The different between originality and plagiarism Essay

The different between originality and plagiarism - Essay Example Originality on the other hand is a different concept and it is not a wrong act as is plagiarism. It is basically the assembling of ideas and writings by an author that were already available and presented by other writers with the viewpoint of the current author. The author gives a new shape and meaning to the other thoughts and philosophies and does not basically steal the ideas of others. It is an original piece of work where the author can be credited for the writing as he only takes the understanding from previous readings but amends and writes them according to his own concept and viewpoint. According to Knoop, â€Å"Originality is defined as the identification, development, and combination of pre-existing structures and elements, mostly from literature, but also from other fields, such as philosophy, politics, or science.†(Knoop 2011). Thus, plagiarism is an act of copying the works of sources without acknowledging the true writers of the author.

China and Russian Mongol FRQ Essay Example for Free

China and Russian Mongol FRQ Essay The Mongolian rule had a very direct impact and influence in China and Russia in terms of political and economical structure. Although the Mongols were not as evident in the Golden Horde region, they still impacted Russia just as much as they did in the Yuan district in China. In both China and Russia, the Mongols left their mark by placing high taxes on peasants, taking full control over trade through the Silk Road, and increasing international diplomacy through various methods, creating Pax Mongolica. Although Mongolian rule fell long ago, its influence can still be seen today. In Russia and China, the Mongol era brought a change in political power. The Khans, or â€Å"Great Leaders†, ruled both places, although not equally. China was directly ruled by the Mongols, seeing that China hosted them in the Yuan province, while Russia was given a sense of self rule. The Mongols still claimed taxes and sought goods from Russia, but did not actually occupy it as they did in China. The lack of occupancy in Russia eventually led to the downfall of the Mongol rule there seeing that there was no opposing force to govern them, thus putting power back to the Russians, and creating what we know Russia as today. Not only was the political aspect of China and Russia influenced, but the economy was influenced as well. The conquests of Kublai Khan and his successors joined the Eastern world with the Western world by the use of the Silk Road, which served as a trade route. The Silk Road connected trade centers spanning across Asia and Europe reaching from the Golden Horde to the Yuan province. The trade route, while under strict protection of the Mongols, increased Eurasian trade of goods, beliefs, and disease. The Silk Road spread silk, porcelain, and gun powder from China as well as Buddhism, and the plague. The goods that came and went through the trade route were taxed heavily along with the peasants that resided in each region. The high taxes served as income for the Mongols to use towards warfare, necessities, and indulgences. The Silk Road, by bringing in and sending out new ideas and goods, spread international diplomacy. In the case of China, the Silk Road brought in ambassadors from the Middle East amongst other regions, thereby increasing and instilling a sense of Pax Mongolica. In conclusion, the Mongols influence on China and Russia shaped them into what they are today.  The Mongols achieved their greatness by taxing the poor in order to support their army, making the Silk Road their own, and accumulating international diplomacy and instilling Pax Mongolica.

Fun with Social Norms: Violation of Normal Essay examples -- Nonconfor

Fun with Social Norms: Violation of the Fittest For my nonconformity/compliance assignment I chose to violate a social norm. I felt that doing it only once would not suffice, so I tried it a few times to see if the results varied from person to person. I went ahead and started with refusing a handshake. The first instance was a friend introducing me to a friend of theirs. He reached his hand out and I just looked at it and shook my head. I must admit it was hard to keep a straight face, but I managed. Concerning my personal feelings, I was surprised at how uncomfortable I was, considering that I was aware that it was an experiment. Despite this knowledge, I still felt a mild rush of embarrassment. His reaction was what I had initially expected. He looked slightly perplexed, and ev...

The Da Vinci Code ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, to my friend and editor, Jason Kaufman, for working so hard on this project and for truly understanding what this book is all about. And to the incomparable Heide Lange – tireless champion of The Da Vinci Code, agent extraordinaire, and trusted friend. I cannot fully express my gratitude to the exceptional team at Doubleday, for their generosity, faith, and superb guidance. Thank you especially to Bill Thomas and Steve Rubin, who believed in this book from the start. My thanks also to the initial core of early in-house supporters, headed by Michael Palgon, Suzanne Herz, Janelle Moburg, Jackie Everly, and Adrienne Sparks, as well as to the talented people of Doubleday's sales force. For their generous assistance in the research of the book, I would like to acknowledge the Louvre Museum, the French Ministry of Culture, Project Gutenberg, Bibliotheque Nationale, the Gnostic Society Library, the Department of Paintings Study and Documentation Service at the Louvre, Catholic World News, Royal Observatory Greenwich, London Record Society, the Muniment Collection at Westminster Abbey, John Pike and the Federation of American Scientists, and the five members of Opus Dei (three active, two former) who recounted their stories, both positive and negative, regarding their experiences inside Opus Dei. My gratitude also to Water Street Bookstore for tracking down so many of my research books, my father Richard Brown – mathematics teacher and author – for his assistance with the Divine Proportion and the Fibonacci Sequence, Stan Planton, Sylvie Baudeloque, Peter McGuigan, Francis McInerney, Margie Wachtel, Andre Vernet, Ken Kelleher at Anchorball Web Media, Cara Sottak, Karyn Popham, Esther Sung, Miriam Abramowitz, William Tunstall-Pedoe, and Griffin Wooden Brown. And finally, in a novel drawing so heavily on the sacred feminine, I would be remiss if I did not mention the two extraordinary women who have touched my life. First, my mother, Connie Brown – fellow scribe, nurturer, musician, and role model. And my wife, Blythe – art historian, painter, front-line editor, and without a doubt the most astonishingly talented woman I have ever known. FACT: The Priory of Sion – a European secret society founded in 1099 – is a real organization. In 1975 Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo Da Vinci. The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of brainwashing, coercion, and a dangerous practice known as â€Å"corporal mortification.† Opus Dei has just completed construction of a $47 million World Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City. All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.

The Help by Kathrynn Stockett: Themes

In fact, the Justice system, thought to promote equality in â€Å"the and of the free,† was useless towards the idea of racial harmony and African Americans were treated bitterly and relentlessly during this time. The author Kathy Stocked wrote a novel In the perspective of mistreated black maids and one helping white woman during the time of the call rights movement. Through the historical events, characters, and setting compiled Into Kathy Stockpot's novel, The Help, the theme of Injustice and racial Inferiority Is portrayed.During the novel, the bus Abilene is riding stops at a roadblock and all the black people are told to get off the us. The civil rights leader and NAACP field secretary, Meager Veers, had been shot and killed by the UK Klux Klan. Abilene states, â€Å"White peoples with guns, pointed at colored peoples. Cause who gone protect our peoples? Into no colored policeman's† (230). The blacks are trapped and have no jurisdiction to control what happens in the community, or to themselves.Even a person with authority, Mayor Thompson, denoted the idea of a biracial committee and said that he â€Å"believes in the separation of races† (231). Instead of protecting the blacks, the government was useless In aiding them. The Jim Crow laws, found by Skitter In the library, also resembled how government only contributed to the destruction of racism. The events that are embedded throughout the novel reveal how the characters feel helpless to what occurs around them.In addition to resembling the theme of injustice, Hilly Holbrook is the symbol for whites who used power and influence to have blacks fired, evicted, imprisoned, fined, and even subjected to physical violence. She used her social status to influence the courts and businesses in the community to punish black omen, like Yule May, whom she targeted. After Yule May went to trial for stealing one of Hills rings, Abilene states that â€Å"A regular sentence be six months for petty stealing, but Miss Holbrook, she get it pushed up to four years† (295).For many of the black characters in the novel, and the black maids during that time, there was little justice. Acts of violence and injustice were committed against them and there was nothing they could do to fight it. The scale was of Justice was Imbalanced, heavily sloping downwards for the blacks who had no power compared to the whites. The eating also reinforces the theme of Injustice and racial Inferiority. The novel Is set In Jackson, Mississippi, one of the most segregated towns in the united States, during ten time AT ten call relents movement.I Nils was a parlor consisting AT organelle boycotts, student protests, and mass marches towards the struggle against racial segregation. The Jim Crow laws were enforced and there were strict rules and norms concerning the actions of blacks. Jackson, Mississippi was teeming with racial tensions and this affected the characters and events of the novel. Kathy St ocked rote the novel, The Help, and captured the image of life as a black maid during the sass's.In her novel, she compiled historical events, characters, and the setting to portray the emotions and hardships of blacks during this time in history. By using these devices, Stocked formed the theme of injustice that readers can either relate to or comprehend. Through her writing, she accurately demonstrated how racial inequality, injustice, and inferiority played a role in the lives of many blacks. The Help represents how the blacks, the inferior, began to stand up to the whites, the superior, through words and stories.

Taxation in Malta Essays

Taxation in Malta Essays Taxation in Malta Essay Taxation in Malta Essay Taxation refers to the compulsory transfer of resources from the private individuals, institutions or groups to the public sector. Taxation can be classified under two types: direct and indirect taxation. Taxes that are levied directly upon wealth, income and capital gains are called direct taxes. Indirect taxes are those, which are additionally charged on prices or on the quantity of goods sold. Official documents issued by the Maltese authorities give four main objectives to taxation in Malta. Ensure an adequate and regular flow of revenue to government To be adjusted in light of Maltas relation with European Union To stimulate saving and capital formation as well as direct investment and personal efforts into productive channels. To ensure that financial burdens be borne by those most able to carry them. Since Malta gained independence, we have experienced various changes in taxation policies, both on the income and expenditure side. In fact the affects of taxation can be divided under two main categories. These are the Micro and Macro affects. According to microeconomic theory, tax changes affect a persons willingness to supply effort. This happens because taxation affects the relative price of work and leisure. The Macroeconomic theory states that changes in taxation have impacts on consumption and saving-investment decisions, in turn affecting total revenue collection. In order to see how tax burden is influenced today one has to consider the taxation history of the country. This is so since taxation is not a static event. The following are the main events in the taxation history of Malta. The government needed a type of taxation that managed to collect revenue for the government over time. For this reason in 1973 the PAYE, -(Pay-as-you-earn) income and the Provisional Tax (PT) were introduced. In 1977, there was a reduction in the company tax rate of 5%. With the election of the Nationalist party in 1987 the government modified certain regulation in the income tax structure. The 2%, 5% and 7% marginal tax rates for married couples and the 2% for the unmarried taxpayer were abolished. In 1991 the maximum marginal income tax rates were lowered from 65% to 35%. At this point it was also possible to opt for a separate income tax assessment. This was important since it encouraged married females to participate formally in the labour force. Another modification was introduced on the company tax rate where this rate was adjusted to be equal to the highest marginal personal income tax rate of 35%. In this way the government eliminated the possibility of avoiding tax liabilities through company profit. In the last budget the income tax rates for the married were revised. Value added tax (Vat) was introduced in 1995, substituting to a great extent, customs duties. In 1996 a final withholding tax of 15 % was introduced on part-time work and the income tax system was integrated with the Childrens allowance transfer scheme. In the same year there was a change in government administration. This brought an alteration of the tax system. In fact VAT was replaced by a Customs and Excise tax system. This system consisted of a 5% Excise tax on products a 5% Excise on services and a 15% Excise tax on imports. In 1998 a new Final Settlement system (FSS) substituted the traditional PAYE tax collection system. The FSS is a system where each employees pay accordingly, leaving no amount owing or owed to government at the end of the year. This system was introduced in order to relieve the Inland Revenue Department from the burden of processing future tax revenue arrears. If we look at the figures of revenue from income tax, we can observe that it remained stable throughout the years, reaching a peak in the late seventies and decreasing at a moderate pace after. National insurance contribution varied in the range of 30 37% of total revenue. This can be seen in Appendix 1. In the nineties there was increased importance of licenses, taxes and fines. On the other hand, revenue from Customs and Excise, which was significant in the eighties and in the seventies, began to lose its share in the early nineties. In fact as we see in Appendix 1 Customs and Excise collapsed to 8% in the mid-nineties, when VAT replaced it. In our analysis we dont have the figures for the later years where we suppose that the removal of Vat in 1997 would have increased Customs and Excise values for the years following until the Introduction of VAT that was brought in the last election when the Nationalist party was appointed. We can observe a graph showing the total revenue collected in taxation in the following country. The graph shows the continuous growth in total tax revenue collected by the government from 1971 to 1995. In order to analyse the tax burden in Malta we have to be able to analyse if the Maltese economy is overtaxed or not. If we therefore speak of overtaxed economy we are implying that there exists an optimal tax. This tax can be used as a yardstick for reasons of comparison. In 1945 an economist named Clarke attempted to determine this rate. Together with Keynes, Clarke suggested that when total taxation exceeded 25 % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), damaging pressures would follow. So we can explain this 25 % as the limit that an economy is able to support. This concept of having a limit, after which damaging pressures may crop up, is also found in the Laffer curve. Arthur Laffer derived this in the 1970s. The relationship that he focused was the one between tax revenue and tax rates. This can be shown in the figure below. Laffer curve The principal rationale underlying the Laffer curve, is that the optimal tax rate is that rate which maximizes tax revenue for the state. This is point M in the diagram. Below the optimal tax rate, an increase in the tax rate increase tax revenue, whereas above the optimal tax rate, an increase in the tax rate reduces tax revenue. This happens since higher rates discourage productive efforts. Being derived intertemporally, the Laffer curve assumes that the optimal tax rate is consistent overtime, and that such optimal tax rate corresponds to a maximum level of tax revenue, which is also by implication consistent over time. The optimal tax rate corresponds to a particular level of GDP that is consistent over time. However we know that a developing economy tends to grow over time. In fact the economy is continuously subject to trade cycle fluctuations, which influence the overall performance of the economy. This shows that the Laffer curve could be considered being a simplistic approac h. During the period 1960-1980, research of the Maltese scenario has suggested that the tax rate index and tax revenue were positively related and upward moving. If we transfer this analysis to the Laffer curve analysis we can say that the, Maltese economy was still below the maximum rate M. Therefore according to theory a rise in tax rates could yield additional revenues. In an analysis on the data of the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD), Michael Beenstock extrapolated a linear function, correlating the average tax rate and the GNP per head. In this way we can compare Maltas past tax indices with those for Europe. In 1976, According to these calculations, Malta obtained a 26% rate of tax. The actual rate was 24 %. This means that tax rate was 2 points below the OECD average. From these results we can say that Maltas tax rate was considered to be fair from an international point of view. In order to judge critically the overall tax burden in Malta there exists mainly two methods. The first method refers to a time serious analysis. This method consists of acquiring data from the Maltese scenario and making an intertemporal analysis using statistical techniques known as regression analysis. The other method consists of an international comparison. In this case one can also use regression techniques in order to derive an internationally equivalent tax rate for the Maltese economy for the year 1994. A countrys tax burden is estimated by dividing the total amount of taxes paid by the GDP, that is, (sigma) sigma taxes /GDP). If we consider the international tax structure, studies have indicated the existence of a progressive element. This means that richer countries pay proportionally more tax than the less well-off (Delia 1982). So we can fit a regression line relating a countrys tax burden to its GDP per capita, using data for different countries. The countries chosen are OECD countries. The following data for the OECD countries is shown below.

The Social Side Of Japanese Baseball essays

The Social Side Of Japanese Baseball essays The Japanese have historically been adapters of ideas from other lands, and anyone familiar with Asian history knows that Japans early culture was greatly influenced by the Chinese. Advanced civilization developed much earlier in China, of course, but once the Japanese began forming their own culture, development was rapid as they sought to catch up. However, the borrowing did not stop after a foundation for ancient culture, but has continued though the present day, and has expanded to influence almost every aspect of life. After World War II, many countries were completely demolished physically and mentally. Among the countries was Japan. Countless numbers of people were dead, and land, buildings, and entire cities were destroyed. For the first time in their history, the emperor had spoken to the public, which tarnished his immortal reputation. During the postwar years, Japan looked to the major powers of the world to develop a foundation for a new country. Included in the foundation was a need for new ideas and dreams. They did not completely erase thousands of years of tradition and culture, but many international ideas were taken and transformed as had been done in the past. In the movie Mr. Baseball, a Japanese woman described the borrowing techniques. "Japan takes the best from all over the world and makes it Hers" (Welles). Included in the world powers of the time was America, and therefore, Japan borrowed several ideas from the United States. One such idea was the national pastime, baseball. Although the fine arts in Japan were based on the Chinese model, they were, nevertheless, characterized by a strong, unmistakable creative element of their own. The same phenomenon held true for baseball. The Japanese borrowed the game from America, but in developing it, they added many original touches not seen in the West. The basic game as it is played in Japan and America is the same, but the subtle and so...