Islam a Religion of Peace Essay

And then there is the question of characterizing Islam as â€Å"peaceful† and doing so under duress. That is, when you are being pursued and hounded by people who brand you as totally irrational and uncontrollably violent. So, you have a knee-jerk reaction, purely defensive and purely self-protective and blurt out that you are a â€Å"peaceful religion. † And you are absolutely and one hundred percent right in saying that. For, Islam is all about peace and truth and justice and kindness and compassion. But that is not what your accusers and tormenters are saying. They are pointing to all the violence that is going on in different parts of the Muslim world, violence in which Muslims are involved in one way or another, and saying that it is all Islam’s fault. But what some of these people conveniently forget is that there are all kinds of background factors and conditions that lead to violence in individuals, groups, nations and societies. They forget that peace is one state of human life and reality. Another is strife and conflict. A third reality of human life is force. Peace is the ideal state to which we all aspire and toward which we all work. Strife is the sad and gloomy reality in which human life is all too often mired. Legitimate, lawful and societally sanctioned force is the instrument that human beings have devised for minimizing and controlling strife and for maximizing peace. The foundation of true and lasting peace on earth and in any society is justice, love, compassion, integrity, truth, reasonableness and sound morality. Where this foundation is absent or weak, and where people’s most basic needs and legitimate rights and aspirations are not met, and are persistently and blatantly denied, chances of stable and lasting peace are minimized or jeopardized. All too often, then, those who have been systematically denied their basic and legitimate rights, and who are not allowed by nations, societies and governments any rightful recourse to the redress of their lawful grievances, begin to resort to force and violence as an instrument of resistance to their domination, subjugation and exploitation by others and for the amelioration of their situation. There are all kinds of university books, full of all kinds of theories, that explain why and how people develop violent tendencies and behavior.

Feminist Principles

Andrea’s difficulties and problems in her two worlds show that she could not able to perform her duties, obligations, plans, and goals in her life. The main issue about Andrea is that she wanted to have both worlds – having a perfect family and a successful career. However, this became her shadow of darkness because both of these worlds suffer right through her hands. That is why the most basic situation that happened to Andrea is to become depress with her situation as a person, a mother, a wife, and a career woman.1. Andrea’s marriage is merely the basic problem in this context. Her family and career life joined together to ruin her identity and individuality as a woman. Her husband did not support her anxieties and problems that occurred within her. That is why it can be said that her partner was a non-participant in her situation. † When marital arrangements are inequitable in terms of power and decision-making, and household workloads are unevenly dist ributed, women continue to be disadvantaged (Worrel and Remer, 182).† In opposition to what Andrea is trying to testify, she thought that she was discriminated and disadvantaged because she did not obtain what she think is ‘for her. ’ These issues are part of Andrea’s being and tangled situations. However, based on Andrea’s description of her present scenario, it can be seen that marriage for her in the beginning is not a major conflict for her goals and aspiration because she sets aside the needs of her partner for the thinking that he is just there by her side but her career could not wait.It is then a justification that Andrea tried so hard to eliminate the social idea or notion towards women. Nevertheless, she became unsuccessful because she herself could not able to undermine the stress and difficulties that she currently experiencing. There are several factors emerged to Andrea’s depression – her personality, her family, her caree r, and her social environment. All of these issues are part of her depression that led her to uncontrollable weeping. Based on my own observation, I have seen three main issues that should be addressed to Andrea’s situation.First, her personality – she wanted to level herself with the situation of her husband. In the field of Women Studies, it was said that women from the past and up to this generation are still behind or beneath men. Andrea wanted to deconstruct this idea so she strived hard to achieve her goal. However, nothing has change in the society because like Andrea’s case, the modern society still put women at the bottom of men’s victory and female prejudice. Second, her goals and plans in life – she wanted to aim and live higher than what she needs to expect.She wanted perfection to be able to gain power. She is in need of self-satisfaction to be able to prove that she has the capability to be more than what other women can. â€Å"The l ow rate of positive outcomes is assumed to result in increasingly passive behavior and dysphoric mood, as the individual feels incapable of reaching personal goals and reacts with withdrawal and despair (Ibid, 184). † Because of these factors, she became focused to her self-perfection and blinded by her personal plans and goals in life.Lastly, her social environment – because she wanted to pursue the standard of the society, she tends to forget that small details of her life. She transferred her mind into a notion that she can disregard her being a mother for a while because she is in the level of her success in her job. 2. Feminist Principles and therapy will help Andrea to understand the underlying factors in her situation as a woman. This is to make Andrea understand why she is experiencing difficulties in life that brought failure to her individuality as woman and a wife.The best principle that can be used towards Andrea’s issues is the Egalitarian relationsh ip. This principle helps her to recognize the differences of being a man and a woman in a society. This is also to recognize how a person is capable of being what she truly wanted despite of the dictations of the society towards or against her. However, the main conflict here is that the relationship between Andrea and her husband that cannot be avoided by Andrea because her husband is not part of her growth and circumstances.â€Å"In advocating egalitarian client–counselor relationships and counselor self-disclosure, Empowerment Feminist Therapy embraces a female perspective on the therapeutic process that conflicts with many beliefs of traditional therapies which are based on stereotyped male values (Feminist Transformation and Counseling Theories, 95). † 3. Based on my understanding to Andrea’s situation and the cognitive-behavioral procedures, the most relevant among all the procedures are the coping skills, self-instructions, and stress inoculation. These t hree procedures are the best ways to make Andrea become more comfortable with her situation.Because life is always a changing world, it shows that Andrea’s life and environment also changes. It only means that coping-skills, self-instructions, and stress inoculation will let Andrea feel her true side – her identity and the ways on how to ease the pain that she continue to comprehend. In coping skills, Andrea can have the understanding how she has gone through her life. She needs to strengthen her feelings and ideology to become aware of the things in her environment to be able to accept the facts of life. In self-instruction, Andrea needs to choose her path with freedom.She needs to accelerate her mind and thoughts towards her obligations and purpose in life not on what she needs to become. In stress inoculation, Andrea needs to realize that stress builds all her anxieties in life. Therefore, to be able to recover from extreme stress that she experienced, she needs to be vaccinated with good ambiance and aura coming from other people and her environment. 4. Because Andrea’s husband is a non-participant of her situation, it is a big circumstance or problem for her. However, the main thing that needs to consider is the need to know Andrea’s wholeness.The most basic thing that needs to construct in Andrea’s life is her being. It is more important that making her husband capable of knowing her as a wife and a woman. â€Å"Women are frequently unaware of how their automatic thoughts and behaviors are shaped and maintained by the gender-driven expectations of others (Ibid, 185). † It is true as what Worrel and Remer said in their research. Therefore, it is important to make Andrea feel that despite of her husband’s criticism and being a non-participant, she needs to move her life and exit from the darkness of stress and defeat. 5.I can say that based on Worell and Remer’s model of intervention, the best crisis intervention approach that fits to women who experience depression is the conflicted interpersonal behavior because it is a wide range that talks about the social conflicts and beings of a person within her environment. Feminist Principles become included in this crisis intervention because it gives the probability to gain the strength and new identity of women during their extreme stress. As the feminist principles work, the crisis intervention will make each understanding reliable and conducive to the patient.For me, the crisis intervention that might not fit is the material burden because this is not really a problem at all because big percentage of women are already stable because of their husband or partner. Therefore, it is less pressure for women to think of their finances rather than their personal needs and achievements. References Worrel and Remer. (date). Feminist Perspective in Therapy. pp. 171-194. (date). â€Å"A Feminist View of Counseling and Therapy. † pp. 91 -134.

Out and Disabled Essay

Compare and Contrast the ways in how â€Å"Out, Out† and â€Å"Disabled† present the idea of a forgotten victim The poem â€Å"Out, Out† by Robert Frost has a strong resemblance with the poem â€Å"Disabled† by Wilfred Owen as both poems demonstrate the fragility of life and how one person’s death can be easily forgotten. â€Å"Out, Out† the title speaks of everything, used in Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ It implies how life is ultimately described like a candle, when the flame goes off there is eternal darkness. In â€Å"Disabled† it essentially shows the same meaning where the women’s interest passed to â€Å"strong men that were whole† because the once glorious man in â€Å"Disabled† became nothing at all. The use of personification in â€Å"Out, Out† where the buzz saw â€Å"snarled and rattled† evokes a sense of foreboding. The buzz saw is seen as aggressive where cutting the boy’s hand was seen as a target and was meant to happen after all. The saw is seen as aggressive where cutting the boy’s hand was seen as a target and was meant to happen after all. The boy is simply nothing but dinner to the predator as he was its â€Å"supper† was mentioned right at the same moment when his hand was cut off. This is an effective method of making the boy seem worthless. The buzz saw has its own mind and is always one step ahead to make it seem dominant. Betrayal is a key point of the two poems as both victims had been betrayed by their own people. The boy was seen as only another death so no one cared about what happened since they were not the â€Å"ones dead† so they just move on with their life without any mourning. In â€Å"Disabled† the man was also seen as someone who is nothing as he is no longer â€Å"whole†. Where he was once a celebrated man, his life had completely changed due to his inexperience and naive view on war. He shares a similar fate as to the boy in â€Å"Out, Out† His actions were noble but they don’t matter at all since he had gained nothing out of it, he wasn’t able to win his â€Å"Meg† and he only brought back scars from the war. He was left alone like garbage since the women moved away to the other â€Å"strong men†. No matter what he did for his nation, he was a forgotten victim like the boy in â€Å"Out, Out†. It explains that the lives of these two people are insignificant and it’s best just to move on. On the other hand, both poems are both structured differently. â€Å"Out, Out† is a flowing story which has no stanzas. This structure allows the poem to be more fluid and keeps the pace of the story moving. It is seen through a third person perspective whereas â€Å"Disabled† the structure of the poem has stanzas and shows the perception of the past and the present. Robert Frosting juxtaposes the structure of the poem which aims to give a strong sense of contrast from one another so by using the past and the present, it is a very important role in the poem because one of the interesting part of â€Å"Disabled† is the main character as we can easily see how rueful he is due to his nostalgic days of when he was young. At stanza 1, it is hard to convince that the ruined man is the same person in stanza 3. He was known as one of the admired people as he was â€Å"silly† for his face. As he looked like a ‘god in kilts’ it is very contrasting to his future where he is in his â€Å"ghastly† suit. However, even though they have a contrasting structure they have something similar in terms of events that are not mentioned. Both poems predict something dreadful is about to happen to the characters as the personification used in ‘Out, Out’ ‘snarled and rattled’ hints that that the buzz saw is planning to strike. The structure has an unusual change where it is first introduced to something unpleasant which is the buzz saw but then the tone quickly changes to a tranquil state. Then it quickly shows the mountain ranges ‘one behind the other’ and ‘under the sunset, far into Vermont’ it foreshadows the boy’s death as the beauty could symbolize heaven. The tone quickly changes from concentrated to something serene. One other thing which is fascinating is that the poem has an image of society where society is cruelly creating the feeling of a forgotten victim just like the â€Å"women† in â€Å"Disabled†. The fact that both poems have the characters offering their body part creates an impression that they are worthless. It gives an idea that the body parts are no longer their own body. In â€Å"Disabled† he â€Å"threw away† his knees which is an unsympathetic manner to mention about his own legs â€Å"Out, out† is very comparable as he has â€Å"given† the hand. The fact that it wasn’t mentioned as â€Å"his† hand proves that it was no longer his own. In the poems both protagonists are robbed of their youth because they are both thrust into a dangerous adult world. They are chosen to be killed and left alone even though they are young which gives a poignant feeling and the sense of being forgotten. They interestingly have the same characteristics because in ‘Out, out’ the boy is doing â€Å"a man’s work† which implies a sense of experience and doing work that is years ahead of his age. Equal with â€Å"Disabled† where he finds himself in the present in a suit of grey. Similarly both protagonist in the poems portray the sense of being used by people because once they can’t achieve anything, they are no use to their leaders and society so they are left alone, isolated and gone from the world feeling betrayed as the boy was just basically used and the disabled man was rejected may assume that he threw away his life as well as he â€Å"poured† the colours down into shell holes. In comparison, the boy in â€Å"Out, Out† gives a stronger feeling of sorrow or grief for the boy as he is doing something he shouldn’t. In â€Å"Disabled† the idea of a forgotten victim is not shown as him resulting in death. It is the opposite of the boy as he is longing for his death. A powerful word Wilfred Owen used was that sleep had â€Å"mothered† which is a personification that shows his love of sleep where he is nurtured and safe, it even implies that the man is depressed. It assumes that the disabled man wants to escape from reality and go to his own reality in his sleep. Overall, the fragility and delicateness of life and youth mainly presents the idea of the forgotten victim. A forgotten victim is usually immobilized and helpless when they have lost everything. â€Å"Out, Out† and â€Å"Disabled† poignantly present forgotten victims. Even when doing a noble action like joining the army, a man can still be rejected among people. â€Å"Out, out† and â€Å"Disabled† were both written during difficult times and acquaints the reader to the atmosphere of the early 19’s. â€Å"Disabled† and â€Å"Out, Out† was written during the World War 1 where it was difficult and dark times yet in â€Å"Out, Out† we get a taste of how cold society was back then. Society can be cruel and filled with individualism where everyone is their own man so it plays a key point of making the two victims forgotten.

Accounting Information and Decision Making Assignment - 1

Accounting Information and Decision Making - Assignment Example If I were an investor, I would turn to an income statement first when looking to invest in accompany. This is because this statement will show me the operations undertaken within a certain period of time and the income and expenses. This shows whether the entity is doing well and expanding or whether it is performing poorly and may not do well in the coming months or years. I have ever reviewed the financial statements for a company I have worked for. My classmate is correct on the â€Å"dual effect† statement. This is because for every transaction, one account will increase while another decreases. This is due to the double entry effect in accounting whereby an amount is removed from one account and put into another. This leaves one account with less and the other with an increased amount. An example is in the case of purchasing goods. When purchasing goods with cash, the cash account will be less the amount used for the purchases while the purchases account will increase with the monetary value of the goods purchased (Collier,

The sub‐prime crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The sub†prime crisis - Essay Example taking their toll on the modern economies however with prudent monetary policy and effective risk management practices, the future episodes of such nature may be avoided. Getting consumer credit through various financial institutions especially banks requires consumers to maintain a certain degree of credit rating in order to qualify for those loans. Unlike large corporate companies, consumers or rather individuals pose a different challenge and dynamics to financial institutions to cater their needs for credit and formal funding requirements of these individuals. It is because of this reason that various banks and financial institutions have developed their internal rating methodologies which they assign to various consumers asking for credit. Banks than through their internal as well external credit scores or ratings decide to whom they should provide the credit. These criteria of credit rating often are designed to be tough since Banks in order to avoid defaults, tighten their criteria to extend the credit to these customers. However, due to increasing needs of those customers, whose credit history or their credit ratings do not fall under the cri teria laid down by the banks, banks try to accommodate them also. Sub-prime lending is the part of that phenomenon. â€Å"Sub-Prime lending typically has been characterized as lending at relatively costly interest rates and fees to credit impaired or otherwise high risk borrowers.†Error: Reference source not found. Subprime loans are among the newly popular mortgage products, such as interest-only loans, for people with strained budgets, including first-time buyers. Homeowners increasingly use them to refinance and consolidate household debts when their credit scores fall in the wake of bankruptcy, high medical bills, or other setbacks.Error: Reference source not found. It is generally believed that the subprime borrowers emerge due to lack of the good credit history on their back and since there number grew

Argumentative Research Paper Women in Combat Essay

Argumentative Research Paper Women in Combat - Essay Example For instance, as this essay will demonstrate in the following sections, women suffer more physical injuries than men, they often suffer more serious psychological ailments, they resort to substance abuse as a means for coping with the physical and psychological strains, and their presence contributes to a number of novel problems in the military. The point is not that women are incapable of serving in the military. The point most certainly is not that women cannot be good leaders and good soldiers. The thesis of this essay is that women should not be placed in direct combat roles because (1) their presence may very well result in more serious physical and psychological costs than those experienced by male soldiers, and (2) that their presence causes the military to become preoccupied with peripheral issues such as sexual harassment, dating, and disharmony to the exclusion of military readiness and missions. As the data will demonstrate, this ought to be viewed and treated as much more than a political or a social issue. The military occupies a special place within the larger political and social framework, its combat functions result in serious injuries and mental strains, and women ought to consider the medical findings and the military realities before demanding increased combat roles. This research paper will define what is meant by combat and, as illustrated in Iraq with messy urban warfare, how traditional notions of combat versus non-combat personnel have become increasingly difficult to define. This blurring of the traditional distinction is of particular relevance in this case because women serving in traditionally non-combat roles have, in fact, been directly exposed to combat nonetheless. After examining the meaning of combat, this essay will analyze a number of recent studies which demonstrate that women suffer greater burdens than their male counterparts. Some of these burd ens are biologically-rooted and cannot be remedied by simple shifts in policy.In the final analysis, there is no good scientific or military argument for including women in combat roles. The humane result would be a wholesale exclusion of women from combat. Only a sadist would use women as martyrs to make a point of gender equality, which has been and can continue to be made in less damaging situations and contexts. Combat Versus Non-Combat Combat was traditionally defined as taking place in a specific place with specific people (Skaine, 26); however, Skaine also goes on to note that combat today is more spread out, warring parties often hide and fight among civilians, and that defining a woman as serving in a combat or non-combat role is somewhat disingenuous. This is because, even though most women are theoretically shielded from combat by legislation and by non-combat designations and deployments, the combat reaches and affects women. Indeed, it is an open secret that women operate in combat roles even though they are technically barred or prohibited. Recent events in Iraq illustrate this blurring of the role between combatants and non-combatants all too starkly; as reported by CNN, "The Pentagon's policy banning women in combat is being tested in Iraq, where the lack of a defined front line and insurgents' guerrilla

CREATING A BUSINESS EMAIL Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CREATING A BUSINESS EMAIL - Essay Example tment has brought to our attention that some employees either knowingly or unknowingly have installed wireless networks on the main company’s network. Whereas the company has made concerted efforts to provide wireless networks for workers, use of hot spot networks on mobile phones within our network qualifies as rogue access points. Additionally, some have gone to the extent of using Modem supported networks on office computers. However, the most risky rogue access points are made when employees try to connect their personal cell phones or laptops to other Wi-Fi supplied by unknown Wi-Fi vendors. These unsecure networks become access points in which intruders can access the main company’s network. Let us kindly remember that the effects of rogue access points on our company are detrimental. Secure networks in any business ensure that important business information does not leak to malicious people. Additionally, secure networks ensure that information systems within the business remain secure from manipulation. However, the most fateful event would happen when our business secrets leak to our business rivals. Certainly, such information may be used against us hence compromising the success of our business. As stipulated in the employment policy and regulation document, it is unlawful for any employee to act in a way that compromises the success of the company. Therefore, all employees are reminded that setting up of rogue access points using personal mobile phones as hot spots or tethering devices while working within the company’s internet is therefore unlawful. Setting up of networks using Modems is also unlawful. More often, the effects of such actions may cost us heavily hence compromising the source of income for all employees. Let us remark that honesty is one of the core pillars of our corporate culture and our success so far has only been possible through honesty and integrity that you have displayed so far. More important is the need to remember

Business Website and Children Clothing Research Paper

Business Website and Children Clothing - Research Paper Example The paper will also deal with issues related to the questions of how to buy a domain, how to trademark and protect logo. Step 1 Identify the problem that needs to be solved or opportunity that needs to be developed Essentially, any new business venture is mainly aimed at recognizing and creating an opportunity in the market (Nieman, 2003. In this case, the internet has brought about an opportunity that can makes it possible to market any product since it is a widely used channel of communication during the contemporary period given that it can reach a lot of people from different geographical locations. In terms of clothing, it can be seen that there are no large chain stores in different regions that specialize in selling baby/kids/children clothes. These products can be found in large conventional clothing shops that also sell clothes for adults. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a gap which exists in the market in terms of marketing and selling children’s clothes sinc e some of the consumer needs that are not adequately satisfied. In order to solve this problem, it is wise to start an e-business website that specializes in selling children’s clothes. This strategy is likely to be very effective in filling the gap that has been identified in this case. In other words, this business venture is likely to add value in the market if the following factors are carefully taken into consideration. Product identified and clearly defined- an assortment of children’s clothing would be sold online. The new e-business venture will specialize in selling these products to different customers in different areas. All business can be carried through the use of the internet and the products purchased can be delivered to the customers. Reason for product- there is a gap in the market where it can be seen that there are few actors in this sector who specialize in selling products that are specifically meant for children. Children’s clothes are oft en found in conventional clothing shops and this business is likely to be very convenient to many shoppers since they can get exactly what they would be looking for. STEP 2: Select a general topic area related to the problem or opportunity to research The general topic related to the problem or opportunity identified is concerned about the aspect of how to start a business. In this case, an opportunity has arisen and it can be seen that starting an online business to sell children’s clothes can be the best solution to address this issue. According to the Wall Street Journal (2012), there are different steps that ought to be taken into consideration when starting up a business. Starting a new business venture requires proper preparation and an entrepreneur should first decide if he or she is suitable to run that kind of business. This is very important since starting a business venture is not an overnight event. Entrepreneurship is about identifying opportunities that exist in the market and then measure are put in place in order to utilize the opportunity that exists at that particular moment in the market. The other important element to consider is about how to register a trademark for a company name. This element is very important since it helps to distinguish one company from the other. Whilst there are many companies that specialize in offering different products, they must be distinguished. According to the Wall Street Journal, this process can be done online and the company can also get the legal

Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 51

Discussion - Essay Example My knowledge of what to do in the organization and an understanding of the distinction between right and wrong helps me perform my duties in an ethical and virtuous manner. My strict self-control and conscience also help portray a high ethical standard at my workplace. My ability to avoid unethical temptations in the organization is key to my high virtuous behavior. Ethical characters reject individual gains if such benefits are not in line with organizational benefit and goodwill. I need to close any gap between knowledge about what I need to do and the actual actions, in order to improve my ethical behavior. According to John Maxwell (2007), there are diverse causes that lead to unethical behavior including the fact that individuals just legitimize their actions with relativism. Accountability and follow-up measures are important for the improvement of ethical behavior and instilling virtuous values into practice. The human resource personnel of the companyhas to p ut up systems and procedures that can remind me of the commitments to ethical behavior and help me connect my actions with virtuous deeds. The duty of a leader in an organization such as the human resource manager is the provision of opportunities and an enabling environment in which all employees of the organization can realize and develop their talents and potential. My organization encourages a culture of ethics among its leadership where their ethical role is not to satisfy self-interests but creating necessary conditions employees to achieve their full potential. It is a requirement and a standard of leadership in my organization that has enabled many employees to nurture their talents and realize their full potential. My organization is alive to the fact that the key to the growth of a firm is the identification and nurturing of the high potential and talent of

Ethical Decision Making Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethical Decision Making - Assignment Example e Board of the basis of my decision so that such decision will not be questioned in the implementation that could aggrieved the family of Richard Adessi further. Such decision will be more beneficial for the company in the long run. Such decision will surely be known among employees and will also boost the morale of the employees in the company by witnessing how considerate IBM in taking care of its employees. This will result in higher retention and lower turnover. Employee satisfaction could also rise leading to higher productivity among employees. The difference in cost could easily be defrayed by the advantage and benefits that IBM will reap by having happy and satisfied employees. One does not have to be technical in rules to be ethical but has to consider the whole picture as well as the implication of the decision to come up with an ethical decision which in this case is to be considerate with Richard Agassi who died four months shy of his 30th anniversary with the

Letter of Advice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Letter of Advice - Research Paper Example This love evolves, grows and matures with the passing years. Feelings and experience in the initial phases may be revisited later in life but in a different and quite possibly, mature manner. But the consistency in feelings and love over the years and decades, though in different facets, is more than worth gold’s exchange rate (Chapman, 2010). Also, what keeps the understanding and mutual love ablaze is friendship. A spark in the fire is what romance acts like in relationship, leading to intimacy when aroused and smothered when not fed up properly. Friendship, on the contrary, is like a warm bed of coal that keeps affection as a constant. Sacrifice is vital, but not the only factor to live with. Too much of it would lead to unhappiness for both of you. Cooperation in helping achieve each other’s dream is the best way to survive. This is because being human requires striking a balance with all sorts of needs (Puhn, 2010). What has inspired me the most, I would thoroughly like to share it with you. Although the experience and evolution is a continuous affair, but what I would like to share with you will hopefully make you rethink and go over your ties with each again and again, just like every one in that session felt. Â  The most frustrating fraction of any communication is the fact that people, heavily including me too, fail to understand the simplest of phenomenon that we all are different. Yet we complain, ‘why people get so difficult to communicate with?’ From our feelings, priorities, emotions, goals and ambitions to the minutest division of our being, the gene, is remarkably distinguishing from every one else. Truly this corner of our persona is usually is the roughest and difficult to deal with since it is mostly out of control (Hogan, Stubbs, 2003). The barrier most difficult to surpass and deal with is the emotional barrier. What influences

The Major Media Types for Advertising Essay Example for Free

The Major Media Types for Advertising Essay Advertising Advertising Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. There are three goals of advertising. These goals are to: Inform, Persuade, and Remind. The major media types for advertising are: Newspapers, Television, Direct mail, Radio, Magazines, Internet, Outdoor (billboards, blimps, etc. ), Yellow pages, Newsletters, Brochures, and Telephone The traditional conceptual model for creating any advertising or marketing communications message is the AIDA Model: get Attention, hold Interest, arouse Desire, and then obtain Action. The AIDA Model John Caples, one of the greatest copywriters of all time, provides us the following principles (although he was talking about direct response marketingmore about that laterthe wisdom is directly relevant to all forms advertising) when it comes to communicating an advertising message: Caples Principles: * Get attention * Hold attention * Create desire * Make it believable * Prove its a bargain * Make it easy to buy * Give a reason to buy now An even newer paradigm, according to some, is Interrupt, Engage, Educate and then Offer. In any of these models, the first step is to somehow get a persons attention. It should be noted, however, that there is a growing trend of consumers being more resistent to advertising messages and less open to marketers communicating with them without their expressed permission. As such, advertising models are continuously evolving due to an explosion in media outlets and shifting public opinion. As new communications channels expand at a fast rate, advertisers are exploring the new media options at a rapid pace and exploring new ways to reach an often fickle target audience. How do we do that? In my opinion, there is one overriding rule that should guide all advertising: Tell omebody something helpful to them and make sure they are receptive to your message in the first place. Also, do not underestimate the importance of strong copy or content and do not overestimate the importance of graphic design/creative. Whether writing copy for print ads, a website, a Youtube video or writing a script for television, radio, or multi-media presentations, a strong headline is the most important element of the advertisement. This is the element of the message that needs to quickly connect with people and pre-communicate some benefit that is reasons. The headline: * Attracts attention Communicates a strong benefit * Appeals to the self-interest of the reader. It answers the question, Whats in it for me? * Sets the tone for the offer * A headline acts like a marquee does for a movie theater and selects the right audience. Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines or days if necessary. If you happen to think of a headline while walking down the street or while riding the bus, take out pencil and paper and write it down. John Caples On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money. David Oglivy Once the headline has done its Job, then prospects are so engaged in what we have to say that we can educate and inform them about the benefits of what we offer so that they cant wait for us to tell them what next step they should take to learn more or get the product or service. Most advertising today falls short. Too much energy is spent on glitzy art or cool graphic design and the resulting ads absolutely fail in the first step of interrupting and capturing attention. Various Advertisement Exampl es

Significance Of The Representation Of The City English Literature Essay

Significance Of The Representation Of The City English Literature Essay In this essay I will be discussing three very diverse texts which will allow me to bring into light a various number of views and interpretations of the city. I will be focusing on D. H. Lawrences Women in Love, T. S Eliots The Waste Land, and finally Virginnia Woolfs Mrs Dalloway. All texts will help me come across the different insights, views and personal feelings towards the city the authors felt. Many of these authors develop their ideas and emphasise on the affects of the city through their characterization, this essay will further help me develop the representation of the city and look into it in more detail. I will focus on a number of areas such as characters, settings, thoughts and views in the texts in order to gain an answer as to what the significance of the representation of the city may in fact be in connection to its authors. As we read on through the poem, Eliot continues to present the Waste Land as a very complex poem; it tackles and confronts a variety of contradictory ideas and understandings. The intended meaning of the poem may come across as something different to both critics and readers; it can in effect be seen as a text that can have a variety of meanings and can be interpreted by anyone in their own ways. The text can be seen as being interpreted through the person and society, or can also be interpreted on a personal note where Eliot may seek to reveal his own feelings and intentions as to why he wrote the poem. The main theme of the poem can be distinguished through the way in which Eliot portrays modern life as a Waste Land. He supports this theme by showing what was wrong with society in the early twentieth century. He demonstrates the lack of faith in the poem through a number of ways; he puts into words the weakness of society by presenting a certain lack of faith, lack of communication , and corruption of life, alcohol and sex. At one point he shows one of the characters saying I can connect nothing with nothing.  [4]  This indicates the character having no faith or confidence in them self; there seems to be no connections and no meanings to her life, it seems to come across as though her life is just a waste. In the text Eliot speaks about the crowdedness of the city many of times. The Unreal city, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so manyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The fast paced text conveys allusions which create a sense of crowding in the city. London is depicted as a very busy city, a place where something is always happening; it is illustrated as being different in contrast to what you would experience in the countryside. The Waste Land creates an unattractive image of London, we feel appalled by the amount of industrialization taking place as the surroundings are described as being encircled by the brown fog. The depiction of the industrialized city can become so shocking and brutal that it can in some ways be seen as a character. Furthermore The Waste Land conveys several distinct images that help to present a deeper meaning to the text. As we read through the poem, we come across the lines Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.  [5]  This sentence conveys a feeling of sadness and obscurity. This frame of mind is related to the lines that follow which talk about death and sorrow, the mood of the text comes across as very dark and threatening. One of the main points seems to come into light through the portrayal of the River Thames. This river can be seen as symbolising death, it is like a bridge which the dead spirits need to cross over in order to face death. By saying that this person wants the river to run softly before the song ends indicates that this character is near death, and after his story has been said, he will be ready to accept it. Death in itself is a very dark topic in relation to the title of the poem; this passage can be seen as linking the time and the place together before death . The place is shown not to exist in the living world or the dead; it is conveyed as being something which is in between. This area can be seen in many ways as a Waste Land just as the poems title suggests. The Waste Land can be linked to many things in this poem, in this case it can be where the river Thames lays, a place where the living and the dead do not inhabit. The imagery bought across in these lines is very effective in relation to the mood and themes they set in the poem. They give the mood of sadness and mourning which gives deeper meaning to the rest of the text. All the way through the preceding lines after the Sweet Thames, there is a sad mood which flows in the course of the text. As the readers read on in The Waste Land, they get a feeling which indicates that even if they were to read something happy and cheerful in the poem it would still have a dark effect. The imagery of death, sorrow, sadness and gloom is very effective in this case as it allows the poem to set a feeling for the rest of the text. In the Waste Land à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the images and symbols fall broadly into two categories-firstly, images drawn from myth and religion, and secondly, images taken from the common aspects of urban life.  [6]   The modern city in contemporary literature is shown to be very complex in the 20th century. Within literature there are a number of writers who move towards the physical reality of the modern urban life and surroundings; Virginnia Woolf in many ways is a good example of this. In her novel Mrs. Dalloway, we are presented with the citys obscure feelings that link the perception of the two main protagonists together. The characters Woolf looks at are the the centre of life itself  [7]  . On the contrary, D.H. Lawrence has been the most provocative of modernist authors  [8]  , he shows his own understanding of the city as a place of desolation and division. His text Women in Love illustrates London as a corrupted city which is populated by outward characters who can only find their pleasure and happiness in sex, drinking and taking part in criminal activities. Both of these modernistic texts allow us as the readers to identify the different representations of urban life in a chan ging city; we are presented with images of the actual London and the illusory London. Both of these texts can in many ways portray similar themes, feelings and ideas towards the city which The Waste Land has previously been seen to do in this essay. In addition Mrs Dalloway and Septimus are characters in Woolfs novel who capture the passing moments of their lives in a city. Both of these characters are shown to be walking through the city and feeling the liveliness of London. Their responses to the same city symbols vary from one another. Septimus Smith says everything had come to a standstill  [9]  whereas Mrs Dalloway shows us she is amused by the noise and high energy of the city life. The opposing reflections both of these characters present show how their everyday city-occurrences result in a contradictory presentation of the city life; it offers an accurate sense of reality within this way of life. We can see this being present in the novel as Woolf uses free indirect speech. Her form of expression is a good linguistic technique in the novel; it acts as a verbal counterpart to the mental moments of uncertainty within the reality of urban life. In this sense, the contrasting reflections on the same incidents and Woolfs new form of expression result in an overlapping of the characters consciousnesses which at the same time link to images presented in the novel. In D.H Lawrences work on the other hand, traditional language is not enough to show his understanding and feelings towards modernity. The city is illustrated as a complex, and socially diverse place, the new forms of expression are essential in order to work in opposition to the growing sense of isolation. Lawrence is shown to be using repetition in his work in order to bring across the crowdedness and light-headedness of the atmosphere in the city. Birkin says I always feel so doomed when the train is running into London. I feel such despair, so hopeless, as if it were the end of the world.  [10]  The diction Lawrence chooses to use is very interesting to look at, he uses hopeless in different contexts and repeats himself in order to bring across Birkins emotions towards the city. We can say that the actual meaning of the diction he dec ides to use may in fact change and be a connection to the modern city and environment where it bears a resemblance to the new time of order and effectiveness. The characters in Women in Love are shown to undergo different experiences and feelings in relation to the modern city, for example they are shown to feel misery and corruption in the text. Lawrence brings across the unattractiveness of the urban and industrial city and establishes the citys mentality into the minds of the miners. As a result, he creates a perfect, inhuman system of machines, where the miners begin to deny their humanity in feeling satisfied to belong to the great and wonderful machine, even whilst it destroyed them  [11]  . There is a lot of depiction of the state of mind in Women in Love; Woolf also brings across this mental absorption of the citys characteristics through the characters she presents in Mrs Dalloway. Doing everything on time and being exact is something which is part of most modern minded people, this is symbolised by the way in which time is shown on Big Ben in the novel. Virginia Woolf presents the city as a physical place presenting the menta l state of mind of the characters. For Mrs Dalloway à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦silence falls on London; and falls on the mind  [12]  , this in many ways indicates a deep connection between the inner thoughts and emotions and the outer world. Septimus consciousness reflects the understandings of the outer world. He did not want to die. Life was good.  [13]   There are many ways in which we can see that the link between the city and the mental life is illustrated through the character of Peter Walsh. On one hand Peter suffers from the loneliness in London as he feels a strangeness of standing alone, alive, unknown, at half-past eleven in Trafalgar Square.  [14]  However he also uses this feeling to keep track of the young woman before she is lost in the city crowd. Peter chasing the young woman may in fact symbolize the change of social behaviour and interactions between the two sexes within the restrictions of the city. In Women in Love a new directness regarding sexuality is presented as a consequence of the changing cultural environment in the city. Alcohol and sexual excitement are presented as the main occupations of the Pussum and the other residents of the flat. Although Gudrun regards London as a foul town, it is within the urban city where her new understanding of art is recognized. In the flat, a weird number of modernist wo rks of art and influences are shown to symbolise the directness to non-traditional art. Within this environment of the modern city, we are presented with the Brangwen sisters as having much better chances to live their eminent individual personalities than within the well-known closeness of urban Beldover. Although Birkin and Gudrun detest the masses, Mrs Dalloway looks at the small crowdà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦gathered at the gates of Buckingham Palace  [15]  from the distance it becomes striking and beautiful. It is the sense of an endless society and quality which attracts Woolf, Lawrence nonetheless is shocked by the crowds single mindedness. It is interesting to note that the characteristics of the crowd are not obvious for all citizens of the city. In conclusion we are able to identify the significance of the representation of the city in all three works by Lawrence, Eliot and Woolf. There are many different modernist representations of the city which come across in all three texts. What T.S. Eliot pictures as an isolated, distressed area, is in fact for Virginia Woolf a symbolic landscape of life and vibrancy, and for D.H. Lawrence an urban area of despair. All three diverse understandings and ideas of the city are reflected in the characters presented in the texts by the modernist authors. For this reason we are shown how Mrs Dalloways consciousness presents an optimistic image of the city, which is contrasted by both Birkin and Gudruns negativity. On the other hand, we do not only get the general approach of the presentation and its significance, the authors are shown to be expressing their personal and individual understandings and views of the city. The citys attitude of precision is symbolised within Geralds modernization of the coalmines which introduce the perfect inhuman machines to Beldover. Exactness can also be found in the strikes of Big Ben in Mrs Dalloway. Furthermore, in Mrs Dalloway the cities characteristics are mirroring the state of mind of the characters and give therefore another perspective of the urban landscape. In addition, Lawrences and Woolfs new modernist techniques of expression have the ability to cope with the progressively altering conditions of modernity within the city life. Woolfs free indirect speech gives a full meaning and insight into the awareness of the characters, therefore giving them a much better and accurate understanding of their own individual views of the city. Lawrence uses repetition in his language in order to improve his conventional understanding of particular terms and provides the city with new characteristics. As a result, the individual and subjective experiences of the authors offer a complex and deeper picture of the reality and unreality of a w eak city. WORD COUNT: 2732

Effects Of Cramming For Examinations Education Essay

Effects Of Cramming For Examinations Education Essay Cramming is an ineffective learning strategy adopted by a majority of students in higher educational institutes because it causes negative psychological and physical effects. R.Sommer (1968) defined cramming as a period of neglect of study followed by a concentrated burst of studying immediately before an exam (p. 104). In this definition, concentrated burst of studying refers to a study strategy which involve studying for consecutive hours with or without short rest on the eve of examinations. Cramming or massed practice is, therefore, an intensive and quick study of subject contents for the sole purpose of passing examinations. Students who procrastinate by habits are more likely to delay tests preparation and indulge in valueless cramming. The purpose of this paper is to address the widespread practice of cramming and its ineffectiveness with regards to its negative effects on students. Researchers in the field of psychology and education have argued for decades on the goals of education and students learning experiences. In todays complex and challenging environments, change is imperative. P. Ramsden (1998) argued that learning is interpreting and understanding of reality in a different way to facilitate a student to comprehend the world by reinterpreting knowledge. Learning by students should be viewed as a constructive, self-regulated and goal-oriented individual process so that they can construct meanings from knowledge (de Corte, 2000, p. 254). Towards this end, graduate students are expected to have developed a fair expertise in critical thinking skills to help them adapt to participate in economic, political and scientific issues of the world. Educational pedagogy must enable students to analyze, theorize and intellectually engage with each other and with the world around them. Despite teachers repeated intervention to teach students appropriate learning stra tegies, most students still widely adopt surface learning approaches to learning in contrast to deep learning approach. P.Ramsden in his book, Learning to Lead in Higher Education (1998), has described surface approaches lead at best to the ability to retain unrelated details, often for a short period. They are related to lower levels of academic performance and more limited development of generic skills (p. 48). Such kind of approach entails the use of rote-memorization, chunking of factual knowledge, an inability to understand context from a deeper perspective, learning to achieve a minimal pass in the examinations and most importantly, students are driven by extrinsic motivation to achieve passing grades and obtain qualifications. The question arises: why do educational psychologists and teachers encourage students to take up a deep learning approach for examination purpose? The next part of this paper contains a discussion of the question and highlights the negative effects of c ramming for examinations. Todays observation of societies around the world reflects a dearth of intellectual persons with true and acquired individuality. The societies around us reflect individuals who are not faithful or devoted to their administrative tasks whether as public servants or politicians of a country. Harold E.Gorst in his book, The Curse of Education (1901), implicitly stated that progress means development of ideas and mediocre individuals do not engage in such ideas which are progressive to a country. He further states that as long as education is synonymous with cramming on an organized plan, it will continue to produce mediocrity (p. 6). Gorsts statement resonates the fact that cramming or the vast accumulation of factual and superficial knowledge, which has been forced upon the students, are partly the results of improper teaching, learning and assessment methods (examinations) of educational systems and partly the results of students learning strategies. Consequently, the achievement outc ome of such educational systems which crams students to follow rigid pedagogical approach is at a higher level but it produces the biggest ill effect of this type of cramming system of education: the failure of adequate personality and intellectual development of students who are capable of thinking for themselves as well graduates who regard the goal of learning as a process in itself and an end product. Such students outshine in the knowledge domain only, but their cognitive domains (intellectual reasoning) along with his affective domains (concepts of self esteem, emotional development) are rapidly halted. In order to understand what is learning, it is very important to view learning in its specific contexts. For example, in the early systems of Japan and Hong Kong, learning was viewed as a process to attain knowledge and then an assessment of the knowledge. With an end to the learning process, the whole ensured meaning of learning was lost. In these countries, educational systems were dictated by higher authorities as a means to deliver fast paced teaching and to prepare students for higher education entrance examinations. The result was that competitive examinations were seen by junior and high school students as a measure to show their knowledge, memory and problem-solving skills rather than their intellectual reasoning and capacity building skills. However, still today, most parents and students in Taiwan still believe cram schooling have positive effects on students learning achievement (Chen, S.Y. Lu, L. 2009). But the same study concludes that the time spent in cram schools neg atively affected the psychological well being of students and made them prone to depressive symptoms. The next part of the paper concentrates on the negative impacts of cramming on those students who cram by choice rather than necessity. Students who cram out of choice and habits are usually adept at the art of cramming and often pass their examinations. They have come to envisage the purpose of education to attain knowledge through learning of subject content. The aim is targeted towards attaining only extrinsic rewards: achieving good grades and qualifications. Driven by extrinsic motivation, with a surface approach to memorizing factual knowledge in the spurt of hours before examinations, these students are putting themselves into states of sleep deprivation and stress disorders. Students claim that they recall materials better when learnt hours prior to examinations and feel less stressed. But, according to a research published in the newsletter, Monitor on Psychology (2001) of American Psychological Association, lack of sufficient sleep is a widespread problem among teens and adolescents are at high risk for cognitive and emotional difficulties, poor school performance, accidents and psychopathology. Several sci entific researches has also concluded that young people need adequate amount of sleep and resting periods to allow regeneration of the brain cells called neurons. Continued exertion of the brain leads to lesser regeneration of new memories and decreased brain activities in the cerebral cortex, the part of brain responsible for cognitive functioning. Limited cognitive abilities lead to poor memory retention, concentration and attention to details (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2007). From these evidences, lack of sleep and intense brain activities without rest causes fatigue and stress in these students. Stress can produce a long term effect which causes many students to develop further psychological and behavioural disorders ranging from anxiety, guilt and attention deficit disorders to patterns of irritability and aggression. Contrary to these research findings, students who cram often become adept at it, and use these strategies over again with few changes in their habits. Therefore, it is very crucial to raise awareness of the negative effects of massed practice on sleep patterns, stress and physiological derangement in the forms of chronic diabetes, obesity and hormones disturbance. Moreover, psychologists are in agreement, that spaced or distributed practice over consecutive days to achieve learning is more beneficial in terms of the physical and psychological well being of students. Conclusion The preceding parts of the paper have provided evidences of the negative effects of cramming on students. The goal of education and learning is in complete contrast to the outcomes produced by cramming practice. It is fair to assume that students, who adopt surface learning strategies with a cynical view of education, cannot get far in terms of longevity since his intellectual and psychological development is incomplete. Being equipped with an extrinsic motivation to performance, the need of todays times is for graduates to learn continuously with intrinsically driven motives. In view of the ill-effects of cramming, it can be fairly said that cramming is an ineffective learning strategy, and produces mediocre individuals.

Mise-en scene :: Free Essays

Mise-en scene The literal translation of the word mise en scene means, "to put on stage" or "placing of a scene", and is used to describe those visual aspects that appear within a single shot. These definitions are derived from the terminology of the theatre; additional meanings have been added in recent years to apply the term in the cinema, the more open definition now also encompasses sound. Ira Konigsberg defines mise en scene, in "The complete film dictionary" as "Mise en scene, in discussions of film, refers to the composition of the individual film, the relation of objects, people and masses; the interplay of light and dark; the pattern of colour; the camera's position and angle of view, as well as the movement within the frame". The use of mise en scene in films is now often registered as the imprint that the director puts upon their cinematic vision, the totality of how the director designs and actuates given scenes. The many areas they fall into being: Setting is usually perceived as a signifier of authenticity, such as the place where the events are happening, they are a constructed setting for action. Often settings are invented, they do not exist, and are set in the future or space, films such as Star Wars or the Fifth Element. Locations can not only be recognised and help us to place the characters within a film, but can also through the film itself create their own space and meaning. Props are devices for conveying meaning which films are dependent upon. They are definers of genre, examples of which are weapons in action films. They can also however become unique signifiers of meaning in a particular film, while all scenes are constructed around numerous props, our attention is often attracted to a particular significant one by the use of close up or dialogue. This shows the significance of the objects, we know that thy will be important in the narrative. Costume and Make-up these are variants of props but are tightly

Stress and Performance Essay -- Health Stress Management

Stress and Performance Too much stress can contribute to health problems. Stress can also reduce your ability to perform at the highest levels. The negative effects of stress can impact profitability and quality of life. The Physical response: The Stress Response will: Increase heart rate, speed breathing or you might hold your breath, tightens muscle to prepare to fight or to flee, directs blood to brain and major muscles (away from digestion, hands/feet, Reproductive organs), releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, slows or stops digestion, causes the brain to be more reactive/less thoughtful, increases perspiration, reduces immune system response. Any of these systems can become your habitual way to respond to stressful situations. Symptoms of Stress can include: Tension headaches, neck/back/shoulder pain, tight jaw, TMJ problems, sleeping problems, fatigue, loss of concentration, learning problems can increase, irregular or rapid heart rate, migraine headaches, poor circulation, Raynaud Syndrome, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction (in men and women), digestive problems, upset stomach, ulcers, colitis, hormone imbalances, reduction of immune system function, over reaction by immune system (allergies or autoimmune diseases worse), increased asthma activity, increased aging rate, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, poor habit control, over-eating, low energy, prone to accidents or mistakes, can impair communication, poor performance, etc. It is not so much the amount of stress, but how you respond to it. Some people thrive on stress and may be addicted to the adrenaline rush that accompanies high stress or dangerous activities. Most people develop a "habit pattern" from an early age as ... ...s program is supported by "top-down" leadership involvement. (The process will work without full leadership support, but it takes longer and may reach its full potential.) Leaders who are familiar with the beneficial results of Executive Coaching are often open to the successful uses of these techniques (combined with stress management consulting) and can see the achievements of their business goals. The process can work with individuals, teams, departments, or company wide. It is recommended that you test the process by working with a sampling from the departments from the company. The process may require time for assessments and benchmarking, and then implementation. Obviously, some departments such as sales, can show improvement in solid dollar figures. Results from other departments may require different metrics to define and then demonstrate positive change.

Fatal Secret

*Wednesday 15th October It's getting worse. I have no friends. My family hates me. My grades are low and I can't sleep. I don't know why I even bother with school any more. My parents are so busy fighting they don't even know I'm there. I might as well just leave, it will make everyone happy. I have to go. Just pack my bags, and go* It's a Thursday afternoon, the sun is shining, there's a clear blue sky, and everything is close to perfect. Or so it seemed†¦ â€Å"Grace! Gracie! Gracie darling I'm home!† Grace's mother called repeatedly, but no one was home. Though she looked around, Grace's mother found nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except for this piece of paper lying on grace's dresser. Why this piece of paper stuck out so much she didn't know, but nevertheless she picked it up. It was addressed to her. â€Å"Mum, I know I haven't been the best daughter lately, so I think I've done you and dad a favour. I've seen the pair of you fighting, and I can't help but feel it is my fault. So I've decided to get out of your way. I don't know where I'm going, or how long for, but I think you will agree that it's for the best. In case I never see you again, I want you to know one thing. I love you and dad very much, and I owe you everything. You are the best parents a girl could wish for, but I hate seeing you like this. It's for the best, and I know when I come back things will be much better. Promise me you won't forget me. I'm sorry, Gracie xxx† Grace's mother was stunned. She read it over and over, but each time it said the same thing. Grace was gone. Her baby girl had run away, and it was all her fault. Straight away she phoned her husband, who came home immediately. â€Å"Helen, calm down† â€Å"No, we must call the police† â€Å"Look love†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Steven, our child has gone!† â€Å"Yes dear, but we can't do anything just now. The police can't do anything for another twenty-four hours. Please, just calm down. Gracie will turn up anytime now. You'll see. She'll come rushing through that door crying, saying how she made a mistake. It will all be alright.† But she didn't. They waited all night, but there was no sign of Grace. Eventually they did call the police, although that didn't make much of a difference. Grace was nowhere to be seen. Helen, Grace's mother, had started to think the worst. â€Å"Steven, what if she's, you know, what if something's happened to her. She could be lying in a ditch right now, calling out for help. Officer, can't you do something!† â€Å"We're trying as hard as we can ma'm, but there's only so much we can do. There's a search party out now, and we've advertised it everywhere. I'm afraid there isn't much else I can do. Sorry.† It was true, not much else could be done, and there didn't seem much hope for Grace's survival. No one knew if she was alive or dead. There was no evidence pointing either way. Not at the time anyway†¦ The street is no place for a young girl, as Grace found out over time. She began to regret ever leaving. She wasn't the only one alone, but everyone else seemed to know how to survive, whereas Grace was struggling to find a meal each day. She would get funny looks when people walked past. Other homeless people scared her, something about them made her feel uneasy. One man, a strange looking man with a long ripped coat and a scar across his face, he scared her the most. He would walk past her; give her funny looks, like he was thinking something. Grace was permanently on the move to try and escape his glare, but somehow he would always find her. She wasn't the only one he scared. There were other girls, young girls, on the street with Grace. She wouldn't understand why, but every now and again, one of these girls would go missing. She'd never see them again. Grace just thought that they'd moved on, or gone home. If only she knew†¦ The search continued for weeks, even months. Every day more and more people seemed certain she had disappeared completely. For everyone knew about it. It was all over every newspaper, on every channel. Not one workplace hadn't discussed it over their tea break. Lots of people joined in the search, everyone wanted her to be okay. When almost every person had given up hope of finding her, something turned up. Some children had gone down to the river one Sunday afternoon for a bit of fishing. One boy had something on the end of his line, but it wasn't a fish. It was something much larger and heavier, for he had trouble pulling it in. It was a body, a naked body. A young girl's naked body. It was Grace. When the police examined the case, it was put down as suicide. They didn't look into it much, everything added up. She was young, lonely, upset, it all seemed to fit. But maybe they should have looked a little deeper, examined it a bit more. Did she kill herself, or was it someone else' s doing. Maybe they needed just that one bit of evidence to prove that it wasn't as simple as it looked. Maybe†¦ * Wednesday 15th November I'm scared. I don't know exactly what's happening. But I know it's to do with him. I've seen him before, he gives me funny looks. I've heard him talking himself; he's not right in the head. Before I heard him asking another girl if he could do stuff to her. Dirty, wrong stuff. It's not right. I just want to go home, I don't want anything to happen to me. I never wanted to die, I just thought I shoouldgive my parents some space. I think I hear him again; he's coming over here. It's the end, I know it is. I just want to go home. I just want to go home. *

Compare & Contrast Taming of the Shrew Essay

The couples in Taming of the Shrew all have various personalities. They all can be determined in different ways, through actions and emotions. Katherine and Petruchio are both similar when it comes to being dimwitted and arrogant which brings them both together emotionally. Katherine and Petruchio are both very different beings, yet also the same. They have different views of life and intentions but the way they express it is mutual. Comparing them is quite easy; because Katherine is actually they way she is because she covers it up with her true emotions that she wants to show. For example, her father favors her sister Bianca also the fact that she fears of never being able to get married to someone who can deal with her. She comes off as a Shrew not because that’s how she really is, it’s because it’s really a cover up of her emotions. Men back in the day looked down to her for being intelligent, and Katherine being hard headed showed them that they can’t tame or mess with her. Her having a mouth and being strong minded ended up molding her personality to the public, as some rude, uncontrollable woman. The one and only Petruchio, has intentions of only taming her for her money but in the process he ends up enjoying the ride and the company of â€Å"Kate†. With him being selfish and horrible it ends up actually being a good compare for the two because their personalities fit each other, either one can benefit from the other or nonetheless. Petruchio thinks that he can tame Kate, and that marriage is just about controlling wives. With both of them bumping heads all the time, one eventually has to give in because a person can only take so much until they reach their boiling point. He doesn’t care about anyone else but his self; compared to Kate she still has morals to certain people. But Petruchio only talks to or deals with anyone who can benefit him. But when Kate intervenes in his life it all changes, slowly to both of them. In conclusion, the two or both bad for each other yet good. Katherine has found someone to actually deal with her and her wittiness and Petruchio ends up having feelings for her, and not just being mainly focused on her money.  The couple rarely has differences in characteristics; the only thing they differentiate in is their intentions for each other. The main thing they are mutual in is their feelings and attitude to the outside world and each other.

Bringing the constitutional presidency to life

The constitutional president in the United States of America is the president who has been elected by the citizens of the republic on majority votes. Bringing to the constitutional presidency to life is bringing the custom of electing presidents who would lead the country according to the constitution. Constitutional presidency The constitutional president leads the country in accordance to the powers that he has been given by the constitution and has a duty to lead the cabinet businesses.The president is the overall leader of the country is therefore responsible of hiring and firing cabinet. A constitutional president get to the position of presidency after the voting process has taken place as has been dictated by the constitution. No one has powers to ruin the presidents powers, may it be the civil or religion leaders. The president may use the religious believes of the country’s customs to dictate the undelegated power as he should understand the law of God and the law of nature in order to help him make such decisions.A constitutional president may make decisions of his freewill without consulting the delegates, such decisions may include amnesty of some petty crime victims and authorization of a bill to be passed as law for that to be a custom of the country in favor of the society. A constitution president is allowed to vie for the seat as many times as the constitution would allow him, he runs for a given number of times in which he shall not exceed if the constitution does not allow. Reference: Milis, D. & Nelson, T. (1979) American presidency, NY, Oxford University press

Amys bread case study Essay

Case Study Questions 1. Who are the main players (name and position)? The main Player in this is Amy Scherber and she is the manager and owner. Another main character is Toy Kim Dupree and he is Amy’s assistant manager. 2. In what business or businesses and industry or industries is the company operating? Amy’s bread is in the business of selling bread products both wholesale and retail. They sell primarily to high quality restaurants, hotels and food shops. 3. What are the issues and problems facing the company? (Sort them by importance and urgency.) It is hard to make a large profit because Amy pays her employees a higher amount then the other business in her field. She also has to employee about four times as many employees to complete the same job due to the intensiveness provided on each batch of bread. The company is also struggling with the idea of wither to expand or stand pat with their business. 4. What is the primary problem for the company/organization in this case? The primary problem in this case is the idea of expansion. The problem is that they do not know if they should expand or stand pat. If they do expand how are they going to centralize their business. Are they going to do strictly wholesale or wholesale and retail. 5. Why have the problem (s) you cite emerged? Identify the causal chain (the events or circumstances that caused the problem-Some will be Internal Weaknesses, others EXTERNAL Threats). This main problem has occurred because they are currently located in a storefront that is not adequate to provide the needs of all their potential customers. The main weakness here is that they are in a bad location for advancement. In their current location they are completing all of the orders that they possibly can. 6. What are the characteristics of the industry that the company is in and how is the industry changing over time? When Amy’s Bread first open bread baking was a growth industry. The U.S Department of Commerce reported there was a 12 percent increase in the consumption of specialty breads per capita. This industry is also very tough to get into there are a great deal of company’s that already have been working with restaurants for a long time. The other problem with the industry is that because it was a growth period many new bakers were trying to enter it and earn a name for them. So the computation for customers is high in the industry and only growing more competitive. 7. What is the firm’s strategy for differentiation, enabling them to compete within the context of their industry? Amy had a clear goal she wanted to be famous for making a great product and for creating a good place to work. Amy’s product itself was different because she set the highest standards on her quality. They also do not use any machines in the shaping of their bread. Every load of bread was hand crafted and shaped which was why her payroll was so high but it set her breads apart from the average shop. 8. What are possible solutions to the problems you have identified? Possible solutions to her crisis on where to go or wither to move at all are one she could not move and be satisfied where she is. The second option is she could move to a building that she would be able to produce large amounts of wholesale goods at and not concentrate on retail goods. The third option is she could move to an even bigger place where she could sell retail product and still meet her needs for wholesale. 9. What are the advantages and possible disadvantages of your solution(s)? If she stays pat then she will be able to turn a marginal profit and meet the needs of her current customers. The disadvantages would be that she would then miss out on opportunity to sell to all the customers that she has on her waiting list and her retail business would not be any bigger. In second option they would be able to meet all her wholesale needs. The disadvantages would be that she could not sell retail customers any more and she would be paying more for the property. In the third option she would be able to sell both retail and wholesale. She would be in a newly developing retail market with access to foot traffic. She would also be able to meet all her whole sale needs. To top it off she would be able to design the layout of the building to fit her exact needs. The disadvantages of this are that it is very expensive. She would get everything that she is looking for but at a substantially higher price then the other two options. 10. Are there any possible problems with your suggested recommendations? What contingencies need to be accommodated? My recommendation would be to choose the third option. It is the most expensive but Amy has already demonstrated that she has a sharp business minded and is able to build business and promote it. The retail space will help spread the word of how good her bread actually is and word of mouth is the best advertisement they could have. The biggest problem that they could have is if they start to loose customers. A second problem would be if the market begins to shift away from the cravings of bread. Or another problem could be that they simply do not add enough customers to be able to afford the new space. Case Study Analysis Narrative Format Case title: Amy’s Bread Student: Nicholas Mustico Date: 3-18-2013 Course: Management Principles Firm Overview and Introduction to the Case (Use this and all headings in your narrative) In this first section of the narrative, you will provide a brief description of the case subject firm and circumstances for your reader. YOU are the expert. Your analysis is reliant on the fact that you’ve read the case at least three In the case study of Amy’s bread you get a complete overview of the company. It discusses where they started how they started and the experience that the owner Amy Scherber has. Amy Scherber is the centerpiece of the company she is the founder, owner, manager, and lead baker/chef for Amy’s bread. Amy is also the main person in charge of the company’s finances and business discussions. Amy is now facing the problem of wither or not she is going to expand her company. She has been able to entrench her business in the tough industry of baking breads. This is a business that is very completive and hard to establish yourself in. Now that she has become  establish she has to decide wither she would like to expand to meet consumer’s demands or stay where she is and be happy with what she has accomplished. Internal perspectives (Use this and all headings in your narrative) This section of your narrative is used to explain to your reader the internal, factual information about the case subject organization and the problems you’ve identified. Additionally, in this section you need to describe the causal chain. How did the problem arise? What caused it? The problem in this case would not be a problem if the company had not become as successful as it has. If the company had not become so popular then the small storefront that she had originally solicited would never have become a problem. They did become popular though and now they have to adjust to what they would like to become. No one knows if she had selected a larger site if she would have ever been able to get herself going but if she had then this problem may never have occurred. Her company now is at a point where they cannot satisfy one additional customer due to space constrictions. Amy’s problem is a hard one to decide on but for a company it is a good spot to be in if you have too much potential business. It is always better to have too much opportunity then too little. * External perspectives (Use this and all headings in your narrative) In this section you will describe the characteristics of the industry in which the subject organization operates. Identify any changes over time, which you believe contribute to the problems you’ve identified. Has the Firm’s Strategy for differentiation within their industry caused, Added to or exacerbated the problems you’ve identified? Amy’s bread is in a very complex and difficult industry to work in. She is in a field that has been â€Å"well farmed.† What I mean by that is that there have already been people there doing what she is trying to do. The business she is trying to sell to unless they are newer then her have all already put someone in place to fulfill their need. She then would have to show these businesses that she is that much better then her computation that they have already employed.  Amy’s strategy for differentiation is basically being better then the computation. She is striving to have the highest quality, freshest, and most innovative bread selection. She had made it a point that she will not sacrifice quality for anything else including profit. Amy was lucky, or smart enough to enter the backing industry when it was on the rise. Consumption of grains had just begun to rise when Amy entered the industry. The U.S Department of Commerce reported there was a 12 percent increase in the consumption of specialty breads per capita. This industry is also very tough to get into there are a great deal of company’s that already have been working with restaurants for a long time. The other problem with the industry is that because it was a growth period many new bakers were trying to enter it and earn a name for them. So the computation for customers is high in the industry and only growing more competitive. This main problem has occurred because they are currently located in a storefront that is not adequate to provide the needs of all their potential customers. The main weakness here is that they are in a bad location for advancement. In their current location they are completing all of the orders that they possibly can. Then again this is not a problem that most business would not want. Solutions (Use this and all headings in your narrative) In this section you will provide a proposed solution to the primary problem/ secondary problems you’ve identified. Possible solutions to her crisis on where to go or wither to move at all are one she could not move and be satisfied where she is. The second option is she could move to a building that she would be able to produce large amounts of wholesale goods at and not concentrate on retail goods. The third option is she could move to an even bigger place where she could sell retail product and still meet her needs for wholesale. If she stays pat then she will be able to turn a marginal profit and meet the needs of her current customers. The disadvantages would be that she would then miss out on opportunity to sell to all the customers that she has on her waiting list and her retail business would not be any bigger. In second option they would be able to meet all her wholesale needs. The disadvantages would be that she could not sell retail customers any more and she would be paying more for the  property. In the third option she would be able to sell both retail and wholesale. She would be in a newly developing retail market with access to foot traffic. She would also be able to meet all her whole sale needs. To top it off she would be able to design the layout of the building to fit her exact needs. The disadvantages of this are that it is very expensive. She would get everything that she is looking for but at a substantially higher price then the other two options. My recommendation would be to choose the third option. It is the most expensive but Amy has already demonstrated that she has a sharp business minded and is able to build business and promote it. The retail space will help spread the word of how good her bread actually is and word of mouth is the best advertisement they could have. The biggest problem that they could have is if they start to loose customers. A second problem would be if the market begins to shift away from the cravings of bread. Or another problem could be that they simply do not add enough customers to be able to afford the new space. Case Model Insert a copy of your case model at the end of your narrative. Model the problem and solution by drawing a diagram. Identify the problem, what is causing it, what is making the problem worse (or potentially hiding the problem), and what can be done to mitigate or eliminate it. Use the strategy models to help you think through the steps that must be taken to intervene and solve this problem. Case model

Analysis of present environments Essay

Other factors that may be included in the analysis would be the presence of other alcoholic beverages in each market that may affect the sales of the possible expansion. We have to take into account that Scotch and wines do not comprise the whole market for alcoholic beverages. If the consumer preference would be as volatile as it poses to be, then the other beverage drinkers may switch from their present beverage to another. The scary part of the situation is, we could not determine as of now, if the possible expansion would gain or spell disaster for the company. Another factor to be considered is the indices in the market. This indices are the indicators whether the public would be able to squeeze the purchase of a whisky in their budget. This simply draws out the in demand products that would be dubbed â€Å"necessities† and the lesser needed products, known as the â€Å"luxuries. † The movement of the product from a luxury to a necessity spells success, but the other way around would be a bad sign for the expansion. Couple this factor with the volatility and the result would be a very risky market with high gains and disaster on the other end. The analysis of the present environments is important for a marketing strategy as this would help us understand the environments under the influence of, and that influences the countries in question. However, the factor of bias takes in, which usually has to be negated. The negation process would take place by as the objective part of judging by criteria, comprising half of the decision and the other half, the subjective decisions. First, before any analysis would be made, certain criteria would have to be in order for the comparisons. Considerable weights should be given to the consumer expectations and preferences (30 points), labeled A. This would help us determine the choices of the consumers that we are trying to serve. This weighs heavily since the consumers are directly related to the profits that the company would generate. Next in line would be the rate of acceptance of the market (30 points), labeled B. This is another heavy criterion since this would determine if the country is really suitable for the operations of the company in question. If the results would be heavily low, then we can conclude already that the company would not thrive in that specific country. This greatly helps in the subjective side of the judgment. Another criterion to be judged is the taxation in their country (20 points), labeled C. Taxation may not weigh as much but it weighs significantly at 20 points out of the 100 point total. This is because taxation affects the rate of the profit that a company generates. A higher taxation rate would then lower the chance that a company should invest in the specified country. And the last criteria to be considered would be the performance of the substitute (20 points), labeled D. These criterions would not only let us see the objective part of the problem by looking at the figures that the criteria would present. However, we have to bear in mind that the decision-making of this marketing strategy would depend not only in its objective part, but should also be considering the subjective part of the problem. Some problems cannot be explained by figures and leaves this part to the analytical and subjective mind of the decision-maker. Further statements from the analysis of the criteria would bear the interpretations of the scores. After which would be the ranking of the scores to determine which country scored the most points in achieving the goal of successful expansion for the company at hand. However, the final decision would lie after the subjective part of the theory. Country A B C D TOTAL RANK Denmark 30 25 20 15 90 1 N. Ireland 30 20 20 10 80 3 Austria 25 25 20 15 85 2 Spain 25 25 10 15 75 4 Points to Ponder:? Denmark’s score was due to the (1) good age distribution as the median of the age of males in the 15-64 bracket is just 38, stating a more diverse markets for the old and young drinkers. (Anonymous 2006f) (2) The market would suit the product just fine. In fact, the market in Denmark, in terms of the raw materials seem to give a very positive sign for Denmark as this could lead to further expansions (Anonymous 2006f)(3) The taxation does not bother this country as shown in here. Denmark seems to be comfortable not to be accommodated by the top four of the Union’s Top Four of Taxes. (Anonymous 2002) (4) Substitutes seem to be performing well, but not enough as the growing demand for Scotch whisky is trying to speed up the development of the local supplier of the product. These ratings have put Denmark in the No. 1 spot. ? Northern Ireland bags the second spot easily for a variety of reasons: (1) the lowest median mark was achieved by this country; with just a median of 33 years old, it generally means most of the male population are below the 40 year old mark, a good sign for the company. The company generally caters more to the male crowd, and the flavors of the Scotch whisky have a specific audience. More drinkers are also available for judgment since the younger drinkers are the ones who prefer the other flavors, unlike the older crowd. An example of this would be, many young drinker’s can be the target for the release of the Monreith Malt. Simultaneously, the market for The Torhousemuir Tawny, would also penetrate the older market, such of the 40 years and above since they still have a part of the market, although they may play the minor role in the profit margins. (2) Generally, this is neither good nor bad since the company can be seen as â€Å"one of the others† or â€Å"a new breed†. Either way, the public would remain in the middle of things, making it hard for the determination of the acceptance of the public The product originated in the same country, Another brand’s addition to the market may be viewed as a mediocre thing for the public. This people would really try your brand, just make a good offer in the initial release, sort of a bargain. (3) Tax problems have never plagued the country after the tax involved issues of before where Kings and Queens reign this land. Nowadays, it seemed like the people of Ireland have learned their lessons from the past events. (4)Market substitutes are on the loose, since this is the origin of Scotch whisky. Generally, substitutes would be of great numbers, which definitely pose a bad sign since your product can be swallowed by the market. ? Austria’s rates were affected by (a) since the people of Austria are known to be of good taste, then the consumer expectations would be high; knowing that The Olde Distillerie is from the country of United Kingdom, the country where the brewers of Scotland have originated (b) acceptance was marked as such since the country is sail to have taste in things that are not really rich in its flavor, but also in history. (c) Demography of the country shows a 40 year old median for the men in an evenly distributed country. This result shows an inclination in the stronger brew of the whisky since it says that the composition of men are said to have evenly distributed age, with older men winning the battle of numbers. Other products would have problems in their sales since the market would only focus on the older men market, since the median age was 40. Added costs for extra marketing strategies would be needed to gain the necessary profits needed by the company for the other products. (Anonymous 2006j) (d) Good taxation brings the country on the top four of the European Union (Anonymous 2002) This is a good sign for Austria as this is viewed as a country with less taxes, therefore, more profits. And this could also open doors to the export market, as this has been a very good opportunity for the company. ? The least attractive of the choices given, Spain does not provide any chance to defend itself due to the factors affecting its market. Some problems to the expansion there include: (1) The demographic distribution of the male population is not as diverse as that of Northern Ireland. (Anonymous 2006i) Although this may prove to be a positive sign, let us not forget the male’s sense of pride that they would not readily exchange the wine for a foreign drink, especially of a new brand in the market. (2) Market acceptance is not a problem as Spain is known to be one of the world’s top consumers of alcohol. However, acceptance may just remain to be accepted and not commended. (Anonymous 2006k)(3) Another issue: tax. Spain has been known to be a country brutal on its taxes in order for them to challenge the substitute market for their wine. As they increase the tax, they tend to lower the market consumption of the substitutes for wine, like scotch whisky (4) Lastly, scotch whisky’s only substitute here would be that of the gin, tequila, and beer. Wines are the primary products, making it look like Scotch whisky is really a substitute for the main product, wine.

The Sound of Music Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Sound of Music - Research Paper Example From the report it is clear that  human beings are such critical and fickle minded creatures. As an artform, it takes a lot for a film to succeed in the industry. The term â€Å"classic† is awarded to only a number of films and critics may not even always agree on branding a film with such accordance. However, when it comes to classics, perhaps every critic would agree that the 1965 film â€Å"The Sound of Music† truly deserves the recognition because it is a fine example of how the right mix of a good story, impeccable acting, breathtaking cinematography, and harmonious sound design could work together to create a film that will be remembered for decades to come.This essay stresses that in â€Å"The Sound of Music,† the story can be summed up as â€Å"Maria sees life from a whole different perspective when she leaves an Austrian convent to become the governess of Captain Von Trapp’s children.† As one can see, the story is quite simple and direct to the poem. On the other hand, the plot may be a little more verbose.  It is 1930’s in Austria and Maria, a lady from the convent who is a bit rough around the edges, has just been assigned as governess of the seven mischievous children of Captain Von Trapp, a Naval officer widower. The naughtiness of the children comes from a desire to get their father’s attention who runs the household in a very strict manner when he is not away. While Maria was initially met with the same hostility that the children awarded to their previous governesses, Maria soon wins them over with her kindness, spunk and musical inclinations.  

The Role of Recreational Literacy in the Knowledge Acquisition of a Ho Essay

The Role of Recreational Literacy in the Knowledge Acquisition of a Hotel Manager - Essay Example The average person has so many options to choose for in terms of upgrading his knowledge about specific events that are relevant to his or her life. Due to this, literacy is not restricted only to the traditional classroom learning or the supervisory systems where institutions controlled the flow of information to different parts of the society. This the existence of recreational literacy as an alternative source of enlightenment has affected different units of the society including the hotel industry. Recreational literacy is defined by Mackey as â€Å"engagements with texts of all kinds that are undertaken entirely for their own sake, for the pleasure of the engagement and not for any utilitarian outcome† (2007 6). Thus it refers to reading and update of information by individuals without a view of getting a qualification or some recognition from it. The whole idea of idea of recreational literacy refers to the acquisition of knowledge by self-motivated individuals mainly through unconscious efforts. This influences the way an individual thinks, although it might not be in a very structured system. Due to the unconsciousness and the gradualist system, recreational literacy affects the way people think and perceive organizations. Due to this, recreational literacy affects the way a hotel manager goes about his/her work. Since I desire to become a hotel manager, I will examine the literacy practices of the hotel management industry and attempt to find out the rate at which recreational literacy has had an influence on the sector. In effect, the paper will examine how recreational literacies are currently transforming learning and communication in hotel management. The paper will proceed by first examining the concept of recreational literacy into greater depth. It will go on to examine the main literacy structures in the hotel management industry. From there, it will explain how the hotel industry is being changed by recreational literacies by interviewing a resource person who has first-hand knowledge of these trends in the industry.     Ã‚