In many ethical contexts, the term good means the course which should be preferable when confronted with a morally questionable option between possible alternative actions. Good is usually understood to be the opposite of bad, and so is of value in the study of religion, philosophy, ethics and morality. According to some moral theories, virtue is defined by virtue, and vice by vice. In other words, good and evil are morally equivalent terms. For an action to be virtuous it must be good; and an action to be evil need only be evil. The idea that virtue is essentially an attribute of goodness, and that goodness is, on this view, a feature of certain attitudes towards rightness and justice, and thus about people in general, is also an idea derived from the theory of virtue and right.
Good and evil are, however, not equal concepts; they are related as motives to action, but they are not equivalent as ends in themselves. According to the utilitarian moral theory, right and wrong are equated terms; if something is wrong in one context, then it would also be wrong in another context, provided that the action taken did not violate the principles of moral Reason or were compatible with those principles. According to this view, right and wrong are ideas of conductors of morals, just as good and evil are ideas of ends.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a good news story is “a report card of an event or condition that is good for humanity.” A report card is a summary of the action’s results, thus providing readers with an overview of the human race, society and economy. A good-news story, therefore, is a concise explanation of current events in politics, society or economy that show what is good for humankind as a whole or how each individual piece contributes to that good.
A good writer must capture the essence of the news through his words and this is achieved by a combination of two things. The writer must be able to define the core values of his work and he must also be able to convey these values clearly to his readers through his choice of language, tone and style of writing. The core values of a writer’s work then become the cornerstones of his academic philosophy, regardless of his chosen medium of communication. In order to achieve this goal, Oxford University Press provides six main texts that define and promote the work of great writers from throughout the history of English literature.
The six volumes that comprise the set are distinguished by the titles they precede: The Oxford Dictionary of Modern English, The Oxford Guide to Greek Literature (Oxford University Press), The Cambridge Companion to Spanish and Latin Language (Cambridge University Press), The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press), The Modern Language Review (Oxford University Press), and The Edinburgh Dictionary (eds.). The first volume, The Oxford Dictionary of Modern English, defines the meaning of words as we understand them today, whereas volumes two through four define words in their historical context. The last one, The Cambridge Companion to Spanish and Latin Language, traces the development of modern Spanish and compares it with the other branches of European language during the Middle Ages. The six volumes, in turn, contain works that can be classified according to period, genre, or subject matter. Among the first volume’s topics are Old English Texts (recorded in texts and written in the native language using Old English dialects); Fairy tales (chronic, literary, or epic in nature and based on traditional stories); Poetry and Prose Novels; Laws, Legislation and Customs; Education; and Language at the Crossroads (a study of how language has changed over time).
The next group, Adverbs, describes how an adjective comes to be in use. The main groups are adjectives (including many subgroups like number, gender, person, action, time, mood, attitude, and race), pronouns, descriptive words such as nouns, adjectives for numbers, objects of the first and second person, prepositions, pronouns, verbs, adjectives for numbers, and verbs relating to time, space, number, shape, or quality. Other topics include: number and shape in number comparisons (number and shape are used to describe sizes in measurement, while size is used to describe volumes); tense (when a verb requires tense), and time (when an action must be performed at a specific time). Time, space, and number are used to describe events. Other topics in this category may include how an adjective affects the feel, purpose, and benefits of an action or whether a verb produces an effect when used in a certain situation.
