The connection between quality and environment Essay

The connection between quality and environment - Essay Example Other components are the universal natural resources along with the physical phenomena such as energy, electric charge, magnetism and radiations. â€Å"To have a quality environment, the components of the natural environment should be maintained, and not get polluted.† (Smith and Aurora, 2006). It is because the natural environment provides quality natural resources to the surroundings. The built environment relates to the quality of the environment due to the human efforts employed to improve the same environment. â€Å"It refers to the surroundings that are human-made.† (Roof and Oleru, 2008). The built environment gives the human activity setting that ranges from green space, buildings, parks and infrastructure. â€Å"Good infrastructure and surroundings will enhance the quality of the environment by giving proper-conditioned surroundings to the living and non-living.† (Roof and Oleru, 2008). From the discussion, environmental quality is evaluated based on how natural or how built it is. The quality attached to the environment comes from the benefits it brings; in the form of natural resources or infrastructure. The natural environment ensures good natural environmental conditions while built environment give quality surroundings to the living. Thus, the two environments connect to create a quality

Importance of Literature Essay Example for Free

Importance of Literature Essay Literature is the foundation of life. It places an emphasis on many topics from human tragedies to tales of the ever-popular search for love. While it is physically written in words, these words come alive in the imagination of the mind, and its ability to comprehend the complexity or simplicity of the text. Literature enables people to see through the lenses of others, and sometimes even inanimate objects; therefore, it becomes a looking glass into the world as others view it. It is a journey that is inscribed in pages, and powered by the imagination of the reader. Ultimately, literature has provided a gateway to teach the reader about life experiences from even the saddest stories to the most joyful ones that will touch their hearts. From a very young age, many are exposed to literature in the most stripped down form: picture books and simple texts that are mainly for the sole purpose of teaching the alphabet etc. Although these are not nearly as complex as an 800-page sci-fi novel, it is the first step that many take towards the literary world. Progressively, as people grow older, they explore other genres of books, ones that propel them towards curiosity of the subject, and the overall book. Reading and being given the keys to the literature world prepares individuals from an early age to discover the true importance of literature: being able to comprehend and understand situations from many perspectives. Physically speaking, it is impossible to be someone else. It is impossible to switch bodies with another human being, and it is impossible to completely understand the complexity of their world. Literature, as an alternative, is the closest thing the world has to being able to understand another person whole-heartedly. For stance, a novel about a treacherous war, written in the perspective of a soldier, allows the reader to envision their memories, their pain, and their emotions without actually being that person. Consequently, literature can act as a time machine, enabling individuals to go into a specific time period of the story, into the mind and soul of the protagonist. With the ability to see the world with a pair of fresh eyes, it triggers the reader to reflect upon their own lives. Reading a material that is relatable to the reader may teach them morals and encourage them to practice good judgement. This can be proven through public school systems, where the books that are emphasized the most tend to have a moral-teaching purpose behind the story. An example would be William Shakespeare’s stories, where each one is meant to be reflective of human nature – both the good and bad. Consequently, this can promote better judgement of situations, so the reader does not find themselves in the same circumstances as perhaps those in the fiction world. Henceforth, literature is proven to not only be reflective of life, but it can also be used as a guide for the reader to follow and practice good judgement from. The world today is ever-changing. Never before has life been so chaotic and challenging for all. Life before literature was practical and predictable, but in present day, literature has expanded into countless libraries and into the minds of many as the gateway for comprehension and curiosity of the human mind and the world around them. Literature is of great importance and is studied upon as it provides the ability to connect human relationships, and define what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, words are alive more than ever before.

Uncertified Teachers in Prince George’s County Schools :: essays papers

Uncertified Teachers in Prince George’s County Schools Prince George’s County has been the largest school district in Maryland for the past more than twenty years. However, as a result of under funding, compared to other Maryland public school districts, Prince George’s County sustains the second highest percentage of uncertified teachers in the state. The lack of certified teachers has left lasting negative effects on the Prince George’s county school system. This problem goes much deeper than Prince George’s County, uncertified teacher are being allowed into the classroom all over the country and have been for the last couple of decades, mainly due to teacher shortages. By definition "a qualified teacher is expected to have a broad background of general education as well as professional preparation."(Teacher) it has never been considered satisfactory for a student to complete on 60% of material taught, why should it be different for teachers? In the early 1980s during a teacher shortage graduates of teacher education programs had lower levels of academic achievement than most college graduates and were still allowed to teach. In 1991-92, 16,000 teachers nationwide were uncertified. Currently, 37 of 39 states employ waivers, which allow failing teachers into classrooms. Past attempts at solutions were Teachers for America, Experimental Certification of Ethnic Colleagues for Elementary Schools, provisional certification, and emergency certification. Teachers for America is a very easy, "six week crash course in teacher survival skills taught primarily by teachers from their troubled placement sites."(Roth, 220) These teachers are said to bring "enthusiasm and intellect" to the classroom. In inner city and urban school systems, where most of the student body is poor and in the greatest need of good teachers, the TFA teachers are installed. While TFA is a good idea and puts teachers in classrooms, some say that the children who are being used as guinea pigs for this experimental teacher training are suffering. However, after receiving praise from some major cities, its training program was approved in 1995 and it "received $2 million from AmeriCorps, President Clinton’s national service initiative."(Mosle, 3) Experimental Certification of Ethnic Colleagues for Elementary Schools (E3) was an effort to "increase the representation of males and people of color on teaching staffs of elementary schools,"(Shade, 261) in response to teacher shortages. This solution was implemented for three years and was very successful. Provisional certification is given to a person who has been certified in another state and has passed the Praxis II, "but who needs one or two courses Maryland requires for teachers.

Mexican Immigrant Life and Americanization in the 1920’s

In his book, Major Problems in Mexican American History, Zaragosa Vargas describes the Mexican Immigrant experience from 1917-1928. He begins by assessing the Protestant religious experience for a Mexican in the early 1920’s, and then describes Mexican life in both Colorado in 1924 and Chicago in 1928. After defending Mexican Immigrants in 1929, he includes an outline of an Americanization program, followed by an anecdote of a Mexican immigrant in the 1920’s. Vargas uses these documents to show the evolvement of Americanization of Mexicans from a community goal to a societal demand. Vargas begins with the Mexican Immigrant experience in the early 1920’s, and describes it mostly as a community project spearheaded by the Church and called for the aid of volunteers. The children learned and studied English in school, so the programs focused mostly on courses in English for the wives and mothers of the community. These English courses consisted mostly of vocabulary for familiar and most frequently seen objects. Sunday schools resulted from this process, and in turn made way for the development of night schools, clinics, an employment bureau, and a boys and girl’s club. In Colorado in 1924, Mexicans played a respectable role in society as not only a decent part of the population, but also the labor force. Spanish-Americans took a notable part in politics, and were involved in many occupations that included mostly agriculture, mining, and steel works. The recreation was also important to Spanish-American life in Colorado; the somewhat newly developed buildings were a source of community for many. Mexicans in Chicago in 1928, Vargas argues, lived a very different lifestyle and endured different hardships than the Mexicans in the Southwest. They were a much smaller part of the community, consisting of small, well-defined neighborhoods and several smaller less defined colonies. These Mexicans lived in the poorest houses in these neighborhoods, and most buildings guaranteed poor living conditions for these families. Employment only came certain times during the year when demand for labor was high, and it was the Mexicans who suffered most when certain industries reduced labor. In the words of Anita Edgar Jones, â€Å"They are the last to arrive and the first to be laid off† (Vargas). Mexican Life in Chicago during this time period served as a temporary solution for many families as they moved from recent arrivals to a more desirable place with better opportunity as they became more established and stabilized. Some neighborhoods were poorly organized for recreation, and even lacked Spanish-speaking employees at their community or recreation centers. Communities also lacked a Spanish-speaking priest, which is evidently different from early Americanization programs implemented in the Southwest in the early 1920’s. After addressing and defending most of the problems of Mexican Immigration in 1929, Vargas moves on to an outline of a typical Americanization program in 1931, where the Mexican Immigrant experience evolved from a community project that supported and encouraged Mexican assimilation, to a list of demands and requirements for Mexican and Spanish Americans to be acceptable members of society. Vargas uses these documents to show the progression of assimilation of Spanish Americans and Mexican immigrants into American society in the 1920’s. The life of a Mexican Immigrant during this time was very taxing, and these Americanization programs were used as a tool to attempt to create a society that operated under certain ideologies and values. As a result, this created an even stronger division between cultures, and prevented assimilation of the two groups.

Environmental Science Notes Essay

1. Green revolution: intro of scientifically bred or selected varieties of grain that can greatly increase crop yields. 2. Things that cause seasons on earth: earth tilted on axis, sun distribution 3. Large scale hydroelectric projects around the world: 3 gorges dam, dams going on in india 4. Age distribution diagrams: ZPG=looks like a building that doesn’t change, bottom same as top. Slow growth=base a bit longer than top but not quite a pyramid. Rapid growth=WIDE base, narrow top, like a pyramid 5. Waste water treatment process: get water, drain out sludge, have sludge area, water goes through process to get more sludge out, water gets aerated, water gets filtered with Cl to remove bacteria. 6. Human pop on earth: 6.8 billion. US pop: 300 million. Most populated countries: china, india, US 7. Soil horizons: O,A,B,C. O is organic material and leaf litter and such. A is top soil and humus. B is parent material. C is bedrock, solid rock 8. Rule of 70: 70/percent=time it will take to double population 9. Replacement level fertility: reproducing enough babies to replace yourself(in developed countries, it’s 2.1, but in developing, it’s 2.5 because of infant mortality) 10. Waste created by nuclear power plants: radioactive waste in solid liquid or gas state 11. Biggest threats to biodiversity: HIPPO, habitat loss, invasive species, population growth, pollution, and overexploitation 12. Integrated pest management: people come in and solve your pest problem without using harmful chemicals or pesticides. Situations are situation specific and take a longer time to solve. 13. Aquaculture: trapping fish in a coast, or netted fenced area of water to use for produce and food or commercial use 14. Demographic transition model: preindustrial, transitional, industrial, postindustrial. Pre- high birth and death rates. Trans- high birth rates and low death rates. Ind- lower birth rates, and same death rates. Post- birth and death rates equal 15. Photosynthesis: CO2+H2OO2+C6H12O6. Needs solar energy 16. Half life: radioactive decay of how long it takes for half of material to decay 17. Tragedy of the commons: when a renewable available to everyone resource is depleted 18. Population growth rate equation: (births-deaths)/10 19. Genetic engineering: getting genes from one organism and putting them in other organisms to get desired trait 20. 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics: 1st states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. 2nd states that as energy is changed and moves up trophic levels, it decreases 21. Where is coal located around world: US in mountainous areas, Russia, china, and Australia 22. Denitrification: ammonium to N gas. Assimilation: when plants and animals turn nitrates into amino acids and proteins. Ammonification: nitrates to ammonium. Nitrification: N gas to nitrates and nitrites. Nitrogen fixation: Nitrogen to nitrogen gas that is ready to go to nitrites 23. Montreal protocol: when they noticed that ozone was disappearing, they banned chlorofluorocarbons in industries and anything else in 1987 24. Antarctic treaty of 1961: countries could only use Antarctica for peaceful matters 25. Pop growth curves: irruptive- overshootdieback. Cyclic: predator and prey’s pop patterns change together. Logistic: exponential to carrying capacity then moves around the carrying patterns a little. 26. Carrying capacity: biotic potential + environmental resistance, what population the environment can withstand What I kind of know 1. Cons of mining: removes 90% of nonfuel mineral and rock recourses, 60% of coal used in US destroys forests, contaminates streams and groundwater, leaves highly erodible hills of rubble, susceptible to chemical weathering, slow vegetation regrowth, damages and buries streams below, toxic wastewater, produces air pollution 2. Ways to reduce soil erosion: terracing (growing food on slopes), no till farming, windbreaks of trees, strip cropping, contour farming 3. Cause of fluctuation of CO2 levels during a year: amount of trees, photosynthetic activity, burning fossil fuels, trash, power generation and transport 4. Surface mining: to remove mineral deposits found fairly close to the earth’s surface, removing soil, subsoil and other strata. 5. Types of irrigation: drip-delivers small amts of water onto crop roots (best). Flood-delivers more water than needed for a crop to grow. Centro pivotal- spray attachments water crops 6. Consequences of global temperature increase: melting ice and snow, less sunlight reflected back into space, rising sea levels, changing ocean currents, more acidic seas, change in precipitation and weather extremes, and disrupting ecosystems, more radiation 7. Pros and cons of dams: pros-cheap electricity, reduces downstream flooding, provide year round water for irrigation. Cons: displace people, disrupt aquatic systems, and prevent fish to swim upstream and get caught in it and die 8. Ozone layer function: filter out most of sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation 9. Cause of stratospheric ozone loss: chlorofluorocarbons use, ODCs, halons, hydrobromofluorocarbons, methyl bromide, HCl, carbochluorides, methyl chloroform, n-propyl bromide, hexachlorobutadicine. 10. Ways to reduce atmospheric CO2: cut fossil fuel use, shift from coal to natural gas, improve energy efficiency, shift to renewable energy resources, transfer energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to developing contries, reduce deforestation, use sustainable agriculture and forestry, reduce poverty, slow population growth 11. Season when ozone hole is most noticeable: October, Antarctic spring (winter) 12. DDT, mercury: pesticides that are toxic to humans and are very persistent and a lot of the time they go to the wrong species and they disrupt the ecosystem. They are broad spectrum pesticides. 13. P cycle: P circulates through water, earth’s crust, and living things, it is the most limiting because it does not become gaseous. C cycle: C circulated through earth’s air, water, soil, and living things and it depends on photosynthesis and respiration. N cycle: bacteria helps recycle N through the earth’s air, water, soil and living organisms (N fixationnitrificationassimilationammonificationdenitrificationN fixation). Water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, percolation 14. Importance of genetic diversity: resistance to mass extinctions, monocultures, and inbreeding 15. Biomes, locations, reasons for why they are located in certain areas: 1. Gasification: agricultural wastes, including wood wastes any of various processes by which coal is turned into low, medium or high BTU gases 2. Cogeneration: production of 2 useful forms of energy, such as high temp heat or steam and electricity, from the same fuel source 3. Cultural eutrophication: human activities that greatly accelerate the input of plant nutrients to a lake (mostly NO3 and phosphate). 4. Sand: low porosity and high permeability. Clay: low permeability and high porosity. Porosity is the volume of pore space. Silt has low to average porosity and average permeability. Permeability is the ability of water to flow through the soil 5. Incinerating trash: burning trash, boiling water to make steam for heating water of space for producing electricity. Cons: expensive to build, costs more than short distance hauling to landfills, difficult to site because of citizen opposition, some air pollution, older poorly managed facilities can release large amts of air pollution, output approach that encourages waste production, competes with recycling for burnable materials like newspaper. Pros: reduces trash volumes, less need for landfills, low water pollution, concentrates hazardous substances into ash for burial or use as landfill cover, sale of energy reduces cost, modern controls reduce air pollution, some facilities recover and sell metals. 6. Sun angle, fewer daylight hours, tropospheric length has not enough solar radiation to reach the surface, high Albeao and less water vapor causes polar areas to get really cold. 7. Integrated waste management: variety of strategies for waste reduction and management to deal with our produced solid wasted reduce, reuse and recycle 8. Layers of atmosphere: troposphere is closest to earth’s surface and contains 90% of mass of entire atmosphere. Stratosphere has the ozone layer that absorbs UV rays from sun and protects life on earth. Mesosphere is the coldest layer of the atmosphere. The mesopause is the boundary between mesosphere and thermosphere. Thermosphere is the last layer of atmosphere and it is warmer than mesosphere and has a little O2 and has a layer of ionized gases 9. Waste created by coal power plants: heat to troposphere, CO2 and air pollution 10. Pros and cons of coal power: pros- ample supply, high net energy, low cost, well developed mining and combustion technology, air pollution can be reduced with improved technologies. Cons: severe land disturbance, air pollution, water pollution, high land use, severe threats to human health, high CO2 emissions, radioactive particles and toxi mercury into air 11. Pros and cons of nuclear power: pros- large fuel supply, low envir. Impact, emits 1/6 as much CO2 as coal, moderate land use and disruption and water pollution, and Low risk of accidents. Cons- expensive, low net energy yield, catastrophic accidents, no solution for radioactive waste storage, terrorist attacks, weapons 12. Source of radon: some soil and rock 13. Tropospheric ozone: air pollutant, bad ozone because it can damage living tissue and break down certain materials 14. Acid rain: caused by coal burning power plants, ore smelters and industrial plants that use tall smokestacks to emit SO2 and NO2 into troposphere. Consequences: 2-14 day persistence, ruins sensitive soil, worsens respiratory disease, attacks metallic and stone, decreases atmospheric visibility, kills fish, depletes soil of vital plant nutrients and harms crops and plants. Solutions: improving energy efficiency, reduce coal use, increase natural gas use and renewable energy resourcs, burn low sulfur coal, remove SO2 and NO2 from smokestack gases, remove NO2 from motor vehicular exhaust, tax emissions of SO2, add lime to neutralize acidified lakes and add phosphate fertilizer to neutralize acidified lakes. pH of rain: 5.6 or less. Problem in eastern US. 15. Greenhouse gases and their sources: water vapor, CO2, CH4, NO2, O3. Sources are burning fossil fuels, electricity production, transportation, industry, commercial and residential, agriculture, land use and forestry. 16. LD-50: median lethal dose of a toxin, radiation or pathogen is dose required to kill  ½ the members of a tested pop after specified test duration 17. Radon: Rn-222 is a natural occurring gas that is colorless and odorless and radioactive found in some soil and rock, seeps into homes and buildings and can cause lung cancer. Lichen can indicate it 18. Clean water act: attempt to control efforts of pollution of country’s surface waters. Standards for allowed levels of key water pollutants and requires polluters to get permits limiting how much of various pollutants can discharge into aquatic systems 19. Clean air act: causes lakes to be acidic. Made to prevent smog and prevent more air pollution disasters, air pollutant regulations for key pollutants 20. How carbon is removed from the atmosphere: remove from smokestack and vehicle emissions, store by planting trees, sequester deep underground, sequester in soil by using no till conservation and taking cropland out of production, sequester CO2 deep in ocean, repair leaky gas pipelines and facilities, use animal feeds that reduce methane emissions by belching cows. 21. UN conference of the human environment: expanding understanding of envir. Issues, gathering and evaluation envir. Data, develop and monitor international envir. Treaties, provide grants and loans for sustainable econ. Devel. And reducing poverty, help more than 1—nations develop envir. Laws and institutions 22. Reclamation of disturbed lands: process of creating new land from ocean, riverbeds or lake. Stabilized against the hazards of water and wind erosion 23. RCRA: resource conservation and recovery act regulates hazardous waste produced in the US passed in 1976 amended in 1984. Goal to prevent unsafe and il legal disposal of hazardous wastes on the land. 24. Uranium-235: isotope of uranium making up about .72% of the natural uranium sustains fission chain reaction 25. Biomagnifications: increase in concentration of DDT, PCBs, and other slowly degradable far soluble chemicals in organisms at successively higher trophic levels of a food chain or web. 26. Efficiency of an incandescent lightbulb (5%), photosynthesis (1%), coal power (33%) 27. Fecal coliform bacteria: various strains of E. Coli to detect the presence of infectious agents in water 28. Consequences of SO2, lead, O3 in troposphere, and particulates: SO2- breathing problems, visibility reduction and aggravation of asthma, damages crops, trees, soils, and lake aquatic life, corrodes metals and damages paint, paper, and leather and stone on buildings. O3- coughing, breathing problems, reduces resistance to colds and pneumonia, irritates eyes, nose, and throat, aggravates asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and heart disease and damages plants, rubber in tires, fabrics and paints. Particulates- irritate the nose and throat, damage lungs, aggravate asthma and bronchitis, shortens life. Lead- mutations, reproductive problems, cancer, nervous system damage, mental retardation and digestive and other health problems, reduce visibility and corrode metals and discolor clothes and paints. 29. CERCLA: requires parties responsible for creating a hazardous waste site to be responsible for its cleanup 30. NAFTA: goal to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between US, Canada and Mexico to eliminate tariffs on more than  ½ of Mexico’s exports to the US. Try to pressure countries to improve envir. Protection mechanism 31. Electrostatic precipitators: to remove particulates, after they are in smokestack gas, it gives them a negative charge, they are attracted to a positively charged precipitator wall and fall off the wall into a collector, they maintain and remove 99% of particulate, but use a lot of electricity and do not remove hazardous ultrafine particles and produce a toxic dust that must be disposed of safely. 32. Alternatives to chlorine in waste water treatment: microfiltration, ultrafiltration, ion exchange

Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE)

Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) Education evaluation is a process that aims at assessing the benefits and impacts of educational programs/systems and initiatives towards various aspects of education. This is achieved through utilization of numerous research methods. Education credential evaluators is a well known organization that is private and non profit making. It works through the preparation of evaluation reports which are aimed at identifying the education qualifications earned in other countries and equating them to the United States equivalents.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The main aim of education credential evaluators is to serve individuals who have attained education in other parts of the world, other than the United States, helping them to be recognized in terms of education qualifications and hence making their education-related undertakings to be successful. There are various issues associated with education credential evaluators for instance education evaluation services, the process of evaluating foreign education and professional credentials, the process of getting an independent education evaluation, the functions and benefits of ECE, the objects used for evaluation as well as misconceptions. For the purpose of this paper, I will discuss the education evaluation services and the process of evaluating foreign education and professional credentials. The education evaluation services Education evaluation process entails having a critical and systematic appraisal of the various activities in the education system. Various research methods are utilized. They include collection of data, its analysis and taking of necessary actions based on the analyzed data. Education evaluation methods can be defined as the ideas that are put forth in regard to the teaching strategies and tools for putting into practice effective means of teaching. The m ethods allow for setting of achievable goals. The methods include; lesson plans which stipulate the activities carried out in a classroom setting for instance project overview, the education standards followed, how special needs of students are handled and the results achieved after certain measures are taken. The status of the lesson plans and the teaching skills are used as a gauge to a teacher’s education qualifications. Some of the general services offered by educational credential evaluators include document by document credential evaluation, CV/ resume preparation especially for international placement, work experience evaluation and course by course evaluation. All this services are aimed at placing the particular person being evaluated at a better position to secure an education chance or job opportunity. The process of evaluating foreign education and professional credentials Evaluation of foreign education and professional credentials is a crucial aspect that is wor th looking at. This is because a considerable number of foreign students go to the United States in search of employment or to further their education. The process of evaluating foreign education and professional credentials involves choosing an appropriate evaluator and making a decision on what is essential in getting whatever position is desired.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This however requires that professional evaluators are identified, for instance the trade organization national association of credential evaluation services. The evaluation standards should not be lowered so as to ensure that foreign students and job seekers are offered the quality care that is equivalent to that accorded to the American students with equivalent qualifications. Education credential evaluators is an organization whose services cannot be underemphasized. It plays a great role in ens uring that foreign students and job seekers are able to integrate well in the United States education systems as well as the job market through matching their qualifications to what is expected in America and hence allowing for necessary changes to be made for the benefit of all. It has been able to achieve this through various bodies and staff who perpetrate the activities therein.

Central bank Essays - Economy, Currency, Eurozone, Monetary Policy

Central bank Essays - Economy, Currency, Eurozone, Monetary Policy central bank is not a regular bank; it is a government agency, and it stands at the cen- ter of a country's monetary and nancial system. they have helped to guide the develop- ment of modern nancial and monetary systems and they play a major role in economic policy. virtually all countries have central banks: the Federal Reserve in the United States, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, and so on . currency union, where a number of countries collectively share a central bank. By far the most important example of that is the European Central Bank, which is the central bank for seventeen European countries that share the euro as their common currency . each of the participating countries does have its own central bank, which is part of the overall system of the euro. What do central banks do achieve macroeconomic stability. By that I mean achiev- ing stable growth in the economy, avoiding big swingsrecessions and the likeand keeping in ation low and stable keep the nancial system working normally try to either pre- vent or mitigate nancial panics or nancial crises What are the tools that central banks use to achieve these two

Has Social Media Killed Live Blogging

Has Social Media Killed Live Blogging Hasnt Twitter and Storify – pretty much any social media – killed live blogging? Well, no. Live blogging is not dead, not exactly. The reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. Granted, live blogging has certainly changed in recent years, becoming a mix of blogging and social feeds on the blogs and websites of those who use this technique, but it is still very much alive. Why Live Blogging Still Matters Live blogging is when you create single post or page that you update continuously throughout an event. Its a powerful tool, but surprisingly, most bloggers dont use live blogging much. It seems relegated to newspapers and news organizations to cover breaking news. Live blogging used to be the go-to method for live coverage, though its popularity is in decline while interest in live tweeting is increasing. You can see that interest in live blogging has declined since 2011. Information from Google Trends. Despite the decline in interest, its a shame bloggers dont use live blogging anymore.  Even with social media, there are reasons why live blogging still has a place in any bloggers repertoire. Live blogging is easy to promote. A live blog has all the immediacy, but just one link to share. You can promote that post or page on social media, and let people know you are live blogging. With a tool like (that connects directly to your blog), you can easily send out regular social messages alerting your audience to your live blogging. You can publish the landing page or post with information on when the event will unfold ahead of time, noting that youll be live blogging there at that time. This makes it easy to promote before the event begins, giving you a single link and plenty of blog real estate to prepare your audience for what youll be live blogging. Live blogging makes it easy to promote your coverage before, during, and after an event.Live blogging can save your Twitter followers. A live blog can spare your followers a deluge of tweets. One of the biggest problems that happens when you live tweet events is that you lose followers. Every year I get carried away and live tweet the Super Bowl and by the end of the night I have lost at least 15 followers. At least. What if I were to live blog the event instead? I could share a few times on social media that I was doing so, and keep the commentary on my own blog so interested parties could join in. There are some events that your followers might not care to hear about, and even if you warn them youll be live tweeting something, some will still unfollow and take you out of their feed. Tweeting too much is a real problem. Live blogging instead of live tweeting keeps you from losing followers who arent interested.Live blogging is better for coherent information. Live blogging isnt limited to 140 characters, hashtags, searches, or any of the other limitations that Twitter sets. Just as blogging is similar to journalism, live blogging is more like a reporters notebook. Twitter is more like a succession of information blips, forcing you to end your tweets with 1/5 or something similar to carry on a longer chunk of information. Readers end up with soundbite information, snippets of content that arent placed in context and can be misunderstood. If you need to capture an event as it unfolds with more than 140 characters and have control over the order your content appears, live blogging is where its at. Social media feeds have limitations on how much you can say, the order they will publish it, and how your fans can find it. If you have important information or something you want delivered consistently in an organized manner during an event, live blogging will do that. Live blogging prevents soundbite information that happens on Twitter. It puts an event in context.Live blogging is the best draft training there is. If you are a blogger with perfectionist tendencies who dawdles and dwells on drafts for days on end, struggling to hit publish and take a post live, then live blogging is going to cure you of it quickly. Really quickly. Its blogging, remember, and not tweeting. Its blogging, but youre doing it live. Your audience is seeing it as it happens. You are going to develop a keen sense of hearing, distilling it down to the basic facts, writing, instant proofing, and publish. And then repeat. Live blogging is exciting. Live blogging puts an end to draft anxiety. You learn to blog quickly.Live blogging brings traffic to your site. When you live tweet, you drive traffic toTwitter. Live-blogging is how you drive traffic back to your own site where you may have ads or affiliate links you are using to generate revenue. With proper promotion, you can use your live coverage of an event to increase your email list or any other call to action that your blog relies on. When Live Blogging Fails Sometimes, though, live blogging doesnt cut it. Its too insulated in some situations. There are times when you want to be on social networks for an event, participating with others, instead of on your own property. Social is king for nation/world-wide events. Lets use that Super Bowl example again. If Im live blogging it instead of live tweeting it, Im doing my uninterested Twitter followers a favor, maybe, but Im missing out on a lot of camaraderie (and possible new followers). For example, the 2011 playoff game between the Bears and the Packers was dismal until a surprise near-turnaround in the final quarter. After the Bears starting quarterback and his replacement were out of the game (accompanied by much mockery), little-known third-stringer Caleb Hanie was brought in. The game suddenly got interesting. Twitter exploded. Tweets were pouring in by the thousands, and Hanies Twitter account racked up over 7,000 followers in about 20 minutes. This was when Twitter still had a live stream in Google search, and watching the Caleb Hanie tweets roll in was incredible fun. People were making jokes, predictions, frantic pleas – this looked like a classic underdog story. And even though  the Bears didnt pull it off, it was a great time to be on Twitter and watching the game. I would not have had that community experience live blogging. I picked up a few new NFL-loving followers, and followed a few myself, just from that experience. When an event is stretched across a wide swath of geography and people, social media is where you tap into it, particularly if it isnt your event and you mainly want to ride the wave along with the rest. Live tweeting national and global events makes more sense than live blogging them.Social is easier to set up and use. Social media apps are on your phone and on the go. Youre already using them, almost as second nature. Theyre easier. They are right with you when something happens. Twitter is a simple app on your phone, requiring no special plugins, immediately accessible. Traditional live blogging has been the forte of the laptop, not the simple phone. Live tweeting a breaking news event out in the field makes excellent sense. You have your phone, which is your camera and publishing tool. Live blogging is not as portable (yet). So when it comes down to which is easiest to use during an event, social media is almost always right there and ready to go. When you have a small readership, social gets attention. Be honest. You might not have a big readership on your blog. You could live blog an event and all 40 of your readers would see it, or you could live-tweet an event and have all 600+ of your followers see it. If your social feeds are more active and read than direct readership of your blog, take your coverage to social media if you want it to get seen.

The effect of rising gas prices on your compan Essay

The effect of rising gas prices on your compan - Essay Example The following discussion will provide a detailed insight towards this issue. As a manager at this delivery service, it is my responsibility to provide the management with future projections about gas prices and to forecast and project gas prices in another 10 years. These steps are of utmost importance. The basic idea behind this discussion is to help the senior management plan everything on long term basis. No company today can survive without extensive consumption of fuel (Magnuson, 2008). This is especially true for the delivery service industry. The competitive edge lies precisely in the fact that the company must deliver all the good on time, every time. Thus it is of utmost importance to the company to be sure about their future gas fuel requirement and the costs associated with it. Gas prices over the last 20 years: The data used for this research is in fact Consumer Price Index - Average Price Data. The prices of Gasoline, unleaded regular, per gallon/3.785 liters from the year 1982 to 2011 have been studied. While studying this data, a lot of statistical techniques and tools have been applied on this set of data. First of all, the data is available in monthly figures. Though monthly figures give us a clear picture of how the prices vary over time, the projections cannot be created without calculating the annual data. The annual mean or average price has been calculated by adding all the monthly figures for any year and divide the sum by 12 to get the average annual figure.

TEXT AND TRADITION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

TEXT AND TRADITION - Essay Example Instantly, Socrates objects Euthypro’s assertion by pointing to existence of various Gods implying that there are diverse methods of pleasing them, which brings a logical incongruity since one action can be presented as indecorous and pious instantaneously; â€Å"But I will amend the definition so far as to say that what all the gods hate is impious, and what they love pious or holy; and what some of them love and others hate is both or neither†. Euthyphro further modifies this explanation by indicating that something is pious only if it causes solidly affirmative response in all existing Gods and improper if it causes a negative response in all the Gods. In reply, Socrates articulates the "Euthyphro`s dilemma": an act that is pious in nature is dear to Gods, and the act is pious because it is dear to Gods. From the discussion, the duo concluded that the quality of a phenomenon or subject is primary to someone’s attitude or assessment of the object. It is accurate that piety is an ambition to justice, but it is not precise. Additionally, it is accurate that piety is an indulgence to Gods but it is also not meticulous. Finally, piety as forfeiting and praying is also correct but its exactness cannot be ascertained. The aforementioned definitions of pity are accurate but not outrightly since the philosopher defines only some aspects of an idea rather than the whole idea. Consequently, the prominence is placed on an imperfect unity as the principle of generating parts. The accord is shaped with the help of these parts mishmash. Hence, when piety is rationally comprehended, it becomes ostensible that the perception is too comprehensive, and all the descriptions are correct but not adequate for the elucidation such a multifaceted concept. One of the typical tragedies of primeval times that influenced the progress of the genre is â€Å"Oedipus Tyrannus." The chief subject of inexorability of destiny is probed and viewed by Sophocles from diverse viewpoints. The hero,

Analyst article Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Analyst article - Assignment Example Nuclear energy contributes 20% of the energy produced in the US. However, the nuclear industry is struggling following delayed construction of nuclear plants and ballooning costs of setting up new modern plants. Additionally, the industry faces intense competition from cheaper alternative energy sources. However, these sources emit carbon thus environmentally unfriendly (Kelly-Detwiler, 2014). Thus, politicians, energy companies and engineering outfits campaign for revamping of the industry until the country has energy alternatives that would not harm the environment. In this article, Kelly-Detwiler (2014) appreciates the need for cheaper alternative energy sources but at the same time the need to protect the environment. Whereas new cheaper energy generating technologies are emerging, they emit carbon. Thus, while nuclear energy fails to be cost-competitive, its use should be promoted due to associated environmental benefits. This is an interesting article as it appreciates the reality of nuclear energy being overtaken by emergent energy sources as a low-cost energy source. Even so, the need to protect and preserve the environment creates the need to foster the nuclear energy industry until environmental friendly alternatives are fronted. Thus, cost and environment are both important considerations when making energy source

Data Analysis for a business making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Data Analysis for a business making - Essay Example c. The model will be solved through the help of the objective function applied, in which the decisions variables will be used in terms of controlling the operations and also avoiding the constraints to get the maximized productivity. d. One of the main constraints in the functional operations was limiting the machine’s productivity due to the depreciation. Another main constraint was time management. The constraint that was not problematic was the labor issue, i.e. they worked properly. e. The reduction in the profit means either the low pricing or the higher material or labor costs. The value of the objective function will change because of the productivity concerns. Because as the material cost has increased, so a limitation will be applied on the working of the machine and the lesser productivity will be the case. f. The value of additional value of additional minute of time per week for the devices numbered 1 to 4 will be respectively as follows: 600, 390, 330, and 204. Th e company must add more test device time on 4th and 3rd device as they have experienced to be consuming lesser time. g. The management of the company should make the corrective measures in terms of the cost reduction techniques and profit maximizing mechanisms. The officials must hire firstly the trained engineers who must know everything about the functions of the machines and how the constraints can be avoided. The company needs maximum productivity and for that it is imperative to train the engineers or flour managers so that they already know what types of constraints can be there and must avoid them to keep the productivity maximized. Also the management must also make sure that the decision variables are only those that can really be controlled and they should be working for the interest of the company for taking the profits to maximized level, and also keeping the costs to the minimum level as that will be the key for the maximum profits. The company must also make sure that the objective functions are properly executed as they will be the important indicators for the success of the maximum productivity. Task 2: a. Mathematical expression for the linear programming function can be written as: Â   The constraints are as follows: These constraints actually mean that the productivity will be low if the resources are not applied efficiently, and the one reason might be the inefficiency of the labor. b. The optimal solution will require the client to follow a specific diet each day which will maximize the chances and objectives which he intends to achieve. The chocolate of 50 grams and sugar of 100 grams might be the best diet for him through which he can meet his aims. This will also incur him the minimum cost, as his problem is more intense but it’s the job of his doctor to suggest the prescriptions that can cost him less but offer him more. c. The creation of the objective function required the programming for which the matlab and java are best pr ograms. The data can be included there along with some calculations and programming. d. Yes, the resources are fully utilized and the materials before being utilized were in stable form and that is why the product quality will also be fine. The only source that was not utilized properly was related to the labor. The management experience of lesser labor doing more work that cannot be handled by them might be the one problem that caused the lack of the productivity that was

Liberation.The Declaration of Independence of the United States of Essay

Liberation.The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America - Essay Example It is one of the most influential documents in the history. So many other countries and organizations have tried to create documents with similar sentence structure and tone as in this document. This document has played a very important part in the history of the United States. This view influenced Abraham Lincoln to such an extent that he considered the Declaration to be the very foundation of his political philosophy. It was this document that explained the significance of the liberation of the United States. There are a number of facts presented in this document that prove why this liberation was extremely necessary (Kelly, N/A). From the overall tone of this document, it can be inferred that this document is persuasive. A persuasive essay is written in an indirect tone, i.e., the main purpose of the document is not disclosed until the very end of the document. In case of a persuasive essay, the document provides facts and evidences that create the context of the main theme of the document. Such facts and evidences influence the reader to accept the core message of the document. Thus, the initial part of the document and a significant part of it lead to the main idea of the document which is provided in the very end. This document is drafted in such a manner that it persuades its readers that the liberation of the United States is highly significant for the betterment of the people of the United States. The initial part of the document simply describes the reasons why the colonies wanted to be separated from the rule of England. The writer starts the document with a very wide scope involving the rules of nature which are highly significant as compared to the insignificant rules created by the man himself. The writer provides the reader with the fact that God created all men as equals and gave them the ability to think to decide what is best for them. â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness†. This sentence is considered to be one of the best-known sentences in the English language because of the ambit of argument it puts forth. Jefferson provided factual evidence in order to make the people realize the importance of the independence. It was the evidential appeal that was used to make this document one of the most influential documents. The facts provided in this document have been presented in such a manner that they are bound to be effectual. For example; Jefferson initially admits that changing long established Governments should not be changed for causes that are not material, however he later provides that, if the Government does not vary its behavior and tries to use its power against the will of the people being governed repeatedly, it becomes the right and duty of the people being governed to remove the Government and acquire new guards to ensure the s ecurity of their future (Selzer, 2004). After the initial argument, Jefferson provides a list of facts which constitutes a significant part of the document. This list of facts includes certain evidences that cannot be falsified and this only adds to the effectiveness of this document. Some of the facts that he included in his list were regarding the steps that could have been taken by the Government for the betterment of the people but they were not taken. For example; according to Jefferson, the King refused his assent to laws that were necessary for the public good, he has forbidden the governors to pass laws of immediate importance unless his assent is obtained and he neglects to attend to those matters. Jefferson also presented that the King has dissolved the Representative

Data Analysis for a business making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Data Analysis for a business making - Essay Example c. The model will be solved through the help of the objective function applied, in which the decisions variables will be used in terms of controlling the operations and also avoiding the constraints to get the maximized productivity. d. One of the main constraints in the functional operations was limiting the machine’s productivity due to the depreciation. Another main constraint was time management. The constraint that was not problematic was the labor issue, i.e. they worked properly. e. The reduction in the profit means either the low pricing or the higher material or labor costs. The value of the objective function will change because of the productivity concerns. Because as the material cost has increased, so a limitation will be applied on the working of the machine and the lesser productivity will be the case. f. The value of additional value of additional minute of time per week for the devices numbered 1 to 4 will be respectively as follows: 600, 390, 330, and 204. Th e company must add more test device time on 4th and 3rd device as they have experienced to be consuming lesser time. g. The management of the company should make the corrective measures in terms of the cost reduction techniques and profit maximizing mechanisms. The officials must hire firstly the trained engineers who must know everything about the functions of the machines and how the constraints can be avoided. The company needs maximum productivity and for that it is imperative to train the engineers or flour managers so that they already know what types of constraints can be there and must avoid them to keep the productivity maximized. Also the management must also make sure that the decision variables are only those that can really be controlled and they should be working for the interest of the company for taking the profits to maximized level, and also keeping the costs to the minimum level as that will be the key for the maximum profits. The company must also make sure that the objective functions are properly executed as they will be the important indicators for the success of the maximum productivity. Task 2: a. Mathematical expression for the linear programming function can be written as: Â   The constraints are as follows: These constraints actually mean that the productivity will be low if the resources are not applied efficiently, and the one reason might be the inefficiency of the labor. b. The optimal solution will require the client to follow a specific diet each day which will maximize the chances and objectives which he intends to achieve. The chocolate of 50 grams and sugar of 100 grams might be the best diet for him through which he can meet his aims. This will also incur him the minimum cost, as his problem is more intense but it’s the job of his doctor to suggest the prescriptions that can cost him less but offer him more. c. The creation of the objective function required the programming for which the matlab and java are best pr ograms. The data can be included there along with some calculations and programming. d. Yes, the resources are fully utilized and the materials before being utilized were in stable form and that is why the product quality will also be fine. The only source that was not utilized properly was related to the labor. The management experience of lesser labor doing more work that cannot be handled by them might be the one problem that caused the lack of the productivity that was

Marketing and Strategy Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Marketing and Strategy Theory - Essay Example The introduction section examines the fact that the rate of failure for the introduction of new products in retail grocery industry falls within the 70 to 80 per cent range. It then develops a theoretical model explaining why this happens. The theoretical model then culminates in a set of hypotheses that are further investigated by the paper. The conclusion part of the paper summarises the main issues brought out by the paper and gives inferences where appropriate. It then confirms that indeed the rate of failure for the introduction of new products in retail grocery industry falls is very high. The rate of failure for the introduction of new products in retail grocery industry is very high; it falls within the 70 to 80 per cent range. Linton Matysiak and Wilkes is a product development and market research firm specializing in perishable foods. The firm carried out a review of 1935 new products introductions by top food companies in the United States (Linton, Matysiak and Wilkes, 1997). This review was aimed at determining national introductions, regional breakdowns, line extension mortality, new item mortality and the overall product mortality. It also ventured into determining the ratio of line extensions to new items. The firm examined a number of issues such as the number of product line extensions, the number of innovative and new items and the locations where new products were introduced. On the other hand, the review found that the Top 20 grocery retailers in the United States enjoy a 76 per cent rate of success in the introduction of new products. However, the bottom 20,000 food companies in the US found to have slightly less than 12 per cent rate of success for new products introduced (Linton, Matysiak and Wilkes, 1997). The review found a number of differences between the top 20 companies and the bottom 20,000 companies in new product introductions. A notable one is the lack of strategic marketing on the part of the bottom 20,000 new product introductions. The research also observed lack of research among the bottom 20,000 food companies in the US. On the other hand, the top twenty companies were observed to greatly embrace strategic marketing and research. Before any new product introductions, these companies had gathered all the vital information through research. Strategic marketing elevated them even higher (Quinn, 1998). These two aspects are what are believed to be the magic behind the success of the top 20 companies. New product introductions were found to cost an average of $270 per product for each store (Linton, Matysiak and Wilkes, 1997). This is quite a sum of money considering that every year a supermarket may introduce about 5000 new products. It therefore becomes very difficult for the small players to compete effectively with the larger and already established players in the retail grocery industry (Porter, 1980). Groceries spend about $956,800 for every store, most of which eventually fail. Strategic marketing and market research can therefore go a long way in increasing the success rate for new product introductions. This can greatly save money for both retail stores and manufacturers, since any successful new product introduction pays off in the long run. The survey further observed that big corporations practice strategic marketing as an essential part of their day-to-day business management. The firm made use of statistics from the US Commerce

Sleep essay Essay Example for Free

Sleep essay Essay Instructions: After logging all data into your sleep diary (including documenting the level of alertness twice a day using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale) write an essay including all of the following topics: Summarize in essay form the amount of sleep you get each night (compare weekdays, weekends, holidays, etc.) and the quality of sleep you get nightly. Discuss in your essay how you are impacted by the amount of sleep you get each night (mood, personality, productiveness, peak performance, academically, socially, etc. ). Explain what times of day you are most alert and how you feel when you are wide awake. How does this impact you daily life? When you were forced to document your sleep cycles, did you find any surprises or interesting facts related to you and your sleep that may impact your friendships, work, academics, career or relationships? Analyze the trends you see in your sleep data (and other information you know about your sleep habits) and discuss any possible changes you would like to make in your sleep habits. You must state a conclusion to your findings and explain why they are significant. Format: All essays must be typed and double spaced in font no larger than 12 pica. Each essay must have a name, period and title (no title pages or covers please). Each essay must be accompanied by at least one illustration relating to your essay. If you use any other resources for information regarding sleep or any other topics in your paper, you must site them using APA format (see e-mail from Mrs. Womble with web site resources). All papers must be stapled I the top left corner and turned in on time.

Innocent Drink Analysis | SWOT and PESTEL

Innocent Drink Analysis | SWOT and PESTEL 1. Introduction This report shall analyse Innocent Drinks, which has been cited as one of the fastest growing British companies on record (Phelvin and Wallop, 2008; Reynolds, 2013). This shall be done by giving a brief overview of the Innocent Drinks, carrying out a SWOT analysis in order to determine its prospects and potential challenges, as well as conducting a PESTEL analysis in order to determine the impact its various environments have had and will possibly have in the future. A cultural analysis shall also be performed, as culture has been proven to have an influence on a company’s performance (Kotter and Heskett, 1992). Based on these analyses, recommendations for Innocent Drinks shall be suggested and conclusions drawn. 2. Overview Innocent Drinks was founded in 1999 by a group of three friends – Adam Balon, Richard Reed and Jon Wright – following a positive reception to the sales of their smoothies at a music festival (Innocent Drinks, 2014a; Rubin, 2010). It has grown since then from its small start as a stall set up at the Jazz on Green festival in London to become Europe’s best selling smoothie, with its products being sold in several European countries, a revenue of over  £213.5 million as of 2012, and a consistent increase in market share over the years (Innocent Drinks, 2014a; Reynolds, 2013; Rubin, 2010). Its mission is â€Å"to make it easy for people to do themselves some good – and that doing so should taste good too† (Rubin, 2010, p. 1). Its values are to be natural, entrepreneurial, responsible, commercial and generous (Innocent Drinks, 2014d). The innocent promise is that it â€Å"tastes good; does good†, and this is fulfilled through its use of tasty healthy products which are sustainably sourced, and through giving 10% of all its profits to charity (Innocent Drinks, 2014c, n.p.). The company’s product range is divided into four categories: smoothies, juices, kids’ products (including kid’s drinks and fruit tubes), and foods (Innocent Drinks, 2014b). 3. SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis below highlights the strengths and weaknesses of Innocent Drinks, as well as the opportunities available to the company and the potential threats it could face. Strengths Innocent Drinks has experienced strong consistent growth over the past years. According to Reynolds (2013), Britvic Soft Drinks reported that Innocent Drinks was one of 2013’s big winners, with a growth in its annual value sales by more than 35%. It was also a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics, and following this, its sales volume experienced a significant increase of more than 60%. It also has a wide range of products and is continuously increases the number of products in its range (O’Reilly, 2014), and this expansion strategy helps increase its customer base and sales volume. Its recent partnership with Coca-Cola, which involved Coca-Cola buying the majority of its shares, has also enabled it to leverage on Coca-Cola’s marketing, buying and media power, as well as its wealth of experience and available capital. It was also through this partnership that it was able to become the official smoothie of the Olympics (Neate, 2013). Innocent Drinks has also won several awards, including an award from the Healthy Food Guide in 2011 for its Caribbean veg pot, another from the World Juice Award in 2011 for the best new product (its Apple Juice), and another for best packaging (for its carafe), various awards from the Brand Index Buzz, CoolBrands Award, and the Grocer Gold Awards (Innocent Drinks, 2014e). These awards greatly enhance brand awareness and customer perception. It is also seen as a company with strong ethical values, and topped the list of Social Brands in 2012 (Innocent Drinks, 2014e). This is also very beneficial for the company, because strong ethics and environmentally-friendly policies and actions can be a source of reputational, financial and competitive advantage for companies (Markley and Davis, 2007). The ideas, skills, commitment and dedication of the founders as well as the staff of the company is also a key strength of Innocent Drinks, and is one of the reasons behind its growth and expansion over the years. Weaknesses Innocent Drinks is still a growing brand, and has relatively less visibility than other fruit juice brands. It also faces strong competition from Tropicana Products, a division of PepsiCo which is more popular, being the UK’s number one juice brand. When PepsiCo launched its smoothies range in 2008, Richard Reed, one of Innocent Drinks’ founders, stated that their competitor â€Å"is regarded as one of the most ferociously competitive on the planet. They have launched smoothies this year and we are their target† (Sibun, 2008, n.p.). Tropicana also has the advantage of â€Å"60 years of experience in fruit selection and excellent blends† (PepsiCo, n.d., p.1). Innocent Drinks’ prices are also higher than that of other brands, and this can prevent some segments of the market from purchasing their products, and also give competitors an upper hand. Additionally, there have been criticisms regarding its ethical claims (Phelvin and Wallop, 2008; Sibun, 2008). Furthermore, Innocent Drinks major market is the United Kingdom, and the strong reliance on this market leaves it susceptible to economic as well as other challenges faced by this market. Although it has expanded across Europe, its expansion was reported as â€Å"an expensive decision†, with the company recording considerable losses from 2008 to 2011 following the expansion (Anderson, 2012, p. 1). Opportunities A growing interest in healthy eating and healthy lifestyles in general; and campaigns such as the five a day campaign present significant opportunities from Innocent Drinks, particularly as their products are mainly made from fruits and vegetables (Bainbridge, 2013; Briggs, 2014). Bainbridge (2013) notes that as fruit juices and smoothies count towards the target of consuming 5 fruit and vegetable portions a day, they create a marketable health benefit. The fruit juice and smoothies market is also a popular and mature one, with a study by Marketing Week revealing that 88% of respondents had drank fruit juice or smoothies within the previous six months (Bainbridge, 2013). Bainbridge (2013) also notes that growths in the demographic (families, ABC1s and 16-34 year olds) which are above-average consumers of such drinks also lend support to the growth of this industry in general. Threats Reynolds (2013) reports that increases in raw material prices have particularly affected the juice industry. Climate change issues can also have a considerable impact on the supply of fruit, which in turn can affect Innocent Drinks’ juice and smoothie production. Barron (2009, p. 2) notes that Innocent Drinks â€Å"has been made increasingly aware of extreme weather conditions such as higher than average temperatures, drought and hurricanes†. These seriously affect its ability to, and ease of, sourcing particular fruits. There have also been questions regarding the purported health benefits of its juices and smoothies, and these doubts can have an impact on customer perception and sales volumes if not effectively addressed (Hodgekiss, 2013; Mintel, 2010). The information from this SWOT analysis, as well as the PESTEL analysis below, shall subsequently be used as a basis for recommendations for Innocent Drinks. 4. PESTEL Analysis And Analysis Of Innocent Drinks’ Competition The PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) framework is framework for analysing the macro environment in which an organisation operates. Analysing an environment using this framework enables an organisation to identify, understand and adapt to relevant external factors, and to plan for any effects environmental trends can have on its strategies and activities (Johnson, Whittington and Scholes, 2012). Political Political factors which affect Innocent Drinks include rulings and guidelines by the Department of Health, the Advertising Standards Authority, Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading. For instance, the Department of Health changed the 5-a-day guidelines to allow smoothies which contain all edible parts of the fruit used, or which contain 100% pure juice to count as two portions of the 5-a-day (The Telegraph, 2009). The guidelines by these bodes also affect even seemingly minor details. For instance, Innocent Drinks had to fight with trading standards when it wanted to change ‘use by’ to ‘enjoy by’ on its products, as part of the image they aimed to depict (Gubbay, 2011). Economic There are several economic factors which influence Innocent Drinks. These include the economic situation in the countries it operates in, particularly United Kingdom as well as some European countries, tax policies, and other market and industry factors. For instance, Levy (2011, n.p.) reports that smoothie sales fell by a third as they were deemed â€Å"too expensive for credit-crunched Brits†. The Food and Drink Innovation Network (FDIN) (2010) also report that following the recession, Innocent Drinks suffered significantly, with the sales of its smoothies falling by 29% in 2008 and 2009. Social Social factors which affect Innocent Drinks include consumer attitudes and buying patterns, the growth of its target demographics, and various health campaigns such as the 5-a-day campaign. A growing interest in healthy eating and projected growth trends for its main demographic present considerable opportunities for Innocent Drinks in the United Kingdom as well as in Europe in general. Technological Technological factors include innovation regarding new production methods and products, as well as the packaging for its products, recycling, and other trends and advances in manufacturing. For instance, Innocent Drinks had been working on increasing the percentage of recycled plastic used to manufacture its bottles (as it was previously made from 50% recycled plastic). It increased this to 100% in 2007, and is continuously looking for new ways in which it can minimise its impact on the environment through technological advances in manufacturing its packaging (Innocent Drinks, 2007). Environmental Innocent Drinks is affected by various environmental laws such as those regarding the carbon impact of its packaging components, the use of recyclable/renewable material, etc. Innocent Drinks has focused on discovering ways in which it can reduce wastage and its carbon impact on the environment, in terms of packaging, transportation of goods etc. Although it has faced some challenges regarding this, as reported by Phelvin and Wallop (2008) and discussed below under the cultural analysis, it nevertheless makes considerable effort to reduce any negative impact it has on the environment. In 2013 for instance, Innocent Drinks save over 1000 tonnes of plastic by putting its juice carafes on a diet, and also makes use of 100% Forest Stewardship Council certified material for its cartons (Innocent Drinks, 2014f). Legal Innocent Drinks has to comply with various laws including consumer protection laws, industry regulations (such as those outlined above). Legal issues such as competition laws also influence factors such as mergers and acquisitions, as in the case with Innocent Drinks’ partnership with Coca-Cola (Macalister and Teather, 2010). Table 1 below shows Innocent Drinks’ performance compared with other leading drink companies. TABLE 1: THE BRITVIC SOFT DRINKS REPORT: TOP GROCERY, CONVENIENCE AND IMPULSE BRANDS Source: Reynolds (2013, p. 1) It can be observed that Innocent Drinks recorded the highest percentage increase in the group, thus showing a strong growth potential. However, it should also be noted that Innocent is a relatively new company and is also is a rapid growth phase. It may therefore be somewhat challenging to maintain such high growth levels over time. 5. An Analysis Of Innocent Drinks’ Organisational Culture A number of studies have revealed that there is a significant relationship between an organisation’s culture and certain aspects of its performance (Kotter and Heskett, 1992; Rashid, Sabasivan and Johari, 2003). According to Kotter and Heskett (1992), organisations with cultures where emphasis was on leadership at all levels and key managerial constituencies (i.e. employees, customers and shareholders) performed considerably better than companies who did not have such cultural traits (the former experienced a 682% revenue increase on average over a period of 11 years, while the latter experienced 166%). It is therefore important to consider the culture of a company when evaluating its performance. In order to evaluate Innocent Drinks’ organisational culture, Deal and Kennedy’s (1999) typology of corporate cultures shall be used. Deal and Kennedy (1999) outlined four main categories of company cultures based on the degree of risk involved in the activities of the organisation, and the speed at which the organisation and employees obtain feedback regarding the success of their strategies/ventures. They note that these two factors have an impact on the development of cultural elements in an organisation and how these influence the company’s employees. The four categories are: the process culture, bet-your-company culture, work-hard/play-hard culture and tough-guy/macho culture (Deal and Kennedy, 1999; Mullins, 2010). Figure 1 below illustrates these categories: Source: Revenaugh (1994, p. 20) The process culture is characterised by low risk and slow feedback, and this leads employees to focus on how they do things (i.e. the process), rather than what they actually do. Although quite bureaucratic, it can actually be effective when order and predictability is needed (Mullins, 2010). The bet-your-company culture is characterised by high risk and low feedback. In such organisations, due to the nature of the feedback, it can take a long time before the success or failure of decisions becomes apparent. Examples of companies with such cultures are oil companies and investment banks. The tough-guy, macho culture is one which is characterised by high risk, quick feedback regarding actions taken, high financial stakes, and intense pressure and speed. Examples of such organisations with this type of culture include police departments, hospitals and the entertainment industry (Deal and Kennedy, 1999; Mullins, 2010). The work-hard, play-hard culture is few risks, quick feedback and fun and action. In such a culture, there is a â€Å"high level of relatively low risk activity† (Mullins, 2010, p. 741). Deal and Kennedy (1999) point out that a considerable number of sales-driven organisations have this culture. Such organisations are highly dynamic, customer-focused, and place a high emphasis on team work, as it is the team that produces the volume (Deal and Kennedy, 1999; Mullins, 2010). It is important to note though that not all companies will fall strictly into these four categories, and some may be characterised by a blend of more than one, such as banks for instance. Nevertheless, it still provides a useful guide for understanding the culture of an organisation, and taking steps to maximise the benefits of such a culture, as well as handle the challenges such a culture poses. Having briefly described these four categories and based on the information available on Innocent Drinks, the company can be said to have a work-hard, play-hard culture. While it is characterised by a high level of activity, much of it is low risk. It is also sales-driven, has a strong team culture, and a fun, informal approach to carrying out its activities and relating with the public (Innocent Drinks, 2014a). However, a key challenge of this type of culture is that employees can possibly rely on the good performance of a team to hide weak personal performance. Another challenge is that a focus on volume can have a negative impact on quality (Mullins, 2010). Innocent Drinks has consequently been accused of making misleading claims regarding its environmental and ethical credentials (Phelvin and Wallop, 2008). Phelvin and Wallop (2008) reported that while Innocent Drinks leads its customers to believe that it imports the fruit and then makes the drinks in the UK, and that its fruit is always transported by by road or rail because this uses less fossil fuel than air/road transport. This is not the case, as the drinks are actually made elsewhere in Europe, and transported in lorries to the UK for bottling. Innocent Drinks however argued that the company had not deliberately attempted to mislead customers, but had simply stopped publicising where its drinks were made since it moved its production abroad, and had failed to update this information on their web page. 6. Recommendations And Conclusion Having carried out these analyses of Innocent Drinks from various aspects, this section shall use the results of these analyses to offer recommendations to Innocent Drinks. Subsequently, conclusions shall be drawn. From the SWOT analysis, it can be seen that Innocent Drinks needs to work on changing their sourcing strategies, particularly from areas affected by such adverse weather conditions. Innocent Drinks could also work with its suppliers to carry out certain farm practices that will minimise the impact of these conditions such as reforestation, mulching techniques, shade management, improved drainage systems etc. (Barron, 2009). Innocent Drinks’ partnership with Coca-Cola was a good strategy, considering the competition it faced from PepsiCo and the need for enhanced marketing in order to boost its brand visibility and market share. It is nevertheless important that it preserves its key values which have endeared it to customers, and also maintains its reputation as an ethical, environmentally friendly, social brand. This issue of Innocent Drinks maintaining its brand values has been a particular concern for customers following its takeover by Coca-Cola (Cohen, 2011; Macalister and Teather, 2010). As such, efforts need to be made to convince their stakeholders that they will remain loyal to their values. Based on the analysis of Innocent Drinks’ culture, it can be observed that there is a need to pay attention to not just team performance, but the performance of individuals as well. This can be done by ensuring that team leaders allocate specific tasks to various members of the team and hold them responsible for each of these tasks. Furthermore, in reports on the team’s activities, the contribution of each individual member can also be highlighted, in order to avoid social loafing. There also needs to be an increased emphasis on transparency. This is because the discovery that Innocent Drinks is not doing what it claims to be doing can lead to feelings of distrust from customers and other relevant stakeholders. As such, it is necessary to keep the information open to the public on their websites or other similar places up-to-date, and ensure that efforts are made to do what the company claims it will do. It should also aim to effectively address the accusations that its smoothies are high in calories/sugar and are not necessarily as healthy as they are purported to be, due to the processing methods used. Innocent Drinks can also look into the possibility of expanding into other continents such as Asia and Africa, in order to negate the effects of possible adverse market conditions in Europe. However, a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis would need to be done first, in order to determine how feasible this would be. In conclusion, it can be observed that Innocent Drinks has considerable potential to grow and be a market leader in the industry. However, there are a number of weaknesses and threats which need to be managed and possibly overcome. The recommendations outlined above, while not exhaustive, can serve as a guide for Innocent Drinks decision makers and could potentially enhance its customer base, market position and its overall profitability. References Andersen, E. (2012). Innocent Drinks founder: Exporting pushed us into the red.Management Today, 26th October 2012. Available at http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1156817/Innocent-Drinks-founder-Exporting-pushed-us-red/ > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Bainbridge, J. (2013). Sector Insight (Interactive): Fruit juice, juice drinks and smoothies.Marketing Magazine, 14th March, 2013 [Online]. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Barron, V. (2009). Climate Change Impacts on Business: A case study of Innocent Drinks and their top fruits. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Briggs, H. (2014). Fruit and veg: More than five-a-day ‘no effect’. BBC, 30 July, 2014 [Online]. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Cohen, T. (2011) Innocent accused over charity ‘con’.Daily Mail, 27 May 2011. Available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391521/Innocent-Smoothie-maker-defends-handing-520-000-charity-cash-2008.html > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Deal, T.E. and Kennedy, A.A. (1999)The new corporate cultures. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books Gubbay (2011). Brains behind famous smoothie company shares his Innocent approach to business. Available at http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/businessschool/newssummary/news_20-6-2011-17-54-53 > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Hodgekiss, A. (2013) The 15 WORST sugary drinks in Britain.Daily Mail, 30 March 2013 [Online]. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2007) Our brand new 100% recycled plastic bottles. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014a). Our story. Available at http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/our-story> Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014b). Things we make. Available at http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/things-we-make> Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014c). The innocent promise. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014d). Our purpose, Our values. Available at http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/careers> Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014e). Awards we have won. Available at . Retrieved 28th October 2014. Innocent Drinks (2014f). Being sustainable. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Johnson, G., Whittington, R. and Scholes, K. (2012)Fundamentals of Strategy. Second edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited Kotter, J.P. and Heskett, J.L. (1992)Corporate Culture and Performance. New York: The Free Press Levy, A. (2011) Feel the squeeze: Smoothie sales down a third as they are ‘too expensive’ for credit-crunched Brits.Daily Mail, 1st November 2011 [Online]. Available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2055681/Smoothie-sales-theyre-expensive-credit-crunch-Brits.html > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Macalister, T. and Teather, D. (2010) Innocent smoothie denies sell-out after Coca-Cola gets majority stake.The Guardian, 9 April 2010 [Online]. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/apr/09/coca-cola-innocent-smoothie-stake > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Markley, M. J., and Davis, L. (2007). Exploring future competitive advantage through sustainable supply chains.International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management,37(9), 763-774 Mintel (2010) Smoothies –UK. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Mullins, L.J. (2010).Management and Organisational Behaviour. 9th Edition. Harlow: Prentice Hall Neate, R. (2013). Coca-Cola takes full control of Innocent.The Guardian, 22nd February, 2013 [Online]. Available at < http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/22/coca-cola-full-control-innocent> Retrieved 28th October 2014. O’Reilly, L. (2014). Innocent launces ‘super smoothie’ range.Marketing Week, 10th March, 2014. Available at < http://www.marketingweek.com/2014/03/10/innocent-launches-super-smoothie-range/> Retrieved 28th October 2014. PepsiCo (n.d.). New Tropicana Smoothies will boost 5-a-day efforts. Available at < http://www.pepsico.co.uk/our-company/media-centre/news-and-comment/new-tropicana-smoothies-will-boost-5-a-day-efforts>. Retrieved 28th October 2014. Phelvin, P. and Wallop, H. (2008). Innocent Smoothies accused over environmental marketing.The Telegraph, 1st August 2008 [Online]. Available at Retrieved 28th October 2014. Rashid, M. Z. A., Sambasivan, M., Johari, J. (2003). The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance.Journal of Management Development,22(8), 708-728 Revenaugh, D. L. (1994). Business process re-engineering: the unavoidable challenge.Management Decision,32(7), 16-27 Reynolds, J. (2013). Innocent sales rocket over 35%, says Britvic Soft Drinks Report. Available at . Retrieved 28th October 2014. Rubin, C. (2010) Building England’s Ethical, Healthy and Slightly Cheeky Beverage Brand. Inc., July 2010. Available at http://www.inc.com/articles/2010/07/building-englands-favorite-smoothie-company.html > Retrieved 28th October 2014. Sibun, J. (2008). Not such a smooth ride for Innocent.The Telegraph, 2nd August 2008 [Online]. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/2794173/Not-such-a-smooth-ride-for-Innocent.html > Retrieved 28th October 2014. The Food and Drink Innovation Network (FDIN) Comment on Coca-Cola’s Purchase of Innocent. Available at http://www.fdin.org.uk/2010/04/comment-on-coca-colas-purchase-of-innocent/ > Retrieved 28th October 2014. The Telegraph (2009). Smoothies count as two of five fruit and veg per day. The Telegraph, 16th September 2009 [Online]. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/6197202/Smoothies-count-as-two-of-five-fruit-and-veg-per-day.html > Retrieved 28th October 2014.

T.S. Eliots The Waste Land and the Modernist Movement Essay examples -

Sight. It is the simple, yet extremely intricate skill performed by humans everyday. The uniqueness of an eye can be described as different combinations of colors that draw people in for deep conversations and contact with one another. As light shines its beams onto an eye, different colors sparkle, making beautiful shades shine through. Brown, green, blue and hazel are merely a few of the colors that can make up one’s eye. Without eyes, human beings would not be able to visualize the wonderful aspects of nature. Eyes also produce tears of joy and sorrow in response to emotions. The precise observation of this human organ is an example of what a Modernist writer may have expressed in their work. Modernists were a group of people involved in the Modernist/Imagist literary movement throughout Europe and America. They were defined by their detailed description of images in hopes of sharing thoughts to the reader. Influenced by World War I, this literary movement focused o n the importance of the common man and some authors described the deep wounds in which were left following the traumatic war. In his poem, â€Å"The Waste Land,† T.S. Eliot reflects the principles of the Modernist Movement through his precise descriptions and use of images to emphasize the realities of current life. To begin, the Modernist Literary Movement (also known as the Imagist Movement) swept across Europe and America in hopes of discovering a new writing style for Western culture. Beginning in the 1890s and lasting until about 1945, this movement incorporated a variety of new and old ideas such as surrealism, symbolism, imagism, and more (â€Å"Modernism† par. 1-3). Despite its many aspects, however, the main goal of this movement was to reject old customs... ... â€Å"T.S. Eliot.† DIScovering Authors. Detroit: Gale 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 November 2015. â€Å"Imagism.† Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Student Resources in Context. Web. 8 November 2015. â€Å"Imagist Movement.† Questia.com. Questia. Web. 9 November 2015. Matterson, Stephen. â€Å"1890-1840s Modernism.† PBS. PBS, Mar. 2007. Web. 9 November 2015. â€Å"Modernism.† Faculty.unlv.edu. Unlv.edu. Web. 9 November 2015. Shelby, Nick. T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. Print. â€Å"Thomas Stearns Eliot.† Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encylopedia.com. 13 November 2015. â€Å"T.S. Eliot (Anglo-American Poet).† Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 13 November 2015. Vendler, Helen. â€Å"T.S. Eliot. (Cover Story).† Time 151.22 (1998): 111. MAS Ultra- School Edition. Web. 13 November 2015.

Women 100 Years Ago and Women Today

Loftus 1 How Religion Has Affected My Life I've been going to church with my grandparents for as long as I can remember. I've always been a part of church related activities. We always said grace before we ate a meal. I said my prayers before I went to bed. I was baptized when I was born. I had my first communion. I was a very religious little kid and I always had God in my life. Of course, I only did all those things because I thought I was supposed to. I just thought it was something that everybody in the world did. But, as I got older I learned that it was all just a part of my religion.I also learned that not everyone had the same religion as I did. There were many different religions. There were even some people that didn't have a religion. Once I realized all of those things, I started asking questions. Why was I catholic? Why did I have to go to church every Sunday? Why is it so important? I asked my grandmother these questions and her only response was, â€Å"It's because Je sus died on the cross for us. † But I still had the question lingering in my head: Why? My mother and father never went to church with us. My mom would drop us off a religion classes but that was about it.When I asked my mom why she'd never gone to with us she had said, â€Å"I don't believe that you have to go to church every Sunday to show your appreciation for God. † That really had me thinking, if my mom and dad never went, did I really have to go? I certainly didn't like sitting in the cold for an hour listening to people singing terribly and other people talking about things I never understood. Always standing up and sitting down every couple of Loftus 2 minutes. It got very old, very fast. By the time I was a teenager, I got really tired of the same old thing.That's when it all started. At the age of thirteen all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends. They weren't the best of people but they accepted me and that's all I cared about. I started being more lik e them. Wearing all black, doing my make up really heavily, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, experimenting with drugs. I turned into the complete antithesis of the girl I was when I was younger. My family definitely started to notice. My mom and dad said it was just a phase but my grandmother thought I was starting to become a â€Å"devil worshiper†. She orced me to go to church with them. I was forced to go to religion class. I got the you-need-Jesus-in-your-life talk every time I was around my grandma. That is when I really started to resent everything that had to do with my religion. My grandmother had pushed me to my breaking point. I didn't want anything to do with God or Jesus. When asked, I always told people I didn't have a religion. I was against it. I refused to go to church or religion class. I stopped saying grace before I ate. I stopped saying prayers before I went to sleep. I even stopped believing there was a God.This caused a lot of tension between my gra ndmother and I. We never saw eye to eye on anything. We were always arguing over something. She always told me that she never thought she'd have a granddaughter like me. She expected me to be more of a lady. I couldn't stand being around her. I didn't tell her anything. She had forced religion on me to the point that I didn't want to have a religion anymore. It even caused me to think I hated her. You could only imagine how much harder it got once my mom lost our house and we had to move into my grandparent's house.I got so angry when my mom told me the news. All I wanted to do was scream. The thought of having to see my grandma every single day was terrifying. My life had gotten significantly more tough Loftus 3 at that point. When we moved in, I stayed in my room all the time. If I wasn't in my room, I was either at school or out with my friends. When dinner was ready I ate with my head down. Not speaking to or looking at anyone. My mom caught on real quickly. I remember one night she pulled me into her bedroom after dinner and asked me why I was acting so strangely.I poured my heart out and told her everything I was going through. She told me, â€Å"You need to stop hating your grandmother. She is getting older and her health is declining. She won't be here one day and you're going to regret not having a good relationship with her. You don't have to go to church every Sunday. You don't even need to go to religion class. You just need to respect the fact that your grandmother is just leading you by example. That's how she was raised. So, you need to stop getting angry at her and you need to start building a better relationship with her. That is the night that things got better. Every time I want to get angry with my grandma I remember what my mom told me and I haven't gotten angry with her since. I never got my faith back and there are still some things I can't tell my grandmother due to her being so religious. I would love to tell her that I'm engaged but, I can't because I'm a homosexual and I'm sure she'd disown me. But despite that, my grandmother and I are now on good terms. We talk on the phone more often since I moved away and I plan on visiting her whenever I make my trips back home.

Business Com

Once I had gone to visit a friend in the next town which is along a major highway and stretched about km. He asked me to a light at the second bus stop In the town. When the bus I took got closer to the town, I Informed the bus conductor where I will alight. He gave a node amidst a loud music from the stereo In the bus. About an hour later, I called the conductor to find out If we had reached the second bus stop. He Immediately asked the driver to stop for me to alight after apologizing to me.He said e never heard the request I made earlier therefore we had passed the second bus stop about half an hour ago. I had to get down at that point and find away to my friend's house. Unfortunately the ‘second bus stop' my friend meant was at the eastern side of the town, which was close to my town. Unfortunately I entered the town through the western side since I was corning from a trip In the western part of the country. This was explain to me by a Taxi driver who drove me for additiona l 2 hours to the right â€Å"Second bus top† to meet my friend who had waited all day.Apart from the loud music from the stereo, the bus was overloaded therefore noise was in the car. After analyzing my experience there are some points I found which could be barrier for healthy communication and analysis of which are needed before coming up with ways to eliminate or minimize them. These barriers may be classified as follows – 1. Environmental Barriers – This is similar to physical noise, and could be in the form of disturbing sounds, an overcrowded bus, poor services and acoustics, all f which may hamper the ability to pay attention to and understand the message.When I made a request to alight, the conductor did not hear me because of the loud noise from the stereo and how congested the bus was. This barrier can be eliminated by bringing down the volume of the stereo in the bus to the tolerable level to facilitate healthy communication between conductor, driver and passengers. Secondly overloading can be avoided in buses to prevent distraction and create a serene atmosphere where one can freely commune with one another. 2.Individual Barriers – A major barrier to interpersonal communication is a tendency to judge, evaluates, approve or disapprove of the views of another person. This happens particularly in situations where we have strong feelings about something. In such cases, we tend to block out the communication and form our own viewpoints. When I Inform my friend about visiting him, he Immediately assumed I will be coming through the eastern entrance of the town. Secondly when the conductor nodded I concluded It was a sign of having had my request to alight.This barrier can be eliminated If we can take objective Instead of subjective stand when communicating with people. We can do this by asking few additional or open-end questions and allow people to express themselves and also listen to them rather than Interrupt their speech or complete sentences for them for example. Feedback can also help to confirm If those we are communicating with actually got our Intended meanings attached to the message. Business Com By bendy Q. L Describe Any Situation In Your Experience Where The Communication Went Wrong.Analyze The Situation By Pointing Out The Type Of Barrier To Communication stretched about km. He asked me to a light at the second bus stop in the town. When the bus I took got closer to the town, I informed the bus conductor where I will alight. He gave a node amidst a loud music from the stereo in the bus. About an hour later, I called the conductor to find out if we had reached the second bus stop. He immediately asked the driver to stop for me to alight after apologizing to me. He said friend's house.Unfortunately the ‘second bus stop' my friend meant was at the own through the western side since I was coming from a trip in the western part of Barriers – A major barrier to interpersonal commun ication is a tendency to Judge, inform my friend about visiting him, he immediately assumed I will be coming concluded it was a sign of having had my request to alight. This barrier can be eliminated if we can take objective instead of subjective stand when communicating allow people to express themselves and also listen to them rather than interrupt confirm if those we are communicating with actually got our intended meanings

Dpe Paper

DPE and Goal Instruction If teaching were as simple as using the one best way to teach everything, it would be considered a science. However, there isn’t just one correct method to teach everything. That is the reason teaching is an art. If teaching meant to follow a text book and a â€Å"one size fits all† approach, then anyone would be a master teacher. That is why teachers and especially special educators unique and special.That is why teachers know that individual needs, strengths and weaknesses must be considered to make the instructional process successful and geared to equip the student to achieve his optimum skills and abilities to meet the challenges of daily living. Students come with their own individual packages and no two of them are alike. Even though the curriculum is the same, no two students learn the same way. Teachers are challenged to meet the students’ â€Å"package† and to create an approach at instruction that take into consideration the students’ differing abilities, strengths and needs are satisfied.To compound the challenges of instruction, the intellectually disabled (ID) student presents additional dynamics that impact the art of teaching. This paper presents the diagnostic/prescriptive/evaluation (DPE) strategy of instruction for ID students. The DPE is not a concept. Educators have been using it for decades (Mann and Phillips, 1967). During the past 40 years it has been improved and refined (Ewing & Brecht). The paper examines each of the components of DPE: diagnosis, prescription, and evaluation (Thomas, 1996). In conclusion it presents two applications of implementing the DPE with two students diagnosed with ID.The diagnostic process requires great skill and effort from the teacher. Alone the special educator cannot perform all the necessary functions of diagnosis. With the assistance of the other members of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and other service personnel, they are able to determine the needs of individual learners and to specify instructional objectives that will help the student satisfy his educational needs (Eisele, 1967). During this phase the teacher is to determine the most demanding needs of the student. The entire diagnostic process depends upon the ccurate identification of these needs. The specialists on the MDT provide the teacher with the data, or means of acquiring the data, about the student that are necessary for determining the student’s needs. This takes the form of providing formal and informal testing services for testing students, supplying the data that has been acquired from the testing, and providing the testing batteries that could be used for this purpose (Eisele, 1967). This becomes the Present Levels of Performance (PLOP) of the Individualized Education Program (IEP).When the MDT has collected all of the significant data and determined the demanding needs of the student, then the teacher and the specialists develop the instruc tional goals and objectives appropriate for specific needs. These goals are selected from curriculum domains and the objectives can be selected from curriculum guides and resource units. Also the teacher and specialist can generate their own objectives. When talking to the teacher and specialists, I asked what type of instructional activities and materials they use for students with ID?The teacher and specialists stated that they prescribe instructional activities and materials suitable for the student to master his objectives. This constitutes the second step in the DPE process. Prescribed learning is based on short- and long-term goals that are established for the individual student and are based on the skills needed to be mastered. Within these goals are markers to establish where there are gaps in the learning process. Instruction that follows will teach only to what the student still needs to master to be successful. It capitalizes on the strength of the student to fill in the learning gaps.The prescriptive process can be applied to almost any subject area, academic and behavioral (Deschel, Susan, 2012). Three important teaching strategies for students diagnosed with ID: 1) tasks should be broken down into small component steps and learned in sequence, 2) teaching techniques should be experiential, concrete, visual and hands-on rather than cognitive, abstract and verbally delivered in lecture form, and 3) feedback should be immediate for the student to make a connection between his answer, behavior, or question and the teacher’s response.The third phase is the evaluation process. This is a two-pronged process for the teacher. First, evaluation is necessary to assess needs and, second, to evaluate the student’s progress toward achieving his objectives. Through the evaluation process teacher monitors the understanding and performance of students before teaching the lesson, while teaching, and after teaching the lesson. The evaluation process c an inform the teacher of the effectiveness of his lessons with individuals, small groups of students, or whole classes, depending on the instruments used (Guskey, 2003).Instruction and evaluation are interactive. The teacher may evaluate student learning on the spot, or collect data at different points in time and compare progress over units of instruction. Moment-by-moment assessments allow the teacher to tap into student’s developing understandings about the objective and to enable the teacher to correct misconceptions immediately. Observations recorded over time allow the teacher to identify patterns of development and document learning gains (Guskey, 2003). This can be accomplished in many ways.Devices appropriate for the evaluating progress are data keeping, checklists, logs, standardized tests, and paper and pencil tests. Now we consider the practical applications of DPE in a classroom. Antoine is a 12 year old, sixth grader, who is diagnosed with ID and is in a special education classroom. His MDT has completed their assessments and has developed his IEP. One of his goals includes math readiness. His objective is to be able to match manipulatives to numbers expressed on cards with verbal prompting.The teacher has developed prescriptive lesson plans to enable Antoine develop the needed skills to match the manipulatives to the numbers. His first lesson is to match manipulatives to the number expressed on a picture communication symbol (PCS). He encounters difficulty in matching the manipulatives to the number on the PCS. His teacher notes the difficulty evaluating Antoine’s learning skill gap. She introduces PCS with a number of manipulatives on it equal to a number on the top of the PCS. Antoine begins to associate the manipulative with the number on the card.As he experiences success in matching the manipulatives to the number, the teacher replaces the PCS with two cards, one with the number and the other with the manipulatives. After coll ecting data indicating Antoine’s progress, the teacher removes the manipulative card. Antoine now begins to match the manipulatives to the number on the PCS. For the second example we meet John. John is a 15 year old with a diagnosis of ID and behavioral issues. He has recently developed the habit, when he becomes frustrated, of head butting objects and individuals.His MTD has met and analyzed the situation and has developed a plan to extinguish this behavior and have John express his frustration in positive behaviors. They have listed the times when John has become frustrated, the antecedent(s), and indicators that precede his head butting. The prescriptive element is to develop initially plans for John to identify his feeling of frustration and to express his emotion to the teacher. As the staff observes John during class times, they begin to note those antecedents that indicate John is becoming frustrated. They plan interventions with John to alleviate his build up of frus tration.There is the constant interplay of the diagnostic, prescriptive and evaluation processes until John is able to identify the cause of his frustration and release it with positive behaviors. There are many specific techniques that can assist in teaching students with ID. They can be summarized into three, more, general strategies. First is to allow more time and practice for the students to successfully master the objective. Second is to embed the activities into daily living or functioning as much as possible. Third is to include the student both in the social and academic activities.Diagnostic/prescriptive/evaluation strategies have been employed in the classroom as an educational strategy to remedy learning deficits (Ewing & Brecht, 1977). After speaking with a teacher about the roles and procedures that plays in the daily class, she shared with me that the diagnostic process helps the educational team define the student’s abilities and deficits. The prescriptive pro cess provides a means to plan and teach the skills and concepts a student needs most. The evaluation process measures the learning increments of any magnitude. It enables the team to redefine the diagnostic and prescriptive as needed.The DPE strategy emphasizes and identifies a prioritized life goal curriculum planning approach to identify functional skills and concepts need by a student with ID to become as successful as possible in adult life. The DPE approach assesses each student’s abilities and progress toward those individual life goals (Thomas, 1996). References Dreschel, Susan. (2012). Prescriptive Learning. http://www. ehow. com. Eisele, James E. (1967). Diagnostic Teaching: Can the Curriculum Specialist Help? Educational Leadership, January 1967. Washington, DC. Ewing, Norma & Brecht, Richard. (1977).Diagnostic/Prescriptive Instruction: A Reconsideration of Some Issues. Journal of Special Education, vol. 11. Los Angeles CA: Sage Publications. Guskey, T. R. (2003). U sing Data to Improve Student Achievement. Educational Leadership. Kauffman, James M. & Hung, Li-Yu. (2009). Special Education for Intellectual Disability: Current Trends and Perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Inc. Thomas, Glen E. (1996) Teaching Students with Mental Retardation: A Life Goal Curriculum Planning Approach. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.