Category Career Query

WHAT IS FOUND POETRY?

Found poems are simply the literary equivalent of a collage. Created by assembling borrowed text from published newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, letters, speeches, poems, and sometimes even documents like tax forms or medical reports, this poetry recycles words by giving them a new meaning and context.

This mode of writing not only makes poetry accessible but also gives a fresh insight into evocative writing.

The origin story

According to the former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, the cento (Latin for patchwork) which belongs to the third Century, may have been the original found poem.

A cento-poet often refashioned lines from the works of various revered writers like Homer and Virgil to create a unique verse. The Greeks and Roman assembled centos to pay homage to the literary idols of the past.

Types of Found Poetry

Found poetry can be further classified into blackout poetry, erasure poetry, and cut-up poetry.

Blackout poetry is created by blacking out or blotting certain lines and phrases of an existing article, short story or poem using a pen or a black marker to reinterpret the original work. Contrary to this, erasure poems are created by erasing, clipping out. or obscuring certain lines or words of a printed text using a light coat of white paint.

Cut-up or Remix poetry is curated by literally cutting out words from source materials and rearranging them to create a unique meaning.

A strong proponent of the cut-up approach, American writer William S. Burroughs once said “All writing is in fact, cut-ups. A collage of words read, heard and overheard. What else?”

Found poetry rose to prominence in the 20th century due to its shared similarities with the pop art of artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. It combined literature and visual art to represent the plurality of language.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT IS THE LOST GENERATION IN LITERATURE?

World War I, or the Great War (1914-1918), fractured the American worldview in ways that were beyond imagination. Many young Americans were in a state of shock after having witnessed death and destruction on such an unparalleled scale. The country that they once knew, as a safe haven built on tenets such as patriotism, faith, and morality (prior to the war) had fallen. All that remained was the population that felt lost, hopeless, scattered and at odds with the old norms of the society.

These sentiments pervaded many cultural aspects of change in the 1920s, including literature. Writers could no longer relate to the subject matter or the themes of the texts produced before the war. Although the term Lost Generation’ was introduced by Gertrude Stein, a modernist American writer who made Paris her permanent home, it only gained popularity after Emest Hemingway included it in the epigraph of his novel The Sun Also Rises (published in 1926).

As the story goes, Stein came upon the term when an auto mechanic upset with his young employee’s unsatisfactory work on her car, referred to the nation’s youth as a lost generation, difficult to prepare for work or focus

The Lost Generation, therefore, referred to that group of men and women who came of age during the First World War and felt disillusioned in the unfamiliar post-war world.

In literature, the Lost Generation was a group of American writers, most of whom immigrated to Europe and worked there from the end of World War I until the Great Depression.

A bohemian lifestyle of travel among intellectuals felt more appealing than remaining in a place where virtuous behaviour no longer existed, faith in religion was broken, and a connection to morality was questionable at best. So, the expatriate writers living in Europe wrote about the trials and tribulations of this Lost Generation, while, being a part of it themselves.

The most famous writers of the Lost Generation include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and T.S. Eliot.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT ARE THE CAREER IN DIGITAL MARKETING?

Digital Marketing is a modern way of promoting brands, products and services using all forms of digital channels such as websites, email, social media, mobile apps, etc.

What’s this career about?

Digital marketing is another name for online marketing. These days every business and company utilizes digital marketing strategies as people use their mobile phones almost all day, making it easier to reach potential customers.

There are different types of digital marketing some of which are:

SEO Marketing

SEO Marketing or search engine optimization, is one of the most widespread and in-demand skills in the digital marketing world. In essence, SEO marketing is all about designing and creating content to rank highly in search engines when consumers ask brand-relevant queries and industry-applicable searches.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is a fast-growing vertical within digital marketing and can serve as a powerful tool in a business’ advertising arsenal. In this specialty, you will develop content and advertising strategies that promote customer interest and engagement on a variety of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

While social media marketing may get more media coverage, email marketing is still a core profitable aspect of modern business. Email Marketing sustains and increases business relationships, providing value for customers and engagement for the company. It can drive sales by circulating targeted content designed to appeal to a brand’s customer needs and interests.

Content Marketers

Content Marketers create relevant, interesting, and timely content that appeals to and engages customers on all digital frontiers, from a brand’s social media channels to its website. Often, this kind of marketing will also encompass educational and informative articles, whitepapers and other written work that establishes a brand as a thought leader in its field.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate Optimization is all about increasing the number of conversions – that is, the percentage of website visitors and potential customers who actually make a purchase, fill out a form, or otherwise interact with the site. A conversion rate optimization (CRO) professional may design website flow and structure to enhance conversion and interaction.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Pay-Per-Click Marketing means a company may pay large ad vendors like Google or Facebook for text or visual ad placement, aiming to pique searcher attention and ultimately drive sales.

These marketing managers first examine the needs and resources of the business or organization. Then they work with the editorial, commercial, marketing and technical teams to decide on a simple, effective, advanced and comfortable digital channel, which fit the business requirements. They need to ensure all campaigns are delivered on time and on budget. Later, they track what people are saying about a brand online, and help companies manage their brand image.

In small companies, one may have responsibility across all of these areas in some capacity, while in bigger companies, you may solely manage one area like e-mail marketing.

How do I get there?

As digital marketing pertains to knowledge in science, statistics, artistic visualisation and e-commerce, students of any field can take up digital marketing as a career. However, those with degrees in technology and/or marketing do have an upper hand.

A number of courses/certifications are available throughout India. The duration may range from few months to one year and eligibility is graduation. Some of these are: Google Analytics IQ Certification, Hootsuite Social Marketing Certification, Google Ads Certification, HubSpot Content Marketing Certification, Digital Garage: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certification, HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification.

During the course, students learn about the various formats of marketing like displaying advertising, social media marketing, mobile and internet marketing, search engine optimization and marketing and website design and ways to use them in order to produce a higher response to online marketing efforts.

What skills do I need?

  • Excellent oral and written communication skills.
  • Passion for online and media-rich, audio-visual products.
  • Experience in running and developing marketing initiatives in the online world.
  • Willingness to continue to learn about new methods and technology.
  • Excellent decision-making and problem-solving skills.
  • Creative and aesthetic sense.
  • Ability to see things differently, innovative mind.

Institutes

  • Indian Institutes of Management at various places
  • Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
  • National Institute of Securities Markets, Navi Mumbai
  • EduKart.com, New Delhi
  • Internet & Mobile Research Institute, Bangalore
  • NIIT at various places
  • Digital Vidya, Gurgaon

Employment profile

Successful candidates may work in the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce industry. Some of the target companies include ITC, Jet Airways, Max Life Insurance, Amazon, Kellogg’s, Nestlé.

According to LinkedIn, the digital marketing industry is growing every year and has the greatest number of job openings. It’s a thriving industry – today, countless consumers buy products based on the ads they see as they navigate search engines, scroll through social media platforms, and open e-mails. Businesses are increasingly spending a big proportion of their marketing budgets on digital marketing.

Picture Credit : Google 

I WANT TO BE A SPACE SCIENTIST.

I am a Std 8 student and want to be a space scientist. Please guide me as to what direction I should take after Std 10. Which stream should I choose? What are the qualifications, courses, colleges needed to pursue this career?

To make a career in Space Science, an expertise of the science subjects Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics is a must. These subjects can be pursued at Bachelor’s level, i.e., 4-year B.Tech. programme or 3-year B.Sc. course, for which eligibility is 10+2 in Science stream. After completing a Bachelor’s degree, go for post-graduation in Space Science and Technology and other space-related fields. To become an expert in any specialized field, pursuing a Ph.D. degree is compulsory. In fact, most professionals working in Space Science are Ph.D. holders.

Some of the good institutes are: Indian Institute of Space science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,Indian Institutes of Technology at various places.

Picture Credit : Google

WHERE IS THE TROPOSPHERE THE THINNEST?

The troposphere can be found between the ground and an altitude of 7 to 20 kilometers (4 to 12 miles). The lesser thickness is found at the Polar Regions, since colder temperatures lead to a decrease in gas volume. The vast majority of the world’s weather is formed in the troposphere and this layer also contains 80 percent of the atmosphere’s mass. The temperature within the troposphere drops with altitude, since it is essentially being warmed by the ground. The pressure also drops within the troposphere as altitude increases, and this explains why mountaineers require oxygen masks.

Credit: Sciencing

Picture credit: Google

WHAT ARE STROMATOLITES?

Primitive life forms may have first appeared on Earth about 3800 million years ago. These bacteria lived in the oceans and built up solid mats of calcium carbonate, also known as lime. The deposits from the bacteria are known as stromatolites.

Stromatolites are living fossils and the oldest living lifeforms on our planet. The name derives from the Greek, stroma, meaning “mattress”, and lithos, meaning “rock”. Stromatolite literally means “layered rock”. The existence of these ancient rocks extends three-quarters of the way back to the origins of the Solar System.

With a citizen scientist’s understanding, stromatolites are stony structures built by colonies of microscopic photosynthesising organisms called cyanobacteria. As sediment layered in shallow water, bacteria grew over it, binding the sedimentary particles and building layer upon millimetre layer until the layers became mounds. Their empire-building brought with it their most important role in Earth’s history. They breathed. Using the sun to harness energy, they produced and built up the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere to about 20%, giving the kiss of life to all that was to evolve.

Living stromatolites are found in only a few salty lagoons or bays on Earth. Western Australia is internationally significant for its variety of stromatolite sites, both living and fossilised. Fossils of the earliest known stromatolites, about 3.5 billion years old, are found about 1,000km north, near Marble Bar in the Pilbara region. With Earth an estimated 4.5 billion years old, it’s staggering to realise we can witness how the world looked at the dawn of time when the continents were forming. Before plants. Before dinosaurs. Before humans.

Credit: bbc.com

Picture credit: Google