Capital Punishment misc5 essays

Capital Punishment misc5 essays What is capital punishment? Capital punishment is the maximum penalty of a conviction. More than 4, 400 people have been executed since 1930. There is no way of knowing how many people have been executed in U.S. history because they used to be local affairs with nobody to record them. On the edge of the 21st century, Capital punishment is still one of the two most debated issues in the U.S., the other is abortion. This paper will attempt to show the effects of capital punishment and how it is used. Capital punishment has been a very attention grabbing incident over the years. For example, in 1936, about 20,000 people gathered in Owensboro, Kentucky, on the morning of August 14 to see the hanging of a 22 year old black man, Rainey Bethea. Many people have also died wrongfully. Sacco and Vangetti were two Italian immigrants that were accused of payroll robbery. Although they had alibis of there whereabouts, they were still convicted of the crime and sentenced to death by the electric chair. Nearly every culture throughout history has practiced capital punishment. Quartering was a popular method in Europe. Quartering is being torn apart by horses. In India, executions were sometimes carried out by having an elephant crush the condemneds head. In modern times, societies have sought to make executions more humane. Such was the goal of the guillotine, which severed the condemneds head with a heavy blade, and the electric chair which kills with a massive dose of electrical current. The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every citizen certain fundamental rights. The First Amendment, for example guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. The Second Amendment promises that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The amendment most relevant to the issue of the death penalty is the Eighth Amendment. It reads...

7 Cases for Inserting or Omitting Commas

7 Cases for Inserting or Omitting Commas 7 Cases for Inserting or Omitting Commas 7 Cases for Inserting or Omitting Commas By Mark Nichol Here are discussions of seven types of situations in which the presence or absence of a comma depends on various factors. 1. Word Function Whether a comma follows a word sometimes depends on the function of the word. For example, when now is employed at the head of a sentence to refer to the present time, there’s no reason to separate it from the rest of the statement: â€Å"Now you know.† But when now serves as an interjection to mark a transition or attract someone’s attention, it should be set off: â€Å"Now, have you had dinner?† (That same series of words could be used in a temporal sense, though: â€Å"Now have you had dinner?† suggests that the writer is impatient with the person the question is directed to.) 2. Before Because A sentence such as â€Å"I didn’t want to go because I hadn’t enjoyed myself last time† implies that the writer is explaining that the lack of enjoyment isn’t a factor in reluctance to attend an event; the reason for the reluctance will presumably follow. But if the meaning is opposite if the lack of enjoyment is the reason for the reluctance to attend a comma should precede because to signal that what follows the comma is a dependent clause: â€Å"I didn’t want to go, because I hadn’t enjoyed myself last time† Alternatively, the dependent clause can begin the sentence: â€Å"Because I hadn’t enjoyed myself last time, I didn’t want to go.† 3. Apposition An appositive is a word or phrase equivalent in meaning to an adjacent word or phrase, as in â€Å"She wrote to her brother, John†; â€Å"her brother† and â€Å"John† mean the same thing, so they are appositives, and the comma is necessary to set it off. However, if the woman has more than one brother, write â€Å"She wrote to her brother John.† Similarly, in â€Å"I met the writer, Jane Doe,† the comma is correct only if the writer has been alluded to before without mention of her name. Otherwise, the comma between the appositives suggests that only one writer exists. (And that puts me out of a job.) Even if writer is modified, the meaning differs: â€Å"I met the mystery writer, Jane Doe† suggests a previous reference to two or more writers, only one of whom writes mysteries, whereas â€Å"I met the mystery writer Jane Doe† simply specifies the genre in which Jane Doe writes. 4. Relative Clauses Commas may or may not be necessary, depending on whether each statement in an otherwise identical pair of sentences uses the word that or which: In â€Å"The house that Jack built is falling apart,† the phrase â€Å"that Jack built† is essential to the sentence, which specifies a particular house. In â€Å"The house, which Jack built, is falling apart,† the emphasis is on what is happening to the house, and the identity of the builder is a parenthetical, so the optional information should be bracketed by commas. â€Å"The house which Jack built is falling apart,† without commas, is also correct; it is identical in meaning to â€Å"The house that Jack built is falling apart.† However, the convention in American English is to avoid using which in this sense to prevent confusion with the meaning of the sentence with the parenthetical phrase. 5. Short Introductory Phrases Many people choose to omit a comma after introductory phrases of just a few words, as in â€Å"During the summer I like to travel.† However, such omission is arbitrary when such sentences are compared to those with longer introductory phrases and wrong in the case of transitional tags like finally, furthermore, and unfortunately and for the sake of consistency, a comma should follow any introductory word or phrase. 6. Short Independent Clauses In brief sentences such as â€Å"I will sort and you can staple† that consist of two independent clauses (complete thoughts that could stand on their own as distinct sentences), writers often choose to omit the otherwise obligatory comma before the conjunction. But just as in the case of short introductory phrases, there is the problem of where to draw the line. Does one establish a rule about how many words each clause must contain to dictate whether a comma is employed, or does one judge each sentence on its own? Let simplicity be your guide: Always include a comma. 7. Coordinate and Noncoordinate Adjectives When two or more adjectives sequentially modify a noun, depending on their relationship, they may or may not be separated by commas. To test whether to insert or omit commas, replace them with and. For example, â€Å"She was wearing a bright, cheerful expression† can also be written â€Å"She was wearing a bright and cheerful expression.† (The adjectives can be reversed in either case, too.) However, â€Å"She was wearing a dark green blouse† cannot be rendered â€Å"She was wearing a dark and green blouse,† because dark and green describe the blouse in combination, whereas bright and cheerful separately describe the expression. Also, in this case, the adjectives cannot be reversed: â€Å"She was wearing a green dark blouse† is illogical because dark modifies green, not blouse. Therefore, no comma should separate the two terms. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to use "on" and when to use "in"36 Poetry Terms50 Synonyms for "Song"