5.7: Marianne Moore (1887 )
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- Berke, Bleil, & Cofer
- Middle Georgia State University, College of Coastal Georgia, & Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College via University of North Georgia Press
If Robert Frost’s poems demonstrate a continuing fascination with decay, it may be said that Marianne Moore’s poetry reveals an equally compelling fascination with development. Like Dickinson and Whitman in the previous century, Moore was a compulsive editor and revisionist who apparently struggled over the publication of each of her poems. Like Dickinson, she wished to see her poems laid out exactly as she wished, but as a professional, rather than an amateur poet, she seized upon each opportunity for publication as a chance for revision. Thus, like with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass , it is difficult to call any of Moore’s poems finished. Each time they were printed anew, she revised them. In this way, Moore’s poetry works on a number of textual levels. Like Dickinson, Moore expressed hesitation at the appearance of her published work, but like her Modernist contemporaries, she embraced the opportunities that twentieth-century publishing, and the existence of numerous “little magazines,” offered.
Moore’s first published poems appeared in these “little magazines,” the literary and artistic journals of the early twentieth century, around 1915, and her work was widely praised by the literary gatekeepers of the day, including Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. But it was her first collection of twenty-four entries, Poems , published without her knowledge in July 1921, that made her name widely known in the literary world. By the time that Moore herself produced a collection of poems, 1924’s Observations , she was beginning to develop a reputation as a “poet’s poet” that was only strengthened by winning the Dial prize in 1925. After winning the prize in 1925, Moore became editor of the Dial , a post that she held for the next four years.
“Poetry,” the selection that follows, is a manifesto for Modernism, a demonstration of Moore’s command of both technique and artistry, and an instruction manual. As a manifesto, “Poetry” is both disdainful of the rigid forms that dominated most poetry what Moore calls, “this fiddle,” and celebratory of the experience of reading poetry. The experience of reading poetry, she argues, must yield an understanding of “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” and not be merely sites for “high-sounding,” but “unintelligible,” attempts at communication. Thus poetry, Moore argues, must be both precise and genuine.
Moore demonstrates both precision and authenticity throughout the poem by using concrete, rather than traditionally poetic, language and by avoiding many of our expectations about poetry. Not only does Moore’s poetry fail to rhyme, but she also rejects Dickinson’s rigid hymnody, eschews Whitman’s free verse, and ignores Frost’s blank verse in favor of poetry that shares more of its syntax with prose and the spoken word than it does with traditional poetic forms. In place of lines and stanzas, Moore forces us to confront her poetry as a single unit where the expression begins with the first capital “I,” and concludes with a single period at the end of the last line. Entangled in this extended expression, Moore guides the reader to a new understanding of poetry that reminds readers of Whitman’s Song of Myself while it advocates not for a song in the traditional sense but for the importance of ordinary human speech. While reading “Poetry,” careful readers should take note of the differences between Moore’s monologue, in which no response is required from the reader, and the dramatic monologues of Frost whose speaker is always questioning.
5.7.1 “Poetry”
I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond
all this fiddle.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it,
one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a
high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful.
When they become so derivative as to become unintelligible,
the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what
we cannot understand:
the bat holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under
a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse
that feels a flea, the base ball fan,
the statistician nor is it valid
to discriminate against “business documents and
school-books”; all these phenomena are important.
One must make a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets,
the result is not poetry,
nor till the poets among us can be
“literalists of the imagination” above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,”
shall we have it. In the meantime,
if you demand on the one hand,
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, you are interested in poetry.
5.7.2 Reading and Review Questions
- How does the presentation of Moore’s poem the ragged lines, the uneven breaks shape our understanding of the poem?
2. How does Moore distinguish her work from the work of her predecessors like Dickinson and Whitman?


7.4: §55. Diminutive Adjective Derivatives in -ARIS
If you think back to Chapter 5 (Turning Latin Nouns into Latin Adjectives), you will recall that any noun-base ending in L used the adjectival suffix -aris , rather than -alis (§35). As we have seen, every diminutive noun in Latin has a base that ends in L. Accordingly, if one wishes to derive a Latin adjective from a Latin diminutive, it will always end in -aris , and its English derivative will regularly end in -ar . These examples should make that situation clear:
| L | circus | > L dimin. noun | circ-ulus | > L adj. | circul-aris | > E adj. | circular |
| forma | form-ula | formul-aris | formular | ||||
| modus | mod-ulus | modul-aris | modular | ||||
| granum | gran-ulum | granul-aris | granular | ||||
| pars, part-is | part-i-cula | particul-aris | particular | ||||
| mus | mus-culus | muscul-aris | muscular |
Notice that the English adjective derivatives circular , particular , and muscular reflect the original Latin source-words more precisely than their corresponding noun derivatives, circle , particle , and muscle .


26.2: Detecting Antigen-Antibody Complexes in vitro
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- Ying Liu
- City College of San Francisco
Learning Objectives
- Describe various types of assays used to find antigen-antibody complexes
- Explain how antibodies in patient serum can be used to diagnose disease
- Describe the steps of Western blot
- Explain the function of the enzyme or the fluorophore in immuno assays
Laboratory tests to detect antibodies and antigens outside of the body (e.g., in a test tube) are called in vitro assays . When both antibodies and their corresponding antigens are present in a solution, we can often observe a precipitation reaction in which large complexes (lattices) form and settle out of solution. In the next several sections, we will discuss several common in vitro assays.
Neutralization Assay
To cause infection, viruses must bind to receptors on host cells. Antiviral antibodies can neutralize viral infections by coating the virions, blocking the binding ( Figure 18.1.6 ). This activity neutralizes virions and can result in the formation of large antibody-virus complexes (which are readily removed by phagocytosis) or by antibody binding to the virus and blocking its binding to host cell receptors. This neutralization activity is the basis of neutralization assays , sensitive assays used for diagnoses of viral infections.
When viruses infect cells, they often cause damage (cytopathic effects) that may include lysis of the host cells. Cytopathic effects can be visualized by growing host cells in a petri dish, covering the cells with a thin layer of agar, and then adding virus (see Isolation, Culture, and Identification of Viruses ). The virus will diffuse very slowly through the agar. A virus will enter a host cell, proliferate (causing cell damage), be released from the dead host cell, and then move to neighboring cells. As more and more cells die, plaques of dead cells will form (Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\)).
During the course of a viral infection, the patient will mount an antibody response to the virus, and we can quantify those antibodies using a plaque reduction assay . To perform the assay, a serial dilution is carried out on a serum sample. Each dilution is then mixed with a standardized amount of the suspect virus. Any virus-specific antibodies in the serum will neutralize some of the virus. The suspensions are then added to host cells in culture to allow any nonneutralized virus to infect the cells and form plaques after several days. The titer is defined as the reciprocal of the highest dilution showing a 50% reduction in plaques. Titer is always expressed as a whole number. For example, if a 1/64 dilution was the highest dilution to show 50% plaque reduction, then the titer is 64.
The presence of antibodies in the patient’s serum does not tell us whether the patient is currently infected or was infected in the past. Current infections can be identified by waiting two weeks and testing another serum sample. A four-fold increase in neutralizing titer in this second sample indicates a new infection.
Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Immunoelectrophoresis
When a patient has elevated protein levels in the blood or is losing protein in the urine, a clinician will often order a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) assay (see Visualizing and Characterizing DNA, RNA, and Protein ). This assay compares the relative abundance of the various types of serum proteins. Abnormal protein electrophoresis patterns can be further studied using immunoelectrophoresis (IEP) . The IEP begins by running a PAGE. Antisera against selected serum proteins are added to troughs running parallel to the electrophoresis track, forming precipitin arcs similar to those seen in an Ouchterlony assay (Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\)). This allows the identification of abnormal immunoglobulin proteins in the sample.
IEP is particularly useful in the diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a cancer of antibody-secreting cells. Patients with multiple myeloma cannot produce healthy antibodies; instead they produce abnormal antibodies that are monoclonal proteins (M proteins). Thus, patients with multiple myeloma will present with elevated serum protein levels that show a distinct band in the gamma globulin region of a protein electrophoresis gel and a sharp spike (in M protein) on the densitometer scan rather than the normal broad smear (Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\)). When antibodies against the various types of antibody heavy and light chains are used to form precipitin arcs, the M protein will cause distinctly skewed arcs against one class of heavy chain and one class of light chain as seen in Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\).
Protein Electrophoresis and the Characterization of Immunoglobulin Structure
The advent of electrophoresis ultimately led to researching and understanding the structure of antibodies. When Swedish biochemist Arne Tiselius (1902–1971) published the first protein electrophoresis results in 1937, 2 he could identify the protein albumin (the smallest and most abundant serum protein) by the sharp band it produced in the gel. The other serum proteins could not be resolved in a simple protein electrophoresis, so he named the three broad bands, with many proteins in each band, alpha, beta, and gamma globulins. Two years later, American immunologist Elvin Kabat (1914–2000) traveled to Sweden to work with Tiselius using this new technique and showed that antibodies migrated as gamma globulins. 3 With this new understanding in hand, researchers soon learned that multiple myeloma, because it is a cancer of antibody-secreting cells, could be tentatively diagnosed by the presence of a large M spike in the gamma-globulin region by protein electrophoresis. Prior to this discovery, studies on immunoglobulin structure had been minimal, because of the difficulty of obtaining pure samples to study. Sera from multiple myeloma patients proved to be an excellent source of highly enriched monoclonal immunoglobulin, providing the raw material for studies over the next 20-plus years that resulted in the elucidation of the structure of immunoglobulin.
Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Immunoblot Assay: The Western Blot
After performing protein gel electrophoresis, specific proteins can be identified in the gel using antibodies. This technique is known as the western blot. Following separation of proteins by PAGE, the protein antigens in the gel are transferred to and immobilized on a nitrocellulose membrane. This membrane can then be exposed to a primary antibody produced to specifically bind to the protein of interest. A second antibody equipped with a molecular beacon will then bind to the first. These secondary antibodies are coupled to another molecule such as an enzyme or a fluorophore (a molecule that fluoresces when excited by light). When using antibodies coupled to enzymes, a chromogenic substrate for the enzyme is added. This substrate is usually colorless but will develop color in the presence of the antibody. The fluorescence or substrate coloring identifies the location of the specific protein in the membrane to which the antibodies are bound (Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\)).
Typically, polyclonal antibodies are used for western blot assays. They are more sensitive than mAbs because of their ability to bind to various epitopes of the primary antigen, and the signal from polyclonal antibodies is typically stronger than that from mAbs. Monoclonal antibodies can also be used; however, they are much more expensive to produce and are less sensitive, since they are only able to recognize one specific epitope.
Several variations of the western blot are useful in research. In a southwestern blot, proteins are separated by SDS-PAGE, blotted onto a nitrocellulose membrane, allowed to renature, and then probed with a fluorescently or radioactively labeled DNA probe; the purpose of the southwestern is to identify specific DNA-protein interactions. Far-western blotsare carried out to determine protein-protein interactions between immobilized proteins (separated by SDS-PAGE, blotted onto a nitrocellulose membrane, and allowed to renature) and non-antibody protein probes. The bound non-antibody proteins that interact with the immobilized proteins in a far-western blot may be detected by radiolabeling, fluorescence, or the use of an antibody with an enzymatic molecular beacon.
Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Key Concepts and Summary
- Viral infections can be detected by quantifying virus-neutralizing antibodies in a patient’s serum.
- Different antibody classes in plasma or serum are identified by using immunoelectrophoresis .
- The presence of specific antigens (e.g., bacterial or viral proteins) in serum can be demonstrated by western blot assays, in which the proteins are transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane and identified using labeled antibodies.
Footnotes
- 1 Ouchterlony, Örjan, “In Vitro Method for Testing the Toxin-Producing Capacity of Diphtheria Bacteria,” Acta Pathologica Microbiologica Scandinavica 26, no. 4 (1949): 516-24.
- 2 Tiselius, Arne, “Electrophoresis of Serum Globulin: Electrophoretic Analysis of Normal and Immune Sera,” Biochemical Journal 31, no. 9 (1937): 1464.
- 3 Tiselius, Arne and Elvin A. Kabat. “An Electrophoretic Study of Immune Sera and Purified Antibody Preparations,” The Journal of Experimental Medicine 69, no. 1 (1939): 119-31.


7.2: Gauss’ Law for Magnetic Fields - Integral Form
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Gauss’ Law for Magnetic Fields (GLM) is one of the four fundamental laws of classical electromagnetics, collectively known as Maxwell’s Equations . Before diving in, the reader is strongly encouraged to review Section Section 2.5. In that section, GLM emerges from the “flux density” interpretation of the magnetic field. GLM is not identified in that section, but now we are ready for an explicit statement:
Gauss’ Law for Magnetic Fields (Equation \ref{m0018_eGLM}) states that the flux of the magnetic field through a closed surface is zero.
This is expressed mathematically as follows:
\[\boxed{ \oint_{\mathcal S} {\bf B}\cdot d{\bf s} = 0 } \label{m0018_eGLM} \]
where \({\bf B}\) is magnetic flux density and \({\mathcal S}\) is a closed surface with outward-pointing differential surface normal \(d{\bf s}\). It may be useful to consider the units. \({\bf B}\) has units of Wb/m\(^{2}\); therefore, integrating \({\bf B}\) over a surface gives a quantity with units of Wb, which is magnetic flux, as indicated above.
GLM can also be interpreted in terms of magnetic field lines. For the magnetic flux through a closed surface to be zero, every field line entering the volume enclosed by \({\mathcal S}\) must also exit this volume – field lines may not begin or end within the volume. The only way this can be true for every possible surface \({\mathcal S}\) is if magnetic field lines always form closed loops. This is in fact what we find in practice, as shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\).
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Gauss’ Law for Magnetostatics applied to a two-dimensional bar magnet. For the surface \(\mathcal{S}=\mathcal{S}_{A}\), every field line entering \(\mathcal{S}\) also leaves \(\mathcal{S}\), so the flux through \(\mathcal{S}\) is zero. For the surface \(\mathcal{S}=\mathcal{S}_{B}\), every field line within \(\mathcal{S}\) remains in \(\mathcal{S}\), so the flux through \(\mathcal{S}\) is again zero. Image used wtih permission ( CC BY SA 4.0 ; K. Kikkeri)Following this argument one step further, GLM implies there can be no particular particle or structure that can be the source of the magnetic field (because then that would be a start point for field lines). This is one way in which the magnetic field is very different from the electrostatic field, for which every field line begins at a charged particle. So, when we say that current (for example) is the source of the magnetic field, we mean only that the field coexists with current, and not that the magnetic field is somehow attached to the current. Summarizing, there is no “localizable” quantity, analogous to charge for electric fields, associated with magnetic fields. This is just another way in which magnetic fields are weird!
Summarizing
Gauss’ Law for Magnetic Fields requires that magnetic field lines form closed loops. Furthermore, there is no particle that can be identified as the source of the magnetic field.


42.5: Innate Immune Response - The Complement System
- Explain how the complement system aids antibody response
Complement
The innate immune system serves as a first responder to pathogenic threats that bypass natural physical and chemical barriers of the body. Using a combination of cellular and molecular attacks, the innate immune system identifies the nature of a pathogen and responds with inflammation, phagocytosis (where a cell engulfs a foreign particle), cytokine release, destruction by NK cells, and/or a complement system. In this concept, we will discuss the complement system.
An array of approximately 20 types of soluble proteins, called a complement system, functions to destroy extracellular pathogens. Cells of the liver and macrophages synthesize complement proteins continuously. These proteins are abundant in the blood serum and are capable of responding immediately to infecting microorganisms. The complement system is so named because it is complementary to the antibody response of the adaptive immune system. Complement proteins bind to the surfaces of microorganisms and are particularly attracted to pathogens that are already bound by antibodies. Binding of complement proteins occurs in a specific and highly-regulated sequence, with each successive protein being activated by cleavage and/or structural changes induced upon binding of the preceding protein(s). After the first few complement proteins bind, a cascade of sequential binding events follows in which the pathogen rapidly becomes coated in complement proteins.
Complement proteins perform several functions. They serve as a marker to indicate the presence of a pathogen to phagocytic cells, such as macrophages and B cells, to enhance engulfment. This process is called opsonization. Certain complement proteins can combine to form attack complexes that open pores in microbial cell membranes. These structures destroy pathogens by causing their contents to leak. When innate mechanisms are insufficient to clear an infection, the adaptive immune response is informed and mobilized.
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Key Points
- The complement system is so named because it is complementary to the antibody response of the adaptive immune system.
- The complement system proteins are produced continuously by the liver and macrophages, are abundant in the blood serum, and are capable of immediate response to infecting microorganisms.
- The complement system works by first having several proteins bind to a target; this binding event then begins a series of highly-specific and regulated sequences wherein successive proteins are activated by cleavage and/or structural changes of the preceding proteins.
- The complement system serves as a marker to indicate targets for phagocytic cells; complement proteins can also combine to form attack complexes capable of opening pores in microbial cell membranes.
Key Terms
- opsonization : the process by which a pathogen is marked for ingestion and destruction by a phagocyte
- complement system : an aspect of the innate immune system that supplements the actions of the antibodies and phagocytic cells in clearing out pathogens from an organism


4.E: Chapter Four (Exercises)
Identify the vice of relevance being illustrated by each argument. Remember that “no vice present” is always an option. Try to decide whether this is virtuous reasoning or not.
A. You’ve attack me instead of my argument, so clearly you don’t know how to reason and I’m correct after all.
B. You’ve claimed that it’s wrong to use animals and so we should all become vegans, so you’re claiming that all living things are things we can’t eat? Does that mean that we can’t eat plants even? We have to eat something !!!
C. She’s from Kentucky, so clearly she doesn’t know a danged thing about sailing!
D. Look, you might as well just admit you’re wrong. Everyone will shun you if you don’t.
E. My opponent has argued that the death penalty is costly and so should be abolished, but she also supports cutting taxes! We can’t cut taxes in the middle of a budget crisis.
F. You’ve mentioned before that you reject the tenets of capitalism, but you went to a public school, so you’re not exactly an impartial judge of whether or not socialism is a good thing!
Identify the vice of presumption being illustrated by each argument. Remember that “no vice present” is always an option. Try to decide whether this is virtuous reasoning or not.
A. I believe that the government is poisoning us through breakfast cereals. If you want me to eat that, you’re going to have to prove to me that it’s safe.
B. There’s either no reason to go to space, or we should put billions into technologies which allow us to go into space. All or nothing.
C. You’re either a Raiders fan or you’re not a Raiders fan. Those are the only two options.
D. Look if it’s bad to steal things, then it’s wrong to take food that doesn’t belong to you. It is bad to steal things, so it follows that you shouldn’t take food from that vendor at the market.
E. The Republicans haven’t championed a single non-cynical or moral policy in decades. I invite you to come up with a single example.
F. We need to bolster our space travel infrastructure, because we need to have easy and cheap access to space in the next forty years. Look, there’s going to be an increased need for space travel in the near future, so we’ll need cheaper access to space. A space elevator would fit the bill, and we should build one since we need to have more robust space travel infrastructure.
G. Nobody likes you. I asked everyone on the playground and not a single person said they wanted to be friends with you.
H. There will always be income inequality since there will always be rich and poor no matter what we do.
I. We shouldn’t invade Iran since we shouldn’t pre-emptively attack a relatively non-violent sovereign nation.
Try to decide whether this is virtuous reasoning or not. If not, try to diagnose what specifically is going wrong in your own words. Then, identify the vice illustrated by each argument (can be vices of relevance or presumption). Remember that “no vice present” is always an option—it could be an example of basically virtuous reasoning!
A. You can’t be a half-hearted vegetarian. You have to choose sides: either you’re a vegan and an abolitionist or you’re a murderer and an enslaver.
B. Eating meat is wrong because it’s wrong to consume the flesh of another sentient (feeling, experiencing) being.
C. Written on a park table in Portland: “My bus costs $2.50. Does that mean I own it now?”
D. I saw some young folks at the park yesterday and they seemed to be on drugs. Isn’t it terrible what is happening to our youth these days?
E. I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t go to war, so that evidence that Assad is using nerve gas against his own citizens must be met with extreme suspicion.
F. We have the lowest prices since we always have lower prices than our competitors. You can be sure we always have lower prices than our competitors because we have the lowest prices available.
G. Andrew Lavin is the best textbook author because he wrote the best textbook and the author of the best textbook must be the best textbook author.
H. I won’t be manipulated into believing that Area 51 isn’t a storage facility for alien artifacts and specimens, you’ll have to prove it to me using evidence and reasons.
I. I wouldn’t want you to lose the next election, and I would know how to make that happen, so I expect you’ll be agreeing with our policy proposal.
J. I want to go to North Korea on vacation. You’ll have to prove to me it’s a bad idea if you don’t want me to go.
K. You want to watch the new Transformers movie? You know Michael Bay directed it, right? It’s going to be terrible.
L. That cheese comes from Turkey, where they don’t require pasteurization. I wouldn’t recommend eating it while pregnant since listeria and other bacterial infections can be deadly to a developing fetus.
M. I understand you’re frustrated with my habits, but you have some bad habits too, you know?
N. I understand that you don’t want me to go on this vacation, and I respect that, but remember when you went on that vacation to visit your nephew last summer? That was a good time, right?  Good times.
O. That’s a slippery slope. I don’t think your position can possibly be correct with reasoning like that behind it!
P. I understand you have a history of mental illness, so tell me how are we to trust your reasoning when you argue based on evidence and reasons that the Democratic Party is hopelessly corrupt and must be dissolved?
Q. I don’t know. Lots of people seem pretty convinced that marriage is a love-based bond between two consenting adults, so it seems like that’s what marriage is.
R. Bieber can’t be the best musician. He’s from Canada! They don’t make good music in Canada.
S. Alanis Morrisette didn’t understand the concept of irony when she wrote “Ironic”. She’s clearly not the most astute student of the linguistic arts.
T. That car won’t run well. It was built in Russia. Cars from Russia don’t tend to run well.
U. Which color do you want your car to be? Black or Gray?
V. If everyone starts believing in the tooth fairy, we’ll have folks ripping out their teeth for money, so we can’t encourage people to start believing in the tooth fairy.
W. Miley Cyrus said that D’Addario strings are the best guitar strings. She’s a famous guitar player and musician, so I supposed D’Addario strings are really the best.
X. Rambo wasn’t the greatest movie of all time. Did you know that Sylvester Stallone had a role in creating the characters and story for Creed? It was Ryan Coogler’s break out film and he later went on to direct Black Panther.
Y. Veronica: I think I saw something out of the corner of my eye right now that may have been a ghost.
Hypatia: Are you saying there was definitely a ghost over there? Do you have any idea how implausible that is?
Z. Franz: There may be some reason to suspect that the threat from global warming has been overblown.
Valeria: Are you kidding me? You’re a climate denier? All of the evidence points to the fact that humans have played the decisive role in warming the global climate. I can’t believe you’d deny that!
AA. You’ve seen a ghost? That’s pretty spooky. But you take anti-depressants, right? So I guess you’re not that reliable [note: there is no known connection between anti-depressants and hallucinations].
BB. The CEO of Exxon Mobil has recently admitted that because of the overwhelming consensus among climate experts, we have to admit that global warming is real. But obviously they’re not an impartial person so we can reject their position. They’re probably doing this just for good press.
CC. My biology teacher says global warming was caused by humans burning fossil fuels and their deforestation practices. She’s a scientist, so she must be right about this.


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1.2.2: Evliya Çelebi (1611-1682)
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Evliya Çelebi (1611-1682)
The Book of Travels
Turkish
Near East and Asia
Mehmed Zilli, known as Evliya Çelebi, was a Muslim explorer who travelled the Ottoman Empire over the course of forty years and wrote about his experiences in the
Seyahatname, or Book of Travels
. Çelebi was born in 1611 into a wealthy family in Constantinople. His father was a jeweler for the Ottoman court, and his mother was connected to the royal family. Çelebi received an extensive education, but he was reluctant to settle into any profession that would limit his ability to travel.
The Book of Travels
(English translation 1834)
The
Seyahatname, or Book of Travels
, which encompasses ten volumes, provides accounts of journeys from Çelebi's home in Constantinople to sites as far away as Greece, Syria, Austria, Russia, and Cairo, where he lived for many years. Çelebi was endlessly curious about other cultures, as his accounts in
The Book of Travels
demonstrate. Çelebi mixes factual accounts of the places he visits with imaginative storytelling that enhanced the reader's sense of excitement in the adventure of travel. His accounts are important because they offer a rare glimpse into life in the 17th-century Ottoman Empire.
Consider while reading:
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How does the narrator describe his reasons for setting out on his travels? What is his attitude toward the places he intends to visit?
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What kinds of details does he tend to observe and include in his accounts?
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Which parts of his accounts seem too fantastical to be real, and what do these tales add to the reader's experience?
Written by Anita Turlington


5.2: Geological Development
DESCRIBE THE PROCESSES OF DEVELOPMENT OF CONTINENTAL AND OCEANIC CRUSTS, CONTINENTS, CONTINENTAL RIFTING, SUPERCONTINENTS, VOLCANIC ARCS, AND THE FORMATION OF OCEAN BASINS IN RELATION TO PLATE TECTONICS
[Insert brief introductory statement here.]
Open Educational Resources
The outcome for this section will be covered by this Open Educational Resource. Review and reflect the content as you prepare to complete the assessment for this module.
- Reading: Basics of Plate Tectonics
Contributors and Attributions
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Original content from Kimberly Schulte (Columbia Basin College) and supplemented by Lumen Learning . The content on this page is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.


14.4: Why It Matters- Employee Rights and Responsibilities
Why learn about rights and responsibilities of employees and their employers?
In business it is often difficult to determine where one’s rights end and another’s responsibility begins. However, with increasing transparency, empowered workers, and the ability to organize rapidly online, it’s important for businesses to not only identify the line but enforce it. Harassment. Hate speech. Threats of violence. Our workplaces are a microcosm of society. The socio-political divisions and economic pressures that are raising tensions nationally and internationally are also a risk for businesses.
 [1] The research found that the cost of incivility to be in the millions. Specific human resource impacts cited:
- Employees subjected to incivility in the workplace experience ‘markedly loosened bonds with their work life.’
- Nearly half of employees ‘decreased [their] work effort’ and intentionally spent less time at work.
- 38 percent ‘intentionally decreased’ the quality of their work.
- 25 percent of employees who had been treated with incivility admitted to taking their frustrations out on customers.
- 12 percent left their jobs due to uncivil treatment.”
Human resource managers have a responsibility to both employees and the business. In this section we’ll discuss the laws that govern employee information and behavior and what laws and guidelines apply to employers.
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Levin, Marissa.  Inc. Accessed September 12, 2019. ↵
Contributors and Attributions
- Authored by : The Digital Artist. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/photos/earth-internet-globalisation-2254769/. License : CC0: No Rights Reserved . License Terms : Pixabay License


8.1.4A: Social Mobility
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Social mobility is the movement of an individual or group from one social position to another over time.
Learning Objectives
- Assess how different factors facilitate social mobility
Key Points
- A person’s ability to move between social positions depends upon their economic, cultural, human, and social capital.
- The attributes needed to move up or down the social hierarchy are particular to each society; some countries value economic gain, for example, while others prioritize religious status.
- Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage.
Key Terms
- Relative Social Mobility : A measure of a person’s upward or downward movement in the social hierarchy compared to the movement of other members of their inherited social class.
- meritocratic : Used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.
- social mobility : the degree to which, in a given society, an individual’s, family’s, or group’s social status can change throughout the course of their life through a system of social hierarchy or stratification
- Intergenerational Mobility : Refers to the phenomenon whereby a child attains higher or lower status than their parents.
Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social positions over time. Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. However, it may also refer to changes in health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups, such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.
Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage. Nonetheless, social mobility can also refer to horizontal mobility, movement from one position to another within the same social level, as when someone changes between two equally prestigious occupations.
In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held. Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime. A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.
A distinction can also be drawn between absolute social mobility, which refers to the total observed movement of people between classes, and relative social mobility, which is an estimate of the chance of upward or downward movement of a member of one social class in comparison with a member from another class. An example of absolute social movement is when a region’s economic development provides quality education to a social group that previously did not have access to education, thus raising the group’s literacy level and socioeconomic status. Relative social mobility might refer to the opportunities presented to a middle class child born in a particular area of the United States, who might be predicted to attain a college level education and a maximum income of $80,000, for example.
Social mobility can be enabled to varying extents by economic capital, cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. Economic capital includes a person’s financial and material resources, such as income and accumulated wealth. Cultural capital includes resources ranging from holding a graduate degree to having a grasp of a group’s customs and rituals, both of which may confer an advantage in job markets and social exchanges. Human capital refers to such individual traits as competence and work ethic, which may enable increased educational or professional attainment. Social capital includes the advantages conferred by one’s social network, such as access to professional opportunities and insider knowledge. These types of capital facilitate mobility by providing access to opportunities and the tools to acquire wealth and status.
Societies present different opportunities for mobility depending on their systems of value. For example, Western capitalist countries are generally meritocratic. In such countries, social standing is based on such personal attributes as educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige. Thus, the degree of mobility in Western capitalist states depends on the extent to which individuals have access to educational and economic opportunity. By contrast, in countries where religious devotion is valued over economic standing, mobility may depend upon individuals’ access to religious rituals and shows of piety. In different countries or regions, the extent to which individuals have social mobility depends upon different factors.


12: Writing Contracts
12.1 Writing Contracts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Learn how to write valid contracts.
- Understand strategies for drafting contracts.
Knowing how to write legally enforceable contracts that protect their interests is a vital skill for businesses. In fact, most contracts are not written by attorneys. Individuals and businesses write contracts without legal help because they are trying to save time, money, and tension with others. However, hiring an attorney to write or review a contract to protect personal or business interests is sometimes necessary and worthwhile.
There are no magic words that a contract must have to be enforceable. Some are short and informal, while others are long and formal. No one style, format, or approach will always serve the parties’ needs. The only legal requirement that contracts must have are the elements of a contract: offer, acceptance, and consideration. This chapter offers some guidelines for business people to consider when writing their own contracts.
Counselor’s Corner It has been said that a poorly drafted contract will work if everyone gets the benefit of their bargain. This may be true, but it does not excuse sloppy drafting. Address all essential matters, clearly, succinctly, and at once. Non-essential terms, inconsistent use of defined terms, and repetition create fertile ground for disputes. You cannot control how the other party will perform. However, you put yourself in the best position possible by ensuring that the intent, obligations and rights of all parties are stated clearly and unambiguously. ~Kathy K., attorney
12.2 Structure of Contracts
Written contracts can be organized in many different ways. However, having a structure can help keep information organized, clear, and easy to find. The best contracts have clear headings that accurately describe what is contained in that section. Using emphasis, such as bold and underlining , work better than italics alone for capturing the reader’s eye.
In general, contracts often contain a structure like this:
- Title
- Introduction of Parties and Purpose
- Definitions of Material Terms
- Covenants and Promises of Performance
- Conditions
- Breach and Its Consequences
- Representations and Warranties
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Standard (often called “Boilerplate”) Provisions
- Procedure to Modify Contract
- Rights of Assignment and Delegation
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Choice of Law and Forum
- Integration
- Severability
- Exculpatory Clause
- Force Majeure
- Attorney Fees
- Signature Block
Not all contracts will contain all these elements and provisions. The parties’ needs and the purpose of the contract drive the structure of the document.
Title
Contracts have a title, often in bold or CAPITAL letters, at the top of the page. Titles should be as descriptive as possible. “Contract” or “Agreement” are not useful because they require the reader to read through the contract to know what it is about. The best contracts capture the nature of the document in the title. For example, “Employment Agreement Between Jane Doe and Stanford University.”
Introduction of Parties and Purpose
The introduction should name the parties and describe the nature of the contract. If background information is useful in explaining the parties’ interests and objectives, then it should be included here.
Definitions of Material Terms
Most business contracts contain some definitions, unless the subject matter and parties are clear. Definitions are useful because it is an area readers can reference to ensure compliance with the contract. For example, did the seller provide the specific goods as defined by the contract?
Definitions are not necessary for every term, though. If not defined, legal terms are given their legal meaning. And ordinary words are given their common, ordinary meaning. Therefore, businesses should define the material terms of the transaction: goods, services, quantity, quality, price, etc. Definitions that are specific to the industry are also helpful to include.
Covenants and Promises of Performance
A covenant is a formal promise to perform. This is the section of the contract where the parties state exactly how they will perform the contract. Buyer will pay a specific amount for the goods or service. Seller will deliver a specific item at a particular location.
To ensure clarity, the best contracts use active verbs in this section. For example, “Buyer will pay Seller ten dollars.” It is clear who will be paying whom, and how much is owed. Passive voice injects ambiguity, which can be problematic. For example, “Seller shall be paid ten dollars.” Will Buyer pay Seller the money or will someone else tender payment? If payment is not made, is Buyer in breach of contract?
Conditions
As discussed in Chapter 10, conditions are things that must occur before performance is due. Usually conditions must be expressly stated in a contract to be legally enforceable. The best contracts identify any conditions and delineate a timeline for when performance is due after the condition is met. For example, if an inspection of a property is a condition precedent of purchasing it, how long after the inspection is completed must the buyer perform?
Breach and Its Consequences
To constitute a violation of the contract, a breach must be material. A material breach is a substantial breach of contract that excuses aggrieved parties from further performance and affords them the right to sue for damages.
In contracts that require performance over a period of time, or payments in installments, it is helpful to define what constitutes a material breach. This clarifies when the non-breaching party can seek a remedy. The best contracts anticipate reasons for breach and identify consequences for them.
Acceleration Clause
An acceleration clause makes all future payments due immediately under the contract. Acceleration clauses often exists in contracts where periodic payments occur. For example, a contract to purchase a vehicle may require payment of all remaining money owed under the contract if the buyer misses a monthly payment. This allows the business that sold the vehicle or the bank that issued the loan to sue for breach of contract once, rather than filing a new lawsuit for each month.
Liquidated Damages
A liquidated damages clause allows parties to determine the amount of damages in the event of a material breach. Agreeing to the value of the contract before any breach occurs often saves time and money should the case be litigated. To be enforceable, the liquidated damages must apply to all parties equally, and be based on the value of the contract rather than act as a penalty.
Representations and Warranties
Representations are statements of fact made to induce someone to enter into a contract. Common representations by businesses include:
- They are properly licensed;
- They are insured;
- Their financial statements are accurate;
- They own all relevant assets;
- They have legal authority to enter into contracts.
Warranties in a contract are express promises that guarantee something in furtherance of the contract by one of the parties. For example, a seller warrants that the object being sold is as represented or promised.
Warranties differ from representations in four ways:
- A warranty is an essential part of a contract, while a representation is usually only a collateral inducement;
- A warranty is written in a contract; while a representation may be written or oral;
- A warranty is conclusively presumed to be material, while a representation must be proven to be material by the party claiming breach; and
- A warranty must be strictly complied with, while a representation must be substantially true.
Please note that express contract warranties are different from implied warranties under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). A party may disavow implied warranties under the UCC through a written contract.
Modification
Often with contracts that require an extended period for performance, modification becomes a concern. What happens if prices or deadlines need to be altered? Does that require a new contract or can the existing contract be modified? Good contracts often include a procedure for how to modify a contract. This may be as informal as writing changes directly on the original contract with the parties’ initials and date. Or it could be through a formal addendum procedure.
Regardless of the chosen procedure, it is a best practice for businesses to discuss modification procedures when entering into a contract. If the procedure is clear, less friction occurs when a party seeks modification.
Assignment and Delegation
In general, parties are free to assign and delegate their rights and duties under a contract. Parties can limit those rights or they can request notice if an assignment or delegation occurs. This is a provision that is often not needed unless a party has a concern about assignment, such as in the insurance industry.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
As discussed in Chapter 4, many businesses want to reduce their risk of litigation by participating in alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Mandatory arbitration clauses are common in consumer and employment contracts. Before including an ADR provision in a contract, parties should be fully comfortable with the option that they choose. If a party agrees to mediation or arbitration, a court will enforce that choice even if the parties change their mind.
Choice of Law and Forum
Choice of law provisions determine which state’s laws will be used to interpret the contract. Choice of forum provisions determine the state in which any litigation will take place.
This provision is often unnecessary for contracts involving individuals and entities in the same state. If the parties do not select that state law or location for litigation, the courts look to:
- Where the contract was signed;
- Where the contract is performed;
- Where the parties are residents; and
- The court’s jurisdictional rules.
Integration
An integration clause is a provision stating that the contract represents the parties’ complete and final agreement and supersedes all informal understandings and oral agreements relating to the subject matter of the contract. In other words, it is the agreement.
The purpose of an integration clause is to prevent the parties from later claiming that they agreed to additional or different terms than what the contract states. This means that any statements made before the parties signed the contract are not part of the contract and they will not be used to interpret the meaning of the contract.
Severability
A severability clause is a provision that keeps the remaining provisions of a contract in force if any portion of the contract is declared unenforceable by the court. It is also known as a savings clause because it “saves” the whole contract from being declared unenforceable.
For example, if a non-compete clause in an employment contract is declared unenforceable by a court, then the rest of the employment contract remains in effect.
Exculpatory Clause
An exculpatory clause is a provision relieving a party from any liability resulting from a negligent or wrongful act. They are often employed when the risk of injury exists. Exculpatory clauses cannot limit liability when a party acts with gross negligence, commits an intentional tort, or when public policy or state laws prohibit them. Exculpatory clauses have been struck down by courts in some cases where parties to a contract have greatly unequal bargaining power, especially when the party with greater power acts unethically or with gross negligence.
Force Majeure
A force majeure clause is a provision allocating risk to a certain party if performance becomes impossible as a result of an event that the parties could not have anticipated or controlled. Force majeure events are big, disruptive events such as natural disasters, war, terrorist attacks, and fires.
For example, if the subject matter of an international sales contract is destroyed by a hurricane, does the buyer or seller lose the money in the sale?
Attorney Fees
Business contracts often have an attorney fees clause that entitles a party successful in litigation over the contract to be reimbursed its attorney fees. This clause often has the effect of limiting frivolous lawsuits because it becomes more expensive for parties to litigate weaker claims. It may also give leverage to a winning party to prevent or end appeals of a court judgment.
Courts will usually enforce an attorney fees provision in a contract. However, courts review attorney fee awards for reasonableness. Therefore, the amount of fees usually must be deemed reasonable by a court or arbitrator before a party can collect under a contract.
12.3 Common Mistakes
Four of the most common mistakes when writing a contract are not understanding the content, vagueness, ambiguity, and typographical errors.
Not Understanding the Content
One common mistake is using free online resources without ensuring that they are appropriate for the circumstances. Just because it sounds official, a document generated by a computer algorithm may not be helpful. Better to read the contract and ensure that it accurately reflects the parties’ agreement.
Courts presume that parties have read a contract before signing it. Any mistakes in drafting go against the party who wrote the contract. In other words, if the contract is unclear, the party who did not write it gets the benefit of the doubt. The idea is that the party who wrote it should have done a better job, and the party who read and signed it should not be penalized as a result of someone else’s error. When writing a contract, better to keep it simple and clear.
It is also important to exclude provisions that are irrelevant to the contract. Contracts that are too long and contain irrelevant and contradictory terms are hard to understand. The best contracts are used as a reference between the parties during the period of performance. If a contract is too broad, too confusing, or contains too much irrelevant information, it hinders the effectiveness of the document.
Vagueness
In the context of contracts, vagueness means the language is imprecise, uncertain, and not clearly expressed. Vagueness is problematic because it could mean that the parties did not have a meeting of the minds because they were not talking about the same things.
Some business people think that keeping the contract “general” will facilitate a business transaction and that the details can be worked out later. However, if the parties are not in agreement up front, it is uncommon that things will work out smoothly later.
Another risk with vagueness is that it is not clear how a court will interpret the contract. If there are two or more reasonable interpretations, it is possible that the court will decide another interpretation is more reasonable. Again, mistakes in drafting are held against the drafter so if a court concludes that the vague term was a mistake, then it is hard to win in litigation.
Ambiguity
In contracts, ambiguity means an uncertainty of meaning or intention. Ambiguities can be either patent or latent. A patent ambiguity is where the language of the contract itself creates uncertainty because it is contradictory. For example, a contract states two different sale prices.
A latent ambiguity exists where the uncertainty arises during the performance of the contract. For example, the contract states that goods will ship via a carrier that has a common name and could be referring to different carriers.
Typographical Errors
Typographical errors are common in contracts. Some are harmless, some are embarrassing, and others are harmful. Although some typos are easy to ignore because they do not carry legal consequences, some can be fatal to the agreement.
Minor errors are called scrivener’s errors . The scrivener’s error doctrine permits typographical errors in a written contract to be corrected when clear and convincing evidence exists that the mistake does not reflect the intent of the parties.
However, errors related to dates, price, quantity, legal names of individuals and entities, and property descriptions (such as addresses and lot numbers) may not qualify as scrivener’s errors. Such errors may be fatal to the contract or may be enforced with adverse consequences against one of the parties.
12.4 Tips for Writing a Contract
Regardless of the purpose of the contract, some tips for writing good contracts include:
Naming the Parties
Be sure to use the correct name of the business entity or individual who is a party to the contract. This may seem obvious, but people often write the name of a representative of the entity rather than the legal name of the entity.
For sole proprietorships, it is appropriate to identify the party as Ling Chen doing business as Chen Bookkeeping. If the business is a Limited Liability Company (LLC), identifying an individual in the contract by name may remove any personal liability protection that a LLC provides. Similar issues may arise with a partnership if each individual is identified as a party to the contract.
Except for sole proprietors who do not have a separate business name, use the business entity’s name and not a personal name as a party to the contract. Otherwise, parties may lose the benefit of limited liability. There may also be tax consequences.
Define the Scope of the Work
Clearly define the scope of work or service being provided, and the proposed timeline to complete the work. Be specific. For example, instead of a broad “renovate the kitchen,” provide details of the cabinet designs, counter tops, and other materials and work to be provided.
If applicable, a time frame for each phase of the project is useful, along with procedures to follow if there are delays. This is especially helpful when delays occur as a result of a supply shortage or a third party. Breach of contract may not always be the fault of the parties. Having procedures in place in the case of delay often saves business relationships when things go wrong.
Specify Time and Amounts of Payments
Entering an hourly rate and projected time for completion, or the total amount of payment for a project, may be insufficient. Depending on the nature of the goods or services, the contract should include:
- Who is paying whom;
- How much is being paid;
- The method of payment (such as check, cashier’s check or bank transfer);
- Any portion of fees to be paid upfront;
- Any fees to be paid at project milestones;
- Payment for work completed if contract is canceled;
- Any late fees; and
- Hourly/per diem rate for time due to delays caused by the other party.
Termination Clause
Few contracts go on forever, so including an end date for the agreement or procedures for a party to cancel the contract are helpful. For example, parties often want to end the agreement if the other party fails to pay or misses too many important deadlines.
Termination procedures should be as specific as possible and include how much notice needs to be given, the type of notice required, and whether there is a time period where the other party may cure the deficiency.
Termination clauses should anticipate termination by all parties and address the parties’ rights based on which party requests termination and why.
Sign and Date the Contract
The signature block should name the business entity, then under the signature, the name and title of the person signing.
Figure 12.1 Signature Block Example
For example, Ahmad’s Construction, LLC By: __________ Khalid Ahmad, President
Each person signing the contract should date it next to his or her signature.
For partnerships, only general partners can sign a contract on the partnership’s behalf. For corporations, the president or chief executive officer is presumed to have authority to sign. For an organization or association, a board president would have authority, but it may require a vote of the governing board to approve the contract.
Minor Changes
Minor changes can be made directly to the contract. Both parties need to initial and date beside the changes to show that both parties agree to the change.
This is common when people buy property and the amount held in escrow changes (usually based on interest accrued) from the time the contract was prepared to the time it was signed.
Legal Terms
Courts interpret legal terms to have their legal meaning, regardless of the parties’ intent. Avoid using legal terminology unless all parties fully understand the legal definition and how it will be applied by the court. Again, simple and clear language is more effective than confusing legal jargon.
Allow for Flexibility
Contracts are usually the result of negotiation and the majority of them never end up in court. Contracts cannot cover every possible future situation but serve as a working document for the parties’ business relationship. When writing contracts, it is best to think of them as an agreement between parties that need some flexibility for the transaction(s) to take place. Life is dynamic and the best contracts give structure without being too rigid.
12.5 Concluding Thoughts
Writing valid contracts is an essential skill to be successful in business. Most contracts are not written by attorneys but they are critical to capturing an agreement between parties. Successful business people see contracts not just as a way to protect their interests, but also as a document that governs their business relationships with others. A well-written contract can be used throughout a transaction to guide the parties in their interactions and responsibilities.