Contemporary isssues in Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contemporary isssues in Marketing - Essay Example and paper will discuss and focus on the notion of marketing in the contemporary, what the irreducible minimums are and how ethics borders on the subject of interest-marketing. Marketing as a concept has undergone a series of changes, dynamism and evolution over the years, shifting from the natural conventional meaning of selling goods and services. There have been changes relative to managerial focus, institutional focus, social aspect, commodity aspect and institutional focus or aspect. To begin with, the social aspect of marketing is concerned with the quality and the innate parts of the product or services (Murphy, 2010). This is to mention that a product, good or services is presented to the market due to its worth and value. Secondly, commodity aspect touches on the good or service itself and its usefulness in the human society and life (Maina, 2013). A practical case and instance is a manufactured good, finished product say a farm product such as diary which has undergone value addition. Institutional aspect in marketing seems to deal with the dealership concept from the wholesalers to the retailers and agent. Irreducibly, it would focus on how to e ntice and appeal to their natural and business instincts. Over the years, the changes, advancements, modifications and improvements in the field of technology has seen a corresponding change in the notion of marketing. In the past, business relied or word of mouth marketing, mailed brochures, radio and television advertisements and later is the internet marketing (Pride & Ferrell, 2011). Verbal marketing required field agents to be deployed to spread the good word and message of marketing. Secondly, the customers also shared the message with others and the brand name spread. Internet marketing has also been boosted by the expansion of the social media space where users can view products online and firms spend less for the marketing process. This argument and logic presents the chronological moves and evolution

Persuasive Letter to Hon Tony Clement Essay Example for Free

Persuasive Letter to Hon Tony Clement Essay Clearly, there are supporters and opposition concerning using human eggs for stem cell research. However, it is my opinion that when the donor does so of their own free will, this should be allowed by law. In fact, with minimal studies results indicate that stem cells are vital in the future cures of many diseases that plague our nation –and the world. Personally, I believe donating human eggs for stem cell research should be as common as giving blood. Women are permitted to donate eggs for in vitro-fertilization; therefore, I feel there is little to no difference in donating for stem cell research. If there is any indication of a difference it is in the number of lives that can be saved through this much needed research. Furthermore, there are no increased health risks poses to women who donate eggs, according to a report commissioned by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (Medical News Today, 2007). The Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation has made available a large amount of information on the social, political and medical aspects of donation and research. However, when reviewing this information, I find the opposition most often base claims against stem cell research on the interference of egg use for other research needs (Romney, 2006). If more people would educate themselves on the positives of stem cell research, they would clearly see that egg donation is a gift. It is a gift that works in much the same way as organ or blood donation. In concluding, I ask that you think of those who are watching their loved ones suffer from ailments such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Imagine the differences such advancements can make in the lives of so many who would otherwise be facing turmoil and the end of their days. Is it not worth it to allow women to give freely of themselves to save the lives of others?

Power and Despair in Ozymandias :: Ozymandias Essays

Power and Despair in Ozymandias To despair is one of the strongest emotions that Freud's id could possibly produce. It's an uncontrollable feeling that leads even the worthiest and most powerful men to emptiness and hopelessness. In the 14-line poem, "Ozymandias" by PB Shelley, Shelley chooses the greatest setting for utter despair in using a desert. Power and despair are greatly correlated in this poem as well as many others. Under the immediate assumption that Ozymandias is the sculptor of the barren statues, one must realize that even kings cannot contain their passions and emotions. Ozymandias erected a statue of his destress where none could see it and without habitation for miles. Leaving these statues behind, the sculptor is given a chance to reveal to others the underlying sadness of his soul. "[Passions read] Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them". Though the sculptor has left the mortal world, his soul remains for all passers-by to see. He/She is attempting to force others into his/her realm of pain just by seeing his/her creation. This poem causes havoc upon the mind of the reader as they think of utter desolation. The statue is described as a "colossal wreck boundless and bare" drawing a parallel for the reason in which it was built. The condition of the stones, delicately but descriptively worded by Shelley, only emphasizes the despair drawn into the stone by the sculptor's hand. By using words such as "frown", "sneer", and "mocked", the author provides us with a slight portrait of the sculptor. It gives us a picture of a powerful king with no incentive or reason to smile. The phrase 'cold command" portrays him as a militaristic leader that has seen more death and destruction than a whole army and has come to a new realization as to the true ways of the human race. The author's words "lifeless", "decay", and "wreck" apply not only to the statue the author is describing but also to the sculptor of the statue. Power and Despair in Ozymandias :: Ozymandias Essays Power and Despair in Ozymandias To despair is one of the strongest emotions that Freud's id could possibly produce. It's an uncontrollable feeling that leads even the worthiest and most powerful men to emptiness and hopelessness. In the 14-line poem, "Ozymandias" by PB Shelley, Shelley chooses the greatest setting for utter despair in using a desert. Power and despair are greatly correlated in this poem as well as many others. Under the immediate assumption that Ozymandias is the sculptor of the barren statues, one must realize that even kings cannot contain their passions and emotions. Ozymandias erected a statue of his destress where none could see it and without habitation for miles. Leaving these statues behind, the sculptor is given a chance to reveal to others the underlying sadness of his soul. "[Passions read] Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them". Though the sculptor has left the mortal world, his soul remains for all passers-by to see. He/She is attempting to force others into his/her realm of pain just by seeing his/her creation. This poem causes havoc upon the mind of the reader as they think of utter desolation. The statue is described as a "colossal wreck boundless and bare" drawing a parallel for the reason in which it was built. The condition of the stones, delicately but descriptively worded by Shelley, only emphasizes the despair drawn into the stone by the sculptor's hand. By using words such as "frown", "sneer", and "mocked", the author provides us with a slight portrait of the sculptor. It gives us a picture of a powerful king with no incentive or reason to smile. The phrase 'cold command" portrays him as a militaristic leader that has seen more death and destruction than a whole army and has come to a new realization as to the true ways of the human race. The author's words "lifeless", "decay", and "wreck" apply not only to the statue the author is describing but also to the sculptor of the statue.

Illusions and Reality in The Great Gatsby Essay -- The Great Gatsby F.

     Ã‚   According to Cynthia Wu, no matter how many critical opinions there are on The Great Gatsby, the book basically deals with Gatsby's dream and his illusions (39). We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Wu also tells us that Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals (39). Wu also points out that Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time. Through Nick's narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision on who we think Jay Gatsby really is. The first memory upon which the narrator meditates on is the story behind Jay Gatsby's true identity:   James Gatz-that was really , or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career-when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior. It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat, pulled out to the Tuolomee, and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour. (qtd. in Dillon 53) I agree with Nick when he tells us that Jay probably had the name ready for a long time. Jay couldn't accept himself for who he really was and couldn't accept his history for what it really was. Then it stands to reason that Nick is correct on page 104 when he states: Jay's imagination never accepted h... ...cording to Dillon, even though Gatsby had so much missing he did have one greatness and that one greatness was his illusions (61).    Works Cited Dillon, Andrew. "The Great Gatsby: The Vitality of Illusion." The Arizona Quarterly 44 Spr. 1988: 49-61. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992. Irwin, John T. "Compensating Visions: The Great Gatsby." Southwest Review 77 Autumn 1992: 536-545. Mitchell, Giles. "Gatsby Is a Pathological Narcissist." Readings On The Great Gatsby. Ed. Bruno Leone, et al. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1998. 61-67. Pauly, Thomas H. "Gatsby Is a Sinister Gangster." Readings On The Great Gatsby. Ed. Bruno Leone, et al. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1998. 41-51. Wu, Cynthia The Great Gatsby: Illusion and Reality for Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway. 17 (1984): 39-68   

Bread Givers Summary

Bread Givers is written by AnziaYezierska. This book demonstrates how a girl prevent to follow her sisters’ steps and choose her own way of living. The narrator of this book is Sara Smolinsky. She is a ten year’s old little girl who always worried for the house as a mother. She is such a sweet and strong minded girl. Sara’s family is extremely poor and if Sara’s sisters don’t find a job, the whole family will be kicked out of the house for not paying rent. Sara has three sisters; Bessie is the oldest, then Mashah and Fania, and none of them has a job.Sara’s mother, Shena, is a traditional housewife who thinks women can only be wife and mom, no women get to learn knowledge and their whole life will rely on a man. Her traditional minds affect her daughters sometimes. Reb, Sara’s father, he studies religion all the time and only care about his bible and beliefs. He does not have a job and does not take the responsibility for his entire fa mily even though he is the only man in the house. The whole family was hanging on Bessie’s neck for her salaries since she is the oldest girl.Everyday all the girls except for Sara needs to go out and try to find a job because the family has no income if there is nobody in the house has a job. Mashah kept buying herself some fancy stuff like soap and towel which is a big waste of money. Later on, the tax collectors came into the house and ask for the rent that the Smolinsky has been arrear for a while. Reb slapped the tax collector for thrown his bible on the floor, and surely Reb got into jail. As the plot going, Bessie fell in love with a guy named Berel Bernstein who is a cutter in the shop where Bessie works.As soon as Reb came back home, he started question Berel about religious belief and Reb embarrassed Berel. Reb didn’t agree with the marriage simply because Bessie earns him the biggest wages. Reb and Berel kept arguing for a while because Reb asked Berel to pa y for the wedding and buy outfit for himself. Finally, Berel found out the only thing Reb cares about is money. Berel rushed to the door and slammed himself out. The next day, Berel talked to Bessie if she wants to marry him without her father’s allowance. Bessie’s answer is no because she couldn’t leave her father, he needs her.Weeks later, Berel announces his engagement with another girl which made Bessie extremely upset. For Mashah, she fell in love with Jacob Novak who is a piano player. Jacob’s family is so rich that his father did not want Mashah to marry his son. Jacob listened to his father and left Mashah. Later on, Jacob felt regret and wanted to date Mashah again but Reb intervened because it happened once and there will be the second time and he pushed Jacob out of the apartment. In chapter five, Reb got a letter from Morris Lipkin saying he wanted to marry Fania.Obviously Reb refused Morris’ quest simply because Morris is poor. Later, Reb brought a guy Moe and introduced Moe to his family in front of Morris but ignored Morris. Morris took offense at it and walked away without return. Few weeks later, Reb brought a cloak dealer named Abe Schmukler and he asked Fania to marry him. Both Mashah and Fania got married that day. It seemed like both of the girls married a rich guy. Reb became well known for his deed that he found two excellent husbands for both of his daughters. However, Mashah and Fania soon discovered both of their husbands are liars.Moe and Abe aren’t rich at all. Later in the book, a fish –peddler named Zalmon married Bessie because he gave promises to give Reb a few hundred dollars to set Reb in business. Till now, all three of Reb’s daughters were married and none of them have a happy marriage. In the very end of chapter 8, Reb got mad at Sara for two cents. A girl didn’t have all twelve cents to buy a pound of rice, instead, she had ten. Sara trusted the little girl tha t she will bring two cents back so Sara sold the rice for ten cents and that made Reb exceedingly angry.Finally Sara couldn’t stand it anymore and she decided to leave home by herself. At first, Sara went to Bessie’s house and willing to live with them. As soon as Sara got there, Bessie told her she is too poor to help Sara. Then Sara went to see Mashah. However, Sara found out Mashah’s life isn’t as well as everybody thought of. Mashah’s house is spotless and Moe treated Mashah very poor. Later on, Sara made a plan which changed her life forever. Sara decided to go to night school with a goal of earning a teacher’s certificate. Then Sara rent a room and found a job as an ironer.Except for sleeping, Sara spent ten hours at work, two hours at school and another two hours to study on her own. Sara is barely eating enough and she is starving. For a few days Sara was hungry, and she burned a shirt due to can’t focus her mind during the da y. She had to pay a couple of dollars to make up her mistake which put her finance into a worse situation. Sara worked hard both at school and at work so that there was no spare time for her to visit home. Later on, Sara met Max who is Fania’s husband Abe’s business partner.Max fell in love with Sara but she would rather stay out of this relationship. However, Sara’s father Reb, suddenly came to Sara’s apartment and checked with her whether she refused to marry Max. Reb tried his best to preach Sara in order to make get married with Max. Again, Sara rejected Reb’s persuasion. In chapter 16, Sara got into a college and soon she figured out college life is way harder than she thought of. Sara had a great desire to learn and she rent a room next to her professor which made her have to pay more for the rent since the room is nicer and bigger than the one she used to rent.The professors’ were all interested in Sara’s story about her life i n Hester Street which is a good thing to Sara, because, as an exchange, the professors taught Sara more knowledge. Time flies by, Sara smoothly graduated from college and she got her certificate as a teacher. Her goal was achieved and she is now on her way to visit home since she had been away from home for over six years. Everything around Sara seemed so lovely and Sara was filled with new hope. However, after Sara returned home, she found her mom; Shenah was desperately ill and refused to go see the doctor.Later on, Shenah dead due to illness and her only wish to Sara was to take good care of her husband, Reb. Sara soon visited Reb, for her mother Shenah willing her to take care of Reb. As soon as Shenah dead, Reb started wearing his nice clothes and married his neighbor Mrs. Feinstein later on. However, Reb soon realized that her new wife only cares about his money and she had been waiting for him to die so that she can take all of his money away. Reb felt sad and willing to leav e her. Later, Sara got to meet Hugo Seelig, the principal.Sara repected him and she soon became friend with Hugo. They begin walk home together every day and their relationship was a step further. A few months passed by, Sara ran into a guy who was selling gum and surprisingly Sara recognized that old man was her father. Sara realized Reb was sick and she began take care of him every day after school. The good thing is, Reb was getting better and better each day. Then, Sara brought Hugo home to her father, and it seemed like they got along well with each other. Hugo said that Reb must come live with them.

Charge Definition and Examples (Physics and Chemistry)

Charge Definition and Examples (Physics and Chemistry) In the context of chemistry and physics, charge usually refers to electric charge, which is a conserved property of certain subatomic particles that determines their electromagnetic interaction. Charge is a physical property that causes matter to experience a force within an electromagnetic field. Electric charges may be positive or negative in nature. If no net electric charge is present, the matter is considered to be neutral or uncharged. Like charges (e.g., two positive charges or two negative charges) repel each other. Dissimilar charges (positive and negative) attract each other. In physics, the term charge may also refer to color charge in the field of quantum chromodynamics. In general, charge refers to a generator of continuous symmetry in a system. Charge Examples in Science By convention, electrons have a charge of -1 while protons have a charge of 1. Another way of indicating charge is for an electron to have a charge of e and a proton to have a charge of e.Quarks possess what is known as color charge.Quarks may possess flavor charges, including charm and strangeness.Although hypothetical, magnetic charge has been postulated for electromagnetism. Units of Electric Charge The proper unit for electric charge is discipline-dependent. In chemistry, a capital letter Q is used to indicate charge in equations, with the elementary charge of an electron (e) as a common unit. The SI derived unit of charge is the coulomb (C). Electrical engineering often uses the unit ampere-hour (Ah) for charge.

10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies and Lightning Bugs

10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies and Lightning Bugs Fireflies or lightning bugs are from the family Coleoptera:Lampyridae, and they may well be our most beloved insect, inspiring poets and scientists alike.  Most importantly to remember, fireflies are neither flies nor bugs. Fireflies are actually beetles and there are 2,000 species on our planet. Here are other interesting facts about fireflies. The Flight of Fireflies Like all other beetles, lightning bugs have hardened forewings called elytra, which meet in a straight line down the back when at rest. In flight, fireflies hold the elytra out for balance, and rely on their membranous hindwings for movement. These traits place fireflies squarely in the order Coleoptera. Fireflies Are the Worlds Most Efficient Light Producers An incandescent light bulb gives off 90 percent of its energy as heat and only 10 percent as light, which is something you know if youve ever touched one thats been turned on for a while. If fireflies produced that much heat when they lit up, they would incinerate themselves. Fireflies produce light through an efficient chemical reaction called chemiluminescence that allows them to glow without wasting heat energy. For fireflies, 100 percent of the energy goes into making light; and accomplishing that flashing increases the firefly metabolic rates an astonishingly low 37 percent above resting values. Fireflies are bioluminescent, which means they are living creatures that can produce light. That trait is shared with only a handful of other terrestrial insects, such as click beetles and railroad worms. The light is used to attract prey and members of the opposite sex, and warn off predators. Lightning bugs taste bad to birds and other potential predators, so the warning signal is a memorable one to those that have sampled before. Fireflies Talk to Each Other Using Light Signals Fireflies dont put on those spectacular summer displays just to entertain us. Youre actually eavesdropping on the firefly singles bar. Male fireflies cruising for mates flash a species-specific pattern to announce their availability to receptive females. An interested female will reply, helping the male locate her where shes perched, often on low vegetation. Fireflies Are Bioluminescent Throughout Their Life Cycles We dont often see fireflies before they reach adulthood, so you may not know that fireflies glow in all life stages. Bioluminescence begins with the egg and is present throughout the entire lifecycle. In fact, all firefly eggs, larvae, and pupae known to science are capable of producing light. Some firefly eggs emit a faint glow when disturbed. The flashing part of fireflies is called a lantern, and the flashing is controlled by the firefly using neural stimulation and nitric oxide. The males often synchronize their flashes with one another during courtship, a capacity called entraining (responding to an external rhythm) once thought only possible in humans, but now recognized in several animals. Colors of firefly lights range widely among different species, from yellow-green to orange to turquoise to a bright poppy red. Fireflies Spend Most Their Lives As Larva The firefly begins life as a bioluminescent spherical egg. At the end of the summer, adult females lay about 100 eggs in soil or near the soil surface. The worm-like larva hatches out in three to four weeks and throughout the fall hunts prey using a hypodermic-like injection strategy similar to bees. Larvae spend the winter below ground in several types of earthen chambers. Some species spend more than two winters before pupating, in late spring, and they emerge as adults from their pupa after a period of 10 days to several weeks. Adult fireflies live only another two months, spending the summer mating and performing for us before laying eggs and dying. Not All Adult Fireflies Flash Fireflies are known for their blinking light signals, but not all fireflies flash. Some adult fireflies, most notably those that inhabit the western areas of North America, dont use light signals to communicate. Many people falsely believe that fireflies dont exist west of the Rockies since flashing populations are rarely seen there...but they do. Firefly Larvae Feed on Snails Firefly larvae are carnivorous predators, and their favorite food is escargot. Most firefly species inhabit moist, terrestrial environments, where they feed on snails or worms in the soil. But a few Asian species use gills to breathe underwater, where they eat aquatic snails or other mollusks. Some species are arboreal, and their larvae hunt tree snails. Some Fireflies Are Cannibals We dont know much about what adult fireflies eat. Most dont seem to feed at all, while some are believed to eat mites or pollen. We do know what Photuris fireflies eat, though- other fireflies. Photuris females enjoy munching on males of other genera. These well-known Photuris femme fatales use a trick called aggressive mimicry to make meals of other fireflies. When a male firefly of another genus flashes its light signal, the female Photuris firefly replies with the males flash pattern, suggesting she is a receptive mate of his own species. She continues luring him in, closer and closer, until hes within her reach. Then her meal begins. Adult female Photuris fireflies are also kleptoparasitic and can be seen feeding on a silk-wrapped Photinus species firefly (occasionally even one of its own kind) hanging in a spiders web. Epic battles can occur between the spider and the firefly. Sometimes the firefly can hold off the spider long enough to consume the silk-wrapped prey, sometimes the spider cuts the web and her losses, sometimes the spider catches the firefly and the prey and gets them both wrapped up in silk. Firefly Luciferase Is Used in Medical Research Scientists have developed remarkable uses for firefly luciferase in the research lab. Luciferase is the enzyme that produces bioluminescence in fireflies. It has been used as markers to detect blood clots, to tag tuberculosis virus cells, and to monitor hydrogen peroxide levels in living organisms; hydrogen peroxide is believed to play a role in the progression of some diseases, like cancer and diabetes. Fortunately, scientists can now use a synthetic form of luciferase for most research, so the commercial harvest of fireflies has decreased. Firefly populations are decreasing, and the search for luciferase is just one of the reasons. Climate change and modern construction have resulted in the loss of firefly habitats, and light pollution depresses the ability for fireflies to find mates and reproduce. Some Fireflies Synchronize Their Flash Signals Imagine thousands of fireflies lighting up at precisely the same time, over and over, from dusk to dark. This simultaneous bioluminescence, as it is called by scientists, occurs in just two places in the world: Southeast Asia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, right here in the U.S. North Americas lone synchronous species, Photinus carolinus, puts on its light show in late spring each year. The most spectacular show is said to be the mass synchronous display of several Pteroptyx species in Southeast Asia. Masses of male fireflies congregate in groups (called leks) and in unison emit rhythmic courtship flashes. One hotspot for ecotourism is the Selangor River in Malaysia. Lek collective courting happens occasionally in American fireflies, but not for long periods. In the American Southeast, male members of the blue ghost firefly (Phausis reticulate) glow steadily as they fly slowly over the forest floor searching for females from about 40 minutes after sunset until midnight. Both sexes emit a long-lasting, nearly continuous glow in the forested regions of Appalachia. Annual tours to see the blue ghosts can be joined at state forests in South and North Carolina between April and July. Sources Buschman, Lawrent L. Biology of the Firefly Pyractomena Lucifera (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The Florida Entomologist 67.4 (1984): 529–42. Print.-. Larval Biology and Ecology of Photuris Fireflies (Lampyridae: Coleoptera) in Northcentral Florida. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 57.1 (1984): 7–16. Print.Day, John C., Tim I. Goodall, and Mark J. Bailey. The Evolution of the Adenylate-Forming Protein Family in Beetles: Multiple Luciferase Gene Paralogues in Fireflies and Glow-Worms. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 50.1 (2009): 93–101. Print.De Cock, Rapha, et al. Courtship and Mating in Phausis Reticulata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Male Flight Behaviors, Female Glow Displays, and Male Attraction to Light Traps. The Florida Entomologist 97.4 (2014): 1290–307. Print.Faust, Lynn, et al. Thieves in the Night: Kleptoparasitism by Fireflies in the Genus Photuris Dejean (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 66.1 (2012): 1–6. Prin t.Lewis, Sara M., and Christopher K. Cratsley. Flash Signal Evolution, Mate Choice, and Predation in Fireflies. Annual Review of Entomology 53.1 (2008): 293–321. Print. Martin, Gavin J., et al. Total Evidence Phylogeny and the Evolution of Adult Bioluminescence in Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 107 (2017): 564–75. Print.Moosman, Paul R., et al. Do Courtship Flashes of Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) Serve as Aposematic Signals to Insectivorous Bats? Animal Behaviour 78.4 (2009): 1019–25. Print.Wilson, Margaret, and Peter F. Cook. Rhythmic Entrainment: Why Humans Want to, Fireflies Can’t Help It, Pet Birds Try, and Sea Lions Have to Be Bribed. Psychonomic Bulletin Review 23.6 (2016): 1647–59. Print.

Directions for Direct Address

Directions for Direct Address Directions for Direct Address Directions for Direct Address By Mark Nichol This post, dear reader, describes proper punctuation and capitalization associated with writing in which one or more people are being addressed by name or role. Confusion abounds about how or whether to set off a proper or common noun that serves as a label for one or more people from a statement directed at that audience, and when to capitalize the first letter of an otherwise lowercased word that serves that function. One of the outcomes of the trend toward less formal correspondence is the tendency of writers to omit punctuation from salutations, as in â€Å"Hi Buffy!† Technically, the greeting should read, â€Å"Hi, Buffy!† I can’t police Muffy’s every missive to Buffy, but at the risk of sounding stuffy and making Muffy huffy I’ll remind her (and everyone else) of that fact in this public forum. (However, because dear in â€Å"Dear Buffy† is a modifier, not an interjection, that phrase receives no punctuation.) Another locution that, by the ubiquity of erroneous usage, increases such errors virally is the incorrectly comma-free truncation of â€Å"May I have your attention, shoppers† and the like: â€Å"Attention shoppers.† The word shoppers is a form of direct address and must therefore be set off from the preceding interjection by a comma. A comma should, likewise, be inserted after the direct address in â€Å"Ladies and gentlemen start your engines,† which otherwise reads as if the statement means that well-bred women and men provide the service of turning the readers’ ignition keys. Whenever a sentence communicates that one or more people are being spoken to, a comma (or two) is part of the process. When the term of address precedes the statement, insert a comma after the term of address: â€Å"Sir, please follow me.† When the term of address follows the statement, insert a comma before the term of address: â€Å"Good job, everybody.† When the term of address is inserted into the statement, brace it with two commas: â€Å"Please, miss, can you tell me the time?† But note that these terms of address do not begin with uppercase letters. When are such terms capitalized? This emphasis is generally provided only when the term is a substitution for a known name: â€Å"What do you suggest, Doctor?† â€Å"Please tell us, Senator, how you came to that conclusion.† This rule applies to designations of family relationships, too: â€Å"Can I go see a movie, Mom?† (Or â€Å"I asked Mom if I could go see a movie.† But â€Å"I asked my mom if I could go see a movie,† because, in this case, you’re merely describing the person â€Å"my mom† not naming her.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Congratulations on or for?Running Amok or Running Amuck?Charles's Pen and Jesus' Name

Managing of Energy Assets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Managing of Energy Assets - Essay Example Proposed technique and Justification for the Technique 12 6. Conclusion 13 7. References 14 Monitoring Transformer Performance 1. Introduction Before going to present the proposal for instruments and techniques that can be used to monitor the condition of a transformer, let us get a better understanding of what transformer actually is and why is it important to supply electricity through the network. A transformer is an electric device, which is designed to convert alternating voltage from one level to another usually from high voltage to low voltage. Transformers work on the principle of magnetic induction. Dickinson (2009) states, â€Å"Transformers under load generate heat due to winding (copper) and core losses occurring during operation†. Transformers are solid-state devices, as they have no moving parts in them. The step up or step down in the voltages is the main use of every transformer. 2. Oil Filled Transformers There are two main categories of transformers, which in clude dry type and liquid filled transformers. In this paper, we will prepare a proposal for oil-filled transformers at substations, which are one of the main types of liquid filled transformers. Oil filled transformers make use of cellulose paper and mineral based oil in their insulation systems. This combination of cellulose paper and oil is very good for the working of transformers because they provide remarkable dielectric and thermal properties at a low cost. About this combination, Dickinson (2009) states, â€Å"So popular and effective are these units, that all other transformer designs are judged in relation to them†. For outdoor usage, oil filled transformers are the best ones among all types of transformers because of their low purchase costs and thermal and dielectric properties. The inclusion of mineral oil in the oil-filled transformers although makes them flammable but the low cost associated with these transformers makes them a good choice for power distributio n companies. The low purchase cost of oil-filled transformers makes them an attractive choice for all types of power distribution companies. Dickinson (2009) asserts, â€Å"Oil-filled transformers, thanks to their lower purchase costs, find applications in literally every sort of power distribution†. The only weakness of mineral oil filled transformers is flammability, which is the reason why these transformers are allowed only in outdoor locations because outdoor locations are considered safe for the installation of oil-filled transformers because of availability of proper fire protection mechanisms. Experts suggest that the consumers should always buy oil-filled transformers from trusted manufacturers because they ensure lowest level of flammability in the oil-filled transformers. Flammability is such a weakness of oil-filled transformers that most of the power distribution companies seek good replacements of oil-filled dtransformers, which should be non-flammable. This is the reason why dry type transformers have been popular for decades because they are completely free from this weakness. Dry type transformers make use of high temperature insulation instead of mineral oil which them a risk free option for power distribution companies. â€Å"Dry type transformer construction uses high-temperature insulation that exceeds the ratings of cellulose or 'O' and 'K' class fluids† (Dickinson 2009). There is no risk of flammability in

The stereotyping of Native Americans within commerce Essay

The stereotyping of Native Americans within commerce - Essay Example 338) apart from the patent medicine packages which featured the â€Å"coppery, feather-topped visage of the Indian† butter boxes depict the doe-eyed, buckskinclad Indian ``princess.’’ The American Indian, and that which popular culture has determined that he/she represent, has been exploited within the context of commerce and commercial advertising for close to a century with the purpose being the purveyance of specified messages regarding the company or the brand in question. Following an overview of the commercialisation of the American Indian image, two case studies of corporate/brand use, of the American Indian image shall be analysed. The commercialisation of the Native American image, or figure, is both pervasive and expansive in scope, embracing all of the noble savage and the â€Å"mystical environmentalists or uneducated, alcoholic bingo-players confined to reservations’’ (Mihesuah, 1996, p. 9). All one need to conform the validity of the aforementioned assertion is visit their nearest grocery and attempt to quantify the sheer number of products, ice cream, alcohol, cigarettes, canned vegetables, baking powder, honey and butter, to name but a few, on which the image of the American Indian is emblazoned. Remarking upon the stated, Aaker and Biel (1993) maintain that the commercialisation of the American Indian image is largely predicated on the assumption that these images will evoke such romanticised conceptualisation of a world gone by that not only will consumers be attracted to the brand in question but they will associate it wit organic wholeness and strength/durability, among others, and t he company in question with environmentalism and corporate social responsibility. Hence, Jeep Cherokee adopts the Washington Redskin logo as a means of communicating durability and the capacity to traverse harsh terrains unscathed, while Land O’Lakes butter and (family) food products display the image of an Indian princess as a means of

Immigration And The Uk Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Immigration And The Uk Economy - Essay Example The only requirement one must have so that they can enjoy the jobseekers allowance is that one must be living in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland for three months immediately before making a claim for Jobseeker’s allowance (Ciupijus, 2011). Considering this, more than 30,000 people from Slovakia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Lithuania claim unemployment benefits in the UK, the research revealed. After a person satisfies the test in the UK, then that person can claim Jobseekers Allowance of up to  £ 72.41 ($116) weekly for a single person,  £113.70 for a couple (Hatton & Tani, 2005). The immigrant ends up costing the British taxpayers  £5B a year in tax credits. New figures show almost  £100 million a week is spent on the 415,000 people and cases of unemployed immigrants. Accordingly, there are foreign nationals who work in Britain who are benefitting from the payments a new analysis has revealed. We also have unemployment as anoth er effect of immigration as stipulated above herein. High unemployment rates Most of the immigrants who go to the UK have low skills or professional training while others are skilled (Freeman, 2015). Those that are skilled end up taking jobs of the UK natives who would have taken the jobs but due to lower skills or professional training they were avoided for the jobs. The semi-skilled immigrants are also willing to work at a much lesser pay as compared to their counterparts (Dustmann, Frattini & Preston, 2013).

Compare and Contrast the styles Stephen King uses to bring terror to Essay

Compare and Contrast the styles Stephen King uses to bring terror to the reader in his books IT and MISERY - Essay Example This apart, he also shows mastery in turning ordinary animals around into beings that perpetuate blood-curdling terror in humans. The rabid bat and the dog in ‘Cujo’ are classic examples of this type. King also shows definite traits in creating horror through science fiction and possesses an uncanny ability to weave it into the fabric of everyday life, and to create suspense that leaves the readers begging for more. He also manages to blend into the tension felt by characters, into every day situations, like: when the hero or heroine goes into an attic the fear they feel becomes tangible to his readers. Such effectiveness is perhaps attributable to the talent he possesses in spinning a web of different elements of horror to trap his audience into its meshy threads. Literature which falls into the category of horror often explains the source of horror through supernatural events. Works of Stephen King are no exception to this. The writer also uses settings to evoke horror in the reader’s mind. For example, gurgling sounds issuing from the closet’s drainpipe and the monster springing out of it, in the novel ‘It’ is an excellent example of how king can employ settings to create horror. Similarly, writers present old houses, damp cellars, dungeons, forests and abandoned castles in horror fiction to evoke a sense of the primordial fear in the readers. Fictional horrors have a great effect on the minds of people because often readers are tempted to believe that the incidents portrayed can actually happen in their lives. Generally, the main theme of the horror literature is the struggle between good and evil forces which is true in the case of King also. However, a unique attribute of King’s writings is his skill, in explaining things rationally with the help of horror. A good number of horror novels deal with the thirst for knowledge and how it affects our society. Most of such novels fall into the category of science fiction.

Mycenaean Civilization Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Mycenaean Civilization - Term Paper Example This work talks about the Mycenaeans, who were known as a â€Å"warrior culture†. Although the Mycenaean civilization began in 1550 BC, the occupation of Achaeans or Mycenaeans of many areas of the Greek peninsula, especially the coastal areas, started in 2000 BC. The Mycenaean civilization was the Late Helladic civilization in 1550 BC, but after the volcanic eruption at Thera in 1500 BC, the Mycenaean civilization at Knossos began in 1450 BC. This was followed by the destruction of Knossos in 1380 BC but a revival, development and perfection of Mycenaean architecture in 1350 until 1250 BC. During the revival of architecture, the Mycenaeans became â€Å"wealthy and powerful† and became â€Å"the most powerful group in the Aegean world† . It was also around this time that the Mycenaeans invaded the Minoan civilization and conquered Troy. However, the fall of Mycenaean civilization occurred in 1200 BC and was marked by the destruction of several Mycenaean sites and was finally concluded in 1184 BC by the destruction of Troy. The paper also talks about the decline of the Mycenaean civilization. There were several theories as to the cause of its fall. The most probable explanation, however, was the invasion of another nation known as the â€Å"Dorians,† and such invasion caused the Mycenaean civilization to fall into the â€Å"dark age†. This was, however, opposed by other historians who said that the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization did not happen until 100 years after the Dorian invasion.

Compare and Contrast the styles Stephen King uses to bring terror to Essay

Compare and Contrast the styles Stephen King uses to bring terror to the reader in his books IT and MISERY - Essay Example This apart, he also shows mastery in turning ordinary animals around into beings that perpetuate blood-curdling terror in humans. The rabid bat and the dog in ‘Cujo’ are classic examples of this type. King also shows definite traits in creating horror through science fiction and possesses an uncanny ability to weave it into the fabric of everyday life, and to create suspense that leaves the readers begging for more. He also manages to blend into the tension felt by characters, into every day situations, like: when the hero or heroine goes into an attic the fear they feel becomes tangible to his readers. Such effectiveness is perhaps attributable to the talent he possesses in spinning a web of different elements of horror to trap his audience into its meshy threads. Literature which falls into the category of horror often explains the source of horror through supernatural events. Works of Stephen King are no exception to this. The writer also uses settings to evoke horror in the reader’s mind. For example, gurgling sounds issuing from the closet’s drainpipe and the monster springing out of it, in the novel ‘It’ is an excellent example of how king can employ settings to create horror. Similarly, writers present old houses, damp cellars, dungeons, forests and abandoned castles in horror fiction to evoke a sense of the primordial fear in the readers. Fictional horrors have a great effect on the minds of people because often readers are tempted to believe that the incidents portrayed can actually happen in their lives. Generally, the main theme of the horror literature is the struggle between good and evil forces which is true in the case of King also. However, a unique attribute of King’s writings is his skill, in explaining things rationally with the help of horror. A good number of horror novels deal with the thirst for knowledge and how it affects our society. Most of such novels fall into the category of science fiction.

Theory of Constraints Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Theory of Constraints - Assignment Example h a difference of four minutes, it means that the first customer to be served will leave when the last customer is left with 24 minutes to leave because the total time that is being lost before the servers finish with their last customer in the first round of 12 is 24 minutes. And suppose there is an increment in the number of servers then there will be decrease in time lost with increase in the number of customers served which is directly proportional to increase in general income of the process(Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2011). If the average cost per meal is 10$ then it means that in the first 50 minutes the process shall have generated 120$ and in the first 1 hour it shall have generated 144$. For a better understanding of that calculation the figures are tabulated as shown bellow Increment in the number of customers can comfortably accommodate by increment in the number of employees by a positive figure of one and at the same time the current employees must adjust their level of performance for the general success of the process(Jacobs, Chase & Lummus,

Book Report on Farewell to Manzanar Essay Example for Free

Book Report on Farewell to Manzanar Essay In the early year of 1942, the families of Japanese people are being ordered to start a move to Manzanar, California; the Wakatsuki family is one of them. Many Japanese accept the move because they are afraid of Caucasian aggression, but some simply see it as an adventure. Families have to put on identification number tags on their collars. Riding on buses to Manzanar, Jeanne falls asleep on the bus, nearly half of which is filled with her relatives, and wakes up to the â€Å"setting sun and the yellow, billowing dust of Owens Valley. (pg 19) As they enter the camp, the new arrivals stare silently at the families already waiting in the wind and sand. Upon arriving, just in time for dinner, â€Å"the mess halls weren’t completed yet† (pg 19) seeing a line formed around the soon to be finished building blocking a good part of the wind. Only seeing tents and barracks, half built buildings that were unending. There were cracks in the floors, only one light bulb per room, gaps in the walls, an oil stove for heat, and not very much space at all. â€Å"We were assigned two of these for the twelve people in our family group. † (pg. 1) With all the confined spacing for the families, you can tell there was a lot of tension between everyone. The food they had made for us to eat was not in our culture at all. â€Å"The Caucasian servers were thinking that the fruit poured over rice would make a good desert. Among the Japanese, of course, rice is never eaten with sweet foods, only with salty or savory foods. † (pg. 20) On top of the food being served wrong, their latrines were not very useable. â€Å"The smell of it spoiled what little appetite we had. † (pg. 31) â€Å"My mother was a very modest person, and this was going to be agony for her, sitting down in public, among strangers.   (pg. 32). What some of the other women did was drag in a big cardboard carton and put up as walls so no one could see. The reservoir shack was just outside of camp. â€Å"My brother-in-law Kaz was foreman of a reservoir maintenance detail, the only crew permitted to work or to leave the camp limits the night of the riot. † (pg. 78) The guys that were on this detail slept on cots in a shack. When they turned off the lights in the shack at night and everyone was laying down it was so dark that you couldn’t see anyone or anything in the shack.

Organizational Structure Of Virtusa Commerce Essay

Organizational Structure Of Virtusa Commerce Essay The purpose of the report is to identify the practices within organizations in Sri Lanka. The report consisted of tasks that required the need to visit both a public and hence Virtusa and Softlogic were chosen. First the main organizational structures and cultures prevailing in an organization are mentioned with relation to the organizations chosen, and the influences of the organizational structure and culture on the business performance are investigated. Thereafter the management approaches practiced in the companies are investigated and thereafter the personality characteristics of employees which should be understood by managers are identified too. Thereafter three motivational theories were taken into consideration with regard to the two organizations. 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Virtusa Virtusa was established in September 1985 under the Chairmanship of Deshamanya H.K.Dharmadasa with the objective of establishing it as a center of excellence in high technology diagnostic and curative facilities. Healing of the sick being the primary objective, Healing with Feeling became this Hospital of tomorrow. Located at Union Place, Colombo 02 in very close proximity to the business centre and within easy reach from the General Hospital and other many commercial establishments. 1.2 Softlogic Established in 1902, Perera and Sons Bakers, is the biggest bakery in Sri Lanka, producing over 75,000 bakery products including nearly 150 birthday cakes per day and attracting over 15,000-20,000 customers daily. Run by the fourth generation today, the business consists of 58 outlets and three bakeries. 1.3 Organizational structure of Virtusa The strategic level managers have used process of grouping activities which are similar in nature. Departmentalization has used here by function structure. This organization structure is more efficient. Through this employees get more experienced and well committed to their duties. As for an example under finance director there are purchasing and accounting managers. They are mastered in each sector and no need to find out about other operations. So the specific duties have been given. This is an advantage for them as they can concentrate on their own department and can offer a better efficient service. Each and every manager is responsible for their own duty. Therefore accountability has developed. Each department concentrates on their own work and that can be a disadvantage for the customers who expect a quality service. Competition among the departments can lead into conflicts as all the departments concentrate on winning the war than attending to overall business objectives. Directors should maintain the flexibility among employees who work in different departments to make the effective use of this structure. Advantages of the structure: There can be seen a decentralized structure. It enables decisions to be made closer to the operational level of work. Accountability and responsiveness is higher. Always make higher performances. More keeping with developments and more flexible structures. Effective motivation and encouragement can be done. Time is managed efficiently various duties and responsibilities have distributed. Disagreements are less because decision making is done with other partys involvement. It provides opportunity for training and development in management. Disadvantages of the structure, Functions can be isolated due to some failures of communication and technological issues. This is not stable for urgent situations. There can be occur competitions among each department than concentrating the overall achievement of the organization. 1.3 Chain of command in Virtusa Chain of command can be described as the way of authority and responsibility pass from the hierarchy. Authority is who have power to make decisions and who have authority to supervise subordinates. In Virtusa mainly strategic level managers such as general manager and board of directors have authority to make decisions and they are passed to the each level through the hierarchy. Responsibility is the obligation to carry forward an assigned task to a successful conclusion. In this case authorized person can delegate his duties to his assistance but to delegate his responsibility is not permitted. 1.4 Span of control in Virtusa Span of control is the number of people who report to one manager in a hierarchy. In Virtusa there can see a narrow span of control. There have four layers and five levels. Few employees can be seen under each manager. It allows them to communicate quickly with employees under them and controlling is easier. Also close supervision can be done and feed back can be getting effectively. It will reduce grievances and conflicts among employees. Also can be reduced getting complex of work. Productivity will get increased and resources can be utilized effectively as well. 1.5 Organizational Culture of Virtusa Culture is a collective programming of the mind which distinguished the members on human group from another. When it comes to an organizational culture it is a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organizations members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviors of individuals and groups. Virtusa works according to role culture. Top level managers decide the bulk of duties should be done by employees and they are distributed among employees. Employees are assigned for a particular role. They are specialized in each job. So the commitment and dedication can be increased due to this. So to make maximum use of it managers should their skills. The management can make them work better and hard to improve the companys performance effectively. 1.6 The Organizational Structure of Virtusa The structure of Virtusa is created with some levels based on functional department wise. This hierarchy has four layers managed by four main chief managers. In this structure the importance of role determines the position in hierarchy. It can be seen wide span of control. One manager controls large number of subordinates compared with Virtusa. Therefore managers communicate with employees quickly but it is not easy to guide and to control them. More effective feed back can be received from workers. Also it is essential to have management skills to control greater number of employees simultaneously. Grievances and conflicts will be either less or more. They depend on the situation. Close supervision is not easy to be done so productivity can be change. The process of this culture is according to their values which are integrity, care, passion, teamwork and service. Probably centralized management can be seen here. Communication between employees may less in this structure as the work is specialized. This can be an advantage to the organization as the man power and time is being saved. There can see disadvantages as well as advantages. The role of each individual is well determined but the chain of command is one way, top level to lower level. Advantages of the structure: Costs less and company does not need to employ as many managers. Easy to communicate and coordinate. Decisions are taken by top level managers and they are effective and fast. Conflicts and mistakes are less. Greater of specialization. New technology and new methods can be trained easily without higher costs. Managers can meet and pass massages easily to employees. Disadvantages of the structure, Difficult to control without proper management techniques. There is no opportunity to low level employees for their ideas. Less access to new ideas. Sometimes it can be costly. Difficult to have close supervisions. Hardly get opportunity to discuss complexities with managers for low level employees. 1.7 Chain of command in Softlogic Chain of command is the way of passing decisions from strategic level to operational level as mentioned before. Similarly the long term strategic decisions are taken by top level managers such as CEO and other officers like chief managing officer, chief people officer, chief financial officer and chief operational officer. So the officers have authority to take decisions of each sector under them. When it come to responsibilities there have around four mangers under one chief officer. So duties can be delegated easily. But each manager has different schedules and work to be done. So they are not responsible for others duties. This means they are specialized in each sector. So responsibility can not be delegated. 1.8 Span of control in Softlogic In Softlogic there can see wide span of control, which means that one authorized manager have large subordinates to control. But this is larger than Virtusa. In the hierarchy layers are lesser compared to number of levels. As for an example one chief officer is responsible to control four managers. So he should have mastered in more than one section. So mistakes can be happened easily. It is easy to pass messages though it is a flat structure. Also it costs less money to run a wider span of control because the company does not need to employ as many managers. But there are disadvantages as well from this horizontal management structure. 1.9 Organizational Culture of Softlogic Culture is the specific collection of values and norms that are share by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization. Role culture and task culture are common in Softlogic. Specific duties have given to each and every employee who comes from various backgrounds. All are driven towards a common goal. Softlogic is more concerned on team work rather than individual performances. They believe that satisfied employees excel in quality customer service. Softlogic also maintain commitment to stakeholders, and the environment. Softlogics corporate culture is to do the right thing for their employees, the community and the customers they serve. 2.0 The influence of the organizational structure and culture towards the organizations performance. 2.1 The relationship between the organizations structure, culture and the effects on business performance in Virtusa. Role culture is common in most organizations today. The decisions are taken by top level managers are implemented by tactical level and operational level employees. So each member has specific goal. It leads to success of the organization. Also this has a flexible environment. It helps the employees to understand organizational events and buildup strong relationship among employees. The staff of Virtusa benefits from specialization. Also training programs are conducted to improve the personality skills and the attitudes of employees. The structure and the culture of this organization teach about organizational activities. They involve with specific work rather than spending time to find out the expected job to be done by them because they are well educated and with developed skills. This reduces wastage of time and man power as well. This can help to improve company performances. Here has departmentalized according to function structure. Human resources, sales and marketing and Finance are some of main departments in Virtusa. The employees in each section can get more experience and it leads to improve the company performances and they provide best customer service too. 2.2 The relationship between the organizations structure, culture and the effects on business performance in Softlogic Softlogic operates according to corporate culture. Decisions are taken by top level managers and other employees are never involved with it. Probably decisions in Softlogic are long term and they are stable. So subordinates never get a chance make decisions when top level managers are absent. In Softlogic the range of decisions are basically to maintain standards and to offer a best customer service The employees have built strong relationships among them and they can work friendly and helpfully when they work together. By working friendly they get motivated and try to do their best. There should have a good customer service as well as providing quality food items. So this can be an advantage to customers as well because the customers are always looking for best service. Employees work in Softlogic have work shops to develop personality skills as well as to improve staff relationships. The structure of Softlogic is more effective for their success. Few levels can be seen and it helps to improve its company performances by doing more work under guidance of each manager. Communication is easy and not costly. So the culture and structure of the organization affect the performance of Softlogic and all the employees are likely to make it effective. 3.0 The different management approaches in Virtusa and Softlogic 3.1 How Management theories are applied in Virtusa. Classical approach to management Division of Labour Division of labour is one of the key features, mainly applied in the Virtusa. They have separated the service procedure into various elements, with each part allocated to a particular employee or set of employees. It is based on the thought that employees can reach a high degree of effectiveness if they are classified to one particular service Centralization There is one central position in the hospital that manages the control over all the divisions. Centralization had made easy consultation and communication among subdivisions, mostly those at the centre; as these days with technology, electronic and computer control, centralization has its desirability. This approach is mainly practiced in the department of IT and administration. Chain of command That is, the chain of superiors ranging from the top to the lowest. Unluckily, this has become a lengthy process in large organizations, such as this Virtusa and therefore problems can arise. This chain of command approach is applied in almost all the departments of the hospital. Remuneration Payment is a significant motivator though by analyzing a number of possibilities. In this hospital all the employees are fairly paid in accordance with their contribution. This approach is applied in the human resources department basically. Discipline. Employees must obey their superiors, but this is two-sided: employees will only obey orders if management plays their part by providing good management. 3.1.1 Behavioral approach to management Human relations approach As in every organization human relations approach is basically applied in the human resources department in the Virtusa. This is an attempt to make managers more responsive to their employees requirements. There is a better understand of human behavior at work, such as motivation, expectations, and enhanced productivity. Systems approach to management The systems approach to administration is a thought which views a company as an interconnected purposive system that consists of numerous business sections. It is a management approach which enables the  managers  to serve the company as an incorporated part or a major section of the larger outside commercial environment. Contingency approach to management Since, the contingency approach to management is based on the thought that there is no one finest way to administer and that to be effective, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling must be customized to the particular conditions faced by an organization, Virtusa is also practicing the same thing. As organizations, people, and conditions differ and change over time. Virtusa has identified environmental change and improbability, work technology, and the size of a company as environmental factors impacting the efficiency of it. 3.2 How Management theories applied in Softlogic 3.2.1 Classical approach to management Division of Labour At Softlogic., Specialization allocates the person to build up experience, and to constantly improve his skills. Thereby he can be more dynamic. The maximum development in the productive powers of employment, and the greater part of the skill, handiness, and judgment with which it is anywhere aimed at, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour. Remuneration This company believes that payment for work done should be fair to both employees and employers and employees must be paid adequately as this is a key motivation of employees and consequently greatly influences output. Equity They also believe that workers must be treated kindly, and fairness must be enacted to make sure a just workplace. Managers should be fair and independent when dealing with employees. Encourages staff to be trustworthy and to be dedicated workers. 3.2.2 Behavioral approach to management Human relations approach This company uses Human Resource Management theories focus on techniques of recruitment and selection and highlight the advantages of interviews, general assessment and psychometric testing as employee selection procedure. 3.2.3 Systems approach to management The systems approach is not practiced in this company. 3.2.4 Contingency approach to management Company is concerned about the changes in the trends and they are producing new kinds of food items in order to stay firm in the competition. According to the contingency perspective, constant environments suggest mechanistic structures that highlight centralization, formalization, standardization, and specialization to achieve efficiency and consistency. 4.0 different motivational theories and how they could be exercised to motivate employees/individuals in an organization to achieve organizational goals. Motivating each of the individuals requires recognition on your part that each employees motivation needs are different, and motivating the team requires a different approach from motivating the team members. It is unlikely that you will ever manage a team where everyone is adequately trained. It is even more unlikely that any leader has a team that never needs coaching. You need to be able to identify the training needs of your team members and be able to get that training for them. Motivation theories are mainly of two types: Content (need) theory Process theory 4.1 Content (need) Theory: This theory mainly focuses on the internal factors that direct and enhance human behaviour. The following are some of the major content theories: Maslows hierarchy of needs Aldermens ERG theory Hertzbergs motivator-hygiene theory (two factor theory) 4.1.1 Maslows Hierarchy of human needs Of the different types of content theories, the most famous content theory is Abraham Maslows hierarchy of human needs. Maslow introduced five levels of basic needs through his theory. The Hierarchy of Needs is as follows: 1. Physiological Needs: basic issues of survival such as salary and stable employment 2. Security Needs: stable physical and emotional environment issues such as benefits, pension, safe work environment, and fair work practices 3. Belongingness Needs: social acceptance issues such as friendship or cooperation on the job 4. Esteem Needs: positive self-image and respect and recognition issues such as job titles, nice work spaces, and prestigious job assignments. 5. Self-Actualization Needs: achievement issues such as workplace autonomy, challenging work, and subject matter expert status on the job Just like Maslows hierarchy of needs, through dual factors theory, Hertzberg describes certain factors in the workplace which result in job satisfaction. 4.1.2 Hertzbergs two factor theory: According to Hertzberg, he basically identified two separate groups of factors that had a strong impact on motivation. His first groups of factors were the hygiene factors which consisted of factors such as working conditions, quality of supervision, salary, status, company policies and administration.  Having said that, the   second group of factors   identified were known as the motivating factors which consisted of factors such recognition, achievement, responsibility, interesting job and advancement to higher level tasks as and growth etc. 4.1.3 Process Theory: Process theory of motivation is a cognitive rational process and concentrates on psychological and behavioral processes. This basically motivates individuals and focuses on how workers needs influence their own behavior. Main process theories include Vroom Expectancy theory Adams Equity theory Needs Goal Setting theory Vroom Expectancy theory efforts linked not just to the desire for a particular outcome, but moderated by an evaluation of the likelihood of success. Here motivation strength is determined by the supposed value of the result of performing a behavior and the supposed probability that the behavior performed will lead the result to materialize. The conclusions that can be strained from this theory are, Individuals will only act when they have a reasonable expectation that their behavior will lead to the desired outcome. Effort alone is not sufficient. It has to be accompanied by ability and skill. Job satisfaction results from effective job performance rather than the other way round. Job design is therefore of crucial importance.   4.2 The effective implementation of the above theories and to motivate employees in order to achieve the organizational goal in both Virtusa and Softlogic: In order to achieve this objective and to keep the employees motivated the first two levels of Maslows hierarchy can be used as follows Physiological needs: The basic pay of the employees can be increased or in addition to the basic pay an over time rate can be paid. The facilities such as a balanced meal can be provided during the time they are on over time as to encourage them. This shows the organization is concerned about the employees and will lead to motivation. Safety needs: While they are at work, they can be provided with necessary instruments and equipment to keep them safe such as face masks, gloves and etc. en the number of accidents during working hours will be reduced. Rather than providing safety only to workers, their families can also be looked after by providing medical schemes, life insurance as well as health and safety insurance. Along with Maslows hierarchy of needs, Herzbergs two factor theory can also be applied to motivate the employees. Hygiene factors: Increment in salary would be a factor which motivates the employees. As discussed above, over time payments, salary increments and pension schemes can be provided to the employees of this company. Motivating factors: The employees can be paid much more attention and can be given more recognition. In order to give them more recognition and to make them feel as part of the organization, the company can can allocate a certain part of the profit to its employees. Once they have achieved a given target they can be appreciated. The workers should be given targets which they are capable of achieving and leaders can be appointed among the employee groups to make them responsible for related jobs As mentioned above process theory can be applied in order to motivate the employees in this company. Mainly goal setting theory and expectancy theory can be used to overcome these crises. The employees in the organization should be able to achieve the given goal within the given time period. Therefore it is essential for task to of easy achievability and also to the team members should be with positive attitudes and focused on the organizational goals rather than individual interests. As for an example the workers should be given goals which they can achieve. According to the scenario demand for grains has been increasing and fertilizes and grains are complements. Therefore the supply of fertilizes also need to be increased. In order to increase the supply of fertilizes, the workers should be motivated and their productivity should be increased. It is discussed in the expectancy theory that employees should have the ability and skills to do the specific tasks. Therefore effort alone is not enough. They should be satisfied in order to gain maximum contribution from them. This is one of a crucial event which can be seen in any organization. 5.0 The relationship between leadership and motivation, and how the management practices are influenced by these two factors: 5.1 Different Leadership styles in management Many people consider that leadership is just being the first, largest or most powerful. Leadership in organizations has a special and more meaningful explanation. Very basically put, a leader is interpreted as somebody who sets direction in an attempt and influences people to pursue that direction the people can be oneself, another individual, a group, an organization or a society. How they set that direction and influence people depends on a variety of factors that well consider later on below. There are also plentiful theories about leadership, or about carrying out the responsibility of leader of an organization. Such leadership styles used by this company and their advantages are as listed below. 5.2 Leadership styles practiced in the organizations Autocratic Leadership The autocratic  leadership style  is considered as an aged fashioned method with the following distinctiveness: Manager tries having the most power and control in decision making. Manager tries making as many decisions as possible. Managers are less worried with spending their own leadership improvement, and desire to basically work on the mission at hand.   Manager tries retaining accountability rather than utilize complete allocation. The autocratic leadership is still used by many leaders across the world in many companies. The cause autocratic leadership carries on, even if it is old-fashioned, is for the reason that it is spontaneous, carries instant advantages, and comes natural to many leaders. Many leaders who begin pursuing leadership improvement are often trying to develop upon their organizations autocratic leadership style. The benefits of the Autocratic Leadership Style and their impact on employee and company performance In spite of having many opponents, the autocratic leadership styles recommend many advantages to managers who use them. These comprise: Decreased pressure due to increased control.  Where the manager finally has important legal and personal accountability for a project, it will relieve them and reduce their pressure levels to know that they have control over their providence. A more productive dynamic group whilst the leader is watching.  The delay that an autocratic manager maintains over a team improves their working velocity and makes them less likely to relax. This is perfect for inadequately motivated workers who have little concern or attention in the excellence or speed of work performed. Improved logistics of operations.  Having one leader with serious participation in many areas makes it more likely that tribulations are spotted in advance and deadlines met. This makes autocratic leadership perfect for one-off projects with fixed deadlines, or complex work environments where well-organized cooperation is the key to accomplishment. When is the Autocratic Leadership Style effectual? Following on from the qualities listed above, the autocratic leadership style is useful in the following work circumstances: Work environments where spans of control are broad and complex so therefore the manager has little time to allot to each employee.   Business where workers need to perform low-skilled, droning and recurring tasks and normally have low levels of motivation. Projects where the work executes wishes to be accomplished to exact specifications and with a tight deadline. Democratic Leadership Democratic Leadership is the leadership style that encourages the distribution of accountability, the exercise of allocation and frequent discussion. The style has the following distinctiveness: Manager makes discussion on all major issues and conclusions. Manager efficiently hands over tasks to employees and give them full control and accountability for those tasks.   Manager welcomes comment on the outcome of initiatives and the work environment.   Manager supports others to become leaders and be occupied in leadership improvement. The benefits of the Democratic Leadership Style and their impact on employee and company performance. Positive work environment.  An ethnicity where subordinate workers are given fair amount of accountability and are permitted to challenge themselves is one where workers are more encouraged to work and enjoy what they do. Creative thinking.  The free flow of ideas and optimistic work atmosphere is the ideal catalyst for creative thinking. The advantages of this arent just appropriate for creative industries, because creative thinking is necessary to solve tribulations in every single organization, whatever its nature.   Reduction of friction and office politics. By allowing subordinates to use their ideas and even more outstandingly increase credit for them, you are carefully reducing the amount of nervousness workers generate with their manager. When autocratic leaders reject to listen to their employees, or deliberately pay no attention to their ideas, they are efficiently asking for people to talk behind their back and effort to undermine or succeed them. Reduced employee turnover.   When workers feel authorized through leadership improvement, a company will observe lower rates of employee turnover which has many benefits. A company that spends in leadership improvement for its workers is investing in their future, and this is valued by a large majority of the workforce. When is the Autocratic Leadership Style effectual?   Democratic leadership is practical to a level in the industrialized industry, to allocate workers to give their ideas on how processes  can  become leaner and more inventive. While Fordism is still functional in some factories across the country, truth is that production managers are now actually starting to tie together the motivational bonuses associated with not treating workers like robots anymore. Democratic leadership is successful in professional organizations where the importance is obviously on training, professional leadership improvement and quality of work performed. Democratic events are basically just one cog in the successful leadership mechanisms firms. Nonprofit organizations also terrifically

citizern kane :: essays research papers

CITIZEN KANE Throughout the whole movie, the viewers got a feeling that Kane never had emotions and nothing could affect him, well this is until we learn of Rosebud. A childhood is something Kane was deprived of. When he was about 8 years old his parents sent him away to be educated and becoming something big in life, but what they did is take something away from him that no parent should take away; a childhood. Love is something that was not apparent in the opening scenes of the movie, his mother seemed so cold and stern, believing that is was in his best interests to leave home and become successful. Did this success make him a happy man, well later we learn the answer and that is no. Kane had everything a man could want in life, a wife who was not all ways loving but still there for him, an extravagant social life and last but not least billions of dollars. Kane had all this but he still never seemed to be pleased. He was demanded more and the best out of what he had. Kane had nearly fooled himself that these materialistic posesions made him happy, but what we really find out is; all he wanted was a normal life. His house was cluttered with senseless ornaments that probably mean the least to him. Kane’s amazing lifestyles with everything so big and exuberant was in a way his cure to a lonely soul. He never could determine who were his friends and who weren’t, once he dies we find out: many weren’t. If Kane had been brought up with a childhood, with the love and fun most children experience, maybe he wouldn’t have been so cold and brutal. The attraction of money wore out for him after a few years but it had already done its damage, and then we find him stuck, with nothing to do and most of all nothing that pleases him in life anymore. The key to understanding Kane was not in what he found pleasurable nor what interested him, it was his weakness. Kane always seemed tough, like he never gave a second thought about what just happened, he just did what he had to do and he did it swiftly but like all people something did affect him. Superman had Kryptonite and for Kane it was memories. Many memories that he should've had, that he missed out on.

The Life of Billy Joel :: Musicians Singers Biographies Essays

The Life of Billy Joel Billy Joel was born on May 9, 1949 in Bronx, New York. He moved at the age of four to a small town on Long Island. This is where at the ripe age of four he discovered the art of music. Originally a classical music fan, Billy Joel honed his skills with classical piano training. This undoubtedly has had a major influence on his life and certainly his music. Growing up Joel was a big fan of such greats as Ray Charles, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Otis Reading. He was greatly persuaded into a career of music when he saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Amusingly Joel's first band was inspired by the uncanny opportunity to meet girls. The band was called The Echoes, but this was not the best of times for Joel because his parents were involved in a messy divorce, which included serious financial shortcomings. Joel even began working professional music gigs at night to help support his mother. Joel's schoolwork suffered a little and he began missing school way too often. He was subsequently not allowed to graduate with his high school class due to the number of absences. After high school Joel immediately joined a very popular band called The Hassels for which he recorded two albums with. Within two years Joel was on to a new band which he named Attila, and featured heavy metal drummer Jon Small who he played with during his time with The Hassels. Despite the previous release of two albums Joel still needed to bring in more money so he worked many music related jobs and gigs. He even wrote a rock and roll criticism piece in a weekly column for a magazine. By 1972 Billy Joel was finally on to the big stage when he released his first solo album named, Cold Spring Harbor. He named the album after a small village near his hometown on Long Island's North Shore. This album began to get air time when a Philadelphia based radio station, 93.3 WMMR began playing a live version of a new song called, Captain Jack. Despite its popularity on the east coast, Joel went west in search of some notoriety. He performed in piano bars regularly under the name Billy Martin. This experience is the basis for his hit song, Piano Man. As the popularity of Captain Jack spread west Joel was offered a contract with Columbia Records where he quickly produced top 20 hit, Piano Man.

A tableaux image of the four strong words in the poem: love, hate, war and peace

When I first walked into the stimulus room, I initially felt it was very much associated with time. There were the sound of clocks ticking in the background, there were also many pictures of clocks scattered on the floor. As I looked around the room I noticed it was clearly divided into three different sections. In the right hand section of the room, divided off by police tape, there was a television playing a video showing a baby in a womb, children playing, and then a pair of eyes. The video then showed the children grow into adults. This was followed by a sign being put up about adoption and fostering and then went back to show the image of the baby in the womb. The images were repeated continuously. Also in the section was a baby in a cot, nursery books, a hopscotch marking, several newspapers on the floor with the headlines about ‘Rape', a mirror, empty wine bottles, a train ticket with the destination, ‘To meet my first born' and also written on the floor was ‘ Dear Diary, Today I met up with some of my friends†¦ ‘. I think the overall theme of this section of the room was the ‘past'. The baby, nursery books and hopscotch marking all represent childhood and growing up. I also think there were many more themes within the section; the hopscotch could also represent the journey through life or the stages of life. The train ticket with the destination ‘To Meet My First Born' could represent life as a journey. The mirror could represent reflecting back on your past, similar to the ‘Dear Diary', this could show how you reflect back on your past or your childhood through a diary you may have kept. The newspapers, ignoring their headlines, could show how you can look back on the past, but not go back. The police tape dividing off that section of the room could also mean that there's no going back, you cannot cross the police line back to the past. The baby and the nursery books, I think simply show the beginning of life, where it all began and highlighting the innocence of a young life. The empty wine bottles, I think show the stress of growing up, the bad times of your past. The newspapers with the headlines about ‘Rape' also show the darker side of your past, something you may want to forget. The video playing a continuous loop shows the life cycle, the baby in the womb, the children playing, then growing into adults. The flash of a person's eyes could mean the images on the video were being looked at through someone's eyes; it was perhaps their memory of growing up. The scene showing a sign about fostering and adoption could show perhaps that the baby in the cot was adopted, or that as you grow older you may not be able to have children. Often couples have to think about adopting or fostering a child. The whole section could represent one person's life. Perhaps they are reflecting back on their life after realising they in fact were adopted. They may look back realising that most of their life was a lie, many parents who adopt wait until their child is eighteen before telling them they were adopted. This could show the child looking back at his or her life, adjusting to the fact he or she did not come from where they had been lead to believe they had. The empty wine bottles could show the stress of learning the truth about your past. The mirror could show how they reflect back at their life, or that you are still the same person within throughout your life. Although your physical appearance changes, and that's what the mirror shows, you still remain the same inside. The quote, â€Å"Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man† explains how you develop your characteristics by the age of seven and they remain with you for life. As I continued to look around this section of the room, I started to think more about the newspaper headlines, ‘Serial Rapist'. I started to see a pattern immerging, the headline about rape, the police tape, the empty wine bottles. This could all show a story about someone getting raped, perhaps the baby in the cot was a result of this and then put up for adoption, the mother may have turned to alcohol to deal with the trauma of being raped. The mirror, as well as reflecting back on your past could represent simply looking at your reflection, feeling self-conscious. Perhaps as a result of rape, the girl could feel very insecure and unhappy with her own appearance. The mental torment of being raped could lead her to believe that the image she sees in the mirror is worthless and damaged due to being raped. In the centre section of the room, there were lots of paintings of melting clocks scattered on the floor, a globe, a large drawing on the floor of a clock without any hands, there was also a real clock on the floor. There was a large projection of the painting ‘Scream' by Edvard Munch, a table set out for two people, there were lots of newspapers along the right hand side of this section and also newspapers with only a headline but no other text along the left side of this section. I think the overall theme of this section was the ‘present', but like in the past section I think there are many more themes within it. The paintings of melting clocks could show how time is running away, how fast life can go at times and that you should live each day to the full as you don't know whether it'll be your last. The large drawing of a clock on the floor, with no hands could back up the idea that this section of the room is ‘present' as there is no time in the present because when you have a fixed time, it is in the past. It could also represent ‘any time', the fact that there are no hands could mean that you don't know when anything will happen, you cannot predict the future. The real clock on the floor shows the reality that time really is slipping away, seconds tick by all the time, everything you do will suddenly become the past and you cannot change that. The ‘Scream' painting shows a person standing on a bridge with their hands to their face, screaming. This could represent trauma and crisis in life, the person on the bridge is perhaps thinking of ending their life and jumping into the river below, or maybe just needed a place to escape to, to reflect back on his or her life. The fact that the person is screaming could mean they are going through a hard time or they are thinking back to a scarred childhood. Like the wine bottles in the past section it could just represent the unhappy times in someone's life. Many other paintings by Edvard Munch include the same bridge or pier, maybe this is a reflection on Edvard Munch's life, it could be a place he liked to go when life was getting on top of him, to look back at his own life. The painting can represent many other things, for example the fear in people's life, perhaps it represents death, or the fact many people are afraid of the idea of death although everyone has to face it. The newspapers bordering the past and present section means that whatever is printed in the newspapers is always in the past, you can look back at it by reading the newspapers but you cannot visit it. Whereas the newspapers with only a headline and no other text represents the present and future, there's nothing to write in the newspapers because you don't know what is happening at this very moment or what is going to happen next, as soon as it has happened, when you read something in the newspaper, it is already the past. The table for two, set out neatly with two plates, two sets of cutlery and two wine glasses I think represents the opposite of the ‘Scream' painting, the happy times in life; love and friendship. It could represent a marriage, or even just two close friends. The globes could show the journey through life, or the fact that all over the world everyone is living at the same time, everyone has a past, and a present. Everyone has their own problems in life and however big and important yours are, somewhere across the world someone has their own to deal with and your problems are of no significance to them. I think this section could link into the storyline of the past section, the ‘Scream' painting could represent the trauma the rape victim went through or even how the child felt after finding out it was adopted. The table set out for two could show the happier times in their life, maybe the reunited mother and child after many years apart or it could represent a life getting back on track after a terrible event, sharing times with friends and family. The melting clocks show how time was dripping away and how you can never get it back, years would have been wasted being depressed and recovering from the trauma of being raped. In the left section of the room there is a table set out for one, a train ticket with a destination ‘To propose to Fiona', a large question mark drawn on the floor, a coffin draped in a black cloth with a rose on top, a vase of flowers, a bundle in a black cloth next to the coffin with a rose on top, a gravestone with no name or date, the words ‘Dear Diary.. ‘ written on the floor but with nothing following and on the floor, there was a white cloth. The overall theme of this section of the room was the ‘future'. The table for one, is linked to the table set out for two in the present section of the room, this could show death of a partner or divorce or even friends falling out. The white cloth on the floor could show the blank future, nothing has been written on it yet. It could also represent heaven and peace when you die. The coffin represents death, the black cloth draped over it could show how many people fear death. The coffin had a rose placed upon it, this shows love and how when you are gone, there's always someone still alive, missing you. The coffin could be linked to the table for one, it could explain that the partner or friend died. The black cloth next to the coffin could show something connected to the person in the coffin next to it, their soul or personality for instanced and how that is no longer there when a person dies. The rose upon this black cloth again can represent the love of someone you've left behind. The large question mark drawn on the floor could represent many things, how the person died or the fact that its unknown as to what happens when we die, or that we don't know what the future holds. The ‘Dear Diary†¦ ‘ without any thing written after shows that we don't know what is going to happen to us in the future. Our diaries are blank until we write in them; our future is blank until we live it. The train ticket again shows the journey through life. The destination is ‘To propose to Fiona' , this could be linked to the table for one, maybe the man went to propose to Fiona but she didn't feel the same, leaving him alone, represented by a table set out for one. The gravestone had nothing written on it apart from: RIP In loving memory of: Born: Died: I think this shows that we don't know when we are going to die, or who is going to die, when. This also shows that everyone will die, even though we don't know how or when. The flowers represent the love for someone, when people lay flowers on a grave at a funeral it is because they want to show their respect and love for the person who died and how there will be a part of their life missing without them. This section of the room could also link into the storyline of the other two sections. The bundle of cloth next to the coffin could represent an abortion, perhaps the rape victim had chosen to have an abortion. There would be no coffin because the baby was unborn but the rose still shows how there was still love for the unborn baby. The gravestone again could represent an abortion, there would be no name, or birth date as it hadn't been born. The large question mark could represent the unknown mother and father perhaps of the adopted child, it could have been an abandoned baby. It could also represent the unknown rapist and link to the past section with the police tape. On the tables, at the side of the room, not in any of the sections were several poems; ‘Time after time', ‘Funeral Blues' and an extract from ‘Ecclesiastes' in the bible. All of these tie into the three sections of the room and the overall theme of time. They also relate to the many other themes in the room, ‘Funeral Blues' by W. H. Auden is obviously related to death. It shows the love for someone who died and how they will miss them now they are gone. ‘He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest' It is from the point of view of someone left behind, someone now alone left to cope with the death of a partner. This could relate to the table for one, a partner dying and how the person will miss them. ‘I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. ‘ The extract from ‘Ecclesiastes' in the Bible, links into the idea of past, present and future. It shows how in your life, there will come a time for everything, ‘a time to be born, and a time to die' It elaborates the idea that everyone will one day die, everyone has their time. Nobody should be afraid of death, it shouldn't something to be scared of as one day everyone will face it. The poem also includes many opposites, love, hate, war and peace, and explains that in everyone's life there will come a time to do all these things. ‘a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. ‘ Development The first piece of practical work we developed from the stimulus room, was based on the Ecclesiastes poem extract from the Bible. We focused on four particular lines from it: ‘a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. ‘ We had to create a tableaux image of the four strong words in the poem; love, hate, war and peace. The first image out group started to work on was ‘love'. We decided each member of our group would hold a still image that represented various kinds of love. Georgina and I held a still image of two parents cradling a baby, showing their love for that child and each other. In this image I played the father, holding the baby whilst Georgina played the mother gazing lovingly at the baby, our facial expressions were happy to show our love for one another and the child. We also started to think about different kinds of love, not only love for other people but love for other things in life. Eliot decided to hold the image of someone eating a burger; this was to represent someone's love for food. Whilst holding an imaginary burger to his mouth, his expression was content to show how much he was enjoying it. Andy and Fiona held the still image of two people getting married in a wedding ceremony. Looking lovingly into each others eyes, they showed their love for each other, the most common kind of love. Katie played a screaming fan at a concert, overjoyed to show her love for a particular band. We then started to think about the still image we would hold for ‘hate'. Georgina and I, instead of cradling the baby, we held the image of two separated parents, fighting over custody for the child. We represented this by, Eliot playing the child and Georgina and I pulling at each of his arms to show our love for one another had gone and now we hated each other because we both wanted care of the child. We weren't facing each other or the child and our facial expressions showed we were very angry yet determined to be the parent looking after the child. Andy, Katie and Fiona held a freeze frame to show a big argument, they all had raised arms and very angry expressions, this showed their hate for one another. The next still image we worked on was ‘peace'. Instead of all holding different still images to represent this, we all stood in a circle and held hands. This showed that everyone in that circle were friends, there was no war or conflicts between us, everyone was happy and smiling. The last freeze frame we had to create was for ‘war'. We decided to show different kinds of war, the typical kind of war and also conflict and war between friends and family. We represented the typical kind of war between countries by Eliot laying dead on the floor whilst Andy and I stood over him holding guns, we had hateful looks on our faces as we looked down to the man we had killed. Georgina, Katie and Fiona represented war and conflict between friends and family by all standing with their backs to one another, with stern expressions. We also had to use the convention of ‘melt and morph' to link each of our four images. We decided to create a still image that we would start, finish and use between each of our four images. Our image that we would use to morph between the four freeze frames we created was all of us, standing with our heads down facing inwards, in a circle. This was to show the state of nothingness, no war, no peace, no love, and no hate. We evolved from this into each of our images and then back afterwards. I think the way we linked the images worked effectively because it showed four definite states; war, peace, love and hate. Also it showed the easy transition from peace to war, love to hate and represented how easy it is to go from one to the other. The characters I played in this piece were; a father in the still image for ‘love', a father in the still image for ‘hate, I was part of the circle in our representation of ‘peace' and I played someone having just killed another person in ‘war'. In the first image, I stood as the father looking very happy and lovingly at my child with a big smile on my face. In the second image, I had a more serious and hateful expression, despising of my ex-wife and determined to get custody of my child. In the third image, I stood as part of the ‘peace' circle, we all held hands and smiled to show there were no conflicts between us and we were all friends. For the last image, war, I had a very angry but satisfied look on my face as I stood over the body I had killed. The next piece of practical work we did was based on the same poem but we had to concentrate on the lines of war and hate. We were asked to think about why it would say in the bible that hate and war are justified. We then had to create a scene or imagery to explain why hate or war would be justified. The storyline our group came up with was about a very happy family, until the mother of the family was killed in a car crash. The father is left to look after the children on his own and eventually decides he cannot cope and walks out to leave the children alone. The children then start to argue over control of the family and the two eldest boys walk out to leave the last of the family, two girls alone. The girls, left alone, hate their father. This is justified because he walked out on the family just after their mother had died, when they needed him most. He left them on their own just because he felt he couldn't cope with being a single parent with four children. We based this story around a family photograph. Our first scene showed a typical family photograph, everyone smiling with arms around each other, the mother and father standing at the back with their four children kneeling in front of them. Everyone spoke occasionally saying things like, ‘Smile for the camera! ‘ and ‘Say cheese! ‘ From this perfect picture we went to the scene where the mother died. We all went and sat on chairs set out like a car, the children in the back and the mother and father in the front. The children were arguing in the back and, I, who played the father, was reading the paper in the front, leaving the mother to drive and control the children. Soon after, there are screams as the car crashes, we represented this by all slowly moving forward, we froze with our heads on our knees for a few seconds then gradually sat up again, looking weary and in pain. Fiona, who played the mother, remained with her head on her knees to show that she was dead and not going to sit back up again. We then moved back to the family photograph, this time without the mother. Here is where we included some sad music to emphasize the feeling of grief and unhappiness in the family. We again stood in the same position, ready for a photograph to be taken. I, playing the father, try to get everyone to smile saying, ‘Come on now kids, it's what your mother would've wanted, smile for the camera'. We then all froze for a few seconds to show the photograph, everyone looking deeply unhappy and not like they wanted to be there. After this I step forward, walking through the children, I turned towards them and said, ‘I'm really sorry, I just†¦ an't cope' and then walk out of the picture. Here we went back again to the family photograph, this time it's only the children in it. The two oldest children, who Eliot and Andy played start to argue about who should take control of the family, who should be the man of the house and then they both leave the picture as well. Then we are left with Ruth and Katie sitting on the floor, reflecting on their family falling apart, imagining what it would've been like if it was their father who died instead of their mother. At this point the family is reunited as if it was I, the father, was dead. Fiona and the children stood in the picture position while I sat where Fiona was sitting in the car with my head on my knees. In this performance I played the father, in the first picture I was as happy as the rest of the family, enjoying having their photo taken. After the crash, in the next picture, my character was grieving his dead wife, I showed this by looking very upset, but forcing a smile to try and encourage the rest of the family to smile for the photo. After this the father had decided he couldn't cope, as I walked through the children I held my head low to show he was regretting his decision and not wanting to look his children who he is abandoning, in the face. The father is a coward and as I said that I couldn't cope I spoke very quietly and slowly. We used many conventions in this performance; flash back, tableau (freeze frame) and slow motion. A flash back is where you move from one scene to another scene in the past. We used the flash back when we showed how the mother died and why she had dropped out of the picture. This worked well as it informed the audience as to why she wasn't in the next family photograph and why the family started to fall apart. We also used slow motion. Slow motion is when characters in the play act a lot slower than normal. We used this when we showed the car crash. I think it made the performance look more professional, rather than all falling on the floor, we all fell forward in slow motion and the fact that the mother didn't get up showed her death, I think this worked well. A tableau or a freeze frame is where characters on stage freeze in fixed positions. The freeze frames we used on every family photograph worked well because each one was different. There were less family members on each photo and for the remaining family members, their expressions grew sadder to show how distressing it was to see your family, leaving. We also added music after the crash to add more emotion and sadness to the picture. The music grew louder and stronger until it stopped when the family was reunited. I think all the conventions worked really well with our ideas and added more emotion and feeling to the piece. The next part of the stimulus room we created a performance from was the ‘Scream' painting by Edvard Munch. We had to create a piece of drama explaining how someone would get into such a state to pull this ‘scream pose' and then the aftermath. Firstly, we brainstormed ideas as to why we think the person in the painting was screaming, who he was and what happened. We came up with many ideas about the person having no friends or family, maybe being out of a job or just being generally depressed about his life. For our performance, we firstly had to create a walk of the character down the pier as shown in the painting. Eliot played our main ‘scream' character; we had to do this first movement piece to music. To begin our piece, we decided not to have the character walk down a ‘pier' but instead to walk through the passage way of a train. The central character had to be slow, and all the other people in the performance were going fast around him, this is so the focus of the performance is on the main character. We decided to show this on a train because we could emphasize the reasons as to why he is depressed and lonely. As Eliot went to sit down at every seat on the train, someone would walk that little bit faster and sit down in it before he could, someone even hurried past him and sat on one chair and put their bag on the one next to it. All the other characters on the train completely ignored Eliot. As the central character was slow he would never manage to get a seat and ended up standing up on his own. This is where he held the ‘scream' pose for a few seconds. The next part we had to do was 10 seconds of slow motion. For this we showed Eliot's anger building up, he was sick of being ignored, sick of being the one to stand alone. In this slow motion we showed Eliot raising his arms and screaming at the other passengers on the train. We showed this in mime as we thought it looked much more professional. The passengers he was shouting at simply glanced at him thinking he was a lunatic and carried on with what they were doing. For instance I played a man sitting on the train reading a newspaper, when Eliot started to scream at me, I looked up once and then went back to reading my newspaper. This all showed the build up of Eliot's anger and the exact reasons why he is so depressed and lonely and summed up why he is screaming in the painting. After the 10 seconds of slow motion, of Eliot screaming at the passengers, we had to do 10 seconds of what happens next. Here is where one by one, the passengers get up out of their seats and go, leaving Eliot standing alone in the carriage, even lonelier and upset. After the train scene, we were told to create scenes to describe what has lead the character to the scream, what has happened previously in his life to make him feel so sad and lonely? We showed this by creating three scenes that are flash backs to his earlier life. We started with a flash back to when he was a small child. Eliot and Ruth as his sister went running up to their mother, played by Fiona, to show off paintings they had both done in school that day. The mother immediately dismisses Eliot's and leaves the room with his sister, constantly praising her work. This scene showed he was in constant competition with his sister for their mother's attention, but how Eliot was never appreciated by his mother and was left standing alone in this scene. Our second flash back scene showed his life at school. He was the typical ‘geek' and had no luck with the girls. Our scene was set in a school disco where Eliot finally plucks up the courage to ask a girl he likes, to dance, when he was pushed away by another boy who the girl ended up spending the dance with. Everyone was dancing with their partners at the disco and Eliot was left standing alone, again. For our third flash back we showed Eliot a lot older, in his job. Here we showed him presenting an idea to his boss, but his boss ignored the idea and soon after gave the tea lady a promotion in front of him. This showed Eliot, again, not being appreciated, this time by his boss. In all of our flash backs we showed Eliot being ignored and not appreciated, he always ended up being left to stand alone. After these flash back scenes, our group stood, spread out, around the stage. Eliot walked up to each one of us but as he did, we all turned our backs on him. This was to symbolise his life, no one being there, everyone turning there back on him and ignoring him. This short scene could perhaps represent Eliot reminiscing on his life and leading him to walk along the pier. After this scene, we showed Eliot, walking along the pier, like in the painting. Eliot walks up to a line and stops for a few seconds, then he finally steps over the line. The line symbolising life and death, him stepping over the line showed his suicide, jumping off the bridge. At this point everyone who had turned their back on him turned around and held an outstretched arm, as if to try and catch him. After this scene we had to create a scene to show peoples reactions to finding out about his death. We did this using the rest of the group, who had stood there with outstretched arms, forming a line. Each person in turn said something in character as one person from each of the flashbacks we did. For example, I played the boss in the flashback of the job and in the line I said, ‘I should've given him a chance, I never listened to him' and then we repeated the flash back to his job as we did before but changed the detail so his boss looked at his ideas, and gave him a promotion. We did this with all three scenes we flashed back to before and changed them all so Eliot wasn't being ignored but being fully appreciated, this was to show the ‘what if' scenario, what if they had listened, what if they hadn't ignored him, he wouldn't have taken his own life. Then realising it was too late, there was no going back, everyone in the line held the ‘scream' pose themselves. This was to symbolise the way they felt, guilty. It was they who had contributed to Eliot eventually taking his own life. In this piece of drama I played a man sitting on the train and also Eliot's boss in the flashback. For the man in the train, my character was very self-contained and just simply wanted to get from one place to another, reading his paper and not being disturbed. When Eliot began to scream and shout at people, I focussed harder on the newspaper to ignore all the goings on in the carriage, despite it being a man, very depressed and alone, letting all his anger out. I played this character very upper-class, sitting up very straight on the chair, turning my nose up at the goings on in the train and acting very frustrated when I had to raise my newspaper that little bit higher to completely block out my surroundings. When I played the boss in the first ‘real' flash back, I wasn't interested in Eliot's ideas, more so interested in the cup of tea I was soon to be enjoying. I completely dismissed Eliot when he came up to me, exited to tell me about his new idea. I did not care about his feelings or whether it would be a good idea. When I played this character I was very snappy and couldn't be bothered to look at whatever he had to show and dismissed him with a wave of my hand. When I played the same character standing in the line, I was very regretful and ashamed of my actions towards him, when I said that I wish I had been a better boss I held my head low to show how ashamed I was and spoke quietly and slowly. In the ‘what if' flash back I was a very happy and considerate boss, welcoming his new idea with opening arms, I played this very kindly towards Eliot and always smiling. The conventions we used in this piece of drama were; slow and fast motion, freeze frame, flash back, mime and also used music at the beginning of the performance. We used fast motion to show every one carrying on with their lives around one focal character walking down the train. Fast motion is the opposite of slow motion where characters act faster than normal. We used the fast motion on the train scene with everyone else on the train apart from Eliot. This helped make Eliot stand out from the other characters. This symbolised that the world is still carrying on with their lives, no matter how terrible he is finding life. We then used a freeze frame when Eliot did the ‘scream pose', this worked well as it showed the link to the painting we used as our stimulus. We then used slow motion and mime in the aftermath of the ‘scream' pose and the reactions of the others on the train. Mime is where you act as normal but without speaking a word, but still moving your lips as if you were, we used this when Eliot is shouting and screaming at those on the train who eventually walk off. I think the performance looked more professional because the mime added more emotion and also symbolises the character in a way, he is shouting and screaming but the audience can't hear a word of it, just as many people ignored him in his life and never listened to anything he had to say. We then flashed back to Eliot's past to show why he felt so alone. The conventions all worked really well with the piece and helped the audience understand why the character is feeling the way he is. For our next piece of drama, we looked at a theme within the stimulus room. We looked at the ‘childhood' theme found in the past section of the room. We firstly had to brainstorm what we thought linked to childhood in the room. The hopscotch, the baby, the nursery books and the children playing on the video all tie into the childhood theme. All these objects relating to childhood had a sense of innocence and youth. We brainstormed significant memories of our own childhood and chose 6 ideas to create scenes upon. Our group came up with many ideas for this but the 6 ideas we chose were: * A school nativity play. * Playing in the school playground. * On a bouncy castle at a party. * Learning to ride a bike. * Writing letters to Father Christmas. Telling scary stories at a sleepover. We firstly had to create tableaux images or short scenes of these memories. For our first scene, the nativity play, our group all stood in a line as if on stage at a school play. Georgina and Katie were arguing loudly about the role of Mary shouting, ‘I wanted to be Mary! ‘, Ruth played a young girl, transfixed by the audience, smiling stiffly and waving, I played a young boy on stage desperately needing the toilet and dancing about ready to wee myself at any moment and Eliot played a young boy who walked off stage half way through. We all acted very childish and how you would expect very young children to react on stage in front of all their mums and dads. In our second scene, playing in the playground, Eliot and Ruth were playing with a skipping rope, Katie was playing hopscotch alone and I was running away from Georgina who was chasing me in a game of ‘tig'. For our third scene, on the bouncy castle, we were all bouncing happily apart from Ruth who is sitting on the edge, too scared to go on it. Eventually most people left the bouncy castle but I continue to bounce there quite happily on my own. Our fourth scene, learning to ride a bike, showed Eliot learning to ride a bike, being taught by Georgina whilst the rest of us played parents and other adults watching him learn. I played the father of Eliot and we all cheered when he rode the bike on his own. For our fifth scene, writing letters to Father Christmas we all laid down on the floor reading as we wrote. I lay there and as I wrote was saying, ‘Dear Santa†¦ I have been a good boy this year.. We made it very clear we were children by speaking very slowly as we wrote it and also by fidgeting whilst we were writing. In our final scene, at a sleep over, we all lay there and listened to Ruth telling a ghost story. As it ended we all gasped in horror and eventually turned over and fell asleep. After we had created the 6 original scenes, we had to repeat them all but with one thing different in each; the scene had to be tainted with a bad memory. For our nativity play scene we showed Eliot playing a young boy running off crying because his mum hadn't came to watch in the audience. This could show how his mother not turning up, could perhaps leave what should be a happy memory of a school play, tainted. It could even perhaps be a first of a long line of memories in the boy's life of people not being there for him and he may find it a lot harder to trust people in the long run. A small difference in the past could affect the future a lot more. For the playground scene, Georgina who was chasing me in the playground, deliberately pushed Katie over when she was playing hopscotch and carried on running. This could affect Katie's adult life, by having this memory tainted; Katie might feel more insecure as an adult and live her life in the shadow of others because of a small bullying incident when she was very young. For the bouncy castle scene, instead of me being left alone quite happily enjoying bouncing along, I was left alone but this time lonely and sad. This tainted memory of being left on your own while the other children go off and play somewhere else could have a big affect on later life. My character would not want to venture to new things on his own, for fear of being lonely. Perhaps he might follow other people around when he's older so that there'll always be someone there. In the repeat of the learning to ride a bike scene, the adults weren't as interested as the child achieving to ride the bike but instead all walked back inside, leaving the child outside alone, struggling with the bike. This tainted memory could be very influential in later life, the boy may not want to try new things, won't want to tackle challenges in fear of being left alone to try and cope with them. In the repeat of the writing letters to Santa scene, one of the children shouts out, ‘Santa's not real! , although a small, laughable incident, looking back, this could change a child's life in that they won't be able to trust or believe other people as much and find it difficult to rely on other people. In the tainted scene about telling scary stories, after we had fallen asleep one of the children had a nightmare and woke up clutching her knees and shaking with fear. She was the only one awake and felt scared and alone after hearing the scary story. This could affect her adult life, as she could be easily scared and worried that she will be alone. After creating 6 scenes of childhood memories and 6 scenes of tainted childhood memories we had to create a scene that shows a character from one of the scenes in the future as an adult. We decided to create a scene that showed all the characters from the nativity play scene, in adult life. We kept it similar to the original scene in that the characters were all waiting on stage in a theatre, ready for the curtains to go up. Each character said their own thoughts aloud before they went on stage. For my character I said, ‘Oh why didn't I go to the toilet before I came on?! It's too late now! ‘ This is similar to the character I played in the nativity play, needing the toilet on stage. All the other characters said their thoughts, similar to the actions of those when they were children in the nativity play. For example Georgina who wanted to be Mary said, ‘Why does she get to play Juliet? She always gets the good parts'. Eliot, whose parents didn't turn up in the nativity play said, ‘I know they're not going to be there, they never turn up'. This shows how the tainted memory of the nativity play has been affecting him in later life. From this scene we flashed back to the childhood nativity play scene, this worked very well as we stayed in the same positions and the transition was clear by our sudden childish behaviour on stage. The characters I played in the piece of drama are; a small boy needing the toilet on stage in the nativity play, a boy being chased in a game of tag in the playground, a boy bouncing on the bouncy castle, left alone at the end, a father watching his son learn to ride a bike, a small child writing a letter to Father Christmas, a small child at a sleepover listening to a scary story and an adult waiting on stage, desperately needing the toilet. When I played the boy in the nativity play, needing the toilet, I played it with a very desperate face, embarrassed that I'm on stage and I need the toilet and also by bugging the girl next to me to tell her. I played the boy being chased in the playground with lots of excitement, full of energy, dodging behind chairs and people trying to hide. When I played the boy on the bouncy castle, for the first memory, I played him really happy and exited, enjoying just bouncing up and down, not affected when everyone leaves. On the tainted memory, when everyone leaves my face turned sad, I stood there, still bouncing slightly, looking upset, wondering why all my friends had ran off without me. When I played the father in the first memory of the boy learning to ride a bike I played it full of joy, a big smile on my face watching my son learn. On the tainted memory I acted like I wasn't interested, more interested in talking to my friend about the football than watching my son learn how to ride a bike. When I played the small child writing a letter to Father Christmas, the first memory I played I looking really happy and exited to be writing to Santa and also very much looking forward to Christmas. On the tainted memory I played it very upset and shocked when someone said that Santa wasn't real, as if my dreams had been shattered and betrayed that I had been lied to about it. For the small child at the sleepover I played it very interested in the story being told and exited about what would happen next but scared at the same time. And finally when I played the adult on stage waiting to go on but desperately needing the toilet, I played it very nervous, thinking why I had made such a mistake again. When I said my thoughts I said it with nerves in my voice and embarrassment saying, ‘Why didn't I go to the toilet?! ‘. The conventions we used throughout this piece of drama were; flash backs, freeze frames, repetition and thought tracking. We used the flashback to go from the adults on stage to the tainted memory of the nativity play, this worked very well as we were in the same positions and the change between our adult characters and child characters was visible even though we had the same qualities. We used a freeze frame to separate our childhood scenes; we ended each scene with one. Repetition is where you repeat something you have already performed, often with a small change to it. We used repetition when we went from one childhood memory to a tainted childhood memory; the scene was the same apart from a few details. Thought tracking is where you hear characters thoughts aloud. We used thought tracking when the adult actors are waiting for the curtain to rise and they say their thoughts, relating back to how they felt when they were children. The conventions added more depth to the piece, the repetition showed the clear difference between the normal and tainted memory and the flashback showed how the tainted memory had effect in later life. The freeze frames detached each scene from each other and I think gave it more of an effect of being someone's memory. For our final scene, we had to choose one object or theme from the stimulus room and create our own performance piece on this idea. Our group chose the newspapers about rape in the past section of the room and the table set one in the future section of the room. The story our group developed was about a girl called Katie being raped. It showed the life of Katie in a ‘what if' situation. If she hadn't taken the detour on the way home from the pub, would she have been raped? Our piece of drama started with Katie, playing Katie and Eliot, playing the rapist, walking towards each other. Katie was walking alone back from a night out at the pub; she was a little tipsy and seemed in her own world whilst walking along. Eliot walked towards her from the opposite direction; he was also alone and had just come from a night out with the lads. Georgina and Fiona took the roles of narrators and introduced the characters as they walked to the centre stage. Georgina told the audience about Katie's bubbly personality, how she was always up for a good night out. Fiona introduced Eliot as a typical ‘lad', told the audience his love for women and how he'd go for anything with a pulse. This introduced the characters as they met. When they both reached each other there was a freeze frame. Katie held her arms in the air, protecting her self whilst Eliot held the position of someone about to attack her. They were not touching; this would leave the audience in suspense, left to think about what this freeze frame was suppose to show. As our stimulus for this piece of drama included the newspapers about rape that was what the freeze frame represented although the audience would not know that for sure. As they were frozen, Georgina, Fiona and I walked on stage and started circling the freeze frame, we all acted as if we were going about out daily lives. I was on the phone talking to a friend, Georgina was reading a newspaper and Fiona was talking as if to a friend. This was to represent that the whole world carries on with their lives whilst the rape was happening, perhaps tying into the representation of the Globe in the stimulus room. We included in our story, a way of being able to freeze what was going on, on stage and being able to talk to yourself or your thoughts aloud or to the audience, this was done by clicking the fingers. I think this added suspense as the drama could be immediately stopped at any precise moment and also made the audience feel more involved. As we were all circling the freeze frame, Ruth who played the same character of Katie walked on stage and clicked her fingers. We all froze. Ruth, looking at the scene in front of her, looked distressed and confused. She was saying things like, ‘this is not right, it's not like this' to herself as she walked up to the frozen scene. As she reached the scene of ‘herself' getting raped, she started to change it. She straightened up Katie's jacket and did up Eliot's tie. She stood in the scene to show that it was her it had happened to, then Ruth's character of Katie got a phone call from her boyfriend, this is who I played. I was asking her to come back to the house because there was something I wanted to ask her. This was where the story was spilt. There was now a ‘what if' scenario. The second Katie had got a phone call to go back to the house, so she wouldn't have ever met Eliot in the alley and it wouldn't have happened at all, The first Katie didn't get a phone call from her boyfriend before she took the detour down the alley and ended up getting raped. As our performance continued, we showed the same character, Katie, in two different lives, one went home to her boyfriend the other had been raped. Ruth's character of Katie who had received the phone call went home to meet her boyfriend. As she opened the door she was greeted by me on one knee. I took her hand and began proposing, I started saying, ‘I've been thinking about this for a long time now, I want to spend the rest of my life with you†¦ ‘ Ruth then clicked her fingers, I froze and she walked towards the audience. Ruth began to say her thoughts out loud saying things like ‘Is he really going to do this? and generally showing her excitement to the audience that she was about to be engaged. Ruth then returned standing in front of me and clicked. I carried on with proposing, ‘Katie, will you marry me? ‘ Here is where we froze, Ruth left the scene but I stayed in the same position. The first Katie, who had been raped, walked in. I acted exactly the same and began to propose, ‘I've been thinking about this for a long time now†¦ ‘ Katie walked on by, ignoring me, her boyfriend, muttering quietly, ‘I don't want to talk right now'. This Katie is very distressed after being raped that she walked straight past her boyfriend proposing, and out of the room. Here is where we represented the table for one, Katie's boyfriend has been left on his own, he was about to ask the most important question of his life and his girlfriend, who he doesn't know has been raped, walked straight past ignoring him. After this scene, the second Katie, who didn't get raped is showing off her engagement ring to her friends played by Georgina and Fiona, in the pub. Although we didn't show it, Katie said yes to her boyfriend and now she is happily engaged. Eliot's character, the rapist, is also in the pub. As this Katie hasn't ever come across him she doesn't know who he is but as he walks past her and her friends, Katie kept staring at him and can't help thinking why she recognises him. She doesn't know why, she doesn't know him, but she gets a chill down her spine and has to leave. The final scene of our piece shows the narrators introducing Katie and Eliot exactly the same as at the beginning, they are walking towards each other. This time it is Ruth's character of Katie having just left the pub. They freeze in the same positions as Eliot and Katie had done before. So even if Katie had got a phone call from her boyfriend and went back to the house, if she hadn't walked down the alley that night, she still ended up in the situation of rape. This shows that even with the ‘what if', Katie got raped either way. It shows you can't live life thinking, ‘what if I'd done something differently' as everything happens, and happens for a reason. In this performance I played the boyfriend of Katie and also one of the general members of public walking round the frozen rape scene at the beginning. When I played one of the people walking around the freeze frame I was talking on the phone to a friend, not knowing of the rape that was also happening, this is to represent that everywhere everyone is getting on with their lives while you maybe going through such trauma. I also played Katie's boyfriend, who is very much in love with his girlfriend and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. When I was proposing to the Katie who didn't get raped, I proposed to her on one knee, and took her hand in mine, with a big smile on my face as I saw her smiling as I said it. I paused between each line until I finally said, ‘Will you marry me? ‘ which I said definitely and seriously but still smiling. When I proposed to the Katie that did get raped, I started just as I did with the other Katie, smiling as I said it until she walked on past me ignoring me, the smile faded and I got up looking very upset and confused at the same time. We used many conventions in this piece; freeze frame, narration, thought tracking and cross cutting. We used tableaux during each scene as a way for the narrator or character to speak to the audience and fill them in on what was happening. We used narrators to help tell the story in more detail, making it easier for the audience to understand and be more involved with the play. Narration is when you speak to the audience out of role, informing them of details about the play or about the characters in it. Some characters used thought tracking and spoke to the audience in character, to show their inner thoughts; we used this whenever we had a freeze frame by clicking the fingers. Thought tracking is where you as an audience can hear the characters thoughts out loud. We also used cross cutting, from the two Katie's lives, the Katie that did get raped and the Katie that didn't. This showed how taking just a small detour on your way home could affect your life completely, this added more depth to the piece, being able to see, visually the ‘what if' scenario. Cross cutting is where you switch from one scene to another, freezing in-between. The conventions were all very effective and added more emotion to the piece, being able to hear the characters inner thoughts and also kept the audience more informed with the story and the characters in it. Evaluation For our first piece of drama, the still images for love, hate, war and peace. We had to create four tableaux images for those words and morph between them. The most effective moment in this piece I think was our tableau for ‘peace' and the way we morphed into it. Our image for ‘peace' was everyone holding hands in a circle, we evolved into this from everyone in our group heads down in a smaller circle and then we all together stepped back and held hands. I think this was effective because it flowed nicely and was a good representation of the word. Our group worked very well for our first piece of practical work, everyone contributed ideas and we came out with a good finished performance. Ideas I contributed for the still images of love, hate, war and peace were that we should include several different meanings of the words e. g. not only the typical love for another person but also show love for other things like a favourite band or a favourite food, also the way we morphed into the images, I thought it was a good idea to return to one same still image after each of the four images we showed. My ideas were effective for the way we morphed into each of the images, because it flowed well and showed four definite different still images. I think we could have improved it by showing the typical kind of war, between countries, not by having a dead body on the floor and two men standing over him with guns. I didn't think this looked very good and would have been better if we showed it in a less obvious way. We then had to create a piece of drama that explains why hate and war may be justified. The most effective moment of this piece of drama we did, I think was the music playing alongside the performance after we had shown the mother dying. This was effective because as the music was slow and sad it represented the mood of everyone in the family, grief and sadness. For this piece, our group worked well together, the general picture of the family getting smaller and gradually looking more and more miserable worked well. The ideas our group came up with were effective in that the justifying hate was deep and hidden within the performance, we showed the build up and reason the children ended up hating their father. Ideas I contributed to this piece were to flash back to how the mother died. I think this fitted nicely into the performance as it explained the reason for the mother not being in the next family photograph although I think it would have looked better if we showed her death by symbolising it somehow not sitting in four chairs laid out like a car. The conventions we used in this were; freeze frames, flash back and slow motion. These conventions were effective because the freeze frames represented the family photograph which is what we based our story on, the flash back kept the audience more informed as to why the mother had died and the reasons the family had started to fall apart. The slow motion in the car crash made it look more professional and I think worked well. Other conventions we could have added was perhaps more thought tracking, this would have improved the performance as the audience would have been able to hear the individual characters thoughts, what that were feeling and if they did, the reasons they walked out on the family from their point of view. The second piece of practical work we developed was based around the ‘Scream' painting. Here we showed the reasons and build up as to why this character was screaming and the aftermath of his suicide. The most effective moment of this performance I though was when Eliot, who played the main character, walked up to each other member of the group in turn and we all just turned our backs on him. This was symbolic of his life, nobody being there for him, nobody appreciating him and everyone turning their back on him. For this piece our group worked well together, all of our ideas made up a good all round performance, when we put all the different sections of the performance together to perform it, it worked well. The idea I contributed to the piece was to revisit the flashbacks in a ‘what if' situation, the characters on finding out about Eliot's death were all deeply sorry and ashamed of the way they behaved towards him. Showing these ‘what if' flashbacks I think represented their own thoughts and was effective in the performance. What we could have improved in this piece was the beginning sequence of Eliot doing the ‘scream' pose. I think this could have been shown in a more symbolic way as it is symbolic in itself; the character wouldn't have screamed like that in a train carriage but it represented the way he felt and linked it to the painting we used as our stimulus. We could have shown it somehow to be in the character's head, his thoughts circling him screaming as he was only screaming inside, until he started to shout at passengers. The conventions we used within this piece were; slow and fast motion, freeze frame, flash back, mime and also used music at the beginning of the performance. I think they all added to the performance, the slow and fast motion helped the audience see who the focal character was and also represented the way the world is going so fast around you. We used the freeze frame when Eliot did his ‘scream' pose, this worked effectively because it linked the piece back to our stimulus, the scream painting. It showed how the character in our performance was feeling the same, if not was the person in the painting. The flash backs we used helped show the reasons and build up to why this person is screaming, it made the audience understand what has lead him to this and why he ended up committing suicide. The ‘what if' flash backs, with some details changed, showed the way the people were thinking, how if they might have behaved differently towards him then he may not have ended up walking off the bridge. Other conventions we could have added were thought tracking, we could have used this on the main character who does the ‘scream' pose. This could have given the play more depth and emotion, it would have helped inform the audience more of what he was thinking and what was going through his mind. The third piece of practical wok we worked on was the childhood scenes. This is where we came up with 6 childhood memories and made a scene or imagery out of them, then we repeated those scenes but with a few details changed so that they were tainted memories, we then showed a scene of some of the characters from the childhood scenes in adult life and flashed back to when they were younger. The 6 childhood memories we worked on were; a nativity play, playing in the school playground, playing on a bouncy castle, learning to ride a bike, writing letters to Santa and telling scary stories at a sleep over. I think the most effective moment of this piece was when we flashed back from the adult scene to when they were younger, this showed how the tainted memory had affected that child in adult life and also that all the characters have the same characteristics now they are older when they did when they had stood on stage in a nativity play as very young children. It also worked well as we stood in the same positions and the only change from the adult scene and the flashback was our sudden childish behaviour. For this performance our group worked very well, we had many scenes to put together and when we did it all flowed nicely. Ideas I contributed to this piece was to have the thought tracking of the adults when they were waiting to go on stage, I think it was effective because this showed what they were thinking and how it related to their character when they were children. Ideas we could have improved to make the performance better was to make the way the scenes had been tainted more obvious. It wasn't too clear to the audience how the scene had been tainted when it was repeated. The conventions we used throughout this piece of drama were; flash backs, freeze frame, repetition and thought tracking. These conventions worked effectively in the performance; we used the flashback when we went from the adult scene to the nativity play scene. This worked well as it showed the similarities between the adults and the children, also we stayed in the same positions so it was only clear that we had flashed back by our change to acting like children. The freeze frame helped separate each of the childhood scenes and I think gave the scenes the effect of being in someone's memory, freezing the scene, then moving to the next one. The repetition showed how a childhood memory could easily be tainted; it showed the difference between someone's happy childhood memory and someone's bad childhood memory. The thought tracking of the adults waiting on stage worked well as it informed the audience what they were thinking and how it related to their character when they were younger. Conventions we could have added to improve our piece of drama could be more thought tracking, in the childhood scenes we only knew how the children felt by the way they acted, perhaps if we included some thought tracking for the children it would show how they were feeling in their happy memory and then in their tainted memory. The final piece of drama we did was our final performance, about rape. We showed the life of our character, Katie, in a ‘what if' scenario, what her life would be like if she had been raped and if she hadn't. We showed these two different lives alongside each other. The most effective moment of this piece, I think, was showing her boyfriend propose to Katie twice, the one who did get raped and the one who didn't. This showed the contrast between the two and the effect of being raped. For this performance our group worked well together and we all had good ideas that contributed to our final piece. We all listened to what each other had to say and were all happy with the final performance we came up with. Ideas that I added to this piece were to repeat the beginning scene with the first Katie and Eliot walking towards each other, at the end, with the second Katie. This was to show that even if she hadn't taken a detour home she would have got raped anyway so you shouldn't go through life thinking, ‘what if I'd done something differently? ‘ It also wrapped up the piece and was a good ending. Another idea I added was to have the narrators introduce Katie and Eliot at the beginning of the piece, this worked well because it showed how Katie was a normal, bubbly girl and that rape could happen to anyone. It also introduced Eliot as a typical ‘lad' which similarly shows how anyone could be a rapist. We could have improved this piece by making it easier to understand, maybe by making it slightly simpler. It was a very complicated story line and is difficult to show the life of the same person with two different people, which may have made it more complicated for the audience. The conventions we used in this piece were freeze frames, narration, thought tracking and cross cutting. They were all very effective in the way we used them. We used a freeze frame in nearly every scene, when a character clicked their fingers. This is where the characters had a chance to either narrate or we included thought tracking of the characters here. We used narration to introduce the characters, describe their personality and also inform the audience of what was happening through the story, we used the narration during a freeze frame. This was effective because the audience could not only listen to the narrator but see a still image on stage behind. The thought tracking, we included when we used a freeze frame, this portrayed the feelings and thoughts of the character to the audience at various parts of the story. We used cross cutting when we cut from one Katie's life to the other, this was a major part of the story, which helped show the two lives side by side. This was very effective as it could show the audience the different lives Katie would lead, if she had been raped and if she hadn't been raped. Other conventions we could have added into the piece would be maybe a flash back into the rapists' past. This could have given the performance more depth and perhaps reason as to why someone would end up doing such a thing, it would have explained to the audience what type of person ended up becoming a rapist.