Essay on Critical Evaluation of 1 Child Policy in China

Critical Evaluation of 1 Child Policy in China The policy was started in 1979, due to the population dramatically increasing to an estimated 1 billion people. In China there was a limited amount of farming land and the country could not cope with feeding this population. The country is Communist and the ideas of the party were to show to the World how brilliant the vision of Communism was. For this, it could not ask other countries for loans or trade, otherwise it would be showing the signs of weakness. This threatened the survival and development of China, especially since the baby boomers born in the 1960s reaching child-bearing ages in the late 1970s, the Chinese government has tried to curb†¦show more content†¦Their wages could only just buy the essentials anyway. Due to this, boys were most always usually kept. Boys could work on the farm or give them money after they have retired. A girl on the other hand cost more such as clothes and other things. The parents also had to pay for their daughter to get married k nown as a dowry. If a girl was born therefore they were usually drowned or aborted in the most inhumane methods. The after affects of this were that 30-40 years later the country was full of men. This led to the increase in homosexuality and prostitution, which therefore led to the increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Children were left in the doorways of wealthy peoples homes or orphanages. Girls were often sold to pimps as young as 12 and the parents then reaped the rewards. They would send their daughter miles away and tell the Government that they had never had a child and therefore would not have to pay an extra 15% tax. With few women and vast amount of men per town and village, rape and kidnapping became a frequently usual event. Wealthy men would send people out on to the street, pick a pretty women and then bring her back to him. This led to attractive women cutting and slitting their faces so they no longed looked pretty. China also had the largest suicide rate, as living had become so miserable and depressing. Children had immense pressure put on themShow MoreRelatedCorporate Social Responsibility: Analysis Essay examples1168 Words   |  5 Pages  and   Social   Responsibility:   CSR   Analysis   Assignment    Purpose   of   this   research   is   to   critically   analyse   and   evaluate   the   corporate    social    responsibility    (CSR)    policies    that    the    business    Cotton    On    Group    (COG)   employs.       INTRODUCTION    Corporate   social   responsibility   is   in   place   to   ensure   the   business   is   accountable Read MorePersonal Statement : Marketing Management978 Words   |  4 PagesPersonal Statement My connection to marketing started when I was a child. My mother’s friend sold beauty products in gorgeous boxes, targeted at female customers in various age groups. Attracted by the exquisite designs and persuasive slogans, I hoped that one day I could come up with such creative marketing ideas. As I grew up, I gained a better understanding of marketing from my father, a corporate sales director. Through our conversations, I learned that while making a sale is undoubtedly importantRead MoreWas Development Assistance a Mistake1509 Words   |  7 Pages| Task: Critically Review the text â€Å"Was Development Assistance a Mistake | | A Critical Review of Easterly, W 2007, Was Development Assistance a Mistake?, American Economics Review, 97(2), pp 328-332. Foreign aid focuses on promoting economic and human development ( Williamson, R 2009).Many experts attempt to possess the knowledge and skill to help poor nations. The key theme of â€Å"Was Development Assistance a mistake?† is Easterly’s argument, how developmentRead MoreComparison of HR Practices and Employment Relations Philosophies in China and Taiwan2521 Words   |  11 PagesComparison of HR Practices and Employment Relations Philosophies in China and Taiwan Introduction In the face of ever-increasing globalization, both China and Taiwan have now joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO); a more open market economy and closer integration with the global economic order appears to be inevitable for both countries (Magarinos et al. 2002). Human Resource Management (HRM) is one of the critical tools for improving productivity and competitiveness atRead MoreJuvenile Delinquency Essay1646 Words   |  7 PagesOther identifiable causes of crime are frustration of failure in school, the increasing availability of drugs and alcohol, and the increase of child abuse and neglect of children (Tsunokai Kposowa, 2009; Resko et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2008; Kotch et al., 2008; Maas, Herrenkohl, Sousa, 2008). All these factors increase the likelihood that a child will commit an offense. Treatment of Juvenile Delinquents The juvenile justice system in various countries tries to rehabilitate young peopleRead MoreThe Current Distribution Of Fiscal Education1612 Words   |  7 Pagesgovernments of nearly all the countries. Indeed, the importance of education is obvious. From every child s future, to the future of society as a whole, they all largely rely on the quality of education system. The method by which the government allocates the budget to the school system can also serve as an important instrument for achieving desired improvements in levels of education. Growing up in Beijing, China, I have always paid attention to the financial resource allocation of its school system. AsRead MoreCritical Evaluation of Institutional Factors Impact on Outward/Inward Foreign Direct Investment2183 Words   |  9 PagesEssay Critical Evaluation of Institutional Factors Impact on Outward/Inward Foreign Direct Investment This aim of this essay is to evaluate the impact of institutional factors on outward and inward FDI. This will be done by determination of the major FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) factors, evaluation of the role of institutional factors and investigation of institutional factors impact on inward and outward FDI flows. Several sources (Aswathappa, 2012; Jensen, 2012) have identified FDI as anRead More21st Century Learning And Progressive Education2967 Words   |  12 Pages The challenge is to analyze life in this ever-changing century and how it will impact schooling, keeping in mind the children, the students and the welfare of the world. How will teachers shape their curricula with the increased pressure of No Child Left Behind and the emphasis on common core standards (Larson, 2011, p.123)? This paper will focus on the complexity of education in the 21st century, including the developing skills, and what educators and educational philosophers expect to unfoldRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Business Ownership, Management Structure And Staffing Essay2718 Words   |  11 Pages1. Executive Summary Business Overview Market Analysis Macro Environment Entry Strategy Marketing Strategy SWOT Analysis Market Research Competitor Analysis Business Ownership, Management Structure and Staffing Financials required Operational matters Legal Compliance 2. Business Overview What this business will do, its products and services, the industry it is in, when, where and how business will be delivered NannyMatch is an on-call or short-term babysitting service, which matches specificallyRead MoreOrganizational Social Responsiveness from Csr Perspective2006 Words   |  9 Pagesinternal social mechanisms (Bartol, 2011). To be more precise, the author would like to study the social responsiveness from a CSR perspective. The following part of this research will make two case studies to further explain the theory abovementioned. 1. Definition of CSR There is no clear definition of CSR. EC defines CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for what impact they can have on society. Since Oliver Sheldon (1924) first proposed the concept CSR, it has been defined as that corporate

Critical Analysis Of 1984 By George Orwell - 1257 Words

1984 by George Orwell sets the overall eerie tone of the book early on. â€Å"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU† (Orwell 3). In the book this was the statement was put on a poster of big brothers face. Firstly this is an example of metonymy. In the statement the term â€Å"BIG BROTHER† isn’t referring to how big brother very closely related to the thought police. The thought police is the organization that monitors the inner and outer party members. Secondly this can be looked through a postmodernist lens as the consequence of advancing technologies and technoculture. In the Airstrip One which is 1984’s dystopian version of london. Which has been pledged with the plight, that is, advance technologies. There are â€Å"telescreens† on over Airstrip One. these†¦show more content†¦Instead it uses two words that aren’t typically considered related. This is why this is an example of contrast. Secondly, this can be viewed through a marxist persp ective. 1984 is a book that describes a perfect/near marxist society. In Oceania capitalism has been in a why outlawed, instead everything is provided by the party this can be seen through the various products used by our protagonist, â€Å"victory gin† (Orwell 7) and â€Å"victory cigarettes† (Orwell 8) are just a few examples of government nationalized goods. Karl Marx once asked â€Å"How can people be free?† Marx suggested that we are restrained because we have so many needs [we need] to fulfil (â€Å"Karl...†). Oceania addresses this concern presented by Marx with a totalitarian government. The totalitarian government controls all aspects of its citizens basic needs which is an ideal society in terms of marxism. The problem 1984 explores is what a totalitarian government may (or may not) do in order to keep its power. Thirdly further explains Winston s dislike of the government, throughout the book, the party, talks about a war with the on of the two other super states eastasia and eurasia. In the beginning of the book the party tells its citizens (and us the reader) that they have a peace agreement with Eurasia and are at war with Eastasia but later we are told that the tables have turned and instead of telling the public that Eurasia is the new enemy, they in a way rewriteShow MoreRelatedCritical Analysis and Evaluation of 1984, by George Orwell.1487 Words   |  6 PagesGeorge Orwell 1984 The New American Library Copyright 1961 George Orwell George Orwell, whose real name was Eric Blair, was born in Bengal, India, in 1903. When he was eight years old, as it was customary, his mother brought him back to England to be educated. He was sent to a boarding school on the south coast, a school whose students were sons of the upper class. He was allowed in with lower tuition and not being from a wealthy background, he was subject to snobbery of the others at the schoolRead MoreThe Party’s Attitude Toward Love and Sexuality1574 Words   |  7 PagesThe Party’s attitude toward love and sexuality 1984 is a novel written by George Orwell, the main theme of the novel is about how totalitarian society can control every aspect of a person thought, sexuality and action. Totalitarianism can be define as a repressive one-party that has total control over people thoughts and actions. In 1984, people are being control totally by the Party through device such as the telescreen. People are stripped away from their freedom to do things that they want.Read MoreA Literary Analysis Of 1984 By George Orwell721 Words   |  3 Pages The essay your about to read is a literary analysis of the book â€Å"1984 by George Orwell† it was written in 1948 as a thriller. Winston Smith is the main character of this story followed by two characters â€Å"Julia and O’Brien.† The book starts off with main character Winston being very frustrated with what is called the â€Å"Party† lead by a man named â€Å"Big Brother† hints the saying â€Å"big brother is watching you† from â€Å"George Orwells worst fear† stated by express.co.uk. the book takes you for a rideRead MoreAnalysis Of George Orwell s 1984848 Words   |  4 Pages Critical Analysis In the George Orwell’s novel 1984, much of the society is watched and have no privacy of any kind. Every person in the Party is under surveillance. In effect, these people cannot live freely and independently, but it seems to be an impossible task because of of the Party surveillance, and how they limit thinking and manipulate reality. We can similarly see these concerns and their effects in today s society and the ways the novel also acts as a warning for the future. In 1984Read MoreThe s Best Known Works Are? Politics And The English Language?3044 Words   |  13 PagesTwo of George Orwell?s best known works are ?Politics and the English Language? and 1984. In ?Politics and the English Language,? he points out many of the issues with the modern writings of his time, which are still problems today. Nineteen Eighty-Four focuses on the push of totalitarian rule by the government. Orwell?s ideas have been seen before, but he is considered to have presented them in one of the best ways that is still influential today. The decay of society as portrayed in George OrwellRead MoreStereotyped Women in George Orwells 19841232 Words   |  5 PagesOrwell only succeeds in creating stereotyped representations of women in his novel ‘1984’. Discuss. In George Orwell’s ‘1984’ he patronises the women he creates as we see an insight into the weaker sex who are often degraded with humiliating names and vulnerability. Orwell stereotypes the female characters, which reflects his somewhat limited view of women and their important role ion society. He creates a problem in the way that masculinity and femininity lose all value in the totalitarian stateRead MoreNineteen Eighty Four By George Orwell Essay1601 Words   |  7 PagesBook Review for Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell Jason Lee December 12, 2015 SECTION A Date published June 8, 1949 City where published London, England Publisher Secker Warburg Number of pages 267 SECTION B Summary of your book (key details only...address the beginning, middle, and end of the book) Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place in the fictional nationRead More Animal Farm as a Political Satire to Criticise Totalitarian Regimes4636 Words   |  19 PagesAnimal Farm as a Political Satire to Criticise Totalitarian Regimes This study aims to determine that George Orwells Animal Farm is a political satire which was written to criticise totalitarian regimes and particularly Stalins practices in Russia. In order to provide background information that would reveal causes led Orwell to write Animal Farm, Chapter one is devoted to a brief summary of the progress of authors life and significant events that had impact on his political convictions. ChapterRead MoreThe Dystopia By George Orwell2154 Words   |  9 PagesThe dystopia depicted in 1984 is a direct result of author George Orwell’s exposure to the oppressive regimes of his day. At the time of Orwell’s composition of the novel, authoritarian governments of the 1940s posed a real and dangerous threat to the free citizens of Europe. Much of what he saw in the Nazi and communist regimes inspired the Party, the government of Oceania, in his text 1984. The text argues that the effectiveness of an authoritarian regime depends on its ability to dehumanize itsRead MoreTechnological Advances in Analytics and Mobility: Positive and Negative Aspects of Technology871 Words   |  3 Pagesethical standards, is critical for the personal freedoms of the public (Martin, Freeman, 2004). Analysis of the Ethical Implications of Technological Innovation The benefits of increased analytics and mobility technologies has made the lives of millions of people globally richer, more productive and for many, created entirely new ways of making a living. Analytics have given medical researchers the ability to find trends and insights in data sets that had defied analysis in the past. Advanced

Financial & Managerial Accounting

Question: Discuss about the Financial Managerial Accounting. Answer: Introduction:- Financial performance forms the basis for growth of any business as the continuity of operations of any business is ensured by them. Hence, it is essential for any organization to evaluate its financial performance over the periods that is it can be either annually, quarterly or monthly. Financial analysis and evaluation are provided by most of the advanced accounting software. Such financial reports with every entry of financial transactions are updated and prepared with the help of Saasu (Bourne et al., 2015). Moreover, it is possible to obtain many other report required for performance measurement in an effective manner using this software. The report discusses about the Streamline financial performance based on its financial report. Report is prepare under using Saasu software. It also provides the recommendation for improving financial performance and evaluation process of Streamline. Financial performance analysis: There are various forms that can be used to evaluate the financial performance of Streamline. Profit or gain is regarded as the most important aspect for profit making entity (Warren et al., 2013). This is depicted by profitability ratio and therefore, the profitability ratio for Streamline is calculated in the table below: Profitability Ratios:- Particulars Amount Total Revenue $41,061.10 Gross Profit $18,212.10 Net Profit $7,487.10 Owner's Contribution $60,000.00 Gross Profit Margin 44.35% Net Profit Margin 18.23% Return on Equity 12.48% Performance of Streamline is quite good as depicted from table above. 44.35% of sales revenue of organization has been converted into gross profit and has returned a net profit of 18.23%. Return on equity stands at 12.48% on the initial contribution and hence performance can be regarded at par (Weygandt et al., 2015). Some other ratios that can be used to measure the efficiency of operation level of Streamline are as follows: Efficiency Ratios:- Particulars Amount Total Revenue $41,061.10 Accounts Receivable $15,908.75 Cost of Sales $22,849.00 Inventory $8,591.00 Accounts Payable $26,400.00 Accounts Receivable Turnover Period 141.42 Inventory Turnover Period 137.24 Accounts Payable Turnover Period 306.49 The average period of paying off credit purchases and collecting credit sales stands at 306.49 and 141.42 respectively, although the credit period for account payable and receivable are 30 days after month end purchase and 30 days after sales. It takes 137.24 days for converting the inventories into sales. Strategies taken for operations improvement: It is clearly depicted from above figures that satisfactory profit margin has been generated by Streamline. Organization can improve its level of efficiency and profit margin by adopting flowing strategies: Fixed assets of company should be charged with depreciation as it would help in accumulating replacement cost of fixed assets. Viewing the present turnover, it is recommended to convert its inventories quickly into sold products. For reducing bad debt risk, organization should maintain bad debt provisions. Cash inflow of Streamline can be increased by reducing the accounts receivable turnover period (Hossack, 2015). Conclusion: The financial performance of Streamline has been evaluated using the financial report. For effective business decision making, organization has Saasu software, which provides additional reporting facilities. Streamline can utilize additional benefits of its employed software, which is used for recording the financial transactions. Following report can be useful for Streamline. Forecasted cash flow- This would help in determining cash flow expense and cash revenue and forecasting would help in accordingly taking business decision. BAS Summary- This helps in effectively computing expenses concerning tax based on business financial activities. Reference: Bourne, S., Szabo, C., Sheng, Q. Z. (2015, June). Managing Configurable Business Process as a Service to Satisfy Client Transactional Requirements. InServices Computing (SCC), 2015 IEEE International Conference on(pp. 154-161). IEEE. Hossack, S. (2015). Cloud-based accounting and productivity tools for practitioners and taxpayers.Taxation in Australia,50(5), 265. Warren, C. S., Reeve, J. M., Duchac, J. (2013).Financial managerial accounting. Cengage Learning. Weygandt, J. J., Kimmel, P. D., Kieso, D. E. (2015).Financial Managerial Accounting. John Wiley Sons.

slaves of the middle passage Essay Example

slaves of the middle passage Essay slaves of the middle passage BY tJ300000 Crossed Up: Does Crossed Hand/Eye Dominance Affect Basketball Shooting Percentage? Abstract Everyones used to the idea that people are either right-handed or left-handed for particular tasks. That is, one hand is preferred (or dominant) over the other for a particular task. Did you know that people also have a dominant eye? This project is designed to look for consequences of having the dominant hand and eye on the same side of the body (uncrossed) vs. aving the dominant hand and eye on opposite sides of the body (crossed). Objective The goal of this project is to determine whether crossed hand/eye dominance helps or hurts when shooting basketball free throws. Sources This project is based on an entry to the 2007 California State Science Fair: Hines, K. K. and R. S. Thurman, 2007. Ballin: The Effect of Hand and Eye Dominance on a Subjects Free Throw Percentage, California State Science Fair Abstract [accessed June 7, 2007] httpwwww. usc. edWCS SF/HtstorY/200wprojects/S1106. pdf. Time 2-4 weeks Working with Human Test Subjects There are special considerations when designing an experiment involving human subjects. Fairs affiliated with Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) often require an Informed Consent Form (permission sheet) for every participant who is questioned. Consult the rules and regulations of the science fair that you are entering, prior to performing experiments or surveys. Please refer to the Science Buddies documents Projects Involving Human Subjectsand Scientific Review Committee for additional important requirements. If you are working with minors, you must get advance permission from the childrens parents or guardians (and teachers if you are performing the test while they are in school) to make sure that it s all right for the children to participate in the science fair project. Here are suggested guidelines for obtaining permission for working with minors: a. Write a clear description of your science fair project, what you are studying, and what you hope to learn. Include how the child will be tested. Include a paragraph where you get a parents or guardians and/or teachers signature. . Print out as many copies as you need for each child you will be surveying. c. Pass out the permission sheet to the children or to the teachers of the children to give to the parents. You must have ermission for all the children in order to be able to use them as test subjects. Readily available Cost Very Low (under $20) Safety No issues Introduction The idea of having a dominant hand (being left-handed or right- handed) is familiar to everyone. What may not be so familiar is the concept of a dominant eye. We will write a custom essay sample on slaves of the middle passage specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on slaves of the middle passage specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on slaves of the middle passage specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Most people are accustomed to using both eyes together, and dont think much about situations where it might matter if one eye is dominant over the other. This project is based on an entry to the 2007 California State Science Fair by Keith Hines and Robert Thurman, oth winners of the Science Buddies Clever Scientist Award for their work. When Keith learned about eye dominance, he wondered if there might be consequences for athletes. For example, if the dominant eye and the dominant hand were on opposite sides of the body (crossed hand-eye dominance), might that be an advantage in certain situations in sports. He first thought about hitting in baseball. In the case of crossed dominance, the dominant eye would be closer to the pitcher when the batter was standing in the box. Would that be an advantage? Keith decided that there were oo many variables involved in an investigation of hitting, but with his friend Robert, he decided that freethrow shooting in basketball offered a better situation for study. When shooting free throws in basketball, players often hold the ball up at face-level when preparing for the shot. In this position, the ball can easily block (at least partially) the eye on the same side of the body as the shooting hand. For shooters with uncrossed hand and eye dominances, this would mean that the dominant eye was partially blocked. For shooters with crossed hand and eye dominances, this would mean that the non-dominant eye was partially blocked. On the basis of the description above, you might hypothesize†as Keith and Robert did†that players with crossed hand and eye dominances would have an advantage for freethrow shooting over players with uncrossed hand and eye dominances (Hines and Thurman, 2007). Heres an experiment that you can try to find out. Terms and Concepts To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts: Hand dominance Eye dominance Crossed hand and eye dominances Questions Will crossed hand/eye dominance have a negative effect, a positive effect, or no effect on free-throw shooters? Bibliography This webpage describes a good method for determining which eye is dominant: Archeryweb. org, date unknown. Determining Your Dominant Eye, archeryweb. org [accessed June 7, 2007]http://www. archeryweb. com/archery/eyedom. htm. This webpage has an explanation of eye dominance: McWilliams, K. 1998. What Is Eye Dominance? MadSci Network: Neuroscience dec98/912662561 . Ns. r. html. These webpages have information on how the brain is involved in hand and eye dominance: Chudler, E. H. , et al. , 2006a. Hemispheres, Neuroscience for Kids [accessed June 7, 2007] http://faculty. washington. edu/chudler/ split. tml. Chudler, E. H. , et al. , 2006b. Sidedness, Neuroscience for Kids [accessed June 7, 2007] http://faculty. washington. edu/chudler/rightl. html. This project is based on an entry to the 2007 California State Science Fair: Hines, K. K. nd R. S. Thurman, 2007. Ballin: The Effect of Hand and Eye Dominance on a Subjects Free Throw Percentage, California State Science Fair Abstract [accessed June 7, 2007] http:// www. usc. edu/CSSF/History/2007/ProJects/S1106. pdf. This website has descriptions and calculators for several statistical tests, including the Students t-test that you can use in this project: Kirkman, T. date unknown. Students t-Tests, Department of Physics, College of St. Benedict St. Johns University [accessed June 7, 2007]http:// www. physics. csbs]u. edu/stats/t-test. html. Materials and Equipment To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment: 50-100 volunteers to take hand and eye dominance tests and then shoot free throws; notes: The more subjects you can test, the more reliable your results will be For more information, see the Science Buddies resource, How Many Participants Do I Need? Basketball Basketball court Hand dominance surveys Lab notebook Variations For a more basic experiment on determining right side/left side dominance in a sample population, see the Science Buddies project Are You Left or Right Sided? In this experiment, your hypothesis might have been that, when shooting free throws, the ball would (at least partially) block the dominant eye for shooters with uncrossed hand and eye dominances. Therefore, shooters with crossed hand and eye dominances might be expected to have an advantage. Can you think of a way to measure how much the ball blocks the vision of the dominant eye for each shooter? Can you incorporate this additional data into your analysis? Another approach to this project would be to use actual freethrow shooting statistics for real basketball teams. The trick is that you will need to be able to test (or survey) each player to find out their dominant hand and dominant eye. As in the experiment described above, it would be best to have at least 50-100 participants in your study, so youll need to test (or survey) a lot of players. Each player you include in your study will also need to have a significant number of freethrow attempts over the course of the season, so that you know the freethrow shooting percentage is reliable. What do you think the ffect of crossed hand/eye dominance would be in other sports, e. g. hitting a baseball, archery, target rifle shooting, soccer, or golf? Design an experiment to test your hypothesis. 1. Do your background research so that you are knowledgeable about the terms, concepts, and questions, above. 2. Youll need to recruit 50-100 volunteers for this project. Ideally all of your volunteers will be approximately the same age, and will have roughly the same amount of experience shooting free throws . 3. The simplest way to collect the data for this experiment is to use a separate data sheet for each participant. On each data sheet you will need to collect the following information: a. Name b. Age c. Gender d. Hand dominance e. Eye dominance f. Number of years playing basketball g. Free throw percentage 4. To determine hand dominance, ask or observe: a. Which hand does your subject use for writing? Oust ask your subject to write his or her name. ) b. Which hand does your subject use to throw a ball. Give a ball to your subject and ask him or her to throw it to you. c. Which hand does your subject use to shoot baskets? (Generally when shooting, one hand cradles the ball, and the other hand launches the ball toward the basket. The hand providing the driving force to the ball is the shooting hand. ) d. You could also simply ask each subject if they are right-handed, left-handed or mixed (ask for examples of what they do with each hand). You may want to analyze the data from subjects with mixed hand dominance separately (but you may need a large group of test subjects to get significant results). 5. To determine eye dominance, have the subject do the following (Archeryweb. org, date unknown): a. Extend both hands to arms length in front of you, and put your hands together to make a small triangle between your thumbs and the first knuckle n each hand (see Figure 1 below). The triangle should be roughly 2-3 cm on each side. Figure 1 . The illustration above shows how to make a sighting triangle with your hands to determine which of your eyes is dominant. (Image from Archeryweb. org, date unknown) b. With both eyes open, look through the triangle and center something (e. g. , a doorknob) in the triangle. c. Close your left eye. If the object remains in view, you are right eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the left, then you are left eye dominant. d. To validate the first est, look through the triangle and center the object again with both eyes open. e. Close your right eye. If the object remains in view, you are left eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the right, then you are right eye dominant. f. An alternative method is to assume the same position with your hands, and center the triangle around the object with both eyes open. Now, slowly bring your hands toward your face while continuing to look at the object with both eyes open. When your hands touch your face, the triangle opening should be in front of your dominant eye. g. Repeat the above tests a number of times to satisfy yourself that you are sure which eye is your dominant eye. . Have the subject shoot at least shots). Determine the shooting percentage for each subject: shooting % = 100 * number of shots made / number of shots taken. 7. For each subject, determine whether they have crossed or uncrossed hand and eye dominances. a. Crossed hand and eye dominances would be: left hand/right eye or right hand/left eye. Uncrossed hand and eye dominances would be: le ft hand/left eye or right hand/right eye. 8. Calculate the average shooting percentage for the participants with uncrossed hand nd eye dominances. 9. Calculate the average shooting percentage for the participants with crossed hand and eye dominances. 10. More advanced students should also calculate the standard deviation of the shooting percentage for each group. 11. Make a bar graph to show the average shooting percentage for both groups. Is there any difference between the two groups? 12. More advanced students should also calculate whether any difference found is statistically significant. For example, you could use a t-test to see if any difference between the mean shooting percentage of the two groups is significant (Kirkman, date unknown).

Looking Ahead At Technology And Changes With The Hotel Industry Coursework

Looking Ahead At Technology And Changes With The Hotel Industry Coursework Looking Ahead At Technology And Changes With The Hotel Industry – Coursework Example Technology and Changes in the Hotel Industry Affiliation: Technology and Changes in the Hotel Industry The hospitality business is guided by the needs of their customer and hence with the latest digitization of the human race, the industry must digitize. Guests are demanding better standards and latest technologies as days go by.Most guests want high-speed internet connections, and this makes them very choosy on the kind of hotel to go to. All hotels with no Wi-Fi connection are running out of business, and the situation could even get worse they fail to digitize (Seth & Bhat, 2008). The limitation of the number of device entries per room is being eliminated since most customers have over three devices. Architectural Excellency has always been a matter of concern to most visitors (Information Resources Management Association & Khosrow-Pour, 2002). The field has not been left behind and has also developed technologically. On normal occasions, a visitor will prefer to go to a hotel wit h better architecture and hence there is a need for the hospitality sector to keep up with the latest architecture.Latest technologies allow for automation of many services, and research has shown that most customers prefer automated services, and it would dictate which hotel to go to. Therefore, hospitality centers should focus on digitizing their services in order to keep  existing clients and fascinate  new clients (Information Resources Management Association & Khosrow-Pour, 2002). From my research, I learnt that the hospitality industry is focused on comfort. All technology advancements have a comfort element in them, and hence, it is mandatory that hospitality centers keep advancing. Having the latest technologies such as superfast Wi-Fi networks or the best architecture makes the hotel a better home than the visitor’s home, and this prompts them to coming back again (Seth & Bhat, 2008). In the course of my study and career I will create emphasis on technology since it’s an important factor in the industry. In conclusion, the hotel industry may end up making losses if it fails to keep adjusting to the latest technologies. On the other hand, the business will flourish more with alignment to technology.ReferencesInformation Resources Management Association., & Khosrow-Pour, M. (2002). Issues & trends of information technology management in contemporary organizations. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.Seth, P. N., & Bhat, S. S. (2008). Successful tourism management. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers.

How to write like an industry expert - Emphasis

How to write like an industry expert How to write like an industry expert Developing your writing skills is key if you want to become a recognised industry expert, says Rob Ashton. If you take a poll to find the worlds top music executive, the chances are that most people will say Simon Cowell. There may be other executives with more talent and panache. You can even argue that his fellow judges are more musically adept. But Cowell has positioned himself as the expert. The public are divided revering and reviling him in equal measure. But what he says goes. No-one can deny his status and authority in the music industry. As a sales professional, you could do well to take a leaf out of Cowells book. The market for office supply equipment is crowded, with many brands jostling for space. Your prospects need a shortcut to enable them to decide who to buy from and what to buy. There often isnt time for them to kick-back with a cup of tea and analyse the messages youre communicating through your sales and marketing material. But you can stand out by positioning yourself as an expert. Prospective customers will start to see you as a trusted advisor before theyve even engaged your services. And they will be more likely to buy from you as a result. Expert status can lead to other opportunities, such as giving speeches or hosting workshops, which again make selling easier. Its a virtuous circle. Yet, we Brits can be a self-deprecating bunch. We often prefer to operate our businesses and careers with as little fanfare as possible. The thought of public speaking can send shivers down our spines. But through writing, even the most unassuming character can shine. And writing reports, articles, white papers and blogs can help you to become the preferred provider in the industry. Whats more, good writing doesnt just have to be an innate skill: its something you can learn. These seven steps will help you write your way to expert status. One Consistently show how your company differentiates itself in the marketplace. Dont be afraid to recommend doing things differently. Two Be curious about your clients. What really makes them tick? Get to know your clients inside out by asking lots of questions, rather than making assumptions about what they need and want. Three Then write from their perspective, not yours. Think beyond the products or services you offer and focus on how your business has an impact on the lives of your clients. Whether youre writing a brochure, pamphlet or article, you need to focus on your clients needs. Begin by asking yourself: What is the document about? Who will read it? How much do they already know about the subject? What do they absolutely need to know? How important is the subject to them? How interested are they in the subject? (Note that readers arent always interested in whats important to them. So you often need to make them interested.) To become a trusted advisor, your writing needs to be clear and punchy. You can achieve this with careful planning. Brainstorm everything you want to include in your document using the headings Who?, What?, Where?, When?, and Why?. Then only include what you think is essential for your readers to know. Your document will be much clearer as a result. Four Comment on relevant industry stories by writing letters to magazines. Use the SCRAP formula: Situation Begin by explaining the situation (or where the industry is). Complication Introduce the idea that theres a problem (why the industry cant stay as it is). Resolution State your answer to the problem. The reader will think of you as an expert because you can offer a practical, considered solution. Action Suggest what action the reader can or should take. Offer a viewpoint that is new and intriguing. Politeness Finally, end with a polite but thought-provoking sign-off. Five Suggest article ideas to trade newspapers and magazines. The articles that will best position you as an expert are how to features. You could reveal the secrets behind photocopier maintenance, or how to eke the most out of ink cartridges, for instance. Send a synopsis of the article to the magazine first. Write a snappy headline and standfirst (the two lines under the headline). Then write an attention-grabbing opening paragraph and a few bullet points about what your article will include. The magazine editor can then give you further guidelines to ensure your article is a hit with the readers. Six Blogs have a worldwide audience of millions. So its well worth setting up a blog and using it to connect with your clients. Pay careful attention to every post you make. Only write things you dont mind being broadcast on the 10 Oclock News. Dont ever gripe about clients or competitors. Seven In your writing, include examples of how you and your company make a real difference to people. Make your writing personal. Its more powerful to write that one in five people found that their ink lasted longer than to use the term 20 per cent. Speak directly to the reader by using words such as you, we, us and our. And use the active voice as much as possible. For instance, weve helped over 1000 customers with their printing needs is far more effective than Over 1000 customers have been helped with their printing needs. Positioning yourself as an expert is a skill that will serve you throughout your whole career. Even if you decide you want to sell condos in the Caribbean in the future, the skills youll learn are transferable. You may not achieve the wealth and fame of someone like Simon Cowell. But you can forge your way as a leader in your industry. And with a little thought, care and attention, your expert status will pay dividends.

Chose a topic on requirements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Chose a topic on requirements - Essay Example Studies reveal that the larger part of the population of k12 standard studies in public schools. This wouldnt be much of a story if the information on school execution upheld these presumptions. Yet private schools are frequently outflanked by their open partners. Certainly, private schools frequently have higher crude test scores. In any case they likewise have a tendency to serve more advantaged populaces. Thus, when elements like salary, race, and parental training are considered, private schools dont seem to include to the extent that as one may accept they do. Charter schools are some piece of the reinvention of government funded instruction. They initially rose in the 1990s as a conspicuous and disputable school change thought. Folks, instructors, and group associations are the authors of most Charter schools, however some are begun by revenue driven organizations. Charter schools are state funded schools that have been liberated of numerous prohibitive principles and regulations. In exchange, these schools are required to attain particular instructive results inside a certain period (typically three to five years) or have their contracts disavowed. But according to a study, there is no significant effect observed on the performance of students in their test scores, in charter schools (Bettinger, 2005). There are no normal charter schools. Normally littler than state funded schools, 60 percent of sanction schools have fewer than 200 people. They additionally have a tendency to have distinctive evaluation designs from other state funded schools, for example, kindergarten through evaluation 8 or 12, and ungraded schools. Dissimilar to government funded schools, some sanction schools concentrate on a specific branch of knowledge, for example, math, science, expressions of the human experience, or engineering. Charter school implementation additionally neglects to match open recognitions. As examination demonstrates, sanction school quality shifts

International Hospitality Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Hospitality Analysis - Essay Example The sector has been through several upheavals. When the economic performs well the consumer confidence is high and people are keen to spend their disposable incomes on holidays and easting out. As the same time, the sector is also sensitive to unforeseen events beyond its control – like threats of terrorist attacks, foot or mouth crisis and the bird-flu outbreak (LSC 2006). In addition, there are other drivers of change which include minimum wage and holiday entitlement, health and safety, no-smoking legislation. The economy becomes affected due to changes in legislation, changing market forces, and periods of recession and inflation (Wilson et al. 1997). In fact everything from the impact of globalization to consumer savings can impact this sector. Hospitality is the fastest growing industry and exhibits tremendous diversity both with respect to the types of job available and the workers. As far as the human resource is concerned, there is a huge demand in the sector but the availability of staff is difficult. This sector is characterized by low rates of pay, high staff turnover, low levels of training, low skills levels, unsocial hours, seasonal nature of work, predominance of casual staff, and the non-professional image of the industry (LSC 2006). This sector traditionally recruits a young workforce yet the biggest challenge that this sector faces is that of skills shortages. The local people are reluctant to enter this sector because of low wages and job uncertainties. The hospitality sector in the developed countries is facing labor shortages and can expect to face even greater shortages in the future (Choi et al. 2000). As per the economic law of supply and demand, this means that the sector needs to offer higher wages to attract skilled staff as there is short supply of staff. If the sector offers higher wages, the profitability is affected specially during economic downturn. As such the hospitality managers need to prepare themselves for the future. In

The Heart and Christian Bernard Essay Example for Free

The Heart and Christian Bernard Essay The Heart and Christian Barnard Christian Barnard, the man who performed the first human heart transplant. Christian Barnard was born in Beaufort West, South Africa on November 8, 1922. He was the fourth of five sons. His father was Adam Hedrick Barnard who was a reverend in the Dutch reformed church, he preached to a non-white congregation. His mother was Maria Elisabeth Deswart Barnard who had been a school teacher before marriage. Both parents were also Afrikaner missionaries. Christian Barnard grew up in a poor environment in Beaufort West, a town on South Africa’s semi-arid Great Karroo plateau. Christian Barnard attended a local high school he went on and received an M. D. degree from the University of Cape Town in 1953. He received a Ph. D degree from the University of Minnesota in 1958. He returned to the University of Cape Town in 1958 to teach surgery. He specialized in open-heart surgery and in designing artificial heart valves. The first human heart transplant was performed on December 3, 1967, transferring the heart of a 25 year old woman into the body of Louis Waskansky , a 55 year old grocer. He died 18 days later due to double pneumonia as a result of his suppressed immune system. The second transplant was on January 2, 1968 which was for Philip Blaiberg, who lived for 563 days after the operation. Christian Barnard spent the beginning of his adult life in the United States where he gained recognition for research in gastrointestinal pathology and later went back to South Africa and introduced open-heart surgery to that country and designed artificial valves for the human heart. Christian Barnard made a huge impact and contribution to healthcare when he attempted and accomplished the worlds first human heart transplant which was a huge success in the medical field. His accomplishment led to further investigation in heart transplants and which now is a normal surgery that is performed all around the world today. Christian Barnard had been bothered by rheumatoid arthritis since he was young, and advancing stiffness in his hands forced his retirement from surgery in 1983. He took up writing, however, and wrote a cardiology text, an autobiography, and several novels, including a thriller about organ transplants. He passed away on September 2, 2001. Christian Barnard has made a huge impact on healthcare and the study of medicine. Christian Barnard is a hero to me because he was brave enough to take a chance and put his reputation on the line to make a difference. Christian Barnard’s contribution to health care has changed the years to come in medicine and his contribution will always be remembered.

Irrigating Crops With Seawater :: Freshwater Essays

Brown J. Jed, Glenn Edward P., and O’Leary James W. 1998. Irrigating Crops with Seawater. Scientific American. Irrigating Crops with Seawater'; talks about the global problem of finding enough water and land for the world’s population to survive. An estimated 494.2 million acres of cropland is needed just to feed the tropics and subtropics for the next 30 years. However, only close to 200 million acres are available. Therefore, new sources of water and land are needed to grow crops. The writers of this article have been testing the prospect of using seawater in agriculture. This seawater agriculture is when salt-tolerant crops are grown using ocean water for irrigation. Desert areas take up 43% of the surface of the earth and this new agriculture technique can be done in deserts. Hugo Boyko and Elisabeth Boyko first used seawater agriculture after World War II. Many different crops have been tested such as barley and the date palm. The writers of this article however have been testing halophytes, which, is a salt-tolerant plant that can be used for food, forage and oilseed crops. They f irst gathered several hundred halophytes and began testing these plants in the desert of Puerto Peà ±asco. They irrigated the plants daily by flooding the fields with seawater from the Gulf of California. The best halophytes produced roughly the yield of alfalfa using freshwater irrigation. In order to show that these halophytes could replace other crops for use they tested to see if the crops could feed livestock. The halophytes have protein and carbohydrates but they contain too much salt. This limits the amount an animal can eat and dilutes the nutritional value. Therefore, the authors decided to use the halophytes as part of a mixed diet for the livestock. The animals’ meat taste was not affected, but the animals eating the halophyte-mixed diet drank more water and produced 10 percent less meat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This new agriculture method has many advantages too. First, it is cheaper to pump the seawater than to pump freshwater. In addition, seawater irrigation does not require any special equipment. The same fields have been irrigated for 10 years with no water buildup or salts in the root zone. Finally, installing the seawater irrigation will not disrupt the ecosystems as much because they are installed on barren or almost barren areas. There are also some disadvantages to irrigating crops with seawater. First, a large quantity of high-salt drainage water that will contain unused fertilizer will be discharged back into the sea.

Critics on Cooperative Principle Essay

As phrased by Paul Grice, who introduced it, it states, â€Å"Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. â€Å"[1] Though phrased as a prescriptive command, the principle is intended as a description of how people normally behave in conversation. Speakers and listeners involved in conversation are generally cooperating with each other. For reference to be successful, it was proposed that collaboration was a necessary factor. In accepting speaker’s presuppositions, listeners normally have to assume that a speaker who says his something really does have that which is mentioned and isn’t trying to mislead the listener. This sense of cooperation is simply one in which people having a conversation are not normally assumed to be trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information from each other. In most circumstances, this kind of cooperation is only the starting point for making sense of what is said. Since conversations between people are not always straight forward, the linguistic philosopher H. P. Grice attempted to explain how a hearer gets from what is said to what is meant, from the level of literally expressed meaning to the level of implied meaning and he termed the implied meaning conversational implicature in his theory. Grice suggests that there is a general principle guiding conversation what he calls the Cooperative Principle (CP for short), and communicators observe the general conversational maxims of truthfulness, informativeness, relevance and clarity within the CP, according to the four main maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation and Maner. When the listener hears the expression, he has to assume that the speaker is being cooperative and intends to communicate something. That something must be more than just what the words mean. It is an additional conveyed meaning, which is an implicature. People who obey the cooperative principle in their language use will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that conversation. Obviously, the requirements of different types of conversations will be different. The cooperative principle goes both ways: speakers (generally) observe the cooperative principle, and listeners (generally) assume that speakers are observing it. This allows for the possibility of implicatures, which are meanings that are not explicitly conveyed in what is said, but that can nonetheless be inferred. For example, if Alice points out that Bill is not present, and Carol replies that Bill has a cold, then there is an implicature that the cold is the reason, or at least a possible reason, for Bill’s absence; this is because Carol’s comment is not cooperative — does not contribute to the conversation — unless her point is that Bill’s cold is or might be the reason for his absence. (This is covered specifically by the Maxim of Relevance). We assume that people are normally going to provide an appropriate amount of information. We assume that they are telling the truth, being relevant, and trying to be as clear as they can. Listeners and speakers must speak cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be understood in a particular way. The cooperative principle describes how effective communication in conversation is achieved in common social situations. However, there are some circumstances where speakers may not follow the expectation of the cooperative principle. In courtrooms and classrooms, witnesses and students are often called upon to tell people things which are already well known to those people, thereby violating the quantity maxim. Such specialized institutional talk is clearly different from conversation. However, even in conversation, a speaker may opt out of the maxim expectations by using expressions like ‘No comment’ or of such expressions is that, although they are typically not â€Å"as informative as is required† in the context, they are naturally interpreted as communicating more than is said. For example, the speaker knows the answer. It is speakers who communicate meaning via implicatures and it is listeners who recognize those communicated meanings via inference. The inferences selected are those which will preserve assumption of cooperation. In the theory of conversational implicature, Grice proposes that in an exchange of conversation, there is an underlying principle that determines the way in which language is used maximally effectively and efficiently to achieve rational interaction. He calls this governing dictum the co-operative principle and subdivides it into nine maxims classified into four categories. The co-operative principle: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. He suggests that there is an accepted way of speaking which we all accept as standard behaviour. When we produce, or hear, an utterance, we assume that it will generally be true, have the right amount of information, be relevant, and will be couched in understandable terms. If an utterance does not appear to conform to this model (e. g. B’s utterance in (1) above), then we do not assume that the utterance is nonsense; rather, we assume that an appropriate meaning is there to be inferred. In Grice’s terms, a maxim has been flouted, and an implicature generated. Without such an assumption, it would not be worth a co-interactant investing the effort needed to interpret an indirect speech act. This is the standard basic explication of the CP, maxims and implicatures1. At this point, many descriptions immediately turn to detailed explanations of the many ways in which the operation of the CP can be tracked in language use: flouts, violations, infringing and opting out. However, in this mass of detail, Grice’s underlying ideas are too often lost. Taylor & Cameron (1987:83) stand alone in making this point: â€Å"Few commentators pause to consider Grice’s avowed motive for introducing the CP. Instead they rush on to consider the various maxims which are subordinate to it. † All the examples of flouts, violations and opting out are there to further illustrate the distinction between saying and meaning: an interest which has been evident in the Gricean program since Grice (1957), and to show that there is a pattern in the way we interact. There is a relationship between the conventional meaning of an utterance and any implicit meaning it might have, and it is calculable. What Grice (1975) does not say is that interaction is ‘cooperative’ in the sense which is found in the dictionary. In fact, as we have suggested in Davies (1997), it could be argued that the existence of this pattern of behaviour enables the speaker to make the task of the hearer more difficult. Speakers can convey their intentions by a limitless number of utterances, it is up to the hearer to calculate the utterer’s intention. It would seem from this that the CP is not about making the task of the Hearer straightforward; potentially, it is quite the reverse. It allows the speaker to make their utterance harder, rather than easier, to interpret: we can omit information or present a non-literal utterance, and expect the Hearer to do the extra work necessary to interpret it. We would suggest that there is a conflict between the way we interpret the CP’s position in the Gricean program, and the way it is often represented in the linguistic literature. Grice suggests that conversational implicatures- roughly, a set of non-logical inferences that contains conveyed messages which are meant without being said in the strict sense – can arise from either strictly and directly observing or deliberately and ostentatiously flouting the maxims. Furthermore, he distinguishes between those conversational implicatures which arise without requiring any particular contextual conditions and those which do require such conditions. He calls the first kind generalised conversational implicatures and the second kind particularised conversational implicatures. Grice also points out that conversational implicatures are characterised by a number of distinctive properties, notably (i) cancellability, or defeasibility (conversational implicatures can simply evaporate in certain linguistic or non-linguistic contexts), (ii) non-detachability (any linguistic expression with the same semantic content tends to carry the same conversational implicature (a principled exception is those conversational implicatures that arise via the maxim of Manner)), (iii) calculability (conversational implicatures are calculable via the co-operative principle and its attendant axims), (iv) non-conventionality (conversational implicatures, though dependent on what is coded, are non-coded in nature), (v) reinforceability (conversational implicatures can be made explicit without producing too much redundancy) (Sadock 1978), and (vi) universality (conversational implicatures tend to be universal, being motivated rather than arbitrary) (see Sadock 1978 for a critique and Nunburg 1981 for a defense). Recent advances on the classic Gricean theory of conversational implicature include Atlas & Levinson (1981), Leech (1981, 1983), Sperber & Wilson (1982, 1986), Levinson (1983, 1987a, b, 1991), Horn (1984, 1988, 1989, 1992) and Atlas (1989). 2 In these new developments, the original Gricean programme has been revised in somewhat different ways. Sperber and Wilson, for example, in an attempt to make a paradigm change’ (Kuhn 1970) in pragmatics, propose that the entire Gricean apparatus be subsumed within a single cognitive principle, namely the principle of Relevance. On this Relevance theory, which is essentially a modification of the Fodorian theory of cognitive modularity (Fodor 1983),3 it is assumed that the human central cognitive mechanism works in such a way as to maximise Relevance with respect to communication, that is, ‘communicated information comes with a guarantee of [R]elevance’ (Sperber & Wilson 1986: vii). Thus, the principle of Relevance is claimed to be responsible for the recovery of both the explicit and implicit content of an utterance. In other words, on Sperber and Wilson’s view, in interpreting an utterance, one is always maximizing the informational value of contextual stimuli to interpret the utterance in a way which is most consistent with the principle of Relevance. Horn suggests a less reductionist, bipartite model. In Horn’s view, all of Grice’s maxims (except the maxim of Quality) can be replaced with two fundamental and antithetical principles: the Quantity principle and the Relation principle. These maxims may be better understood as describing the assumptions listeners normally make about the way speakers will talk, rather than prescriptions for how one ought to talk. Philosopher Kent Bach writes: We need first to get clear on the character of Grice’s maxims. They are not sociological generalizations about speech, nor are they moral prescriptions or proscriptions on what to say or communicate. Although Grice presented them in the form of guidelines for how to communicate successfully, I think they are better construed as presumptions about utterances, presumptions hat we as listeners rely on and as speakers exploit. (Bach 2005). Gricean Maxims generate implicatures. If the overt, surface meaning of a sentence does not seem to be consistent with the Gricean maxims, and yet the circumstances lead us to think that the speaker is nonetheless obeying the cooperative principle, we tend to look for other meanings that could be implied by the sentence. Grice did not, howev er, assume that all people should constantly follow these maxims. Instead, he found it interesting when these were not respected, namely either â€Å"flouted† (with the listener being expected to be able to understand the message) or â€Å"violated† (with the listener being expected to not note this). Flouting would imply some other, hidden meaning. The importance was in what was not said. For example: Answering It’s raining to someone who has suggested playing a game of tennis only disrespects the maxim of relation on the surface, the reasoning behind this ‘fragment’ sentence is normally clear to the interlocutor (the maxim is just â€Å"flouted†). Criticism Grice’s theory is often disputed by arguing that cooperative conversation, as with most social behavior, is culturally determined, and therefore the Gricean Maxims and the Cooperative Principle cannot be universally applied due to intercultural differences. Keenan claims that the Malagasy, for example, follow a completely opposite Cooperative Principle in order to achieve conversational cooperation. In their culture, speakers are reluctant to share information and flout the Maxim of Quantity by evading direct questions and replying on incomplete answers because of the risk of losing face by committing oneself to the truth of the information, as well as the fact that having information is a form of prestige. [3] However, Harnish points out[4] that Grice only claims his maxims hold in conversations where his Cooperative Principle is in effect. The Malagasy speakers choose not to be cooperative, valuing the prestige of information ownership more highly. It could also be said in this case that this is a less cooperative communication system, since less information is shared) Another criticism is that the Gricean Maxims can easily be misinterpreted to be a guideline for etiquette, instructing speakers on how to be moral, polite conversationalists. However, the Gricean Maxims, despite their wording, are only meant to describe the commonly accepted traits of successful cooperative comm unication. Geoffrey Leech created the Politeness maxims: tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy. Flouting the Maxims Without cooperation, human interaction would be far more difficult and counterproductive. Therefore, the Cooperative Principle and the Gricean Maxims are not specific to conversation but to verbal interactions in general. For example, it would not make sense to reply to a question about the weather with an answer about groceries because it would violate the Maxim of Relevance. Likewise, responding to a question with a long monologue would violate the Maxim of Quantity. However, it is possible to flout a maxim intentionally or unconsciously and thereby convey a different meaning than what is literally spoken. Many times in conversation, this flouting is manipulated by a speaker to produce a negative pragmatic effect, as with sarcasm or irony. One can flout the Maxim of Quality to tell a clumsy friend who has just taken a bad fall that her gracefulness is impressive and obviously intend to mean the complete opposite. The Gricean Maxims are therefore often purposefully flouted by comedians and writers, who may hide the complete truth and manipulate their words for the effect of the story and the sake of the reader’s experience. Speakers who deliberately flout the maxims usually intend for their listener to understand their underlying implication. In the case of the clumsy friend, she will most likely understand that the speaker is not truly offering a compliment. Therefore, cooperation is still taking place, but no longer on the literal level. Conversationalists can assume that when speakers intentionally flout a maxim, they still do so with the aim of expressing some thought. Thus, the Gricean Maxims serve a purpose both when they are followed and when they are flouted.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Going Abroad

The advantages and disadvantages of going abroad for further studies As for this topic, I feel envied. As a person who has no chance to go abroad, I will go no matter how. It’s a different experience and it must do more good than bad, at least for me. We’ve lived in China for twenty years so we can broaden our eye sights and we may get some inspiration about life. That’s vital, as far as I’m concerned. Westerns have their own opinions on life value which we may use for reference. Sometimes, we take something too important, you could find it unnecessary when you contact with various people.Besides, communicating with people from different areas can improve your skills of interactions. As we all know, Chinese do not excel in cooperating with others but westerns are good at it. Thus, our common shortcomings in personality can be corrected by the environment. Thirdly, western countries are advanced in science, economy, culture and politics. So many aspects tha t we can learn and use them to develop our country. Also, we can bring Chinese culture there, which makes more people to know about its attraction.In addition, if you succeed in graduating from famous foreign university, a good working opportunity is waiting for you. You can lead a high quality life and enjoy life better, at least no worrying for the money. If you like, you can live in abroad and make your children get a better education. But every coin has two sides. Going abroad has its advantages which we should take into consideration. Students who are poor in adapting to new circumstances may feel lonely and hopeless at beginning. If this psychology can’t be changed, it may cause serious problems.Some may be addicted to the drugs or choose to drop out. Secondly, you may feel disappointed when you arrive the country because imagination and truth is dollars to doughnuts. You have to tolerate hard conditions such as rough rooms, living on bread and water, worrying about the money and being forced to do a part-job if you are not rich enough. Then heavy pressure from work and study may let you mad. Thirdly, it could be a problem to become fully integrated into the local community, which has a bad influence in mastering the foreign language and being familiar with the local culture.Above all, I am still of the opinion that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages in this case. Doing everything has the adventure and we can’t just focus on the harm it may cause. We may be brave if we want to read more about the world or improve yourself. There’s no doubt that some troubles must happen in the process, but you can gain something unexpected. Moreover, the phenomenon that more and more people would like to go abroad must have the reason, especially the upper class. No matter what others’ choices are, you should fully analyze it with combining your situation and make the best opt which you’ll never regret.

How to Use Est-ce Que to Ask Questions in French

How to Use Est-ce Que to Ask Questions in French Est-ce que  (pronounced  es keu) is a French expression that is useful for asking a question. Literally translated, this phrase means is it that..., although in conversation it rarely is interpreted that way. Instead, it is a convenience of everyday French, an interrogatory phrase that easily turns a statement into a question. It is a slightly informal construction; the more formal or polite way to ask questions is with inversion, which involves inverting the normal pronoun/noun verb order. But in everyday spoken French, est-ce que is far more common because it does the inverting for you: Est-ce que is the inversion of cest que. (Note that a hyphen is required between ce and est when they  are inverted to est-ce.) The word order of the original sentence stays exactly the same; you just add the already inverted phrase est-ce que to the front of the sentence. This simple structure works best for yes/no questions. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Tu travailles. / Est-ce que tu travailles?   You work. / Do you work?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paulette la trouvà ©. / Est-ce que Paulette la trouvà ©?   Paulette found it. / Did Paulette find it?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vous navez pas faim. / Est-ce que vous navez pas faim?   You arent hungry. / Arent you hungry? OR Are you not hungry? Note that que must contract when it follows a word beginning with a vowel:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Elle est arrivà ©e. / Est-ce quelle est arrivà ©e?   She has arrived. / Has she arrived?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il y a des problà ¨mes. / Est-ce quil y a des problà ¨mes?   There are problems. / Are there problems?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anny vient avec nous. / Est-ce quAnny vient avec nous?   Anny is coming with us. Is Anny coming with us? To ask questions that ask for information like who, what, where, when, why and how, place an interrogative pronoun, adverb or adjective before est-ce que. For example: Qui est-ce que vous avez vu?   Whom did you see?​Quand est-ce que tu vas partir?   When are you going to leave?​Quel livre est-ce quil veut?   Which book does he want? Remember that est-ce que is the inversion of cest que, meaning literally, It is that. Thats why a hyphen is required between est and ce: cest ce est which are inverted to est-ce. Depending on their place in the sentence, the variations  quest-ce qui and qui est-ce qui  are also useful, but understanding them requires further discussion of  interrogative pronouns. For now, heres a summary. SUMMARY OF FRENCH INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS Subject of question Object of question After preposition People quiqui est-ce qui quiqui est-ce que qui Things quest-ce qui quequest-ce que quoi Additional Resources Asking questions in FrenchFrench interrogativesExpressions with à ªtreMost common French phrases

The Best Of Both Worlds Introducing HubSpot for CoSchedule

The Best Of Both Worlds Introducing HubSpot for Remember why you purchased HubSpot? How excited you were to have an â€Å"all-in-one marketing tool†? to finally get your sh*t organized (and move projects forward)? Only to find while you can do a lot in HubSpot†¦ Planning out your marketing schedule†¦ Collaborating on projects AND keeping some semblance of sanity over what’s going on today, tomorrow, and next month†¦ isn’t exactly their forte. Only to be left managing timelines, collaboration, tasks, and outbound tactics in spreadsheets, Teamwork, Basecamp, Airtable, email, and other misc. tools. If only there was a better way. 😠 Enter the perfect solution: ’s *NEW* HubSpot Integration. With the new integration, you’ll be able to: Visualize your ENTIRE marketing strategy in one dynamic calendar. Marketing is more than just inbound. Add every active marketing project and campaign in , so you can make sure your teams priorities are focused on reaching company goals. Improve productivity + streamline your marketing process. Give your team access to everything they need to get work done. Including task lists, project timelines, files, and even direct access to HubSpot emails and landing pages. Keep conversation relevant + connected to every project. Collaborate on projects in real-time. Share feedback, status updates, and more in discussions so your team stays on the same page. Upgrade your social strategy with better publishing tools. s social scheduling allows you to promote your top landing pages and blogs in seconds and build out entire campaigns in just a few clicks. It’s the best of both worlds! Unite the Hubspot features you love with the project management tools + marketing calendar you’ve always dreamed of. 😠 The Best Of Both Worlds: Introducing @HubSpot for @Visualize your ENTIRE marketing strategy in one dynamic calendar. Marketing is more than just your inbound strategies. With , you can map out all of your marketing projects and campaigns including projects from HubSpot so you can visualize your ENTIRE marketing strategy in one calendar. The calendar gives you visibility into how your content + campaigns interact and overlap. So when you’ve got one too many email drafts on the calendar for next week, you can drag and drop it to another date before it’s scheduled to create a more strategic messaging cadence without missing a beat. 👠 This flexibility plus visibility lets your team stay super agile. Making it a breeze to adapt when new projects come in, fire drills happen, priorities change, and marketing goals evolve. Improve productivity + streamline your marketing process. Without the right processes in place, your team can basically say goodbye to productivity. via GIPHY But when HubSpot and work together your team works faster and eliminates unnecessary roadblocks. Assign tasks for every project on your team’s roadmap. You can even add required approvals to make sure projects get completed AND reviewed before they go live. Quickly visualize if projects are on track using the progress bar. This gives you an active pulse on how your team’s trending towards meeting their deadlines. Use project attachments to upload files, Google docs, and other resources your team needs to get their projects done. You can stop digging through emails, Dropbox, or file folders to find the latest drafts and templates. Now you can access it all right inside the project. And by implementing the HubSpot integration inside , your team will have direct access to your HubSpot landing pages, emails, and blogs in just one click. By streamlining your marketing process, you can get more done in less time! Cos’ when time = money $$$ that’s a win-win for everyone. Keep conversation relevant + connected to every project. 86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. Yet your team still shares project updates and feedback via emails, IMs, Google Docs, and quick on-the-fly conversations. Leaving collaboration and conversation siloed in different places (and not accessible to everyone who may need to know the latest info). The solution? Discussions in . Discussions help your team share feedback, status updates, and notes on projects in real-time. PLUS anyone can jump into a project and see exactly where they left off. Which means if someone is on vacation, out sick, or projects need to get reassigned, another team member can easily pick it up and get it done. Upgrade your social strategy with better publishing tools. Sure, HubSpot has social publishing†¦ But switching to for social can give your strategy a major upgrade. Manually entering social messages†¦.one at a time to promote your upcoming blog post†¦ It’s mind-numbing. Especially when they follow the same cadence every time. With , you can build out robust, predefined social promotion plans for your landing pages and blogs. Then apply them to any new post in just a few clicks using social templates. Best of all, you can draft the content for your messages that fast, too! Use social helpers to autofill your posts in your campaign with default or custom content. Filling your social queue has never been easier! It’s obvious ’s HubSpot integration can transform how your team works. You’ll improve efficiency + productivity†¦ gain full visibility over your entire strategy†¦ get projects done faster with fewer roadblocks†¦ And eliminate unnecessary project management + collaboration tools from your marketing stack. What are you waiting for?

Customer Focus as a Prescription for Driving Innovatio Essay - 1

Customer Focus as a Prescription for Driving Innovatio - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Fred asserts that innovation is the root that firmly holds and gives strength, growth, and vitality of people, in an organization as well as the society. He illustrates further by outlining that innovation is creativity in action. It encompasses finding brilliant ideas and making them happen. When it is applied, it adds nutrients to life and organization. Apparently, we are in the information age. All the innovative ideas that were illuminated by earlier giants have either been improved or reinvented to greater heights. Innovation in broad perspective is a huge arena but can be described as creativity that consequently results into something new or better and add value to an individual(s) or a society (organization). For an instant, communication has completely been revolutionized. High powered communication devices with better upgrades are launched every day by competing firms with the aim of having a competitive edge over each other. However, there were individuals who provided the basics in earlier years that have been so advanced to the stratosphere. Besides, these innovations in communication ecological niche have contributed significantly to globalization. The use of Facebook, WhatsApp and other advanced sites of communications are as a result of individuals sweat their blood out to impact positively on the society. The roots of these ideas must have been so simple but various persons have advanced them. Fred uses Edison’s analogy of innovation as a way of doing thing better to impact positively on someone. Someone, in this case, refers to the customer(s). The customer can be a person, an organization or society whose needs are fulfilled by the innovation. Besides, the invention of social media responded to the customers’ desire. It is indeed true that some innovation has not only radically changed the world but also revolutionized it. For example, the invention of the wheel has had a tremendous impact on human li fe for centuries. At the initial stages when the wheels were invented, they were not highly appreciated as people were accustomed to they would move around.

Symbolic paper 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Symbolic paper 3 - Essay Example However, symbolic interaction becomes more realistic when humans are able to interpret the actions of others by applying a meaning to the actions. George Herbert Mead discusses the notion of significant other (pg. 127) and the generalized other (pg. 128) as examples of symbols with which we interact. The individual self comes out of the experiences a person has had as a result of symbolic interactions and gestures presented by society. However, more central to his argument is the idea of the I and the me which are slightly different aspects of the self. The me is a production of the environment in which the person lives. It is created when the person acquires knowledge about society and the ways in which s/he relates to it. Things such as gender, age, socioeconomic position all become parts of the me and this created by how other individual respond to him/her. The I on the other hand, is the active persona of the individual which works within the parameters set by the me to interact with society. As a part of the formation of the self, the ideas of Cooley have to be considered important since his position on the looking glass self (pg. 129) is quite useful in many cases. According to Cooley, the looking glass self is created when a person judges him/herself unconsciously or consciously to be a certain way in terms of traits and personality. Then the person observes and views the reactions of others to understand how much of their own concept is true which in turn creates as well as evaluates a personal concept of the self. Of course a person can use disclaimers to present a different image of him/herself as discussed by Goffman (pg. 132), but his ideas on symbolic interaction are important not because of the idea of disclaimers but because of the idea that we may be called upon to play different roles in different situations. The idea of having a front stage where we interact with society or other

Developing service Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Developing service - Assignment Example Focusing on this aspect, the report describes about how the various features of services can have an impact on the design and delivery of the proposed services. Besides, the report also analyses the proposed services on the basis of different service models and extended marketing mix strategies. The objective is thereby to understand that various aspects which needs to be considered in designing and developing the services at Derby Museum. How Would the Features of Services Affect the Design and Delivery of the Service and What Could Managers Do to Limit the Effects of These? The services provided by organisations are diverse in nature. They can determine the performance of organisations. However, designing and delivering of services relies on the features of services provided by an organisation (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). Since services are not physical, they are termed as intangible. Services cannot be touched and hence evaluating the quality of services becomes quite challenging to b e measured. The other feature of services is its perishable nature. It denotes that unlike goods, services cannot be warehoused for future purposes. Therefore, this feature of services can also be observed to have a deep impact on the overall performance of organisation. To be precise, as services are not perishable, it is hard for organisations to balance its supply and demand. Variability is the other vital feature of services (Wild, 2007). It is also known by heterogeneity which denotes that services provided by organisations are dependent on great variability being delivered by individual entities. The behaviour of people is quite challenging to control as it has been observed to fluctuate on a regular basis. Aspects such as work pressure, experience, knowledge and skills among other factors can further lead to variability of the services. Inseparability is the fourth feature of services. The creation of services is often observed as related with the consumption, unlike products and goods where production and consumptions occur at separate instances (Wild, 2007). As a result, in order to make intangible services more tangible for the customers, managers need to determine the way for effective service deliveries which can help to create a high degree of confidence among customers about the value of services. The tangibility of services arrives from profound personal interactions, clear communications and physical atmospheres where the business operates. Hence, maintaining a positive customer relationship, setting proper potentials and representing the organisation in acceptable manner by appropriate advent, approach and facilities can enhance the service quality for the proposed services of Derby museum (Fisk et al., 2008). Besides, managers of Derby museum can enhance customer satisfaction facilitating the involvement of consumers in the service delivery procedure. Regular communication with customers and frequent meetings can further help to establish ass urance towards providing quality assured and customer convenient services. In order to enhance customer satisfaction towards the offered services, the managers of Derby museum can focus on recognising the degree of personalisation required

Benefits of the Great Wall of China

Benefits of the Great Wall of China The Great Wall The text The Great Wall, by John Man, is about the worlds longest man made structure. Ranging from eastern to western China the length of the great wall remains unknown because the wall does not form a single continues line. There are several gaps and its been destroyed and rebuilt during different dynasties. Measurements vary between 2,694 and 6,000 kilometers from the western desert to the sea (Man, 5). The section that was built in the Ming Dynasty is about 25 feet tall and 16 feet wide. In Chinese, the symbol for wall is ambiguous; it can mean both Long City, and Long Walls. Construction of the Great Wall began around 214 BC and it was maintained until the 16th century. The Wall that was built in the Qin Dynasty is the most famous one because it was the first and oldest section that still remains today. The latest or the most current segment was built in the Ming Dynasty. There is much more to it than just a barrier; the wall itself contains fortresses, barracks, guard towers and beacon towers (Man, 5). Though the Great Wall is a national symbol of identity for the Chinese, the reason for its construction is commonly unknown. Most people believe that the wall was built to create protection from the barbarous nomads in northern China who were attacking them, but this was not the case. John Man in The Great Wall argues that the nomad attacks were a justification for the destruction of the tribes. The nomads were not the ones to initiate violence; it was the Chinese that provoked and attacked the nomads for land. The Wall was never the barrier it seemed or was claimed to be because nomads could still easily go over or through it while the Chinese empire ruled and influenced both side of the wall (Man, 8). So it was useless against the Mongols in the north. It was Chinese expansionism that eventually forced the evolution of pastoral nomadism and Chinese expansionism that created the threat (Man, 21). The construction of the wall served mutliple purposes. One, it defined spheres of interest, marking a frontier and confining the unruly nomad populations where they could eventually be turned into workers (Man, 8). Two, it was a way for ambitious leaders to flaunt their power and warn alien threats. The wall was first created when China was divided into three different states: the Zhou in the northern borderlands, the Qin in south and west, and the Yen in north and east. These rulers each built walls for protection from each other and to show that they were serious about ruling (Man, 23). In 221 B.C. Qin Huang conquered and unified all the states and symbolically demolished the inter-state walls. He then extended the remaining wall into the northern frontier for protection from an Xiongnu invasion (Great Wall). The wall eventually became Chinas main civic project, comparable in scope to the pyramids in Egypt, and construction continued until the last dynasty in the 16th century. One of the biggest advantages of the Great Wall was that it created a sense of identity for the Chinese. It portrayed their endurance and their economical and political power. Although it was functionally useless and took hundreds of years to complete, it worked as a symbol of authority and power in the eyes of Chinas opponents and enemies. It also isolated the nomadic tribes that lived in the northern side of the wall, forcing them to participate in barter and trade. One of the advantages of the great wall was this forced increase in commercial and trade. Scholar Jia Yi states, our markets beneath the Great Wall will surely swarm with the Xiongnuà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦When the Xiognu have developed craving for our rice, stew, barbecues and wine, this will have become their fatal weakness. Border Markets Thrived(60). The Wall also helped protect traders and administrators, which encouraged a merchant middle class in the western kingdoms, leading China to be richer than ever. While the empire was split in three different states, it was the nobles who were responsible for organizing a workforce for the construction of the walls. Peasants were forced to work on the wall by their nobles (Man, 23). People suffered from the forced labor it took to build the Great Wall, (Man, 123). It was estimated that during the construction of the wall, from 5th to 16th century, about 2-3 millions Chinese workers lost their lives (Great Wall). They didnt have a formal burial, the workers that died were sealed inside the wall as if they were born to support in weight both in life and in death. The workforce was divided into three different groups: soldiers, criminals, and ordinary people. Millions were called to work on the Wall, leaving their families and loved ones behind; even children had to join the workforce (Labor Force of Great Wall). The wall led to a large numbers of deaths and injuries during the years of its construction. It split up families and widowed many women. Not only did the wall have a negative effect on the citizens of the empire but it also had a negative impact on the nomads that lived on the northern side of the wall. It restricted their area of stay and the resources they had, limiting their amount of space for animals and restricting their travel to alternative trade or lands. This eventually led nomads to unify under the Mongolian Empire. The Mongolian Empire was led by emperor Genghis Khan, who organized raids and attacks on the Chinese Empire. The wall might have been a great authoritative representation, but it had an equally strong negative effect on the communities surrounding it. The wall that was built by the first emperor Qin was not sustainable; it was made of earth rather than stones, causing the wall to vanish over the years. Later dynasties would then rebuild it using earth, wood, or stones. Originally, the earth wall was made from was a mix of mud and local grass straws. The wall in north of Guyuan and in Yinchuan is the oldest original earth section. Later, lacking any efficient form of transportation for the materials, the workers would just adapt local resources. They would use rocks from nearby mountains or rammed earth from the plains. It wasnt until the later dynasties started expanding the walls to Hohhot and Beijing that carved stone began to be formally and universally used. Because of this patchwork of materials, some parts of the wall were made of chunks of flat, slate-like rock and ran along a hillside while others used bricks (Man, 8). During the Ming dynasties the walls were constructed using tiles, lime, and stone, which managed to last longer and be more effective (The Wall). Because the bricks were easier to carry compared to stones and earth, they made it easier for the workers to build the walls (The Wall). The stones were still used for the foundations since they could hold the walls weight better under different conditions. As years passed, people continued to acquire better resources and methods to construct the walls. The time and the location of the structure help determine the reasons behind the creation of the walls. It was built at a time where competition and power among the different states and regions was at its peak, different Emperors wanted to intimidate their respective enemies by showing them that they had the economic and political power necessary for this huge civic project. It was more of a symbol of their power rather than functionally protective as there was no real exterior threat to the dynasties. Even if there was, the nomads had no problem climbing or going through the wall. To them, the wall was not an obstacle. The Great Wall was built at a time where emperors wanted to flaunt their dominance to intimidate any potential enemy attacks. The great wall was am intimidating structure, a series of safe-houses for traders, a hugely extended barracks, a road for the transport of goods-and thus, as the second meaning of the symbol for great wall in Chinese implies, a very long city. Today the great wall is a representation of peace. A Tibetan said The Great Wall is a masterpiece containing the wisdom and diligence of all the peoples and nationalities of China. As the years passed, the wall became more redundant. Today the wall is a representation and symbol of China. The wall is no longer a barrier or a border but a pure symbol of a Chinese heritage. It attracts millions of people from all over the world who come to see the worlds largest structure. Useful in its time, today construction of the wall would create a dispute among United Nations. It would be even less functionally protective as a wall would not stop the intentions of any outside threat with the technology and weapons we have today. The Great Wall by John Man isnt the best literature Ive read, especially for this assignment. The most useful information I received for this assignment was in the introduction. The rest of the book focused more on the broader history of China and its dynasties. Even though it was interesting to learn about the different dynasties, it wasnt really related to our assignment and wasnt engagingly written. I felt like there was too much factual information for a reader to keep focused on the main idea. The author didnt have clear specific information about the wall. It was scattered all over different chapters without a clear organizing structure. It wouldve been better if he included more information on and of the people who built the walls, their lifestyle, and the conditions in which they worked in. He could have also included more information on the lifestyles of nomads and how the wall changed their traditional cultures.

Internal Co-op vs. External Co-op: Is There a Difference? :: Journalism Journalistic Essays

Internal Co-op vs. External Co-op: Is There a Difference? Paul Ethier, a 20-year-old middler entrepreneurship major at Northeastern University, stands at the Information Center in the Curry Student Center on a busy Friday afternoon. In freshly pressed khakis and a slate blue button down shirt, he smiles as he chats casually with one of his employees. Two floors above, Frank Grajales, a middler entrepreneurship and MIS major, sits at the scheduling desk, beside his employees, booking reservations for the student center meeting rooms. Besides the obvious, what do these students have in common? They both are co-op students employed by Northeastern University. The co-op department places students in co-ops with outside companies as well as in positions within Northeastern. According to Doreen Hodgkin, Senior Associate Dean for Administration in the Division of Cooperative Education, the university offers a variety of co-op jobs in most on campus departments. They range from jobs in the Registrar’s Office to the Admissions Office and Public Relations Department. There are also jobs in the Career Services Department as well as managerial positions and a co-op at WRBB, the campus radio station. There are only a few locations on campus, such as Lane Health Center, who do not hire co-op students for confidentiality purposes, Hodgkin said. Ethier manages the Information Center and Game Room in the student center. He oversees 26 work-study employees and his tasks range from hiring and scheduling employees to running staff meetings to managing game room revenues and organizing tournaments. He makes decisions on what games and programs to provide in the game room. Ethier said he was first attracted to the job because he enjoys arcade games and was looking for a managerial position. He thought the job would be a great way to combine his interests and to build his resume and did not think he could find a similar experience anywhere else. Grajales manages the scheduling desk in the Curry Student Center, which is a busy hub responsible for all activities going on in the student center. Grajales’ tasks include managing a work-study staff of 11, hiring and scheduling new employees, taking reservations for rooms and database entry. He also deals with and resolves conflicts with room reservations. â€Å"To some people, I’m sort of a figurehead,† said Grajales. Grajales first interviewed for a different position within the student center, but was offered the scheduling desk job instead. After speaking with his future manager he thought it seemed like a fun environment to work in, which proved true when he began working there.

Government Merit Systems

Elimination of Merit Systems For many reasons, merit based civil service systems have come under assault and yet at the same time have been hailed. Merit systems do however attempt and achieve many important objectives including ensuring that an effective workforce is attracted and maintained by providing protections against arbitrary termination and by attempting to avert politically influenced hiring and promotions. Notwithstanding, the way merit systems go about attracting a workforce and the varied protections against termination are the cause of antipathy. Many would agree that a better civil service system is needed. This better civil service system should reward good service and punish bad or mediocre service with dismissal or no promotion. Equally important, this new system has to have a process to hire quality employees quickly. However, this better system needs to have all the mechanisms that are in the current merit systems to protect against corruption. This paper argues in favor of eliminating both merit system protections and merit in hiring and promotions, while at the same time evaluating the various arguments against merit systems. In public administration literature, it is argued that in order for the bureaucracy to be both efficient and effective, it has to be staffed by tenured bureaucrats who feel relatively secure in their positions and receive adequate compensation. The bureaucracy attains its power from the experience of its workforce. Indeed, the bureaucracy is made up of â€Å"seasoned and knowledgeable ‘old hands'† who have molded relations with organizations and government itself (Kaufman 2001, 8-42). Therefore, if returning to a spoils system results in arbitrary terminations the bureaucracy would be robbed of the most experienced administrators who bestow effectiveness within an agency. An important point regarding the removal of protections against arbitrary terminations is made by Charles T. Goodsell who argues that removing protections causes an â€Å"Am I Next? † mindset to occur where employees agonize over the threat of termination and which in itself can result in diminished effectiveness (1998, 653-660). In a related way to the â€Å"Am I Next? † syndrome is a breakdown of the â€Å"politics administration dichotomy† where administrators fearing termination would only perform those duties to please the administration (Durant 1998, 643-653). Accordingly, a break down in the â€Å"politics administration dichotomy† would seem to some to signal an increase in corruption and overall unethical behavior. Corruption is one of the big factors for the creation and continuance of a merit system. Those opposed to removing merit factors cite the abuses that occurred in the nineteenth century prior to the Pendleton Act. Also, tenured civil servants are necessary to assure that political appointees obey the law† (Maranto 1998, 623-643). Speaking about this was a Washington journalist, who argued that it was tenured civil servants of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation who blew the whistle during the Watergate scandal and for this purpose tenured civil servant are needed to serve alongside appointees (Maranto 1998, 623-643). However, Robert Maranto who is a proponent of a alternative systems, points out several occurrences where tenured civil servants and political appointees worked together, such as in the Department of Housing and Urban Development scandals during the Regan administration. Specifically, Maranto argues that when any organization, private or public is under investigation â€Å"it reacts by closing ranks to outsiders and shunning suspected whistle-blowers† (1998, 623-643). Using this rationale, it could appear that having no tenure protections is the same as having tenure protections with regard to whistle-blowing. Maranto furthers the argument of corruption stating that â€Å"regular rotation of some political officials as ‘in-and-outers' helps uncover scandals because incoming appointees are not tied to existing corrupt practices, can claim credit for ending them, are not as protective of organization reputation, and have sufficient political pull outside the organization to weather attacks of those within† (1998, 623-643). Indeed, as pointed out by Maranto, the scandals of Andrew Jackson's administration had actually begun under the previous administration and were uncovered by Jackson appointees. Another argument offered by Murray was that to cite the difficulties presidents Clinton, Bush (1st), Regan and Carter had in filling executive branch positions that required presidential appointments. His argument is that if an administration is unable to fill important political positions than it is doubtful an administration â€Å"will put much urgency in finding a nominee for positions currently filled by career bureaucrats† (1998, 70-677). His argument was meant to conclude that if there is a weak administration many positions will go unfilled and result in diminished effectiveness. Nonetheless, his argument against a spoils system citing a weak presidency is apt in arguing that there will not be a massive partisan termination following elections. Moreover, there have been several Supreme Court rul ings which prohibit hiring, promotion, termination and even the awarding of contracts based on politics. Eisenhart distinguishes between five categories of public sector employees: 1)full-time permanent employees protected by some form of civil service system; 2) at-will employees who can be fired at anytime for any reason so long as the reason is not illegal; 3) contractual employees; 4) temporary employees; and 5) independent contractors (Eisenhart 1998, 58-69). These five categories of employees within the public sector are covered by Supreme Court rulings. In 1976, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Elrod v. Bums (427 U. S. 347) that it was unconstitutional for the newly elected Democratic Sheriff of Cook County to dismiss all employees who were hired under the previous Republican administration whose positions were not in policymaking areas where political loyalty would be required. Another ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court was in 1990, Rutan v. The Republican Party of Illinois (497 U. S. 62). The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Republican governor of Illinois to require applicants for hire, promotion, transfer and recall from layoff to obtain recognition from the Republican Party of Illinois prior to service. In 1996, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Rutan decision applied to temporary employees as well. For several reasons it is unlikely an administration would commence large scale terminations after each new election. Even with a return to a spoils system an administration would not introduce massive terminations of productive workers for several reasons. First, as Kernell and McDonald argue, â€Å"the new breed of office-holding politicians who entered Congress at the end of the nineteenth century saw greater electoral payoffs from providing direct services to their constituencies than from subsidizing local party organizations. Thus they eschewed patronage for the merit system† (Ruhil and Camoes 2003, 27-43). This reflects twenty-first century American society more than it did in the nineteenth century. Also, the expensiveness of mass terminations would prevent government from mass terminations of productive employees. As argued by Kellough and Osuna â€Å"turnover also holds the potential for enormous organizational costs, including the direct costs of hiring and training new employees as well as significant in direct costs associated with lower productivity levels from newer employees and opportunity costs from situations requiring more experienced workers to provide task assistance to new colleagues (Kellough and Osuna 1995, 58-68). Indeed, research by the Saratoga Institute proposed that the replacement cost of an employee is between one and two times the individual’s salary. In another study by the Keener-Tregoe Business Issues Research Group it was estimated that it costs approximately $134,000 to replace a human resource manager in the automotive industry (Selden & Moynihan 2000, 63-74). For this reason it is just unlikely that government would commence with large scale terminations as those who are against the spoils systems contend. Equally important it is extremely expensive to run a merit system and as a result a lot of poorer states and local governments just cannot continue with the expansive hiring, promotion and discharge protocols. For instance, in a local government in the state of Michigan written test were administered to six hundred applicants for just a few vacancies, and followed up with oral examinations for all those found qualified by the written exam. It is argued that such a process is â€Å"neither practical nor an efficient use of limited government resources† (Leidlein 1993, 391-392). As a result a lot of states and local governments have tweaked their own merit systems resulting in abandonment of some merit principles or abandoning the principles all together. This situation is exemplified by Jay M. Shafritz, who argues that there is a â€Å"nether world of public personnel administration† which often exists to circumvent the maze of merit systems (1974, 486-492). For instance, in both the city of New Haven, Connecticut and the state of Idaho the personnel systems there were so time consuming they begun hiring temporaries in an effort to speed the process (Jorgensen et al. 1996, 5-20). Moreover, in Florida, Georgia and Virginia merit principles have been removed and have resulted in efficient government activities. For example, in the state of Georgia, merit protections have been removed entirely for state civil servants hired after June 30, 1996; employees hired prior to July 1, 1996 are still covered by the traditional merit system protections. In the state of Florida, merit protections were removed for all state civil servants on May 14, 2001. The result is in both Georgia and Florida, â€Å"civil servants can be hired, promoted, disciplined and fired quickly and with relative impunity; they [civil servants] accrue no seniority and therefore have no bumping rights whatsoever† (Walters 2003, 34-80). Nonetheless, in regards to Florida’s new civil service system, Mark Neimeiser, from Council 79 for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees which represents most of the state’s rank-and-file employees states that: It [Florida’s new system] exposes state workers who enforce regulations and license businesses and professionals to the risk of retribution for pursuing cases against politically well-connected Floridians. Second, it leaves higher-salaried senior staff exposed to the whims of departmental budget cutters who, like a sports-team owner trying to meet a salary cap, might be tempted to off-load more senior, high-paid staff just to save money, regardless of what it means by way of institutional brain drain or employee morale (Walters 2003, 34-80). However, according to Walters it seems that their concerns are valid. He details how there are several former employees who blew the whistle and were terminated for political reasons, either because they took regulatory action against an ally of the governor or because they were Democrats. Notwithstanding, Walters does point out that â€Å"Depending on one's view of the spoils system and what it ought to deliver to whom, such stories are either shocking or just par for the political course and no different than stories that filter out of Albany, Springfield or Sacramento whenever there's a change of party, regardless of the civil service rules† (Walters 2003, 34-80). Nevertheless, Walters does point out that there is ample evidence showing that there was widespread removal of long time employees in various Florida agencies. Yet, he does note that most of the laid-off employees were given the option of taking other jobs in government. According to AFSCME, the jobs offered typically represented demotions in both rank and pay. For example, a group of employees in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation were terminated, then allowed to reapply for jobs paying 25 percent less (Walters 2003, 34-80). As pointed out previously, one of the necessary factors for retaining workers is relative job security. And as such if termination protections are removed, it is believed a large turnover in the bureaucracy would occur (Godsell 1998, 653-660). However, a study on turnover in state government which specifically studied the environmental, organizational, and individual factors for turnover found that one determinant that prevented large turnovers was pay increases and promotions (Selden & Moynihan 2000, 63-74). Charles W. Gossett conducted a survey in the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice testing hypotheses on organizational loyalty, job mobility, and performance responsiveness between the workers covered by those hired after June 30, 1996 who has no civil service protections and those hired prior to July 1, 1996 whom still are covered by civil service protections (2003, 267-278). Some of Gossett's findings were that there were no substantial differences between the protected and un-protected civil servants in voluntary turnover and concern for the agency. However, Gossett's research did determine that un-protected workers are more willing to seek promotion within the agency and view themselves as needing to be more responsive to management because they feel they can be disciplined for any minor infractions (2003, 277). The purpose of this essay was to argue against and examine the arguments against eliminating merit systems. Given the importance of achieving an efficient and effective public workforce, it is essential to know whether eliminating merit protections and procedures will result into a more efficient and effective workforce. From the literature, it appears that the elimination of merit systems pose no horrific menace. Most of the arguments against removing merit factors, center on effectiveness and efficiency. The opponents argue that the removal of merit factors will result in hiring, promotion and termination based on political considerations. However, there are numerous federal laws, state laws and court decisions to protect every possible category of employee employed by government. Also, as evidenced in Georgia, non-protected workers tend to be more responsive to management which is good because it increases the effectiveness of executive leadership. For this purpose, chief executives are able to deliver on their promises. Getting rid of merit principles also allows government to hire qualified individuals quickly and cost effectively. Works Cited Durant, Robert F. 1998. Rethinking the unthinkable: A cautionary note. Administration & Society 29 (January): 643-653. Gossett, Charles W. 2003. The changing face of Georgia's merit system: results from an employee attitude survey in the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. Public Personnel Management 32 (Summer): 267-278. Hamilton, David K. 1999. The continuing judicial assault on patronage. Public Administration Review 59. (January): 54-62. Jorgensen, Lorna, Kelli Patton and W. David. 1996. Underground merit systems and the balance between service and compliance. Review of Public Personnel Administration 16 (Spring): 5-20. Kaufman, Herbert. 2001. Major players: Bureaucracies in American government. Public Administration Review 61. (January/February): 18-42. Leidlein, James E. 1993. In search of merit. Public Administration review 53 (July/August): 391-392. Maranto, Robert. 1998. Thinking the unthinkable in public administration: A case for spoils in the federal bureaucracy. Administration & Society 29 (January): 623-633. Ruhil, Anirudh V. S. and Pedro J. Camoes. 2003. What lies beneath: The political roots of state merit systems. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 13. (January): 27-43. Selden, Sally Coleman and Donald P. Moynihan. 2003. A model of voluntary turnover in state government. Review of Public Personnel 20 (Spring) 63-74. Walters, Jonathan. 2003. Civil service tsunami. Governing 16 (May): 34-40. ________. 1997a. Who needs civil service. Governing 10 (August): 17-21. West, William E. and Robert F. Durant. 2000. Merit, management, and neutral competence: Lessons from the U. S. Merit Systems Protection Board, FY 1988-FY 1997. Public Administration Review 60 (March/April): 111-122. Cross-agency comparisons of quit rates in the Federal Service: Another look at the evidence Author: Kellough, J Edward; Osuna, Will Source: Review of Public Personnel Administration v15n4, (Fall 1995): p. 58-68 (Length: 11 pages) ISSN: 0734-371X Number: 01152472 Copyright: Copyright Institute of Public Affairs 1995 Shafritz, J. (1974). â€Å"The Cancer Eroding Public Personnel Professionalism. † Public Personnel Management 3, 3 : 486-492