Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Write a essay about those questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Write a about those questions - Essay Example Except for the congenital syphilis, syphilis occurs in four distinct stages. In the initial primary stage, there is formation of a sore which is a small, round and firm referred as chancre that occurs at the site of infection. Chancre usually occurs 21-90 days after infection. The ulcer usually disappears and secondary syphilis sets in. This is evidenced by skin rash which do not itch at soles and palms. Symptoms associated with secondary stage syphilis include headache, swollen lymph glands, sore throat and tiredness. In the latent syphilis no symptoms are evident and the disease progresses to the tertiary stage. Failure to treat syphilis may lead to the complicated tertiary stage which affects almost all organs of the body including the brain, nervous system and heart. Late syphilis presents with mental illness and neurological failures. The diagnosis of syphilis maybe by examination of a chancre by a health worker and laboratory tests confirmation for the disease. Antibiotics especially penicillin are used in treatment of syphilis especially at the primary stages. Syphilis that has affected the neural system may be treated by intravenous injection of penicillin. Prevention of the disease is by avoiding contact (sexual contact) with infected individual and avoiding sex partners. Protected sex may also minimize chances of infection (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 1). The bacterium Nesseria gonorrhoeae infects the potential victim through the genital tract, mouth and rectum. Transmission of this bacterial disease is through sexual intercourse with an infected partner oral, anal or vaginal. The bacterium has its reservoir in infected humans. Symptoms of this STD include discharge in both men and women though some infected individuals may not present with any symptoms. These symptoms are evident after 2-10 days after sexual intercourse with an infected individual. In women possible symptoms

Monday, October 28, 2019

HRM practice in small-medium enterprises (SMEs) Essay Example for Free

HRM practice in small-medium enterprises (SMEs) Essay Introduction The article analyzes the way of HRM practice in small-medium enterprises(SMEs) and the reason why it is important element for SMEs. Over the past years, small-medium enterprises play an increasingly significant role in European economy. It is mainly because European countries including UK have large amount of SMEs but with small scale of big enterprises. However, HRM, as an important part of a company, is utilized in tremendous different ways between large and SMEs firms. SMEs are reluctant to use HRM when considering high cost and time. This situation brings a lot of issues. Unfortunately, very few of the research for HRM in SMEs have been published till now(Domingo Ribeiro Soriano,et all,2011) .For example, according to the US academic journals from 1988 to 1998, more than 207 papers had been written about HR recruiting ,etc. However, just 7 of the articles mentioned about SMEs in Journal of Applied Psychology, Academic of Management Review and Personnel Psychology;. For these reasons,it is important to investigate the study of HRM in SMEs. Negative and positive arguments about HRM practice in SMEs Large amount of Debates about the efficiency of HRM in SMEs are illustrated in the earlier studies. Small business see few advantages of HRM when comparing to the large firms(Akroyd1995,adapted by Cassell.C et all,2002 ).Especially in the training ,Storey and Westhead described that the employees in the SMEs have few chances to get involved in structured training. (1997,adapted by Cassell.C et all, 2002) .After conducting several cases, Holiday also mentioned that training is not utilized well in SMEs(1995,adapted by Cassell.C et all, 2002). Cassell.C, et all(2002)did both interviews and telephone survey to a number of SMEs, and conclude that HRM practices especially selection and training process are transferring to other department in informal ways. They also found that 53% of SMEs that they investigated in recruited their employees via relatives or friend’s recommendation. It means HRM is not very formal in SMEs. In another word, HRM in SMEs are full of different issues. Bu t according to the following  study HRM indeed bring some benefit to companies. In1995 Leicestershire, and Storey (adapted by Cassell.C et all, 2002)did a study which comparing the difference between traditional HRM and new practices among the large and small companies. The result of 15 cases implied that although the initiative of every employee in large companies has more opportunities to be enabled, it is more sustainable process in small-medium firms. In my opinion, SMEs might be developing better when they employ formal HRM practices. For example, during the study of HRM of SMEs,Williamson, Cable, Aldrich, (2002,adapted by Patel, C. P, et all, 2010) found that that SMEs can be more competitive and legitimated with formal HRM activities since it helps firms attract more high quality employees. HRM can also create harmonious group culture, highlighting the relationship between employers and companies. (Cameron Quinn, 1999,adapted by PATEL, C.2010). Data analyze In order to explore whether it is beneficial for companies when they use formal HRM practices, I conclude the research which was done by PATEL, C. P et all(2010).They did a research to discover the relationship between HRM and company productivity. In this study, high group culture means that a strong team works and effective working environment, which is usually created by strong HRM.) That it surveyed 145 firms and 6 industries including different size of firms. The correlation can be described by the following charts.Chart1 suggests: under high group culture, companies increase the use of HRM when market competition increase; Product market competition (chart 1,adapted by PATEL,C.P,andS. CARDON,S.M ) HRM intensity (chart 2, adapted by PATEL, C. P,and S. CARDON,S.M ) Under high group culture, Chart2 indicated that HRM intensity can enhance the labor productivity To sum up, when the market is in the growing competition, HRM can boost the labor productivity. It also implied that the firms should keep the high group culture environment in order to keep the effectiveness of HRM. High group culture is from strong HRM practices. In my opinion from the data analyze, when HRM is utilized in SMEs in formal ways ,it might bring significant benefit to company. As Walsh and  Whites (1981) point out same idea as well. They suggest that same regulation of HRM should be utilized among those companies but small scale in SMEs. Author opinion As far as my consideration, HRM is a very important part for SMEs. The reason can be explained by following aspects. Firstly, Many SMEs firms in UK have informal HRM activities rather than totally absence (Culley et all, 1998, adapted by Cassell.C, et all, 2002).However, the way SMEs conduct these kind of practice reduce its’ actual benefit. For example, if recruiting and training procedure are not completed by the HR, other department need to expense time and cost to implement those processes. Consequently, it divides the cost of HR department into other team. In fact, it increases the cost of companies in long term prospective. Therefore, SMEs may increase benefit if they employ formal HRM practices from long prospective. Secondly,According to the charts (12), HRM has vital influence on labor productivity when fierce competition appears. On one hand, HRM is important element when company goes through high level of competitive market. SMEs must employ HRM if they want to survive in long term .On the other hand, strong group culture which is built by HR department can reinforce HRM to effect labor productivity (PATEL, C. P,and S. CARDON,S.M,2010).As a consequence , HRM should be develop in correct way so that the company can built adequate group culture, thereby enhance the labor productivity especially in competitive market. Thirdly, it is important to look at the economy situation in UK. UK holds a large amount of SMEs with small scale of large company. It suggests that economic contribution of SMEs play important role in the country. From general perspective, when well-establishing and formal HRM is employed by SMEs, it will have big effect on the GDP of UK. As Cassell.C, Nadin.S, Gray.M, Clegg.C concluded in their research in 2002, HRM indeed exist in small business and small multiples. Although the structure of both firms is informal, human resource management brought obvious effective effort to the firm. From this study, we can imply that SMEs will grow stronger if they utilize more formal HRM in long term. Consequently, high level of HRM practice improves the effectiveness of companies. Conclusion My study suggest that HRM practices play very important roles in SMEs not only because it can create group culture and enhance the effectiveness of the group development, but also can protect firms from fierce competition. Moreover, HRM can increase the benefit of companies in long terms. But there is also some problem of HRM practices. Due to a lack of experience and information, majority of SMEs have no energy to take formal HRM. Whether this situation can be solved still need further study in UK. It depends on the companies themselves. Although I argued that SMEs should emphasize HRM practices in long term development, a lot of SMEs pursue short-time benefit and they may not consider HRM benefit. The research about how do the companies increase the use of formal HRM but not reduce the short-term benefit is needed to be discovering in the future. Hence, the different situations decide whether small-medium companies employ formal HRM. Reference Cassell.C, Nadin.S, Gray.M,Clegg.C,(2002):Exploring human resource management practices in small and medium sized enterprises, Personnel Review,Vol.31 No.6,pp:671-692 Domingo Ribeiro Soriano*and Ma. à ngeles Montoro†Sà ¡nchez,(2011)â€Å"Introduction: Contributions of Human Resource Management to the Challenges faced by Small† and Medium†Sized Enterprises in the Global Environment†, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol.28: P119–121 PATEL, C. P,and S. CARDON,S.M,2010, â€Å"Adopting HRM Practices And Their Effectiveness In Small Firms Facing Product Market Competition†, Human Resource Management, March–April 2010, Vol. 49, No. 2, Pp. 265– 290

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Hamlets Relationships Essay -- essays research papers

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the character of Hamlet has many relationships with all characters. The theme human relationships is very strong in this play. A human relationship is a logical or natural association between two or more people. Hamlet has many of these associations with King Hamlet's Ghost, Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, Polonius, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Many of his relationships are just and unjust according to the character's flaws and feelings. The ghost of King Hamlet played an important role during the book. The first interaction between King Hamlet's Ghost can be simply called extreme. Hamlet is extreme when he goes with the ghost that looks like his father even though his friends warn him that the ghost may be evil and ". . .tempt you toward the flood . . . Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff . . ." (Act 1, Scene IV, Lines 69-70). If the prince was thinking right he would not have gone with the ghost that resembled the old ". . . King, father, royal Dane . . ." (Act 1, Scene IV, Line 45) Hamlet's radical actions let him find out about Claudius' devious murder of his brother, King Hamlet . The ghost of King Hamlet has described Claudius as "...that incestuous, that adulterate beast" (Act 1, Scene V, Line 43). King Hamlet wants Hamlet to get revenge against Claudius for killing him, but he does not want Gertrude to get hurt while this is going on. Hamlet therefore delays in killing Cl audius because he needs to find out if his mother has anything to do with the treachery. Hamlet took this relationship cautiously and did this correctly because ghosts were thought as underhandedly evil. The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is interpreted as the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex refers to the thoughts some men have regarding their mother or maternal figures. Many scenes from the play can prove Hamlet did have these thoughts about his mother, such as acts one and three. Gertrude's fondness and helpfulness to protect her son is also displayed throughout the play. This can be seen in the play many times, even up to when Gertrude is about to die. She tries to save Hamlet from drinking the poison himself. Also when Hamlet tries to get Gertrude to believe him that Claudius killed King Hamlet, she thin... ... breath with your mouth,". (Act 3, Scene II, Lines 348-349) As the play continues Hamlet is sent off to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for him to pay for his crimes. Hamlet finding the letter to England changes it to say kill the possessors of the letter. Hamlet on the way to England gets supposedly kidnapped by pirates, while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go to England and get executed. Hamlet felt they got what they deserved when they followed out the king's plan of action. With all of the corruption and back stabbing in Denmark, Hamlet thought out every decision with great intelligence. Hamlet's human relationships with the ghost, Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were all very just and deserving. As Hamlet finds out they all contain lies and have hidden intentions within them. Hamlet's blinding rage against Polonius was very hurtful and unjust. Hamlet's friend, Horatio, was his only true friend and he helped Hamlet until the end. As Marcellus said it best, "Something is rotten in Denmark." (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 90) That being the lies, which have replaced or covered the true state of each character.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Teaching Vocabulary to Young English Learners

A crucial component of learning a foreign language is the acquisition of vocabulary. For young learners, the very first words that they acquire could lay the profound basis for a better later learning of the children. This study is intended to investigate the specific application of techniques in teaching English vocabulary to young learners. I strived to investigate the current techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners and studied the difficulties that teachers encounter during this process. Oral interviews, questionnaire and observation schemes were used as useful instruments for data collection. The questionnaire-based survey aims to scrutinize teachers’ common techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners, general difficulties that they meet in teaching. Oral interviews and observations serve to elaborate on the information gathered from questionnaires and discover teachers’ opinions on how to solve arisen problem in language classroom, especially during vocabulary section. The result of this survey indicates that using flashcards in presenting, sorting tasks in practicing and sentence completion in revising vocabulary are three most preferably common techniques in teaching young learners the English vocabulary. The exploitation of combining different techniques is considered rather limited; in conclusion,, this study provides some suggestions for teachers to realize the benefits of having available activities and games in young learners’ classroom. 1. Introduction I chose this topic for my research study because I consider that for young learners, vocabulary and grammar are two essential units that require them to master at early stage. It was once claimed that â€Å"experienced teachers of English as a Second Language know very well how important vocabulary is. They know their students must learn thousands of words that speakers and writers of English use. † (Allen, 1983). The well-known linguist Wilkins, one of the leaders in language learning and teaching, indicated that â€Å"without grammar, very little could be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed† Teaching vocabulary is considered to be an add- on to teaching grammar or simply a by-product of language teaching and communicative functions. The reasons are: firstly, too many words in one sentence are believed to break its grammar structure and spoil children in learning systematic grammar; secondly, it is thought that vocabulary can be learned through experience only and therefore, there is little need for the teachers to focus much on teaching their students vocabulary; and thirdly, they put the emphasis of teaching grammar on priority to vocabulary are already taken too much of any lesson in the classroom. The basic concept of how important teaching vocabulary in class is, was not recognized until late 1970s and 1980s when people realized the necessity of vocabulary in reading comprehension (Allen: p. 5) Learning a new language with native speakers can provoke learners’ motivation and boost their confidence in quickly obtaining language step by step, native teachers, in many circumstances have to face the obstacle of slow or misbehaved students, particularly in vocabulary section. This study therefore was conducted, aiming at reviewing common techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners. . An overview of Vocabulary 2. 1. 1. Definition In order to find the best and most easy-to-understand definition of the vocabulary, is such an unfeasible task. Each linguist or scholar, in his specialized field, with his own set of criteria has found out for his own a way to define vocabulary. However, in the most popular way, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary has applied a meaning for vocabulary as â€Å"all the words which exist in a particular language or subject. † In the context of learning English as a Foreign Language, the vital role of vocabulary is inevitable. This has been claimed by many linguists and experts in the field. Wilkins (cited in Thornbury, 2002) clearly stated that â€Å"without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed† (page 13). Coincidentally, H. Dellar and D. Hocking indicated that progress made from learning grammar most of the time would be much less than that from learning vocabulary. To be short and concise, when comparing the importance of grammar and vocabulary, both mentioned statement above show that most of learner’s improvement was created when the learner himself learned more words and expressions. It was also emphasized when it came to communicate that â€Å"you can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words† (Thornbury , p. 13). 2. 2. Young learners 2. 2. 1. Definition The term â€Å"young learners†, according to the author of the book An A-Z of ELT, Thornbury , â€Å"is used to describe children of pre-primary and primary school age, although it is sometimes used to include adolescents as well† (p. 250). In the same way, â€Å"young learners† as defined by Sarah Phillips (1993) are â€Å"children of formal schooling (five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age. † (p. 4). Teaching English to young learners, therefore, has a long history: in many multilingual countries, primary school children are taught English as preparation for secondary school, where it is the medium of instruction. In recent years, there has been a phenomenal increase in the teaching of English to young learners, in EFL context as well as in ESL, and in state school as well as in private ones (Thornbury, p. 251). 2. 2. 2. Characteristics of young learners Vocabulary knowledge is a major building block in children's early literacy development. It provides the foundation for learning to decode and comprehend text. Many children, especially English language learners, need support in acquiring the substantial vocabulary they need to become good readers. Reading books to children is one way to introduce them to a wide range of vocabulary that they may not hear in their everyday conversations with adults and peers. Young learners need to be able to transfer their understanding of words to new contexts, so that when they see or hear those words in other places they understand what they mean. Talking about words from book to book is one way of showing children how words are used in other contexts. Another way to help them see how words are used in other contexts is asking them to think about how the words apply to their own knowledge and experiences. In explaining the word freight, for example, a teacher might say, â€Å"Have you ever seen a train on the tracks? Did you notice the cars of the train? Inside of those train cars, there are lots of things that are being taken from one place to another. The stuff that is being brought from one place to another is called freight. What are some things that you think could be freight on a train? † 2. 3. Vocabulary teaching . 3. 1. Stages in teaching Vocabulary Basically as proposed by Gower (2005) and Thornbury (2002) there are three stages in teaching vocabulary namely presenting, practicing and revising. In this research, I am going to list each stage with its typical features to have a better review for further techniques followed that. 2. 3. 1. 1. Presenting The title of this very first stage has indicated clearly its funct ion in introducing new lexical items to learners. As suggested by Thornbury, learners need to learn both the meaning and the form of a new word. Therefore, as he claimed, it’s worth pointing out that both these aspects of a word should be presented in â€Å"close conjunction in order to ensure a tight meaning-and-form fit† (p. 75). If the co-writers of Teaching Practice (p. 146) immediately referred to the effectiveness of using visual aids in presenting new words, Thornbury specifically emphasized the importance of cutting down â€Å"the gap between the presentation of a word’s form and its meaning† so that learners could possibly be at ease to make a â€Å"mental connection between the two†. He also stressed some major factors, subject to which the number of words should be presented. . 3. 1. 2. Practicing Suggested by Gower, students often need a little time for the new lexical items to â€Å"sink in† (p. 148). He pointed out that learners may recognize new item but often delay putting it into active use. In this case, is of pure necessity the use of planned activities for recyclin g and reactivate the new vocabulary. This kind of practice, as implied by Thornbury (2002) underlines the popular belief that â€Å"practice makes perfect† (p. 93). He additionally emphasized the action of moving words from short-term memory into permanent memory. He emphasized that â€Å"new knowledge – i. e. new words – needs o be integrated into existing knowledge – i. e. learner’s existing network of word associations, or what is called the mental lexicon. † (p. 93). Words or lexical items need to be put to work, or into practice as it is often understood in many other contexts, in order to ensure the long-term retention and recall. Vocabulary needs to be placed in â€Å"working memory† and subjected to different operations which would be mentioned intricately in the later part of techniques in practicing vocabulary. 2. 3. 1. 3. Consolidating and Revising Checking students’ comprehension and revising those words are a final important stage in teaching this specific field. In this stage, students are advised to complete high-level tasks namely production tasks. The author of many famous books for English language teachers grouped decision-making tasks into the second stage when learners needed to decide and make their choice in facing up with already learnt items. 2. 4. Techniques in teaching vocabulary There are three main parts or namely stages in teaching vocabulary, as they are mentioned above. . 4. 1. 1. Techniques in presenting vocabulary Proposed by Doff (1988, cited in ELT Methodology II, 2009) and Thornbury (2002) and Nation (1994) a variety of techniques can be used or combined in introducing vocabulary. 2. 4. 1. 2. Techniques in practicing vocabulary Identifying tasks, involving tasks of finding words in texts. â€Å"Listen then tick the words you hear† can be one obvious example of this type. Identification is the first step in recognizing words and requires learners do easy task as counting, ticking or a bit difficult is to unscramble words as in anagram. Selecting tasks are â€Å"cognitively more complex than identification tasks†. For selecting tasks, learners will have to do recognizing words and making choices amongst them at the same time. Finding and odd one out is a common task that teachers may often use in class for checking comprehension. Learners are also requested to do matching tasks, apart from recognizing and making choice amongst words. In this kind of task, learners may need to pair a set of given words to a â€Å"visual representation, for example, or to a translation, a synonym/antonym, a definition or a collocate. (p. 97) Learners are being asked to do sorting tasks, by grouping words into different categories. It should be noted that the categories can be given in advance or learners have to guess what the categories are. 2. 4. 1. 3. Games Games are one indispensable advice for many teachers not only in English teaching but also in the field of language teaching. Instead of listing common word games, I wil l discuss the function and effectiveness of using games in teaching vocabulary as a major topic. Drawn upon the characteristics of young learner, one typical characteristic of them is moving around almost all of the times and cannot be sitting quietly for more than five minutes. Yet they can be often keen on word games with a variety of options and movements. Especially in the context of teaching English to Romanian learners who are often labeled as inactive and afraid of risk-taking learning, games are said to be an extrinsic motivation for them to participate actively in the lesson. Games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily. Secondly, games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested. These create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate actively in learning activities. Thirdly, vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance learners’ use of English in a flexible, communicative way. Advantages of using games in learning vocabulary were indicated by showing that games not only helped and encouraged learners to sustain their interest but also gave teachers a helping hand in creating contexts. This is particularly true when learners need useful and meaningful contexts to better their understanding of new words or in general, lexical items. 2. 5. Difficulties in teaching vocabulary This study, concerning the issue of constraints encountered by teachers, deliberately focuses on finding external factors, that is to say factors related to teachers themselves are spared for a larger scale research. In this case, difficulties in teaching vocabulary are said to often arise from the nature of vocabulary itself. The very first difficulty recognized in teaching words is the matter of whether to teach form first hen meaning or meaning first then form later. Another matter deterred by many researchers is about the mistakes that learners often make when learning vocabulary. External factors can be seen from the different levels of learners in one class; class size can grow to unexpectedly big; learners keep using their first language and more importantly students appear to be uncooperative. Those factors once happen in class can negatively hinder the efficiency of both presenting and practicing new words; additionally badly affect teacher’s plan and demotivate many activities performed by him/her (Harmer: p. 27). 2. 5. 1 Proposed activities and games in order to make a lesson vivid 2. 5. 1. 1 Proposed activities: Bingo: is useful for checking students’ comprehension and pronunciation of the old vocabulary. Teacher gets the class to brainstorm a list of ten or fifteen new words and puts them on the board. Students choose any five and copy them into a piece of paper. Teacher reads out the words. Each time having one word that teacher reads, students put a tick or cross that word. The one to have five ticks or crosses shouts â€Å"Bingo† and the game can continue. Word associations: Teacher writes a topic in the middle of the board and gets students to think about words that associate with it. In case students cannot think of as many words as expected, teacher can ask question to provoke answers that may enlighten students’ ideas. Half a crossword: this activity is to get students to use sentence for asking the meaning of a word. Students work in pair, each receives half a crossword. One student, in order to get the answers for the missing half has to ask the other either to act or give a definition of the word. Pictionary: Teacher can utilize it as a fun activity in class. Class can be divided into two big groups. Each time, one person in the group, after receiving one word/phrase from the teacher has to turn to his/her group to draw so as to get the group guess correctly the word. Members take turns to draw and the activity can be played twice but should be not too long. 2. 5. 1. 2 Proposed games: Board sentence making: the rule is quite easy to follow and it is specially created to increase team work as well as the acquisition of words. The class is divided into two teams; each team is given six to seven small white boards. Teacher writes a word on the big board, each team has to make a sentence using the given word. Each word of the sentence must lie in each small board that the team is provided. Categories: Young learners work in pairs or small groups. On a piece of paper, they draw up a number of columns, according to a model on the board, each column labeled with the name of a lexical set: e. g. fruit, animals, transport, clothes. The teacher calls out a letter, B for example, students write down as many words as they can beginning with that letter in the separate columns (banana, bus, blouses, bat, †¦). The group with the most correct words wins. Drawing/ miming or explaining: this is a game played with the dice. Each time, representative from one of the two teams in the class has to throw the dice to know whether they have to draw (if throw 1-2), mime (3- 4) or explain (5-6) the word that teacher gives them. It can create a fun learning environment when students really don’t want to explain but they throw 5 instead. Hammer: the aim of the game is to get students quickly operate words that they have learnt in class. Students stand in a circle, teacher stands in the middle of the circle, holding the paper hammer. Teacher can give a topic himself or ask students to choose one topic in which every one in the class has to take turn call out a word belonging to given topic. Anyone who cannot give one word will be hit on the head with the hammer. The last person to stay is the winner. Pronunciation race: In this game, class is divided into small groups. Each group sends a representative to the board. The teacher gives the rest of the group a small grid of words which they use to pronounce to the member at the board. Once hearing the word, that member has to write down the word he/she gets. The team with most of the correct words wins. Spelling race: Class is divided into two teams. For each time teacher writes a scrambled word on board and two representatives from each team have to race to the board and write the correct spelling of the word. Each correct word wins the team a point. The team with the most points wins. Stop the bus: In the same way as Categories, students write labeled column. When teacher calls out a letter, C for example, students have to find one word which starts with letter C and belongs to provided category. The first group to find all words shouts â€Å"Stop the bus†. The other teams have to stop. Teacher checks accuracy and spelling. Word Bang: This game can be used best to check students’ understanding of old vocabulary in class. The class stands in a circle and teacher stands in the middle holding a set of flashcards (make sure that students know all the cards in advance). Each time, two students compete each other to shout out loud the name of the card that teacher shows in front of them. The quicker is the winner. The game continues until there is only one student left, who is also the winner of the game. Word snap: It has the aim to get as many pairs of words as possible. Divide class to work in pairs or small groups. Each pair/group receives a set of words and pictures which correspond to the words. Each time one student face up two cards, if they match he will take them, if they don’t, he has to put them face back down. Turn goes to the next person. The one who gets the most pairs win. 3. Conclusion As the title of the paper suggests, this study has its focal point in investigating the current implementation of techniques used in teaching vocabulary to young learners, accompanied by difficulties and solutions. As a conclusion, common techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners can be divided into three groups. For presenting new words, using flashcards and miming are preferred by most of teachers. In getting students to practice the words they have learnt, grouping words into certain categories preferably outnumbers the other techniques. For the final stage in teaching vocabulary – revising, most of the teachers say that they have been familiarized with sentence and text completion rather than that of creation. Finally, this research proposes some compiled games and activities that might be helpful for teachers’ repertoire. 4. Summary: Scopul acestui studiu este acela de a sublinia importanta invatarii vocabularului, de catre tineri, inca din faza incipienta. Am incercat sa prezint cateva idei, despre ceea ce inseamna predarea vocabularului si implementarea tehnicilor folosite in predare, alaturi de dificultatile intampinate cat si solutii pentru reusita. Definirea vocabularului poate fi inteleasa prin, totalitatea cuvintelor ce alcatuiesc o limba. Prin elev tanar ne referim la acea categorie de copii cuprinsa intre 5-12 ani. Ca si concluzie, cele mai folosite tehnici in predarea vocabularului tinerilor elevi pot fi impartite in trei grupe(prezentare, exersare si recapitulare). In prezentarea noilor termeni( cuvinte), folosirea cartonaselor ilustrate si mima este cel mai des intalnit procedeu. In a-i face pe elevi sa exerseze cuvinte invatate, gruparea cuvintelor pe anumite categorii este cea mai de succes metoda folosita.. In ceea ce priveste etapa finala in predarea vocabularului –recapitularea, majoritatea profesorilor spun ca au fost obisnuiti cu finalizarea propozitiilor si a textelor, decat cea a crearii. Spre finalul lucrarii am incercat sa descriu cateva jocuri si activitati care ar putea fi de folos in alcatuirea portofoliului unui profesor.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Frostbite Chapter 4

FOUR I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT. JANINE Hathaway. My mother. My insanely famous and stunningly absent mother. She was no Arthur Schoenberg, but she did have a pretty stellar reputation in the guardian world. I hadn't seen her in years because she was always off on some insane mission. And yet†¦here she was at the Academy right nowright in front of meand she hadn't even bothered to let me know she was coming. So much for motherly love. What the hell was she doing here anyway? The answer came quickly. All the Moroi who came to campus would have their guardians in tow. My mother protected a noble from the Szelsky clan, and several members of that family had shown up for the holidays. Of course she'd be here with him. I slid into my chair and felt something inside of me shrivel up. I knew she had to have seen me come in, but her attention was focused elsewhere. She had on jeans and a beige T-shirt, covered with what had to be the most boring denim jacket I'd ever seen. At only five feet tall, she was dwarfed by the other guardians, but she had a presence and way of standing that made her seem taller. Our instructor, Stan, introduced the guests and explained that they were going to share real-life experiences with us. He paced the front of the room, bushy eyebrows knitting together as he spoke. â€Å"I know this is unusual,† he explained. â€Å"Visiting guardians usually don't have time to stop by our classes. Our three guests, however, have made time to come talk to you today in light of what's happened recently†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He paused a moment, and no one needed to tell us what he was referring to. The Badica attack. He cleared his throat and tried again. â€Å"In light of what's happened, we thought it might better prepare you to learn from those currently working in the field.† The class tensed with excitement. Hearing storiesparticularly ones with a lot of blood and actionwas a hell of a lot more interesting than analyzing theory from a textbook. Apparently some of the other campus guardians thought so too. They often stopped by our classes, but they were present today in a larger-than-usual number. Dimitri stood among them in the back. The old guy went first. He launched into his story, and I found myself getting hooked in. It described a time when the youngest son of the family he guarded had wandered off in a public place that Strigoi were lurking in. â€Å"The sun was about to set,† he told us in a gravelly voice. He swept his hands in a downward motion, apparently to demonstrate how a sunset worked. â€Å"There were only two of us, and we had to make a snap decision on how to proceed.† I leaned forward, elbows propped up on my desk. Guardians often worked in pairs. Onethe near guardusually stayed close to those being guarded while the otherthe far guardscouted the area. The far guard still usually stayed within eye contact, so I recognized the dilemma here. Thinking about it, I decided that if I were in that situation, I'd have the near guardian take the rest of the family to a secure location while the other guardian searched for the boy. â€Å"We had the family stay inside a restaurant with my partner while I swept the rest of the area,† continued the old guardian. He spread his hands out in a sweeping motion, and I felt smug over having made the correct call. The story ended happily, with a found boy and no Strigoi encounters. The second guy's anecdote talked about how he'd gotten the drop on a Strigoi stalking some Moroi. â€Å"I wasn't even technically on duty,† he said. He was the really cute one, and a girl sitting near me stared at him with wide, adoring eyes. â€Å"I was visiting a friend and the family he guarded. As I was leaving their apartment, I saw a Strigoi lurking in the shadows. He never expected a guardian to be out there. I circled the block, came up behind him, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬  The man made a staking motion, far more dramatic than the old guy's hand gestures had been. The storyteller even went so far as to mimic twisting the stake into the Strigoi's heart. And then it was my mother's turn. A scowl spread over my face before she even said a word, a scowl that grew worse once she actually launched into the story. I swear, if I didn't believe her incapable of having the imagination for itand her bland clothing choices proved she really didn't have an imaginationI would have thought she was lying. It was more than a story. It was an epic tale, the kind of thing that gets made into movies and wins Oscars. She talked about how her charge, Lord Szelsky, and his wife had attended a ball put on by another prominent royal family. Several Strigoi had been lying in wait. My mother discovered one, promptly staked it, and then alerted the other guardians present. With their help, she hunted down the other Strigoi lurking around and performed most of the kills herself. â€Å"It wasn't easy,† she explained. From anyone else that statement would have sounded like bragging. Not her. There was a briskness to the way she spoke, an efficient way of stating facts that left no room for flourishes. She'd been raised in Glasgow and some of her words still had a Scottish lilt. â€Å"There were three others on the premises. At the time, that was considered an unusually large number to be working together. That's not necessarily true now, considering the Badica massacre.† A few people flinched at the casual way she spoke about the attack. Once again, I could see the bodies. â€Å"We had to dispatch the remaining Strigoi as quickly and quietly as possible, so as not to alert the others. Now, if you have the element of surprise, the best way to take Strigoi is to come around from behind, break their necks, and then stake them. Breaking their necks won't kill them, of course, but it stuns them and allows you to do the staking before they can make an y noise. The most difficult part is actually sneaking up on them, because their hearing is so acute. Since I'm smaller and lighter than most guardians, I can move fairly quietly. So I ended up performing two of the three kills myself.† Again, she used that matter-of-fact tone as she described her own stealthy skills. It was annoying, more so than if she'd been openly haughty about how awesome she was. My classmates' faces shone with wonder; they were clearly more interested in the idea of breaking a Strigoi's neck than analyzing my mother's narrative skills. She continued with the story. When she and the other guardians had killed the remaining Strigoi, they'd discovered two Moroi had been taken from the party. Such an act wasn't uncommon for Strigoi. Sometimes they wanted to save Moroi for a later â€Å"snack†; sometimes lower-ranking Strigoi were dispatched by more powerful ones to bring back prey. Regardless, two Moroi were gone from the ball, and their guardian had been injured. â€Å"Naturally, we couldn't leave those Moroi in Strigoi clutches,† she said. â€Å"We tracked the Strigoi to their hideout and found several of them living together. I'm sure you can recognize how rare that is.† It was. The evil and selfish nature of Strigoi made them turn on each other as easily as they did their victims. Organizing for attackswhen they had an immediate and bloody goal in mindwas the best they could do. But living together? No. It was almost impossible to imagine. â€Å"We managed to free the two captive Moroi, only to discover that others were being held prisoner,† my mother said. â€Å"We couldn't send the ones we'd rescued back by themselves, though, so the guardians who were with me escorted them out and left it to me to get the others.† Yes, of course, I thought. My mother bravely went in alone. Along the way, she got captured but managed to escape and rescue the prisoners. In doing so, she performed what had to be the hat trick of the century, killing Strigoi in all three ways: staking, decapitation, and setting them on fire. â€Å"I had just staked a Strigoi when two more attacked,† she explained. â€Å"I didn't have time to pull the stake out when the others jumped me. Fortunately, there was an open fireplace nearby, and I pushed one of the Strigoi into it. The last one chased me outside, into an old shed. There was an axe inside and I used that to cut off her head. I then took a can of gasoline and returned to the house. The one I'd thrown into the fireplace hadn't completely burned, but once I doused him in gasoline, he went up pretty quickly.† The classroom was in awe as she spoke. Mouths dropped. Eyes bugged. Not a sound could be heard. Glancing around, I felt like time had frozen for everyoneexcept me. I appeared to be the only one unimpressed by her harrowing tale, and seeing the awe on everyone's faces enraged me. When she finished, a dozen hands shot up as the class peppered her with questions about her techniques, whether she was scared, etc. After about the tenth question, I couldn't take it anymore. I raised my hand. It took her a while to notice and call on me. She seemed mildly astonished to find me in class. I considered myself lucky that she even recognized me. â€Å"So, Guardian Hathaway,† I began. â€Å"Why didn't you guys just secure the place?† She frowned. I think she'd gone on her guard the moment she called on me. â€Å"What do you mean?† I shrugged and slouched back in my desk, attempting a casual and conversational air. â€Å"I don't know. It seems to me like you guys messed up. Why didn't you scope out the place and make sure it was clear of Strigoi in the first place? Seems like you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble.† All eyes in the room turned toward me. My mother was momentarily at a loss for words. â€Å"If we hadn't gone through all that ‘trouble,' there'd be seven more Strigoi walking the world, and those other captured Moroi would be dead or turned by now.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah, I get how you guys saved the day and all that, but I'm going back to the principles here. I mean, this is a theory class, right?† I glanced over at Stan who was regarding me with a very stormy look. He and I had a long and unpleasant history of classroom conflicts, and I suspected we were on the verge of another. â€Å"So I just want to figure out what went wrong in the beginning.† I'll say this for hermy mother had a hell of a lot more self-control than I did. Had our roles been reversed, I would have walked over and smacked me by now. Her face stayed perfectly calm, however, and a small tightness in the set of her lips was the only sign that I was pissing her off. â€Å"It's not that simple,† she replied. â€Å"The venue had an extremely complex layout. We went through it initially and found nothing. It's believed the Strigoi came in after the festivities had startedor that there might have been passages and hidden rooms we hadn't been aware of.† The class ooh'ed and ahh'ed over the idea of hidden passages, but I wasn't impressed. â€Å"So what you're saying is that you guys either failed to detect them during your first sweep, or they broke through the ‘security' you set up during the party. Seems like someone messed up either way.† The tightness in her lips increased, and her voice grew frosty. â€Å"We did the best we could with an unusual situation. I can see how someone at your level might not be able to grasp the intricacies of what I'm describing, but once you've actually learned enough to go beyond theory, you'll see how different it is when you're actually out there and lives are in your hands.† â€Å"No doubt,† I agreed. â€Å"Who am I to question your methods? I mean, whatever gets you the molnija marks, right?† â€Å"Miss Hathaway.† Stan's deep voice rumbled through the room. â€Å"Please take your things and go wait outside for the remainder of class.† I stared at him in bewilderment. â€Å"Are you serious? Since when is there anything wrong with asking questions?† â€Å"Your attitude is what's wrong.† He pointed at the door. â€Å"Go.† A silence heavier and deeper than when my mother had told her story descended over everyone. I did my best not to cower under the stares of guardians and novices alike. This wasn't the first time I'd been kicked out of Stan's class. It wasn't even the first time I'd been kicked out of Stan's class while Dimitri was watching. Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I crossed the short distance to the doora distance that felt like milesand refused to make eye contact with my mother as I passed. About five minutes before the class let out, she slipped out of the room and walked over to where I sat in the hallway. Looking down on me, she put her hands on her hips in that annoying way that made her seem taller than she was. It wasn't fair that someone over half a foot shorter than me could make me feel so small. â€Å"Well. I see your manners haven't improved over the years.† I stood up and felt a glare snap into place. â€Å"Nice to see you too. I'm surprised you even recognized me. In fact, I didn't even think you remembered me, seeing as how you never bothered to let me know you were on campus.† She shifted her hands from her hips and crossed her arms across her chest, becomingif possibleeven more impassive. â€Å"I couldn't neglect my duty to come coddle you.† â€Å"Coddle?† I asked. This woman had never coddled me in her life. I couldn't believe she even knew the word. â€Å"I wouldn't expect you to understand. From what I hear, you don't really know what ‘duty' is.† â€Å"I know exactly what it is,† I retorted. My voice was intentionally haughty. â€Å"Better than most people.† Her eyes widened in a sort of mock surprise. I used that sarcastic look on a lot of people and didn't appreciate having it directed toward me. â€Å"Oh really? Where were you for the last two years?† â€Å"Where were you for the last five?† I demanded. â€Å"Would you have known I was gone if someone hadn't told you?† â€Å"Don't turn this back on me. I was away because I had to be. You were away so you could go shopping and stay up late.† My hurt and embarrassment morphed into pure fury. Apparently, I was never going to live down the consequences of running away with Lissa. â€Å"You have no idea why I left,† I said, my voice's volume rising. â€Å"And you have no right to make assumptions about my life when you don't know anything about it.† â€Å"I've read reports about what happened. You had reason for concern, but you acted incorrectly.† Her words were formal and crisp. She could have been teaching one of my classes. â€Å"You should have gone to others for help.† â€Å"There was no one I could go tonot when I didn't have hard proof. Besides, we've been learning that we're supposed to think independently.† â€Å"Yes,† she replied. â€Å"Emphasis on learning. Something you missed out on for two years. You're hardly in a position to lecture me about guardian protocol.† I wound up in arguments all the time; something in my nature made that inevitable. So I was used to defending myself and having insults slammed at me. I had a tough skin. But somehow, around herin the brief times I had been around herI always felt like I was three years old. Her attitude humiliated me, and touching on my missed training already a prickly subjectonly made me feel worse. I crossed my arms in a fair imitation of her own stance and managed a smug look. â€Å"Yeah? Well, that's not what my teachers think. Even after missing all that time, I've still caught up with everyone else in my class.† She didn't answer right away. Finally, in a flat voice, she said, â€Å"If you hadn't left, you would have surpassed them.† Turning military-style, she walked off down the hall. A minute later, the bell rang, and the rest of Stan's class spilled into the hall. Even Mason couldn't cheer me up after that. I spent the rest of the day angry and annoyed, sure that everyone was whispering about my mother and me. I skipped lunch and went to the library to read a book about physiology and anatomy. When it was time for my after-school training with Dimitri, I practically ran up to the practice dummy. With a curled fist, I slapped its chest, very slightly to the left but mostly in the center. â€Å"There,† I told him. â€Å"The heart is there, and the sternum and ribs are in the way. Can I have the stake now?† Crossing my arms, I glanced up at him triumphantly, waiting for him to shower me with praise for my new cunning. Instead, he simply nodded in acknowledgment, like I should already have known that. And yeah, I should have. â€Å"And how do you get through the sternum and the ribs?† he asked. I sighed. I'd figured out the answer to one question, only to be given another. Typical. We spent a large part of the practice going over that, and he demonstrated several techniques that would yield the quickest kill. Every movement he made was both graceful and deadly. He made it look effortless, but I knew better. When he suddenly extended his hand and offered the stake to me, I didn't understand at first. â€Å"You're giving it to me?† His eyes sparkled. â€Å"I can't believe you're holding back. I figured you'd have taken it and run by now.† â€Å"Aren't you always teaching me to hold back?† I asked. â€Å"Not on everything.† â€Å"But on some things.† I heard the double meaning in my voice and wondered where it had come from. I'd accepted a while ago that there were too many reasons for me to even think about him romantically anymore. Every once in a while, I slipped a little and kind of wished he would too. It'd have been nice to know that he still wanted me, that I still drove him crazy. Studying him now, I realized he might not ever slip because I didn't drive him crazy anymore. It was a depressing thought. â€Å"Of course,† he said, showing no indication we'd discussed anything other than class matters. â€Å"It's like everything else. Balance. Know which things to run forward withand know which to leave alone.† He placed a heavy emphasis on that last statement. Our eyes met briefly, and I felt electricity race through me. He did know what I was talking about. And like always, he was ignoring it and being my teacherwhich is exactly what he should have been doing. With a sigh, I pushed my feelings for him out of my head and tried to remember that I was about to touch the weapon I'd been longing for since childhood. The memory of the Badica house came back to me yet again. The Strigoi were out there. I needed to focus. Hesitantly, almost reverentially, I reached out and curled my fingers around the hilt. The metal was cool and tingled against my skin. It was etched along the hilt for better grip, but in trailing my fingers over the rest of it, I found the surface to be as smooth as glass. I lifted it from his hand and brought it to me, taking a long time to study it and get used to its weight. An anxious part of me wanted to turn around and impale all of the dummies, but instead I looked up at Dimitri and asked, â€Å"What should I do first?† In his typical way, he covered basics first, honing the way I held and moved with the stake. Later on, he finally let me attack one of the dummies, at which point I did indeed discover it was not effortless. Evolution had done a smart thing in protecting the heart with the sternum and ribs. Yet through it all, Dimitri never faltered in diligence and patience, guiding me through every step and correcting the finest details. â€Å"Slide up through the ribs,† he explained, watching me try to fit the stake's point through a gap in the bones. â€Å"It'll be easier since you're shorter than most of your attackers. Plus, you can slide along the lower rib's edge.† When practice ended, he took the stake back and nodded his approval. â€Å"Good. Very good.† I glanced at him in surprise. He didn't usually hand out a lot of praise. â€Å"Really?† â€Å"You do it like you've been doing it for years.† I felt a delighted grin creep over my face as we started leaving the practice room. When we neared the door, I noticed a dummy with curly red hair. Suddenly, all the events from Stan's class came tumbling back into my head. I scowled. â€Å"Can I stake that one next time?† He picked up his coat and put it on. It was long and brown, made of distressed leather. It looked very much like a cowboy duster, though he'd never admit to it. He had a secret fascination with the Old West. I didn't really understand it, but then, I didn't get his weird musical preferences either. â€Å"I don't think that'd be healthy,† he said. â€Å"It'd be better than me actually doing it to her,† I grumbled, slinging my backpack over one shoulder. We headed out to the gym. â€Å"Violence isn't the answer to your problems,† he said sagely. â€Å"She's the one with the problem. And I thought the whole point of my education was that violence is the answer.† â€Å"Only to those who bring it to you first. Your mother isn't assaulting you. You two are just too much alike, that's all.† I stopped walking. â€Å"I'm not anything like her! I mean†¦we kind of have the same eyes. But I'm a lot taller. And my hair's completely different.† I pointed to my pony tail, just in case he wasn't aware that my thick brown-black hair didn't look like my mother's auburn curls. He still had kind of an amused expression, but there was something hard in his eyes too. â€Å"I'm not talking about your appearances, and you know it.† I looked away from that knowing gaze. My attraction to Dimitri had started almost as soon as we'd metand it wasn't just because he was so hot, either. I felt like he understood part of me that I didn't understand myself, and sometimes I was pretty sure I understood parts of him that he didn't understand either. The only problem was that he had the annoying tendency to point out things about myself I didn't want to understand. â€Å"You think I'm jealous?† â€Å"Are you?† he asked. I hated it when he answered my questions with questions. â€Å"If so, what are you jealous of exactly?† I glanced back at Dimitri. â€Å"I don't know. Maybe I'm jealous of her reputation. Maybe I'm jealous because she's put more time into her reputation than into me. I don't know.† â€Å"You don't think what she did was great?† â€Å"Yes. No. I don't know. It just sounded like such a †¦ I don't know†¦like she was bragging. Like she did it for the glory.† I grimaced. â€Å"For the marks.† Molnija marks were tattoos awarded to guardians when they killed Strigoi. Each one looked like a tiny x made of lightning bolts. They went on the backs of our necks and showed how experienced a guardian was. â€Å"You think facing down Strigoi is worth a few marks? I thought you'd learned something from the Badica house.† I felt stupid. â€Å"That's not what I† â€Å"Come on.† I stopped walking. â€Å"What?† We'd been heading toward my dorm, but now he nodded his head toward the opposite side of campus. â€Å"I want to show you something.† â€Å"What is it?† â€Å"That not all marks are badges of honor.†

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Free Essays on Fame

Fame Fame, is it the same for all things? In Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem â€Å"Famous†, she defines the word in her own way. In the implied definition, famous is something that is associated or familiar to a person, place or thing. The concept of fame according to popular culture is a little different. It is more along the lines of something or someone that is celebrated or distinguished for a certain act or function. Therefore the word famous is mostly reserved for celebrities and landmarks. Nye, throughout the poem, gives many examples of ordinary everyday things that are famous to one another. These examples are familiar to each other because of the function and association with a certain event or task. Some of them work hand and hand together, some of them require one another for survival, and some are just famous to one another because of their function. To the popular culture, many of these examples are not famous to everyday people, but are famous to the objects with which they are associated with. The opening line of this poem is â€Å"The river is famous to the fish† (Nye line 1). With that line Nye sets the tone, opinion, and definition of the whole poem. A fish lives in and needs the river to survive. The river is familiar to the fish, because it is the environment in which it spends its life. Watching a television program brings about familiarity to a person. After seeing a person or place repeatedly on television, they become familiar to the viewer. Just as â€Å"The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse† (Nye 5-6). The cat is familiar to birds. He is not exactly celebrated, but is very well known. The birds constantly watch the cat, so it he becomes famous to them. Famous in the same way a television star becomes famous to a viewer. Articles of clothing can also be famous. A tie is famous to a suit because it is worn and associated with a suit. It is not ... Free Essays on Fame Free Essays on Fame Fame Fame, is it the same for all things? In Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem â€Å"Famous†, she defines the word in her own way. In the implied definition, famous is something that is associated or familiar to a person, place or thing. The concept of fame according to popular culture is a little different. It is more along the lines of something or someone that is celebrated or distinguished for a certain act or function. Therefore the word famous is mostly reserved for celebrities and landmarks. Nye, throughout the poem, gives many examples of ordinary everyday things that are famous to one another. These examples are familiar to each other because of the function and association with a certain event or task. Some of them work hand and hand together, some of them require one another for survival, and some are just famous to one another because of their function. To the popular culture, many of these examples are not famous to everyday people, but are famous to the objects with which they are associated with. The opening line of this poem is â€Å"The river is famous to the fish† (Nye line 1). With that line Nye sets the tone, opinion, and definition of the whole poem. A fish lives in and needs the river to survive. The river is familiar to the fish, because it is the environment in which it spends its life. Watching a television program brings about familiarity to a person. After seeing a person or place repeatedly on television, they become familiar to the viewer. Just as â€Å"The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse† (Nye 5-6). The cat is familiar to birds. He is not exactly celebrated, but is very well known. The birds constantly watch the cat, so it he becomes famous to them. Famous in the same way a television star becomes famous to a viewer. Articles of clothing can also be famous. A tie is famous to a suit because it is worn and associated with a suit. It is not ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

20 Quotations About Young Love

20 Quotations About Young Love Young love- so naive, so immature, so unsophisticated, yet ever so charming! Every generation warns the next of the heartaches and the heartbreaks that come with this love, yet, each generation is eager to experience it. Authors have tried to express the happy occurrence that we call young love. Here are some such young love quotes. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin: A Novel The young habitually mistake lust for love, theyre infested with idealism of all kinds. Richard Dahm, The Middle, episode: A Tough Pill to Swallow, 2016, Frankie Heck Wind power, water power, coal power- how great would it be if you could harness the power of a young man in love? Criss Jami,  Killosophy â€Å"Its a good sign but rare instance when, in a relationship, you find that the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. A sturdy bond delights in that degree of youthful intrigue. Love loves its youth.†Ã‚   Ta-Nehisi Coates â€Å"What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through- that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.† Alessandra Torre,  The Ghostwriter â€Å"There is nothing like young love. It comes at a time before the heart knows to protect itself, when everything important is raw and exposed- the perfect environment for a soul-sucking, heart-crushing burst.†Paige P. Horne,  If Id Known Young love is like a raging fire that cant be tamed. Its addictive and borderline obsessive. Satisfying in every way, yet never getting enough. Im the flames, and hes the fuel keeping me burning. We are perfect.† Liz Thebart,  Walk Away   â€Å"Beginnings are easy, but after that, happiness takes some work.†Ã‚   Eoin Colfer,  Airman â€Å"Young love is common, but that doesnt mean its not precious.†Muse, â€Å"Lollypopthe passion contained merely kissesplaced upon lips, neck and cheekthese young lovers of the castleof which our fairytale speaks†Ã‚   Justin Go,  The Steady Running of the Hour â€Å"It didnt matter. I was young and we were together.† Daphne du Maurier,  Rebecca   â€Å"I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say. They are not brave, the days when we are twenty-one. They are so full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls to the first barbed word.† William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Ah me! how sweet is love itself possessd,When but loves shadows are so rich in joy! A.P.,  Sabine   You must ask the young if you want to know what love is. Only they are deep enough in it to describe. We older ones have clues and simulacra, we base our judgment, like pathologists do, on the dents and scars and sediments of hearts long kept in formaldehyde. It is the pulsing heart you want to probe: the pulsing, beating, leaping, dipping, fluttering heart of a seventeen-year-old.†Ã‚   Chang-rae Lee,  On Such a Full Sea â€Å"For no matter the shadows of an age, the picture of a young couple in love, we are told, speaks most luminously of the future, as the span of that passion makes us believe we can overleap any walls, obliterate whatever obstacles.†Ã‚   Benjamin DisraeliThe magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end. Maya AngelouThe loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous. Nicholas Sparks Theres no love like the first.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Anonymous When a man is in love for the first time he thinks he invented it. Lang Leav,  Sad Girls Your first love isnt the first person you give your heart to―its the first one who breaks it. George Bernard Shaw First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

A Quiz About Quotation Marks

A Quiz About Quotation Marks A Quiz About Quotation Marks A Quiz About Quotation Marks By Mark Nichol Use of quotation marks for dialogue is fairly straightforward; several posts on this website that deal with the topic can by found by searching for â€Å"quotation marks.† This quiz deals with other uses of these emphasis markers. Read the following sample sentences, determine the problem with the use of quotation marks, and devise a solution. (Note that I use single quotation marks rather than double quotation marks because of my custom of framing the entire sample sentence in a pair of the latter.) Then, take a look at my revisions and explanations at the bottom of the page and see how they compare with your changes: 1. â€Å"The IQ evaluation provides a ‘snapshot’ of a child’s cognitive skills at a particular point in time.† 2. â€Å"Perry is connecting with a growing number of Republicans because of his uncompromising rhetoric and his back-slapping, guy-who-married ‘the first girl I dated’ persona.† 3. â€Å"Consider the glass ‘half full and not half empty.’† 4. â€Å"The old fixer-upper looks like it was designed by â€Å"The Amityville Horror† house architect.† (This example is from a newspaper; many such publications use quotation marks, rather than italics, to denote titles of films, books, and other self-contained compositions.) 5. â€Å"They reviewed cross-border reproductive care, or â€Å"medical tourism,† as an increasing phenomenon in respect to egg donation.† 6. â€Å"Our waterworks have reached the classic ‘run to failure’ moment.† 7. â€Å"He used scientific reasoning to show that singing and dancing could cure melancholy by stirring up the ‘secretions’ in the human ‘machine.’† Answers and Explanations 1. The informal usage of a word need not be excused with what are sometimes called apologetic quotation marks (what I refer to frequently in these posts by a more common label: scare quotes): â€Å"The IQ evaluation provides a snapshot of a child’s cognitive skills at a particular point in time.† 2. This sentence attempts to allude to erstwhile presidential candidate Rick Perry’s pride that he married the first girl he dated, but the writer, after a promising start in which they began stringing the relevant words together in an extended hyphenated phrasal adjective, fumbles by attempting to employ a direct quote. The best solution would be to abandon the attempt at direct quotation and fold a paraphrase into the adjective string: â€Å"Perry is connecting with a growing number of Republicans because of his uncompromising rhetoric and his back-slapping, guy-who-married-the-first-girl-he-dated persona.† 3. This reference to the idiomatic metaphors for optimism and pessimism implies that there is an idiom consisting of the phrase â€Å"half full and not half empty.† However, only the distinct antonyms â€Å"half full† and â€Å"half empty† are valid, and there is no reason to enclose them in quotes (also, a comma seems more effective than the conjunction and): â€Å"Consider the glass half full, not half empty.† 4. Here, the writer is attempting to employ the first word of the movie title as a direct article for the framing sentence, but it cannot serve double duty. In this case, it is acceptable to transfer the to duty with the sentence and leave the title temporarily bereft of the direct article that begins it (â€Å"The old fixer-upper looks like it was designed by the ‘Amityville Horror’ house architect†). However, the sentence would read more smoothly if it were relaxed, including the insertion of a couple of additional direct articles and the retention of the full movie title: â€Å"The old fixer-upper looks like it was designed by the architect who designed the house in ‘The Amityville Horror.’† 5. This sentence is doubly irritating. As in the first example above, the scare quotes are extraneous. In addition, it seems illogical to me to introduce the gloss (brief definition) of the phrase â€Å"medical tourism† before it; why, then, bother introducing the idiom at all? Use a term-then-gloss structure: â€Å"They reviewed medical tourism, or cross-border reproductive care, as an increasing phenomenon in respect to egg donation.† (A compromise is to explicitly identify the idiom as such following the literal description for the topic in question: â€Å"They reviewed cross-border reproductive care, known popularly as medical tourism, as an increasing phenomenon in respect to egg donation.†) 6. The phrase â€Å"run to failure† may be a partial quotation from someone, but unless it is a clever coinage heretofore unfamiliar to readers (and even then, use the explanatory solution in the fifth example, above), the phrase should simply be strung together as a phrasal adjective: â€Å"Our waterworks have reached the classic run-to-failure moment.† 7. Trick question in the original context, as least, it’s clear that â€Å"secretions† is a direct quote. Sometimes, it’s best to indicate that an unusual word was actually written or spoken by the source, and sometimes, scare quotes are helpful (as in the case of those framing machine, which may well have also been a direct quote). In this case, I’d leave the sentence as is. 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 Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating Conjunctions25 Russian Words Used in English (and 25 More That Should Be)Using "May" in a Question

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Analyze the issues associated with sampling, validity, reliability and Assignment

Analyze the issues associated with sampling, validity, reliability and bias for both approaches - Assignment Example zed by randomization of research participants into control and experimental groups, followed by administration of a treatment to the intervention group (Cottrell & McKenzie, 2010). Non-experimental design is however suitable for exploratory analysis and involves observations for descriptive purposes (Morra-Imas, Morra, & Rist, 2009). Reliability is one of the necessities of an experimental design and defines dependability of results for deriving conclusion. Validity, however, defines truthfulness of data (Karwowski, 2010). The first level of Bloom’s taxonomy, remembering, offers a basis for analyzing potential issues to reliability and validity in experimental designs. Inability to remember data means that wrong information can be incorporated in a study. When this happens, the data and its analysis are no longer consistent with actual observation, inducing validity concerns. In addition, reported data from some sub sets of an experimental sample will deviate from those from o ther parts, inducing internal reliability concerns. When this is significant, developed conclusion may not be consistent with population parameters, inducing external reliability concerns. Using accurate data collection and recording instruments and immediate data caption can however ensure validity and reliability based on ability to remember (Sevilla, n.d.). Reliability and validity are also significant at the experimental design’s data analysis stage in which ability to understand involved concepts in information and to apply the developed knowledge in analysis are necessary (White, 2010). The need to understand features of each data set and to identify potential relationships establishes this because failure to understand and apply the features threatens dependability and truthfulness of data. The issues further threaten ability to make inferences and to investigate causal relationships, which are the main objectives of experimental design. Sampling and bias are also incident to

Friday, October 18, 2019

Tourette's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tourette's - Essay Example They tried medication, diets and nutrition for four years without change. They also tried neuro-feedback, which had no lasting improvement. Later, Linda was advised by an ally in the TS community to go for a family education program by TSA. They attended the program and got educated on how to treat TS, which was CBIT. CBIT is a behavioral therapy that educates people to be aware of their behaviors and assist them to change very carefully and in a systematic way (CosplayerProductions 4). Lucas has an immediate improvement since within two days the first tic was gone. At the age of 15, Lucas was free from tics. The curing of Lucas from TS is a clear depiction that some of the TS illnesses can be treated. The first surgeon who discovered to suffer from Tourette was Dr. Carl Bennett. Bennett’s appearance was unexceptionable because he was of middle size, fiftyish, with a mustache having a hint of grey and a brownish beard. Bennett would either jump, jerk, lunge or reach for the ground. Sack got struck by both his bizarre tics and dignity and calmness. Another time, Sack was met by Bennett at the airport, he greeted him in strange greeting, half-tic and half-lunge (Sacks 1). He grabbed his case and led him on his car in a rapid skipping walk, odd, skipping each fifth step and unexpected ground reaching as if picking something. In any case, the stream of interests and attention were interrupted, Bennett’s iterations and tics suddenly reasserted by touching his glasses and mustache. Bennett used to smooth his mustache constantly and checked for symmetry. He also used to keep on balancing his glasses side to side, up and down, in and out or diagonally. There were also occasional lunging and reaching of his right arm, repositioning of the steering wheel or his knees (Sacks 5). He could also sound â€Å"Hi, Patty,† Patty being her former girlfriend enshrined as a tic. Bennett referred Tourette’s as a disease of inhibition, the unusual thoughts experienced

Discuss the various forms or methods of obtaining public opinion data Essay

Discuss the various forms or methods of obtaining public opinion data. To what extent if any should politicians be responsive to public opinion data Should polls dictate war policy - Essay Example This has become one of the most popular methods of conducting opinion poll of burning issues and public policies. Online surveys are sent either through email or come up on surfing sites which are often answered if they are issues which are important or interesting. The huge data collected on online surveys helps generate more accurate results. In this method, people are requested to fill in questionnaire or asked questionnaires verbally while they are shopping in malls or streets. This is also quite successful as short questionnaires are answered and one gets quite large sample. House calls are made for opinion survey and questionnaires are answered at relatively relaxed environment of home. Due to increasing cost, it is no more very popular. But in important public policy issues, this method becomes more reliable. Politicians should be very responsive to the public opinion as they are representative of people and primarily represent their interest in the government. But it is also very controversial because the public opinion can also be very emotive and may be manipulated by vested interests (Foyle, 1999). But at the same time, it is also true that public opinion, when represented by large sample, is distinct in its trend and therefore must be treated seriously, especially as a reciprocal relationship that highlights democratic values. In democratic state, people’s power is centric to all decision making processes, within and outside the government, for all welfare programs and policies for the wider development issues like socio-economic issues, energy, infrastructure, healthcare etc. Very often, opinion polls become important tools that influence politicians’ stand on vital issues to win the trust of people, whom they represent or want to gain confidence of. The polls should dictate war policies because in the recent times, large public money has been diverted to

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Choice of the Managing Director Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Choice of the Managing Director - Essay Example Introduction In case of the expatriate operations, the functions of management and leadership are to a large extent dependent on a much broader concept called ‘diversity’ (Kirton & Greene 2005, p. 127). Diversity is a very expansive concept that includes within its ambit a little more than an individual’s looks, colour, traits, attitudes and status (Kirton & Greene 2005). In the given scenario the managing director to be selected will be required to manage, function and lead in an environment that will carry a quintessentially Vietnamese flavour. As the commonsense suggest, it will be much easier for a Vietnamese managing director to manage the manufacturing operations being undertaken in Vietnam. However, in an academic context, the choice to be made is necessarily required to be explained in a rational and factual manner. As per Geert Hofstede, the salient values in any organization are to a large extent determined by the predominant culture of that place. Hofst ede grouped the cultural values of varied countries and regions into four main groups that are called the Hofstede cultural dimensions (Baptiste, Dodor & Rana 2007). ... Vietnam has a Power Distance Index of 70, which means that in the Vietnamese society, people do readily accept a hierarchical system, without registering any objections or problems (Hofstede 1996). Individualism is a cultural attribute that determines as to the extent to which the members in a society tend to remain independent. On this dimensions, Vietnam has a score of 20 that means that in Vietnam it is the group affiliations that stand to dominate over individual aspirations and ambition (Tuan & Napier 2000). Masculinity is a cultural dimension that explains whether a society values success and ambition or whether it gives priority to the overall quality of life over success, achievement and ambition (Hofstede 1996). Vietnam has a score of 40 on this dimension which means that Vietnam is particularly a feminine society where solidarity and quality of life holds a sway over success and achievement (Reynolds 2000). Hofstede also propounded one more cultural dimension that is Uncert ainty Avoidance. The Uncertainty Avoidance Index of a culture states as to what extent the people in a culture are comfortable with the anxiety and stress associated with the ambiguity inherent in the future (Hofstede 1996). Vietnam has a low Uncertainty Avoidance Index of 30 which means that the Vietnamese hate uncertainty and are mostly willing to do away with strict norms and principles in favour of ease and certainty (Tuan & Napier 2000). It will be really interesting to see as how the Australian culture scores on the four Hofstede cultural dimensions. Australia- Cultural Dimensions Australia has a Power Distance Index of 36, very low as compared to Vietnam. Translated practically it means that in the Australian work culture, hierarchies

The Value of Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 84

The Value of Philosophy - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that the knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of science, and the one which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our conviction, prejudices, and beliefs. As the study outlines there has been widespread concern that philosophy as a field is shrouded in a great deal of doubt, and therefore, pursuit of knowledge along a path that is not so clear becomes an exercise in futility. However, the reporter should point out that although we might seek â€Å"veritable† answers, these answers are mostly subject to other constraints like customs and beliefs, opinions and inclinations among others, and therefore, â€Å"right† answers may be rendered not very certain in their truth when subjected to the criterion of proof. Thus, as stated in Russell’s work, the uncertainty of philosophy is largely more apparent than real. He admits that several questions, like ones pertaining to spiritual life whose comprehension are beyond the human intellect. To reinforce this view of state of affairs, J. L. Mackie in his work says that the theologian â€Å"must now be prepared to believe, not merely what cannot be proved, but what can be disp roved from other believes he also holds†¦ this is because the theologian can maintain his position as a whole only by a much more rejection of reason.†

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Choice of the Managing Director Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Choice of the Managing Director - Essay Example Introduction In case of the expatriate operations, the functions of management and leadership are to a large extent dependent on a much broader concept called ‘diversity’ (Kirton & Greene 2005, p. 127). Diversity is a very expansive concept that includes within its ambit a little more than an individual’s looks, colour, traits, attitudes and status (Kirton & Greene 2005). In the given scenario the managing director to be selected will be required to manage, function and lead in an environment that will carry a quintessentially Vietnamese flavour. As the commonsense suggest, it will be much easier for a Vietnamese managing director to manage the manufacturing operations being undertaken in Vietnam. However, in an academic context, the choice to be made is necessarily required to be explained in a rational and factual manner. As per Geert Hofstede, the salient values in any organization are to a large extent determined by the predominant culture of that place. Hofst ede grouped the cultural values of varied countries and regions into four main groups that are called the Hofstede cultural dimensions (Baptiste, Dodor & Rana 2007). ... Vietnam has a Power Distance Index of 70, which means that in the Vietnamese society, people do readily accept a hierarchical system, without registering any objections or problems (Hofstede 1996). Individualism is a cultural attribute that determines as to the extent to which the members in a society tend to remain independent. On this dimensions, Vietnam has a score of 20 that means that in Vietnam it is the group affiliations that stand to dominate over individual aspirations and ambition (Tuan & Napier 2000). Masculinity is a cultural dimension that explains whether a society values success and ambition or whether it gives priority to the overall quality of life over success, achievement and ambition (Hofstede 1996). Vietnam has a score of 40 on this dimension which means that Vietnam is particularly a feminine society where solidarity and quality of life holds a sway over success and achievement (Reynolds 2000). Hofstede also propounded one more cultural dimension that is Uncert ainty Avoidance. The Uncertainty Avoidance Index of a culture states as to what extent the people in a culture are comfortable with the anxiety and stress associated with the ambiguity inherent in the future (Hofstede 1996). Vietnam has a low Uncertainty Avoidance Index of 30 which means that the Vietnamese hate uncertainty and are mostly willing to do away with strict norms and principles in favour of ease and certainty (Tuan & Napier 2000). It will be really interesting to see as how the Australian culture scores on the four Hofstede cultural dimensions. Australia- Cultural Dimensions Australia has a Power Distance Index of 36, very low as compared to Vietnam. Translated practically it means that in the Australian work culture, hierarchies

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Financial Accounitng Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Financial Accounitng - Essay Example Revenues are realizable when assets received in exchange are readily convertible to known amounts of cash or claims to cash. Revenues are earned when the entity has performed its duties to be entitled to compensation. There are four main transactions of this kind: Revenue from selling inventory is recognized at the date of sale (usually interpreted as the date of delivery). Revenue from performing services is recognized when services have been performed and are billable. Revenue from permission to use company's assets (e.g. interests for using money, rent for using fixed assets, and royalties for using intangible assets) is recognized as time passes or as assets are used. Revenue from selling an asset other than inventory is recognized at the point of sale. However following are the exceptions to above rule. Revenues not recognized at the time of delivery The general rule says that revenue from selling inventory is recognized at the point of sale, but there are several exceptions. Buyback agreements Buyback agreement means that a company sells a product and agrees to buy it back after some time. If buyback price covers all costs of the inventory and related holding costs, the inventory remains on the seller's books. There was no sale. Returns Companies, which cannot reasonably estimate the amount of future returns and/or have extremely high rates of returns, should recognize revenues only when the right to return expires. Those companies, which can estimate the number of future returns and have a relatively small return rate can recognize revenues at the point of sale, but must deduct estimated future returns. Revenues recognized before delivery Long-term contracts This...If buyback price covers all costs of the inventory and related holding costs, the inventory remains on the seller's books. There was no sale. Companies, which cannot reasonably estimate the amount of future returns and/or have extremely high rates of returns, should recognize revenues only when the right to return expires. Those companies, which can estimate the number of future returns and have a relatively small return rate can recognize revenues at the point of sale, but must deduct estimated future returns. This exception primarily deals with long-term contracts such as constructions (buildings, stadiums, bridges, highways, etc.), development of aircraft, weapons, and space exploration hardware. Such contracts must allow the builder (seller) to bill the purchaser at various parts of the project (e.g., every 10 miles of road built). (3) The seller is expected to complete the project, then revenues, costs, and gross profit can be recognized each period based upon the progress of construction (that is, percentage of completion). For example, if during the year, 25% of the building was completed, the builder can recognize 25% of the expected total profit on the contract. This method is preferred. However, expected loss should be recognized fully and immediately due to conservatism principle. According to Completed, contract method should be

Monday, October 14, 2019

Cookridge Ltd Essay Example for Free

Cookridge Ltd Essay Inkwell is a Public limited company and was established in 2003, seven years ago by two of its three controlling shareholders, Paul Farnon and Victoria Dawson. Two years ago Anil Gupta bought into the company and joined the board as Finance Director. The company has its head office and warehouse on the industrial estate in Birmingham, where the management team and account department resides, including a large central warehouse. 4.2 The business was set up to offer a part exchange facility online accessible 24 hours a day or physically bring them into one of the 60 shops, and supplies a complete range of re-manufactured inkjet and toner cartridges through nationwide high street shops. Its main competitors are suppliers in the cartridge supplier sector in UK. Its main internal stakeholders are its Board of Directors, being the investors and manager of the organization. Employees, they are the workers of the organization in various departments to run its operations in return for a salary. Its external stakeholders are its: Supplier’s, these are the people that provide the supplies of re-manufactured inkjet and laser toner cartridge after it has been refilled. Customers that pay on cash, order online, or buy at one of the nationwide network of shops. These customers account for 80% of Inkwell Limited revenue. Government of UK, they are interested in the performance of the business in order to be able to collect the taxes on the profit levels. 4.4 The shareholders are still heavily involved in the day to day operations with Paul Fernon as Managing Director with 40% shares with the largest share, Victoria Dawson as Sales Director with 30% shares and Anil Gupta as Finance Director with 30% shares. A qualified Accountant Alex Fox has been employed as the first member of the accountant team that reports to Michael O’Payne but have direct access to the Finance Director as well. 4.5 Inkwell Limited is organized into departments and has an equivalent of 180 employees including  the accounting de partment – see Appendix on page for a structured chart. Analysis and evaluating the system Structure and Function 5.1 The Company Accountant is Michael O’Payne who’s responsible for the running of the accounting department. The first member of the accounts team is Alex Fox with other 5 full time staff. 5.2 The computerized system in the head office is an integrated system which is linked between the different accounting functions. While in other 60 shops they are on a stand-alone basis and data and information are stored separately. 5.3 The different section of the department, its staff and responsibilities: General Ledger and Inventory- Michelle Labelle account clerk. Responsible for entering relevant data into the general ledger, keep financial control over companies inventories. Purchase ledger- Liana Khan accounts clerk. Responsible for liaising with suppliers and other associated transactions. Sales ledger- Greg Morris accounts clerk. Responsible for dealing with customers and other associated transactions. Costing- Alan Cook costing technician. Responsible for dealing with in put costs and other associated transactions. Payroll- Sharon Ward, BA (Hons) is a personnel database and wage clerk. Responsible for preparing monthly salaries and wages for all the employees and all associated transactions and second is to maintain the personnel database. 5.4 The accounting functions in details are: Processing and recording of the financial transactions of the credit customers and credit suppliers of the different sections in the accounts department. Preparation of management information’s on credit sales, credit purchases, costing and payroll associated returns and documents. 5.5 Michelle Labelle in the general ledger and inventory function: Enters all data requiring input directly into company’s cash book and its petty cash imprest system and keep financial control over the company’s inventories. If inventories get above three days’ holding in any shop Michelle has to telephone and get justifications for the variance. 5.6 Liana Khan in the purchase ledger function: Makes sure that all supplier’s invoices and credit notes are entered into the Accounts Payable Ledger, and for Subsequently arranging the payments to suppliers. 5.7 Greg Morris in the sales ledger function Uses a credit reference agency to ensure that potential new credit customers have no history of poor payments. Checks any new customer who applies is always given a line of credit after this trial period. 5.8 Alan Cook in the costing function: Uses a target costing approach, working out what the cost of each component such as ink or plastic, and Supplies management with the monthly basis, and Advises management of variances from target. 5.9 Sharon Ward in the payroll and personnel database function: Operates the company’s two payrolls prepares the pay slips from the rotas prepared by the managers for the staffs. The salaries staffs are paid monthly on the last working day of the month using the Bankers Automated Clearing System (BACS). 6 Review of the accounting system 6.1 Record Keeping System A business needs an effective and manageable recordkeeping system. This is why in the business environment with regulated accounting structures, it is vital that organizations have the necessary records of evidence to support business operations. All transaction is electronically and manually processed to be made available. The necessity to provide access to recorded information is crucial. These are information’s relating to the different accounting function, such as; Purchase Sales Payroll Cash and Banking Record keeping systems are used; To better support the performance of the organization activities and enable better decision making all throughout the structure of the organization. To make sure that information is available for future or current processes, and helps also in the improving and upgrading of the manual or computerized processes. To address any future issues that may arise internally or  externally, such as fraud, lawsuits and other an-ethical accusations. To support the employees in the different functions of the business to be more efficient, productive in the accuracy of delivering the work. Records which are processed and made available are then used to produce other financial reports. Michelle Labelle in the general ledger and inventory function record and process the different inventory, supplier’s data to make available information on: Suppliers Cost prices Selling prices Profit margins Re-order level and quantities The data is used to know the overall cost of inventory, purchase and how much owed to better plan for future costs. Greg Morris in the sales ledger function processes the cash, cheques and other financial data to ensure that information is available on demand for: Customers Selling prices Bad debt Amount customers owed This information is used for different purposes such as; it is used by the debt collection agency for the collections of debt. The use of computerized recording system is more efficient than paper base. This is due to because the use of paper base recording system is more likely to produce errors then having a computerized format that data is just inputted in. Using a computerized system is less costly and time consuming. 6.2 Internal System of Control For an organization to have efficient and effective operation of its activities, internal system of control procedures is used by the management in place to ensure that the organization achieve its goals. This is where policies and procedures come in place to establish an internal control system to maximize the detection of frauds and errors, and to minimize their occurrence also. Existing internal system of control in Inkwell limited are: Supervision of the accounts office by a Company Accountant and Senior accounts member. A staff rota is prepared by the managers to ensure adequate staff coverage for all the opening hours of their shops. An information technology policy exists which sets out rules relevant to securing the computer systems. The computer system throughout the company is password protected. Company cheques are required for authorization by the three directors company accountant and other financial documents for approval. Reconciliation of the purchased stock against recorded inventory level. Purchases duties are segregated to minimize the risk of fraud. A credit rating agency is used to ensure that potentially new credit customers have no history of poor payments. Policy for dealing with non-payment of debt exists, and its state out the actions and procedure. Cheques and cash from customers are kept in office safe until it is banked. Internal control that is missing or can improve is: Company policies and procedures. Disciplinary measure to breach of policy or miss conduct. Management supervision. Segregation of duties Staff Recruitment procedures Staff training and Continual Professional Development. Restriction on accessing of computer systems. Enforcement on Computerize backup of financial documents. Retention and disposal of records throughout the business. Accounting standard and procedures. Risk assessment. Liquidity management. Verification and checks of accounting data. List of authorized access. Checks relating to wages paid out Credit control system. 6.3 Fraud Fraud is the use of deception with the intention of obtaining an advantage, avoiding an obligation or causing loss to someone else or to an  organization; this is the general definition of fraud. It is an unfortunate fact of life and comes in many forms and is recognized as a criminal activity in many countries including UK. Possibility and opportunity of fraud within Inkwell limited is possible due to the internal control is not efficient, efficacious, being deficient and the opportunity of fraud is there for the taking. Fraud covers a wide range of area criminal activity. Common types of fraud are: Theft Dishonestly taking someone else’s property. False accounting – Dishonestly destroying, defacing, concealing or falsifying an accounting record for personal gain or to cause loss to someone else. Bribery and corruption – taking or giving a bribe that might influence the actions of others. Deception – Obtaining property, money, services or evading liability by deception Methods that can be used to detect fraud Fraud can be detected by the experience manager by simple observation and through experience and also through a robust internal control system. Some sigh can include: Employees acting suspiciously – looking shifty and hiding paperwork Employees with higher levels of spending than you would expect from their income Employees working long hours and taking less than the normal holiday entitlement. Employees who have a grudge against the organization. Employees who are known to be short of money. The usage of the internet to for online sale is also at risk of fraud, since customers give Debit and Credit Cards details to pay their debts. Card fraud transaction can be detected by using Business rules. Opportunity and Potential areas of risk of fraud taking place are:  £3000 worth of a particular make of cartridge was unaccounted for during reconciliation of inventory with purchase order. Goods not appearing on the warehouse inventory record. Cash and cheques are entered manually which can be easily be subject to false accounting Complaint’s on wages being underpaid Only one staff operates and have access to payroll system Lack of written instructions Computer are not logged out and locked when not in use. No system in place for warehouse or administrative employees to record and know the time they arrive and when they leave the office The usage of debit or credit card detail by customers over the internet to pay. 6.4 Working Methods and Practices The working methods used in Inkwell Limited are: Computers are attributed to each staff whether part-time or fulltime to work on. The computer systems are run on an integrated network, with all PCs linked to two printers in the department. Every shop has PCs and printers of its own. Microsoft office excel spreadsheets is used in the accounting system for recording of the different data. All computers use Windows Vista operating system and loaded with Microsoft office 2007 consisting of 80-user operating license, and one new computer loaded with Sage Payroll software to unable payroll and personnel system to be run in-house. Internet access is available on every computer with Mozilla Firefox as web browser. Password is used on the computers. Large trade customers are put on a cash-with-order basis for the first three months of business. A credit reference agency is used potentially new customers have no history of bad credit. All cash and cheques are removed from the till, leaving a float of  £50 cash in each for the start of the next day. Staff salaries are paid monthly using the Bankers Automated Clearing System (BACS). Prepared by the wage clerk, signed by the Company Accountant and banked on 24th of each month. The methods and practices can be improved in the following: All 60 computers at the shops operate on a stand-alone system. Excel Spreadsheet being used for recording accounting data. Debt collection agency being used to collect bad debt is expensive. Password used for the computers. The removal of all cash and cheques, from the individual tills are not  practiced. Backing up of computerized data. 6.5 Training Training is essential for every personnel of an organization, as it improve the ability of the staff to perform its work and therefor reducing the amount of errors and hired part time staff used to perform tasks that can’t be done inside the organization. This is why every staff must get the opportunity to continue their professional development and be skilled to perform the task at hand. Inkwell Limited does not have the proper policy and systems in place to encourage employees to be enrolled in a part time or full time course, unless they take it on themselves to address the issue to the management. Benefits of training: Staffs are updated to the accounting standard and regulations. They will be motivated to work and be more efficient due to possibility of a promotion or career opportunity being increased, therefor errors is reduced. Staff will be more skilled to meet the needs of the organization. Professionally regulated staff will be governed by a recognized code of ethics from a professional accountancy body. Will better know how to, manage the time to do the tasks, therefor becoming more flexible and productive. Development of an ethical approach to the work and to employers and clients, acquired by experience and training. WEAKNESSES IDENTIFIED Record keeping system No completion of trial balance, statutory accounts as planned. Window dressing of the accounts. Transaction accounting are not done on a day to day basis Accounting record data entry is not being viewed as apriority by Michael O’Payne and Anil Gupta. Having unusual entries found in the general ledger. Errors may occur in inputting data into the computer. Internal System of Control No proper recruitment procedures in place to hire staff that has dismiss. The existing policies are not fully followed. This includes the Computers information technology policy, with no proper password, and logging off the computer after use. A lack of internal control for detection and fraud prevention Lack of segregation of duties. No proper scheduling back up of all IT systems being followed. No proper security for the shops. No policy for Data protection. No list of authorized personnel to access certain documents. No follow up control in place to the internal controls being followed. No supervision is done to monitor the signing in and signing out in the business. For the 60 shops, computers run on a stand-alone system. No safeguard for the proper security procedures in place/security issues relating to debit and credit cards details over the internet (Identity theft). Fraud Possibility of fraud is high; this may be caused due to: Nothing is done to ensure working practices undergoes a proper way. Inadequate guidance on how to detect and deal with fraud. Low effectiveness of security systems especially the password which does not improved each time is changed and can be guessed easily. A lack of supervision, monitoring and checks of accounting activities and records kept. Debit and Credit cards usage over the internet for customers to pay their debt can be subject to identity theft. Noncompliance to internal control. Unaccounted Cartridge’s worth  £3500, with no record in inventory. Details of transactions being deleted in the database, relating to one-off significant payments. Working Methods and Practices Breach of software and user license for software in use, can bring legal action against the company. No coverage or placement of professional personnel to carry out the work of absent staff. Lack of enforcement of legal requirement trough out the business and working practice is very low due to low standards Liquidity management is very poor. Lack of motivational skills from the directors of the business. No adequate physical controls to ensure the security and safe keeping of the businesses assets so that they do not go missing or are stolen. Working conditions and schedule are not respected by the Directors, having problems prioritizing work Lack of staffs, causing over working of staffs and no coverage or placement of professional personnel to carry out the work of absent staff. Therefor agencies are hired to do the work, which is costly. Job rotation is not practiced in the organization A required computer program needs to be attributed to these functions: Invoicing which is carried out. Data on Excel spreadsheet is manually input. Training More training is needed for operating: Quickcost system Payroll and personal system: Several teething problems experienced with the integrated payroll and personnel database. Need for education is needed for: Professional approach to work. Reliability in terms of competence. How to properly handle a secure credit and debit card transaction. Recommendation Recommendations are done following the various weaknesses identified and mentioned above. Record keeping system The management must ensure that the planned working schedule is followed strictly. If problems meeting the targets occur, it should be communicated to the responsible supervisors so proper action can be taken. Working schedule should be adjusted in so that the review of the payments and all other relating transaction are done earlier so that they don’t have to window dress. Different task must be prioritized by the management, so that conflict does not occur, were task are neglected. Accounting record data entry must be prioritized by the two organization’s directors Michael O’Payne and Anil Gupta. The directors must review the benefits that will be gained. Unsure that the proper records relating to the daily business transaction are entered into the general ledger. Verify the data inputted in the computer to ensure that is correct. Internal System of Control Standard policy and guidelines of hiring staffs should be introduced, pointing out the necessary detailed document that is needed making the  process more transparent and reliable. Staffs should be sensitized of the policies in place and know the importance of respecting them. Setting up a fraud policy which sets out the way to detect and deal with fraud, throughout the different working procedure and practice. Duties should be segregated, by setting up a system, which when combined, could lead to fraud. The existing policy should be re-enforce, so that the record kept on the computers would be backed up on the server regularly to prevent loss of data instead of doing it once a day. Alarm systems should be installed for all the shops of the organization, to better protect the business assets from being stolen. Proper policy and procedures should be introduced. The Data Protection Act should be communicated to all staffs, to better protect the company’s and the customer Data. A list of authorized personnel should be produced and communicated to the staffs. Staff personnel should be put in charge of verifying that all policies in place are being followed. A logging system should be set up to have a record of who comes in the office and at what time. Such system should be monitored to ensure all staff complies. An integrated network should be set up on a server to connect the computers together with proper licensed software. Safeguards should be implemented on the procedure for transaction involving debit and credit card details provided by the customers. A standard and effective Sage Accounting package should be bought to unable: A standard layout of the invoices issued to customers. Enable data to be imported and exported from and to Excel spreadsheets. Enable better detection of errors in the different account ledgers. Fraud To reduce the possibility of fraud and make the internal control system fraud resistant, the various techniques should use: Accounting activities should be supervised on a regular basis. The records and calculation of financial document should be sampled and checked regularly for errors. Make sure that the fraud policy which will be introduced set out the way to detect and deal with fraud, throughout the different working procedure and practice and to make any adjustment necessary. Managers of the various departments should be given areas of responsibilities and answerability to ensure that fraud is kept to a minimum. Value of a business rule management system (BRMS) approach to fraud detection can be implemented. Business rules can be used  to validate various conditions for detecting anomalies that can indicate fraud. Enables institutions to react quickly in their effort to keep pace with fraudsters. Disciplinary measures or penalties should be set up for breaking an internal control or if a staff is practicing fraudulent act. Physical security should be re-enforced, locking up valuable items away, such as cash and cheques. Set up a limit to which a financial transaction should be requiring authorization, by one or more authorized signature. This may range from petty cash or cheques over a certain amount. Doing a regular reconciliation of the accounts to the financial documents to make sure they balance and errors corrected. Management should carry out Risk Assessments as part of the of an effective internal control system. Working Methods and Practices Make sure that all computers use license software in all the shops and departments, monitor that the license are not broken causing legal action to the organization. Adequate number of specialized staffs should be introduced for the coverage of staff that is absent. The business must comply with all relevant External regulations. Such as international accounting standards even government regulation from HMRC. This will aid in raising the standard of working practices. Better management of buying inventory from suppliers. Credit to customers should be reduced. The managers should undergo a management course, to learn how to better manage their business, motivate their employees through training, giving out bonuses, paying for overtime and other incentives. All assets should be recorded and proper management of the assets should be put in place, to know the life cycle. Directors should produce an effective working schedule, reducing the stress on employees. Adequate number of specializ ed staffs should be introduced for the coverage of staff that is absent. Produce an effective rota to unable the staff to rotate to different accounting functions in the organization. A standard and effective Sage Accounting package should be bought to unable: A standard layout of the invoices issued to customers. Enable data to be imported and exported from and to Excel spreadsheets. Enable better detection of errors in the different account ledgers. Training More training should be provided for: Quick cost system Payroll and personal system To ensure that staff has the necessary skills and knowledge to be more effective and reliable in their work, in terms of competence: Staffs Training should be invested in by the management, to better handle the daily tasks. Including Debit Credit cards transactions This should include internal or external training courses for using any newly introduced accounting package. Telephone support lines made available by the software provider. Workshops on the improvement of staffs’ communications skills. Cost benefit analysis Improvement Recommended Cost of Time Benefits Time spent by manager in Training 25 hours Ãâ€" 3 Ãâ€"  £25 per hour Time spent by 5 account staff 25 hours Ãâ€" 5 Ãâ€"  £15 per hour TOTAL TRAINING COST  £ 1875 1875 3750 The work output will be more accurate due to the raise of standard. The organization will appear more professional, more efficient, meanings fewer errors and problems. Cost of hiring new Accounting staffs  £ 192000 The different responsibilities can be segregated and work will be done faster. Setting up of computers on a network Cost of hardware Installation cost  £ 5000 1000 6000 Access to data will be easier which will speed up the work and save time. New accounting Package Cost of the software Installation cost cost of training the staff 10000 3000 3500 16500 Many routine operations will be speeded up, save time and reduces wages bill. 9.2 To carry out a Risk assessment the management will require 2 hours per month. This will discourage and reduce the risk of fraud in the accounting system by identifying the areas of the risk of fraud and then setting up a system in place to detect any possibility of fraud and then deal with it, making the system more reliable. Appendices SWOT Analysis Strengths Record keeping system Using an archiving computer package to store full accounting records. Easy access to past exact copy of company accounting transactions. Sage Payroll software was loaded in the accounts department to enable the new payroll and personnel system to be in house. Excel spreadsheets are used for maintaining the inventory information. Integrated General, Accounts payable and Accounts Receivable set of ledger principal financial accounting system. Internal system of control An information technology policy exist which sets out rules relevant to securing the computer systems. The computer system throughout the company is password protected. A credit rating agency is used to ensure that potentially new credit customers have no history of poor payment. Value of a business rule management system (BRMS) approach to fraud detection benefits: The performance of the rules is high enough to provide real-time detection of anomalies based on several criteria, including multiple sources, transaction values, card-use frequency, merchant and location of the charges. If implemented new detection policies can be activated in hours, instead of months, helping to reduce lost revenue and increase customer satisfaction and provides safety in online transaction.