Mother Tongue By Amy Tan - 1553 Words

Adelina Belecciu (Professor’s Name) ENG101 (Date) â€Å"Mother Tongue† Response Essay In the essay â€Å"Mother Tongue,† Amy Tan emphasizes the idea that the language we are taught in childhood plays an important role in our lives. She writes about the profound effect language has on her life and how she is inspired by her mother’s â€Å"impeccable broken English† to become a writer (317). Tan describes her mother as an educated person who can read sophisticated and technical literature written in English with ease. However, Tan’s mother is often left feeling frustrated and alienated when communicating with others because of her speaking style, which belies her comprehension of the English language (317). Throughout her formative years, Tan discovers a disheartening pattern in regard to her mother’s dialogue with speakers of conventional American English; legitimate problems and requests that her mother is expressing are often not taken seriously or even worse, they are unapologetically ignored. In particular, Tan recalls a situation where her mother’s request is treated sympathetically and acted upon only after Tan ­Ã‚ ­who sounds more American than her mother ­Ã‚ ­ speaks on her behalf; â€Å"...we had assurances the CAT scan would be found...and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake† (317). Tan reveals feeling â€Å"ashamed† of her mother’s English and she is troubled by the prevailing perception that the language spoken at home mustShow MoreRelatedMother Tongue, by Amy Tan819 Words   |  4 Pages Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as â€Å"broken† and â€Å"fractured†, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay â€Å"Mother Tongue†, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inabilityRead MoreMother Tongue By Amy Tan1306 Words   |  6 Pages Mother Tongue is a story that describes how Amy Tan’s mother was treated unfairly because of her â€Å"broken English†. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mom, who speaks â€Å"limited† English, needs T an to be her â€Å"translator† in order to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan has felt ashamed of her mother â€Å"broken† language at first. She then contemplates her background affected her life and her study. However, she changes her thoughtRead MoreMother Tongue By Amy Tan883 Words   |  4 PagesIn Amy Tan’s essay â€Å"Mother Tongue,† it is obvious that language plays an enormous role in our life. Language can influence and give us an insight into another culture different from our own. Amy Tan discusses the many ways in which the language she was taught and native to was important and powerful throughout her life. Language can be defined in various forms, but I hold and acknowledge Amy Tan’s explanation: â€Å"Language can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.† I canRead MoreMother Tongue By Amy Tan1375 Words   |  6 Pagestrade. And I use them all-all the Englishes I grew up with.† -Amy Tan, Mother Tongue Language is what allows humans to be creative. Creative in the way we express ourselves, creative in the way we put our ideas forward, creative in the way we correspond with each other and in the way we can touch each other’s lives. It is truly a gift that the other species of our world do not possess, at least not to the extent that humans do! Amy Tan is an American writer and her works probe the Chinese-AmericanRead MoreMother Tongue By Amy Tan1290 Words   |  6 Pageslanguage is a difficult and demanding task. In â€Å"Mother Tongue†, Amy Tan expresses the limitations caused by the use of imperfect English in society and her struggles to revitalize it into her life and her writing. Through the use of several rhetorical strategies such as expanding on her own credibility with the use of ethos, appealing to the audience’s emotions using pathos, stating statistics using logos and providing an example of repetition, Tan successfully manages to prove her point on the struggleRead MoreMother Tongue By Amy Tan967 Words   |  4 PagesIn â€Å"Mother Tongue†, Amy Tan describes the several different kinds of English her that she speaks. It is an interesting concept to think about the fact that more than one variation of a single language exist. After reading â€Å"Mother Tongue† I began l ooking at my own life and seeing if I could recognize the different variation of English that I have come in contact with. After some serious thought, I realized that I have not only come into contact with many different kinds of English, but I speak manyRead MoreAnalysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan913 Words   |  4 Pages Analysis of Mother Tongue by Amy Tan In the narrative essay, â€Å"Mother Tongue† by Amy Tan, the author sets out the story between her mother, whose English is her second language, and Tan herself can speak native English very well. The essay covers the tonal shift of Amy Tan s psychological change, from grudge to understanding. Although she begins the essay saying, I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on theRead MoreAmy Tan s Mother Tongue1060 Words   |  5 Pagesupon me for my inability to speak English properly. However, in the essay â€Å"Mother Tongue†, the author Amy Tan gives a different, a more optimistic outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing, which helps the audience understand what is being presented. Tan’s mother plays an important role in her outlook of l anguage because she helps herRead MoreAnalysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan1048 Words   |  5 PagesTwo Worlds - One Story In â€Å"Mother Tongue,† Amy Tan reflects on her childhood to describe how her mother contributed to her understanding of language. Tan encounters numerous situations when she feels like she is judged based on how her mother spoke â€Å"broken† English. Nevertheless, she overcame her teachers’ opinion that she should focus on math and sciences and became a writer. I have a similar experience because I have lived in a different country for a long time, and I speak a different languageRead MoreAmy Tan s Mother Tongue992 Words   |  4 PagesIn the essay â€Å"Mother Tongue† Amy Tan, the author, gives a different, a more upbeat outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing which helps the audience understand what is being presented at ease. Her mother plays an important role in her outlook of la nguage, because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part

Aristotle s Views On Happiness - 1582 Words

What It Means To Be Happy Kendall O’Dell Salve Regina University UNV-101 Over the course of the semester, we have read a multitude of books from various authors. Some stand out more than others, and some I agree with more than others. For example, there is almost nothing from Aristotle that I agree with, but I agree with almost everything Berry says. In this essay, I will walk through Aristotle, Berry, and Day, and decide whether I agree or disagree. Then, I will give my own personal view on happiness. ARISTOTLE: Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher who was taught by Plato, and taught Alexander the Great. In his writings, Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that happiness is a way of walking through life, and is a complete and self-sufficient activity (pg. 8). This means that happiness is whole because you choose happiness for the sake of happiness, not just because it is the better of two options. Happiness is self-sufficient for the same reasoning. While I do agree that happiness is complete and self-sufficient, I do not believe that it is necessarily an activity. I feel that happiness is more something you feel in a moment, not something that you do. Aristotle also says that happiness is based on virtues, and habituation of them (pg. 19-20). A virtue is a good act that is done with the right reasoning and intent. He says that when you do something virtuous and you repeat the action, it becomes second nature which means that it becomes easier toShow MoreRelatedAristotle s Views On Happiness2248 Words   |  9 Pages Happiness is the fundamental objective of life. This bold statement is unanimously agreed upon among generations of people on every corner of our planet. However, the real question that has been contested for centuries is the true meaning of happiness? The true meaning of happiness is one of the most highly debated philosophy topics in history. Most famous are the writings of Aristotle and John Stuart Mill who both paint very opposing pictures of happiness. Mill believes happiness is obtained throughRead MoreAristotle s Views On Happiness1394 Words   |  6 Pages Happiness Happiness. It is not measurable, profitable, nor tradable. Yet, above all else in the world, it is what people seek. There are many claims that happiness can be achieved through money, yet many challenge that theory. The modern definition of happiness claimed by the dictionary is â€Å"feelings of joy and pleasure mingled together†. In other words, it is claimed to be a state of mind. However, Aristotle proposed that, rather than being a state of emotion throughout life, happiness is the finalRead MoreAristotle s Views On Happiness999 Words   |  4 PagesAristotle, Epicurus, Epictetus, Boethius, Augustine, and Aquinas connected on writing about the phenomenon of human happiness. Through these philosophers, various ideologies on happiness gets to be distinctly conceivable for one to distinguish and recognize the difference between what people think or feel happiness is and what the true state of happiness is. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle said happiness is the value and reason for every good thing, so happiness is deserving of respect. ForRead MoreAristotle s Views On Happiness1505 Words   |  7 PagesAristotle argues that the most important thing in peoples lives is the virtue of happiness. He writes that one attains happiness by living a life of virtue - our definition is in harmony with those who say that happiness is virtue, or a particular virtue; because an activity in accordance with virtue implies virtue. Indeed, we may go further and assert that anyone who does not delight in fine actions is not even a good man.(Aristotle) A life of virtue implies a life of reasoning for the end goalRead MoreAristotle s Views On Happiness1509 Words   |  7 PagesThis paper will focus on Aristotle’s claim that happiness is an activity and not just a momentary pleasure. Skeptics claim happiness is a state of mind and Aristotle is wrong to claim that happiness is an ongoing pursui t a person must actively strive for during one’s life. This paper argues that Aristotle is correct when he states that happiness is an activity, the central purpose of human life and a goal in itself that individuals strive for throughout the entirety of their lifetime and ultimatelyRead MoreAristotle s View Of Happiness1810 Words   |  8 PagesAccording to Aristotle, happiness is the highest goal of a human being, because it is the only goal that is an end in itself, and is not pursued for the sake of something else. He defines happiness as: â€Å"activity of the soul in accordance with complete virtue in a complete life.† He then goes on, in Book X, to argue that the complete happiness for human beings lies in the life of study. Plato, on the other hand, does agree that all humans aim to achieve the highest goal or end (telos), but does notRead MoreAristotle s Views On Happiness And Moral Virtue Essay1593 Words   |  7 PagesTiverio Madrigal Landa Philosophy 002 October 13, 2016 Happiness and Moral Virtue Every few decades, an individual revolutionizes the way that we think and perceive the world. During the year 300 B.C., the foundation of philosophy was started by Aristotle and his learning from Plato and Socrates. A few centuries later, Thomas Hobbes beliefs challenged Aristotle s views. At the time, it was not known that their ideas would revolutionize the way we see the world around us today. Even though theyRead MoreAristotle s Views On Human Happiness1022 Words   |  5 Pages2 -PURPOSE OF HAPPINESS For Aristotle, happiness was related to a natural function. He argued that if we as human fulfilled our natural function/purpose then we will be able to be happy and â€Å"want for nothing at all† (page 91). Aristotle believed that human happiness refers to the function most proper to the human should and essentially the function must be exclusive to human. He argues that this supposed function is a practical aspect of life that comes from the rational part within humans. The useRead MoreAristotle s Views On Morality And Happiness1948 Words   |  8 PagesJared Sanders 5/4/16 PHI 372: Ethical Inquiry Term Paper What, if anything, does happiness have to do with morality. According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, there is a direct connection between morality and happiness. Aristotle states that happiness is the main goal of human existence. He follows this idea by saying the only way to achieve happiness is through his account of morality. Aristotle’s â€Å"happiness† is a translation of the Greek word Eudaimonia. A definition of Eudaimonia could be â€Å"theRead MoreThe Philosophy Of Aristotle s Views On Happiness And Human Flourishing With His Philosophy991 Words   |  4 Pagesback. For example, I put into my life my thoughts, my beliefs and my behaviors. What I get back from this is my reality that my thoughts, beliefs and behaviors have created. In my philosophy like Aristotle, I believe in Aristotle’s views on happiness and human flourishing with his philosophy. (Aristotle 4) I also believe in some of Kant’s philosophy through his concept of its our duty to live up to our highest moral capacity. (Kant 3) I believe it will make the world a better place in the sense that

Dancing Naked Summary Free Essays

In Pittsburgh there are many young adults having sexual contact and getting pregnant and these are only one of the places with lots of young pregnant women. McKeesport high school in Pittsburgh everyone thinks it’s normal to see two or three pregnant girls at a time walking down the halls, but it doesn’t mean people don’t gossip about them. National Campaign to Prevent Teen pregnancy statistics show that teens are waiting until the age of 16 to have sex, that is 2 years longer then they use to. We will write a custom essay sample on Dancing Naked Summary or any similar topic only for you Order Now Teen pregnancy rates in Allegheny County reached an all time low in 2003, with 984 births with girls of the age of 19 and under. In 2000 the number was 1,197 and in 1990 it was about 1,620. Pittsburgh schools teach a lot of health education a few of class sessions are spent discussing healthy relationships. Most teachers bring outside providers to teach the benefits of abstinence and danger of sexually transmitted diseases.The federal government supports this educational strategy, allotting Pennsylvania more than $6million in the federal funds for abstinence only until marriage programs in 2005 according to the state Health Department. â€Å"We don’t teach these stuff because we know it’ll be successful, but because we think it’s the right message to be sending† Denny Pattyn, founder of The Silver Ring Thing, an organization that brings young people together.While the faith-based message must be watered down in schools, Pattyn said, it allows teens to make a disciplined decision about sexual contact with others. In 1995 when teen pregnancy was at its height, 1,400 young women the a ge of 15 to 19 were interviewed, and another 1,200 young women from various regions were interviewed in 2002 for their sexual activity and contraceptive use. While many think giving students the hard facts about sexual contact and pregnancy will leave young adults better informed, and to make the right decisions. How to cite Dancing Naked Summary, Papers

Thomas Hardys Mayor Of Casterbridges Setting Essays - British Films

Thomas Hardy's Mayor Of Casterbridge's Setting Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge does an excellent job of displaying Casterbridge's realistic Western England setting through the architectural buildings, the behavior of the townspeople, and the speech used throughout the novel. All of these aspects combined provide a particular environment Hardy called Wessex which infuses the work with reality and a life. The love which Hardy had, for architecture, is displayed throughout this novel with the descriptions of the surrounding countryside, the buildings, the commerce, the roads, and the amusements that make up the environment of Casterbridge. The town of Casterbridge in Wessex, an ancient name for the West Saxon kingdom of the Middle Ages, is no longer used geographically. It comprises of Doreshire and parts of other western England countries. The country and the town meet at a mathematical line. The town is shut in by a square wall of trees, like a plot of garden grounded by a box-edging. When overlooking Casterbridge, there are towers, gables, chimneys, and casements standing tall and strong to show the development of the buildings. The chief hotel in Casterbridge-namely, the Kings Arms, is a spacious bow-window projected into the street over the main portico. The homes of Casterbridge consist of timber homes with overhanging stories, whose small-paned lattices were screened by dimity c urtains on a drawing-string. There were other houses of brick-nogging, which derived their chief support from those adjoining. The roofs consisted of slate patched with tiles, and occasionally there was a roof of thatch. Detail to buildings of Casterbridge gives readers a visual insight to the composition to the social classes of the town. Leading onto the townspeople who keep Casterbridge alive and productive. Social classes of the townspeople determine each individuals behavior and how others treat each individual based on social class or status. The characters may seem odd to some audiences, yet these characters are at all times real. They are based on people Hardy had grown up with, people whose tragic histories had unearthed during his early architectural apprenticeship, people he had heard about in legends and ballads. The agricultural and pastoral character of the people upon whom the town depended for its existence was shown by the class of objects displayed in the shop windows. The lower-class was classified as mischievous knaves by Hardy for he personally, along with others of status, was not very fond of them. There is one obvious example in the story which displays the greed and importance of show, of the upper class. In Casterbridge's best hotel when the Mayor was having a big dinner party, the blinds were left unclosed so the whole interior of this room could be surveyed from the top of a flight of stone steps to the road-wagon office opposite, for which reason a knot of idlers had gathered there to watch what they couldn't have. The higher classes took what lavishing capabilities they had and frolicked in them for all below to envy and want. Although the behavior and mannerism of the townspeople is blunt, it is realistic and influenced by real life situations through the mind of the author. A less obvious yet realistic part of the setting which can normally be over-looked but is emphasized throughout this novel is the speech, or dialect of the characters and townspeople. Social class is very obviously shown through the speech of every individual. Higher class residents of Casterbridge often spoke much more vulgar terms. They have their own folk dialect which modernly is referred to as slang throughout regions influential on the environment of the speaker. Speech is also an issue with age and maturity which is excellently presented throughout the entire course of the novel in Elizabeth-Jane. Hardy shows the gradual change that takes place in her speech through the years. In the first portion of the novel when Elizabeth-Jane is young, she has a sense of playfulness and good times. But as she grows older and her sorrow increases. Elizabeth-Jane turns more to study and reflection. Towards the end of the novel, Elizabeth-Jane is a full grown woman who has her life establishe d and knows where she stands in social status. She is melancholy and kind. A matronly woman

A Brief History of the Selfie

A Brief History of the Selfie Selfie is the slang term for self portrait, a photograph you take of yourself, usually taken using a mirror or with a camera held at arms length. The act of taking and sharing selfies has become widely popular due to digital cameras, the internet, the ubiquity of social media platforms like Facebook and, of course, because of peoples endless fascination with their own image. The word selfie was even chosen as the Word of the Year in 2013 by the Oxford English Dictionary, which has the following entry for the word: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. History of the Self Portrait So who took the first selfie? In discussing the invention of the first selfie, we have to first pay homage to the film camera and the early history of photography as photography self portraits were taking place long before the invention of Facebook and smartphones. One example is American photographer Robert Cornelius, who took a self portrait daguerreotype (first practical process of photography) of himself in 1839. The image is also considered one of the earliest photographs of a person. In 1914, 13-year-old Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna took a self portrait using a Kodak Brownie box camera (invented in in 1900) and sent the photograph to a friend with the following note, I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling. Nikolaevna appears to have been the first teenager to take a selfie. So Who Invented the Selfie?   Australia has laid claim to inventing the modern day selfie. In September 2001, a group of Australians created a website and uploaded the first digital self portraits onto the internet. On 13 September 2002, the first recorded published use of the term selfie to describe a self portrait photograph occurred on the Australian internet forum (ABC Online). The anonymous poster wrote the following along with posting a selfie of himself: Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped over and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie. A Hollywood cameraman named Lester Wisbrod claims he is first person to take celebrity selfies, (a self-taken photo of himself and a celebrity) and has been doing so since 1981. Medical authorities have begun to associate the taking of too many selfies as a potentially unhealthy sign of mental health issues. Take the case of 19-year-old Danny Bowman, who attempted suicide after failing to take what he considered the perfect selfie. Bowman was spending most of his waking hours taking hundreds of selfies everyday, losing weight and dropping out of school in the process. Becoming obsessed with taking selfies is often a sign of body dysmorphic disorder, an anxiety disorder about personal appearance. Danny Bowman was diagnosed with this condition.

Red Supergiants are the Largest Stars in the Universe

Red Supergiants are the Largest Stars in the Universe Red supergiants are among the largest stars in the sky. They dont start out that way, but as different kinds of stars age, they undergo changes that make them big...and red. Its all part of star life and star death.   Defining Red Supergiants   When astronomers look at the largest stars  (by volume) in the universe, they see a great many red supergiants. However, these behemoths are not necessarily- and almost never are- the largest stars by mass. It turns out theyre a late stage of a stars existence and they dont always fade away quietly.   Creating a Red Supergiant How do red supergiants form? To understand what they are, its important to know how stars change over time. Stars go through specific steps throughout their lives. The changes they experience are called stellar evolution. It starts with star formation and youthful star-hood. After they are born in a cloud of gas and dust, and then ignite hydrogen fusion in their cores, stars usually live on something astronomers call the main sequence.  During this period, they are in hydrostatic equilibrium. That means the nuclear fusion  in their cores (where they fuse hydrogen to create helium) provides enough energy and pressure to keep the weight of their outer layers from collapsing inwards. When Massive Stars Become Red Supergiants A high-mass star (many times more massive than the Sun) goes through a similar, but a slightly different process. It changes more drastically than its sun-like siblings and becomes a red supergiant.  Because of its higher mass, when the core collapses after the hydrogen burning phase the rapidly increased temperature leads to the fusion of helium very quickly. The rate of helium fusion goes into overdrive, and that destabilizes the star. A huge amount of energy pushes the outer layers of the star outwards and it turns into a red supergiant. At this stage, the gravitational force of the star is once again balanced by the immense outward radiation pressure caused by the intense helium fusion taking place in the core. The star that transforms into a red supergiant does so at a cost. It loses a large percentage of its mass out to space. As a result, while red supergiants are counted as the largest stars in the universe, they are not the most massive because they lose mass as they age, even as they expand outward. Properties of Red Supergiants Red supergiants look red because of their low surface temperatures. They range from about 3,500 - 4,500 Kelvin. According to Wiens law, the color at which a star radiates most strongly is directly related to its surface temperature. So,  while their cores are extremely hot, the energy spreads out over the interior and surface of the star and the more surface area there is, the faster it can cool. A good example of a red supergiant is the star Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion. Most stars of this type are between 200 and 800 times the radius of our Sun. The very largest stars in our galaxy, all red supergiants, are about 1,500 times the size of our home star.  Because of their immense size and mass, these stars require an incredible amount of energy to sustain them and prevent gravitational collapse. As a result, they burn through their nuclear fuel very quickly and most live only a few tens of millions of years (their age depends on their actual mass). Other Types of Supergiants While red supergiants are the largest types of stars, there are other types of supergiant stars. In fact, it is common for high mass stars, once their fusion process passes beyond hydrogen, that they oscillate back and forth between different forms of supergiants. Specifically becoming yellow supergiants on their way to becoming blue supergiants and back again. Hypergiants The most massive of supergiant stars are known as hypergiants. However, these stars have a very loose definition, they are usually just red (or sometimes blue) supergiant stars that are the highest order: the most massive and the largest. The Death of a Red Supergiant Star A very high-mass star will oscillate between different supergiant stages as it fuses heavier and heavier elements in its core. Eventually, it will exhaust all its nuclear fuel that runs the star. When that happens, gravity wins.  At that point, the core is primarily iron (which takes more energy to fuse than the star has) and the core can no longer sustain outward radiation pressure, and it begins to collapse. The subsequent cascade of events leads, eventually to a Type II supernova event. Left behind will be the core of the star, having been compressed due to the immense gravitational pressure into a neutron star; or in the cases of the most massive of stars, a black hole  is created. How Solar-type Stars Evolve People always want to know if the Sun will become a red supergiant. For stars about the size of the Sun (or smaller), the answer is no. They do go through a red giant phase, though, and it looks pretty familiar. When they begin to run out of  hydrogen fuel their cores begin to collapse. That raises the core temperature quite a bit, which means theres more energy generated to escape the core. That process pushes the outer part of the star outward, forming a  red giant. At that point, a star is said to have moved off the main sequence.   The star chugs along with the core getting hotter and hotter, and eventually, it begins to fuse helium into carbon and oxygen. During all this time, the star loses mass. It puffs off layers of its outer atmosphere into clouds that surround the star. Eventually, whats left of the star shrinks to become a slowly cooling white dwarf. The cloud of material around it is a called a planetary nebula, and it gradually dissipates. This is a far more gentle death than massive stars discussed above experience when they explode as supernovae.   Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

How informatics has altered nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

How informatics has altered nursing - Essay Example Additionally nurses, while already known in general for having a wide range of skills and competencies, must thus be able to adapt and learn newer skill sets in order to better discharge their duties. All in all, that more and more people in hospitals require intensive care from nurses means that there is an equally dire need for the succeeding generations of nurses to be as competent as they possibly can be. Taking all these things into account, it should not be surprising that nursing as a profession has become highly in-demand, or that nursing has and will forever be changing to adapt with the times – thanks in part to the existence of nursing informatics. It is for this reason that nurses have always been able to reinforce their practices with a constant flow of newer knowledge – which, in this day and age, is something that they will definitely need more than ever before. Nursing Informatics – Past/Present/Future Trends, Benefits of Such Practices Saba and M cCormick (2001) have defined healthcare informatics in general as the integration of the branches of health, computer, information and cognitive sciences in managing healthcare information. Nursing informatics is one of its three subtypes – the other two being health and medical informatics, respectively – and is in turn defined by Hannah et al (1985) as how nurses make use of information technology in carrying out their daily duties. And this definition, too, was further expanded by Graves and Corcoran (1989) as â€Å"a combination of computer science, information science and nursing science designed to assist in the management and processing of nursing data, information and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care† (p. 227). There can be little doubt that it is thanks to this particular branch of healthcare informatics that nurses have always been able to maintain a certain level of quality when it comes to their work; in f act, as stated by Curran (2003), it is absolutely essential that nurses and clinicians alike have some degree of competence here so that they will continue to maintain their competence and the quality of the healthcare they administer. Ball (2003) helps provide an overview of the evolution of nursing informatics. Even as early as the mid-80s, nurses could make use of the then-existing laptop computers during seminars, but today these laptops have become accessible even up to the patient’s bedside. And despite the existence of laptops then, their steep price made them too expensive to be commonplace in hospitals – or anywhere else, for that matter. Typewriters had the advantage of being much less costly, and much easier to use, but the cost of correction fluid could get to be a headache at times – much more so for those nurses who happened to make lots of mistakes while working. However, for the longest time, most nurses – that is, those who neither owned computers nor could afford to spend on them – had to deal with these potentially cumbersome contraptions. This being the case, the advent of computer technology has been a definite godsend. Where a few years ago, a nurse would have to jot down every single detail on a particular patient’