A Phenomenal Woman- essays

A Phenomenal Woman- essays Maya Angelou, born, Marguerite Johnson, was sent along with her brother to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, when her parents were divorced. Growing up, she learned what it was to be a black girl in a world whose boundaries were set by whites: As a child she always dreamed of waking to find her nappy black hair metamorphosed to a long blonde bob because she felt life was better for a white girl than for a black girl (Rigney 45). Despite the odds, her grandmother instilled pride in young Marguerite, with religion as an important element in their home. After five years of being apart from their mother, Marguerite and her brother, Bailey, were sent back to Saint-Louis to be with their mother. This move would change Angelou's life dramatically. While living in Saint Louis, she was raped by her mothers boyfriend. After which she confided in her brother what had happened, and soon the person was found dead. Young Marguerite believed her voice had killed him this caused her to become mute for nearly five years. Her dysfunctional childhood spent moving back and forth between her mother and grandmother caused her to struggle with maturity. She became determined to prove she was a woman and began to rush toward maturity. Because of her past, Maya Angelou went on to be an inspiration to men and women across the nation. She has the unique ability to challenge the divisions of race and class throughout her books of poetry and her autobiographies. Angelou is probably the most widely recognized figure of a poet in contemporary U.S. culture. Her work is found on television, in the movies, on the radio, in print, on the Internet, and at the 1993 presidential inauguration. Given this extraordinary career, she also serves as an exemplary figure to women undergoing many difficulties related to domestic violence and sexual abuse. She has been through what they are encountering, and she offers an...

Percentage and Percentile

Percentage and Percentile Percentage and Percentile Percentage and Percentile By Maeve Maddox The following paragraph occurred in the denunciation of a certain person in a letter to the editor in my local paper: He has obstructed the most wholesome and necessary programs which provide for the common good, and has awarded massive financial advantages to a small percentile of the rich. This erroneous substitution of the word percentile for percentage merits attention. This is not the first time Ive encountered it. Some speakers and writers may feel that percentile sounds more high class than more ordinary percentage; the word may therefore be in danger of catching on as a genteelism, like disinterested for uninterested. A percentage is a part of a whole expressed in hundredths. It can also mean, as the letter writer intended, an indeterminate part of a number. Merriam-Webster defines percentile as the value of the statistical variable that marks the boundary between any two consecutive intervals in a distribution of 100 intervals each containing one percent of the total population called also centile The College Board site explains the use of percentiles this way: Percentiles compare your scores to those of other students who took the test. Say, for example, your critical reading score is 500. If the national percentile for a score of 500 is 47, then this means you did better than 47 percent of the national group of college-bound seniors. (NOTE: An NPR score reports comparative rank among test-takers, not necessarily mastery of a subject.) The only time to use the word percentile is when talking about statistics. For everything else, theres percentage. 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 Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†Yay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other AcclamationsHow Do You Pronounce "Often"?