone conversations
Speaking to customers
Welcome address
Vote of thanks
Introducing people
Introducing your products
Discussions
Meetings/Staff meetings
Business Economics Association Meeting
Presentation skills
Power point presentation
Panel discussions
Giving directions to find a place
Giving directions to do an official activity
Written communication
Curriculum vitae/bio data/resume/CV
Covering letter
Letter of application
Calling letter for an interview
Letter of appointment
Letter of assuming duties
Letter of informing of meetings or programs
Letter of postponing or cancelling meetings
Letters asking for leave
Letters seeking permission to leave the office
Invitations/accepting and refusing invitations
Letter of thanks
Letter of congratulations
Letter of apology
Letter of request/Letter of reply to a request
Letter of inquiry/ Letter of reply to an inquiry
Letter of complaint/Letter of reply to a complaint
Letter of appeal
Letter asking for a transfer
Letter of recommendation
Service certificates
Testimonials/character certificates
Reminders
Agendas
Minutes
Notices/memos
Reports
Newsletters
Acknowledgements
Articles to newspapers and magazines
Publishing a magazine

Business Communication-Diploma in Business Economics

Introduction to Business communication
Business communication means the communication between the people in the organization for the purpose of carrying out the business activities. It may be oral or written etc.
A business can flourish when all the targets of the organization are achieved effectively. For efficiency in an organization all the people within and outside of the organization must be able to convey their message properly. The exchange of ideas, understanding, within and outside the organization to achieve the business goals is known as business communication.

Building the business communication infrastructure
In business communication the use of emails, memos and letters should be written in a way that produces the best results. You should use the tone and level of formality that fits the objectives and the reader, and convey you thoughts in a concise and intelligent way.

Holding Regular Meetings
In addition to emails and letters, meetings also play a vital role in business communication. In any organization, meetings are vital part of the organization of work and the flow of information. They act as a mechanism for gathering together resources from many sources and pooling then towards a common objective. Employees generally dislike this type of get-together because they are usually futile, boring, time wasting, dull, and inconvenient.
Your challenge is to break this attitude and to make your meetings effective. As with every other managed activity, meetings should be planned beforehand, monitored during for effectiveness, and reviewed afterwards for improvement. A meeting is the ultimate form of business communication. One can organize the information and structure of the meeting to support the effective communication of the participants.
No manager can be effective in his job unless he is able to communicate. It is the most essential single skill.
Business communication is a tool that allows you to improve the performance of your employees, it allows you to improve the performance of the teams within your company, and it allows you to improve the performance of your entire organization, all with the common purpose to execute the organization’s strategy, reach its vision, and fulfill its mission.
Business communication is used to promote a product, service, or organization; relay information within the business; or deal with legal and similar issues. It is also a means of relaying between a supply chain, for example the consumer and manufacturer.
Business Communication encompasses a variety of topics, including Marketing, Branding, Customer relations, Consumer behavior, Advertising, Public relations, Corporate communication, Community engagement, Research & Measurement, Reputation management, Interpersonal communication, Employee engagement, Online communication, and Event management. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication.
In business, the term communication encompasses various channels of communication, including the Internet, Print (Publications), Radio, Television, Outdoor, and Word of mouth.
Business Communication can also refer to internal communication. A communications director will typically manage internal communication and craft messages sent to employees. It is vital that internal communications are managed properly because a poorly crafted or managed message could foster distrust or hostility from employees.
There are several methods of business communication, including:
• Web-based communication - for better and improved communication, anytime anywhere ...
• Video conferencing which allow people in different locations to hold interactive meetings;
• e-mails, which provide an instantaneous medium of written communication worldwide;
• Reports - important in documenting the activities of any department;
• Presentations - very popular method of communication in all types of organizations, usually involving audiovisual material, like copies of reports, or material prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe Flash;
• T meetings, which allow for long distance speech;
• Forum boards, which allow people to instantly post information at a centralized location; and
• Face-to-face meetings, which are personal and should be succeeded by a written follow-up.
Business communication is somewhat different and unique rather from other type of communication since the purpose of business is to get profit. Thus, to make good way for profit the communicator should develop good communication skills. Everyone knows that in the present day trends the knowledge alone won’t be a fruitful one to have sustainable development. By knowing the importance of communication many organizations started training their employees in betterment of communication techniques.
Essentially due to globalization the world has become a global village. Thus, here the importance of cross cultural communication plays a vital role. Since each and every nation has their own meaning for each and every non verbal actions.
The way we appear speaks a lot about us in business communication. A neat appearance is half done verbal communication. But, developing communication is not a day’s work, it needs constant yearly practice. There are several ways to get trained in excelling business communication.
• by our own
• by practicing from trainers
• by internet contents
• by books

References:
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_communication-18.11.2010
2. www.hodu.com/business-communication-menu.html-18.11.2010


D.N. Aloysius
aloysiusrjt@gmail.com
dnaloysius.blogspot.com


• Business Ethics
• Business and Workplace Etiquette
• Business Writing Skills
• Communication in the Workplace
• Conflict Resolution
• Creative Thinking
• Crisis Management
• Cross Cultural Communication
• Customer Relations
• Effective Meetings
• Job-hunting Skills
• Management Strategies
• Marketing Communication
• Negotiating Skills
• Networking in Business
• Presentation Skills
• Team Building
• Technology and Human Communication: The Interface
• Telephone Marketing and Skills

History of English Literature

William Shakespeare
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. In other words, English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. In academia, the term often labels departments and programmes practising English studies in secondary and tertiary educational systems. Despite the variety of authors of English literature, the works of William Shakespeare remain paramount throughout the English-speaking world.
This article primarily deals with some of the literature from Britain written in English. For literature from specific English-speaking regions, consult the see also section, bottom of the page.
Contents [hide]
1 Old English
2 Middle English literature
3 Renaissance literature
4 Early Modern period
4.1 Elizabethan Era
4.2 Jacobean literature
4.3 Caroline and Cromwellian literature
4.4 Restoration literature
4.5 Augustan literature
5 18th century
6 Romanticism
7 Victorian literature
8 Modernism
9 Post-modern literature
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit]Old English

Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature
The first works in English, written in Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages (the oldest surviving text is Cædmon's Hymn). The oral tradition was very strong in the early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were thus very popular and many, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day in the rich corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature that closely resemble today's Icelandic, Norwegian, North Frisian and the Northumbrian and Scots English dialects of modern English. Much Old English verse in the extant manuscripts is probably a "milder" adaptation of the earlier Germanic war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another, and the constant presence of alliterative verse, or consonant rhyme (today's newspaper headlines and marketing abundantly use this technique such as in Big is Better) helped the Anglo-Saxon peoples remember it. Such rhyme is a feature of Germanic languages and is opposed to vocalic or end-rhyme of Romance languages. But the first written literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit to needs of Christian readers.
[edit]Middle English literature

Main article: Middle English literature
In the 12th century, a new form of English now known as Middle English evolved. This is the earliest form of English literature which is comprehensible to modern readers and listeners, albeit not easily. Middle English lasts up until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, became widespread and the printing press regularized the language. Middle English Bible translations, notably Wyclif's Bible, helped to establish English as a literary language.


Geoffrey Chaucer
There are three main categories of Middle English Literature: Religious, Courtly love, and Arthurian. William Langland's Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (most likely by the Pearl Poet) during the Middle Ages. It is also the first allusion to a literary tradition of the legendary English archer, swordsman, and outlaw Robin Hood.
The most significant Middle English author was Geoffrey Chaucer who was active in the late 14th century. Often regarded as the father of English literature, Chaucer is widely credited as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin. The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus, and a towering achievement of Western culture. The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules 1382.[1]
The multilingual audience for literature in the 14th century can be illustrated by the example of John Gower, who wrote in Latin, Middle English and Anglo-Norman.
Among the many religious works are those in the Katherine Group and the writings of Julian of Norwich and Richard Rolle.
Since at least the 14th century, poetry in English has been written in Ireland and by Irish writers abroad. The earliest poem in English by a Welsh poet dates from about 1470.
[edit]Renaissance literature

Main article: English Renaissance
Following the introduction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the production of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer, a lasting influence on literary English language. The poetry, drama, and prose produced under both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I constitute what is today labelled as Early modern (or Renaissance).
[edit]Early Modern period

Further information: Early Modern English and Early Modern Britain
[edit]Elizabethan Era
Main article: Elizabethan literature
Further information: Canons of Renaissance poetry
The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama. The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages. The Italians were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher, the tutor of Nero) and Plautus (its comic clichés, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and after). However, the Italian tragedies embraced a principle contrary to Seneca's ethics: showing blood and violence on the stage. In Seneca's plays such scenes were only acted by the characters. But the English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community of Italian actors had settled in London and Giovanni Florio had brought much of the Italian language and culture to England. It is also true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent age and that the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As a result, representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably more cathartic for the Elizabethan spectator. Following earlier Elizabethan plays such as Gorboduc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had only some grammar school education. He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the "university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" as Robert Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. Though most dramas met with great success, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I) that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch's model.
The sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion, became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. See English Madrigal School. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Had Marlowe (1564–1593) not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, says Anthony Burgess, he might have rivalled, if not equalled Shakespeare himself for his poetic gifts. Remarkably, he was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare and must have known him well. Marlowe's subject matter, though, is different: it focuses more on the moral drama of the renaissance man than any other thing. Marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on German lore, he introduced Dr. Faustus to England, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. He acquires supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but at the end of his twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender his soul to him. His dark heroes may have something of Marlowe himself, whose death remains a mystery. He was known for being an atheist, leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses, consorting with ruffians: living the 'high life' of London's underworld. But many suspect that this might have been a cover-up for his activities as a secret agent for Elizabeth I, hinting that the 'accidental stabbing' might have been a premeditated assassination by the enemies of The Crown. Beaumont and Fletcher are less-known, but it is almost sure that they helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were quite popular at the time. It is also at this time that the city comedy genre develops. In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical myths. The most important poets of this era include Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a product of Renaissance humanism, produced occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure.
[edit]Jacobean literature
After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages rather than to the Tudor Era: his characters embody the theory of humours. According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioral differences result from a prevalence of one of the body's four "humours" (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) over the other three; these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire, and earth. This leads Jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types, or clichés.
Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. His Volpone shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con-artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out its reward.
Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliant comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a mockery of the rising middle class and especially of those nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature at all. In the story, a couple of grocers wrangle with professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in a drama. He becomes a knight-errant wearing, appropriately, a burning pestle on his shield. Seeking to win a princess' heart, the young man is ridiculed much in the way Don Quixote was. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and that new social classes were on the rise.
Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman wrote a couple of subtle revenge tragedies, but must be remembered chiefly on account of his famous translation of Homer, one that had a profound influence on all future English literature, even inspiring John Keats to write one of his best sonnets.
The King James Bible, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale. It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time. This project was headed by James I himself, who supervised the work of forty-seven scholars. Although many other translations into English have been made, some of which are widely considered more accurate, many aesthetically prefer the King James Bible, whose meter is made to mimic the original Hebrew verse.
Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 17th century, the major poets of the early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach surprise effects. For example, in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", one of Donne's Songs and Sonnets, the points of a compass represent two lovers, the woman who is home, waiting, being the centre, the farther point being her lover sailing away from her. But the larger the distance, the more the hands of the compass lean to each other: separation makes love grow fonder. The paradox or the oxymoron is a constant in this poetry whose fears and anxieties also speak of a world of spiritual certainties shaken by the modern discoveries of geography and science, one that is no longer the centre of the universe. Apart from the metaphysical poetry of Donne, the 17th century is also celebrated for its Baroque poetry. Baroque poetry served the same ends as the art of the period; the Baroque style is lofty, sweeping, epic, and religious. Many of these poets have an overtly Catholic sensibility (namely Richard Crashaw) and wrote poetry for the Catholic counter-Reformation in order to establish a feeling of supremacy and mysticism that would ideally persuade newly emerging Protestant groups back toward Catholicism.
[edit]Caroline and Cromwellian literature
The turbulent years of the mid-17th century, during the reign of Charles I and the subsequent Commonwealth and Protectorate, saw a flourishing of political literature in English. Pamphlets written by sympathisers of every faction in the English civil war ran from vicious personal attacks and polemics, through many forms of propaganda, to high-minded schemes to reform the nation. Of the latter type, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes would prove to be one of the most important works of British political philosophy. Hobbes's writings are some of the few political works from the era which are still regularly published while John Bramhall, who was Hobbes's chief critic, is largely forgotten. The period also saw a flourishing of news books, the precursors to the British newspaper, with journalists such as Henry Muddiman, Marchamont Needham, and John Birkenhead representing the views and activities of the contending parties. The frequent arrests of authors and the suppression of their works, with the consequence of foreign or underground printing, led to the proposal of a licensing system. The Areopagitica, a political pamphlet by John Milton, was written in opposition to licensing and is regarded as one of the most eloquent defenses of press freedom ever written.
Specifically in the reign of Charles I (1625 – 42), English Renaissance theatre experienced its concluding efflorescence. The last works of Ben Jonson appeared on stage and in print, along with the final generation of major voices in the drama of the age: John Ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. With the closure of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, drama was suppressed for a generation, to resume only in the altered society of the English Restoration in 1660.
Other forms of literature written during this period are usually ascribed political subtexts, or their authors are grouped along political lines. The cavalier poets, active mainly before the civil war, owed much to the earlier school of metaphysical poets. The forced retirement of royalist officials after the execution of Charles I was a good thing in the case of Izaak Walton, as it gave him time to work on his book The Compleat Angler. Published in 1653, the book, ostensibly a guide to fishing, is much more: a meditation on life, leisure, and contentment. The two most important poets of Oliver Cromwell's England were Andrew Marvell and John Milton, with both producing works praising the new government; such as Marvell's An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Despite their republican beliefs they escaped punishment upon the Restoration of Charles II, after which Milton wrote some of his greatest poetical works (with any possible political message hidden under allegory). Thomas Browne was another writer of the period; a learned man with an extensive library, he wrote prolifically on science, religion, medicine and the esoteric.
[edit]Restoration literature
Main article: Restoration Literature
Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Two Treatises on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments of Robert Boyle and the holy meditations of Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. The official break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards under Cromwell's Puritan regime created a gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start for all forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attached to the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year old Charles II. The nobility who travelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent's literary scene. Charles spent his time attending plays in France, and he developed a taste for Spanish plays. Those nobles living in Holland began to learn about mercantile exchange as well as the tolerant, rationalist prose debates that circulated in that officially tolerant nation.
The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously. There were great dangers in being associated with a satire. On the one hand, defamation law was a wide net, and it was difficult for a satirist to avoid prosecution if he were proven to have written a piece that seemed to criticize a noble. On the other hand, wealthy individuals would respond to satire as often as not by having the suspected poet physically attacked by ruffians. John Dryden was set upon for being merely suspected of having written the Satire on Mankind. A consequence of this anonymity is that a great many poems, some of them of merit, are unpublished and largely unknown.
Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but the Restoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods: fiction and journalism. Religious writing often strayed into political and economic writing, just as political and economic writing implied or directly addressed religion. The Restoration was also the time when John Locke wrote many of his philosophical works. Locke's empiricism was an attempt at understanding the basis of human understanding itself and thereby devising a proper manner for making sound decisions. These same scientific methods led Locke to his three Treatises on Government, which later inspired the thinkers in the American Revolution. As with his work on understanding, Locke moves from the most basic units of society toward the more elaborate, and, like Thomas Hobbes, he emphasizes the plastic nature of the social contract. For an age that had seen absolute monarchy overthrown, democracy attempted, democracy corrupted, and limited monarchy restored, only a flexible basis for government could be satisfying. The Restoration moderated most of the more strident sectarian writing, but radicalism persisted after the Restoration. Puritan authors such as John Milton were forced to retire from public life or adapt, and those Digger, Fifth Monarchist, Leveller, Quaker, and Anabaptist authors who had preached against monarchy and who had participated directly in the regicide of Charles I were partially suppressed. Consequently, violent writings were forced underground, and many of those who had served in the Interregnum attenuated their positions in the Restoration. John Bunyan stands out beyond other religious authors of the period. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide to the Christian life. Instead of any focus on eschatology or divine retribution, Bunyan instead writes about how the individual saint can prevail against the temptations of mind and body that threaten damnation. The book is written in a straightforward narrative and shows influence from both drama and biography, and yet it also shows an awareness of the grand allegorical tradition found in Edmund Spenser. During the Restoration period, the most common manner of getting news would have been a broadsheet publication. A single, large sheet of paper might have a written, usually partisan, account of an event. However, the period saw the beginnings of the first professional and periodical (meaning that the publication was regular) journalism in England. Journalism develops late, generally around the time of William of Orange's claiming the throne in 1689. Coincidentally or by design, England began to have newspapers just when William came to court from Amsterdam, where there were already newspapers being published.
It is impossible to satisfactorily date the beginning of the novel in English. However, long fiction and fictional biographies began to distinguish themselves from other forms in England during the Restoration period. An existing tradition of Romance fiction in France and Spain was popular in England. The "Romance" was considered a feminine form, and women were taxed with reading "novels" as a vice. One of the most significant figures in the rise of the novel in the Restoration period is Aphra Behn. She was not only the first professional female novelist, but she may be among the first professional novelists of either sex in England. Behn's most famous novel was Oroonoko in 1688. This was a biography of an entirely fictional African king who had been enslaved in Suriname. Behn's novels show the influence of tragedy and her experiences as a dramatist.
As soon as the previous Puritan regime's ban on public stage representations was lifted, the drama recreated itself quickly and abundantly. The most famous plays of the early Restoration period are the unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden, William Wycherley, and George Etherege, which reflect the atmosphere at Court, and celebrate an aristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. After a sharp drop in both quality and quantity in the 1680s, the mid-90s saw a brief second flowering of the drama, especially comedy. Comedies like William Congreve's Love For Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700), and John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697) were "softer" and more middle-class in ethos, very different from the aristocratic extravaganza twenty years earlier, and aimed at a wider audience. The playwrights of the 1690s set out to appeal to more socially mixed audiences with a strong middle-class element, and to female spectators, for instance by moving the war between the sexes from the arena of intrigue into that of marriage. The focus in comedy is less on young lovers outwitting the older generation, more on marital relations after the wedding bells.
Diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys depicted everyday London life and the cultural scene of the times.
[edit]Augustan literature
Main article: Augustan literature
The term Augustan literature derives from authors of the 1720s and 1730s themselves, who responded to a term that George I of England preferred for himself. While George I meant the title to reflect his might, they instead saw in it a reflection of Ancient Rome's transition from rough and ready literature to highly political and highly polished literature. Because of the aptness of the metaphor, the period from 1689 - 1750 was called "the Augustan Age" by critics throughout the 18th century (including Voltaire and Oliver Goldsmith). The literature of the period is overtly political and thoroughly aware of critical dictates for literature. It is an age of exuberance and scandal, of enormous energy and inventiveness and outrage, that reflected an era when English, Scottish, and Irish people found themselves in the midst of an expanding economy, lowering barriers to education, and the stirrings of the Industrial Revolution.
The most outstanding poet of the age is Alexander Pope, but Pope's excellence is partially in his constant battle with other poets, and his serene, seemingly neo-Classical approach to poetry is in competition with highly idiosyncratic verse and strong competition from such poets as Ambrose Philips. It was during this time that James Thomson produced his melancholy The Seasons and Edward Young wrote Night Thoughts. It is also the era that saw a serious competition over the proper model for the pastoral. In criticism, poets struggled with a doctrine of decorum, of matching proper words with proper sense and of achieving a diction that matched the gravity of a subject. At the same time, the mock-heroic was at its zenith. Pope's Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad are still the greatest mock-heroic poems ever written.
In prose, the earlier part of the period was overshadowed by the development of the English essay. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's The Spectator established the form of the British periodical essay, inventing the pose of the detached observer of human life who can meditate upon the world without advocating any specific changes in it. However, this was also the time when the English novel, first emerging in the Restoration, developed into a major artform. Daniel Defoe turned from journalism and writing criminal lives for the press to writing fictional criminal lives with Roxana and Moll Flanders. He also wrote a fictional treatment of the travels of Alexander Selkirk called Robinson Crusoe (1719). The novel would benefit indirectly from a tragedy of the stage, and in mid-century many more authors would begin to write novels.
If Addison and Steele overawed one type of prose, then Jonathan Swift did another. Swift's prose style is unmannered and direct, with a clarity that few contemporaries matched. He was a profound skeptic about the modern world, but he was similarly profoundly distrustful of nostalgia. He saw in history a record of lies and vanity, and he saw in the present a madness of vanity and lies. Core Christian values were essential, but these values had to be muscular and assertive and developed by constant rejection of the games of confidence men and their gullies. Swift's A Tale of a Tub announced his skeptical analysis of the claims of the modern world, and his later prose works, such as his war with Patridge the astrologer, and most of all his derision of pride in Gulliver's Travels left only the individual in constant fear and humility safe. After his "exile" to Ireland, Swift reluctantly began defending the Irish people from the predations of colonialism. His A Modest Proposal and the Drapier Letters provoked riots and arrests, but Swift, who had no love of Irish Roman Catholics, was outraged by the abuses and barbarity he saw around him.
Drama in the early part of the period featured the last plays of John Vanbrugh and William Congreve, both of whom carried on the Restoration comedy with some alterations. However, the majority of stagings were of lower farces and much more serious and domestic tragedies. George Lillo and Richard Steele both produced highly moral forms of tragedy, where the characters and the concerns of the characters were wholly middle class or working class. This reflected a marked change in the audience for plays, as royal patronage was no longer the important part of theatrical success. Additionally, Colley Cibber and John Rich began to battle each other for greater and greater spectacles to present on stage. The figure of Harlequin was introduced, and pantomime theatre began to be staged. This "low" comedy was quite popular, and the plays became tertiary to the staging. Opera also began to be popular in London, and there was significant literary resistance to this Italian incursion. This trend was broken only by a few attempts at a new type of comedy. Pope and John Arbuthnot and John Gay attempted a play entitled Three Hours After Marriage that failed. In 1728, however, John Gay returned to the playhouse with The Beggar's Opera. Gay's opera was in English and retold the story of Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild. However, it seemed to be an allegory for Robert Walpole and the directors of the South Sea Company, and so Gay's follow up opera was banned without performance. The Licensing Act 1737 brought an abrupt halt to much of the period's drama, as the theatres were once again brought under state control.
An effect of the Licensing Act was to cause more than one aspiring playwright to switch over to writing novels. Henry Fielding began to write prose satire and novels after his plays could not pass the censors. Henry Brooke also turned to novels. In the interim, Samuel Richardson had produced a novel intended to counter the deleterious effects of novels in Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1749). Henry Fielding attacked the absurdity of this novel with two of his own works, Joseph Andrews and Shamela, and then countered Richardson's Clarissa with Tom Jones. Henry Mackenzie wrote The Man of Feeling and indirectly began the sentimental novel. Laurence Sterne attempted a Swiftian novel with a unique perspective on the impossibility of biography (the model for most novels up to that point) and understanding with Tristram Shandy, even as his detractor Tobias Smollett elevated the picaresque novel with his works. Each of these novels represents a formal and thematic divergence from the others. Each novelist was in dialogue and competition with the others, and, in a sense, the novel established itself as a diverse and open-formed genre in this explosion of creativity. The most lasting effects of the experimentation would be the psychological realism of Richardson, the bemused narrative voice of Fielding, and the sentimentality of Brooke.
[edit]18th century

Further information: 18th century literature
During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) – a rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. Led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century (Newton) and the writings of Descartes, Locke and Bacon.
They sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered the state the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism; the same qualities played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism. The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot epitomized the spirit of the age.
During the end of the 18th century Ann Radcliffe would be the pioneer of the Gothic Novel. Her novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789, sets the tone for the majority of her work, which tended to involve innocent, but heroic young women who find themselves in gloomy, mysterious castles ruled by even more mysterious barons with dark pasts. The Romance of the Forest would follow and her most famous novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, is considered the ultimate Gothic Novel of the late 18th century.
Increased emphasis on instinct and feeling, rather than judgment and restraint. A growing sympathy for the Middle Ages during the Age of Sensibility sparked an interest in medieval ballads and folk literature. Ann Radcliffe's novel would embody all of this in The Mysteries of Udolpho.
[edit]Romanticism

The changing landscape of Britain brought about by the steam engine has two major outcomes: the boom of industrialism with the expansion of the city, and the consequent depopulation of the countryside as a result of the enclosures, or privatisation of pastures. Most peasants poured into the city to work in the new factories.
This abrupt change is revealed by the change of meaning in five key words: industry (once meaning "creativity"), democracy (once disparagingly used as "mob rule"), class (from now also used with a social connotation), art (once just meaning "craft"), culture (once only belonging to farming).
But the poor condition of workers, the new class-conflicts and the pollution of the environment causes a reaction to urbanism and industrialisation prompting poets to rediscover the beauty and value of nature. Mother earth is seen as the only source of wisdom, the only solution to the ugliness caused by machines.
The superiority of nature and instinct over civilisation had been preached by Jean Jacques Rousseau and his message was picked by almost all European poets. The first in England were the Lake Poets, a small group of friends including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These early Romantic Poets brought a new emotionalism and introspection, and their emergence is marked by the first romantic Manifesto in English literature, the "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads". This collection was mostly contributed by Wordsworth, although Coleridge must be credited for his long and impressive Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tragic ballad about the survival of one sailor through a series of supernatural events on his voyage through the south seas which involves the slaying of an albatross, the death of the rest of the crew, a visit from Death and his mate, Life-in-Death, and the eventual redemption of the Mariner.
Coleridge and Wordsworth, however, understood romanticism in two entirely different ways: while Coleridge sought to make the supernatural "real" (much like sci-fi movies use special effects to make unlikely plots believable), Wordsworth sought to stir the imagination of readers through his down-to-earth characters taken from real life (for eg. in "The Idiot Boy"), or the beauty of the Lake District that largely inspired his production (as in "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey").
The "Second generation" of Romantic poets includes Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats. Byron, however, was still influenced by 18th-century satirists and was, perhaps the least 'romantic' of the three. His amours with a number of prominent but married ladies was also a way to voice his dissent on the hypocrisy of a high society that was only apparently religious but in fact largely libertine, the same that had derided him for being physically impaired. His first trip to Europe resulted in the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a mock-heroic epic of a young man's adventures in Europe but also a sharp satire against London society. Despite Childe Harold's success on his return to England, accompanied by the publication of The Giaour and The Corsair his alleged incestuous affair with his half-sister Augusta Leigh in 1816 actually forced him to leave England for good and seek asylum on the continent. Here he joined Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary, with his secretary Dr. John Polidori on the shores of Lake Geneva during the 'year without a summer' of 1816.
Although his is just a short story, Polidori must be credited for introducing The Vampyre, conceived from the same competition which spawned Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to English literature. Percy, like Mary, had much in common with Byron: he was an aristocrat from a famous and ancient family, had embraced atheism and free-thinking and, like him, was fleeing from scandal in England.
Shelley had been expelled from college for openly declaring his atheism. He had married a 16-year-old girl, Harriet Westbrook whom he had abandoned soon after for Mary (Harriet took her own life after that). Harriet did not embrace his ideals of free love and anarchism, and was not as educated as to contribute to literary debate. Mary was different: the daughter of philosopher and revolutionary William Godwin, she was intellectually more of an equal, shared some of his ideals and was a feminist like her late mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Women.
One of Percy Shelley's most prominent works is the Ode to the West Wind. Despite his apparent refusal to believe in God, this poem is considered a homage to pantheism, the recognition of a spiritual presence in nature.
Mary Shelley did not go down in history for her poetry, but for giving birth to science fiction: the plot for the novel is said to have come from a nightmare during stormy nights on Lake Geneva in the company of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori. Her idea of making a body with human parts stolen from different corpses and then animating it with electricity was perhaps influenced by Alessandro Volta's invention and Luigi Galvani's experiments with dead frogs. Frankenstein's chilling tale also suggests modern organ transplants, tissue regeneration, reminding us of the moral issues raised by today's medicine. But the creature of Frankenstein is incredibly romantic as well. Although "the monster" is intelligent, good and loving, he is shunned by everyone because of his ugliness and deformity, and the desperation and envy that result from social exclusion turn him against the very man who created him.
John Keats did not share Byron's and Shelley's extremely revolutionary ideals, but his cult of pantheism is as important as Shelley's. Keats was in love with the ancient stones of the Parthenon that Lord Elgin had brought to England from Greece, also known as the Elgin Marbles). He celebrates ancient Greece: the beauty of free, youthful love couples here with that of classical art. Keats's great attention to art, especially in his Ode on a Grecian Urn is quite new in romanticism, and it inspired Walter Pater's and then Oscar Wilde's belief in the absolute value of art as independent from aesthetics.
Some rightly think that the most popular novelist of the era was Sir Walter Scott, whose grand historical romances inspired a generation of painters, composers, and writers throughout Europe. His most remembered work, Ivanhoe, continues to be studied to this day.
In retrospect, we now look back to Jane Austen, who wrote novels about the life of the landed gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on practical social issues, especially marriage and choosing the right partner in life, with love being above all else. Her most important and popular novel, Pride and Prejudice, would set the model for all Romance Novels to follow. Jane Austen created the ultimate hero and heroine in Darcy and Elizabeth, who must overcome their own stubborn pride and the prejudices they have toward each other, in order to come to a middle ground, where they finally realize their love for one another. In her novels, Jane Austen brings to light the hardships women faced, who usually did not inherit money, could not work and where their only chance in life depended on the man they married. She brought to light not only the difficulties women faced in her day, but also what was expected of men and of the careers they had to follow. This she does with wit and humour and with endings where all characters, good or bad, receive exactly what they deserve. Jane Austen started a genre that is still followed today. Her works generally are seen as 'realist' and not romantic in the artistic sense.
Poet, painter and printmaker William Blake is usually included among the English Romanticists, though his visionary work is much different from that of the others discussed in this section.
[edit]Victorian literature

Main article: Victorian literature


Charles Dickens
It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading form of literature in English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large middle class reading public than to please aristocratic patrons. The best known works of the era include the emotionally powerful works of the Brontë sisters; the satire Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray; the realist novels of George Eliot; and Anthony Trollope's insightful portrayals of the lives of the landowning and professional classes.
Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s, confirming the trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and the struggles of the poor, but in a good-humoured fashion which was acceptable to readers of all classes. His early works such as the Pickwick Papers are masterpieces of comedy. Later his works became darker, without losing his genius for caricature.
The Bronte sisters were English writers of the 1840s and 1850s. Their novels caused a sensation when they were first published and were subsequently accepted into the canon of great English literature. They had written compulsively from early childhood and were first published, at their own expense, in 1846 as poets under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The book attracted little attention, selling only two copies. The sisters returned to prose, producing a novel each in the following year. Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were released in 1847 after their long search to secure publishers.
An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic situation of the countryside may be seen in the novels of Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, and others. Leading poetic figures included Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti.
Literature for children developed as a separate genre. Some works become globally well-known, such as those of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, both of whom used nonsense verse. Adventure novels, such as those of Anthony Hope and Robert Louis Stevenson, were written for adults but are now generally classified as for children. At the end of the Victorian Era and leading into the Edwardian Era, Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author and illustrator, best known for her children’s books, which featured animal characters. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Potter eventually went on to published 23 children's books and become a wealthly woman. Her books along with Lewis Carroll’s are read and published to this day.
[edit]Modernism

Main article: Modernist literature
The movement known as English literary modernism grew out of a general sense of disillusionment with Victorian era attitudes of certainty, conservatism, and objective truth. The movement was greatly influenced by the ideas of Romanticism, Karl Marx's political writings, and the psychoanalytic theories of subconscious - Sigmund Freud. The continental art movements of Impressionism, and later Cubism, were also important inspirations for modernist writers.
Although literary modernism reached its peak between the First and Second World Wars, the earliest examples of the movement's attitudes appeared in the mid to late 19th century. Gerard Manley Hopkins, A. E. Housman, and the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy represented a few of the major early modernists writing in England during the Victorian period.
The first decades of the 20th century saw several major works of modernism published, including the seminal short story collection Dubliners by James Joyce, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and the poetry and drama of William Butler Yeats.
Important novelists between the World Wars included Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse and D. H. Lawrence. T. S. Eliot was the preeminent English poet of the period. Across the Atlantic writers like William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and the poets Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost developed a more American take on the modernist aesthetic in their work.
Perhaps the most contentiously important figure in the development of the modernist movement was the American poet Ezra Pound. Credited with "discovering" both T. S. Eliot and James Joyce, whose stream of consciousness novel Ulysses is considered to be one of the 20th century's greatest literary achievements. Indeed, Joyce's novel has been referred to as "a demonstration and summation of the entire [Modernist] movement".[2] Pound also advanced the cause of imagism and free verse, forms which would dominate English poetry into the 21st century.
Gertrude Stein, an American expat, was also an enormous literary force during this time period, famous for her line "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."
Other notable writers of this period included H.D., Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, W. H. Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, William Carlos Williams, Ralph Ellison, Dylan Thomas, R.S. Thomas and Graham Greene. However, some of these writers are more closely associated with what has become known as post-modernism, a term often used to encompass the diverse range of writers who succeeded the modernists.
[edit]Post-modern literature

Main article: Postmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, Thomas Pynchon.

Sources

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature -