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verb as in select and give a responsibility

Strongest matches

Strong matches

Weak matches

• hold responsible

verb as in set apart for a reason

• appropriate

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Example sentences.

It is designed to listen to meetings with multiple participants and will parse discussion patterns to produce informative synopses and assign post-meeting action items.

Such randomized, double-blinded controlled trials randomly assign patients to receive a drug or a placebo, and don’t reveal to participants or doctors who is getting which.

That AI could pore over an astronaut’s symptoms and then recommend medical tests, make diagnoses and assign treatments.

So I rose beyond cleaning, to working as an operational dispatcher for cabin services in the American Airlines traffic control center, assign cleaning crews to each incoming aircraft.

Ideally, the Mars spaceship would be equipped with artificial intelligence that could consider an astronaut’s symptoms, recommend medical tests, make diagnoses and assign treatments.

Now the Kremlin will assign more loyal people to rule the region, mostly military leaders.

When we assign a primitive “not me” status to another individual or social group, it can—and does—take us down a destructive path.

Other folks can debate and assign blame for “who lost Iraq.”

Renee Richardson knows she'll likely never be able to assign blame for her son's death—she's done fighting for that.

Girls are directed through several pages of this until they are asked to assign the guy a series of pre-decided adjectives.

The designs of Russia have long been proverbial; but the exercise of the new art of printing may assign them new features.

With what honest pride did John Smith, the best farmer of them all, step to the fore and assign to each man his place!

If the lessee die, his executor or administrator can assign the remainder of his term.

As the lessee may assign or sublet unless forbidden, so may the lessor part with his interest in the leased premises.

If offered any dish of which you do not wish to partake, decline it, but do not assign any reason.

Related Words

Words related to assign are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word assign . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

verb as in attribute responsibility or achievement

verb as in assign; give portion

• cut the pie

verb as in set aside

Viewing 5 / 88 related words

On this page you'll find 166 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to assign, such as: accredit, allow, appoint, attach, authorize, and charge.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Related Words and Phrases

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Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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9 Microsoft Word Tips to Edit Your College Assignment Faster

Struggling to edit your college assignments efficiently? Here are some useful Microsoft Word tips to accelerate your editing process and save time.

Assignments at the college and university levels are research-heavy, and you’re often expected to produce write-ups with a significant number of pages. Just when you think you’re done with producing the required word count, the next step is equally challenging and time-consuming: editing.

From keyboard shortcuts to simple, built-in features such as Find and Replace and the automatic table of contents, here are several tips you can use to edit and format your college assignment more efficiently in Microsoft Word.

1. Leave Paragraph Spacing as Your Last Step

Let’s first start on the right track. When you have a 3,000-word essay or report ahead, it’s tempting to set double-spacing when you only write a few sentences or a paragraph at most. It gives the comforting illusion that you have done more work than you actually have.

But to be more efficient at the final editing stage, it’s best to leave paragraph spacing as your last step. This way, you save time because you don’t have to scroll up and down much more than you need to while navigating through different sections and pages of your text.

2. Learn to Utilize Keyboard Shortcut Keys

Keyboard shortcuts make editing and formatting much faster compared to using a mouse. For example, when you use your mouse to select some words, you’ll probably miss a letter or two and have to re-highlight, or overshoot and include a period when you don’t need to.

In this case, you can select text accurately by using Ctrl + Shift , and the left and right arrow keys in Windows. There are many more Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts that will enable you to get most editing done on the keyboard, without having to switch to your mouse or trackpad. Don’t underestimate the amount of time you save with this method!

3. Hide the Headers and Footers

When you’re reading through a continuous body of text, the blank headers and footers may feel disruptive. To have a smoother reading and editing experience, hide the headers and footers to join all the pages together.

Hover your cursor over the gray space between your current page and the next, then double-click. When you need to use the headers and footers in Microsoft Word again, unhide them by hovering your cursor over the page separator line and double-click.

4. Collapse the Headings and Subheadings

For long report-style assignments, you’ll likely split your content into headings and subheadings. As you move from one section to the next, or jump between sections to rewrite and edit, make it easier to scroll through your text by collapsing the headings.

Hover over the heading title, then click the triangle icon that appears next to it to hide the content. If you want to hide all headings at once, right-click on any heading, and select Expand/Collapse > Collapse All Headings .

5. Automatically Sort References by Alphabetical Order

The works cited list is an essential section in any higher education assignment and is usually sorted by alphabetical order. You’ve likely added references to the list as you cite them in your essay, but when it comes to sorting at the end, it’s unfeasible and time-consuming to sort them manually. You can simply sort them automatically in Microsoft Word.

Select all your references and go to the Home tab. Under the Paragraph section, click the Sort icon (A and Z, with a downward arrow). In the Sort by field, choose Paragraphs . In the Type field, select Text . Then, select Ascending and click OK . The list will now be sorted by alphabetical order.

However, you might notice a couple of outliers. For example, when some references start with symbols instead of a letter, they will all likely be pushed to the very top. These are the few ones you’ll then need to manually reinsert into your list correctly.

6. Use Find and Replace to Avoid Spelling Mistakes

Whether they’re textbooks or journal articles, every student has probably encountered authors with surnames that are a little tricky to spell. Typing the name over and over for each in-text citation is prone to human error. To avoid misspellings, you can use Find and Replace.

First, use a unique abbreviation as a placeholder when you write your assignment. I recommend including a number in this abbreviation. This is because if your abbreviation only consists of letters, there’s a chance that this short combination of letters may have appeared elsewhere, as a part of a word, in your essay.

Once you’re done with the body content, it’s time to replace the abbreviation with the actual surname. In the Home tab, click Replace in the Editing tab. In the Find what field, type your abbreviation. In the Replace with field, type the actual author's name. Then, click Replace All . All your abbreviations will now be replaced with the correct author surname.

7. Insert Your Picture Into an Invisible Table

If you haven’t quite got the hang of formatting pictures in Microsoft Word, here’s a simple alternative that helps guarantee your image won’t cause your text to break up at weird places: insert your picture into an invisible table.

Go to the part of the text where you want your picture to appear. Press Enter to go to a new paragraph. Head to the Insert tab, click Table , and select one box to create a 1x1 table. With the cursor inside your table, click Pictures > Insert Picture > This Device to upload your picture into the document.

You can resize your picture within the table. Once you’re satisfied, highlight the table, go to the Table Design tab, click Borders > No Border . The black table border will then disappear. Your picture now appears to be perfectly fitted between two paragraphs of text.

8. Have an Overview of Multiple Page at Once

When you’re almost done editing, it’s best to scroll through all the pages to make sure there are no odd blank pages, separate sections, or incorrect image displays. But if you have more than 20 pages worth of content, scrolling through that much content quickly is just dizzying.

Instead, go to the View tab. In the Zoom section, click Multiple Pages . This zooms out your Microsoft Word document , so you can view two or three pages at once. You can also click the Zoom slider at the bottom right to zoom out even more and view more pages at once.

9. Automatically Create a Table of Contents

One of the final assignment components is the table of contents. If you’ve been manually keying in each heading, typing a line of periods that end with the heading’s corresponding page number, and double-checking the said page number yourself, it’s time to let Microsoft Word handle the task.

First, make sure you have applied the correct style to your headings. You can check this by clicking on each heading and see which style is selected in the Home tab. Then, number the pages of your Microsoft Word document .

Finally, go to the blank page where you want to insert your Table of Contents. Head to the References tab, click on Table of Contents , and select one of the Automatic Tables . Microsoft Word instantly generates a table of contents for you.

Improve Your Editing Process in Microsoft Word

By applying the above tips, you can revise your assignment more quickly and effectively without burdening yourself with eye fatigue. Cut down on the excessive scrolling and other manual tasks that can be done automatically by Microsoft Word.

Plus, saving time on editing means you have even more time to proofread and review your essays thoroughly, enabling you to produce higher-quality essays and reports.

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Glossary of Task Words

Understanding the meaning of words, especially task words, helps you to know exactly what is being asked of you. It takes you halfway towards narrowing down your material and selecting your answer.

Task words direct you and tell you how to go about answering a question. Here is a list of such words and others that you are most likely to come across frequently in your course.

Maddox, H 1967, How to Study , 2nd ed, Pan Books, London.

Marshall, L., & Rowland, F 1998, A guide to learning independently , Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne.

Northedge, A 1997, The good study guide , Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Essay and assignment writing guide

• Essay writing basics
• Essay and assignment planning
• Complex assignment questions
• Glossary of task words
• Editing checklist
• Writing a critical review
• Annotated bibliography
• Reflective writing
• ^ More support

Scholarly Resources 4 Students | scite.ai 21 May 2024

Discover your Library: Main Library 21 May 2024

14 Best Steps on How to Make an Assignment on MS Word

Nowadays, it is very common for students to complete their assignments using Microsoft Word. Thus, they look up how to make an assignment on MS Word. Because of the numerous options provided by MS Word, it might be difficult for a beginner to handle. All you have to do is become familiar with MS Word’s options before moving on to the assignment. 

Here in this blog, we will explain 14 best steps you need to follow in order to know how to make an assignment on MS word.

How to make an assignment on MS word 

Table of Contents

Yes, we understand that completing an assignment is challenging for most students. Because some of them are worried about completing the task like write my paper , and even if they aren’t worried, they don’t know how to use Microsoft Word effectively, which can be disastrous for many. Similarly, we are publishing this blog to teach you how to make an assignment in Microsoft Word.

Yes, we understand that completing an assignment is challenging for most students. Because some of them are worried about completing the task, and even if they aren’t worried, they don’t know how to use Microsoft Word effectively, which can be disastrous for many. This blog is being published to teach you how to make an assignment in Microsoft Word.

1. Setting the layout of the page for your assignment

On the Toolbar, select the Page Layout tab. Likewise, Page Setup options will appear.

2. Set Margins

Set the margins as follows (Standard measure for the margin):

• Bottom: 2.5cm
• Left: 2.5cm (or 3.2cm)
• Right: 2.5cm (or 3.2cm)

3. Setting Orientation of the page

• Orientation: Portrait

4. Setting Size

• Set to A4 unless otherwise specified. 

5. Setting styles

Go Back to the Home tab, You will find the Styles options in the right of the toolbar you will need to use these steps to set the headings and paragraph text for your work.

6. For Headings

Always use the first three headings (Heading 1,2 and 3)

• H1: Arial 14 pt bold
• H2: Arial 12 pt bold, italics
• H3: Arial 10.5-11 pt bold

And the text type should be Normal text

• Times New Roman 12 pt (or equivalent) 

7. To set the headings styles for your work, you will have to

• Click the small Styles icon/button.
• Select/highlight the style to modify (e.g. ‘H1’), and then right-click >Modify. Likewise, the Modify Style dialog box will appear.
• Under Formatting, You can change the font style and size as per your need.
• Click OK. 

8. Setting up your assignment as the one document

Also, your Work, including the title page and references ( not the Assignment Attachment form*), must be aggregated as a single word (.docx) report. 

Therefore, it is simpler to make one record, embed your significant headings, and enter the content from that point. But, if you decide to make separate documents while setting up your task (for example, a different record for references), you will need to copy and paste the final contents into the one-word document and finalize the formatting there.

*The assignment attachment structure is either submitted electronically as a different document or attached to a submitted printed copy.

If you face any issues related to PowerPoint or find it difficult to complete your PowerPoint homework, use our PowerPoint PPT Homework Help by Experts .

9. Inserting section breaks, page breaks, and page numbers

The document has two sections

Section 1 Contains

• The title page
• Table of contents 

Section 2 Contains

• The remainder of the assignment.

There are then page breaks within each section i.e

(e.g. between ‘Abstract’ and ‘Table of contents’; ‘Conclusion’ and ‘References’). 

To insert the Section break (i.e. make two sections)

• Position your cursor at the end of the Table of contents. (Just have this as a heading; the actual table will be added at the end.)
• From the toolbar at the top of your document, open the Page Layout tab and select Breaks>Section Breaks>Next Page. Under Section break types, select ‘Next page’. This has now divided the assignment into two sections.

Now to insert the page breaks

• Place your cursor at the foot of the title (cover) page.
• Select the Page Layout tab>Breaks>Page Breaks>Page. This has now created a page break between the title page and Abstract.
• Place the cursor at the foot of the Abstract page and repeat to make the break between the Abstract and Table of contents.
• Place a page break between the Conclusion in the next section.

10. Now to add the page numbers

For section 1:.

• Place your cursor within the title page. Click on the Insert tab and then select Page Number in the Header & Footer set of options.
• Select Top of Page>Plain Number 3 (‘right’ alignment). Do not close the Header and Footer just yet.
• Check the box for Different First Page. (This will remove the page number from the title page.)
• In the Header & Footer group of options to the left of the toolbar, select Page Number>Format Page Numbers. Select i, ii, iii .. from the Number format
• Drop-down list. Under Page numbering, click the Start at the radio button (if not already activated) and select i. Click OK.
• Close the Header and Footer. [This will paginate slightly differently from the example, with Abstract on page ii. ]

For section 2:

• Go to the start of section 2 (i.e. beginning at the ‘Introduction’) and double click on the existing page number. This will open the Header settings options.
• In the Header & Footer options section on the toolbar, select Page Number>Format Page Numbers.
• Make sure the ‘Show number on the first page is selected (i.e. the box is ticked).
• Select 1, 2, 3 from the Number format drop-down list. Under Page numbering, Click on the Start at the radio button and set the start on page 1.

11. Inserting the Table of contents

• Move the cursor under the ‘Table of contents’ heading. 
• Check the checkboxes for ‘Show page numbers’ and ‘Right align page numbers’.In the (last) Show levels box, set it to either just ‘1’ (i.e. list only the heading 1 level headings) or ‘2’ (to show both H1, and H2 headings).
• To update the table anytime, right-click on the table and it’s almost done.

12. The title page

Follow these steps as the model for your work:

• Assignment title: Arial 28 pt, italics, centered
• (Assignment number): Arial 18 pt, italics, centered
• Other details: Times New Roman 14 pt, left-justified; single tab spacing for items on the one line.

13. Word count

Show the word count properly for the body of your assignment, because it’s’ important.

• Place your cursor on the Introduction title, hold the Shift key down, and got to the end of the Conclusion.
• And then Tools>Word Count and record the number of words. 

14. Spelling and Grammar Check

Always keep an eye on spelling and sentence structure and Before you get a printed copy of your task,

What you have to do is

• Run the word spell and sentence structure, and carefully look at your Work. (Tools>Spelling and Grammar.)
• Ensure the Dictionary Language is set to English (Australia, UK, Canada).

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Practice Projects for Microsoft Word

Word 9 Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a title and table. The table has two columns that have different font alignment and incluces various fonts. …

Word 8 Formatting Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document using a different size and color font for the title than the rest of the paragraph. …

Word 7 Bullets

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with two different types of bullets showing points and subpoints. …

Word 6 Letter

In this practice project for Word, students create a letter. Included in the letter is a heading on the right, indented paragraphs, and the closing and signiture near the middle of the document. …

Word 5 Text And Outline

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that contains several paragraphs of text and also includes an outline with key points and subpoints. …

Word 4 Modified Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with the heading on the right, a boldfaced, centered title, and indented paragraphs. The document is double-spaced. …

Word 3 Basic Text

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with the heading on the right, a boldfaced title that is centered, and several paragraphs that are indented. …

Word 22 Preset Headings

In this practice project for Word, students create a document using the preset headings to create a title bar. The document has different alignment and font, blanks, and a short outline. …

Word 21 Formatting Options

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that shows some different effects that can be used with the same font. …

Word 20 Numbered List

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that includes a centered title followed by a numbered list. …

Word 2 Heading 2

In this practice project for Word, students create a document that has a centered title, a heading in the upper right corner, and indented paragraphs. …

Word 19 Advanced Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a table showing a school schedule. The blocks in the table are different sizes and will take individual work within the blocks to …

Word 18 Columns

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a header and two colomns. The columns include boldfaced and italic font and different alignment. …

Word 17 Columns

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with two identical columns in landscape orientation. Included in each are indented lines and different alignment and font. …

Word 16 Lesson Notes Handout

In this practice project for Word, students create a document like a student handout. This includes an outline with several levels, blanks for students to write on, and different font. …

Word 15 Lesson Notes

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a header and two outlines. Students are asked to use the automatic numbering and outlining features in Word. They must use different …

Word 14 Table

In this practice project for Word, students create a scoresheet using a table. Students must use different sizes, colors and styles of font, including different alignment. …

Word 13 Outline

In this practice project for Word, students create an outline using the automatic outline in Word, including many levels of subpoints. …

Word 12 Formatting

In this practice project for Word, students create a document with a centered title in all capitals, the first letter of each word slightly larger than the rest. Throughout the document the font is …

Word 11 Formatting

In this practice project for Word, students create a document similar to a test or quiz. They must include points and subpoints, blanks, boldfaced text, tabs, and spacing. …

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6 Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Word

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• Best for sharing and real time collaboration: Google Docs
• Best for long and complex documents: Apache OpenOffice Writer
• Best for automation: Zoho Writer
• Best for customization: LibreOffice Writer
• Best for advanced features: WPS Office Writer
• Best for users who prefer Microsoft Word's interface: Microsoft Office Word Online

Microsoft Word has its devotees, but find one person who loves it, and you’ll probably find several who don’t. From redesigns that hide familiar menu items to overly complicated and often unused features, there’s a lot to be desired in a simple word processor that Microsoft Word doesn’t deliver due to its complex nature.

Microsoft Word as a part of Microsoft Office is expensive — for instance, Microsoft 365 Business Premium costs $22 for each user per month.

SEE: Discover the best free alternatives to Microsoft Excel .

If you don’t need all the features that Microsoft Word offers, it can be hard to justify paying that price, especially in a small business environment where you just need a word processor. Don’t pay for what you won’t use and take a look at one of these six free Microsoft Word alternatives instead.

Alternatives to Microsoft Word comparison

This chart provides a general overview of Microsoft Word capabilities. We evaluated each tool further to determine which might suit your needs best.

Google Docs: Best for sharing and real time collaboration

Google Docs, which is easily the most popular Microsoft Word alternative on this list, is free to everyone with a Google account.

If you want the basic features of Microsoft Word, you don’t need to look any further than Google Doc — it supports all your basic word processing needs and is tightly integrated with Google Drive and other products. Since everything is saved in Google’s cloud, you don’t need to worry about losing your work ( Figure A ). Docs automatically save after every single keystroke, so in the event of a crash, you should be able to pick up right where you left off, down to the letter. Google Docs also supports Microsoft Word’s .doc and .docx formats, so you shouldn’t have any problems importing and editing those files.

One of its best features for business users is real-time collaboration. If you share a document with another Google user, both of you can be in the document simultaneously, see the other user’s cursor position, watch what they’re typing, and chat with each other. It’s a great collaboration tool that stands out among word processors.

Advanced users may find the features lacking — it really is a bare-bones word processor.

Standout features

• Real-time collaboration capability.
• Pageless view.
• Table templates.
• Watermarks.
• Document summary.
• Google Meet integration.
• Menu shortcut that lets you tag people, add elements and perform other actions.
• Commenting, notes and suggestions.
• Meeting notes.
• Email draft.
• Checklists.
• Customizable templates.
• In-doc chat capability.
• Table of contents sidebar.
• Find and replace capability.
• Intuitive, easy to learn and use.
• Easy sharing and collaboration.
• Easy track changes.
• Versatile and user friendly.
• Limited offline capability.
• Some users reported that it has limited advanced formatting and editing capabilities.
• Sometimes crashes occur when too many people are working on the same document.

SEE: Become a Google Docs power user .

Apache OpenOffice Writer: Best for long and complex documents

If you hate Microsoft Word because of its ribbon, then Apache’s OpenOffice Writer is the 2003 throwback you want. It has a classic interface that, while it can look a bit cluttered, mimics the menus that Microsoft tossed out when Office 2007 was released ( Figure B ). It will definitely feel familiar to Office 2003 users, with the added perk of still receiving updates and security patches, which is important for a business software suite.

OpenOffice Writer has its own document format, but it also supports .doc and .docx files, and it does a great job of maintaining formatting when importing those types of files. Many of the advanced features of Microsoft Word are included in OpenOffice Writer as well, so editing complex Word documents won’t be an issue.

If online collaboration or native cloud support is a selling point, then you may want to pass on OpenOffice Writer because it includes neither. It’s possible to store files in a cloud drive and access them using OpenOffice, but you’ll need the desktop client of Google Drive , Microsoft OneDrive or Apple iCloud installed so that you can open your cloud storage like a local computer folder.

• Table of contents and references.
• AutoCorrect dictionary.
• AutoComplete capability.
• Multi-page display.
• HTML, PDF, and MediaWiki formats.
• Supports .docx and .doc.
• Familiar, Microsoft-like interface.
• Over 900 templates.
• Commenting/Notes.
• It doesn’t have mobile apps.
• The user interface isn’t intuitive.

Zoho Writer: Best for automation

Zoho Writer is a free document creation tool with a clean writing interface and powerful built-in capabilities. Writing documents in Writer is largely distraction-free, while important text tools are still within reach. The native features of Writer, many of which leverage the capabilities of other Zoho apps, really set it apart from the rest. Use the built-in AI tool, Zia, for better quality content, fast grammar fixes and insight into the document’s readability for different audiences ( Figure C ).

The Document Sign tool puts e-signature tools right in the doc so that teams can go from draft to approval to signature, all in the same space. Document Fillable tools also put forms right in your documents, giving them a professional feel that’s ready for embedding anywhere you need a form.

Not to be outdone by Google Docs or Microsoft Word, Zoho Writer’s real-time collaboration has granular controls, including comments, suggestions, text masking to hide some items from collaborators and even content locks for blocks of text. Zoho Writer is built for corporate collaboration, legal approvals and creative teams.

• WordPress integration.
• Comments and notes.
• Lock or mask sensitive information.
• Post to WordPress from Zoho Writer.
• Word document import.
• Export to .docx and .pdf.
• Document automation.
• Document fillable.
• Real-time collaboration.
• Offline editing capability.
• Integrates well with Zoho WorkDrive and other products in the Zoho suite.
• Users say the editor gets slow when working with large documents.
• Zoho Writer spell checker could be improved.

LibreOffice Writer: Best for customization

The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice Writer, like OpenOffice, is a completely free and open-source product that offers word processing, support for .doc and .docx file formats and all the tools the average Microsoft Word user will need in a word processor. LibreOffice Writer and OpenOffice Writer are similar in a lot of ways: interface style, file format support, lack of cloud integration and real-time collaboration, and general word processing features ( Figure D ). Both are solid choices for those looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Word, and selecting one over the other largely comes down to preference.

One aspect of LibreOffice stands out, and it is’’t what’s in the app — it’s the community-driven nature of the platform. Collaborating with users and developers to improve the product is front and center on LibreOffice’s website, and that focus has grown LibreOffice into a thriving community of users and coders that keep making it better .

• Desktop publishing.
• Integrated calculation function.
• Drawing tools.
• Spellchecker, thesaurus, AutoCorrect and hyphenation.
• Works well with MS Office files.
• Installs on Windows, Linux and Mac.
• Supports drag-and-drop.
• Some users reported that the tool is sometimes slow.
• Limited documentation.

WPS Office Writer: Best for advanced features

If you want a word processor as feature-packed as Word but don’t want to pay a premium, check out WPS Office Writer. It’s a full-featured application suite that feels premium.

WPS Office Writer does most of the same things as Microsoft Word, and it includes native cloud support to make storing documents online a snap; however, it does lack real-time collaboration ( Figure E ). Look at any review of WPS Office Writer, and you’ll find statements that attest to how much it’s like Word. With its inclusion of more features than other free suites like OpenOffice, this might be the one to go for — especially considering it’s free.

With anything free and high quality, there’s usually a catch, and you might be able to guess what it is in our modern age of “freemium” apps: Ads. Don’t let that dissuade you from trying WPS Writer — you might not see an ad. There’s no banner across the top of the app; ads only appear when you want to use select features like printing or exporting to PDF. If you need to do one of those things, you’ll have to sit through a roughly 10-second ad, which unlocks the feature for 30 minutes. If you like what WPS Writer offers, you can eliminate ads by paying a yearly subscription fee of $29.99 or $9.99 for three months.

Key features

• PDF file support.
• File format conversion.
• PDF to Word conversion.
• Document to picture export.
• Picture to text conversion.
• Skins and design customization.
• Supports Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
• Supports 13 languages on PC and 46 languages on mobile.
• 20GB of cloud storage.
• WPS Office is compatible with 47 common document formats.
• The free version contains ads.
• Some users say the app is a bit slow.

Microsoft Office Word Online: Best for users who prefer Microsoft Word's interface

Don’t overlook Microsoft’s free alternative to the paid version of Word: Office Online. Like Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online is a simplified, cloud-based version of Word ( Figure F ). It lacks many of the advanced features of a locally-installed version of Word, but this is as close as you can get for users who want a free version of Word.

Similarities between Google Docs and Word Online are present all the way down to the interface, but with a few tweaks you can make it feel more like the Microsoft ribbon instead of the dropdown menus Google Docs uses. Documents created in Word Online are saved in Microsoft OneDrive, and real-time collaboration features like those in Google Docs are available as well. One big plus in Word Online’s favor is formatting: If you create a document in Word Online and then import it to a local version of Microsoft Word, it’s going to retain the formatting way better than a Google Docs file.

• .docm, .docx, .pptm, .pptx, .xlsm, and. xlsx support.
• 5GB of cloud storage.
• Templates, fonts, icons and stickers.
• Spelling and grammar.
• Auto-save function.
• Dictation and voice command capability.
• Familiar environment for Microsoft Office users.
• Limited features compared to the offline version.
• It may contain ads.

SEE: Explore everything Microsoft 365 has to offer.

How to choose the best free alternatives to Microsoft Word

When selecting the best free alternatives to Microsoft Word, there are a few key factors to consider.

• Assess your specific requirements and determine the features and functionalities you need from word processing software. This could include document formatting options, collaboration capabilities, compatibility with various file formats and available templates.
• Conduct thorough research on popular options such as Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer, Apache OpenOffice Writer, Zoho Writer and WPS Office Writer.
• Read user reviews, compare features and test the software to see how well it meets your requirements.
• Consider factors like compatibility with Microsoft Word formats, integration with cloud storage and ongoing support and updates.

By evaluating these criteria, you can make an informed decision and choose the alternative that best suits your needs.

Review methodology

We analyzed each Microsoft Word alternative based on five key data points: free, support for Microsoft Word format, offline access, templates and ability to meet needs. All the tools in our comparison group satisfy these criteria. We evaluated how well each alternative fulfills users’ needs in terms of functionality, ease of use, formatting capabilities and other relevant factors. This criterion helps assess the overall suitability of the tool for different types of users and their specific requirements.

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Synonyms of assigning

• as in entrusting
• as in allotting
• as in ceding
• as in appointing
• More from M-W
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Thesaurus Definition of assigning

Synonyms & Similar Words

• commissioning
• recommending
• authorizing
• distributing
• apportioning
• administering
• sharing (out)
• reassigning
• contributing
• handing out
• meting (out)
• reallocating
• redistributing
• parceling (out)
• parcelling (out)
• admeasuring
• reapportioning
• chipping in

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• depriving (of)
• withholding
• appropriating
• confiscating
• transferring
• relinquishing
• bequeathing
• disposing of
• transmitting
• making over
• passing (down)
• surrendering
• handing down
• turning over
• handing over
• expropriating
• constituting
• designating
• instituting
• inaugurating
• consecrating
• handpicking
• voting (in)
• singling (out)
• discharging
• overthrowing
• throwing out
• blackballing

Thesaurus Entries Near assigning

Cite this entry.

“Assigning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assigning. Accessed 13 May. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on assigning

Nglish: Translation of assigning for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of assigning for Arabic Speakers

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Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, the words of the week - may 10, a great big list of bread words, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 8 uncommon words related to love, 9 superb owl words, games & quizzes.

The amazing text synthesizer. Enter a few words, and it writes the rest.

✍  every sentence is unique. start writing, then choose from wordblast's suggestions..

✨  When you're ready to change the subject, write a few more words to show Wordblast where to go.

⚡  Wordblast is designed for personal statements and opinions: letters, religious affirmations, diversity statements, fiction, and more. For reports, essays, or other documents where facts are important, use Speedwrite instead.

Letter: The power of words: Invoking antisemitism as a war tactic

We need to ask ourselves, who does this violence serve.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sam Silverman, a Jewish woman, holds up a sign in support of pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza during the latest Israel-Hamas war during a pro-Palestinian rally outside Provo City Library at Academy Square in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.

It is important we understand the words we use. “Antisemitism” is nonspecific because Arabs are Semites, too. Yet, since the Holocaust we have primarily equated this term with anti-Jewish oppression.

Israel supporters invoke the term to decry resistance to their ever-expanding borders. But I, a white Jewish person, have certainly never been singled out and oppressed for my Semite blood because my white privilege has a lot more cultural power. So to me, antisemitism is a moot point.

I have seen the word used to taint any sort of justified resistance as “unacceptable” because since WWII we can all agree that “antisemitism is evil,” even if what we are talking about is “Semite on Semite violence.” Similar to the term “terrorism,” without needing to understand any sort of context (like the classic, “it’s complicated”), we invoke these terms to dehumanize a desperate group of people and justify their annihilation.

Words are powerful, and the Americans that frame this as the Israel-Hamas war are equating a super military power with a small group of militants that do not represent an entire displaced people. Even talking about the Israel-Gaza war erases the rest of Palestine from the picture, taking for granted all of the dispossession that had taken place before Hamas was even created.

It’s too easy for the United States and Israel to just shout “antisemitic terrorists” and bomb Palestine into submission like they have done so many times already and in so many other regions, as well. We need to ask ourselves, who does this violence serve? Because from where I’m standing, this is not at all about the oppression our grandmothers faced in WWII, it’s about innocent people being forcibly displaced today.

Jake Trimble, Salt Lake City

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By Georgia Gee

Internal Emails Show How a Controversial Gun-Detection AI System Found Its Way to NYC

In February 2022, a meeting was set up between New York City mayor Eric Adams’ team and an artificial intelligence gun-detection company called Evolv. An email thread from Evolv representatives included an accompanying brochure, which listed opportunities to partner together: in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC schools, hospitals, and gathering places such as Times Square. One area conspicuously missing from the list, though, was the subway.

After an in-person meeting a few days later, Evolv cofounder Anil Chitkara made another attempt to sell the company’s technology—through name-dropping.

“As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs,” Chitkara wrote in a February 7 email to the Mayor’s Office, obtained by WIRED. “They’ve had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express … There may be some interesting parallels to how you are thinking about everyone’s role in security."

The comparison of safety in NYC to that in Disney World apparently helped to persuade the Adams team. A couple of weeks later, Evolv’s technology was used to screen visitors in a city-run Bronx hospital, where a man had been shot inside the emergency room in January 2022. This wasn’t very successful—the scanners produced false positives 85 percent of the time during the seven-month pilot.

If Evolv’s accuracy in a hospital was low, its accuracy in NYC subway stations may be worse. In an investor call on March 15, 2024, Peter George, the company’s CEO, admitted that the technology was not geared toward subway stations. “Subways, in particular, are not a place that we think is a good use case for us,” George said, due to the “interference with the railways.”

Despite this, following the death of a man who was pushed onto the subway tracks in late March, Adams announced that Evolv’s gun-detection scanners would be tested in the city’s train stations. “This is a Sputnik moment,” Adams said on March 28. “When President Kennedy said we were going to put a man on the moon.”

Alexandra Smith Ozerkis, an Evolv representative, tells WIRED that when the company developed Evolv Express, its flagship product launched in 2019, they “did not do so with the NYC subway system in mind. That said, we are a mission-driven company, and when we are asked to test our technology in a new environment, we are happy to do so.”

However, the company that Adams wants to trust with the safety of New Yorkers has left a trail of controversies across the country—and critics wonder whether its technology works effectively. Its software, which uses “electromagnetic fields and advanced sensors” to detect weapons such as guns and knives, has missed them multiple times , particularly in schools. Yet neither this nor the recent disclosure that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated a fact-finding investigation of Evolv (which follows a 2023 probe by the Federal Trade Commission over the company's marketing practices) has deterred the Adams administration, which has connections to the company’s employees who previously worked for the New York Police Department—something the company was keen to stress in its pitch.

Mixed Company

Back in 2022, Adams tasked New York’s deputy mayor, Philip Banks III, with finding a gun-detection solution. Before joining the administration, he served as NYPD’s chief of department, but resigned in 2014 amid a federal bribery and corruption investigation in which he was later named as an unindicted coconspirator. (Banks was never charged.)

While Adams said in May 2022 that he found Evolv online, Ozerkis from Evolv tells WIRED that the NYPD had contacted Evolv “to explore and test the possibility of using our screening solution around the city as part of their multi-pronged plan to curb violent crime.”

Reece Rogers

Steven Levy

Brenda Stolyar

There was a lot of overlap with former members of the NYPD. Adams and Banks came up together as police officers—as did a then-account-executive of Evolv, also name-dropped by Chitkara in the email to the mayor’s staff. Dominick D’Orazio, who had been Evolv’s sales manager in the northeast US before being promoted to regional manager in April, was a commander in Brooklyn South whose reporting line included Banks—who was, at the time, deputy chief of patrol for Borough Brooklyn South. (Banks has denied meeting D’Orazio in his capacity as an Evolv employee.)

Evolv’s connection to the NYPD is something George, Evolv’s CEO, has used to market the company’s technology. “About a third of our salespeople were former police officers,” George said at a conference in June 2022. “The one here in New York was an NYPD cop, and he’s a really good sales guy because he understands who we’re selling to. He has the secret handshake.”

David Cohen, former NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence, also sits on Evolv’s Security Advisory Board.

The Mayor’s Office has been keen to stress that it is not set on Evolv being a permanent fixture. “To be clear, we have NOT said we are putting Evolv technology in the subway stations,” Kayla Mamelak, deputy press secretary of the Mayor’s Office, tells WIRED in an email. “We said that we are opening a 90-day period to explore using technology, such as Evolv, in our subway stations.”

Civil rights and technology experts have argued that utilizing Evolv’s scanners in subway stations is likely to be futile. “This is Mickey Mouse public safety,” says Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a privacy advocacy organization. “This is not a serious solution for the largest transit system in the country.”

Moreover, deploying the company’s technology might not just be ineffective—it’s also likely to add more police officers to the daily rhythms of New Yorkers’ lives, heightening Adams’ pro-cop agenda . The NYC subway has 472 stations. “That is roughly 1,000 subway station entrances,” explains Sarah Kaufman, director of the New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation. “That means that Evolv would have to be at every single entrance in order to be effective, and that of course would require monitoring.”

According to the draft policy posted by the NYPD, the process surrounding weapons-detection technology in the subway is extremely vague, and still relies heavily on police officers. “The checkpoint supervisor will determine the frequency of passengers subject to inspection (for example, every fifth passenger or every tenth passenger),” the document reads. It will also be based on “available police personnel on hand to perform inspections.”

The NYC subway has an estimated 3.6 million daily riders. Stopping every 10th passenger would mean 360,000 searches a day.

“It’s going to mean that people are routinely going to have to go through invasive and inconvenient searches,” says Cahn. “What’s really emblematic here is that the city keeps trying to go for security measures that are highly visible, even when they’re highly ineffective.”

School Supplies

In the email thread to the NYC officials who attended the meeting, Chitkara touted Evolv’s successful deployment in schools. But there, too, the scanners have failed to detect weapons and guns on multiple occasions. While the Adams administration was being persuaded to pilot the technology, internal emails obtained from a large school district that uses Evolv’s technology illustrate how everyday objects were being mistaken by the scanners.

“I know the simple solution is to tell kids not to use binders but rather regular notebooks,” Jacqueline Barone, principal of Piedmont Middle School, part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, wrote at the end of 2022. “But it hurts my soul to have to tell kids or teachers that certain supplies can’t be used because the scanners mistake them for weapons.”

In mid-April, the school district’s chief operating officer announced at a conference panel with an Evolv executive in Las Vegas that they were “eliminating” metal three-ring binders.

“As we transition into the next school year, teachers will utilize other alternatives for classroom supplies,” Jessica Saunders, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokesperson, tells WIRED in an email. She also says student laptops most often alert the weapons detection system.

Meanwhile, the company is currently being sued by a high school student in upstate New York who alleges that Evolv misrepresented its technology and is responsible for failing to detect the large knife that was used to stab him.

A class action was also recently filed by Evolv’s shareholders who claim that the company made misleading statements in violation of securities law that led to huge financial losses, while also claiming that the technology “does not reliably detect knives or guns.”

“Evolv Express systems are designed to configure various levels of a security profile with different sensitivity settings, which are selected by the customer, based on their specific needs and events,” Ozerkis tells WIRED. “That doesn’t mean our technology doesn’t work; it means the security professionals in charge of keeping that environment safe made the decision that they need to screen for different—or a wider variety—of threats.”

“Getting the Word Out”

For now, as part of NYC’s pilot program, there is that mandatory waiting period. This is likely to begin in late June and will last 90 days. According to the Mayor’s Office, the city will also explore the use of other technologies and companies.

“We are conducting outreach to several tech companies and the mayor even said that the point of the presser was to get the word out,” Mamelak from the Mayor’s Office says.

ZeroEyes, a competitor of Evolv, is one company possibly being considered . Like Evolv, the company has been represented by lobbyist Mike Klein, who lobbied the Mayor’s Office on ZeroEyes’ behalf in 2022 and 2023, according to disclosure documents. (Klein tells WIRED he no longer represents the company.)

So far, ZeroEyes hasn’t been wholly successful in the transport space: The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority quietly ended its pilot program with the company in December. A representative from ZeroEyes tells WIRED they could not confirm whether their technology would be piloted in New York.

Once the waiting period begins, the public will have 45 days to submit comments on the use of the technology before they are considered by the Mayor’s Office—although the Adams administration has no obligation to alter the policy.

Public safety advocates aren’t particularly hopeful that their concerns will be heard. “It’s obviously a pattern that we see repeated,” says Daniel Schwarz, privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “They are rolling out more surveillance technologies and pouring more money into policing and surveillance infrastructure instead of the actual services that New Yorkers need.”

At the press conference in Fulton Station, standing next to Deputy Mayor Banks and an Evolv scanner, Adams seemed intent that the technology would be successful.

“Let’s bring on the scanners,” Adams said, adding: “We are taking a huge step toward public safety.”

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Live updates, mets’ brooks raley awaits word on ‘complex’ elbow issue.

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Next up for Brooks Raley is a visit to Texas on Tuesday to see Dr. Keith Meister.

Beyond that, the Mets lefty doesn’t know what awaits.

He is hoping the doctor’s appointment will clear up a lot of questions.

Raley, who has been on the injured list since April 21 , said he has received several different opinions on his throwing elbow and his situation is “a little more complex.”

The Post’s Joel Sherman reported last week that Raley has at least a fraying of a ligament in the elbow . Raley acknowledged that he has heard the same, and has heard other potential diagnoses from doctors.

“I’ve heard other damage — spurs, things like that,” Raley said Saturday in his first public comments since the fears about his elbow became pronounced. “I think it’s a little more complex.”

Raley mentioned both the internal brace procedure and Tommy John as at least possibilities if Meister believes a surgery is necessary.

Such developments would be crushing for a pitcher who turns 36 next month, was drafted back in 2009 — the same year as Stephen Strasburg — and had emerged as a quality arm in the back of the Mets’ bullpen.

Raley last pitched on April 19 in Los Angeles, which followed a homestand when his elbow began to bother him, and it “got gradually worse,” he said.

The initial belief was Raley would need just the minimum amount of time on the 15-day IL because preliminary MRI exam results showed inflammation and nothing worse.

“Get a few more eyes on it, they’re like, ‘Hold on a second,’ ” Raley said before the Mets lost to the Braves, 4-1, at Citi Field on Saturday .

Raley tried to throw through the issue, but his elbow didn’t feel right.

He has been shut down and is hoping the inflammation will settle to a point that he can continue pitching without a procedure that would jeopardize the rest of his career.

The Mets hold a $6.5 million option for Raley for next season.

Adding to the uncertainty is the uncharted territory for Raley, who has been playing professionally for 15 years and said he has never encountered a major elbow issue.

Asked about his own emotions, Raley said: “I’m not there yet. I’m just day by day.”

Without their most trusted southpaw in the bullpen, the Mets have made it work.

Their pen entered play Saturday as the second-most valuable in baseball, per FanGraphs’ WAR tabulations, and a collective 2.80 ERA.

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Jake Diekman is the only lefty in the bullpen, but manager Carlos Mendoza mentioned that he trusts plenty of his righty relievers against lefty hitters.

Sean Reid-Foley, in particular, has been a nice find thus far and entered play holding opposing lefties to a 1-for-9 line with six strikeouts and two walks.

Adam Ottavino had limited opposing lefties to a .130 batting average.

Their bullpen has not been the problem, but the loss of a potent lefty would be felt at some point.

Raley was excellent in his first season with the Mets last year after coming over from the Rays in a trade and began this season without allowing a run and giving up just two hits in seven innings.

“Hopefully we get Brooksie at some point this year,” Mendoza said.

The Mets and Raley believe they will have clarity this week after a visit with Meister.

“We’re just trying to make a wise decision,” Raley said.

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About Words – Cambridge Dictionary blog

Commenting on developments in the English language

New words – 13 May 2024

neobank noun [C] UK /ˈniː.əʊˌbæŋk/ US /ˈniː.oʊˌbæŋk/ a type of bank that provides only online banking services and has no physical branches

Neobanks work similarly to traditional banks and offer the same types of services, yet they perform all available functions online or through a mobile app. Neobanks may also partner with chartered banks to offer their customers FDIC insurance and additional benefits, but those considering a neobank should check to make sure. cnn.com, 4 March 2024

time bank noun [C] /ˈtaɪm ˌbæŋk/ a system where the unit of currency is one hour of someone’s time, with the people using the bank exchanging services and skills

A time bank functions much like traditional currency but with a unique twist: it’s measured in hours, not dollars. Every hour spent helping others earns one credit – every hour holds equal value, irrespective of the service provided. It’s a system that stitches communities together by recognizing and honoring the contributions of all participants. [givingtuesday.org, 5 November 2023]

multibank noun [C] /ˈmʌl.tiˌbæŋk/ a place where essential items such as food, clothing, toiletries and household goods are given to people who don’t have enough money to buy them

First established 14 months ago in Scotland and since March in Manchester, four new multibanks are set to launch in 2024 including in London, the Midlands and Wales, with the idea that there will be multibanks in different parts of the country by the end of next year. [standard.co.uk, 19 December 2023]

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Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake Beef Goes Nuclear: What to Know

The two rappers had circled one another for more than a decade, but their attacks turned relentless and very personal in a slew of tracks released over the weekend.

By Joe Coscarelli

The long-building and increasingly testy rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake exploded into full-bore acrimony and unverifiable accusations over the weekend. Both artists rapid-fire released multiple songs littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more.

Most relentless was Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize winner from Compton, Calif., who tends toward the isolated and considered but has now released four verbose and conceptual diss tracks — totaling more than 20 minutes of new music — targeting Drake in the last week, including three since Friday.

Each racked up millions of streams and the three that were made available commercially — “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” — are expected to land near the top of next week’s Billboard singles chart, while seeming to, at least momentarily, shift the public perception of Drake, long a maestro of the online public arena and meme ecosystem .

In between, on Friday night, Drake released his own broadside against Lamar — plus a smattering of other recent challengers — in a teasing Instagram interlude plus a three-part track and elaborate music video titled “Family Matters,” in which he referred to his rival as a fake activist and attempted to expose friction and alleged abuse in Lamar’s romantic relationship.

But that song was followed within half an hour by Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams,” an ominous extended address to the parents and young son of Drake, born Aubrey Graham, in which Lamar refers to his rival rapper as a liar and “pervert” who “should die” in order to make the world safer for women.

Lamar also seemed to assert that Drake had more than a decade ago fathered a secret daughter — echoing the big reveal of his son from Drake’s last headline rap beef — a claim Drake quickly denied on Instagram before hitting back in another song on Sunday. (Neither man has addressed the full array of rapped allegations directly.)

On Tuesday, a security guard was shot and seriously injured outside of Drake’s Toronto home, which appeared on the cover art for Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Authorities said they could not yet speak to a motive in the shooting, but the investigation was ongoing. Representatives for Drake and Lamar did not immediately comment.

How did two of the most famous artists in the world decide to take the gloves off and bring real-life venom into an extended sparring match for rap supremacy? It was weeks, months and years in the making, with a sudden, breakneck escalation into hip-hop infamy. Here’s a breakdown.

Since late March, the much-anticipated head-to-head seemed inevitable. Following years of “will they or won’t they?” lyrical feints, Lamar hit directly on record first this year during a surprise appearance on the song “Like That” by the Atlanta rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, both formerly frequent Drake collaborators.

With audible disgust, Lamar invoked the track “First Person Shooter” from last year’s Drake album, “For All the Dogs,” in which a guest verse from J. Cole referred to himself, Drake and Lamar as “the big three” of modern MCs.

Lamar took exception to the grouping, declaring that there was no big three, “just big me.” He also called himself the Prince to Drake’s Michael Jackson — a deeper, more complex artist versus a troubled, pop-oriented hitmaker.

“Like That” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as Future and Metro Boomin released two chart-topping albums — “We Don’t Trust You” and “We Still Don’t Trust You” — that were anchored by a parade of Drake’s past associates, each of whom seemed to share a simmering distaste toward the rapper, who later called the ambush a “20 v. 1” fight.

In early April, J. Cole fought back momentarily , releasing the song “7 Minute Drill,” in which he called Lamar overrated, before backtracking, apologizing and having the song removed from streaming services. But Drake soon picked up the baton, releasing a wide-ranging diss track called “Push Ups” less than a week later that addressed the field, with a special focus on Lamar’s height, shoe size and supposedly disadvantageous business dealings.

Less than a week later, Drake mocked Lamar’s lack of a response on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a track released only on social media. It featured Drake taunting Lamar for being scared to release music at the same time as Taylor Swift and using A.I. voice filters to mimic Tupac and Snoop Dogg imploring Lamar to battle for the good of the West Coast.

“Since ‘Like That,’ your tone changed a little, you not as enthused,” Drake rapped in an abbreviated third verse, as himself. “How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed.” (“Taylor Made Freestyle” was later removed from the internet at the request of the Tupac Estate.)

But it was a seemingly tossed-off line from the earlier “Push Ups” that included the name of Lamar’s longtime romantic partner — “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney” — that Lamar would later allude to as a red line crossed, making all subject matter fair game in the songs to come. (It was this same alleged faux pas that may have triggered an intensification of Drake’s beef with Pusha T in 2018.)

How We Got Here

Even with Drake-dissing cameos from Future, Ye (formerly Kanye West), Rick Ross, the Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, the main event was always going to be between Drake, 37, and Lamar, 36, who have spent more than a decade subtly antagonizing one another in songs while maintaining an icy frenemy rapport in public.

In 2011, when Drake introduced Lamar to mainstream audiences with a dedicated showcase on his second album, “Take Care,” and an opening slot on the subsequent arena tour, the tone was one of side-eying competition. “He said that he was the same age as myself/and it didn’t help ’cause it made me even more rude and impatient,” Lamar rapped on “Buried Alive Interlude” of his earliest encounter with a more-famous Drake. (On his Instagram on Friday, Drake released a parody of the track, citing Lamar’s jealousy since then.)

The pair went on to appear together on “Poetic Justice,” a single from Lamar’s debut album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” in 2012, as well as “___ Problems” by ASAP Rocky the same year.

But their collaborations ceased as Drake became his generation’s premier hitmaker across styles in hip-hop and beyond, while Lamar burrowed deeper into his own psyche on knotty concept albums that brought wide critical acclaim alongside less constant commercial success.

When asked, the two rappers tended to profess admiration for one another’s skill, but seemed to trade subtle digs in verses over the years, always with plausible deniability and in the spirit of competition, leading to something of a hip-hop cold war.

The Week It Went Nuclear

Lamar’s first targeted response, “Euphoria,” was more than six minutes long and released last Tuesday morning. In three sections that raised the temperature as they built, he warned Drake about proceeding and insisted, somewhat facetiously, that things were still friendly. “Know you a master manipulator and habitual liar too,” Lamar rapped. “But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell truths ’bout you.”

He accused the biracial Drake, who was born and raised in Toronto, of imitating Black American heritage and insulting him subliminally. “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress,” Lamar said. “I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.” And he called Drake’s standing as a father into question: “Teachin’ him morals, integrity, discipline/listen, man, you don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.”

Days later, Lamar doubled down with an Instagram-only track called “6:16 in LA,” borrowing both Drake’s “Back to Back” diss tactic from his 2015 beef with Meek Mill and a song title structure lifted from what is known as Drake’s time-stamp series of raps. Opting for psychological warfare on a beat produced in part by Jack Antonoff, Swift’s chief collaborator, Lamar hinted that he had a mole in Drake’s operation and was aware of his opponent’s opposition research.

“Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person,” he rapped. “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.”

That night, Drake’s “Family Matters” started with its own justification for getting personal — “You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad/I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad” — before taking on Lamar’s fatherhood and standing as a man in excruciating detail. “They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen,” Drake rapped. “The picture you painted ain’t what it seem/you’re dead.”

Yet in a chess move that seemed to anticipate Drake’s familial line of attack, Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” was released almost immediately. “This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game,” Lamar said, noting that Drake had erred “the moment you called out my family’s name.” Instead of a rap battle, Lamar concluded after another six minutes of psychological dissection, “this a long life battle with yourself.”

He wasn’t done yet. Dispensing with subtlety, Lamar followed up again less than 24 hours later with “Not Like Us,” a bouncy club record in a Los Angeles style that delighted in more traditional rap beef territory, like juvenile insults, proudly unsubstantiated claims of sexual preferences and threats of violence.

Lamar, however, didn’t leave it at that, throwing one more shot at Drake’s authenticity as a rapper, calling him a greedy and artificial user as a collaborator — “not a colleague,” but a “colonizer.”

On Sunday evening, Drake responded yet again. On “The Heart Part 6,” a title taken from Lamar’s career-spanning series, Drake denied the accusation that he preyed on young women, indicated that he had planted the bad information about his fake daughter and seemed to sigh away the fight as “some good exercise.”

“It’s good to get out, get the pen working,” Drake said in an exhausted outro. “You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator.” He added, “You know, at least your fans are getting some raps out of you. I’m happy I could motivate you.”

Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter with a focus on popular music, and the author of “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story.” More about Joe Coscarelli

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