Public speaking (also known as oration or oratory) is the process and act of speaking or g, Slides of Law

Download Public speaking (also known as oration or oratory) is the process and act of speaking or g and more Slides Law in PDF only on Docsity! 1 COURSE TITLE: USE OF ENGLISH V COURSE CODE: GST 311 INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC SPEAKING Public speaking (also known as oration or oratory) is the process and act of speaking or giving a lecture to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain a listening audience. Public speaking is commonly understood as face- to-face speaking between individuals and an audience for the purpose of communication. Simply put, public speaking is talking to a group of people. The Oxford English Dictionary defines public speaking as: "The action or practice of addressing public gatherings; the making of speeches" (Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition). Types or Purposes of Public Speaking There are three general purposes for speaking in public. The general purpose of a speech is usually determined by the occasion in which the speech will be presented. It is important to note that these general purposes may overlap one another. One might wish to use some forms of entertainment while informing or persuading his or her audience. 1. Informative: In an informative speech, the presenter will share information about a particular person, place, object, process, concept, or issue by defining, describing, or explaining. Occasions for which an informative speech would be presented include a report presented to co-workers, a teacher presenting information to his or her class, and a training session for a job. 2. Persuasive: In a persuasive speech, the presenter will attempt to reinforce or change their audiences’ beliefs, attitudes, feelings, or values. Several occasions where persuasion is used include a sales pitch to potential customers, a politician’s campaign speech, or a debate during a public forum. 3. Ceremonial: These types of speeches often strengthen the bonds between audience members from recalling a shared experience or intend to amuse audiences through humour, stories, or illustrations. This type of speech, as the name implies, is also used during ceremonies to commemorate an occasion or event. Examples of this purpose include a toast, such as a best man’s speech at a wedding reception; a eulogy to praise the dead; a commencement speech at graduation; an inauguration speech; or presenting an award. Web link: www.publicspeakingproject.org Elements of Public Speaking There are five basic elements of public speaking that are described in Lasswell's model of communication: the communicator, message, medium, audience and effect. 2 1. The Communicator: This refers to the sender of the information or the public speaker. It is better defined as a person skilled at conveying information, ideas or policy to the public. 2. The message: This involves those verbal and nonverbal behaviours, enacted by communicators,that are interpreted with meaning by others. The verbal portion of the message refers to the words that we speak, while the nonverbal portion includes our tone of voice and other non-vocal components such as personal appearance, posture, gestures and body movements, eye behaviour, the way we use space, and even the way that we smell. For instance, the person who gets up to speak wearing a nice suit will be interpreted more positively than a person giving the exact same speech wearing sweats and a graphic t-shirt. Or if a speaker tries to convince others to donate to a charity that builds wells in poor African villages using a monotone voice, she will not be as effective as the speaker who gives the same speech but speaks with a solemn tone of voice. 3. The medium or channel: This is simply the means through which the message travels. In face-to-face communication the channel involves all of our senses, so the channel is what we see, hear, touch, smell and perhaps what we taste. When we're communicating with someone online, the channel is the computer; when texting the channel is the cell phone; and when watching a movie on cable, the channel is the TV. The channel can have a profound impact on the way a message is interpreted. Listening to a recording of a speaker does not have the same psychological impact as listening or watching the same speech in person. 4. The audience: This deals with those receiving the information. Every great public speaker must pay attention to the audience because when we are communicating with other people we are not only sending a message, we are receiving messages from others simultaneously. When we speak, we observe others’ nonverbal behaviour to see if they understand us and we gauge their emotional state. The information we gain from these observations is known as feedback. 5. The effect: This deals with the reaction or response of the audience to the communicator’s message. Web link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_speaking Examples of Great Public Speaking Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream (deliveredon 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.) I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. 5 I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! 6 Web link:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inauguration Speech Your Majesties, Your Highnesses, Distinguished Guests, Comrades and Friends: Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world,confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all. All this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of the world who are so well represented here today. To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld. Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change. We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom. That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression. We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil. We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity. We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism,non-racialism and democracy. We deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their political mass democratic, religious, women, youth,business, traditional and other leaders have played to 7 bring about this conclusion. Not least among them is my Second Deputy President, the Honourable F.W. de Klerk. We would also like to pay tribute to our security forces, in all their ranks, for the distinguished role they have played in securing our first democratic elections and the transition to democracy, from blood-thirsty forces which still refuse to see the light. The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination. We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace. We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world. As a token of its commitment to the renewal of our country,the new Interim Government of National Unity will, as a matter of urgency, address the issue of amnesty for various categories of our people who are currently serving terms of imprisonment. We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free. Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward. We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa, to lead our country out of the valley of darkness. We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. 10 that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day. It reminds us of stories we heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how, back in their day, the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office, and even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough. We thought all of that was ancient history, didn’t we? And so many have worked for so many years to end this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect, but here we are in 2016 and we’re hearing these exact same things every day on the campaign trail. We are drowning in it. And all of us are doing what women have always done: we’re trying to keep our heads above water, just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn’t really bother us maybe because we think that admitting how much it hurts makes us as women look weak. Maybe we’re afraid to be that vulnerable. Maybe we’ve grown accustomed to swallowing these emotions and staying quiet, because we’ve seen that people often won’t take our word over his. Or maybe we don’t want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women. Too many are treating this as just another day’s headline, as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal, just politics as usual. But, New Hampshire, be clear: this is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn’t matter what party you belong to – Democrat, Republican, independent – no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse. And I know it’s a campaign, but this isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human decency. It’s about right and wrong. And we simply cannot endure this, or expose our children to this any – not for another minute, and let alone for four years. Now is the time for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough. This has got to stop right now. Because consider this: if all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children? What message are our little girls hearing about who they should look like, how they should act? What lessons are they learning about their value as professionals, as human beings, about their dreams and aspirations? And how is this affecting men and boys in this country? Because I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this. And I know that my family is not unusual. And to dismiss this as everyday locker-room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere. The men that you and I know don’t treat women this way. They are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women. They are husbands and brothers and sons who don’t tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected. And like us, these men are worried about the impact this election is having on our boys who are looking for role models of what it means to be a man. In fact, someone recently told me a story about their six-year-old son who one day was watching the news – they were watching the news together. And the little boy, out of the blue, said, “I think Hillary Clinton will be president.” And his mom said, “Well, why do you say that?” And this little six-year-old said, “Because the other guy called someone a piggy and,” he said, “You cannot be president if you call someone a piggy.” 11 So even a six-year-old knows better. A six-year-old knows that this is not how adults behave. This is not how decent human beings behave. And this is certainly not how someone who wants to be president of the United States behaves. Because let’s be very clear: strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together. And that is what we need in our next president. We need someone who is a uniting force in this country. We need someone who will heal the wounds that divide us, someone who truly cares about us and our children, someone with strength and compassion to lead this country forward. And let me tell you, I’m here today because I believe with all of my heart that Hillary Clinton will be that president. See, we know that Hillary is the right person for the job because we’ve seen her character and commitment not just in this campaign, but over the course of her entire life. The fact is that Hillary embodies so many of the values that we try so hard to teach our young people. We tell our young people “work hard in school, get a good education”. We encourage them to use that education to help others – which is exactly what Hillary did with her college and law degrees, advocating for kids with disabilities, fighting for children’s healthcare as first lady, affordable childcare in the Senate. We teach our kids the value of being a team player, which is what Hillary exemplified when she lost the 2008 election and actually agreed to work for her opponent as our secretary of state – earning sky-high approval ratings serving her country once again. We also teach our kids that you don’t take shortcuts in life, and you strive for meaningful success in whatever job you do. Well, Hillary has been a lawyer, a law professor, first lady of Arkansas, first lady of the United States, a US senator, Secretary of State. And she has been successful in every role, gaining more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime – more than Barack, more than Bill. And, yes, she happens to be a woman. And finally, we teach our kids that when you hit challenges in life, you don’t give up, you stick with it. Well, during her four years as secretary of state alone, Hillary has faced her share of challenges. She’s travelled to 112 countries, negotiated a ceasefire, a peace agreement, a release of dissidents. She spent 11 hours testifying before a congressional committee. We know that when things get tough, Hillary doesn’t complain. She doesn’t blame others. She doesn’t abandon ship for something easier. No, Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. So in Hillary, we have a candidate who has dedicated her life to public service, someone who has waited her turn and helped out while waiting. She is an outstanding mother. She has raised a phenomenal young woman. She is a loving, loyal wife. She’s a devoted daughter who cared for her mother until her final days. And if any of us had raised a daughter like Hillary Clinton, we would be so proud. We would be proud. And regardless of who her opponent might be, no one could be more qualified for this job than Hillary – no one. And in this election, if we turn away from her, if we just stand by and allow her opponent to be elected, then what are we teaching our children about the values they should hold, about the kind of life they should lead? What are we saying? 12 In our hearts, we all know that if we let Hillary’s opponent win this election, then we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they’re seeing and hearing is perfectly OK. We are validating it. We are endorsing it. We’re telling our sons that it’s OK to humiliate women. We’re telling our daughters that this is how they deserve to be treated. We’re telling all our kids that bigotry and bullying are perfectly acceptable in the leader of their country. Is that what we want for our children? And remember, we won’t just be setting a bad example for our kids, but for our entire world. Because for so long, America has been a model for countries across the globe, pushing them to educate their girls, insisting that they give more rights to their women. But if we have a president who routinely degrades women, who brags about sexually assaulting women, then how can we maintain our moral authority in the world? How can we continue to be a beacon of freedom and justice and human dignity? Well, fortunately, New Hampshire, here’s the beauty: we have everything we need to stop this madness. You see, while our mothers and grandmothers were often powerless to change their circumstances, today, we as women have all the power we need to determine the outcome of this election. We have knowledge. We have a voice. We have a vote. And on November the 8th, we as women, we as Americans, we as decent human beings can come together and declare that enough is enough, and we do not tolerate this kind of behaviour in this country. Remember this: in 2012, women’s votes were the difference between Barack winning and losing in key swing states, including right here in New Hampshire. So for anyone who might be thinking that your one vote doesn’t really matter, or that one person can’t really make a difference, consider this: back in 2012, Barack won New Hampshire by about 40,000 votes, which sounds like a lot. But when you break that number down, the difference between winning and losing this state was only 66 votes per precinct. Just take that in. If 66 people in each precinct had gone the other way, Barack would have lost. So each of you right here today could help swing an entire precinct and win this election for Hillary just by getting yourselves, your families, and your friends and neighbours out to vote. You can do it right here. But you could also help swing an entire precinct for Hillary’s opponent with a protest vote or by staying home out of frustration. Because here’s the truth: either Hillary Clinton or her opponent will be elected president this year. And if you vote for someone other than Hillary, or if you don’t vote at all, then you are helping to elect her opponent. And just think about how you will feel if that happens. Imagine waking up on November the 9th and looking into the eyes of your daughter or son, or looking into your own eyes as you stare into the mirror. Imagine how you’ll feel if you stayed home, or if you didn’t do everything possible to elect Hillary. We simply cannot let that happen. We cannot allow ourselves to be so disgusted that we just shut off the TV and walk away. And we can’t just sit around wringing our hands. Now, we need to recover from our shock and depression and do what women have always done in this country. We need you to roll up your sleeves. We need to get to work. Because remember this: When they go low, we go … Audience: High! Yes, we do. 15 The progressive aspect is indicated by the form of the verb ‘be’ plus a present participle. It combines both the present tense and the past tense to express the duration of the activity expressed by the verb. E.g. He is dancing (present tense/progressive aspect). He was dancing (past tense/progressive aspect). Eyisi (2006), goes further to show the difference between the simple present tense and the present progressive aspect with the following examples: (i) She is wicked (simple present) = not kind at all. (ii) She is being wicked. (Present progressive form) = not kind just for the moment (iii) I live in Anambra (simple present tense) = I am in Anambra state and have no plan to change residence. (iv) I am living in Anambra state (present progressive) = I am in Anambra state for the moment. The Perfective Aspect This is indicated by the form of the verb ‘have’ plus a past participle. E.g. I have eaten the food. She has sown a cloth. Note: When two aspects (perfective and progressive) are present in the verb phrase, the perfective aspect comes before the progressive aspect. E.g. Shehas been washing her clothes. Perfective progressive We have been reading all day. Perfective progressive The Future There is no future tense in English. Future is expressed in English by the use of the auxiliaries ‘shall’ and ‘will’, by the use of time adverbials like tomorrow , tomorrow week or by the use of – be+going+ infinitive; as in: He will come. We shall go. The train arrives tomorrow. Okochais going to play football. It is going to rain. The pluperfect When two actions take place in the past, one preceding the other, the pluperfect is used to express them. E.g. (i) The lecture had started before the student entered the class. (ii) The bomb had exploded before the detectives arrived. (iii) She began to sleep after her boss had gone home. 16 REPORT-WRITING 1.0 What Is a Report? A report is a document containing key information that has been analysed and now presented for application to a particular issue. A report is usually written in a format designed for its audience. Its analysis and presentation make it effective. Students are expected to write reports because of its use in finding out what they have learned from their reading and research, and because it offers them an experience of this important workplace skill. 2.0 The Structure of a Report A report contains the following: Title Page, Terms of Reference, Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Appendixes, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, and Glossary. However, depending on instructions, some of these parts may be deemed unnecessary. In the sciences, the Methods and Results sections are especially required.  Title Page The title page contains the title of the report, the name of the person for whom it was prepared, the name of the writer, and the date presented.  Terms of Reference This section contains the audience for the report, how the report was written, and why it was written.  Abstract or Summary Describes the aim and content of the report. It details the findings and what actions should be taken. It doesn’t require details, only the main points. Since it is the first part of the work that gets read, the abstract should be concise and precise, and should give the best possible overview of the report.  Table of Contents Lists the different chapters and headings with their page numbers, in a way that allows the reader to quickly identify which area is of utmost importance to them.  Introduction Contains the aims and objectives of the report in detail, as well as problems and limitations in its scope. Also contains a description of the research methods and parameters.  Methods For reports in the sciences, this section contains a list of equipment used for the research, the procedures followed, sources of materials used, and problems encountered.  Results 17 Contains a summary of the investigation results, along with diagrams, graphs, tables, and other data used in the process. They are presented without comments, as the comments would appear in the Discussion section.  Discussion All facts and evidence found during the investigation are analysed and discussed here, in detail. Headings, subheadings, and bullet points can be used for clarity of presentation.  Conclusion Here, the writer reveals the significance of their report. In addition, they can further highlight the most important points made.  Appendixes Contains all information that was used but was not published in the body of the report: questionnaires, surveys, graphs, transcripts, and tables. The Appendixes, however, must have been referred to in the report.  Bibliography Contains all sources used or referred to in the report, prepared in an alphabetical order.  Acknowledgements This is where the writer thanks the people or organisations who contributed to the report.  Glossary Contains an alphabetical list and explanation of technical items, acronyms, abbreviations, and standard units used in the report. 3.0 Writing the Report Writing a report involves several stages.  Understanding Your Report Brief It is most important to understand the purpose of the report you are expected to write.  Collecting Information Collect information from a variety of sources. Begin by reading previous work done on the subject, so as to widen your understanding of your subject. The report brief will help you decide the relevance of information you have collected.  Organise Your Material Involves deciding which information should be included and in what sequence. Collect related points into sections or chapters.  Analysis of Material 20 summer day when butterflies jinked out of the steaming greenery and every foxglove, fuchsia and yellow flag iris seemed to have simultaneously burst into flower. Small islands are like celebrities: they loom far larger than their actual size, they are pored over by visitor-fans and they become public possessions, laden with reputations and attributes they may or may not embody. The Hebridean island of Eigg is second to St Kilda as the most famous of the smaller British isles. While St Kilda is renowned for its extinction as a place of human settlement, Eigg is celebrated for its rebirth. After overthrowing its eccentric, authoritarian owner two decades ago, this 31 sq km (12 sq mile) patch of moor and mountain was reborn as what is sometimes mockingly called the People’s Republic of Eigg. This triumph of David versus Goliath has forged an apparently inspirational, sustainable community of 100 people. On first glance, it appears at once industriously creative and attractively lackadaisical: colourful houses, gardens filled with strawberry patches, hammocks made from old fishing nets and swings from old pink buoys. Eigg has suffered more than most over the perennial small-island question of ownership. Larger British isles, such as the islands of Shetland and Orkney, or the Isle of Man, have (at least in modern times) avoided the vexation of capricious landlords. Perhaps their remoteness, or the strength of their local culture, militate against individual possession, but it may simply be sheer size. In contrast, the Small Isles – Eigg, Muck, Rùm and Canna – are perfectly formed and of an ideal acreage to be possessed by one person. For the last two centuries, these beautiful, fecund Hebridean islands have been objects of desire for wealthy men – and it has always been men – who love islands, with disastrous consequences for both sides. The islophile DH Lawrence wrote a satirical short story, The Man Who Loved Islands. It is a cautionary tale: a young idealist called Mr Cathcart buys a small island in order to create his own utopia, downsizes to a tiny one when he realises the native islanders are mocking him, and finally moves to an uninhabited rock. Fredrik Sjöberg, an author I visited on the tiny Swedish island of Runmarö, believes small islands possess “a peculiar attraction for men with a need for control and security” because “nothing is so enclosed and concrete as an island”. The literary academic Peter Conrad offers a more Freudian interpretation, suggesting that an island is a “uterine shelter” surrounded, like the foetus, by fluid, and attracting men in search of a mother or a primal source of safety. Novelists cocoon their creativity – and fragile egos – on islands, too. “I like islands,” wrote Will Self, “because they’re discrete and legible, just like stories.” One of Eigg’s old Gaelic names is “the Island of the Powerful Women”, which it was respectfully called by male islanders at sea, to avoid bad luck. But its matriarchy was despoiled by a succession of men whose craving for Eigg outdid their means. The English Runciman family were reasonably enlightened – Lord Runciman’s wife, Hilda, became one of the first female MPs – but they sold Eigg as a “perfectly secluded island of the Old World” in 1966. It was bought by an elderly Welsh farmer whose Hereford cattle promptly died of bracken poisoning. Disheartened, he got rid of Eigg for £110,000 in 1971 to Bernard Farnham-Smith, self-styled naval commander, head of an English charity that wanted to run the island as a school for disabled boys. Eigg’s own school was so depleted that by 1973 it was down to one pupil. Islanders welcomed the charismatic “Commander” and his stories of his navy days in China. Farnham-Smith’s ingenious ideas were a bit vague, however, and he was soon cutting costs. The island doctor described his regime as “living under enemy occupation, without the satisfaction of being able to shoot the bugger”. It turned out that the 21 most Farnham-Smith had commanded was a fire brigade, and Eigg was back on the market in 1974. On 1 April 1975, Keith Schellenberg, a dashing, Yorkshire-born businessman and former Olympic bobsleigher, acquired Eigg. He was a charming, persuasive adventurer, who, over the next 20 years, fulfilled the narrative of The Man Who Loved Islands perhaps more faithfully than any other real nesomane (John Fowles’ term for island-lover). Legend has it that Schellenberg found himself locked in his home at Udny Castle, a grand pile belonging to his second wife, with the deadline for a blind auction for Eigg approaching. Unfazed, he abseiled down the walls to offer Farnham-Smith £274,000 – £74,000 more than the state-run Highlands and Islands Development Board was prepared to pay. The 39 remaining islanders – an all-time population low – were initially pleased. They didn’t want a takeover by the government, which had shown little interest in renovating their pier or reforming the high freight charges on the ferry. At first, Schellenberg promoted a prescient modern vision of self-sufficiency through tourism, the miracle industry then hailed by the authorities as the solution to the Highland “problem”. Farnham-Smith had kept the wooden community hall locked, but in a popular early move Schellenberg gave it back to the islanders so there could be badminton in winter and dances in summer. Dozens of ceilidhs took place during that first golden year. Unlike other Highland lairds, Schellenberg was a vegetarian who objected to shooting, and he encouraged the Scottish Wildlife Trust to create three nature reserves. Buildings were renovated for holiday homes, and flashy boats, including a motor cruiser called the Golden Eye, brought tourists to the island. Job ads in national newspapers brought an influx of new residents to work for the new owner. Maggie and Wes Fyffe were running a craft workshop on the east coast of Scotland when Schellenberg turned up and invited them to start a similar project on Eigg. Maggie has keen, twinkly eyes, a Lancastrian accent and an excellent smoker’s chuckle. She and Wes loved Eigg and felt an immediate sense of belonging. “Apart from the fact that it is beautiful, I just liked being part of a small community,” she said as we drank tea in her croft. The couple had two children and, on Eigg, they no longer felt excluded from things. “Kids go to everything here because if there’s something happening everybody goes,” said Maggie. “It just felt right.” In keeping with most Hebridean islanders, the Gaelic-speaking Eigg natives were far from insular. “It’s a real misconception that folk have about Hebridean crofter types,” said Maggie. She mentions an old islander who has travelled the globe and fought in Palestine. “People in general here are very hospitable, it’s part of the culture. They were really happy to see young people and kids arriving,” she said. That outward-facing mentality is still a feature of the island. Webpage:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/26/this-island-is-not-for-sale-how- eigg-fought-back GO University Immortalizes Friends: A Speech of the Vice Chancellor on the Occasion of the Naming Ceremony of Godfrey Okoye University Buildings on 24 May 2017 Protocol On behalf of the staff and students of our University, I welcome all of you to this special event in our university: the naming ceremony of some of the university buildings. May God 22 bless you for continuously identifying with, and supporting,our university. Thanks for being here today. On Sunday morning, I read an interesting caption in the Sun Newspaper (the online version): "FG renames Varsity after General Adebayo." Perhaps because of the consciousness of this week's event, I became interested and read further with child-like curiosity: "The Federal Government immortalized the late Major General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo by renaming the Federal University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, after him. " When I got to word 'immortalized'. I read the word again as if I was reading it for the first time in my life. In my usual way with words, I first took a mental picture of it. Then I watched it again and again on the screen of my mind. I tried to paint the letters in different colours. Then I wondered what the taste of the word could be. I didn't want to let go of this word. I saw that I was falling in love with it. I turned to the poetic corner of my mind to see if I could have some edible words to match my beloved word. As I continued starring like two young lovers at this lovely word 'Immortalized', I saw the word, in an indescribable Nollywood-movie-like fashion, turning into a human face. I thought I was in a prophetic trance. The first face I saw was Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah. I shuddered. I saw him smiling and nodding his head. And a voice said to me: This is the man who identified with me when no one believed in me. He came during the first convocation. He spoke. He lectured. He gave invaluable words of advice. He expressed his belief in me. When others felt I was only a child and ignored me, he saw I was an infant prodigy and fell in love with me. He established a foundation to encourage me to strive to be the best. This is why I have decided to embrace him. He must become part of me. As long as long as I live Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah remains immortalized in me, GO University. I smiled and blew several kisses to my beloved GO University. Then another face appeared. In a twinkle I recognized the face to be the face of Hon Dr. Pat Asadu, tall, handsome, unassuming and radiating infectious joy. The voice spoke again: This is the man who wiped my tears indeed. His love of me was love at first sight. He came, saw me and fell in love with me. When my children were walking on a dusty road to their Church and to other parts of their campus, he saw it and was deeply touched by the sight of their dusty shoes and sandals. And in February he changed the face of the university completely. Hon. Dr. Pat Asadu single-handedly constructed the road leading to this Arena, put asphalt on it and banished dust to the blackhole of forgotten ugly tales. During the last convocation he brought all categories of politicians and top government officials to me and thus wrote my name in gold and in the consciousness of many Nigerians. This is why I have spread my hands to embrace him. He and his family will remain immortalized in me. Again I smiled at my beloved GO Uni, licking my lips as if her words were fresh Okro soup. Like a flash of lightening another face appeared. It was Prof. Christian NwachukwuOkeke. He was shaking his with people in such an energetic way that you felt he would break their hands. And the voice spoke again, this time in a very high pitch: This is the man who has led my Governing Council since I came into existence. He has borne the weight of the Council decisions on his time-tested shoulders. Apart from bringing his multi-coloured experiences into the Council he has done his work without asking for such lavish financial gains and rewards that suck financial life out an institution. This is a man whose nickname should be Law. He has not only established two law faculties but also taught innumerable students and 25 Legal Issues Beyond sentiments, it needs to be emphasised that Nigeria is a sovereign state, with a defined territory recognised by the international community. She is a member of the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), among others. This territory includes the South-east region. While the right to self-determination is guaranteed under the international systems, specifically the United Nations and African Union, this right has laid down procedures that must be religiously followed. For instance, while the call for referendum is legal, they do not come by fiat. Referendum is the ultimate result of wide and long negotiations, consultations, and processes involving the international community as we have seen in the cases of Scotland in the United Kingdom, Catalonia in Spain, Quebec in Canada, and recently in Puerto Rico as well as the successful secession of East Timor from Indonesia, Eritrea from Ethiopia, and South Sudan from Sudan. Unless these due processes are observed, as in the case of Eritrea, East Timor, and South Sudan, such enclaves will not be recognised as sovereign states by the international community. I have followed incisive arguments on this matter and looked at the history of other secessionist efforts in other parts of the world. For example, about 43 years after it broke away from Cyprus in 1974, with the help of the Turkish Army, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Northern Cyprus) is yet to be recognised as a sovereign nation by any nation because of lack of due process. The citizens can only travel with the passport of Turkey as citizens of Turkey, not Northern Cyprus. Today, there is widespread agitation by citizens of North Cyprus to be rejoined to Cyprus. There is also the case of Somaliland. Almost three decades after it declared itself a sovereign state from the Federal Republic of Somalia, the best the self-declared Republic (British Somaliland) has achieved is recognition as an autonomous state, but still part of Somalia in spite of the fact that Somalia is a failed state. We also have the Russia-backed breakaway Eastern Ukraine, which still uses the Ukrainian international passport and currency, several years after. It does not matter that it is supported by Russia, a world super power. In the Caucasus, the breakaway South Ossetia and Abkazia from Georgia are only recognised by Russia more than 10 years after. They can only travel as Russian citizens with Russian international passport. The international community still recognises them as citizens of Georgia. Political Considerations Ndigbo also need to understand both the local and international political tides and sentiments to be able to make the right choices because the considerations for self-determination go beyond just the South-east. Already, extreme utterances and actions by some key elements in the agitation for Biafra are taking tolls on our goodwill, friendship, and the sympathy we enjoy. Insults hurled at religious and political leaders of other regions are not helping us, politically. Today, discordant tunes over the boundaries or territories of a prospective sovereign State of Biafra is growing in proportions with the hard wickets hurled at our neighbours and compatriots. 26 Indeed, as things stand today, the greater part of South-south region have continued to discountenance the idea of Biafra, perhaps, for these utterances or fear of becoming a minority within another sovereign state. Only recently, the Governor of Rivers State was in Sokoto to emphasise that the people of Rivers State are rather in support of a restructured Nigeria, not a sovereign state of Biafra. Similarly, the people of Delta State have reiterated that Delta State, including the Anioma cultural zone, which is Igbo, will not be part of Biafra. The truth is, times have changed because 1967 is different from 2017, and so have political interests. So much water has passed under the bridge and we have to be realistic. Economic Implications As I earlier said, there is serious clamour for Northern Cyprus to rejoin Cyprus. Beside the frustrations from isolation, the economy is also at the heart of it. The Monday, June 26, 2017 edition of UK’s newspaper, The Telegraph estimates that the reunification of the tiny island could boost its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by GBP5 Billion. South-east’s political future should therefore be put in the context of its economic interest and survival. The Igbos have larger chunk of their investments outside the South-east. Our people have invested heavily in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. They are into trading. Imagine a situation where a Republic of Biafra would have to depend on Nigerian passports to travel out. Importantly, as I mentioned earlier, we are not certain that the South-south will go with the Biafra idea. And in the event that they do not, what are our options for economic survival? Flowing from this, and aware that no nation is a Santa Claus, what guarantee do we have for international support if the main oil bearing region pulls out? Social Considerations Nigeria has never been as divided as it is today. The hate rhetoric is getting worse by the day. Parting ways under such level of bitterness could be risky to the investments and lives of the South Easterners. Realistically speaking, is it possible that all Ndigbo living in the other parts of Nigeria, many of whom were born and bred outside Igbo land, and have been well assimilated by their host communities will return home? Many have never visited home and do not even speak Igbo language. Can we realistically expect those who have their investments in other parts of Nigeria to willingly abandon them and head home? Although international systems seek to guarantee the security of lives of peoples and their properties on either side of the divides, should there be a self-determination process that leads to the emergence of a new nation, such guarantees are not absolute and difficult to enforce, especially in a society such as ours. The quit notice and hate spewed by the Arewa youth to Ndigbo point to the fact that all is not well. And it calls for caution because the mother hen does not run without looking back to know the fate of her chicks. Right template for Restructuring The other option left for us is a restructured federation. Ndigbo need to develop and market what it believes to be the right template for restructuring. The Eastern Region was rated the fastest growing economy in Africa in the First Republic because the regions were relatively autonomous; resources were largely developed and controlled by the regions. 27 I believe Ndigbo will thrive, probably more than other regions, under a federal structure that guarantees substantial autonomy, justice, equity, security, and prosperity for Ndigbo wherever they live. What we need is a federalism where each constituent part fends for itself to promote industry. We need a federal arrangement that guarantees and allows every constituent state or region to be primarily in charge of its aspirations and preferences to catalyse competitive development. We need a mutually agreed arrangement that allows every component to take charge of the security of lives and properties of citizens through decentralised policing, while the Federal Government takes care of defending our territorial integrity. We need a federal arrangement where the best excels, and does not have to be sacrificed in the name of federal character. We need a restructured federation where the Igbo man or woman, and indeed, every Nigerian can live and ply his or her business in any part of the country without any form of discrimination, molestation, and destruction of his or her life and property on the flimsiest excuses. Igbos should be better off in a federation where they freely exercise their democratic rights without being hounded and killed by security forces. We need a federal structure that guarantees smart and efficient government. And I believe these are possible if the leaders and constituent parts of the nation come to the table with sincerity of purpose. We should push for that, please. Way forward Going forward, we need to set up a committee for a continuous engagement and moderation of IPOB, other pro-Biafra organisations and their leaders to avoid hate speeches and reckless statements that will make us lose our friends and sympathisers. We need to send a team of South-east leaders to have yet another meeting with the Presidency, this time to tell them, in clear terms, the need to address the fears and complaints about marginalisation of the people of the South-east by this government, which is fueling the agitation in our region. Government needs to take concrete steps and demonstrate commitment in addressing the said complaints. This will help the South-east leaders to manage the restiveness. The Igbos must continue to emphasise restructuring, which is presently enjoying acceptance by the South-south, South-west, Northern-central, and well-meaning people from other parts of the North. I believe that at the discussion table for restructuring, we will have sufficient allies that will enable us extract a good bargain for a just and equitable society, where we will, no doubt, excel. Ndigbo need a bigger space to operate. In fact, Nigeria as a country is even a small space for the enterprising spirit of the Igbo, hence our people are scattered all over Africa and are capable of dominating the economic space. We need to send delegations to different entities of the North, especially Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Adamawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, among others, to engage the respective governors and top traditional rulers and clerics who will also help to moderate the utterances and actions of the Northern youth. These, I believe, will secure the lives and properties of our people all over the north and avoid their possible mass movement ahead of the October deadline contained in the threat by the Northern youth. We need to send another delegation to meet with the Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector- General of Police, National Security Adviser, and the Director-General of the Department of 30 He realised the power of tapping into cultural anger. Remember back in January 2016 during the campaign when he said: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." He knew he had no limits. Today's Quinnipiac poll isn't good news for the president. By almost every metric, his overall support is ticking down. But on issues of trust, leadership, strength, values, he still has the support of a majority of Republicans. And his base is more solid still. I'm not saying Donald Trump will win again in 2020 but, given the complicated formula of American electoral maths, it's certainly not impossible. He won by just tens of thousands of votes in three key states. If those votes are still there as he runs for a second term, what's to say he can't win again? Web address:http://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-41028733 How can bosses put a stop to workers idly browsing online? Cyberloafing – engaging in non-work online activities while “on the clock” – is a modern form of counterproductive workplace behaviour. Rather than stealing company goods, the modern work environment with its various digital devices easily allows many employees to essentially steal company time. Cyberloafing can lack malicious intent, but not always. In fact, in our study, we found cyberloafing can be associated with everyday levels of “dark” personality traits and a perceived ability to get away with it. So who is likely to cyberloaf, and why? Taking advantage We had 273 employees complete an anonymous online survey measuring cyberloafing and everyday levels of “dark” personality traits. These traits are considered to be a socially exploitative dark triad, characterised by callous and parasitic self-interest (psychopathy), manipulativeness (Machiavellianism), and arrogant superiority (narcissism), and are found in varying levels among the general population. We expected that because of their willingness to pursue gains at the expense of others, among comparative feelings of entitlement, individuals with higher levels of dark triad traits would be more likely to engage in cyberloafing. You might also like:  The truth about microchip implants  The design tricks that boost creativity 31  Why the millennial stereotype is wrong We also examined the extent to which people believe they can get away with things at work (their perceived ability to deceive). Unsurprisingly, given the feelings of superiority associated with the dark triad, these individuals tend to feel very capable of outsmarting others. Among our participants, we found that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism were associated with cyberloafing behaviours through their relationships with perceived ability to deceive. In other words, higher levels of dark triad traits led to a greater belief in the ability to get away with things, which in turn was related to higher levels of cyberloafing. Our findings suggest that individuals high in subclinical psychopathy will engage in some cyberloafing behaviours regardless of their perceived ability to deceive. This fits with the nature of psychopathy: individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to lack remorse and don’t feel guilty, and perhaps are not too concerned with getting caught. If an employer wants to reduce cyberloafing, strategies that counter employees’ perceived ability to deceive could be useful More research is needed, given that our study was self-reporting and favoured female participants, but the results raise some interesting questions for workplaces and their ability to handle this behaviour. Should the boss be concerned? The organisational consequences of cyberloafing can range from brief employee distraction to more serious drain on company resources or security (for example, slower network performance or computer viruses). Our study suggests that if an employer wants to reduce cyberloafing, strategies that counter employees’ perceived ability to deceive could be useful. Stressing accountability could act as a deterrent. Employees could be informed that all web-based activity will be monitored, but surveillance runs the risk of invading employee privacy and creating an unpleasant work environment. Fortunately, cyberloafing is not a purely negative workplace behaviour. Internet browsing can have a positive impact on employees’s emotions, allowing a measure of stress release. It can also boost productivity in some circumstances by providing employees with a short break so they can recover their concentration. Hyperconnectivity is also an issue While employees slip personal online activities into their work time, their work may also be encroaching on their personal lives. Devices and online tools encourage 24-7 connectivity to the workplace. One study suggests that employees who receive company-provided smartphones feel expected to be constantly connected and responsive to work at all times. For employers, this is both good and bad news. The perception of being “on call” might increase the volume of work they get from their employee. However, constant connection might lead to exhausted, burnt-out workers. 32 Home-work boundary flexibility is associated with higher job satisfction Employees have traditionally sought to find “work-life balance”, but for some people this line is now blurred. Cyberloafing and hyper-connectivity can be seen as two sides of the same coin. People are engaging in personal online activities while in the workplace, and work activities while at home. A new definition of ‘balance’? Some studies suggest that the terminology should evolve, with employees now seeking “work-life flexibility”, where an employee controls the amount of time they dedicate to work and life, integrating the two as necessary. For example, you might take a work call while watching your child’s soccer match, but duck out of work to post your best friend’s birthday present. The key point is that the employee feels they have the ability to handle competing demands. Exploratory research indicates that home-work boundary flexibility is associated with higher job satisfaction. The same study suggests that for those with a permeable work boundary (that is, the ability to do personal tasks at work), there was less time-based work and family conflict. However for those with a permeable home boundary (allowing work tasks to be done during personal time), there was more time-based work and family conflict. Our study suggests that a worker’s perceived ability to take advantage of an employer is a key part of cyberloafing. But it’s a two-way street: employers need to think about whether they are also taking advantage of their hyper-connected workers. This article originally appeared on The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. Weblink:http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170818-how-can-bosses-put-a-stop-to-workers- idly-browsing-online How getting rid of my smartphone revolutionised my life By Thomas Goulding With constant content throughout the day, millions are losing the ability to sit still and do ‘nothing’ How long would you last doing a simple cognitive task without checking your smartphone or social media feed, before you get fidgety and bored? Ten minutes? How would you feel after one hour? Around two thirds of British people admit they would feel lost, unhappy or anxious without their smartphone, according to a survey last year. Around half of Americans openly admit they simply could not last a day without their smartphone. Researchers are fairly successfully uncovering the ocean of evidence that suggests living completely immersed in the “information ecosystem” of smartphone, internet and social 35 Smartphones have become so advanced and personal to us, that they have become a de facto “extension of ourselves”, the scientists say, with much of our identity indelibly linked to the device. How do they do this? Smartphones and web browsers deliver sensory and cognitive stimuli, explains Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows, that have four key characteristics: they are repetitive; interactive; addictive and intensive. Repetitive, in that a steady stream of the same actions flow through our cortexes, of refreshing the inbox or feed over and over and over, reading bitesize chunks of content, and replying or engaging with it. Interactive, in that most media is social media, and one is made to feel invisible and irrelevant if you opt out of constantly monitoring the “conversation”. Addictive, in that responses and rewards, or “positive reinforcements” that encourage the endless repetition of low-value, high-intensity mental actions, are delivered. Opening notifications and clicking links gives us endless rewards, turning us very slightly into lab rats that develop a dependence on nuggets of addictive content. While connectivity does sometimes deliver something we want – news and valuable information – often that veneer is completely stripped away, as in the case of games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, where you are literally hitting levers to deliver endless ‘treasure’ and points. And they are intensive, in that the nature of social media is a far more immersive, engaging experience than the previous media of newspapers or television, coming through the hands and fingers, engaging our sense of sight, hearing and touch. Developments in neuroscience over the past century reveal quite how damaging the constant engagement with the “ecosystem of interruption technologies” can be, as writer Cory Doctorow calls our environment. The human brain has been revealed to be incredibly flexible, or “plastic”, in reaction to how it’s used. Every time we perform a task or experience a sensation, a different set of brain cells is activated. As the same experience is repeated, the synaptic links between those cells grow physiologically stronger. New cells are generated to do the same task, and those cells’ synaptic terminals that connect to one another grow. Most of our activity on the internet – consuming news, social media, sharing information – strengthens our brain’s networks for problem-solving, decision-making and fast processing of data. On the other hand, those who take in most of their information from words printed on physical paper or books, produce stronger networks for language and memory, among other skills. The internet brain finds contemplation, or “deep thinking” harder, because the neural pathways that perform such an action are physically depleted. The same goes for the pathways that enable sustained concentration. (The average time people will wait for a web page to load before giving up and leaving the site is now around three seconds.) Quite which of your minds’ networks are strong and active can be reconfigured well into old age. This is cause for both alarm and hope: alarm, because throughout your adult life you can be configured to be utterly addicted to the steady stream of low-value, high-intensity stimuli (like Facebook posts), and hope because it can typically be reconfigured away from such a dependence. 36 The ramifications for human creativity could be seismic. If you are trying to immerse yourself in a cognitive task like brainstorming a new idea, however big or small, it seems just a quick glance at phone notifications or e-mail can leave up to twenty minutes of cognitive residue that interferes with your mind’s ability to concentrate, and therefore reach its potential, on the primary task. Frequent smartphone use makes people exhibit ADHD-like symptoms of inattentiveness and hyperactivity And just having a smartphone nearby, even if it is switched off, can drain brain power due to the cognitive resources used to make yourself not be distracted by it, according to research from the University of Texas. Participants in the study who put the phone in a separate room were shown to have greater effectiveness at completing cognitive tasks. It’s also important to remember that the internet is deliberately structured in the manner so described in order to be financially as profitable for the institutions that support it. The faster users surf – the more clicks and pages viewed – the more opportunities there are for the likes of Google and Facebook to collect information about us, to feed to advertisers. The last thing Google wants, financially, is leisurely reading or concentrated thought. They are in the business of distraction. Of course, not fulfilling your brain’s ultimate “creative potential” or an inability to engage in “deep thinking” might seem academic problems to the millions of people struggling to pay rent or put food on the table in the UK. In the small moments between a constant struggle, seeking the soothing antidote of light entertainment or a feeling of connectedness to friends you cannot see everyday, through a smartphone, is a thoroughly natural choice. However, the consequences for culture and humanity’s growth are worrying. The internet’s ecosystem have shown to make memory formation more difficult – surfing the internet overextends our “cognitive load”, hampering our mind’s ability to commit information to long-term memory. The type of knowledge we hold in long-term memory are known as “schemas”: rather than disparate facts, they are stories and patterns of information, organised to help us make sense of the world. Schemas are the source of our intellectual and artistic prowess, the engine of cultural production. To disempower the formation of schemas is, as Mark Fisher calls it, fundamentally a form of “consciousness deflation”. The dream of Google is to develop computers that possess the power of the human mind. “Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate form of Google,” said founder Larry Page, in the year 2000. But computers may not need to become human, if the reverse process gets sufficiently far. By encouraging us to constantly consume data across news feeds and timelines and message threads, the synapses of the literary, creative mind wither away. Our brains start to gradually resemble super-efficient data-processing units, or in other words, sophisticated computers. *** We’ve considered many negatives. For all the cognitive skills we may be losing, we are gaining strength in primitive low-level mental functions, such as the processing of visual 37 cues, hand-eye coordination and reflex responses. The speed with which we can assess web pages for whether it will give us the valuable information we need is impressively quick. Fast-paced problem solving is enhanced, as well as evidence of a small expansion in the capacity of our “working” memory, that is the information we can hold superficially at any one time. However, these seem small fry compared to the effects on mental health. Carr’s ominous warning was written in 2008, nearly ten years ago. This was remarkably only one year after the iPhone was released. In the decade since, the speed with which smartphones have become ubiquitous has been quite astonishing, directly linked to quite how many functions they now perform. Phone calls, instant messaging, consuming news and television, music, navigation, photography, banking, finding work and love and sex, are all done in your pocket. Every person or service worldwide is contactable from this small slab of plastic. Saying no to a smartphone is saying no to a world that is designed around the assumption you have said the opposite. If you are waiting for someone in a public space like a café or a pub alone, and you choose not to be on your phone but simply sit there, taking in the world or thinking, you stick out like someone who’s either quite strange, or just a loser. And we have only considered here the general effects for people surrounded by technology an average amount, in a developed economy, as adults. There is strong evidence to suggest the effects of smartphone and internet ubiquity for Generation Z (born in 1999 and onwards) amount to a cultural earthquake on a whole other, catastrophic level. Also known as “iGen”, these teenagers hang out in person less, drinks less and sleeps less than the previous generational equivalents, because of smartphones. The smartphone keeps them in their bedrooms, lonely, on Snapchat. Their suicide rate has skyrocketed. Indeed, anxiety was the most overwhelming symptom that was strong enough for me to instigate getting rid of a smartphone. Whether the link between smartphones and mental health disorders is predominantly one of causation or correlation, is not settled. Do people become depressed because of Instagram, or do they seek solace from depression on Instagram? While it’s likely to be a bit of both, making a single Facebook “like” or status, or link- clicking on Facebook, was associated with a decrease of 5-8 per cent in self-reported mental health, in sociological research. That’s just one click, and what people themselves both perceive and own up to. If events can’t be captured and stored by your smartphone, they take on a higher personal value A “natural state” of consciousness is precisely what some people want to avoid through palliative immersion in such technologies. For those who suffer anxiety and stress independent of their devices, living in one’s own “default” thoughts will not be a contented or comfortable experience. Indeed, engagement with high-intensity digital stimuli has even been shown as a way to potentially treat trauma. Tetris, the classic 1980s video game, was shown to successfully prevent the formation of harmful memories by people who had just undergone psychologically traumatic episodes, such as a car crash. The University of Oxford’s research 40 DOCUMENTATION IN RESEARCH INTRODUCTION Research writing is not only essential but also an indispensible aspect of scholarship around the globe. This entails that scholarly activities primarily revolve round research investigations, findings and documentations of knowledge for the advancement of the society. As a result, scholars are more often engaged in scholarly activities such as writing of research papers, articles, thesis, projects, dissertations and conference papers. In doing this, researchers frequently consult works of other researchers to enable them gain useful insight into the existing knowledge in their areas of investigation. These pieces of information culled from other peoples’ works must be dully acknowledged by way of referencing/citation and documentation. It is the act of giving credit to a writer whose ideas, words, data etc were used by a researcher that is referred to as documentation. The foregoing implies that research ethics stipulates that all ideas and materials lifted from other peoples work must be properly cited and documented. On this note, Nwabueze Emeka defines documentation as “A process of providing written acknowledgement of the appropriate sources of information used in a research work” (101). Corroborating this scholar’s view, Nnamdi-Eruchalum cited Chukwuma and Otagburuagu (238) as having asserted that documentation has to do with “the acknowledgement by a writer of sources of information –direct quotations, opinions, ideas, facts, and their interpretation, whether summarized or paraphrased - used during the process of writing a research report” (140). Thus, when a research writer shows that a piece of information in his/her work is not originally his/her own by citing the writer who owns the idea he/she used, it is said that such a writer has documented well his/her research information source(s). But unfortunately, due to ignorance of research ethics and the consequences of plagiarism, some writers copy other people’s ideas, words, data and findings without acknowledging them (Sam Iyiogwe, 89; Osuala, E. C., 118). This is contrary to stipulations and rules of scholarship. It is indeed regarded as academic theft! This is a crime in scholarship because scholarly ethics makes it mandatory that every bit of idea and information culled from another source requires acknowledgement in and at the end of the text (Uguegbu C. P. & others 1). Proper documentation is, therefore, a necessity in Academic writing. It gives credit to whom credit is due, advances scholarship, ensures justice, fairness and honesty. Maduabum Mike remarks that “Appropriate documentation serves the dual purpose of acknowledging sources of information as well as enabling readers consult a researcher’s sources to check the accuracy of his information”(189) . Consequently, this paper is intended to expose readers to the current issues in documentation as it involves research writing. Taking cognizance of the fact that documentation styles/systems undergo changes periodically, this work will present and illustrate documentation systems obtainable in the present time in line with guidelines in their respective current editions. Documentation Systems/Styles in Research Writing Research writers of varied disciplines adopt various documentation systems or styles. The type of style a researcher adopts most often depends on his or her discipline, or sometimes depending on the instruction given to the researcher as it is obtainable in conference article writing guidelines. Whichever is the case, a research must adhere strictly to 41 the style or procedures of a particular system, and also be consistent in its adoption. In other words, mixing two or more styles in one academic writing is unacceptable in scholarship. Both the in-text citation and the bibliographic details of the cited works must follow the rules guiding the documentation style one has chosen to adopt in his/her work. There are different styles of documentation. They include the American Psychological Association (APA), which uses author/date method, and majorly used by scholars in social sciences, education and business. There is also the modern language Association (MLA), mainly adopted by researchers in the fields of Arts and Humanities. We equally have the Chicago Manual Style (CMS), used by some writers in humanities as an alternative to the Modern Language Association (Nwabueze 102). Others include, the number system (NS), adopted by those in medical sciences, biology and agricultural sciences; the American Political Science Association (APSA), and the council of Biology Editor (CBE). But for the purpose of this paper, we are going to explore documentation styles involved in American Psychological Association, (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA) and the number systems (CBE, ACS, AMS and AIP) respectively. Our decision is predicated on the fact that these three styles cover so many disciplines in academic writings. American Psychological Association (APA) As we noted earlier, the APA documentation style is mainly adopted by researchers in the fields of education and social sciences. This system of documentation was established by the American Psychological Association. The Association is responsible for publishing publication manuals that serve as guide to researchers to document their works. The manual is titled publication manual of the American psychological Association. According to Nnamdi-Eruchalum, “APA style as contained in the manual was used in the journal published by the American Psychological Association as early as 1928, and it has continued to be used till date “ (146). However, the Association reviews the manual periodically, which gives rise to various editions. The latest edition of APA is the 6 th edition, with slight modification compared with the 5 th and 4 th editions. The APA style of documentation adopts the use of parenthetical citation within the text of the research writing, and also uses author-date system. Unlike MLA that favours mentioning the author and the page from where the information is lifted, APA recommends mentioning the author and date of publication of the cited work. In our discussion of APA style of documentation it is considered most convenient to examine two major components or aspects of the system, namely, in-text citation and the bibliographic documentation (references) used in APA style. In-Text Citation in APA Style In-text citation is one of the major ways of documenting information lifted from another source which is not the original idea of the present researcher. In-text citations are parenthetical citations made inside the text of the writer’s work. They are called parenthetical quotations/citations because they are often enclosed in parentheses in the text of the work one is writing. In the APA documentation style, the in-text citations normally occur with the last name of the cited author and the year of publication of the work cited. The page numbers from where the quotations were lifted may be included in the parentheses, with the abbreviation ‘p’ or ‘pp’ (representing page or pages) from where the researcher extracted the information. However, it is a matter of rule that consistency in the use of page number together with the author’s name should be maintained. In other words, if a writer wishes to 42 include page number, he/she must do so throughout the work; it should not appear in some citations and absent in others. Let us, at this juncture, present some examples of in-text citations as they usually appear in APA documentation style. Work by a Single Author Here, the name (first name only) of the author is used, with or without the page from where the information is extracted. Examples: (i) Nnamdi-Eruchalum (2007) maintains that the addition of derivational prefixes usually result in the formation of new words without changing the word-class to which the base belongs. Or (ii) It has been argued that “the two principal divisions within morphology is between derivation and inflection” (Onyenweaku, 2017:p1). Note: if a work cited earlier in the text is referred to again, the researcher should repeat the citation adding the page where it is found in the work, if the work is paginated. Work by Two Authors (iii) Anyachonkeya and Izuagba (2005) state that affixation is the addition of prefixes, suffixes and infixes to a base to generate a new word-class. Or The 2012 National Policy on information Technology prepared the ground for integration of ICT in the Nigerian school system (Eshitse & Okwilague, 2016). Work by More than Two Authors If a work to be cited has three or four authors, cite or mention the surnames of the authors and then date of publication. But if the work is authored by more than four people, mention only the surname of the first author and then write the word ‘et al’ (meaning ‘and others’). Examples: (iv) In a recent finding, Mahmood, Igbal, Zaid & Ahmed (2015) discovered that reckless use of abbreviation in SMS results in break-down in communication between the sender and the recipient. (v) Ezeani, Eke &Ugwu (2012) are of the view that many Nigerian students have negative information-seeking behaviour. (vi) In the words of Onyenweaku, et al. (2014), “Nigerian National Policy on Education in respect to the language policy needs to be overhauled if the quest for national language would not continue to elude us”. Bibliographic Documentation in APA Style Unlike the in-text citation, the bibliographic documentation appears at the end of the research work. They occupy the last page of the work, usually a new page with the heading “References”. What the page(s) contain is usually the bibliographic information of all the sources of information cited in the text of the work. The entries are listed in alphabetical 45 A group of people in 1883 came up with the radical idea of according Modern language equal respect as the classical languages of Greek and Latin. This led to the formation of a likeminded group known as the Modern Language Association in America. The association has been defined by its commitment to advocating language study and research to enthrone quality and reliability in scholarship particularly as it concerns language and literature. Its main objective is the sharing of ideas and research knowledge among members. As at today, it is recorded that the organization boasts of about 25,000 members in about 100 countries of the world. The organization has so far produced eight (8) different editions of their documentation manual or guide, with the first edition published in 1977 and the latest – eighth edition, published in 2016. It is noted in the handbook that though these varying editions evolve, MLA methods and modes may change yet, the basic principles of research remain the same. The eighth edition MLA style approach will be given priority here because it is the most current and it offers a greater flexibility that better accommodates new media and new way of doing research. Moreover, it has been pointed out initially in the introduction that attention will be on the most current editions. In comparison with the eight edition, the seventh edition concentrated more on defining a citation format for each kind of source, thus presenting separate rules for citing a book, a journal article, a newspaper article etc, while the former shifts focus from a complicated prescriptive list of formats to the presentation of information in a clear and consistent structure applicable in a broader range of cases to serve writers better in a changing environment. One can argue that the former (8 th edition) is preferable because it is very dynamic hence it allows the writer to generate useful documentation of any work, in any publication format using its basic principle unlike the static, prescriptive latter with deficiency in providing rules for emerging new media platform like the citing of a youtube video, a blog post or a tweet. Normally, every acceptable documentation, as highlighted in the eighth edition MLA Handbook (13), must ask the following crucial questions:  Who is the author of the source?  What is the title of the source?  How was the source published?  Where did you find the source?  When was the source published? This implies that a writer must keep track of the author, title, publisher, location and publication as they all have their places in documentation. Already, in the treatment of APA style, enormous illustrations have been given and it is obvious that both APA and MLA have some things in common. So, illustrations here will be limited to avoid unnecessary repetitions. The examples to be given will only focus on pointing out the areas differences and showing the documentation techniques inherent in MLA style. Generally, MLA style has two parts of documentation aimed at satisfying the two requirements of completeness and brevity. These two parts include: a list of works cited – a detailed entry normally captioned “Work(s) Cited” on a new page, and a citation in the text – a minimal reference that directs the reader to the entry often tagged “in-text citation”. List of Works Cited This is usually titled “Work(s) Cited” and has the function of identifying the sources you borrowed and cited in your work. Other works you consulted but did not cite must not come under this heading rather, they must be given a broader title “Works Consulted”. In the works cited, each entry is made up of core elements given in a specific order. In the 46 order of their appearances are the core elements given below, any of which can be omitted when not relevant to the work being documented. Also accompanying these elements accordingly are the punctuation marks as they should appear in the main works – cited list. 1. Author (.) 2. Title of source (.) 3. Title of container (,) 4. Other contributors (,) 5. Version (,) 6. Number (,) 7. Publisher (,) 8. Publication date (,) 9. Location (.) 1. Author – Normally, the author’s last name is written first and marked off with a comma, followed by the other parts of the name as presented in the book and a full stop at the end, unless a period that is part of the author’s name already appears at the end. E.g: Jacobs, Alan, Baron, Naomi S. etc. The names of two authors of a work are written in the order of their presentation in the work joined by “and”. If there are more than two authors of a book, the name of the first author is written followed by et al. 2. Title of Source: In the works – cited entry, the title of source comes immediately after the author’s name and is followed by the subtitle, if any. A self-contained and independent source is italicized or underlined (if italics is unavailable) while a part of a larger work is put in quotation marks. The example below shows a title of source and a subtitle. Joyce, Michael. Other mindedness: The Emergence of Network Culture. U. of Michigan P, 2000. 3. Title of Container: “When the source being documented forms a part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source”. (MLA Handbook 30). The title of the container is normally italicized and is followed by a comma. The container may be a book that is a collection of stories, essays or other kinds of works; it may also be a periodical etc. Normally, the nine core elements have provisions for any kind of container to be added. This explains why there are container one (1) and container two (2) as will be illustrated below using an example lifted from the 8 th edition MLA Handbook (32) to demonstrate the application of the core element. An article by Anne Goldman, “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante” appeared in a journal, The Georgia Review, in 2010. Back issues of the Georgia Review are contained in JSTOR, an online database of journals and books. 1. The author - Goldman, Anne. 2. Title of source - “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante” 47 CONTAINER 1 3. Title of container - The Georgia Review 4. Other contributors 5. Version 6. Number - Vol. 64, N0. 1, 7. Publisher 8. Publication date - 2010 9. Location - pp. 69 – 88 CONTAINER 2 3. Title of container - JSTOR 4. Other contributions 5. Version\ 6. Number 7. Publisher 8. Publication date 9. Location - www, sstor.org/stable/41403199 So when these bits of information are gathered, the entry will have the arrangement/pattern below: Goldman, Anne. “Questions of transport: Reading primo Levi Reading Dante”. The Georgia Review, Vol 64, N0.1, 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor .org/stable/41403188. It is deducible from the application of the core elements above that this new approach is simpler and more accommodating. One only needs to know the core elements and then fill in the bits of information in the slots allotted for them. 4. Other contributors: Apart from the author’s name that appears at the start of the entry, other people can also be credited in the source as contributors. This is done basically when the contributor(s) role is important to your research or the identification of the work. And each name is preceded with a description of the role performed, e.g., adapted by, edited by, translated by, etc. 5. Version: The notation of any work released in more than one form is usually identified by “version” in the entry. The version of a book is called an “edition”, e.g., 2 nd edition, 3 rd edition, etc. 6. Number: This occurs in the entry when the documented source is part of a numbered sequence, probably because it is too long to be printed in one book. This is indicated by volume number normally abbreviated as “vol.”, followed by the number, e.g., vol.2, vol.3, etc. Some prefer “issue number” arranged sequentially to volume number while some still use both volume and issue number. 7. Publisher: This is the company or organization responsible for producing the source or making it available to the public. 50 cleverly carried out during the British tea ceremony. The situation is tense. Jack and Algernon arrive, and, in attempting to straighten out the Ernest problem, they alienate both women. The two men follow, explaining that they are going to be rechristened Ernest, and the women relent and agree to stay engaged. Lady Bracknell shows up demanding an explanation for the couples' plans. When she discovers the extent of Cecily's fortune, she gives her consent to her engagement to Algernon; however, Jack's parentage is still a stumbling block to her blessings. Jack tells Lady Bracknell that he will not agree to Cecily's engagement until she is of age (35) unless he can marry Gwendolen. Dr. Chasuble arrives and announces that all is ready for the christenings. Jack explains that the christenings will no longer be necessary. Noting that Jack's present concerns are secular, the minister states that he will return to the church where Miss Prism is waiting to see him. Shocked at hearing the name "Prism," Lady Bracknell immediately calls for Prism and reveals her as the governess who lost Lady Bracknell's nephew 28 years earlier on a walk with the baby carriage. She demands to know where the baby is. Miss Prism explains that in a moment of distraction she placed the baby in her handbag and left him in Victoria Station, confusing him with her three-volume novel, which was placed in the baby carriage. After Jack asks for details, he quickly runs to his room and retrieves the handbag. Miss Prism identifies it, and Lady Bracknell reveals that Jack is Algernon's older brother, son of Ernest John Moncrieff, who died years ago in India. Jack now truly is Ernest, and Algernon/Cecily, Jack/Gwendolen, and Chasuble/Prism fall into each others' arms as Jack realizes the importance of being earnest. CHARACTERS: JACK WORTHING Jack is one of the major characters in the play. He represents the idea of leading a life of respectability on the surface (in the country) and a life of deception for pleasure (in the city). His name, Worthing, is related to worthiness, allowing the play to humorously consider the correct manners of Victorian society. Whereas he is Jack in the country, he has adopted a fictitious name, Earnest in the City. ALGERNON MONCRIEFF Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, living a life of total bachelorhood in a fashionable part of London. He is younger than Jack, takes less responsibility, and is always frivolous and irreverent. Algy is given to witty lines and statements that show his humor and disrespect for his society. Like Jack, he has also invented a persona in order to flee from the city every now and then. LADY BRACKNELL She is Algernon’s aunt whose opinions and mannerisms betray a careful and calculated speaking pattern. Lady Bracknell's behavior enforces social discrimination and excludes those who do not fit into her new class. Hence she disapproves of Jack’s marriage proposal to her daughter the moment she learns of his parentage. Thanks to her obsession with the aristocratic ideals, her daughter believes that she is deficient in her role as a mother. CECILY AND GWENDOLEN For both women, appearances and style are important. Gwendolen must have the perfect proposal performed in the correct manner and must marry a man named Ernest simply 51 because of the name's connotations. Cecily also craves appearance and style. She believes Jack's brother is a wicked man, and though she has never met such a man, she thinks the idea sounds romantic. She toys with rebelliously and romantically pursuing the "wicked brother," but she has full intentions of reforming him to the correct and appropriate appearance. The respectable name of Ernest for a husband is important to her. Both women, despite their differences, are products of a world in which how one does something is more important than why. Despite their positions in society as victims of the machinations of men, marriage contracts and property, the women are the strong characters who are firmly in control.