Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Top Feminist Organizations of the 1970s

Top Feminist Organizations of the 1970s If we use the definition of feminism that feminism is about explicit organizing of action (including education and legislation) to promote equality or equal opportunity for women, the following organizations would be among the feminist organizations active in the 1970s. Not all would have called themselves feminist. National Organization for Women (NOW) The NOW organizing conference October 29-30, 1966, grew out of frustrations of women at slow movement of the EEOC in applying Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Key founders were Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Aileen Hernandez, Richard Graham, Kathryn Clarenbach, Caroline Davis and others. In the 1970s, after 1972, NOW focused heavily around passing the Equal Rights Amendment. The purpose of NOW was to bring women into equal partnership with men, which meant supporting a number of legal and social changes. National Women’s Political Caucus The NWPC was founded in 1972 to increase women’s participation in public life, including as voters, party convention delegates, party officials and officeholders at local, state and national levels.  Founders included Bella Abzug, Liz Carpenter, Shirley Chisholm, LaDonna Harris, Dorothy Height, Ann Lewis, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Elly Peterson, Jill Ruckelshaus, and Gloria Steinem.  From 1968 to 1972, the number of women delegates to the Democratic National Convention tripled and the number of women delegates to the Republican National Convention doubled.   As the 1970s progressed, working for pro-ERA and pro-choice candidates became a major focus; the NWPC Republican Women’s Task Force won the fight in 1975 to continue the party’s platform endorsement of the ERA. The Democratic Women’s Task Force similarly worked to influence its party’s platform positions. The organization worked through active recruitment of women candidates and also through running training programs for women delegates and candidates. The NWPC also worked to increase the employment of women in Cabinet departments and to increase the appointments of women as judges. Chairs of the NWPC during the 1970s were Sissy Farenthold, Audrey Rowe, Mildred Jeffrey, and Iris Mitgang. ERAmerica Founded in 1975 as a bipartisan organization to win support for the Equal Rights Amendment, the first national co-chairs were Republican Elly Peterson and Democratic Liz Carpenter.  It was created to raise funds and direct them to the ratification efforts in the states which had not yet ratified the ERA and which were considered possible successes. ERAmerica worked through existing organization as well as lobbying, educating, distributing information, raising funds and organizing publicity.  ERAmerica trained many pro-ERA volunteers and created a speakers bureau (Maureen Reagan, Erma Bombeck, and Alan Alda among the speakers).  ERAmerica was created at a time when Phyllis Schlafly’s Stop ERA campaign was energizing opposition to the ERA.  Participants in ERAmerica also included Jane Campbell, Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Linda Tarr-Whelan. National League of Women Voters Founded in 1920 to continue the work of the woman suffrage movement after women won the vote, the National League of Women Voters in the 1970s was still active in the 1970s and remains active today.  The League was and is nonpartisan while, at the same time, urging women (and men) to be politically active and involved.  In 1973, the League voted to admit men as members. The League supported such pro-women’s rights actions as the 1972 passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and various anti-discrimination laws and programs (as well as continuing work on civil rights and anti-poverty programs). National Commission on the Observance of International Womens Year Created by an Executive Order of President Gerald R. Ford in 1974, with subsequent authorization of Congress to sponsor state and territorial meetings on the rights and responsibilities of women, members were appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1975 and then again in 1977. Members included Bella Abzug, Maya Angelou, Liz Carpenter, Betty Ford, LaDonna Harris, Mildred Jeffrey, Coretta Scott King, Alice Rossi, Eleanor Smeal, Jean Stapleton, Gloria Steinem, and Addie Wyatt.  One of the key events was the National Women’s Conference in Houston on November 18-21, 1977.  Elizabeth Atahansakos was presiding officer in 1976 and Bella Abzug in 1977.  Sometimes called the IWY Commission. Coalition of Labor Union Women Created in March, 1974, by union women from 41 states and 58 unions, CLUW’s first president was Olga M. Madar of the United Auto Workers.  The organization was founded to increase women’s involvement in unions and political activities, including getting union organizations to better serve the needs of women members.  CLUW also worked legislation to end discrimination against working women, including favoring affirmative action. Addie Wyatt of the United Food and Commercial Workers was another key founder. Joyce D. Miller of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was elected president in 1977; in 1980 she was to become the first woman on the AFL-CIO Executive Council. In 1975 CLUW sponsored the First National Women’s Health Conference, and moved its convention from a state that had not ratified the ERA to one that had. Women Employed Founded in 1973, Women Employed worked in the 1970s to serve working women - especially non-union women in offices, at first - to gain economic equality and workplace respect.  Large campaigns to enforce legislation against sex discrimination.  A case filed first in 1974 against a large bank was finally decided in 1989.  Women Employed also took up the case of a legal secretary, Iris Rivera, who had been fired because she refused to make coffee for her boss. The case not only won Riveras job back but significantly changed the consciousness of bosses in offices about fairness in working conditions. Women Employed also ran conferences to inspire women both in self-education and in knowing their workplace rights.  Women Employed still exists and works on similar issues. Key figures were Day Piercy (then Day Creamer) and Anne Ladky.  The group began as a Chicago-oriented group but soon began to have more national impact. 9to5, National Association of Working Women This organization grew out of a Boston 9to5 grassroots collective, which in the 1970s filed class action suits to win back pay for women in offices.  The group, like Chicagos Women Employed, expanded its efforts to help women with both self-management skills and understandings of their workplace legal rights and how to enforce them.  With the longer new name, 9to5, National Association of Working Women, the group went national, with a number of chapters outside Boston (at this writing, in Georgia, California, Wisconsin and Colorado).   Groups like 9to5 and Women Employed also gave rise in 1981 to Local 925 of the Service Employees International Union, with Nussbaum as president for almost 20 years, with the object of gaining collective bargaining rights for women working in offices, libraries and day care centers. Womens Action Alliance This feminist organization was founded in 1971 by Gloria Steinem, who chaired the board until 1978. More directed at local action than legislation, though with some lobbying, and about coordinating individuals and resources at the grass-roots, the Alliance helped to open the first shelters for battered women.  Others involved included Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Ruth J. Abram, who was the director from 1974 to 1979.  The organization dissolved in 1997. National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) Originally founded as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, and later called the National Association for Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, and now NARAL Pro-Choice America, NARAL was focused narrowly on the issue of abortion and reproductive rights for women.  The organization worked in the 1970s first to repeal existing abortion laws, and then, after the Supreme Courts  Roe v. Wade  decision, to oppose regulations and laws to limit abortion access.  The organization also worked against limits to womens access to birth control or to sterilization, and against forced sterilization.  Today, the name is NARAL Pro-Choice America. Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR) Later renamed the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), RCAR was founded in 1973 to support the right of privacy under  Roe v. Wade, from a religious standpoint.  Founders included both lay leaders and clergy from major American religious groups. At a time when some religious groups, notably the Roman Catholic Church, opposed abortion rights on religious grounds, the voice of RCAR was meant to remind legislators and the general public that not all religious people opposed abortion or womens reproductive choice. Womens Caucus, Democratic National Committee During the 1970s, this group worked within the Democratic National Committee to push a pro-women’s rights agenda within the party, including on the party platform and in appointments of women to various positions. Combahee River Collective The Combahee River Collective met in 1974 and continued to meet throughout the 1970s as a means to develop and implement a black feminist perspective, looking at what would today be called intersectionality: the way in which race, sex, and class oppression worked together to divide and oppress. The groups critique of the feminist movement was that it tended to be racist and exclude black women; the groups critique of the civil rights movement was that it tended to be sexist and exclude black women. National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO or BFO) Founded in 1973, a group of African American women was motivated to form the  National Black Feminist Organization for many of the same reasons The Combahee River Collective existed - and indeed, many of the leaders were the same people. Founders included Florynce Kennedy, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Faith Ringgold, Michel Wallace, Doris Wright, and Margaret Sloan-Hunter; Sloan-Hunter was elected the first chairperson.  Though several chapters were established, the group died out about 1977. National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Founded as an â€Å"organization of organizations† in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, the National Council of Negro Women remained active in promoting equality and opportunity for African American women, including through the 1970s under the leadership of Dorothy Height. National Conference of Puerto Rican Women As women began to organize around women’s issues, and many felt that the mainstream women’s organizations did not adequately represent the interests of women of color, some women organized around their own racial and ethnic groups.  The National Conference of Puerto Rican Women was founded in 1972 to promote both preservations of Puerto Rican and Latino heritage, but also full participation of Puerto Rican and other Hispanic women in society - social, political and economic. Chicago Womens Liberation Union (CWLU) The more radical wing of the womens movement, including the Chicago Womens Liberation Union, was far more loosely structured than the more mainstream womens organizations were. CWLU was a bit more clearly organized than womens liberation supporters in other parts of the U.S.  The group existed from 1969 to 1977.  Much of its focus was in study groups and papers, as well as supporting demonstrations and direct action. Jane (an underground abortion  referral service), the  Health Evaluation and Referral Service (HERS) which evaluated abortion clinics for safety,  and the  Emma Goldman Womens Clinic were three concrete projects around womens reproductive rights.  The organization also gave rise to  the National Conference on Socialist Feminism and the Lesbian Group which became known as Blazing Star. Key individuals included Heather Booth, Naomi Weisstein,  Ruth Surgal,  Katie Hogan and  Estelle Carol. Other local  radical feminist  groups included Female Liberation in Boston (1968 - 1974) and Redstockings  in New York. Womens Equity Action League (WEAL) This organization spun off from the National Organization for Women  in 1968, with more conservative women who did not want to work on issues including abortion and sexuality.  WEAL supported the Equal Rights Amendment, though not particularly vigorously. The organization worked for equal educational and economic opportunity for women, opposing discrimination in academia and the workplace.  The organization dissolved in 1989. National Federation of Business and Professional Womens Clubs, Inc. (BPW) The 1963 Commission on the Status of Women was established with pressure from the BPW.  In the 1970s, the organization generally supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and to support women’s equality in professions and in the business world. National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) Founded in 1972 to help women succeed in the business world in which mostly men were successful - and often not supportive of women - NAFE focused on education and networking as well as some public advocacy. American Association of University Women (AAUW) AAUW was founded in 1881.  In 1969, the AAUW passed a resolution supporting equal opportunities for women on campus at all levels. A 1970 research study, Campus 1970, explored sex discrimination against students, professors, other staff and trustees. In the 1970s, AAUW supported women in colleges and universities, especially working to secure passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and then to see to its adequate enforcement, including working for regulations to ensure compliance, monitoring and reporting on compliance (or lack thereof), and also working to establish standards for universities: Title IX: â€Å"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.† National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW) Founded in 1974 out of a national conference of working-class women, NCNW saw itself as giving voice to poor and working-class women. Through educational programs, NCNW promoted educational opportunities, apprenticeship programs, and leadership skills for women, with the purpose of strengthening neighborhoods.  At a time when the mainstream feminist organizations were criticized for focusing more on women at the executive and professional level, NCNW promoted a kind of feminism for women of a different class experience. Young Womens Christian Association of the U.S.A. (YWCA) The largest women’s organization in the world, the YWCA grew out of the mid-19th-century efforts to support women spiritually and, at the same time, respond to the Industrial Revolution and its social unrest with action and education. In the United States, the YWCA responded to the issues facing working women in industrial society with education and activism.  In the 1970s, the USA YWCA worked against racism and supported repeal of anti-abortion laws (before the Roe v. Wade decision). The YWCA, in its general support of women’s leadership and education, supported many efforts to expand women’s opportunities, and YWCA facilities were often used in the 1970s for feminist organization meetings. The YWCA, as one of the largest providers of daycare, was also both promoter and target of efforts to reform and expand child care, a key feminist issue in the 1970s. National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) A faith-based grassroots organization, the NCJW was founded originally at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.  In the 1970s, the NCJW worked for the Equal Rights Amendment and to protect Roe v. Wade, and carried out a variety of programs addressing juvenile justice, child abuse, and day care for children. Church Women United Founded in 1941 during World War II, this ecumenical women’s movement sought to involve women in post-war peace-making.  It has served to bring women together and has worked on issues especially important to women, children, and families.  During the 1970s, it often supported women’s efforts to have expanded roles in their churches, from empowering women deacons and women’s committees in churches and denominations to ordination of women ministers.  The organization remained active on issues of peace and global understanding as well as getting involved in environmental issues. National Council of Catholic Women A grassroots organization of individual Roman Catholic women, founded under the auspices of the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1920, the group has tended to emphasize social justice. The group opposed divorce and birth control in its early years in the 1920s.  In the 1960s and 1970s, the organization supported leadership training for women, and in the 1970s especially stressed health issues. It was not significantly involved in feminist issues per se, but it had in common with feminist organizations the goal of promoting women taking leadership roles within the church.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

About the Usonian Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright

About the Usonian Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright The Usonian house - the brainchild of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) - is the embodiment of an idea for a simple, stylish small house of moderate cost designed especially for the American middle class. It is not so much a style as a type of residential architecture. Style is important, wrote Wright. A style is not. When looking at a portfolio of Wrights architecture, the casual observer might not even pause at the Jacobs I house in Madison, Wisconsin - the first Usonian house from 1937 looks so familiar and ordinary compared with Wrights famous 1935 Fallingwater residence. The Kaufmanns’ Fallingwater in the Pennsylvania woods is not a Usonian, yet, Usonian architecture was another obsession of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright in the last decades of his long life. Wright was 70-years-old when the Jacobs house was finished. By the 1950s, he had designed hundreds of what he was then calling his Usonian Automatics. Wright didnt want to be known solely as an architect of the rich and famous, although his early residential experimentation in Prairie house design had been subsidized by families of means. The competitive Wright quickly became interested in affordable housing for the masses  - and doing a better job than the catalog companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward were doing with their prefabricated house kits. Between 1911 and 1917, the architect teamed up with Milwaukee businessman Arthur L. Richards to design what became known as American System-Built houses, a type of prefabricated small, affordable home easily and quickly assembled from ready-cut materials. Wright was experimenting with grid design and a less labor-intensive construction process to create beautifully designed, affordable dwellings. In 1936, when the United States was in the depths of the Great Depression, Wright realized that the nations housing needs would forever be changed. Most of his clients would lead more simple lives, without household help, but still deserving of sensible, classic design. It is not only necessary to get rid of all unnecessary complications in construction... wrote Wright, it is necessary to consolidate and simplify the three appurtenance systems - heating, lighting, and sanitation. Designed to control costs, Wrights Usonian houses had no attics, no basements, simple roofs, radiant heating (what Wright called gravity heat), natural ornamentation, and efficient use of space, inside and out. Some have said that the word Usonia is an abbreviation for United States of North America. This meaning explains Wrights aspiration to create a democratic, distinctly national style that was affordable for the common people of the United States. Nationality is a craze with us, Wright said in 1927. Samuel Butler fitted us with a good name. He called us Usonians, and our Nation of combined States, Usonia. Why not use the name? So, Wright used the name, although scholars have noted that he got the author wrong. Usonian Characteristics Usonian architecture grew out of Frank Lloyd Wrights earlier Prairie style home designs. But most importantly, perhaps writes architect and writer Peter Blake, Wright began to make the Prairie house look more modern. Both styles featured low roofs, open living areas, and built-in furnishings. Both styles make abundant use of brick, wood, and other natural materials without paint or plaster. Natural light is abundant. Both are horizontally inclined - a companion to the horizon, wrote Wright. However, Wrights Usonian homes were small, one-story structures set on concrete slabs with piping for radiant heat beneath. The kitchens were incorporated into the living areas. Open carports took the place of garages. Blake suggests that the modest dignity of the Usonian homes laid the foundation for much modern, domestic architecture in America yet to come. The horizontal, indoor-outdoor nature of the popular Ranch Style home of the 1950s is anticipated by the realization of the Usonian. Blake writes: If one thinks of space as a sort of invisible but ever present vapor that fills the entire architectural volume, then Wrights notion of space-in-motion becomes more clearly understandable: the contained space is allowed to move about, from room to room, from indoors to outdoors rather than remain stagnant, boxed up in a series of interior cubicles. This movement of space is the true art of modern architecture, for the movement must be rigidly controlled so that the space cannot leak out in all directions indiscriminately. - Peter Blake, 1960 The Usonian Automatic In the 1950s, when he was in his 80s, Frank Lloyd Wright first used the term Usonian Automatic to describe a Usonian style house made of inexpensive concrete blocks. The three-inch-thick modular blocks could be assembled in a variety of ways and secured with steel rods and grout. To build a low-cost house you must eliminate, so far as possible, the use of skilled labor, wrote Wright, now so expensive. Frank Lloyd Wright hoped that home buyers would save money by building their own Usonian Automatic houses. But assembling the modular parts proved complicated - most buyers ended up hiring pros to construct their Usonian houses. Wrights Usonian architecture played an important role in the evolution of Americas midcentury modern homes. But, despite Wrights aspirations toward simplicity and economy, Usonian houses often exceeded budgeted costs. Like all of Wrights designs, Usonians became unique, custom homes for families of comfortable means. Wright admitted that by the 1950s buyers were the upper middle third of the democratic strata in our country. Usonian Legacy Beginning with a house for a young journalist, Herbert Jacobs, and his family in Madison, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright built more than a hundred Usonian houses. Each house has taken on the name of the original owner - the Zimmerman House (1950) and Toufic H. Kalil House (1955), both in Manchester, New Hampshire; the Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum House (1939) in Florence, Alabama; the  Curtis Meyer House (1948) in Galesburn, Michigan; and the Hagan House, also known as Kentuck Knob, (1954) in Chalk Hill, Pennsylvania near Fallingwater. Wright developed relationships with each of his clients, which was a process that often began with a letter to the master architect. Such was the case with a young copy editor named Loren Pope, who wrote to Wright in 1939 and described a plot of land he had just purchased outside of Washington, D.C. Loren and Charlotte Pope never tired of their new home in northern Virginia, but they did tire of the rat race surrounding the nations capital. By 1947, the Popes had sold their home to Robert and Marjorie Leighey, and now the home is called the Pope-Leighey House - open to the public courtesy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Sources The Usonian House I and The Usonan Automatic, The Natural House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Horizon, 1954, pp. 69, 70-71, 81, 198-199Frank Lloyd Wright On Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940), Frederick Gutheim, ed., Grossets Universal Library, 1941, p. 100Blake, Peter. The Master Builders. Knopf, 1960, pp. 304-305, 366Chavez, Mark. Prefabricated Homes, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/prefabricated-homes.htm [accessed July 17, 2018]American System-Built Homes, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, https://franklloydwright.org/site/american-system-built-homes/ [accessed July 17, 2018] SUMMARY: Characteristics of a Usonian Home one story, horizontal orientationgenerally small, around 1500 square feetno attic; no basementlow, simple roofradiant heating in concrete slab floornatural ornamentationefficient use of spaceblueprinted using a simple grid patternopen floor plan, with few interior wallsorganic, using local materials of wood, stone, and glasscarportbuilt-in furnishingsskylights and clerestory windowsoften in rural, wooded settingsUsonian Automatics experimented with concrete and patterned concrete blockdesigned by Frank Lloyd Wright

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Testimonies of conversion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Testimonies of conversion - Essay Example Converts to Islam are generally expected to observe hard work, ethical behavior, and conservative distinctions between men and women although there other mandatory fulfillments for converts. These include; Acknowledging that, the Holy prophet Muhammad is the last messenger of Allah and after him there is no other prophet of Allah who will come, that the Qur'ran is the last of the divine books revealed and all its contents are true, that all the teachings given by the Holy Qur'an in absolute and unambiguous terms are true and acceptable and that the life hereafter will involve one facing the fate of his or her good and evil deeds. Reasons for conversion. This depends on ones belief in the right path of god, the love of another or the fact that another faith may seem, according to the convert, to be promoting a different and better way of living. Conversion and marriage. Ideally, it is not a correct practice to embrace Islam for the sake of marrying only. Therefore, one should know at the first instance that conversion to Islam is not meant for marriage. People convert just to follow a set of beliefs different from those of other family members or friends this can be termed as rebellion. It may be because someone wants to change certain aspects in their life. Forcible religious conversion, conversion may also result through coercion as it was the case during colonization in the 18th century and other periods in history. In such times, refusal to convert to Islam resulted in the massacre, destruction, rape of women and enslaving of men. Context of conversion. In college, converts may meet Muslims and get interested in their culture and religion. This develops into deep Interest in learning more and studying Qur'ran. If helped by other Muslims, one gets converted easily at this stage. Social reasons. Generally Muslims, especially women are viewed as honesty, and of high morals this strength of morality impacts on non Muslims hence making many to want to convert. Conversion through friends. Friends can help one in reading the Qur'an and answering any questions about the religion therefore it is an important mode of conversion. Almost without exception, changing to a new religious orientation takes place through what is referred to as kinship and friendship networks in sociology. Conversion through impersonal methods of communication, this happens through the electronic and other forms of media such as television. By watching an Imam preaching in television or listening to Qur'an readings in radio, many are led into conversion. Disillusionment with the western society. Many people are confused and disillusioned especially in the west about the true religion vis--vis their culture. This has led many to convert to Isla

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Java Game Programming, any future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Java Game Programming, any future - Essay Example The main feature of Java is that it is a platform independent language. The program can be written only once in Java and can be compiled in any operating system. To be simple it is write once, run anywhere. It is an object oriented, multithreaded programming language. (King 2000 ). Although a lot has been said about its exponential advancement rates, Java still remains to be a secondary language in field of game development. Legacy languages like C and C++ still remains to be the most preferred language for game developers. This is said in accordance with only considering desktop and playstation games, since they are the major players in the gaming industry. But, most of the mobile games that are used today are being developed in Java. One can find a number of games in the internet that are built using Java Applets. It can be used in developing interactive games in web as well as mobile phones. So this creates a conundrum of thoughts. The following research deals with this conundrum and aims to explain as to why Java is still not yet as successful as its predecessors and tries to list out the demerits that disable it from attaining that status. It also aims at explaining the future of Java in game development, which certainly looks promising provided, its disa dvantages are overcome. . (Marner, 2002) A game can be defined as software with the sole pur... (Marner, 2002) Games can be categorized based on the environment in which they run. They are basically classified into computer based, console based, web based and mobile based games. Current scenario in the market shows that Windows PC dominates the computer based category and Sony does the same in console categories. Since these two fields dominate the gaming world, the entire discussion is done considering only the above two technologies.(Mencher et al, 2004) Java - the language Before identifying the tools and technologies used with Java language, it is necessary to know few basic things about the language itself. First of all, it is based on Object Oriented Programming Concepts, commonly known as OOPS concepts. It involves higher abstraction level then C++ and provides more user flexibility. But still, it is far easier than C++ to learn. The important difference between these two languages is that in Java, there are no pointers and hence the learning and understanding is easier in Java. Basically, it consists of a Java platform, made up of two components; Java Virtual Machine and Java libraries. This platform instructs on how the Java program is run irrespective of the Operating System (OS) in which it is installed. The performance related issues that generally arise is due to the virtual machine. But with vast improvement in Java execution, several technologies have been developed which can be used in hand with the virtual environment. These include the H otSpot, Just-In-Time compilers and other embedded technologies. . (Marner, 2002) The current platform edition is Java SE 6 which has enhanced the user interface of application

Sunday, November 17, 2019

People at Work Essay Example for Free

People at Work Essay There are many styles of management that produces different kinds of results. If not done right, it would either be too much or too little, bringing out effects such as being less creative, however efficient or being more creative but less efficient. Wanting to bring out the best of our employees, innovation in management tends to analyze workforce who are also more adept to technical innovations and easy practical solutions. In a generation with ever changing attitudes who are attuned to the trends of society, it is also a must that old management styles are being updated and innovated. Philips Cooke (2006) described innovation in its simplest form as the transformation of new creative ideas into new goods and services. It is not only focused on products and new technological gadgets, innovation are also most effective when applied to management. With innovative management applied in a company, results can be seen in effectiveness, production, excellence, spirited positioning, and market share. This is why, in management innovation, Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (EQ) has now become a very critical factor in the workplace and top management today because more than just smart heads and high IQ people, companies and businesses today takes more than just desks, ledgers, machines and materials to make a business work. More than anything else, businesses need people. People are needed to make a company grow, people who are working together, not necessarily on the same department or in the same building, but people pulling together so that the organization operates efficiently and can continue running the business. But sometimes, people are being funny or uncooperative. They do not pull or group together, and sometimes fail to manage their full share of load. Thus, the question now is, how will we know that our managers possessed the ability of being a leader? Does he know how to properly handle people? Does he know how to develop new ideas and implement it effectively? How will we know in the first place that we have the manager we are looking for, or how can we develop such? Literature Review Globalization had brought out a steep competition for the market of goods and services everyday and it is management innovation that brings forth key factors for company’s future survival. (Cooke. P, 2006) According to Kira Fabrizio (2006), the world is currently entirely driven by technology. Additionally business existence routines are transforming rapidly. All the same, proper innovation management skills will always guarantee future survival of any given organization for a company or a firm cannot operate smoothly if not managed properly. Due to tough competition, companies always aim to satisfy customers by producing quality products and services. Chesbrough (2006), Simcoe. T, (2006) and Allen, L. D. Evans. (1997) argued that for an innovation to be a success, correct discharge of the creative ideas already born is critical in any organization. As a matter of fact the creativity emanating from an employee and/or from a team of employees forms the basis for innovation. A successful innovation can not be attained by the Production of creative ideas alone but by correct implementation of those creative ideas to bring about new or improved product and/or service within the organization. For creative ideas to be generated there must be a room to try out the ideas emanating from the creative employees. This is usually achieved in a loose and flexible environment. Innovative work does not well with rules used for routine handling of an organization however these rules are supported by theory and practice. The efficiency of day to day within an organization requires stable routine (Sunbo F. Gallouj, 2000). This is usually achieved in a stable controlled environment. The trick is to have a management that balances the factors that allow creativity while at the same time promoting effective operations of the organization (Utterback, M. 1994). Innovation normally occurs through a management system that allows for combination of many diverse players within any particular organization. (West, J, 2006). The player may include among others managers, supervisors, technicians, employees, and consultants. Research on social networks involved in the development of innovation process points out that successful innovation normally occurs near or at the primary interface of an organization and manufacturer. With these, O’Connor (2006) said that innovation process requires the inputs of all personnel of a particular company that is from the top executives to subordinate staffs. It may also require the expertise of a consultant who is normally outsourced. Existing Management Innovations Innovative approaches are assessed based on its impact upon its profitability. Through implementing strategic management approaches in ones company, the need for customer satisfaction will be met, not only locally but world wide. Currently, there are many innovative approaches to management, which needs top management support to be implemented properly. The new ISO 9000:2000 standards promote the adoption of a process approach when devising, implementing and improving a quality management system (QMS). PCL Petts Consulting Ltd) This model of a quality management system approach acknowledge the facts that quality results are achieved by producing a company manual, complete with work procedures and work instructions, proper recording and keeping of quality records and tracking of inputs and outputs. The HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) System is a systematic approach to the identification, assessment of risk and severity, and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards associated with a particular food production process or practice. When speaking of HACCP, it is always associated with food safety. By using and by being certified with this system, the customers of the company are always assured of the safe processing of food. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. (Baker, 2006) It is the balance between the companies performance in terms of products and services to satisfy its market, on how the company manage ,treats and train its workers, on how the company shows its concern to its environment and on how it shows concern to the surrounding community. Low Morale due to Ineffective Management These are few of management innovations that are putting a company ahead of others. Today, companies encountered dilemmas such that too much management which ceased to innovate, thus, bringing out to little or no impact or improvements to a company at all. The problem here is that, businesses need more efficient people, have an environment to let innovative people flourish, however, it wont be effective if management does not have the skills and abilities to develop new ideas effectively. Thus, the question now is, how will we know that our managers possessed the ability of being a leader? Does he know how to properly handle people? Does he know how to develop new ideas and implement it effectively? How will we know in the first place that we have the manager we are looking for, or how can we develop such? The management should be flexible enough to absorb the views of all stakeholders. Management is not always willing to accept new ideas. Most managers always want to remain in a comfortable zone. Too much management, which is commonly found in large organization, should understand innovative people. Modern executives’ definition of efficiency is operating business which can supply their customers with better products or services at lowered cost. Modern executives are forever asking questions which is more concerned in productivity and efficiency rather than employees self regard and self esteem. â€Å"How are we doing? †, â€Å"Is production going up? †, â€Å"Sales up? †, â€Å"Costs going down? † are just few of executives questions about efficiency clearly showing the classic ways of hierarchal management systems. This results to low self-esteem which has a very strong relationship with morale. The loss of self-confidence or a feeling of discouragement may also be caused by frustration, which in turn causes mental efficiency and creativity to be lowered. This situation was experienced by Oracle. Ashby and Miles (2002) cited Oracle who was facing crisis in June 1992. Its culture â€Å"win at any cost, the end always justify the means† caused low morale and its effects on day-to-day operations was out of control since employees no longer pay attention to rules either internally or with customers. Applying EQ for Effective Management Innovations Change of management structure especially for large businesses to accommodate innovation is very critical for an organization to remain competitive (Tidd, J et al 1997). The management system in place should be flexible enough to create room for creative ideas. The management should easily adapt to changes brought about by trends in technologies and human issues. The organization needs to be loose and flexible enough to allow room for creative new ideas. A tight management system hinders creativity. Management should also motivate employees by rewarding not only success but also failure. This is because you cannot produce good ideas without bad ones (Maguire, 1994). Further for innovation to be successful there is a need for key personnel who are primarily concerned with the development of new product or services. The complexity of the procedures and levels involved in the production of a new product can impact negatively on the success of an innovation. (Fabrizio. K, 2006) For the success of an innovation the key is to delegate a few personnel on that activity, as too many people are less innovative compared to a few people. The virtuous circle can also impact negatively on the development of an innovation. It follows the following steps such as organization reputation for innovation, attraction of creative people, organizational need for creativity and innovation, development of innovation product, willingness within the organization to accept new ideas, motivation of people within organization to reduce frustration, high morale and protection of creative people (Henry et al: 1991). This means that if one the above listed steps is missed then innovation would not be established. So if we ask, why is there a need to apply Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in management innovations? This is because Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is now more important and useful especially in businesses. It tends to analyze and identify why people do what they do, think as they do and think as they do; with their abilities, motives, disappointments, ambitions, queer streaks. The successful business person is almost always efficiency minded through and through whether he is the boss or not. He keeps a close eye on the efficiency, and the personal efficiency of those working with him. According to Herrera (2006) IQ is quickly losing ground to EQ when it comes to predicting success. Moreover, supervisors and executives are generally rated on still more EQ qualities such as winning cooperation, handling people, suitable use of language and accepting suggestions and criticisms. This proves that the higher the position you can attain the higher EQ qualities, tests and evaluation that you have passed. An employee with more promotional possibilities shows high EQ for higher executives take on more social responsibilities at each step on the way up. According to Bradberry, T. Greaves, J. (2005a), 16 hours of work can make a person feel 465 emotions in a day with (2005b) 90% top performers tested to have high EQ and only 20% high EQ individuals being rated as low performers. Rather than IQ, companies and corporations now opt for high EQ individuals to work for them. This is because, high EQ employees are more productive, and have great job performance and good leaders. High EQ employees and leaders are worker-centered which had higher producing work groups. And as we all know, companies aims for high productions at low cost and less turnovers. Conclusion Management systems have a significant effect on the innovation process. A tight management system normally hinders creativity because it does not allow employees to express and generate innovative ideas. All the same for small organizations suppressed management approaches can increase abilities to innovate through less formal management structures facilitating rapid decision-making, which is facilitated by having to communicate the changes to members of the organization. For innovation process to be a success there should be a â€Å"slack† element in the management Structure. To balance between effective running of an organization and creativity the management should know what is best for routine work and what is best for innovative work. And with this, management innovation and creativity is best improved by applying EQ tools. Today, EQ ratings are almost always taken with high importance in a company. During a companys periodic reviews of individual efficiency, the boss, supervisor or head of the company watch work ways and attitudes of employees. According to Laird and Laird (1979) employees are rated according to desirable qualities or social characteristics such as cooperation, communication and appearance. This shows that individual efficiency is not based on high IQ but rather based on the qualities of high EQ. Production is also influenced by the friendly interaction of members of a work group. An employee’s level of EQ is tied in with friendliness because it shapes its interaction of people towards each other. High EQ of employees encourage warm and friendly atmosphere in the work place. On the other hand, employees with low EQ will be cold and aloof towards its co-workers. This will hinder the productivity of a worker with low EQ and increase the rate of absenteeism, thus, absenteeism is an outcome of an employee with low EQ. With this, managers will think that unnecessary absence from work shows irresponsibility. The human emotions shape the interactions of people to each other. With the types of people in one company, considering warm or friendly and cold or aloof, those employees with high EQ will stand out and be more productive than the others.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Latinomics, Good or Bad? :: essays research papers

Latinomics, Good or Bad?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What are the effects of the Latino and Hispanic population on the economics of Kentucky? According to Olsen if the Hispanic population were a city, it would be the third-largest and fastest growing city in the state. The U. S. Census Bureau reports that the Hispanic population of Kentucky was 21,984 in 1990 and almost 60,000 in the year of 2000. These figures do not take into account the undocumented immigrants which are estimated by the government at over 100,000. Based on these figures, the estimates seem low. I would venture to say that in the state of Kentucky there could be as many as 140,000 to 160,000 Latinos and Hispanics combined. Just look at the number of Hispanic children being born in the local hospitals. The article states that twenty-nine percent of the births last year at Jewish Hospital in Shelbyville were Hispanic babies. Just imagine what the figures must be in the Lexington hospitals. Some of the benefits of this new immigrant population are workers with an honest work ethic and they are not afraid of a hard day’s work for a fair wage. As the article states, they are not taking jobs away from locals, they are filling a void that cannot be met by the local labor force due to the lack of persons willing to perform the jobs. The agriculture and horse industries have benefited immensely from the labor of these immigrant workers, both male and female. It takes a lot of manual labor to harvest the crops and make all the farms look so pristine. In central Kentucky we are experiencing a major housing boom and the immigrant population has stepped up to plate by providing the manpower and specific skills needed to build houses at the rate of demand that we expect. Along with this comes the satisfaction that they are helping to build the future of the community. They take pride in the fact that in fifty or one hundred years, the houses that they helped to build will still be standing for the next generation. One local builder states that he has six immigrant workers because he cannot find the help he needs locally and two of them have been with him for more than five years and one for close to ten years. He pays all of them above average wages and provides them with housing, medical care, and other benefits.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Agribusiness – Essay

The word agriculture indicate plowing a field, planting seed, harvesting a crop, milking cows, or feeding livestock. Until recently, this was a fairly accurate picture. But to days’ agriculture is radically different. Agriculture has evolved in to agribusiness and has become a vast and complex system that reaches for beyond the farm to include all those who are involved in bringing food and fiber to consumers. Agribusiness include not only those that farm the land but also the people and firms that provide the inputs (for ex. Seed, chemicals, credit etc. ), process the output (for ex. Milk, grain, meat etc. , manufacture the food products (for ex. icc cream, bread, breakfast cereals etc. ), and transport and sell the food products to consumers (for ex. restaurants, supermarkets). Agribusiness system has undergone a rapid transformation as new industries have evolve and traditional farming operations have grown larger and more specialized. The transformation did not happen over night, but came slowly as a response to a variety of forces. Knowing something about how agribusiness came about makes it easier to understand how this system operates today and how it is likely to change in the future. Initially agriculture being the major venture it was easy to become a farmer, but productivity was low. Average farmer produced enough food to feed just four people. As a consequence most farmers were nearly totally self-sufficient. They produced most of the inputs they needed for production, such as seed, draft animals, feed and simple farm equipment. Farm families processed the commodities they grew to make their own food and clothing. They consumed or used just about everything they produced. The small amount of output not consumed on the farm was sold for cash. These items were used to feed and cloth the minor portion of the country’s population that lived in villages and cities. A few agricultural products made their way into the export market and were sold to buyers is other countries. Farmers found it increasingly profitable to concentrate on production and began to purchase inputs they formerly made themselves. This trend enabled others to build business that focused on meeting the need for inputs used in production agriculture such as seed, fencing, machinery and so on. These farms involved into the industries that make up the â€Å"agricultural inputs sector†. Input farms are major part of agribusiness and produce variety of technologically based products that account for approximately 75 per cent of all the inputs used in production agriculture. At the same time the agriculture input sector was evolving, a similar evaluation was taking place a commodity processing and food manufacturing moved off the farm. The form of most commodities (wheat, rice, milk, livestock and so on) must be changed to make them more useful and convenient for consumers. For ex. consumers would rather buy flour than grind the wheat themselves before backing a cake. They are willing to pay extra for the convenience of buying the processed commodity (flour) instead of the raw agriculture commodity (wheat). During the same period technological advance were being made in food preservation method. Up until this time the perishable nature of most agriculture commodities meant that they were available only at harvest. Advance in food processing have made it possible to get those commodities all throughout the year. Today even most farm families use purchased food and fiber products rather than doing the processing themselves. The farms that meet the consumers demand for greater processing and convenience also constitute a major part of agribusiness and are referred to as the processing manufacturing sector. It is apparent that the definition of agriculture had to be expanded to include more than production. Farmers rely on the input industries to provide the products and service they need to produce agricultural commodities. They also rely on commodity processors, food manufactures, and ultimately food distributors and retailers to purchase their raw agricultural commodities and to process and deliver them to the consumer for final sale. The result is the food and fiber system. The food and fiber system is increasingly being referred to as â€Å"agribusiness†. The term agribusiness was first introduced by Davis and Goldberg in 1957. it represents three part system made up of (1) the agricultural input sector (2) the production sector and (3) the processing-manufacturing sector. The capture the full meaning of the term â€Å"agribusiness† it is important to visualizes these there sectors as interrelated parts of a system in which the success of each part depends heavily on the proper functioning of the other two.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Primary and Secondary Data Essay

1. PRIMARY ANDSECONDARY DATA We explore the availability and use of data (primary and secondary) in the field of business research.Specifically, we examine an international sample of doctoral dissertations since 1998, categorizingresearch topics, data collection, and availability of data. Findings suggest that use of only primarydata pervades the discipline, despite strong methodological reasons to augment with secondary data. INTRODUCTION Data can be defined as the quantitative or qualitative values of a variable. Data is plural of datum which literally means to give or something given. Data is thought to be the lowest unit of information from which other measurements and analysis can be done. Data can be numbers, images, words, figures, facts or ideas. Data in itself cannot be understood and to get information from the data one must interpret it into meaningful information. There are various methods of interpreting data. Data sources are broadly classified into primary and secondary data.Knowing how the data was collected allows critics of a study to search for bias in how it wasconducted. A good study will welcome such scrutiny. Each type has its own weaknesses andstrengths. Primary Data is gathered by people who can focus directly on the purpose in mind.This helps ensure that questions are meaningful to the purpose but can introduce bias in thosesame questions. Secondary data doesnt have the privilege of this focus but is only susceptibleto bias introduced in the choice of what data to reuse. Stated another way, those who gatherPrimary Data get to write the questions. Those who gather secondary data get to pick thequestions. IMPORTANCE OF DATA AND DATA COLLECTION Data is one of the most important and vital aspect of any research studies. Researchers conducted in different fields of study can be different in methodology but every research is based on data which is analyzed and interpreted to get information. Data is the basic unit in statistical studies. Statistical information like census, population variables, health statistics, and road accidents records are all developed from data .Data is important in computer science. Numbers, images and figures in computer are all data . DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES There are two sources of data collection techniques. Primary and Secondary data collection techniques, Primary data collection uses surveys, experiments or direct observations .Secondary data collection may be conducted by collecting information from a diverse source of documents or electronically stored information, census and market studies are examples of a common sources of secondary data. This is also referred to as â€Å"data mining.† PRIMARY DATA Primary data means original data that has been collected specially for the purpose in mind. It means someone collected the data from the original source first hand. Data collected this way is called primary data .Primary data has not been published yet and is more reliable, authentic and objective .Primary data has not been changed or altered by human beings; therefore its validity is greater than secondary data.The people who gather primary data may be an authorized organization, investigator, enumerator or they may be just someone with a clipboard. These people are acting as a witness so primary data is only considered as reliable as the people who gathered it. IMPORTANCE OF PRIMARY DATA Importance of Primary data cannot be neglected. A research can be conducted withoutsecondary data but a research based on only secondary data is least reliable and may havebiases because secondary data has already been manipulated by human beings. In statisticalsurveys it is necessary to get information from primary sources and work on primary data: forexample, the statistical records of female population in a country cannot be based onnewspaper, magazine and other printed sources. One such sourceis old and secondly theycontain limited information as well as they can be misleading and biased. Validity Validity is one of the major concerns in a research. Validity is the quality of a research thatmakes it trustworthy and scientific. Validity is the use of scientific methods in research tomake it logical and acceptable.Using primary data in research can improves the validity of research. First-hand informationobtained from a sample that is representative of the target population will yield data that willbe valid for the entire target population.AuthenticityAuthenticity is the genuineness of the research. Authenticity can be at stake if the researcherinvests personal biases or uses misleading information inthe research. Primary research tools data can become more authentic if the methods chosen to analyze and interpret data arevalid and reasonably suitable for the data type.Primary sources are more authentic because the facts have not been overdone. Primary sourcecan be less authentic if the source hides information or alters facts due to some personalreasons. There are methods that c an be employed to ensure factual yielding of data from thesource. Reliability Reliability is the certainty that the research is enough true to be trusted on. For example, if aresearch study concludes that junk food consumption does not increase the risk of cancer andheart diseases. This conclusion should have to be drawn from a sample whose size, samplingtechnique and variability is not questionable.Reliability improves with using primary data. In the similar research mentioned above if theresearcher uses experimental method and questionnaires the results will be highly reliable.On the other hand, if he relies on the data available in books and on internet he will collectinformation that does not represent the real facts. SOURCES OF PRIMARY DATA Sources for primary data are limited and at times it becomes difficult to obtain data fromprimary source because of either scarcity of population or lack of cooperation. Regardless ofany difficulty one can face in collecting primary data; it is the most authentic and reliabledata source. Following are some of the sources of primary data. Experiments Experiments require an artificial or natural setting in which to perform logical study to collectdata. Experiments are more suitable for medicine, psychological studies, nutrition and forother scientific studies. In experiments the experimenter has to keep control over theinfluence of any extraneous variable on the results.SurveySurvey is most commonly used method in social sciences, management, marketing andpsychology to some extent. Surveys can be conducted in different methods. Questionnaire is the most commonly used method in survey. Questionnaires are a list ofquestions either an open-ended or close -ended for which the respondent give answers. Questionnaire can be conducted via telephone, mail, live in a public area, or in an institute,through electronic mail or through fax and other methods. Interview is a face-to-face conversation with the respondent. It is slow, expensive, and theytake people away from their regular jobs, but they allow in-depth questioning and follow-upquestions.The interviewer can not only record the statements the interviewee speaks but he can observethe body language or non-verbal communication such as face-pulling, fidgeting, shrugging,hand gestures, sarcastic expressions that add further meaning to spoken words and otherreactions to the questions too. A problem with interviews is that people might say what they think the interviewer wants tohear; they might avoid being honestly critical in case their jobs or reputation might suffer.And the respondent deliberately hides information otherwise it is an in depth source ofinformation. So this enables the interviewer to draw conclusions easily. Observations can be done while letting the observing person know that he is being observedor without letting him know. Observations can also be made in natural settings as well as inartificially created environment.Primary data can be relied on because you know where it came from and what was done to it.Its like cooking something yourself. You know what went into it. ADVANTAGES OF PRIMARY RESEARCH Targeted Issues are addressedThe organization asking for the research has the complete control on the process and theresearch is streamlines as far as its objectives and scope is concerned. Researching companycan be asked to concentrate their efforts to find data regarding specific market rather thanconcentration on mass market.Data interpretation is betterThe collected data can be examined and interpreted by the marketers depending on theirneeds rather than relying on the interpretation made by collectors of secondary data. Efficient Spending for Information Unlike secondary research where the marketer may spend for information that is not needed,primary data collections’ focus on issues specific to the researcher improves the chances thatresearch funds will be spent efficiently. Decency of Data Usually secondary data is not so recent and it may not be specific to the place or situationmarketer is targeting. The researcher can use the irrelevant seeming information for knowingtrends or may be able to find some relation with the current scenario. Thus primary databecomes a more accurate tool since we can use data which is useful for us. Proprietary Issues Information collected by using primary research is their own and is generally not shared withothers. Thus, information can be kept hidden from competitors and potentially offer anâ€Å"information advantage† to the company that undertook the primary research. This gives anedge over competitors replying on secondary data. Addresses Specific Research Issues Carrying out their own research allows the marketing organization to address issues specificto their own situation. Primary research is designed to collect the information the marketerwants to know (Step 2) and report it in ways that benefit the marketer. For example, whileinformation reported with secondary research may not fit the marketer’s needs (e.g., differentage groupings) no such problem exists with primary research since the marketer controls theresearch design.Greater ControlNot only does primary research enable the marketer to focus on specific issues, it also enablesthe marketer to have a higher level of control over how the information is collected. In thisway the marketer can decide on such issues as size of project (e.g., how many responses),location of research (e.g., geographic area) and time frame for completing the project. DISADVANTAGES OF PRIMARY RESEARCH High Cost Compared to secondary research, primary data may be very expensive since there is a greatdeal of marketer involvement and the expense in preparing and carrying out research can behigh and has to design everything. Time Consuming To be done correctly primary data collection requires the development and execution of aresearch plan. Going from the start-point of deciding to undertake a research project to theend-point to having results is often much longer than the time it takes to acquire secondarydata, which can be collected in much lesser time duration.Inaccurate Feed-backs In case the research involves taking feedbacks from the targeted audience, there are highchances that feedback given is not correct. Feedbacks by their basic nature are usually biasedor given just for the sake of it. More number of resources is required Leaving aside cost and time, other resources like human resources and materials too are needed in larger quantity to do surveys and data collection. SECONDARY DATA Secondary data is the data that has been already collected by and readily available from othersources. When we use Statistical Method with Primary Data from another purpose for ourpurpose we refer to it as Secondary Data. It means that one purposes Primary Data is anotherpurposes Secondary Data. So that secondary data is data that is being reused. Such data arecheaper and more quickly obtainable than the primary data.These secondary data may be obtained from many sources, including literature, industrysurveys, compilations from computerized databases and information systems, andcomputerized or mathematical models of environmental processes. IMPORTANCE OF SECONDARY DATA Secondary data can be less valid but its importance is still there. Sometimes it is difficult toobtain primary data; in these cases getting information from secondary sources is easier andpossible. Sometimes primary data does not exist in such situation one has to confine theresearch on secondary data.Sometimes primary data is present but the respondents are not willing to reveal it in such casetoo secondary data can suffice: for example, if the research is on the psychology oftranssexuals first it is difficult to find out transsexuals and second they may not be willing togive information you want for your research, so you can collect data from books or otherpublished sources. SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA Secondary data is often readily available. After the expense of electronic media and internetthe availability of secondary data has become much easier.Published Printed SourcesThere are varieties of published printed sources. Their credibility depends on many factors.For example, on the writer, publishing company and time and date when published. Newsources are preferred and old sources should be avoided as new technology and researchesbring new facts into light. Books Books are available today on any topic that you want to research. The uses of books startbefore even you have selected the topic. After selection of topics books provide insight onhow much work has already been done on the same topic and you can prepare your literaturereview. Books are secondary source but most authentic one in secondary sources. Journals/periodicals Journals and periodicals are becoming more important as far as data collection is concerned.The reason is that journals provide up-to-date information which at times books cannot andsecondly, journals can give information on the very specific topic on which you areresearching rather talking about more general topics. Magazines/Newspapers Magazines are also effective but not very reliable. Newspaper on the other hand is morereliable and in some cases the information can only be obtained from newspapers as in thecase of some political studies. Published Electronic Sources As internet is becoming more advance, fast and reachable to the masses; it has been seen thatmuch information that is not available in printed form is available on internet. In the past thecredibility of internet was questionable but today it is not. The reason is that in the pastjournals and books were seldom published on internet but today almost every journal andbook is available online. Some are free and for others you have to pay the price. E-journals: e-journals are more commonly available than printed journals.Latest journals are difficult to retrieve without subscription but if your university has an e-library you can view any journal, print it and those that are not available you can make anorder for them.General Websites; Generally websites do not contain very reliable information so theircontent should be checked for the reliability before quoting from them.Weblogs: Weblogs are also becoming common. They are actually diaries written by differentpeople. These diaries are as reliable to use as personal written diaries. Unpublished Personal Records Some unpublished data may also be useful in some cases. Diaries: Diaries are personal records and are rarely available but if you are conducting adescriptive research then they might be very useful. The Anne Franks diary is the mostfamous example of this. That diary contained the most accurate records of Nazi wars. Letters: Letters like diaries are also a rich source but should be checked for their reliabilitybefore using them. Government Records Government records are very important for marketing, management, humanities and socialscience research. Census Data/population statistics Health records Educational institutes records Public Sector Records NGOs survey data Other private companies records ADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA Ease of AccessThere are many advantages to using secondary research. This includes the relative ease ofaccess to many sources of secondary data. In the past secondary data accumulation requiredmarketers to visit libraries, or wait for reports to be shipped by mail. Now with theavailability of online access, secondary research is more openly accessed. This offersconvenience and generally standardized usage methods for all sources of secondary research.Low Cost to AcquireThe use of secondary data has allowed researchers access to valuable information for little orno cost to acquire. Therefore, this information is much less expensive than if the researchershad to carry out the research themselves. Clarification of Research Question The use of secondary research may help the researcher to clarify the research question.Secondary research is often used prior to primary research to help clarify the research focus. May Answer Research Question The use of secondary data collection is often used to help align the focus of large scaleprimary research. When focusing on secondary research, the researcher may realize that theexact information they were looking to uncover is already available through secondarysources. This would effectively eliminate the need and expense to carry out their ownprimary research. May Show Difficulties in Conducting Primary Research In many cases, the originators of secondary research include details of how the informationwas collected. This may include information detailing the procedures used in data collectionand difficulties encountered in conducting the primary research. Therefore, the detaileddifficulties may persuade the researcher to decide that the potential information obtained isnot worth the potential difficulties in conducting the research. DISADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA Quality of Research There are some disadvantages to using secondary research. The originators of the primaryresearch are largely self-governed and controlled by the marketer. Therefore, the secondaryresearch used must be scrutinized closely since the origins of the information may bequestionable. Moreover, the researcher needs to take sufficient steps to critically evaluate thevalidity and reliability of the information provided.Not Specific to Researcher’s NeedsIn many cases, secondary data is not presented in a form that exactly meets the researcher’sneeds. Therefore, the researcher needs to rely on secondary data that is presented andclassified in a way that is similar to their needs.Incomplete InformationIn many cases, researchers find information that appears valuable and promising. Theresearcher may not get the full version of the research to gain the full value of the study. This is because many research suppliers offer free portions of their research and then chargeexpensive fees f or their full reports. Not Timely When using secondary research, one must exercise caution when using dated informationfrom the past. With companies competing in fast changing industries, an out-of-date researchreports many have little or no relevance to the current market situation. EVALUATION OF SECONDARY DATA Because of the above mentioned disadvantages of secondary data, we will lead to evaluation of secondary data. Evaluation means the following four requirements must be satisfied:- 1. Availability- It has to be seen that the kind of data you want is available or not. If it is not available then you have to go for primary data. 2. Relevance- It should be meeting the requirements of the problem. For this we have two criterion:- a. Units of measurement should be the same. b. Concepts used must be same and currency of data should not be outdated. 3. Accuracy- In order to find how accurate the data is, the following points must be considered: – a. Specification and methodology used; b. Margin of error should be examined; c. The dependability of the source must be seen. 4. Sufficiency- Adequate data should be available.Robert W Joselyn has classified the above discussion into eight steps. These eight steps aresub classified into three categories. He has given a detailed procedure for evaluatingsecondary data. 1. Applicability of research objective. 2. Cost of acquisition. 3. Accuracy of data. CONCLUSION Primary research entails the use of immediate data in determining the survival of the market.The popular ways to collect primary data consist of surveys, interviews and focus groups,which shows that direct relationship between potential customers and the companies.Whereas secondary research is a means to reprocess and reuse collected information as anindication for betterments of the service or product.Both primary and secondary data are useful for businesses but both may differ from eachother in various aspects. In secondary data, information relates to a past period. Hence, it lacksaptness and therefore, it has unsatisfactory value. Primary data is more accommodating as itshows latest information.Secondary data is obtained from some other organization than the one instantaneouslyinterested with current research project. Secondary data was collected and analyzed by theorganization to convene the requirements of various research objectives. Primary data isaccumulated by the researcher particularly to meet up the research objective of the subsistingproject.Secondary data though old may be the only possible source of the desired data on thesubjects, which cannot have primary data at all. For example, survey reports or secret recordsalready collected by a business group can offer information that cannot be obtained fromoriginal sources.Firm in which secondary data are accumulated and delivered may not accommodate the exactneeds and particular requirements of the current research study. Many a time, alteration ormodifications to the exact needs of the investigator may not be sufficient. To that amountusefulness of secondary data will be lost. Primary data is completely tailor-made and there isno problem of adjustments.Secondary data is available effortlessly, rapidly and inexpensively. Primary data takes a lot oftime and the unit cost of such data is relatively high.Often secondary data have been pre-processed to give totals or averages and the original details are lost so you cant verify it byreplicating the methods used by the original data collectors.In short, primary data are expensive and difficult to acquire, but they are trustworthy.Secondary data are cheap and easy to collect, but must be treated with caution. REFERENCES 1. http://www.ianswer4u.com/2012/02/primary-research-advantages- and.html#ixzz2B6ioqOwT 2. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/impact/methods/datacoll.htm 3. Bryman, A. and E. Bell: 2003, Business Research Methods (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York). 4. Dillman, Don A. Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1978. 5. Galpin, T. The Use of Mail Questionnaires as a Method of Data Collection. (Sept, 1987) 14 of 15

Friday, November 8, 2019

Leveling and unleveling of the ego in Full Metal Jacket essays

Leveling and unleveling of the ego in Full Metal Jacket essays Leveling and unleveling of the ego in Full Metal Jacket This movie is different from all that I ¡ve considered till now to be good war movies, like The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan, The Platoon or Braveheart. The proper word that would describe my first impression at seeing the movie would be 'shock ¡, because I felt that it said in a loud and ironical voice all that we think about war. From the first scene in the barbershop, where the new recruits are having their heads shaved in military style and to the last scene, when the marines are marching into the night singing a song about Mickey Mouse, the movie impresses with its sense of real life. Also, Kubrick has no hero in his film, only one protagonist and that ¡s the collective mind of American marines. The movie has two parts. The shifting to the second part is done rather abruptly (just like the beginning), the viewers expecting to see an explanation or maybe the consequences of Pyle ¡s suicide, or even the end of the movie. But the two parts are linked together by the presence of one character, Private Joker and, although he is not the central character, he is an important one because he represents the duality of human nature. Also, he is the one we have to talk about when speaking of the leveling and the unleveling of the ego. The movie opens with an unusual scene. Me, as a viewer, I didn ¡t know how to react: to laugh at that stupid song that said  ¡Goodbye, my sweetheart, hello, Vietnam ¡ or to try to figure out what was on the minds of those men from looking at their serious faces. Well, not all of them were serious. Since the first scene, we can distinguish two men who have a sort a grin on their faces: is it a stupid one, an ironical one or is it just as expressionless as the other faces? We discover this out in the next scene where in comes sergeant Hartman, a Drill Instructor at the Marine boot camp from Paris Island, South Carolina, where all these men ...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

ACT What Should You Do

Low GPA but High SAT/ACT What Should You Do SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Say you have done the near-impossible, and gotten an amazing SAT score of 2200 or higher or an ACT score of 32 or higher. Many high school students across the country are probably jealous of you! But what if your GPA is much lower – a 3.0, or even a 2.0? Do you still have a shot at top colleges? What will admissions officers think about you? Read on to find out what to do with a low GPA, high SAT/ACT score application. That high score could be worth a lot more than you think! The Good News Your high SAT/ACT score proves your academic abilities and intellectual aptitude. While it’s possible to have a high GPA without being super smart (since some schools inflate GPAs), it’s almost impossible to get a high SAT/ACT score if you don’t have significant intellectual ability. Colleges know this. Since the SAT and ACT are national, standardized tests, if you do well on them you'll stack up very favorably compared with the entire applicant pool. For example, if you have a 34 ACT, that means you scored higher than 99% of the country. Having a 4.0 GPA, on the other hand, doesn’t allow colleges to easily compare you to other students. This is because grading scales and class difficulty varies among high schools. One other thing to keep in mind is that applying to schools where your SAT/ACT score is above their average admitted student score raises your odds of admission because your score will raise the schools' averages. Remember, colleges are also trying to maximize their score profiles, and getting students with higher SAT/ACT scores to apply can make them look good. The Bad News Your transcript and GPA are very important, especially for competitive schools. Stanford says on their admissions website, â€Å"We expect you to challenge yourself throughout high school and to do very well. The most important credential that enables us to evaluate your academic record is the high school transcript.† Why is the transcript – including your GPA – so important? Because your GPA shows your performance over a long period of time, as well as your ability to succeed in tough classes. This is important to help colleges decide if you will be able to succeed in their classes. If you’re a junior or senior with a low GPA, you don’t have a lot of time to raise it before you turn in your college applications. So what can you do? We will tell you what colleges might think about your low GPA and high ACT/SAT combination, questions they will have, and tips for you based on what your exact circumstances are. How Low Is Low? Of course, just how low your GPA is will affect your odds of admission. There is a huge difference between a 3.5, which would be considered low at selective colleges but well within range at many state schools, and a 2.0, which is considered low at most colleges. Also make sure you're not being hard on yourself... you may think your 3.9 GPA is low, but most colleges won't. Find out what the admitted student GPA range is at your target schools. You can do this by searching â€Å"[Name of College/University] Average GPA Admission† or â€Å"[Name of College/University] Admission Requirements.† If your GPA is just out of range, your high SAT/ACT score will likely make up for your GPA, especially if the rest of your application is strong. But if your GPA is far below their range, it will be especially important to use your application to explain why your GPA is low. So if you’re reaching for a tough college, or have a way out-of-range GPA, read on to find out what to do! What Do Colleges Think of Your High SAT/ACT and Low GPA? If you have a high SAT/ACT score but low GPA, admissions officers will assume your academic potential is high – your SAT/ACT score shows that – but that your motivation is low, hence your low GPA. A â€Å"smart slacker† could be the first thing that comes to mind when an admissions officer reads your file. So what you have to do is prove that assumption wrong. Whether you have personal circumstances leading to a low GPA, a demanding extracurricular, or other academic preparation outside of high school classes, your goal is to show that not only are you smart – but you can also work hard and do well in college. We will go through a series of scenarios, guided by the main questions admissions officers will be asking, about why your GPA is low and what it means. For each scenario, we have some specific advice, but read through all of them as your situation is likely unique and combines multiple scenarios. Why Is Your GPA Low? This is the big question admissions officers will have when they see your application. This is the question your application has to satisfyingly answer, especially if you want a shot at top colleges. We will explore the two circumstances most likely to excuse a low GPA. Don’t worry if these don’t apply to you – we have plenty more advice coming! Scenario 1: Extenuating Circumstances If you have serious extenuating circumstances like a medical condition or family crisis, definitely explain them on your application. This would fit in the â€Å"extra information† box for sure, but it could also be good material for your personal statement. For example, if you have a low GPA because your family had financial troubles, both of your parents started working long hours, and you became the primary caretaker for younger siblings and didn’t have time for homework, that should definitely be on your application as part of your story. Or if your grades suffered due to a medical condition, you should definitely make that known on your application. In short, if you had serious outside circumstances that affected your grades, make sure you explain them thoroughly on your application. You want to make sure colleges know that, in your case, your GPA wasn’t entirely in your control. You should highlight academic interests and classes you did do well in, but the explanation of your circumstances will be the best way to help admissions officers evaluate your file fairly. Scenario 2: You Spent Tons of Time on an Extracurricular If you spend a lot of time on an extracurricular – say you’re a debater who’s been to nationals or an award-winning flute player – at the expense of classes, it won’t excuse a low GPA, but it will improve your chances. In addition to top scores and high GPAs, colleges are also looking for exceptionally talented students in specific fields. If you have an exceptional ability, it could overcome a low GPA, especially with your high ACT/SAT score. Any extracurriculars done at the national level will look especially good. Do neither of these situations apply to you? Keep reading. If you've played Carnegie Hall, colleges will probably be fairly forgiving about that C in Biology... What Kinds of Classes Were You Taking? A low GPA in hard classes will look better than a low GPA in easier ones. You should think about the pattern of grades you received and why you got low grades where you did. College admissions officers will be trying to figure out this pattern too, so make it easier for them and explain whatever pattern you have. For example†¦ Scenario 3: You Took Hard Classes and Got a Low GPA Did you overload yourself with too many hard courses and struggle to keep up? In your essay, you could talk about what you learned from taking on too much at a time and how you will be more careful and focused in college. Since you were in those hard classes, you should also highlight what you learned and any intellectual development you experienced. For example, even if you got a low grade in AP Biology, maybe taking it convinced you that you want to explore pre-med courses in college and so you began volunteering at a local hospital or signed up for a medical anatomy class. That kind of journey would show colleges that you have serious interests, and even if your grades aren’t high, you are capable of doing hard work and improving. Scenario 4: You Took Easy Classes and Got a Low GPA Were you uninterested by easy classes at your school, and ended up slacking off? This will be a harder sell, but if you were in mostly regular classes (not honors or AP or IB) and got a low GPA, you could argue you simply weren’t interested by your classes and had a hard time keeping up with menial assignments, but did have intellectual pursuits in your free time. The above argument will be more compelling if you went to a high school without very many honors, AP, or IB options. Your application would also be strengthened if you have a career goal in mind and do well in certain classes related to it. For example, if you want to be a lawyer and manage to pull decent grades in English and History, it could help convince admissions officers that despite your slacking in other classes, you will be able to pull together and focus on your major in college. Hint: video games don't count as an intellectual pursuit (unless you design them). What’s Your Grade Trend? While a high GPA is important, so is an overall trend of improved grades or harder classes year to year. Whether you have a rising grade trend or a sinking one, read on to learn what it means and how it affects your applications. Scenario 5: You Started With Low Grades but Improved If you’re reading this as a sophomore or junior, work to improve your grades starting now. You won’t be able to totally fix your GPA, but you will be able to show a story of improvement, which can be just as important. A pattern of improved grades shows that you fixed issues you had with time management and have gotten better at handling assignments and tests. This growth is important because it shows admissions officers you can continue to grow and improve in college. This will look especially good if you have been succeeding in honors, AP, or IB classes later in your high school career, as it suggests you are learning the skills needed to succeed in college. If you have this pattern on your transcript, definitely spend some time on your application explaining why you struggled at the beginning of high school, and what caused you to improve your grades. Along with a high ACT/SAT score, an improved GPA can convince colleges you are academically prepared. Scenario 6: You Started With High Grades but They Dropped If you started with great grades and your GPA has fallen, you’ll have to explain why. Took on too many hard classes? You became overly involved in a sport or extracurricular? Illness in the family? It will also be especially important to prove you have other academic or intellectual interests, like we will discuss below. A lowering grade trend is more worrisome to collegesbecause it suggests you had a hard time coping with harder classes later in high school, or even that you’ve burned yourself out before college. You will have to prove that you have strong academic interests and are capable of doing well, despite your trend of sinking grades. One way to do this is to take a few Honors, AP or IB classes senior year and make sure you do well in them. Colleges will see a mid-year grade report, so if they see that you have taken on harder classes and are doing better, that will reassure them that you are capable of doing well in college courses. Another way to reassure colleges is with SAT Subject Tests. Some colleges require them for admission, some don’t, but nearly all will consider them. Getting high SAT subject tests scores will help convince admissions officers that you’re academically capable in certain subjects. If you haven’t taken any SAT Subject Tests yet, consider it – many students take them late in the game (even in Senior fall). If you are confident of your ability on tests, and you have even a bit of time to devote to studying, a high SAT subject score or two could help prove your ability in academic subjectsand help overshadow your GPA. If your GPA trend looks like this, you have some explaining to do... Can You Prove Your Academic Preparation in a Different Way? If your GPA is low and you don’t have a good reason for it, your task will be to prove to colleges you are still academically prepared, despite your low GPA. Your high ACT/SAT score is the first step towards proving yourself, but also consider other ways you can show your smarts†¦ Scenario 7: You Have One Weak Subject Is there a certain subject you struggle in? Is your GPA low because you have Ds in math but As and Bs everywhere else? If so, you should highlight your strengths in other subjects. For example, If you have great grades in English classes, highlight that on your application and talk about what draws you to English and why you enjoy it. Show that you have strong intellectual interests in your best subjects, which you can do through your personal statement or college supplements on the Common App. If you have done outside work or an extracurricular related to these classes, even better. For example, if you’re great at English and history and spend time outside of class in Mock Trial, you can talk about how your interest in law drives you to do well in history and English. This won’t totally excuse low math grades you might have, but it will show colleges you have strong academic interests. Help colleges focus on the positive! Scenario 8: You Took and Passed AP or IB Exams Did you take and pass AP or IB exams? For example, even if you got Cs all year in World History but passed the test with a 4, that at least proves you mastered most of the material. If this is the case for you, highlight exams you did well on and talk about your intellectual interest in those subjects. You could address why you didn’t do well in the classes in the â€Å"extra information† box, but focus on explaining your academic interests and how you want to continue pursuing them in college in the personal statement. Remember, you want to demonstrate your academic abilities to colleges. A passing AP/IB score is an important piece of evidence, so follow it up with an essay further explaining your interests! Scenario 9: You Took Outside Enrichment Classes Whether you attended an academic summer camp or took an extra course or two at a community college, definitely put that information on your application. It won't make up for your low grades, but it will show colleges that you are serious about your intellectual pursuits and made time outside of school for learning. This can be especially helpful if you get an additional letter of recommendation from a professor or instructor you worked with. Scenario 10: You Have Academic Interests Outside of School So your GPA is low, but do you do things like read War and Peace in your spare time? Have you learned a coding language on your own and designed your own app? If you can’t show your academic preparation through any high course grades or AP/IB exam results, find a way to include outside academic interests in your application. If you’ve attended Hackathons or entered writing contests, fit that into your application under extracurriculars. This kind of outside interest could be great material for a personal statement as well. Basically, if you have academic preparation or interests that are not going to show up on your transcript, make sure they show up on your application! It will be reassuring to admissions officers to see you have outside intellectual pursuits. Writing code is a more acceptable excuse for slacking off in Algebra than watching television... How Can You Compensate With the Rest of Your Application? College applications are holistic, meaning they consider the candidate as a whole. GPA is just one factor. While it’s an important factor, if everything else on your application is strong you can improve your chances of admission. Having a high SAT/ACT score is your big advantage because you won’t be weeded out immediately based on your score. Read on to see how to maximize the other categories. Personal Statement Your essay is another opportunity to prove yourself. If you had significant extenuating circumstances, you could talk about them here. If you were bored and slacked off, use the essay as a space to explain an intellectual interest or hobby to offset your low GPA. No matter what you write about, make sure your essay is well-written and presents your unique voice. Remember – you no longer have control over your GPA, but you have complete control over your essay and how it presents you. Use it wisely! Extracurriculars Do you have any other extracurriculars that speak to intellectual aptitude? Math competitions, Model United Nations, writing for the school newspaper – these are the kinds of extracurriculars that support academic interests. If you have them, definitely highlight them. Extracurriculars in the arts – from musical instruments to drawing to theater – are also great because they speak to interests outside of the classroom. You should also talk about your involvement in sports, since that excelling in them requires both discipline and teamwork skills. In short, you should highlight any extracurricular activity you have, even if you don’t think it’s significant. Extracurriculars can help show colleges you have outside interests, discipline, and the ability to work with others. These are all important factors, but can also help make up for a low GPA. Teacher Recommendations For your letters of recommendation, find teachers who can either speak to your personal circumstances or believe in your academic potential. You want to make sure your recommendations are supporting evidence for your application, not contradicting information. For example, if your GPA is low due to an illness, find a teacher who can speak to your perseverance when you were sick, or how hard you worked once your condition improved. If you don’t have extenuating circumstances like that, make sure you find teachers who have great, specific things to say about you and your academic potential. Maybe you have an English teacher who always loved your essays or a math teacher who often called you to the front to explain problems on the board. Find teachers who recognize your abilities and would write you a kind letter. Don't get a teacher to write a letter just because they taught you in a hard subject. If a recommender doesn't have specific things to say about you, the letter won't help your application. If you’re not sure you can get an amazing recommendation from a teacher, many colleges allow an additional letter to be submitted, from someone like a coach or boss. Find a third person who you know will speak very highly of you and use them for that third letter. Where Are You Applying? Your odds of admission will also depend on where you’re applying. For example, say you have a 2360 SAT but a 2.7 GPA. While your SAT would make you competitive for the Ivy League, it will be harder to overcome your low GPA at highly competitive schools. They simply have too many applicants with both high test scoresand high GPAs to admit many people with a serious deficiency in either. That 2360 alone won't get you into Harvard... However, if you apply to less competitive schools where your SAT is far above their 25-75 percentile ranges, you would actually be quite a desirable candidate since your SAT score would raise their averages. (The 25-75 ranges are the score ranges that the middle 50 percent of colleges’ accepted students fall in. For example, a 25-75 range of 24-30 ACT means that 25% of applicants scored lower than a 24, 25% scored higher than 30, and the middle 50% were between 24 and 30.) Furthermore, a less competitive school will be more forgiving of a weak spot on your application, in this case your GPA, as opposed to a very selective school. As a general rule, it’s important to apply to a range of colleges. Don't just apply to all eight Ivy Leagues hoping that one will let you in. Apply to a few schools that are reaches given your GPA and ACT/SAT combo, a few that are safe targets, and a few that you think you will definitely get into, like state or community colleges. You want to make sure you have some choices when it’s time to decide which college you’ll attend. What’s Next? Learn about automatic scholarships for SAT/ACT scores. While colleges usually factor in GPA or Class Rank, see how far your high test score can get you. Want to use SAT Subject Tests to raise your chances of admission? Learn which colleges require SAT Subject Tests for admission. Check out our SAT/ACT Percentile rankings guides to see just how much your high score stands out. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: