This presentation introduces the fundamentals of descriptive writing and its role in academic and creative contexts. It begins by explaining the purpose of descriptive essays and provides examples focusing on places, people, and objects to illustrate vivid, sensory-rich writing. The presentation highlights the key elements of effective description, including detail, imagery, and figurative language, and offers strategies for organizing descriptive content logically and coherently. Guidance is provided on crafting thesis statements for descriptive essays and using transitions to ensure smooth flow between ideas. A model descriptive essay is presented to demonstrate best practices, and learners are given a writing assignment to apply these techniques and strengthen their descriptive writing skills.

It is said that the early bird catches the worm; but does that apply to university students?

As we all know, schools and universities all over the world start generally between 8:30 and 9:00 AM. Throughout our academic journey, all of us had to wake up and get ready at least an hour before 8:30AM for our classes. However, as we get older, our sleeping schedule becomes irregular which results in many complaints coming from university students stating that late classes are far more convenient and beneficial than early morning classes.

A study conducted in 1998 by Dr. Wolfson and Dr. Carskadon says that university students who reported poor grades claimed to be getting 25 fewer minutes of sleep than the students who reported getting higher grades. Another study from the University of Minnesota confirmed that later school start times can have a positive effect on academic performance. Investigators studied two school districts that changed their start times to 8:30AM and 8:40AM. When compared with students attending schools with earlier start times, the students reported getting higher grades. They also had fewer depressing feelings, got more sleep on school nights and had less daytime sleepiness. In addition, a recent study from RAND Europe shows that delaying school start times is cost-effective. Results suggest that starting school later could have a positive impact on the country’s economy.

All of the above mentioned studies confirm the link between later school start times and better grades, higher test scores, improved focus among university students, as well as a positive impact on the country’s economy. That’s especially important because discipline problems may lead to suspension, which is associated with a wide range of negative health and economic outcomes and is a major cause of educational inequity.

However, with all of these advantages that are definitely valid, some drawbacks cannot be ignored. For example, transportation challenges. Later start times will likely mean more buses on the road later in the day, this could create more traffic and increase travel delays. Furthermore, students who have part-time jobs may have scheduling conflicts as a result of this, which can lead to poor attendance and therefore poor grades.

Overall, later start times for universities can be a double edge sword since it improves students’ academic performance but it can create some transportation and work schedule conflicts as well. However, these problems can likely be solved with flexibility and thoughtful planning.

Khaoula Jraif

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida

This presentation introduces the essential components of effective paragraph and essay writing. It begins with the distinction between topic sentences and thesis statements, explaining how each guides the reader and establishes focus at the paragraph and essay levels. The presentation then explores how to develop well-organized paragraphs through clear supporting sentences that provide evidence, examples, and explanation. Learners are introduced to the structure of an introduction and the role it plays in setting the tone and direction of an essay. The importance of concluding sentences in reinforcing the main idea and providing closure is also highlighted. Finally, the presentation explains how strong paragraph writing serves as a foundation for essay development, helping students transition smoothly from individual paragraphs to cohesive, full-length academic essays.

Globalization is the highlight of the contemporary era, with media easily reaching most parts of the world, sharing views and ideas as well as influence in both ways became a major act in how the world is evolving. With internet being available almost everywhere, televisions and other informative ways of communication, individuals around the globe found themselves in front of a nearly infinite source of information, where anyone can freely express themselves without concrete limit. How did communication get over these limits or boundaries, how can globalization movements be this diverse but at the same time very selective and how did this evolution impact human lives on multiple scales?

Globalization, Geographic and National Boundaries

Globalization means bringing together different places of the world to make it a global world, it also refers to the promotion of flows of goods, services and individuals, as well as the development of free trade and this based on policies of deregulation. Obviously, the free movement of factors of production: labor and capital, has many advantages, for instance improving the quality of life of individuals at work by reducing costs, or even the ease of access to different foreign cultures. Yet there are several types of borders that limit territories, the reason why in this paragraph we will focus on geographic boundaries. In fact the geographic boundary has an important function because it preserves the territory in which the State exercises its power. Furthermore, this type of boundaries is characterized in particular by the existence of the airports which monitor the papers and bags in order to ensure the security of their land boundaries. Otherwise, the boundaries in Europe don’t have the same value as in the countries of other seas due to Schengen space; consequently European citizens can cross the boundary of other countries belonging to the European Union without being subject to limiting constraints since the mobility between these countries is considered internal mobility. On the other hand, controls at the external borders of the Schengen area are very strong. Truly, we immediately think that boundaries are drawn only between the States of the European Union and the States outside this Union. However, in this era of Coronavirus, we have noticed that not only the external boundaries which are closed but also the internal boundaries of the Schengen space, in other words Schengen space restriction. This action aims to avoid any threat to public health. This event shows that the geographic boundaries remain inviolable even in a globalized world, boundaries always form limits and this manifested plainly with the Coronavirus which could have closed each country its geographic boundaries.

One of the significant impacts of globalization is the forming of a new and recognizable class of people belonging to a nascent worldwide culture. As enrollment in this new global culture rises, numerous critics locate a danger to national societies, coming about potentially in the inevitable outdated nature. We consider the patterns driving the development of this recently rising worldwide culture, the procedure by which new individuals are associated into it, the qualities, or highlights, that give off an impression of being engaging of its individuals, and the effect of this culture on the outdated nature of national societies. At last, while it’s ridiculous to expect that the development of this global culture will substitute national societies, we, all the same, came to the conclusion that national societies must be adjustable and capable to highlight the captivation of their fundamental components if they aim to successfully remain pertinent.

Globalization and Political Boundaries

In political scope, globalization has created several evolutions which some of them are as follows:

Democracy

Democracy is a Greek word which derives of “kratia” and “demos”, meaning “home rule”. Mainly, there are two classes definitions of democracy :

• An outlook that argued democracy as a governance method.
• Another that argued democracy as values.

Nation-State

Some theoreticians believe that in globalization process, the concentration of supervision was transferred from national state to sub governmental, non-governmental and ultra-governmental organizations. In other words, in globalization age, the method of governance has completely changed.

New Political Actors

Another impact of globalization on politics is the appearance of new political actors in national, regional and global scopes, beside the change in location of some old and traditional actors.

To conclude, globalization  has surely had several outcomes on many distinct scopes around the world and on the history of human beings’ existence. This has undeniably restructured the world with all his continents and nations and developed their abilities to a certain degree that guaranteed the enhancement of life’s achievements, considering different domains such as economy, politics, health…
Whether we accept it or not, by any means possible, globalization was the main factor of collision and cohesion of cultures, generations, folk, religions… and will always be the leader of the global state, but also the primary reason of new issues and new challenges for humanity.

Resources

• https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01463007/document
• https://www.intechopen.com/books/globalization-education-and-management-agendas/the-impact-of-globalization-on-cross-cultural-communication
• https://www.intechopen.com/books/globalization-education-and-management-agendas/the-impact-of-globalization-on-cross-cultural-communication
• https://theconversation.com/schengen-a-lepreuve-du-coronavirus-134267
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1075425303000577
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637750500111872
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713657031

Authors

• MADMAD LINA
• MITRAQ ZINEB
• MESTOUR SOUFIAN
• MAGUERI MOUAD
• MAJID SOUFIANE