Call Now to Buy Your Very Own Sham Essay

In â€Å"The Hard Sell: Advertising in America†, Bill Bryson gives specific insight on the necessity of being more aware of why you buy what you buy. Bryson argues that the product name must be short, simple and unique. He states, â€Å"First. It is short. Second. It is not capable of mispronunciation. Third. It does not resemble anything in the art†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (425). Another effective advertising strategy that Bryson observes is the â€Å"giveaway†. Bryson states, â€Å"Consumers became acquainted with the irresistibly tempting notion that if they bought a particular product they could expect a reward†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (427). Bryson also asserts the importance of creating in the consumer a feeling of anxiety that makes the consumer feel as if they NEED the product and not just merely WANT it (428-429). Another efficient selling tactic is the use of scientific-sounding terms, according to Bryson, â€Å"There was never slightest hint of what GL-70 was, but it would, acc ording to the advertising, not only rout odor-causing bacteria but ‘wipe out enzymes!’† (434). Bryson is very insightful and emphatic in his arguments about the alluring thought of a reward, the necessity to create an anxiety in the consumer, and the conclusive â€Å"scientific studies†. Take, for example, any product you can find on a late-night television infomercial. One of the most effective advertisements is the commercial for the ShamWow. Like all the products found on the infomercials, the ShamWow â€Å"comes at an UNBEATABLE offer, call now and get not one, but TWO ShamWows for the price of one!† The company does a very effective job at pulling in the viewer with this line, sometimes you can get even more products like books and containers if you call quick enough. The announcer does a great job at creating the anxiety by asking, â€Å"Does your car always have unsightly water spots? Do your friends ask you when the last time you cleaned your car? Fear no more! The ShamWow will WOW your friends and family!† This causes the viewer to become embarras sed if their vehicle has water spots on it, leading them to want to purchase the ShamWow so they can dry their car before the sun bakes on the water spots. Lastly, and most effectively, the company includes an exaggerated quality by stating that the ShamWow â€Å"holds 12x its weight† to get the consumer to think that they do some kind of study. If you pause in your daily life and take a step by and analyze all the commercials and advertisements that you are bombarded with every day, you will begin to notice the advertising schemes employed by the companies. Bryson’s advice still holds its weight in gold, much like the ShamWow does with water, today. Consumers are tricked into think they need products that they have no use for and can get at a cheaper price.

Managing personal images and video postings Essay

The use and sharing of images and videos has proliferated online, especially on social networking and video-sharing sites. Images and videos can be loaded from cameras and mobile phones. Some mobile devices enable users to upload images and videos directly to social networking sites. It is very important that children and young people consider and choose carefully what they share online with friends and the wider community on the Internet, especially as photos can be easily copied and changed. The convenience of mobile phones means it is easy to upload images and videos ‘on the go’. Particular care should be taken to ‘think before you post’ to avoid compromising privacy or safety, for example images from a party or of outrageous or compromising behaviour. If a child is posting photos containing their friends, for example, they should seek their friends’ permission first. Photos and videos can contain information that on its own may seem innocuous, but when put together with other information such as school details can be used to locate and identify the child. Many, if not all, of the popular social networking sites provide privacy tools to ensure that users can manage whom they choose to interact with and who can post the comments on their blogs or personal sites. It is important that children and young people think carefully about adding someone they have only met online to their ‘friends list’ even if another friend has recommended them – people are not always who they claim to be. Talk to your child about the importance of keeping the password to their account or space private to protect against someone taking control of it. Mobile phones can be easily lost or stolen. It is a good idea to set up a PIN lock on your child’s mobile, so it cannot be used without their permission or if it is lost or stolen. Your child should only use auto login (where the site remembers your password for you when you return to it) when signing into a social networking site if PIN protection is being used on their mobile. Otherwise anyone finding their mobile phone and accessing the site from it will be able to access and abuse their social network account, for example by changing their profile, or sending messages to contacts in their name. Ensure that your child is aware of the privacy setting options of their account. It is important that you negotiate with your child the appropriate level of privacy and that it matches their level of emotional maturity and understanding. Advise your child to be careful not to share any information that may help locate them in the real world, for example, a photograph of a school uniform or street sign. Managing personal images and video postings The use and sharing of images and videos has proliferated online, especially on social networking and video-sharing sites. Images and videos can be loaded from cameras and mobile phones. Some mobile devices enable users to upload images and videos directly to social networking sites. It is very important that children and young people consider and choose carefully what they share online with friends and the wider community on the Internet, especially as photos can be easily copied and changed. The convenience of mobile phones means it is easy to upload images and videos ‘on the go’. Particular care should be taken to ‘think before you post’ to avoid compromising privacy or safety, for example images from a party or of outrageous or compromising behaviour. If a child is posting photos containing their friends, for example, they should seek their friends’ permission first. Photos and videos can contain information that on its own may seem innocuous, but when put together with other information such as school details can be used to locate and identify the child. Photos and videos should be appropriate – not sexually provocative or explicit – so as not to attract unwanted attention from adults who may wish to exploit children and young people. Check the ‘acceptable use’ policies of social networking and other user-interactive sites. Most sites will remove explicit and ‘inappropriate’ images when they are brought to their attention. Ask your child whether they are comfortable with the content they are posting being seen by everyone they know and whether it might embarrass them at a later stageAdvise your child to be careful not to share any information that may help locate them in the real world, for example, a photograph of a school uniform or street sign. Managing personal images and video postings The use and sharing of images and videos has proliferated online, especially on social networking and video-sharing sites. Images and videos can be loaded from cameras and mobile phones. Some mobile devices enable users to upload images and videos directly to social networking sites. It is very important that children and young people consider and choose carefully what they share online with friends and the wider community on the Internet, especially as photos can be easily copied and changed. The convenience of mobile phones means it is easy to upload images and videos ‘on the go’. Particular care should be taken to ‘think before you post’ to avoid compromising privacy or safety, for example images from a party or of outrageous or compromising behaviour. If a child is posting photos containing their friends, for example, they should seek their friends’ permission first. Photos and videos can contain information that on its own may seem innocuous, but when put together with other information such as school details can be used to locate and identify the child. Photos and videos should be appropriate – not sexually provocative or explicit – so as not to attract unwanted attention from adults who may wish to exploit children and young people. Check the ‘acceptable use’ policies of social networking and other user-interactive sites. Most sites will remove explicit and ‘inappropriate’ images when they are brought to their attention. Ask your child whether they are comfortable with the content they are posting being seen by everyone they know and whether it might embarrass them at a later stageManaging comments and postings Many young people go to great lengths in building their profiles and webpages, so receiving comments from the wider community can be exciting, compelling and is expected. It is important that children and young people understand the need to be responsible in what they post and contribute to other people’s social networking sites – ‘think before you post’ is a good maxim. There have been some incidents of bullying – often among known friends or peers on social networking sites – where bullying in the playground has continued and possibly escalated online. The potential to humiliate and harass individuals through comments and by posting images can be extremely hurtful and have a number of unintended consequences, such as spreading very quickly to a much larger audience online. It is important to set rules with your child about what is OK and not OK to post about anyone known or unknown.

Analysis of science fair fun booklet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of science fair fun booklet - Essay Example This will enhance their learning of science disciplines and enable them to be efficient scientists in the future. Since the communication is of educative value, it is essential that it is ad hoc for science education. The analysis presented in the memo will provide analysis results of whether the communication is effective or otherwise based on three fields. These fields include accessibility, usability and relevance. The feedback of these fields will determine if the technical communication is effectual. Description The science fair, fun is a scientific booklet aiming to assist student in the 6-8 grades to create effective science projects. These projects are centred on environmental issues, predominantly recycling of waste materials. The purpose of the booklet is apparent with its content focusing on how students can be effective when creating science projects based on the environment. The book uses a progressive approach to introduce students to project creation and provides sampl e projects for the student to relate the teachings. The document proves to be effective in its objective. This is because it provides the appropriate and detailed steps of project creation helping the student to comprehend its content and apply it in real situations. The document also contains illustrations, which make the booklet fun and interactive with the readers. The author employs brevity but explores the concepts exhaustively to ensure that the students are well informed. Audience The audience of the booklet is primarily students, though the contents might be useful for teachers and instructors. The students targeted are in the grades of 6 through to 8. As mentioned before, the booklet’s effectiveness as a technical communication will be appraised using three criteria. These criteria include accessibility, usability and relevance. Accessibility Accessibility is a crucial feature in determining the effectiveness of a technical communication. This refers to the aspect of whether the information provided in the booklet is easily accessibl

Government business relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Government business relations - Essay Example Journalism traditionally sees itself as having a central role in ensuring accountability in the democracy by revealing the details of debate in the political process. The term fourth estate is used to contrast the press to the legislative, executive and judicial arms of the government (Dr. Stockwell Stephen ). But let us go back in time when the fourth estate was considered an important pillar of society. James Harrison in the first issue of his Geelong Advertiser proclaimed the press to be a "mighty engine for the promulgation of Truth". Engines of Influence shows the links in the newspaper network working to receive and share news, distribute papers and manufacture opinion. "A rich fund for the investigations of future historians", was how the Trustees saw the newspaper collection of the public Library of Victoria in 1883. This has been proved true with the frequency with which newspapers are cited in Australian histories. In fact, Alan Atkinson's history of Australia postulates and explores a relationship between the ubiquity of print and manuscript, the power of writing and development of democracy. (Mighty Engine 24th Jan 2004) The fourth estate in the earlier days carried a certain stature and was vary of transgressing the privacy of individuals. It followed government policies and decisions and debated them vociferously thereby, influencing policy decisions. Its bipartisan discussions and views were taken seriously and could definitely be counted as a force in the public domain. Commercial compulsions did not hold sway and nor did political affiliations. Journalist commanded a certain stature in society which unfortunately today is being diluted. Till the seventies and eighties the fourth estate could be considered to be the government watchdog, but with the challenges of the present day times and the government regulations coming into place, it seems to have lost some of its sheen. Globalisation, technology and media ownership have played an important role in the effectiveness of the fourth estate. Let us take a closer look at how each one of them has an impact on the fourth estate. Globalisation In this age of globalisation, the relationship of the media and the government cannot be ignored. Globalisation has provided the media with a bigger and more diverse audience. The whole world is suddenly open to it. With the advent of the internet and satellite transmission, the viewer ship for the media has largely increased. Ironically though, the media instead of being free has been bound in shackles with the acceleration of globalisation. The acceleration of globalisation has led to the fourth estate being stripped of its potential and thus making it a miniscule counter power. This new geo-economic framework has made all the activities in the mass culture, communication and information merge where it difficult to distinguish between their individual elements. (Ramonet Ignacio, October 2003) Earlier the three were clearly divided and the news was considered a priority with entertainment having a separate identity of its own. But today commercial compulsions and technology make it necessary to merge all the three thereby

Present and critically assess Kolodny's account of love Essay

Present and critically assess Kolodny's account of love - Essay Example Kolodny selects appropriate relationships which can serve as reason for love according to three characteristics defined in his theory; he finds that appropriate relationships are ongoing, historical and existent between particular people. He also notes that love has a symmetrical nature and applies it to all kinds of relationships reviewed in his paper. I believe that his theory tries to simplify love by excluding degenerate kinds of love from it; the nature of love is complex and it can appear in the situations which are excluded by Kolodny (2003) in his theory. The complexity of love is easy to prove. For instance, there is no clear definition of love shared by all people. Since love is often treated as a set of beliefs about valuable relationships, the definition of these relationships will also be individual. For example, in love relationships between two partners both participants do not necessarily define their finally valuable relationships similarly. For one person the present relationships can be fully appropriate because they meet all beliefs and expectations shared by this person. The other person can be unsatisfied with present relationships because they fail to become a realization of all beliefs shared by this person. As a result, one person will consider these relationships to be appropriate to reason love while the other person will not treat them as love at all. Even though such relationships meet all criteria set by Kolodny (2003), they are not symmetrical in their realization. In this way, the proposed model fails to consi der such a situation where people in relationships define their finally valuable relationships in different way. There are even more examples of degenerate relationships which are excluded from Kolodnys theory, but they can reason love. For instance, Kolodny (2003) believes that the relationships between student and teacher are not

International Business Strategy of Zara Case Study

International Business Strategy of Zara - Case Study Example The firm that is analyzed in the paper is Zara. This Spanish fashion retailer is the leader in Europe, followed by the Swedish, H&M and UK’s Marks & Spencers. Headquartered in the industrial estate of Sabon-Artexio, outside A Caruna in Spain, Zara has over 2700 stores round the world, the latest having opened in China, Serbia, Sweden and Tunisia in 2006 and in Poland, Romania and Russia in 2008. Inditex SA, the holding company, clocked revenues of $8.5 billion in 2007, of which Zara contributed 66 percent. The expansion strategy positively contributed to the increase of Inditex’s share value. The other fashion brands in Inditex’s stable, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho, though having the potential of cannibalizing some of Zara’s advantage, are really no competition to Zara. Zara has stores in over 60 countries in Europe, America and Asia. However, the retailer has not gone whole hog in international expansion, particularly in th e United States and Asia, because it has not expanded its supply chain wide enough to sell in these markets without holding high inventories. Instead, the company focuses on consolidation in the European markets, entering recently into Ireland, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Finland and Italy and is expanding in England and Germany. Zara’s business strategy is in contrast to most other apparel and other consumer product retailers in the world. Zara produces as many as 12,000 new items of clothing every year, which is nearly four times the average of the apparel industry. Besides, it replaces stock in 3 weeks, which is also 12 times faster than the industry average (Diaz, 2005). Zara's distinctive competence is consisted of vertical integration of design, just-in-time manufacturing system, delivery and sales; flexibility structures, low inventory, quick customization response and specific human capital (Castellano 1993; 2002). Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex , claimed the aim of Zara is to " democratize fashion by offering the latest fashion in medium quality at affordable prices" This paper will discuss Zara's business model, particularly in relation to its supply chain and customization system, to understand whether its transnational business strategy is flexible, efficient and adapt to a learning process, which, according to Ghoshal's (1987) model, are the goals of a global firm. Theoretical Background The strategic tools that a global company has in order to gain competitive advantage are through exploitation of differences in input and output markets that exist in different markets. Besides, benefiting from economies of scale of operating in different markets and activities, global firms can gain competitive advantage that optimizes risks, efficiency and absorption of learning in different markets (Ghoshal, 1987) For some companies, global integration may result in competitive advantage through economies of scale. For some others, global expansion may not result in competitive advantage when the corporate hierarchy thrusts such a strategy on the company because of difficulties managing large organizations that blur centralized and decentralized policy decisions (Ghoshal, 1987). Since the second half of the 20th century, transnational companies have been the main agents of globalization in all industries, whether through investments, trade and the internet (Gereffi, 2001). In times of globalization, a firm's competitive strength in

Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 10

Religion - Essay Example Khan tackles this question as a public figure in the United States. She talks about growing up in America and how for a long time all she wanted to do was fit in. She turned her back on her faith and on the teachings of prophet Mohammed. Eventually, she began to see a Allah-shaped hole in her life and rediscovered her faith. But she felt that Muslims should reach out to other faiths in their community in order to share ideas and concepts and to help bind the community together. She has done this through her interfaith dialogues in New York. She has worked hard to bring disparate people together. For her, Mohammed teaches that we are the children of God and that the divisions sometimes generated by faith are false ones that can and should be overcome. Of course, this takes a great deal of work, so Khan must work tirelessly to promote her message. Islam is a soft thing, not a hard thing, and violence must be removed from the faith. People need to have a better understanding of the fait h, Khan believes. Part of being a Muslim involves your own personal faith, but part also involves sharing with others what Islam is really about. After the terrorist attacks in New York, Khan began to really pick up this thread and do her best to show people that Islam is a religion of peace not of war and that people should learn more about what it really means. Some of the best ambassadors, she thinks, are artists from the community rather than fire-breathing imams. This softer side of Islam, the artistic side, is what she believes is sometimes lost in the mix. So she does her best to communicate through a number of interfaith dialogues with people of different religions and persuasions. 2. Why are there different interpretations in Islam, and what is your opinion about these different interpretations? - Support you opinion with relevant material and avoid critical or offensive remarks. Islam is a very large religion with many

Hamilton's Role as the Secretary of Treasury Research Paper

Hamilton's Role as the Secretary of Treasury - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that â€Å"The most practical nation builder of the Founding Fathers, Hamilton (1755-1804) fought tirelessly for ratification of the Constitution, played a pivotal role in creating a centralized and powerful nation-state, and argued persuasively for a strong presidency and an independent judiciary. It was Hamilton, at the beginning of the nation's history, who provided a prophetic vision of the United States as a global power stabilized by capitalism and with a military second to none.† While Hamilton contributed to all aspects of government formulation, he is best remembered for his role in designing the young nations economic system. During and after his lifetime Hamilton was overshadowed by his more popular adversary Thomas Jefferson. While Jefferson's dominant image persists today, â€Å"the irony is that Hamilton's concept of the federal government, not Jeffersons, is what has evolved and endures†. This is particularly valid with respect to t he country's economic system and the organization of its constituent agencies such as the U.S. Treasury. Hamilton could rightly be considered a visionary, who saw the importance of economic growth and technological innovation. His state papers on the subject of the economy are considered by modern scholars to be a monumental effort â€Å"toward establishing a rational basis for planning and legislation; his Report on Manufacturers and his advocacy of federal public works are remarkably modern descriptions of the relationship between government and technology†. As the first Secretary of the Treasury and the unofficial aide to George Washington, Hamilton was instrumental in designing the American bureaucracy, which prevails even to this day. In this unofficial capacity as the confidante and aide of the first President, Hamilton also wrote many of the Presidential addresses, most notable of which is the Farewell Address delivered by Washington at the end of his second term.  

Rhetorical analysis assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rhetorical analysis assignment - Essay Example Thereby this essay intends to use the basics of rhetorical analysis to analyze and interpret the article The Gun that killed my Sister published in the opinion section of Politico. The author Elvin Daniel commands an intimate relationship with the content of the article as his sister was killed in the October 2012 Brookfield, Wisconsin spa shooting, thereby the approach of Elvin in the given article happens to be emotive and personal. This article intends to bring to fore one of the salient politico-social issues that have raked in much controversy in the America political and social circles, which is Gun Control. The author does not preach a tough or staunch stance towards the issue of gun control, but rather tends to extend a reasonable and emotive plea to the readers that the online sale of guns ought to come within the legal purview of background checks. The overall approach of the author towards gun control is sane and logical as he mentions that, â€Å"I’ve seen how dev astating Gun violence can be (Elvin 1).† Irrespective of the fact that the author in a way happens to be the firsthand victim of gun violence, as his sister got shot by her husband with a gun procured online and without succumbing to any background checks, the reason extended by the author is also based on facts and commonsense. The author believes that the online sale of guns is fraught with dangerous possibilities, as he goes on to cite the conclusion arrived at by a report that, â€Å"every year tens of thousands of criminals and domestic abusers like Radcliffe are looking for guns on Armslist.com, where they can easily buy weapons from private sellers without a background check (Elvin 1).† The overall purpose of the author is to move the public opinion in support of the fact that the online sale of guns must come within the ambit of background checks. Going by the fact that the writer’s sister herself got killed by a gun procured online without any background checks, the opinion expressed by the author happens to be utterly valid, credible and reliable. The thing is that the author is no way against guns as he acknowledges that, â€Å"I’m a gun owner, a hunter, and a member of the National Rifle Association (Elvin 1).† However, the writer staunchly supports a responsible attitude towards arms that no way opposes or decries a background check while purchasing arms at any online portal. The writer intends to target a range of readers subscribing to Politico. The writer is targeting the common citizens, many of whom end up being victims of the gun violence on a daily basis. The writer may also be targeting the anti gun control organizations like the National Rifle Association, encouraging them to support a reasonable and midway approach towards gun control. The article also has an undeniable political angle as it also happens to target the law makers, ordinary citizens, think tanks, pressure groups and anybody who is concerne d about the issue of gun control. The article contains ample information that helps the readers construct the writer’s persona in their minds. Even a cursory perusal of the article testifies to the fact that the writer happens to be a person who has personally suffered from gun violence, as he clearly

Human Indifference Essay Example for Free

Human Indifference Essay In the article â€Å"Americans are shopping while Iraq burns†, Bob Herbert implies that Americans are deeply absorbed in their own interests and are therefore apathetic to developments in Iraq, and by extension the developments in any other place where the United States is at war like in Afghanistan. On the contrary, renowned photojournalist James Natchwey is of the opinion that Americans would like to be informed of what really is happening so that they can act responsively. This must have been his conviction before embarking on his mission to film footage for the documentary â€Å"War Photographer†. A number of credible sources underline this apathetic stance adapted by many Americans regarding the suffering that emanates from wars waged by their nation in their name. This research paper aims to identify both their stances in detail with the aim of establishing which perspective is closer to the truth. It also pays a tribute to James Natchwey’s exemplary journalism. The State of the American Society Bob Herbert creates a reference for his argument on Thanksgiving Day here in the U. S. Shopping malls opened at midnight as Americans gleefully spend on the celebration. In the meantime, over 200 civilians had been killed by car bombs in the Iraqi city of Sadr. This is just one incident: a majority of Americans go about their business oblivious of the suffering Iraqi civilians endure on a daily basis or the fatalities American troops encounter at the battlefields. If indeed they were conscious of the repercussions of the war, we would be up in protest opposing these wars whose benefits to the American society cannot be ascertained. The apathy demonstrated by Americans may originate from the fact that very few Americans are concerned with the nation’s foreign policy. As Ole R. Holsti points out, there is â€Å"absence of sustained public attention to international issues† (Holsti 2004, 285). This is demonstrated in the circumstances that led to the invasion of Iraq: the Bush administration alleged without sufficient proof that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (Smith 2005) and connected the Baghdad regime with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, and the American public was ready to believe these charges in the pretext that Iraq really was a threat to national security (Holsti 2004). Media in the U. S. as made it hard for Americans to know what to believe in or what to value. There is insufficient coverage of the destructiveness of the war as media executives strive to make profits in an overly commercialized industry. The importance of news is diluted as news is â€Å"stripped of its credibility and the audience will have no ability to differentiate between the values of news and other forms of entertainment† (Dadge Schechter 2006, 103). As Bob Herbert points out, most Americans have no personal stake in the Iraqi war and are consequently indifferent to its outcomes. A short survey reveals that very few citizens would be willing to join the military, no wonder most go about their business bearing indifference to the effects of the war on Iraqi civilians whose lives are shattered by war (Gott 2002) and U. S marines who die in the line of duty. The suggestion by Representative Charles Rangel that the Draft be reinstated implies that American politicians would be reluctant to approve of war if the possibility of their constituents being called into active service was real. With these facts out in the open, Herbert’s position is obviously more credible. Media apathy, domestic lack of interest in foreign policy and general disinterest have all contributed to the absence of a collective sacrifice and sharing of the burden of responsibility on the war. This is supported by the other sources cited in this paper. Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy is a comprehensive text describing in detail American foreign policy since September 11th. Why War: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez is a thought-provoking text which pushes a reader beyond the periphery of conventional sociological thought. David Dadge and Danny Schechter’s book exposes the ease with which the American public is in most case willing to acknowledge intelligence reports without the desire to validate the background information. War Photographer James Natchwey demonstrates true heroism as he delves deep into some of the most dangerous and desolate spots on earth to bring pictures of what really goes on here to viewers. His work captivates audiences and instills empathy by relaying the destruction and heartbreak occasioned by conflict. He is an embodiment of courage, professional dedication and humanitarianism.

Students Academic Performance in High School

Students Academic Performance in High School Even though a different set of constraints and challenges in education has been faced worldwide, educational development has been actively promoted by means of adapting to rapid global changes (Peretz, 2009). Ensuring quality of education is one of the six Education For All goals agreed by over 160 governments during the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000; almost every country around the world has committed to enhancing education quality in an effort to achieve the goals of EFA by 2015. Governments seek to offer students an education that equips them with skills, knowledge, and wider perspectives so that students can participate in the social, economic and political lives of their nations (UNESCO, 2009). The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has prioritized educational sector as a key area for national development: capacity building and human resources development is one of the key strategies of the Rectangular Strategy in the third term of the national assembly (RGC, 2004). Cambodian education system is divided into four levels: pre-school education, primary education, secondary education (lower and upper) and higher education. Students from the age of three to five years old are allowed to enroll in pre-school education. To get basic education, students have to at least spend six years of primary education and three years of lower secondary education. After graduating from lower secondary education, students are provided options to continue to upper secondary education or enter secondary -level vocational training programs provided by the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MOLVT). Students can also have chances to pursue their studies in university or vocational training a fter completing upper secondary education (UNESCO, 2008). The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) has emphasized education quality at all levels basic, secondary and higher education because it can produce the well-educated and skilled students in order to meet the needs and requirement of the growing labor market. Education at upper secondary level is the foundation for higher education. After upper secondary school, students should have capacity to continue their studies at higher education or to specialize their studies (MoEYS, 2004). To achieve this goal, students are provided options to select the program of study: sciences and social studies. Additionally, students are required to study at least ten subjects which are compulsory to complete upper secondary education. To completely graduate from upper secondary school, students are assessed based on the scores earned at Grade 12, the final grade of upper secondary education, and the score of the national examination (UNESCO, 2008). 1.2 Problem Statement The achievement of high school students has been a great concern to educators, parents, and government. Even though measures have been taken to improve the quality of education, a large proportion of high school students perform poorly in the classroom (P. Pal, personal communication, October 10, 2010). Furthermore, some students are likely to play truant or miss their class very often. As identified in UNESCO National Education Support Strategy, the cost burden, the need for the students to work and a lack of understanding the importance of formal schooling are some of the reasons behind the low grade 12 completion rate (UNESCO, 2010). 1.3 Research Objectives There has been little qualitative research conducted on perceptions of students and teachers towards the factors influencing the students academic performance in high school in Cambodia. Therefore, the intent of this study is to identify those factors influencing students academic performance in high school. Investigation into the factors that might influence students academic performance in high schools may contribute to enhancing students learning abilities in upper secondary education as well as helping them to pursue their higher education easily. 1.4 Research Questions This study aims to answer the following research questions: How do teachers and students perceive factors influencing students academic performance? What are the differences in perceptions between teachers and students toward factors contributing to students academic performance? 1.5 Significance of Study This study is particularly significant for two main reasons. First, it will increase understanding of and contribute to the literature on students academic performance in high school in Cambodia. Second, it is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to helping all stakeholders, namely, parents, teachers, school communities, and central agents to strengthen efficiency and quality of education in upper secondary education. 1.6 Definition of Concept Page, Thomas, and Marshall (as cited in Ogunbanjo, 2001) defined school performance as an action of a person or group when given a learning task. In education, performance refers to achievement in carrying out of a task, assignment or course. Academic performance is the level of success determined by grade point average at the end of the semester (Lamsis, 2010). Thus, in this study, academic performance is generally taken to mean students ability and achievement in the school work as measured by tests results, performance or behaviour during lessons, grades and reports. 1.7 Proposed Chapter This research study is organized in five chapters. Chapter one will consist of introduction dealing with background information of the study, problem statement, research objectives, research questions, significance of the study. The past literature, which was conducted in different settings around the world, will be examined in chapter two. Next, the research methodology will discuss in detail the participants, method, instruments, tools, data collection, data analysis, ethical consideration and limitation of the study in Chapter three. In Chapter four, finding and discussion will be identified. Finally, conclusion and recommendation will also be discussed in chapter five. CHAPTER 2 Literature Review Factors which influence students performance have been identified as including classroom management, quality of teaching staff, family social-economic status, lack of teaching facilities, inadequate student discipline, lack of student commitment, emotional problems, curriculum contents, learning situation, inadequate teacher instruction, and not enough parental involvement (Asikhia, 2010; Legotlo et al., 2002 ; Nguyen Griffin, 2010). In the study by Asikhia (2010), the focus of the investigation was on the perception of students and teachers on the causes of poor academic performance among secondary school students in Ogun State, Nigeria. The results of teachers perception indicated that teachers teaching qualifications and students background had a smaller effect on the students poor performance but teachers methods of teaching influence poor academic achievement. Students, on the other hand, thought that teachers qualifications and students home environment influenced their poor performance in school while teachers method of teaching and learning materials did not. In the study of factors influencing poor performance of grade 12 learners in two high schools in Limpo province in South Africa, Rammalas study (2009) discovered that parents low-level of education, high unemployment rate, child-headed family, unpredictable home environment, emotional problems, lack of facilities, unavailable learner support materials, lack of discipline, redeployment of education, unfamiliarity of new curriculum influenced students performance in the classroom. In a similar research study conducted in Nepal, Subedi (2003) demonstrated the factors influencing high school student achievement. This study simply aimed to investigate the effect of resources and class size on student performance. The research revealed that the availability and use of resources had a significant effect on student performance. Class size also caused negative effect to student achievement. In a research article by Legotlo et al. (2002), the focus of investigation was on perceptions of stakeholders towards causes of poor performance in grade 12 National Examinations in a province in South Africa. The results in this study revealed that inadequate resources, lack of discipline and poor morale, problems concerning the implementation of government policy, and lack of parental involvement were major causes of poor student performance. In a research study by Ogunbanjo (2001), the focus of the investigation was on the factors influencing the academic performance of underachieving learners in a South African secondary school with an inhibitive learning climate. In order to get in-dept understanding of underachieving students learning performance, a qualitative method was applied. The findings of this study identified the factors as influencing the academic performance of underachieving learners: negative attitude of learners towards their school work, negative attitudes of teachers towards learners and inflexible teaching methods by teachers, lack of parental supervision, undisciplined behavior in class, learner absenteeism, insufficient learner support material, non-encouragement from parents for learners to study, excessive home chore, demotivation and low moral towards teaching as a career, overcrowding classrooms, lack of support from the department and school administration, lack of facilities and resources, lac k of parental involvement, inadequate funding of schools, lack of parental supervision, peer pressure, lack of parental guidance and supervision, learners lack of discipline, indiscipline by learners, illiteracy among parents, and poor insight of learners about the value of education. Taken together, the results, of course, indicate that overcrowded classes, lack of facilities and resources, inflexible teaching method, and lack of parental involvement are supposed to be the fundamental factors which negatively influence the students academic performance in high schools. CHAPTER 3 Research Methodology 3.1 Research Design Qualitative researchers share in the understandings and perceptions of others and explore how people structure and give meaning to their daily lives (Berg, 2009). In a qualitative research, a case study design is used to significantly focus on one phenomenon, which the researcher selects to understand deeply regardless of the number of sites or participants for the study (Mcmillain Schumacher, 2001). Since this study mainly aims to identify key factors that students and teachers perceive as influencing academic performance in a high school, the case study approach will be employed in this study. 3.2 Participant and Sample The target participants in this study will be teachers and students in a high school in Kandal province. I will contact the school principal initially to propose my study and receive the approval before proceeding and contacting potential participants. A purposive sampling method will be employed in this study because I aim to explore in detail participants reasons for performing poorly in their studies. The sample of this study will consist of 4 students and 2 teachers from high school in question. Both male and female participants will be selected. The teachers sample will be the class teachers who regularly facilitate any activities in classroom while 11th-grade students will be chosen in this study. The students sample will include students who learn with the selected teachers. 3.3 Data Collection Unlike a quantitative method, a qualitative data gathering procedures often involve spending a lot of time in the natural setting under study or with the research participants collecting relevant information unobtrusively (Gay, Mills Airasian, 2009). Choosing data collection strategies is a process of deciding among available alternatives for collection and corroboration of data and of modifying ones decisions to capture the reality of the phenomena (McMillan Schumacher, 2001). As the purpose of this study is to gain in-depth understanding of the factors contributing to students academic performance, participant observation, semi-structured interviews and informal conversation will be carried out to collect the data. The interviews will consist of open-ended questions and will be tape-recorded (see Appendix below for the details). Individual face to face interview and informal conversation will be used for teachers and students. I will make an appointment with the participants and inform them about the reasons of conducting this study, and request for their consent to participate in my study, before carrying out interviews. The participants will be provided options to select convenient time and comfortable place for the interviews in order to ensure full cooperation and trust. I will bring a tape recorder on scheduled interviews, and with the participants permission, record the interviews which will be expected to take around 1 to 2 hours and occur in the school campus or outside the school. Interview questions will follow a general list of topics. The purpose of these interviews is to allow those involved in a school to describe in detail their perceptions and experiences. In addition to these i nterviews, I will carry on informal conversations with participants at the beginning or end of the meeting to gain more specific concepts and experiences about the influencing factors on students academic performance. Participant observation will be also employed to collect data. The emphasis during observation is on understanding the natural environment as lived by participants without manipulating (Gay, Mills Airasian, 2009). After getting permission from school principal, I will visit the school for two weeks and significantly observe what goes on in classroom and during recess periods. The observation checklist will mainly focus on time management, environment in the classroom, teaching method, and behavioral patterns of students. Each observation will take around 45 minutes. Additionally, field notes will be written at the end of each observation describing in detail the setting and activities during the lessons. To assure the accuracy and details of these notes, I will spend several hours for recording notes after leaving the field. Official documents of the school such as students attendance record, and yearly academic report will be taken with permission of the school principal, teachers and students. 3.4 Data Analysis Data analysis is begun from the initial interaction with participants and continued that interaction and analysis throughout the whole study (Gay, Mills Airasian, 2009). As data are collected from the participants, I will examine and reexamine the data in search of themes and patterns in the data. Also, prior data and newer data will be continually compared to reduce less useful data. After gathering the data from the field setting, I will listen to the tape recordings, transcribe the interview tapes and analyze the participants responses. I will organize and prepare all data into different types of information depending on the sources of information. In addition, I will read through all data collected carefully to obtain general idea of information. Coding process will be used to organize information into categories or themes. Then these themes will be chronologically sorted into table display in order to discuss interconnected themes. Finally, I will make interpretation of themes. 3.5 Ethical Consideration Before starting the data collection, I will ask the permission and approval from school principal, teachers and students for observation or tape-recorded interviews. I will explain the study objective verbally and in writing to participants and tell them truthfully that their involvement is voluntary. I will fully explain any potential benefits to school principal, teachers, and students as a result of my study. Additionally, the participants will be informed of all data collection devices and activities. If at any point during the course of the interview the participants decide they no longer desire to continue, they will feel free to simply stop the interview. To avoid any harm to the participants, their names and school will be held in strictest confidence and will never be attached to any data or report that may result from this research. I will treat the participants with respect and give the participants pseudonyms. Personal identifiers will not be included in the research repo rt released to the public in order to avoid the identification of participants. The participants will be told that their responses will be kept confidential and that no one known to them will have access to the information provided and no one can link the analyze to their names. Also, verbatim transcriptions and written interpretations and reports will be made available to the participants. 3.6 Limitation of the Study This proposal has some specific limitations. First, the researcher will only conduct this study in a high school in a province in order to identify influencing factors on students academic performance. Second, since the study will be conducted in a small number of students and teachers in a high school in Cambodia, so the results will not generalize the factors influencing students academic achievement in all high schools nationwide. Third, the purpose of this research is not to provide broad generalizations, but to provide an in-depth analysis of factors influencing students academic performance in high schools. Finally, some activities, events and information which occur at specific period of the school calendar will not be captured during a short period of visit by the researcher.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and His Leadership Essay -- American History

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and His Leadership On a rainy day in March 1933, a country watched eagerly as Franklin Delano Roosevelt swore in as the thirty-second president of the United States. At this time, the United States was hurting badly from a depression, soon called the Great Depression, and yearning out for a new leader who would help them. Roosevelt, also known as FDR, proved to the country that he was the right guy for the job with some of the most famous words ever said; "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" (Franklin). Everyone in the U.S. stood behind Roosevelt through the Great Depression and even through World War II and until his death. Roosevelt proved to the nation that he was a courageous and brave leader that would help the country out, no matter what the consequence, even his own death. The rise of this great leader was not an easy one, despite being born into a wealthy family. Born on January 30th, 1882, FDR was the only child in his family, so his parents gave him tons of attention, making FDR's childhood very happy (Grapes 13). FDR was tutored through his early education from private tutors and even his parents, who traveled quit a bit. When Roosevelt was fourteen, his mother and father sent him to a boarding school for the wealthy called Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts (Schuman 16). After attending boarding school, Roosevelt went to Harvard where he became active in many school activities and charities, even becoming editor-in-chief of Crimson, Harvard's school newspaper (Grapes 14). After graduating from Harvard, FDR went on to hold many important political offices, including state senator of New York, assistant secretary of the Navy, governor of New York, and finally be... ...eassuring them, making them feel secure with his chats. Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the greatest leaders the U.S. has ever had as the President because of the way he fulfilled everyone's universal needs. FDR had a sensitive leadership style which helped him talk with the people and let them know what was going on with the country, making them feel secure and giving them the clarity and certainty of the future. When the nation was attacked and chaos broke out, FDR was there with his courage and determination to not let anything hurt the U.S., fulfilling the need for authority. Roosevelt also united the nation through tough times with his weekly chats and his powerful speeches. Through it all, FDR is my favorite leader in the history of the U.S. because he overcame the impossible and comforted a nation through some of the toughest events in our history.

The Pyramids Of Egypt Essay -- essays research papers

The Pyramids of Egypt On the rocky plateau of Giza, rise three great pyramids, each built during the lifetime of a pharaoh. Together, these pyramids constitute the most celebrated group of monuments in the world. While the pyramids at Giza were built in the Fourth Dynasty (2615-2500 BC), the first pyramid was actually built in Saqqara during the reign of King Zoser of the Third Dynasty. This first pyramid was a step pyramid meaning that the sides were not filled to make an even surface.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Egypt, like no other land, has drawn historians, theologists and scientists to study the pyramids. The historians are still coming up with new theories about why they were built and who built them. There are many mysteries about the pyramids that are waiting to be unlocked. ...

Scott Joplin :: essays research papers

Scott Joplin was know as the kings of ragtime. I will explain also explain how he grew up and what type of music he played. I will also write about why I believe he deserves the title that he has been bestowed upon him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first thing I will talk about is the type of music he is know for which gave him that name. Most people listen to the type of music he composed but next to none know who or how it was composed. There seems to be an abundance of music fans who know little or nothing about the origin of their music. By discussing what he has accomplished it will explain why he is considered to be so important to his type of music.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rag time as it is most commonly know was the type of fast paced music played around 1885 in St. Louis. Scott Joplin was born in 1868 and lived until 1917, but has done a lot in his life span. He was one of the first African Americans to be know as a composer. Born in Texarkana, Texas to a large family with musical background, he began learning to play the guitar and beagle, and gained free piano lessons by showing such fast progression to his teachers. After death of his mother, he left the house at age fourteen. He learned much form traveling through Mississippi playing in local spots and learning form what was offered to him. In 1885 he arrived in St. Louis, at the time a center for a new music phenomenon called ragtime.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ragtime, also called â€Å"ragged rhythm†, was first a piano style know for its fast paced beats. It first came into the publics eye in 1893 when he performed an instrumental ensemble at the World Exposition in Chicago. His originally developed style of rag time know as â€Å"Maple Leaf Rag† First came on the scene in a club in Sedalia, Missouri as his own form of ragtime. In 1899 He gained nationwide popularity after selling over one million copies worldwide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After this Joplin tried to make this new from of piano style he had grown to love more widely know form of music In 1911 he finished an opera called Treemonisha, designed to reach this status. Sadly this opera was not well accepted by the public and caused him to slip into a state of depression.

For Safe Assign

Poverty is rampant in the Middle East, and the region's past, current and future water crisis plays a more significant role than what is shared in the major news. While the major focus of conflict is often attributed to the devastation of violent cultural war, countries that have been major victims will need rising leaders and peacekeepers to focus on the more significant issues as to begin with a strong foundation while they rebuild. The World Bank predicts that with rapid growth, regional ; cultural instability on top of climate change, these challenges are more pressing than ever before. Water accessibility has always posed great challenges for the Middle East. In the recent decades, the changes in both the economy and infrastructure of the Middle East have made its water challenges a growing issue, to the point where the lack of water conservation could negatively affect the infrastructure and stability of these countries in the future. Rapid population and economic growth in urban areas, increasing and wasteful water consumption, geographical challenges and inadequate governance to name a few. According to studies, climate change is causing more severe and frequent weather events. Political and social turmoil have also worsened existing constraints of water scarcity. Currently, poverty doesn't appear to discriminate against regions, whether stable or unstable. The water crisis in the Middle East plays a significant role when it comes to the population's hunger, food insecurity, and lack of food production. The Arab World is where 6% of the world's population is located. Only 2% of the world's water supply is located there. Rural unemployment occurs when the amount of suitable farmland decreased and desertification increases. As more of the population suffers from little agricultural cultivation, the Middle East sees a decrease in production, and farmers find themselves without jobs or food. The lack of security in water supplies and irrigation cannot sustain productive farmland and agriculture. With a more stable structure and plan for agriculture, climate smart agricultural practices and better irrigation methods will go a long way in conserving water. The public must be part of the conservation effort through awareness. A focus on minimizing water waste, as well as efficient energy usage at desalination plants will reduce the environmental cost of producing water. In such an arid region, there is no denying water takes on critical importance. However, some natural sources do exist, though they attract the attention of those geographically close to them. The issue is who gets to claim these sources. These less fortunate populations suffer due to this continuous conflict. The Golan Heights, for example, has long been a place of conflict for critical players in the Middle East. Countries like Syria, Lebanon and Israel are engaged in conflict over this area because it holds a strategic advantage. One-third of Israel's freshwater supply originates in the Golan Heights, and promotes fertile land, which stretches from the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River. But while this source of water aides Israel, ceding control of the Golan Heights to Syria would give Syria access to the Sea of Galilee's eastern shore and one of Israel's two largest sources of water. In addition, Jordan and Lebanon would stand to benefit from its resources. But a lack of governed structure in place to allocate and value water in a way that is sustainable will affect the countries' ability to support a civilization that could flourish and their ability to get rid of the poverty caused from a lack of water structure. It is quoted that 60 percent of the surface water resources in the Arab region are transboundary, and all countries share at least one aquifer. This further highlights how important all of the countries' cooperation and solid management of shared water resources. As poverty continues, so will contention. Urban water systems that are in place will continue to be targets of armed conflicts. Countries recovering from war and decimated infrastructure, for example, see leaking water pipes; meaning that some cities lose up to 40% of their water before it reaches the users. Ultimately, entities such as ISIL, Al Qaeda, and the Kurdish forces are perpetuated by this conflict, as they leverage their advantage and control over regions with reliable water sources. With precious and limited natural resources in the hands of these entities, there is little hope of the wealth to be shared or structured. As the economic, social and political pressures mount in the Arab world, the international focus will need to shift its focus to security and communication to avoid engagement in conflict. The above issues and nature of water scarcity and its implications for growth, prosperity and end to poverty cannot be sidelined in efforts at international dialogue and engagement.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia” Essay

Though there is no mention of race or slavery in Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"Ligeia,† the story is suffused with the symbolic interaction of light and dark, white and black, pallor and pigment. In a situation so fully charged with the symbolics of race, and in a story written in antebellum America by an author raised in Virginia, the lack of any mention of slavery is enough to indicate that this story, despite its studied silence on the matter, has something to tell us about the psychology of racialism in the United States. In the conflict between Ligeia and Rowena—though it takes place almost out of sight, at the edge of the real and of vision—Poe sets up Ligeia as the dark lady and Rowena as the fair one. The reader might expect this to play out as either an abolitionist or racist affirmation of equality or racial supremacy. The situation is complicated, however, by the presence and perceptions of the narrator, who is outside of the highly charged color scheme. Poe positions the reader as an observer of racialist dynamics, rather than as a racialized participant, to allow the reader a view of how a passive, dominant white class depends on, and is crippled by its dependency on, a black underclass that stands for everything it lacks and fears. The dichotomy of black and white emerges relatively late in the story, only after Ligeia has died and the narrator has taken Rowena as his new wife, but the coloring of Ligeia is present from the start. Among her other sublime attributes, the narrator writes that â€Å"She came and departed as a shadow† (111). However, she is also very pale. She has a â€Å"lofty and pale forehead –it was faultless† and â€Å"skin rivalling the purest ivory† (111). Her whiteness, though, is framed by â€Å"the raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses† (111). Her eyes, the windows of the soul, are also â€Å"the most brilliant of black, and, far over them, hung jetty lashes of great length. The brows, slightly irregular in outline, had the same tint† (111). While her skin is very white, every other feature of Ligeia is exceedingly black. In her shadowiness, Poe depicts her very being as dark. Ligeia’s white skin might be attributed to Poe’s desire as an artist to keep this story from being overtly racialized or didactic or scandalous. His presentation of intense blackness as the frame of intense whiteness, however, is actually a better representation of race in America than a simple schematization of white versus black. Over against the â€Å"one drop† rule that determined a person to be â€Å"black† if they had any black ancestors, the reader determines Ligeia to be â€Å"white† based on one attribute against many dark ones. In fact, Ligeia’s blackness is more than skin (or hair) deep. She is a mystery even to her lover, the narrator, who associates her with the religious mysteries of ancient civilizations. Like the African slaves brought to America, she has a connection to a cultural past that is lost to the narrator and which can only play on his fancy. Her family, which he does not know the paternal name of, â€Å"is of a remotely ancient date. † Musing on his ignorance of his beloved’s family name—which must seem a little unusual to any reader—he wonders why this is: â€Å"was it a test of my strength of affection, that I should institute no inquiries upon this point? or was it rather a caprice of my own –a wildly romantic offering on the shrine of the most passionate devotion? † (111). The proposed solutions ironically obscure the possibility of repression, that he does not know because he does not want to know, that he is afraid to know. The narrator can only imagine that he does not know her name because he loves her so much. The narrator’s conspicuous forgetting begins to trace the mechanism by which Americans repress blackness, and the dependence of whiteness on a black contrast, for the sake of keeping whiteness unquestioned as a positive attribute. Part of the narrator’s madness, though, is that he continues to fixate on the blackness in Ligeia as the symbol of depth and plenitude. Through this obsession with blackness in what is supposed to be a white face, Poe uses â€Å"Ligeia† to pose an inquiry into American racialism that escapes from traditional dualisms of good versus bad into an examination of the psychological mechanisms that make such a debate possible. At the same time that the depth of Ligeia’s learning provides a viable historical representation of the white slave-holder’s ignorance of African cultures, it also comes to assume sublime proportions that simultaneously remove that knowledge from history. Using the fetishization of Orienal cultures as a model, the narrator transports Ligeia’s difference into a realm beyond the earthly. The same mechanism was applied to blackness in America: when whites could not fathom the difference between European cultures and African cultures, they wound up believing that blacks and blackness were unfathomable. This set the stage for blackness to be aligned with other things white European culture did not understand—with animals, for example, or sexual appetite. The narrator’s visible obsession with Ligeia’s blackness as a symbol for his inability to comprehend her exposes the way in which American culture could both deify African culture as more authentic and denigrate it as more base. For the narrator, of course, this dissonance takes the form of his love for Ligeia. He cites Bacon on beauty: â€Å"’There is no exquisite beauty,’ says Bacon, Lord Verulam, speaking truly of all the forms and genera of beauty, ‘without some strangeness in the proportion’† (). The narrator agrees that there is something strange about Ligeia but he cannot find it. Each individual part, it seems, is perfectly wrought. The strangeness, though, is as Bacon would have it: in the proportion of all these perfections to each other. Metaphorically, the perfection of the white and black face is the perfection of a racially segregated society viewed from within the heavily repressed white perspective. The concepts used all make sense by themselves: that Africans have different cultures, blackness and whiteness are beautiful in their own ways, some things are beyond human understanding—but the particular way they are connected in a slave-holding society has more than a little â€Å"strangeness in the proportion. † Poe’s presentation of the narrator’s consciousness directs the reader to precisely this perspective, focusing not any individual part but on the framing of the whole, because it is here that the psychological dependence of whiteness on misappropriated conceptions of Africanism functions. The narrator’s repression of blackness into a transcendental white worldview—in which blackness only exists at the fringes to serve whiteness and make it more beautiful, both literally and metaphorically—results logically in the death of Ligeia and her replacement by a very white English girl of known parentage but not much depth of soul. The Lady Rowena is â€Å"fair-haired and blue-eyed,† a perfect Aryan, in contrast to Ligeia’s dark hair and eyes, and her family, like the economic system of chattel slavery, is enthralled to a â€Å"thirst of gold. † When the narrator describes their wedding his memory catches more on the blackness of their surroundings than on the European whiteness of his bride. â€Å"I have said that I minutely remember the details of the chamber—yet I am sadly forgetful on topics of deep moment,† like Ligeia’s parentage or the wedding itself (). The details he remembers include a â€Å"bridal couch—of an Indian model, and low, and sculptured of solid ebony†¦a gigantic sarcophagus of black granite†¦[and a tapestry with] patterns of the most jetty black† (111). The blackness that he has banished from the person of his bride he has recreated in their surroundings. The composition of black and white is by now recognizable to the reader: the alabaster centerpiece that was Ligeia’s face is now the person of Rowena, and the black hair and eyes of Ligeia are the room and its contents. The tableau that was beautiful when contained within the frame of Ligeia’s face becomes, when extrapolated onto the greater scale of the mansion or estate, somber and terrifying. Blackness looms everywhere in the bridal room. By being marginalized, blackness also comes to surround whiteness and threaten it. The climax of the story comes from just such an incursion of blackness into the white center. Ligeia seemingly poisons Rowena from beyond the grave and uses her body as a medium for return. From the narrator’s earlier adulation of Ligeia, it seems that he might be happy with this turn of events, but he has enough of his wits about him to be terrified that a ghost has returned to life. His terror also has a deeper cause. The displacement of blackness that has guided the story’s logic thus far means that the narrator is at last implicated in authorizing a racial economy. In the black room (with black curtains) Ligeia has supplated Rowena—and now Ligeia really is a dark figure, bearing with her the real abyss of death—the only place for whiteness to flee is into the face and person of the narrator. Throughout the story, however, the narrator has been fully invested in a white moderate-centrist repression of race, as seen in his convenient forgettings and fetishizations of Ligeia. Furthermore, the version of blackness that he has set up is dangerous to whiteness; blackness holds such an anxious sway over his mind that he sees it everywhere, and now it everywhere threatens to engulf him. The anxiety that invigorates the finale differs from the immediate horror of â€Å"Ligeia,† the transgression of the natural order through the return of the dead, in that here the horror is not within the story as an object of narration but surrounding the story as the ground on which it stands. For the reader, the immediate shock is Ligeia’s reanimation, but at the subconscious level this is enacted through reader response as the experience of the text stepping beyond its boundaries and into the real, the objective correlative of a corpse stepping beyond the boundary of death back into life. The doubling of conscious and unconscious horror in the story’s climax gives it affective power in that the reader is now fully identified with the narrator: as the text reaches its unholy apotheosis in moving beyond itself, the next target in the spread of the imaginary blackness is the reader. This movement might provoke a strong reaction formation—the condemnation of the work as unliterary or obscene—or, in a more tolerant reading, a shudder. All of the above explication of how darkness forms an invasive dialectical presence in â€Å"Ligeia† allows us to expand an interpretation of the work from the formal interplay of light and dark to the real, instantiated, and historical discourse of domination and slavery. On this ground, the message of â€Å"Ligeia† about slavery is as tangled as the rendering of color. Ligeia, the dark lady, seems to dominate the narrator from the beginning of the tale, and in her return via the corpus of Rowena she exerts power not only over another person—one marked as fair, as white—she demonstrates her mastery over life and death itself. Ligeia’s empowerment seems paradoxically at odds with aligning this story with the historical circumstances of slavery: black African slaves were legally considered chattel, moveable property, and had all the same rights that cattle or the like would have, that is, virtually none. If we remember, though, that as a tale of the grotesque—an imaginative exaggeration that partakes of the inversions and reinvestments of the subconscious—â€Å" Ligeia† does not disclose its truths at the level of literal or represented but in the language of (bad) dreams. What correlates the play of power in â€Å"Ligeia† with the logic of slavery is that the very idea of total domination—or rather, since we are dealing in inversions, the total subjugation of the narrator—can operate so freely in the story. The historical domination of the white slave owning class is represented here in its inverted form as the grotesquely hyperbolic empowerment of blackness through occultation. Ligeia’s transcendent power does not correspond to the real configuration of social forces in 1830s America, which was already being marked by ambivalence toward the national sin, but to the idealized racial superiority that white ideology purported to itself—though it could not, ever, live up to its own fantasy of itself either in terms of exacting submission or conversion of the â€Å"heathens†Ã¢â‚¬â€and to the equally idealized mystery of blackness empowered through an assumed (and constructed by apathy) opacity. The form of domination operating in the story is evidenced largely by the formal construction of the narrator’s discourse. Instead of pronouncing at the outset his obsession with Ligeia, the narrator demonstrates his relationship of submission/domination by overwhelming the reader with intricate, over-detailed descriptions of Ligeia. The narrator is dominated by his own telling, by discourse itself, and the telling is fully possessed by the body and soul of Ligeia. Rather than willfully presenting her domination over the narrator, and thus exposing herself to revolt or to a failure to live up to the role of â€Å"master,† Ligeia’s domination is represented through the narrator’s willed submission. His total submission—undemanded, uncoerced, almost unasked for—attributes to Ligeia a total form of power that the master cannot arrogate to himself but which exists exclusively in the mind of the imagined slave. The countercurrent of this is that the story is told by the slave though discourse is supposed to be the exclusive domain of the master. Yet the thrall is narrator is truly what the master class of a slave-owning society requires to receive the adulation is craves, and is in keeping with the logic of slavery. The slave class exists to labor on behalf of the master class; the final step in establishing an absolute and horrific slavery is for the labor of discourse to become the burden of the slave. Poe’s story works through a mounting intensity of the motifs of white and black, starting small and growing to a climax in which blackness appears everywhere. Through this progression, Poe’s story shows that even though a white perspective gets to tell the story of â€Å"Ligeia† and of U. S. history, it is not safe from a backlash. To the contrary, in trying to secure itself absolutely from blackness, the whiteness of the American mythology has invented a racialized other that it cannot escape. The black fear that haunts the narrator and the American reader assumes the massive proportions of the problem of racial chattel slavery itself. Beyond the scale of the actual ambivalences of the play between owner and slave is the nightmarish dimension of absolutes that the ideology of such a society demands. The model for this absolutism is, of course, the dichotomy between life and death: a clear transition that is irreversible. The horror of the American mind, which must reconcile an absolute division between master and slave with a contingent division between classes that are actually interpenetrating, is brought into the light of representation in Poe’s horrific tale of the risen dead.

Explore the Theme of Monstrosity in Frankenstein Essay

Montrosity is a key in Frankenstein, and it affects both the Creature and Victor, whilst at the same time , Shelley argues that society is monstrous through injustices of the time and the social conventions. Frankenstein could be said to be the monster himself- when he says â€Å"miserable monster† whom â€Å"I had created†, we see Shelley implicitly suggest, through the alliterative phrase, that just as â€Å"Adam was created in God’s image† so too was the Creature born in the image of Victor. Moreover, the idea that Frankenstein is himself the monster is reinforced by â€Å"or rather cell†. â€Å"Cell† refers to a prison cell, and is used symbolically to represent the idea that just like a cell is for criminals, who perform acts of monstrousity, so to is Frankenstein the â€Å"criminal† commiting an act of â€Å"monstrosity†. On the other hand, we could argue that it was not so much the act of creation that was monstrous, but rather Frankenstein’s reaction. By writing â€Å"I ran out of the room† we see Victor perform the ultimate rejection, and therefore, shunning the responsibilty that exists in the binary between â€Å"Parent† and â€Å"Child†- as John McRae argued. It is interesting to note that Frankenstein rejects the monster because of an innate selfishness- â€Å"the beauty of the dream vanished† implies that Frankenstein’s physical conception does not equal that of his mental conception, and that because Frankenstein’s plan are in disarray, his rational scientific methods- â€Å"I selected†¦in proportion† show this- are replaced by emotional responses; which for him, is territory unknown- in the same way Walton seeks to â€Å"ascertain the secrets† or how the Creature wants to understand human behaviour at the De Lacy’s. Thus, we see a connection between Victor and the Creature- whom he describes as â€Å"miserbale monster†. Furthermore, the fact that Frankenstein can only respond to the Creature’s birth in empirical, scientific observations- â€Å"pearly white teeth, dull eyes†- constrasts with Elizabeth’s response to William’s death- â€Å"O I have murdered my child†. By portraying Elizabeth in a positive light- she forms an emotional response, which juxtaposes with the sterile feelings of Frankenstein at the conception of the Creatue, Shelley implies that women present a greater degree of humanity- and thus criticises the male dominated society on education- whilst they may read â€Å"Shakespeare† and â€Å"Agrippa†, women will be worldly-wise, (no doubt influence by her feminist mother) and that they are necessary to prevent monstrosities. This idea of the female role is reinforced by the fact that as the novel progresses, the women are slowly being removed- first his Mother, then Justine and then Elizabeth- â€Å"I saw Elizabeth†¦held the corpse of my dead mother†. This presents Frankenstein’s mental degregation and ultimately, the ctalyst for the mosntrous act- so Shelley presents the idea of a dichotomy between man and women- Darwin supported this by suggesting the hierachy of reproducion- man and woman is better than man alone. However, it could also be argued that Frankenstein’s settings augment his monstrousity- we see a sense of isolation- â€Å"solitude† is repeated, implying that by imposing self-exile, Frankenstein detaches himself from society and its rules and that he has become an â€Å"outsider† (McCrae)- much as the monstrousity that Victor calls the Creature, is also an outsider. Indeed the connection between the two is best examined by the Shelley use of the mountain-top- â€Å"Chamonuix, where I saw him†- which alludes to the idea of the Creator and Creation meeting (Hayward), both as equal, with both, arguably as montrous, Victor for abondoning the Creature, and the Creature (for Victor) a representation fo his failure. By using â€Å"Solitude and â€Å" Filthy Workshop of Creation†, Shelley implies that this isolation leads to thoughts of monstrousity- Godwin influecned her argiung it â€Å"was a nusery of madmen†. This separation from society is symbolic too. If Geneva is â€Å"Eden†, then by extending against the limits of knowledge-â€Å"if no man broke the rules† suggests no remorse- he cut himself off, much like Lucifer in Paradise Lost- and thus, Shelley implies that this inner monster within Frankenstein and all of us, can only be restrained by a balance- whether, male or female, or equal laws. The idea that the monstrousity is within Frankenstein (and therefore us) is suggested by â€Å"wildness in his eyes†- he claims the Creature to be â€Å"wild†, but if the eyes are â€Å"windows to the sould†, Shelley suggests and innate montrosity in him (and us); an â€Å"id† that is the carnal desires. This contrasts the idea of the Monster’s â€Å"dull eyes†- which challenges the idea that the Creature is the monstrosity- this challenge is the reason why Shelley uses the Chinese Box Narrative- the various â€Å"narritve eyes† makes us formulate our own judgement. In fact, the Moster, may be the most human of us all- he â€Å"imitates the physiognamy and manners† in the same way that Justine did, yet both are treated unfairly. This idea of an unfair treatment alludes to Shelley’s belief that monstorusity exists in society- so whilst we can say it was Victor’s nature to be monstorus (and that society placed limits to prevent this), the nurturing of him within society is what leads to the monstrosity arguably. In the case of the Justine, the irony is that she is treated â€Å"un-JUSTlY† contrary to her name- which perhaps could be Shelley’s sly reference to her desire for female eqaulity (influenced by Wollstencraft –the feminist motehr) – a name is afforded to all, and Justine’s name contain’s justice- therefore, when she â€Å"is found guilty†- there is a trangression of nature, in the same way that Frankenstein transgresses nature by creating life. This presents the idea that society is too quick to judge- just as Frankenstein believes â€Å"seemingly to grab me†, Justine is quickly found guilty- regardless of Elizabeth’s plea- no wonder Shelley present s the law in such a negative light- â€Å"judge†¦meddle in the dark side of human nature†, because it is flawed and makes rash decisions. Thus, we see Shelley regard society as the monster. To conclude, monstrosity is pervades throughout the novel, affecting all characters and being influenced by setting and society. Yet, in the same way that the Creature was Frankenstein’s creation, the novel coould be seen as her monster-shunned by contempories but exposing the reatiy of monstrosity within us all.

Part1. Physical items Essay

Goods: Physical items produced by business organizations. Operations Management: the management of systems or processes that create goods and/or provide services Process: One or more actions that transform inputs into outputs Services: activities that provide some combination of time, location, form, and psychological value System: a set of interrelated parts that must work together. Technology: the application of scientific discoveries to the development and improvement of goods and services Operations management requires: both knowledge of the facts and how to interpret that info in order to produce and deliver Requires constant improvement: due to competition in the marketplace and advances in technology Good process design is: customer driven. What questions> What type of process is best suited that will fulfill our customers needs What is the goal in selecting a supplier? To find the best product available for the best price you can The global market enables the operations manager: the flecibility to choose the most cost effective supplier Honda’s relationship with their suppliers is based on: trust Why did Hillrich & Bradsby implement ERP system?: to simplify their processes When do hillrich & bradsbey start their production process?: when an order is entered into the system What was the purpose of Disney’s Fast Pass?: remove the need to wait in line by using a virtual queue Measuring is an important method. Monitoring the consistency and repeatability of a process is called: statistical process control What technique does Gortac use to support continuous improvement: in manufacturing, try to be more efficient, improving quality: continuous improvement: record the days productivity numbers and compare – daily production meetings. How did ABTCO increase capacity without adding space or investing capital? : using fundamentals of operations mgmt., reorganized the manuf process to improve quality and efficiency. Closed lines producing unfrofitable products and started idle lines to fill shortages, as a result, their siding unit increased prod capacity w out adding space or capital expense.

Adults with learning disabilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Adults with learning disabilities - Essay Example A learning disability is defined as a neurological disorder. It is the result of a difference in wiring in some adults and children.Those who experience a LD may be as intelligent,or even smarter,than their cohorts,although they have difficulty with an activity/s such as; reading, writing, spelling, recall and reasoning Interventions to aid adult learners with LD have changed dramatically over the past century (D'Amato, Crepeau-Hobson, Huang, & Geil, 2005). This paper will critically review the development of the present day approaches to intervention to demonstrate the benefits of the social-model. Firstly, a historical perspective will be given to illustrate the growth of LD service delivery from a medical-model approach, labeling theory to a social-model approach. Secondly, person-centred planning shall be critically discussed. Next issues of anti-oppressive practices with regard to gender will be outlined. Finally, a conclusion shall synthesise the main points of this paper to id entify the advantages that social-model based interventions can have. It is anticipated that this paper will inform research to aid adults with LD to be encouraged in their strengths, aware of their weaknesses, and to better understand health and social care systems approaches to providing care. In the early 19th century the leading model of care for adults with a LD was grounded in the broad system of health care (Young, 2006). Following the industrial revolution and the mass migration of the rural population to the cities those with a LD tended to be among those living in poverty and performing enforced labour. In the mid-19th century many concerned citizens debated the humanity of the conditions of those living in poverty, and who were experiencing ways of being such as a LD. The medical-model approach at the time considered the people housed within asylums as 'having a problem' that was not able to be worked with. The patients were often treated as children and robbed of their d ignity and seen as not able to make the correct choices for them to ensure good health. According to the medical-model those with a LD were a threat to the 'contamination' of the UK gene pool. Hence, this later medical-modal approach continued with the view of a biological condition alone, that could not be altered in any way by 'nurturing'. And by taking a rigid 'nature' view of LD saw the person experiencing the condition as beyond hope of social interventions, and that wider society (i.e., environment) had no responsibility as to how those with LD experienced life and well being. Dramatic changes came following the Wars, when the atrocities of Nazi experiments highlighted the need for more thought into what it means to be human, issues of dignity, welfare, protection and human rights. The dawn of ethical research and treatment had come. Whilst the medical-model remained focused on diagnosis, treatment and monitoring for effect, the idea that living experiences for those with LD could be improved took hold. The new version of the medical-model emphasised the possibility of treatment by identifying and strengthening cognitive abilities of those with LD (arrowsmithschool.org, 2007). "When the weak areas of the brain are strengthened.the learning disability is reduced or removed." (Steinberg, 2007, p. 1). In 1946 there was the introduction of the National Health Service in the UK and with it came the creation of the term 'mentally handicapped' and the institutions developed into hospitals with a focus on caring for patients. Society had shifted from seeing those who were LD as dangerous and a potential infectious threat, to people in need of interventions and treatment. Labeling theory (Tannenbaum, 1938), grew in popularity as those with LD who adopted deviant behaviors, such as drug use and or crime, were considered to be the 'victims' of social

Marketing Cases Problem Solving Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Cases Problem Solving - Case Study Example A.1. can also try to develop its own tie-ups with the distributors of its product, like the grocery stores and restaurants. For instance, A.1. could concentrate on building up a superior communication network between itself and its distributors and suppliers so that they can understand each others' needs. It is very crucial for A.1. to retain the major percentage of shelf space within grocery stores since this has an express correlation with the sales level of an item. The company can carry out a small research to find out the exact optimal position for its products within the shelf layout. It can then quest for that position to be granted by its distributors. A.1. should guarantee that the situation of its product's kiosks is in elevated traffic areas and that they are easily reached. When the firm is trying to obtain partnerships with restaurants, it should emphasize the fact that "9 out of 10 steakhouses serve A.1." (Kerin and Peterson 631). Also, the display of A.1. Steak Sauce on a table motivates 70% of consumers to think about steak (A.1. Sauce Derives Its Name From Utterance of a King, 15). The firm can also go in for promotion of its product by offering a free product such as a spatula with a bottle of A1. But the firm has to be careful in dealing with such giveaways by announcing that the consumer's who submit their information to the company will only be given the additional product free. A.1 could simultaneously promote its product at the venue and date which Lawry's has chosen for its launch. The company can also try its hands at sponsoring barbeques outside the games venue throughout March Madness. A.1. could also organize barbeques at the exterior of large grocery store chains, such as Publix, predominantly on the Memorial Day weekend. The company normally makes use of around 15% of its operating revenue on advertising (Kerin and Peterson 633). This is a sturdy budget to promote its steak sauce. The firm's should also plan for its advertising goals and it should see to it that the frequency of such ads increases and it get more penetration power. Giving a free spatula would also incite psychological reactions from consumers. Asking the customers to propose their personal information before receiving the free giveaway would help the firm in expanding its customer relationship management database. Carrying on barbeques outside college basketball games throughout March Madness would comprise sufficient exposure for the firm. Finally, the firm could work to package A.1. or use the sauce as an ingredient in other Kraft products in order to enlarge their customer base. For instance, the firm can combine A.1. Steak Sauce with Oscar Meyer meat or Lunchable products. Reference: 1. Kerin, Roger, and Robert Peterson. Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases and Comments. 11th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 2. "A.1. Sauce Derives Its Name From Utterance of a King." Metropolitan News-Enterprise 18 Nov 2004 15. 13 Apr 2007 . 3. "Vision and Values." Kraft Foods. 10 Apr 2007. Kraft Foods International. 10 Apr 2007 . Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Case Analysis The research on Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company gives us a clean picture as to why sometimes one has to keep on constantly

IT Strategy to open a new office store in Rio de Janeiro Essay

IT Strategy to open a new office store in Rio de Janeiro - Essay Example It aims to continue expanding its market from its regional Headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This information is the start off point in development of an Information Technology strategy that will enable the company to establish and operate at the regional office in Brazil. The technology strategy is a framework that helps in managing technology oriented businesses like Apple Inc. The Brazilian economy is reputed for better performances than that of other economies in the South American Countries. The economic stability of the country is improving in all aspects, having grown at the rate of 7.5% in 2010 (Baer 76). There is more investor confidence in the country and the sector of technology which fall under communication is also developing. The choice of Rio de Janeiro is attributed to the growth in the country economy and thus a growing market for Apples products. Rio is the second largest city in Brazil and it’s the capital of Brazil. With its population and its economi c viability, it is a perfect location for the new regional headquarters. The company’s customers will include the students, professionals and companies who are many in the country of Brazil. The country is also said to receive many visitors which will also ensure the company’s product has a larger market (Baer 78). ... It will conduct consumer education on its product on behalf of Apple in Brazil. It will also give the company, the feedback on its products and the market trends. The office will conduct research on the market in Brazil and provide a feedback to the main office. It will monitor the trends and respond accordingly when necessary. The regional office will work together with the management of the headquarters to discuss on how to improve the products with the results of the research conducted in the specific country. The regional office will also be charged with the responsibility of finding employees of the company The company’s mission, vision statement will also be in line with the company’s interest. It will also find ways to deal with the competitors in this specific market. The mission will be in line with the headquarters mission so as to ensure the retention of brand uniformity and identity. The mission statement will be to take innovation to a level that will incre ase the performance of human resource to improve on the system and structure stability. This particular mission statement is derived from the main mission statement mentioned in the company’s main office. The mission statement should be followed and executed to ensure the success of the company being developed. The regional office should also be reflected in the regional office in full. The vision statement refers to the aims of a company. It summarizes the goals of a company and it forms the basis of the establishment of the company and its continuity (Lynch 372). It is an illustration of the company’s commitment to provision of better products and services. The vision and mission statement shows the direction the company wants to take. By

Uneven distribution of education through the conflict perspective Essay

Uneven distribution of education through the conflict perspective - Essay Example Education has been a crucial issue in several countries nowadays, especially for those with low literacy level. Its importance is seen in its outcomes, such as productivity, literacy, and poverty alleviation. A literate citizenship is a good source of engineers, economists, technologists, scientists, biologists, doctors, teachers, and so on, enough to produce infrastructures and improve the status of science and technology, medicine, and education itself. A low productivity due to lack of all mentioned places a country in a doom of poverty and economic insecurity. Development specialists recognize these outcomes, and provide information on how education may be better in poor countries in order to be richer. There is thus, a strong connection and a dialectical link between education and the economic security of a nation. This connection is seen in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and France, which all keep a high record of literacy rate of 99 percent as compared to others t hat keep low literacy rates, such as Arab states (70.3 percent) Several nations are still keeping a low record of literacy level, particularly third world nations, despite the significant importance of education. Female literacy is also found to be lower than their male counterpart in these areas, indicating the pervasion of gender inequality in education and the traditional roles designated to women.... In Ethiopia, a low 24 percent is indicated for their rural areas, while 83 percent for the urban places. It is clear that education has a strong link to economic capacity of the people and nation. Poor children who are able to study experience a large discrepancy of educational opportunities than those from middle class and upper class families. The Comparison of inequality in education may be seen in the following: areas: Teacher allocation, budget allocation, availability of books, and educational facilities and infrastructures. These areas are reflective of social stratification that exists in education. Despite the already high literacy rates, the first world nations like the United States also exhibit a discrepancy in education between poor and rich neighborhoods and schools. Teacher Allocation There is a low quality of teachers in low-income schools in the United States, and at times when there is a short supply of teachers in almost all parts of the country, those who are provided with teachers with the least training and experience are the poorest schools (Hill, 2008). The richest ones get the reverse of this condition. Far less- qualified teachers are consistently provided to students in low-income and minority schools, while children in the wealthier neighborhoods are allocated with the reverse. It reflects the fundamental flaw in the allocation of teachers and funds to schools, whose allotment depends on whether they are poor or rich. Contributory to this scenario is the fact that senior teachers possess total freedom of choice in where to work and most of them choose the most attractive schools and neighborhoods with few difficulties, and demands on teachers are less severe (Hill, 2008). It leaves the new and