Fantastic Literature Essay

Fantasy is a product of our subconscious minds. Just like the stories of the past, fantastic literature tries to give its messages with an indirectly way for making an impact to our subconscious minds. In other words, Fantastic literature is a genre of fiction that uses imagination, magic, supernatural elements such as ghosts, harpies, trolls, mermaids, nymphs, vampires, centaurs, personifications, allegories and unrealistic elements as its primary plot element, theme or setting. Many fantastic works includes an imaginary world where magic and fantastic creatures are common. The best known and successful English work for the genre is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings triology. But there are lots of successful works and famous writers of the genre such as Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and H.P. Lovecraft’s collection of stories ab out Cthulhu Mythos. The fantastic literature starts with the bed time stories in childhood such as fairy tales or folk tales to give instructions. We can say, it has a special appealing to children because of its didactic nature for giving moral lessons. Moreover, the children are too young to know the difference between real and the fantasy. Much of these folk tales comes from the times of Middle Ages where the place storytelling has an importance. This importance changed by the time due to technological advancements because rational progress decreased the amount of these stories. It happens to everyone when you grow up, the advancement of rational progress can decrease your superstitious beliefs and imagination. But using the middle age as setting, establishes a perfect base for fantastic stories because of the lack of technology, dogmatic thoughts and the importance of storytelling. Therefore even in our time, the fantastic works uses the middle age as its setting and much of the works in fantastic literature takes place in Middle age. When we come to its origin, in western culture, the origin of the fantastic literature depends on the mythic stories. But if we specifically give a document name for the genre, then we can say its origin comes from the stories of Homer The Iliad and The Odyssey. In eastern culture, this origin comes from Arabian Nights. The iliad and odyssey gives us the definition of the genre in the first place because of its contents. In case of Odyssesy, it includes gods, monsters such as centaurs, Cyclops or witches and wizards. And there is also a quest in the story as its plot. Odysseus tries to return to his home at Ithaca but he is not allowed by Poseidon because of his insults such as killing his cyclop son and claiming that he won the troy with only his own mind tricks. It is quiet similar to the stories of the Arthurian Romance such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight because of their usage of quest as framework. Same thing is in use in the case of LOTR. As a characteristic of the genre, there is always a quest in a fantastic work. Many of them include a universe as their setting look alike Middle ages because it is easy to create stories when you created the universe. There are also some common themes of the genre such as Good vs. Evil, Deceived heroes, making a sacrifice for saving the earth, journey to unknown etc.. All of these elements are in Fantastic literature to give lessons. The sign of a Fantast ic work is the inclusion of fantastic elements, a self-coherent setting as a universe to take place in and the inspirations from the mythology or folk stories. It gives a freedom of expression to author for explaining a rational sense within a supernatural framework. Therefore it may confuse the reader but there is always a message in these fantastic stories. It starts with the fairy tales in childhood. Fairy tale: Fairy tales a stories that contains a message and has an appealing to children for giving instructions with an indirectly style and by showing example through the story. Fairy tales aims to give moral lessons to its audience. Therefore, it is the first tutor of the mankind. They may include elves, dwarves, fairies, giants, ogres, trolls, goblins, mermaids, witches and wizards. There is always an adventure or a quest in these stories. But they are different than the legends in essence because there may be a truth behind the legends. Ancient Greeks are often accepted the legends as real events and told their stories for centuries but they didn’t the same thing for the folk tales. There is always a certain pattern in these fa iry tales, all of them starts with same word Once upon a time for implying that the story takes place in an unknown time. There is also a happy conclusion at the end of these stories such as â€Å"they lived happily ever after†. They can be found in oral or literary form but it is hard to trace their origins. Many of them may appear in different cultures with variations. Much of them appeals to adults but they are often associated  with children. There are some collectors of these folktales such as Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. Folklorists have classified the fairy tales with various ways. Among them Vlademir Propp is one of the most notable with his Morphology of the Tale. Vladamir Propp was a Russian folklorist scholar who analyzed the framework of Russian folk tale and published his analysis with name of Morphology of the Folktale in 1928. In his work, he divided fairy tale into sections and through these sections he tried to define the series of sequences within a fairy tale. To him, a fairy tale usually starts with an initial situation. And right after that there are 31 different se quences with different functions. He used this method to analyze the frame work of the Russian folk tales. Propp’s morphology is an exemplar for the analysis. In this type, the structural organization of a folkloristic text follows a chronological order as linear. Therefore, we can see if the tale has all of these elements from A to Z. Also we can give a name to those sequences. A tale usually starts with an initial situation such as with the enumeration of the family or the brief introduction of the hero. And after this point there are 31 sequences. Absentation: In this part, a member of the family leaves the home such as a prince may leave home to go for a journey by leaving his wife back. This absentation can also be someone’s death or going for a walk, fishing..Interdiction: In this point, the instruction comes to the hero such as don’t change your way, don’t talk with stranger, take care of your little brother to preparing a base for the further calamity. Violation: A counter action happens against to interdiction such as hero often violates this limitatio n and leaves the right way, talks with strangers. At this point a new person enters the story. And it could be a dragon, wolf, witch or a stepmother as a villain. Reconnaissance: Villain makes an attempt to find something. Villain is in search of something valuable or information such as the location of the children, wolf’s aim to find the goal of Little Red Cap by questioning her. Delivery: Villain receives a directly information to his questions. The wolf learns the house of the grandmother. Trick: The villain makes a persuasion. It is an attempt to trick his victim in order to take possession for his victim. Dragon turns into a golden goat, the witch turns into an old beggar and tries to give poisonous apple, wolf tries to act like grandmother by wearing her clothes. Complicity: The victim accepts the deception and helps  his enemy without knowing. Princess accepts the apple, The wolf acts like grandmother and little red cap could not recognize it. Villainy or lack of something: The villain causes harm or injury such as princess falls into a sleep after taking a bite from the apple, the wolf devours the little red cap as a result o f violation of the interdiction. One member of the family is in lack of something or desires to have something. The Prince intends to search for his bride, A magical agent is needed to wake someone up, huntsman tries to find a prey Mediation: the hero enters into tale with a quest or he is dispatched. The prince appears and decides to go for a journey to the tower of sleeping beauty, the huntsman appear hearing the snores of the wolf by thinking that there must be something wrong. Beginning counteraction: The hero sees the situation and decides to do something, the huntsman sees the belly of the wolf and thinks that he devoured them, the prince hears the story of sleeping beauty. Departure: the hero leaves home to make a counterattack. First function of the donor: A donor appears and meets with the hero or greets him for testing him to give some kind of a magical agent. The hero’s reaction: hero gives an answer to donor such as making a help to him, showing mercy, completes a service, learns some tactics, The hero receives the magical agent: he receives some kind of a power to defeat to evil. The transference between two kingdoms: The hero is transferred from one place to another to whereabouts an object or search. The hero flies through air on a bird, or travels on a boat. Struggle: The hero and the villain fights to get something for themselves. Branded: the hero receives a wound during the fight. Victory: the villain is beaten during the open battle or loses the game of cards. Liquidation: The initial misfortune resolved, spell casts off, captives freed Return: the hero returns to his home Pursuit: The some kind of evil pursues the hero and tries to kill him Rescue: the hero is rescued from the pursuit, an obstacle may delay the pursuer, the hero hides or saves his life from the pursuer. Unrecognized arrival: hero returns his home but no one recognizes him just like in the case of  Odysseus. False claims: A false hero appears and presents unfounded claims. DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks); SOLUTION: Task is resolved; RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her); EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed; TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.); PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished; WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted). Grimm Brothers were two unusual German scholars, linguists, academicians and great philologists that lived in the 19th century. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were two brothers and these brothers were nationalists and intended to collect the old Germanic stories and publish them to show the universality of German language. They were very interested with the Germanic folklore tales and dedicated rest of their lives to collect these tales. Therefore they collected stories and folk tales from the country and represented a pure form of national literature and culture. They established a kind of methodology for recording and collecting these folk tales and later on it became a basis for the folklore studies. They published their first collection of Germanic stories, and folk tales in 1812 with the name of Children’s and Housholde Tales. Their stories, includes the all details of German language and Germanic cultural identity. Their works translated into more than 100 languages. The most important and famous stories of them are Rapunzel, The Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, The Frog Prince and Little Red Cap. Little Red Cap Little red cap is a Germanic folk tale that published by Grimm brothers in their story collection known as Children’s and Household Tales in 1812. It is the 26t1h story of this story collection. It tells the story of a sweet but not obedience girl known as little red cap because of her famous Red Hood. But behind the background of the story, it is a story about grow up by leaving the naà ¯ve thoughts behind. It is a story that questions the curiosity of the children and urges them to leave these thoughts and get mature by following rules. By using the big bad wolf as a villain, it gives  us a message that don’t be so naà ¯ve, these fine gentlemen are nothing but greedy wolfs and they are so hungry for using your naivety for their own sexual purposes. So, follow your rules and don’t ever change your way. It can be interpreted as a moral tale, to give a message such as don’t talk with sexual predators. After the brief presentation of the characters, the story starts with an absentation in which the grandmother is sick. So her mother gives her a bucket and says bring this to grandma and don’t leave the path or you might break the glass. This is our interdiction and our quest. But she doesn’t listen to her mother, a counter action (violation) happens against to interdiction and wolf makes an entrance to story. The wolf questions the little red cap, this is our reconnaissance. And she answers all its questions with a naivety and describes the way that goes to her grandma. (delivery). The wolf goes there devours grandma and takes place of her (trick). She comes to house and accepts its trick without knowing what it is (complicity). And wolf devours her as result of her wrong actions (Villainy harm). Some versions of the story like Charles Perrault version ends in here but Grimm version continues. The huntsman makes an entrance to story (mediation). And he decides to free grandma and little red cap(beginning of counter reaction). He cuts the bell of wolf with a scissor and saves them both. This is the rebirth of Little red cap as a mature (Struggle, branding, victory, liquidation ). In any case, it is a story of puberty rite in which the red cap born again as an adult woman and learns how to act against to odds. After that point she doesn’t cares about the other childish things. The advancement of her rational progress is ending her childhood. The Frog King- Iron Heinrich The frog king is the first story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm which they published it in their folk tale collection known as Children and Household Tales. The frog king is all about the glimmers of emotional life where they are developing in the first place, the childhood. It is story about sexual awakening in human beings, its acceptance and maturation process in human beings. There are some symbols in the story such as the frog, the princess and the Golden ball. The frog is the symbol of production and fertility and it is connected with witchcraft. Princess is the symbol of purified aspect of human soul and the golden ball is the symbol of perfection. The princes  in this story, is so beautiful, even more beautiful than sun that is explains her relationship and her desires towards to golden ball. When she lost the ball, she grieves at not only her ball but also grieves over her loss of innocence. She thinks that she will not be the whole again. But the only thing that can make her whole again is an ugly frog. She likes herself and this situation represents her narcissistic psyche. In the story, the princess increasingly becomes more anxious, angry and full of fear with the idea of marrying with a frog. She is not yet ready for the marriage. As the frog comes closer to her, she becomes more disgusted. This is also gives us her idea about awakening of sex throughout the puberty. But actually she becomes more a person while the frog comes closer to her. The father in this story is responsible for the marriage of the princess and he commands her to keep her word. Her actions are all under her id and there is a need for the development of super ego in her personality. Therefore, the responsible conscience of King helps to development of superego in child’s mind for bringing happiness, love and marriage to her life. And to become whole again, she finally decides to throw it against to wall by taking all the risks to gain her independence. This moment of violence is a painful experience but it is necessary. By doing so, she transcends her anxiety and hatred into a love. She becomes more a person by developing identity and her ugly frog turns into a handsome prince in her eyes. Snow White The story of Snow white is a Germanic Folktale that published in 1812 by Grimm brothers in their Collection of stories known as Children’s and Household Tales as the 53rd story. It is a story about the cycle of life as can be seen from the color symbolism of the story. But it also increases the theme of maturation process of a girl through some tests. It is a very common theme which can be found in the stories of Grimm brothers maybe because of the fact that their informants were woman or to put an emphasis on marriage for representing its importance in a feudal and patriarchal German society. Who knows? Anyway most of their stories are including these themes of Marriage, maturation, loss of innocence, growing up and including these damsels in distress as main characters. And in most of their stories the true love comes after the defeat of self-love as reward of maturation. Story starts with a queen’s wish to have a baby like white as snow, red as  blood and black as wood. It is a kind of symbolism of life that represents the natural cycle of life in which after every death a life starts to its lifetime. As a result snow white represents this natural cycle, she is the personification of this cycle. As soon as she born, her mother dies in order to give a birth to her. And that is also another emphasis that given to represent this cycle. After this point her unconcerned king father marries with another woman who is wicked. The unconcerned personality of King, although there is no king in the story, represents the feudal European perspective of seeing women as object. The personality of stepmother is another issue; she is the personification of immatureness. It is clear that she has failed in her personality development to have an identity. Therefore, she has only the self-interest just like the princess in The Frog King or Iron Heinrich. Therefore she plays her role to prevent Snow White for reaching her age because of her envy, pride and hatred. She orders to huntsman to kill her but he spares instead of killing her. He spares her because of potential status as a woman and bringer of new life. Therefore, the existence of huntsman also is a foreshadowing for the union of the opposite forces such as man and woman. In the story she deceives Snow White for three times and each times represents another aspect of life just like the color symbolism. In the first with a lace to prevent breath (White) which represents the spiritual matureness, second with a comb (Black) to represent the physical matureness and in the last with a red apple (red) to represent death or blood for establishing a basis for the death of childhood and the rebirth of as mature woman. Sleeping in a glass coffin also supports this idea of rebirth as a mature woman. Glass coffin represents the being in a woman’s womb. In essence, the witchcraft of queen was nothing but a test. After completing all these tests she becomes a mature woman and young prince appears as a reward. She marries with him. Therefore, completing these tests is essential in human life and story tries to put an emphasis especially to this aspect of life. The real love comes with maturation and with the sacrifice of childhood, it is necessary to get a real identity. And the time of union puts an end to the efforts of retarding powers with the hot iron shoes. The queen dies as dancing for celebrating the rhythmic cycle of life and death. All in all, Snow white is a story that explains the nature of creation, how something new comes into being through the  repetition of same cycle of transformation which is necessary in a traditional society. Cinderella The story of Cinderella is a European folk tale which published in 1812 by Grimm Brothers as the 21st story in their collection of Folk tales known as Children’s and Household Tales. It was also published by Charles Perrault in 1697. The Grimm version of the story is a dark version because it doesn’t include a fairy mother, pumpkin that turns into a carriage, animals that turns into henchmen. In Grimm version there is a Grant tree and talking pigeons. There is forgiveness in Perrault’s story for stepsisters but Grimm version there is a punishment for sisters in which stepsisters are blinded by pigeons. It is a story about an orphaned girl and it focusses on her rising into higher status and redeeming with happiness through hard work, suffer and marriage. Then again, the story gives us the patriarchal perspective of marriage and its importance by showing a poor girl’s struggling for rising into power and changing her status within this hierarchical society. The story can be interpreted from so many perspectives such as sociological, Freudian, feminism. But its theme is simple, young women can be saved by wealthy men. The golden slipper in the story stands there as a symbol of perfectness or perfect life. The story narrates the recovery process of a poor girl’s after an early wound such as loss of her mother. It is a process of person’s redeem and reaching happiness through hard working. Therefor the story represents a person’s search for identity and self-esteem. The tale opens with an initial situation and the narration of characters as usual but then suddenly a member of the family leaves the family as it happened in the case of mother. Interdiction also comes in this moment, the mother tells her daughter right before her death, remain pious and good only then our dear god will protect you. After a time later, her ignorant father marries again and evil stepmother and stepsisters appears as villain to start their devilish deeds. She loses her social status and starts to live her life as a maid in the kitchen. Throughout the story she keeps her dignity against to all evil dee ds of the sisters and as a result her donor appears in the form of pigeons and grant tree. The donor offers her dreams to her and also through these it tries to test her. Eventually she passes all her tests by remaining pious and takes care of the wicked  step family. As a result, her foot fits to slippery shoe as an embodiment of perfectness. The story ends with a happy ending. There are different explanations of the story. We can think the slippery as the woman and we can think the foot as the man and their union as the perfect union of man and woman. From this point of view, story is about a woman’s search for sexual fulfillment. We can also look at it with a sociological perspective. Then we can say, it is about a woman’s struggle for rising into power within a patriarchal society through marriage. Prince choses Cinderella because her foots are tiny while sisters not. Her foots are tiny because she is coming from an upper class unlike them, but she loses her social status. In the end of the story, she manages to replace her social status through marriage and redeems with life. It is also a good role model for feminism for showing how young girls and women should not be. Cinderella is a kind, pious and passive girl. She can’t make stand for herself. She is waiting a prince for herself to rescue her from the misery and all of her actions are against to feminist ideas. Modern woman is expected to be more assertive in order to survive in the world but she can’t. Instead of that she is acting more pious by thinking that her dignity will save her. And this situation is giving us a sociological insight about the feudal European society. Enter Sandman Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was a German Romantic writer, critic, musician and composer who opened his eyes to earth in 1776. He was famous with his works of horror and fantasy fiction. He is the author of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which famous The Nutcracker ballet based. In 1816, he composed one of his fantastic, horror stories which known as â€Å"The Sandman† and published it in 1817 within short story collection, known as â€Å"The Night Pieces†. The sandman is story about a childhood trauma that in the form of letters. It starts a bizarre and horrifying childhood story about a creature known as Sandman. The first letter is from Nathanael to Lothar. According to Nathanael, The sandman is a creature of night who is visiting unsleeping children and bleeding them with his sands to steal their eyes for feeding his own children on the moon. Scary isn’t it? This story becomes an obsession for him. And one night he plans to spy it and hides himself t o his father’s room. In there he sees Coppelius, a lawyer and one of his father’s associates and he catches him and desires to burn his eyes. But his father  stands against for him. Nathanael becomes ill and his father dies after a while in an experiment while working with Coppelius. The Coppelius disappears. Nathanael becomes a student and meets with an optician known as Coppola and buys a Spy-glass from him. Through this spy-glass he sees Olympia, an automaton created by Spalanzani and Coppola. And he loves this automaton unreasonably. But two men falls into an argument and Coppolla takes the eyes of automaton and throws them to Nathanael. This event reminds Nathanael the argument between his father and Coppelius. And Nathanael falls into a state of sanity. After recovering his mind, he goes directly to Clara to marry with her. While spending time with her, he suddenly sees Coppelius and goes insane. He tries to kill clara, but her brother saves him. Unfortunately he jumps off from the tower and dies. The uncanny is a concept in human psychology that means something extraordinary familiar and not familiar at the same time. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who wrote about this concept in his The Uncanny and published it in 1919. He tried to analyze this concept by using Hoffmann’s The Sandman because of its extraordinary content. According the Freud, the uncanny is the mar k of the returning repressed memory. For Freud, the reason of the uncanny in this story is the fear of losing eyes. He associates the idea of losing eyes with the fear of castration and he suggests the story of Oedipus as his example. He argued that the most appropriate punishment of Oedipus’ crimes was the castration yet this showed on the stage in the form of losing eyes. Coppelius is Nathanael’s hatred against of his father for his castration and he interferes his all relationships which he both loves and hates. After this bad experience, he represses all his bad memories and forgets what happened in the past. With the reanimation of first shocking scene (losing of one’s eyes) in the second scene, he once again remembers everything but also loses his mind. This is the uncanny of the story which reminds his past. Coppola and Spalanzini are nothing but the representation of his father’s sides and Olympia which they made together is the personification of Nathaniel’s feminine attitude towards his father in his infancy. It is his doppelganger. That is why Nathaniel confronts Olympia as a person and loves it with a narcissistic kind of senseless love. It is a natural situation which he created after his castration because of being unable to love. As a result, he realizes this truth with the reappearance of Coppelius  once again while looking through the spy-glass. Looking through the glass is a kind of rationalization process. Nathaniel tries to explain all these events with the imagination until his usage of glass. And in each time when he use it, he loses his mind because of confronting with the sober truth.

Kaoru Ishikawa

Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Tokyo Japan in 1939. He earned his Engineering degree in applied chemistry from the University of Tokyo. After Graduating from college he was a navel technical officer until 1941. He worked at the Nissian Liquid Fuel Company until 1947 and then began his educational vocation at the University of Tokyo. In 1978 he became Musashi Institute of Technology President (Kaoru Ishikawa, 2008). Ishikawa came to be known as the â€Å"father of the Quality revolution† to the people of Japan. When he was a professor at Tokyo University he realized the importance of the quality control methods that were introduced to his country by W. E Deming and J. R Juarn. He applied those methods to work with his country’s industries. Ishikawa developed the â€Å"quality circles†, the cause and effect diagram, and the importance of the seven quality tools. In addition, he wrote several books that explained statistics to the nonspecialist which one was the Guide to Quality Control. Another book he wrote was how to Operate QC Circle Activities which is based on quality circles. Quality circles are a method used to improve quality. Quality circles were developed in Japan in 1962 by Kaoru Ishikawa. A quality circle is a volunteer group of employees from the same work area who meet together to discuss work place improvement (Quality Circles, 2008). Quality circles were first used at the Nippon Telegraph and Cable Company in 1962 (â€Å"Death of Professor,† 1989). Ishikawa had only intended his methods of quality circles to be used for Japan but it has now spread to more than 50 countries. With the development of Ishikawa’s cause and effect diagram management leaders made large advancements in quality improvement ( Kaoru Ishikawa: One Step, 2011). With this new diagram users can see all of the possible causes of a result and find the process of imperfections ( Kaoru Ishikawa: One Step, 2011). The cause and effect diagram can easily be used by non- specialist to analyze and solve problems. Dr. E. W Deming used this diagram to teach Total Quality Control in Japan. Another name for Ishikawa’s cause and effect diagram is the Ishikawa or fishbone diagram. Ishikawa showed the importance of the seven Quality tools which are control chart, run chart, histogram scatter diagram, Pareto chart and flow chart. Ishikawa also expanded on Deming’s four steps into six steps which are determine goals and targets, determine methods of reaching goals, engage in education and training, implement work, check the effects of implementation, and take appropriate action ( Kaoru Ishikawa: One Step, 2011). Ishikawa also wrote and was the editor of many books. He wrote Guide to Quality control in 1968, as well as What Is Total Quality Control in 1981. He was the editor of QC circle Koryo in 1970, and How to operate QC Circle activates in 1971. Ishikawa has been credited with Japan’s quality achievements and has received many awards such as the Deming prize, and the blue ribbon medal which was given to him by the Japanese government. His work has changed how people perceive quality management and many of his methods and books are still used to this day by large and small businesses. Bibliography http://www.skymark.com/resources/leaders/ishikawa.asp http://www.vectorstudy.com/management_theories/quality_circles.htm

Sea world orlando Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sea world orlando - Essay Example The park is highly popular as tourist spot for children and adults alike. The theme based marine park has contributed to the environment conservation and preservation mainly through its adventure trips and exhibitions of wild lives of ocean. The highlights of the park are its killer whale; seal and dolphin display; adventure rides like wild arctic, Shamu happy harbor, journey to Atlantis; shows, exhibits; and wild life experience with killer whale, penguins, dolphins and other marine lives. The exhilarating ride and breathtaking shows keep the visitors entranced. Some of the rides like Shamu are thrilling in their experience as they take the riders under the oceans to have a close animal encounter. The various adventure camps and programs are especially helpful in creating deep awareness of the ocean wild life creatures as many of them encourage interaction with the sea animals. The friendly penguins and playful dolphins serve dual purpose of entertaining visitors and creating awareness amongst them. The normal hours from October 6, 2011 would be from 9 a.m to 6

SHort answer questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SHort answer questions - Assignment Example The attitudes of people about obesity are lax. This indicates that obesity is a socially accepted norm regardless of ethnic or racial lines. 2. Education / Ecological Assessment have been carried out in parts (c) and (f). The assessment shows that educational intervention to deal with obesity has been low in middle schools and virtually nonexistent in high schools. Also, it is clear that public information campaigns in relation to obesity have had little impact on people affected with the condition. This clearly signals the failure of such efforts. 3. The best practice would be to utilize a multi-level approach to reduce obesity using a mixture of medical and non-medical means. The multi-level approach would consist of direct medical regulation, introducing education related to nutrition and physical health as well as attempts at behavioral modification. Medical regulation would ensure that participants have direct access to medical care and intervention so that the effects of losing weight do not lower the participant’s quality of life. In addition, the lack of awareness regarding obesity and its ill effects on human health need to be dealt with using specialized education on nutrition and physical health. Participants would be made aware for the need of physical health in order to lower the consumption of food as a leisure time activity. Similarly, participants would be informed of nutritional value of foods so that they can eat healthier. Lastly, behavioral modification will be attempted in order to create sustainabl e changes in the lives of obese people. 4. A number of different theories may be applied to the proposed interventions. However, the most important theories concerning intervention will be goal setting theory and social cognitive theory. Goal setting theory allows participants to set their own aims in order to reduce their weight. The use of goal setting has been found to be effective in organizational, social as

A Real Career Opportunity in the Criminal Justice Field Essay

A Real Career Opportunity in the Criminal Justice Field - Essay Example There are many responsibilities of a real Crime Scene Investigator and it is not, always, like the ones you have seen on television. They have a very relevant and serious position to hold. They are expected to, generally, be available and on-call at all hours, 24 hours a day, when necessary. After all, crime scenes do not necessarily occur between the normal business hours of a typical work day.   They must aid detectives in securing the evidence from contamination, reconstructing events, gathering evidence, photographs, and making certain that  the evidence collected is sent to the correct locations for examination and analysis. A Crime Scene Investigator is, also, required to have strong communication skills, ability to remain composed, and a heightened sense of organization. They are, on occasion, asked to testify in court should the cases they are involved with go to trial. Becoming a Crime Scene Investigator requires a background in criminal justice is important and further education.. However, finding the training needed is available at a large number of schools, as the popularity of the field increased over the last decade.    A Bachelors Degree is attainable and with so much potential growth the education is abundantly worthwhile. Crime Scene Investigation offers a promising income with room for increase and future growth. The United States average for the yearly earnings of Crime Scene Investigator is, approximately, $51,570, which averages to be, just shy of, $25 per hour. In fairness, a new, freshly graduated, CSI would make somewhat less, dependent upon location, with the potential of promotions, as well as, a greater income. The statistics show that there are anticipated career opportunities as a Crime Scene Investigator, along with other positions within the forensic science fields, that will increase, at least, 19% between 2010 and 2020.("Forensic science technicians," 2012) This offers a lot of potential for current students within the fie ld that there is the likelihood that after they have graduated there will still be a steady demand for those graduates with these skills. In this troubled economic time and the continuing United States unemployment crisis, which many people are still suffering through, a future with continuing growth and opportunity is encouraging. There is, also, another advantage to entering the field during its heightened popularity, is that the field will change as technology and the sciences change. Participating in the field now is a wonderful chance to be involved in those changes and possess the most current, advanced, and needed skills within the field. Granted, that Crime Scene Investigation has a lot to offer as a career, but it does have one, particular, negative element that is its only real drawback.

Honoring Patient Autonomy at End-of-life decisions Thesis

Honoring Patient Autonomy at End-of-life decisions - Thesis Example Thus respect of patient autonomy is based on the informed consent. It therefore follows that where a patient is competent to make a medical decision, it is unethical and unlawful to commence treatment without first informing the patient of the benefits and detriments of the treatment and allowing the patient to determine whether or not he or she wishes to receive the treatment (Harris, 11). In end-of-life situations however, it can be especially difficult for the patient to assess the possible outcomes associated with receiving or not receiving specific medical attention. At the same time, medical practitioners are also confronting conflicts between the duty to save lives and the duty to respect patient autonomy. Moreover, family members often intervene attempting to make the decision for a loved-one who is facing imminent death. This paper examines the literature and the law relative to patient autonomy with a view to identifying how medical practitioners should resolve these challenges and tensions in favour of respecting patient autonomy. Implications for practice and policies will be discussed with a view to strengthening the protection of patients’ right to autonomy. A narrow definition of patient autonomy describes the concept as the patient’s right to determine whether or not he or she will receive a certain recommended medical treatment or whether or not he or she will decline it. The liberal individualist interpretation defines patient autonomy as the patient’s right to â€Å"act intentionally, with understanding, and without controlling influences† (Stiggelbout, Molewijk, Otten, Timmermans, Bockel, and Kievit, 269). Thus the medical practitioner has a responsibility to help the patient understand the pros and cons of accepting or declining medical treatment. At the same time, discharging this responsibility requires

MARKETING PLAN FOR PGI COMPANY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

MARKETING PLAN FOR PGI COMPANY - Essay Example Number of words 1482 (excluding appendices/bibliographies and tables) Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 INTERVIEW AND ANSWERS 5 INTERVIEW SUMMARY 12 DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION 13 GENDER SEGMENTATION 13 AGE SEGMENTATION 14 BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION 15 BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION SUMMARY 16 MARKETING MIX 16 CUSTOMER AUDIT 18 OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS 18 INTERNAL AUDIT 19 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 19 MACRO ECONOMIC AUDIT 20 MACRO ECONOMIC SUMMARY 21 MICRO ENVIRONMENT AUDIT 21 MICRO ENVIRONMENT AUDIT SUMMARY 22 MISSION 23 EXTERNAL FACTOR (EXTERNAL AUDIT) 23 INTERNAL FACTOR (INTERNAL AUDIT) 23 COMPETITOR AUDIT 24 COMPETITOR AUDIT SUMMARY 24 SWOT ANALYSIS 24 TOWS ANALYSIS 26 MARKETING OBJECTIVES 27 STRATEGY THRUST 27 ANSOFF MATRIX 27 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 28 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE SUMMARY 29 CORE STRATEGY 29 CORE STRATEGY SUMMARY 30 MARKETING MIX DECISION 30 MARKETING PLAN CONTROL 31 CONTROL 31 CONTIGENCY PLAN 32 PGI MARKETING PLAN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PGI is an insurance broker that specializes in motor vehicl e insurance only. The company is now considering expanding its offerings by introducing a general household insurance policy to existing customers. The company has established links with affinity groups such as trade unions which give it access to more than 5 million customers. The target market consists of homeowners across all gender and age segments. The primary needs of the market are price, service and information. This report analyzes the industry and the competitive position of PGI within the industry to recommend a price skimming marketing strategy. INTERVIEW AND ANSWERS Stage 1: Cut and Paste Questions Interviewee 1 Male 46yrs Interviewee 2 Female 56yrs Interviewee 3 Male 25yrs Interviewee 4 Female 23yrs Interviewee 5 Male 61yrs Interviewee 6 Female 43yrs Interviewee 7 Female 63yrs Interviewee 8 Male 48yrs Q1 Would you be prepared to buy a household contents policy from a group which you are a member of? Yes I already get my car insurance from my Trade Union so why not my c ontents policy No I get my contents insurance from my mortgage lender, I thought I had to as they gave me the money. Yes why not, so long as they are competitively priced. Well currently I get my contents insurance from the web, the site searches 20 insurance companies for the best deal. I do have to input my requirements though. So if my staff association had a similar arrangement then I would think about it. Yes from my union but I can’t see it from the Train spotting club. What about when I retire though? No, I like to buy insurance from people who know about insurance, I mean does my trade union know anything about insurance? I don’t think so! Yes from my union but really I use my local insurance broker –they take all the hassle out of buying. What about when I retire though? Yes, why not if they can get me a good deal –must be able to get a bulk discount, I mean my trade union has over 1 million members now. Q2 What would you expect to find in a hous ehold contents policy? Well the contents of my house insured of course! But I would want my portable belongings insured outside of the house in case I lose them or had them stolen, I’d like the kids belongings insured too, especially the eldest while he is at university. I don’t know, how about the obvious, like my contents insured against lose due to fire, accidental damage, theft etc. Oh and outside the house as well. Well, accidental loss cover, the usual fire and theft that’s about it. Just fire and theft mainly. Just like the basic cover. Don’t want to spend too much money. The usual fire, theft, accidental damage, legal expenses insurance and all those telephone help lines –you know the repair, tradesman-sourcing etc. Oh just everything covered really,

Work life balance is increasingly used as a strategy to attract and Essay - 1

Work life balance is increasingly used as a strategy to attract and retain employees. Argue the business case for and against implementing Work Life Balance initiatives - Essay Example The family ­ friendly workplace develops systems for organising how work is arranged in order to support workers in achieving a greater integration across their work and personal responsibilities. More formally, a family-friendly workplace "recognises the non ­-workplace family responsibilities of its employees and develops and implements policies that allow employees to simultaneously fulfill work and family responsibilities" (Strachan & Burgess, 1998, p. 251). These policies are considered to be a major recruitment and retention tool. Ezzedeen (2003) defined work-life balance from a holistic, individual domain perspective, as the degree to which individuals are satisfied with their involvement in domains of life they value. Work-life balance is understood as a satisfactory temporal, cognitive, and physical participation in the domain (s) in which one finds meaning, fulfillment and enjoyment (Ezzedeen, 2003). Work-life balance acknowledges that all employees have lives outside of work. Work-life balance illuminates traditional cultural assumptions about gender roles that shape mens and womens experiences in and out ofthe workplace (Redman and Wilkinson, 2006). It challenges the public/private dichotomy of roles and responsibilities by acknowledging that the sex and gender system operates differently in mens and womens lives; such that a man may be stigmatised for taking leave to care for a newborn in much the same way that a woman will be stigmatised for choosing to work after a baby is born. Rapoport, Bailyn, Fletcher, and Pruitt (2002) explain: "Accepting that individual priorities differ, our goal is that men and women should be able to experience these two parts of their lives as not in conflict, or separate, or in need of balance, but integrated. By this we mean that they should be able to function and find satisfaction in both work and personal life, independent of

The Ritz Hotel Essay Example for Free

The Ritz Hotel Essay Despite the fact that rooms at the Ritz Hotel do not cost 2,000 Euros, employees of the Ritz are authorized to compensate guests up to 2,000 Euros for any problems they may have experienced.   Why does the Ritz have this policy?   There are primarily three factors that should be explored: one, the reputation of the Ritz, two, the costs beside room rate, and three, and the hidden costs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, the Ritz is known the world-over for high class service.   It is the place to have your social event.    The name has carried great weight for many years now, and the reputation of the Ritz is not something the hotel owners would like to have tarnished.   Established in 1906, this year marks the 100 year celebration of this world-class hotel.   As part of the celebration, and as an example of the level of service the Ritz offers its clients, the Centennial Celebration includes pick-up from the Airport in the new Rolls Royce, accommodations for two nights, a bottle of champagne, Theater Tickets, Dinner, Salon Treatments, and complimentary membership to the Ritz Club for the length of the stay. The Ritz is â€Å"puttin’ on the Ritz’ for its 100 year celebration.   The reputation of the Ritz creates its value in the marketplace.   As a place for high society, elegance, and comfort, it has a name and reputation to live up to.   One of the primary ways reputations are maintained is through word-of-mouth.   Considering the fact that if a guest has a negative experience, they are ten times more likely to talk about it, it is therefore in the Ritz’s best interests to maintain a positive word-of-mouth cycle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, additional costs which guests incur aside from the room rate can cause management to raise the level of compensation higher than the rate of the room.     For example, there may be phone charges, room service charges, movie charges, wet bar charges, laundry or dry-cleaning, and the list goes on.   These are only the costs the guest may incur inside the hotel.   Additionally, there is the cost of travel and transportation.  Ã‚   As a world-class hotel, the Ritz recognizes these as valid reimbursable expenses.   If the Ritz is at fault for some inconvenience to the customer, the customer will also incur additional expenses remedying the problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally, the hidden costs to the Ritz.   The first has already been mentioned – the word-of-mouth advertising.   It is essential to the Ritz to maintain positive word-of-mouth advertising.  Ã‚   After a customer leaves the Ritz, it is impossible to communicate with them further, or to make amends.   One of the worst things that can happen for the Ritz is an unhappy customer leaving.   Therefore, the service staff at the Ritz has the permission to compensate the guests up to 2,000 Euros. The Ritz must review this policy and the history of compensations to make sure the policy is not being abused.   Abuse of the policy is a hidden cost to the Ritz itself.   However, with proper oversight, this cost can be minimal.   One more factor to take into consideration is the costs of damage to a customer’s personal belongings.   If a designer suit is taken in for dry-cleaning and is destroyed in the process, it is possible that the value of the suit could actually exceed the 2,000 Euros authorized for compensation.   Based on the level of the guests, it is quite likely that their personal items may be of high value.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally, the management of the Ritz must weigh its risks.   How likely is it that compensation up to 2,000 Euros would be provided for a guest?   Based on the high level of service provided at the Ritz, including the level of training received b each employee, it is highly unlikely that a guest would have such a negative experience that only 2,000 Euros would satisfy them.  Ã‚   Therefore, the Ritz has even created a buffer zone for its employees. Not only are they authorized to meet the guests expectations, despite problems, they can even exceed the guests expectations.   If the guest found a mouse in the bathroom, rather than simply refunding the room rental rate, the employee can also give the customer 500 Euro for emotional duress.   Ultimately, it is in the Ritz’s best interests to satisfy their guests to the best of their ability.   If monetary compensation can help them achieve this goal, they should use this tool as long as it works for them.

Online Shopping Essay Example for Free

Online Shopping Essay Online shopping (sometimes known as e-tail from electronic retail or e-shopping) is a form of electronic commercewhich allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. HISTORY English entrepreneur Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979. His system connected a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line. his enabled closed corporate information systems to be opened to outside correspondents not just for transaction processing but also for e-messaging and information retrieval and dissemination, later known as e-business In March 1980 he went on to launch Redifons Office Revolution, which allowed consumers, customers, agents, distributors, suppliers and service companies to be connected on-line to the corporate systems and allow business transactions to be completed electronically in real-time. [3] During the 1980s[4] he designed, manufactured, sold, installed, maintained and supported many online shopping systems, using videotex technology The first secure retail transaction over the Web was either by NetMarket or Internet Shopping Network in 1994.[7]Immediately after, Amazon.com launched its online shopping site in 1995 and eBay was also introduced in 1995.[6] Alibabas sites Taobao and Tmall were launched in 2003 and 2008, respectively. Reasons for online shopping 1) Convenience: Where else can you do shopping, even at midnight, wearing your jammies? You don’t have to wait in a line or wait till the shop assistant helps you with your purchases. You can do your shopping in minutes even if you are busy, apart from saving time and avoiding crowds. Online shops give us the opportunity to shop 24 x 7 and also reward us with ‘no pollution’ shopping. 2) Better Prices: I get cheap deals and better prices from online stores because products come to you directly from the manufacturer or seller without middlemen involved. Many online shops offer discount coupons and rebates. 3) Variety: One can get several brands and products from different sellers at one place. You can get in on the latest international trends without spending money on travel; you can shop from  retailers in other parts of the country or even the world without being limited by geographic area These stores offer a far greater selection of colors and sizes than you w ill find locally. If you find that the product you need is out of stock online, you can take your business to another online store where the product is available. 4) Fewer Expenses: Many times when we opt for conventional shopping we tend to spend a lot more than the required shopping expenses, on things like eating out, traveling, impulsive shopping etc. 5) Comparison of Prices: Online shops make comparison and research of products and prices possible. Online stores also give you the ability to share information and reviews with other shoppers who have firsthand experience with a product or retailer. 6) Crowds: If you are like me, you would like to avoid the crowds when you do the shopping. Crowds force us to do a hurried shopping most of the time. Crowds also create a problem when it comes to finding a parking place nearby where you want to shop and going back to your vehicle later loaded with shopping bags. 7) Compulsive Shopping: Many times when we go out shopping we end up buying things which we do not require because of the shopkeepers’ upselling skills or we’ll compromise on our choices because of the lack of choices in those shops. 8) Discreet Purchases: Some things are better done in privacy. Online Shops enable me to purchase undergarments and lingerie or adult toys without the embarrassment that there are several people watching me and my choices. Product selection Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly or by searching among alternative vendors using a shopping search engine. Once a particular product has been found on the website of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust quantities, like filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a conventional store. A checkout process follows (continuing the physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a permanent online account so that some or all of this information only needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an  e-mail confirmation once the transaction is complete. Payment Billing to mobile phones and landlines[13][14] Cash on delivery (C.O.D.) Cheque/ Check Debit card Direct debit in some countries Electronic money of various types Gift cards Postal money order Wire transfer/delivery on payment Invoice, especially popular in some markets/countries, such as Switzerland Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies Product delivery Once a payment has been accepted, the goods or services can be delivered in the following ways. For physical items: Shipping: The product is shipped to a customer-designated address. Retail package delivery is typically done by the public postal system or a retail courier such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, or TNT. Drop shipping: The order is passed to the manufacturer or third-party distributor, who then ships the item directly to the consumer, bypassing the retailers physical location to save time, money, and space. In-store pick-up: The customer selects a local store using a locator software and picks up the delivered product at the selected location. This is the method often used in the bricks and clicks business model. For digital items or tickets: Downloading/Digital distribution:[15] The method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images. Printing out, provision of a code for, or e-mailing of such items as admission tickets and scrip (e.g., gift certificates and coupons). The tickets, codes, or coupons may be redeemed at the appropriate physical or online premises and their content reviewed to verify their eligibility (e.g., assurances  that the right of admission or use is redeemed at the correct time and place, for the correct dollar amount, and for the correct number of uses). Will call, COBO (in Care Of Box Office), or at the door pickup: The patron picks up pre-purchased tickets for an event, such as a play, sporting event, or concert, either just before the event or in advance. With the onset of the Internet and e-commerce sites, which allow customers to buy tickets online, the popularity of this service has increased. Types of Buying Behaviour. There are four types of buying behaviour. 1. Complex buying behaviour is where the individual purchases a high value brand and seeks a lot of information before the purchase is made. 2. Habitual buying behaviour is where the individual buys a product out of habit e.g. a daily newspaper, sugar or salt. 3. Variety seeking buying behaviour is where the individual likes to shop around and experiment with different products. So an individual may shop around for different breakfast cereals because he/she wants variety in the mornings! 4. Dissonance reducing buying behaviour is when buyers are highly involved with the purchase of the product, because the purchase is expensive or infrequent. There is little difference between existing brands an example would be buying a diamond ring, as people believe there is little difference between diamond brand manufacturers.

Remuneration Strategies and Employee Turnover

Remuneration Strategies and Employee Turnover COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE REMUNERATION STRATEGIES AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER BETWEEN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: A SURVEY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN NAIROBI COUNTY Background of the study Public sector employment accounts for a significant portion of wage employment in developing countries (Mizala, et al.,2011; Ramoni-Perazzi and Bellante, 2007). The ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel is a major challenge in increasing government capacity to produce and implement good policies, including wage determination policy. In employment, a major debate revolves around public-private sector wage differentials that are significant for attracting and retaining talent. Wage determination processes within the two sectors are distinct and (have the potential to) give rise to differentials in pay rewards between comparable worker categories (Hyder and Reilly, 2005; Skyt Nielsen and Rosholm, 2001; Van der Gaag and Vijverberg, 1988). While surveys from developed countries show that public sector wages are on average higher than those in the private sector, evidence from developing countries is often limited or entirely lacking. The general perception is that employees in the private sector, particularly the highly skilled ones, earn much higher salaries than their public sector counterparts. The former tend to negotiate for higher salaries whenever they move from the public to the private sector. These perceptions do not, however, take into consideration the fact that although salaries in the public sector may be lower, the total compensation package may include transactional and relational returns, which are not available in the private sector. The higher packages to private or public sector workers are likely to introduce wage distortions and disparities in public-private sector wage employment, while leading to low morale and output in the affected sector. Statement of the problem A recent survey by KIPPRA (2013) indicated that the general public sector pays slightly higher than the private sector when comparing basic salary and allowances. However, the private sector pays a higher basic salary. Further, there is a large vertical wage inequality in both the public and private sector between the lowest and highest cadres. These wage differentials have caused a distortion in the wage economy, defying the principles of wage determination. The report indicates that education and experience are no longer major considerations in wage determination. Moreover, the current employment policy seems inadequate in addressing issues around wage differentials within the public sector and between public and private sectors. The report further reveals that there is a positive correlation between wage differential and the cost of labour, as the higher the wage differential the greater the likelihood for agitation for higher wages. The report also shows that basic salaries alone are not a sufficient motivator for retaining employees. Incentives and allowances play a significant role in ensuring employee retention within the public sector. Non-monetary incentives such as working environment, challenging assignments, job security and flexible working hours have contributed to high employee motivation. In addition, motivation is upped due to the wide range of allowances available to the employee in the public sector. In most cases, the proportion of allowances accounts for at least 50% of the total take home pay across the public serve Due to lack of an explicit Kenyan policy on wage determination, distortions exist between employees bearing similar qualifications, experience and levels of competence. According to work done by the Institute of Economic Affairs (2006), there are substantial differences in the remuneration of individual public sector workers across different departments and institutions. A comparison of wages in the public sector – across the central government, the Judiciary, Parliament, Local Authorities, Disciplined Forces, and State Corporations – shows that the basic pay in central government is substantially lower for the same educational qualifications, experience and ability. urther, the study notes that there are discrepancies across the operational pay scales. Despite the overall implications of wage differentials, limited studies have been undertaken in the recent past to establish whether the remunerations strategies differ between public and private in Kenya, the nature and size of their distorttionary effects, and how their influence employee turnover level . Specific objectives To explore various remuneration strategies employed in both private and public institutions To establish the turnover rate in both private and public institutions To determine the effect of remuneration strategies on turnover rate in both private and public institutions To establish the effect of employees remuneration satisfaction level on turnover rate To determine the Reasons For and Significance of the Study The performance of the public sector workers in Kenya has been a major concern to the Kenyan people. It has been characterized by low work performance and poor service delivery. The problem indicators include: absenteeism from work, lateness, corruption, theft, a high rate of complaints, low quality work output and high turn-over of professional staff. There is need therefore to undertake research aimed at developing renumeration strategies for motivating the public sector workers in Kenya. The main objective of this research study will be to develop strategies for enhancing staff retention in order to improve the work performance of the public sector workers. Opiyo (2004, p. 18) observes that the public service wage bill is 9.6 per cent of the GDP. He states that any further increase in the wage bill could lead to negative economic consequences, such as the rise in inflation rates and general increase in price levels of goods and services. The government therefore is not in a positi on to spend more money in salary increases to enhance motivation. This is because at the moment the government has no resources to offer salary increase and any further increases (as indicated above) will cause negative economic impact. Therefore, a strategy that will assist in enhancing motivation of employees in the public sector without spending more resources becomes even more appealing. Methodologies Study Area The research will be carried out in Nairobi. As the capital city of Kenya Research design This study will adopt a comparative research design. A comparative study will enable the researcher to assess the difference that exists on remuneration strategies between in private universities and those used in public universities to gain competitive advantage (Orodho, 2003). Target Population The main target unit for analysis of the study will be both teaching and non-teaching staff and human resources top management officials of the selected universities. The non-teaching staff and other staff will serve as key informants to provide more information in regard to the remunerations strategies employed in their institutions to retain employees Sampling Design and Procedure The study will employ stratified, simple and purposive sampling technique to select a private university and a public university and teaching and non teaching staff respectively. Data Types and Sources This research study will be conducted using two sources of data; primary and secondary data Primary Data Primary data will be collected by conducting interviews with the senior administrative staff and HR staff respectively. On the other hand, questionnaires will be issued to the non-teaching and teaching staff . Secondary Data Secondary data will be gathered from a variety of sources including analysis of case studies, reviewing websites, books, journals, and brochures of universities Data Collection Instruments The researcher will use questionnaires and interviews as the main instruments for collecting data. Validity and Reliability Validity and Reliability It will be done through piloting of instruments to improve their efficiency in data collection. The researcher will issue 30 questionnaires to a university other than the ones selected for the study. Reliability, which entails the accuracy and precision of the measurement procedure, will be carried out using the cronbach’s alpha test, whereby a coefficient of 0.7 will indicate reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbachs alpha is widely believed to indirectly indicate the degree to which a set of items measures a single uni-dimensional latent construct. Cronbachs alpha generally increases as the inter-correlations among test items increase, and is thus known as aninternal consistencyestimate of reliability of test scores. Because inter-correlations among test items are maximized when all items measure the same construct, that is, the higher the coefficients, the better the measuring instrument (Zinbarg et al., 2005). Data Analysis The data that will be collected will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel package too. Descriptive statistics include frequencies, percentages, pie charts and graphs, which will enable the researcher to meaningfully describe distribution of measurements using a few indices or statistics. Inferential statistics will be important in determining the nature and magnitude of the relationship between the marketing strategies used in public university and private university for competitive advantage. The researcher will calculate a co-relation co-efficient (r) using pearson’s corelation co-efficient method, whereby a coefficient of more than +1 will indicate a positive relationship between marketing strategies and competitive advantage. A coefficient (r) of 0 will indicate no relationship, and a coefficient (r ) of -1 will indicate negative relationship between the variables being tested.

Analysis of a Scene from Luhrmanns Production of Romeo and Juliet Essa

Analysis of a Scene from Luhrmann's Production of Romeo and Juliet It seems interesting at first that Baz Luhrmann should choose to rework Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a modern movie. However, when you think about the aims of a modern film-maker such as wanting to really affect the audience and create a series of moving and powerful images shot through with dialogue, then it is less surprising that Romeo and Juliet was Luhrmann's choice. Shakespeare's play is filled with emotion and suspense, so had limitless potential to be made into a great movie. Luhrmann adapted the play for the big screen very effectively, managing to portray the emotion of the film using visual storytelling techniques that had not been available to Shakespeare at the time he wrote and staged it, for example elaborate sets. One of the scenes where Luhrmann portrays the emotion and drama of the story superbly is Act 3, Scene 1. It is possible to consider how effectively Luhrmann adapted this scene by studying the different techniques he employed in reworking it from the play into part of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack complements the movie, and was used in this particular scene to help set the mood. Music in the movie is used to build tension, convey emotions and create links between other scenes in the movie. For example, whenever the viewer sees Tybalt and the Capulet boys together, wild western music can be distinctly heard. Be it at the petrol station in the opening of the movie or on Verona beach, the wild western music is consistently associated with them. When they walk onto the beach out of their car, the way they swagger ... ...ecide what to include and how to shoot the scene to convey the emotion that fuels it, indeed one of Luhrmann's main concerns when shooting this movie was staying true to Shakespeare's original play. Luhrmann had an advantage over Shakespeare in that he could visually show a lot of the emotion and feeling that Shakespeare had to have his characters explain when he staged it. Where Luhrmann has omitted text from the original play, he has shown the emotion that was expressed in the text through the actions of characters and, among other factors, sets, lighting and music. So while Shakespeare supplied the wonderful story behind Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, it is Luhrmann who successfully turned the play into a modern day movie that stayed true to Shakespeare's play while being suited to a modern day audience.

Compare and contrast the music of the Medieval, Rennaissance, and Baroq

Music throughout the ages has changed dramatically. Starting in the Medieval period, from 400-1475, music was in the form of what is called the Gregorian chant. Instruments were very rarely used at this time. Since songs during this period were either troubadour or trouvere these chants had no real harmony. One example of this type of medieval composition is â€Å"Viderunt Omnes† by Leoninus. Like most Gregorian chants the texture of this piece is monophonic and polyphonic. â€Å"Viderunt Omnes† is a typical Gregorian chant in that it uses diatonic, not chromatic notes of the scale. Musical compositions during the Medieval period was made mostly by members of the church for the church. It was and is a very slow and steady movement that was meant to create a feeling of peace for worship purposes. As time passed and music continued to evolve what is known as the Renaissance period emerged from 1475-1600. Music during this period was still written with worship as its intentions. Where the Medieval period had no harmony the Renaissance period introduced the use of a constant chord to form the building block of the different pieces. A good example of this period of music is â€Å"Ave Maria† by Josquin written in 1485. The many different voices the repeat the same words create a process called imitation. This particular chant is capella, meaning that it is performed by voices alone and has no musical accompaniment and with all the voices entering at different times but in harmony counterpoint i...